Bosstone

There's two main objections. One is the exclusivity issue, one is the gambling = immoral issue. They're linked, but still two different things. Given that this thread is about moral obligations, only the latter is really relevant.

And yeah, the packs aren't really gambling, but the folks who think it's immoral don't seem too concerned about the distinction.

This has been answered previously: Arcana's commentary to Tenzhi holds here too:

Time equals money. It always has. If the devs believe it should take a nontrivial amount of time to change alignments, then there is no hypocrisy or inconsistency in permitting an alignment change via a nontrivial amount of money as well.

Yep, we're not disagreeing. They could have declared it an exploit back then, saying that if you slot a defense debuff enhancement into a defense buff power you'll be disciplined. Maybe it would have been sketchy, but they could have said so. They didn't, and instead just said the ride will come to an end eventually.

Given that the reaction to the exploit could have been worse, and plenty of warning has been given, I have no problem laughing at the people who complain now.

Sure. But they could have, and would have been justified in doing so if they chose to.

Knowingly exploiting bugs is a nontrivial offense in any game. I would never ever want to play on a game that kept exploiters in just because it needed the population numbers. That creates slums.

Going back Hero? (Started Villain, switched to Hero, back to Villain now.) I probably will eventually, just because that's where all the non-cooperative action is, but I hope that the change tokens are available by the time I'm ready to switch.

Just as a personal anecdote, I'm bringing my Titan Weapons Brute up redside. I'm tricking the character out, so I wanted all the stat-enhancing Accolades, and three of them are much, much easier to get redside. The one exception is the Atlas Medallion, which is obtainable very early on as a Hero, while Marshal requires completing the LRSF. So once I hit the mid-20s, I went blueside, farmed up the Atlas Medallion, and returned to red to complete the other Accolades. (All I have left at this point are the last two exploration badges for Invader.)

It was worth it, I suppose, as I got several levels out of the tip missions, plus Come Full Circle which, as you say, not many people have, but quite frankly I would rather have bought two alignment change tokens and be done with it. Titan Weapons earns XP at a ridiculous rate, and I've had to be careful with the missions I pursue so that I don't outlevel any mayhems. I like the tip missions, and the Rogue and Vigilante missions are some of the most interesting I've ever seen in game (and I doubt many people see the 20-30 and 30-40 tips), but given that I'm pursuing specific objectives those missions were little more than chaff that only indirectly contributed to my objectives.

(If we must be immersive about it, then my Brute snuck aboard a tanker to Talos, kidnapped the fortune teller in Perez, ran around mocking heroes while cloaked under Energy Aura, and went to Striga to beat down on Council goons before sneaking back to the Rogue Isles. )

"Where is the water?" asked one fish of another.

There totally is. Only it's actually called Orange Bagel and it's owned by Einstein Brothers.

You can trust me, I'm from the Internet.

So Longbow is a villain group, then?

Yeup, depends on the character. I can't see Titan Weapons on anything BUT a Brute, really, and I love it. Meanwhile, I recently rolled a Broadsword/Shield Scrapper, both because Shield is better on Scrappers and because it's a concept that calls for controlled, consistent damage.

As for Brutes being frail...I'm still leveling my TW/EA Brute and cruising at 0x5 without any problems (except against Arachnos, of course). I expect that to ramp up swiftly in the next few levels as I start filling out slots. I've also seen an Energy Aura Brute tank Reichsman and Romulus. More frail than Tankers, yes, but they're still sturdy enough to get the job done.

I do still like Tankers for pure survivability, though. What a good Tanker can live through is nothing short of impressive.

Given that last year the ski chalet was open well into February, it's not exactly unreasonable to think it was pretty short this year.

I'd personally be happy if the ski chalet was open year round. Why not? It's not like Pocket D has seasons. The presents strewn around the zones can go away though.

Sure, and if the market only showed the top 5 in-stock prices that would also be less than helpful. It's a crap limitation and we should be able to see longer selling histories. That doesn't mean selling history is bad.

Fair enough. I know exactly what you're talking about. I just don't see how it's relevant to what I was saying.

I am not saying the 'last 5' method is perfect. In fact I think showing only the last 5 is a poor limitation. I am saying the concept of showing what prices people have been willing to buy at, ie any selling history at all is more useful than the concept of showing what prices people want to sell for. Irrespective of any other characteristic of the market, that is a plus in its favor. An ideal system would have a mix of both, but in a 1 to 1 comparison selling history comes ahead of in-stock prices. Admittedly, it's a plus in its favor for sellers, not necessarily buyers, so I suppose one's mileage may vary.

I've been on other games where they don't show you any selling history. You see 5 items on sale for 5000 to 6500. Are those actual reasonable costs that someone may eventually buy at? Or will people only buy at 2000 and some shmuck posted his at 6500, thus staying on the market long enough for other shmucks to try to undercut him, while the reasonably priced stuff moves invisibly through the market when you're not looking? As a buyer seeing those prices, is it reasonable to wait until you see 2000 if you don't know that's its moving price, or should you go ahead and buy it at the 150% markup, again not knowing if it's possible to get a better deal? It's not such a problem with popular commodities, but the rarer something is the tougher it is to get a bead on its price.

There's a difference between posting something at a premium and being patient enough to wait for someone to grab it at that price (though with the way the City market works even that's not a hot idea) and posting it so high, inadvertently or not, that nobody would ever be willing to put money down for it.