peterpeter

WhendoesI14betastart???

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Lastly, I want to say that I got robbed hardcore because of the 60 day rule several times. I always assumed that was a glitch that they were going to fix. Guess I learned my lesson.

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Did the devs ever explain why there's a 60-day rule?

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Not to my knowledge, no. We can speculate: maybe they want to discourage hoarding, or encourage market participation, or save strain on their servers, but I've never seen an official explanation.

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Dual Builds....yet another addition to the game that has absolutely no place in the in-game lore.

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I agree with you about dual builds and powerset proliferation. Especially powerset proliferation. But I think the MA thing should have some connection to the in-game lore, and it's pretty easy to just do a holodeck/danger room hand-wave. I don't think I'd have gone with Dr. Aeon, personally, or the focus on entertainment, but whatever. Once we get the tool, people will use it however they want.

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Anyone know when the Valkyrie pack will be available? I want that thing.

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Then buy it. PC users can buy the Mac pack. You get all the goodies plus a month of service.

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Hmm, do my eyes decieve me? Is there nothing new?
(No problem if there isnt)

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It does look that way. I'm not exactly disappointed, but I'm a little surprised. The Halloween and Winter events both got significant upgrades. Maybe there is a surprise in store for us?

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Meh.

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Seriously. I'm not usually one to complain about free stuff, but I'm struggling to think of any instance where I would get any use out of either of these.

Given how excited other people are, I hope I'll find it more fun than it sounds.

Some people would probably like an official redname confirmation that merit rewards will not be doubled that weekend.

I assume day job progress will not be affected at all.

That 24 hour timer on task forces won't be reduced before 2xp weekend, will it? That would be nice.

EDIT: Oh, and there will probably be some confusion about how xp debt will interact with everything else.

With 2008 firmly behind us, it's time to put together a list of all the Market Watch columns from the year. There were no Market Watch columns for the first few months of the year. Smurphy and I took turns writing columns during April and May. My column continued to appear every other issue until December.

4/11/2008: My first column, about making the most of the items you get in the Tutorial.
4/18/2008: Smurphy's first column, a six point plan for success on the Black Market.
4/25/2008: My article on cross-server influence transfers.
5/2/2008: Smurphy's article on how to get stuff.
5/9/2008: My article on the Lucky Lowbie Lottery.
5/16/2008: Smurphy's interview with The_Bronx.
5/23/2008: My cost-benefit analysis of Titanium Coating, applicable to most IO's. One of my best.
5/30/2008: Smurphy's "Finding A Bargain" article, about equilibrium prices. His last and probably best column.
7/6/2008: Career Day, Part 1: Vendoring (aka arbitrage).
6/20/2008: My price comparison between three recipes which act differently when exemped.
7/3/2008: Career Day, Part 2: Crafting.
7/18/2008: My article comparing table, market, and vendor buyback prices of common IO recipes.
8/8/2008: A look back at the double xp weekend.
8/22/2008: Career Day, Part 3: Flipping. Buy low, sell high.
9/5/2008: Contest and quiz.
9/19/2008: Contest winner and quiz answers.
10/3/2008: A study of the impact random forces can have on pricing.
10/17/2008: Predictions from the Market forum about I13.
10/31/2008: A study of the order in which bids are resolved if the inf amounts are tied.
11/14/2008: A survey of billionaires.
12/5/2008: Pricing strategies - choosing an asking price for newly introduced recipes.
12/19/2008: A follow-up to the predictions in the 10/17/2008 column.

That was the end of my run as City Scoop columnist, at least for the time being. I don't know if these links will survive the switch to the new forums, but I hope that some folks get some use out of this post until then.

EDIT: All links are broken. I'll see what I can do, but it won't be easy or soon.

Well, I just got my first notice about rent being due. I hate it. Here are the reasons why I hate it so far. I'm sure I'll have more when I actually try to pay it.

1. I designed the base on an 8x8 plot specifically so I wouldn't have to pay rent. Now I have to pay rent.
2. I don't know when to pay the rent. I never needed to know how it worked before, so all I know is that the official message is a lie, and if you fall for the lie then you pay double or triple what you need to.
3. I don't want to travel all the way to Atlas just to click on someone. Why can't I mail them a check?

Note: the actual amount of rent is not on this list. I don't care how much or how little it is. All the things about this change which annoy me are related to paying any amount of rent.

tl;dr:
Objective: My rent used to be zero. Now it is more than zero.
Subjective: I liked zero better. The rent system is vastly more annoying than the rent amount.

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So, tomorrow morning C-section. Wish me luck! Or my wife! But I'm more likely to need it than her.

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Good luck!

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and they may have adjusted the table to close after it asplodes now.

[/ QUOTE ]I kept it open after it exploded last night...so it's still doable.

For the record, I find closing and reopening the window just a bit before it explodes to be fairly reliable. Or at least it seems that way...

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I'll try that. Sometimes it stays open for me and sometimes it doesn't. Usually it doesn't.

Webkinz.

My six year old daughter wants one for Christmas. Some of her friends have them, apparently. I'm not sure what to think of them. Does anyone have any experience with them?

I am also bummed about the lack of triggers. It seems to me that most of the things that distinguish the fun missions from the dull ones will not be available to us. Someone said a while ago that the MA sounded like a glorified radio mission generator, and Positron seemed offended by the comparison.

I was thinking about this last night, and I think this is one of those situations where the devs have a different perspective than the players, and use words in different ways, which hinders communication.

A radio mission works something like this: some random number generator picks a map from list A, a villain group from list B, an objective from list C, and flavor text from list D. With the mission architect, it will be players who pick a map from list A, a villain group from list B, an objective from list C, and type in whatever flavor text they want. You see, in one case everything is random, but in the other everything is carefully hand crafted by individual players. They are totally different. And exactly the same.

Imagine rolling 50 six sided dice. You'd get some ones, and some twos, and threes, fours, fives, and sixes, in roughly equal numbers. Now imagine having 50 people carefully place a six sided die on a table. You'd get a lot of ones and sixes, I bet, plus some twos, threes, fours, and fives. The method is completely different. The result is almost identical. The devs care about the method. The players care about the results.

When I think of my favorite missions in the game, it isn't the flavor text that grabs me. It's the mechanics: the mission in Striga where the robots start out as statues and then come to life, the exploding volcano in the Hess TF (though I dearly wish we could actually see it go boom), the Nemesis invasion in that RWZ mission. Missions where things happen, where things change, where it feels like something is going on, instead of just a building full of static spawns waiting their turn to die.

I'm looking forward to the MA, I really am. I look forward to pushing the boundaries of what it can do. Once I hit those boundaries, though, and I expect to hit them hard and early, then I'm going to start fervently hoping that the MA doesn't have to wait as long to get some follow-up polish as a lot of other things have.

I would like this thread saved:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=0#Post10451958

It's a sticky in the Market forums, a list of guides. It also includes a post linking to every Market Watch column from 2007. I hope those links don't break with the move. I plan to add a list of the 2008 Market Watch columns after the last issue of the year comes out.

Hey, maybe I should get in on this action. Pact slots available! Level 1 to level 50! Open up your wallets! Now let me see, the rate at which I gain xp will be halved, patrol xp is 50% but only if you're logged out long enough, carry the one, okay I think I can get you up to level 50 in about five years. Who wants to get in on that action?

*crickets*

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Can too! If it's not put away the baby could choke on em..besides who has to build it?!? ME. No thanks.

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DUPLO's? Probably not a choking hazard. Toddlers and up can build towers and things.

I think "blurgl" means "I'd like to volunteer to help with copy editing, please."

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Well, villainside I wouldn't pay more than 2 million. Probably not enough to make it worth it to you, I'm sure.

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I'm not sure there is an amount that would make it worthwhile for our mighty pink bunny. If he wants to do it for his own entertainment, then he will, and the inf bidding becomes more of a way of keeping track of how badly people want to join in than a way of making a profit. After all, if someone quits the pact halfway through, then Smurphy loses the benefit (if you can call leveling at half speed a benefit).

Given that my highest level villain is around 18, this is the only way I'm likely to unlock the VEAT's before 2010. From a purely financial point of view, given the earning potential of a 50 vs a level 18, I could pay tens of millions and the 50 would pay for itself in a few months. Given the reality of only having a level 18 villain, and needing to equip that level 50 from scratch, I don't think I can afford to offer much more than a million infamy.

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Most of the negative feedback over flight poses is that they don't stick, and that you can't set the Hover poses (and, again, have them stick.)


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You gotta go back to the original comments on them, when they were random or cycled through the options sequentially. Even today, some of you guys have strong feelings about certain flight poses (or all of the current options) not fitting the image of their character that they have in their noggin. I would expect walks to elicit much the same type of response. Compounding that is aside from making a different walk for the male, female, and huge body types the possiblity of doing multiple styles of walking for each is so un-feasible it's essentially impossible.

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I've seen this kind of response several times before, BAB, and it makes me wonder: is this simply the nature of game animation, and all games have the same problem and always will, or is it a limitation of CoH which could conceivably be eased by some imaginary CoX 2 sequel?

I'm sorry to see you go. I hope you are going to something and not just away, though I certainly wouldn't blame you for wanting to get away from this job.

Another first time poster! I'm glad I could help.

What bothers me the most about the merit system, especially where casual players* are concerned, is that you can't earn merits while you're logged off. I spend a lot of time logged off. I hardly spend any time logged on. I probably play for 5 hours a week these days. I can earn influence hand over fist. The less time I spend in game, the more influence I can make. Patience pays on the marketplace. I have tried and tried to convince people of this, but I'm afraid I never got through to most people: the market was the best thing that ever happened to casual players. Put in a bid and walk away. List an item and walk away. By the time I got back to playing again, the money was just sitting there waiting for me. Using the market, I could afford shinies way out of proportion to the time I spent in game, not despite being a casual player, but because of it. A hardcore powergamer could spend hours farming and earn the same amount that I accrued over the course of a few days when I wasn't even logged on. What a great equalizer!

Merits don't work like that. If you don't log on, you don't get merits. The number of merits you have is strictly proportional to the amount of time you spend playing. Want to be rich? Play a lot. Play a little? Be poor. It's a rigid class system that dooms me to eternal poverty. Or it would, if it were the only game in town. As long as the market is still a viable means of acquiring items, I'll be ok. I don't think the market will tank any time soon. I think everything will be fine. I hope so. If I have to rely on merits to acquire things, then I'm stuck with SO's again.







* Casual Player is defined for purposes of this post as: Me.

Thank you for putting this together Neuronia. I'd like to see a comprehensive price list, but I guess I'll see for myself soon enough. I don't understand what the devs were thinking, though. What problem were they trying to solve? What impact do they think this is going to have?

Not what I was expecting. A bit stunned right now, really. One thing I'm a bit confused on: what level recipe do you get when you buy a recipe from the merit vendor?