Regarding Recent Changes to Architect

Didn't look like AP was talking to you when she said that. Looked like she was talking to exploiters. If we start fighting among ourselves over this non-issue, the exploiters have already won.

Well okay, let's run down the negatives you have listed:

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Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen It has done nothing but allow rampant & continued exploits

No argument here that exploits are bad, but exploits are hardly something exclusive to MA.

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Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen drained development time & resources away from other projects

That we can only speculate on. What we do know is that Dr. Aeon was hired on specifically to be the AE guy, so having him working on AE is not redirecting developers.

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Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen seriously screwed up the market

Everything screws up the market. Arcane salvage was heavily hit back when ITF was shiny--but we shouldn't start giving dirty looks to it just because that happened.

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Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen and driven a major wedge between players over the farming issue.

They've been doing that since the days of PI and Television. Again this is not exclusive to MA, the only thing here that some people need to realise is the difference between farming and exploiting.

The mythical casual player? What?

Per my earlier post - My arc Suppression was sitting at 5 stars and on the bottom of page 3. It now gives only 2 XP per kill because of this fix.

While I was on playing, I received 3 stars with no comment at all. Perhaps due to almost no XP, perhaps to make a spot for a farm which is now sitting at the bottom of page 3, or perhaps because some one does not care for a fairy tale like story.

I should have put a warning in this arc not to play it for now as I thought about doing in case the 3 stars was for lack of XP, but it's too late now. Like many others I am kind of at the point of giving up in MA.

I am once again asking that this "fix" be pulled. It isn't fair to punish people who have worked for months on arcs using MA for its intended purpose in an attempt to punish exploiters. People who cheat the system to level are not hurting us. While I don't agree with it, it does no harm to me. This "fix" does.

I very quickly put up a warning in the description of my one remaining arc. I would suggest doing so, regardless.

I have, after some very careful thought, deleted my MA folders and unpublished all of my arcs.

Yes, that includes the DC.

My faith in AE as a viable system in City of... is low. It's the fault of greedy players whose reaction when the original furore over mass exploitation of the AE was commented on by Positron was 'Oh no, we got caught, it's the Devs' fault'.

I liken that reaction to various politicians in the UK who tried to claim that their expenses were legitimate, despite evidence to the contrary. There are other Real Life examples but I have no wish to invoke Godwin's Law.

I would like to request that the hotfix be reverted, as it's not going to stop exploiters (some arcs have already been updated, with the description stating that they have been updated to work around the latest nerfs).

I would then like to see the arcs that contain exploits removed and the publishing privileges of the globals responsible removed.

I would also like to see some evidence of housekeeping, namely the removal of arcs that were exploits that no longer work due to the string of hotfixes.

Then I would like to see more community competitions, to encourage the use of the AE for story-telling: including the recognising of community threads regarding awards, such as the Players' Choice Awards.

If the AE truly was designed as a story-telling device and an alternate levelling method for people who have gone through the content more times than they'd care to mention, then the community competitions could reflect this: A competition to design, for instance, starter arcs (1-5) for Heroes/Villains etc: A competition to design a new arc for the 30-35 range, and so on.

As it stands, the AE is predominantly used by abusers of the system, who will cry out that they're entitled to abuse the system because the tool is there for them to do so. Despite evidence to the contrary.

I'm sick of their lousy attitudes, I'm sick of hotfixes that do nothing except harm legitimate storytellers and designers of alternative levelling content, I feel sorry for those who bought Architect Edition, and this problem needs to be sorted out before GR.

Otherwise there's absolutely nothing to stop lazy abusers rolling a Praetorian, powerlevelling them via exploits in the AE, getting bored, farming tickets and repeating. The longer it goes on the harder it is to undo the damage this player-led exploitation is doing.

My solutions to the problem would probably be the opposite of what the developers approach seems to be:

- Sanction the activity. After all, people would sit in doorways and do absolutely nothing to earn level 1-50 for 5 years in this game. Literally nothing. As in NOTHING. After that and considering the fact that it went on for 5 years, the entire concept of risk versus reward sort of fell by the wayside.

- Have authors clearly define an arc as a 'story arc' versus a 'leveling arc.'

- Change the interface so that 'leveling arcs' have their own space and are not included with 'story arcs.'

The reason I say all of this is because it does not matter to me what people do to get 50 alts to 50. What they do does not affect me at all. I generally do not play with them and the only time their activities affect me at all is when they mistakenly play one of my arcs, give it 1 star because it is not what they want to do, and go on about their business.

The people who do not want to exert any effort to level their characters will always find a way to do so no matter what the developers do. It is simply their nature.