The 2008 State of the Game
By
Achilles_Rex,
Posted on: 2008-01-10 24:06 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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To play devil's advocate here: Real Numbers are meh. It'll help settle some arguments that are based around assuming certain values, as well as start new ones when people are able to compare exact values, but it is really only going to be the min/maxers or number freaks who care. I also hope the devs are ready for an onslaught of posts about how power X is so much better than power Y because the Real Numbers say so (and by devs, I mean Castle). Two weeks after Real Numbers come out and all the FOTM builds have been min/maxed to within an inch of their lives, no-one will care apart from numeriphiliacs.
[/ QUOTE ]agreed for me, but thats the thing, its like weapon customization and time travel for issue 11. neither of those really affected me much, because i prefer to play my legacy guys and they are badged out and dont use weapons, but its the developers taking the time to incorperate things that members of the community want, and it ssomething that really does seem to seperate them from a lot of the mmo dev pack. numbers for me willo be promptly ignored, basicly if a power takes a big chunk of life, good, if not, lts see the secondary effects. but a lot of long time users kept on about the numbers, and retaining them is important, so i see it as a cool for some, and not actively bad for the rest of us change, but more importnatly its developers doing what our devs seem to do pretty well, listening and implementing. The only thing thats bad about it is that i think that soem of the more radical types will use this as more justification for their vitriol on states, that the timing "proves" that it was him that held these back, and i think he gets enough unfair criticism as it is.
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Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents. The intent is to smooth out the bumps where players typically get stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes for specifics.
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Making Story Arcs even less worthwhile than they already are.
This is also going to cause inflation in lvl 10-40 IO sets.
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Real Numbers....finally. Thank you, NCNC!
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Is it NCNC or NCS NC?
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NCNC is our current abbreviation for our new development studio located in Mountain View, California which houses the support team behind the City of Heroes Franchise. NCNC comes from NCsoft NorCal.
If you follow the link in the original post to "A New Age Dawns" you can read the original announcement of the formation of the NCNC studio.
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And some call it NC2 or just NCSquared.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents. The intent is to smooth out the bumps where players typically get stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes for specifics.
Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the real numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
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I think I just 
$#%& a brick....
*checks* ...Yep I did...
Now I have make amends with Positron damnit... Seems he saw the Light and is FINALLY getting away from Jack Emmert's oppressive ideas of "FUN" when it came to Character progression and build Customization. ...If Positron does the same thing to smooth out Salvage and Pool-C drops.... I promise I'll [u]never say another bad thing about him[u] for the rest of my villainous days. (Exluding "AGH!, put the Helmet back on!" of course 
)
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Um, at least since CoV beta they have been wanting to show us the real numbers - Castle (and I think even Geko, before he left) said the big issue was trying to show some of the stuff in ways it would be easy for us players to understand (KB/KU/KD being a big example).
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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Making Story Arcs even less worthwhile than they already are.
This is also going to cause inflation in lvl 10-40 IO sets.
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You can play through every single story arc offered to you, but you're still going to be stuck at level 39 with no more content available. Levels 20-22 are also way more difficult to slog through than they need to be, so those two levels need to be over faster than they already are.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
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To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best gaming experience possible for our players.
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ADDITIONAL HAMSTERS!!!!! MAYBE A FEW GUINEA PIGS!!!!
This rox!!! the people of freedom and virtue should salute you for this alone!!!!
"I don't wonda what Rose is like in RL, I just imagine she is a catgurl an' wish I could cyb0r wit her. "
- the legendary J-man
Silence!!! I kill you!
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Now I have make amends with Positron damnit... Seems he saw the Light and is FINALLY getting away from Jack Emmert's oppressive ideas of "FUN" when it came to Character progression and build Customization. ...If Positron does the same thing to smooth out Salvage and Pool-C drops.... I promise I'll [u]never say another bad thing about him[u] for the rest of my villainous days. (Exluding "AGH!, put the Helmet back on!" of course )
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You DO know that Jack helped write the CoV Prima guide, right? The one that, mistake-ridden as it was, disclosed the full numbers to every single villain power set? Did you miss the Statesman post where he openly admits he was wrong about his reasoning for keeping the numbers vague? But no, everything you hate about the game exists for no reason other than the mad whims of Stateman's "vision".
Jack Emmert, boogeyman. I bet that looks awesome on a resume.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
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At a rough guess Pohsyb.
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And that means what to me exactly?
I can only guess Arcanaville has me confused with someone else or thinks I represent something I don't. Whatever...
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You said who is out of the box.
Pohsyb is the Dev in a Box (tm).
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Looks like a few folks are answering this, so I'll throw my interpretation in as well.
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Im sry im being a little slow can somone please explain the smoothing out the level curve to me?
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Levelling up is not a straight line thing. The first few levels go fast but the levels come slower and slower after that. There are numerous reasons for that having to do with company profit, ability to learn, distribution of content, and so on. The result is a curve.
When the game came out, our curve was fairly smooth I think. Levelling slowed down quite a lot in the upper 30's as you got near the max level of 40. But, when they upped the level cap to 50, the curve didn't contiue smoothly. (If it had, it would have probably taken me six months to get from 49 to 50!) Instead, the curve actually seems to bend downward so each level up takes less and less time!
My guess is they are going to change how much xp is handed out to smooth things out. We will level faster in the upper thirties but we will level slower in the forties. Overall, the time it takes to get to 50 will be about the same.
This will burn people currently in their forties as they will have to "get over the hump" twice. So NCSoft might pull something funky to make up for it like making characters currently in their forties get different xp so they will still be using the old, bent curve. Or maybe they will just toss out an xp bonus. Or maybe they will just let us <ahem> enjoy our longer ride to 50. (ooo, "Enjoyed the Scenic Route" badge...)
On another note...
For the real time stats thing, I'm guessing we will be given a little window with a little table in it with all the stats we care to see. Fire resistance, defense vs. AoE, damage bonus, run speed, and so on. If somebody slaps Speed Boost on you, you'll see the run speed jump up. When SB wears out, you'll see it jump back down again.
It would be even more cool if we could include our selected target's stats so we can see the effects of debuffing.
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Now I have make amends with Positron damnit... Seems he saw the Light and is FINALLY getting away from Jack Emmert's oppressive ideas of "FUN" when it came to Character progression and build Customization. ...If Positron does the same thing to smooth out Salvage and Pool-C drops.... I promise I'll [u]never say another bad thing about him[u] for the rest of my villainous days. (Exluding "AGH!, put the Helmet back on!" of course )
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You DO know that Jack helped write the CoV Prima guide, right? The one that, mistake-ridden as it was, disclosed the full numbers to every single villain power set? Did you miss the Statesman post where he openly admits he was wrong about his reasoning for keeping the numbers vague? But no, everything you hate about the game exists for no reason other than the mad whims of Stateman's "vision".
Jack Emmert, boogeyman. I bet that looks awesome on a resume.
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Better than what this guy has on his resume.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Every single word of that State of the Game post is full of win.
@JohnP - Victory
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Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents. The intent is to smooth out the bumps where players typically get stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes for specifics.
Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the real numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
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Wow! Can't wait..Thanks Devs your the Bestest!
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To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best gaming experience possible for our players.
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This, to me, is the most wonderful part of this announcement.
/cheers!
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Now I have make amends with Positron damnit... Seems he saw the Light and is FINALLY getting away from Jack Emmert's oppressive ideas of "FUN" when it came to Character progression and build Customization. ...If Positron does the same thing to smooth out Salvage and Pool-C drops.... I promise I'll [u]never say another bad thing about him[u] for the rest of my villainous days. (Exluding "AGH!, put the Helmet back on!" of course )
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You DO know that Jack helped write the CoV Prima guide, right? The one that, mistake-ridden as it was, disclosed the full numbers to every single villain power set? Did you miss the Statesman post where he openly admits he was wrong about his reasoning for keeping the numbers vague? But no, everything you hate about the game exists for no reason other than the mad whims of Stateman's "vision".
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I noticed Jack changed his mind about releasing numbers about the same time he was paid to. Just sayin'.
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I haven't read the whole thread but I'll follow the fan-boi bandwagon and say this announcement sounds very, very good. And I hope "Real Numbers" means that we are actually going to see the base values of powers so we can actually make informed decisions about our gameplay (I do not like that Lighthouse has put real in quotation marks--the implication is that it won't be the actual base values but perhaps AT modifiers or some such lameness).
If it is the base numbers, I give a great deal of (complete) credit of that revelation to the wonderful members of this game community (freaks) who have spent a lot of their time in working out the numbers and making them available to their fellow players and also those who have been asking for it (lined up with pitch forks and torches).
Pointed question: Is Jack Emmert still involved with City of Heroes/Villains?
| Issue 9 Fly poses | IO's and ED
| Cycling the Combat Monitor | Load Macros from a Text File |
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i guess this is just a personal peeve, but i wish youd stop calling game updates 'free expansions'.
every pay to play online game updates and expands there game as it progresses through patches, these are not some unique 'free expansions' we are getting, they are simply patches and updates to the game just like every other paid mmo you can subscribe to.
i guess its just semantics, but calling them 'free expansions' makes me feel like you think you are talking to idiots who dont realize every single paid mmo has the exact same thing, but they just call them patches.
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Please keep in mind the history of City of Heroes. Back when the first Issues came out as "free expansions" other comparable Triple A MMO's were turning out for pay boxed expansions. I guess the term has just stuck around as a hold over. I'll pass your sentiments along to the Marketing Types.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
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Pointed question: Is Jack Emmert still involved with City of Heroes/Villains?
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No. Mr. Emmert is an executive of Cryptic Studios. Prior to NCsoft acquiring the rights to the City of Heroes franchise he had not been involved in the day to day development of City of Heroes since Positron became the Design Lead.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
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i guess this is just a personal peeve, but i wish youd stop calling game updates 'free expansions'.
every pay to play online game updates and expands there game as it progresses through patches, these are not some unique 'free expansions' we are getting, they are simply patches and updates to the game just like every other paid mmo you can subscribe to.
i guess its just semantics, but calling them 'free expansions' makes me feel like you think you are talking to idiots who dont realize every single paid mmo has the exact same thing, but they just call them patches.
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Please keep in mind the history of City of Heroes. Back when the first Issues came out as "free expansions" other comparable Triple A MMO's were turning out for pay boxed expansions. I guess the term has just stuck around as a hold over. I'll pass your sentiments along to the Marketing Types.
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Aren't patches generally added to fix existing content? Aren't expansions additional or new content? Don't some of the other major MMOs offer their major new content as expansions that are boxed and must be paid for separately from subscription costs? If I'm mistaken, fine. If not, then calling them "free expansions" sounds quite accurate.
| Issue 9 Fly poses | IO's and ED
| Cycling the Combat Monitor | Load Macros from a Text File |
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Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents. The intent is to smooth out the bumps where players typically get stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes for specifics.
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Best thing ever.
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Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the real numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
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... NEW best thing ever.
OMG. Lighthouse. Devs. You are finally going to do this.
I may cry. I'm that happy.
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Seriously. The devs have tapped into a rich vein of awesome right here.
Heroes
Dysmal
Lumynous
Sam Steele
Pluck
Wile
Slagheap
Pressure Wave
Rhiannon Bel
Verified
Stellaric
Syd Mallorn
Villains
Jotunheim Skald
Saer Maen
Jen Corbae
Illuminance
Venator Arawn
Taiga Dryad
Tarranos
Lighthouse, Devs...thank you so very much..now if you will excuse me
/fanboy mode
YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
*twitch*
*has a joygasm*
/fanboy mode
okay thats that.....and joygasm is such a fun word...i wonder if it is in an urban dictionary.
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
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i guess this is just a personal peeve, but i wish youd stop calling game updates 'free expansions'.
every pay to play online game updates and expands there game as it progresses through patches, these are not some unique 'free expansions' we are getting, they are simply patches and updates to the game just like every other paid mmo you can subscribe to.
i guess its just semantics, but calling them 'free expansions' makes me feel like you think you are talking to idiots who dont realize every single paid mmo has the exact same thing, but they just call them patches.
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Oh really? Was The Burning Crusade given free to WoW players? Waht about Wrath of the Lich King? Will it be free?
What about Guild Wars? No subscription cost, but all of its expansions have been by cost.
Don't get me wrong, I consider my monthly fee part of the deal in getting me the new issues for this game, and if those issues stopped, so would my monthly sub.
But we aren't being charged on top of our monthly fee for game updates.
Be well, people of CoH.
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I haven't read the whole thread but I'll follow the fan-boi bandwagon and say this announcement sounds very, very good. And I hope "Real Numbers" means that we are actually going to see the base values of powers so we can actually make informed decisions about our gameplay (I do not like that Lighthouse has put real in quotation marks--the implication is that it won't be the actual base values but perhaps AT modifiers or some such lameness).
If it is the base numbers, I give a great deal of (complete) credit of that revelation to the wonderful members of this game community (freaks) who have spent a lot of their time in working out the numbers and making them available to their fellow players and also those who have been asking for it (lined up with pitch forks and torches).
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I'm guessing Lighthouse put "real" in quotes because a) there aren't any such thing as "fake" numbers, and b) when people ask for the "real" numbers, they don't really understand fully what they are asking for.
For example, you mention "base numbers." I don't think you don't really want the base numbers. The base number for Focused Fighting is 1.85. I think when you say "base numbers" you mean you want to know that Focused Fighting offers 13.875 percentage points of defense when unenhanced. But the "13.875" appears nowhere in the game, on Castle's spreadsheets, or anywhere else except on City of Data and other derived sources.
The devs are going to show you what you probably want to know, which is the bottom line human-readable numbers. They won't be the "real" numbers, they will be the translated ones (translated into people-numbers, not game-design numbers). Giving us the "real" real numbers would just confuse the heck out of 99.9% of the player population.
Have patience: I think what you want is what's eventually coming. Probably not all in one giant patch, but eventually.
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Double XP Weekend and Server Hardware Improvements
We have another Double XP Weekend coming! Currently we are targeting February for this event. It will be the same format as we have run previously: a weekend long fest of double rewards of experience gain, influence or infamy, and prestige! Double XP is always popular and usually drives our online numbers to record heights.
To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best gaming experience possible for our players.
Our plans are to have all of the new hardware online before the coming Double XP Weekend. We will post more details of the server upgrade schedule, along with the dates of the actual Double XP weekend soon, so keep your eye on the City of Heroes website!
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And I say... WOOHOOOooooo! Double XP Weekend! I'll be waiting in great anticipation for that time, Lighthouse and Devs!! Kudoes, fellas and keep it up! Good luck as well with getting the necessary upgrades done for this.
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Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the real numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.
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Hmmmmm. How will we be able to view these realtime stats? All in all, I'm for it greatly. Just curious as to how we'll be able to take advantage of this new function.
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Issue #12
While were not announcing the specifics of what will be included in the next free expansion, Issue #12, we do want to reiterate that we will continue to add great new free additions to the game in 2008. The team is working hard to ensure our next free expansion will be an exciting, feature-filled addition to the game.
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WHOOOTT!!! Thankyouthankyou!! Again, something I'll be interested to find out about when Issue 12 comes, whenever that is.
I'd like to offer a suggestion as far as what to work on. You guys have done a fantastic job with the new additions in Issue 11, focusing alot of new stuff on tankers and scrappers. I'd love to see what you bunch of delightful brain busters can do for the blasters, corruptors, and defenders next time around.
Will be looking forward to all the new stuff coming down the pike!
Take care, Lighthouse and devs, and keep up the great work!
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The only real levliing issue I see is the 35-40 range, but Im guessing there may a little more tweaking that just that.
[/ QUOTE ] That's probably the biggest one, due to the amount of XP needed and the fact its all in a row. Around 14 seems to have a bump too. Maybe I am just impatient, though.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.