Positron Speaks on MA Farm Abuse (Official Forums) - Printable Version +- Drunkard's Walk Forums (http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums) +-- Forum: General (http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: The Legendary (http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=14) +--- Thread: Positron Speaks on MA Farm Abuse (Official Forums) (/showthread.php?tid=5203) |
Positron Speaks on MA Farm Abuse (Official Forums) - Acyl - 05-05-2009 Link to board post Quote:When we created Mission Architect, the goal was to have an outlet for players to craft cool stories, using our assets, that other players could play and participate in. Other players could rate those stories and the best-of-the best would rise to the top.EDIT: I was simply going to draw attention to this without commentary, but it bears mentioning - there are, naturally, a lot of folks upset regarding the threat of possible character removal (or at least character lock) - it's not clear whether this will apply going forward to folks who PL via MA exploits, or whether it'll also apply retroactively. Personally, I doubt they'd smack everyone who just got a handful of levels from this. Indeed, I doubt they'd make it retroactive either; too much risk of pissing people off. But, y'know, right now...you can see the supernova flames on the forums (and in Atlas Park) from orbit. -- Acyl - Sweno - 05-05-2009 I'll take this as a very real threat. So no more farming for me. Terr? you may want to pull that ritki/bomb mission. -Terry ----- "so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today" TF2: Spy - Sofaspud - 05-05-2009 Y'know, the funny thing? With the exception of one character, a new one I rolled up couple days ago... all of the farm runs I've been on have been more about playing than farming. The XP and such was nice, but it really seemed like we were there hanging out, RPing, and chatting more than, y'know, grinding away for XP. Not that that'll matter -- after all, the devs can't peek in our heads and see what the motivations were, and they can't take our word for it either -- but I'm somewhat amused in a dark way by the thought that, because I was actually playing and having fun with friends but just in the wrong fashion that one (or more) of my characters might get axed. Or worse, I guess. Posi sounds pretty pissed. Anyway. Guess we'll see what happens. --sofaspud --"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs - Acyl - 05-05-2009 I'm pretty sure they'd only banhammer really blatant and ridiculous cases. There's naturally a lot of folks who are unhappy that the criteria for your characters going poof is...nebulous at best. What's the line? Is this gonna be retroactive or not? And that's fair, I think - it's the sort of statement that makes folks nervous. It's a big threat, and the uncertainty hits many people. After all, many folks have at least been on a farm by this point, and this is the kind of visceral threat that conjures worst-case scenarios. Pushes all the emotional buttons too. My character! Mine! You're not taking it away! BAD NCsoft! Bad! On the other hand, I see why the devs might not want to be too clear about that threat - I mean, they certainly don't wanna say...okay, it's fine if you powerlevel up to this point, but after that, no! Precise guidelines would be sorta silly here, and counterproductive. I really doubt they'll go around hammering the crap out of most players; that'd be silly and a good way to alienate most folks. Also bear in mind that the vast majority of players do not read the forums. Indeed the changes pushed out in today's patch came as a shock to many people. I suspect we're safe on that front. As for blatant farming missions, well - I'm not in favour of farming as such, but I recognize why people like it. 's entirely possible to still make vast and difficult XP-crunching maps - like Terr's Roman thing, for instance - without them also being obviously banhammer material. I can think of a few ways off the top of my head. Also bear in mind - the primary concern here is abuse of exploits, and MA missions becoming all about the quick rewards instead of storyline. One can always make a mission both resonably profitable and amusing, story-wise. The two are not mutually exclusive. EDIT: As an aside, today's patch is massive - 38 mb, I think. Probably because there were a whole lot of MA tweaks, and it ain't just nerfin' the comm officers either. The power breakdown for standard/hard/extreme difficulty on critters has been tightened up to address the ZOMG CUSTOM CRITTERS ARE OVERPOWAHED problem, for instance. -- Acyl E-I-E-I-O - Render - 05-05-2009 I think Positron is putting players on notice that action can be taken against them as well as the creators of the arc. I don't know what they consider egregious, but I think they're looking more at the gold farmer turned ticket farmer who's screwing up the game economy than the casual player who pushes a character up a few levels. I expected them to close exploits and take action against people who write nothing but farm missions, or continue after being asked to stop, but I didn't expect them to do anything to the player, so I appreciate having some warning. Personally, I doubt they'll make it retroactive unless someone went from 1 to 50 without leaving the AE building or something. In my case, even if they did, I'm not sure I'd care. I played the farm because certain toons aren't as fun to play through the 'right' way. Why do I even have those characters still? They're concept chars or archetypes I didn't want to just give up on after putting time into them, but I'm sick of grinding through levels hoping things will get better, or that I'll eventually hit 50 so I can 'retire' them. Maybe I should just re-roll those characters or delete them myself, and stick to toons that are fun to play for their own sake. - Acyl - 05-05-2009 I think quite a lot of people used the comm officer farms (and others) for specific instrumental reasons. For instance, OpMegs and myself ran lowbie spiders up to 24 so we could get the crab arms. Stuff like that. Given that so many folks powerlevelled in some way, I doubt action - if any - will be that broad. They'd have to drop a nuke on Atlas. It'll be the only way to hit everyone. -- Acyl - Wiregeek - 05-05-2009 I think Terr's safe - he's never gained a level with a Meow mish, and he's only got a Boss Farm published - and thanks to Acyl, that boss farm isn't a 'bare' farm, it's got a cloak of decency over it's naughty bits. I also defy someone to claim that that mission is lacking in risk. "No can brain today. Want cheezeburger." From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies - Matrix Dragon - 05-05-2009 Them's fighting words Posi! - Sweno - 05-06-2009 oh I fully agree that romangeddon should be safe as a challenge mission. It's the mission we were running this weekend (ritki w/ bombs) that is iffy. -Terry ----- "so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today" TF2: Spy - Terrenceknight - 05-06-2009 Yeah The Rikti missions were not mine, Just romeageddon and Wire's right again is -I- didn't get a single level while Meowing, granted I did help others get..multiple levels, and I ended up getting tickets in the process...lots of tickets. - OpMegs - 05-06-2009 Quote: Wiredgeek wrote:Well.... It is. If you're Terrence. And solo. And your mind has been compressed to the level of sheer diamond so that the endless hordes of Romans are the APPEAL, not an endless drudgery only made up for by the XP/Inf rewards. --- "Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay waste." - Terrenceknight - 05-06-2009 Ahhh OM your snarky comments always amuse me, but one day I'll have to smite you in mock rightous anger for all your taunts *grin* but for now..I suppose you may continue to live.. But the mission isn't risk free For me..2 spawns so bout 6 bosses and the pressure is on to kill them before they pound me into the dirt because of cascade defence failure ..and yes romans are appealing...the rewards are nice too smartass - Vyperpunk - 05-07-2009 -teh farmer cracks knuckles- Oddly enough, I loath that farmers are abusing the MA system. It's a beautiful concept... allowing players to create their own lil worlds and express themselves. The MA abuse will only lead to removal of this small bit of creativity (aside from the character creator itself) players have been allotted. All the MA I've played since the start has had content outside of the farming aspect and I've really, really had a whole lot of fun running through other player's arcs. Not a single farm among them (assuming we're not counting TK's roman map). So... farmer be damned, I'm standing with Posi on this one and I LOATH his TF with a fiery passion. - Acyl - 05-08-2009 For anyone not following the official forums, Positron has made a follow-up post Quote:After reading most of the thread spawned by my “Abusing Mission Architect” post, I figured I needed to follow up on a few of the points I brought up. You guys had a lot of the same questions, so I think I can answer them FAQ style. Seems fair enough to me. -- Acyl |