Ukase

I completely agree with you. Never said you did. But - we have 1000 slots. And, if you want your character to be as good as you play, you want the better IOs. Depending on your AT, that typically means: 1 Gladiator's Armor 3% def (all) & Teleportation protection - about 11M currently, but I've seen them sell as high as 15m. Smarter players will buy a lower cost PvP IO recipe, craft and convert. Even if it takes 30 converters, a 5M recipe, plus crafting costs of less than 1m, you come out much cheaper. 1 Panacea +hit points/recovery - another 12 m 1 Shield Wall 5% res (all) - another 12M Numina +recovery/hit points - 4M, Miracle +end -4 M, Perf shifter +end (currently going for 6M because of the new end mod IOs) 1 set of Winter-Os for the melee attacks, that's 100m, more if you go for the winter packs to gain them that way. 1 set of Overwhelming Force - which you can do 5-6 Summer BB's, but after you've done that a hundred times for your first 20 alts..I'd rather buy 'em straight out. At 15M each - 10M if I'm fortunate, patient and bidding intelligently - that's 50-60M. Purples are called for with most dominator builds aiming for perma dom. Those are 100M per set, easily. You can certainly bring the cost down to 90M by getting recipes and crafting, converting as necessary. Or you could be a sucker and use merits, but nobody sane does that. Better off using merits to get converters - which is another thread all by itself. Melee characters tend to have armor - either resist or defense focused - and those cost about 4-5M for each IO. Usually 3-4 armor powers, so that's about 60-80 Million there. It adds up, as we all know. Depending on your AT and powersets, a solid build is going to cost at least 200M. More than likely double that. A very resourceful player could probably get my with prodigious use of converters & reward merits at half that cost, it just depends on how much time they want to spend playing for converters instead of playing for fun. (the same thing for the lucky few of us) No; there's no rule that says we need the best our inf can buy. But there's also not a rule that says you should get the cheapest Training Origin enhancements either. Some believe that common IOs or even SOs are good enough. They can be, if you team frequently to cover up the holes in your build. I think half the player base solos for their own reasons half the time. So, yeah, they need the better builds. At a minimum, they want them. The folks with time on their hands - like me - can read the market forum, soak up the tips & tricks and do those things themselves - like I have. Now I have four level 4 characters who are waiting in Ouroboros for the Chronologist badge and I'll start playing one of them in a day or so, staggering the play time, giving me 10 days to get to 50 and t-4 it. Plenty of time for me. Not nearly enough time for most because they don't play as much as I do. Ultimately it doesn't matter to me. I've got over 80 Billion. I'm just trying to be helpful.

There is so much truth in this! One of my globals, who has stopped playing around Christmas time, was what I call a younger guy; we'd played back in live from time to time. But since I work remotely, I can easily log in, place some bids - get some work done - check back in, etc., whereas he could only come on at about 9pm Central. He'd try to make it to the hive, but more often than not, just couldn't get in. So - there I am - in the hive, I'm earning 160 merits in a relatively short time, but he's only getting in on round 2, if at all. So, as a week goes by, because of our different schedules, I've got over 1000 reward merits and he's got maybe 400-560. Let's not fool ourselves - free time is a huge variable in the influence disparity between the "haves" and the "have-nots". I don't have access to the data - and even if I did, I wouldn't know where to find it - but it would be a curious thing to see how many folks have influence in excess of 100Billion more than 50 Billion More than 10 Billion More than 5 Billion More than 1 Billion I suspect everyone with only 1 level 50 would have somewhat less than 10 billion, depending on whether they farm or use the market. Folks with multiple 50s might have more - because the wealth accumulated is a function of time, as well as efficiency at gaining xp - whether farming or teams of 8 running normal content. So - if the goal is to make the "average" player be able to afford the good stuff - how do we define "average"? How many hours a day/week do they play? This is the kind of thinking that kept me out of the good schools.

Well..if you have a friend or an alt account that has these badges, you can get those badges at level 1. Level doesn't matter if you're sidekicked.

My thoughts are that we're very fortunate to play on a server where making inf is far easier than it was on live, if you're inclined to do so. Whether it be the market, or just doing a kill most ITF - however you play - you can make scads of influence. But there was, and still remains a backlash over the removal of the double inf when exemplared. So, here's my suggestion: We all know that a level 50 incarnate still has all their powers at level 45. So why not allow for the double inf when exemplared for all characters that are 44 or below? These are the levels that really need the influence anyway, particularly if it's their first character. If you're level 45-50, no more double inf. It just makes more sense to me than an across the spectrum change. Any player that has a 50 is aware that inf is no longer an issue. First characters may be an exception, as they may not have been kitting out their characters as they leveled and feel a big obstacle to come up with the millions required to deck out their new 50. But still, this would be a better solution than the one that we've just been saddled with. At least, I think so.

They were addressing either another, or the same AE issue. Presumably, it will be a quick fix.

What I've done is this: Give to random teammates 100m each if I see even one character's build that doesn't have an IO. Donate 50 to 100M to whomever gets the drop ship kill after an MSR. I tried to give a purple IO of choice to whomever got the kill shot on Hamidon, but I could never get the kill shot to display on my system log. I subsidized more than one man hunt 1 billion inf. I've given away entire sets of Winter-Os, purples - I even gave away an entire build for a fire/rad controller. Despite these charitable gifts, I have more inf than I did before I started giving it away. Just passed 80 billion yesterday. This is despite running the last 20 or so characters on 2xp no inf, and the last 10 or so, paying for all the amplifier buffs, tps, Summon pets, envenomed daggers, workbench, etc for all my characters.

I guess I need to raise my prices. Mine sell daily. I convert and probably sell 10 of them a day and seem to always get about 10% more than what I ask.

An email wipe would piss me off for sure. Mainly because that's where I stash half my inf. My characters each carry 1B, and I have my emails with 900M each. I would have them carry more, but if I did, I couldn't retrieve them with my characters. I don't trust the HC devs to not have a crazy sale and saddle me with a zillion winter packs or hero packs, and honestly, it's neat and tidy in the emails. It's convenient. It is something I would consider rage quitting over. I know it's easy to make, and I know I have more than I will likely ever need - but when the devs seeded the market with salvage, they lost something with me. I can't trust them, because I'll have no idea what they'll do with regards to the market. Worst case, I can take the micro's out of the 30 some odd characters that have them but I'm not really playing anymore. I should do that anyway. Doesn't really make sense to have 500-800m worth of IOs just sitting in a character I'll probably never play again. At this point, they just hold inf. As far as this nerfing of inf while exemped...*yawn*. Who cares? I doubt anyone who plays the market or even has a farmer cares two bits about this. I think it hurt the beginning player who needs more inf to kit out their non-farmer more than anyone else. Now - those who have not are going to be left with a couple of choices: make a farmer and / or learn the market. Or continue on and struggle a bit. Life goes on. Fortunately, I'm at a place where I don't have to do anything. I tallied up my inf and while I'm not close to 100 Billion yet, I'll probably be there in a couple of weeks if I would put in the effort - which I won't. I've been actually having fun playing the game with a "delete the toon if it gets defeated" theme, jacking up the diff every 10 levels. So far, at level 43, and have only had a couple of close calls.

This was amusing for the first +2 hellion. Now it's just annoying. Wake me when it's over.

That darn trial is still my favorite!

So, I have patiently read through ...14 pages! instead of continuing with my 36th rep of Tina Mac's Anti-matter arc. I see a small contingent thankful for the costumes and other additions. I see a LOT of fuss about this stop of double inf while exemped. For the farmers - you'll be fine. It's not like you weren't going to run the map again anyway. It's not like you need the influence immediately, and honestly - it's not that much influence. You make more from crafting a few of the recipes, converting them and selling than you do in the entire map. The time spent complaining, you could have already made millions in the market. For the non-farmers - you may see this is a slap towards someone else that gave you a glancing blow. It might sting a little, but knowing you weren't the target should be some solace. If I understand this issue correctly, the problem folks are having is they think their influence earning has been cut in half when exemped. It was never truly double influence while exemped. Was it close? I don't think so, but I have never paid attention to those numbers, knowing that an uncommon recipe was going to net me 3-7m, depending on the conversion rng. It really seems like much fuss over very little. I am far more upset about this General chat channel. I can no longer get angry at people telling me to hush up in Help or LFG chat when all I was doing was trying to be a part of my community that would occasionally discuss things that had little or nothing to do with teaming or helping answer questions. Who'm I gonna tell to shut up now?

I farm. I play "Non-farm" content regularly. I even lead the occasional hami raid with one tank or another. I also buy certain recipes at a given price, craft them, convert them and sell them for what I think is a reasonable price. Usually about 10% below what most people seem to be willing to spend based on the past 5 sales. I also subsidize costume contests and manhunts to the tune of billions, and Mothership raid drop ship kill shots. I also just give random teammates 100m when I'm in the mood to do so. I globally ignore those who beg for inf. Giving should be my idea. You are of the opinion that what I do, and others like me do impacts how you can outfit your characters. On one hand - I can understand that you may only play a few hours a week and may still be working on your first character and having trouble making influence. Have you ever tried to make influence? Have you ever read through the marketing section in this forum? I am hard pressed to understand how anyone can't fathom how to make influence in this game, and lots of it! I am more than happy to share what I know, how to make it fairly quickly and easily if you're inclined to learn. The help channel is FULL of people more than willing to share this information, as are these forums. My issue is that folks have given freely the information, but you (and others) seem to find it impacts you - but if you'd only taken the time, you'd have billions and billions just like so many others.

This isn't the proper forum section for me to share this, but simply send me a tell in game @ukase and I will type up a storm in an email for your reference. A child could make a billion inf in a week if they have the time and inclination. But it does take time! And, you will need to actually roll a character to get some explores if your current characters have already spent those reward merits.

Anecdotally, converting/flipping surpasses all. The only issues preventing folks from making billions is the start-up inf required. (or converters/merits which can be converted into adequate inf easily enough)

Ha! I'm glad you said it would never happen, because I love CJ/SS. All but three of my 30 something level 50's have CJ/SS/FIght/Leadership or CJ/SS/Fight/Sorcery. I do get hasten on all my characters as it's essentially required if you want dish out as much DPS as you can. Anyone that says it's not necessary isn't doing as much dps as they could. That's a fact. There is no way around that fact, either. I understand that there are people who do things differently than I would..and I suppose that's fine. But, me, I like hasten.

Personally - a toggle for the player to choose between secondary effects is pretty clever and creative! The topic of kb is so ...divisive, that the OP is getting mocked simply for bringing it up, because many of you think you have heard it all before. It's hard for me to realize - but the game is getting new players routinely and many others have NOT seen and heard it all before. That said, my opinion is that kb is simply damage mitigation. Some of you simply have no thoughts about the person behind the character that causes kb. You think they're knocking them down the hall to make your life more difficult. They're not. They may lack the recharge to use a single target attack, they may lack the experience to re-position themselves for better use of the attack. A host of reasons. It's no different than the controller or dominator who locks down the mob before they're in a nice tidy bunch for the AoE focused AT to dispatch them quickly. Some players are so bothered by the kb, they quit SGs, sever coalitions and go from global friends to global ignore. That's how sensitive this topic is for some of the less mature players! My challenge for all is to play a blaster that dished out kb to get a better understanding of what's going on behind the avatar. And those that play a character that dishes out KB, play an AoE focused scrapper (no inherent taunt for them) or Stalker...and see what those players go through when teaming with an inexperienced kb blaster/PB/Warshade.

My thoughts: yes please! My reasoning: Hasten/CJ/Fight/leadership/Sorcery When you're a blaster, aside from a break free, or end-game Clarion, there's no status protection, unless you get Rune of Protection from the Sorcery pool. But, if you get that - you're prevented from getting all of the others. This limitation is the only frustrating thing about playing a blaster for me.

As one of those ridiculous badge-hounds, (current count 1511, as many as I can get until the anniversary badges open up in May) there are a number of things I would like to see changed, added, taken away. We're all different - different life experiences, different expectations, just plain different. I completely understand that I take the game a bit more seriously than most. I'm not the most enthusiastic min-maxer I've come across. I belong to a group that actually do respecs for any task force just to eke out a faster time on a speed run. I personally hate doing respecs, so I try to build mine properly from beginning to end. Yet, we have these badges for debt. Nobody said, "Ukase, thou must have all the badges!" Yet, I found myself getting as many as I could. But the few badges I think are just plain stupid are the debt badges. Why should anyone be given a badge for poor performance? And make no mistake - when your character is defeated, you have performed poorly. There may very well be good reasons, but the fact is you got defeated because your character was in a situation that you, the player, couldn't manage successfully. Now that doesn't mean that you're not fun at parties or that God no longer loves you, it just means in that instance, you failed to play your character well. Why should that be rewarded? Only the original dev team can answer that. I suppose, I could look at it as a warning to not team with those players who have too many debt badges too soon. Only 100 badges and have all the debt badges - this is probably not an ideal candidate for an MoTF. So, I would love to see them just removed from the game. Balance between factions: Invader vs. TFC. This just doesn't make sense to me. If I can team up with certain folks that have a certain badge (Hero Slayer/Bloody Hands) on red side, I can take a low level character (presumably with stealth) and zip through all the mayhems for the exploration badges and get that accolade within 10 minutes or so. Yet, on blue side, TFC takes a whole lot more than that. Fortunately, there's Null the Gull to make the side switching virtually painless. Still, I think if a badge (for an accolade) is to mean something, they shouldn't be THAT easy. Of course, nobody's putting a gun to my head and telling me to do things the easy way...but I will almost always follow the path of least resistance. No, I won't get the tasty merits, but I'm already sitting on more inf than I know what to do with. Speaking of inf... There doesn't seem to be any badges for making money on the AH. As EASY as it is to make inf via the market, so many players don't understand how, or don't want to understand how, or just find it absolutely boring to deal with. They'd rather grind it out for inf via missions. That's fine. But, I think EVERYONE should get a badge for taking a set bonus recipe, crafting it, and converting it, if need be, and selling it on the AH for a badge. I know there are certain badges for selling a certain amount of products on AH, but I don't think they're specifically for IOs. People fuss about the expense of certain IOs...if there were a badge for selling 5 LotG 7.5% IOs, I suspect there'd be a drop in price, as all the crazy badge hounds would be selling them - and competition for the sale would drive the price down. Something to think about. It would certainly introduce the bare basics of how to craft/convert/sell a lot moreso than the tedious generic IO badges. But - let's keep in mind that those generic IOs routinely sell more cheaply than it costs to craft them, so that's a win. Personally, I'd like to see a badge for the accumulation of inf. You have acquired 100M, 1B, 10B 100B. (if only there was a place to keep it all...) I could go on, but I've already written too much.

If I understand it correctly - having an 8th tray would be useful, sure. But..honestly, the times of it being useful are so rare, that I don't think it's worth the time. I respec'd a level 50 and held all my enhancements from my build after (deleting the character as I wasn't going to play it ever again)..and why would anyone need more? There's a finite storage for a reason. The more each character can stash, the server has to keep track not only of each slot, but what's in it - and the fact that nothing is in it. We think - oh, it's just one tray..but for each character in each account..that's a LOT.

I thought #23259 was pretty good.

I think this is a great idea, and nice of you to offer the incentive. You may already plan on it - but I am positive, just like in the old days, there might be 10% of the user base that visits the forums occasionally. And maybe 10% of those would see this opportunity. Perhaps make it part of the MotD?

I can certainly understand the frustration. I've been on the paying and receiving end at least twice. I like Roderick's suggestion of a slider.

Just my hunch - but looking at the badge leaders who have 1525 (which include the anniversary badges I don't have) none of them have the nemesis event badge, so pretty sure it hasn't happened for whatever reason.

It boggles my mind what the devs were thinking when they had Dream Doctor give an iTrial as a mission. I also auto-completed it without a moment's thought. The Trial is easy enough to run, if you can find an adequate number of competent people to join - but that takes a lot of time I'd rather not spend. I'd also have to consult the guide on Paragon Wiki on which heroes to free, because it's never really clear from within the trial what the best choices are. Easier to auto-complete.

The only badge I know about that is unobtainable at present is the one for the Nemesis invasion. We simply haven't had one yet. Not sure why. The rest are obtainable because there's got to be at least half a dozen folks that have every badge. (discounting bug hunter)