Ukase

In Grandville, Fly is faster than everything. Not in most other zones. Certainly not in PI. Certainly not in mission maps. Fly is slow.

So, anecdotally, before they "fixed"/"changed" the Paladin event to what it is now, it used to be, we'd defeat Paladin and the bosses (can't recall what they were called) and get this knight errant temp power. I know I've clobbered Paladin and not gotten this temp. And I just helped to prevent Paladin's construction, got the knight errant badge - but no temp. How are we earning this temp power nowadays?

I have no idea what the answers to these questions are, but it would be nice to get some insights that made sense. The afterburner power makes it obvious that fly can certainly be faster. Why afterburner isn't the default speed of fly...I have no idea. I see no reason why it isn't. I would probably take fly more often if it were. But afterburner shutting off...I have no idea who thought that was a good idea. I'm sure there's a reason. And probably a good one. Just no idea what it is.

You must hurry and make an alt named "Uncle Touchy". Funny stuff.

Have I mentioned that I can be obtuse? 2 months later, and I finally get it.

Thanks - I had been in that thread, but once I saw a bunch of uses, I stopped checking in - and that's when Voltor posted about this TF specifically. I'm all too horrible in that regard. I'll have an interest in something, and then I'll get distracted.

For most of you, this is not going to be a surprise. For me, it kind of was. I did a Katie Hannon TF a day or so ago, and I thought, this would be a good use for the new Mark & Recall accolade. A teammate said it would only work with allies that fight, like Dr. Todd in Moonfire, or (proven to me, by me, the Rescue the Fortune Teller mission). Well, while planning on getting the Sheer Will accolade, because...for red side requirements, they're all merits, so why not? I had done a Tarikoss the other day, and a Renault last night. So, next on the list was Silver Mantis. I'm technically at work. And I was curious if Mark & Recall would work on the first mission. I started it solo - just to test it out, not planning on finishing it. Much to my surprise, and in contrast to what I was told by a well-intentioned teammate - it does work! The tattoo artists do not fight. They're not allies. Just a couple of Tsoo ink artists. But here's where the real surprise to me was: A fire/natty corruptor solo'd Duray like he was a weak Elite Boss, not an AV. Maybe I'm misremembering how strong AVs are? I know not all AVs are the same. I would have much more thought into tactics against Ghost Widow or Lord Recluse. But I mean, Duray ran more than he fought. To be real clear, I didn't use any super inspirations. I didn't use my envenomed daggers, or summons (I had both in case I needed them, but I really didn't realize how effective this character would be solo. I made this character specifically to maximize my merit earning. I have one that sits in the abyss, but as you all know, you get 80 the first time, and 40 the next (in an 18 hour window). So, I thought to just remake one, to get 80 on an initial run. More useful for weekends on Okie's overflow raids, or when he does an earlier raid. Now, it did take me 2 hours to complete the TF. But 60 minutes of it, I was outside in my garage on the rower. Gotta get my workout in before it gets too hot, and work calls cause too much distraction. And the mark& recall probably saved me 5 minutes or so. I know many characters can solo AVs. I just assumed they were doing what I did - use supers, summons and envenomed daggers. I guess the natty debuffs are stronger than I give them credit for - or, I think more likely, lower level AVs just aren't as hard for an exemplared 50. Is my being super impressed with this AT and power combo an over-reaction? Recognize, I've been playing this game since issue 3. I'm 3rd rate speeder at best, but I wouldn't say I was highly skilled. Just better than mediocre. Maybe better than average at blasting. But overall, better than mediocre. Why was this so, well...easy? (and of course, I was running at 0/1, as it started as just a test.)

It is true the thread was about an anecdote/incident in a TF. And while somethings might be "entirely possible", that doesn't necessarily make it enjoyable or optimal. I've played a couple of MMs to 50. They're not my thing. I think I just let my thugs and beasts follow behind me during the pylon phase. None of them made it, but I didn't care. It was an MSR. But - I was on Excelsior where it used to be fairly common for folks to put an attack on auto-fire and come back 25-30 minutes later. It may still well be common. Lunar is on Indom. They wait (to my impatient perspective) FOREVER just to get 4-5 teams. So, one player's solution may not fit all players. I suspect they would miss the damage, although I could be wrong. Still, while I cede the point that MSR and Hami raids are distinctively different than a TF, it does illustrate at a minimum why someone would use the power and be perfectly in their rights to do so. Even if it does take my fire tank in the air where I can't use burn. It'd be my own fault. Mind you - it wouldn't make me any happier. But, as mentioned, there is a solution for that. I take the side of the leader in the OP's post to a point. But kicking over a playstyle thing is a bit silly to me. The only power that really drives me nuts is that distortion field, or whatever it's called where you can't damage the npcs (and they can't damage you). I can totally get why a squish might activate it in certain situations, but not in an MSR, lol. (although I've seen it done!) I would say half of the problems most of us have in this game with other people is communication. Sometimes, too much communication. Sometimes, not enough.

If I say it in the right place, at the proper time...it's a possibility.

Just feedback - I like it! I was seeing a few folks wanting to do the Labyrinth, but with diminishing returns, I was reluctant to return in the same day. No more excuses!

I was grabbing some explorations for the merits in Echo: Rikti War Zone before maintenance. And I looked/skimmed through, and used CTRL+F and types in Echo: to see if /when this became a thing. My search-fu came up empty. Do we know when they did this? And why?

I see two ways to approach this. Wait for the player's higher bids to fill, swoop in with your lower bids and do what you do. Less volume, but more profit. But think about this: Whomever this is - and it's probably me - they must be making some kind of inf off it, or they wouldn't do it. Here's a breakdown of how they might be looking at it: This data is old, by the way. The math no longer checks out. The converters number in B3 assumes a cost of 65K. Converters are a bit cheaper now with patient bidding at 60K each. The salvage value assumes 500k for a rare, 2k for uncommon and 300 for the common (at 100 each) Generally speaking, bidding higher reduces profit by a noticeable amount. Like, if you get the recipe at 2M, you can add direct to the bottom line. If you are in this space, like this other player - what seems to be happening is (presumably) you bid your 2.3m price. The other player may have been there before you at 2.2M. You really don't know. They check to see what they have - and they have nothing because you (or someone else) outbid them. What would you expect them to do? Log off and give up? There's too much profit for one player to expect to keep it for themselves. So, they saw your bid for 2.3 and bid 2.32 or something like that. Maybe a third or 4th person bid 2.4. After all, why not? There's a fair amount of demand for these IOs. In essence, all the marketers drive the crafting cost up to where only folks with big stacks can afford to take the risks. This could be called a "squeeze" where they drive the bid up to the point where you've got to either use your brain storm ideas, or your reward merits to subtract from the costs. But even that is opportunity cost. You could have just sold the converters and rare salvage from the BS ideas (don't ya just love that abbreviation, lol) and saved yourself a lot of tedium. Might not make as much, but you'd make it faster - maybe. One thing is clear - if you don't want to pay more than 4-5M for a pvp recipe, that's not your pond anymore. You'll have to swim somewhere else. And one thing that is not clear - be careful! At any time, another player or 20 could just dump all their pvp IOs for 1 inf and be quite okay with all of Yomo's noob traps, making everyone's efforts fairly worthless...until their supply runs out. As efficient as I expect some of the better marketers to be, if they chose to do something like that, it could be many days. Man, I'm sharing too much. Maybe the servers are back up!

I am not sure how popular this would be, nor am I sure if it's possible. But, there's an add-on that make Croatoa appear much more clear and vibrant. Could we not configure the same type of add-on for Echo:Dark Astoria? I recognize it's kind of anti-lore for some folks, and it's supposed to be there...but it's quite annoying to me. (and I'm sure others)

As promised, reading through after I posted my initial thoughts. This is a fair question. I wouldn't get mad at you, I would get mad at me. That doesn't mean I wouldn't take it out on you. I would tell you to turn it off because it's unnecessary and cramping my style. And if you didn't, if it were a TF, I'd suffer through it and 2 star you with a note explaining why so I could see it later if I ran into you. I'm sure I'd be a little rude, but I wouldn't kick you unless you were a real jerk, like being afk in the previous mission for more than 5 minutes while we're trying to advance the TF. (with no prior acceptable explanation) Try to realize - as was mentioned previously by myself and others. You have no idea who's behind the keyboard. Some folks are just well, terribly sad. I mean, really! Like suicidal type of sad. Some folks have made miserable life choices and as a result are truly miserable, and only feel imaginary joy when they can make you miserable! Makes you want to solo now, doesn't it? Some folks are so cheery and nice, you kind of wonder what kind of barn they were raised in. The barn I was raised in smelled pretty ripe, I can tell you!

So, with 6 pages of posts in 10 hours - and I'm not reading any of it yet, because I don't wish to be swayed one way or the other with someone's clear, concise logic. First - I think if someone kicked you for that during a TF, they should stub more than their toe! It's a petty thing to do. This is a game. People have no idea who they're playing with, and they consistently (some folks, not all) act like their time is the only time that matters. These other players could be special needs, they could be a 10 year old, on a PUG, you have no idea who or what you're going to get. And like a box of chocolates, some people will melt when things get hot! So, I feel badly that this happened to you, and I'm pissed off for you. That said - while I know there is a null the gull who can turn that off (and I do turn this off as soon as I change alignment to get Invader) not everyone has that routine. And anyone can get distracted and forget to do this. Communication is important. What kind of run, speedy, steamroll, kill most, if the team lead doesn't mention anything, if they're sub 50, you can either assume it's a kill most, or ask. If they're 50, you can assume it's a speed-ish, or ask. If I don't ask, I'll suffer the whims of fate, only complaining on my side of the monitor. When your team lead asks you to turn it off, you should consider the request. A lot of melee folks cannot melee if they are in your orbit hovering around. And even if they're ranged - it's impossible to joust about when you're hovering. And your group fly is woefully slow compared to Super Speed or teleport in most cases. It might look cool to you - but you're not in a vacuum. You're one part of a whole. A team. It's a shame you thought your own enjoyment was more important than your team leaders. Of course, the team lead thought their enjoyment was more important than yours. He was team lead, so he has the ability to be a jerk and took it. But remember - they did ask first. Did they ask nicely? Or did they use CAPS and tell you to turn that crap off? Either way, while I think it was a jerk move to kick you, choosing to not progress the tf and visit Null to turn it off isn't likely to be on the forefront of their minds. (although they've probably done it now, so there's that) I think the proper thing to do when teamed is to not use it when they ask you not to. But that's just me. It's your time, do what you like.

And thus, you see what I'm aiming at.

So, I've learned to enjoy "Mark & Recall". But one thing I don't particularly enjoy is having 5 tip missions completed, and then for whatever reason, because that detail is tucked away and not always on display on my screen, I end up changing from rogue to vig or vice versa and poof, it goes away. So, I've been telling myself to go ahead and do 5 more and the morality to get paid the 40 merits, but --- my suggestion is to either drop the requirement to 20 tip missions, or raise it to 30. Stopping at 25 doesn't really make sense to me.

These are my favorite! I've done so many, there are seldom any spots they hide I don't know about. Although, there is one where an NPC is on the roof (Not Nightstar) and that one always takes me a bit longer. But most don't last any longer than any other mission - and if I'm in the mood to kill all...there's a LOT of them to kill.

My biggest was in the quantity ordered, as opposed to over-spending for the item. 10 Nucleolus instead of just 1. That was about 4 years ago, when it kind of hurt, despite having the inf available.

Heaven help me. So, if you've ever been privy to an Alcoholic, or any other addiction, they say that you must first understand that you have a problem. Admitting it is the first step. But, while expensive in terms of time and inf, I really don't see how continuing to make alts is a real problem. I guess it is if you think it is. But I don't think it is. I think it's just a different way to play. So, I think for me - my brain is recognizing that there's a lot of things that I like to do in game that aren't really suited well for a character that's leveling up. I like to tackle GMs when I see them. It can be problematic, though not impossible, to effectively lead a league for a GM kill when you're level 12 grabbing explorations in Perez Park. Much easier to do this as a 50. The "merit per minute" mark is also much higher as a 50. Everything is better as a 50, really. Even if I use Ouro to do the same stuff I'd do if I were leveling organically! A part of my post was looking for some kind of inspiration to tell me when "enough is enough" for a character that I enjoy playing. I've only earned like 117 hero merits with it so far, vet level 36. Most of my primary characters are at vet level 99 or so. A bunch of play 'em and forget 'em are vet level 15-24. I'm not real sure where I'm gonna stop with this character. I guess if/when I get bored with it. Bound to happen, and hope it happens soon, because I still haven't tried Marine Affinity. With the add-on from City Modder making demons sound like kittens, it might be time for a Demon/Marine MM.

Well, no, it's not too late. But, it's a slippery slope, right? Does it really make sense that Hamidon somehow just empties it's pockets and suddenly you have an ability to augment your own power? I try to look at it like Iron Man defeating Dr. Doom, and finding a way to utilize some gizmo from Doom's armor and using it in his own. But it's a tough sell. Mainly because most of my characters don't have armored suits, at least, not like theirs. I mean, how would Sue Storm use one of those gadgets? All the science and ingenuity Reed Richards came up with, I don't think I ever saw him use a ray gun. (he could have, I didn't get to read every issue) I think for best results, use your own imagination, come up with your own story for it - and make something in the AE.

What's your global?

Figured I'd share this document. I just duo'd this; one water/atomic blaster and one fire/atomic blaster. For my money, I'll take fire over water every day. Water is good - but with my playstyle, I just like fire better. It took most of this morning because of the numerous distractions, including a 90 minute row on the C2 erg. I had forgotten how much Rularuu will sleep/mez a blaster! The Sheer Will accolade came in handy! I mainly brought the water/Atomic blaster because that character has the tp pool, self, target and fold space. Certainly a team will fare much better than I did dual-boxing. And candidly, I should have triple boxed it, as it wouldn't have been against the rules, but I thought - what if there are some easy merits? I can grab them with the third account! So, I took numerous breaks for adamastor and some other GMs. Still - If I didn't think this set of notes wouldn't save me some time for when it's the weekly, I would never have done it. There are much faster ways to get 122 merits! DRQTFnotes.docx

I don't feel the least bit cheap or dirty for admitting it - but I've also used this trick on those ouro challenge badge missions - where you get no travel powers, and let the league alt tp my character to the doors.

I gotta tell you, this is something I sometimes forget to do with our Cosmic Council crawl teams. If it weren't for discord and folks making it known, there's no telling how long I'd be at the mission door by myself. I think the reason I forget is there's usually someone making a joke, and I tend to forget we're not just goofing off over discord. Outside of SG stuff, I don't think I've ever forgotten to set the mission. So, I blame the "Discord Distraction".