Grouchybeast

The real problem I see is that if the system does have impressive loot rewards, then a lot of people will game the hell out of it for shinies, while a tiny handful actually use it for the intended RP/thematic purposes.

On the other hand, if it doesn't have impressive loot rewards, then most people will ignore it completely, while a tiny handful actually use it for the intended RP/thematic purposes.

The second option is probably preferable, but whether that tiny handful would be enough to justify the investment of dev time, I have no idea.

Feh. I bet you did something ridiculous with him, like take Hasten.

I LOVE cheap IO sets. I outfit a lot of my toons with them. They're great for frankenslotting, and actually a fair proportion of them are relegated to second class status on the basis of having bonuses that are not *quite* as shiny as the alternative, or because the bonuses they have are not +def or whatever people are chasing.

What do you think will happen to the supply and price of cheap IOs if people are allowed to hoover them up and convert them? Especially at a ratio of 5:1?

Leave my cheap IOs alone :-(

I think I know what.

And the wronger someone is, the more true it is.

This is a serious question.

How much time do you think it takes, per day, to make, say, a billion inf per month purely though marketing, without selling any drops etc? That's actual hands-on playing time I'm looking for -- the time the marketing character is being actively played and carrying out the bidding, crafting and selling activities?


ETA: I appreciate that you don't want to spend *any* time on the market at all, which is obviously your prerogative. But if we're generalizing this to these hypothetical new players, then I think we have to take people who *might* be willing to use the market into account.

Or bothered to click on the NPCs at WW and the BM who will explain exactly how it works.

I mean, I have sympathy for new players, especially players who have little MMO experience. CoX was my first MMO, too. However, that meant that when I found something new that I didn't understand, I looked for a source of info, and there it was, right inside the market itself. Not only that, but I'd been specifically pointed towards it at the end of the IO tutorial.

Dude, they already picked a figure. They picked 20 a-merits for a purple, and 35 a-merits for a PVP IO, and they only did it one issue ago, when some PVP IOs had been selling at 2 billion+ for months.

As you have already pointed out, they are the ones with the access to the numbers for supply, demand and sales. Why are your numbers better than theirs? Why are they suddenly going to change their minds about appropriate supply levels now, when they didn't with I18?

Whew! After the invokation failed so many times, I was starting to worry about you. I even stood in front of a mirror and said 'Price caps, price caps, price caps', and still nothing.

Not according to the people who pay 2 billion (or more) for them.

Nor, apparently, according to the devs, who very recently had an opportunity to increase supply when they introduced A-merits, but chose not to do it. PVP +def IOs had been selling for 2 billion for a long time when A-merits came in.

Sure, a store would put a cap on prices and increase availability. But unless you're assuming that the devs aren't capable of looking at the market, then I don't know why you think 'I can't get rare stuff' is going to be such an overwhelming argument to them that they'll decide to fundamentally change the way the invention system works. They already KNOW how rare and expensive stuff is, because they're the ones who set the drop rates (and, as you say, have complete access to the market data). They already KNOW it would take 70 days to buy a PVP IO with a-merits, because they just set the a-merit prices.

I guess, really, my question is, why do you think that your idea of how long it should take someone to get hold of stuff in the game is going to be more convincing to the devs than their own?

If you want capped prices, that is a relatively sane way to implement them.

However, given that the devs have already, and recently, told us via A-merits the value they place on purple and PVP recipes, I don't think you're going to get a very sympathetic hearing. If they wanted to significantly increase the supply of high-end IOs to reduce prices, they could've done it then. They didn't. So...well, good luck with that, really.

Honestly, if you want cheaper purples and PVP IOs, then you'd probably be better off simply campaigning for cheaper A-merit prices or a significant increase in the drop rate. Because what you're asking for here, effectively, is an increased drop rate, only with the added development burden of writing all the code to support your buy it nao system.

It would be interesting to know how true that is, and how it's changed over the years since launch. I have zero genre interest, but I was recommended CoX as a casual-friendly game, with a very nice community, and that's how I recommend it to other people.

You're doing something wrong, somewhere, then. I've been crafting commons virtually since I started playing the game, and it's been consistently profitable. Not big bucks by market forum standards, of course, but incredibly reliable. (And once you have Field Crafter, you don't even need to leave the market to turn over your IOs.)

Which IOs are you crafting, at which levels? Have you got the recipes memorized?

It takes a special kind of wrong to be able to pick the one situation in which it is literally impossible to corner the market as your example.

Once the price hits 2 billion, all you can do it sling a bid in the pot, and hope that the random number generator likes you. There's no strategy, there's no cunning bidding system which is going to help you. It's either wait, or go off-market and pay more than the cap.

The latter is what happens, by the way, when price caps are put in place.

As an EU player, I have a personal stake in hoping that the devs wouldn't be stupid enough to do that. As a red-side player, you ought to know that how much inf you do or don't have is completely irrelevant when there's low supply.

(Also - cap listing price??? What the heck is that supposed to achieve where demand so completely outstrips supply?)

No, he isn't. He's really upset that the top-tier rarity IOs aren't available to 'the average gamer'. The original driving force behind his wobbler seems to be that on his (already purpled) brute build, he couldn't instantly replace two sets of Doctored Wounds with two sets of Panacea to get an extra 5% global recharge. I put in the link because otherwise I know you wouldn't believe me.

Honestly, I wouldn't say no to an increase in the supply of PVP and purple IOs (and a reduction in the amount of inf to the game). Given how recently the A-merit price-points were set, though, I guess the devs don't have a problem with the current supply levels.

The game is extremely attractive to new and casual players who understand that gaining high-end rewards requires putting in high-end effort. I like to think that that is most people who play games.

Play at all levels is fun, especially with SSKing now in place, so there is no pressure for new players to sprint to the level cap and work on raid gear. 95% of the IO system is already within the reach of even the most casual gaming. DO/SOs, common IOs, most uncommon and even rare IOs are perfectly affordable. Any rare recipe can now be picked up with 4 days of solo tip missions from level 20 onwards.

What I see when I look at CoH is a game that goes out of its way to make MMO gaming accessible to casual players. In my opinion, using a small section of the IO system to provide a challenge for those players who like high-ends to work towards does not ruin the 95% of the system which is there for the new and casual players. Those people deserve to have something in the game for them, too.

The level of recipe drops is affected by the level of the mob. So fighting at -1 will mean getting more level 49 recipes, which usually sell for less, and sell more slowly, than level 50s. It depends on exactly what your goals are, but it might be something you want to consider.

First question: do you have the map part of the GUI open?

If yes, good! If no, then open the Menu dropdown, and select the Map option.

You currently selected mission will be displayed in the compass area at the top of the map. This will also tell you which zone you need to be in. If you have an outdoor mission objective (there's one to gather roses, for example), the objectives will show up on the map IF you have the correct option selected. Rather annoyingly, this is sometimes switched off be default for new toons. Open the Options menu (bottom right of the map) and make sure you have everything you need selected.

When you have a mission, you might sometimes lose the mission marker for some reason (commonly, you've selected something else, like a shop). To get it back, either:
- Click the white star on the map which is showing you the mission location, or.
- Go to the mission tab, click on the mission, and then click the 'Select Task' button. This should now give you a red mission marker, which will guide you to the mission.

Hope this is helpful!

Silly question, but you are running the file as an administrator?

I think it's ebilness is tarnished by the chance it would stop the other top Virtue SGs bothering to try to match you in prestige buying. That always seemed like the mostly elegantly ebil part of the whole scheme to me.