Ukase

A fair question. When I was selling the pvp IOs, and keeping track, I would often see the Shield Walls selling for 10M, which struck me as odd, because I was selling them for 8M. It made no sense to me why people would just slap a 10M bid off the jump, particularly when the display glitch didn't seem to impact them, at least, not for me. I think it's a player, returning after an absence who has the resources and doesn't realize that prices have lowered over time. I could certainly be wrong. I recall getting something like 64M for a pvp IO, and I was tickled, because the going price was 8M, as I mentioned. I considered it an extra zero on the bid, and frankly, you get no mercy from me for low-balling an offer of 6.4M for an 8M item. 7M, I can see. But 6.4 is just being cheap. So, when I see an extra zero in cases like those, I chuckle to myself and send a mental message - "That's what you get for being cheap!".

The RNG can be a fickle mistress. When I'm farming, my alt that is getting PL'd once got 3 purples - just sitting, while the poor farmer got only 1. There's never a rhyme or a reason for it that I can tell. Anecdotally, I can tell you my tank routinely gets 2-5 uncommon/rare recipes per map, which I run at +2/8 or +4/8, depending on how close I am to leveling. I did another MSR, with an HVAS, and still got less than 900 VG merits, and this one was not instanced. This is my conclusion: bad luck. I think some teams just have people that are just "healing" instead of firing. A damn shame, too, because when I'm herding the Rikti to the bowl, I'm not getting any buffs at all. In any event, I have enough VG merits for the gr'ai matter I'll need tomorrow, and that's all the vg merits I need for now. My cold/fire brute holds the record for most vg merits at 1511. Prior to that, I'd gotten over 1400 only twice. Usually, I'm at 1200 vg merits. I'll just not be making any more tanks for a while, lol.

I dunno. Yeah, I was a bit surprised, when I'd run a Morty Kal when it was the weekly, and a lower level teammate didn't get the prismatic. They can drop randomly after the completion of a mission for a sub-50, so it really doesn't make any sense at all to me that sub-50's don't get them. That said, now that they're just 24M compared to the 175M they were going for after the patch hit, I can make that much in a couple of minutes on the AH. So, why run it for a couple of prismatics? The only time I run a weekly now is to support specific officers in the SG and when I need a notice. I'd like to run them with my lowbies, but if I run it on level 40 on a Wednesday, it disqualifies my character from getting a notice until the coming Monday. (as I'm likely to ding 50 before the week is over) That's why I almost never run a weekly on a lowbie. Nothing to do with a prismatic.

I can't remember. It was either Ukase or Ukaserex. At some point during live, I changed my global from Ukase Rex to Ukase. But I don't believe there's an option to change the forum name, so, it was probably always Ukaserex.

Watch your language!

I completely agree with this. Time is precious. Big blocks of time for an in-game experience are hard to come by for most folks with responsibilities. And when I say big blocks, I refer to anything over an hour.

You know, I was asked once by Yomo how much inf I had. I told him it would cost me too much inf to take the time to count it. 😇

This is so true! I think Howard Stern said it best. "I'm 6 foot 5, and hung like a pimple." And I'm not even 6'5"!

This will be true...sometime later. But not for awhile. Historically, I was using the ol' emp ->reward merit --> converter method at the ol' merit vendor. But you little scamps took that away. But, I've a healthy supply of reward merits in the global email and still hundreds, if not thousands of winter and hero packs to open. And, since I'm not farming anymore, my need for converters will go way down. It may well be a year before I need to buy any. Just depends. I've been saving for that rainy day. When HC seeded the salvage, I learned pretty quickly that you guys could change things pretty quickly. So, I've tried to use several methods to store wealth - purples, pvp IOs, winters, reward merits, super packs, winter packs, and standard inf. I believe selling converters is the lazy player's way to wealth. Actually using them, turning trash into gold is what they were made for, and what makes the most influence. Converters as a store of value...nah. I can't buy anything with converters, and if I did use them as such, the value of my portfolio would be roughly 75% of what it was before page 4 dropped. Converters used to go for 70K instantly; and the amount for sale would vary from about 6k to 45K. Now, it seems to be staying well above 50k. This is probably due to a number of folks who exchanged emps for reward merits prior to page 4 hitting. And, over time, I suspect it will return to normal. But for now, buying converters does seem like a good idea, as they're so cheap, and in about 4-5 months, the price should be creeping up. Maybe sooner. Depends on how other marketers are taking advantage of the situation.

I disagree. That is, it's certainly not true for me. I still don't pay for lotg 7.5%, nor pvp IOs. At least, not the crafted versions. I buy recipes to convert into what I want, if I don't have them stashed in my base. And I'm filthy rich, in-game. I make a point to only sell in the AH, never buy, if I can help it. My dad used to drum it in my brain, it's not how much money you make, it's how much money you save. So, given that a 125 map in AE brings about 4-5M, every two IOs I don't have to buy is one less map I need to run. But that's just me being a miser, I suppose. It's not rational for me to think everyone thinks or acts this way - and I'm sure someone's making extra zero errors, and some folks will blow that extra inf to get what they want immediately. I I know some people may be impatient or ignorant that way, but I've got to think most folks are smarter than the "buy now" mentality. Or maybe they're not. God bless 'em, they've made my account loaded with inf. I just always thought those "buy it now" people were the exception, rather than the rule. So, horrible creature that I am - this kind of makes me want to rescind my comment about not afk-farming. How much inf do I have to create to get the inf sinks I've been asking for? Tweaking supply through drop rates...that's certainly interesting. I really need to learn how to .pigg dive. May I ask how HC assesses this? Because as someone who tends to craft/convert/sell all but purples and pvp recipes, I don't see the inflation. I see my fellow marketers selling things for less - meaning I have to ask for less to get something back for my troubles. The only area I see a tiny bit of price increase is the level 10-30 sought after stuff like Steadfast Protection 3% def, Kismet ToHit, and similarly sought after IOs. And that's got a certain ebb and flow to it, mostly due to competition. At least, I think that's it. In some cases, I swear it was some of the HC folks secretly buying stuff in hopes of stimulating the economy, because it kind of boggled my mind selling 100 glad armor 3% def in one day. I didn't think demand for them was that high. Granted, I was selling cheaper, I think. But it wasn't so cheap that someone would have made any measurable return if they relisted, after the 10% AH fee. I'm sure that's just in my wee brain, though. Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. It matters. At least, it matters to me.

The difference, in this context, is when a farmer is killing mobs, they earn inf and xp with each kill. That inf is added into the game's economy. It comes from thin air, kind of like our congress just adding zeroes to the available budget. When a marketer makes influence - he/she is really decreasing the value of the economy, because of the AH fees. This is why I have always marketed my drops when I farmed. That, and it seemed prudent to me to do so. Make 4 million inf in mob defeats, craft the 5 recipes I get - that's 2.5M in crafting costs, roughly. Convert the crafted IOs, list them for 2.7M, then, collect the 15M in sales. While doing so, I pay 1.5M in AH fees. So, the inf earned farming is pretty much a wash. The 13.5M inf earned from the results of that farming is a plus for me, but that influence came from other players, not the game's automatic reward system. The marketer is reducing the size of the economy. The farmer is increasing it. In context of competing for the Shiny McThingBobs that our esteemed #6 mentions, it's still competition for those items. The source of the inf is not important in context. At least, I can't see how it is. But, I am known for being obtuse and can miss things more easily than I'd like.

I am someone who solos a lot. I would farm sometimes. Prior to page 3, I farmed routinely, met a goal, and last December, when the winter pack sale ended, I pretty much stopped farming, except for emp merits for the new 50's. I still run iTrials and such with them, but it's when I'm comfortable with the leader for badges, not just the incarnate loot. So, because of my success in marketing and farming, I may not be in your shoes, but I can relate to how you play, as you describe it. This is what I notice: My farmers have a rougher time of things. I can still go afk, but I have to be more careful where I leave the character. My soloing has seen nothing different. It may as well be the same game, with no changes, other than me getting pissed about doing a weekly with a sub-50 character and not getting my promised 2 prismatic aether particles - and that's when they were selling for 180M each! I feel cheated, I do. Costume unlocks are not supposed to only be available at 50, so that made no sense, not getting them. But, I digress. While it's true the patch did nothing for me, other than give another story arc for an incarnate character to run, it's not like these HC Devs have forgotten the game exists. I do see a trend of them encouraging team play. They seem to think this is some kind of team game. I've never looked at it as such, but the most amusement I've had in game has been on teams. And, regrettably, all the negative experiences I've had in game have been on teams. I can hardly blame the development choices on that, though.

I don't see the HC devs giving preferential treatment over any other - but I'm looking at the changes as a whole since they opened the doors. I think they'll cycle through and do something for most of the "types" we have.

I just want to say how proud I am of some of you. You really had me tricked. I've never seen so many converters in the market before, consistently. There was a time when they'd hit 40K or so, when Dr Q or another shard tf was the weekly. But, lately, over 50k, and the prices are lower than I recall ever seeing them. I have the feeling a LOT of you had a fair number of emp merits stashed, and converted them to reward/hero merits before the patch. That's an awful lot of click & dragging. Still, super pleased, because I used to farm for the incarnate vet level awards, just because I didn't want to pay over 70k for a converter. Some folks are comfortable with a few hundred converters, but I need thousands. I tend to carry close to the cap on most of my market/farm characters. I even stocked up before the patch, expecting converters to be more scarce, due to the removal of the conversion. Keep it up!

Oh my. It never occurred to me to make an alt specifically for the 5 reward merits from the explorations and then get converters, sell and repeat. Yeesh, that sounds more tedious than farming. Still, clever. But more clever is to actually use the converters on crafted IOs. Faster, too.

So, I understand that you don't appreciate the market/farming methods to get what you want out of the game. I also, I think, grasp that you do it when you need to, in order to get what you need. I've no issue with options. But how would you go about resolving this issue you have? Make everything free? like on Brainstorm, the test server? I've thought about that. I have characters that have somehow managed to be on Brainstorm since page 3, without a wipe. I could have been playing there easily, I suppose. No need to market or farm, there. Maybe that's why my characters seem so much faster when using super speed! I mean, it's super fast. Like 4 seconds faster on the ski slope, without buffs. What would you suggest? I don't think making things free is the path. If they take away the carrots, the donkeys will not move! There must be a worthwhile goal in order to keep folks motivated. And the goal can't be too simple, or the motivation drops. And it can't be too hard, or people will give up. There's a balance there somewhere, but no matter where that point is, there will be some that give up because it's too hard/tedious/boring/adjective of your choice, and some that quit because it's too easy/dull/adjective of your choice. I think the HC Devs have done a darn good job keeping the Richie Rich's like me in check. The price of IOs continue to slightly lower over time, at least the ones I tend to sell have certainly dropped in price. That means my stack of inf is relatively larger, and so is everyone else's. We all have the ability to buy more with our influence than ever before. I'd say that's a good thing for folks that want to avoid marketing and farming! It's only going to get better from here.

While that's true - my point, (which I obviously didn't express well at all) had more to do with the competition for the Shiny McThingBobs. It ultimately doesn't matter if the inf is generated by farming, or accumulated by marketing. It's still being accumulated. The competition for the Shiny McThingBobs is still there on the AH, regardless of where the inf comes from, right? I do accept the rest of your logic trail, and appreciate the perspective. It's far too easy for me to only consider my own experiences and my own perspective.

Making the Shiny McThingBobs available for purchase on the AH was perhaps the wrong decision. Perhaps, introducing Shiny McThingBobs as a currency instead of using Reward Merits was an error. I certainly don't know, even with hindsight. I do know reward merits aren't earned in farming, although farming can lead to obtaining them by using the influence to buy super/winter packs. Still no idea why merits are in the packs, but I'm not complaining. I'm too obtuse to consider all the ramifications about this or that with absolute certainty, despite my best efforts. I mean - why was this new currency introduced? What did everyone think would happen? If it is true that my farming affects everyone else, then wouldn't my teaming and running content also affect everyone? The influence generated by farming is a pittance compared to the influence generated from the market, is it not? There are farmers who loathe marketing, and marketers who loathe farming. And some folks loathe both. This end result of people who don't want to farm feeling pressured into doing so to get their hands on the resources to acquire the Shiny McThingBobs through the AH is a bad end result, sure. But the end result of people who don't want to team up for hard mode content feeling like they have to do so to get their hands on the Shiny McThingBobs is also a bad end result, isn't it? Maybe introducing the Shiny McThingBobs wasn't thought out clearly enough. Or maybe, it's just a case of not being able to please all the people all the time, etc. I still remain pleased to be able to play. I could have done without the aggro changes, but I can adapt. And because you say afk farming affects everyone else, I'll stop. In fact, that's really all you guys had to do, was just ask us to stop afk-farming. Most will probably respect that request.

What our esteemed #6 meant was when the HMTF team sold some/all of their prismatics on the AH, and got 180 million for one of them...who bought it? I was a little more patient and put in bids for 20M, and get them filled in a few days. And it was because I had it laying around. I will never pay 180M for anything, lol. That's just crazy. I still have more bids in for 10M, and well, maybe they'll fill. Maybe not. No sweat either way. I need to re-read 6's post, because, well, I'm a skim/scan kind of person.

That's possible. Maybe it's easier to believe they're just lazy. I can only go off my own experience which is playing for a couple of issues (on live) before I knew forums existed. I learned so much, once I started reading there. I really was quite clueless. And, really, if it weren't for a few key players sharing info with me, I'd probably still be clueless, despite my best efforts to read up on everything.

There's that discord reference again. There's a small fraction of players that despise Discord. It's a useful tool, but until you get it figured out - you get bombarded with these stupid notifications at every turn. Someone you don't know posted something that you care nothing about! Quick, look at it! Ping, after ping. I get that it's the tool the HC Devs use, so if we want to be in the loop, we all have to use it. I just wish it were more intuitive to an older fella like myself. It's just not what I'm used to. I tend to only use it for SG communication, and even that's just once a week. I just don't get why they can't just use these forums, but that's out of my control, so I don't sweat it too much.

I used to tell people that anyone can afk farm and can earn billions. I haven't told anyone that lately. Some can, and should. Some can and won't. Some may lack the understanding on how build for it, and will need to rely on the builds of others. I didn't even know AFK farming existed in game until maybe 6 months after HC opened up. So, I never did it. Nobody taught me how. I used to have healing aura on auto, not burn! You remember us having a chat about that, way back when? I learned about afk-farming, that it actually existed from a chap called @payload. (Great name, for a farmer, for sure) As for brainstorm, we can't expect people to go to brainstorm and test if they don't know it exists. Or they don't know how to test, or what to test. That's all I'm saying. I remember telling someone before page 3 that farming was simple. They sent me a tell and asked all sorts of questions. I spent 45 minutes explaining what I knew. I even gave them the winter-os and Brute ATOs to complete their build. 4 months later, they sent me 500M without me ever expecting it. Sure, I will give a blanket statement that anyone can market or farm. But, if they ask me directly, I will go into precise detail how I've done these things. I even have a couple of word docs I send them. (That are too lengthy and need to be edited!) I don't just give fish, I teach 'em how to fish. (figuratively) I don't think it's fair to send people to test and then not suggest how they might test or what they might test. Not everyone will need that, but I did and still do. All I can do on test is just do things like I would normally do them. I don't think that really provides much value for something that's about to hit the server, unless something crazy happens. Like being put in disguise, having a different costume, all my powers greyed out, and then being discovered and having to retoggle and fight off an EB at the same time. I sure pointed that out, they were pleased about the feedback, but didn't do anything about it, lol. (that I could tell) That's just my opinion. Doesn't make me right, but it doesn't make me wrong.

I don't know that I completely agree with this. Not saying I disagree, but that lovely trite phrase "It depends" comes to mind. Mainly because we have a lot of players who don't post here that don't even know there is a brainstorm server. They may not be using the HC launcher. (although, maybe it's time to only allow the use of the HC launcher? I dunno. I'm sure some folks would hate to be forced into using it for whatever reason) There are folks who post here on the forums that don't know Brainstorm exists. And that's not their fault. There needs to be a greater push from HC to get people to go to Brainstorm to test things today for the next patch, whenever that is. And there needs to be a pop-up that tells them what's coming, and what they should be testing, and suggestions as to how to test for various things.

My understanding is prismatics won't drop from completing AE missions.

I just did the math. If the objective is for badges, you need 150 of them, at 24M each, you're looking at 6.3B. I realize for ...half of you, maybe, that seems like some obscene amount of influence. I'm not going to win any affection by stating it's a pittance. IF you wanted to, you could earn that in, well, hard to say, as it would depend on how you spend your time in game. If you run level 50 content with a large team, and did no traditional AE farming or marketing, I think the math works out to: 25M hour, so, about 6 weeks if you played an hour a day. That's just going off of my memory on a kill most ITF from a couple of years ago. I recall it getting me about 25M. I can't recall what the difficulty setting was, as I despise a kill most anything unless I'm in a specific mood. I'm sure others will have some fun coming up with their own math. If you crafted your drops, used reward merits to get converters and used the converters on your crafted IOs, sold those crafted IOs that typically went for 2-4M, you can get that loot a lot quicker. Exponentially quicker. Do you want to spend the time crafting, or bashing heads running content? Maybe do a little of both. Whatever's fun for you. I'd also like to offer up this for your consideration: Just suppose you were gifted with the 6.3B or, someone traded you the 150 Prismatics for all the badges for nothing. You'd have no goal. No reason to run the new stuff. No figurative carrots to chase. Is that really what you want? One less figurative carrot? There's no wrong answer, it's a rhetorical question. Food for thought, so to speak.