Exploiters, overequipping and the rest.

[_____________Flyhard]

What I don't like about the overequipping is, that U have to have a sponsor to play a doc.... either one of your own chars or some friend who gives U the money to pay for Wrangles to equip that new armor - and all the nanos won't work anyway. Doing the changes on overquipping would (maybe) make the docs more playable. Also it would make twinking less attractive. But I think the best way to solve the overequipping problem would be to simply unequip things you cannot use anymore. Because of the overquipping, I have created a enforcer to support my doc. The doc is at lvl 74, the enforcer at 37 - but the enforcer can run missions that actually make some money - and don't tell me to make bloodplasma. I cannot solo any greens with the doc - and in teams, I don't get my part of the loot because I have to concentrate on healing and cannot find most of my share before somebody else loots it (1 minute is not much).

[Timetraveler2001]

I belive overequiping of low caracters is because they have a very nice number of NCU slots buffed and twinked on them...so they can get the highest buffs there is out there......
Make ncu memoy belts and ncu skill higher or make a tiltle lvl skill on them....

And i agree 110% with Psilock here.......

And to the ppl that says that overequippers work hard to reatch their goal....How is transfering 10 or 100 mill creds to a new caracter hard work???? We all gotta run around looking for a buff, implant, cluster and weapon that suit our skills and goals anyway....
But u guys(the overequipers and twinkers) belive that since ur running after so mutch higher skill required items, so mutch higher buffs that cost so mutch more than a "normal" player can ever dream of, make u so mutch more hard workers??? LOL u guys are so over the hills......and far away

I laugh my ass of every time i see a low lvl dude 6-10 in the arena with omni armor and a senpai coat(that goes even for clanners, who change side just to get the UBER omni armor) ...muahahhaa

[____________Ejeckted]

everybody started this game as a level1 with 0 credits.
everyone has equal opportunity to excell.
the twinks worked for thier money like everyone else.
you will pass down money and/or creds to your rerolls too one day.

IMO, these whiners are just jealous lazy short-sighted hypocrites.

this game is about numbers, strategy, equipment,
and character development. not button-mashing.
you want to win fights by being the fastest with
your fingers, go play a FPS .. or a gameboy.

[_____________Psilock]

Actually my dislike of over-equipers has nothing to do with jealousy. If you need to over-equip inorder to make up for your lack of skill as a player than that is your choice and I could care less when it comes to PvM.

But for PvP it makes a world of a differance. There is zero skill involved with over-equiping. All you need is cred to buy implants, items and wrangles. How difficult is it to make a set of implants?

Scumbug is using the word "Lazy" again. Seeing as playing an over-equiped character is less work than a standard equiped character, how that standard equiped player lazy? Explain that to me.

Over equiping does NOT add more strategy and numbers to the game. Playing around with implants and self buffs is the SAME thing as over-equiping except that over-equipping adds 132 wrangle, mochams, NCU exploits etc.

Scumbug alludes to strategy.... Explain how you are being more strategic or tactical if a lvl 100 enforcer over-equiped fights a lvl 100 enforcer who is also over-equiped? They will both have QL 200 weapons, very powerful armour and implants. How is that differant than having all players capped at say 120% max buff?

Actually I'll tell you how its differant. It will add alot more players to PvP thus making it more challenging and exciting and with more players fighting you will have more strategy.

Scumbug you and all other over-equipers who are crying "Don't nerf us" are actually just affraid that you will not have an advantage over other players and being a standard powered player probably wont even know how to play that character anymore.

One last point. Scumbug I hope that comment about character development was a joke because character development i.e. levels, have zero to do with over equiping.

There is ZERO talent to over-equiping.
It requires less skill to play an over-equiped character.

If you want to be one of the talentless, skill-less fools who pays into the gouging prices for one buff then fine with me.
But when it comes to PvP and it effects how I play and how this game was designed, that is a differant matter...

[____________Ejeckted]

Originally posted by Psilock

There is ZERO talent to over-equiping.
It requires less skill to play an over-equiped character.

no. it takes ZERO talent to Hit Q,1,2,3,4 macros.

it takes time, money, research, math, multiple implant sets,
item modifiers, and buffs from other professions,
to best optimize your equipment.

[_____________Psilock]

Originally posted by Scumbug



no. it takes ZERO talent to Hit Q,1,2,3,4 macros.

it takes time, money, research, math, multiple implant sets,
item modifiers, and buffs from other professions,
to best optimize your equipment.

Is that your reason to keep extreme over-equiping in the game?

Guess what!

An over-equiped player will fight combat in the exact same way as a standard equiped character albeit they can fight with less risk and challenge.

It takes time, money, research, math, implants, item modifiers, and buffs to optimize your equipment and stay within the game designed standard equiping.

[____________Ejeckted]

you're not 'getting it'.

caps or limitations on the gear you can equip
results in character strength based entriely on level,
which is boring and ends up with everybody being
equally mediocre.

the exisiting gamerules encourages optimization
and 'overequiping' even allows some of the otherwise
useless wierd weaker or harder to equip weapons
to be viable.

without the number game of trying to factor in
every possible way you could get an extra few points
in skills x,y,z, then AO is really just a leveling treadmil
based on killing the same 3 mutants a million times.

the problem most people have with overequiping
isnt even legitimate overequiping, it's exploits like
implant stacking where the reqs are checked before
the swap so you can keep stacking (for example)
chest strength implants over and over themselves.
this is a stupid bug that needs to be fixed before
a mandatory deequiping of all items once this and
treatment exploits and every other bug is finally squashed.

of course i want balance, but not at the expense of strategy.
i keep repeating that the ATK rating needs to be more
influential in determining damage, and all that takes is
just an adjustment to the damage formula, to make ATK
(your current skill) matter more than the QL of the weapon,
so 'overequiping' still provides a small scalable bonus but
doesnt cause more casual players to be unable to compete.

[___________stifelife]

i agree completely with Scumbug. ATk rating should have a very important role in the dmg you do. There is no reason whatsoever fo this 25% ladder skill cap nerf (or whatever you would like to fancy it up as.) Personally i see it as a, yes, nerf. Now here is how i see it. I am a level 100 crat, and a 96 soldier. Now i know that With this nerf, FC would have to tone down their monsters. I think, us, the players should give data on how.

CRAT lvl 100: (dont forget these chars are under full skill caps)
So i started off my journey, and took off all my survival gear (mostly 135 and up) and went and spent a pretty penny on buying all those neato little ql 100 gear, and supplies. My current shotgunskill is maxed at 400 and has been capped since 84. So under the current conditions, i can buff my ATK skills to 420 (shottie exp, and the suggested 25% limitations would mean that i can wear a Vecktor with 479 without any penalty. So i went and dug through my gear that i used at level 45 and found a dustly ole' vektor. Ql 94, great . So i put it on and went about my buisness. My old implant set (ql 125 which, im guessing would still be ok with the nerf in question) would allow me to make a ql 98 bot (520 mc and TS) Hmm, to bad they dont come in that QL, ok lets see the closest bot to that... Hmmm, ok ql 92 will work for this test. Lets go to the mission terminal and pick up a ql 82 mission (after all this was where i was capped.) Ok, best i can do was a 86, but hey, its 14 ql's under me i should be ok... right? Ok, yalm, numpad 0, yellow line, ok im here at the mission, lets buff up. Ok now im ready got my first aids (ql 90) and treatment (ql 120) ready to go if things get nasty. Just in case lets make 5 extra bots incase things get even worse. Ok, im ready to go. First main room mission. 3 enforcer mobs, no sweat all green-yellow, no prob right? Go get them Crat assistant. Ok sleep one, charm the other, oh wait, gooly gee that monster wont charm, its a few qls to big for my charm under this nerf, ok so ill sleep that one too. Ok, now lets start on my dd, oh, wait cant use my ql 96 under this nerf, so lets use the next one down.... for crats thats ql 58 give or tak a few. Ok, so lets do this.... Oh golly gee, my bots wacked, lets root the mob go into another room and make another bot, send him in... 4 bots later... Damn, im outta bots, hmm, well hes not hitting me too bad, hes got min dmg stuck at 123 and i have 3500 hp's. ill stick around to see how things go, maybe i can beat this guy... Ok here goes, lets root and DD. 20 casts (13 succesfull) later, man, this is ruff, im outta nano, but hey, i still have ammo left, this gun should finish him off, its been doing decent so far... 5 shots later (2 which landed dmg) wow this is getting ruff only 1056 hps left, i should split, this mobs not even down to 45%!, nah lets stick through this, for the sake of testing, lets see how far we can get this guy to death 2 vektor shots later, God, the pain!!!!!! 10 seconds later at reclaim... lets see what went wrong??!? I got the mob down to 45% hp, and thats after 6 bots, and 5 full nano recharges, 6 succesfull vektor shots (ranging from 150-300) and 43 seucessfull "dd's". Now my calculations show that these mobs need to be toned down AT LEAST 45% for me to give my all, and use 7 mins on one mob for... 1734 exp points? WTF?!? i need almost 2 mill to ding? ok so lets do some more calculations... if the mobs were toned down 45%... (which means i would have one the battle narrowly), and it takes 7 mins to kill each mob for (for the sake of eveness i rounded up) 2k exp, and i need 1.8 mill (also rounded (down)) that will take me... 116hrs and 50 mins of game time (without dying) to level. Well furthermore, lets see how long this would take me in my life. Im no powergamer... I have a job, 9-5, i play about 5 hours a day, i guess a bit more than average. So how long will it take me to achieve 1 level, at level 100, without dyeing, if the current mobs are nerfed 45%(!!!). It will take me... 23days and about 4 hours of another.... Wow, damn, thats allot, but hey, i dont solo all the time, that would be stupid of me. Due to lack of time, i figure at the current moment i get about 28k-56k a kill, when grouped. ok this i will also tone down 45%... thats 15.5-27k a kill, but it would take about 35% longer to kill since all of our equip is about 35% lower right? so thats about 10 mins a kill... lets figure this one out... 20k a kill 10 mins a kill... very scetchy i agree, but hey, if someone can do better with these stats, i welcome them... thats 19 days of str8 gaming to level once. Now im gonna take this one step further... 19days a level for 100levels. Its about 5% harder to level each time you level, so thats like 19(101) ,19.95 (102) ,20.94 (103)... = by the time a person (like me) hits 161 it will take a full year to reach the next level. How long is this game running? thats at a 45% reduction of current mobs too! (!!!).
I will test my soldier when i have the time, but in fear of this nerf of all nerfs,. im gonna level as fast as i can. Check my numbers, maybe im wrong... I sure hope so, but if im not holy @$##!!!!!!!!!!

[___________Zeroshift]

Originally posted by Morthoseth



I'm Lv67. I use a QL187 Lovemaker, and I still get whooped. My
Armor is QL115-125, using a Tsak for AGL buffs, and STR plants.
I have 200 NCU in a 6x belt, I worked hard for. I even wasted
IP early on, and JUST BEGAN to use Ruse of Tauren. I'm not l33t,
I just worked my ass off, and took things day by day. If you think
my hard work was a waste, and want to punish me for that, then
**** you, because that's the final insult. Listening to whiners....

This little F%^K is exploiting and should be banned.

[Xpie]

I'll use my own character as an example.

I play a level55 Soldier equipped with:
ql79-88 Omni-Pol Elite
ql82 Omni-Pol Tank Armour
ql120 Nova Flow
ql70 implants keyed on soldier skills


Now, I had to run around Omni-Ent, Omni-Trade, Newland and Broken Shores for hours getting people to cast these buffs, and by God, I payed for them as well;

A wrangle for 50+
Riot Control
AR mastery

The rest I buffed with basics (F.Shot, Burst, AR, and LR Energy expertise)

It was a b*tch to run around and get these buffs, but at the end of the day, the satisfaction of a 960Hp crit makes it all worth it.

The armour is not as high as it could be, but elite is expensive. I used the Doctors Iron Circle, the Enforcers Essence of (whatever the enf has) Concrete Cushions (dual wield ql10s which I bought and now lend out freely within the guild) and the normal str/stam buffs).

Nothing much, I could fit it into my NCU because comp.lit has been a priority for me, and I have comp.lit implants.


When I solo missions, I leave the skill slider on neutral, and I can kill off pretty much all that is green and yellow without loosing more than about 40% of my HP (which is at approx 1700hp self buffed -implants, boot camp toughness, and a 60 token board). That is, when I go one-on-one with a mob. When they gang up on me, I run for the exit and fight them in the entry room, one by one, and exit between kills to heal up. I don't feel like I'm too overequipped, I'm just doing my part to survive.

The only 'standard' mob I am uncertain of whether or not I am going to be able to kill is the light orange A-2000 Elite Soldier and the light orange Trader.

I use the normal buffs, with the soldier deflect shield (mk2) when I fight the tough ones. I use attack booster, boot camp toughness, and the usual other buffs.

I'm a normal soldier, and I have no illusions of kicking anyones ass in PvP.


Overequipping and the commerce surrounding it is what keeps the Rubi-Ka economy alive. If I could pick up armor I would use myself in missions, I wouldn't sell it or give to guild members, I'd use it myself, and so would everyone else. Traders would have a hell of a time selling their wrangles, and the same goes for every other post-industrial character (making credits on services, buffs & implant making etc).

Overequipping is also what a lot of players spend their 'downtime' with, when they are not out hunting or missioning. It is - to some extent - also a status symbol, unless it is overequipping to such an extent that it is negative.

I bought all my omni-pol elite armour myself, with hard-earned credits, and the same goes for the implants.

The weapon was given to me by a guildmate, and I pass my older weapons (the one before that one was a ql97 I could wear without a wrangle).

It is my belief that removing the 'normal' overequipping would be to remove one of the aspects that sets a MMORPG apart from other games, being the sense of human interaction. There is literally a vibrant commerce system on the shopping channels and between people, and to take that away would throw the in-game society into a recession.

I mission for items, xp, and tokens, and sell rare items on the shopping channel. with that revenue, I buy better armor, save up for yalms, and help new low-level (not twinking)guildmembers, with for instance, getting a 3-slot ncu belt, some low-level NCU, and kit them out with low-level armor I have left over, have friends buff them, and basically show them the ropes when it comes to (and let me stress this point) normal overequipping. I do this because it's fun and gives a sense of community and belonging.

The satisfaction of putting on good equipment is just one way the game shows its human qualities. It is a sense of self-realisation to be able to differentiate yourself, and 'look the part' with coherent armor for instance.

If this is removed, I'd just go back to playing counter-strike, because AO then, for me, will have lost what in my opinion sets it apart from other games.

IF the weapon damage vs. lvl nerf is put into action, you (FunCom) have better remove the most important reason PvM players overequip; the NPCs. Why in Gods name do you frown upon us overequipping when it is required of us to be able to solo missions our own level? A little introspective look at the game would reveal all.

[____________Ejeckted]

Originally posted by Chrkol

IF the weapon damage vs. lvl nerf is put into action, you (FunCom) have better remove the most important reason PvM players overequip; the NPCs. Why in Gods name do you frown upon us overequipping when it is required of us to be able to solo missions our own level? A little introspective look at the game would reveal all.

Funcom needs to balance the game for the average player.
If some uber hardcore player can solo a red, who cares?
So some people will (and did) get to 200 very very early.
That's how they want to play, let them.
The focus of the Funcoms approach to balance should not
be doing everything possible to make sure everybody levels
at an equal snails pace. Some players like to RP, some like to
PvP, some like to powerlevel .. what difference does it make?
Once they powerelevel thier first toon to 200,
then they'll quit or reroll. FC wants to maintain subscriptions
so they've made all the mobs increasingly difficult to slow
the powerlevelers, but they dont seem to understand that
if those players cant powerlevel they just quit sooner out of
boredom and frustration anyway.
Now they want to remove the single most fun part of AO
in another attempt to slow down leveling and gain more
control over character strength making us all equally average
and then set the pace according to these new caps.
Funcom, please realize that is not a fun game and not why
most people play mmorpgs. This is a competative game,
not the special olympics where everyone gets the same
gold medal just for participating.

Balance the game for the average player,
without trying to make us all equally average.

[Xpie]

Originally posted by Scumbug
Balance the game for the average player,
without trying to make us all equally average.

Well put mate.

[____________no alias]

Sorry but if i hadnt my ql 154 nova flow on at my poor lvl 91, i couldnt kill ONE SINGLE YELLOW MOB !!! i can do missions that are ql 70-85ish and even then they take me 2 hours or more... i stopped doing missions solo cuz there is no balance...

My conclusion:

-Let everyone over lvl75 have access to all qlvls weapons and armor!
-Under lvl75 u can as fighting class easy kill yellow mobs with not UBERequipped weaps, BUT what for all those non-fighting classes? How sucky is a lvl30 trader with a ql 40 vektor??
-Make MOBs way more easy over lvl 120... (its not normal that a lvl 140 MOB has 20k or more HP!!)

regards and stop whining plz.

[_____________Psilock]

Originally posted by Scumbug
you're not 'getting it'.

caps or limitations on the gear you can equip
results in character strength based entriely on level,
which is boring and ends up with everybody being
equally mediocre.

Scumbug, caps and limitations do appear in the QL of items that are based on level and QL of the items. Your comment about "everybody being equally mediocre" shows that you enjoy being "uber" but the fact is that the only reason you are more equiped than anyone else your level is because you have money... MONEY. Not skill, not talent, nor intelligence... all it requires is money. If everyone had the money everyone would be over-equiped and the level of "mediocrity" would increase. Regardless of over-equiping or not, you still have to level. If leveling is so boring to you why do you bother?

Originally posted by Scumbug

the exisiting gamerules encourages optimization
and 'overequiping' even allows some of the otherwise
useless wierd weaker or harder to equip weapons
to be viable.

The existing game rules have been taken beyond what was intentioned by Funcom. Take a look at all the Trader skills, the Steal skill, steal health and steal AC lines. They are all meant to be temporary to increase your str while weakening your opponent but the skill line has been abused to allow over-equiping. Optimization is one thing which I agree with but not to the point that it is beyond that characters normal ability to do so.

Originally posted by Scumbug

without the number game of trying to factor in
every possible way you could get an extra few points
in skills x,y,z, then AO is really just a leveling treadmil
based on killing the same 3 mutants a million times.

I'll tell you this AGAIN... all characters regardless of standard or over-equiping play the "number" game to enhance their character but the key is you dont have to cheat the system like over-equipers are doing.

Originally posted by Scumbug

the problem most people have with overequiping
isnt even legitimate overequiping, it's exploits like
implant stacking where the reqs are checked before
the swap so you can keep stacking (for example)
chest strength implants over and over themselves.
this is a stupid bug that needs to be fixed before
a mandatory deequiping of all items once this and
treatment exploits and every other bug is finally squashed.

Legitimate over-equiping is using implants and maybe an item or two in conjunction with maximized implants and personal buffs to get the highest skill possible. What ppl are discussing is the cheating of over-equiping by swapping implants and using wrangles to equip weapons with a max NCU.

Originally posted by Scumbug

of course i want balance, but not at the expense of strategy.
i keep repeating that the ATK rating needs to be more
influential in determining damage, and all that takes is
just an adjustment to the damage formula, to make ATK
(your current skill) matter more than the QL of the weapon,
so 'overequiping' still provides a small scalable bonus but
doesnt cause more casual players to be unable to compete.

I agree with you here and think this is a possible solution to over-equiping. Even if a lvl 70 enf has a QL 200 hammer he cannot use its full damage because his Attack skill is too low to utilize it. Funcom could set this up as a ratio and give each QL a target Attack skill. Say for example you have a QL 200 item that requires 800 skill and an enf has 400skill then at most he could do only up to half that weapons max damage.

But it is a flawed system.

What about NTs, Docs, Crats, MPs and Engineers? I think the best way is to apply how skill enhancement works for these prof as it does to everyone else. They can only use certain nanos while buffed and when that buff/skill goes away they cannot use those nanos. Why should these 5 profs be left out?

[____________Ejeckted]

Psilock,
I've already responded to all your points too many times.
read the whole thread (yes i know it's long) before posting.
that goes for everyone who post only to hear thier own voice
without reading anyone elses.

[_____________Psilock]

Scumbug, speak for yourself. Your points express your opinion but do nothing as an attempt to balance the profs and game.

You play a Trader, this is to be expected from you seeing as how traders are not only the best money makers through buffs, best trade skill prof but also the best PvP. Why would you want that to change?

Read your post? Uhm, just incase you didn't notice I disected them what twice now and refuted your points on each occasion where you just keep spamming the same thing.

I'm finished with this thread, the over-equiping is such an obvious bug/cheat its not funny. Funcom has come a long way but they seriously have to learn to stand up for themselves. The wishy-washy way in which they have dealt with this issue has only enhanced the problem.

[___________burrowowl]

A lot of people here seem to think that over-equipping is an intended mechanism of the game.

Question: If it was assumed that characters should be able to equip gear that is 30-80ql higher than their own character levels, why is there no ql300 gear circulating?

Maybe for the same reason that mobs have such high hit point values? Maybe for the same reason that Neutrals show up on everybody's tab-enemies list?

Maybe.

[______________Zlyber]

"one of Scumbugs older posts"

The problem with the anti-overequiping 'solutions' that
the anti-overequiping players suggest is that they just
dont seem to understand what it is players find FUN
about 'overequiping'.

If I can, with one single self-buff or just one wrangle
overequip to the 'cap' then there is absoultly no
motivation to do any math at all .. no reason to
have to call on 2 or 3 friends with different buffs ..
no reason to have to make multiple implants..
no reason for all these items with modifiers to exist..

you get one wrangle and ..BAM.. you're done.

that is lazy gameplay that completely dumbs down AO
for the players who love using every available option
to optimize themselves .. AO gets a whole lot simpler/stupider.

The original soltuion in the first article (with the graph)
would actually punish palyers who were 'too-good'
at overequiping by making a massively overequiped weapon
degrade in performance enough to make it sub-par to a
weapon you can just take on and off with no strategy at all.

That's a problem that will cost FC every player who enjoys
the number-crunching style of gameplay that is so great in AO.

caps = character strength based only on level = boring


the ATK rating solution is still the only solution I've heard
which would be acceptable to players like me who feel
missions and mutant-bashing is repetative and is not
be the main gameplay element of AO.

make ATK rating matter more than anything.
make ATK rating 80% of the damage calculation.
make QL of the weapon only contribute a small part of the equation.

the calculation now could easily be tweaked,
and while it may mean the HP of players/mobs also
needs to be adjusted, FC have aknowledged that
would be necessary with any soultion.

ATK rating is ONLY based on a players base skills
+ implants he is currently wearing + active buffs he
has running in his NCU right now.

This way, all methods of optimization are still worthwhile,
but a level80 player with a level200 gun is only going to
do slightly more damage than a level80 player with a QL80 gun ..
.. but it still scales according to optimization!

so a level80 player with current skills for a QL100 gun
equiped with a QL140 gun is going to do slightly more
damage than with the QL100, but a QL200 would still
be even better if he can figure out how to get it on.

I dont care about how 'uber' this makes them..
nothing should make anyone 'uber'. . that's the definition imbalance.

Im quite happy if that level80 player with a QL100 gun
does an average '200' damage per normal hit,
while the same level80 with a QL140 gun would do
an average '210' damage per hit, and then maybe with
a QL200 he can do '218' per hit ..

that's fine. that's great. he can still get himself
the most optimized he can figure out how to be,
but it doesnt imablance the game, and yet there
is still some slight reward for all the effort ..

that's all us number-crunchers want.
some small reward (and definately not a punishment)
for our time and effort.

we learned the rules, we learned every other professions buffs,
we found the players to cast them, we spent all the money on
many different implant sets just for equiping, we went out and
got that special item with the (eg)+10 melee energy modifier..

if you think overequiping is nothing but "wrangle buff me PLZ!!"
you're wrong.

-name a non-general buff that adds to flingshot?
-name a non-general buff that adds to sneakattack?
-name a non-general/non-doctor buff that adds treatment?
-how many different items can you wear at the same time
that add to piercing skill?
-name any buff that can raise shotgun skill besides trader
and general nanos.
-name 3 ways to increase brawl skill without general buffs or implants.
-name at least 3 weapons that can help you equip better armor?

if you cant answer all of these,
you dont know the rules well enough to be calling for any nerfs.

'overequiping' is just smart committed gameplay and should
have a payoff . . . not in 'uberness', but in optimization.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Listen to this guy Funcom and ill be happy... do NOT listen to those other guys who want to think of using implants and buffs as cheating. Cuz if u remove using implnats and buffs it will be very boring. Using implants and buffs is not cheating and makes the game more complex and fun. those who think using implants and buffs as cheating are just plain dumb.

[_____________Flyhard]

I aggree. I don't do heavy overequipping myself, but I think the importance of the ATK rating should be the most important in the calculation - it would even help ppl who have just started playing AO and can not afford to get all the buffs/implants/weapons to overequip....

[________________Krui]

If ATK was 75%+ of the calculation then almost no-one would be complaining about it. The most blatant exploits used to get excessively overequipped would still be in the firing line but there would be far less urgency in timetabling a fair solution to them.