MARTy stopping me gaining rewards.

Originally Posted by TopDoc

Here's my take on MARTy.

I like it. It's about time!!!

I'm a power gamer. I've run all kinds of different Superteams. I created CEBR. I like creating very powerful characters, so I do what I need to do in order to get the best Enhancements. Within reason.

The Devs have their own opinion of what an exploit is, but they REALLY don't want to tell us. As such, I tend to use my own definition. If I defeat a mob that is worth an appropriate amount of XP/Inf & drops without using bugs, then I deserve that reward. The Monkey farms were an exploit as the mobs were not worth the correct amount of XP. The Snake Egg Farms were an exploit because the level adjusted XP was not appropriate. The MM pets in AE farms were an exploit because the pets were bugged to be high level. Getting full XP for the Rikti Portals when they went away was an exploit, but fighting and defeating them is not. I didn't view the portal farms or BP Death Shaman farms or AE all-boss farms as exploits, as characters were actually fighting and defeating all of those mobs. Again, my definition. And I don't view my CEBR stuff as an exploit, as my Brutes actually fight and defeat mobs by using the right powers and Inspirations.

That said, AE is the perfect storm where you can earn massive XP and other rewards under the right circumstances, and you control the circumstances. It really is asking for trouble. While it is possible to address the issues that make AE a great place to farm, it is a long process. AE has been around for a while, and people are still finding new ways to use and abuse it. I think the Devs have realized that they can't fix all of the issues while leaving AE in a reasonable state for people who want to use it for its intended purpose. They don't have the resources to police it properly. Plus they know that AE isn't their only problem, given the other farms mentioned above.

MARTy is the solution. If someone gets rewards too fast, by any means, then MARTy stops it and records it. MARTy isn't perfect. While it would probably identify and limit the Monkey farms, and Snake Egg farms, and MM pets in AE farms, I don't think it would do anything about the other farms I mentioned above. But that's because the first ones I listed were the REALLY bad ones.

MARTy is needed. The whole Invention System is based on using the Market to trade items you don't need for items you do. Each time a new exploit is discovered, the people using it get rich and buy whatever they want on the Market. Everyone else gets the leftovers. Since I'm a power gamer and I like my purple builds, I get annoyed when I can't buy any. I understand about Supply and Demand, but the system isn't fair when a minority that has discovered an exploit can effectively print their own money. I would like to see MARTy identify and prevent that. And I would like to see MARTy give the Devs time to properly fix any issues that it identifies. The whole Monkey farm thing lasted for so long because of the publishing blackout, and because the previous level 25 pet mobs in AE wasn't fixed for all pets.

Now we get back to the definition of an exploit. CEBR does not appear to be an exploit as I've never seen MARTy trigger, and I leveled up a Brute to 50 on Exalted the night i21 opened. I was pleasantly surprised at that. Apparently Fire Ambush farms at +4/x8 are an exploit, givent the reports of people in this thread. I'm personally OK with that. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and the 3M Inf/minute that Fire Farmers can earn is silly high. Obviously the Devs can't predict bugs, so they're left with guessing based on measurements like XP or Inf per hour. That is really the Dev definition of an exploit using MARTy. It has nothing to do with bugs or AE or whether or not you're "honestly" earning the XP. And really this is an arbitrary line. It has to be high enough that an Incarnate team doesn't hit it steamrolling a mission. Ditto for an Incarnate SuperTeam, though that may be asking for a bit much. Anything above that is probably worth reporting, though it's probably good to have a somewhat higher reward cutoff line.

Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen

And this kind of attitude causes companies to go out of business every day, when customers go elsewhere.