x2 Artifact Xp on this weekend. Nope???

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/further-account-actions-taken-today.320653/

"After careful review, we have decided to move forward with the following actions to address the fallout from this exploit.


We will remove all exploited experience gains. Regardless of whether someone exploited a little or a lot, all items will have the exploited experience deducted from their current totals.

We will permanently ban the most egregious exploiters, repeat offenders, and dummy accounts made just for exploiting. This will be a much smaller number than we initially anticipated based on further investigation and because...

We will remove all experience on items that received exploited experience in excess of 10% of their total - for the currently suspended accounts, if those suspensions are not converted into permanent bans. That means those items will be reset to 0 experience and all progress will be lost. For most players/items, this is a tremendous loss of experience that far outweighs the attempted illegitimate gains."

Not sure then if they just missed a lot… but I know A LOT of people who kept 5,6,7+ 200 arts from that exploit… maybe they missed a few hundred… only people I know who got banned were those using dummy accounts that got like 30+ arts to 200 from having 0 in one day. They say they did all that, but I know for a fact theres people running around with exploited artifacts that never got removed 100% over the “10%” excess.

Nah, as I recall, they got hit pretty hard, having many things set back to 0. The Atlantean pack yeah...not sure they got hit that bad there, but the XP one they did.

Edit: Quantum Edge referred to the post with the outcome statement. If they 100% followed through, that's debatable. I only know 1 person personally who really hit it hard. I have never seen him log on since (don't have his PSN...so IRL don't know if it was a ban, or he just rage quit).

Well like I said in my reply to the other guy, unless they missed out hundreds of people. Theres a dozen guys in my league right now that got temp banned for this and got multiple to 200 from 160s etc, kept them all after being unbanned.

I'm sure some missed the net...or were purposely left out of it.

Right. We were all speculating the damage this would do on the endgame playerbase from 800+ players either getting perm’d or having their arts reset to 0, nothing really changed… and just the fact I know personally dozens of people that kept their arts, yeah, I don’t know about how many people they actually reset.

I was newly back to the game, so I didn't know anyone who exploited, I certainly heard a lot of grumbling about it on these forums at the time.

Yeah, I don't personally know anyone that at least admits to doing that one. I know one guy who did the Aquaman pack and the only thing they took from him was the quarks....but he only did like 10 of them (150 stablizers btw). 2 weeks or whatever later...back in just short some quarks.

I'm actually surprised that one didn't draw more ire from the devs. Stabilzers are their bread and butter...that one was a direct assault on future sales not only from them but the game as a whole. Whereas exploiting XP only hurt sales for XP on those that exploited, a mountain of available stabilizers means more goods from TCs in the game, meaning more goods sold on the broker meaning less Stablizer sales from other users potentially. I'm surprised the ban hammer didn't hit harder on that 2nd one. Or maybe it did?

Edit: nevermind someone beat me to it
First and third thing on this list: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/further-account-actions-taken-today.320653/

No, you were and are giving really bad advice for a new player, it's not worth leveling an artifact as you get it, because by the time the week comes around you'll have only just got it leveled, give or take (if at all) and you'll have nothing left to take advantage of the bonus week.

I'm fine with getting the artifacts to 80, there's a reasonable boost in potential between having no artifacts and having even 80's.

But because we're talking about 1.68million XP being required to get the level 200 artifact it simply isn't worth drip feeding it, you are mathematically better off simply taking advantage of the bonus weeks, The only time I would ever feed it otherwise is when you actually have enough nth metal to actually obtain the level and you perhaps can't be bothered waiting, even if that's in the long run hurting you.

But you should be stashing it aside until such a time as either a bonus week arrives or you can make that decision, you should never drip feed the artifacts, is utterly and entirely sub-optimal.

This is nothing about ego.

And what happens if ya cant play during that week? Oh go another who knows how long without artifacts??? How much inventory does a fresh new player have? Its utterly sub optimal to play without artifacts.

And the ego thing isnt about how you level nth metal, its having 20 maxed arts to tac swap to be on top of the scorecard, along with all the other meta stuff you do.

Not at all, you're making this about ego when it isn't. My diverse artifacts aren't even necessarily used to tac swap, despite the fact I do utilize them in that fashion at times, because why not..., They're because they provide a plethora of different options that can provide demonstrable advantages in different scenarios.

I don't build the artifacts to flex, it's not really about flexing it's about having a multitude of options to be more efficient in ones role.

if for example I want to tank a certain way, there's more adds, I might use Mystic, Manacles, Laz Pit, let's say I don't want the Laz Pit, or there's less adds, I might stick on an Everyman, Let's say there's heaps of adds to cc, I might use a Lasso.

Let's say I need EOG for putting down greens, or don't want pets on a build so I use strat card instead of Quislet, those sorts of things.

Also that is why I said you should save the Nth Metal until at the very least you have enough to just get the level and be done with it, you should never be feeding Nth metal as you get it, it's silly.

If you then for any reason, missed the bonus week, then you can just feed it to complete the level and the only thing you've lost is the potential or choose not too and wait even longer with even more Nth metal.

The reason for this is because the extremity of Nth Metal actually required, it takes time to save the 1.68mil required for a rank 200 artifact so it makes no sense to just drip feed it for the early gain when saving it to feed all at once stands a better chance of being able to take advantage of any said bonus.

As for the storage space, not going to apologize for that, anyone playing this game with any level of serious intent is either paying to subscribe or has purchased additional space or has a bank character available to store all this sort of stuff on.

Again, this is not about ego, this is about playing smart, of which your recommendation is quite frankly not.

You're better to save and then make an informed decision when either a bonus arrives or you've got enough to level something properly.

I'm just going to say if you are someone that can't log in for 15 minutes to take advantage of a bonus week, those artifacts were never going to get serious attention to begin with.

I mean you could be unfortunately on holiday or something, but generally speaking yeah, entirely agree. If you can't find the time somewhere in a bonus week to log in and take advantage of the bonus, then I don't know what to say right, rank 200 artifacts probably won't make a difference because they're probably playing event mode

Or ya know, I went on a camping trip, it happens. And I missed another one before that because of work. Sorry to tell ya some people value real life over video games, from your comment I assume you are not one of those people.

Soooooo because I've unfortunately missed a week here and there, I'm not a good enough player to run at least regular or elite. Hmmm. I must have bought my full dps and full tank elite gear from a flea market then.

Just bring your PS/Laptop on the trip....I, er hear, some junkies have done that.

Please stop getting mad at the bonus weeks. The more complaints means the bigger chance that they stop them altogether.

Bonus weeks are not a set schedule and can change at any time. We usually get 2x artifact fortification right before the launch of a new artifact. Based on what Ranmaru was saying, we are close to another artifact. So expect one sometime between now and the next DLC.

I understand life happens but it's still a dumb strategy to level an artifact outside of a bonus week unless it's under 80.

Is it though? If you save and save then happen to miss the week, then gotta wait another 4 months for a bonus week therefore not using any artifacts for 8 months?

That's what happened to me and I said screw it I'd rather have some progression than none at all for that long.

The events arent guaranteed both by the devs and by my availability. In fact the only reason the devs put out the 2x nth is to get us to spend all of it before they release a new artifact therefore encouraging people to spend more to level the new one.

I'm not arguing that double events arent better leveling, I'm just arguing that sitting on a 0 to 80 artifact for that long is not the best approach either. If you have over 3, 200 artifacts than yeah, you can hoard away without any impact on your day to day. But if you have no artifacts or they're all under 120, then maybe it's best to level them so they are usable. I stop leveling mine at 160, and then start again during double events. I also stockpile the detectors for the event. Then it's the best of both. I still level and use them, and then get more return during the bonus week, if it lines up with a time I can play.