Ukase

You're entitled to disagree. That's fair. But I'm in agreement with Coyotedancer. It certainly seems as if a vocal minority would have me, and others like me removed from the game completely. I can only assume these folks aren't really sure of what cause and effect is when you remove farmers from a game with a small player population. Take a look at Rebirth some time. They're still spending 25 to 50M for a Luck of the Gambler 7.5%. (mind you, they do award everyone vip tokens that contain options for packs or converters and various costume trash options. I must have thousands of merits, ATOs and purples there, just from logging in weekly during maintenance. And they allow as many accounts as you wish.) There is no wrong way to play. While it's come to my attention the HC Devs would rather I not farm for emp merits, so now I won't. All they had to do was say something. It seemed to me they wanted us to do this to keep converters available cheaply. But I guess that's not the case. So, I will farm my 50's to avoid iTrial burnout and get emps for incarnate materials - at least until they start selling emps. Seems like a Merit Vendor would sell emp merits, but I guess that's too much to hope for.

Need? We don't need to play this game. We don't need to DFB. There's so many things we don't need. This particular flavor of CoH server got popular due to it's many options. I sometimes call it "City of Options". This notion that a soloist doesn't need incarnate abilities is true, but it also misses the mark. It's not about need. It's about the elusive subjective "fun", or amusement, or interest, or whatever a player chooses to pursue. I NEED Judgement. I NEED Barrier. I NEED Hybrid. I NEED all the incarnate abilities. Or, at least, I want them. And they're available to me now. To make them no longer available, or tell me I have to team up to get them takes away my options. So, no. I loudly disagree with your opinion.

In all honesty, and I place myself in this group, any adult that plays this game for more than an hour a day probably lacks the maturity to be dispassionate about reviewing and analyzing upcoming content that might negatively impact their future game play. I continually remind myself that I'm playing a game for free, which beats paying 15 bucks a month that I used to pay. And, really, these guys, in particular the GMs, are every bit as good as the ones that were around during live. Game play for me is better than live, but that's because I think I understand the game better now than I did then. There's always something to complain about, and I'm seriously not happy unless I have something to complain about. But they really don't give me a whole lot to complain about.

Seems strange...saw this monkey, thought it was one of the pvp monkeys that got loose...but it's a Rikti monkey that dished out my first defeat when I went for the badge in Pocket D. Now I have to delete and start over. Not sure how this rascal got in here, just wished DJ Zero would back up his policies for no violence.

If you're one of those folks who PL to 50, move on, nothing really to see here. If you are accustomed to leveling up, I'm curious if any of you notice this, and perhaps can shed some light on why it occurs. My ice/fire brute recently dinged level 12. I took Healing Flames. Now, I'm going solo, and am not pushing the envelope yet, as I don't have Plasma Shield yet, still feeling a bit squishy. Running at +1, and the only difference between level 11 and 12 is Healing Flames. I haven't even used it yet. And yet, as I go through (just fighting skulls, doing Eagle Eye's arc), my end is running out, where at level 11, it wasn't. Sprint and Super Speed are off. It's all the same, but it's like - wham, you're level 12, so your endurance will now require attention. I know there's beginner's luck for ToHit, but is there another mechanic for endurance? I do have the same End Mod SO slotted in stamina, just like I did before, and even remembered to upgrade it to +3. From a story perspective, I can see it making sense - the more slots you have, and the more damage you're dishing out, makes sense it would cost more endurance, but I'm just curious if there's some game mechanic I've somehow missed. I don't recall Skulls having any -end debuff, but maybe they do.

You're right in that it's a lie. I really don't pay much attention to any of that. But if I notice a thumbs down, I am more inclined to return the favor.

My favorite will vary with my mood. But, right now, my favorite is rescuing Yin's father. The spacing of the mobs, at that level, is just about perfect, as it's then that I boost the difficulty to +1 or +2, depending on the AT. And, the old man follows well, so if I get an ambush or missed some mobs, he doesn't try to fight them, and they don't seem to target him at all, so I can ignore them if I want to and just proceed to the exit. I used to like Atta for nostalgia's sake, but the map is too large. I say that because if you fight through, you end up out-leveling the mobs in it, even if you raise the difficulty. It's just too large, too many mobs. Frostfire is interesting, and it's not because of the ice on the floor. It's interesting because if you're level 10, you'll have a different experience with Frostfire than you will if you're level 12 or 14. Sometimes, he spawns imps, and sometimes he doesn't, and it seems to me that it's level dependent. So, always interesting to me in that regard. I really enjoy preventing the 30 fir bolg from escaping. I would never want to do that on a team, though. Too many folks are content to let 29 escape, or even let them all escape and auto-fail because they don't like it. But to me, it can be fun to clear the area around the portal, then pursue the npcs that are close by, double back to the portal to be sure none are making their way to get out. It can take awhile, but that's part of why I like it. Ordinarily, if I'm in pursuit of merits and such, I may not like that part, but still, it's something I like - probably because most everyone else hates it. For TFs, I like Apex just because of the dodge ball; I get to practice jousting, stick and move, stick and move. It's a fun mechanic for me to deal with. Market Crash has a lot to offer, too, but that's mainly because it's still "new". For iTrials, nothing beats Master of Underground, where you zerg the bombs, as opposed to snipe. I used to like the sniping, but when you don't have one, it's a bit of a snooze fest. And explaining to fledgling snipers how to properly approach the bomb without getting within 150 feet of it can be problematic, as I sometimes lack the ability to articulate how to do this properly in a clear, concise manner. Discord is a help, and also a distraction. Some folks aren't happy unless they're chatting. (I believe if it's not a master attempt, it ain't worth doing, as far as iTrials go. Every badge you get, you get one free random uncommon incarnate drop. If you get the master, you get a random rare. Why anyone runs a non-master (except for MoM or Lambda as they require multiple runs) is beyond me. Magisterium isn't bad, but it's tiresome when you see folks who just don't pay attention to the advisory "don't use longer animation attacks until after the crackle". A fair number of folks get stuck in animation because they're just blindly button-mashing, instead of being more thoughtful about what they do. They die, their lore pets die, and often that can ruin the attempt for RHW.

There may be a couple of things you're forgetting; maybe you're aware and it's not an objective. The Kheldian arcs - PB and WS both have a unique contact that other ATs dont' have access to, even in Ouro.

I only give a thumbs down to the unwitting fools that give me one first.

Well...that's an option I guess. I did shave 4 seconds off my usual time on the ski chalet on Brainstorm. With the new option to show target distance, it took me 10 seconds to go 500 yards. Now I just have to find the same kind of target on Excelsior. Bah...no significant difference. Sure seems a LOT faster on Brainstorm.

Most folks know there's new content on Brainstorm (The test server). I continue to be amazed at how fast Super Speed is on there, compared to Excelsior or Indom, or any other server. Some suggested it was due to lag or some server load that made the difference. For some reason, while I accept it as a possibility, given the stark contrast between Brainstorm and any of the lower pop servers, I'm thinking there's something else at play. I just don't know what else it could be. All in my head?

Fair question, but let me try to explain a few things about the Relentless setting. (the hardest level) *** Sorry, it's called Invincible, not Relentless. The only inspirations that will work are awakens. No temp powers - so envenomed daggers, shivans, the usual tips and tactics to overcome AVs when you're solo don't apply here. I think, if I'd been on my fire/rad instead of my water/sonic, there's a chance it might have been different, but no real way to know that without spending another 2+ hours with the same folks, and I don't see that happening. It's a strange thing. On some master runs, you die, no master. Some master runs, you can die a million times as long as you complete certain badge objectives. For the hard mode, clearly double digit defeats are going to be par for the course. My first run, we sped it, had 77 defeats, took 45 minutes. But we had way more dps, and candidly, a far better player skill in my estimation. It may be harsh, and I've no way to prove it, but in the first run, I probably brought down the skill level of the team (when it comes to game mechanics, hand/eye coordination, player reflexes, that sort of thing.) On this team, I was bringing up the average. But that's pure conjecture based on nothing but my anecdotal experience with the players involved. I had been getting all sorts of t-3 reds to use, but they were disabled, due to the difficulty setting. The one thing that I wish I'd thought of that might have worked might have been empowerment buffs from an SG base, but it was on the test server and I haven't set up an SG base there. But, even then, those are primarily a specific resistance type of protection, but the increase end recovery, perception and attack speed could have helped at least a little bit. But, they are a temp power and are disabled. (just loaded in to double check and confirm - they won't work.)

When I ran multiple instances, there would come a time every so often when my number keys stopped working and I had to use a mouse. As soon as I closed an instance of the game, they resumed working. Still don't know what that was about.

I wouldn't worry one iota about the impact on the market until characters hit level 40. That's when they start teaming up to clobber AVs and such, and when the influence starts rolling in at more noticeable levels. The biggest impact is on the lower level loot, like Steadfast Protection that caps at 30, and Achille's Heel. When folks zip past those levels, the prices of those will increase a little bit, if not by a fair bit. But it would be nothing for a farmer to do some AE for tickets and feed that demand in 30 minutes. Happens every day.

Ran this again, with an entirely different group. We were actually doing well until the two robots; we just didn't have the dps to take them down, primarily due to allowing anyone to come as they were; rather than looking for specific team comp. But, we felt like that was worth exploring; to see how any old team might fare. My feedback in this is specifically about the hardest difficulty of the "hard mode itf". My primary concern is that a number of folks will simply get frustrated. In our case, we were two hours in, taking our time. Just to get to the end of the third mission. Fortunately, we know the strategy, but we just lacked the dps, so we used an auto-complete in the pop-menu to complete it. So, kudos for having that. Approaching the court yard in the last mission, the splash messages were just a bit too fast for me to read - I caught one about the hostless nictus, but I read something about Judgement, I think, but not sure. I checked my system chat, and didn't see anything there, either, but I could have missed it. Maybe a slower fade of the text could be possible? All in all, I like it sooooo much more than the standard ITF, despite the same idiot npcs screaming all the time. But it is lengthy on the hardest mode. My legs are stiff and need a stretch; it's just not a good idea for any human to remain seated for two hours, which is probably the worst characteristic about it. Hopefully when folks get more accustomed to it, and I'm on a team with more dps, it won't take that long. As for the rewards, there really isn't enough rewards for the hard mode as it stands. These 10 aether new currency things - I've no idea what those things are gonna be worth, so I can't properly evaluate them. From where I sit, you need a certain number for badges, but beyond that, they're worthless to me. I strongly encourage you to do away with this new currency and allot more emp merits for it. If not, still allow more emp merits and/or reward merits. I say that not remembering if any additional emp merits were awarded that I missed; it's possible. I wasn't smart enough to look how many I had before I started. I just know that one emp is a slap in the face. As it stands now, I would run it to get the badges I needed, and not run it again because of the length of it. From a reward merit standpoint, the hard mode should give out at least what Dr. Q does, given the time it takes to complete. I suppose some can be discounted to allow for emp merits, but just getting the reward table at the end and only getting one lousy emp merit, it won't be long before folks head back to Unai Kemen and actively farm the Freaks for vet levels. There definitely needs to be far more emp merits awarded for completion of the Relentless ITF. Would it be possible to give folks an option on what they'd rather have? Emps or Aethers or Reward Merits? I'd rather buy the Aethers on the AH and have more emps. But, that's just me.

Depends on the character. At a minimum, my blasters will have this: My tanks will tend to have this:

So, on the surface, I like the idea of folks being able to insta-level to whatever they want. The pros: Less AE (Presumably) Happier players - look, there's more than a few folks that are weary of lower level play. This would give them what they want. The Cons: I promise you, there would be some folks that would use the current Alt recycling method for emps to get to 50 faster to more emps faster. So, there would have to either be parameters to limit or prevent this, presumably the focal point behind the change being discussed in the Reward Merit focused feedback thread. Would it be a wash? I've no idea. Unhappy players - there would be some players that suffer through the lower level stuff to get to 50; presumably as the original devs designed. If they could insta-level past that, whether with a token or some other means, there would likely be fewer players for other folks to team with. There's probably a lot of other factors to look into - such as impact on the market, server stress (perhaps such a change would bring more players?) Troo mentions that players should earn these tokens, and that makes good sense to me. If you're going to skip past a large portion of the game, then there should be a method to account for that saved time. As to how that should be earned, we have so many different types of players, that to ask for something challenging would result in perhaps, some players not being able to meet this objective. Some players will say, "Good! It should be hard". For me, I would want something that demonstrates a clear understanding of in-game geography (how to get from zone A to Zone B, then to Zone C and back to Zone A in a timely fashion. (2 minutes, I think), then follow that up with a specific mission where you have a pre-set difficulty that depends on your hitpoints and your level. And you have to complete that mission without defeat (or maybe just one) in a specific time frame, like 15 minutes - which, depending on the map, should be 3x the necessary time for most ATs. After all, if we let just anyone have a level token, then the same folks who lambast AE for producing ignorant players, nothing will have changed.

I'd have to do some serious studying to determine certain percentages on average, but I don't think any impact would be noticed by itself - but there are a lot of other changes proposed, and there's really no telling how these things would all impact the game over time. In the short run, I don't think we'd notice much of anything. But in the long run, a different change might make things a bigger factor. It's enough to make me go for more coffee.

Candidly, in real life, I've only met maybe 2 dozen people over the past 2 years - and that was online, over Zoom or Skype. I have met some folks in game, over Discord, but I don't count that, as I've no idea what their names are or much of anything about them. They're not really people to me. They're just pixels that I recognize are real people, but not really real to me. But yeah, point taken. Some folks just amaze me with their commitment to escape reality by drugs of some kind or another, only to further escape reality in game. But that's a whole 'nother thread.

And people are so testy when it comes to farming. I don't get it.

I have words to express myself at this, but they're not productive in the least. SMH... But I can't think of any reason a token would encourage RMT. In fact, HC has made things so user friendly for a new player (once they get the lay of the land), nobody sane or sober would ever spend a penny on any amount of inf.

Sorry, a level 50 character has far more than 67 slots. 96 for most, and khelds and veats have even more than that.

I appreciate your experience in other games, but I'm...well, not so knowledgeable about other games, as this is the only one I've played, unless you count Chess and Madden football. Can you expand on how (or even what) RMT means, and how such a thing would encourage it? As for adding market stress, no. I strongly suggest you are not correct on that. Half the guys I know that PL to 50 literally delete every bit of salvage and recipe except the rare salvage and very rare recipes, and maybe the pvps. And the number of those per character is often less than 3-5 recipes that they deem worth selling or crafting. How I would deal with drops or how you would deal with them is not how everyone else would deal with them. I promise you, the drops from 1-50 are meaningless in the AH. You'd never miss them. Why? because there are farmers that fill that gap, and always will, until the dev team makes it unsavory to do so.

So, maybe I am out of my gourd. But I'm not out of Nectanabo's Gourd. Who is Nectanabo? Is he/she/it a farmer? Do they grow gourds? I don't recall any CoT mission mentioning this Nectanabo. Is there a story arc I've missed out on?

I have about a week and a half of pics like this, mostly from early July. Your premise of inflation is very faulty. There simply isn't any. And you can probably thank the panic farming for it. Farming of any kind, AFK or otherwise is GOOD for the game. It drives prices down. No evidence of anything but. This talk of bots and macros is simply talk, from everything I can gather, because if it weren't, we'd see the impact of it in some negative fashion. And if it's bots and macros that are driving the prices of these down, maybe it's for the best.