peterpeter

1. Ouroboros makes this really easy.

2. If you use Ouroboros to flash back to a mission, then you will be exemplared down to the appropriate level.

3. There is a great tutorial about Invention Origin Enhancements at the university in Steel Canyon. Common IO's are simple, and not terribly useful once you're 50. They're great when leveling up, though. Set IO's are complicated, which some people find fun.

4. Yes, you can respec all of your powers as long as you keep your AT and powersets. You can choose different power pools. We just got a free respec when I16 went live! You might want to test your new build on the training server before respecing your live character. Build planners can also be helpful.

5. I think you get double inf instead of xp when you use Ouroboros, but I've honestly never paid attention to the numbers.

It would be nice if they made a real game changing event out of it, but I expect what we'll get is an article posted on the website which says something like this: "We opened the capsule. It had pretty much all the stuff in it that we remembered putting there just a few years ago. We chucked in a couple more items just for the heck of it and then sealed it up again. It was a very moving ceremony. The end. PS We're not opening it again for 100 years."

The only other point would be cosmetic: to make it appear to the casual observer that prices in our game are perfectly reasonable.

Okay, I think I'm convinced that the devs are more likely to add additional inf sinks than anything else. As Fulmens said, they should be cool and interesting inf sinks. Do we have any suggestions for the devs?

Well, yes. But I don't see that as a problem. More of an opportunity for rampant, baseless, entertaining speculation. We can assume, perhaps unreasonably, that inf in GR will work in whatever way is necessary to push the game in the direction the devs want. So then the question is "What do the devs want?"

I'm speculating that what they want is to have smaller numbers in the market. I agree that it's a silly goal. I'm not defending it. I'm just predicting it. Now, if they want smaller numbers, then I guess the simplest way to do it is just cut the amount of inf earned from mob defeats and vendoring.

The problem with that, as people have pointed out, is that it would only hurt new players who aren't already sitting on billions of inf worth of bids on level 53 set IO's.

They could delete the inf which is already in existence, as a few people mentioned, but I just don't think they will.

They could do something sneaky, like delete level 53 set IO's from the market interface. Even if they refunded the cash, which they wouldn't have to do, it would still wipe many billions of inf out of existence all at once. I wonder if that's more than a drop in the bucket, though?

One thing we do know about the devs is that they can quite cheerfully pile up currency on top of currency on top of currency until they feel they've got it right. We know they don't want to merge the markets, or at least they have been strongly opposed to it in the past. We also know, or arrogantly assume, that they don't actually know much or even care much about economics.

So where does that leave us? Can the devs accomplish that goal by introducing a new GR currency with a steep conversion rate? Or will the fact that GR is an optional expansion mean they can't use it to make a global change? They might think that having side switching erase all inf will be a good inf sink, but of course most people will just pass the inf to an alt before switching, so no actual money is ever lost. What else might they try?

But keep them paying the monthly fee. It's a win/win! I'd vote for it. Of course, I'd like the whole market interface to be so flexible that I could write a macro that made bajillions of influence for me while I slept, and I'm sure that will never happen.

Seriously? You think I'm whining because I can't afford stuff? Man, I guess I don't brag enough.

I love that picture. And yes, the amount of wealth wouldn't change if the amount of inf went down, but it would be a permanent effect, not a temporary one, if the rewarding of inf were cut in the same way as the stockpile of inf.

Anyhow, I'm not advocating in favor of anything, or complaining about anything. I'm more trying to anticipate. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the devs are not entirely pleased that our in-game currency is being compared to Zimbabwe's. I suspect that they would like to see the numbers made smaller while the actual wealth stays the same.

New inf sinks may be in the works, but I wonder if they're pondering something more drastic. It would be a lot of work to implement all the things that MK listed. We've already speculated about whether Going Rogue will include a merged market. We already know that the devs are quite capable of adding as many different currencies as the whim strikes them, whether we like it or not.

This expansion could be an opportunity to correct some problems from the past, and to create new problems. By the time beta hits, it will be too late to affect some of the fundamental thinking around the market. Well, we've never had much impact on the devs thoughts about the market. But second guessing them is fun.

That would certainly do the job, but the resulting whine from people who saw their money stockpile dwindle by 90% would reach epic proportions, and the fact that their buying power hadn't changed would never penetrate.

Yes, there is an important distinction between a cosmetic change and a, well, non-cosmetic change. I'm talking about a purely cosmetic change, in which the amount of stuff you can buy and how long it takes to earn loot does not change at all. The only thing that changes is the number of digits involved when you earn or spend inf.

Increasing the supply of stuff would be totally different. It would decrease prices, yes, but would not decrease the amount of inf on hand, and it would reduce that amount of time necessary to get loot.

I don't think the devs want to reduce the amount of time it takes to earn loot. I suspect they're reasonably satisfied with that, in general. Sure, people whine about purpling out their warshades without having to farm, or play the markets, or play at all, but you get that kind of whining in every game.

The cosmetic stuff, though, I've been thinking recently that it might matter more than I thought, for at least three reasons.

First, when people start playing the game and they see those prices, they just assume that big numbers mean that everything is too expensive and that they'll never be able to get good stuff, so they get discouraged and quit before they discover how easy it is to earn money. Which is stupid, sure, but selling game subscriptions to stupid people is a growth industry.

Second, when people compare games, they look at prices of in-game items. If one game has bigger numbers, they think that game has more expensive, less obtainable loot. It's kind of the same thing and just as silly, but I've seen people do exactly that on these and other forums.

The third problem, which is basically the same problem yet again, is that people automatically convert pretend money into real money in their home currency on a 1:1 basis. You see it on the forums all the time when people refer to inf as dollars. 1,000,000 is a lot of dollars, an unobtainably huge number for must people. 1,000,000 inf isn't, but once you convert it to dollars in your head, it starts seeming like an insanely big number to buy anything less than an island.

Spend some of that extra inf to bribe the dev team into increasing the cap!

Which means they can only be bought if every other luck charm has already been bought... which has happened at least twice, as I recall. I have some listed for a few million, but that's nothing compared to his stack.

I, too, vote that you leave them up, Fulmens. In fact, I vote that we petition the devs to erect a giant statue of your stack of billion inf luck charms somewhere in game. What would be a good location? Maybe near the WW in Atlas Park? Sized in proportion to their value, they should be at least as big as the Atlas statue.

The ability for characters to make massive amounts of influence is the cause of the stupid prices on the markets. Removing the ability to make stupid amounts of influence is doing something about the stupid prices.

Notes:
1. Sorry if this was already pointed out. I have trouble keeping up with the forums these days.
2. Of course "stupid" is rather subjective, but I assume you mean something like "really high".
3. I'm not at all sure that the devs have removed AE farming, and I'm pretty sure that they have not removed the ability for characters to make massive amounts of influence.
4. If the devs suddenly erased 99% of all influence in the game and reduced the drop rate of influence by 99% across the board, and in every way reduced inf amounts by 99%, then prices would probably drop by 99% almost overnight. Everyone would cheer about the new low prices for about five minutes, and then they would realize that their actual buying power hadn't changed at all. Everyone would still be exactly as rich or poor as before, and everything would be exactly as cheap or expensive as before, and everyone would complain in exactly the same way as before. "Luck charms cost 500 inf? That's too much! Ebil marketeers must be manipulating the price! Even my level 50's could never earn that much!"

Good point. I was thinking of set recipes, but common recipes are really just influence.

Well, if everyone is in icon and not playing, that is an impact. Icon is an influence drain. Not playing means the supply of drops goes down. Less influence chasing fewer drops... um, I'm not sure what that will do.

I had forgotten about the drop rate issue. That's just for recipes or salvage as well? Anything that drops the supply will put upward pressure on prices.

Did I hear something about a double xp weekend coming after I16 dropped?

You're right. That's unfortunate. Hmmm... does this help? I'm going to copy and paste from Zombieman's guide to guides post. Hopefully those links work.

THE CONSIGNMENT MARKETS AND ECONOMY[INDENT]
Using The Consignment Markets (Wentworths/Black Market) Zombie_Man [I9]

Wentworth's 101: Introduction to the Markets peterpeter [I11]

Your Market and You! - A Guide LJHalfbreed [I11]

Guide to Market Participation Mind4EverBurning [I9]

Burn Rate: 0 to 1Billion Inf in 30 Days (or less) Mind4EverBurning [I13]

Frozen Horizons' Guide to getting rich quick! [I9] Frozen_Horizon

Making Money at Low Levels TopRamen [I9]

How to Get Rich Young and Stay That Way Scrapulous [I7]

A guide to influence and infamy for I9 Gilfred [I8]

Stick it to The Man! - A How-To on Forum Auctions The_Faou [I11]

Guide to a Small, Steady Income Redside Catwhoorg [I12]

Don’t Let Me Make Money Off Your Ignorance!!! Storyteller [I13]

Market Cliff Notes: A Guide to Marketeering AgentMountaineer [I13]