Dazl

So much for Jimmy hiding this offensive post.

It does seem we have come to the end of the internet on this one. Some like it some don't. Guess it's a matter of time to see how it all works out.

I hope the OP who posted this last May got them by now. But just to add to suggestions, hami raids. Edit: Sorry hami is not solo, but it is a great way to make merits.

They could do hami raids instead. Of course this shouldn't happen. It is interesting to see the argument used to support the nerf on casual players "just run more TF's", doesn't work for others.

Would there really be a shortage of converters if they were bound? As was pointed out to me earlier, the loss of the xp boost for non farmer and non marketeers wouldn't matter because they could just run a 20 minute Yin TF and make 20 merits and turn that into 60 converters. Then everyone would be happy because they can't turn it into that ebil influence.

Well that idea will make some people nervous.

I'm not pushing an agenda because I don't have one. I've already said this change doesn't effect me much, and I don't really enjoy farming. I'm just pointing out the truth about "exploits". It's up to the devs to fix the "exploits", not the players.

Nobody hacked the game code, they took advantage of game features that may have not been intended to be used that way, but there none the less. This wasn't a big secret, heck there has been a post on these forums about how to do it. This could have been changed a long time ago. Players don't have any control over how the game is coded, but you can be sure that people smarter than me will always find ways to make the most of it. Like when someone figured out the degenerative interface incarnate power was borked, and people could zerg the hami without clearing the mitos. The dev's could have hot fixed it right away, but they didn't and people took advantage of it. None of this is good, but players don't control the code.

This thread is full of schadenfreude about how this nerf effects farmers. It also seems like some would be happy to see farmers go away totally. Influence is constantly being generated in this game from people just playing it. People who are farming are just using the current game mechanics to build a character that is capable of earning the most influence possible efficently. They are not doing anything to exploit the game or taking advantage of other players. The Devs provided the tools, and they made it work for them.

As opposed to the marketeers taking advantage of the "market stupid", sitting on so many billions they have to come up with creative ways to move it around to store it. Farmers are taking advantage of the games mechanics just like the marketeers. At least the farmers are adding recipes, salvage, and buying those IO's the marketeers are selling. They are not just hoarding what they earn and looking down on the marketeers.

Merits are just another form of influence, so how is this different than running door missions with the experience bonus on? I have great respect and appreciation for the Homecoming team for bringing this game we all love back. They have done a great job of updating and running the game. For an all volunteer team it's amazing. This change doesn't effect me since I never really used it much. As a regular Hami raider I have tons of merits and just recently created a farmer, which I don't really enjoy, but it is handy for leveling alts and making a little more influence. This monster thread is full of posts about how this effects farmers and marketeers, and theoretical economical assumptions that may or may not be true. In all of that there didn't seem to be much discussion on how normal players were affected by this and that was what I was trying to bring to this debate. I realize the Homecoming team is working with limited resources and are trying to make decisions they feel are best for the game's health. I just hope the devs will give this point some further consideration.

I genuinely don't understand how people using the influence bonus for normal play destroys the market. Sure you can't have people use an exploit to make millions in minutes, but that could have been fixed without punishing everyone else. So really Jimmy, is people using this feature as intended really creating too much influence?

By all means fix the exploit, but they didn't need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Again casual players using the no experience influence bonus is not killing the economy.

Based on all the snarky responses, I see that some people still don't understand that this change has a larger negative impact on casual players than anyone else. Farmers are going to farm and marketeers continue to make billions, but the casual player using the no experience influence bonus is going to kill the economy.

Good for you, go for it.

Wouldn't be such a little thing if all farmers did it.

Oh it's true and no more meaningless than this nerf.

You shouldn't buy ATO's with merits, but purple recipes are not a bad deal, since it would cost you about the same in influence on the market, especially if you have the salvage to craft them.

A friend of mine who also has a farmer and never did the 49 farm thing, used to put up all his recipes and salvage drops on the AH dirt cheap for quick sales. Now out of protest sells it all to the vendors. Once his farmer hits vet level 99, he will delete it and have a new farmer ready to take it's place.

I have read most of the posts in this thread, which mostly address the farmers and the marketeers. I have seen little response about how it impacts casual players. I just can't believe that casual players with exp turned off are ruining the economy. I really hate punishing everyone, for something some one else did, it's a lazy form of punishment.

This change could have been discussed without bringing up the exploit that's claimed to have driven this action. Again I'm fine with it in AE, but seems a bit much in general play.

Putting farmers and marketers aside (I have a farmer too and I'm fine with it). Doesn't this hurt the casual player a bit more in a different way? If you only had a couple hours to play and you wanted to earn the max influence per session to kit out your level 50 toon, doesn't this hurts that player in a big way as well? I can understand applying this to AE content, but is it necessary for general content, which it seems we would all like to see encouraged?

Oh another idea and simple change is to double the mission level difficulty and team size. Probably won't have many people claiming that a +8/16 mission was too easy.

Exactly but with a higher level of difficulty, or turn up the mob levels in Dark Astoria. As it is now, it's still a cake walk for incarnates.

Maybe all we really need is a new zone for incarnate characters, with story arcs, door missions and higher level mobs. We don't need to mess with the current game, just have a place to provide a bigger challenge and rewards to those who want it.