Dark One

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I have to agree. I avoid the MA now for fear someone with my brute may level too quickly and trip some datamine. I will stay with dev sanctioned or dev created content. If you want hard rules, there are none. I recommend taking this discussion to the official farming thread in the City Life section of the boards.

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So one can post in another thread that anyone with any real power/ability to inform us, can ignore and not post in?



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Well, this one will soon be closed anyway. There is a reason that is the official one. It was created by the moderators in what they felt was the official section, to stop the multitudes of posts just like this one from springing up all over the place.

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Yep, a lot easier to ignore one thread than to ignore the entire forum.

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I have to agree. I avoid the MA now for fear someone with my brute may level too quickly and trip some datamine. I will stay with dev sanctioned or dev created content. If you want hard rules, there are none. I recommend taking this discussion to the official farming thread in the City Life section of the boards.

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So one can post in another thread that anyone with any real power/ability to inform us, can ignore and not post in?

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In all honesty, I'd simply recommend one avoid the MA altogether


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Fixed.

Without some kind of actual clarification on limits, one never knows what they'll decide is an "exploit" next.

By the logic of "don't take advantage of known or suspected exploits", who is to say what qualifies as suspected?

Rather than risk bumping up against whatever metric they are using, just avoid the bloody thing all together.

Good job devs, 18 months of work and you guys screwed it up in a month.

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And then there is also Dominatrix. One only needs to read her bio and see the theme involved in her...NPCs...

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And in particular, the line in her background about how she serves her own grandfather in all capacities. Let that one soak in your brain for awhile. D:


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Kinda what I was getting at. Now, granted, that could be taken in a normal, non-hentai way, but really. Combine that with her gimp brigade and it's pretty dang blatant.

Well, if you can't get into the mission, then you can't farm.

About as effective as a brick to the temple to stop a headache.

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To be fair that arc did have a fair bit of suggestive content that was perhaps borderline for a T rated game. I didn't think it crossed the line, but I can see where the complainers are coming from.

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Ever done the State's TF? Aeon Mission with the 4 Patron sidekicks. I wont ruin it for those that havent, but one of the AV's dialog ventures pretty deep in BDSM-land. And thats developer content. If the dev's can go that far, players should be given the same level of latitude.

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And then there is also Dominatrix. One only needs to read her bio and see the theme involved in her...NPCs...

Ya, the Quit to Login, for me anyways, goes to a black screen for a bit then to a blue sky/cloudy-type background. No option to enter login/password or even any graphics beyond the blue sky.

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* Arachnos Flier zips along too fast to gather a team to take it down. Perhaps Ghost Widow's instructions have placed a bit too much fear into the pilots. Suggestion: can you suppress its movement when attacked, like in PVP?


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Honestly...the one time I actually fought the Flier, a team of 3 with 1 Shivan got it down to about 1/3rd before it zipped off for parts unknown. It was on its last stop and we almost had it. Coulda had it if there was one more Shivan.

Team makeup consisted of a Widow, my DM/FA Brute, and a /Thermal? Corruptor.

It is vastly more the issue that that @)(#(#() thing just does not stick around. Basically, a person has a 5-minute or so time window to a) get to Grandville, b) assemble a team, and c) defeat a GM. Rather than heading off for parts unknown, it should make a minimum of 5 circuits of Grandville.

Is it maybe a Protector issue?

Every time today that I try and head on into an MA mission, I get the Mapserver Disconnected message.

Anyone else experiencing this?

The only plays that mine gets are a) from advertising in a specific channel; b) from friends; c) occasionally from people whose arc I played and commented on. At some point, the advertising is going to cease to be effective as the people in that channel who have a hankering to play it will have done so. The friends option will cease to be effective once I run the gamut of my list.

People randomly finding mine?

Not a bloody chance.

People who just want to run something will go to the least amount of work to do so to find it. Once you get bumped down from the first few pages, ignoring a vast amount of luck and/or a recognizable @name, you're probably going to be about done in terms of rates/plays.

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Yes, I know this. Look at my reg date.

I'm just wondering how many mobs a person goes through on the way to 50. If that 50k is bigger than THAT, then there's a definite problem. Regardless of how the badge compares to previous badges.

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If you just killed minions solo, under the new XP curve, and with zero contribution from Patrol XP you have to defeat 49528 even con minions

Of that, the run from level 40-50 is 20 080 minions

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Wow...that is out there. It takes more to get that badge than the entire run from 1-50. Yup. Broken.

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If they didnt finish, it could well have been griefing. I have had to quit arcs that were too difficult for me, however. I don't rate as a matter of principle if Im enjoying it and have no exploit/farming issues with an arc, but some people may be harsher in their ratings, if you have svere strength AVs in your arc for example.


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Nope, no EBs or AVs. I just played it through last night to make sure everything was ok in regards to the latest patch. Aside from my patrol text being broken, even the Boss was acceptable.

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The 'man enough' point - i almost exclusively play story-focused arcs. On rare occasions, I accidentally get suckered into starting a farm arc by an interesting sounding description (I do sometimes dip inot the middle of the pool).

As soon as I suspect I'm in a farm arc, i have a look around for some narrative, then if i fail to find some I quit, low-rate and move on. The authors of such arcs are in my experience unlikely to appreciate me saying 'I suggest you add a plot to your arc.' and are probably also unlikely to then even bother playing my carefully written story arc, let alone rate it based in its creative merits. Its those people I'm not man enough to waste my time and feedback on.


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If I get into a farm arc, and don't want to be in one, I simply quit it. I don't bother with rating it at all.

See, the problem here is, Anonymitiy breeds Asshattery. If a person has absolutely zero to fear in return, they can do whatever they want.

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As for being on page 200 or whatever, I wouldn't rely on random plays even if my arc was 5 starred. I seem to get 95% of my arcs plays from pimping it (moderately) in various channels and mentioning its name and ID in my feedback on other arcs Ive played.


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So have I. However, I'm not on 24/7, so the random drive-by plays are important. There's been times I've logged in with 5-6 comments waiting for me about how they liked the arc.

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And...it just happened again.

Yesterday, got a few more plays (all 5-stars I might add) and it bumped me back to up page 4. Think I was at about 61-62 rates. Log in today to find I'm up to 65 rates, but back down to 4-stars (no comments from anyone BTW). Didn't even bother trying to find the arc as it's most likely back down in the page 250+ range.

This rating system needs a MASSIVE overhaul. Every comment I've gotten from people basically fit along the lines of "awesome arc" or "reminds them of an official story" or that they enjoyed it. I don't mind 3-4 star ratings, provided the person rating it tells me why they 3-4 star it.

These 1-star cowards, and yes, they are cowards, are really starting to annoy the @#*$ out of me.

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4 stars is great.

My arcs got 52 plasys, 4 stars, feedback consistently boils down to "Great! 5 stars!".

4 stars is really good.

One reason why the 1-starrers arent giving you feedback is possibly because they are afraid of a revenge rating from you. The BHMA tag has unfortunately garnered a reputation, just as the JSNTS one did. i'm not saying that you're likely to revenge low-rate anyone, but it's possible the low raters might think you would, if they think you value badge-progress more than the creative integrity of your arc.

Eco.

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4-stars may be "great", but it means you will most likely never get random, drive-by plays. Getting stuck down at page 200+ means that unless someone is specifically looking for whatever your arc has to offer, it'll never be seen.

If you aren't man enough to risk getting it in return, then don't do it in the first place. The only reason these cowards can get away with it is because they know they will never have to put their money where their mouths are.

They don't even finish the arc. I check the progress on the Played <x> Times Badge, and every time I get bandited, there's no increase to it.


And no, they weren't three star rates because I had no tickets to claim (I had cleared them out last night). Ergo, 1-star (or 2-star) banditry.

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I found Positron's little rant to be well...childish. In particular, he sees fit to mention "5-star badge cartels", but makes no mention of ratings griefers.

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The constant spam of MA PL teams forming, requests for “Meow” missions, 5 star badge cartels, and the inability to find quality content in the Mission Architect listing are all things I heard complaints about over and over while I was logged in on Tuesday.


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Three little 1 or 0-star votes bumped my arc from page 3 down to well, at least page 250. I never did find it, but that was about the point where 4-star arcs, rather than 5-stars with 1 vote, started showing up.

So, 5-starring is "bad", but 0 & 1-starring appears to be "good".

One thing I would absolutely LOVE in the MA is for the author to see who starred their arcs and what rating was given. That would do a LOT more to cut ratings griefings than anything else. The only reason people do the 0 & 1-starring is that they can get away with it and never have to face the people they are griefing.

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I can totally feel your pain on this one. I had my main arc get hit the same way. It started out with 61 votes 2 days ago when I logged on. I had one comment sent to me when I logged one saying... *pulls up chat log*
"awesome job! i can't imagine why this isn't a dev choice."
and another...
"Defeating Posi is always fun and we get to do it twice!!! thanks..."

Both were 5 star votes, from non badgers. While I was on that day I also got a "very fun" and "Damn good job on this I really enjoyed this mish" and 5 stars from both.. as well as about 10 other 5-star votes.

That put it up to 77 votes and easily a 5-star. Then I get 5 more votes all low and pushing it back to 4 stars, and now it's on page 44 of the "4 star arcs" behind about 400 farm missions.

And, as expected, it hasn't gotten a play or rating since... (about 36 hours)

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And...it just happened again.

Yesterday, got a few more plays (all 5-stars I might add) and it bumped me back to up page 4. Think I was at about 61-62 rates. Log in today to find I'm up to 65 rates, but back down to 4-stars (no comments from anyone BTW). Didn't even bother trying to find the arc as it's most likely back down in the page 250+ range.

This rating system needs a MASSIVE overhaul. Every comment I've gotten from people basically fit along the lines of "awesome arc" or "reminds them of an official story" or that they enjoyed it. I don't mind 3-4 star ratings, provided the person rating it tells me why they 3-4 star it.

These 1-star cowards, and yes, they are cowards, are really starting to annoy the @#*$ out of me.

Yes, I know this. Look at my reg date.

I'm just wondering how many mobs a person goes through on the way to 50. If that 50k is bigger than THAT, then there's a definite problem. Regardless of how the badge compares to previous badges.

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I hope they remove Dev's Choice and Hall of Fame.

Also reduce the virual badge requirements as mentioned.

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Agreed with this and basically what MadScientist said. Having these badges at the mercy of griefers is a bad idea. I could live with 5000 baddies defeated in virtual mode for the top badge. 50k is insane.

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I wonder if anyone has done any work to figure out just how many NPCs a character defeats on the way to 50. Ignoring, of course, PL'ing and the like.

I wonder how that 50,000 would factor against that.

I found Positron's little rant to be well...childish. In particular, he sees fit to mention "5-star badge cartels", but makes no mention of ratings griefers.

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The constant spam of MA PL teams forming, requests for “Meow” missions, 5 star badge cartels, and the inability to find quality content in the Mission Architect listing are all things I heard complaints about over and over while I was logged in on Tuesday.


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Three little 1 or 0-star votes bumped my arc from page 3 down to well, at least page 250. I never did find it, but that was about the point where 4-star arcs, rather than 5-stars with 1 vote, started showing up.

So, 5-starring is "bad", but 0 & 1-starring appears to be "good".

One thing I would absolutely LOVE in the MA is for the author to see who starred their arcs and what rating was given. That would do a LOT more to cut ratings griefings than anything else. The only reason people do the 0 & 1-starring is that they can get away with it and never have to face the people they are griefing.

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Was exp and inf given back to the rikti summoned by the comm officer, or are they now minions who summon a bunch of friends you have no reason to fight? After all, risk vs reward, right? Where's the reward for fighting something that has no reward?

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Haha.

That's funny that you think Risk vs Reward works like that.

No.

However, xp gained from the MA is going to trend steadily downwards. Might as well just nerf the hell out of all of it and be done with it now, rather than a year of patch notes saying "<x> has been adjusted to give less experience.".

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I was just curious what the fastest is so far for getting from 1 to 50 using MA.

Thanks!

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I don't know.. I just click the "Instant Level 50" button at character creation.

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Then why do you play?

/shrug

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Because *gasp* some people like to play their 50s waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than their lowbies?

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EDIT, for relevant discussion: My fastest 1-50 is 8 hours. I could do it in less if I got lots of free time to sit down and finish it out.

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I have about half a dozen characters that I can't delete due to Anniversary badges, but simply aren't fun to play. I managed to get a Defender (Dark/Dark) that had been stuck in the mid-teens for close to 4 years, to level 37 this weekend. Now she is somewhat interesting to play, still not entirely "fun", but I would like to get her to 50 for another tick towards the goal of getting a 50 of each AT.

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Don't get me wrong. I have played with it to (the speed AE bit), but I KNOW they will "stop it" as it were. The Dev's I mean. There is no way they will let this one go. They will kill this one like all the other leveling tricks people come up with. I don't know how, or when, but if there is somebody you wanna get leveled real quick, do it now, cuz this too shall pass.

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If and when they do "kill it", they will most likely kill the AE by going overboard, as they tend to do.

After all, going from 1 to 50 with just AE missions was one of the selling points for the system.

Edit - And you would think that after, what was it 18 months in production, that they would've figured this out somewhere along the line.

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What about actually playing the game?

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After almost 5 years of playing, I've run through "official" content enough times to make my eyes bleed. Honestly, I'm tired of running all over Paragon City for mission arcs (seriously devs, do a pass on mission locations).

Now, I can conceivably achieve my goal of a 50 of each AT. I have a Defender, Controller, and Dominator that are just so bloody slow to play (the Def in particular has spent 4 years in the 10-20 level range), that they aren't fun. I do, however, want to play my Warshade/PB/SoA/Widow the "vanilla" route.

But the rest?

At least AE'd till level 20-32.

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but suffice it to say that all CHAOS is going to break loose in-game


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Wait wait wait...CHAOS?

Which one of those warp-spawn buggers is it? Khorne? Slaanesh? Nurgle?

Ready your bolters, flamers, and tread-fethers! It's gonna get nasty!

Iron Warriors vs Blood Angels!

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As well as if people start a HoF mission, then it should count as a tick for the badge regardless of its status once it's finished.

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I'm pretty sure that's the case. Any changes made to a mission that you've already started don't affect the version of mission you're currently undertaking. The other day I started The Footsteps Initiative when it briefly had HoF status, but by the time I was done it had been knocked back down. I got 1/5 progress for the first badge.

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Not according to the OP.

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Myself and a few others I know have played a HoF arc, and by the time we finished the arc, it was no longer a HoF and we did not get credit for playing a HoF arc.


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