iltat

Okay, even though I overslept, it didn't make a difference, but this contest is closed.

Winners will be announced later tonight. Thank you all for participating!

Tomorrow!

20 hours or so until this contest closes.

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Hey Ping. I am thinking of running a TF race with my 100 mil donation... anyone think that sounds fun?

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The only thing I can see wrong with that, is I can't compete and win it!


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By win do you mean drag the team you are on into last place?

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Do they get a place if they can't finish?

Aw, the mods don't like black people.

Kidding, kidding...

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Seriously though, regardless of the previous sale prices for an item, you should always start your bidding at 1 and increase in increments of 5 to ensure you don't overpay like the OP did here.

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You're probably being facetious, but in case you're not, following the advice above can be really, really tedious.

When you really want to buy something now, borrow some standard resource management ideas from computer science: Always increase your bid by some factor. Using a factor of two saves a great deal of fiddly bid posting, and you'll never do worse than pay twice the lowest asking price.

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Would you please buy the Armageddon I have listed for 125 million and change?

I never found out if it was related to BMT or not.

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Paz I was trying to see your costumes and all it does is sent me to Image Shack. I don't actually get to see them. I'm I the only one?

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Same here.

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Hmmm interesting. No issues with either IE or Firefox when I view them. Does the short link work better for you?

http://yfrog.com/0uphlashphyrej

If so I can replace all the links. Let me know.

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Yup, that worked.

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Paz I was trying to see your costumes and all it does is sent me to Image Shack. I don't actually get to see them. I'm I the only one?

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Same here.

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The second you state where the line between 'exploit' and 'fine' is, people will dance on that line and work ever harder on maximizing their rewards as much as possible while stating that you told them it was fine the entire time.

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Why is this a problem? Do they have speed limits on the roads where you live? Do people drive right up to those limits? Is this a problem? If so, do you believe the solution to that problem is removing speed limits from all the roads?

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The line's blurry specifically to catch people trying to play at the edge, because those people are more likely to actually exploit.

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Why is this better than specifying a limit and then not having to ban anyone? Specify the harm that is done by someone performing AT the specified limit in such a way that the problem is not, in fact, with WHERE the limit has been set or how it has been implemented.

If you can.

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This.

In every realm of society where "abuse leads to punishment", limits are posted on what is acceptable. Speed limits, white lines at intersections to show where to stop, red lights, rules about where you can change lanes, etc. The reason for these things is so that everyone operates in a certain body of rules. If someone is outside that body, the police can issue the appropriate punishment and, barring improper action by the police, the person has no leg to stand on because they broke an already established rule.

When I-14 was released, people were told it was not intended for farming. I farmed badges in it. I know hundreds of people who did the same. This resulted in the Devs removing the badges that required farming. Meanwhile, those that farmed XP were banned, had characters deleted, yadda yadda yadda. Why did the Devs adjust their own development to not force the badge farmers to farm while not banning a single one? How about ticket farmers (there were lots of those too)? Why did they ban XP farmers for breaking the same rule, which was that the MA system wasn't intended for farming?

If you were pulled over for by a cop and given a speeding ticket for an unposted, secret speed limit where there was only a sign that said, "This road not intended for driving fast," would you be upset? What speed would you have to be going to fall into the "common sense" category? How about if no white line was present at an intersection, a cop was sitting at the intersection, saw where you stopped, didn't write you a ticket, didn't respond when you asked him if you were stopped okay, and then pulled you over a mile down the road because you stopped too far into the intersection? This would be the equivalent to having people mention the issue in Test, no one responding to the issue while it was in Test, having no one address the issue when it went Live, not labeling it an exploit at all, then banning people after finally announcing that it was actually an exploit.

The common sense argument holds no water because how do I know where your white line would be and where the cop's would be? The argument that drawing a line will only cause people to go right up to that line holds no water because that's the exact point of such a line. Then, if people go over it, they don't have an ability to argue because they went over a pre-established limit. Now, if people go over it, they can argue logically against the Devs' decision because there is no established limit that we have been notified of. Those who fall back on the EULA are assuming a EULA is actually legal. Like cell phone contracts, EULAs have already had problems in court. Just because we all agree to it by playing doesn't mean it's necessarily legal. Having a secret limit is something that may inspire someone to challenge that very EULA.

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Although, in *sigh* his defense, it's pretty much impossible NOT to like Spongebob.

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I despise Spongebob.

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What about This ?

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Okay, I LOLed.

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I fully realize that a Pentad and 4 corrs aren't mutually exclusive. However to me 4 corrs isn't really balanced(although I do realize it's one of the best ways to beat the LRSF)

so lets see

2 Brutes
2 Corrs
1 MM
2 Dominators
1 Stalker

This is a perfectly viable team and well balanced, but a team like this will have unnecessary difficulties with the Phalanx. That's my issue with the LRSF.

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Ignoring the fact that certain powersets and characters will be useful enough that such a team could succeed easily, what are you deeming unnecessary difficulties? You're handicapping yourself for the entire game with a team like that, you've just now reached a challenge where specific weaknesses can show through brightly. Even though it appears balanced, it's also redundant.

2 Brutes
1 Corr
1 MM
2 Dom
2 Stalkers

...is just as viable a team, but it would struggle quite a bit.

Taking zero consideration into what you want the team to do is ludicrous. There's no reason for the Devs to need to accommodate people who, literally, are wanting to beat everything in the game without the slightest amount of preparation.

What reason is there for them to make everything so easy that, without any forethought or planning in the least, every team should be able to beat it?

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Before I9, did you hear people complaining that things were too expensive? That they could not outfit their character in whatever way they wanted with no effort?

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Yes, we did.

Every person without a high level character had this exact problem.

Remember being broke at 12? 17? 22? 27? 32?

To think that the good ol' days featured no one suffering because of lacks of funds is silly.

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I remember it quite clearly. The only period I felt my first toon EVAR, a SS/INV tank, was short-ish on cash was around 22 when I was upgrading from DO's to SO's. Before that, I took everyone's advice and sold things at the proper stores and upgraded/combined stuff to make it last. After my first 50 I never felt any of my twinked toons were short on cash. By the time I was in my 30's I felt like I could go out and earn anything I wanted to buy just by playing normally.

Just one players experience since launch.

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And you still can. Let me know when you end up so poor you can't afford SOs.

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the devs have already said that letting squishies get so much defense was a mistake. They haven't nerfed it yet. Apparently you are begging them to do it.

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Then the game would be completely dominated by the melee toons and the only role for squishies would be on teams.

A well built brute or scrapper can do the same things. The brute can almost certainly do it better. Even a propper tank build can farm effectively though not as effectively. There are also a variety of other squishies that can do the same things without relying on the ranged defense soft cap.

A dark corruptor with blizard can mow down twice the aggro cap in one click.

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Yeah, I was going to use a Spines/SR soft-capped to all dmg as an example.

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Why is it that when a task is presented that requires a minimum of forethought, it's declared "impossible" and too hard?

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For me forethought has nothing to do with difficulty. My first Villain was a stalker, the times I'm on a team I'm always a step ahead and have my first target of a spawn picked out just as the team is finishing off the previous one. In the case of the LRSF I think the difficulty is too high because in my experience a balanced team can't always complete it. Note:4 corrs is not a balanced team to me.

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Pentad? As in just 5 players? Or a team of 8 that features 1 of each AT and 3 additional players?

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Team of 8 that features 1 of each AT.

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Just because I'm curious, these two things don't seem to be necessarily mutually exclusive.

Brute
Stalker
Dom
MM
Corr
Corr
Corr
Corr

...would be a pentad and have 4 Corr's. Remove an MM from that, for computer reasons, and one could, in theory, have 2 Brutes, 4 Corr, 1 Dom, 1 Stalker. Sub any of those for a VEAT, and that'll help too.

Also, I would fill those extra spots with Corruptors before anything else. Similarly, if I have decent damage on an STF, I'm looking for more Defenders/Controllers before anything else. Giving everyone on a team more survivability through buffs or debuffs is an extremely valuable weapon.

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QR

So consensus is 5% chance of being hit is the difference between Abusive and Smart.

And a further question, This type of blaster can clear a map to achieve the ticket cap in roughly 10-15 minutes usually less.

Is that smart or too fast ?

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No, the consensus is that, no offence, you are talking out of your nether regions.

You seriously want to compare a specially built character on a specially built map to meow farms?

Really?
This is the argument you're making?

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Weren't meow farms specially built characters running specially built missions? Literally?

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Before I9, did you hear people complaining that things were too expensive? That they could not outfit their character in whatever way they wanted with no effort?

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Yes, we did.

Every person without a high level character had this exact problem.

Remember being broke at 12? 17? 22? 27? 32?

To think that the good ol' days featured no one suffering because of lacks of funds is silly.

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There's a MA example here:

How many stars would you rate an MA mission with one mission on a small map and 8 AVs all placed in the final room?

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If I was told to bring 7 friends because it was a challenge?

5 stars.

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Was the LRSF balanced for a Pentad when it was first released?

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What does it matter? Was an Invul Tank tough for Bobcat to kill when it had 100% Lethal Res?

Past is past. Would the AV change that got removed have made it tougher? Would it have been easier without ED? Have IOs changed it?

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Is the LRSF balanced for a Pentad now that the Phalanx are level 53?

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Pentad? As in just 5 players? Or a team of 8 that features 1 of each AT and 3 additional players?

If it's the first, then if you had the right 5 players on the right 5 toons, yes, it could be done. I'm not sure if "balanced" is the right term, though, since it requires 8 characters to start.

If it's the second, with ease. I can't speak for the Devs, since they know their specific balancing, but I can tell you that a team that contained one of each AT could take down the LRSF with ease, if all players were decent players and the powersets complimented each other at all (if everyone had the weakest offensive set, then that would obviously inhibit their ability to beat it, just like if a similar thing occurred Heroside).

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. Anyways, feel free to answer my questions, you know, since you didn't do that.

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Although, in *sigh* his defense, it's pretty much impossible NOT to like Spongebob.

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I despise Spongebob.

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And then were going back into specialized team building
So it's either build to maximize success or expect team wipes?
Neither of these options are particularly good.

IS there a 3rd one we can use?

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I'll remember that the next time I try an STF with 8 Scrappers. Or 6 Scrappers and 2 Tanks. Or an 8-man Posi TF with all Tanks. 8 FF Defenders running Faathim's TF. All of this are perfectly available team makeups. You're arguing that these teams should be able to complete these tasks without a single team wipe?

How is the concept of, "I'm gonna be taking on the most difficult single-team challenge in the game, I oughta bring a balanced mixture of toons that can help each other" too difficult for anyone?

Yes, if you're not going to bring a team that will maximize your chance of success, you should expect to fail magnificently. We've already proven that such a team does not require Mind Doms, Shivans, nukes, or Stone Brutes, so obviously, there is quite a bit of leeway when it comes to the definition of a "team that will maximize your success".

It should not be considered a bad option for people who are unprepared for a task to not succeed at every task. Most of the game is so easy that you can, literally, get any 8 Level 50 characters together and have a reasonable chance of success. Why is it that when a task is presented that requires a minimum of forethought, it's declared "impossible" and too hard?

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Ok on the 8 Stalkers thing we used shivans,nukes and stacking vengeance, honestly without those things we wouldn't have been able to do it. This was also before I9, so no IO's,and no Stalker re-balancing.

No one said 1 death each.
He said 1 Team Wipe very different thing.
And I agree with that statement if your expected to team wipe repeatedly than something is definitely wrong.

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Except expecting a teamwipe on a team that is not built to maximize success shouldn't be an indicator of something wrong. Again, that's applying your own conditions to the challenge that are never guaranteed.

Koschej's time in BMT

And while not in BMT, here's one for BA:
Napkin

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See thing is, each statement is Do X this with X that, WHIPE, then repeat.


Shouldnt have to all die after AVs & continue this, STF every single one I did, we all died once, out of 7 of em I did.


LRSF your expected to all die, thats silly.


JJ

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See, the thing is, you're making up your own arbitrary rules that it should follow.

It's been done by 8 Stalkers, widely considered the worst AT for the TF.

It's been done by masses of people on varying teams without Shivans/nukes.

It's able to be done with nearly any team who bothers to bring such things along.

So, what you're saying is that not only should it be able to be done by any 8 players without any outside buffs like empowerment buffs, inspirations, Shivans, or nukes, but it should also be done by said players with only 1 death each? Is it okay if it still doesn't award a pony at the end?

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So I decide to see if I can get Harvey Maylor off my contact list.....
"Can you do a newspaper article about the Carnies?"
"Sure"
> Mission: Defeat 50 Carnies
> Drop Mission

"No one believes the stuff I write about the Carnies. If people see you fighting them, it may convince people."
"Sure, Harvey."
> Mission: Defeat 50 Carnies
> Hunt and defeat 50 of the elusive Carnies in Peregrine Island.....

"The Carnies are really getting out of hand. I need you to keep them in line."
> Mission: Defeat 50 Carnies
"Bite me, Harvey."

Seriously, 3 "Hunt 50 Carnies" missions in a row? Is this guy broken or stupid? And no, he isn't just killing time before offering his arc because I have too many arcs open or anything like that. I already got and FINISHED his arc.

Maybe he hates me because he knows how much I hate his guts.

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So...after you finish many contacts' storyarcs, while you're still in their level range, they'll offer you constant hunts if they don't have any new contacts to give you...

Just for future reference...