Ukase

There are very few stories that I have found to be worth the read. But that's more to do with me than the stories. I'm 55. The stories are designed for kids, at least most of them. So, if I did find them interesting or entertaining after already having read them multiple times, I'd be concerned with mental decline. I do the arcs for the merits and the xp bonus. Nothing to do with the stories - although I do enjoy some of them due to the dialogue. The Red Caps for example, in Croatoa. They amuse me with their dialogue. Becky in Aeon was hilarious the first couple of times. Still amusing. But for me, doing one off missions is rather pointless, unless there's a badge for it. Other than that, I don't see the point. For the time invested, I could be getting through an arc that would pay merits and an XP bonus. The only reason the one-offs are in the game is to help a character get to the next level so they can do story arcs, historically. At least, that's my understanding, I've certainly been wrong before. If there are no merits or badges, I'm most likely not going to do it.

Type Bloodom in the search window - there are several. The 5 and 10 minute ones are asteroids, the 40 minute one is a cave map. I was doing an XP comparison, and these are the values I got, for minion, lt, and boss, respectively. If it's not 100% XP, it's pretty close. I like the 40 minute map. Running any asteroid map is too quick to really be afk.

I think it's safe to say that "very rare" is a relative term, at least in my HC:CoH experience. The more mobs you clobber, the more purples you will get. I am surprised at the number of players still pursuing farming. I had thought the recent changes would have raised the pain point for entry into farming, but it would seem that's not the case. I think a fair number of those folks who enjoy it are teaming up, to mitigate some of the extra aggro. Just tried it out myself - apparently, the extra layer of maneuvers, Assault and tactics are helpful. In context, it's not quite a 100% XP. Seems like about 95%. Maybe a bit more or less. 38292XP for a boss, whatever % that is. And that's just one extra teammate. I suspect a team of 8, if they're letting the leadership toggles stack are faring quite well. I confess, it had never occurred to me there would be a good reason to team up in a farm, as I'd always taken the position -if you want to team up, may as well do a tf or trial, or some story arcs. But, since they've allowed for -def from the NPCs, it kind of makes a bit more sense.

Someone has gone absolutely nuts. It's dangerous to assume sometimes. But, given that BS ideas can only be used for salvage, it makes sense to me that using them to make salvage would be the only reason to buy them, and to try and get them as cheaply as you can. They are actually seeded at a price of 50K, because it takes 20 to make a random rare, which are also seeded for 1M. For the math impaired, 20 X 50k = 1M. So, someone has just bought...well, no idea how many, at least 5, for the capped price. Unless it's an error with an extra zero - which I find unlikely, someone is just clearly missing something. Is it me? Am I missing something? This makes no sense to me at all, but then, nothing has been making sense in the forums since page 4 hit.

I am not going to adjust my way of thinking unless I think it's wrong. Clearly, many of you took offense at my analogy. That's unfortunate. But I think some of you are in over your head. I have taken the time to send some of you DMs, as a courtesy. Do you know what the term means? I googled it, just in case I was the one in error. I never portrayed any hatred, contempt or prejudice against women. I merely pointed out something that some have done. I never said men didn't do the same thing. I never said any other people who identified as any other label didn't also experience these types of relationship. I just gave a quote from "Guys and Dolls", but all of you missed the reference. Again, if what I said offends you - I regret that you're offended. That's not my intent. But that doesn't mean what I said was in any way wrong. It was and is accurate. I do make mistakes. A lot. And if I sleep on this and wake up with an "ooooh....that's what bugged 'em" moment, I will come back and apologize. But, in this case, I don't think it's required.

Well, now that you mention it, I have been concussed ...a lot. Fastball to the nose, basketball to the back of the head, combination lock in a sock to the back of the head. So yeah, that's happened. What you don't know about my perspective could fill several pages - but we don't want to be overly verbose. And what you also don't know is that I was taking Snarky's silly position and just stretching it. I wasn't the least bit serious. But most of you guys don't know me, so there ya go. Doesn't matter. I still maintain there wasn't anything sexist about my comment. If it bugged you (and you're apparently not the only one - I'm sorry it bothered you. It doesn't make it any less valid in my eyes. I mean, it just doesn't make sense to me. People like the game. Let's change the game. We changed the game. Some people still like the game. Some people, not as much. Not sure I see how the logic fails. But hey, when dozens of people rail against a comment, I can either think it's the dozens of people, or the guy who made the comment. So, it's probably me. Won't be the first, won't be the last. I've said worse things before.

There is nothing misogynistic about that statement. I didn't say "All women". You cannot be so naïve to think there's not a woman who has set about trying to change her man. So, it fits perfectly. The players love the game. So, they endeavor to change it. How can you not grasp the similarity?

You're confused. A man should be willing to change himself if he believes it's necessary. But he should not endeavor to change others - unless they want to change. That's the distinction.

You may not like it - but it's pretty accurate. The game, so many of us missed for years. Now, it's not that game any more. It's close. That said, I do like most of the changes. But I question where the changes will take us. And I think it's fair to be concerned about that.

Someone has to keep these rascals in check. We must ALWAYS question - the good and the bad. And if our OP has an opinion, it's not that good. I see no harm in asking.

What was the reason for proceeding instead of waiting until next year? I'm curious. Personally, the only thing that doesn't make sense to me - while it's not a complaint - is the seemingly overly generous XP from those EBs.

I can see where it gets frustrating. But, while I'm someone who can sympathize with a solo player's issues, the ToT seems to be going on non-stop via a league in both Peregrine Island and Kallista Wharf. You can join a league for the 10 minutes you have and get all the buffs from league mates while you do your thing. I've done the ToT with league and solo. And you're right, some of the EBs are fairly sturdy. It can be troublesome, because of the timer on re-knocking of doors both solo and on a team. If you're solo and over level 25, I'm sure you have a travel power...just zip away to another door if the trick isn't your cup of tea. Nobody will care. And even if they do, they won't know it's you.

The math tells me that spending another 50-80k on rare salvage, above what I deem "the fair price" of 500k isn't going to hurt me that much. But my brain tells me that if I buy that salvage, I am taking influence out of my stack and adding it to someone else's stack. If I knew, with 100% certainty that the someone else wasn't the player(s) that seems to be gobbling up all the rare salvage and relisting it at a higher price, I'd be okay with it. Really. But, I don't know - and since I do not with to arm this mercenary marketer with my influence, I have been thinking about how to quench my desire for the rare salvage. I thought: Do AE for tickets. It literally only takes a minute or so to get the ticket cap, because the ticket cap is so low. It takes about 2 sets of 5 asteroid maps to cap a character with AE tickets. The dilemma is while I can exchange the 10K ticket cap for 18 pieces of rare salvage, even at a million each, that would only give me 18 million. I could run that same farm for standard xp and drops, potentially get a few rares, purples, etc. and those drops would certainly bring in more than 18M. A lot more. Probably 4x or 5x, depending on what dropped, of course. But then - if I'm to craft the lower tier recipes that require the lower tier salvage (level 1-24), I'd have to fork over the inf for that salvage. That does a couple of things. It would satisfy some of the bids that this mercernary marketeer would have, potentially allowing others to buy more reasonably priced salvage. But, we all know this Merc is just going to relist my reasonably priced salvage at a higher price. I think that just adds fuel to their fire. So, I am saying screw the math! I'm now farming for tickets to grab the lower tier rares, costing myself millions just so I don't have to pay this merc. It's certainly faster than crafting and converting. And it does save me some time, and some converters. But, I wonder...what if I made a farm, specifically for my fire/fire tank that has burn at level 18, and can run the map at level 21, and fight the npcs at -1/8? And do that for standard drops. I would think that the dreck map would give a fair amount of rares, uncommons, maybe even some decent recipes. It may be counterproductive, but I can't condone spending over 500k for a rare salvage. That path leads to madness. Just as an FYI, I have a number of bids in for the rare salvage at 500k. They haven't filled in weeks. This Merc has held me hostage for the last minute!

I am very often both. Too often.

"Forum Warfare"....a new alt name? This sentence has me confused. I mean, if it's literally a war, then yeah. Accurate enough. But this forum isn't a battlefield. If this forum's purpose isn't to literally teach and/or learn, why do you think it's here? Sure - in some cases, we give feedback. And I'll admit that I often give feedback in the form of my opinion in how something will impact my pattern of play. And sure, many people will disagree with my premise in this scenario or that. Fair enough. And yeah, I'm sadly in semantics here. I don't disagree with you on the whole. Assholes can be annoying and it can take more emotional/intellectual energy to deal with some folks than we'd like. My position is that in some cases, that energy is worth it to me, and I think it could be worth it for others. But, each of us has a different tolerance for ass-hattery, so fair enough.

I merely asked the question. Opinions will vary. I suppose it's possible some folks could cross a line. But either the mods remove those threads before I see them, I've just never seen anyone cross it before. It would have to be very personal and very toxic, and really off-topic. I don't always agree with people, but I do try to get what I can from their perspective - even when I can't even fathom how they get any enjoyment from that path. I just think the ignore function is kind of limiting. I can ignore what people post without using ignore. And I can see what they said - because sometimes what they say deserves a response. But hey - by all means, - do what you like. If everyone did things like me, it'd be a damned strange world.

Going to have to disagree...in context. As you wrote it - no issues. But as I wrote it, I stand by it. If a dozen people tell me I'm overly verbose, and I just put them on ignore so that I don't see or engage with them further - that makes me a fool. I'd be sticking my head in the sand and being a fool. But, if I take in the criticism, and try to be more concise and clear - that's growth. That's a good thing. Is that not the purpose of these debates? For us to learn? To teach? It may be demeaning for some - but does that mean it isn't accurate? In some cases, it won't be. In the case of me being overly verbose - it is true. See? 5 lines. Not 600 lines of text.

Yeah, but I have to continually remind myself, it's not real money. So, when you have a number of badgers like I do, there is some motivation to just get them complete so you can do something else. At the time, I had no idea that PAPs were going to be part of ToT EB defeat badge awards, even though I was on Brainstorm multiple times to figure out a better farm build. No indication that anything like that was going to happen - at least nothing that hit my on my head to get my attention.

Honestly, I wouldn't say a thing. Because the error would be in my favor. BUT - if they said, "Hey, we found this error. It's not going to change the way you do anything, should we spend time to fix it?" I'd say "Don't bother". Regardless of the rate of XP, people are going to do the same things, they'll just level at a different rate. For most folks, yeah, faster is better. Some days, I'm not so sure what the rush is to get all the XP, and other days, I groan at having to earn another level because I'm having a clear hole in my build, like needing another slot in stamina, or needing more defense or some other attribute.

Yeah, but don't you see responses to some ignored entity and wonder what the heck they're talking about? Also - ignoring people just because you don't care for their views or their tone...well, doesn't that something about you? If we cannot read other people's opinions without it ruining our day, then isn't something amiss? You can't let things out of your control impact your life. Particularly things that only exist in pixel form. Yes, you can certainly get frustrated that something happened in game, or you can certainly be irritated by words you read. But if you have to ignore those people for your own piece of mind, than I would think there's really something else going on. But hey, that's just me. There's about 6 folks in these forums that I pretty much KNOW they are going to take the opposite side of my issue. A couple of them, I swear they are specifically trolling just me, but I also know that's just perception bias. The other 4 seem fairly well thought out. And I make a point to send DMs to those people that I appreciate their efforts to be civil, and while I respect their views, I still disagree. Sure, I could ignore the first two, but I have to keep an open mind in these crazy debates, because sometimes I'm very wrong. To be a man, you MUST be willing to appear inconsistent, and then change your mind, if the facts tell you that you've been wrong. Otherwise, you're a fool, sticking your head in the sand.

I am open to the possibility that I didn't remember things accurately. But I certainly did run the trial. I don't just make stuff up. It has been almost 2 years ago. I do know that I'd read that ambrosia was supposed to work on pets - but apparently I got my info from a set of patch notes that was imprecise. And I had expected my lore pet to assist and they were instantly crushed. I had expected to take down the titan in 4 minutes, I only had 5 ambrosia. And I just didn't have the dps (to take down the titan in 4-5 minutes) due to ambrosia not working for my pets.

I thought I was posting a reply to this ...and it disappeared. (EDIT: This had nothing to do with GMs being sneaky. Simmer down, you rebels! This was me screwing something up before I hit "submit" ) Apparently there are multiple sets of patch notes for page 2. One was from March, the other in April. The link Hedgefund posted that showed the MM references was in April's patch. The one I referenced was from March. So, the only ninja move by the GMs was over a year and a half ago when they put out a second set of patch notes that I missed. Damn shame. It was a good idea to make the insps count for pets. Too bad it didn't work out. And too bad I didn't see these notes before I wasted 90 minutes.

It sure didn't say that in the patch notes I saw when page 2 dropped, and again today when I copied it. I promise you, I didn't do any editing to my snip & sketch. Another ninja move by a GM.

I made a fiery aura/battle axe tank, thinking I'd test two things that would need a look. So far, the one thing I've seen that may need a quick look is Pendulum. When I was looking to choose the power after leveling (never played battle axe before) it looked to me like it was an AoE, and not an arc. So, I check the patch notes and see why. But the tool tip from the mouse hovering over the name of the power says, "Pendulum is not affected by arc changes"...which confused me. It's a targeted AoE now, so why would it? I'm just saying for this obtuse player, it's confusing. I think the mouse over tool tip should say "Melee AoE", whereas before it was a cone. The green text still suggests it's a cone. The detailed info upon actually choosing the power Melee AoE. A minor thing, but because I think many folks will try it for the first time (myself included) we may benefit from making it more clear prior to choosing the power.

Thank you for that thorough response. It IS useful to see why something so reasonable was abandoned instead of just saying the patch notes were in error. So, the spaghetti code wins another battle.