COTCaveHater

Laevateinn's thread about an investment scheme got me thinking about inf transfers. I'm assuming everyone knows how to use the market to transfer inf between their own toons, if you don't see here (click).

I think it might be possible to send inf to a friend, offline. It may even be possible to trade influence for infamy and vice versa without both players being online at the same time. It does require a degree of trust, but not much more than a normal inf trade.

Imagine Allan wants to send 10M inf to Brad.

1. Brad buys a transfer item as per the paragonwiki article e.g. a level 52 Training: Confuse
2. Brad sends an in-game email to Allan saying "I have listed the only level 52 Training: Confuse for sale. The most recent sale is 2009-08-06 12:34 for 250 inf. Please buy it for 10,052,928". Note that Brad uses a random "signature" in the amount, rather than spending exactly 10M. This is key, Brad must email that amount to himself as well (or write it down).
3. Allan logs on and checks that the last sale for the item is unchanged (if so, he emails Brad and they try again).
4. Allan buys the item for 10,052,928
5. Next time Brad logs on, he checks the sale and sees it sold for the magic number. He knows that the inf came from Allan.

Infamy-Influence trades could be a bit different:
Imagine Allan wants to sell 10M infamy in exchange for 12M influence.
1. Allan lists his transfer item on WW for exactly 10M inf and notes down the last trade
2. Allan posts his desired trade in this forum and the details of his transfer item including last sale
3. Brad buys the transfer item from WW for 10,009,317, and emails Allan the amount he paid. Brad also lists a second transfer item at WW.
4. Allan checks the transaction and buys the second transfer item using the same "signature" that Brad used (12,009,317).

For Laevateinn's investment fund, Laevateinn could organise a transfer item for his/her customers to use to receive their dividends.

Why is the market forum in 'Player Help'? It should be in the PVP section.

1. There is no morality with respect to the in-game market. We do not think one player "killing" another player in PvP is immoral, so therefore one player "ripping off" another is not immoral. It is just a game, and the market can be avoided just like PvP zones.

2. Some players enjoy flipping and some enjoy farming. Reducing the ability of these players to participate in the activities they enjoy does not mean that they will suddenly turn into awesome teamies. If you think these flippers and farmers are evil greedy players why do you want to push them into your PUGs?

3. All scarcity in the game is put there artificially by the devs. If you want prices to go down, or availability of certain items to go up, the devs need to change the drop rates. Player behaviour won't do it, because if items are dropping more (or less) frequently than the devs want, they will adjust the game, just as they have done for activities that earn xp more quickly than they want.

4. CoX is five years old. It should be no surprise to anyone that there is a hard core of players that farm/flip etc. It should be no surprise to anyone that it is harder to team than five years ago. New content that attracts new players is what is needed in the game. Meddling with drop/market mechanics is a waste of dev time because it does not bring new players into the game.

5. If buying up all the salvage and then dribbling it back on to the market was profitable, I'd sure as heck do it, but it simply is not profitable. Sure, you can buy 100 items and sell 10 for twice as much as you bought, but you aren't profiting, you are just stockpiling unsaleable items. Trust me on this, I bought all the Luck Charms (see my sig).

6. The way the game is designed, flippers are actually renting out their time, inf and auction slots. I spam bids across multiple recipe levels and relist any I purchase. Another player who does not have the slots or inf or patience to do this can then buy the items I relist.

A while ago, but yep. Anyone know how to scale images with the IMG tag??

I've been buying up Crushing Impact recipes (particularly redside) and crafting them for sale... although with the number of available crafted enh's available I'd say you are talking about level 50 enhs, which I don't craft. Also, I don't spam more than 10 bids for any one recipe. IMHO Recipe and Enh are different markets (ie people don't necessarily check both when buying stuff) and there can be a disconnect between the two. In the past redside enhs were often selling for less than the recipes, as they weren't listed on the market as frequently. Players respeccing can be a source of cheap enhs as they might dump 10 Set IOs on the market.

The personal attacks have continued, so I have PMed a moderator and asked for this thread to be locked

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In other words, people will happily cut off their nose, just to spite their face.

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I think that is a bit uncharitable. Players will tend to engage in in-game activities that they enjoy. If they don't enjoy marketing, they won't do it. And so it should be, CoX is a leisure activity.

The problem is when players think that the way they play is the 'proper' way to play and that the reward system should benefit their playstyle over all other playstyles.

What is best for everyone is if there are many reward systems in the game that benefit different playstyles in different ways. Which is what we have. That's why there are so many currencies in the game.

Marketing is probably the most efficient inf generator per unit time. Which is probably okay, since it is the worst at generating xp.

AE is probably the best combo inf/xp generator in the game. This is probably okay too, since the game is five years old and player-generated content is a good strategy for the game's survival - a core of players can self-generate the content they want in the game and provide a stable revenue base while simultaneously cutting costs.
EDIT: added quote for clarity.

Heh.

I've actually dropped my opposition to a market merge... since AE I don't think the markets are different enough in character to keep them separate. The good news (for me) is that they are more like the pre-AE redside market than the blue, IMO.

It could, however, just be that I've been marketing less and don't notice the difference any more <shrug>

I still think Going Rouge will end up in a market merge, or at least a defacto merge. What market will Rogues buy from?

(*sigh* All this thread needs is for someone to mention merging the markets and then it will be the THREAD OF PAIN! )

FWIW my guess is that the devs don't really look at inf levels in the game, past perhaps the three stats of total inf in the game, inf creation rate and inf destruction rate... although given the inflation we've seen of late I doubt they even look at these.

I suspect they actually look at the amount of items in the game, and also items/time played.

Inf doesn't unbalance the game. Stuff does. If I never spend my billion influence, it may as well not exist. More to the point, if one day I suddenly do decide to spend 1B inf, the item I want has to be in the game for me to buy it. If the devs control the stuff, then the inf will look after itself.

P.S. Everyone should stop the personal attacks or I'll request that a mod lock the thread. I'm serious. I'm like a crazed weasel! I could explode any minute like an overripe paint tin!!! Inside a weasel!!

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I suppose it takes a certain type of person to be drawn into the act of getting rich at the expense of other people. The sad thing you can't do it in real life and have to get your kicks in a video game...then act all high and mighty like your something special and talk down to people. Way to go guys. Good job.


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It suppose it takes a certain type of person to be drawn into the act of dressing in spandex and killing gangsters with a katana. The sad thing you can't do it in real life and have to get your kicks in a video game...then act all high and mighty like your something special and talk down to people. Way to go guys. Good job.

Wait a minute...

or the over-ripe odour of base salvage

I ask you, what is the point of giving out free inf if you aren't going to make them humiliate themselves to get it? :-)

Back in the day I paid a bunch of lowbies 100K each to spell out the first letter of my character's name (Graal)... (click)

JoJo improved his offer?? I'm not ready for the rapture!!

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So seriously Devs, do you want purple sets to be THAT rare that they cost over a billion inf? It would seem this ridiculous inflation is either do to a.) all people do is farm AE which equals no purples, b.) folks are just buying inf from those dirtbag .com sites, or c.) a little of both.

I don't have an answer, but this [censored] is ridiculous. You put things into the game and then create a situation where only folks that farm AE 24/7, or purchase infamy from an offsite .com can afford to buy them.....which motivates people to farm even more and buy more infamy from offsite .coms. Please do [b]something.....

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* The devs do not read this forum
* Any rarity in the game is put in there by the devs.
* Players that farm subsidise the rest of us. One ultra-uber-pvp-rare takes maybe an hour to add to the game, but keeps farmers occupied for weeks. That leaves more resources for the devs to add real content.
* It is actually quite easy to make 100's of millions in the game - just read this forum
* There is no moral component to the in-game market because it is just a game. Killing another player in a PvP zone is not immoral, so ripping them off in the market is not either. In both cases they have chosen to be in that zone.
* Even if one thinks there is a moral component to the market, one can make all the inf one needs by crafting items for sale, which is a constructive win-win activity

Typo sales have added more to my wealth than I care to admit

I wonder if it would be more fun to have a single thread for all the 1B/2B posts?

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Click powers then on the top left click combat attributes. You can monitor up to 8 or 10 (not quite sure on the number) of attributes

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Ahah! Right-click to monitor... thanks!

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Let's say you're buying, I dunno, Swan's Ridiculous Heels: Chance for Inappropriate Comment.

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I SO want that proc...

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With that hairstyle?!

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You'll make more than 20% if you just keep the item and flip it.

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the point

you seem to have missed it.

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Not at all. The service being offered is almost indistinguishable from flipping. At best the OP will be subsidising his client... it's a form of protectionism I guess.

EDIT: Although, the client will provide some useful information in the type of item desired.

Stupid question - how does one get that little floating box with the game stats in it to appear?

Crushing Impact, Positron's Blast and Mako's Bite have always been good to me. Level 30s you can pick up for 100K or so and sell for 1-3M (redside)