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However this road has signs saying that private vehicles are restricted from driving on the road and the test you took to legally drive says you have to stay on authorized roads
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Red Herring. Powerleveling and farming is not a illegal in Co* so your analogy is frivolous.
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never said it was. In fact in my analogy the carpool lane, ie power leveling lane was just fine (it got you there the fastest and you didn't have to even learn to drive). the forestry road is the analogy for the MEOW team/exploit road.
Maybe my analogy could have been clearer, but nowhere did I say that power leveling was wrong, only breaking the rules to get somewhere faster was.
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Point taken, but it was never said that Comm Officers was an exploit. With as obvious as it was, and as much as it was talked about, nothing was done to hide that fact either. So someone would have had to steal the restricted sign, or they just forgot to post it in the first place.
I don't disagree that the Comm Officers offered to much reward, or debating that they should have been removed, but about whether it was an exploit or not. I don't feel it was.
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Well, the only definition that counts for exploits is what the devs consider it to be. They've stated that an exploit is when you use an unforeseen or unintended game mechanic to give yourself a statistical advantage that you wouldn't have in normal gameplay. Seeing as missions within the game have always had a mixture of enemies, creating a map filled with a single enemy that basically self-nerfs itself in that situation.... is an exploit. 
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so..since Radios are one mob type..Radios are exploits? >_>
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
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Well, the only definition that counts for exploits is what the devs consider it to be. They've stated that an exploit is when you use an unforeseen or unintended game mechanic to give yourself a statistical advantage that you wouldn't have in normal gameplay. Seeing as missions within the game have always had a mixture of enemies, creating a map filled with a single enemy that basically self-nerfs itself in that situation.... is an exploit.
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Referring to the bolded part.
Not a mind reader.
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so..since Radios are one mob type..Radios are exploits? >_>
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There is a difference between "one mob type" and "one enemy group".
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However this road has signs saying that private vehicles are restricted from driving on the road and the test you took to legally drive says you have to stay on authorized roads
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Red Herring. Powerleveling and farming is not a illegal in Co* so your analogy is frivolous.
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never said it was. In fact in my analogy the carpool lane, ie power leveling lane was just fine (it got you there the fastest and you didn't have to even learn to drive). the forestry road is the analogy for the MEOW team/exploit road.
Maybe my analogy could have been clearer, but nowhere did I say that power leveling was wrong, only breaking the rules to get somewhere faster was.
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Point taken, but it was never said that Comm Officers was an exploit. With as obvious as it was, and as much as it was talked about, nothing was done to hide that fact either. So someone would have had to steal the restricted sign, or they just forgot to post it in the first place.
I don't disagree that the Comm Officers offered to much reward, or debating that they should have been removed, but about whether it was an exploit or not. I don't feel it was.
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Well, the only definition that counts for exploits is what the devs consider it to be. They've stated that an exploit is when you use an unforeseen or unintended game mechanic to give yourself a statistical advantage that you wouldn't have in normal gameplay. Seeing as missions within the game have always had a mixture of enemies, creating a map filled with a single enemy that basically self-nerfs itself in that situation.... is an exploit.
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so by that definition, freakshow are an exploit. they give better xp. An exploit is where you get a statistical advantage over other people playing the same content. If you kill that council boss and get 800xp and I find a way to get 1600xp.
Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
But to say the devs did not foresee people making all AV, EB, Boss, Lt, Minion mission when Castle's mission was all AV's, is silly.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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Mine was nerfed BIG TIME. The mobs weren't anything special, they were claw-regen Lt.'s. After the nerf, they gained focus-power which allowed them to drop lvl 50 tanks like they were punks. Killed my entire story arc. Not to mention the fact that even 'throwing knives' have sniper-range.
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I haven't played MA missions since the patch went live, but Throwing Knives having the range of a sniper shot seems a tad excessive.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-anim.php
Can't come up with a name? Click the link!
Can't come up with a name? Click the link!
I like the addition of ranged for melee.
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Well, the only definition that counts for exploits is what the devs consider it to be. They've stated that an exploit is when you use an unforeseen or unintended game mechanic to give yourself a statistical advantage that you wouldn't have in normal gameplay.
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so by that definition, freakshow are an exploit. they give better xp. An exploit is where you get a statistical advantage over other people playing the same content. If you kill that council boss and get 800xp and I find a way to get 1600xp.
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Right, because Freaks giving higher xp certainly wasn't intended.
Or wait, were you only using the parts of the definition that were convenient to your argument? My mistake, carry on.
I know this post is a few days old, but I just wanted to throw in my two cents on my personal feelings towards MA. I don't mind the ticket nerfage so much as there are still plenty of ways to earn enough influence to buy the things I need and it does return a little bit of balance to the availability of recipes.
The change that really bothered me was the fact that they added the ranged Epic powers to melee custom characters. I've felt that the MA customs might be somewhat overpowered, but since the change I have lost my interest in the MA because the power change completely changed the feel of the missions I created around a specific theme. I admit I rode the MA-farm wave to 50 on one of my characters, but it was done while solo against my custom toons (non-exploitative AFAIK) so I have no fear of having the XP taken away.
I do have one arc I created and might venture back to the MA to create some more, but right now I have other things I am interested in doing; toons to level and min/max and such.
The bottom line is that the MA has lost its luster for me and it might be a while before I get back around to using it. Issue 15 sounds like it will be fun to test and I'm looking forward to the Going Rogue expansion so I won't be wandering away from CoX any time soon.
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I like the addition of ranged for melee.
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now can I have the same range on my ranged attacks?
Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
So did you fight your custom toons by hovering or flying above them and attacking with no fear of them ever being able to attack you? Because that's the reason the ranged attack was given to them.
It was possible to create boss level mobs that were very dangerous in melee, then just hover above them and rain down death with absolutely zero danger. It was an exploit.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
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Well, the only definition that counts for exploits is what the devs consider it to be. They've stated that an exploit is when you use an unforeseen or unintended game mechanic to give yourself a statistical advantage that you wouldn't have in normal gameplay.
[/ QUOTE ]
so by that definition, freakshow are an exploit. they give better xp. An exploit is where you get a statistical advantage over other people playing the same content. If you kill that council boss and get 800xp and I find a way to get 1600xp.
[/ QUOTE ]
Right, because Freaks giving higher xp certainly wasn't intended.
Or wait, were you only using the parts of the definition that were convenient to your argument? My mistake, carry on.
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using your definition, I have no way to know what xp the devs intended to give for that defeat. How in the hell am I supposed to know whether that statistical advantage is intended or not? If I fill a mission with freaks because they give better xp, why is this not a problem, yet some other type is? The rikto comm officers were not an exploit. They were however, a mob that needed to be adjusted. Show me what the devs intended when they gave freaks more xp than council? Unless you have a red name hidden there some where, you cant.
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Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
First - that wasn't my definition - I was just pointing out that you were ignoring what you were quoting.
Second - Comm Officers, put by themselves in a custom group, absolutely were an exploit. They were never intended to appear in vast quantities with no actual fighting Rikti to help them survive - certainly not with the huge xp bonus they were assigned for a time.
Third - Freaks are worth more xp than Council because they are more dangerous than Council troops in their level range. They are intended to give rewards commensurate with the increased risk involved in fighting them.
I don't speak with red name authority, but these are pretty clear common sense answers.
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First - that wasn't my definition - I was just pointing out that you were ignoring what you were quoting.
Second - Comm Officers, put by themselves in a custom group, absolutely were an exploit. They were never intended to appear in vast quantities with no actual fighting Rikti to help them survive - certainly not with the huge xp bonus they were assigned for a time.
Third - Freaks are worth more xp than Council because they are more dangerous than Council troops in their level range. They are intended to give rewards commensurate with the increased risk involved in fighting them.
I don't speak with red name authority, but these are pretty clear common sense answers.
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2. Comm officers still can appear as a group, so that undercuts that putting them in one was an exploit. As to how much xp should they have ? Your guess is as good as anyone elses. There certainly is no rhyme or reason on how xp is assigned, take a look at sappers
3. Freaks more dangerous than council ?? To who ?
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So did you fight your custom toons by hovering or flying above them and attacking with no fear of them ever being able to attack you? Because that's the reason the ranged attack was given to them.
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No, my character is a /WP Scrapper so the more mobs around me the better (up to 17, of course) which is the reason I designed them the way I did. I also had to stock up on purples to make sure my defense was softcapped or they'd mop the floor with me.
Now, with the ranged attacks, I can't engage them the way I want because they will stay at range rather than swarm around me to saturate RttC. Absolute lame sauce!
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Ma was nerfed again today. Now tickets are limited to 1500 per mish no mater what. Personally I think this is terrible and I won't be AE'ng it anymore unless it's a friend who wants me to check out their arc. No recipes, no salvage and now tiny ticket amounts have gone to far attempting to stop farming. My biggest concern was for the really good toons out there that can handle hard mish's and now there is no reward for them doing those hard mish's.
I believe it to be so funny that these attempts to stop farming are taking place when they still allow "farming" channels in chat. Isn't that a blatant disreguard for the farming rules? Why not deleted them. How about all the farmers who charge people for pl'ng. I know many have been reported but nothing is done to them.
Instead AE is being nerfed because of farming and it's just been nerfed to far now to even bother with AE anymore. : (
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AE is the sacred cow for the developers because their professional reputations are riding on it. It is the only thing of its kind in any MMO, and while it was in development I'm sure a lot of people were rightly skeptical that handing the keys to game content over to the playerbase is a lot like handing a monkey the keys to the company car.
In the end, if AE turns out to be a source of endless new content for players to enjoy, then the developers are geniouses; and if it turns out to be little more than a huge exploit that kills the game, then they're a bunch of idiots who have no business running an MMO.
So it's easy to see why they are quick to err on the side of caution when it comes to the whole "exploit that kills the game" thing.
Seen in the light of comparison to PI/TV farming, it's pretty clear that they are being unjustly single-minded in their attempts to stop AE farming, but they clearly have their reasons for doing so.
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This makes sense to me.
I loved the AE when it got rolling, and still do. Of course...I love it alone these days..but it still seems like an amazing idea.
I can see why they chose to ruin it instead of wait it out and see if the population would balance and move back into the mainstream after the farming craze came and went, but I think they should have given it a little more time before bringing down the hammer.
Then again, if my reputation and livelihood were depending on it, I probably would have jumped the gun and done something drastic too.
*rubs his eyes after a marathon reading through this thread*
Ok
.what was the original question again
*power scrolls back* lets see
.analogies, funny stuff, arc advertisements
wait, I missed that ID..want to try that arc out later, quickly extinguished flame wars
ah right
what is the mood of MA J
On Virtue I think it had kind of a dip, but seems to be picking up
.went like this.
MA new= lots of people trying it out, making their stories, some good, some not so good.
Farming perfected + Reactivation weekend= HUGE numbers of LF MEOW or LF AE FARM flooding broadcast. Seriously, calls to fight the GM and AV getting drowned out by the LF FARM posts was a bit frustrating. Story based arcs lost in the Meow Mix.
MA Nerf+ Posis message= AE becomes a practical dead zone (compared to before). I think I went three days without seeing a SINGLE looking for AE (not just farm, but AE at all) as everyone was scared, annoyed, angered, or flaming over the events.
Dust settling= people slowly going back to MA, advertising story based arcs, and some (but much fewer) calls for Farms. Nothing worse than youd find in any zone pre MA. People are slowly going back to MA as they realize that their toons didnt get Dev-zapped (not saying that it didnt happen to someone out there, just no one Ive met or farmed with). Normal farms are starting back up too. I took part in a Sewer run the other day
first one Id seen in about a month.
So all in all, I think the mood is ok. Possibly not as great as the devs might have hoped for such a major addition to the game, because it was hugely affected by the whole farming fiasco. I really think that Architect and Going Rogue were set to be Cox Flagships against the looming competition, and now MA has an unfortunate black mark on its record and reputation for a lot of players. Hopefully Rogue will work out better.
I think that one of the big things affecting the mood on and about MA is that few people want to fess up and accept responsibility for their part in the mess.
Devs dont seem to want to accept responsibility for the fact that they released the system to early, with easily discovered and exploited bugs. I understand, they were wanting to get the first of their big new shiny toys out for the big 5th anniversary celebration and the reactivation weekend. From a purely technical standpoint it seems that MA could have done with quite a bit more testing before going public. However I can see the devs stance, with competition looming and their paying customers clamoring for more content
they made a judgment call and released the new feature earlier than they should have and it shot them in the foot. That followed up by Posis response, which my wife and I agree with many felt extremely heavy handed, even if we didnt feel we were at any personal risk
its caused a lot of bad blood between the players and the developers
.never a good thing for the health of a product.
Players (a lot, not all) dont seem to want to take responsibility for the fact that we exploited an Awesome Button in the game to the point that it became such a huge, glaring issue that the devs had to step in. The devs were very clear in the pre-release notes and interviews that they didnt intend or want MA to be the next great thing in Farming technology. We did it anyway. I say we because yes, I did farm. Yes, I did Meow. I did all melee Boss only farms. I have two toons that gained an easy 10-15 levels through farms, and another one that I took from 1-36 in a day. Id never farmed before
heck, Im still new to MMOs in general, just hit my 9 month vet. Ya know what? I had FUN farming. For me it was equal amounts the insane rewards (unbalanced as they were), and the people. If I got into a Farm team and the people werent having fun, cracking jokes, making the grinding process enjoyable
I quit that team and found another. The XP/inf/prestige rewards were great, but those alone were not enough to make me farm. I admit it though, somehow during the MA Meow craze I became a farmer, and got pleasure from it
not even guilty pleasure. I am ebil *laughs*.
Now that the craze is over, Im back to what I was doing before. Running regular missions, playing story based arcs (Ive been writing down ones from peoples tags and such on this thread that I intend to try during my days off from work), working on my own. Even helping my wife write her first MA arc. One of the SG that I belong with is using MA to work up a huge RP story for our characters, which Im really looking forward to.
Do I miss the Farming? Do I miss the exciting rush of seeing that XP bar zip around and ding faster than I could keep up? Do I miss getting a reward roll and finding it sold for 50 million influence? OF course. It was fun. That parts over now though, and it doesnt really diminish the fun of the rest of the game for me. *shrugs* Was I in the bad for exploiting the Awesome Button? Possibly. Up to the devs I guess, though considering out of my 20 some toons I farmed with 3 of them, I dont really think Im at that much risk. If anything, only the one I took from LVL 1-36 would really be in danger, which would be a shame since he was really a throw away character created out of insomnia (3am+ costume creator= Lemur Lad) who I popped into MA for a quick test of the scrapper AT that Id never played before. Since farming stopped Ive been playing him in regular missions and the furry little bugger has grown on me to easily become one of my top 5 favorite characters. Hate to see him go, but if thats what happens, I got no one to blame but myself because I was a farmer *shrugs*
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Was I in the bad for exploiting the Awesome Button?
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Yes.
It was clearly stated by the DEVs when they first brought up the MA and many times since that they were not giving us the MA so that we could use it for farming or Power-leveling.
Really this isn't the thread to be talking about that aspect of this.
That should be here ::
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...page=0&vc=
I like the MA. I think it is fun making missions for it.
I think if people can get off their high-horse about their "rights" to abuse the system, the MA can become the truly great thing that can be.
Stopping the abuse isn't oppression.
Abusing the system is counter-productive to the longevity of the game.
It is a reality that "some" of us want this game to last. That won't happen with insta-50's and hyper-inf inflation.
I, however, feel that there will be people abusing the MA until they are stopped and have to pay a penalty for what they are doing. That is the only way to stop them.
Bottom-line.
As long as "they" can get away with exploiting, that is what "they" will do.
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So did you fight your custom toons by hovering or flying above them and attacking with no fear of them ever being able to attack you? Because that's the reason the ranged attack was given to them.
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No, my character is a /WP Scrapper so the more mobs around me the better (up to 17, of course) which is the reason I designed them the way I did. I also had to stock up on purples to make sure my defense was softcapped or they'd mop the floor with me.
Now, with the ranged attacks, I can't engage them the way I want because they will stay at range rather than swarm around me to saturate RttC. Absolute lame sauce!
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Provoke. Challenge. Or take the fight to them.
I currently have an arc in which 99% of the critters are ranged Lts. (2 of which are Thug MMs) and my /WP Brute (w/o Taunt, Provoke or Challenge) runs it fairly well.
Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars
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I like the addition of ranged for melee.
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now can I have the same range on my ranged attacks?
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Yeah, I think a reasonable person can see why they added ranged attacks to custom toons... it's just that those ranged attacks seem a bit excessive. It seems they do more damage than other ranged attacks of the same type, and have a longer range. Of course, I don't really know that - but it certainly seems that way. If it was just on the order of a Freak Slicer or BP Zombie, I don't there would be nearly as much complaining about it.
But then I'm guessing someone will produce the actual numbers that show that they are on the same level as those attacks and I'll be embarrassed by my own positive selection bias.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
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2. Comm officers still can appear as a group, so that undercuts that putting them in one was an exploit. As to how much xp should they have ? Your guess is as good as anyone elses. There certainly is no rhyme or reason on how xp is assigned, take a look at sappers
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Let me explain something else that should be obvious. Just because it is POSSIBLE within the system to perform a certain kind of behavior, does not mean that that behavior is INTENDED. Comm Officers, for example, were STILL never intended to appear in a custom group with just them. You seem to be suggesting that if the devs didn't intend that, they would shut down MA entirely until they could redo the code to specifically forbid a single, specific mob type from appearing in a custom group by itself.
The thing is, even if that wasn't a ridiculous waste of their finite resources, they don't necessarily WANT to forbid all behavior that they didn't specifically intend - after all, MA is supposed to let us be creative, and even do things that they never thought of. So they simply slashed Comm xp so that it's no longer worth it to farm them. The important point is that we're not supposed to do things they never thought of that throw risk/reward out the window. Unintended behavior can't really be considered an 'exploit' if it isn't unreasonably profitable. Unintended behavior that is unreasonably profitable is an exploit.
There are two key words here - 'intention' and 'reasonable'. Everybody seems to want a hard list of exactly what behaviors are intended and what aren't, and what behaviors are reasonable and what aren't. They all want a new system that they can look for loopholes in so they can find the best new way to cheese that system and still be self-righteous about it. The correct answer is: quit trying to cheese the system. There are no hard and fast rules here on purpose because the devs aren't omniscient. The letter of the law, the only hard rule there is, is that the devs can do whatever they want. They can and will use their human judgment on a case by case basis and make human decisions about what behavior is or is not reasonable. Their intent is to slap people who purposely cheese the system for huge profits. They are asking that we as players use a little judgment ourselves, and they reserve the right to punish us if we go overboard. I don't see why so many find this so hard to understand.
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3. Freaks more dangerous than council ?? To who ?
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I don't know, man - I could be wrong. I always heard that Council were the whipping boys of radio missions because they are so damn easy, and Freaks scare me a little because of their hard hitting attacks, self heals, and mez powers. What do the Council have that are really dangerous? War Wolves?
I've been thinking about all the dev blame for not catching the exploit(s) before releasing MA (especially considering the time it took to get it out; definitely not a rush job).
I'm concluding that although the forumites, including myself, felt that these were staggeringly obvious details that should've been easily discovered... it could've been just as easy to miss given the comparative opportunities between the massive playerbase and the diminutive dev team:
We outnumber them 10000:1
We're actively looking for loopholes at somewhere near the same ratio
They're multi-tasking and macro/micro-managing several game details in several areas at once; we're not
They're on a timetable; we're not.
They have to manage the influx and orientation of new project members.
At that ratio, we're 10k times more observant, creative, hands-on and open/responsive to communication than the Dev team could ever be.
What started off as obvious to us could've very easily have slipped under their radar.
But that's why we have Betas. So that the Devs have our assistance in ensuring that these type of situations are reduced in number and have minimal impact on 'intended' gameplay.
If these issues were brought up by the Beta testers but were ignored by the Devs; then yes, the Devs should expect a lot of heat.
If these issues were not found by all of the additional eyes brought in by the Beta testers; can we really have expected them to find what the larger collective couldn't?
If these issues were found but not brought to the Dev's attention; then the fault lies with those testers if the issues get imported to live.
As I've stated before, given the ratio of players to devs, it would be near impossible for them to search through published content (at a possible tripled ratio) AND infinitely exponential unpublished content to find AND remove individual instances of varying 'exploits' in a timely fashion; reported or otherwise.
At some point, a more broad action was going to have to take place.
I'm sure it took them some time to figure out a course of action, some more time to test that course of action and additional time to implement it into live play (especially given the whole of what they're having to juggle); so it may have seemed like an acceptance of the issue(s) when it actually wasn't.
So, now, we have a few individual issues that they've attended to; with a few more that have not. (As well as some that may have inadvertently been created by their decided course of action(s)).
And at this point, we would hope that they have taken these issues and organized them so that they can more easily locate and resolve similar issues in a less erratic, more efficient and more effective manner.
Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars
[ QUOTE ]
does not mean that that behavior is INTENDED. Comm Officers, for example, were STILL never intended to appear in a custom group with just them.
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Somebody had to put them into MA as their own group. Now you may argue that it should have been obvious what the developers wanted from them but I will say this code freeze or no, they could have put a post up on the message boards and said please don't do this and we won't be able to fix it for a week. They could have also changed the message of the day.
I have said this before I am not a mind reader. I find it really hard to gauge the wants and intents of people who I have never met and are tight lipped about them in their public statements.
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What do the Council have that are really dangerous? War Wolves?
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Lots of marksman that stand back and pelt you from beyond melee range. This ticks off people whose defense depends on you being up close and personal. For my WP and INV melee characters freaks are a cakewalk
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We will have to agree to disagree here. I think the comm officers were a massive exploit in that they were not being used as intended and gave at specific levels extreme amounts of xp far and above anything else possible in the game. People knew this and exploited the heck out of it, I can't personally see how it isn't an exploit despite how long it took the devs to deal with it and despite how public it was.
To keep with the analogy its kind of like the last forest ranger that used it forgot to put the gate back the last time they used it and they didn't get around to either fixing the gate or closing it for a few weeks.
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The devs knew when they put them in MA that Comm officers gave more XP than normal, and still they moved foward. They knew it when they did their own internal testing, and still they moved foward. They were told in closed and in open beta that it would be exploited, and still they moved foward. As far as I'm concerned, and I guarantee I'm not alone in this, if it can go through such extensive testing with full knowledge of the potential exploit and still go live, then it must be working as intended.
To use your analogy, the forest ranger forgot to close the gate despite the fact that he was told repeatedly over several weeks that the gate was open and that he needed to get his [censored] over there and close it. He's got nobdy to blame but himself if the bears got out and raided everybodies picknick baskets.
[/ QUOTE ]This is interesting to me, because I read claims to the exact opposite, that the Comm Officer exploit (putting many of them on a single map so that all but one won't summon portals) was NOT identified before release.
Yet, even if it was, using anything in the game to collect an "unnatural or unintended" level of benefit IS prohibited by the rules of the game. In the Forest Ranger and the gate analogy, it's like there were signs on both sides of the gate saying "Do Not Enter. Trespassers will be prosecuted." Even if the gate's wide open, if you go in, you're breaking the rules and subject to punishment.
(I know I'm responding to a post over a day old, but I'm very curious about the "identified before release" question.)
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However this road has signs saying that private vehicles are restricted from driving on the road and the test you took to legally drive says you have to stay on authorized roads
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Red Herring. Powerleveling and farming is not a illegal in Co* so your analogy is frivolous.
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never said it was. In fact in my analogy the carpool lane, ie power leveling lane was just fine (it got you there the fastest and you didn't have to even learn to drive). the forestry road is the analogy for the MEOW team/exploit road.
Maybe my analogy could have been clearer, but nowhere did I say that power leveling was wrong, only breaking the rules to get somewhere faster was.
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Point taken, but it was never said that Comm Officers was an exploit. With as obvious as it was, and as much as it was talked about, nothing was done to hide that fact either. So someone would have had to steal the restricted sign, or they just forgot to post it in the first place.
I don't disagree that the Comm Officers offered to much reward, or debating that they should have been removed, but about whether it was an exploit or not. I don't feel it was.
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Well, the only definition that counts for exploits is what the devs consider it to be. They've stated that an exploit is when you use an unforeseen or unintended game mechanic to give yourself a statistical advantage that you wouldn't have in normal gameplay. Seeing as missions within the game have always had a mixture of enemies, creating a map filled with a single enemy that basically self-nerfs itself in that situation.... is an exploit.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens