Soul Train

If at all possible, hook your computer into the router that your sister's computer uses. If you must connect to an intermediary device, put it into 'bridge' mode, as you don't want two routers unless you absolutely know how to configure them to not be redundantly filtering or 'routing' traffic.

[ QUOTE ]
...and that's the thing too. He has a laptop now, so I will have to get him a monitor, etc. I'll look at that link to NewEgg.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's your problem. Laptops do NOT play high-end games well, as they usually (not always) have cheesy integrated graphics chipsets that use system memory.

Also, if he's rubberbanding, and has lag problems... what kind of connection do you have to the Internet? Who is it with, and how fast is it? Does that laptop use wifi to connect to the Internet, or is it connected via Ethernet cable?

Cos often these kinds of issues are more network-related than processor/graphics related.

[ QUOTE ]
...his can't-think-for-themselves fans will one star it down further?...

[/ QUOTE ]

You know how I react to Venture or Talen_Lee giving out a one-star? I don't PLAY it. No play, no rating. No rating, no one-star. No one-star, NO TANKING YOUR RATINGS. So don't put your lousy rating on MY doorstep, sir; I only throw stars at stuff I actually play. If you want to sniff out a one-star conspiracy, I suggest you look elsewhere, and learn to not alienate everyone with one sentence while you're at it.

You could always *cough* do two versions...

[ QUOTE ]
Although it is in violation of the TOS, has anyone gone through the .pigg files to find out the verboten word list yet?

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty sure that the filter is serverside, otherwise people would be tempted to 'edit' it.

[ QUOTE ]
...F.E. in my most recent arc, one enemy is an "American Woman". Her description? "Stay away from me!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Is that the one you pulled down? Shoot, I'd be willing to roll a lowbie just to tag along with you on that one in 'test' mode.

Kawaaaaaaiiii!!!

Congrats to Enchantress! and Wassy too!


... and now I can't wait to see the end result.

OOOOOoooooOOOOOO!!!

I... LIKE it!!

There's threads going on in regards to this issue.

In the developer's Corner section, there's "(Return of the Son of) Abusing the Architect". It's a sausagefest in there right now, but the gist of the discussion is:

"Do not take advantage of known or suspected exploits to either increase the XP or rewards gained, OR decrease the risk to players."

Farming in and of itself still seems to be OK, altho' it may not be desired by the devs or a certain *cough* segment of the playerbase.

As to the 'characters deleted or rolled back' question: They're targeting the people who really went nuts with the whole "meow farm" thing, where a known exploit was milked for all it was worth. See "don't target an exploit in your arcs" above. Again, 'farming' may be a dirty word (so it's not a good idea to use it in your arc titles or descriptions) but as long as you're not farming an EXPLOIT, you should be OK.

My recommendation would be to compare your MA arcs (played and written) with either random story arcs or Dev content (radio missions). If your playstyle doesn't change between the two, then the XP/hour shouldn't drastically go up without also added risk. Or put another way, if you tend to roll with a farming build, on invincible, with a bunch of people padding your mission, then it shouldn't make much difference to you to play an AE arc as opposed to a standard door mission. Same goes for soloers, superteams, pick-up groups, whatever.

If you're getting considerably more stuff, but not taking more extreme risks, then there may be an exploit involved and you should send a petition in to ASK if it's OK. Or a PM to one of the devs or CS staff here, if you don't want to narc on a specific person's mission.

Other than that, game on.

... actually... I'd be much more comfortable with a 5-year old that knew what a gun could do, and how NOT to handle it, than one who had no clue at all other than "it looks like what Elmer Fudd used to shoot Daffy's duck bill off".

But, I see your point... and I don't think anyone has gotten killed or even seriously hurt by a nipple drive-by either. Interesting thought, there.

BUT, getting back to the point of the thread... any arc that brings up questions that Mom or Dad may not be comfy answering is PROBABLY going to earn itself a "Report Content"; if the kid doesn't press it... the parent might.

I'm like Pep, I customize everything I can.

Including stuff a lot of people would never really notice, like glowy interrupt text, or the contact "you're not done yet" spiel.

If you want to hide an easter egg, these are good places to do so.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I know. I'd like to think that because the writing in my arc is about twice as good as all but the very best stuff I've seen in the MA, it shouldn't need it. But alas, it does. And that's where the ego kicks in.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've seen your writing. Your ego is quite possibly correct.


... it still needs a good deflating now and again, but... yeah.

[/ QUOTE ]That's because there are moments I transcend the line between 'I am a better writer than this person' and into 'I am a better person than this person.'

[/ QUOTE ]

Ennnh. Based on the types of people I've been running into lately (most notably in the Developer section, thankfully NOT the Developers... yet...) this could very well be true, too.

Or, we're just too old for this crowd.

Gorram kids, GET OFFA MAH LAWN! /em fistshake

Count me in, this sounds fun.

I like that, Manoa.

And, leseee... Raven Windtalker (Hopi Nation) has two looks...

I am seriously going to have to save up for a few of these.

SL-version SoulTrain, or someone else? Decisions decisions...!

The problem with the whole "Mary Sue" rhubarb is, we ALL have our 'pet' characters, mains, et cetera. And the prolific storytellers in the bunch probably have their entire superhero careers (if not LIVES) plotted out to the second.

So it'll be really hard to not trip over these folks.

I'm of the mind that it's OK to bring your own character into the story as long as they're not the center of it. Make the player the pivotal role, if not for he or she, then the whole thing unravels, obviously your character can't hack it (for whatever reason - mine is, the story takes place in the past, and at that time she wasn't even a hero, or even empowered.)

That's the problem with mission arcs - you're essentially writing the supporting cast for an impromptu play... and you hope to {deity} that the player has the sense of humor and the desire to drop into the role you've left open... the headliner.

yeah, that's been noted with the last patch.

[ QUOTE ]
I know. I'd like to think that because the writing in my arc is about twice as good as all but the very best stuff I've seen in the MA, it shouldn't need it. But alas, it does. And that's where the ego kicks in.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've seen your writing. Your ego is quite possibly correct.


... it still needs a good deflating now and again, but... yeah.

The Carnies, Domi and her crew... yes there are some 'adult' themes going on.

Do people petition the dev content? Apparently not, since it's not changed in 4-5 years. If it were that much of an outrage, I'd not expect to see it anymore, after all, they kicked out the 5th Column in favor of the Council.... surely Domi's followers/arcs are worse? Apparently not.

But players DO get petitioned. People have been petitioning each other's conduct since we were first allowed to log on. And now there's entire MISSIONS based around someone's hot button.

"OMG there's the word Lesbian in the title! PETITION!"

This is how shallow people get, they take things personally.

Shoot, we're the nation that got uber-upset over one of Janet Jackson's nipples, shown (IF that!) for a split second during a halftime show. How many of us have NEVER seen a nipple before? yet we act as if we needed brain bleach cos our eyes landed on it.

I say people need to relax a bit, and stop freaking out every time someone says or does anything remotely risque'. It's not that big a deal, really. Enjoy the arc, and if it DOES go into bad-for-FYOS territory, then tag it.

It was probably the subject matter.

Keep in mind that one server's culture may be very tolerant, but another's may not. MA arcs, being cross-server, can and will be played by anyone from any server... giving people that much more chances of "OMG you have to see what someone published!" (voiced with both shock and puerile enthusiasm)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This is the part that the farming reporters don't get. There are at least half a dozen other mobs/mob types that work just as well as Rikti Comms did (maybe 15% less xp) and the resilient have already switched to those mobs. Heck, two people I know PLANNED this and set their missions last night. The difference is, these folks have learned not to open their pieholes and keep this stuff to themselves.

[/ QUOTE ]
And the beauty of it is: the anti-farmers will be perfectly happy to let the invisible farmers continue to exist and do whatever they want to do, once the obnoxious, loud farmers are rooted out. As long as the impact of farm culture on their game is minimized, there's no problem. I for one look forward to it.

[/ QUOTE ]

THIS.

And here's a tip for the ones making the missions:

Don't everyone post your own version of the Secret Formula so as to soak up tickets. Rotate it around, one at a time. Then when you've soaked your way to a few smexy recipe drops or whatever, take it down so someone else can put it up for awhile.

Else two things will happen - 1, you'll each get less tickets because the pool of players will get divided up between all of the arcs currently posted, and 2 - someone will forget to unpublish theirs, the Unwashed Masses of Carebears will discover it... and we'll all be going through this same inquisition all over again.

The firestorm over MA powerleveling happened as a direct result of a thousand-odd 'meow' farms being posted simultaneously, as well as the broadcast spamvertising. When you're doing something known to be 'frowned upon' (even if not specifically illegal), attracting attention to your doings is not a good idea. So please be discreet.

The only 'overpower' they had before was the Assassin-Crit multiplier on all landed attacks.

I still mopped the floor with them on anything with a perception boost... and Nin doesn't give them any Perception bonuses so they can't see cloaked characters either.

tl;dr version? Want to kill Ninjas? bring a meaner, tougher, more skilled ninja.

It's easier to get the newbies into the building across the street from the starting trainer, than allllll the way across Paragon, is why.

Wow.

That's a long list.