Ukase

Have you made this suggestion? I get the devs turned it off, based on their perception of a gap growing between the farmers and those who don't, but a temp power that didn't work in AE might be okay with the HC dev team.

Well...unfortunately, you DO need a little bit of luck. Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that you have 24 grizzled veterans who all have done this trial and gotten this badge on numerous alts. You're in command of the league, and you've gotten all three whittled down to 2%. Chimera ports, but your savvy team 3 leader mashes a macro in time sharing this critical info to you in time to prevent you from saying "kill 'em all!" Team 3 (the team on Chimera) gets back in position, teams 1 and 2 are ready. You're ready to give the kill command. One of two things happens - and your anecdote in one of your three runs makes this clear: you can do everything right and properly, and that regen tick can come after you give the kill command, and it's simply too late for your league to stop killing them. Or, there is no tick and you get the job done. It really is a 50/50 proposal, even WITH Discord. So, I would take these attempts with a grain of salt, and still hold your head up. You're doing something most simply won't try to do. This one thought occurs to me, though. Have ONE player (or maybe 2) with incan be far from all three AVs and their job is to monitor the hp of the three AVs once they're at 5%. They are to have incan selected and ready to fire, where all they have to do is click for the incan to pop. (and all players need to have tp prompt disabled) They click ONLY if they see a regen tick after you give the kill command. But they have to be really attentive. It's such a narrow window of time - it may not work, as powers that are activated but not landed, will still land and do damage, even if you've been ported 300 feet away. But it may be worth a try.

This isn't what I generally do. This is what other folks do. I don't like doing it because it makes things more difficult for newer players. And while there's technically nothing wrong with it, it doesn't pass my smell test. But, as long as people are anti-market and in a rush and are willing to take whatever they get by selling for 1 inf, this will continue to happen. I was just giving a vocabulary lesson on the distinction between flipping and value-added converting/marketing.

I know you mean well, but I think you've missed the mark. This is an example of flipping: Scenario: There are 27 Preventative Medicine: Absorb Procs on the AH. They are selling for only 2m! I bid on 27 of them at 2m and the bids that get filled - I grab them from the AH and relist them for 3M - which is how much they should be selling for. Who says so? Me. It's a darn good proc in a darn good set and should sell for more than the average rare IO. That's flipping. Not converting them into something more popular or in higher demand. Just buying the item, and relisting it at a higher price. Now, buying the Preventative Medicine: End/Recharge for 2M and converting it into the Absorb proc and selling for 3M - there's value added there (assuming you want the absorb proc and not the end/recharge) That's not flipping. That's marketing. Or buying Cleaving Blows and converting them to Obliterations. Cleaving Blows are generally a "trash" set. Picked up about 10 of them at 200K a pop today, converted to Eradication for a new tank that refused to pay the going price for Eradications. 2m? For a set that doesn't go beyond level 30? Nah. Only takes 6-9 converters - which are pretty much free for me. Used 4, listed the rest for sale as obliterations for the fair price of 2.5-3M, depending on which ones.

Fair points. I suppose the only reason I can come up with is you're screwing over all the other folks who also, like you, don't want to fuss with the market. (More precisely, you're allowing marketers to screw over players like yourself who don't want to mess with the market.) What you are doing, however, is making things easy for a guy like me (but isn't me) who routinely puts in lowball bids and relists them for a fair price. So, you do you. It's fine with me. I can buy whatever I want - although I only rarely do. I would think it would be just as easy to sell something for the going rate, as opposed to 1 inf. Gosh - typing out a few extra numbers must be terribly difficult and/or time consuming. I'm kidding, of course. You really should play the way you like. Doesn't impact me in the tiniest bit. I just feel badly for the folks who are looking for the very goods you're selling - but they can't find them at a fair price because someone bought them all - and then re-listed them at higher than a fair price. Because your 1 inf sale price allows them to relist it and get a profit. Because of the AH fees being 10%, it's a bit useless for someone to buy something at the fair price, then relist 50% or even 25% higher. They wouldn't sell. But at 1 inf, plenty of room for margin. But, I guess I'm figuratively beating a dead horse. Carry on - play your own way. It won't impact my fun, and my way shouldn't impact yours.

One thing to remember though - you might kill the AVs within the prescribed window of time to get the badge - but you still have to beat Tyrant - AND not do it so quickly where he bugs out. Because this badge won't award unless you complete the trial.

This is an excellent point. Long animation attacks that tend to do high dps can certainly ruin things.

So..you're asking for constructive ideas, which would hopefully be somewhat helpful. First, understand that you are not alone in getting frustrated with player's getting antsy and acting too fast. Triple Threat is a challenge primarily because of the combination of Regen AND the porting nonsense of Chimera relocating - AND folks not even assigned to base Chimera getting ported as well, which can really muck things up, as you're no doubt aware. So what's the solution aside from discord? There is an easy solution, but the implementation of that solution is not so easy, if that makes any sense. You need 2 team leaders that use macros efficiently, as you do. Covering each scenario, "Hold on Chimera", "Chimera ported", "Damn Shield is up", etc. So..what does a league leader with a reputation for accepting anyone who meets the minimal criteria to do when players do jump the gun? You have choices. You can make comments in player notes - which sadly do not seem to carry over to your alts. Make a mental note that these players, for any number of reasons, some lame, some valid, just can't be trusted because of a lack of literacy. When you run these things as often as you do, I would venture to guess there's a "core group" of players you're accustomed to seeing in your leagues. You should be getting a feel for their overall competency. Maybe invest some time and share with them the wonders of the pop-menu, which I presume you've mastered, if they don't know it already. I think, if you just get a couple of team leaders that are savvy enough, that type fast enough, or use macros well enough, it can make a huge difference in communicating the relevant information in the 5%-2%-Kill to 0 range. Below are just some of my opinions, and suggestions - not to be confused with actual facts: Some players will NEVER join any Magi Badge effort without being t-4'd in all. They're out for the badges, mainly. My personal rule of thumb is, if they have the 4 passive stat boosting accolades or a high badge count - like over 500, preferably over 1000, they are going to understand what's going on. Not guaranteed, of course, but it increases the odds that they have a clue. Some folks are trying to get t-4 and likely recognize that if they're not t-4 and get Master of Magi...that's a free random rare drop, plus all the yummy astrals and emps, and the usual reward table. You're one of the few that will accept these players into your trials, and if they don't know this, they should. There's not a huge difference between t-3 and t-4, but it's enough to notice when facing Tyrant, if not going for Triple Threat. With regards to the trial itself, I think it's worth explaining to non-savvy/inexperienced players how to determine that the shield is up. Some with weaker graphic settings may never even notice it. Definitely explain that when the words "chimera ported" are used that they should wait to hear from you for any kill call. Taunters with the psi damage proc, and other players with damage auras should also be aware that these do damage and are not encouraged at the 2% point, even though most are thinking that there's no way they could kill the AV themselves with a taunt proc. And they likely can't...but why leave things to chance? There's server lag, where the player sees at 2% value in the trial box, but the actual % is 1% - that was actually less than 1%, but rounded up. With 24 players in one instance, there's really no telling what's really going on sometimes, with 100% certainty. Certainly ALL MMs, Controllers, Doms, ANY AND ALL PETS should have been dismissed at 5% remaining damage at the latest. Some say uncontrollable pets, but there are a number of MM players that simply do not control their pets. It's entirely possible they got PL'd to 50, and haven't learned the first thing about controlling the pets beyond dancing and silly emotes. Your team leads can certainly help with this, too. As for the biggest problem to overcome - the lack of attentive reading - that's tough. My best constructive advice is to type things ahead of time to determine who's paying attention, and who's not. If they're not, you simply boot them, sending them a tell, "Sorry, this badge requires paying full attention to chat. Sorry to say, you weren't. Catch us next time!" Have several of these before the trial begins. And maybe even have one after Dream Doctor ports you into the "Kill 250 IDF" portion. People will respond to the audio cue more quickly than the typed word. The primary reason, at least for me, is I'm focused on what my character is doing. I'm looking at my health bar, I'm looking at my target. I'm usually looking for a tank with some type of a herd for me to nuke. But in the context of Triple Threat, I am seriously checking my power tray for recharge times, checking my health, the health of the team, the hp of the AV I'm assigned to, the other two AVs -- there's a lot of info in the trial box to keep track of, to keep from screwing up. Having to read chat, too - and sift out the silly, useless comments - which may have caused instructions to scroll up outside of my small chat pane...it just increases the chance of my taking the eyes off the ball. I am not a fan of discord, but it's an incredible tool. I have ZERO desire to chat with other players and crack jokes or get to know anyone. I'm here to play a game and pass some time. If I wanted to be social, I'd call or visit friends. Still, when the server hiccups during a Master of Underground, where we just finish taking down the last bomb without incident, and I'm able to relay how folks can get back into the trial and not lose progress - where I'd have to find some way to remember all those names on the league without having used discord - it would have been a loss. That's when you can really appreciate Discord. (although it's seriously a stupid name, even though it's usually quite appropriate with folks always talking over each other. ) But I get it. You may have family or roommates that may not appreciate the required jabbering that Discord would require. And it is annoying, particularly when someone tells you, "I can hear u breathing! Stop that!" as if you're breathing just to annoy them. Or someone says they can't hear you. Now what the heck can you do about that? It's not like Discord has a clear help section. It's much easier to type what solution you're looking for in Google than using Discord's help. I don't hate it as much as you, but I'm not a fan. It's a tool, nothing more. That's a lot - I know. Hope it's at least somewhat helpful.

Apparently, you do. Or you wouldn't keep sharing it. In the context of In-game, there is no such thing as gambling, so there would be no violation of TOS. I can completely understand simply not liking the idea for a number of reasons. Throwing a TOS violation where it doesn't exist is just ...well, silly to me. You don't like the idea. That's perfectly okay. But as I understand the rules, it would be perfectly legit. And I would welcome it.

In the context of the CoH digital world, gambling truly doesn't matter - because it's impossible to exist in game, unless they start accepting actual currency. They don't. So what are you really worried about? It's very clear that there's no actual money changing hands. So why are you guys so freaked out about a very decent suggestion? I get that ACTUAL gambling in the real world isn't welcome in a lot of areas. But I'm not sure many of you are aware that gambling is quite legal in many areas of the US. I don't assume for a moment that in the real world that gambling hasn't ruined thousands of people's lives, due to addiction to gambling. But in a game like this - there's no currency involved. Nobody can lose their pension, or gamble their mortgage in game. So, no, it doesn't matter one bit, because I'm talking about in-game. Not using my actual money from my real world pockets. I'm talking about influence in a world where each player generates more than any of us can spend. It's would be completely harmless. No victims, other than in-game. (depending on how it would be implemented, of course)

You restate that like it means something. It doesn't. If they want to, they could certainly make a silly video game within this game of CoH inside Giza. Silly anti-gaming rule aside. It makes absolutely no difference to anyone. It's not like it's real money. If it were - then there would be some ground to stand on. How can you call it gambling when there's no actual currency? It would certainly satisfy the criteria of "inf sink". And it would not be illegal at all - because even though our avatars might encounter risk of losing influence - the players in real life are not encountering any risk at all. The same terms of service you mention regarding Terrorism, crimes of violence...what do you think all of our characters are doing when we "Go, hunt, kill skulls"? I take this large broad sword and jump down slamming it into the head of a pixilated gang member. That's not violence? That's not a crime? No, because it's in the construct of a silly game. The same rules apply to risking influence. It's not gambling. It's just a time sink. So please, stop spouting rules we are already familiar with because they do not apply in this instance. That is - unless the HC Devs deem them to apply. It's their house, I'm just a visitor. If they say no, then it's no. But the notion that "it's gambling" being why - no, that won't be the reason, because there is no creation of actual risk for the player.

I think this should be soothing, lol

Gambling is NOT illegal. Take one look at Las Vegas, Biloxi, and a slew of Indian-owned properties.

Modern day casinos won't make it on a 70/30. Currently, casinos are giving back about 93% of all wagers. Almost nobody would gamble a dollar with odds that poor. Video poker is famous for returning 96.1% on the standard Jacks or Better 6/9 payout schedules. (with perfect play)

Um...you are very incorrect. Influence/information/infamy IS the in-game currency. Want an IO? You buy it with inf. Want a p2w summons pet? You buy it with inf. It is in-game currency. And, candidly, it might be an incredibly immersive experience for a rogue or villain to rob a bank and take the proceeds and try to make a good haul even better. Comps for various betting patterns over a certain period of time could result in certain character buffs, or other quality of play improvements, like free mission teleporters, free ally teleports, etc. There's a lot of room for fun with this idea!

If my feeble memory serves, I have a vague recollection of one of the old Paragon Studio devs say that it would break the game to increase the number of trays beyond 7. I would have to see the code - and that's not an option for me because I wouldn't know where to find it. I would suspect it would be an easy fix...but not having seen it, no telling how it was implemented. As for a work around...simply don't use common IOs at level 30. Use attuned set IOs, ATOs, Winter-Os, Overwhelming Force. They're superior when combined with the set bonuses and they level with you. Are they more expensive? yes. But, they are easily affordable if you have one level 50. One ITF will net you at least 15-20M. You can easily parlay that into all the influence you need with clever use of the recipes that drop while you play. I realize my solution is not eloquent and requires time spent figuring out which IO sets to use..but once you dig into it, it's fairly simple, not remotely like rocket science. Remember, influence in this game is ever-increasing. The more folks play, the more influence there is. All you have to do is craft, convert some of those recipes that drop, sell them at the going rate, and you'll be looking at hundreds of millions before you know it. And that's just a few minutes at the beginning or end of a play session, not a full time job. It may not be something you enjoy - but ask yourself what's more fun - a second respec, burning 30 unslotters each level 50, or crafting and converting your recipe drops once a day?

I wonder if I can remember math enough to take into account the 2xp buff that's active in levels 1-50.

Well...have you considered relying solely on the rng to slot your character, avoiding the use of merits and the AH? That will make even the best of AT/powerset combos weep uncontrollably. But, thinking back, my reliance on set bonus IOs has made most characters fairly simple to play. But there was a poison/ice defender that I deleted at level 11; it was horrible. Granted, I only solo'd with it, but it was not enjoyable. The DPS was ...well, instead of DPS, I had to go with DPH, because there wasn't enough damage to make the per second part of the stat count. Surviving for even a minute was difficult at +1. That and dominators. I did manage to enjoy a grav/earth dom, and an earth/earth dom - and am trying to play a plant/earth, but my experience with mind/psi dom was just brutal. I swore off of them, and it took me a year to give myself permission to retry the AT. Could be a playstyle thing, tho. I much prefer ranged characters. A fire scrapper will test your patience, too. Nice dps, but there's no taunt aura; you have to waste a power on provoke, and it's got a stupid animation. So, you spend some time chasing the odd mob down, unless you've worked in the new teleport pool. And even then, the fact that you have to waste a power pool on that is annoying because you can only have 4 power pools.

@Yomo Kimyata In all seriousness - my reason for stopping at 48, for whatever reason - only anecdotally, it takes me longer to get from vet level 48 to vet level 54 (for 20 emp merits) than it does for me to PL from level 1 to 50 vet level 3. (20 emp merits) See, as you're most likely aware, 1-50 in a farm is quick. About 2 hours. Each vet level though, takes the same time. And the vet levels required to get 20 emps at that vet level is 6 vet levels. Levels 1-50 plus 3 vet levels is faster than 6 vet levels. So, that's why. (or 1-50 is faster than 3 vet levels.) How much faster? I dunno. I didn't look at a clock. And candidly, it's mostly afk time. But it's faster. Edit: After a night's sleep, it occurred to me I didn't represent my reasoning clearly. Because if it is faster to go 1-50 plus 3 vet levels to get 20 emps, why proceed past the point where you only get 15 emp merits? As stated, I used no clocks, and it's afk time. The 15 emps from 3 vet levels in the vet level 27 to vet level 48 range is more than 10, obviously. So, if I proceed, I'll have 30 emps in 6 vet levels, a slightly better pay off than just the 20 from vet levels 1-3. It may be all in my head, as perception is often reality for most of us. But because that's my perception, I think I'm saving some time - even if it is afk-time. I should try it with active farming to get an actual guage, but that would be torture, and I'm called away so often during the day, that I couldn't give it the time it deserves. I'm sure someone has already done this, anyway. Apologies for any derailing of the thread.

Meanwhile, the poor farmer, slaving away only got one purple.

Testing it out now, for kicks and grins. And take a look, lol This is the stalker alt - at level 32 after the first 44 minutes (2xp, afk farmer). This is why I never let someone else's alts in my farms! 3 purples in 44 minutes...just sitting at the door looking pretty.

That's fair.

I think 99% of all my builds have these. Or in hover, if not Combat Jumping. The enhancements are: Shield Wall 5% resist (all), Kismet Accuracy (6% toHit buff) and LotG 7.5%/Defense Two of them may be slotted at level 7, the other at level 22. In Health is the Panacea +hitpoints/Endurance, the Miracle +recovery, Numina's +regen/+recovery. Should be all you need for extra endurance. In Stamina, I've got the perf shifter +end, and end mod. In my armor, or a resist buff power, I'll have the Glad Armor 3% def (All) and the Steadfast Protection 3% def(all)/Resistance. Because the Steadfast gives resistance, too, I'll use attuned so my characters can still get the benefit as I level up. I exemp a good bit, so using the actual level is a disadvantage, unless I use two builds. (which I don't like to do) Lastly is the 7.5% HP from Unbreakable Guard. I try to fit these in every build I make. Some builds...it may not fit, but for the most part, I make them work. Recently, I've also been trying to fit a full set of Reactive Defenses as well.

I think you'll encounter some different perspectives. Most players don't "grind" the same thing repeatedly for incarnate salvage. Some do, of course. Of those that do, by and large: Speed Lambdas. The most inept concept in my mind, but while it is crude, it is effective. Just don't look for much incarnate XP. Just an emp merit, maybe a couple astrals and a random reward table. Heather Townsend's arc, out of Dark Astoria, or through Ouro. This arc is 4 missions, and when you speed through them, you can get the rewards fairly quickly. Maybe once every 10 minutes or so. (faster or slower speeds depend on your team, your character's ability) What you get is a random common, an emp merit, and the random reward table for incarnate salvage. Hamidon Raids: Most of the time, at least on Excelsior, these are run three raids, back to back. After each successful raid, you get a reward table that will offer your choice of 3: 80 reward merits for the first run on that specific character 1 random hamidon enhancement 4 empyrean merits. you can only choose one of those three. Once you pick the 4 emps on that character, you can swap characters and choose 4 emps again (and email them to the first alt if you wish) or you can choose 80 merits or a random hamidon enhancement on the first character. Once you pick 80 merits, the next time, the merits reduce to 40. So, one character can get the 4 emp merits, and 120 merits in three runs, or 3 characters could get 240 merits, or 3 characters could get 12 emp merits. Apex/Tin Mage also award an incarnate reward table, and on the right team, these can be run very quickly, maybe 20 minutes for both if your team is very competent and experienced. Fire Farm - PL an unslotted alt to vet level 48. This will get you 280 emp merits. Levels 1-50 take about 2 hours, give or take a bit. The next vet levels though - they can take quite some time. I do mine AFK because I'd just get bored to tears actively doing it. This way - I can have this alt send transcendent merits to the character I'm actually leveling and playing. And I delete the alt with the 48 vet levels, as it was unslotted and just sitting in the farm. It's a nice thing to not have to sweat the same BAF and Lambda ad nauseum. I can just send over the emp merits in form of a transcendant merit and +3 them in short order if I choose. Or I can reload my farmer with converters, Nothing like options.

This is a hold-over from the old devs. For whatever their reasons, there are some contacts - Tina Mac, Maria Jenkins, for example, who give you one mission to do before they'll let you start on the arc. I realize that half our player base PL's beyond all the lower level stuff and can just do the arcs directly through ouro. But I don't always do that. But I am getting really tired of these "busy" work missions that don't give merits. And I can only auto-complete one mission per three days. It would be quite a welcome change to approach a new contact and instead of seeing the "Security Chief" or doing some useless non-story arc mission, or non-badge mission, but get directly to the story arc. I have selected, accepted and abandoned over a dozen times in an attempt to get Jenny Firkens and Jose Escalante, and Allison King to give me their story arc - but none of them will, despite their being in my active contact list and not having any other arcs in progress. (nor any other missions in the queue. ) How hard could it be to have each contact offer the entire list of missions the way the Mayhem/Safeguard contacts do?