Facts on MARTy

Hey Folks,

Hope all is well.

1. Does anyone have a FACTUAL list of what MARTy does? And who it TRULY affects and so on?
2. And if factual information is posted, can this thread be "stickied" for players who want to know forum FACTS without the drama?

I tried reading through the entire MARTy thread, but gave up (after 16 pages) due to prolonged forum flame wars, exaggerations and the lack of Zwillinger/Red name responses.

The first post from Zwillinger regarding the thread seems vague. I remember seeing another post from him/her in the thread, but I lost sight of it (again, during the incessant forum bickering and melodramatic responses).

Thanks.

Try using the Community Digest to filter through and see just Zwillinger's responses.

From what I can tell, MARTy kicks somewhere above the rate of someone soloing +4/x8 mobs at a normal pace. It seems that the ambush farms, when set at +4/x8 and cleared in about 2 minutes, are exceeding the threshold for MARTy to "turn on."

The exact system and method MARTy works, is only known to the devs. This is the case now, this will be the case tomorow.

Sadly the main topic went into a 'OMG I READ THIS SO ITS TRUE!' topic. Unless i see clear proof of someone doing stuff within proper game mechanics (and ToS) being caugt by MARTy, i will continue to say, it wont affect us at all.

As with all anti-exploit measures, providing too much detail with regard to specific triggers would only make it easy to work around.

My personal suspicion is that they haven't actually implemented anything at all. They'll leave it a few months pretending they have and let all the DOOOOOOM! die down before silently turning it on. Then they'll wait another few months and *tell* everyone they've turned it on and getting the DOOOOOM! all over again before pointing out that it was running for months without anyone noticing.

It's pretty much what we do at work whenever we roll out new software, because we know that everyone will immediately claim that doing so has ruined their PC.

We will never be given a list of facts concerning MARTy. Be thankful they even told us about the system. They won't reveal anymore than they already have because it would only serve to give those looking for loopholes more tools.

That's why Z has to be careful with what he says. Also why the specifics of how MARTy works will be kept secret. Same thing goes for the 'participation metric' with itrials.

The facts:

1. It hasn't been tested on the Live environment yet.
2. The players are never intended to be able to reverse-engineer the exact parameters that trigger it. Expect results to be vague at best.
3. On the Beta environment there was, I think, one person claiming to have triggered it, using an AE farm.
4. Zwil's posts indicates that, yes, it is intended to curtail maximum leveling speed. I believe he used the term "trivial amount of time" to describe what they don't want.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

With the very important one about the person who claims to trigger it:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...59#post3870659

I doubt this will affect me at all. I don't PL characters and I don't farm, so the odds of me ever triggering it are slim.

I do look forward to the threads that are guaranteed to pop up about how unfair it is that the devs are not allowing people to exploit their game. They will be hilarious and chock full of entitlement whines, those threads always give me a chuckle.

MARTy travels back in time and kills the mobs just before you did, robbing you of the XP. Why? Because if you level too fast, his parents never kiss and he'll never be born.

Right now info on the specifics is still not there. What I've been able to glean from testing on beta is that the system is using a Reward over Time meter. On fire farms this trips very quickly because you receive a big burst of inf very quickly. So when it goes live it will be a matter of charting the exact time/reward threshholds of the system. We already do this now so its not that big a deal.

The system has also kicked in running +2x8 Demons on a fire/rad solo. This was done late last night on beta and I believe he submitted the logs for review. This demonstrates the system is also tracking longer reward over time windows than just quick bursts of rewards. I didn't do this personally. I will as soon as the servers come live. I do trust the tester.

Its that RoT mechanic that concerns me. 4-5 man Steamroll teams frequently run faster than a PL team with 1-2 doing the work and 2-3 door sitters.

Once the liver servers come back online and people can really starting feeling out the limits and triggers it will be easier to adjust the system so it doesn't flag on super aggressive players.

I don't see the problem being 4x8 solo farmers triggering this. Its the 2x8 mission teams that get one of those huge maps and just go real fast. If its the former, they will piss people off. The later could be posipocalypse 2.0

Definitely need some tests on the +3/+8 or +4/+8 fire farms (Fire!, etc.) and the CEBR farms, assuming 1 char running and 1 being PL'd.

I personally watched MARTy beat up some guy and steal his purples. Then MARTy pee'd in his Sprite.

Sarcasm aide though I fully expect the people who do get effected by this to scream really loudly at not being able to game the system anymore.