Neuronia

Sure, but the minimum point bundle is $5 for 400 points. That would give you two months worth of an invention licence, but you can't purchase 160 points...

Yep. They've basically added a massively à la carte model. I personally only get costume bundles and the occasional powerset, but there are so many tempting options that someone will spend on something.

As for revenue figures, NCSoft would shut it down if it wasn't giving them sufficient ince and we sure wouldn't be getting this much content every month or so either.

Anecdotally, I had a friend sign up for the game to try it out.
So far he's spent $5 to get access to tells and trading/more inf and is going to spend a bit more to get a constume bundle.

I expect there are a lot of "nickle and dimers" out there, that spend a little each month on top of the usual subscribers who carry the freight.

I team on Freedom a lot since I'm trying to get a Dark/EM Blaster to 50 for occasional RV shenanigans. I'd say about 80% of my team is on an SOd build and in pugs. I've done countless Phalanx TFs with a mix of VIP and premiums. The premiums fought just as well as everyone else since at most one of the VIPs had IOs. We still breezed most content, from Death from Below to Manticore to the odd newspaper and Hollows run.

No one complained about being underpowered. The worst incident was one player who needed a 5-10 minute break to get new SOs and the rest of the players showered them with inf so it wasn't an issue.

There are all of two (maybe three) times where you will need IOs and accolades:

1)PvP, where the extra 200ish HP and set bonuses help a ton;
2)High end content like Incarnate trials where the buffs are fantastic;
3)Speed runs of various TFs where stuff like stealth IOs and sturdier bulds are great.

Outside of that...you can get most Hamis dirt cheap. Peroxis and Endos aren't going for more than a few million and if you can land a few Nucleoli on the cheap those are great too.

The IO licence is $5 for a month. I get some people are on tight budgets, but it is $5. After a month you can decide whether it's worth getting a full sub to see the shiny high level stuff...or you can keep teaming with most players and punch mobs like before. You should also never get booted off a team for not having IOs so...

I've also heard DA drops more VR items than other zones, but given it's a 50+ zone that seems logical. I've obtained purples from DA, trials and a Nemesis invasion (punched a Jaeger, got an Apoc triple ) of late...no evidence here of any increased purple rates.

Nonsense.

The other day I was hanging about Freedom Atlas Park and joined some PuG level 37 Arena. One guy was on a Kat/SR and wanted to find out more, so I went onto the long spiel and explained he might need such and such an IO, run Hero Tips and you can get them...or cash in Reward Merits on the Market to get more inf to purchase said items.

Though we were just outside the Vanguard base under some huge HVAS, none of us were seized by the SEC and thrown into the brig. Just to point out that if you are actively bidding on something on the Market, you are cognizant of both IOs and the Market. If you are simply dumping all your stuff for 1 then either you have excess stuff or you don't care.

Heck, Dread Shinobi on Champion has about a zillion tricked out alts, knows how to use the Market and STILL lists at 1 when he sells, just so he can get back to playing. And guess what? He STILL makes billions that way.

There is no dark conspiracy afoot. The market is a mini-game like so many others, it cheats nor steals from anyone, simply redistributing wealth and goods with a tax.

It isn't as useful as KD. It's a situational power that can be absolutely broken in some situations and an irritant in others. Players need to have choices though, so let's leave it at that.

You have travel powers.
You KB them away, hop over and while they are in the 1-2 second "getting up" animation you finish them. Same thing in Keyes, just propel them away from terminals and you don't even need to kill them. Same thing in Underground...knock away the mobs from the Crystals and you just clear them with impunity.

Not to mention you can just use map geometry to almost cheat through KB. Flip a mob against a mob and it is rendered ineffective until you finish it. Overkill against minions but useful against Bosses and even Elite Bosses that may not have KB protect.

KB is fine and useful. I'll echo my friend that would like a +KB Interface proc...you're never, ever getting up.

You can run but you can't hide Z.
Your only hope is that this new startup has no PvP engine...

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah son.
And PvPing on that thing with 8-person teams? The best EVAH.

Hess map very cool though.

http://www.straferight.com/photopost...e-facepalm.jpg

Wow. -Res stacked with +RES and status protection...some people just don't get the idea behind buffs eh?

Sadly I missed this because we're doing the IMDB Top 250 until we get sick of it. Last Friday was Rear Window and Yojimbo, both were excellent but I felt like sticking Cagney's free leg in his mouth.

If I get home early next Friday I'll hop on my Grav/TA and join in. My Blaster is nowhere near ready so...

I know...well I hada friend that used to game with his family. The main one had a Fire/Fire Tanker that just logged in to farm Freaks day in and day out, then run high level TFs. He said (and I have no reason to dismiss him) that he had around 3 billion sitting across alts because "he did not trust the markets to be stable and not crash" in his own words. I myself have inf across a bunch of alts.

Remember that there are items that can no longer be produced such as Base Salvage which have bids on them. I personally have made "accidental fortunes" logging legacy alts, placing base salvage on the market for 1 Inf then getting 50 million times a bunch. That's not even counting level 1-49 HOs or SHO bids, level 53 bids...there is a LOT of inf out there. Right now I'm purpling/PVPIOng a future level 50 Dark/EM Blaster and my liquid inf has dropped slightly below 5 billion...guess I'll have to throw a bunch of purples on the Market or sell some crafted IOs...

Again, TLDR: Inactive accounts ftw. I recall @xxBudweiser23xX (or was the 23 even in there...) had close to a trillion across his 11 accounts before he went F2P...and stopped playing altogether.

Hey if you have access to Rice's account can you check if he has spare Glad Strikes? I need four for my Dark/EM Blaster >.>

This. With Stalkers critting almost every other mob there isn't any need for me to play my Brutes anymore. Now if they can make Scrappers crit constantly...

Actually, you can.
I've seen groups with Group Fly or Ouroboros Portal bridges and fly up to the ships and destroy them. There is a Youtube for it...here it is on Champion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO8tbKvto1I