[AE Vet Levels -or- Empyrean to Reward Merits]

To add my 2-cents, the argument over AE giving actual XP and/or rewards that are useable in the rest of the game was raised back on in the Live NCSoft days when AE was first introduced. Said argument was... and possibly still is... passionate.
To use my own experience of using AE, 90% of the farming I do is to level up my ever growing army of alts. A fundamental foundation of CoH is that if you want a particular Primary/Secondary set of powers on a character, then that has to be a new character. The condition we all suffer from, 'Altitis', is systemically linked to the CoH game design (and that isn't going to change). If you want to try out a new character, you can PL that character in AE (or occasionally in PI mission groups) so you can try out how that character feels at higher levels (even if in the mid-level 30/40's), because for many characters, they only start to feel good (or you can start to see the strengths and weaknesses) when you have twenty or thirty levels under your belt.

Of course, some people are purists and insist on never powerlevelling and playing the game as they believe it was intended. More power to them I say; if you like that style of game play, then go forth and kill Skuls, Personally, that kind of play is tjhe definition of pain. When I try out a character, I want to see how it feels when you have most of your powers available (I have about 150 different toons that are between level 25 and 35 who have sat unplayed for months or years as a result). Each of those was just an investment of two or three hours of fairly light farming, rather than the 10-20+ hours it would take to level the 'traditional way (assuming I could even find a steady stream of available level appropriate teams to play with).

I've drifted off the topic very slightly, but it was important to show my background and viewpoint.

- In terms of removing XP from AE entirely, while a small number of people will rejoice, most will either move their power-levelling into the pre-AE methods (such as PI missions) or they may just stop playing (at least on a regular basis).
- In terms of removing Inf from AE entirely, again a few peaople would rejoice, at least until they tried to buy set-enhancements, but the knock-on effects to the in-game market and economy in general would make most ENhancements out of the price range of the majority of the player base.

- In terms of removing the Empyrean to Merit conversion entirely? Well, that is something I can't really comment on in any depth since it's not something I've really done.

However, as good as the Homecoming player base is, it is not large enough to be able to sustain the loss of either Inf or XP from AE without serious, and most likely negative, ramifications to the size of the playerbase.
 

Personally, I'd love there to be level boosts to be available at the P2W vendor. Maybe with staggered pricing per boost level (1mil Inf for level 20, 3 mil for level 30, 5 mil for level 40, 10 mil for level 50): it would provide a fast way to get into playing your new character and putting it through it's paces, while also providing a nice Inf sink into the economy. Sure, people would still farm in AE for Inf, but people are always going to farm.

Maybe put a block on being able to earn Empyrean merits on such boosted characters until they have 20 hours played on that toon for example? Assuming that Empyrean merits remain. Maybe even remove the ability of boosted characters to earn Empyrean merits at all?! Just earning Incarnate XP and threads the old fashioned way: the price to pay for the convenience of insta-levelling (essentially you can eventually earn the incarnate levels in the broadly the same amount of played time)

The argument about giving people characters at level 50 characters instantly and being unable to play it? Yeah, we have that now.

 

Just a few rambling thoughts. Take it for what it is.

 

[Recipe Drops are screwed passed 99]

5 minutes ago, Faultline said:

 

In this case, it really is impossible. Veteran levels are a badgestat - it's the same thing that tracks how many times you've been to the top of the Atlas statue, or how many Paragon Protectors you have defeated. There's literally two places in the code where that badgestat is referenced:

• The level up function, which already grants you all the inspirations when you level up, checks if you're level 50 and then rewards you +1 to the "overleveled" badgestat.
• The "display player's infobox" that queries it to show the number.

There's simply no way that the "overleveled" badgestat could do anything at all to interfere with rewards; the rewards code is simply not aware of it. Spaghetti Code only applies to systems that actually interact with each other, and these don't.

 

I know the next question: "but veteran levels give you rewards". Well, strictly speaking, no, they don't. Those rewards are handled by badges. Every 8 seconds, every badge in the game checks its own requirements to see if it should award itself. The Veteran badges just have a requirement that the overleveled stat be >= their given number in order to award. Badges can then trigger a reward table to grant you other stuff, which is how you get the Empyreans in veteran badges, but also respecs and costume changes in level up badges and a bunch of others.

 

If there was anything that caused badgestats to affect reward tables, we would be seeing all sorts of problems everywhere, because there's almost 3000 badgestats that track different things; overleveled is the badgestat number 2824, sandwiched between 2823 visits.Cimerora2 (for visits to the Battle Hardened badge) and 2825 kills.TheFamily.Lieutenant (for killing Lieutenants of The Family faction). There's nothing special about it.

Welp! Well, that's about as definitive an answer as it's possible to get.
So the OP's issue has nothing to do with Veteran Levels. Most likely a run of bad RNG (Occam's Razor and all that) but in the off chance there's something else going on, then the OP should DM Faultline with his character and server details (assuming this has not already been done) and let him take a look to see if there's any other bug or unintended issue causing the perceived problem.
It is gratifying to know that Dev's will taike the (considerable) time to look into issues like this. Big props to Faultline!

[Recipe Drops are screwed passed 99]

5 minutes ago, LadyDee said:

Ship Raid--30+mins.....ZERO drops

TinPex TF----About 45mins to a 1hr --ZERO drops

Miss Lib TF---about 40 minutes--- ZERO drops.
By your assessment, it is perfectly within bounds to not get a single recipe drop within oh about 2-21/2 hrs. Even though on every other TF, SF, Raid I have done, normally I'd walk away with a handful even if they are crappy.

*Sigh*
Speculation
Conjecture
Presumption
Not to mention a remarkably small sample size. Faultline and several other people have run mutliple tests, using far larger sample sizes, Faultline has taken a look at the code, spoken to the GM you reported it to. Run more tests. You've been asked, several times now, to provide your character details so Faultline can actually take a detailed look at your character under controlled conditions to see if there's anything weird.
So, one hypthesis is that you are either a troll or you have serious difficulty understanding even basic concepts. You have, after all, shown that your reading comprehension of what people have ACTUALLY SAID is a bit... creative to say the least.
So, do as the nice Dev has asked you to do (provide him with your character and server details so he can replicate) and this whole issue can be properly investigated and put to bed. Alternatively, if you don't want to do as you've been asked, and still want to contribute something more to the conversation, try contributing silence.
 

[Recipe Drops are screwed passed 99]

45 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

I just did 3 runs on an asteroid with ambushes upon destruction of objects.  Each run featured a farmer build with vet levels > 99 and a sitter, level 50 with vet levels less than 99.  Here are the results

 

Run 1

Over VL 99 - 2 yellow, 2 orange

 

Unfortunately I had pre-existing white salvage so I'm not including that for this data dump.  I also didn't think to include the sub vet level 99's results

 

Run 2

Over VL 99 - 3 yellow, 2 orange, 7 white

Sub VL 99 - 3 yellow, 2 orange, 1 pvp (not included with other 2 orange) 5 white

 

Run 3

Over VL 99 - 2 yellow, 1 orange, 15 white

Sub VL 99 - 3 yellow, 1 orange, 1 purple (whoop whoop!) 12 white

 

My friendly advice, data is much more meaningful than "I talked to people in a chat channel who think drop rates are lower".  I'm not saying it has to include null hypotheses or confidence intervals (though that would certainly help) but all I see is a run of bad luck being reported.

I'm far more inclined to take this data as a reliable indicator of the general status of above 99 vet level drop rates, than some anecdotal comments from the OP.
That isn't to say that there isn't an issue with the OP's character, perhaps being flagged for no white drops but it not showing perhaps? Or a myriad of other contributing factors, including just a run of bad luck.

Not to mention a dev running an exhaustive test of the theory!

[Recipe Drops are screwed passed 99]

2 hours ago, LadyDee said:

 

Uh…<blinks> beg your pardon?!!?

Consider yourself pardoned. I'm glad we could clear that up. 🙂

[Recipe Drops are screwed passed 99]

14 minutes ago, LadyDee said:

 

I never said it was thee reason. I said it could be.

Furthermore, you are keener to point out that my friends, I, and a GM are liars. You seem far more concerned about finding out which GM came to the same conclusion as I and others have than investigating this issue. What? You want to rat him out to you? Considering, you want this information, no I will not rat him/her out to you—ever.

Your tag says, “developer” one would assume you would be more tactful and happier to investigate this issue. Not go on a tangent holding a torch and pitchfork. IMO, I certainly do not want to see another Jack Emmert and I do not want to get into a similar heated mess. (rubs forehead) Please, just no.

Let us try this again, put away your witch hunt and let us go back to being two respectful adults who are trying to help make this game better and fix problems.

I, and other people are experiencing a recipe drop shortage past level 99. I am not saying this is the cause of the problem, but something in that area could be causing it OR it could be something else entirely.  There is something strange going on because the length of time and what I was doing to get so few drops should enough cause to investigate the problem. And pile on the fact that it is not one person, its six other people.

If six people are not enough to convince the team to investigate this issue, I will gladly speak to every player on every server and put together a consensus. I will do a video highlighting my drops over four hours (or more). I will stand “naked” in Atlas Park, asking people for information regarding the recipe shortage and will donate $1.00 to any charity for viable information.

So, the team going to investigate this issue? Or do I need to break out my word pad, camera, and charity information panels? I'm all packed and ready to travel down whichever road. Which road is up to the team.

 

Woah there Tex!! Let's just take the finger off that hair-trigger for a moment, maybe slip the safety on for a hot second and take a breath.

Before you start laying down the law and making accusations, take a moment and ask yourself if asking to be treated like an adult, right after behaving like a five year old throwing a temper tantrum is going to help your case? Give the nice developer the information asked for, don't assume there's some sort of conspiracy and that you're being called a liar. All your attitude is going to achieve is aggravating the person in the best position to actually help you.

If you want to help the process by providing additional data sources, then brilliant. The devs are not the enemy (literally the opposite in fact) and taking up an adverserial approach will not speed up the process of identifying and resolving the issue.

We can all have bad days, especially in these trying times. Sometimes we can come across as a bit 'snippy' or terse when that wasn't the intention. Tiredness, stress or other frustrations can bubble over and we can vent in a way that we otherwise might not have done. So let's just cool the temperature a few points, chill out and keep things objective rather than subjective. Focus on dealing with the issue at hand, identify what the problem is, what's causing it and finding a way to fix it.

[Costume Change Emote bug]

Since the launch of the latest patch, the Dimension Shift costume emote has not been working. When you try and use it, either by typing it out or with a keybind, the emote fails to play and there is a about a 10 second delay before the character switches to the chosen costume (with no special effect).
Has anyone else encountered this bug?

 

EDIT: Sorry, someone else posted about this issue. I'm apparently an idiot and completely missed it! Please disregard this post (but not the bug, obviously!)