Another_Fan

[ QUOTE ]
Harder to get parked toons than I thought it would be. :/

But I'magonna try it. We'll see.

[/ QUOTE ]

In addition to difficulty settings we need a slider for spawn size.

Very funny thread.

Mostly in what isn't being said. Which is how a merged market would be a giant boost for the purchasing power of the people who have done well redside working the thin market. They would now have inexpensive goods to spend their infamy on.

While, a merged market would undoubtedly benefit everyone in the long run, this is a game and giving any particular group a giant benefit needs to be considered carefully.

Thank you for your efforts. Hard data can be difficult to obtain and there is very little inf gained in making it publicly available.

[ QUOTE ]
Hmm. if a merit is three minutes of TF work [call it five with overhead], that equates to roughly 6 million inf per hour. And that's very roughly the earning capacity of a level 50... so it passes the sanity check.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you are running fast task forces it actually doubles or more the earning capacity of a level 50.

[ QUOTE ]
It pretty much can't be done for the same reason that everyone sees different objects being thrown by Propel.

[/ QUOTE ]

So i might be the only one to see giant clowns being thrown ?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My big problem with Purples is more something strange I see going on with my 50 toons,
Drops in general seem a whole lot sparcer than earlier level ranges, in that its not unknown for me to run through an entire cycle of newspaper missions( that is 5 or so before your asked to visit Wiggy), and get only maybe 2-3 recipes( any recipes), out of it. Contrast this my lower level alts, where I can get maybe 2-3 recipes per mission at least.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guessed this is going on as well. Human beings are notoriously bad at guessing at randomness so I won't call it a "fact". However, I do keep wondering if the devs have lowered the drop rate.

[/ QUOTE ]

It would certainly be consistent with other actions they have taken of late. The entire purpose of the merit seems to have been to decrease the supply of enhances. Never mind that enhancing characters is what many people enjoy most about the game.

It would toss in recent price changes as added evidence but there are too many variables.

A hearty thank you to everyone contributing to this very useful enterprise.

[ QUOTE ]
well, then there's nothing I can do respond to such illogic.

[/ QUOTE ]

Illogic ? From a man who argues with a straight face that its sensible to make global changes to fix problems in specific powersets instead of just the powersets.

Yes I don't doubt you can't respond.

[ QUOTE ]
You realize Elusivity is a tool that can be used to 'fix powersets', right?

[/ QUOTE ]

You do realize its an attempt to find an easy fix via a global slider rather than fine tuning the powers and how they behave ?

The term to describe elusivity is Kluge. Trying to "Fine Tune" with it is going to be adding kluges on top of kluges which there are plenty enough of in the game . The problem of elusivity is that it is not clever enough by half. Its trying to tweak the to hit model to deal with one end of the scale and destroying everything thats not at that end of the scale. Instead of trying to be clever (lazy ?) the defense sets need other components to keep them competitive in pvp. Which with the way things work now would have been doable.

The to hit formula with the exception of the clamps was rather elegant and one of the better parts of the game. Now it looks like it will be tweaked into insanity as tweaks are added to fix the last set of tweaks.

[ QUOTE ]
SR is unhittable, Ninjutsu is still kind of weak, and squishies are way too hard to hit. But it can be fixed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Better to put it back the way it was and fix the powersets. Its a much simpler task and will break fewer other things.

[ QUOTE ]
And sad to say, this is why I think they should end the level pact part of the game. Greedy people.

[/ QUOTE ]

And another game nazi heard from

[ QUOTE ]
I'm disappointed that of your top 5, every one a seasoned veteran of the market forum, not one followed the golden rule:

never place a bid ending in zero!

[/ QUOTE ]

If they were real ebil marketeers they would have smurphy to pay them for helping him out

[ QUOTE ]
The Pool C and D recipes weren't previously available to players who didn't do TFs and trials, except through consignment houses. Did that mean that the game was City of TFs before? Those recipes are now available to players who don't do TFs and trials.

The diminished rate now is better than the no rate I had previously.

People who didn't do TFs and trials before are probably going to be even less interested in doing them now. I know that's the case for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps accolades and badges should also be available at the merit store.

[ QUOTE ]
you should try reading the release notes...I am hardly an NC Soft cheerleader, but there is a lot more in i13 than meets the eye....and if ya don't like it and miss PvP - enjoy WoW!

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL I don't care how the stage gets set. I just care that the actors have good delivery.

[ QUOTE ]
Your point? You have a lot of guys too, and feel differently then i do? Shocker. We don't matter.

Then why all the ranting?

Let me break it down for you, and this will go over like a lead balloon but it's the truth: the fact is you don't really like making new characters. You like having them. If you liked making them you'd enjoy the process, not look for ways to cut it down as much as possible so you can get the result.

Me, I enjoy both. I like having well-built characters but if I didn't earn them, what's the point? Short-cutting the process is like cheating at solitaire.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nobody ever stopped you from playing the game your way. You seem to have an obsession about other people play it though.

This whole business about players not pooling their resources ? What do you care ? Nobody is holding a gun to your head and saying twink out your characters.

Then there was that whole series you did saying merits would help the new player get to uber when you are now saying its best if they do it at your slow pace.


Well you may think this issue is the best thing since sliced bread but here is what I see.

1. 2 new story arcs that are pretty much indistinguishable from every other story arc in the game.

2. Changes to the reward system that just slowed up everybody's rate of obtaining (At least until some people game the system(Hint level up a scrapper/ sink every thing you can into purples for him/ use him as your farmer/ Vill side use a brute))

3 PVP changes that are loved by people like yourself that hate PVP

4. Day Jobs: Content for people that don't play the game.

5. New Badge UI: A nice plus what took so long ?

6. Shields: Looks nice tastes bad

7. Pain Dom: Yay what took so long ?

8: Promises I14 is going to be the big one.

Its a little thin just a little.

[ QUOTE ]
Your point was if an MMOG did provide people what they wanted it would go out of business. My point is O'rly ?

What's the career length of your typical *ahem* provider?

[/ QUOTE ]

Define your terms ? Just who or what is the provider ?

But anyway longer than the average lifespan of a gaming company.

[ QUOTE ]
And for the third time, that's because they can't not let you get around it. Even if an MMO had one server and a one character/account rule people could still buy multiple accounts. If they limited accounts to one per person people would get friends to hold accounts for them. And if they did all that they'd go out of business because they'd have torqued off everyone.

We can't prevent crime 100% but that doesn't mean we should forget about having police. MMOs can't prevent people from twinking their own characters but that doesn't mean they should encourage it

[/ QUOTE ]

You forgot shutting down every game that gave people the option to prevent them from leaving.



[ QUOTE ]
You're making my argument for me. The World's Oldest Profession persists because some people want what they want and they want it now and with no thought for the consequences. And the truth is that they only want what they think they want (physical intimacy) and not what they really need (emotional intimacy). And the practice is harmful, to the people who provide it, to the people who patronize it and even to society in general, though that argument is outside the scope of this forum.

[/ QUOTE ]

On the subject of its merits who cares. Your point was if an MMOG did provide people what they wanted it would go out of business. My point is O'rly ?

[ QUOTE ]
I agree that City is too easy, but the solution to that, strangely enough, is not to make it easier

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL putting challenge into the game portions of the game has nothing to do with making people jump through pointless hoops in the non game portions. Perhaps they could spice up the game by making people do the 1040 long form before they sign on

Making merits non tradeable has done nothing except irritate players.

I13: Irritation and Obstinance ?

[ QUOTE ]
Players as a group are overwhelmingly likely to be in favor of anything that lets them gain power faster. They want more experience, more loot, more cash, more social status, whatever. If you give it to them, your campaign will spiral into Monty Haul-ism and probably die. The players will blame you for it.

[/ QUOTE ]

1st Theory vs Reality.
Your statement seems fine on paper. The problem is that every successful MMOG lets people get around the character = distinct individual idea. Matter of fact so does life. I observe the worlds oldest and most durable profession is based on giving people what they want when they want it and how they want it.

This is going to be a step back for most players. Its a greater step back for new players who now may be farmed by TLs.

[ QUOTE ]
There are people who enjoy the Monty Haul environment, but again, that's pathological behavior. Catering to them is a bad idea. These people don't care if the game has any challenge or even point left to it. They just want to log in with their level quadzillion Fighter/Mage/Thief/Archvillain/Demigod and utterly destroy anything in their way by the dozens. It's not too surprising that many of these types find their way into PvP, armchair psychology left as an exercise for the reader.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm I won't go into the PVP psychology issue, I will note I see similar obsessive behavior in any sport and just about every time I hit the links. ( I will break par at Doral and Boca Resort before I die. I will I will I will).

But your assumption about the game being a challenge ? HAH. I have a build a situation and a strategy after that its the random number generator. The only challenge is finding new and interesting ways to beat the scenarios down hard.

I will note the merit has been beaten by the people you cite as problems already. When I 13 goes live they will be set to start reaping merits rapidly and have already stocked up on items that will likely go up in value significantly.

I don't even want to think about the RMTers wet dream that is the combination of leveling pacts being able to turn off xp and the merit.

[ QUOTE ]
Why? Nice statments but where is the explanation? What's wrong with the way i currently do things? What am I exploiting? And where have the dev's said as much?

Allowing characters owned by the same player to interact results in pathological behavior. Every character in any RPG is supposed to earn its own progress. That's the ideal. That ideal can't be reached in an MMO, even with draconian measures that are worse than the problem itself. SWG originally allowed only a single character per server, which even the designer had to admit wouldn't stop anyone willing to pay for multiple accounts. That does not, however, mean it is OK to just say "to hell with it" and make self-twinking easy. It can, and should, be made arbitrarily difficult. That won't eliminate the damage but it will contain it.

Under i13 rules you can earn merits on one character until you get the desired reward, whether that's a roll or a specific recipe, then craft that recipe, leave the IO on a base rack and have another character pick it up, or get a friend to help you trade it over. It shouldn't be any easier than that. Making merits tradeable would mean they could be bartered for cash, which would essentially make them the same as cash. Part of the reason for introducing merits is that the cash economy in this game is beyond salvage by any means the developers would even consider implementing (we need a cash wipe, but that's not going to happen). Making them account based would mean either throwing out the diminished returns rule or applying that as account-based as well, which may not even be possible with their current architecture. I have 13 heroes on Virtue, e.g., meaning given RL time constraints I could run the same TF with them all as much as I wanted and pool all those merits instantly. Not just no, but HELL no.

[/ QUOTE ]

A small observation here, most of the people playing this game don't seem to enjoy it in the manner you described. As it stands many are even willing to have extra accounts even though they don't really need them in the game. Some even play multiple accounts at the same time.

Perhaps just perhaps there is something in the game that they enjoy and you just aren't getting.

Now here is the kicker just why should these customers be treated shabbily and be forced to play your way instead of the way they currently do ?

[ QUOTE ]
Well the worst for trying to start one to completing for me was 3 attempts over 12 hours....


I have never run more than 4 on a Posi since.


[/ QUOTE ]

Taken from the market forum posi times thread. Which then goes on to work out optimum merit amounts for multiple accounts.

Yep the merit will help out the casual/new gamer who is purpled out and can run positron with 4 accounts in under 2 hours

(rolls eyes)

[ QUOTE ]
That's close to the idea. I don't really need the money. I do want to slow down their leveling. I didn't feel like figuring out what 5 people to choose. I figured this would be fun. I'll let you guys decide what a level 50 with no effort is worth.

... and I'm an attention oar.

[/ QUOTE ]

The last email I got from our friends the RMT was $200 or so for a PL 1 to 50 in 4 days. Yours will no doubt take longer so call it half price ?

So $100 in inf would be ? About 500 million at current rates of exchange.

Given the fact that this is a strictly inf transaction I'd say that would be the floor for the value not the top.

And to think some people make the claim that I13 was well thought out.

I expect this is going to be giant improvement for the RMT people.

[ QUOTE ]
I just love when people assume that forum reg dates are the same as when someone started the game...

That aside, you're still wrong. Stalkers, for example were never nerfed "way back when". But they were buffed...and rather well, at that.

[/ QUOTE ]

IIRC they came in underpowered.

If you want a recent example of the bias PGT villainside.

Not only was it a rapid and major nerf, there was no thought to the need to either rebalance the set or allow people to respec.( Most would probably want to respec out of traps and would probably just delete the chars in disgust, but the principle is the same)

[ QUOTE ]
The most I've ever had at one time is 15 million and that is only because I managed to luck out and get a knockback protection IO.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's amazing to me. I have never had a character that failed to have at least about 20-30 million on hand by the time they reach 50. Usually they hit 10-30 million range by their late 30s early 40s

None of that is from marketing. Except from selling items acquired through killing things.

[ QUOTE ]
And people who aren't willing to pay above the arbitragers's price floor? They'll have to get it from merits, or else won't get their shinies until they change their mind.

Right, people will, when faced with absurd prices, tell the flippers to go do something biologically impossible and get what they want from merits.

I'm sure our cafeteria capitalists won't mind a little competition.

[/ QUOTE ]

Strong hatred is in this one.

Soon he will turn to the darkside ?

Seriously You think 120 million inf is absurd compared to running 5 positrons ?

I bet there are people that would gladly part with a lotg if they could have gotten TF commander without positron.