Nethergoat
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Posts
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Joined
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The market and IOs are a timesink.
The more convenient things are the less time it takes.
They don't want it to be so hard nobody uses it, but everything else is fair game. -
Very nice, gj devs.
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Quote:Viva Eeebil!Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
I win this round it would seem. -
hero blue.
the villain skin is a recipe for eyestrain. -
Quote:I do that sometimes too- there's usually nobody else in the zone, so no PvP (this is on Triumph), but it's a fun change of pace.Originally Posted by SwellGuy
Last night for some reason I decided to check out Recluse's Victory with my warshade. I was killed by a villain (I hope he got a recipe for it) but prior to that I got to get a Heavy and liberate some bases. That was a lot of fun because it was new to me.
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Quote:I don't "see" it as anything except what it is- a reward-driven system.Originally Posted by Clouded
That's the beauty of this game, IMO. You see this game as always being reward-centric while others find themselves immersed in a world of superheroes and villains while not particularly paying attention to the more tangible rewards.
Yes, there are other forms of entertainment within the boundaries of the game world. But the entire structure is designed around keeping a large number of players engaged in seeking the next milestone on whatever reward path they fine enjoyable.
Form follows function, and the function of an MMO is to keep the money flowing by stringing players along. It's great if players discover other systems of engagement, like Sam's exploring or RPing with friends or whatever, but the foundation of the game is reward based. Pretending otherwise is like saying "Oh, cars arent' designed to DRIVE...because I use mine as an aquarium, so my opinion that they are fishtanks is just as valid as your opinion that they're machines for transporting people and goods around on roads." -
Quote:Originally Posted by Barata
Frankly though, with the reward-centric focus within the game now...
it's been reward-centric since the day they opened the doors. -
Guh, I'd forgotten that particular "joy" of the olden days. =(
Coming tomorrow- my adventures with Sanjay Gupta! -
Quote:A new player isn't going to know that, however reasonable they are.Originally Posted by Twisted Toon
I'm sorry, but going from level 1 to level 50 in 4 hours is using an obvious exploit by any sane person's definition.
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I think the limited storage is an acceptable curb on unlimited willy-nilly respecs.
We can change whatever we want whenever we want, but not without some thought and potential inconvenience. -
Quote:Sounds yummy!Originally Posted by Satanic_Hamster
You know, get hold of a nuka cola quantum, turpentine, and some Abraxo cleaner and we're in business.
*nom nom nom* -
Quote:I know what I think is an exploit.Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum
Here we disagree. There are things you can do that are so beyond the norm in dev-created space, that any rational person would recognize as well beyond the scope of the game. These things, I'd have no problem with action regardless of the lack of definition.
You know what you think is an exploit.
Someone else?
there are as many potential definitions as there are players.
MA brought in lots of new players. People who aren't familiar with the general parameters of the game are expected to figure out what is and isn't an "exploit"?
A definition that rests on individual interpretation by such a disparate group as the our playerbase isn't useful. The devs won't define it and we can't (in any meaningful communal way).Quote:You may not recognize them... but you may not be rational (j/k friendly ribbing :P)
The traditional solution (patch the problem area and move on) is the best.
It is always going to be ambiguous.Quote:An ambiguous-margin system only really works effectively if there's such a "warning shot" letting people know that they're approaching a dangerous zone. Ambiguous and hard-lined enforcement is where the biggest failures lie.
So overzealous enforcement won't ever be acceptable.
Going by the reaction to 'bubble' farms I'm glad they've (seemingly) mothballed the tough-guy act and reinstated the policy of fixing problems without bashing the people who pay their salaries. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Nethergoat
1, 10, 100, 1,000,000....it's all the same to Smurph.
got -rep for this post with the comment "yuck."
not sure if they're referring to Smurph personally or just his spending habits.
If I mention he pays people to roll around in his money for him, will that get me more -rep?
let's find out! -
Quote:Originally Posted by Barata
It was bad enough when Indigo was doing it, but when I finally got Crimson, he kept telling me to go see Indigo. The one feature I wish the devs would implement is the ability to punch a contact.
running that arc with friends in the olden days (pre Oro, pre base TP, pre Pocket D tp) inspired one of them to comment "Why can't we PvP contacts?"
It didn't make any sense, but we all knew exactly how he felt. -
today's adventure in 'official' content:
Running a new archery/elec blaster (never played either set, so it was a marriage of convenience- fun so far).
Farmed to 6th and headed for King's Row to pick up my raptor pack, then thought "hey, why not run a contact, just to see what happens?
Here's what happened:
"go talk to this dude in the Hollows! (how about no? *drop*)
one mission right next to him (yay)
one mission across the zone (boo, but expected)
one pretty cool mission, destroying Superdyne labs.
So far, so good. I imagine all three of these are fairly recent additions. Even with the running it was pretty fun and felt like I was involved in battling crime. Dukeing it out with drug runners seems like a good gig for an inexperienced hero.
Then...."hey, here are your two options- talk to the Perez Park security dude, or.....hunt Skulls in Perez Park."
sigh.
I figure I'll be crafty and chat with the dude first, since I know it'll just be another street sweep in Perez.
I get to Atlas, trek over to the security chief and get my "arrest 10 circle in perez". Man it's been a long time since I did this one!
Flight makes it MUCH easier though. I flapped over all the Hellions and whatnot and found a likely spawn with only a couple of yellow lieutenants.
Popped some inspirations and after a bit of kiting managed to finish them off. Flight kept me away from their nasty melee attacks and being a blaster was very helpful.
Call the guy.
"Good job! now about those Skulls..."
They are (of course) on the other side of the map, by the Galaxy gate.
Old days? NIGHTMARE JOURNEY.
Now? Bee-line right over the forest with my neato jetpack!
Repeat my strategy with the CoT- find a big spawn of whites with limited lieutenant action and whittle them away.
Call the guy.
"oh wow, nice....but I can't give you any more missions until you're 9th level!"
I was pretty close, so I headed back to Kings through Galaxy and did some street sweeping en route.
I hit 9th.
Call the guy.
"uh...I got nothing for you, but here are some other contacts...."
...
Such is the life of the official content runner, I suppose.
Note that this whole time I was jogging and flapping past various AE buildings, which were whispering sweet nothings in my ear...."no travel time....on site hospital....inspiration vendor in the lobby...."
so, mixed bag today. The few missions I managed to extract from my contact were engaging, but by the time I did all the running and street hunting he's burned up my goodwill and I was left feeling resentful. -
Quote:Unless you're glitching a map or using actual external hacks, there's no such thing as an "obvious" exploit. The devs get to make up their own definitions, yes, but as they refuse to share them with anyone that isn't helpful. Banning and deleting based on Star Chamber secret rules is garbage, and hopefully the community blowback on the issue inspires them to greater caution in the future.Originally Posted by Twisted Toon
Actually, the Ban-hammer was used when people used obvious exploits in the AE system. The Devs even sent out a warning that they would. They're not as concerned with leveling speed as you seem to think they are. They are concerned about exploits being used.
They are very interested in levelling speed. Things that increase that speed beyond what they're comfortable with get nerfed. -
Quote:One person's "snide or inane" is another person's hilarious non sequitur!Originally Posted by Satanic_Hamster
People have been going overboard with the tags. The entire system seems to be just used to make snide or inane comments.
I weep for our lost tags.
*turns off lights, puts on The Cure, cries into pillow of garbage* -
Quote:Me too!Originally Posted by Westley
And thank God for this. This is the best present the Devs could have ever given me personally.
I hated looking for fillers (even at Portal where the farming community was happy to lend a hand) so I generally didn't bother, which hurt my efficiency.
After I16 I'll be able to pump up the jam all I want. -
Sam, I'm glad you seen the light and embraced farming as a fun alternative to 'real' gameplay.
Oh wait, you call it "exploration". =)
I remember waaaaay back when I first started playing some friends and I went into the sewers for the first time. We were all "OMG what is this crazy place?" and spent the evening happily fighting ghosts and demon lords and whatnot, stuff my low level characters strenuously avoid nowadays.
It's neat that you're still got that sense of discovery about an area most players wouldn't go near if you paid them. -
Quote:my fire/ice farming blaster begs to differ!Originally Posted by QuiJon
However a non-farmer, like say a blaster.....
>:f -
As I was just on a team that was having all kinds of issues with SK'ing a couple of lower level types, I'm excited by the promise of 'super sidekicking'.
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Quote:This is distilled truth.Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire
The Mission Drop feature really was the best thing that ever happened to contact missions.
This stint of running "real" contact missions has made me love it even more.
Crummy, craptastic mission bringing you down?
Run another contact for a while, then drop it and get on with the arc!
Such a great QOL change. -
Quote:I rarely agree with BI about anything, but there is absolutely a clique of regulars I alternately call the Kontent Kops or the Purity Police who leap around cheering and chest-bumping like drunken louts at a college football game whenever they think a balance change is aimed at the farmers/exploiters/dirty wrong people who don't play right.Originally Posted by Ignatz
You're certainly entitled to your opinions on the rest of your post, so I'll only address this part.
I'm just not seeing what you are with this. At best, the 'Usual Suspects' as you call them, are unsurprised when a nerf happens.
They think everyone should play the game exactly as they do, and anyone who doesn't should be driven out of the game for the good of the community. -
Quote:Definitely.Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum
Our viewpoints don't seem THAT opposing. Neither of us want something so underrewarding that it becomes irrelevant.
-If you look at per-kill levels, yes, a substantial reduction in XP reward in Mission Architect would appear underperforming and drive off players.
-If you calculate in the whole experience of one evening, people testify time and again that Mission Architect is capable of rewards that are substantially over and above the rest of the game. That's one of the reasons that it's so central to so many players.
A substantial portion of the playerbase is camped out in the lobby, and it ain't because of the sexy interior design and cool Matrix waterfall.
Another benefit of tickets is that it distills your rewards.Quote:As you noted in another thread, MA has no low-xp delivery missions, no insane cross-zone travelling, and no in-zone traveling for that matter. With "ticket" rewards, players don't have to worry about taking a moment to sell to make room in inventory when full either. There's no 'return to contact' wait either.
If I run a good sized mission in the 'real' world, I'll get maybe one or two IO recipe drops, a couple of generic recipe drops and one or two handfuls of salvage.
If I run an MA mission, all of those potential drops become currency I can use to buy what I want. Forget those crummy generic recipes, forget that crummy salvage (even with prices topping 100k, it's still not a cost effective choice)...gimme those set IOs!
One run on a 'normal' MA map will get me 5 or so Bronze rolls.
On a farming map that # is substantially higher.
Even ignoring things like the ludicrous inf from boss farms & the potential for massive exp, MA is still 'better' than regular content from a reward standpoint.
We agree on this.Quote:There advantages keep the reward/hour significantly high, even with the steps the devs have already taken.
My curiosity drives me to try various things out, so I've run most of the hyper-efficient stuff in MA. It really is pretty ridiculous and it needs to be adjusted. I'm not one of the we all deserve to hit 50 in a day crowd and never have been.Quote:I really am "casual" on the XP metric. I never really looked to optimize and only casually use MA to follow arcs of people I know. I never "bridged" and the closest I've had to a farm was doing nothing but RWZ missions to get enough Vanguard tokens for a full costume without doing a mothership raid (still don't have the damn helmet). I'm not saying this out of a sense of moral superiority, I'm saying this to stress that I'm NOT a good judge of how great MA rewards actually are right now because I don't really care. I'm relying on the testimony of others- people that USE and LOVE the MA's rate of reward and rave about them.
MA needs adjusting, definitely.Quote:The trick is, without SOME adjustment that focuses on the overall experience, then you'll keep having the dev's content be just as irrelevant as you seem to fear MA becoming.
As long as it rewards roughly the same as the 'real' game, plenty of folks will keep on using it.
I like their strategy to lure farmers back out of MA by allowing us to set our on map spawn sizes- I think it's going to work really well, provided they get the drop issue sorted.
I'm not as sure about their MA nerfs, which have some people I respect who are a lot more familiar with the system than I am pretty nervous. -
Quote:So you're also against the impending changed to badges, right?Originally Posted by Lost_Pan
It belittles the achievements of other players with vested time in the game.