Yomo Kimyata

Play whatever sets you want! Depending on what type of opponents you are fighting, you probably won't need the defense from Divine Avalanche, and you can focus on attack chains that give you better net damage.

I know this is true, but my search fu is weak. Is there any "official" dev statement that identifies *what* they think the problem with procs is? Even if that problem is as simple as "we don't like 'em!"? I think that would help people brainstorm possible solutions that directly address the stated problem. My initial response was, "You're a monster!" But on further review, why not make *every* proc unique?

I can only speak for myself, and I fully recognize my biases: It depends on what you mean by market pvp (lol). If you mean buyers competing against sellers, I don't really consider that pvp, but ok. In this case, I think that "market pvp" is generally a straw man argument that doesn't really exist. A real fundamental difference between Live and Homecoming is that the current devs have implemented (or expanded) policies that, honestly, make it extremely difficult if not impossible for people to manipulate markets. -- Fungibility (or pooling) of items make it extremely difficult to manipulate markets. Shutting down luck charms was simple on Live. It is a lot more difficult to shut down all common invention salvage. -- Fixed price offerings, or price caps. These caps can be (relatively) hard, like seeding 10mm rare salvage at 1mm, or 10mm Hero Packs at 10mm. Or they can be soft, like converting other items (like merits) from one item to another, like the cost of an item (in inf) that costs 100 merits is definitively capped by the inf cost of 100 merits (which is 100mm), and soft capped by the relative value of selling alternate items (e.g., comparing the cost of a Winter O with the cost of 300 converters). -- Converters are cheap, practically free. With few exceptions (Hami-os leap to mind), you can create expensive items from cheap items. It is (usually) probability based, and it takes a small amount of knowledge, but you cannot stop supply. -- You cannot stop supply. Fundamentally, Homecoming is an essentially closed system. In order to control a market, you need to control supply, demand, or both. There is no way to stop people from making more in-demand items, unless you buy them at inflated prices. If you artificially create demand, that only works in the very short run. In that case, you are setting yourself up to get pummeled with supply from other people. Which brings me to my second point: If by market PvP you mean buyers competing against other buyers or sellers competing against other sellers, that's real. But that leads to better prices for buyers, as sellers compete. It leads to better prices for sellers, as buyers compete. This seems to be the exact opposite of what you are complaining about. Truth be told, ebil marketers are making better, more efficient markets for the market muggles out there. tl;dr If you can't afford something over the long run (which I would consider one to a few days), that's not ebil marketers. That's your fellow consumers wanting the same things you want and buying them at better prices. I'm not going to claim there is *no* manipulation, but it's practically non-existent, in my opinion and in my personal experience. Of course, your opinions may vary.

I did read them, but I don't really see them as the real game breakers that you do. And that's fine. I do think that min-maxers are gonna min-max. Point 1: I think people are gonna take Hasten whether or not they use procs, so the problem (if there is one) is with Hasten, not procs; 2: I may be smarter than the average bear (or I may not!), but I don't think it's all that complex. When I'm looking at procs, I look at percentages as calculated by one of the spreadsheets that people have so kindly provided!; 3. Old procs benefitted quick recharge powers, new procs benefit a different set of powers, a new system would benefit another class of powers (presumably). I don't really see that as a problem. If people don't want to min-max, that's fine. Their characters will still be fully playable at the highest of levels; 4. This is a risk tolerance/behavioral issue. It's interesting, but I don't see it as a problem. It's certainly possible I'm undervaluing the problems here, but I'm not sure. Again, just thinking aloud. EDIT: I'd understand if they worked global recharge into the formulas.

I'm trying to figure out my position on procs, so most of this post is just me thinking aloud. Originally, (I think), all procs worked off a chance to activate. Call it 20%. Fast activating powers had the same chance as slow activating powers, so you would get more bang for the buck by slotting "buzzsaw" attacks. I see that the desire for balance between damage and activation time got thrown out of whack, so I understand what the problem was. I'm less clear about what the problem is with PPM. I see that it was an attempt to "normalize" activation, and I think it was a pretty good attempt. I like the current system, in part because it is still probability based in large part, but it is more balanced. Is the problem that some powers get maxxed out at 90% because of recharge time/activation time? Is the problem that certain powers are not being used for their "purpose", e.g., holds used as damage attacks? Is it that global recharge (often) doesn't affect proc chances? Other? I ask this question a lot in this forum: what is the problem we are trying to solve? I noticed that in recent patches, the devs have instituted "internal" times on powers that result in lowered proc chances on those powers when compared to their actual usage. I'm not particularly pleased with that direction, because then it will be the devs' somewhat arbitrary opinion on which powers should proc and how often. I also differentiate procs into three general categories: damage, enemy debuff, and character buff. For the last, there is a real discrepancy between single target and AoE, which is why, for example, I slot a Force Feedback into every single AoE KB power, but less frequently slot one into a single target power. I'd hate to see that go away, but I'd understand if it did.

Ok. First of all, certain items in the AH are fungible, or bucketed. This means that also they may be different on your character, they all go into the same pool in the AH. And when they come out of that pool, they come out as a specific item. Example: all rare invention salvage is in the same pool. If someone puts up an Alien Blood Sample for sale, the AH considers it to be in the "rare salvage" pool. If someone else comes in and buys a Pangean Soil, it comes out of that same "rare salvage" pool and is defined as a Pangean Soil for that character. When it comes to IOs, the pooling occurs by level and by attuned-ness. So a level 25 Reactive Defenses D/E offered for sale goes into the Reactive Defenses D/E pool. Someone can buy it as a lvl 25. Someone can buy it as a lvl 50. Someone can buy it as an attuned. When it is bought, it comes out of the Reactive Defenses D/E pool, and is defined by the form in which the buyer bought it at. Note: a Reactive Defenses D/E is not equivalent to a Reactive Defenses D/E/R. Ok, now let's get into the nitty-gritty of how trades in the AH work. A character cannot buy or sell to him-, her- or it- self. But another character on the same account can buy or sell to that character. Or, a character on a different account can as well. Now, let's look at how the AH makes trades. People put up bids (orders to buy) and offers (orders to sell) at various prices. When a bid comes in, the system determines if there is any offer at or below the bid price. If so, the orders cross and a trade occurs. Likewise, when an offer comes in, the system checks if there are any outstanding bids at that price or higher. If so, again the orders cross and a trade occurs. I like to think as the order sheet like a set of goal posts. There are lots of bids on the low end, there is an empty space in the middle, and there are offers on the high end. Like this: ||||_____|||||| Every time a trade occurs, it's at one of those inside posts. If you sell something at 1 inf, it goes to the highest outstanding bid (which is the right-most upright on the left group) and the trade prints at the level of the bid. If you bid 1bn for something, it goes to the lowest outstanding offer (which is the left-most upright on the right group) and the trade prints at 1bn. If both of these cases, the innermost upright makes the trade, and is removed from the system. So what does this mean for you? If you want to change a lvl 25 to a level 41, or to an attuned, you sell one and buy the other. It doesn't have to be the exact same one. But if you do want to make sure you trade to yourself, it will be cheapest since you will then only pay the 10% AH fee as opposed to paying the AH fee and the bid-offer spread (which is the price difference between those two innermost uprights). In your example, you can offer your level 10 at 10mm and you can put in a bid at 10mm for the level 40. If 10mm is a price that is in the middle of the two uprights, then congrats, you just transacted with yourself! The risk is that it is possible that you sell one at 10mm, but you can't buy one at 10mm; or that you buy one at 10mm, but you can't sell one at 10mm. So figuring out where that middle price is may be the tough part. Now if you don't really care about prices, you can sell your level 10 at 1 inf, note the price it sells at, and then bid creep on the level 40 starting at that price and keep going until you buy one. Sorry for the long-winded explanation. Please let me know if I can be clearer!

Right, but since this is a player-driven economy (meaning that players supply other players), no one wants to be the chump who shovels out the chicken feed. I doubt that the GMs thought about this when they seeded salvage, but yet another positive purpose that seeding served was to provide all that chicken feed, albeit at (relatively) high prices. This is why I always react negatively to the people who want to only have rare salvage drop for them, since white and yellow aren't worth their time. In my mind, you shouldn't get to only select the rares, because that's part of the mechanism that keeps whites and yellows coming into the system. Even if selling them is only muscle memory or habit rather than any significant profit motive. Also, sometimes I'm grumpy.

I'm always happy when this thread gets bumped up, usually because I've got something to add. This one I wasn't shocked to get, but it was nice because I really wanted the name. I've been thinking about making a Rad/Regen scrapper for some time, and was super pleased to get Henrietta Lacks. Both in terms of theme, and also a tribute. If you are not familiar with that name, check her out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

It's really brilliant. If I were a university student, there's a tremendous opportunity to write a really comprehensive thesis proving or disproving various economic theories. Both traditional and behavioral.

Seriously, how much could Founders Falls cost anyway?

I hate to admit this, but, my costume is the least important part to me. If I get an idea, or a name, I'll make it right away then stare at the costume creator for a few minutes. Then most of the time I choose "Bare", run the tutorial, and play until a costume comes to me. If I get to level 10 and I'm still running around in my skivvies I got back to the costume creator, hit random three times, get rid of the wings, and work from there.

I don't sell *anything* at 1 unless I am happy to sell it at 1 *or* I'm trying to figure out what the lowest outstanding bid is. I for sure get a dopamine hit from figuring out the right price to sell it so as to maximize inf gain. And that goes to @Ukase 's point as well. At this point in my career, there is absolutely no point in me spending even one second of time making inf. I have far more than I need, more than I can give away, and nothing to spend it on. Yet I do because it's like doing a crossword puzzle -- it's vaguely intellectual and hopefully staving off full blown dementia. Also I just cannot *STAND* the idea of letting any of the rest of you little ****@@$$ having any of my rightful inf.

Welcome home! See my sig for some start up capital.

Something that puzzled me at first and then made perfect sense when I thought about it: If you are doing tips missions to go from vigilante to villain, you have to do them in red zones. Likewise, if you are a rogue and trying to become a goody-two-shoes hero, you have to do those tips missions in blue zones.

This too is 100% correct. I also behave in this fashion, which I would term economically rational. What keeps things turning is that there are plenty of people who do not follow this path. It is more important to them to sell something instantly or to buy something instantly. This is also economically rational, because you have to take the inf value of time into account. However, I feel that many people over value their time in terms of inf (or, possibly, I undervalue my time in terms of inf!) If you think about it, every single trade on the AH has an active party and a passive party. The passive party put in a bid or an offer that would not instantly transact. The active party put in a bid or an offer that *would* instantly transact. The active party buys or sells to the passive counterparty, and the passive person gets the better price (higher for a sale, lower for a buy). My guideline is that if I am looking to sell a bunch of something and the first one transacts instantly at my price, I stop and ask myself if I am selling them too cheaply or if someone has a dumb bid in. If the former, then I change my selling price to something higher than the last price. If the latter, congrats, you just bought 50 Performance Shifter +endurances! None of this is right or wrong, it just is. But I'm pretty sure my way is making me more inf.

1. you are absolutely right. Posting at any price that insta-sells has the same effect. 2. It really depends. In a real equilibrium market, there would be a clearing price between 500 inf and 10,000 inf. but if you offered at something like 2,000, people who bid 2,000 would buy it, you'd get more than 500, they'd get less than 10,000, win-win. Trades would print at 2,000, which would influence people to put bids and offers near that level. The problem is certainly not your selling it at 1. The problem is that the incremental bother for you to post it at 2,000 and hopefully sell it at that level or higher is worth far less than the 1,500+ incremental inf you would receive. It's a drop in the bucket, and why would anyone bother? So we get these big swings in price (which really aren't that big, right? But people have conniptions when they have to pay 5-10 times what they used to pay, despite the fact that it is still practically nothing. I've experimented with this in the past, on a small scale, but I am considering paying seeded priced for every piece of salvage I buy. I mean, 250 for a common v. 10,000? Practically nothing. 1,000 or 10,000 for an uncommon v. 100,000? Almost nothing. For rares, we start to get into real money but I'm just thinking out loud at this point.

And some people think it is ridiculous to be offensive just so people will pay attention to you. Adults need better coping mechanisms than to say, "oh c'mon, those swastikas were a joke! Lighten up Francis!" or "Oh c'mon, calling you a **** was just a joke, I have one of those myself, I'm reclaiming the word! Lighten up Francis." If you are trying to hurt someone, you are being a bully. You don't have to agree with me, but you have to understand that I have a valid point. Use your judgment in your personal life. I'll rely on Homecoming GMs to use theirs. And if someone tells you you're being an a------, you can either ignore them and be more of one, or you can ask yourself, "Why am I being such an a------?"

If someone is looking to offend or anger someone, either specifically or generally, in my mind that's bullying. If someone is trying to skirt the rules of bullying in order to get a rise out of someone, that's bullying. This is all beyond my paygrade, but anyone who's shouting "look at me look at me look at me I'm offensive!!!!!1!1!" can best be dealt with by being made invisible. (Maybe you can tell I don't stand for bullying).

I can see it has limited uses for traditional zerg play, but I have it on my broadsword/inv scrapper main. It’s great when I’m in a fight with endurance drainers or in a long AV fight. But I try not to click it unless I feel good that the fight will be over in three minutes.

Open up Mids Muggle Creator to work on a new build.

Actually, the price spikes are occurring exactly because you (and almost everyone) dumps their salvage at 1 rather than offering it somewhat higher in the market. Those dumps will all go to the highest outstanding bidder, which right now is something a little over 500 inf. But there's nothing on offer under 10,000, so anyone who wants to buy NAO can (and will) bid big numbers. The bid-offer gap is really wide. This isn't a problem, and in fact is an opportunity for profit. The problem is that it is a miniscule opportunity for profit. Even if you make a 10,000 inf net profit on 1,000 uncommon salvage over the course of a day (easily done), that's only 10mm. I don't know about you, but that's nothing to me, and to many people. I usually make that in well under a minute on my marketing alts. I'm actually making (really wide) markets in yellow salvage right now for a few reasons: 1. I'm starting up a few new alts, and I like them to earn their own way. But that's a small impact since I move on to better ways after a few 100,000. 2. I'm a net buyer on marketing days, and it drives me nuts to put in bids and not have them fill by the next time I log on that character. So either I will put in higher bids, or 3. Sometimes I just get annoyed, figure out how deep the outstanding bids are, and just dump a few hundred or thousand salvage on the market so that my bids will fill.

Them's fightin' words!

Is there a similar command to set relative difficulty level (e.g., -1 or +3)?

@Michiyo thanks for hosting it at all, and thank you to the people who contribute to it. It is a true fount of knowledge!

I've changed my mind on this one. I've been fighting +2/x3 Council on my lvl 22 rad/regen scrapper and she's getting debuffed into oblivion. -50% defense and -150% recharge kind of numbers. By Council. These are the guys who get beat up and get their lunch money stolen by Hellions. It's just embarrassing that I have to run away from COUNCIL. Bring on the debuff resistance!