Lothic

I just find it amazing that so many people can play this game for so many years and have completely different experiences with different aspects of the GUI. In 6+ years I never knew you could double click that button and go straight to the management screen. Obviously by the same token I guess I've never "misclicked" it and gotten the unintended results you mention either. *shrugs*

I also initially thought it was funny to learn that anyone would ever bother to keybind the "/manage" command to get to that screen. Of course right after I thought that I remembered that I've had the "/info" screen command bound to a key for years. Go figure.

Actually news of this kind of research, or that it comes from a place like the Georgia Institute of Tech, doesn't really surprise me at all.

At this point I consider the Technological Singularity as a practical inevitability.
The only thing that's really uncertain is exactly how long it's going to take. *shrugs*

The definition I would use for an "exploit" in this game is doing something that achieves a goal or reward that is clearly contrary to the intent of the game system. In this case using a method to get a badge/power that you are supposed to wait 7 days for in any amount of time LESS than 7 days is indeed an exploit.

Now I think the problem your struggling with is whether or not a given exploit is actually "game breaking" or not. It's not enough to just label something an exploit black or white. You have to take it in the same context the Devs are going to consider it as far as how critical it is. In the case of this 7 day wait deal I'm quite sure of two things, 1) it's something the Devs did not want people to take advantage of but 2) it was a relatively minor enough problem that the Devs let it exist for several weeks without a quick hotfix or major rollback of the game. Think of how quick this exploit would have been fixed if it allowed your level 1 characters to become level 50 with the push of a button.

Obviously there are people like yourself who take the position that "if the game lets me get away with X then X should not be considered an illegal activity". Well that rationalization can only be taken so far. Just because the Devs don't fix something instantaneously doesn't mean they don't like people doing it and doesn't mean they won't ever fix it.

Basically this 7 day wait thing was a minor problem that was going to be fixed regardless because it was a very obvious fixable problem. Just because problems like this were found in beta and not acknowledged by the Devs does not strictly give you a pass to use them. But by the same token is anyone who used this relatively trivial exploit going to be punished? Of course not. Have badgers used all sorts of loopholes and exploits in the past and will they continue to use them in the future? Of course they will. But does any of that technically make it right? Of course not, it just makes them things you got away with.

Stop looking at this thing in such black and white terms. Being a "cheater" in a game like this is a relative thing. *shrugs*

For now, at least.

The first mission of the new level 40-45 hero Ouroboros arc called The Instant Army is full of the new Praetorian Clockwork so Primal Earthers getting that badge (Technophobe) is fairly easy right now. But because the Blindsider badge is currently tedious to get and Resistance Is Futile seems broken for now I'm going to wait until I19 for both of those when they should be not only possible but semi-trivial to get.

Normally the Devs don't publish exploit fixes in patch notes but apparently they decided to make an exception for this. In the latest Test Server patch notes they specifically state they've found and fixed the "bug" allowing this to happen. *shrugs*

Yes this was a great run and just wanted to thank everyone involved.

I was there with my Fire/Rad Controller. I kept my Radiation Infection/Enervating Field toggles on the AV as much as possible, especially when his shield was down. I also dropped Shivans, spammed my Lingering Radiation (my main -Regen power) and threw 28 Envenomed Daggers (-250% Regen) at him. Sure that power only lasts a few seconds but since we only have 30 seconds per shield drop to hurt him that's really not that bad. Hopefully all that helped the cause.

All in all it was a great experience.

While it's obviously good this little exploit was corrected (from the point of view of the powers) I suspect that any avid badge collector who'd care to make use of that "trick" to get the associated badges without waiting has already done so. This is a classic case of closing the barn door after the cows have already gotten out. *shrugs*

People have to understand that the IoP concept is so old it even predates the market and IOs of any kind. It would never fit into the context of the current state of the game balance wise. The Devs purged the game of IoPs years ago. The Devs effectively removed the concept of base raids years ago. The reworked CoP trial we got in I18 no longer has any connection to PvP in any way, shape or form.

The IoP concept has evolved into the special temp powers the CoP trial now provides. They are no longer physical things that SGs can place in their bases. That idea (for better or worse) is no longer relevant to this game.

Now the whole "debate" about a MoCoP is a completely different subject. But even if such a thing were ever introduced the chances that it would involve an old-style IoP is pretty much nil at this point.

Yeah the Devs never considered Gladiators to be real badges in the traditional sense. This likely explains why they don't have unique artwork and why they are the only badges you can't click on in the GUI lists to set as your badge title (you actually can use them for badge titles, but the only way you can do that is with the manual /settitle command).

I strongly suspect the only reason they look and act like badges on our characters is because the Devs found it quick-n-easy to "borrow" the badge awarding code used by badges to make earning Gladiators simple to code. IIRC the Devs originally didn't even want people to count them as far as our "total badge count" goes. Despite that the major badge tracking sites basically never followed that guideline and always counted them as real badges regardless of what the Devs' intentions might have been.

I think as time has passed the Devs have relaxed their original stance on the "Gladiators aren't badges" idea a bit. But one of the holdovers of that idea is that they still don't show up with progress bars or in the Closest to Completion lists. It's hard to say if that'll ever change at this point.

The classic case of "no matter what the Devs give us someone won't like it".

Your idea is not technically a bad one. More control over things like this is always a good thing. I'm just not sure the Devs would ever bother with it. It took years just to get the "closest to completion" tab we got to begin with.

Of course there's another way around your problem - just go out and earn all the badges.

Well it's clear you read the first post in this thread.
Did you read the last post (or many of the others) in the thread before you posted this?
Thanks Captain Redundant.