MadScientist

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The key difference is, you can solo Posi and 2 or 3 man Synapse and it'll be faster than a full team in most cases. To do a 'speed/skill' ITF, STF, or LRSF you need at least 5 or 6 skilled players with the correct builds.

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One big reason for smaller teams running faster is a lack of bosses.
For example, Manticore must have a very different time to complete it if you drop the team down to 5.

Oddly, this flies in the face of Risk-v-Reward. Perhaps the Merits for TFs should have some scaling or bonus for larger teams beating a TF. Note that the "difficulty" bonus that the STF and LRSF got could perhaps relate to how those TFs are almost unbeatable shorthanded, so that could in a way be a large-team bonus - the other TFs should have that, too.

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If you KNEW that converting the system to invention salvage would cause a disruption in the markets, then why did you introduce TWO NEW (Dual Builds and Base Crafting) systems that would be using markets at the same time?

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Better yet, introduce Dual Builds *and* fix the message to "Base Salvage Found" to test if that fixes the confusion problem sufficiently.
and maybe some of the other base salvage ideas before committing to ditching it completely. Like giving it value by selling it for Prestige. or putting in both the new IO Empowerment recipes AND the old to datamine which is more popular.

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I know I will be using the random roll a great deal.

I will be grabbing the specific IOs on most likely, a single character each side them passing them off. Everyone else will have pot luck

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that's what I'm planning to do, too.

however, I have serious doubts if it will work.

say I become one of the minority who's providing the market with random IOs. I can increase my prices a bit if there are not enough other people producing those items, right? (In fact, say I'm rolling at level 30, on an alt who just runs low TFs, so I'm getting level 30 damage procs and such that are maybe worth more than a 50.)
What can I do with my increased earnings by taking random rolls for Inf?
Well, I can buy from the other people in the minority suppliers group. who are likely increasing *their* prices, too.
I doubt I'll find a way to stay ahead of the inflation curve on this one. but I'm gonna give it a try.

the only thing that will work is if the total number of random rolls generated on a daily basis stays the same. you'd have to see the same number of longer TFs run, at more than 1 random roll per TF (like how Posi is 2+ rolls) and have that compensate for the people who swear to never roll. Just talking about popular content, I doubt people will run the longer TFs at a factor that makes up for the lack of Katies.

I would have much preferred a system that gave the one random roll PLUS some Merits to bring the longer TFs up to a baseline amount of reward per time. That removes the whole minority supplier factor, and merely adds the ability to buy what you may not find randomly, plus the ability to buy if you rack up from other sources like arcs or Monsters. fixing the drop rate for Katies is not a problem that needed to be addressed.

If the storage problem is merely all the holiday salvage getting in the way of the other uses, then what if the Vault was expanded to hold one person's worth of Holiday salvage capacity in addition to the Invention? That would shuffle things out of the bins. Since the Vault already has an interface that looks like a personal inventory, will it be easy to expand its capability?

But that all leads to the question: is the problem really the non-IO stuff getting in the way? Is this really about Event salvage? Or is Event salvage just being cited as a specific example, and the problem is the 30 piece limit? IMHO, it's the 30 piece limit since one bin compared to one character is nowhere near as useful as one Enhancer or Insp bin, or an old Salvage bin.

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Q: Is it possible to, if not at launch, add purple recipes to the list at a suitable price? If not, could you explain the concept behind excluding these from the list?

A: It’s technically possible, yes. However, purple recipes would be so expensive Merit wise due to the statistical likelihood of one dropping that we decided to omit them from the items on the list at this time. That isn’t to say we won’t ever add them to it in the future.

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I, for one, would give some serious thought to paying 10% of a large number for a random purple drop. Is that number too expensive, too?


Out of curiousity, what's the exact number? So we can have some perspective on it.
The actual drop rate of the Purples has never been stated by the devs (which is odd since we were given the other drop rates when IOs were introduced)

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(Not to mention a partial profit if you beat 3 or 4 missions and fail the huge challenge at the end.) Merits for AVs may also help balance KHTF, and maybe even bringing Eden up to something not laughable.

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Would the reason to explicitly not consider a merit per AV be the fact that people would farm the first 9 Mary Macombers in 12 minutes or less, then exit, quit, and re-form the TF? If so, would it be more workable to award any and all AV awards only on TF completion?

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then again, some AVs are already flagged as non-farmable (ie: no drop rewards, only XP/Inf). That may very well carry into a 1-merit-per-AV setup and so KHTF was not a good thing to bring into this discussion.

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The secure and hidden plots have the same prices for the same sizes. Bug? or can you give us insight into a design goal?


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Good question. This relates to the original goal of the base repricing, which was giving players access to make better raidable bases.

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But it's your goal to make that better raid capability free?

Let me phrase the question differently:
Why would I use a Hidden 16x16 plot?
I can have the Secure for the exact same price AND a 2nd Supercomputer instead upgrading to the AES which costs more than 2 Supercomputers plus needs this giant room.

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My SG mate saw some Elite Chain Guns arranged nicely in a coalition base and wanted to place them in our base.

He gave up. Why? The current base salvage system is indeed more complex than what they are proposing (and needlessly so).

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I have a hard time understanding this when there are basic Chain Guns that look exactly like the Elites, for the exact same cost, and have NO CRAFTING WHATSOEVER.

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A good example of this is the Lord Recluse Strike Force. It normally would grant 18 merits due to its relatively short average completion time, however because of its difficulty it gets a +7 bonus granting a total of 25 merits!

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Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?

This fits Risk-v-Reward, and makes that LRSF "buff" more obvious. (Not to mention a partial profit if you beat 3 or 4 missions and fail the huge challenge at the end.) Merits for AVs may also help balance KHTF, and maybe even bringing Eden up to something not laughable.

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Q. Salvage Storage Racks, Why only 30 pieces of invention salvage?

A. In short, the market. The market system is designed to have a steady supply of salvage coming in. If large salvage racks were added, it would create a temporary supply problem of unknown duration until the salvage racks filled up.

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When IO Salvage was introduced, Positron gave an explanation of individual character inventory which, IIRC, was about an hour to fill up one character. (If someone with greater Search Fu can locate that reference, I promise to be awed.)
So any character level 5 and up should get 30+ drops in an hour.

Doesn't that indicate that your "unknown duration" would be pretty short? 1 man hour per salvage bin in existence. That can't be too long, especially factoring in higher populations when an issue releases, and with a holiday event, and with Brainstorms producing more drops.

Not to mention the logic of what's happening with the stuff in those full racks. If it's never getting used, then who cares if it fills up? Not like it'd be used on the market, either. If it is being used, then no one's going to go to the market to notice a brief shortage.
You sound afraid people will actually be using the rack at all! That makes little sense.

on rent,
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If I had a vote, I'd suggest doing the following:

1. Allow rent to be paid from within the base itself. Add a very low-cost "rent terminal" item to allow this, if needed.

2. Add an auto-payment option. This would prevent players from having to keep track of due dates. (But make it an option, so that if people stop playing alts in a given SG, they can stop paying prestige by shutting the base down.)

3. Eliminate the grace period. Make 4 weeks the absolute deadline. (If we were keeping the old system, I'd add "...and reduce rent costs by 33% to compensate", but you're not.) However, keep the 2-week warning, and only do this in conjunction with...

4. Base the next due date on the prior one. The next due date should always be 30 days from the previous one when a payment is made, regardless of when the payment is made. If a base actually shuts down for some duration, then and only then should the next due date be based on date of payment.

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Would the coding time to implement any of those be worth the gameplay benefits?

It'd be far simpler to just set rent values to 0 for all objects. What do we lose? A little gameplay immersion? No matter how it's paid, it's not like 2k Rent is going to shake up the Top 100 Prestige List.

Let's put it this way: say the game had 0 rent, everyone was on a smallest plot, and I13 was going to add rent for everyone. What's the gain? Would you bother trying to add a 2nd feature to justify the first, or just argue it shouldn't be there at all?

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Any plan to restore the ability to drop stuff off in a coalition SG's storage. I understand the exploit that caused this change to be made, but was told by PM that this would be looked at later.

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I'm no dev, but considering Sunstorm made a point of explaining how he's overly pre-nerfing salvage storage to prevent hypothetical market issues, I highly doubt he'd turn around and give a means of increasing storage capacity by tying in to coalition SGs.


oddly, though, what you detail about building an individual SGs instead of pooling together into groups is not only the opposite of the 2nd M in MMO, but is also going to net out MORE storage space to horde things if there are more SGs overall.

Sunstorm, here are a few recurring questions from the last few weeks in the base builders forum....


The secure and hidden plots have the same prices for the same sizes. Bug? or can you give us insight into a design goal?


What are your thoughts on simply removing crafting? Or perhaps for the non-Defensive items? This would solve a lot of concerns, and, to be blunt, like Rent I wonder if the system has been "simplified" beyond any real meaning.


Any plans to address the concerns about storage security? The added ability to store IO salvage makes this a bigger issue than it's been in the past - not that it's been a small issue to start with.



Thanks!

yay! time to show off!

- Group: Mildly Heroic Evildoers
- Server: Liberty
- Side: Villain
- Cost: um... dunno. many millions.
- etc: I warn you, it looks a bit patchwork, because many different people contribute different rooms.

Welcome, Sunstorm!

if I can follow up on two topics...
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Q. What’s happening to Rent?

A. Rent still exists, but it has been reduced dramatically. Rent is no longer charged by plot size, and is instead based on the number of utility items in the base.

These are the items that charge rent:
- Storage bins: 100 prestige per bin.
- Workbenches, and Enhancement terminals: 100 per tier
- Medical Items: 100 per item, excluding Basic Reclaimator

No rent is charged for basic utility items like Teleporters, Teleport beacons, Medical Reclaimator's, Basic Work Tables, and Invention work tables. Rent free bases of any size can still be built, with all the normal utilities available. In the future, we will be looking into improving how rent is charged as well.

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so the max rent really is a few K? isn't that too trivial to even deal with? Why not just remove it?

(by the way, storage *is* a basic utility item, being one of the short list of things a base actually does.)

interesting that you left Control and Energy off of both lists - either as a utility or as a basic. which is it in your eyes?


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Q. Base Pathing issues, why was pathing changed?

A. The base pathing was never intended to be changed. The fix for it was not simple though, so it took some time for the programming team to get the fix in. We are actively looking at ways to make the pathing system easier for base builders, however, in the future there may be pathing requirements for raiding.

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Not a follow-up question really, but an observation from long-time base discussions and repeated in closed beta:
Be careful.
If there's an intangible cost of having to lose decorative capability in order to go raiding, you'll see a lot less people willing to do a casual raid. They won't give up the decorating flexibility. This entire setup could go counter to your raid encouragement.

from the flip side, it's going to be very unfair to those who raid if pathing is not fixed for them, too.

I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do with all the posts in the base forums, but I've seen a few very simple and workable ideas about pathing, if you need me to point you to them.

wow. quite an attempt there to answer every question. Normally these Q+As hit a handful (especially a safe handfull) and call it a day. I'm impressed with the level of communication - keep it up!

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Now let's look heroside at all the places a level 20 character could go. Remember, to get a beacon you need to explore the heck out of a zone, which means being able to survive in it.

Atlas Park, Galaxy City, Perez Park, The Hollows, Kings Row, Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Talos Island, Independence Port, Striga Isle, Boomtown, Faultline. And Pocket D, I guess. That's 7 teleporters' worth of locations. What the heck, round it up to 8.

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Assumption #9. Hero side by level 20 on my controller, I can get PI which is a very safe short swim to the single unguarded badge, Founders a tiny bit tricky but possible, Brickstown very easy with flight, Terra Volta is 20+. The only ones locked are the hazard zones.

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Plus the obvious: anyone can get a temp Stealth power at level 15 in Bloody Bay.
Combine that with the Empowerment station if you want relatively cheap invisibility for a while. (the Station costs less Prestige to place than the teleporter and beacons you're trying to unlock, so that's not asking too much.)
Do this on someone with Superspeed if you're really clumsy.
That removes any concern about where badges are actually located in those zones.

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Mad... I have a lot of respect for you, so please just realize that any snark you're seeing in this post isn't directed at you.

That being said... why? Why waste our time making yet another list that they're just going to flush down the toilet like they did the last 2 lists we made, like they did the list the PvPers made.

Seriously man, why?

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because *right now* the devs are finishing off I13 and giving us means to expand bases.

What better time to say "so in this larger base, my new empty rooms you're letting me buy, it's time I had a refridgerator." or pool table. coat rack. treadmill. stereo speakers. drum kit. suitcase. gelatinous cube. whatever you want.

the goal is to present that wishlist as a simple list that may give them ideas - something that's not gonna happen with the whole first page debating if we're getting heard at all.

I'll start us off with a group of items I'd like...

More stuff to hang from ceilings.<ul type="square">[*]Chandeliers[*]Dome lights[*]Hanging SG Logo Banners (Arachnos uses these types of banners everywhere)[*]Ventilation ducts[*]Fans[*]Cables (like the ones dangling off the AES, or in the Arachnos labs)[*]Stalagtites[*]Catwalks / scaffolds / support beams[/list](I'll remember to edit this with screenshots later.)

With I13 coming, perhaps it's time for a new list of Base Items We'd Like To See.
We'll probably all be adding new rooms this issue and saying "if only I had a _________"

Since functional ideas tend to get pretty good discussions in their own threads (and easily linked in the big Issues thread), I figured maybe we need a spot just to focus on all those decorations we want.


Things to keep in mind:<ul type="square">[*]Devs like lists. Much easier to read than paragraphs.[*]If it exists in-game, consider linking a screenshot, or at least a description of where to find one.[*]This is brainstorming, not a survey; /signing doesn't make any one idea better than the others. We all want as much as possible [/list]

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Mad-Scientist
Global Contact: @MadScientist
Level of Classification: 50 (Corruptor)
Origin: Science!
Super Rank &amp; Super Group: Leader; Mildly Heroic Evildoers

and I wonder what this is about....

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Is it just me, or is the Secure and hidden plots the same cost for some sizes? such as 20 x 20 and 16 x 16?
Seeing my banked prestige will have more mileage now I have to ask questions on a plot type I never saw as possible before.
Is the only difference between Secure and hidden, the fact that secure allows more batteries and extra power control?
Does that mean you can have 2 full control sources and 2 full power sources?

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for the moment. I don't believe that "free" benefit will last. either we're missing a piece of the rent system, or the secure plots will enter you in the scheduled raid system, or somehting else we're not aware of because of the dev silence. or, simply, the pricing could be a bug.

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They really need to add the ability to have an option to have rent autopay!.. That way I don't have to drudge all the way back to atlas or port oaks to turn the power on...

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how much would you be willing to pay to autopay?

that's both hypothetical, and logical. autopayment would likely be 4 weeks, not drawn out to 6, so it'd be a 50% increase, barring any other fees.

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DEVs, there have been many voices raised here in this forum asking you to please communicate with us about these changes. I implore you to please contact some of the "leaders" of the base building community (PlasmaStream, MadScientist, Hellgaurd, Snow_Globe, Robo_Knight just to name a few off the top of my head) and listen to their concerns about the new system. The changes to say the least are very very unpopular.

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This is a Guide in the Bases forum.

If you want to give feedback to the Devs, you should go to the forum: Issue 13 Feedback &amp; Discussion. I doubt they're reading this here.

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You are right, but I don't think that they will be listening there either. And to tell you the truth, I think that the Devs have probably internalized that this issue is a very unpopular one and they probably would like to be able to change at least part of what is now in open beta, but are being rushed by their bosses and marketing to go live.

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Then try PM'ing someone if you feel you won't get attention. That's what community reps are for, right?

I'm surprised the new costume piece wasn't an Apple chest logo.

no, seriously. If you think I'm joking, you haven't met any Mac people.