Panzerwaffen

I disagree 100%. DR and the merit system has accomplished its intentions. Players on my server now run a larger variety of TF's on a much more frequent basis. I tend to run with a very TF oriented group of players, and we love speed runs, and not once has anyone ever suggested switching alts and running the same TF back-to-back. It's much more fun this way. Repeatedly running the same thing over & over using the same strategy every time gets old real quick.

I also did a tiny bit of very informal testing and took my AR/EM blaster to the wall in Cim. I was only able to spend a few minutes at it, but the drop rate 'felt' right to me, based on many, many previous runs live. I didn't come close to filling up on salvage and recipes, but I'll go back and spend some more time at it and see how fast the two fill up. I've got a pretty good feel for how fast both salvage and recipe storage should max out there.

OK, if that is in fact happening, it also needs to be determined if it is only related to the enhanced difficulty settings (some type of throttling) or if it applies across the board. Should be easy to figure out by making a few runs on the wall in Cimerora solo.

Custom Villain Groups
If a player has all three basic critter types in their CVG, they will receive full rewards for the mission. If one critter type is missing they will receive 50% rewards. If two critter types are missing they will receive 25% rewards, and if none of the core critter types are in the CVG, there are no rewards.

So, there can still be all boss farms, they will just give 25% rewards.

The solution distilled down to its purest essence.

Perhaps you should switch to decaf...

Yes, actually it is hard to believe. So hard, that I would say you are 100% wrong. I see multiple TF's form every single day & night on my server. I've also never been unable to form a TF team on my own. I've seen successful TF's form at bizarre times like a spontaneous 3am weeknight Moonfire.

Tell me what server you're on, and if it happens to be one I have an appropriate level character on I'll wager I can go there and form a TF team within just a few minutes.

I can't comment on Champion, as I have never played there. However, outside of Freedom, Virtue & Infinity, the rest of the servers all have approximately equal populations. Unless for some reason Protector, my main server, is more of a team-oriented server than the others, I just can't see how things can be as bad as you claim. Maybe there is a bias against redside on Champion. Who knows? If you're not happy there, try another server.

Redside has always been less populated than blue, and also seems to have a higher proportion of solo players for some reason. But, even taking that into account, there is still redside activity out there, and at least in my experience it is not all that hard to find.

That's the nature of MMO's. The carrot on a stick at the end of a treadmill. They are designed to keep players subscribed and chasing the carrot.

Removing any relationship between rarity and power creates an unbalanced game. If everyone has easy access to the most powerful items, the game then becomes boring and a joke. Google "Monty Haul Campaign" if you are not familiar with the term. Making them readily available in a store would create just this type of environment.

You also have to take into consideration, there is a certain sense of competitiveness among a subset of players. They enjoy working towards creating a character that is more powerful than most. These types of players are often the long term subscribers that MMO developers love.

Syndrome: "I'll sell my inventions so that *everyone* can have powers. *Everyone* can be super! And when everyone's super--[chuckles evilly]--no one will be.

What does AE have to do with anything? I never mentioned anything about AE. In fact, I tend to avoid it.

All I see here is someone whose playstyle & expectations clearly do not mesh with the game, and is making a series of unfounded claims.

You started off with:
Completely untrue.

Then, when you got called on your false statement and some end game content was pointed out to you, you dismissed it completely.

Hami raids probably don't happen as much as they used to. Which is most likely due to all the other content available at level 50. Of course, in my bizarro world of CoH Hami raids still happen, both blue and redside. No AT's are locked out of STF or LRSF teams. I've seen plenty of successful teams do both with various compositions. And what's wrong with a speed ITF? I'd rather run it with a smart, well-played team that steamrolls over everything, than a multi-hour grind fest.

Then you threw out this gem.

Which again, is completely 100% false.

And again, something else that is clearly at odds with other player's experiences. As I pointed out, in my bizarro world of CoH, teams and TF's are regularly being formed. It is not a lack of game content, if you as a player, have not used the available tools to get involved with these activities. If the game doesn't click with you, and you don't get satisfaction out of it, fine. Move on. There are lots of other games out there.

And without a market and 'loot' system this game would be dead in the water. There is a large subset of MMO players that enjoy tweaking and developing their characters. At the time they were introduced, the market and invention system were necessary to the continued health and growth of this game. Without them, there would have been less new players, as well as less players staying around long-term. I know I would have grown
bored fairly quickly and moved on, and I'm very confident most of the players that I consider in-game friends would as well.

No, it's not. Simply because that same low level character is receiving drops while playing as well. They don't earn inf in a vacuum. OK, so Salvage A costs 10K on the market. Joe Player needs Salvage A, but doesn't have 10K inf. He sells Salvage B for 10K inf. Voila! Success!

I'm beginning to think that anyone who claims not being able to grasp the difference between a 'casual' and 'hardcore' player, is severely lacking in their basic vocabulary. Which isn't all that surprising nowadays.

Casual–adjective

• without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand;
• seeming or tending to be indifferent to what is happening; apathetic; unconcerned
• irregular; occasional

Hardcore–adjective

• unswervingly committed; uncompromising; dedicated

Again, you must be playing a different City of Heroes game than I do. Off the top of my head, I've gotten close to a dozen purple recipe drops just playing normal game content, not farming.

Huh. I really must play in the bizarro world of CoH then. Last night (a Monday night) I was on back to back Lady Grey and Imperious TF's, and I saw at least 3 other TF's being formed during the same time period. Before joining the first TF, I was playing around solo on a brute for a bit, and within 15 minutes, I had gotten a tell inviting me to a team. Day before that, I formed a full low level villain team within about 20 minutes, that kept going for a good 2 hours.

All of this on Protector, a 'low' population server.

Sounds to me, like you either have unrealistic expectations, or need to re-evaluate your own playstyle.

Umm.. the fact that it is a violation of the EULA and will result in an account ban if the activity is identified isn't enough? Neither you nor I know anything about what tools the devs have in place to identify unusual influence transfers. In my line of work I have a pretty fair amount of experience with exception based reporting and datamining and I can think of several things that would throw flags allowing a closer look at a player's account and activity.

In this context the difference between casual and hardcore is a factor of the time/effort spent. It is not only a matter of time, but the effort put forth as well. For example, a good marketeer may not spend a lot of time using the market once they have identified niches and have a good understanding of how the system works. But they are definitely putting forth the effort to reap their rewards from that activity. The casual player is much less likely to spend the time or effort needed to excel at that activity, therefore they will never make as much influence off the market, as the player who does invest that time/effort. And they have no basis for coming on here and posting a whiny rant complaining that influence is too hard to make because Joe Marketeer has 3 billion inf and they only have 3 million.

What also gets old real quick are people who cannot grasp the extremely simple, basic & fundamental concept that rare & very rare 'loot' in an MMO is not intended to be easy to obtain. In other words, it is not intended for a casual player. That's not to say that a casual player cannot obtain them, but they are much less likely to do so than the player who invests more time & effort into the game.

The same concepts tend to hold true in other game formats as well. The 'best' items are rare and not easy to obtain. If you are not familiar with the term 'Monty Haul Campaign', I suggest you look it up.

I bought a dozen for right around 40 mil and sold most of them for between 70-80 mil, because I did not anticipate the price rising that high. Missed out on a lot of inf there. I did have a couple left when the price climbed above 100 and I think I ended up getting around 140-150 for those.

Drones need much more accuracy then the other pets, since once you have all 3 they will be 2 levels below your own. This means potentially, they would be facing up to +5 enemies. I personally think Battle Drones are the best of the 3 pets for slotting the full BM set. That gives them max accuracy and max damage with some end reduction (which they really don't need).

You are giving up on a fair amount of potential damage by having the Protector Bots slotted that way. No accuracy or damage enhacmenet at all? They won't hit anything, and even if they get lucky they won't be doing much damage. ProBots need end reduction too. Watch how often their blue bar drops. It seems they use more end than either of the other two pets. I think they are a great candidate for frankenslotting. Max defense, at least 50% accuracy, as much damage as you can fit in, followed by end reduction.

I would drop the heals as well. The heals have a fairly long recharge and don't get used that much. My opinion is that the uniques are best placed in the Assault Bot. It needs the least amount of accuracy enhancement, since it is even level to the MM, and doesn't seem to use that much endurance. You can fit all that it needs into 4 slots, leaving 2 for the uniques.

Should be in the MM forum for sure.

You must not be playing the same game I play then.

What is so hard to grasp about the concept of Very Rare recipe drops? They are not supposed to be easy to get. No casual player should "hope to spec out their characters with a few sets of these" to begin with, unless they are living in entitlement fantasy land. The concept that every player should have easy access to the best items in any MMO no matter the effort put forth, is simply laughable.

You also seem to be confused as to what exactly is generated by farming. Your post reads as if all these items magically appear in the game for sale on their own, and that farming is simply a way of making the inf to buy these items. Farming is what generates most of these items that are put up for sale to begin with.

Ah, the old 'price cap' routine. Let's beat this dead horse some more.

And it will mean 'no one' can actually get them, since the supply, which does not magically appear at the auction house, would remain unchanged. Is it really possible to have such a poor understanding of the concept of Supply & Demand and how that affects prices?

And there's that entitlement mentality again. This whole post up to this point, has been nothing more than a thinly disguised "WAH! I want the best loot in the game without having to go through any of the effort that other players have!" whines.

And the devs are addressing this with the enhanced leveling speed to 20 that is coming up.

The only thing the devs have seemed to be concerned about since I started playing is leveling speed. Too many people start leveling too fast, and it gets addressed. They do not seem to be concerned at all with farming for rewards. Heck, when they added Cimerora in Issue 12, they placed spawns in the zone perfectly set up for farming. That was no accident. Neither are any of the hazard zone spawns.

Call me crazy, but this might have something to do with it:

No, they are very relevant. Obitus, you have been using a whole lot of words in your last few posts, and not really saying anything. You don't actually seem to have a position at all, to be frank, other than to argue for the sake of argument.

This whole thing started off on the false pretense that somehow Scrappers have more damage than Blasters. That was quickly proven untrue. Then the argument was made that the damage of Scrappers was close enough, that the lack of survivability on behalf of Blasters was now the issue. Again, that was debunked, as Blasters have adequate survivability while solo through the use of their controls, and on teams with even a modicum of support they are also survivable. All the while, still bringing excellent damage ability to the table.

You have acknowledged that Blasters can easily solo EB's as well as even solo AV's. I don't see how survivability can still be in question. My AR/EM blaster can outpace every Scrapper I've seen on the wall in Cimerora, and has the survivability to keep going without pause.

Not to knock Scrappers, because I have several, and I enjoy playing them, but if I am putting together a TF team, the last AT type I would look for would be a Scrapper because they bring the least to the team. I'm not going to turn them away, but I don't go out of my way to look for them either. Generally, by the time they move to melee range and finish engaging a single opponent, the entire spawn has been wiped by the Blasters, Controllers, Defenders, etc. The lack of AOE damage on Scrappers is painfully apparent in these cases.

This thread is nothing more than beating yet another dead horse over AT balance. No different than the threads that pop up in the Tanker forum crying for more damage, or the threads in the Defender forum crying about how they can't solo. And just like all those other threads, this one should be put to rest as well. At least until someone else decides to beat on the 'ol horse again.