GavinRuneblade

I had visions of the cult from Hot Fuzz chanting "greater good" in unison. hehe.

The way I see it, anytime a person is upset about fairness in an online game, they need to really carefully look at themselves. Pretty much always there is some serious ego at work. Jealousy over what another person earned, or someone having a vet power, or getting better drops. These are all selfish and self-destructive feelings that have nothing to do with the game mechanics at all. Before changing the mechanics or even discussing them, first deal with the internal, non-game related problem.

Valuable discussions of mechanics do involve discussion of balance, and fairness. But it is balance between Defenders and Corrupters, not whether it is balanced that someone who plays 10 hours a day has the same in-game wealth as someone who plays 15 minutes per month. And valuable discussions of mechanics may be passionate, we all love our characters and take them a bit too seriously at least from time to time, but they aren't about personal attacks and personal wealth and personal benefit.

I'm sure there must be. My class used handouts from the proff. So not sure where to point you. Did some quick searches and found a few interesting news articles but not the really good science itself. Hmm, I'll look around a bit more, see if I can't find a book and drop you a PM over the weekend.

But on change, this is one we all see, and as marketers we should keep in mind of our audience. Most people don't change, they walk in circles around the real issues and claim that because the west side of the building looks different from the east side, that now they are in a totally different place. Key example from my own life. I had a friend who spent years judging everyone and everything by how expensive it was. One day she said to me "I can't believe how shallow I used to be two years ago thinking real value was marked by prices. What really matters is people's opinion!" She still had pride/ego as her filter. Wealth and public opinion are really not significantly different. It is still a value system based on ego and competition. She thought she'd grown, but really all she did was turn in circles and describe the new view.

As Enalyios says though, change is possible. Logic is powerful and we can turn it inward. The subconscious does a lot, but we do have conscious control as well. You'll catch yourself making lots of little slipups because of habit, but once you start down the path of change, it becomes self-supporting by the very filtering process you are moving toward.

Someone who tried it on test said there is a 5 minute timer. So faster than the dual build switching, but still a delay. I haven't figured out if you can do it mid-mission or if you need to talk to a contact though.

short version is that the process above describes how. Everything that gets past the filters is accepted as true in the form that it arrives. There is no argument between nature-vs-nurture, the two are 1 and the same. Every experience (nurture) is interpreted by the inherent filter (nature) and they cannot operate independently.

The brain is essentially a piece of hardware. It accepts as true literally anything and everything it encounters just like your computer will blindly run any piece of software you put into it. Hence the risk of viruses. Just like a computer, some bits of software try to block out others, etc.

But if you hear it, your brain, at the unconscious level, believes it.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned from college was in the psych classes learning how different people's blinders and prejudices influence every single aspect of not only how they think, but also how they process incoming data. Everything is filtered, and it is distorted long before it ever gets to the logic centers. In most humans, and by most I mean upwards of 95% from what I was taught (though arguably it was a while back and the numbers may have adjusted due to more modern analysis), logic is only used to retroactively justify a decision already made.

Input comes in, decision is made, then it hits the logic centers and an argument is formed that defends the decision.

Best part are the studies that show people in highly polarized us-vs-them mindsets actually get a hit of endorphins for rejecting "them" comparable to many drugs. Was first discovered in studies on politics, how strongly democratic people get a major jolt of endorphins for rejecting actually correct information presented by republicans and how republicans get the same from rejecting truth presented by democrats. Then later studies came out expanding on the initial findings to any powerful us-vs-them mentality. This is the key underlying process behind victimhood. Define "them" and then claim "they" are victimizing you. Then sit back and rake in the natural drugs your body rewards you with for denying the truth about "them" regardless of source or presentation method.

What I asked him to provide and what argument I presented against it are not necessarily my own. I offered advice to shore up his project by noticing an area of weakness, and I took a stab at defining what information I thought would help make it stronger to someone who is totally clueless about the market.

This bit is probably more effective than what he had in the original post.

@FourSpeed that's good stuff, Enalyios maybe link to his specific post in your final product?

No, I think the Goat and Four Speed nailed what I thought was missing. Just a tweak to your original paragraph should cover it.

This seems to need much more defense.

Lets look at two scenarios, with the flipper and without, 10 customers come to the market to buy salvage to craft IOs. In which scenario do they pay more? In all cases they have the potential to pay less if there are no flippers because the same 10 items the flipper bought would be on the market for less than the flipper marked it up to.

Need some evidence to show the high-end comes down.

Can you explain in there really briefly how a flipper taking the low price and making that same item sell a second time for more means the end user gets it for a lower price? I think that bit is needed.

just saying the high-price comes down, seems like a load of BS by itself.

Otherwise, good luck with this project.

HERO corps have issues. Just because when they tried to duplicate the effect it didn't work for them is no reason to say it didn't really happen. They're just jealous of her powers.

But the best thing about the wacky ambushes in the ITF is when you pull down to the bridge on the river, because all the surgeons stay put at the spawn point. Then after the last wave, you get like 15 to 20 surgeons rushing you as if they are going to heal you to death.

I love that.

I like the people who call the immobilize proc "Trap of the hunter chance to suck". Heh, Makes me smile every time.

I also always shake my head at the touch of death proc. only one with a 15% chance to fire instead of 20%. If it is because of doing negative energy, the dev's are on drugs because Lady Grey's proc has 20% and it also deals negative.

Personally, I think almost all the procs need a little rebalancing. Not a lot, but a small nudge.

This is pretty helpful thanks.

Sure there is. Slight modification to Bruising from -res to +damage proc and allow it to stack.

Even if no defense was the issue, an empath wouldn't be the way to get help, he'd want a pocket /FF. Healing is the least effective survival tactic in the game. Not saying it sucks or doesn't work, just that all other strategies work better.

I like confuse, sleep, hold, and kill myself. =)

Exemplar down below 30 (if I recall correctly) and it isn't permanent anymore even with three recharges slotted. Unless you have global bonuses at that level.

This is why I loathe click-based mez protection. On the plus side, it doesn't get suppressed and if you get end-drained by a malta sapper it is still protecting you from their hold. So it is a mixed bag.

Well, what I mean is Silverado said that he recommends Cremate -> Fire Sword -> Incinerate because it gives better management of the interrupts, not because of the damage specifically. So I asked how that matters. If I do:

Cremate -> Buildup -> Incinerate ; Cremate -> Firesword -> Incinerate

how is that better or worse than:
Cremate -> Firesword -> Buildup -> Incinerate ; Cremate -> Firesword -> Incinerate

Also, how is it better than either

Incinerate -> buildup -> Cremate ->Scorch
or
Incinerate -> scorch -> buildup -> Cremate -> Scorch

And as if I wasn't confused enough, is there a particular reason why the two swap out the first power? Wouldn't you always lead with incinerate?

Well, for instance, the hero alignment power has a loooooonnnngg animation time. Two attacks worth easy. Sometimes I chain heal-buildup. or heal-consume. or even buildup-fireyembrace. whatever. At that point all three attacks are recharged. Do you 1) just guess which step you would be on if you hadn't interrupted for the buffs? 2) Start over? 3) Keep going as if you hadn't used the buff?

Examples:
I-S-C-S chain. You toss in buildup (B) and Heal (H)

i-s-c-s-i-h-b...

#1 would be i-s-c-s-i-h-b-s-i-s-c (probably, that's just a guess though)
#2 would be i-s-c-s-i-h-b-i-s-c-s
#3 would be i-s-c-s-i-h-b-s-c-s-i

I'm not sure it really matters, and I know I don't run on the difficulty where it could matter, but I am curious.

Incarnate isn't godhood. It is having some of the power of a god, not being the god. And some of them are street level. Think of Trapdoor from the Grandville arc. Dude's a common thief, barely even ranks as a super villain based on his actions. Yet he drank from the well of furies and is an incarnate. Powerlevel is decently up there with what the arc says of his teleporting abilities, but his actions and behavior are not godlike.

The options are there to go whichever way you want to take your character's story. Stheno is also an Incarnate, and she is pretty close to having her children treat her like a god. Recluse looks to suffer from Messianic Narcissism, and may or may not think he is a god, but certainly doesn't act the part. Statesman and his many alternate versions are superman level heroes, but never really take the divine role. Then Trapdoor is your street-level character.

So whichever route you want your story to take, there is an existing Incarnate who embodies it in the official game lore.

Now, with the story out of the way, Yes, I think that the spiritual tree will make permadom easier. Especially the later versions. It seems to be a global buff to all powers that can accept recharge buffs so it should impact domination.

But look carefully at the description. Of the weakest power, only 1/6 is immune to DE. On powers like domination that have nothing slotted and only benefit from global recharge bonuses, I'd ASSUME that this means 100% of the bonus will apply. But it depends how they code it. Might be that only 1/6 applies. If that is the case, it is still a 5.5% recharge buff. As good as you get from 5 or 6 slots depending on the set. Definitely easier to do. If you get the whole 33% then that would be huge.

But I haven't heard anything on duration. And unless I misunderstood, these things are temporary/consumable. I'm not sure they really intend the level shift to permanently make you level 52. Be cool if that is the case, but I'm not sure it is. Can anyone clarify?

You can initially put in Smashing Haymakers which will cost 1-5m each. Then replace with Kinetics as you get them for free from A-Merits by running tip missions.

I'm a big fan of starting cheap and building up slowly.

Quartz are the DE your're thinking about.

Both memorized and not. If not I only craft when I have a recipe from a drop and it will help me get one memorized I haven't gotten yet, or with a new character who is specifically trying to memorize something.

Here's an example, level 20 recharge IOs, memorized.

Last week I look and see lots of sales of 20s over 200k. 6 for sale and 50-something bids. I craft 5 (based on what filled instantly when I put in my bids for salvage that was the max I could do at the time). I post one for 1 to see what the highest bid was. 3000 inf. Crafting is 15.2k, I buy commons for 6509 so my cost is 29k, another 10% for wents fee and I'm looking at needing 35 for a profit and I need to sell more than I crafted to make up the loss from my test. I post two for 48000 and two for 98000. Log in a week later and I sold them for a total of barely over 320k. Look at the last 5 and they are all over 200k each. So they all sold and it is at a profit. But really is it worth it?

A lot of them, I can't make as much profit selling the IO as I can the salvage. For instance, I stopped bothering with accuracy due to the price on alchemical silver, I can make more inf selling the salvage than the crafted IOs.

When going to memorize, due to the price of the recipe and the higher price of the crafting, I tend to lose money. I've had even damage and end mod IOs sitting unsold for over a week at only a 20% above cost markup (of which 10% is going to go to the wents fee anyway).

Actually I was talking about everything. If there is only one then you have to use things like sleet, Ice Storm, Rain of Fire, blizzard, etc. As well as PBAoEs that don't require a target.

But if there are two+ they tend to stealth out of synch and they tend to group up unlike Longbow eagles who flee and spread out. So always attacking the visible one with any AoE you get one or two of the stealthed ones as well. The larger the group the more likely one or two will be visible to target. Of course that also means the more likely several will be pounding on you.

Overall I have mixed feelings about them. I loathe the cheats that game designers use to make things "harder" such as the level slider. Running against family at +4 levels is boring. Yes they hit more often and harder and I hit less and not as hard so my chance of defeat is higher. But it's not "harder" it is more grindy. I do the exact same thing more times that is the ONLY change when you alter the difficulty level. Against enemies like this, the game is harder. You have to alter your strategy, slow down, and work for the win.

THIS is exactly the sort of thing I want more of. Rularuu, Malta, Carnies, Resistance, Ghouls these are some of my favorite enemies.

That said, I'm with you 100% that their stealth numbers are a bit too high. I'm ok with them having stalker PvP levels of stealth so you can only see them from 10' away. Fine, there is a precedent for that. The total stealth they have is in my opinion a cop-out. Another cheat no different than just giving them more HP and calling that "harder". And I think the uptime for the stealth is a bit too high. Maybe it's ok for a lieutenant, but not for minions.

I think I have to agree here. When people complain about illusionists or widows or malta, I chalk it up to whining that the game isn't a boring cookie cutter one-strategy fits all. I alter my tactics and I have fun. When it goes t the point that there really isn't any way to overcome it, you have to suck it up and grind it out, that's not cool.

I think toning down the stealth magnitude a few notches and either increasing the recharge by 3-5 seconds and/or dropping the duration 2-3 seconds would go a long way.

I know those seem like small times, but it is enough for 2 attacks per cycle. That's a big shift.