Strata_Fortress

Actually, you may want to rethink your title.

Being the diet coke of ebil implies that you are less ebil. (Diet coke having less calories, sugars, etc, than regular coke).

I think you want to go with you are the "New Coke" of ebil.

Oh wait, didn't that drink fail also or I am thinking of Clear Pepsi?

Ahh, nvm, carry on with your ebil schemes.

Yes, great post indeed.

I have to admit, though, that although I recently capped out at the 2 billion mark and so have actually put on a hold on my ebil schemes (plus I also want to wait until the market settles) that the "needy person in me" (for lack of a better phrase) is hoping that the price of purples drop due to the return of players to non-AE content.

That is, I understand and completely agree that purples ARE and SHOULD REMAIN ultra-rare items. (I am just saying, lol, that I am hoping they drop just a bit so I can go on a minor spending spree and outfit one of my character---human nature I guess to want the porsche for cost of a ford).

I didn't read all of the post above me.

But here are my two cents: I love the fact that when I change into granite, I become this huge monstrosity and that I make this lumbering/pounding sound when I walk. Yeah, I suppose the fact that I can't distinguish my granite from the next person's granite is a bit annoyning.

But bottom line: Whatever change you make (if any), please keep the effect of "omg, that's one big (blank) dude." Even if it means that all granites continue to look alike. That's a small price to pay IMO.

I mean Granite Armor has a ton of negatives (and a ton of positives) (no pun intended) so I always felt that one of the rewards for dealing with being super slow is that at least we "look the part." Like "that's one big guy."

If I was a skinny looking character (in granite) and I moved really slowly, it would just serve to tick me off. As a big guy, it's like "you just wait till I get over there, you're gonna get it."

Keep the mountain of destruction coming at you look.

So I hit the 2 billion dollar mark about a week ago (of actual cash on hand). I could have hit it much sooner if I wasn’t always trying to tweak my character and if I wasn’t so busy with work and if I would have cancelled the dozen or so buy bids that I have out there).

As an aside, with the help of the evil bunny (Jo-Jo/smurphy) I was finally able to get a screenie. (It took me a bit longer to figure out how to get the GUI to come out in the screenie). Having said that, I haven’t quite explored how to post it these forums and so…………I lose points for no screenie.

(Hopefully I gain a few for taking the time to post my experiences).

Anyhow, the purpose of my post is not to prove that I am “ebil” but to relay some of my experiences (and feelings) on my way to getting 2 billion.

As an aside, I use to post on this forum a fair amount but lost my password some time ago and so for the past year or so I just come on here to read what others wrote. (The purple Bunny informed that my password is now the same as my game password and so I don’t have to go try and get a new one).

Disclaimer: The things I am about to say, all of you already know. It’s like I am preaching to the choir. Somewhat of a catch 22. The poor stay poor b/c they don’t visit forums like these.

Anyhow:

(Long post)

First:
The ability to work the black market after AE came out is much easier than before AE. As many of you have noticed, there has not only been a proliferation of the “one billionaire” but of the “two billionaires.”

Therefore, I must tip my hat to those people who earned their billions before AE. People such the Bunny, DumpleBerry, (I suspect Cat, the Goat, SwellGuy, Uberguy etc, and others like him).

Those people are truly ebil.

Second:
There is no reason to be poor. Not after AE. (I don’t know how i16 will impact things). I know everyone always says that but really it’s true.

All you have to do is to buy a recipe low, wait like a day or so, then flip it. In my case, I bought low, crafted it, then flipped it. But to be honest, I am not sure that crafting was even necessary. I just crafted out of habit.

And here is the thing. With AE, you have a lot of people who are the “buy it nao” people. So you don’t have to study the market for hours on end. Not to reveal company secrets, but look if you just look at like a Level 50 Numina Heal. The price on that thing during a week goes from like 17 million to like 50 million (at least crafted). You don’t have to be genius to figure out that buying that low and selling it high is easy money.

Third:
Related to the above. It took me a long time to actually start working the market. Sure, I was told to “buy low and sell high” but I didn’t do that for the longest while. (Again, as I said, AE makes it so much easier). First, I started off with salvage. Then when I got some money going, I moved on to the big boys. I even dappled in purples for a bit (at which point I was sometimes turned over like 100 million). Bottom line: Money begets money. And you only need a small amount to start out.

Oh, an interesting note. During the last double xp weekend, I logged on with m sup-ed up Brute. Got on a few AE teams and earned infamy. However, it occurred to me that I could make money by just working the market. Understand what I am saying: I could earn more money in the market than on double xp/double infamy. And here is the real thing: I am not sure that I was earning more money in the market b/c of the nature of double xp/infamy weekend. I think I was earning more money in the market b/c it’s just plain faster (regardless of what is going on with double xp/infamy).

Fourth:
Can you corner the market? I might get flamed for what I am about to say (but this is only my opinion). In my opinion, while it may not be possible to corner the market for an extended time, I can say that an “ebil” (i.e. a billionaire) person can “move” the market for an extended time. Certainly for ebil fun (i.e.—at a loss of money). But here is the thing. Even for profit.

Some of you may recall that about a month or so ago, Scientific Theories sold for 200K almost every single day for like weeks. Honestly, I think that was all my doing. (I say that b/c once I stopped, prices returned to like the 10k to 30K range and have stayed there).

The supply was low. (I also realized that AE ticket holders could not use their tickets to purchase a particular common salvage—it was just random). So with AE driving people wild, you didn’t have a bunch of players getting Scientific Theories in mission drops.

I just to put in bids of like 70 or 80 at a time. Some of the bids were designed to create a false image of demand. Others were put in there to make sure that if anyone came along and dropped an ST, it would go to me. I would then turn around and list those bad boys for 200K and they would sell.

Sometimes (though this often cost me more than it made me) I would even buy up every single one on the market so I would control it. (I even did this on Numina Heals but that didn’t really pay off).

The money that I made on the ST cornering the market was not a whole lot as you are still only dealing with thousands and not millions but relative to the value of a non-manipulated ST, I made a “lot of money.”

Fifth:
Related to the above, IMO, flippers like myself probably served to drive the prices up. Stop. Don’t flame me. I’ve read dozens of posts which have explained why flippers don’t drive prices up. However, it’s my feeling that the prices on certain particular recipes were the direct result (or at least in some part) related to my flipping. Plus: I know for a fact that others were doing it.

So let me rephrase. My individual flipping probably didn’t much (except for the Scientific theories) but the collective flipping by many others……probably drove prices up. As I said, I don’t have any data to back the above up. That’s my feeling. And again, I go back to AE. It’s my feeling that AE really changed the rules. That is, before AE, I don’t think I could have cornered the market on an item. Post AE, with my billions, yes, I think I can. And for a profit.

Sixth:
Moral obligation. I feel no moral obligation or guilt at working the market for my gain. Is a stockbroker suppose to apologize for buying GM’s stocks low and selling high?

However, I sometimes felt guilty for the following. Often when I bought stuff, I bought them like 8 at a time (especially when was pursing crafting badges). Well the last five bids may say: 4K, 5K, 4K, 5K, 6K. As my millions turned to hundreds, my patience for small fries grew less and less. I would put in 8 bids at 7K and only like 3 would get filled. I would then have to cancel the remaining 5 bids, and put 5 in at 8K. Then 2 would get filled. I would have to cancel the remaining and put in….You get the idea.

To avoid that, many times I would just say “f-it.” 8 bids at 15,555. Buy it “nao.” But then I would feel guilty b/c a poor person looking at the last five would see a wall of numbers showing 15,555 (or a new seller would see that and list at that or above).

Whereas in reality, the thing could probably have been gotten by the poor person for like 4K.

So I felt guilty in that respect. But at not at any of my intentional/focused market manipulations.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Sorry for the long post.

Totally awesome update.

I wasn't able to play for long last night but the little that I did was spent just pressing different powers and watching the numbers change. My main is an SS/Stone and so I took great pleasure in watching my various numbers change depending on whether I used rage, hasten, rooted, and granite (in different combinations). (And that's an example of course).

Wow, someone sent me the link to this guide. Very very nice. I intuitively(sp) knew the basics of what you were saying but it was nice 1) seeing it confirmed/clarified and 2) more importantly, seeing actual examples of how the stuff works.

Well I was only able to participate in two zone invasions before I had to sign off.

In both cases, I was my level 30 EM/ELA Brute. I got to say it was a lot of fun. It was nice seeing so many people working together.

Very nice.

My biggest complaint (and its not really a big one) is that I wish the enemies were harder to fight. I mean perhaps it was because there were dozens of villains pounding on each enemy so he had no chance (and I know the game treats the Rikti as gm and so scales them/us) but at no point in time whatsoever did I feel “omg, we can barely stem the tide, this is going to be close, hang in there”

To say this differently, the Rikti had no chance and so the attack did not feel like this momentous struggle. It was one sided (ours).

I realize that as the “newness” wears off and hence less players respond to the defense call, there will be more bad guys per hero/villain.

But as it is, right now, it’s like no contest (our favor).

Oh, and I was on Justice around 9:30 p.m. eastern time. The lag was NOT that bad and I was in a team of about 8 both times, surrounded by about a dozen (or more other players).

I am aware that many factors go into lag so perhaps I was lucky (though I did fight in two different zones) but my feeling is that before everyone panics about the lag, give it a week or so for the excitement to die down. I mean last night everyone and their sister was on trying out the stuff. In a sense, it was worse than double xp because you had people concentrating in a small area. But time will fix half the problem.

And again, nice job.