Ukase
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Posts posted by Ukase
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15 hours ago, MoonSheep said:
the market already has price caps in place for IOs through the various seeding in place and merit conversion. prices can be capped through further seeding if required
If you think folks are going to be happy about paying those "capped" prices through the merit vendor, you keep dreaming. If you thought farmers were vocal about this proposed change, when the price of an ATO essentially goes from 5-7M to 21 million, it's going to piss folks off.
The 21M figure comes from 100 merits = 300 converters = 300*70k = 21M
There are no proposed changes (yet) to account for the likely effect. It won't bother me. I have thousands of ATOs and Winters and Purples. But it will bother a lot of folks when it's time to kit out their build.-
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14 hours ago, biostem said:
Or you're just paranoid. You haven't been removed, and if you're at all concerned about that happening in the future, contact a mod/admin and state your position/concerns.
You are certainly free to assume whatever you like, but it is a fact that when you flood the market with inf, the buying power of each individual inf becomes less. Alternatively, you ccan run content that gives you merits and directly buy whatever you want.
I can't speak to the devs' underlying motives. Farming AE was never something I did to any great extent, so this change won't impact me, but I don't really care what other people do, as long as they can play competently.
Point by point - I'm not paranoid. They really are out to get me. They have stated it. They do not want folks to convert emp merits to converters, which is what I've been doing as soon as I discovered it was an option about 18 months ago. They don't want this to occur, presumably because folks are dumping converters on the AH. While I see no problem with this, they do. I personally do not think there are enough converters in the market. When I was farming, I would go through about 3k a day, which is easily 10% of the converters on the market's best days, generally when a high merit tf is the weekly. And that's just me. I am but one farmer amongst hundreds. Now, when I say they don't want me, certainly that's not literally true. They probably would prefer I run task forces for those merits and get converters that way. Less stress on the servers, another potential teammate, everyone wins - except me.
It is NOT a fact that the market gets flooded with influence. Ever. Yes, the more npcs that are defeated, the more influence is in the economy. But is it? Can you really count my 500 billion as part of the economy? My stack grows, but for all practical purposes, I only have 300M inf on the character I'm playing right now. That 500Billion will likely never get spent, because influence is meaningless in this game. Emp merits are really the only currency I'm after.
Why should I run content for emp merits when I can farm and simply craft and convert what I want? I'm all for running content when the mood suits me. But I'm also for afk-farming when the mood suits me - and when that mood does suit me, I don't want to be penalized because someone like yourself has an opposing opinion, and quite possibly assumes certain premises are factual when they are not.
You mention competent play, and I certain respect that. But competent play requires a number of things; at minimum, enough visual acuity to see the team chat and what's going on during a mission, a fair knowledge of in-game mechanics, decent eye/hand coordination, a computer that's fairly up to date, at least, enough to load into a map without disconnecting, and the ability to kit out a character. And, this proposed change would negatively impact a fair number of players with their ability to do just that. Sure, all of us can run content for 100 merits and work the system and directly buy whatever we want. But not everyone has the time to commit when various teams are being formed. Some of us only have small blocks of time. And, candidly, some of us don't want to team that often. Farming is an excellent solo activity. And AFK-farming, even more so.
Many players are under the impression that this game economy would mirror fundamentals of economics. And it can, to a point, but because salvage is seeded, the merit vendor exists, the economics of this game do not mirror reality.
Someone like myself, or Yomo, Hedgefund, Dahle - our influence goes largely unspent. If we spent it, what would be the point? It's not how much influence you earn, it's how much you save. Every 50M I save is an hour I don't have to farm. (roughly)
In reality, we are our own influence sink since the Devs don't seem to want to give us one. We just sink it into bids on unavailable items in the AH and in email.-
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On 8/4/2022 at 9:19 AM, Ukase said:
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.
I'm gonna quote myself, because it bears repeating.
I should know better than to host a team event in Goldside content, as several of those missions are "borked". I say "borked" because, apparently that's the highly technical term at least one GM uses in reference to the mission we had to get help with last night.
Two Friday nights in a row, I used the Menu-Support to ask for assistance because we couldn't complete the mission, despite no glowies or NPCs left to clobber. Each time, a GM was there within 2 minutes, maybe even less than a minute.-
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On 8/3/2022 at 11:32 AM, Astralock said:
Radiation Emmission Corruptor is your best bet. Depending on your primary, you can solo most TFs, SFs, and GMs with ease. I recommend a primary with good single target damage. Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Beam Rifle. Perhaps even Dark Blast, as its -to-hit debuff and additional self-heal would help with survival.
"Best bet"? No, not even close. No status protection, low Hitpoints? That's a character that can solo, but a brute or a scrapper would have a far easier time of it.
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1 minute ago, biostem said:
I disagree with your sentiment, and chalk it up more to "concern-trolling"...
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.-
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4 hours ago, Astralock said:
If you play strictly solo, you don’t need Empyrean merits nor Incarnate threads as you don’t need Incarnate abilities. Incarnate abilities are for Incarnate content, namely Incarnate trials. Everything else can be played just fine without Incarnate abilities.
Honestly, one of the biggest mistakes Paragon Studios made in the end was to let Incarnate abilities other than Alpha work in non-Incarnate content. I understand that they were actually against it but were pressured to allow it by NC corporate, but still.
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.-
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4 hours ago, MoonSheep said:
aw man, that’s me ruled out then
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.-
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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.-
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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. -
21 hours ago, SwitchFade said:
Lies! You thumbed me first!
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.
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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.-
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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. -
On 7/28/2022 at 8:03 PM, battlewraith said:
I've never given a thumbs down, I wonder how common that is on these forums.
I only give a thumbs down to the unwitting fools that give me one first.
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2 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:
Dunno. The only thing I can think of it to time yourself running from point A to point B on each server and time it.
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? -
36 minutes ago, Sovera said:
This has been an unfortunate common occurrence with CoH. How very common to see old PvP end in draws as people were unable to defeat each other, and even now we still find AVs as stops. Not because they hit hard, or have hard mechanics, or patterns that need to be learned, but just because they have too much regen.
Out of curiosity did your team try to bail and return with envenomed daggers? Would it have made a difference? Do they even stack from between members? It could become a new norm to remind everyone to bring a stack of those before entering the new difficulty modes.
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.)-
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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.
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10 hours ago, Troo said:
This is part of what led me to think maybe level ups should only go so far, like to the middle of the 1-50 rewards / xp. Thinking folks could level up the rest of the way as they saw fit and still potentially return some rewards to the market.
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.
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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.
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Depends on the character.
At a minimum, my blasters will have this:My tanks will tend to have this:
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8 minutes ago, Troo said:
I'd rather see token earned by doing something rather than bought.
A combo of simple accomplishments that a typical 50 would achieve.
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.-
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14 minutes ago, Krimson said:
So my suggestion would have an even smaller impact overall. Good to know.
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.
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4 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:
Have you met people though? 🙂
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.
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And people are so testy when it comes to farming. I don't get it.
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The Pretty Good AE Debate
in General Discussion
Posted
On the other hand, ask yourself why HC installed veteran level rewards in the first place.
Because of the small player population. Look around! Incarnate trial leaders will tell you that they burn 10-20 minutes, if not more, when forming for an iTrial, except maybe during peak hours on the weekend. I never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes at most on Liberty back in the day.
The HC devs understand that solo play is the primary method of play. More soloers than folks who team. Team play is in the minority. This is largely due to the wider age gap, I think. Most of us are grown adults that can't often commit to the iTrial train of BAF, Lambda, Keyes.
We can't just assume the way the original Paragon Studio devs installed things was the right way for the player base. They did get shut down, remember. Despite having a profit, it was minimal profit. NCSoft knew this; they would make more money just putting the investment in the stock market than in CoH. So, clearly, Paragon Studios, despite our love for them because of the wonderful world they created, they did a lot of things less than optimally.
I'm sure there's a number of players that would like to go back to SO only days, before enhancement diversification. Then they bring in the invention system...so which did they get right? Pre-ED SOs vs invention system...they installed the IOs well after SOs, which are still available. Did they get SOs wrong? Or did they "relent" and allow for more variation with the invention system where almost no two builds are alike?
It doesn't matter how incarnates were originally designed. We're here now, at this point in time, with a much smaller player base that doesn't want to rely on incarnate trials for incarnate loot. It's that simple. The question is, "Will the HC devs insist players mostly rely on Incarnate trials and hardmode tfs like Aeon and the upcoming ITF?"
Clearly, a lot of time and effort was spent on these two new Hard Mode tfs. Of course they want the players to spend time playing them! But to make changes in the game where a player feels pushed towards "main stream content", when they were perfectly happy doing AE...what's the point of that?! It's silly. Further, it doesn't make sense to me. (and it doesn't have to, but I really want it to)
All this talk about folks wanting reward/risk to not favor the farmer - just buff the rewards for non-AE stuff. It's that simple. That way, folks that are complaining about farmers getting rich doing nothing can go make more than the farmers by doing content. And the farmers have nothing to complain about because nothing they were doing was impacted.
It's just a common sense solution, really. I fail to see why so many of you can't see it.