Ukase

1. The only two negatives to this are your character will now be housing two builds worth of IOs. Switching builds can certainly be useful, but here's a recent experience of mine. I noticed that for a recent lower level tf, my rad/stone tank only had 1 attack, probably due to my making a second build specifically for tanking hamidon and just leaving that build as the active build. It had been some time since I've attended a hami raid, and I saw my macro for SB1, and had no idea what it was for, until I right clicked to edit to see what it was going to do. "Select build 1", which I knew was my initial build I'd used to level up. So, I switched the builds, was pleased to see two more attacks, but...because people will misbehave, and the devs have to account for bad opportunism, my ATT, Mission TP, Team TP...all were now recharging, even though they hadn't been used. (the other powers recharged fairly quickly) So, that's one negative (aside from having to source two builds, but I know that's not a problem for you. The other negative is if you have a habit of deleting characters. It's super easy to forget a character has two builds. You might respec the IOs out of one build, but will you remember the second one? I've made this mistake before. 2. Depends on who you run with. If you run with players you know to be competent, aim for recharge. In my group, most of the time I don't buff at all. I might give a heal or two, but I seldom need to do so. Occasionally, more of the casual players will show up and I'll have to buff. But, doesn't seem to matter with them. They're going to die because they just have no idea what they're doing, at least, that's the way it seems to me from my side of the keyboard. So, yeah, aim for recharge.

This made me laugh, because I am continuously amazed when my daughters use their phone ...to text me. They don't call, they text. And when they text, I call them. And then I say, you have a phone, why are you texting? TALK on the phone. That's what it's for and why it was invented. But, to your point, reading comprehension is a skill that is lost on many. The longer it is, the less likely someone will read the entire thing, and the less likely they'll grasp what you're trying to say.

I have seen a few players try to boost red side population by doing the following: Giving a token amount of inf ...1M, I think. Maybe 10M to new villains in Mercy. Free farms for new villains in Mercy. Free farms for villains in the level 10-20 range. Playing "hide & seek" in the red side zones for various prizes. With Null the Gull, I think these are short term solutions to long term problems. Most people are just more comfortable or prefer blue side for a host of different reasons. As a result, most people are vigilante and make the trip to red side when the opportunities align with their moods. When new content arrives, badgers and others will appear, do the content then revert back to old habits. I don't see a change. My best suggestion is to use the SG to full advantage. You have a decent idea of when your play time is, use the Content-request channel to ask for these tfs/trials/missions on a routine basis. You may not get 8, but you certainly won't if you don't ask. Alternatively - you lead the teams you want to have formed.

I respect your perspective, but I have done this challenge before. Everyone quits. And getting people to meet consistently for a specific time without such constraints is hard enough. And, golden rule - do unto others. I wouldn't want someone with a deliberately crippled build on my team in any circumstance. Why would I want to carry someone along with so many ways to be kitted out? It just wouldn't be fair to anyone else - that's the reason for the no teaming rule. Even a new player can afford a few enhancements given access to the market/AE, etc. But in my case, I was level 12, half of my slots were empty. It just wouldn't be fair to other players to carry me along. Additionally, with a "defeat you delete" proviso, teaming with unknown players is a HUGE risk. There are so many players who create chaos without meaning to, causing various team wipes due to one or more players splitting off and attacking a different crowd of npcs. No sense inviting that kind of risk on a defeat/delete character. Granted - if there were like-minded folks, that would be different, but how many people are that insane? Not many, and finding a consistent time would limit that pool even further. Thus the rule.

I could - but salvage has ordinarily been something I didn't save - too cheap to mess with storage. My base has nothing but purples stashed, and a couple of insp bins with super insps for rhw and MoTFs. I did make a new base for this character tho, so that's something I could do. Sadly, at level 14, there just wasn't much by way of salvage to need base storage. And, lol, once I deleted it - the base went with it, I imagine, as there were no other members.

Recovery serum is a purchased temp from p2w - sadly, not allowed. And at the lower levels, I looked and either lacked the salvage for recovery buff, or it wasn't available to my lowby. In any event, as you saw, I had to start over! I'm going to rethink my rules a little bit. No sense turning a game into a grind, right?

Let me grant you some perspective. There are forum visiters, who lurk, read and post that play this game. But there are probably 7 times as many who don't do this and literally have no idea how your standard ATO becomes superior. Same with the winter-Os. Additionally, there are many players who have no idea there's a distinction between types of defense and resistances. They are just here to play - which is completely fine - but they are, well, bluntly put, willfully ignorant. They're quite aware there must be more to the game, but they don't care. They just want to make the costumes, mash some buttons and feel heroic or villainous. They're after a different experience than I am, for certain. And that's quite alright. I just wish they would all at least take some time to learn how to accumulate influence and stop complaining about spending 20M for a very rare IO when they could have bought the recipe for 13-14M and crafted it more cheaply at worst, or done a market crash trial and gotten one for free on a character that hasn't run it. There's still a lot of players who don't know this! About 9 months ago, I was ready to stop playing, as it's just a time sink and I consider myself to have mastered the game, done all the content, gotten all the badges, etc. Then I realized that there was an area of the game unexplored by me - an SG. I joined Cosmic Council, as they had helped me get a lot of those badges. They will literally take anyone. They have rules, so they don't keep everyone. But - I then had to filter my chat to make sure I wasn't too much of a jerk to people (which comes all too easily, I'm afraid). This SG, which helps people get RHW every weekend just about, has more ignorant players than I could ever imagine. Some truly sharp players, don't get me wrong, but the number of casual players who could care less about the market or maximizing their build...let's just say I don't team with them often because some of them have page load times that are longer than the missions when I would do them with speed in mind. Some of them actually use flight, have no stealth and no IOs in their builds, despite the SG granting them free access to all the IOs they could want or need for their builds. They even have "Build Specialists" that will make a build of any AT/powerset combo for you! And yet, still some of these players are woefully inept - but they are having fun with their ineptness, and that's what matters to them. Different strokes for different folks, right? They aren't wrong. They may not be optimal, but their path is every bit as right as my own. I think these types of players are some of the ones that overpay for IOs because they don't know any better. Nor do they care to learn. It's just not the experience they're after in the game. I mean, I've learned how to accumulate inf. I'm at well over 300 billion now, despite kitting out all my characters. I really don't even farm any more, unless I just feel like it. (rare) Now I just make strange characters and try to make things hard on myself - almost emulating the way some of these more casual players play! Just for the challenge. Who's to say that's not what these folks are doing? Maybe they're not as inept as I think!

I quote this and put a sentence in bold to point out that I can list an item on Excelsior, or any other server and any other player on any of the other shards/servers - Torch, Everlasting, etc, can bid on it and buy it if their bid is high enough. I keep seeing people think that the market is only for the server their character is on - that is not the case.

Ultimately, are we not all consumers? lol

And this is what "they" were after! "They" being what I deem the "ebil marketeer". I kind of hate that phrase, because there's no such word as "ebil". I'm sure it's a typo that got carried over for reasons that escape me. And "this" being people getting out of the craft/convert/sell space. When people leave the space, prices WILL creep back up. So, by all means, take a break - but save those converters for your own characters, lest you feel the bitter sting of what happens when there is no competition. (or very little) The market is all about competition. At least, that's what we're told in school. There's a slight distinction between Capitalism and Free Enterprise, but they overlap in so many areas, the lines can blur. Make no mistake, with the seeded salvage, this market is neither. At least, not in the definitions I understand. (College was a long time ago! I was never a great student, either) But we have to remain competitive, albeit with smaller margins, in order for the consumer to win.

The biggest mystery to me is how people love to complain about outrageous prices, yet they're complaining as they pay them. Why pay them? The game has more than one way to get what you want. Salvage? AE Tickets will get you there easily. (assuming you have a farmer - and nowadays, if you don't have a farmer that really is your own fault)

I listed these for 6 influence. This just proves that the market isn't evil. It's the players that don't understand the market -and the seeded prices that max at 1M are at fault. I have no idea who overspent and I'm sorry - I listed at 6 inf to cut you folks a break. But, my piggy bank thanks you for your ignorance.

Well, in pursuit of an Accuracy SO...my poor Dark/Dark defender had to get deleted. I recalled that the first SSA out of Skyway was super easy...and it really should have been easy. But I only had a level 10 IO in Twilight Grasp, and it missed at a most inopportune time. So, at level 14, poof, dead and now deleted. Back to the drawing board. I'll re-try the dark/dark, because there's still a lot left to experience. This time, I think I'll choose a different origin. I usually go magic to get the spelunker badge mission outside of ouro. This time, I think given the huge number of science and mutation DOs I was picking up in the earlier levels, that's the way to go. I had thought about AE missions for specific salvage...but I'd already made the rule to not use AE. It's interesting, though. It's helped me remember how I used to do a lot of things before IOs were a thing. I mean, I got my raptor pack at level 7, two hours worth. I probably will never use it up, lol. I just use it to get vertical for various explorations. I am thinking though, that the only way to make it manageable is to get really lucky with the rng for end mod enhancements or IO recipes. And even my farmers that tear through +4/8 hardly ever get either of those. So..I am going to rethink the rules a bit. Thanks, all.

Those who know me know that I'm a bit eccentric, and often without a filter if you ask me if a dress makes you look fat. Regardless, part of my eccentricity has led me to make a second "drop challenge" character. My first time around, it was a tw/bio scrapper. The bio armor tended to simply things given the different adaptation options. So, this time around, I've gone with a dark/dark defender. My first time making one of these. So what is a drop challenge? 1. No p2w (until level 50) 2. No use of merits until 50. You earn 'em, you keep 'em until 50. 3. No AE. 4. You want enhancements? Use the ones that drop. Or craft the IO recipes you get - if you can afford them. You may use converters that DROP, not from AH nor from the exchange of merits (until level 50). 5. AH is only used to sell surplus inventory, or anything in your inventory. And guess what? Other than crafting those IO recipes, you're not spending that inf on anything else. (I suppose you could blow some inf on a new costume if you could afford it. But nothing from p2w or the AH) 6. You can make a base and use the buff stations, teleports, crafting table. No using any of the IOs an alt or sg mate may have left in a bin. You're strictly independent. 7. You can use any temp power you EARN in game, like the raptor pack from a safeguard mission. Or a shivan. 8. Absolutely no teaming with anyone. Nobody wants your crippled character on their team. Besides, you should be too proud to team up playing as vulnerable as this. 9. If you die, delete and start over! Would you believe my new defender died at level 1 against two level 3 Hellions, lol? I only had 2 bars of xp and had to start over! I share all that to ask this question: is there some method in game of earning an end mod recipe? The invention tutorial seems to only offer Accuracy, Damage and Recharge recipes. Useful, but not what I really need. I've got Shadow Fall, but can't run it while fighting. Level 13 and all I have in stamina is a level 11 End Mod Dual Origin. Gotta be some nifty trick. I think my rules are too harsh, lol.

You should be aware that the HC dev team seeded the AH with all tiers of salvage and put a cap on prices. If you bid 1M on any rare salvage, you definitely should get it almost immediately, barring some crazy server lag/latency issues. I do agree - 500k is a reasonable price, and most people I know simply use brain storm ideas from the winter packs until their inventory is full and sell them at 1 inf to mitigate such foolishness. The issue could be that someone has 200 "slots" or spaces to place a bid on inventory, and each slot/space can hold a bid for 10 of each type of salvage, so we need to be selling 200*10 pieces to fully satisfy the bids that person has in place, plus the bids you want. That's an awful lot of clicking on brain storm ideas. I suggest you bid on 5 of each rare in the tier you're wanting to work in , and just leave them in the AH for when you need them, and re-order at the 500K mark when you pull them out. Just have to be patient.

So, I missed last week's hero recognition due to holiday. Oops. Without further ado, I'd like to recognize @STiTcH for being one of the smarter players out there. He'll lead anything to help someone - but any monkey can lead a trial or a tf. The distinction is that he's amassed a ton of in-game knowledge and just about has everything the game has to offer down to a science. And he shares that knowledge if you ask. I've learned more from him than probably anyone else I can think of.

You may be making an assumption. Nobody I know does this with new players. When we form up, it's with folks we've done this with before, not newer players. And why? Because most of the time, new players can't afford to be kitted out, and half the time they don't know where to go and who's gonna want to escort someone to Night Ward Mansion so they can get to Cimerora? (I personally don't mind doing it - but I do mind the time it takes if we're doing a speed run. Time is money and all that. ) I have spent a lot of time with players new and not so new who have asked questions in the help channel. The way I see it, if a player doesn't want to play quickly, they don't have to do so. And nobody is suggesting a newer player accept a recruiting call for a speedy tf if they have no idea what they're doing. I do get that newer players may require a slower pace, though. And I do "Crawls" as part of an sg event twice a week for those folks that want a slower pace. It kills me, because it's so slow, but it gives me a chance to explain things like why Mu Guardians don't close in to melee when you taunt them with six-slotted taunt. And I also make them suffer with a horrible joke now and then.

New Zones? maybe we should populate Kallista Wharf or revamp the ones we have already. Sadly, this takes development time, which is on a volunteer basis. Not saying it shouldn't be done, but do we really need a new zone? or even to have Kallista populated with a new faction? I don't think so. I think we'd be better served just having new story arcs that might have different endings depending on certain actions taken earlier in the arc. As for why, a new zone is ...engaging for all of 2 minutes. You see the new npcs and/or the new zone..and then what? Unless there's some compelling reason to engage with the npcs (aside from very dull street sweeping), there's just not much point to it. At least a story arc might have a badge or new content. When you require different builds/powers to complete a mission/tf/trial, you're basically requiring people to team up. While so many people seem to think this is the point of playing this game, there's a lot of us who, for whatever reason, want to explore the new content but can't always team. I work remotely. I *could* team during the day, but I'd get a lot of folks upset when I might have to tab out and take a call for work and be gone for 30 minutes, leaving my character in a mission and holding things up. (or getting kicked). There should never be any task/trial below level 50 that requires a team. Post-50, I'm okay with that, as we have incarnate stuff that basically requires a team/league. I don't see how level shifting NPCs is going to make things more fun or more engaging. New Dialog from the npcs as we engage in battle, new powers from the NPCs, faster recharge, self heals for the npcs, npcs actually using team work, etc - that kind of thing would be a lot more interesting than a +5 npc that is now suddenly just a little harder to hit that takes a little less damage.

I noticed that Hellions are dropping dual origin enhancements - which is great! But, they're the wrong kind sometimes. They're supposed to drop magic origin enhancements, or if dual origin, they should be dropping magic/mutation or natural/magic. This is only the case sometimes. Just seems like they drop per some rng table. If this is as intended, I suggest they drop from the magic origin, as they are an arcane based faction.

No-market alts and Yomo don't go together in the same sentence. What manner of heresy is this you speak?

I am guessing you haven't noticed the tips from street sweeping yet? No longer must we download vidiotmaps to fully explore a zone. We can get tips of a sort, and get a destination to get a badge. Granted, you won't see everything to see in zone, but while our player base as a whole may move faster during missions and task forces - many of us see that as a positive. This version of CoH is not about the content. It's about the people you interact with while doing that content. Some make you laugh, some make you want to kill someone. But it's that interaction that sets the game apart. Except for new players, most of us have seen everything the game has to offer many times over. So why would we take our time? What would be the point when you already know the story? Tank/Brute goes in, takes alpha, other teammates fire away, next mob. That's not really a game any more - that's just repetition. So, we may as well go through it as fast as we can. Not all of us, of course, and not all the time, either. But when the mood strikes, have at it. Measure it. See if you can improve upon the last effort. Heck - analyze the powers and abilities of the npcs and change your build to be optimal for that purpose! Imagine that! We get three builds now and if we like, we can tailor our build specifically for a given task to get through it as easily and quickly as possible. Why? So we have more time to do more stuff! Why should Synapse take 2 hours when you can do it in 37 minutes? You still have the defeat alls that must be completed. It's not like anything has changed in Skyway or Steel Canyon or Boomtown. They look the same as they always have! So, once you've seen them - what are you really missing by using the tools at your disposal? Nothing! You've saved time! And time is our most precious resource. We can accumulate wealth, but we cannot accumulate time! Now if you're a new player - you likely can't afford to do these things, so most certainly you'll be exploring these neighborhoods and cities whether you wanted to or not! I see nothing but positive changes so far. (other than travel suppression - but that's a hold over from live) I do understand the nostalgic feeling. When I feel that way, I make a challenge character and embrace the suck of life with travel power at 14, no cape, and don't slot stamina until 14, either, since it's inherent. I pick some powers that never get used to compensate for the Swift & Hurdle requirements before Stamina (and health). It's no longer City of Heroes, but City of Options. Options are good!

If I may, I'd like to share some perspective. I will afk farm a fair bit. I also will run missions/tfs/trials a good bit. Some days, I'll monitor the help channel or another public channel and someone will ask if the purple rate has been tinkered with. I will tell them no, because I get 1-2 a day on my farmer, and maybe 1-2 per week on my regular mission character that doesn't run solo set to a team of 8. But, as much love as the rng shows me - and while I have gotten a purple or two at an MSR (over a large number of MSRs), I don't think I've ever gotten more than 2 recipes from one, of any kind. You mentioned you had common recipes turned off. May I suggest you re-visit p2w, ensure that they are the only ones you have turned off. Additionally, turn common back on, then back off if you choose. I can't say it will fix anything, but it can't get worse. I would also offer the additional perspective that uncommon recipes, while they aren't that uncommon, they certainly aren't likely to drop routinely in the same amount every time you do the same content. Anecdotally, I've had a farmer get 11 uncommons on the briggs asteroid map - and also cleared it and only gotten 2. There's always room for variability. Personally, I wouldn't sweat it, but I do get your concern. I would also encourage you to log off in Ouroboros to at least keep those mission completion recipe bonuses coming, or perhaps that one day job in First Ward- Survivalist will increase odds of a recipe drop. (At least, the wiki doesn't say mission completion bonus like it states for Chronologist - ouro dayjob badge. )

My father, a Dean of Economics (just so ya know he wasn't just some wise old fart), would say to me, "Time is more precious than money. I can accumulate money, I cannot accumulate time." But, the construct of time, while we're gaming is an interesting thing. I think a number of folks have a certain number of hours they can play, while another set of folks have...seemingly limitless time to play. I work remotely, and candidly, my "8 hour day" only takes a couple of hours for me. So, I do have a lot of time, if I so choose. But, between meals, exercise, family, I'm still only going to play so much. So time is important, but I detest the feeling of being "ripped off". It makes no sense to use brain storm ideas for uncommon salvage when it can be had for less than 125k. (5 brainstorms gets an uncommon vs 20 for a rare). So, 20 brainstorms are worth roughly 500k, making an uncommon (5 brain storms) worth roughly 125k. Yet, I'd sooner burn through them rather than pay over 5k for an uncommon. It's a loss, but the feeling of letting some marketer get over at my expense is a worse feeling. I've got ...sheesh...maybe 7000 (units of 20) of them on one of my accounts. Not like I'm gonna miss them, lol. But It's not like I'd miss the influence either. But, my grandmother who didn't even attend a high school, had no idea how old she was (no birth certificates in her country of origin - only a certificate of baptism) would tell me, "Every dollar you save multiplies to the bottom line. That means, if you save your money, that's time you don't have to spend working." So, there's some wisdom in not giving the AH your resources. As we "work" ( Play our characters), we earn inf. If we never spend any on the AH, it stands to reason we'll accumulate a lot more than if we were spending inf on the AH. But then...the idea of blowing 100 merits on a recipe...now that's really painful, when I know I can get converters and make a lot more than that recipe would cost if I'd bought it from the AH. Ultimately, it comes down to each person's preferred gaming experience. I have spent a lot of time on another thread trying to determine why someone would kill most/all when they could race through, get the merits and move on. And someone was kind enough to get it into my thick skull that all of us have our own preferred gaming experience, and it doesn't have to make sense to anyone else. Wouldn't think it would take so much effort for something so simple to sink in a thick skull, would ya? Some genuinely detest the market. They think it should all be free, or they at least want to minimize time with the AH open, so they sell goods like lotg 7.5% for 1 inf, and then they overpay for the same thing 8M when they want one. Doesn't make sense to me, but hey, doesn't have to.

I could certainly be wrong, and very often am. But I am not under the impression the AH works this way. As I understand it, someone posts their salvage for auction at X price. On ANY of our 5 servers here in HC, whomever bids the most for that salvage gets it. Doesn't matter if the AH is slow due to duct tape procedures. It still checks each piece of salvage to see what the cheapest offer is to provide the piece or pieces of salvage to the highest bids. I will grant you that the AH may work more slowly due to this duct tape, but I don't think it checks the home server of the person posting and satisfies that bid and doesn't check the other servers due to duct tape. But, the transparency post about their duct tape solution could have stated things just as you said, but when I read it, that wasn't my take away.

I've only just seen this post, directed from the other post. 1. I really appreciate the manual install option. There's something about the other method that just stymies my poor brain. 2. The real reason for my post - have you considered the Sewer Network & Abandoned Sewer Network? On characters of mine that pursue all the explorations, I will cover a zone, such as Atlas, then enter the Sewer Network and only grab the closest one to the gate, then enter the ASN and grab that closest one to the gate. Only after I've hit Atlas, Kings, Steel, Skyway do I head to Boomtown (no particular order, although there probably is an optimal path) to get all the Sewer Network stuff, and then all the ASN (and the plaques within in), if I'm high enough level to pursue them. If not, I may have an alt SK my character, or I may wait until I'm 40-50.