I'm making a note here: Huge Success

This Saturday marks two months since Issue 18 was released, bringing with it the market merge many people claimed would bring doom to the game.

It's reasonable to say that many new systems the developers have introduced over the years have not been quite as well received or successful as hoped. PvP was unbalanced and buggy from the start, and all attempts to improve it have just made things worse. Base raids and IoP's never worked properly, and bases themselves have always felt like a system that was slapped together and badly needs a rebuild from the ground up. Even the fantastic Mission Architect system has been beaten up in the effort to reduce abuses of the system.

The markets and inventions, on the other hand, have brought a whole new dimension to the game and, despite a bug or two with specific IO's, or wailing and gnashing of teeth from players who want everything but don't want to learn how to get it, the market and inventions have been a huge success and arguably the best additions, as far as mechanics go, the game has ever had.

Blueside, that is. Redside, the market has always been less stellar. It worked and those who knew how were certainly able to play that market, but no one can deny that there were serious supply shortages. I don't think there was ever a shortage of capital, and certainly demand was high, but supply was always limited and therefore that market was far more volatile and unpredictable.

I'm a villain - ever since City of Villains was released, I have spent far more time in the Rogue Isles than I have in Paragon City. I have four level 50 heroes, compared to at least a dozen level 50 villains. All my inf and all my interest is on that side of the game, so the volatility of that market has always been a thorn in my side. I've played that market but never seriously, because I kept getting scared that I was going to lose big (I did get caught holding a bag full of Impervium Armors that had dropped to less than half what I paid for them at one point - that was my worst investment ever). I was one of the folks begging for a market merge that I was told could never happen.

I've been playing the market seriously ever since Issue 18 dropped almost two months ago, and I've yet to have a real, serious loss. I've never been caught holding a bag of enhancements or salvage that I can't at least break even on. I'm making inf without even thinking about it, and I'm always able to buy what I want for my builds (although it can take time on a lot of mid-level range stuff).

So no doom.

This is a triumph, devs. Thanks.

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction with issue 18.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

doom.

I really want the people who were predicting doom to come explain what they thought would go wrong. I'm just curious.

I made a couple 50-100 million inf errors in acquiring stock before the merge, but I haven't been trying seriously to earn. That issue's been a total shrug compared to GLEEMAIL, which brings me glee, because I've been able to specialize each of my retired toons into reservoirs of useful rares. When I need a Stealth IO--whichever side, including Praetoria--I hit my stealth-holdin' toon; when I need a +end proc, I hit Ensign Uzbekistan (he has Shield Breaker C's, too); &c ad Obliteratum.

ZM: Thanks for the explanation. That does make sense; if the economies were separate, with a single market shared between them, it could have really sucked for some of the players (probably the redside ones). With merged economies, it is no longer an issue.

Well said, Quasadu.

I played before the market and IOs were introduced. It's hard to imagine going back to that now. I don't think I'd still be playing without them, to be honest, as they've helped me realise a whole bunch of fun character ideas outside the base AT system.

I'd made my first billion and kitted out one group of villains before the market merge, and I'm on my second group now. The difference is night and day. Last night, I bought 6 level 30 Thunderstrikes to complete 3 sets on my new level 27-er, at BUY IT NAO prices, no worries. I couldn't have done that before the merge, I'd have been forced to wait because of the short supply.

Here's to complicated systems involving lots of shiny little icons and numbers. Long may they entertain us!

I agree with Quasadu,

Of all the different new systems that have been added to the game, I think that inventions and the market have been the most well received and added life to the game and a wealth of variety to the players.

Well, and plain old wealth too.

I'm a villain player myself and only have one hero toon. I decided to slot my scrapper before i18 and was shocked at the hero market on Freedom. It was very inflated.
Vill white salv = 1-1000 inf vs Hero white salv = 10000 - 100000 inf
Vill yellow salv = 5000-50000 inf vs Hero yell salv = 200000-500000 inf. Yes, half a mill
In some cases, there wasn't even ANY Hero salv to buy. 0!
Then came the recipes:
Vill uncommon recipes: 1-10000 inf vs Hero uncommon recipes: 1000000

So I said, forget it, and decided not to slot my scrapper.
If I had any concerns about the market merge, it was to see inflated Heroside prices creep into villain side. 2 months later, I don't see this and am happy with the merge and the email system.