Opportunity Cost
.
The idea for me here is perhaps the allure of MA has worn off a bit but there is some definite correlation between the changes/nerfs to MA and the drop in population found on servers again. I started and still play a bit on Liberty and for a small time, there was a nice influx of people looking to level old or new ATs. Now that population is back to normal levels and looking to team again has become a challenge at times.
The truth is these types of games are about leveling. Yet it seems the developers at times would arguer against that and have a population of players scared to even enter a sewer zone. The players main goal is to work towards obtaining drops and some form of monitory income to purchase or create a good for their characters. As they do this, new slots and powers are available to them through new levels. Missions offer the ability to achieve these goals. Every time a player plays the game experience is earned working towards the main goal of a level cap of 50. Again, the goal to me seems simple, LEVEL ones toon up. When MA first came out, the player flooded the zones looking to level. They were met with fun and flowing experience allowing them to train characters created. They also acquired influence and tickets to help speed up the process of leveling.
Perhaps I have missed something in the translation here. I pose this question, if these games are not about leveling or maxing out ones AT to the best of their ability, then why offer levels at all? Why offer an invention system for increased attributes in powers? Why not just offer character customization costume pieces and missions content everyone can do no matter what level they are? It sounds like thats where MA is headed. Missions for all players looking for new content and some reward but not vital to the leveling process.
I have enjoyed the use of MA and will continue to work on an arc or two but realize my arcs probably wont be played much because the reward for doing so wont offset the time spent on regular missions or TFs. Its becoming clearer MA is about different content and not so much about enhancing the regular game play. In my opinion, I see MA becoming the end game repeatable content that only high levels will attempt because of the ease a level 50 will have in doing MA missions over the difficulty a level 15 has faced since the added changes. I too have found myself with one too many faceplants now. A well equipped level 50 AT has a reduced risk versus reward time and in turn will continue to repeat or as they say farm MA missions that one finds worthy. The ticket system now in place will help supplement high levels maximizing/minimized builds. If the developers vision to for MA to be more content and less reward, then offer the player full access to mission development material. Maps, villains and items should be restored if there is no harm allowed anymore from their use.
I conclude with the fact two new comic genre MMOs are soon to hit the store shelves with different content, abilities and leveling systems. Whether these are successful or not, remains to be seen. The positive side to all of this is competition allows for a better product to be produced. Issues that have long plagued CoH may finally be resolved. CoH has had the edge and even broke the barrier with MA but soon it will be tested. These last few weeks have been a knee jerk reaction to the downfall of MA with issue 15 being touted and then the Going Rogue content teased for the future. It seems this marketing strategy is trying to cover the fact that MA is becoming a non issue for the game and a dark cloud hovering over the 5 year anniversary. I truly hope this situation finds sustainable ground to work from. Again, this remains to be seen. I realize the creators and developers of this game only want what is best for their vision and their players, unfortunately we as a collective have been punished.
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I made a story-arc, and it earns tickets for me when I'm offline... but it's not enough... I want 100 tickets for every star my story-arc earns, 5 tickets per star isn't enough!
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*
This would be great if people didn't one star every new five star map that hits the front page.
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Very true, but guess what, I actually advertise my Arc to friends and other people I play with, and I also do not have grand expectations to earn an insane amount of tickets without putting in the effort for it.
People are behaving as if MA/AE is the only way to grow a successful character, people are behaving as if the game is balanced only for purpled-out builds, people are behaving as if it's a GOOD thing to populate missions with ONLY custom critters and then when the Devs are sending the message that they do not wish their efforts to be exploitable, people revolt against the Dev's right to protect their own creation from abuse?!!?!
People, the writing was on the wall in the sense of those Captain Awesome vids with his idiotic Awesome Button. If people didn't understand what those videos were about and how those videos mocked exploiters and power-grinders... then in my book, people have only themselves to blame.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
MA missions are fun, for many reasons:<ul type="square">[*]The variety of endless content[*]Unpredictability of custom mobs[*]Contact/story is ungated and available to any character, just pick from the list[*]The synopsis tells you (with the exception of AV/EBs) what you're doing ahead of time: Defeats, patrols, hostage rescue, etc.[*]The ability to tell your own stories[*]Sidekicking/Exemplaring teams of disparate levels[*]Buy the rare/uncommon salvage you need[/list]
So whoopeedoo, the farmers are (mostly) gone and the population in the MA buildings is less; cry doom. This is what I'm seeing:
<ul type="square">[*]Normal players are still playing MA, and in many cases have returned after being turned off and away by all the farming and farm spam. [*]I'm seeing people actually play my arc because they can find it. And people like it. [*]Farming is still going on to a much lesser degree. It's quieter, moved to private channels and SGs, but it's still there. The farmers just use smaller maps or reset... like in the regular game.[/list]
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
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I'm not trying to make the argument that MA is the best way to make money in the game, here.
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I made 40 million off selling bronze level 35-39 rolls (70 tickets each) from running just a few MA arcs. Might not be the best but it's certainly not the worst. Just sayin. 
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No kidding. I think people are discounting how much money you can save using the MA tickets. I haven't paid out of pocket for an uncommon or rare piece of salvage for a recipe I want to make in weeks. So for 550 tickets I can save 500,000 to over 1,000,000 Infamy and that just doesn't get old.
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This. Pretty much any time I get a recipe that requires a piece of rare salvage that is consistently going for 2 million inf on the market, I can hit the AE building and have one of them after doing about one arc. Guaranteed. Usually, I'll have enough tickets left over to roll up a silver recipe or a pile of bronzes.
For money making, I was getting about 10 million inf per hour of solo play in random AE story arcs on my dominator. The market's still a little engorged with recipes, but silver rolls are still a gold mine. Is it the best money ever? Probably not. But you're not going to bankrupt yourself playing in the MA if you roll wisely.
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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General feeling I'm getting is that people are still scared. o.o! A third of my people won't go near the sewers with their new characters like we used to, for fear it would be considered an exploit! x_X They don't wanta do more then one MA mission arc in a day due to possibly being flagged. I had an officer think his characters were locked, and just about QUIT before I had him double check, it turned out to be a glitch o.@ Overall the feeling is dread, despite alot of my people not having done anything wrong. Now as far as a fear device this worked fine, but it may be lingering too long. :P
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So are people really scared to level? I've never met anyone with that attitude in-game, and I've seen no evidence of it, even though it's been talked about a lot on the forums. Is this something that depends on what circles one travels in?
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
It cracks me up when people complain about seeing fewer players than when it was first launched.
HAY GESS WUT!! THEY REACTIVATED EVERY ACCOUNT EVER FOR A WEEK THERE WHEN FARMING WAS AT IT'S PEAK!
So those people you saw who seemed to farm for about a week and were never seen again? Yeah, it's because they weren't paying customers to begin with. The patch didn't magically boot them all. It was the free week ending that booted them all.
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Is this something that depends on what circles one travels in?
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Most of these situations are totally dependent on this.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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Its been about a week since the "nerf" and since that time, once again servers are back to normal population. Before...I had fun and it was fun to see all the players jumping online.
What kind of vibe is the community getting since the nerf ingame?
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My mood ring is showing kind of a blue-green plaid with a hint of orange trim. But I lost the little card that came with it, so I don't know what that means.
I'm thinking it's probably "Doom", but that's just a guess.
My mood after the threat I went and farmed some more; I will farm again I need IO's for my next project which means I have to crank back up solo posi runs and farm the heck out of MA.
I just no longer publish my arcs except to play it and then unpublish it every time that way i do not have to worry about the crying masses
If I get banned I will just move on to the other game it is what it is and I am not going to cry over or worry about it. It is a game either they get my $15 or they do not.
The truth be know I am not even a great farmer I am a decent at best
Pinnacle
Langar Thurs-Katana/SR 50; Hejtmane-DM/DA 50
Rogue Spear-Spines/DA 50; Hypnosis-Ill/Rad 50
Sir Thomas Theroux-DM/SR 50; Melted Copper-Fire/Shield 50
Byzantine Warrior-DB/ELA 50;Blade Tempo-50 DB/EA
My initial take on the MA was "this will be awesome". I wasn't lucky enough to get into closed beta but when it went open beta, I spent many MANY hours on test checking things out. I made a couple of missions, some custom characters and had a blast.
After about a week of testing, I'd pretty much burned out on MA and decided to head back to the live servers and let my batteries recharge.
When MA went live I moved my stories over to the live game and published a new, 1 mission story I'd created the day it went live. Just a little something I had floating in my head and I wanted to try some new things with the editor.
Anyway, I played some others stories for a few days before a friend of mine wanted to learn how to make his own missions. I showed him the basics of it and helped him make his own mission.
And then I burned out again.
I stopped trying to make my own arcs and decided to play other players. I figured I would play the non-Dev Choice ones since I knew they'd always be there. I played a couple dozen or so arcs and 90% of them were utter crap. Not that any of the arcs I created were worthy of any high praise. But I somehow expected more, or at least better.
Recently I decided to play the Dev Choice arcs and I have to say that they are not much better. Better, yes, but not by much. Maybe I expected too much considering they were Dev Choice or the stories just weren't MY kind of stories.
Even with all that said, I keep looking for good player made content, but I have yet to find anything that is "above average".
So right now, my overall feeling about the MA is a big MEH. It was a bright shiny that caught my eye briefly, but now that I've seen it for myself I'm just not impressed.
Oh and as for the "nerf", again a meh from me. I knew it was going to happen and I'll admit, I took advantage of it while it lasted. I didn't do any "exploit" type missions, but I did run a few missions with my friend and his 50, while I got auto SK'd to 45. Soaking in the xp/inf/tickets was nice I admit, but like I said I knew it wouldn't last.
I'm glad that others love it, and I will say that it was a good thing for the game. It's just apparently not for me.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
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General feeling I'm getting is that people are still scared. o.o! A third of my people won't go near the sewers with their new characters like we used to, for fear it would be considered an exploit! x_X They don't wanta do more then one MA mission arc in a day due to possibly being flagged. I had an officer think his characters were locked, and just about QUIT before I had him double check, it turned out to be a glitch o.@ Overall the feeling is dread, despite alot of my people not having done anything wrong. Now as far as a fear device this worked fine, but it may be lingering too long. :P
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So are people really scared to level? I've never met anyone with that attitude in-game, and I've seen no evidence of it, even though it's been talked about a lot on the forums. Is this something that depends on what circles one travels in?
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It may very well be my circle. One could easily argue my circles are incorrect to be in then? o.@
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The RPers are still giddy about it, I have seen an increasing number of others that say "I dont do MA"
If posi doesnt want the filthy farmers and people that play to advance and improve their characters in his little baby, he has done a pretty good job of it. I know I dont want to be involved in any way in someones rp fantasies.
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/this
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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The RPers are still giddy about it, I have seen an increasing number of others that say "I dont do MA"
If posi doesnt want the filthy farmers and people that play to advance and improve their characters in his little baby, he has done a pretty good job of it. I know I dont want to be involved in any way in someones rp fantasies.
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/this
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You guys are playing the wroooooooong arcs. Or more correctly, you're not playing the right ones.
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General feeling I'm getting is that people are still scared. o.o! A third of my people won't go near the sewers with their new characters like we used to, for fear it would be considered an exploit! x_X They don't wanta do more then one MA mission arc in a day due to possibly being flagged. I had an officer think his characters were locked, and just about QUIT before I had him double check, it turned out to be a glitch o.@ Overall the feeling is dread, despite alot of my people not having done anything wrong. Now as far as a fear device this worked fine, but it may be lingering too long. :P
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So are people really scared to level? I've never met anyone with that attitude in-game, and I've seen no evidence of it, even though it's been talked about a lot on the forums. Is this something that depends on what circles one travels in?
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More than once on infinity badgeseeker I've seen people semi-uncomfortably joke about it. Its definitely there.
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
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You guys are playing the wroooooooong arcs. Or more correctly, you're not playing the right ones.
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Which are the "right" arcs?
No. I've played some decent arcs. It's just that, at certain times, I get mercenary and don't really care about the content. I just wanna go nuts and kill stuff and get shiny.
Is there really anything wrong with that?
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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No. I've played some decent arcs. It's just that, at certain times, I get mercenary and don't really care about the content. I just wanna go nuts and kill stuff and get shiny.
*
Is there really anything wrong with that?
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There's nothing wrong with that, but then again, Radio/Newspaper Missions were exactly created for that, right?!
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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Still awesome on Champion and Victory, still infinite content on every server.
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If you're on Vic you must be in Atlas. AE in Sky, IP, and Atlas are pretty much ghost towns. Not that there was a high population there anyway even during the height of the PL craze.
But don't fool yourself. If people are running AE on Vic its somewhere I'm not seeing it. 3 people does not awesome make.
<sigh> Viv says its no longer "all me".
http://wendy-mags.mybrute.com/
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General feeling I'm getting is that people are still scared. o.o! A third of my people won't go near the sewers with their new characters like we used to, for fear it would be considered an exploit! x_X They don't wanta do more then one MA mission arc in a day due to possibly being flagged. I had an officer think his characters were locked, and just about QUIT before I had him double check, it turned out to be a glitch o.@ Overall the feeling is dread, despite alot of my people not having done anything wrong. Now as far as a fear device this worked fine, but it may be lingering too long. :P
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So are people really scared to level? I've never met anyone with that attitude in-game, and I've seen no evidence of it, even though it's been talked about a lot on the forums. Is this something that depends on what circles one travels in?
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Uhm. I have see chat from allot of people that are "scared" of being banned just because they have done a mish twice cause they like it. There is a new sense of fear amoung players now. I see it mostly in newer players, but it's not limited to them. As Sg leader and being on vent I hear that topic more now then ever before and these people aren't your farmers either. it's the people that want to finish their 50's off with io's or the early level procs and they don't have 120 mil to spend.
So whether that fear was intended to scare the normal player or not it's most certainly here and among the veteran players who don't farm as well. The Devs have achieved that goal.
MA is fun and it's a great thing for the game for sure no one said it wan't fun. But the nerfs have changed my mood towards it and the patch changes and talk from posi have scared allot of other people who don't farm. And it's not a "being in the right circle" thing either. You listen hard enough you'll hear it.
But even so, this is still my favorite game and I still support it even though I hate what some changes have done.
Player on Infinity server
Overlord of "The Fiend Army"
39 Level 50 Toons
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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.
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Haha, "tiny ticket amounts"? Seriously?
A whole outdoor map of stock mobs, spawned on diff 4, might get up to 600 solo, including both defeats and mission bonus.
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Eh, no. A midsized outdoor map on 4 (unyielding) stocked for 1 will net over 500-600 tickets before bonus. And this is with standard mobs, not customs. So a total of 1000-1200 tickets for that map alone and thats without doing tricks to make more mobs come out of the woodwork.
Basically any larger outdoor map is now wasting a players time and shouldn't be used. Be it for storytelling or what have you. You're punishing your players by putting kill alls on larger maps now.
<sigh> Viv says its no longer "all me".
http://wendy-mags.mybrute.com/
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Still awesome on Champion and Victory, still infinite content on every server.
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If you're on Vic you must be in Atlas. AE in Sky, IP, and Atlas are pretty much ghost towns. Not that there was a high population there anyway even during the height of the PL craze.
But don't fool yourself. If people are running AE on Vic its somewhere I'm not seeing it. 3 people does not awesome make.
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See there's this chick and she's giving out milkshakes on the corner for free. So all these guys crowd around and non of the other milkshake stands can sell their wares. Suddenly the free milkshakes go away because they were obtained by nefarious means. The big crowd is gone but people are still buying milkshakes.
One might look at this and say, well they killed the milkshake business because the crowd is gone. Another would look at this is how it's supposed to be. I guess it's to each his own.
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The RPers are still giddy about it, I have seen an increasing number of others that say "I dont do MA"
If posi doesnt want the filthy farmers and people that play to advance and improve their characters in his little baby, he has done a pretty good job of it. I know I dont want to be involved in any way in someones rp fantasies.
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/this
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You guys are playing the wroooooooong arcs. Or more correctly, you're not playing the right ones.
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There is so much poo to sift through.
<sigh> Viv says its no longer "all me".
http://wendy-mags.mybrute.com/
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Still awesome on Champion and Victory, still infinite content on every server.
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If you're on Vic you must be in Atlas. AE in Sky, IP, and Atlas are pretty much ghost towns. Not that there was a high population there anyway even during the height of the PL craze.
But don't fool yourself. If people are running AE on Vic its somewhere I'm not seeing it. 3 people does not awesome make.
[/ QUOTE ]
See there's this chick and she's giving out milkshakes on the corner for free. So all these guys crowd around and non of the other milkshake stands can sell their wares. Suddenly the free milkshakes go away because they were obtained by nefarious means. The big crowd is gone but people are still buying milkshakes.
One might look at this and say, well they killed the milkshake business because the crowd is gone. Another would look at this is how it's supposed to be. I guess it's to each his own.
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I didn't say that. I basically said Kitsune and I have a different idea of "awesome". To her, its 3 or less. To me, its a number somewhere north of 10 at the very least.
<sigh> Viv says its no longer "all me".
http://wendy-mags.mybrute.com/
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Still awesome on Champion and Victory, still infinite content on every server.
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If you're on Vic you must be in Atlas. AE in Sky, IP, and Atlas are pretty much ghost towns. Not that there was a high population there anyway even during the height of the PL craze.
But don't fool yourself. If people are running AE on Vic its somewhere I'm not seeing it. 3 people does not awesome make.
[/ QUOTE ]
See there's this chick and she's giving out milkshakes on the corner for free. So all these guys crowd around and non of the other milkshake stands can sell their wares. Suddenly the free milkshakes go away because they were obtained by nefarious means. The big crowd is gone but people are still buying milkshakes.
One might look at this and say, well they killed the milkshake business because the crowd is gone. Another would look at this is how it's supposed to be. I guess it's to each his own.
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I didn't say that. I basically said Kitsune and I have a different idea of "awesome". To her, its 3 or less. To me, its a number somewhere north of 10 at the very least.
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"Different idea" is not the same as "Don't fool yourself." The thread asks people what they think, not to tell people they are WRONG. I don't really care, though, if you wanna flame, flame on. Just pointing it out.
The alterations to the custom critter power lists, and the addition of ranged attacks at standard was frustrating. I had one nice little mission for lowbies and had nearly finished two arcs.
Right after the patch I got a comment the lowbie arc was not suitable for solo. It *had* been. That was the point.
So I now need to go back and retest and redesign some things. However I'm reluctant to do so until they get their adjustments out of their system. So for a little bit I'm not really using the MA, though I plan to.