BBQ_Pork

I would have King's Row Clothing Consignment Shop, but okay.

The reason I see for a Tailor in a starting zone is for players who find that thier costumes look a little different under the game world's lighting than it does under the lighting of the charcter designer screen.
But fresh out at L1, they wouldn't have any $Inf to afford a costume change.

So the Tailor contact would have to give out a mission that would earn the lowbie a costume change token, not an extra slot like the "Big Boy" Tailors in the higher-level zones.
I would have this mission only available for characters under L5, and only doable three times at most, each time with a different enemy faction.
Mission 1: Hunt 15 Hellions
Mission 2: Hunt 15 Clockwork
Mission 3: Hunt 15 Vahzilok (in GC)

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Delete Protector!!!

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Let's negotiate: You can delete your charcters on Protector, everyone else can stay.

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Anyway...
Which zones, both Red and Blue side would you suggest?
Would you add a new zone on each side for the buildings to move to or just shuffle the AE'ers into the other, existing crowded buildings?

Or some PocketD-esque situation so that Broadcast within the AE doesn't spill into the zone, but instead throughout the other AE buildings for that faction?

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I would say, Steel, Talos, and maybe PI blueside.

redside... Nerva.... the one with the casinos....

[/ QUOTE ]There are already AE buildings in St. Martial (appropriate, IMO to have an entertainment-type building located there) and Sharkhead.
AE building or not, Nerva will still suck.

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I was trying to build my first Science Scrapper and was dissappointed not to see a "lightsaber" type sword in the either the Broadsword or two handed weapons sets. I'm sure the term Lightsaber is probally trademarked however a "laser sword", energy sword or plasma sword with the physcial appearance of the Star Wars Icon weapon could be dueable I would think? How about it in the next update?

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Have you looked at the Talsorian Weapons?
Granted, you have to get to L35+ and run the RWZ stuff first.

I think that there are players who could go for groups like the Warriors to be expanded, both in depth of the faction's cast and thier role in the storyline.
Igneous? Probably not so much.

If I were a Dev, (and I'm NOT) I would look at the Player's use of existing factions in the AE, and ask the forumites directly which factions they like to fight and which ones could use a little more fleshing out.
Then I'd take the results with a huge grain of salt.

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The spam problem must be dealt with as a spam problem, not as an RMT problem.

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Alright, in your opinion: If we manage to kill spamming (or reduce it to almost nothing), will the RMT'ers have enough customers to remain profitable?
I'm guessing that they will, as anyone wanting such services can just Google it.
And if they continue to operate RMT operations, but are unable to advertise ingame, will it matter?
I'm guessing that the lack of spam will pacify most, but not all of the Anti-RMT folks.

Not bad.
This would be in addition to the other costume auras available at L40, I'm guessing?

I could go for that.

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So the brand new players are not immediately inundated by it and indoctrinated as a farmer generation? We're already seeing level 50 AE noobs, <snip>...

[/ QUOTE ] Like this?
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...<snip>at least if we give them a few levels of normal content, they might give that a shot too.


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Or if they really want to level exclusively via AE without any other process, they can use Sprint and a short hike to a Tram? I could see that.
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Duh. Hello? McFly!?

[/ QUOTE ]This last part wasn't really needed.


Anyway...
Which zones, both Red and Blue side would you suggest?
Would you add a new zone on each side for the buildings to move to or just shuffle the AE'ers into the other, existing crowded buildings?

Or some PocketD-esque situation so that Broadcast within the AE doesn't spill into the zone, but instead throughout the other AE buildings for that faction?

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And let's also consider how hard it would be for the devs to prove an influence trade is an RMT transaction.

For example off the top of my head:

Joe Smith places an order for Inf at Bobs Dsicount Gold. He gives them his email to confirm the transaction. They send him a response that says, "Meet us under the Statue in Atlas Park in ten minutes and enter the Costume Contest. You will be the winner and we will give you your Inf as the prize."

You get your influence and they toss out a few million to other contestants to make sure it looks legit. NCSoft can't prove that Joe did anything wrong.

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In response to the bolded: They can also make a little money selling Email addresses, can't they?

As for the rest of the quote: Well, that would certainly explain some of the ugly costumes I've seen win costume contests.

You're right. We don't know the depths of thier other illegal operations.

Let's play with hypotheticals.
RMT Operation #1 "Bob's Discount Influence". BDI consists of 16 people operating out of a warehouse in the tiny island country of BoogaDoofa.
Internet access is free, because Bob's cousin Fred at the BoogaDoofa Phone Company hooks him up with the sweet DSL for arranging the marriage between Fred and Bertha (Bob's Sister).
Electricity is pirated by tapping the cables coming out of the local grocery store, Wages are $5/day per employee, with the all profits above that go to the boss man. The warehouse is already owned, and the government doesn't bother with property taxes.
They are running 7 days a week, sharing 8 Farming Accounts and 1 InfMule Account, and buy 10 (paid) spamming accounts per month.
If they sell more than $845 worth of $Inf and/or PL'ing services in a month, then they make a profit and continue. Before the limitations of trial accounts, (no longer able to send Email at any level) they only needed $695/month to break even.
If they fail to profit, they will shut down or reduce spending, most likely on the advertising.

RMT Operation #2 "Igor's Gold Mining Warehouse" is run by Igor, the one nerdy cousin in the Ivanna Stabbya crime family. It has a remarkably similar business model. If it profits, then it profits.
On the side, though, Igor gets a share of cousin Terry's drug sales and brother Doug's racketeering. In return he makes the money shift around and look good. Hey, he has his hands in other stuff.
If things change and the RMT starts losing money, he keeps the operation running as a side-hobby and takes the business loss as a "fee" for the cost of using it for laundering the source of ther more illicit activities.
Just a guess.

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If they are targeting other MMO's, (which they appear to be) wouldn't they shift thier focus away from this one if it started becoming unprofitable?

Business that continue to throw money into unprofitable divisions, rather than close that branch (or model line or product) tend to do poorly.

I'm just throwing this out there, but if there were no players buying thier product, they wouldn't be here. The spamming is a problem, but it's more like a symptom of a problem.

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Legitimate businesses work that way. RMT companies are far from legitimate.


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You're absolutely right. And I doubt that they work like a legit company, where there is usually a different manager in charge of each seperate department, each vying for a spot in the upper management.
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For example:

Let's say you play WoW, and you used your credit card to buy gold from Bob's Discount Gold RMT website. They in turn use your credit card to get $500 cash advance, and then open 25 CoH accounts and proceed to spam advertisements for their website. Those accounts eventually all get banned, but 15 CoH players decided to buy influence from them after seeing their advertisements.

Now where exactly did Bob's Discount Gold lose money?

Seems to me the only person that lost anything was the guy that had his credit card number stolen.

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Based on what you've given me:
For the Month of April:
Income from Fraud: $500
Cost of Advertising on CoH: $375
Income from CoH: ~$1500
Also Assumed:
Costs of operations in CoH: ~$90 (5-8 Farming/PL'ing Accounts, 1 $Inf-Mule/Delivery Boy Account)
Costs from RL: ?? (Electricity, Internet Access, Employee Wages)
Profit: $1000-$1400?

But the fraud you supplied was income from thier WoW arm of the operations.
If thier profit from WoW (or the other MMO's in thier stable) is a higher ratio, then it makes sense to focus there.
We don't know thier (Cost of Operations/Advertising) vs. (Income) situation is in this game or any other, only that it's probably a positive in thier favor.

If we could disrupt that, then I believe they would leave. Profit brought them here and sustained lack of profit will drive them out. Some ideas without the "How-to" details :
1) Find and Delete Delivery Boy Accounts. Costs them $15 to replace, and the time (time has a $cost) to farm the Inf the account was carrying at the time.
2) Find and Delete Farming Accounts. Costs them $15 each to replace, and the time to PL them back up and replace what inventory they had on them at the time.
3) Find and Ban thier customers. He who clicked [I Agree] and chose not to comply? You made your choice buddy. Advertise on the splasher screen "X number of RMT purchasers banned this month. Don't be one of them". That should reduce thier Income quite a bit, even if "X" is an exxagerated number.



The RMT Problem is three-part:
1-Supply. (Real or Faked to grab credit card numbers)
2-Demand. (Fools willing to give up thier money)
3-Spam. The symptom of the above, the annoyer of the Legitimate Player and what motivates the Anti-RMT crowd the most.

Get rid of rent?
Sure. Why not, considering that it's usually less than what, ONE mission worth of Prestige and a trip to a moderately out-of-the-way NPC?
I'm lucky. My SG-mate pays the rent, and I do the base crafting/modifying.

If they are targeting other MMO's, (which they appear to be) wouldn't they shift thier focus away from this one if it started becoming unprofitable?

Business that continue to throw money into unprofitable divisions, rather than close that branch (or model line or product) tend to do poorly.

I'm just throwing this out there, but if there were no players buying thier product, they wouldn't be here. The spamming is a problem, but it's more like a symptom of a problem.

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I wouldn't suggest this as a zone event, only an event within the AE building. On the hero side it would be something similar to a police raid, there might not be any charges filed, but it disrupts business. Honestly, I don't care. Just an idea to do something that changes AE from its currently lvlfiesta.

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We would be much better served by fixing spawns whose "risk vs. reward" ratios are greatly skewed, than to do something that would punish legitimate users as well.

I would certainly like a way for Scabbards and Sheaths to be added in somehow.

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(Revised 05/01/09)

Ways to reduce RMT email spam:

1. [DONE] Block Trial Accounts from sending email at all. (They currently can send at level 10.) Allow them to receive as normal, and to reply to received emails, but not to change any of the addresses on the reply. [Apparently, trials are already completely barred from sending email.]


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I look forward to seeing how this affects the rate of incoming spam. If it kills it, then fine. If not, then I will be amused at the thought of my gentle red SPAM button reporting (and leading to the ban of) an account paid for by the RMTbags.
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2. Limit each global account to X number of emails per 24-hour period. Set "X" to whatever value allows a generous but reasonable use of email. Exempt SG members sending to SG/Coalition members. Allow all others to apply for exemptions on a case-by-case basis. Exempt all appropriate accounts at implementation. (Obviously, Mods/Devs/GMs/etc. would all be exempted.)


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T'would be interesting/amusing when a fellow gets kicked from his SG for spamming them, after paying some PL-4-hire company, then using his account to spam from.

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3. Put in filters that allow us to choose whom to accept Email from:

[x] ALL
[x] Trial Accounts (#1 would make this superfluous)
[x] Friends List
[x] Global Friends List

Supergroup/Coalition and Game-related emails would not be blocked. Friends and Global Friends lists refer to the recipient's lists, not the sender's.


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I still like this idea, even though I hope (and suspect) that #1 pretty much kills RMTmail.

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4. For extra credit, put SPAM ignore on its own list, thus restoring the functionality of our ignore list.


5. For Super Mega Extra Bonus Points, when an account is banned as a spammer, automatically delete ALL emails from that account, Server-wide.


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I still like these.

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I would also like the option of setting it so that it will Automatically pay my SG rent if the SG has the prestige available.

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This please.

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Quite Agreed.
I would be willing to:
1) Craft some new item
or
2) Pay an extra 5-10% "postage".
for this option.

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Bec de Corbin
Bill
Ji
Lochaber axe
Ngaw
Partisan
Pike
Poleaxe
Brandistock
Ranseur
Spetum
War scythe
Fauchard
Military Fork
Glaive
Guan Do
Halberd
Naginata
Nagamaki
Voulge
Sarissa
Svardstav
Pike
Shortspear
Longspear
Awl
Awl Pike
Fauchard Fork
Guirsarme
Bill Guisarme
Glaive-guisarme
Pu dao


[/ QUOTE ]I'm feeling the sudden urge to roll a d20 again.

New powersets?
I'd go for:
Ranged Attack set: Energy Rifle (More Pew-Pew-Pew! Energy/Fire beams burning holes through ya for a -Def?)
Melee Attack set: Electric Hammer (Smash/Energy, some KD or stun, some -End?)
Melee Defensive set: Force Fields (self)(Presumably Typed, rather than Positional Defence?)
Bolded Powersets were listed in the first official powerset poll. I voted for them, but I guess more people wanted Dual Blades and Shields.

Adding new foes is a good idea.
Some of particular ones you've given us have problems though, as the poster above has mentioned.

Warriors with Rikti Swords? Sounds good, but I always imagined the Warriors' love of melee weapons to be a love of the more classic european midieval weapons, which Rikti tools are not. That being said, I'm rather surprised that they haven't taken up Shields yet.

The Freakshow would be willing to take up new and unusual weapons. Ever fight Sneaky Freaks or Noise Tanks?
There's one Freak ingame who openly talks of his desire to weld himself to a sportscar and become a centaur. No, a Car-taur!.

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Greetings all,
AE certainly has changed the way people play the game. I can't decide yet if it is for the better or worse, but as far as player participation goes, its a huge success. Given the fact that so many players are off living in their fantasy land what if there were raids added to the game designed to shut down AE for a short time.
On the hero side it could be swarms of PPD who are concerned that AE is addictive and subverting heroes from fighting crime. One the villian side, it would be Lord Recluse who believes that AE undermines the rise of the fittest because it allows sickly villians to continue their lives without any real challanges. Would also explain why he refuses to allow it to open in GV.


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Would you have Longbow attacking the heroes?
Certainly, having Arachnos attacking villians happens all the time, but Longbow attacking the Heroes might not make as much sense.

Also, keep in mind that not all players enjoy things like zone events hindering them from completing the hunt missions given mid-arc.
Having legitamate play choices taken away from them annoys players.

Why does Recluse not allow the AE in Grandville? Because GV is the seat of his power and not an entertainment hub. That's what St. Martial is for.
He doesn't want it sucking up power that could be running the Web. ((Lag.))

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I submit "Animal taming" and "Clones" for the MM primaries.

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I highly doubt either of those will happen. Animal Taming isn't likely because it would require construction of entirely new skeletons and suites of animations. Clones isn't going to happen without power customization because there's no current way for an MM to control/modify the appearance of their pets.

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Fine.
Then I'll suggest Vikings, Pirates, Clowns and um......Mind-controlled Longbow.

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1. Block Trial Accounts from sending email at all. (They currently can send at level 10.) Allow them to receive as normal, and to reply to received emails, but not to change any of the addresses on the reply.


2. Limit each global account to X number of emails per 24-hour period. Set "X" to whatever value allows a generous but reasonable use of email. Exempt SG members sending to SG/Coalition members. Allow all others to apply for exemptions on a case-by-case basis. Exempt all appropriate accounts at implementation. (Obviously, Mods/Devs/GMs/etc. would all be exempted.)


3. Put in filters that allow us to choose whom to accept Email from:

[x] ALL
[x] Friends List
[x] Global Friends List

Supergroup/Coalition and Game-related emails would not be blocked. Friends and Global Friends lists refer to the recipient's lists, not the sender's.


4. For extra credit, put SPAM ignore on its own list, thus restoring the functionality of our ignore list.


5. For Super Mega Extra Bonus Points, when an account is banned as a spammer, automatically delete ALL emails from that account, Server-wide.


This list is collected and refined from various people's posts all over the forums.

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If #3 were implemented, and depending on the particular settings and defaults, {example: Recieve from Trial Accounts? Default=No} #1 would not be needed and I believe full Email privledges could be granted to trial accounts.
Spammers using trial accounts would be unable to send to most of the playerbase, as they would have the default ignoring them. Legitimate users who give trial codes to thier buddies could toggle off the default setting so that they could hook up to play together.

If #3 is not implemented, then I'll take #1, #2, #4, #5 and a large Diet Coke, please.

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Would you like to supersize that?

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For 80 cents more?
Does that include Airfare to the office/warehouse where the RMT'ers have thier operations set up, diplomatic immunity and a crowbar?
I ask because I can supply my own crowbar, if need be.

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With the advent of the Architect system it can turn gamers into what most always wanted to be, Developers. There are many really good stories out there and many Farmin' teams.
The bad news is when you design your own story and test it for bugs like proper use of animations or dialog are to be sure a chain works properly you have to play the test version without gaining XP or inspirations. Normally this would be fine for a test but you still play it at your current difficulty setting and even at the lowest setting this can be impossible to test solo. Gaining XP and new inspirations gives you the ability to replenish yourself in combat.
Testing should have its own way lower difficulty setting since you are not gaining anything by it just check for proper functioning of the game. Even Developers and Testers have special God modes or test only difficulty settings when testing for proper functioning of a mission.
One can not test a chain that happens after an elite boss is defeated if one can not defeat the elite boss solo in test mode. Which leaves alot of players publishing untested missions and getting a team together and playing a bad published mission.

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Perhaps use Bosses, rather than EB's? Then maybe change the Bosses to EB's at the very last minute before publishing if you don't want your arc to be soloable by most characters.
I get tired of seeing EB's in arcs after a while. Maybe it's just me.

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1. Block Trial Accounts from sending email at all. (They currently can send at level 10.) Allow them to receive as normal, and to reply to received emails, but not to change any of the addresses on the reply.


2. Limit each global account to X number of emails per 24-hour period. Set "X" to whatever value allows a generous but reasonable use of email. Exempt SG members sending to SG/Coalition members. Allow all others to apply for exemptions on a case-by-case basis. Exempt all appropriate accounts at implementation. (Obviously, Mods/Devs/GMs/etc. would all be exempted.)


3. Put in filters that allow us to choose whom to accept Email from:

[x] ALL
[x] Friends List
[x] Global Friends List

Supergroup/Coalition and Game-related emails would not be blocked. Friends and Global Friends lists refer to the recipient's lists, not the sender's.


4. For extra credit, put SPAM ignore on its own list, thus restoring the functionality of our ignore list.


5. For Super Mega Extra Bonus Points, when an account is banned as a spammer, automatically delete ALL emails from that account, Server-wide.


This list is collected and refined from various people's posts all over the forums.

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If #3 were implemented, and depending on the particular settings and defaults, {example: Recieve from Trial Accounts? Default=No} #1 would not be needed and I believe full Email privledges could be granted to trial accounts.
Spammers using trial accounts would be unable to send to most of the playerbase, as they would have the default ignoring them. Legitimate users who give trial codes to thier buddies could toggle off the default setting so that they could hook up to play together.

If #3 is not implemented, then I'll take #1, #2, #4, #5 and a large Diet Coke, please.

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What about players willfully being able to switch their toons for free. Server to server whenever you wish. Yes that would mean the game couldnt make any money in that area anymore, but the increased volume of players activity would make up for it. Might be technically nightmarish, but it might not either.

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I'm not so sure. How much money do they currently make per month on the selling of Server Transfers, and how many more active player accounts do you think they would have if this feature were introduced?

Still, it would be better economicly than making the game look like it's dying by doing server mergers, which are usually part of a game's death-rattle on the way out the door.

So. How many?