MA slots - why only three?

[ QUOTE ]
and that is the problem....no one has more right to use an aspect of the game as anyone else.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the devs disagree with you on this point.

Read posi's letter. The dev's don't agree on farms at all. The current system is what they have all compromised on as acceptable for all sides.

Which letter? Mind providing a link?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....ue#Post11778121

About half way down. It says the architect isn't intended for farming or easy leveling. Then in the next paragraph it discusses that the dev's have "discussed with raised voices" these same issues and the current system is what they settled on.

Will there be adjustments...Yes...look at the current patch.
But there has yet to be an EULA adjustment, a policy statment, or even an "official" unified position on the subject?

There is a seconded letter, also from Posi, that says about the same thing I'm trying to find.

Hmmm. That statement is open to interpretation. I take it to mean that the discussion was not about whether or not farming missions are valid, but what measures are acceptable to prevent them.

On one extreme, they could remove rewards from MA missions altogether, but that would unfairly punish the entire player base. On the other, they could give us the ability to put anything and everything we could ever possibly want in our arcs and have them grant full rewards to the player--but then farming would truly run rampant, and I still maintain that farming is at its core something none of the Powers That Be want. And for good reason.

The "raised voices", I think, aren't about whether or not farming is a valid style of play, but about what and how much constitutes a permissible sacrifice to the freedom of legitimate players and designers in order to discourage it.

In other words, the devs might be united on the position that farming is bad, but still divided on how to stop it.

I guess we'll see.

I disagree...like you said, there is alot of room for interpretation. That is the problem...there is no stated position one way or the other and everyone just assumes their side is the correct one. I have always defended the positon that as long as no exploits are in use, a farm is perfectly legit form of gaming and use of the AE. My personal favorite is an All boss run with 30 or so ambushes.

I also have said many times across alot of these type threads that people should live and let live and use the tools provided to streamline their playing experience to be more enjoyable to them. Everyone farms something...or does noone rerun any content. TF and merits are designed for Farming...run them over and over until you get enough merits to buy whatever it is you want. Lets not forget all the badges/accolades. Don't confuse farming with powerleveling with exploits with outliers. These terms have all become interchangable in some people's vocabulary and I think it accounts for alot of the bad blood between the sides.

Everytime I see my someone post 'MY playstyle, mission, zerging, pvp, whatever is more important than YOUR same thing", it gets my blood up. Its the same when people think their feelings about the AE are superior to the other players.

[ QUOTE ]
In other words, the devs might be united on the position that farming is bad, but still divided on how to stop it.

I guess we'll see.

[/ QUOTE ]

They can stop 99% of the farming fairly easily - disallow publishing of any arc that has only boss mobs. Each mission's main group/patrols must contain at least 1 minion and 1 lieutenant. At that point, the farming becomes no more effective than farming a normal mission.

The second change is to remove the auto-sk feature. I'd require people to sk just like in a normal mission.