Issue 15 Mission Architect Badge Changes
By
Ace_of_Hearts,
Posted on: 2009-05-21 20:26 in Mission Architect
Sweet. 
[b][color=blue]Coldest War /[color=red]/ Omega Patient[/b]
[url="http://www.the-cow.net/"][color=red]The CoW Network (Blog) /[/url][url="http://www.collegeofwar.com/"][color=blue]/ College of War[/url]
well its been fun while it lasted.
i had said before in the forum that if you take a way the badges i put so much time, effort and money into collecting that i would take away my subs.
i dont play this game to negate my time here - the devs coqued up, NOT me. i just played within your rules (no i'm not a farmer).
hope to see my friends on another mmo in the future. be well and take care.
:={}
i had lots of fun over the last 18 months. made some friends and 1 enemy. (you know who you are)
Frankly I gave up bothering about badges some time ago. The devs have moved the goalpoats so many times - making badges inaccessible after some people have already got them for instance - that the whole idea is pretty pointless.
What amazes me though is that the devs seem to be admitting they hadn't seen any of this coming. Do they not actually play the game with real life ordinary players?
Thread delivers.
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i had lots of fun over the last 18 months. made some friends and 1 enemy. (you know who you are)
[/ QUOTE ] i hope it was me and if so can i have your stuff then
yay good idea - my subs are up on june 4th so i should really do something in the spirit of going rogue (which i won't see now 
, principles n'all) and give all my stuff to my CoH enemy.
any suggestions on this ?
Edited by Avatea
I could see some sense in adjusting counts given the ready availability of achievement... so keep the badges and multiply by a factor of 50
Better still keep all count badges and make them require a count of one!
That levels the playing field, gives the badge whosoevers an opportunity to get the badge and doesn't encourage farming.
Well done devs you've just dropped the ball again!
Thelonious Monk
It'd make more sense to remove any badge that requires killing/clicking/rescuing a stupidly large number of things.
Basically all Tier5 badges. The others are somewhat attainable via normal play.
(This does, however, show they're coming down on farming for both shiny badges and shiny experience).
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(This does, however, show they're coming down on farming for both shiny badges and shiny experience).
[/ QUOTE ]but they are to me, two different breeds. im not saying they can't be both, it i think it more likely too different type of farms.
I think it's a good decision, although I admit I'm not much of a "badger" myself.
In my view badges should not be about farming, they should be about accomplishment. As a reward for exploring and "braving the unknown", or for challenging your skill rather than your patience.. Some might see endless grinding as an accomplishment, but personally I can't really agree to that view.
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(This does, however, show they're coming down on farming for both shiny badges and shiny experience).
[/ QUOTE ]but they are to me, two different breeds. im not saying they can't be both, it i think it more likely too different type of farms.
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It's still great reward for little effort, albeit a less tangible reward than XP.
If people made missions specifically to shortcut to some badges, it's a farm in the dev's eyes.
I'm ok with this.
Ok, so I had earned almost every one that's being removed - but I'd like the MA to be successful for the right reasons and not the wrong ones 
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I don't disagree with taking hard decisions for the wider good of the game; but still, I can't help but be saddened by the colossal blindness that led to them including yet another series of badges along the same design ethos of badges that have been in the game right from back in 2004 (and some of which I STILL don't have from normal play after 28 months of active account) and then not realizing that badge hunters would do what badge hunters do for for badges like they've always had.
I suppose on the plus side, I'll now have all the available MA badges. On the negative side, the MA itself is still too limited and buggy to actually tell the stories I'd like to tell (My second arc is stalled due to the fact that mobs spawn under defendable objects, so they are often nearly impossible to spot if you use fitting map selections), so unless I15 really has something new to offer, my interest in the game is largely gone again for now. Pity.
MA is a success - but dont remove the rewards you have earned.
here is my tenner paragon studios - now please take my rewards off me ???????????????????????
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It's still great reward for little effort, albeit a less tangible reward than XP.
If people made missions specifically to shortcut to some badges, it's a farm in the dev's eyes.
[/ QUOTE ]im not disagreeing that it is classed as farming, im trying to say it two different types of farming. to me it like saying you put water in a cardboard box and set the box alight and see who can destory the box the frist
Expexted but outraged.
I likes my shiny badges
@MrMac & @MrMac2
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/MrMac/
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It's still great reward for little effort, albeit a less tangible reward than XP.
If people made missions specifically to shortcut to some badges, it's a farm in the dev's eyes.
[/ QUOTE ]im not disagreeing that it is classed as farming, im trying to say it two different types of farming. to me it like saying you put water in a cardboard box and set the box alight and see who can destory the box the frist
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Ah so XP = BAD NEWS and Badges = eh not so bad?
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It's still great reward for little effort, albeit a less tangible reward than XP.
If people made missions specifically to shortcut to some badges, it's a farm in the dev's eyes.
[/ QUOTE ]im not disagreeing that it is classed as farming, im trying to say it two different types of farming. to me it like saying you put water in a cardboard box and set the box alight and see who can destory the box the frist
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Ah so XP = BAD NEWS and Badges = eh not so bad?
[/ QUOTE ]well how can you go wrong with a badge named this "Pressed the Red Button" i loved this on my MM bot/FF just make me feel that my MM was compelte and now it going... im just dishearten about it, i know there not much i can do apart from taking photos of my fav badge name and have them for keep sake
Edited: also to me a badge farm is total different to a xp/inf/recipe/pest as your gain alot more stuff then in a badge cos i could farm a low mission with a high toon and get nothing but a badge. but that my opion
there is something we can do about this - no-one is indispensable and no-one is bigger than the game, not even the devs believe it or not.
class action is the only way to protect that which you have earned. but who is brave enough to meet the risks?
I can't honestly say I care one or another about badges. One or two I tend to get for character look reasons so I can set their badge title but that's about it.
One thing I did like about badges was that people could get something few others had. This change IMO is a step in the wrong direction. By making it so that all players can have all badges without great difficulty you're diminishing the game.
IMHO they removed a bit too many badges. Sure the badge hogs would create missions to get the badges quickly, but some people like myself found it enjoyable when doing a mission and find out we just rescued our 50th hostage.
Should only remove the highest kill count badges. Also why get rid of terminator? I was actually slowly building up to that badge title!
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!
I believe this is an overreaction and largely mistargeted at that: they're throwing the coralax out with the bath-water.
As I see it, the problem with the MA badges were not that they lead to grinding or farming, but that a few of them were either outside the control of the player and could lead to "rating cabals" and that many of them were tied to testing rather than playing arcs (and for some reason the amounts required for the testing badges suggested a belief we would be spending much more time testing than we would playing.)
If anything, too many of the MA badges were too easy to get: when there's no challenge or effort behind a badge, there's no sense of achievment either.
I believe that what they should have done was to get rid of all the testing badges and the badges that were linked to ratings (and possibly play-throughs.) There was no point in removing the rest.
Just had a quick check on the MA - entering the word "badge" in the search window brings up 23 pages of missions, so badges are/were causing quite a bit of clutter
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
variety is the spice of life - what badges you dont like , well ignore them, all im saying is if i earned them DON@T take them off me. but alas i am not to keep them, (not my decision), nor am i to keep my account (my decision based on something not my decision.)
Edited the badge list to add "Virtually Unpredictable" in the removed badge list.
Posted on behalf of Synapse:
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Greetings everyone,
I wanted to fill you all in on our plans for the Mission Architect badges and also our plans for future badges as well. We really didnt want the Mission Architect to be an environment that encourages farming for XP, Rewards or Badges, and we thought long and hard about the current Architect badge situation. Ultimately wed like it to be a place where you go to play great player created content.
So, going forwardbeginning with the Mission Architect badgesweve decided to move away from count badges that might encourage farming and/or aberrant game play. Instead, wed like to encourage players to try all of our content by offering badges for completing 1 time accomplishments and achievements. What this means for the Mission Architect badges is that many of them are going to be removed in Issue 15. This is because they encouraged farming, because they encouraged aberrant behavior by doing one thing over and over again, they were unobtainable by a large portion of our players, or earning them was completely out of a players hands and in the hands of other players.
Id like to outline the Architect badge changes to show you precisely what will be happening in Issue 15. Below is a list of badges that are being removed:
<ul type="square">Adventurer
Plugged In
Escapist
Hardcore Gamer
Ticket Hound
Ticket Fiend
Ticket Master
Golden Ticket
Creator
Story Teller
Writer
Bard
Acclaimed
Illustrious
Renowned
Living Legend
The Chosen One
Discerning
Aficionado
Maven
Connoisseur
Button Masher
Impulsive
Unpredictable
Pressed the Red Button
Virtual Victor
Virtual Destroyer
Virtual Warrior
Virtual Soldier
Virtual Slayer
Virtual Button Masher
Virtually Curious
Virtually Erratic
Virtually Unpredictable
Evaluator
Reviewer
Judge
Two Thumbs Up
Windfall
Bounty
Premium
Bonanza
Jackpot
Virtual Ticket Taker
Virtual Ticket Hound
Virtual Ticket Fiend
Virtual Ticket Master
Virtual Golden Ticket
Activated
Encouraged
Motivated
Galvanized
Hall of Famer
Builder
Constructor
Engineer
Designer
Master Builder
Resolute
Undaunted
Virtuous
Champion of Justice
Evildoer
Malefactor
Nefarious
Diabolical
Show Off
Hotshot
Went the Extra Mile
Overachiever
Do Gooder
Safekeeper
Savior
To The Rescue
Virtual Do Gooder
Virtual Guardian
Virtual Savior
Virtual Rescuer
Decimator
Obliterator
Marauder
Cataclysmic
Virtual Decimation
Virtual Obliteration
Virtual Marauder
Virtual Cataclysm
Eliminator
Liquidator
Executioner
Terminator[/list]
Below is a list of Architect badges that will remain:
<ul type="square">Thrill Seeker
Gamer
Ticket Taker
Author
Recognized
Mission Engineer
Early Bird
Admiring
Poor Impulse Control
Virtually Impulsive
Critic
Customizer
Bug Fixer
Energized
Among Friends
Heroic
Villainous
Workaholic
Virtual Victim
Payoff
Extractor
Virtual Extractor
Destructive
Assassin[/list]
Now, as a player myself after reading this I would have a ton of questions: What does this mean for pre-I14 badges? What about future badges? Why did the Dev Choice and Hall of Famer badges go away?
Id like to answer those questions now:
Q: What about non-Mission Architect badges?
A: We have no current plans to revisit old badges at this time, and I dont foresee us doing this really. All badges unrelated to the Mission Architect will remain unaffected by the changes outlined above.
Q: If Ive already earned the Architect badges, will I get to keep them?
A: No. Only the badges listed above in the badges that will remain section will be kept.
Q: What can you tell me about future badges?
A: As I quickly mentioned above, our plans for future badges excludes many types of count badges. This means we will try to avoid badges that require repetitious tasks, aberrant play styles and give the illusion of grindiness. There may be count badges in the future, but they wont be based on something you can grind at to achieve. An example would be a count badge for the number of badges you collect. Thats all I can really say right now as I dont want to spoil any of the exciting badges that will go into future issues at this time.
Q: Why did the Dev Choice and Hall of Famer badges get removed?
A: We realize that a lot of players worked really hard for these badges and to create content worthy of these prestigious awards. However, we want badges to be something that everyone can obtain. We also want badges to be completely within a players grasp, so no outside influence should affect earning these badges. The Hall of Famer badge and the Builder line of badges are a perfect example of why these badges are being removed. We saw a lot of griefing done by certain players against players who had highly rated missions that would prevent them from ever getting into Hall of Fame and earning this badge. We wanted having missions flagged Dev Choice or Hall of Fame to be coveted by authors, not by badgers. Thus these badges are also being removed.
Q: What can you tell me about the badges that remain?
A: These badges have all been modified so that they are granted for a first time accomplishment. For example: The first time you rescue a kidnapped NPC youll earn the Extractor badge. The same goes for the other badges that will remain in Issue 15. Theyre much easier to earn, but they require a player to try every aspect of Mission Architect to earn them all.
Q: What about the Mission Engineer Accolade badge?
A: This badge had its required badges changed to the following:
<ul type="square">Thrill Seeker
Gamer
Ticket Taker
Author
Recognized
Early Bird
Customizer
Bug Fixer[/list]
This means that this accolade will be significantly easier to get now, which means that a lot of playersthat published and played Architect missions--will find themselves earning this accolade and find themselves with the really cool ability to edit and publish architect content from anywhere, including your Supergroup base by simply clicking a power icon.
Q: If I have some or all of the badges listed as badges that will remain, will I get to keep them?
A: Absolutely. You should not have to earn the remaining badges again.
Id like to close by saying that to some of you this might appear be an extreme decision, but we want you to know that this was done to make the Mission Architect fulfill its designed purpose: to be a place where content creators could write to their hearts content or for players who want to explore the endless content created by other players. We feel that these changes are a step closer to this goal. Also, dont be surprised if you see Architect badges in future issues as well as we make this feature even more robust than was available at launch.
Thanks for reading,
Synapse
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