Go to Redside.

Heh, toss a 4, 2 and 5 month old on top of that and it gets pretty hectic!


This. Since I've not been playing my 50, but rather leveling... the merits are rolling in exceptionally slow. Sure I can get a real nice high end piece... in 4-6 weeks.

You can also run arcs on your higher level characters for merits through the flashback system. It'll never be as efficient as TFs as you say, but it would probably be a good deal faster.


I also think that for solo players, who don't have much time to play and can't get in on TFs that the AE is a better choice for leveling. Tickets come in quite a bit faster than merits, due to not getting any other rewards.

The advantage is that you get to tailor your rewards to the character. No more Mutant origin SOs for your Natural origin character.

You can also focus buy exactly what kind of salvage you need, and can even turn a decent proft from selling off choice pieces of salvage or bronze rolls.

The only disadvantage is that you can't ticket buy specific IO set recipies, but outside of that, everything is there to be purchased without the use of inf.

I strongly agree with this. The only downer is the nerfed xp in AE. But the complete lack of travel time is a bonus, thought that may end up evening out when you consider sifting through all the potentially terribad missions to find one worth playing, heh.

speed ITFs can take less than, but usually hover around, 30 minutes. so you can do 4 speed T/SFs in a 2-3 hour time frame.

being a casual gamer is an expression of time, not effort.

and yes, you can do speed runs in a pick up group.

I'll use AE as a diversion now and then, but I can't see using it full-time as a leveling tool. I feel like I'm better off just dealing with what drops I get (especially for salvage) than formulating a plan for efficient use of tickets. Plus, like Humility says - running regular content there's no sifting through arcs hoping to find one that's suitable (well written and constructed, not nigh-on-impossible, etc). And for whatever reason I still feel like AE content is "fake".

I should use Oro a little more, but it seems strange to make progress by adding powers and slots to become more powerful only to negate that by exemplaring down 20 levels. I can see it for a 50 if you've exhausted other content, but once I reach 50 I typically move on to another character.

it would be awesome if they made the world changing like those games, and new players would just have a different experience than players from release.

I'd love it.

only things that would need to remain constant is the mob levels in zones, and contacts cant actually die, a new player can go up to lord recluse and listen to him cry about having used to be on top, but you can always get content from him.

Heroes can play a role on the rogue isles too; Gearford is way more brutal than Lord Recluse was, this could cause even bigger problems for Paragon City, lets take the lesser of two evils and try to get lord recluse back into power over the Rogue Isles!

then, almost as an event, since it can only be done while LR isnt in power, you can do a TF and after it is done about 10k times (this can be adjusted) repeating it things in the RI normalize.

I mean i doubt itll ever happen, but its fun to fantasize

Is it though? I would think casual would equal leisurely. I would consider a speed TF to be higher impact - requiring more attention and more energy. Like say, running a 5:00 mile as opposed to jogging for 30 minutes. You also need to be somewhat skilled to be able to pull off one, whereas any old joe can accomplish the latter.

It almost did, for a while. Wasn't it issue 2 where the Devs said, "OK, you guys won the Psyche TF, she's back in her body now?"

Edit: gec72, I usually use the word "casual" in forms 2 and 5. Someone who only plays 2 evenings a week, but who has used the same 2 characters for the last four years and therefore has a purpled-out Warshade, could possibly be casual. Someone who downloaded Mids', spent five hours reading guides, ran numbers on ten builds, and then took 3 months to get the resulting character to 50 while playing nothing else--still possibly casual. It's entirely possible to do casual marketeering, casual build optimization, casual RP, etc.; I'm still very unimpressed when someone who does all of these things every day claims to be a "casual player."

I don't really understand why people even bother claiming to be casual players. I get the general idea--that they expect to be catered to as some sort of marketing-targeted group--but people usually sound ridiculous trying to defend that position. ("YOU CAN TELL BY HOW LOUD I'M SCREAMING THAT I HAVE ONLY A PASSING INTEREST IN THESE DEVELOPMENTS! RAAAAAGE!")

A 45 minute speed ITF is far less draining than a casual 2 hour ITF.

Go to WoW then.

I probably spend a total of 10 to 15 minutes a week on the Black Market. There's nothing tricky about using it all and I can usually buy and sell things very easily on it.

Well said.

Way to add nothing useful to the thread. So are you being deliberately thick, or is it for real? The point is... casual friendly play=a thriving playerbase. The less casual friendly your play, the smaller your playerbase will be. Redside is not as casual friendly due to weaker market and more scarcity in teaming (among other things). The point I was making was to highlight that relationship. But you either totally missed the point, or deliberately missed it in an attempt to troll the thread.

Actually your "point" made it sound like this game was too hard for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Balefire_Djinn The villain market just doesn't have the same levels of supply and you just can't get things as easily. No anecdotal evidence from experienced and smug marketeers can change that fact. People that have an actual life outside the game will never have all the same knowledge and abilities to take advantage of a scarce market and so they will opt for the blueside one, which has a lot more stuff on it. All of the idiotic e-peen measuring by marketeers about how deep they roll in the redside market does nothing to change any of this. But it is funny at least to watch you make fools of yourselves.

Are you serious?

So you're literally equating "inability to utilize Black Market" with "casual gamer" and "having an actual life outside the game"?

...wow.

Using the Black Market properly, having the patience to log off and wait for items, and being smart in what you do with your infamy has nothing to do with how much time you dedicate to this video game.

I wasn't actually talking about any game-structural change, just a narrative one. For any player who hasn't done the "conquer Arachnos" arc, the game world would be as it is now - Arachnos is run by Lord Recluse, and the player is scheming to overthrow him. The difference would only be for a player who has done it; when he talks to Lord Recluse he gets "You have humiliated me and bent Arachnos to your ends. Why do you come to torment me further?" or whatever. This is why I suggested having LR stay on as figurehead through some excuse; that way there's no narrative dissonance with the big statue in Grandville and so on.

This is the way all current storylines work. Each player who works his way up the story arcs discovers the secret of the Lost, the secret of Countess Crey, and so on, and yet the contacts are just as surprised each time.

Yeah, I guess that's a valid interpretation. I was thinking more in terms of #6 here: informal, relaxed (though SOME players are #4 ). I'm an avid player - I play nearly every day and have for the past 4 1/2 years - but I usually do so in what I consider a casual - or at least non hard-core manner. I don't seek the best of the best IO, I don't take on the toughest challenges (soloing AV, running x8 mob sizes, taking on level 54 Rikti).

For someone to say "I play only a couple hours here and there, but make 200M a week - and I'm still casual!" (paraphrasing)...well, yes, perhaps by time you are casual, but performance-wise, that's not "happening by chance" or "coming to pass without design." The results are a result of effort, and they're not typical. By the same token, I guess my use of Mids to plot every power, slot, and enhancement on the way to 50 probably isn't casual either.


Heh. Very true. But 45 mintues of a speed ITF is more involved than beating up a warehouse full of Mooks (and maybe taking 20 minutes in the middle of the mission to warm up a can of Chef Boyardee).

how much effort does it take to click combat stealth?

OT: I dont understand the analogy, for most people a 5 mile IS jogging 30 minutes, now if you mean a 5 mile jog vs a 2.5 interval run, which is how im gonna take it for now. same thing in the end though, you are sweaty, tired and out of breath (unless you are me, then you are amped up to play some CoX)

you warm it up? man I eat that **** like it was in the field, I dont need a bowl, the can holds it fine TYVM

Nonono - I mean a five minute mile. It's only five minutes of running, but you have to average 12MPH, which I'm guessing most people won't be able to maintain (if they can even GET to that speed). It takes a real effort - not only the actual mile, but the training to get in the shape to do it (I'm guessing those running the speed ITFs didn't start out running them as efficiently as they do now). But just about everybody should be able to walk/jog for 30 minutes (i.e. at a casual pace) and cover at least that same mile - just like anyone can slog through a newspaper/radio mission.

I guess my point is that the typical player isn't constantly running speed ITFs, and probably isn't a good enough player to. Ones who are are the exceptions. Most players are taking the game at a much slower jog.

(combat stealth? do all characters have that?)

edit: and kids are enough of a mess w/o trying to eat Chef straight out of the can

I'm taking a break from the game right now..but I played mostly villains for the past few years. I'd agree with this sentiment. I think the boat was missed here when the red side of the game was designed. I don't mind the grittiness of the Zones...but placing the entire Rouge Isles under Recluses dominion was the big mistake I think. He should control Grandville and perhaps mercy. Offering sanctuary to various unsavory types, for a price of course.

The rest of the Isles should have been populated by normal folks and patrolled by police, heroes, and other groups. The one Zone that gets this almost right is Nerva. And speaking to the Darla and the "Shadowy Figure" in those Zones you really do feel like a villain on the run from the law. If I could revamp red side I'd put in more longbow, ppd, legacy chain, and Wyvern and move all the Arachnos troops out..to very specific areas. The newspaper missions would put villians up against hero groups and vary rarely have them go against other villain groups, etc....

Assuming that is true, the reason supply is lower is simply because population is lower. Which is why more people should come to Redside, to boost both Population and Supply!

Add to that, gameplay is better Redside, the ATs are more interesting and challenging (being hybrids instead of one trick ponies), the writing is better, there are far far far less Fed Ex missions (especially at low levels), and the graphics and textures look so much more evocative and rich. The Atmosphere is so much cooler.

Now, I have no problems with the market and I am definitely "casual" where it comes to using the market: I list everything for ~10% of it's build price, or Salvage for somewhere around 50% of the going rate. It's a simple rule of thumb, it's not optimal by any measure, but it works for me and it's fast. I spend no more than 10-20 minutes per session (depending on if I am buying and selling or just selling) to deal with the market. Sometimes it takes much less as I just check on my current bids. MY wife spends maybe ten more minutes on the market than I do and usually has alot more money than me, but I don't have the patience to fiddle with making multiple bids or listing high and waiting for sales, where she is. Impatience is my achilles heel as well, it's just not as bad as it is with the "Buy it NAO!" crowd. Patience = Profit in the redside market. It really is that simple.

I don't generally run Strike Forces. I do some Architect arcs but just for fun. Tickets I get go to replenishing my SG's supply of Orange salvage. I don't do recipe rolls.

I'm patient with recipes and salvage bids. If I happen to have buckets of cash and want something RIGHT NOW, I'll happily pay a premium for it (since INF is so easy to make). I've got like 30 different characters that I play more or less evenly, so it's not like I'm mastering the market on one character either. I rarely have trouble getting my characters IO'd out the way I want them. I'm pretty happy overall with the redside market. Could it be better? Sure! It absolutely could! But is it entirely opaque and un-workable for a casual player? Hardly.

Look at me. I use probably one of the stupidest formulas for working the market ever and I'm pretty happy with my results. If *I* can do it, *you* can do it. In fact, I have every confidence you can do it *better* than I do, no matter who you are.

All that said, my poorest character (amongst 30 characters and a lowbie) always has at least 1 million. My wealthiest has several hundred million. It's simply not that difficult.

Originally Posted by eltonio This is over the top mental slavery.

Some of us like to take our time and see the sights and enjoy the view. It has nothing to do with our skill.

I've been on Speed ITFs and non-speed "steamroll" ITFs, and I greatly prefer the latter. I like TFs for the actual game play, not to avoid as much gameplay as possible. That's simply not fun for me.

Originally Posted by eltonio This is over the top mental slavery.