Nethergoat

How unfortunate for them they couldn't get a better spokesman.

MA is responsible for the dearth of commons.

It's been my experience that rares have crashed, at least the ones I've been flipping- buy for 500k, sell for 1-2m.

my sig quote has words for you.

are you a multiple?
cause you're the only one running that game in this thread.

Without knowing the details behind the creation of the Map du Jour I can't comment on whether or not it's on par with dupin' rares.

Regardless, whatever hammer ends up falling should fall on the authors of the map, not players who heeded the siren call of broadcast spam and efficient rewards.

a related though from my last tilt at this particular windmill:

Players can only do what is expressly allowed by the system the devs create.

Barring *actual hacking* there is nothing a player can do in this game that wasn't created, signed off on and published by the developers.

I don't assign blame in these situations- the devs are dealing with an almost comically complex system and can't be realistically expected to catch every little thing, and players being players are going to seek out efficient rewards paths.

But if you must blame, it's silly to ignore the people who created and released the content.

If you had a point beyond "omg some people aren't playing like I want them too!" it was artfully obscured.

I haven't ever made the argument it doesn't affect you.
I'm not arrogant enough to presume TOTAL KNOWLEDGE of a system as complex as this game. Heck, I've deeply immersed myself in the market sub-game since I9 and it still does things that surprise me and run counter to my expectations.

My argument is how other people play is none of your business, as long as they aren't personally agressing you.

If there's a systemic problem, that's the dev's to deal with. /Bug it, or report it or whatever and get back to playing your game the way you like it. If there's a behavioral problem, /petition it.

Otherwise, play your game your way and don't freak out about other people's idea of fun.

Why?

I've already noted ways in which 'casual' gamers have benefited from the current enthusiasm for MA- their common salvage is suddenly worth a relative fortune. IO recipes that they may have previously considered out of their reach are suddenly vastly more affordable.

I've agreed that efficiency on this level isn't good for 'the game' as a whole and that the devs should absolutely turn off the spigot- I'm very surprised the current fad lasted past our last scheduled maintenance.

That doesn't mean it doesn't produce some incidental positive effects from a 'man on the street' perspective.

And like I said, the Purity Police would find the game a cold, lonely place if all their 'undesirables' were summarily driven off.

A better approach is to tend your own garden and leave the subject of your neighbors dubious crop to the proper authorities.

You aren't the custodian of anyone else's fun.

Good point- I have several treasured characters who I PL'ed in various ways over the course of my CoH career (wolf missions, kora fruit, stealthing PvP missions, Dreck, X2 xp, etc)

It would be more accurate to say that new players without a wide range of game experience would lack attachment to these 'insta-50's' and the larger game world.

Although I myself have deleted many PL'ed characters for relatively insignificant reasons over the years, while keeping seriously flawed characters I don't really enjoy playing simply because of the hours I'd already invested in them (ar/dev, I'm looking at you!)

The one and only time I ran Synapse was like four years ago and not even Babbage crashing the party at the end salvaged the experience.

the new Posi''s give crummy merits, but at least they're fun!

my fire/axe is doing great after that last round of changes.

Quite a bit of my gaming happens in a vacuum.
I solo a lot, I spend a lot of time messing around at the tailor, I spend a lot of time fiddling around with my one-man SG bases.

The old canard it's a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game so you should blah blah blah blah! is every bit as ridiculous a position as people who want every little thing to be optimized for soloing.

The game provides for a large range of behaviors and playstyles, which is one of its strengths.


It certainly affects the market. Are you assuming that impact is negative?
It's positive for all those 'casual gamers' selling their junky common salvage for huge sums. It's positive for anyone who's looking to kit out with formerly very expensive IO recipes, which are currently available in bulk at steep discounts.

Yes, it's negative for some players (for example, my guy going after Field Crafter who's trying to turn a profit on the way has been sidetracked by the relative paucity of common and uncommon salvage), but it's far from a universally BAD THING.

As for the rest, it's the usual boilerplate. There have been level 50's played by total know-nothings for as long as there's been a game. It inflicts no harm on "immersion" beyond that cause by a cursory scan of broadcast chat in any busy zone in the game.

As for what MA was "intended" for....that's irrelevant.
As I noted in another thread, if you give someone a sports car but insist it's a workout machine, you don't get to act all surprised when they jump in and peel out for Vegas instead of pushing it around the block like you wanted.

Even the most stringently story-driven, well balanced and lovingly edited Dev's Choice arc pays off MUCH more efficiently than "real" content. When you create a reward structure that's inherently more efficient than the "real" game, you're going to attract rewards driven players, period.

That was hilarious.

Alas, War Witch seems to be more grounded and realistic than Posi, I doubt we'll get a reprise.

You are clearly a crazed, freedom-hating revolutionary!

=P

So, we're 'abusing our wealth' when we value our (limited) play time more than our (effectively unlimited) fake monopoly monies?

Huh.

I mucked around with sub-max sales of desirable IOs for a while.
My experience is that you *can* get a premium on some stuff, but it takes a lot longer to move. Most of your buyers at 'off brand' levels are bargain hunters who don't want to pay the going rate at level 50 or wherever. You will get folk who want lower level IOs for exemplaring or whatever, but there aren't as many of them so you need to be patient.

Not much point to it when you can just skip up to the level cap where the action is and sell 15-20 IOs in the time it'd take you to sell one at level 27 or whatever.

The exception being stuff like -KB ios and some procs, where a lot of people actively seek the lowest level they can get.

short answer, flipping is buying something and re-listing it for a profit.

for example, I buy up a bunch of stacks of Widget X for 100 inf and list them at 200 inf, although the theory will scale as high up the food chain as you want to go.

this raises the price floor (which encourages people to sell their junk), lowers the price ceiling (flippers have to undercut the high end if they want turnover) and increases overall supply by keeping stuff in circulation.

We have a price cap already- 2b inf.

It is instructive to consider how the few items 'worth' more than 2b react to this artificial restraint.

Now extrapolate that behavior down to whatever arbitrary number you decide is "fair".

As an avowed marketeer I fully support price caps- it would vastly increase my profits.

They were both relatively restrained in the face of monolithic disdain, which is to their credit.

I'm absolutely not.
I don't see the value in entertaining a POV that is patently factually nonsensical. Once around the park is about all I can take. I enjoy helping people who are open to it, I don't have time for the ones who wear their ignorance like a suit of plate mail.

But I do appreciate your seemingly endless patience for people with viewpoints that are diametrically opposed to observable reality. I require that people meet me roughly halfway, while you boldly forge into the dense jungle of their prejudices. Kudos, Uber!

Hah!