Ukase

Gotta get past Zoe and Frobe. I never saw Rivers, which I expected to see. I had to reset for the cryo's about 4 times to get 50 of those. Then I had to reset for the first ripple twice, because there's not as many Dark Vampyri as I initially thought. My first run, I'd started with 11, and only got 15. On my second go, It looked like there were more. Whether it was rng, or me being more observant, I can't say, but for anyone that considers doing Aeon over Kahn: In Kahn, it's not really apparent while fighting with the entire mob around your fire tank which mobs transform. Not real sure they use the same transformation "protocol" that the Dark Vampyr do in Aeon. In Aeon, they transform when they're at about 10% HP, the last of their HP hits zero, and poof, a Warwolf emerges, also a boss. In Kahn, you kill them, and then they spawn, it seemed to me. Hard to say. and hard to say which spawns do it. Like I'd remember that polysyllabic name or even how to spell it if I did remember. In kahn, you still have to zip through Bad Penny and the rest of City Hall to get the door to the portal open so you can get to the 5th column. A couple of minutes. But, after each reset, you have to repeat all that again. With Aeon, no question, the process is a bit more straightforward in my mind. But if I didn't need those other badges, Kahn would have definitely been the way to go. But, I did get a lot of badges out of the way. Hard to say how long it would have taken, as I was afk for a lot of it, lunch, work, etc.

They did. And there are at least 3 others I know that are doing a trio run 10x a day until they get it. Me, I'm gonna wait.

Briefly: There are two "Pain Points" here: the AE ticket cap and the exchange rate of Incarnate threads to AE Tickets. Below is just my perspective. So, it's nothing really new, is it? Folks complaining that after they've made the t-4's they've wanted, they have surplus threads and wonder what to do with them Recently, an incarnate thread to AE ticket conversion is allowed. Seriously? a 1 to 1 exchange rate? Consider this: rare salvage has a max price of 1 million, but generally goes for at the cheapest, maybe 375k for a patient bidder, up to, well, 700k, if not a million. One can get specific rare salvage from AE with tickets for 540 tickets. So....that'd be 540 threads for a rare salvage. But, if I visit Luna, I can get Ultimates, which generally sell for 500k to 1 million at a cost of 30 threads. Even better, the super reds cost only 10 inf. Before these super insps were disabled in Master runs, they'd sell for 1 million, but sometimes a patient bidder could get them for 300-500k. Even at the price of 100k, that's 4.86M inf, less fees. I can buy a lot more incarnate salvage with 4.86M inf than I can with 540 tickets. It's the same math for reward rolls. Isn't the idea of the conversion supposed to make it a decent conversion so folks will use it? So, perhaps raise the thread cost of the inspirations to be in line with the AE conversion, or lower the conversion rate with the AE tickets. OR - even better, take off that silly ticket cap off AE missions. It literally takes me only about 30 seconds to get to the ticket cap, where I get the bonus and any other tickets that would be earned are not, because I'm at the cap. Maybe a minute if I'm distracted. Take the cap off, and then I can earn a lot more tickets without having to stop a mission early and reset.

You're editing my words! (And that really shouldn't be possible!) Puns are great. Anyone that doesn't think so...well, doesn't think so. I suppose you have a right to groan at 'em.

Puns are the highest form of humor, as far as I'm concerned. Pun away. True story: I once was using puns so often, my mother got tired of it. So, she tricked me into walking into my parent's walk-in closet. She screamed through the door, "Pun your way out of this!" I calmly said, "Mom, just o-pun the door." She let me out. Okay, it's not true, but what if it was? I'd still be in the closet? Sorry, low hanging fruit. Is that because I'm old? Probably.

I wouldn't sink my total worth in them, no. But, I need to stay somewhat liquid to get my bids in and handle the usual marketing stuff. If you're someone who's able to WAIT until maybe next August, September, for folks to start working their way through their inventory, then yes, I think you can recoup your investment. The only time I've seen the RNG treat me so shamelessly is while converting...maybe 2 times out of 1000 IOs. Like, a really, really low fraction of the time. I was sure the devs broke it, or deliberately altered it in some way. And why? Because of this not-so-subtle push towards teaming. With a player having 1000's of merits from the packs...then why team? Players don't need to team to get those merits any more. Now, if they nerf the amount of merits, players may still solo to get them, but at least some of those people will team more often to get them.

Thanks, cleared the first map of Kahn, set to 0/8..got 6. Given the other badges in Aeon - Fort Knox (Gold brickers), Smelt it dealt it (smelters), rearguard (Vanguard Shield or Sword), Cool Customer (Cryo) Totally Radical (Gamma) - I think it's just smarter to tackle Aeon, even if I burn through a few temps to get past some AVs on the characters that lack the dps to do it alone. and, I can do it at my own pace and afk when I need to during the day.

Fixed that for you, lol

With regards to Beast Within, defeating 50 lycanthropes after they transform, I'm told that Kahn is probably a little better for this than Aeon. In Aeon, it's pretty clear the Dark Vampyri are the ones that transform. Which mobs in Kahn are the ones that transform? Any LT? Specific LTs or bosses? Only Dark Vampyri? I checked the Wiki, and couldn't gain any insights there.

It could, and it may, to a point, but the folks with the deeper pockets probably recognize the packs for what they are. Opportunity. Bear in mind, the patch notes strongly hint that they won't be going on sale next year, if ever again. So, even if demand is satisfied by a large supply - the next week brings more alts who have needs that must be satisfied. As does the next week, and the next week. So...if I buy 10k packs on each account...which is an idea in my head, I can open 500 hundred a month, and they'll last a couple years. The goodies within - probably not as long. Certainly, I'll have a surplus of Winter-Os. I'll probably have 10,000 snow beasts. Couple hundred respecs, who knows how many tailor tokens. But the brain storm ideas, the merits, the converters, catalysts & boosters, I can certainly use those. And next Winter, I'll start to sell a few winter-Os, and slowly get some of those billions back.

No; I'm quite confident a Superior Winter-O will be selling for about 27M on average beginning next September. Granted, I won't be the only player in this area, but I wasn't the only player in this area this year, either. I still made over 25-30M per Superior Winter-O. Like, on every single one that I listed. Sold about 20 a day from October until the last week of November. And if not...no worries. Plenty more where that came from.

This top part, I've just added in my own spirit of transparency - which probably makes me look a lot like an ignoramus, and one with a tendency to over-react. I can't figure out why the first 50 packs were so horrible. But, on another character, I figured I would just write everything down, and be absolutely certain. So while opening the next set of 50..and I'm only on 19 packs..I've already gotten 300 reward merits. It should be closer to 190, based on my own estimate. So it appears that things will "even out", and I look more than a bit foolish with my speculation. But, I share it - rather than delete in case someone else is as impulsive as I am. Measure twice, cut once! ********************************* Now, I have nothing to prove this, but anecdotal evidence. I opened 50 packs. Now, aside from the XP boosters that they've stated they'll revert back during a next "non-critical" patch, there is something else that seems to be afoot. 50 Winter Packs opened. Only 3x25 reward merits. I was expecting much, much better than that. Like an average of 10 merits per pack. If the RNG continues this way, that leaves me to wonder if I've been tricked with a bait and switch. And before anyone thinks I'm getting feeble and have mis-remembered - I refer you to this post: In this post, I continued to open these packs and while it's not an even 10 merits per pack average, it's fairly close. Granted, 50 packs isn't as large a number as 735 packs, but it's 2x as many as the initial 25 sample size. I cannot state any of the below with 100% certainty. It's speculation. Speculation based on a good bit of experience with these packs, but still speculation. And I'm not a statistical wizard. But I do know some statistics; I can determine within a 95% degree of certainty what's "likely" to occur, if I have a large enough sample size. So, it certainly seems like the HC Devs have fooled around with the packs! And jacked the previous sale price by 50%. So now they cost more, and have fewer merits, which were the best part about them, in my opinion. Glad I stopped buying when I did. Now I have to reconfigure things and ask the Devs why this wasn't in the patch notes. I do not accept "RNG" as the reason for my luck being particularly good last year, or particularly bad, this year. There's too much of a discrepancy in my estimation. I hate the idea of doing the math to determine the standard deviations away from the norm. Am I the only person that thinks this should have been disclosed in the patch notes? I can't imagine how hurt I would feel if I were a player that only had the price of a dozen packs and learned that what used to be in a pack has been adjusted. I mean, I can afford it, I'll never miss it, but that's bad form in my opinion.

How about training up at a different trainer each level? Friends in high places Scratch that, if there weren't a badge for it, that's NOT something I would do anyway.

I'm someone who has spoken with Casey over the phone, briefly - he's the CEO and President at Heroic Games, a videogame development company focused on a single title, Ship of Heroes. This one will be completed regardless of what happens with HC CoH. How will it do? That's anybody's guess. But, make no mistake - his operation is not a fly-by-night operation. He's legit. He's got experience in game development. Whereas, the same can't really be said of CoT. But, they did have a lot of volunteers who were/are quite knowledgeable about game development, and I'm pretty sure they're going to keep the customer in mind when they finally get going. As to them getting going...I'm also someone who contributed to City of Titans. They're making progress, but man, it has been a looooong time. I thought that it would be unrealistic to expect anything before 5 years. But, I also thought it would have beaten HC; in the sense it would be working before HC opened their servers. They have woefully missed that mark. And it may very well cost them. Suppose they had been going for 2 years before HC opened their servers? A lot of us would have signed up, and have time invested in a number of characters and may not have even given a look at HC or the other servers. I cannot speak for everyone, but I don't think I'll play City of Titans, even if it finishes tomorrow. Why? Because I'd have to learn an entirely new system. How to get the requisite gear to make the character "super", how to acquire, earn all the stuff that may be equivalent to accolades and badges & such. The novelty might be interesting in the beginning, but I hate change, and I know how things work in CoH. I can't say that about CoT. I can see myself loading the game, hopping in, checking things out, but unless I'm completely compelled due to content or other features, I can't see sticking around for long. They'll really have to make things compelling. But, that's just my opinion, and if there's one thing I've learned on these forums, my thinking is rarely like anyone else's.

Chatterbox is a badge already in game, for talking with several NPCs within one of Provost Marchand's (primal) story arcs. Maybe "I hate dead air" ? (Dead air refers to disk jockey fears of there being any silence over the air. Even today, any radio station will either have dialogue, music or an ad of some kind playing. There's very rarely any time with no sound. )

I opened a few - and I was surprised to get both Experienced and the %xp boosters. I'm sure I'll find a use for the % boosters, as I'm guessing they don't negate the inf earning like 2xp from p2w.

Thanks, Yomo. I didn't really want to open that many packs until after they got rid of that useless 25% and 50% xp boosters. I love my experienced temps!

I don't have the time to open any packs just yet - spent too much time grabbing and rebidding as I grabbed more inf from my email. I'll try to open a hundred during lunch and report back.

So...I'm no longer truly inf rich. Asset rich, perhaps. Over 20K winter packs have been bought, of which, I've gotten over 2k of those. I plan to get many, many more...but it's like I'm driving a true gas guzzler, a 69 Plymouth Fury, with cement in the doors for the demo derby. I'm just not comfortable unless I have a full tank or darn close to it. So, I'm gonna wait a week, see what shakes in the market. I expect the price of rare salvage to plummet to 375k again, and hover around 400k for "buy it now!" for the next 6 months.

I noticed just yesterday that the few hundred of player listed packs had finally sold, and the seeded ones had dropped to a couple hundred below the 10M available. (quantity, not price) Now, as the patch goes on, I am wondering if the packs will go on sale. I was thinking they'd be "hot-fixed" over the weekend, not actually getting patched in. But, we'll soon see. I have literally billions in bids in place already. On one account, I plan to sink all the available inf into these packs - just to keep them in inventory, unopened, as a store of value, as my email is full of 999.999.999 stacks. Of course, perhaps smarter money would have just stashed them in bids of 10M or 14M on the AH. Still, I think every 15M pack on average will be worth over 30M, easily, in the long run. A tedious run, but profitable.

Actually, in my anecdotal experience, DJ Zero, Father Time...their missions stay in my queue until completed. I know that before Winter event hit, I ran valentines for DJ Zero, and knocked out Snaptooth. I try to keep those missions in case a badge character of mine needs them and doesn't want to wait until the next year. But, I do keep them on a lesser played alt that might sit idle for months. It would probably annoy me to see the mission in my queue on a character I play routinely.

It's like 8 minutes, tops.

Just using the hospital instead of the base would be a true hardship. Well, for me, just very, very annoying. Who dies that many times anyway? Twice per level? With 2xp, most don't spend enough time at any level for this to occur naturally.

Actually...as Yomo states, this is something I would do anyway. But, I have to wonder why even 1 single conversion isn't added to the Invention Tutorial system. I realize the tutorial was on the server before conversions were a thing, but I have to think adding it to the tutorial wouldn't be terribly hard.

The problem is that any chaos we might be able to cause is only for a short while. I think, with 50B the first thing I'd go for would be first - Hamidon Enhancements. Understand that HOs, Titan-Os, Hydra'Os and now D-Syncs are all in the same bucket, if they share the same attributes and level. The reason is because these cannot be bought with merits. And, they are random as to what drops for the reward. So, it could be quite annoying for someone looking for a microfiliament. Then, I'd buy all the recipes and IOs for Celerity and Quickfoot - and leave standing bids to try to keep the supply as low as possible. If it weren't Winter event time, I'd get all the Winter's Gift and Blessing of the Zephyr's. So many folks I know put a KB protecting proc in a travel power, to remove the ability to get these, outside of paying merits for them..that might get annoying. (To be fully transparent, if this happened to me, I'd just craft any old enhancement into what I needed, I've plenty of converters. But, it is winter time, and folks can swap candy canes and some inf for Winter's Gift recipe and then convert if they wish and were willing to do the work - and they knew about it. Also, Overwhelming Force. Granted, SBB can be run to get these (random reward table) or they can fork over merits for them. But, I imagine a lot of folks, if they want to use one or even a set are going to find running 5-6 SBB's more than a bit annoying. There are probably too many farmers to really do much with purples for any meaningful amount of time, but it would be interesting to simply buy all of the enhancements and all of the recipes in the market at a given point in time. No idea what I'd do with them all, but if I got all the recipes and all the enhancements, even with all the farmers we have, it would certainly drive the price up, way up, before it settled back to it's normal price. I've joked with friends that my last act in game will be to liquidate all my billions by buying EVERYTHING that's for sale, and then just log off forever. The problem is the clicking alone would take over a week, if I went without sleep. The salvage alone would take about several hours for one category. Clearly, buying all the rare salvage, at least, all the salvage that's less than a million could be fun. It's just an awful lot of clicking, so I can't really be bothered. I might also buy all the ambrosia, even at it's inflated 2M price tag. Those are just the thoughts I have at the moment.