CrudeVileTerror

Yeah, I'll certainly concede that there's plenty of insular and clique'y roleplay groups. But, to do a little advocacy, I understand that people have different interests and expectations as far as tone, genre, content, and format are concerned in roleplay. There's also a time limit, so people can get choosy about who they spend their time with. When you find someone you connect with effectively, you may become risk adverse in regard to the development of new relations. None of that excuses pettiness, bullying, or other hostility, of course.

Thank you for sharing. Regrettably that's outside my budget right now. And go figure, my laptop died a few days ago due to a power failure. It's now doing the Click of Death . . .

Ah, no! Global Channels reach all Shards. That's what makes them Global. The upgrades to the Base Builder are absolutely stellar. I hope the Devs consider further development as a priority. The jankiness is a little frustrating for someone like me who doesn't have the patience or talent to make true masterpieces like other players.

. . . on the one hand, I'm happy for you, @EmmySky, and very glad to have you continue to get to play. On the other hand . . . place your new computer! I wants it!

I wanted to go MUCH deeper in depth with this post, but this week has been unkind to me (as anyone who has been trying to catch me in-game might attest), so I'm afraid I don't have time to get in to all the nitty-gritty I planned on. I really wanted to speak more about Faultline's "good/bad" post and the apparent philosophy behind it. I also won't be able to find much time this weekend to compose further thoughts since I have my spouse's birthday plans to attend to. Given how some people feel about my opinions, though, I imagine this comes as a relief to those folks, heh heh. I see a lot of market veterans chiming in here, and I do not want to dissuade anyone from sharing their opinions, experiences, or expertise . . . buuuuuuut . . . just like in that PvP thread from a little while ago (which appears to have been hidden/deleted, so I can't link to it), I would really like to remind anyone who this applies to: --- If you like the market the way it is, then you may have a distinct bias on this subject which is not necessarily shared by all players. --- That doesn't mean your opinions, experiences, or expertise are wrong; but they aren't universal and aren't necessarily going to address the express problem of market accessibility. If players are expressing problems with earning enough Inf to finish their builds, then I think we should trust them and accept their experiences as valid. If players are saying that the market is scary, ugly, upsetting, unwelcoming, hostile, or otherwise a negative experience for them, then it would be most productive to find ways to address those concerns rather than disregard them. There are two wholly unhelpful things to say: - "I can do it, so anyone can." and - "You can always just spend Merits." The former is patently false, and (from the research I've conducted) is generally also rather demoralizing and demotivating. It actively undermines the sentiment I believe you may be trying to express, in fact. I propose that instead you consider more constructive solutions, such as asking the players some probing questions and learning where you might need to adjust your existing personal strategies for success so they can be applied to different people. What worked for you is not guaranteed to work for anyone else, particularly someone who has a very different outlook and understanding of the systems at play. The latter is problematic due to the sheer ridiculous imbalance which presently exists, and which many players are actively trying to address when they talk about being unable to afford the prices for gameplay. It's akin to saying "you can dig a hole with your kitchen spoon if you can't use this backhoe." It really needs its own thread, though. It's a very deeply rooted problem and tied to the other topics I originally wanted to dive in to with this weekly discussion. Short version: We need a "Why Do You Play This Game" poll, and we need to do it right. It's a fundamental question which I believe many, many, MANY people are taking for granted (including certain members of the Homecoming Team). Again, I don't mean to be antagonistic here, and I apologize if I am wording this poorly. However, it's my understanding that a perspective along the lines of the market being a simple, easy thing may severely limit one from being able to comprehend how anyone could possibly see it any differently. I believe the Devs are actively looking for ways to make the market more accessible, per @Faultline's post I linked earlier, and so I want to encourage the people who are comfortable with the current market to try to step outside their usual perspective. (Hey! Roleplay -is- useful for something! How's about that, eh?) The introduction of a tutorial would certainly be helpful, but I would like to suggest some fixes which I believe would be more intuitive for non-economically-minded players. Disclaimer: I'm coming at this problem from a game design background. I understand many of you have backgrounds in economics which you've been able to leverage to your advantage on the player market. I do not intend to undermine your fun or devalue your knowledge, but I think that if we're to make the market more accessible, then it needs to be changed in ways contrary to many of the suggestions which market experts are proposing. Again, I also want to remind everyone of potential biases in this matter. Making the market better for a marketeer doesn't necessarily make it better for everyone. In fact, there's a chance that the market may have to be destabilized a little from their perspective for the long-term health of the game. The seeding of Salvage has been a pretty solid addition, although I think the values are frankly too high. I get that the Devs want Inf sinks, so I understand if this first suggestion is a non-starter for them for that reason alone, but . . . 1) I believe the market could use some seeded Bids. For most everything, but especially for unpopular and abundant items, such as Inspirations and Common Inventions (both Enhancements and their Recipes, especially at lower levels). The Enhancements especially are "newb traps" and sit on the market for months at a time. As low level entry items, it would be a good "safe space" for new players to get their toes wet with predictable returns; maybe just enough to break-even on the cost of actually crafting the Enhancements. Inspirations (including the Dual and Group types) could be costed out too. If applied to ALL ITEMS (as I see as ideal) then this would also place a floor on prices. A price where the player putting the item up for sale is protected from being absolutely preyed upon, which is one of the largest complaints I see from people who do not want to touch the market: It's hostile. It's PvP. And they don't want to be taken advantage of. Items which can be sold to vendors could be exempt from this, or provide slightly less than vendor (say 10% less). This would be the simplest thing to do for the Devs, based on my limited understanding of the game code and the market's current functionality. If any economists see any glaring holes, then please feel free to give us an in depth breakdown of those concerns (again, please consider your bias and whether this idea might hurt you, while helping far more others). 2) Alternatively, "Fair Price Range Recommendations" for each item based on impartial, factual data (not supply and demand, but the game's likelihood of dropping/availability and cost of crafting, et cetera). The bottom of this price would be based on the rarity of the item modified by its in-category drop chance and the equivalence to fixed-price items of its kind, and (in the case of Inventions) add the Crafting Cost. The upper recommendation could be an average of what items in that category have sold for on market over the past year-and-a-half, or merely a value which the marketeer community agrees to be reasonable. The latter option would require the periodic revaluation of that upper recommendation, though. This idea would be more of a pain to implement. The market UI is already not ideal as it is, so trying to squeeze in the Recommendations in some functional, legible, and intuitive way could be prohibitively complicated. 3) Tax Brackets. Yeah, I know . . . this one's probably going to be super unpopular, especially for the biggest marketeers. But hey! If you want a way to curtail rampant wealth growth in the richest, sink Inf, and provide opportunities for "the small guy" to break in to the market, then I think you can't get much more effective than this. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/12135-influence-sinks/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-122663 I made the post about this quite a while ago, so it probably needs to have a good, solid shakedown. If I recall correctly, I wrote that particular post while heavily sleep deprived, so my math and language skills were probably shaky at best. This would likely be even less feasible than the Recommendations, though, as it's essentially that idea PLUS the introduction of an automated system which would need to be programmed from scratch. *) Make crafting easier, quicker, and more rewarding. @Jimmy said this one, so credit where it's due. Was a long while back, I believe during that painful thread when the Double Influence feature was removed. But the short of it is that there's presently a reliance on the market in the form of select few players doing tonnes of crafting which is providing the supply to the rest of the population, who may find it too confusing, too inconvenient, or too tedious to craft Inventions for themselves. Rather than doubling down on the market, address this part of the problem at its root. I would suggest a new button be added to every Recipe: Craft with Brainstorms. Make it cost more Inf (hey! Look! Inf Sink, Devs! Inf Sink!) and a number of Brainstorms equal to the total Salvage cost plus 15% to 50%. So a Rare Recipe would cost (for example) something like 35 Brainstorms, plus the appropriate Inf. Get the Enhancement Recycling Programme underway ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/23882-new-recipe-idea-recycle-enhancement/ ) as well, so there's a steady supply of Brainstorms for players to call upon. AND HEY! Looksie look! Suddenly all those worthless Inventions have substantial value, and we can get them flowing through the market at the same time! Win-win-win-win-win! Hell! Add a Recipe to convert unwanted Inspirations (again, including Dual and Group Inspirations) in to Brainstorms too! Then it's: Win-win-win-win-win-win-win! This gives veteran marketeers something new to play with and explore. You'd all like that, wouldn't you? This also gives new players something relatively safe and not-bank-breaking to explore. And, most significantly, it provides players completely disinterested in the market a more fruitful way to engage with the game under their own terms (which, I'll keep repeating until I'm thrown out on my ass: The greatest strength of City of Heroes is in giving players choices and options on how they engage with the game.) And remember: Economics may not work like that . . . in real life, but this is a game where we literally get to make up the rules! Don't get mired down in simulating real world limitations of supply and demand. Leave that sort of thing for EVE Online. Let's keep pushing for City of Heroes to maintain its crown of the Most Accessible MMO!

Ah, but don't you see? Cats only like the truly evil amoung us! Why do you think all those evil mastermind geniuses have loyal kitties on their laps? I rest my case.

Then why are the villains consistently the nicest players, eh @Luminara? Eh? Huh? EH! Answer me that! *grips the world in a massive tentacle*

I believe you may find information more helpful to Base Building in the Base Building Board: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/30-base-construction/ I'll also try to summon @Dacy to come and chime in, because I feel she's really the best resource to tap on the subject of Bases and the community of Builders. But I do hope this means you're building on Everlasting @leiter! I look forward to seeing your creations!

Here, @merrypessimist. I'd say "use it wisely," but . . . is that even possible? On topic as to why the City of Heroes community is the way it is: I believe two elements of the game itself are significant contributing factors: - It's a cooperative game with very few competitive elements (and those competitive elements are generally more a matter of "I'll win one, then you win one" instead of "I win, and you lose"). - There is a relative abundance of in-game "wealth" and an assortment of incentives to make multiple characters, but sharing with other players is so easy and doesn't necessarily feel burdensome to the person doing the giving. If Inf were tighter or Enhancements more rare, then I suspect people would be more determined to be insular and hoard. Sharing (and sharing freely without provocation) is a HUGE contributing factor to a cheerful temperament. That's why I feel these two gameplay elements need to be preserved and fostered.

As the other (self-appointed) parental unit in this scenario, I want to let you all know that as disappointed as we may be, we still love* you all. (* Ok, "love" might be a lie. "Tolerate unconditionally" might be more apt.)

I would very much like that as well, though I suspect there are obviously limitations due to privacy and potential legal issues that would make some of those details risky to share. But, yeah. As much detail as the Homecoming Team is willing to share for an "About Us" section would be fantastic to have.

This year has squarely kicked my ass (and not for the "recent events" reasons), so I had to give up on my in-game campaigns. Where last we left off, however, I had one high-level campaign going on which revolved around a theft of some stolen Rikti technology leading to the revelation that there may be some corruption in the FBSA which needed routing out. I also had a low-level campaign about some "troubleshooters" operating in the Etoile Isles; mostly locals. Rogues, leaning toward "heart of gold" territory, but definitely the sorts of people who do not have aspirations of becoming villains (even if they would be considered GUILTY by most Paragonian standards). They had got a Port Oakesean street meat vendor's license restored after a jilted lover planted evidence of something illegal in the vendor's kitchen and reported it to Arachnos. Some backroom deals were made to fix that problem. And then the team had an anonymous but high-paying client have them investigate a bar in St. Martial, but didn't specify -why- they were investigating it. Things got . . . weird.

Updated to include @Chuckledunk and @Fidgetcetera's posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJBgzX2HMe8&t=10m20s

Just found a fun video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXAoIGTQEBY

I'm personally more of a fan of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58wJRrvVgZI (to be clear: The musical piece, not that particular film. I did like how the theme was used as a motif for Worf in First Contact)

Yeah. That, and with the social distancing in effect, an intervention is notoriously difficult through virtual proxy. On the topic of the thread: I've dusted off Crawl again. Trying to get 100% unlocks on my new computer.

Yeah, I hear you. I've been slacking. I don't think I've even broken 200 with my accounts combined AND including the storage characters. Real life has just been kicking my ass far too harshly this year.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22534-game-balance-the-endgame/ The Homecoming Team implied in this thread that they want to first balance the game before approaching their plans for Endgame content, which likely include further development of the Incarnate stuff. The following replies in the thread raise some excellent points and/or talk in circles to the point of pointlessness, depending on one's perspective.

Webcomics.

. . . . . . but, yes. Please.

I approve of more slash commands for things like this! That way I can bind them or macro them. Trying to find the cursor is becoming more and more difficult for my aging eyes, and I was raised on DOS anyway, so I like to have me some typed commands!

I notice the old thread got 500 votes . . . Has ANY poll on these forums ever even -approached- that level of participation?

What can we do to help you, @TheOtherTed? Do you need an intervention? Should we torch their servers? One might be easier than the other.

Who, @VV? My guess is @Player2.