MMORPG.com City of Heroes Correspondent Cecil Adkins writes this look at the recent changes to the XP system for Mission Architect, how they affect the use of the system and the players that use it.

In addition to bringing the long-awaited feature of powers customization to City of Heroes, Issue 16: Power Spectrum also introduced more changes to the Mission Architect. Debuting in Issue 14, the Mission Architect gives City of Heroes players the ability to create their own custom enemies and missions and publish them for the enjoyment of their friends and the rest of the game's community. It was supposed to be a defining enhancement to the game, allowing players to flex their storytelling muscles and help add interesting and varied content to the game world.

Well, some of that happened, but what also happened was that the Mission Architect was used to create customized powerleveling missions, some of which were downright exploitative of game and MA mechanics and were in no way what the developers intended. Some players used the MA to level themselves or others to 50 in record time, sometimes taking less than a single day to do so. Punishments were handed down, and some (a very few) of the worst offenders lost access to characters that had been powerleveled so quickly. A few things were done in minor patches shortly after Issue 14 to limit powerleveling (mostly involving removal of low-risk or easy-to-beat mobs), but Issue 16 brought a plethora of changes to experience gains in the MA that affect both powerlevelers and legitimate MA storytellers.

Read about the Mission Architect XP Changes.