Yomo Kimyata

Ditto for me. I'm completely content with how things are, but based on how much venom is aimed at users of the AH, I'm preemptively trying to spitball ideas to allow players to avoid it completely.

Fortunately for both of you, the market is already socialized, with caps galore. Admittedly, those caps are probably higher than you want them, but as of now you can buy almost anything for the max price of 100 merits. And since you can buy merits for 1mm inf a pop, there's your cap! I guarantee that HC devs spent a lot of time thinking about those caps, and about seeding salvage levels. If you are asking to be able to buy rare salvage for 5k or purples for 1mm, good luck with that! I feel rather confident that the devs would prefer to keep the current player-based system. [EDIT: Jimmy keeps posting before I get my thoughts out!]

Has anyone actually chronicled the effects the changes have had on their farming activities? I was hoping some organized record keeper would have some data. RE: "exploit" or "overpowered game mechanic", it's a question of semantics. Like Jimmy said in an earlier post, there is no logical reason that a level 49 should earn faster than a level 50. It's clear that it wasn't "working as intended." I am by no means an expert, and my time on farming maps is purely about the Zen of smashing rather than earning, so forgive me if I am not thoroughly up to speed on the method. Now, I DO agree that there probably should have been some telegraphing that the change was going to occur. Fundamentally, we'd see the same back and forth we're getting now, but just a few days earlier.

That would only redistribute it, with a portion of it getting burned through market fees. No, what we need is the true nuclear option. Bring back Prestige, but keep it unnecessary for bases. Use it purely as a counter for how much inf you've burned in the fire pit.

Yeah, I've spent some time thinking about that as well, but I think so long as the mechanism is set such that the exchange rate for tickets/items is high enough then it should be ok. I don't think most farmers even now use tickets rather than regular drops, and extending the ticket system to non-AE play probably would reduce supply, since AE farms result in a lot more defeats/sec than non-AE play. My objective is definitely not to make supply easier to get. But I could support a mechanism that would allow people to avoid the AH if they so chose, understanding that their chosen method is suboptimal.

Since, at this time, merits are primarily used to exchange for converters and then inf, and since I would be supportive of more converters offered at lower prices, this suggestion earns the Yomo(tm) seal of approval.

This is the only Syndrome that causes me to play:

Is the problem that you can't find enough recipes in the AH (presumably recipes that you want to craft for yourself)? Or is the problem that you can't find enough IOs that you want in the AH? Or is the problem that you can'r find recipes/IOs at the price you want them? Anecdotally, there are still shit tons of recipes of all shapes and sizes being offered, but I'll admit that I almost always only bid on the yellow ones.

I only want two new badges: Dr. Evil, for burning 100bn inf, and something for soloing the Hamidon.

I'm coming at this from the angle that some people don't want to do certain things, like do raids or use the AH, so why not give them an alternative. Albeit a ridiculously expensive one, but an alternative nonetheless.

Hear me out. I'm coming at this from the angle that some people don't like to do certain things, like use the AE or use the AH. Tickets are one of the ways you can buy specific items (or random rolls), but the only way you can get tickets are through the AE. It's difficult to find quality non-farm missions on the AE, and you don't get merit rewards like you do for TFs or story arcs. Personally, I find that random drops through regular content are a lot more profitable than selections through AE tickets, and that is almost certainly by design. But I am an avid and active user of the AH, and if people don't want to use the AH, I'm all for giving them an alternative, even if that alternative is a small fraction as efficient. On a related note, how about the option to select specific common salvage items rather than random rolls? Again, it's all fungible in the AH, but if someone doesn't want to use the AH and they need a luck charm, why not let them buy one for 10 tickets rather than roll randomly for 8 tickets?

I'm getting tired of saying "You can buy almost every item" so let's add these! ?200 merits?

I’m not asking for a wipe! But it certainly would shake up the AH!

I wasn't dictating, and this is probably a topic for a different thread. There's one in General about ease of the game that you may want to weigh in on. In that thread, I made an analogy about how CoX is a chessboard, and you can use it to play chess, or you can use it to play a simpler game. The problem I see with your solution is that it seems like you want to play tic tac toe, and you want the rest of us to play with you on your 3x3 board. I can't advocate making the entire game fundamentally easier simply because you have a problem with the current 8x8 board. Happy hunting!

Now you're just haggling over price. Currently you can buy almost any item in the game for 100mm inf indirectly, and I'm all for making that direct for the people who don't understand the two step process. What you seem to be saying is that 100mm is too expensive for a purple. Ok, then buy one off the AH for a lot less. If that's still too expensive, then I'm sorry. Maybe you can do without it.

There already is a soft cap on almost everything, but no one seems to understand that, so I'm going to give up and advocate the vendor idea. I would support a vendor that will sell you any item in the game for 100mm inf. That way you cut out the middle man of the merit vendor (currently you have to buy 100 merits at 1mm each, then spend up to 100 merits on your item). I would not support one inf cheaper than 100mm.

How about a tutorial that teaches people how converters can be used? Like the crafting one in Steel Canyon.

I disagree, but I see your point. The problem with people using the current AH interface is about 5% lack of good information, 5% display bugs (which really erode confidence in people who are already scared to use it)., 90% pebkac. Currently, the "economy" consists of a lot of people dumping their drops into the AH for 5 inf, a few people spending a few converters and transforming it, and a lot of people buying back their drops for a lot more inf and then complaining about it. More information isn't going to help them bid better or offer better. They will still buy it NAO and sell it NAO because NAO, and they will yell at the devs because they can't have everything they want instantly at the prices they want in a player run economy. Honestly, the best thing the devs could do is put together a mandatory tutorial on how to use converters. Like the crafting one in Steel. I'm gonna put that on the Suggestions board.

Converters are ridiculously magic. If every single player had to take a tutorial about everything converters can do, then there would be peace in our time.

Yeah, making this mandatory was a bad idea. It's bad enough all our kids are home all the time now in the real world.

Would you mind removing ceilings as well?

This is as good a time as any to invite you all to peruse the Market forum. Like I said earlier, we're not hoarding any secrets. You may learn something. We may be ebil bastards, but we're YOUR ebil bastards.

I agree with both of you. Farmers gonna farm, marketers gonna market, meriters gonna merit. I love in the other thread though how so many farmer-based inf makers are saying, "Well, since I have less money to spend, I'm going to raise prices." It's stagflation!!! It's been 12 hours and a literal gold mine in the AH from my experience. Maybe because I'm about ten times more active than I have been since last summer.

In fact, most rare recipes are now vendor trash.

There already are ceilings on almost everything and they are a lot lower than 250mm. I’ll bet, however, that they are higher than you want.