Issue 13 Open Beta

Good day everyone!

As you can all see now, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility is now in Open Beta. This means that anyone and everyone who has an active City of Heroes account can try out the issue on the Training Room server. We’re just a few short weeks away from releasing this to the Live servers, so we are hoping you will all try Issue 13 and report any bugs you find so we can have a smooth release. If you aren’t familiar with connecting to the Training Room Test Server, you can find instructions on how to do that on the Training Room Forums.

I’d like to take this time to go into more on the designs for some of the new stuff in Issue 13.

Patron and Epic Power Pools:
First off, we’ve made some changes to the Villain Patron and Hero Epic Power Pools. We know that these have been out of balance for a while, so in bringing Patron pools up to the same level as Hero pools, we’ve made a lot of changes to both side’s high level powers. We did extensive datamining on power choices, how they were being utilized, and damage outputs. In the end we tweaked several powers and removed some, replacing them with (what we think) are far more useful ones. We were very cautious in removing powers; it’s not something we ever do lightly. We only do it where there was a huge disparity in how often it is chosen over another power. That to us points to severe problems with that power even being in that pool to begin with.

Merit System:
Next up, we have a new Merit System for playing through content in the game. Players will no longer need to “farm” particular missions or Task Forces for a specific IO. Now you can accumulate Merits and simply purchase that IO outright from the new Merit Vendors sprinkled throughout Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Practically everything you do in the game earns you Merits now and the amount you earn is based on our datamines on how long particular things take to accomplish in our game. This means that really fast Task Forces or Trials will earn you fewer Merits than ones that take longer to complete. Merits don’t have a level associated with them either, so you can earn Merits in your low-level career, and save them up to purchase IOs that will be most useful when you are level 50. The choice is now in your hands, and out of the random drop tables these missions had previously.

Bases:
We’ve made some changes to the way players deal with bases. Overall things got a lot less expensive, Prestige-wise, in bases. This means that smaller SGs should be able to accomplish more with their bases now. If your SG wants to take advantage of the new, lower, prices, you’re going to have to do a little work in selling the older items, and buying the new, lower priced items. It’s an unfortunate artifact of the way the base system was designed that we can’t just refund your SG the difference straight away. We’ve also eliminated the need for Base Salvage. Now everything in bases can be built with Invention Salvage. You will even be able to convert all that extra Base Salvage into Invention Salvage to help get rid of the extraneous items your SG has probably accumulated. This change will help smaller SGs build cooler stuff faster, as well as give large SGs a benefit for all their hard work so far. Don’t worry, the storage containers in bases will now be able to hold a small amount of Invention Salvage as well now.

Leveling Pact:
We’re adding in a brand new feature for new characters and new players to get acclimated to the game with Leveling Pacts. Characters that are level 5 and under can form a permanent bond that will evenly split all XP they ever earn, keeping them in perfect level sync their entire careers (unless they decide to break the Pact). It’s superior to Sidekicking because the split happens even if one half of the duo isn’t on-line! They will be able to log in later and be treated to the XP they would have earned had they been on-line and playing with their partner anyway. This is the perfect way for a couple of close knit buddies to make sure they always have characters “in sync” even if one plays more often, or at different times, than the others. This feature will initially launch with the low-level limit on initiating Pacts, as well as only being able to Pact two characters together. It’s a brand new way of dealing with our reward system, so once we are happy with how things are working out, we can look into raising the maximum entry level on Pacting as well as the number of characters that can be Pacted together.

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

Multi Builds:
Be sure to check out the new “Multi-build” feature. You can access this feature by visiting any level-up Trainer in the game. Here you can make an alternate build, or switch between the builds that you have. We are initially launching this feature with only two builds available to work with, but the feature has the capability of dealing with more, should we ever find a need for third, fourth, or more, builds.

Day Jobs
Finally, I want to talk about Day Jobs. These are rewards your character earns for logging out for extended periods in certain in-game locations. These rewards are varied, depending on the job your character was working on. I hope that you all find these as fun and exciting as we had in designing them. I look forward to the role-playing that players will do incorporating their “Day Job” into their crime fighting (or crime committing) regime.

Play Issue 13 Open Beta Now On the Training Room!
I am sure you will hear from me more as we get closer to launching Issue 13 to the Live servers, but for now, have a blast trying out these features and helping us polish them up for their final launch to Live in the coming weeks.

Matt “Positron" Miller
Lead Designer


For Open Beta Patch Notes, Known Issues and Discussion, please visit the following forums:

The Training Room (Test Server)
Issue 13 Feedback & Discussion (Open)
Issue 13 Bugs (Open)

---

Positron
Follow me on Twitter

Looks interesting. RO is looking forward to testing out all the new additions.

Personally, I'll be checking out the base changes as well as the new IO sets that my Kins have been waiting for.

---

That wasn't so hard, now was it?

And with that and a quick click through paypal, I'm back and playing. Well, at least until LotRO Moria hits and I log out all of my alts for a month to collect their badge while I play something else.

Please get the valkyrie super booster out before it becomes obvious that buying the mac release for the one month of play + the costume access is obviously the better deal...

(love the merit system btw - looking forward to the former trash of the pool C world now being worth something while simultaneously looking at stuff over 30 million and thinking "screw that, I'll go get it myself." It's like BOTH PVP arenas became 151 times more enjoyable to me at the same time...)

---

yay!

---

Mew

Incidentally, the test server is NOT recognizing that I just re-subscribed. Having it tell me would you like ot go to your account, and then going there and having my account page say "Your account is activated - go play!" and then going back to the log in and being blocked is just a teeny bit annoying.

I'm sure it's brain will catch up eventually .

---

Booyah!!

Now if the test server didn't take about 7 hours for me to download everything...

Ah well, LIVE SERVERS HERE WE COME!

Fro~

---

Thank you and the rest of the crew for the hard work and for being awesome!

Lewis

---

Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan

[ QUOTE ]
Incidentally, the test server is NOT recognizing that I just re-subscribed. Having it tell me would you like ot go to your account, and then going there and having my account page say "Your account is activated - go play!" and then going back to the log in and being blocked is just a teeny bit annoying.

I'm sure it's brain will catch up eventually .

[/ QUOTE ]

Next Business Day typically

---

Live : @Emo Bitter / @2Emo2Bitter
Test : @Bitter / @2Emo2Bitter
Facebook
CoHFaces
Myspace

[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

Ouch, if I were Castle or someone who worked extremely hard on trying to make all balanced and stuff and I read this, I'd wanna kill myself. Jeez.

Fro~

---

*howls in frustration*

ARGH! I HAVE LESS TIME THAN I THOUGHT!!!

*dashes out to start frantic work on the Issue 13 trailer*

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

---

Go, Michelle, go!!

I love your videos, and I'm sure this one will be awesome just like your others.

Fro~

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

Ouch, if I were Castle or someone who worked extremely hard on trying to make all balanced and stuff and I read this, I'd wanna kill myself. Jeez.

Fro~

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm trying to figure out if more hyperbole could be crammed into that post, but I'm stumped.

---

[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system... The previous systems were “ok”

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Ouch, if I were Castle or someone who worked extremely hard on trying to make all balanced and stuff and I read this, I'd wanna kill myself. Jeez.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or you could be one of the people that recognizes Positron is just being polite, and that the old PVP was so terrible that if every active PVPer quit over than changes and 15% of the non-pvp players played 2 more months than they would have otherwise just because they are fiddling around with the new system and giving it a chance, it would still probably be a win for the finacial health and longevity of the game. "Burn it to the ground and start over" is a valid response to some circumstances, and and I think evidence is strong that those circumstances had been achieved.

My perception is the basic goal is your build will not help you anymore. Your influence poured into your build will not help you much any more. Your skill - acquired in the past and in the new environement will. And even with skill on your side, you're still gonna get beat sometimes. Those are necessary goals if you want casual PvP players, and they look very much like the principles underlying the changes we are seeing. Implementaiton will call for more polish, but that was pretty clear in Positron's text. To me anyway.

Step 1: assume the Devs aren't crazy.
Step 2: deduce what they must see in their data mining from their actions.
Step 3: compare with their statements to observed behavior(recognizing there are some things they have to ommit because player desires and Dev needs do not particularly coincide).
Step 4: formulate suggestions that are within the range of their needs, where those needs have their closest approach our wants.

---

I just tried out the "alternate build" on a lvl 50 I had on the test server. The crazy thing is it started the other build at lvl 1. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but I really don't want to lvl my guy all the way up again unless I get to repick my primary and secondary power types. I was hoping to be greated with a respec screen that would let me re select my powers then choose if I wanted to keep IO's that I had already purchased.

Anyone else having this same problem?

---

[ QUOTE ]
I just tried out the "alternate build" on a lvl 50 I had on the test server. The crazy thing is it started the other build at lvl 1. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but I really don't want to lvl my guy all the way up again unless I get to repick my primary and secondary power types. I was hoping to be greated with a respec screen that would let me re select my powers then choose if I wanted to keep IO's that I had already purchased.

Anyone else having this same problem?

[/ QUOTE ]

It is a respec, you just have to level it up each time. So, pick your powers for level 1, then speak to the trainer to choose level 2 etc..

AT the start of Beta there was some code so that you could train multiple levels without coming out of the training screen, but that git removed (some bug I think, so might come back).

---

Always remember, we were Heroes.

[ QUOTE ]
I just tried out the "alternate build" on a lvl 50 I had on the test server. The crazy thing is it started the other build at lvl 1. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but I really don't want to lvl my guy all the way up again unless I get to repick my primary and secondary power types. I was hoping to be greated with a respec screen that would let me re select my powers then choose if I wanted to keep IO's that I had already purchased.

Anyone else having this same problem?

[/ QUOTE ]

It treats your second build as though you've never trained, but you've earned enough XP to be level 50. So you have to "train" 50 times...but you don't have to re-earn the XP.

However, you do start empty on enhancements. That's by design.

It would be nice if it used the respec interface...pick all your powers, pick your slots, just leaving out the enhancement stage.

---

My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

/slap that wasn't very nice, instead of coming on here and complaining which obviously are. Why not take the time to think of something less whining and more constructive. Its people like you that make the boards boring.

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system... The previous systems were “ok”

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Ouch, if I were Castle or someone who worked extremely hard on trying to make all balanced and stuff and I read this, I'd wanna kill myself. Jeez.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or you could be one of the people that recognizes Positron is just being polite, and that the old PVP was so terrible that if every active PVPer quit over than changes and 15% of the non-pvp players played 2 more months than they would have otherwise just because they are fiddling around with the new system and giving it a chance, it would still probably be a win for the finacial health and longevity of the game. "Burn it to the ground and start over" is a valid response to some circumstances, and and I think evidence is strong that those circumstances had been achieved.

My perception is the basic goal is your build will not help you anymore. Your influence poured into your build will not help you much any more. Your skill - acquired in the past and in the new environement will. And even with skill on your side, you're still gonna get beat sometimes. Those are necessary goals if you want casual PvP players, and they look very much like the principles underlying the changes we are seeing. Implementaiton will call for more polish, but that was pretty clear in Positron's text. To me anyway.

Step 1: assume the Devs aren't crazy.
Step 2: deduce what they must see in their data mining from their actions.
Step 3: compare with their statements to observed behavior(recognizing there are some things they have to ommit because player desires and Dev needs do not particularly coincide).
Step 4: formulate suggestions that are within the range of their needs, where those needs have their closest approach our wants.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that is a much better post :P

---

Woot.. installing now

---

LvL 50's Inv/Em Tank, Katana/Regen Scrapper, Merc/Traps MM, Ninja/Dark MM, Crab
@Torell Guardian, Liberty & Freedom

Hmm...can I make a Level Pact with myself?

As an altoholic, it would be cool to be working on leveling two of my characters any time I'm on...and I could go back and forth any time I wanted...

---

[ QUOTE ]



Or you could be one of the people that recognizes Positron is just being polite, and that the old PVP was so terrible that if every active PVPer quit over than changes and 15% of the non-pvp players played 2 more months than they would have otherwise just because they are fiddling around with the new system and giving it a chance, it would still probably be a win for the finacial health and longevity of the game. "Burn it to the ground and start over" is a valid response to some circumstances, and and I think evidence is strong that those circumstances had been achieved.

My perception is the basic goal is your build will not help you anymore. Your influence poured into your build will not help you much any more. Your skill - acquired in the past and in the new environement will. And even with skill on your side, you're still gonna get beat sometimes. Those are necessary goals if you want casual PvP players, and they look very much like the principles underlying the changes we are seeing. Implementaiton will call for more polish, but that was pretty clear in Positron's text. To me anyway.

Step 1: assume the Devs aren't crazy.
Step 2: deduce what they must see in their data mining from their actions.
Step 3: compare with their statements to observed behavior(recognizing there are some things they have to ommit because player desires and Dev needs do not particularly coincide).
Step 4: formulate suggestions that are within the range of their needs, where those needs have their closest approach our wants

[/ QUOTE ]

I must say...after doing RV for an hour and watching a 50 WP/NRG tanker fight a 50 Shield/Dark go at it for 6 minutes for one fight...I LOVE PVP 2.0

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

/slap that wasn't very nice, instead of coming on here and complaining which obviously are. Why not take the time to think of something less whining and more constructive. Its people like you that make the boards boring.

[/ QUOTE ]

And its people like you that make people like me /hitheadondesk

I was being very constructive. I posted details on why I think, what I think. If you read the other posts, many people aren't liking the new PvP system, its not just me. Maybe you shouldn't flame people for what they like, It would be like someone flaming basebuilders, and you wouldnt like that would you?

---

Positron, I understand the "need to remove" certain Ancillary Power Pools, however I have yet to see additions to these.

Will we be seeing additions from the new powers added to the hero side? IE Willpower, Sonics, Arrows, etc...

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system... The previous systems were “ok”

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
This is horrible. The new system is full of bugs, completely unbalanced and a majority of players (Current PvPers and PvEers) do NOT like this. In fact, the target audience of new PvPers are saying this changes helps even less! You took all diversity of At's out. Don't you think we know that a tank can take punches whereas a blaster can't? Now it is reversed! Blasters are supposed to be a high damage class, to make up for the low hp and def/resist. Now their damage is laughable. Blasters are the worst AT, along with Widows. Controllers and Defenders remain the "FotM" they were before with unresisted debuffs and high damaging holds. The game is turning into WoW 2.0. Please reconsider this "PvP overhaul," its worse then before!

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Ouch, if I were Castle or someone who worked extremely hard on trying to make all balanced and stuff and I read this, I'd wanna kill myself. Jeez.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or you could be one of the people that recognizes Positron is just being polite, and that the old PVP was so terrible that if every active PVPer quit over than changes and 15% of the non-pvp players played 2 more months than they would have otherwise just because they are fiddling around with the new system and giving it a chance, it would still probably be a win for the finacial health and longevity of the game. "Burn it to the ground and start over" is a valid response to some circumstances, and and I think evidence is strong that those circumstances had been achieved.

My perception is the basic goal is your build will not help you anymore. Your influence poured into your build will not help you much any more. Your skill - acquired in the past and in the new environement will. And even with skill on your side, you're still gonna get beat sometimes. Those are necessary goals if you want casual PvP players, and they look very much like the principles underlying the changes we are seeing. Implementaiton will call for more polish, but that was pretty clear in Positron's text. To me anyway.

Step 1: assume the Devs aren't crazy.
Step 2: deduce what they must see in their data mining from their actions.
Step 3: compare with their statements to observed behavior(recognizing there are some things they have to ommit because player desires and Dev needs do not particularly coincide).
Step 4: formulate suggestions that are within the range of their needs, where those needs have their closest approach our wants.

[/ QUOTE ]

Brillaint!

---