Ukase

Absolutely. Marketing by itself - super fast as far as real life time. Super easy. Farming is fast, and consistent. I see absolutely no reason why someone wouldn't farm routinely afk with one account, market with the other - and then, after the bids are placed and the items listed for auction, you don't either play a character "normally" if that suits you, or actively farm if that suits you. This is what I do. @yomo and I have spoken in DMs about our differing strategies, but we're both quite happy with our ways of doing things, and arguably, the net result is the same, or very close to it. I think we're both at about 300Billion, give or take 5. And I'm fairly certain there are some that have quite a bit more than that - just have no idea who they are. I might have more if I didn't badge. Badging requires some afk-farming of an altogether different kind. Sitting in fires, having malta sappers drain you of end until you're stunned, spamming soul drain or judgement, depending on the AT/powersets, all kinds of "busy" work that keep the account busy so unable to farm/market during those times. And I have 10 badge characters at present. 4 are complete, 6 more are in progress. But that's a different topic altogether.

The truth is, there's a lot of talk about a contract that HC now has with NCSoft. And that's all it is. I told the source of this news that if there were such a contract, there would have been an announcement of some sort. And, of course, the rebuttal was "Yeah, but there's an NDA." To which my reply was, "And yet someone told you about this. Riiiight." I was further told that players got banned for suggesting players try out Cake, some other private illegal server. To which I replied, nonsense. That's not a violation of the rules. There's something you're not being told, if a player who went to another server did get banned. Perhaps they put pineapple on pizza. My point is - people will say ANYTHING. It's the internet. Don't believe anything you read, and only half of what you see with your own eyes. I would appreciate the reasons why streaming was disallowed, and now, suddenly allowed. There is a reason for these two changes. I can fathom the reasons behind the disallowing (copyright stuff, low profile for illegal server, etc.) but I can't figure out why it's suddenly allowed. But, in the end, it's really none of my business. I get to play for free.

To me, the best thing HC could do to promote the writing of back stories would be to increase the amount of space in which to write them. 1023 characters is only very rarely enough. Marvel & DC take a number of pages, with pictures (that are worth 1000 words) to tell an origin story, and we just get 1023. And spaces count, too! I do write back stories for certain characters. It's never enough space. Never. So, I stopped writing them for the most part.

I may have to quote you on that.

I can't count the times I've been wrong. And I could easily be wrong about this. Do I like redside? No, not particularly. But, it could be fair to say I never gave it a fair shot. So, what did I do? I made a red side crawl team for our SG. We meet once a week, started at level 1, and have crawled our way through content. We're now mostly level 40, give or take. We started with 2 teams of about 6, and summer started, Covid had an impact, but we still have 5-10 folks that show up when they can. We just kill to objectives, except when the mission is timed or something. We don't speed through, although I don't like the slow pace, a lot of folks do. And, part of the idea was to give red side a fair shot, and speeding through might have had me miss out on Tarikoss calling me stupid. Yeah, who'd want to miss that gem? I've learned that I don't enjoy playing a widow, although I love the defensive stats. I've learned I still don't like redside because it's just ugly scenery. It doesn't make me feel good about anything. I do enjoy being mocked for the way I say words somewhat phonetically over discord. This is why I recognize Discord as a great tool, but I really hate using it, but that's another thread. If you want more people to play redside, YOU have to take the lead and bring people there. It's not a secret that red-siders are starved for teaming opportunities. It may take a few moments for folks to wrap up what they were doing, if you can only do things in an impromptu fashion, but if you can make a schedule and stick to it, you can and will get people to show up routinely. This, to me, is the simplest solution. Just form a team on a routine basis, and if you're not a complete jerk, folks will team up routinely because they either like you, or redside stuff, or both. If you do have an SG, a suggestion: (You don't need an sg, but it can be helpful if more than 7 show up.) Offer a PL farm for folks in Mercy only. Take note of their global and character names. Send them out at a given level and tell them you'll be happy to give them additional levels after they've earned a few on their own and give them a time and place - like Sharkhead the next week. Or, once they're all over level 15, invite them to do a Tarikoss or an SSA, or some other arc, once they've trained and slotted, of course. Offer them influence if they have acquired certain badges like honorary bro and avoided certain others like come full circle badge for switching and switching back. Or a bonus for the Frenzied badge. Sure, a lot of desperate jerks might be able to take advantage, but for every jerk, you should get more than a couple of folks looking for fun. You might say, "Why should I do this when the devs can just offer some extra stuff?" and I'll tell you, they have enough to do already. And it's not like red side is broken. It's a lack of interest by a large segment of the population, which isn't that large to begin with. (but compared to other servers, it's huge!) You and others need to make things interesting.

Some of you may disagree - but this post covers it perfectly. While it is subjective, Red side content is NOT better writing. It is indeed trite, and overdone and downright campy in some instances. But that's just my opinion, worth less than a fart in an enclosed space. Redside was poorly imagined. Spiders? Really? This is the type of villain you want people to identify with? The NPCs, the scenery, they are all pretty darn gross. Who said Villains had to be dank and dark? If they'd had the red side content in zones like Praetoria, then you'd have something. But with the landscape and geometry laid out like a ghost town, it should remain a ghost town. They start you off with arcs like Graves that are quite annoying to collaborate with because all members of the team have to do all the zone hopping and talking with contacts. Red side was always bragging how story arcs didn't send you all over the place. WRONG! They're worse than blue side! Now Praetoria is where it's at. Even fewer people play there. But the zones are beautiful. Most story arcs are only 4-5 missions, and can be done quickly. All that to say this: If you want more people to do red side content, simply form a super team of some sort at a time when you KNOW you can make it, post said time somewhere, advertise for it, and you can probably get two teams together routinely, and consistently.

Ah...well...that's a good question. I just jumped on ancient character of mine that has Combat Jumping and Mystic Flight. So, I flew around a bit with it on, and with it off. ANECDOTALLY, I could see no difference. That's just my brief experience trying to see. If there is a difference, I find it so slight as to not be able to tell. But, that could have been a lack of slots in it, as I only have the lotg 7.5% mule, kismet 6% tohit and shield wall 5% res. in it.

Zounds! (an archaic word I think I heard Hercules utter in a comic book when I was a kid. That was a long time ago, which is why I say it's archaic) Why am I marketing when I could be fleecing money off all you costume contest fans? And pick the winners I like and maybe start a push towards more traditional looking costumes - i.e. Captain America, Vision, Daredevil, Fantastic Four type stuff : 1-3 colors. No crazy things on the shoulders, maybe a cape, maybe not. Maybe a mask, maybe not. But certainly no kittens on the shoulders. How's Atta going to react to that in battle? Moreover, how is it the kitten remains affixed to the shoulder during battle. If the player gets defeated, what happens to the kitten? There's too much suspension of disbelief required there, folks.

Fair enough. If one person liked it, that's plenty of reason for it to stick around. I am just a tourist, after all.

So, in pursuit of the weekly, I set about to do a mortimer kal SF. And...I discover I couldn't lfg to it, I didn't have it unlocked. Surprise, surprise. Something new for a player who does mostly blueside stuff and has all the badges on a couple of characters. And, as you might imagine, I didn't have that tip that's required. And it's not available in the SG computer, either. I even switched to villain to be sure, it's not. I did finally beat up some toxic tarantulas to get the tip, and after doing the sf, I see how the stories come together. But why? Why isn't the tip mission just the first part of the sf? I see no good reason for a player to have to do mindless hunting for a tip to do a weekly SF. Just seems stupid to me. My suggestion is to just make the tip mission the first mission of the SF.

To be very clear, I would never be in it for the money. The SG I'm in, they give "participation" prizes, which I tell them to keep. I have more inf than I know what to do with. Not quite 300 billion, but getting there. My whole reason for asking is so I can be clear that it has nothing to do with my costume, but everything to do with the system the judge(s) play with.

Clearly you're smarter than I am. But if you're doing all that math before you do a conversion...I'd say you're overthinking it. Converters are essentially free. Yes, they have an opportunity cost, but they are free. Burn 'em at will. I don't have to tell you how they're free do I? (alt account, recycling brute farmers that convert emps into merits into converters) If you stick with IOs you're familiar with - solid sellers - oblits, lotg's, perf shifters, Aegis, Unbreakables, certain procs...you already know the opportunity cost. You literally only are laying out influence for the AH listing fee. The rest is gravy. You can sell at a loss, or a profit. Depends on your goals. Why some folks sell an item for 2m when it's clear people are willing to pay 3m...I'll never understand those people who give up 1 million just because...they can, or they don't have the inf to list it higher, or they just want to torture everyone else that knows what the item is worth to most of the other players. I remember ...maybe a year ago, a couple of days after the 2xinf/no xp rule came out. Prices of LotG 7.5% dropped from 7M on average to 5M. I still don't understand it. It was only for about a day, a 24 hour cycle. People were willing to pay 7m before. They still are. But now people list them for less than 6m. Why? Because they want them to sell quickly. Why? Because they're too lazy to use multiple characters/accounts to do transactions. Sell 10k of them if you have them. But you can be patient and just wait to rake in the inf by charging the going price. You might get undercut from some folks, but generally, those are the folks that got a lucky few conversions and just want to cash in. The cheaper ones will sell - to a marketer most likely - and get relisted for a better price. But it rarely makes sense to sell something at a cheaper price than you can get. You might as well hand out free inf in Mercy. The rest of your post - which I didn't quote - was absolutely spot on.

I agree with the point it's subjective. I am just wondering how different things look between my system and other systems. I USED to have one of the top 3 cards...now it's a middle of the pack card. Still more than good enough for this game, but I do wonder how to make things look more real, and less "comic-book-ish". Like the opposite of cel-shading.

Let me preface this by saying I don't really spend too much time in the costume creator. I used to, but for the most part, I think I may have placed 4th in a contest that had 3 people in it..and that was my best result. I saw a comment in general chat a couple of days ago about "cel shading". I wasn't quite sure what that was, as I was unclear if CEL were an acronym or a lazy typist's way of using Cell. In any event, I noticed - which I'm thinking wasn't there before, but I can be quite obtuse, an option to use Cel shading, and I tinkered with it. I left the setting where it was after I tinkered with it - and found that the next time I logged in, my other characters looked quite different. I could barely see the costume, as there was a lot of "shine" to the core of the character. It wasn't like that before. The bottom one is with Cell shading on, the top with it off. I guess my questions is this: If I have my options set to cell shading off, and you have them on, are you seeing the picture above (off), or below (on)? There's a zillion different settings (well, maybe not a true zillion) within cel shading option alone, let alone the other changes one might make. If I have cell shading on, and you have it off, or vice-versa, I don't see how it is that you see the same thing I see. I suppose it's a level field in that nobody else knows what you're really looking at either, so they could have the same discrepancy. But they might not. You might both have it off, or on. Obviously - this costume is just a fairly plain costume, just going with an adjusted random costume, taking away the default animal head I always end up with, removing the tail, and the nasty looking aura. I wouldn't expect this to win much of anything. But it's the costume that made it apparent (to me) that there's a larger difference in video settings than I thought. How do we know the playing field for a costume contest is a level field?

Don't forget about the Titan-Os and the Hydra-Os. They come at a lower level, even when you're 50, but the Titan-Os only take 4-5 minutes to get on speeden run. (speed eden) I had the level 50 cyto in my base already; combined 4 times with the Titan-O version...and I've got a 53 cyto - which for some silly reason has historically sold for 300M. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than 5m, but that's just me being cheap. But if they want to spend even 100M on one, I'll sell them all day, if I can get them quickly enough. A number of folks aren't aware you can combine a level 48 titan-O with a level 50 Hami-O, and get a level 51 hami-O. Same with the hydra-os.

I completely agree with you - we have options. The question was what was dark missing. For me - I listed what's missing from it. Dark Armor is fairly nice - but like fire, it lacks kb protection. Easily enough to tackle with the kb procs, or certain set bonuses - still, it's something that has to be addressed by the player. With fire, it's almost okay because of burn. But I never did see anything particularly special about dark armor to compensate for this. But - it is not a stretch to consider me "obtuse". The snake usually has to bite me twice before I notice it. I'm glad dark is there for those who enjoy it. It's just not for me.

While it's true the upgrade is more convenient, a level 30 IO out-performs a level 30 SO, and you don't need to replace it at level 35. The SO will degrade as the character levels, the IO will not. If influence is no object, I can see using upgrade, keeping +3 SOs - until they no longer outshine the IOs. But even then - how can you pass up those IO set bonuses?

For me, the thing against dark is the sound and look of the attacks. It's why, even though I've tried them, I just don't like dark. The powers seem to come out more slowly, and aren't in a fast, "crisp" fashion like ice blast. The animations are ...not to my liking. The sounds are not to my liking. The look of the blasts heading toward the npc are not to my liking. I want a concentrated tight, focused beam, not a diffuse, foggy looking beam.

Opinions are going to vary. I would never advise anyone I know to even mess with salvage, other than just buying what you need before you need it so you can bid more cheaply and just wait for it to fill. For my starter guys, they kill a few mobs before I get 2xp buff, then I'll skim through the AH for rare recipes being sold on the cheap. And buy as many as I can for as cheap as I can. I'll use inner inspiration, sell those, maybe buy some small insp for 15 to 25 inf, then vendor them for 50. Like Razzle Dazzles. They're rare, and go up to level 30, if I recall, so I know if I buy them for 1k each, I can sell them for 6k at the store. I buy a ton of those. I don't know why people other than badgers ever sell an uncommon or rare recipe, but I'm not complaining. The only reason I can think of to buy salvage in large quantities is to sell it for badges. Take a loss, get rid of that junk. But, hey, you do you. I think a great starting path is the explorations at level 4 in Atlas, Echo:Atlas, Echo: Galaxy for 45 converters (5 merits x 3, x 3 converters per merit) Sell half of them at 65k or whatever the going rate is. Keep the rest for when you have a few hundred thousand and can either buy a cheap IO to convert (perplex, Air Burst, Multi-Strike, that kind of trash) for 250-300k, then convert to something worth 2x or 4x, depending on the rng. You guys already know this stuff. But I'm a bit disappointed you'd direct folks to a salvage play. There's chump change, but that's about it.

Who says this, though? Brutes are excellent outside of AE as well as within them. You just have to be creative in the slotting. No one size fits all, of course, but brutes are fantastic as is. And so are tanks. I really encourage you to not listen to these people, whomever they are, because they clearly are only using anecdotal evidence, which can't be trusted anymore than a pylon test. Pylons don't move. They don't do much of anything. Heck, I don't even think they debuff. And you can't just look at a brute or a tank at incarnate levels. What about level 15? Level 35? Level 27? Level 40? I am growing weary of all these folks looking at an AT fully incarnated and making a judgement call when that's only a fraction of the equation. You can't discount the folks that play non-AE content to level 50. Their experience with any given brute or tank counts, too. And because most everyone slots differently, the experiences will be different, as will the judgement calls. Neither brutes, nor tanks need adjustment. Scrappers could use some more aggro management, but it's clear from some dude named powerhouse they're not gonna get it. I just won't play them much anymore. Problem solved.

Which goes to my point - we can't arbitrarily nerf/buff with the drastic differences in powersets between ATs. At least - before we do, we should take a very close look at how said change would play out.

If you'd have sent me a tell, you'd have gone unanswered. Why? Because my farmer is an afk-farmer, and I'm at work.

Opinions will vary. Why? Because builds and powersets will vary! I just finished leveling a mace/fire scrapper. I have determined that scrappers are fairly worthless. "But, man, the dps!" No, sorry. When you have to chase down the mobs, you lose whatever dps edge you may have had. I won't say it's not fun, but it's not the dps king, not even close to my brutes or blasters. Anyone that tells you differently....they have built their scrapper differently. And that is the primary point I want to make. Each player builds their character differently - if they're not snagging one from the boards or some other place. One Brute may have 23% damage bonus from powers & sets, while another might only have 6%. One guy takes assault, another guy doesn't. One tank takes assault, the other doesn't. One tank has assault for hybrid, while the scrapper goes melee to get some sort of taunt going. It's all going to vary. Even the same AT and powerset is an apples to orange comparison due to build/power selection differences, and play style differences. Even if the builds are exactly the same - if the content chosen differs, the in-game experience will be different, and so will the anecdotal conclusions. This notion that you want to rework an AT or two based on your own experience with them is just not enough data to suit me, particularly when it flies in the face of my own anecdotal evidence. Give scrappers a taunt aura and it will all be fine. But that's just my own experience. I can hardly expect everyone else to feel the same way. Tank damage is still woeful compared to a brute or a scrapper. So the cone is larger. Big deal. Only on my fire/ice tank have I even noticed that being a benefit. But, I'm still working through all the armor/powerset combos, so my jury is still out. Do not nerf tanks. Yes, buff brutes. Mine could all use more damage, as the fury bar rarely gets mine much over 190% damage bonus. Let that fury bar burn higher when fighting. Seems like it should reach the cap without inspiration use or external buffs, but it never does. But then again, if it did, everything would die too quickly and we'd be back to City of Brutes again. Wishful thinking, I suppose.

So.. I wanted to caution all of the avid badgers with these suggestions. Some of you - after you complete one character with all badges, you begin another! There are at least three people that I know with certainty, other than myself that have completed multiple characters. I have 2 myself, with 2 more once/if the nemesis event happens, and 6 more bringing up the rear. Voltor, Sentenza, Stitch and who knows how many others. If they introduce too many badges, we're gonna be awfully busy, running SSAs or whatever into the ground! I'm all for the idea, but we need to be mindful of how much grinding do we want to set ourselves up for.

I like the idea about snipers, but it should just be Crey Snipers. The nemesis snipers are found in missions quite often, and it would be a simple thing for the badge to be obtained easily. We already get a badge for the fakes, the hulks and the jaegers. I think that's quite enough glory for Nemesis.