Yomo Kimyata

I try to run the Hollows and Faultline arcs on every character -- it's good merits, and you get the Ouro portal from Doc Delilah arc at lvl 20. I usually solo these, but it's not that hard to put together a team for either one; it just takes some time.

Anecdotally, I’m hearing from a lot of people who are each sitting on piles of dozens to hundreds of billions of inf. If you want to take massive amounts out of the system, it’s certainly there!

Completely out of curiosity, how did I insult you? That was not my intention. I do not disagree that video game producers, or cigarette makers, or politicians, or your friends and family, or almost everyone has a motive. Lots of time it's profit. I get it, profit is bad. But in this specific case, we are asking the devs of Homecoming to add rewards tied to accomplishments. No one is exploiting me, taking my money and time away from my family and society. I honestly want a pat on the head, or a badge, or god forbid a special belt costume piece that says, "hey! You went above and beyond! Well done! Here's a present." I probably won't read the article, because I believe both that it is easy to exploit people, and that it is morally wrong to do that for personal profit. So I would probably agree with the findings, and at the same time agree with you that it's not cool.

I wouldn't use the word lazy, but otherwise you are spot on. I'm assuming from your italics you are being sarcastic, so forgive me if I'm wrong. If someone wants validation because she is better at something than someone else, and that doesn't hurt anyone else, why not give that validation? How does that hurt that person, or society? I'm all for giving someone a pat on the back and a hug for existing, but I'm going to go out of my way to shake the hand of the first woman who walks on Mars. I'd even give her a badge so everyone who gave a rat's ass knew!

Next time I will say CA-RAZY!!!!!!!

I can't tell you what you believe, but the way I phrased it should have been clear that I recognize that some people believe that effort and games should be completely separated, and that I personally do not believe that. I thought the capitalization would have made it clear, but maybe I need to go back to the 90s and start putting in /sarcasm tags. And I do not agree with adding negligible tasks, as again I thought my post made clear. If you are soloing Hamidon trivially, good for you! You should get a badge! No, make tasks "meaningful" and add recognition and validation. What it comes down to is what do the devs want to do? They have a working game that is not run for profit. There seem to be two factions: Make it harder and Make it easier. If I were a dev, I would push the game in the direction that I personally enjoyed.

I haven't read every single post, but I did read the first two pages. I wholeheartedly agree with the title: as we add new content, make some of it unlockable. I know it's CRAZY to ask people to do any sort of "effort" to play a free game, but I completely accept the belief that accomplishment is soothing and unlocks endorphins! I would not take anything back, although I think that "City of Participation Trophies" is a little simplistic right now. But going forward, make impossible badges (Solo Hamidon!; meet every person on your server). Give people the chance to really do something unique in the classic sense of the word, and give them recognition and validation for that. My two cents.

I'm not refuting you; I haven't read your papers and I'm not professionally qualified to judge them. But it seems to me that tying a sense of accomplishment to a game, or a job, or a sporting event, or a relationship, or any of a million other human characteristics is pretty much inherent to the human condition. So I read what you are saying is that seeking accomplishment or success leads to mental disorders? I must be misreading that, because I think it is just bananas. Personally, I think you are tilting at windmills, but if this is something that is really important to you, you might get more bang for the buck by targeting, say, sports fans rather than video game players.

Ok, I’m trying this on, of all things, a necro/traps Mm on Reunion server, for my own esoteric and masochistic reasons. At lvl 16, and pure solo so far (May go solo all the way). Ran Outbreak, starting contact missions until lvl 5; three KR radio missions then bank job for jet pack, hollows arc, and working on midnight squad arc., mostly at +1/x3. A few things I’ve noticed: 1. Salvage, specifically uncommon salvage, is going to be a problem. I think I’m going to have to go AEing for tickets at some point soon. 2. I think I’m going to need to turn xp off entirely at points. There are a number of IOS I can only make from low level recipes and salvage, so I need to plan that out. Also, for merits I’m going to mostly run story arcs, and I prefer to do them outside of Ouroboros. 3. Speaking of Ouroboros, I’ll want that day job bonus as soon as I can. I’m planning on doing Faultline next and can get the portal from Doc Delilah at lvl 20. 4. Recipes don’t drop as much as I thought they would. So far, only 4-5 set recipes. And I only have the salvage to Craft one right now. But I already see the strategy. For each one. I’ve got a lvl 15 reactive armor that will be my steadfast protection +def. I’ve got a panacea e/r that will become the Proc. This is the fun I was looking for.

Great to hear from you! Are there any dev ideas for inf sinks you can share? I’m far more interested in the ones that provide something bragworthy over something more utilitarian like doubling the AH fee, but I wouldn’t object to that either.

Yes, yes, the shiny! That’s exactly what I want, and I don’t think I’m alone! Like I said earlier, accumulating Inf through market activities is a net influence destroyer. Also “difficult” v. “tedious” may not be the right description. You can move a mountain of sand from one place to another. If you use a teaspoon, it’s tedious. If you come up with a better method, then it’s difficult. Even so, It certainly wouldn’t be mandatory. No one is being forced to move that mountain.

First, you certainly don't need to farm inf to make, say, 100 billion inf. The AH is a far more efficient tool for that. Second, I'm not convinced that there would be a significant (say, 5%+) increase in overall inf generation from the introduction of a single badge. In fact, more marketing would almost certainly result in more inf being destroyed through market fees. Third, and most importantly, I feel that having a difficult goal and being rewarded with a few pixels for it is worthwhile. Many/most people would say, "screw that noise" and would pass on the badge. No one ever said you have to get every single badge. That's fine with me. Some badges are more brag worthy than others but at the end of the day, no one cares except for the player themselves! I'm getting the sense that the hard core badgers don't want any new badges, and certainly not any difficult ones, but I may be wrong.

No-buying challenge! I can't buy anything on the AH, so any converters will have to come from merits. I anticipate that it will generally be faster (once things get started) to earn 1mm and buy a merit and then buy three converters than it will be to earn a merit and then buy three converters.

The more I think about this, the easier it seems. I'd have to make a superbase and store every salvage drop I get. That's the biggest pain I see. Since I would anticipate spending all of my spare inf on merits for either converters, catalysts, or possibly purples, the main question is: can I convert enough random dropped recipes to make a big profit while effectively paying 333,333 inf per converter? I think so, I really do. So then, I'd target an AoE build that will do well on standard IOs, until I am swimming in enough inf to just convert any recipe I get as a drop into the exact one I want. I can buy ATOs with merits if needed.

The way I see it, there is a fixed time cost (travel time, cutscenes, etc.) of about ten to twelve minutes, whether or not you run it at -1/0 or 4/8. For me, the incremental rewards in terms of threads, xp, and most importantly boredom-reducing fights, is worth the extra time.

Does anybody equip their characters “old school” fashion, I.e. equipping only drops rather than buying anything from the market? Converters of course make things much easier. I’m thinking about creating a new alt that is only allowed to sell things on the AH, but never buy anything. To get things like converters, I would restrict myself to drops and merit spending. To craft, I’d need to have the actual salvage drop rather than buy it in fungible form. I suspect that I would need a lot of merits, and probably would end up buying them from the merit vendor for a mm a pop. What would be the best merit farmer? I’d lean towards some sort of stalker. Your thoughts?

Also, please boost elite bosses, or add another tier between them and AVs. There's a huge disparity between three shotting an elite boss and hammering on an AV for 15 minutes.

Since you are so taken aback that someone doesn't agree with you that your favorite set should be made easier, maybe you should realize that your favorite set doesn't need to be made easier? Or, more constructively, someone disagrees with your contention that it should be made easier. There are plenty of sets that are late blooming. And my response to any single post that calls for them to be made easier will result in "Nope". That's my way of saying I disagree with you. The set is overpowered. No one disputes that. I really don't need to prove why I think that the set is overpowered as it is. And I'm ok with that. I refuse to sit by and complacently nod when someone begs for something to be made even easier. I added plenty; I added a dissenting opinion. The key words here are "think" and "disagree". I'm sorry that you didn't get a avalanche of responses telling you how wise you are for suggesting this, but that's more your issue than mine. If you want to take it personal, call me a dick, and dress up your dog in a Yomo Kimyata suit and kick him around tonight, well, that's between you and the authorities.

Also, I think that (in most cases) there is a very minor difference between minions and lts, but then a huge step up to bosses. Could we have a setting where lts maybe double their hp and damage? Just a thought.

I wholeheartedly agree. There are 3-5 skippable powers in this set, and I'd love to see a more balanced workout.

I read the topic. I've played a few hundred hours of kinetics as well, as have tens of thousands of people. You are being a whiny child who wants his own personal gold star. I am genuinely sorry if your hundreds of hours of kinetics were so difficult that you feel a need to make it easier now. I am constructively saying, nope. Don't make the best support better. Let's see who the devs cater to first, shall we?

Nope. Don't make the best support set better. Sorry if playing it as is is too burdensome for you.

The devs should do whatever the hell they want to do.

I’m proposing spending 2bn (which then goes out of circulation, poof!) for 1/50th progress on a badge, so I am pretty sure I am using the term right! I do think that we have too much influence in the system, but it hasn’t proven a problem up to this point.

WITCHES!