FourSpeed

The OS bitness, per se, is not the key factor, true.

The actual factor is going to be the math libraries of the compiler they're
using.

That said, the standard libraries for C, C++ back when this game was written
are almost certainly going to use long int as the signed integer variable type.

At that point, appx -2B to +2B is the hard limit.

Are there libraries that implement larger numbers? Certainly. Mathematica
was doing so in the 1980's...

I'd bet a bunch of inf though, that the code this game is written in very probably
uses the standard long int data type prevalent in the 32 bit OS implementations
of the compiler.

Can they change it? Sure.

Are they likely to? I very seriously doubt it.


Regards,
4

/this.

As a dedicated solo player, iStuff kinda bugs me for the quoted reason.

Alas, a few of my toons *want* the goodies, so they sucked it up and teamed.

ITF and LGTF are pretty popular and very good for building your Alpha powers.

Another one I haven't seen mentioned is Rikti MotherShip Raids. They're also
quite popular, drop a lot of shards, and also provide large numbers of Vanguard
Merits, which can be exchanged for the G'rai Matter component daily.

I found that running those a few times (just one, and a little luck, can get
you your T1 Alpha Power), got my few Incarnates up to the level-shifted
Alpha Power (T3) in pretty short order.


GL,
4

That's a good point. I neglected the AE vector. With all the ambush/fire farms
cropping up lately, that probably is a/the major supplier. Even so, their M.O. is
typically to vendor, or outright trash the marginal stuff, and craft the few valuable
recipes leftover, so in actuality that affects only a select handful of IOs (albeit
useful ones).

The point I was getting at, is that I see nothing in F2P that will improve the
health of the low-mid range market. In fact, the points you raise are additional
factors that will sustain the drought in those niches (the prior IOs notwithstanding).

I disagree with the first quoted sentence. If the supply of purples does
drop, thus raising demand/prices, a point that I do agree with, that effect
will also apply to the rares needed to craft them. I would expect the tix -> rare
salvage approach to remain quite viable and lucrative.

So, you could simply cash those 9999 tix for 18 pieces of rare salvage. If
you spread them among several types (ie. not just Platinum, for instance), I'd
expect to get 2M or more for them. That comes out to 36M (or more) for
substantially less effort.

I'm inclined to agree. First, F2P cannot use Purples without paying, so they're
effectively out of the equation. Second, the ones who do pay for the "privilege"
will likely fall into the same iTrials trend as the VIPs. The real demographics
change c/would be caused by the downgraders (VIP -> Premium), but I'm not
getting the sense there will be very many of those (based on what I've read so far).


Regards,
4

It is.

2^32 is the maximum size for an unsigned integer on a 32 bit OS (like Windows).

That number is around 4B, but they're using signed integers (ie. they can represent
both positive and negative values), so the actual practical range is ~ -2B to +2B.

As for the OP, I store my excess on other alts and/or as lowball bids on
actual Good Stuff, so if they do clean up 51-53 enhancement entries it
will have no impact on me.

To TopDoc: Taxes? What are those? My funds are kept in some rather
secretive accounts in offshore banks affiliated with the Rogue Isles...
Sure, there may be a little graft and greasing of palms here and there,
but the percentages are far better than those Do-Gooders in Paragon City
would be paying their government...


Cheers,
4

If ever there was an appropriate time for a /jranger response, this is it.

Simply put... No.


Regards,
4

He's probably just running a BAF and you can't see everyone else in the
picture because it zoomed in on him and his quarry...


Cheers,
4

That's an interesting question.

As Fulmens points out, if you use the definition of "master=control of", then
clearly we are not, since we do not, and for most part proved that we can not,
"control" the market, except for relatively minor and temporary effects in a niche.
The Devs are the masters in that category as they can add, remove or change
any aspect of the market at their whim.

If you use the definition of "master=expert of", then the answer is a slam-dunk,

Yes.

There is no doubt that the regulars on this forum are Experts at inf acquisition
using the Market, and I'd venture to guess that some of our regulars understand
the usage and nuances of the Market better than those that created it.

In terms of inf acquisition, regulars of this forum have demonstrated and documented
the most effective techniques and strategies to gain inf in the game. No other
method (by itself) is faster or more effective than the Market.

They've demonstrated the ability to acquire hundreds of billions of inf in a matter
of weeks (the VG Prestige "hostile" takeover projects).

They've measured and documented dozens of strategies for acquisition from simple
to hardcore. These include vendoring, flipping, crafting, various forms of ticket
and merit conversion. They cover every in-game commodity that can be used
for inf acquistion from enhancements to inspies to salvage to tickets and
anything else that has an inf value (real or implied).

I think the relative inactivity is a result of two key factors.

1> In the present implementation there aren't any ways to make inf that we
don't know about. We've found them, explored them, and often, documented
them as well. There's nothing new that isn't a wrinkle on something else. Even
the latest uses of Threads and Empryeans are only a subclass of ticket/merit
conversion.

2> There's less whining. My guess is that it is SO easy to make inf these days,
that there simply is no practical way to be poor anymore... As a secondary
thought, maybe some of our guides have become common enough knowledge
throughout the player base (ie. critical mass) that more players are simply accepting
the Market as a part of the core game (like stores/contacts were a core part).

Whatever the actual reason, we see a lot fewer "Evil Manipulation" claims, and far
more "Hey, I finally made a billion myself" claims. Personally, I like that.

I have no doubt that we are Masters/Experts of the Market as it is today.

Tomorrow? Who knows? What the Devs do with/to it?

But, I'd bet that whatever it is, the regulars of this forum would be among the first
to analyze, utilize and document whatever new techniques are needed to acquire
inf based on any changes that occur.

To me, I think that qualifies as Mastering the Market...


Regards,
4

First, and by far, most important, build your character how you like - when all is
said and done, YOU are the person that has to play it.

That said, I find some of the choices interesting.

Comparing it to the Dirk Chintzy build, yours looks more like a Tank than a Brute
to me... First, you've built a lot of Taunt into the build. Second, it under-performs
the Dirk build (which is a LOT cheaper than the one you list) in DPS. It will distinctly
under-perform in DPS compared to most (if not all) high-end builds.

I find the 48 HP/s regen a tad too low, but that's largely because I recall the good
ole days when Regen Builds were, in fact, unkillable (and nerfed back to the stone
age because of it). These days, I find Regen greatly underestimated by most folks.
That's not too surprising, because it's very hard to get on most toons any more,
so Def is pretty much all they have - SS/WP is a notable exception.

You took Strength of Will. Personally, imho, it's a meh power - not in what it does,
but in how it does it. First, you don't need the recovery - your End is already
good, and you have room for three +End Perf Shifters if you want. End is a non-issue.
Typically, if you need the Res though, things have already gone south, and if it
isn't solved by the time SoW crashes, you're dead. Further, imho, Darkest Night
is far more effective and useful for mitigation, and Barrier, along with High Regen,
is an outright - "can't kill me combo" for all but iTrial AVs and some GMs'.

Finally, I wonder at going out of your way for high S/L def on a SS/WP Brute.
First, 1/2 of the S/L damage won't even count due to resist, and 2nd, high regen
takes care of the other 1/2... Far better, imho, to boost def to the other types
so your Brute can deal with more enemy factions than Council...

On top of that, you only gained 11% vs the Dirk build, at a cost of the other
damage types, and having only 2 of your attacks reach Ed cap for damage.

Definitely a different direction than I take - that's the blaster in me - Dead targets
aren't a problem... Def only helps against the live ones...

That said, a lot of this is quibbling over a few percent here, a few DPS there,
etc. so it's largely a minor issue overall, and the toon will probably work just
fine for you in most content.

I just found some of the choices interesting comparatively.

In any case, I'll re-iterate the most important point - it's your toon and you
should build it and play it in whichever way you like.

Enjoy!


Regards,
4

My first toon, and namesake, is an Elec/Elec Blaster that I played in the
original beta and carried over into the live game release way back when.

He hit L50 in I-3, and I still have him, and his original SO build.

When dual builds came out, I made his second build with Frankenslotted IO's,
and I still play him occasionally on that build, and have started him (albeit
slowly) down the Incarnate path.

While I have many other L50 toons, including some that have opened up all
the Incarnate slots, with T3/T4 goodies in them, I still enjoy flying the original
FourSpeed around now & then.


Cheers,
4

Now, looking at it, it doesn't even get close to the targets I listed above, coming in
at 1944 HP, 44% S/L Resist, ~46 HP/s Regen vs 1 mob, and ~25% Def.

Still, I've seen worse builds out there, and this one will outperform an SO build,
for not much more inf.

But it's only *part* of the story. First, you'll see some empty slots in there. These
are for *nice* IO's (that you'll probably want to get with A-merits). If you flip
the powers over to their alternates, and flip on the Accolades button, you'll
see it slotted out the way I'd recommend. At that point, Dirk goes from being
Homeless, to taking any home he d*mn well wants from it's cowering owner

For those of you too disinterested to flip to the alternate slottings, here's the new
data chunk with it done for you (you still have to flip the Accolades on though).

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.94
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Dirk Chintzy: Level 48 Natural Brute

Apart from the fact that *only* the slotting has changed (and it is *still* pretty cheap,
around 50M or so, I'd estimate), the numbers look radically different.

Now he's weighing in at 2452 HP, 48% S/L Resist, 67 HP/s Regen, and nearly
30% Def. That's a lot closer to the targets I posted, and this guy will perform
quite well in any typical PvE content you'd throw him at. Btw, the 3 Accolades
he has (Born in Battle, High Pain Threshold, and Invader) are quite easy to get, but
they're a pretty big deal to an SS/WP build and I highly recommend them.

With a few more a-merits and some LotG recharge IOs in there, he's pretty beastly.

For an Alpha, either Spiritual or Cardiac are good choices...

Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas to mull over...


Regards,
4

Yes. It stacks.

For PvE, this will allow you to cruise right on by a lot of stuff, but not everything.
Some mobs (Rikti Drones, Rularuu Eyeballs, Knives of Artemis, etc.) will see you
even then... In some cases (turrets) it's because they have a higher base perception
and in others (Rikti Drones), stealth is simply ignored.

In general though, it's a nice and effective combination for PvE.

In PvP? No... Only newbs will be unable to see you - everyone else will still
be lining you up as rep-bait. For 99.5% of the population though, this is a
non-issue...


Regards,
4

As far as I know, no it isn't.

You can convert Shards into Threads, but not the other way around...


Regards,
4

/this.

As a primarily solo player, I concur... My brute typically runs his missions at +2/8,
and I get a shard (roughly) every 2 or 3 missions, sometimes more, sometimes less.

That's much better than purple drop rates - of which I probably get one every
couple weeks or so.

I'd also agree that toons that do not (can not?) kill masses at a time don't fare
as well... It *is* a pretty low drop rate, which translates into a LOT of kills.

So, solo toons can and will get shards - over time, but honestly (as much
as I prefer solo play), it really behooves you to run tf's and MS raids if you
want shards to accrue at any sort of meaningful/useful rate.

Actually, that thinking really extends to all iContent released so far... It's not
*actual* forced teaming, but it really is *virtual* forced teaming if you expect
*reasonable* progress.

In answer to the actual question though, yes, you can get shards from any misision
with L50 (or higher) mobs in it. While you *can* get purples from L47+ mobs,
I'm not 100% sure if that is also true of incarnate shards...


Regards,
4

/this.

At last count, I've run 40+ BAF/Lambda tf's, and not once, have I ever gotten
into one via LFG - zero, bupkiss... On top of that, the posted "wait" times are
meaningless and off by at least a factor of two (actually more since I've
never actually gotten on a team that way - in more than double the posted times,
before I clicked the PoS OFF and simply used /b in a "gathering zone").

Utterly worthless, waste of time, feature... and that's putting it as gently
and kindly as I possibly can (don't get me started)


Regards,
4


PS> The one LFG feature I *do* like is the "Rejoin" feature, which I've used
several times after a crash... Of course, if they ever wrote working, crashless
code in the first place, we wouldn't *need* that feature... Given the code they
*have* written, it's been a godsend...