UltraAlt

Pretty arrogant statement from my point of view. But you are self-entitled to be full of yourself. I don't care if I agree with what you have to say or not based on that statement. Everyone is free to use /LFG as they see fit. (personally, I would prefer that they used /general chat to have general conversation instead of using /help or /lfg but it happens and I accept it or give them a gentle nudge in that direction if it is going on too long) Use /ignore if you don't like what other players are posting in any /insertchatchannelnamehere

It looks like the packs are fixed. I've seen a couple of "Experienced" and none of the x% XP Boosters in the packs that I have opened so far after the patch on Tuesday AM. I'm still seeing the x% XP Boosters from before in my email, so they may not be converting those to "Experienced" or, at least, not yet.

The whole point is for it to be melee set and not a ranged set. Fighting with dual pistols ... more-or-less like dual blades ... but with pistols with both pistol whipping and shooting at close range versus a ranged character fighting at melee range.

I'm still waiting for a Dual Pistols scrapper set. Melee-ranged pistol shots and pistol-whip attacks

Cross-linking exposure on this is probably a good idea if people are really interested in this.

I do think power customization with an existing set is the way to go. Arrows, Trick arrows, and devices all fit nicely into ninja sets once power customization allows more ninja-like animations (shuriken and bomb throwing versus shooting arrows). I'm kind of thinking that it would be easy to implement some shuriken powers as P2W temp powers if not used as alternate animations/SFX for the archery and trick arrow sets. We already have : 1) Envenomed daggers 2) Hand Grenades 3) Smoke Flash 4) Stun Grenades The hand grenades are a bit on the edge as far as ninja, but the other three for sure can easily fit into the ninja tool kit. The Dominator>martial assault isn't too be overlooked as it has several shuriken attacks - https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Martial_Assault The ones that I have marked below are all shuriken attacks. Power level Effect Shuriken Throw 1 Ranged, Minor DMG(Lethal) Thunder Kick 2 Melee, Moderate DMG(Smash), Minor Disorient Trick Shot 4 Ranged, Chain Moderate DMG (Lethal) Spinning Kick 10 Melee Cone, Moderate DMG(Smash), Knockdown Envenomed Blades 16 Self +Toxic Damage on all attacks Dragon's Tail 20 PBAoE Melee, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown Caltrops 28 Ranged (Location AoE), Minor DoT(Lethal), Foe -Speed Masterful Throw 35 Sniper, Extreme DMG(Lethal), Chance for DoT (Lethal) Explosive Shuriken 38 Ranged, Superior DMG(Fire), Minor Splash Damage (Fire DoT)

It's all about the power customization versus building a whole new power set. Much easier to implement.

oh? You're the only one, eh?

I told you not to get old, but ... no ... you wouldn't listen, would you?!

I can see that point of view, but it was also clearly an intentional time-eater. I think that they really expected the kind of player that they would be getting would all be making alts and not focusing on a "main" character and that they would have more time to expand the game.

I know, Greycat. You just want to be negative. That's on you.

I don't have time for your kind of behavior.

And I stopped there.

They are both superhero MMORPGS. Jack Emmert was the developer for both. Both have banned players for "cheating". I don't think the current DEVs would ban anyone for cheating. There really is no point if it is F2P, and there is no monetary interaction at all other than to support the servers to make sure that the game is operational. Anyone that cheats at this point is just cheating themselves. But if you couldn't figure out the connection ... you can imagine I mean whatever you want and you can take all the offense about it that you want to. But that's all on you. It isn't on me.

Uemura Masayuki (June 20, 1943 - December 6, 2021) was the lead architect for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES game consoles. This loss has slipped under my radar until now. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1850/ (this is on NHK an English language Japanese news website. They only keep their news stories up for a limited amount of time, so I'm going to include the text here. "Remembering Nintendo console creator Uemura Masayuki Engineer Uemura Masayuki had an outsized impact on the lives of countless children around the world. In the mid-1980s, he created a video game console for Nintendo that was known in Japan as the Famicom and elsewhere as the NES. It enjoyed enormous success, selling 60 million units and putting Super Mario, Zelda and Dragon Quest into homes everywhere. In the wake of Uemura's death in December at the age of 78, NHK's Kagawa Nao recalls a conversation he had with the gaming industry icon about his work and the nature of play. In the spring of 2019, I sat down with Uemura Masayuki to talk about what it means to "play". Some of his answers surprised me, and others resonated deeply a year later when the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way people interacted socially. Ready, player one Uemura explained to me that the Famicom's success was the result of a confluence of factors, including improvements in computer processing power, the rise of gaming media, and changes in the ways children were brought up. "I think the Famicom games were a way to play at home when urbanization made it more difficult to play outside," he said. Children took to the new type of game console with relish, but parents and teachers worried about them missing opportunities to socialize. Uemura told me he saw no such problem. "When people criticize video games, they often portray it as a lonely activity with players sitting by themselves, staring at a TV," he said. "The reality seems to be the opposite. People watch the same screen, take turns, share information. I think the games are actually a social adhesive that connect people." Global success Uemura explained that it was the Japanese knack for creating cute characters that helped make the NES a hit overseas, and he attributed that knack to the animism that has influenced Japanese culture for centuries. "The concept says objects have lives of their own," he said. "And it manifests in gaming as simple, peaceful titles that contrast with the violent games from abroad. Pac-Man is really just playing tag, and Pokemon is catching insects. Anyone in the world can understand how to play that." Uemura retired from Nintendo in 2004 but remained involved in the industry at Ritsumeikan University's game research center, where he served as director for 10 years. I asked him if gaming had anywhere left to go, having already embraced the internet and virtual reality. His answer surprised me. "We still haven't created a video game that's better than menko," he said, referring to the traditional Japanese card game in which players throw their cards onto a hard floor, aiming to flip their opponents' cards. "In terms of graphics, we have attained the highest point we can possibly reach," he said. "But we can't reproduce that physical feeling of hitting something." In fact, Uemura thought that graphics had possibly become too good, so that they no longer left enough to the imagination. He felt that was why the old graphics of his first famous console had enjoyed a revival. "People prefer it when they can use their imagination," he told me. "What your eyes see isn't realistic, but it's real in your head. The more room for imagination, the more fun it is." Future of gaming We talked about what made games fun, and whether it was possible to create one that never got dull. "Impossible," he said with a smile. "The only thing that people will never get sick of is people." Our interview took place before the coronavirus pandemic. But I was reminded of it when that started and it became more difficult to interact with people, and Nintendo's latest “Animal Crossing” game became a huge hit. Over the past two years, games have continued to evolve, and on top of that, services catering to individual users have increased and become more satisfying. But for the first time, I have truly come to understand what Uemura talked about when he said that ultimately, we never get bored with people." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masayuki_Uemura I was an Atari and Sega gamer back then and never owned a Nintendo system, but I know probably a good number of you did and enjoyed what he created for you, so I thought I should let people know about his passing.

You know full well that there is a difference between missions being repeated and missions created in the AE specifically for farming. Fire farms are created specifically to cheat the system. You know full well what I'm talking about, and don't act like you don't.

I didn't blame AE to be the root of farming. You thought that up as a rebuttal, but it isn't based on what I said. Of course, to a farmer, it wouldn't be. I don't know if banning for power leveling was done before the release of AE. There was power-leveling going on all over the place using the the old mentoring system. Banning was done the first week or so that AE was released. The DEVs caved, and I think they reactivated all the banned accounts. We don't know about banning, but I'm assuming if they reactivated one of the same thing, they reactivated all of them. They DEVs had a post where they stated that they would drop a "40 Ton Ban hammer" on anyone that did it. Might have been "100 ton" but I think it was "40 ton". After reactivating the accounts, they went back in and deleted all the DEV posts about banning accounts for violating their rules in regard to creating farming missions. They made moves to make those less farmable. They tried to make it easier to trip them so that they would complete. They also limited the number of targets that tanks could taunt so you couldn't pack 100 warwolves into a dumpster any more. (maybe not one hundred, but so many standing inside of one another that you couldn't count them) And it would be a lot slower than it is in the AE now. A lot slower. Yes. Players will cheat where they can and when they can. Most of the time they think cheating is okay as long as they can get away with it. "Account Actions Taken Today Today we indefinitely suspended over 800 accounts for egregiously exploiting a bug introduced in Game Update 119. Pending further investigation, we expect to convert most or all of these suspensions to permanent bans in January. This action is not comprehensive. Also in January, and again pending further investigation, we expect additional accounts to be suspended or permanently banned. We also expect to address at least some of the ill-gotten or even accidental gains for everyone, regardless of suspension or banned status. We will provide updates as we have them in the new year. No suspension appeals will be entertained." - https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/account-actions-taken-today.320085/

It was never intended for XP farming - especially with nerfed villain groups that could not defend themselves. The DEVs were going to ban accounts for doing this. They started banning accounts when AE was released, and there was such an uproar and so many accounts were being banned that they caved on it with a week or so. It is accurate to say that the AE was NOT created for farming. The original intent of AE was for players to create NORMAL missions like those in the GAME for other players to play and enjoy - and to give more content to the game. The AE was NOT created for Farming. Farming was "misusing" the AE. It has been accepted (and most probably the majority of AE users are farmers at this point), but that doesn't mean that is still isn't misusing the AE based on the originally design plan for AE. Farming ruined the original intent of the AE.

I've always been against farming and power-leveling. However, I think it is a little late to put the genie back in the bottle. Creating Farming missions wasn't going to be allowed in the AE and the DEVs caved within a week of the AE's release. I don't think having 1 or more level 50's should play any part in being able to use Farming/power-leveling to get a character to level 50. If you want to chop off AE XP somewhere, make it no XP until you reach level 50. (I will, however, add that I don't think that this is fair to new players that join now or in the future as prior players have already had the advantage of this) If you are trying to stop some people from power-leveling/farming to 50, then it should affect everyone. Like I said, I think it is bit little late to put the genie back in the bottle.