Steele_Magnolia

I don't believe that this will completely solve the problem with WW/BM. It took a number of things to bring the situation to where it is today. I do believe that this step, removing the recipes and illicitly stored inf/inf, is a simple change that will have an appreciable effect. Further steps would involve things like drop rates which have proven to be very complex.

To completely solve the problem? It brings to mind the Vietnam war saying "We had to burn the village to save the village." Destroying the market and starting from scratch isn't a realistic option, though at times it sounds pretty good.

I would like to be able to buy SOs and costumes while I level up.

I would like to be able to craft IOs after I hit 50. If I can do it before, that's nice, too.

I hope these concepts are comprehensible.

No, it is not an exploit to play the market and make as much infl/inf as you can. However, the cap of what you can have is 2 billion.

Using a bug to have more than that is an exploit. Level 53 recipes do not exist. Those entries in the market are a bug. Using that bug to bypass the inf/inf limit is an exploit, IMO.

You may disagree. That's okay, we'll just disagree. I can't read the devs' minds, that's why I have made this suggestion. If they don't like it or don't have the time to fix it, they will ignore it.

Level 50s do earn more influence than level 49s. The rate of influence goes up by level, as does the cost of enhancements, costumes, and crafting. Crafting of level 50 IOs is correspondingly expensive. I don't see a need to reduce the earning rate. I believe that would be detrimental to players who do not farm.


Example:

A player has several standing, safe bids on nonexistent recipes for 1 or 2 billion each. This is how he stores excess influence beyond the limit, by exploiting this loophole. As he puts in bids for high amounts on items he wants, he then cashes in bids on the nonexistent recipes, enabling him to bid for yet more, well beyond the 2 billion limit. Rinse and repeat. This allows him to flip purples and other expensive non-purple IO recipes and then resell them at a higher cost. As he cashes in sales he in turn stores the influence to repeat the process. He is able to levereage more currency than a nonexploiting player, giving him more power over controling market forces. The market responds and prices go up.

The loser here are the more casual players. Prices of flipped items are driven higher and higher beyond the ability of the average player to purchase because of the ability of players abusing this exploit.

Certainly a player who does not use this exploit could place an item up for an extravagant price. Likewise that player could bid for several items at high prices cumulatively even beyond the limit as he earns more. However the average player simply cannot compete with those abusing this exploit to leverage more currency.

Additionally, cancelling these exploitative bids on nonexistent items would suck a lot of currency out of the game, doing something to balance the game economy. Given that any such change to the game would have to be tested, players would know about it ahead of time before it came live. Players with such bids would be able, by use of trade from character to character, to prevent the loss of their currency. That is, assuming that all of their characters aren't abusing the exploit and that they had any friends to do the trades for them.

I believe that prices would begin to stabilize. Rare and highly prized items would still command a high price, but not the prices they do today.

1. Reduce Influence - No, I would still like to be able to afford SOs and costume changes during a character's natural progression to 50 without having to resort to the market. The market is supposed to be optional. The earning rate is not the problem. 2 billion influence earned 'naturally' takes a long time. The earning rate and limit are sufficient.

2. Raise Drop Rates - I'm convinced drop rates have been borked since the last issue. In my experience, others' may vary, I have been getting considerably more generics and less set pieces since the last issue. I haven't seen a purple drop since July, again others' experience may vary. Fixing that, if it is indeed a problem, would be nice. It still wouldn't adress the root problem of people being able to exploit the inf limit, which in turn drives up demanded prices from market flippers.

I would be just as happy if the limit wasn't raised. I only suggested it as a way to ammeliorate the screaming of the market manipulator crowd. The 2 billion limit as designed really should be the limit. If the devs choose to raise it, then that's the new limit and should be enforced by the game design and not be possible to exploit around. Storing "safe" bids is an exploit.

Invites sent.

Simple.

You can only cast one. It has a slow recharge time. You can cast one at the start of the map on one player. Then you cast again when it recharges. With players running willy nilly all over the map after entering you cast when you can.

If someone complains about it I never buff them again. It's simple. Most people are grateful for the things.

Seriously, two of the buffs have minor negative components. All of them have major good components. It doesn't create a visual like ice armor. This is a lot of whine for something that is good.

The only time I can see not wanting the buff is the tank on a STF where the tower's bit of damage could end up as a floor wipe because of Recluse's high damage output. Otherwise this petty bickering over someone helping you out is stupid. Just say no and get on with playing. If it bugs you that much then go solo. You don't play well with others anyway.