Ukase

So...my sister is out of work. Has been for quite some time. As we all know, it's a bit scary in the world right now. But there are jobs. I delicately posed a suggestion to her about a potential employer. "That would bore me to tears!" Well, if you're broke....a little boredom will be fine. But that's real life - and this is a game. We don't want to lose players, we want them to have fun, & keep playing. Are these problems of a lack of adequate inf to deck out characters (that seem to only be held by a vocal few) pervasive through the player base? I simply wouldn't know. I know in my SG, I pinned a document in our discord outlying very clearly how I get my influence, and these methods are repeatable with very similar results. At least a couple have thanked me profusely, and one said, "There's no way I'm going to spend time doing that". So, here's some questions: 1. Is this "our" problem, or "their problem"? Think of the big picture. What do "they" do to keep having fun? 2. Can this problem be solved with code, without causing more problems? How the heck do we answer that? The future is unknown and unknowable. I can say this for a fact: there are some players that used to play here that now play on Rebirth because they viewed HC's economy as "too easy". They want to work for what they have. They're certainly in the minority, but I see the appeal. Recently, they have made some things cheaper, but things are still a lot more merits & inf than here on HC. I bring this up simply to say that if we just start every alt with 50M or some nominal figure, or make all the p2w toys free...we may as well just play on a test server that's not going to get wiped. Would that be less fun? For some, yeah, probably. Is it 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other? I have no idea. 3. Would some of us wealthier players giving away our stacks of inf solve anything in the long run? I don't think so. There's always (I hope) going to be some players who are broke. "The poor are always with you...". (Matthew 26:11 for the religious folks who found that familiar) For me, I think the problem is one that will always exist, given the market and the way it works. Our HC devs have made converters very affordable, and easy to get. I see no reason why any and EVERY player can't equip their characters with viable enhancements easily. Maybe not the best ones, but they can work towards that if they wish. You don't NEED the market, but it helps. You don't NEED a farmer on a second account, but it helps. The CoH universe is your oyster. Get some pearls!

Yeah, I was thinking about that during my row earlier. Outliers, etc - they'd skew the market. I asked myself, though... Take 3 builds out of each AT forum, tabulate the cost of each build based on history, and I think those outliers would be ...I think the word is Normalized, if I remember my statistics course. That would be tedious as can be, though, and to what end? Just to be able to say, "yes, OP, goods are now 3% higher than they were last year." It's just not worth it - at least, not determining it in that fashion. I'll be thinking about it some more, though. I think it would be a nifty metric to be aware of, beyond my overall "feel" for the market.

And your requested price was sub 3m? nice!

I agree. I really don't know all the IOs that should be included in such an index. I do think for such an index, the big 3 pvp procs should be included. The absorb proc from preventative medicine, maybe the numina & miracle procs. The perf shifter +end...in my mind is so commonly used (maybe it's not?) that it should be in every index. But, I've never made an index before. I'd have to do some reading through some old Econ texts. (yawn fest)

Holy smokes! That's brilliant! This is a fantastic idea! We need this in game! @Yomo Kimyata, what say you? Min-maxer index: All the procs, the big 3 pvp IOs, Kismet 6%, lotg 7.5%, etc. a daily check in on the average price of the last 5. General index: other than end mod IOs - uncommon and rares..no idea what should go in here. I've no idea, really, what the "have-nots/care-nots" slot their builds with. Now that my enthusiasm for this idea has been noted - you have a point. The only items I routinely look at are Oblits, Perf shifters, Unbreakable Guards, Aegis, PvPs, & procs. (maybe a few others, but not as routinely) I would still appreciate specific examples, because I can certainly put downward pressure on the prices of these items. But if they're not on my radar, they're not on my radar.

Anecdotally, this used to happen to me when I was by the SG portal in Talos. Soon as I got 50 feet or so away, it stopped happening. But that was over a year ago.

This incomplete list may be helpful to you. Maybe not. When you see the +4 in XP per arc, it's because the difficulty setting seems to have an impact on the bonus. Contact Start level Finish Level 2XP? Ouro? XP Gained XP needed Merits Wincott 6 8 Yes No 1440 Level 8 to 9 2680 7 5.3 Bars Flux 8 11 Yes No 800 9 to 10 3125 18 11 to 12 4995 1.6 Bars Julius 11 13 Yes No 800 12 to 13 6405 10 1.25 Bars 13 to 14 7400 Talshek 13 15 Yes No 1000 14 to 15 9093 30 .89 Bars 15 to 16 11184 Shauna Stockwell 15 16 Yes No 1800 16 to 17 13000 6 1.38 Bars Eagle Eye 17 18 Yes No 1800 17 to 18 15950 6 1.13 Bars 18 to 19 19200 Jim Temblor 18 19 Yes No 2000 19 to 20 23400 8 .85 Bars Penny Yin 19 20 Yes No 1600 20 to 21 28000 10 .57 Bars Doc Delilah 20 20 Yes No 4000 +4 1.5 Bars Agent G 20 22 Yes No 17920 +4 21 to 22 36000 25 3.98 Bars 22 to 23 45000 Stephanie Peebles 22 23 Yes No 22400+4 23 to 24 56000 25 4 Bars Long Jack 23 24 Yes No 22400+4 24 to 25 69,300 27 3.2 Bars 25 to 26 85,200 Tobias Hansen 24 27 Yes No 40400 +4 26 to 27 108,000 22 3.74 Bars Lars Hansen 27 27 Yes No 76760 +4 27 to 28 135,000 13 5.69 Bars Gordon Bower 27 29 Yes No 76760 +4 28 to 29 166,650 27 4.6 Bars Skipper LeGrange 29 29 Yes No 40400 +4 29 to 30 203,400 17 1.98 Bars Kelly Nemmers 30 30 Yes No 72400 +4 30 to 31 254,000 12 2.85 Bars Buck Salinger 30 31 Yes No 57920 +4 31 to 32 314,600 20 1.84 Bars Lou Pasterelli 32 33 Yes No 72400 +4 32 to 33 386,400 43 1.87 Bars Phillipa Meroux 33 33 Yes No 72400 +4 33 to 34 470,600 28 1.54 Bars Neal Kendrick 33 34 Yes No 72400 +4 34 to 35 571,200 55 1.27 Bars Peter Stemitz 34 34 Yes No 72400 +4 35 1.27 Bars Levantera (intro - VG) 35 35 Yes No 150000 +4 35 to 36 701,500 15 2.14 Bars Levantera - Ben Decker arc 35 35 Yes No 32000 +4 5 .45 bars Cadao Kestrel 35 36 Yes No 150000 +4 36 to 37 854,700 25 1.76 Bars Provost Marchand Ch.1 36 37 Yes No 150000 +4 37 to 38 1,036,600 6 1.4 Bars Ginger Yates 37 40 Yes No 120000 +4 38 to 39 1,250,200 39 to 40 1,502,550 40 to 41 1,692,900 32 .7 Bars Janet Kellum 40 41 Yes No 270000 +4 41 to 42 1,907,550 52 1.4 Bars 42 to 43 2,150,550 Serpent Drummer 41 43 Yes No 270000 +4 43 to 44 2,421,900 15 1.1 Bars

As someone who does take the drops my afk-farmer gets and places them in the AH, I can tell you that I've seen only small instances of this. It's weird. The Preventative Medicine Absorb proc. I love that one. It's literally called a proc. It's in the name. Damn thing works no matter where it's slotted. And you can literally see that it works when the letters flash across your screen in game. But, I digress. But price fluctuations in a market are completely normal, as supply and demand are also fluctuating. Converters are the big game changer, though. You can sell them and pay the price directly, or you can use them and make what you need. Or someone else can. Makes no difference to me. It's easy to say 200-300% and it be true, though. The trash IOs...like an uncommon Targeted AOE (now called Ranged AoE) like detonation or Air Burst...those turds sell for 100-300k. The variance in the sale prices alone ranges between 200-300%. But what about the popular items? Like LotG 7.5%? Over this past year, I think I've seen them sell for 5M for a weekend. There were literally hundreds sold at that price - while mine were stuck, listed at 6M. But, over the course of this year - they're still stuck at 6m, dropped from the fairly routine sale price at 7M from before the NoXP2XInf nerf. It's a stable price. So, I'd need some specific examples of these price ranges, otherwise, I'd say you're just not being patient. Bid, log, check back the next day.

And so, you would stop them and force them to team with you? Be careful what you ask for. Are you also going to compel the HC devs to prevent me from making 10X a farmer because I'm an effective marketer? Farmers do not argue for the privilege to farm because others choose to enjoy the game differently. They argue to farm because they enjoy being able to buy the enhancements they need because some of them can't be bothered to use converters to get the IOs they need. I would venture that if you were to remove the folks who routinely post in these forums and ask each member of the current player base - only 2 out of 3 would know how to make a superior ATO or Winter-O. Add to that the folks who "just can't be bothered" to create the IOs they need, it's clear to me that farmers are necessary. And if you remove the rewards within to 10% of current rewards, I'd guess most would stop playing. Is this what you want to see in the AH? Take a good look. 10 months for a sale? (This was from Rebirth server, today) I do understand that if you've got 50 folks farming, that's using resources of the server, and they're potential teammates that aren't in the mix because they're farming. I do get it. Back on live, there used to be a big beef against fire tanks (before CoV and the lovely brute) and then some genius on the dev team implemented fear in burn. The controllers were finally getting to team up, because they could hold the mobs while the tank burned 'em down! I can't recall how long it was - but they eventually took fear out of burn. They had to know it was a mistake. If folks want to team, they'll team. But this game is solo-friendly. And that's a good thing. We have options! Why would you want to reduce options? And why would you want to corral others to play your way, instead of their way?

Drops can be fickle, yes. A lot depends on if you include selling the commons to a vendor, and how you deal with the uncommon and rare recipes. You mention marketing. Some farmers market the drops (I do), while some just vendor some recipes, and sell some on AH. And they also sell the rare and maybe the uncommon salvage, too. No one right way to profit off a map. But one point another made earlier is about scale. During a test run: My afk hour - was only 51m. That doesn't include drops/vendor sales. I've got to think that an active farmer would easily double that, but I could certainly be wrong. But...I can scale with an afk farmer. 3 accounts X 51M....I can surpass 150M. Of course, some days, I don't even bother with resetting, as I can get distracted easily.

As far as I can tell, there are generally two sets of Hami raids. One is in they Abyss, seems to take place early afternoons (Eastern time, around 4-5pm - but it's not as consistent) and the other is in the Hive, (accessed via Eden) at 9:00 to 9:30 Eastern. As a bit of a heads up, this one fills fairly fast, usually, so a lot of folks get there early. And the zone caps at 50, so if you are late, you may not get in. If you're on time, you still may not get in. So, be early. Around 8:15pm Eastern, you may want to start using /search and check The Hive to see how many folks are there. Some folks hide, so as soon as you see 25-30 folks in zone, you better get drop what you're doing and head over.

So, this may be something not everyone is aware of. Our OP hates to miss - so he may be aware of it and just doesn't care. So what am I speaking of? Beginner's Luck! Character's Level ToHit Bonus Character's Level ToHit Bonus 1 +15% 11 +7% 2 +14% 12 +6% 3 +13% 13 +5% 4 +12% 14 +4% 5 +11% 15 +3% 6 +11% 16 +3% 7 +10% 17 +2% 8 +9% 18 +1% 9 +8% 19 +1% 10 +7% 20+ +0% Now, there's a fancy formula in the game about accuracy & "toHit". I don't know that I need to go over all this, when it's in the paragon wiki under "attack mechanics" - but at early levels, there's not much need for any accuracy SOs, although they certainly won't hurt. But two - at least prior to level 14 or so is probably overkill. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Attack_Mechanics HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × (1 - TargetElusivity) × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods – DefMods ) )

I also lack the patience for it. There's a method called AFK-farming. You just park the brute/tank in the center of the map, with burn on auto. Come back when you feel like it and reset. All you do is craft/convert/sell when you're ready.

The premise is that if everyone had their own farmer, they wouldn't need to beg for a PL

This goes a bit beyond what the OP was asking, but if any player is patient, I routinely vendor all my excess common salvage for 275 inf (the 250 the vendor would pay, plus 25 for the AH fee). They do not sell instantly. But generally by the next day they have. And I often get more than the 275 I ask for. As the son of an economist playing in this easy money universe, it makes sense to me to do this. There are no taxes in CoH, so it makes sense to gather as much influence as I can. Why sell for 250 when I can get at least 275, and often more? Now, for a newer player who may not have the luxury of waiting, well, the vendor is a fine option. I have often bought common salvage from the AH at 10-50 inf and sold at the vendor for 250. You can make a tidy sum for a level 2 looking for SO money in fairly short order.

I would not want to dissuade anyone of playing gold side. But, if it's task forces you seek, you'll do better on blue side - which you won't be able to visit until you go through the rift at level 20. (Can't do it before level 20) Red side has task forces, too - just not as many. Historically, Blue side was it's own stand-alone game. Red side came much later, and gold side came later after that. So, it stands to reason why there's not as much content as blue side has. If I were you, I might consider having the group make 2 new characters. One a hero, for the blue side stuff, and one a villain for the red side stuff. If you find you like one side better, you may freely switch sides by visiting null the gull. In any event, regardless of your path - if you have questions when in game, use the help channel. Someone will likely have the answers you seek.

While this may be true, I've always found that on a team - some players don't move their characters to the battle fast enough. Some have longer load times, some just seem to march to the beat of their own drum - which is fine, but the fight is usually over when some of them arrive. Anecdotally, the "best" use I've seen of a bubbler is in the MSR. Solo, even with the damage boost, they are woefully inadequate to suit me. And, in the early levels, they are painful to play. Unless you take the PL to 50 route, and for me - when I do that, it just creates work, as now I've got to gather and use emp merits to play a character that is not fun for me to play. But you are right, there is a balancing act. That fine line between Damage, recharge, defense, resistance and hitpoints. The only 5 characteristics I've ever bothered to chase with set bonuses (aside from the kismet accuracy). When you reach that balance point, teaming pretty much slows you down just because of the recruiting process. I can usually get more merits per minute solo than I can teamed up, even with a good team, except when the weekly is particularly good, like Apex/Tin Mage or one of the Shard TFs. On some moments, when I see a low level defender state they're looking for team, I almost what to stop what I'm doing and form a team to help them out. Then, I think again, and remind myself that no good deed goes unpunished, in life, or in game.

Need may be too strong of a word. But, if the issue is all the begging for a PL/Farm run, a second account would resolve the issue. (at least for those who are weary of seeing the begging)

That pun is fantastic!

Off the top of my addled brain: Gullible - that silly chat with Null the gull where you become a immovable bird. Incarnate Rival - Save Madame Bellerose at least once in Dark Astoria before your final meeting in Dream Doctor's story arc Buddy Cop - Save Detective Hopp at least once in Dark Astoria before your final meeting in Dream Doctor's story arc. Firebug - Complete 10 arson side missions in mayhem missions Fire Marshall - Prevent 5 arson side missions in Safeguard missions Bomb Squad - Stop 5 bombing missions in Safeguard Missions. PPD Deputy - Rescue 20 PPD Hostages in Safeguard Missions Interceptor - Stop 10 Weapons Deals in Safeguard Missions Security Expert - Stop 5 Vault Break-ins in Safeguard Missions Obviously, all the Spend X time in X zone for this badge, Day Job badges, Security/threat level badges, badge-count badges, Recipe and Insp rejections badges, Inf earning, debt earning/working off, mentoring and such. History and Exploration badges are also, of course, character only badges. Completing "personal" stories - Yin, Eagle Eye, the Center, Deadlock are solo only, as well as the morality choice missions on gold side as well as the alignment morality missions on red/blue side. Completing various story arcs and arcs within zone. All invention and marketing/consignment badges.

There absolutely is. Marketing can be quite tedious, as can farming. But....so can replaying the same content with each character. The great thing about this game is - there's quite enough content to get a break in the repetition. Alternating between alignments can break the monotony as far as content goes. Seeing the sales on the marketing side can also raise dopamine levels. As for farming....well, that's why I do it afk.

I was so busy being silly, I neglected to respond to this post! Silly me! Very, very silly me. The way most of us afford such things is, well, simply put, we've put our previously acquired knowledge of IO sets to good use. I played back in live, and understood the basic mechanics of turning an RNG turd into a golden nugget. What this means, is when I get any recipe that drops, if I have the salvage for it, I craft it. If the AH suggests from bid history that I can make 3M on it, I'll sell as is. If not, I will convert it until I can sell it for 3m. But to do this, it requires other areas of knowledge about the game that I've learned in live, and had to re-learn here on HC because HC has changed some things from the way things were before the shut down. For example: Seeded salvage - the costs to us are capped. It wasn't that way in live, so I'd use my character in AE, regardless of archetype and powersets, and just complete any random non-fire-farm story for tickets. 540 of them for the rare salvage. The uncommon and common salvage is often cheap enough to simply buy, unless you're restricting yourself for an insane challenge, or you just don't have the inf when you take into account the crafting costs, and the list fee. So, if I'm on my challenge characters that aren't allowed to buy salvage, I'll go to AE and do a mission or two for tickets to get that specific salvage I need. When I finally craft whatever dropped (not the white recipes - only yellow, orange or purples), I slap it in the AH, click "Find" and see what the price is. If the inf is too low for my expensive time, I pull it back out and convert it. Now, converters are a cost! In my head, I consider each one worth 70k. Converters are best acquired via Merit Vendor, in my own opinion, BUT ONLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE A FARMER SET UP SPECIFICALLY TO GET EMPYRIAN MERITS. If you do have such a farmer, there's no sense wasting merits on converters, although, they have no real other wise use, if you ask me. Yes, you can get certain recipes and other enhancements for 100 reward merits, but the math says buying converters and selling converters will almost always give you more influence. I say this because it may not be only the OP that reads this. Pretty confident the OP doesn't have an emp farmer. If you would like to know more, DM me, I'll share what I know. In any event, at lower levels, converters are a great resource for influence. No need really to even craft/convert if you'd rather just play the game. Just see the merit vendor, get the converters in exchange for merit vendors, and either send me a tell - and if you catch me, I will pay you 70k each, as a courtesy, whether you have 10 or 1,000,000 of them. If you do have more than 10k worth, this will add to the time, because I can only hold 10k on each alt. That said, you will make far more influence by actually using the converters than selling them. But, you need to understand several more areas of the process to do so. (which IOs sell, how to get the salvage to minimize costs, how to get the recipes to minimize costs, etc) So, the default, easy answer to how does a new player get more influence - get reward merits, exchange for converters, sell converters, then pocket plenty of influence to slot your character with all the SOs you need, quite easily. Watch the auto-upgrade button, tho, until you are comfortable. In the 20's, the auto-upgrades can start to cost you quite a bit, like 500k or so each time. But, if you're doing task forces, story arcs, and exploring the many zones, you can gain these reward merits quickly, easily and enjoy yourself while you do. All I ask is that you never "beg" for influence. It's a bad look. When you ask for info on how to earn your own, you may be surprised by how much seed money you get to help you out. It's not unheard of for folks like myself to encourage marketing with seed money. Not enough to build your 50, but enough to get you started. Almost all of us are happy to teach you to fish, figuratively. Yomo will give you a fish - once. It's a small fish, but if he gave you a big fish, you'd eat too much and maybe choke on a bone. So, he gives you enough fish to keep you from starving, which is one fish more than I tend to give anyone. (For the folks at PETA, I'm speaking figuratively. No fish are harmed, or even consumed in this game)

I believe @Yomo Kimyata has influence at a level where if he were to stop and count it, the amount would change while counting, as bids are seemingly continuously being posted & filled, which results in a lower total in the short term, only to be recouped in the slightly longer short term - hours or a day or so. There are just too many beans to count. While that's just speculation on my part, my last tabulation of my own resources, resulted in a 160M opportunity cost, just from not marketing, and only counting the stacks. It's no longer feasible to track the pile without sacrificing the height of the pile.

I am what is some would call hirsute. I am dubious of such critters.

The set bonuses, aside from recharge are pretty much...well, not worth it. With the ATOs, and the newer sets like Reactive Defenses and Preventative Medicine offering 8.75%, I find myself able to skip purples entirely. Procs, as you say, can be quite useful, tho.