heffroncm

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  1. heffroncm

    Just for fun.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nethergoat View Post
    I laugh at this theory every time I list something for tens of millions less than it sells for.
    I think the further theory is that the ebil marketeers have so manipulated and inflated prices for so long, that the average gamer has been brainwashed into paying whatever the "going rate" is without even trying to bid lower, and it is the seller's responsibility in some way to make them spend less money.
  2. heffroncm

    Procs in Toggles

    That explains why you don't see everyone doing it. It is a 5% chance, and it last 5 and change seconds. If it only checks every 10 seconds then it's too random to be worth 2 powers, a power pool, and an expensive Unique.
  3. heffroncm

    Procs in Toggles

    How does a Proc socketed into a Toggle work? From what I've read on the Wiki, the Proc buff will be in effect for 100% of the time that the Toggle is on. If this is true, wouldn't socketing Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Chance for Build-Up in Tactics give you a 100% uptime 100% damage boost?
  4. heffroncm

    Just for fun.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Emberly View Post
    If someone's willing to pay a given price, what possible criticism can be leveled at someone selling for that price?
    I believe the logic is that they are not actually willing to pay that price, but are being forced to do so if they want to get the enhancement.
  5. heffroncm

    A thank you

    http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=233453

    Blog created. No specific focus, just trying to make money every day and what I figure out along the way.
  6. My Rules for Easy Newby Marketing:
    • Don't pay any attention to costs less than 1% of your total wealth. When you have 1 million, spending 10 minutes to save 9 thousand is costing you more money than you are saving. Likewise, when you have 1 billion, 10 million is nothing to you.
    • Never end a bid or listing in 000. If you are bidding 1,000 on a piece of salvage, spend 1019 or some such. I use 123. This habit will save you money, get you your "buy it nao" items faster, and make your listings sell for more when they are close to the market value.
    • After you make your first million from vendoring recipes, start crafting generic IOs. Even buying the recipe from the table and paying for salvage at Buy It Nao prices, you can make a very nice return on the high volume IOs.
    • When crafting, don't worry about the market value. It is mostly irrelevant. Rather, pick a profit percentage, apply it to your cost, add 10% for listing fees, and list for that amount. For example, if it costs me 1M to make an enchancement, I list it for 2.2M no matter what the market price is. That's 1M cost, 1M for my 100% profit percentage, and 200K for the 10% sale fee.
    • Don't invest in anything with a market value below your profit point.
      Seems like a no brainer, but it cost me 5 spaces at the consignment house for two days because I hadn't implemented this rule yet.
    • Don't let yourself get clogged up. If you buy so many recipes and salvage that you run out of Consignment slots and fill your inventory, just e-mail the extra to yourself. It's a little tedious if you have a lot of extra saleables, but it's worth having a character that can play the game again. You can store up to 20 e-mails in your inbox at a time. I'd leave a few open for anything that might be sent to you by other players.
    • When you find a good investment, see if others in the same set at the same level are selling for more than your profit point. They might not have the margin of your main focus, but it's still good to craft them if they are worth any kind of profit. People tend to buy IOs in sets, and it can mean the difference between moving 5 enhancements that day and moving 30 enhancements.
    • Once you have a significant amount of money, spend some money on getting these badges. Most of them are really cheap, and they will increase your ability to make money efficiently. credit to Archie Gremlin for this tip
    • Never list a sale for less Inf than you'll be satisfied getting. It may take more time to sell at the higher price point, but it probably will sell eventually.
    • Never drink and market. Typos can cost you a lot, especially early in your career when 100M is still an important number.
    • Try not to invest in more than 5 of any single enhancement and more than 10 of any particular set. This way if it tanks, you're minimizing your loss. Diversify for maximum returns.
    • Look to sets in the Defense Sets, Endurance Modification, Healing, Melee Damage, PBAoE Damage, Ranged Damage, Resist Damage, and Targeted AoE Damage categories first. These are the high demand sets, the ones that move quickly, and where you're likely to find something worth your time. credit to Fulmens
    • When bidding on multiple stacks, or listing multiple stacks, alter your listing by 1 inf each time. Do not try to buy 50 of an item at 100 inf. Rather, buy 10 at 100, 10 at 101, 10 at 102, etc. This prevents your slots from being clogged up by all your stacks partially filling. Credit to common sense, delivered via Fulmens
    • Above all else, have fun. This is a game you're playing. If you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing it WRONG.

    FourSpeed's Tips
    • Type Fast BUT click SLOW! *personal note, I've flushed around 500 million from clicking too fast after a typo. don't do it.*
    • ALWAYS start with a ludicrously low bid on anything you're buying - it
      works more often than common sense or logic would predict. Ramp up to
      normal bids if it doesn't fill immediately, but the 5 seconds it takes to try
      it first can save millions.
    • With our "new/improved" market UI, work from the bottom up when
      listing items (that helps prevent you listing the wrong item for the wrong
      price when the UI "helpfully" shifts items around in the list for you)

    Archie Gremlin's Tips
    • buy in bulk to minimise the number of slots used for buying
    • use a base to store excess stuff
    • use multiple toons
    • stick to niches that buy and sell fast
    • check the market more often (every 3-4 hours is good)
    • work more niches at once and only list 1 IO from each niche
    • temporarily abandon niches when the prices drop

    Built a simple spreadsheet to make my marketing life easier. Here's a link to it. Any questions, just ask.
    Google Documents Link

    Started: 08/06/2010, fresh account, no outside help
    First Billion: 08/20/2010
    Inf Cap: 8/25/2010
  7. heffroncm

    A thank you

    I'm up over 300M now. I'm starting to think I'll have to accept a cut in margin to be able to move a volume of investment that I'll be happy with. While I love turning 25M into 50M to 75M every day, my income has been stagnant the past couple days. I have more money to invest, so I should be able to make a larger return. The problem is finding the right Enhancements that will let me turn 300M into 450M+ every day.

    I also think I'm having enough fun doing this and updating the thread that I should start a market journal Tips from a newby for newbies in the first post, listing all the little rules I'm making for myself along the way. Would this be a welcome contribution to the forum, or is it overdone?
  8. heffroncm

    A thank you

    The "small game" is over so FAST though. I'm still teaching myself not to care about 100K here and there, because out of 250M it just doesn't matter. I need to find more expensive game, too. I keep going with the same things, but I'm only able to invest a fraction of my capital at this point.
  9. Heh, I remember creeping someone out in FFXI once. I was playing a Mithra (catgirl) for the stats, and had some hole-in-head come up and start demanding pics. I ask him,

    "You really want to see pics of a balding, 375lb, hairy, pasty-white, sweaty guy sitting around in grey boxers that were white when he put them on?"

    He reported me to the GMs
  10. heffroncm

    Just for fun.

    Excellent post Seebs, though I'm left with a longing for delicious charred ungulate flesh.
  11. Yarn yah say? *ears perk*


    Crap..



    Now I'm cold.

    G'day Virtuites.
  12. heffroncm

    A thank you

    Thanks for the tips MunkiLord!

    1) I actually haven't lost Inf on any investment yet. Only time. I'm getting to where I value time and slot space more than RoI.

    2) I've been taking the advice to diversify very seriously. I never have less than three different IOs listed at a time. Right now I have four listed, and I'm lowballing recipes for a fifth. I also don't go more than 5 of anything, no matter how "hot" it looks.

    Basically I start from the premise that others have probably spotted it and started moving on it before I do, and try to get some sort of profit before the price crashes

    One IO I'm listing right now defies my understanding: the profits have increased substantially since I started listing it a few days ago. Originally I would list at 2x cost like most everything, and get 4x cost back most of the time. I'm getting closer to 12x cost back on most sales now that I've been keeping a constant supply up for the past few days. It doesn't make sense!
  13. I think the biggest obstacle to this idea is that Praetorians cannot join Supergroups or access Bases until they choose either Hero or Villain at the end of their arcs.
  14. I struggled at first applying this advice, but after a couple days I fell into a groove. The most important thing I've found when crafting and selling is to just not care about getting market price. Everything I sell, I list at cost + 50%. Right now, I've got a pack of IOs up that are listed at 1.5M while the "going rate" is 10M. I've gotten 10M for 3 of them, and I've gotten 1.6M for two of them. The point is the turnover's been fast, and I've been able to keep buying new recipes and keep supplying more of that IO.

    It doesn't matter how much profit you make on each individual sale. Your overall return on investment is the important part. Sure, some of your IOs might be bought up by people who are buying it cheap to sell it high. That's fine. Let them sit with it clogging their consignment house.

    Feel free to message me in-game if you'd like. I took Fury's advice, and starting with a fresh account from level 1 have made over 200M in 5 days. That's liquid, if my full inventory were to sell I'd have over 300M right now.
  15. heffroncm

    Heavy RP SG idea

    I agree with your assessment entirely Raythe. Did some digging on words and meanings, and it turns out that "delegation" has no diplomatic meaning attached to it. It would leave the negative propaganda just as open.

    I was chatting with zprophet in the in-game supergroup global channel, and he suggested a variant on "Pharian Embassy." An embassy is defined as a 'diplomatic misson.' There's no way to twist that against us that I can think of, so something involving "Embassy" gets my vote.
  16. heffroncm

    A thank you

    Another small update. It's been 5 days since I returned to the game, and I'm sitting on 200 million. It struck me a few minutes ago that this is 10% of the influence cap. In 5 days with no market experience on a fresh account with no outside help, I'm at 10% of the cap. Income keeps climbing, too, keeping pace with my capital.

    I'm trying out AE ticket random rolls for the first time today. It almost seems like a TON of work for not much payoff at my level of 16.
  17. I suppose rolling a new Warshade today and leveling to 45 before the deadline would automatically disqualify me
  18. heffroncm

    An idea

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kelenar View Post
    At first, my brain sorta flipped some of the letters around and I thought it said it was a kotatsu themed roleplay supergroup. "Meh, I'd chase the villains, but it's so warm and comfy under here..."
    That's like the best thing EVER. Why does Japan get all the cool furniture?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by The Lone Hero View Post
    Before I go with it, I'd like to know if anyone would be interested in a tokusatsu themed roleplay supergroup.

    For those of you who don't know, tokusatsu is a genre of Japanese entertainment featuring shows such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. America's most famous tokusatsu is Power Rangers, which uses combat footage from Super Sentai.
    I'd totally be interested if I hadn't committed my time elsewhere. The first Power Rangers series was just about my favorite thing EVAR when it was playing. I had to have it all: clothes, lunch box, toys, you name it. It helped that I was Voltron nerd from about 5 years old, and then there was this live-action Voltron with NINJA KICKS. Fun times
  19. Sorry, I usually try to stay gender-neutral. Thanks for all your hard work!
  20. heffroncm

    Heavy RP SG idea

    Of Topic: My understanding of Kinetic Melee is that it is compatible with Natural origins, being based on tai chi and shaolin kung fu.

    On Topic: I've been assuming the Pharians would be into melee for the same reason other warrior type sci-fi races are. Like Klingons.

    I do feel myself kind of drifting that way. Psionic Corps diplomat kind of guy. I'll have to think about powersets. I've played Empathy before, and it wasn't the "healer" set I wanted it to be. I was also considering something kind of based on the Truthsayer's from Frank Herbert's Dune. With proper preparation they are able to tell when someone is lieing, and are honor-bound to speak only the truth and expose any falsehoods they detect. Would of course require RP support from others to pull it off, but seemed like the sort of concept that would quickly grow in the Pharian society.

    It's either that or a youngish, almost naively optimistic empath who's been dragged along because his psionic abilities are just that rare and useful in this sort of situation, and no one more experienced could be pulled away from their more immediate missions. He could even be fresh from the camps, working out his mandatory year.

    One suggestion on potentially changing the fluff (won't be offended if you skish it, it's a pretty big change) would be to model the military arm of the Pharian Empire on Heinlein's Starship Troopers (the book. There is no movie.). In that book, everyone was a 'member' of their respective nations and was afforded full protection, rights, and economic opportunities. However, only those who volunteered for military duty were Citizens (capital C), afforded the privileged of voting, working in law, and holding public office. Seemed like it could be a good fit.
  21. Rather than give you the copypasta on my monster wall of text, I present linkage. Thanks for the offer =D
  22. This thread almost made my computron cry. Do you guys take requests? I'm badly colorblind, and could use some help