The_Alt_oholic

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Farmer: enjoys finding and running the content that gives the best "Bang for the Buck".

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Tripp,

I have to say this definition sounds like a farmer's self-praise.

It says nothing about repeatedly playing the same mission...forever if they can get away with it - which is what farming is.

...finding and repeating running missions without completing them for what they perceive to be the best "Bang for the Buck"...

It isn't really "content" it's "missions".

I don't even think they are necessarily the "best bang for the buck" if you aren't getting the mission complete xp/inf. Phat loot maybe. "best bang for the buck" is pretty generic.

The current definition also blurs the line between farmers and PL'rs quite a bit. Not that the two don't usually go hand-in-hand.

A player being power-leveled definitely fits the current definition of a farmer. Though they often don't actually "run" in the missions. It's kind of a zen thing - running without running.

I'll and on non-exploiter separately as they are deemed a separate group, and I -- as a player -- am apparently unable to determine what an exploiter is - only the DEVs can.

I'm not sure if that is really the case either.

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Just as a response to part of the post above, pressing the Spam reports the player to Customer Support, and if the Global is flagged enough times they will be banned.

Or at least I believe that is how the system works, but it's not like everyone isn't pressing spam on the same person anyways.

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And that is part of the problem banning does not = deletion. After 72 hour or so the RMT's can jump back on and spam with the same account all over again....I'm not even sure that they are banned for 72 hours.

It is posting an exploit to explain why this is a ludicrous method of dealing with people profiteering off the game.
I'm not going to point fingers about which kind of players would be more likely to be able to throw around lots of money and, therefore, more likely to buy from these punks, but that should be rather obvious as well.

Regardless, this has become a real pain. Players are pretty much continuously posting that filters should be built into the e-mail system.

I have some ideas of how to deal with this situation as well, it is pointless to post them here so that the RMTs know how to get around methods that I would employ to deal with them. I think that RMT's would be more actively taking notes of what to avoid versus the DEVs picking up ideas for helping to put a stop to the RMT'ing at any rate at this point. It has been an ongoing issue for so long that they have had a plenty of time to do something about it if they really wanted to. it is not high on their priority list....that much is abundantly obvious.

CoX covers it all with City of [variable].

City of X, where X = Heroes :: Going Rogue ~ in this case.

I think the Going Rouge is more gender flipping then alignment flipping or perhaps a transvestite of Justice?

Blue light district? Red light district? It all adds up to about the same thing I guess...

Something unsavory is about to start happening....

I won't be redoing any of my arcs as the content improves. I will be fixing them to make sure that they work.
I already have 3 posted and I'm working on more. Since there is a limit of 3, I will be rotating what arcs I have completed in those 3 slots.
So I'm not going to go back and refine when I can make new ones. I worked to make the content fit into the confines of the system.
I'll do the same thing with the new missions I make.

I'm interested in making cool arcs and not worrying about limiting myself to 3. I've already capped that limit.
I have over 5 new arcs in the works now.

It is pretty clear that this is the solution. Hopefully i15 on the test servers is is doing just this.
At least one of each level - minion, lt, boss. Preferably a couple of each rank.
The mechanics of the game know what to do they have the right options to pick from.

I also think that all mob groups should be required to have at least one critter with ranged attacks, fight, or reflection.

I'm leaning towards thinking that bosses, ebs, and AVs should always have reflections (for flight) by default.

All of these things would help reduce the rampant abuse that is occurring.

Brings whole new meaning to City of Heroes :: Going Rouge!

I guess some people weren't wrong when they were misspelling it. Why not change sexes if you can change sides?
I doubt DCUO will try to match it!

I doubt my characters will do either, but for some...they can have their fun too.

But how exactly would the mechanics work?
Seems a bit overly simple just to go to the tailor for a little snippy-snip and some sewing.
...but then, maybe some are going the easy route and simply cross-dressing...

(no insult meant to anyone regarding this subject)

I'm against it.
Melee archetypes are just that.

Tankers are constantly trying to get more attack powers. If tankers want more damage or ranged attacks, they should team with archetypes that supply those powers.

Even if ranged damage is capped to what tanker damage does now, that doesn't balance the fact that it would be ranged. It would have to cost much more endurance and do far less damage than what a tanker would normally do in order to balance out the advantage of having ranged attacks and superior ranged defense (which all tankers have).

I understand that you would like to mini-max the benefits of ranged damage with the ability to hover-snipe in complete armored-safety, but I see this to be over-kill and believe it would cause a great imbalance in the game.

I agree that it is frustrating, especially having to take out all the "html color tags" - etc, edit the text for length, and then put them all back in again so that the text clues are colored correctly.

This could definitely implemented better.

Will it stop me from writing text that squeezes in just below the bar? No.

Will it curtail my eloquence? Yeah, editing constraints have always done that to me. I tend to over write and then have to go back and hack-and-slash edit to make my concepts fit in the way that I want them to. So I'm used to that.

Would I really like to keep all the adverbs and adjectives in? Yeah, they add color, feel, etc. - that's why they exist. Unfortunately, they are often the first to go when it comes to editing for length.

Next cut are the complex sentence structures I want to use and the words that I thought fit best.

In the end product, content has to come first as far as I'm concerned. So sometimes my writing turn out to be far more dry than I would like. At least, the information is there.

Luckily in the MA, I actually have more word count to play with than I have had in many other occasions. I wish there was a higher word count in many of the smaller fields, but I'll deal with what I have to work with.

Of course, some MA'rs don't even bother with "Thanks" or "Curses", but then again, those people aren't worried about "the story".

Don't give up! It is a little rough some times, but it can be done - and you can do it.

When you have it the way you like it, it will feel great to know that you were able to accomplish it even if it a bit of hard to accomplish - or maybe just because of that?

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As a long time listener first time caller, I feel that indeed the grand sweeping effort to "cleanse" the game after this issue which is no small problem to the game was over the top. The first rule people should remember about humans is that we will find and break your stuff. Sometimes it is completely accidental. Other times we wanna see what she can do.


People who were hit by the hammer-of-the-modsquad erroneously should be doctored by those that hit them.

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You are quite right.

I agree that the players that abused the MA should make it up to the DEVs for punching them below the belt.

Thanks for taking time to look at what I wrote and add your opinions.

It should be clear at this point that ::

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Good point and I agree, but I really don't see the devs doing anything like this... it'd anger WAY too many players.

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...has been invalidated.

Sometimes the DEVs can think up really good ideas but their fore-sight is some what lacking. I hope that is because they are always looking out for the benevolence of players and not dwelling on the malevolence.

Prometheus, where are you!? Your bother Epimethius runs amok again!

I pointed out what I did not because I think that the DEVs aren't intelligent enough to understand or to already be thinking about what I brought up, but rather to point it out so that it is not over-looked.

When I see the same pothole in the road every day, I avoid it, call to have it fixed, etc. I don't drive into it every day and say - hey - there is that pothole again...ah, who cares - meanwhile my cars alignment is being shot to Hades.

My post was a friendly reminder - hey, I saw some potholes. I'm going to avoid them. You're my friend, so I'm warning you about some bad ones I saw.

It looks like no one but you has any input on the matter, which I found quite odd. Possibly they are making all the same assumptions that you are....I, however, seriously doubt that is the case....

....I'm getting a bad feeling about this...

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WTF is hover sniping? lol

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It wasn't just that it was hover sniping either.
It was the fact that it was hover sniping mobs that had no ranged attacks at all.
Though some groups of enemies have limited numbers of ranged attacks, almost all of them do in the normal game. For some of these "normal" mobs you can hover far enough away to snipe without getting return fire.

The placement of mobs that "couldn't fight back" in the MA (aka abusing the MA) caused this situation.

Not only were players making mobs that couldn't fight back against flying opponents they were using group fly to keep non fliers in the air, placing destructible objects that blew up to kill or badly injury non-ranged foe, etc.

The ranged attacks on melee enemies aren't going to be removed. If they were removed, players would be abusing the MA content as soon as the change went live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(DC_Comics)

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Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, due in part to a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was an illegal infringement of Superman. In 1972, DC licensed the Marvel Family characters and returned them to publication, acquiring all rights to the characters by 1991....
....
Because Marvel Comics trademarked their Captain Marvel comic book during the interim between the original Captain Marvel's Fawcett years and DC years, DC Comics is unable to promote and market their Captain Marvel/Marvel Family properties under that name. Since 1972, DC has instead used the trademark Shazam! as the title of their comic books and thus the name under which they market and promote the character. Consequently, Captain Marvel himself is sometimes erroneously referred to as Shazam.

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You are right.
Memory can be a tricky thing some times after a bunch of years since checking into/reading something.

I treat the different servers like the different Earths in DC comics.
I start counting alphabetically so Champion is Earth-1, Freedom is Earth-2, etc.

I think a spectacular way to do it is to do some kind of rant about dimensional forces or some such, "self-destruct" using the self-destruct power, log out, server transfer, and then appear all of a sudden (use an Awaken) on the other server with comments about what happened, etc.

Of course for maximum impact, self-destruct where people witness it and reappear where people witness it. (I'm assuming you will "reappear" on the new server where you were on the one that you were originally on - so it's really the same spot.)

You could always go for the waking up in the hospital thinking you are sick or something as the world isn't quite the same way you remember it.
Dramatic fore-shadowing in character leading up to your sudden "dimensional shift", the more time the better, is just the RP icing on the cake.

I find this really ironic.

DC sued Fawcet Comics because they said that Captain Marvel was a rip-off of Superman. I can't remember if Fawcett lost this case, but I know that they were pretty much shutdown by paper-rationing that appeared to be directed about them from what ever was or thought to be their politcal views.
Later on DC bought the rights for Captain Marvel. When they put out a Captain Marvel comic, Marvel sued DC because "marvel" was part the characters name on the title of the book. For a while, Captain Marvel was running around as Shazam.

Then Marvel put out Captain Marvel. So you can figure what happened to end up up with the name of Captain Mar'vel.

Marvel Comics sued NCSoft over Marvel look-alike characters in the game. There aren't supposed to be Marvel or Marvel-like characters in this game.

You can bet when DCUO drops (if not before), there is going to be an increase in characters/players getting /petitioned for DC-like characters. There really aren't supposed to be DC or DC-like characters in this game either.

Anyone that has been through the generic-izing of all the Hulks, Captain Americas, Ironmans (Ironmen?), etc. should know that this happens - and it should come as no shock that it does.

I agree with the other posters that something does seem fishy about some of the statements.

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AFTER that happened, now the GMs are demanding that the toon be deleted outright OR the player's 5 tear running account will be banned.

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This does not ring true at all.
The GM's don't need permission to delete a character or an account.

I would more suspect that the player was warned that if they kept changing their character costume back to the the "banned" costume that their character would be deleted or the account banned.
But this is speculation.

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I've seen a few arcs which could definitely be called "derivative works" of the printed CoH books / comics.* Not only are they not removed, some have even made it to Devs' Choice.
..........
* Someone even said to me: "Isn't anything we do using ingame content (maps, critters, etc.) considered a `derivative work` since it's copyrighted material?"

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I agree completely that anything generated in game with the MA is derivative of CoX.
But that is stretching the point.
Of course, you can use game-content in the game and, of course, you could relate your work to content that was generated to be part of the game history/environment.

You know that isn't what I'm talking about.
This is isn't about extremes. It is about what is meant by what his posted as rules for us to follow.

Clearly what you did was derivative. It was derived from Fantastic Voyage. You flatly point to that when you talked about Fantastic Voyage in the blurb.
To me the title is clearly a parody even if the mission isn't - if it has to do with "shrinking down" and going inside of someones body.... It sounds like a parody for me regardless if it has characters that were from the original story or not.

Do I think that you are a bad person or wrong for creating a parody or derivative work?
No.

Am I questioning how the no derivative/no parody rule in the EULA, etc. is enforced and what it actually means?
Yes.

Is it only handling situations where the copyright holders know what is going on and are taking active action to have it stopped?

We know that Marvel isn't going to want Marvel derivative content or Parodies of Marvel stories, characters, groups created in the MA/AE.

I'm assuming that with the DC game coming out, that they will pretty rapidly step up their campaign on this level too - especially when their title drops.

We all know how Lucas is about this kind of thing. Disney too.

It shouldn't need to take a copyright holder to complain in order to require the EULA to kick in under certain circumstances.

I like this game. Sometimes the rules are here to protect it. I have the feeling that the no parody/no derivative works rule is here to protect Paragon Studios more than it is in place to protect us.

When a DEV/Redname comes to the boards and posts something that implies that they are backing a certain kind of behavior that appears to have been outlined as not acceptable in the EULA, etc. - it implicates them in that behavior.

I know I like to play CoX. Probably too much so.
I would hate to see this game get shutdown because of something the EULA was created to protect them from.

Would you?

That is what I'm talking about, so that's why I started posting in regards to this. Maybe I should have been more clear and to the point in my first posting here.
I was hoping that it could be figured out before I had to point at the thing and say why is that certain thing going on that appears to be potentially endangering the game.

I think it is good that you are creating missions in MA.
I hope everyone creates well-thought out content for the MA.

I think we can do it without being derivative or creating parodies. I think that the EULA, etc. clearly state that we are not to create derivative or parodies in the MA.

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*Does the math*

That means you get at most half of your normal powers!
Wow. "To each his own," indeed.

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I can play the same power sets (primary/secondary) switch up pools and powers I pick and have a completely different character/play-style with the same sets (primary/secondary).

Part of this is because I'm more of a character-conception player. I try to go with what "will work" but I'm not concerned at all with mini-maxing my build.

Believe me, if Champions Online was really Champions the RPG Online, I'd be pulling out my "save it for a rainy day" one-clip, one-use, only usable at night, only usable when there is a full moon, only works if its wet, obvious-accessible focus lay-down and don't get back up attack from power-gaming heaven, but this isn't that kind of game and I've gotten to the point that beating the math isn't the issue any more ... I like to play for flavor and enjoy the game for the fun of it.

Done.
I'm really tired of the garbage.
Bye, Flea.

I've never had issues with you that moved me to put you on ignore, but if you can't understand why I would want to put someone on ignore....like I said - bye.

There are many posters in this thread that I already have on ignore that I won't be responding to. I don't know if I've ignored 50 people on the forums yet, but I'd say over the years - I think I've gotten up to at least 25.
All-in-all, that is a very small number of players - far less than I have put on gignore in the game - but then again - there are far less players here.

I'll be on the forums, but I am actively weeding out the garbage that I don't want to have to deal with - unfortunately, that means using the ignore function so that I don't have to get frustrated or upset about garbage that I don't want to see.

You know - the DEVs are doing this too.
So if you want to be heard by the DEVs - at all - I'd reign in some of the garbage.

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Ignicity has kind of gotten on people's nerves with the constant posting of the issue, and perhaps some of the arguments he's had in the past on other issues... but I promised him that if he could convince me that what he was saying was right that I'd support him, and he has, and I am.

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You are quite right.
That player is on my nerves so much that I put him on ignore so that I didn't have to hear what he had to say any more.

Thank you for speaking for him so that I have to listen to him after I put him on ignore.

I guess that means that I have to put you on ignore as well.

Bye.

There is no "end-game" until you have filled-up all your character slots, ran all those characters up to 50, put purple-IO sets in both builds of each character, ran all the tf/sf, played all the archetypes with the various combination of powers, played all the content in the MA/AE, earned all the badges with all your characters, ran out of ideas for making your own missions in the MA/AE, fought in the arena and various PvP zones, and/or get tired of playing the game.

The "end-game" for me will probably be when the servers are finally shutdown for good.
I don't see that happening any time soon.

So what do I do at "end-game in CoX"?

Throw a big Wake and party like no tomorrow for a great game that has been a joy to play for so many years.

The AE/MA is still very cool. In fact, it is being improved.
Some players have been upset by changes to the system that were implemented because people were abusing the content in order to get them more quickly than what the DEVs intended.
It is a very cool system and I think it is fun to create and run my own missions.
It is a little hard to find good content generated by other people due to a rating system that has been contaminated/corrupted by "rate mine 5 and I'll rate yours 5" groups and random griefing by some to 1 star missions that have held 5 stars over a large number of plays.
They system itself is not the problem. It's how it is being used that is really the issue.
And, like I said, making missions is cool. The interface is easy to use to make mission arcs that "run"/function just like those in the game - albeit in the AE and not in the City/Ilse at large.

There are still CoH and CoV box sets out there on the market that are selling far below the website costs of the game. Any CoH or CoV box will get you access to CoH and CoV for a month. Then there is the monthly fee.
The City of "Going Rogue" will require you to have CoX (CoH and CoV) already installed - it is not stand-alone like CoV was. Co "Going Rogue" will be a full priced box set like CoV was when it first came out.

In general, the game is mostly free "expansions" of content. The DEVs are working on i15 now.

There are "boosters" available that give you additional content and these do cost something. These include some powers that - though are not required - are usually cool or useful to have. They also include costume parts and emotes. These include the GvE, Cyborg, Magic, etc.

Then there is the special booster - flight pack that is a fee per month of use. This is the only booster that has an on-going charge.

Of course, there is a monthly fee that will vary depending upon if you use time cards or subscribe through the website for 6-months or 12-month periods.

I hope you sign up. It's a great game.
Welcome to the City.

I usually give players are least 3 chances before I kick them from the team.
Each chance comes with a warning.

If I think that players on the team might be more helpful if they did a certainthing, or have buff powers that could help me - I usually as if they will please use them on me.

If a character/player is pretty much just obnoxious, they are going to end up getting kicked from my teams.

Players that stand inside of the door of a mission and do nothing are going to get kicked.

If a player keeps rushing into battle before the team is ready and causing team wipes, they are going to get kicked.

If I kick someone from a team, it is not unusual that one or more players tell me that the kicked player should have been kicked and that I was very patient giving them the opportunities that I did to stop whatever behavior of theirs that was causing the issue.

I thought it gave you a warning if it had stuff in it, but it would still let you sell it.

It's been a while since I tried to delete a table with something in it, so maybe something was updated to prevent it that I'm not aware of.

And, if for some reason you can, delete a storage item with stuff in it, you will lose the stuff in it.

You can move storage without losing it, so you might be able to juggle stuff around that way by moving it from room to room.

If that's how you want to build your power sets - go for it.

I can't say that I've ever done that.

It's rare that I don't get 4 power pools on a character and, when I get up high enough for the Epic powers, I usually get at least 3 of them.

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Set a time limit on how long a Mission can remain in a players Mission Tray.

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I'm sure that it has been pointed out that this is a "timed mission".
The DEVs have said that they have put timers on some missions that were being farmed.


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Now, before someone says this wont work in AE, I will remind you that I said Kill Farming In-Game, not AE which they are already addressing.

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I'm putting timers on my AE missions, but, when it comes down to it, as long as you can play a mission/arc more than once it can be farmed. So technically, you can't stop farming in the AE if a player can repeatedly select the same mission.

There are various levels/degrees of farming. The DEVs are supposed to be working to be putting to the stop the most aggressive and abusive forms of farming that have increased since the MA went live.

When you street fight and the mobs re-spawn, you are technically farming.
But I think we all know what "farming" is, what "farming-like" behavior, and ...yes...I dare say it...what abusive farming is.

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Devs, you should realize that if you read this and do it you will chase off a big portion of your income. The percentage of your playerbase that are active Farmers.

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What is "big"?
I think it is far less active farmers than you would think.

I also think that if someone joined the game just to be able to abuse it, they weren't joining for good reason.
They also didn't read the EULA. We are to report game exploits.

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But this would Kill Farming.

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I don't think farming can be killed in the game. I really think it is impossible.

I do think that the abusive farming/pl'ing can be curbed, be stopped, bemonitored, and be punished.

We are told to report exploits that we see in the game so that they won't be abused.
Players that create exploits intentionally and not only spread the idea that exploits are good but promote other players to exploit the game shouldn't be shocked when they get hit with the +20 40-ton hammer of ultimate smack down.

But I don't think that farming can be entirely stopped.

Some people don't see the forest because of the trees.

To argue that CoX isn't a RP game is just pretty silly to me and it seems that the people that want to argue it with me are rude in general, so I guess I made my point to the rational.
They were the only ones I was trying to reach anyway.