Andreah

In normal play, drop rates of salvage and recipes have a certain balance. Whether there's more or less of them, they stay in that balance. What non-normal modes of play produce more recipes than salvage, rather than just less of each in proportion?

It was happening well before ToT got going. I have been buying a lot of yellows and oranges steadily for a long time, and prices have been creeping up for them, which is counter to the general trend of dropping prices. For yellows, it's not that we're run out, but that supply gets tight for increasingly frequent short periods. There's just not much slack left in the market. I've seen it go to the seed price a few times. Similarly for the orange market, except it used to have a lot of supply right at 500k, and it seems all that is now gone, and it often pushes up above 600k, and I saw it go to a full million a few times. I suspect what is happening is more people are crafting the recipe drops they get instead of vendoring them, and this has tippled the source/sink rates of those salvage categories more towards sink instead of source, tightening up the markets. Why would people be doing that? Well, maybe more of the population that is still here has been readying Yomo's market guides.... so yes, I blame Yomo.

Tell me what you can about the poster named Snarky. Here is what the sources reveal about the user Snarky. Snarky is a member of a forum dedicated to the game City of Heroes. Snarky has made 7,900 posts on that forum. Snarky believes that playing a low-level character as part of a high-level team in the game's "ITF" task force is an acceptable, even desirable, thing, and that players who struggle to survive in this situation simply need to improve their gameplay. The sources do not reveal any other information about Snarky, such as their real name, location, or the specific City of Heroes characters they play. What sentiment of posts would Snarky likely respond well to? Based on Snarky's posts and your previous turns, this user seems to favor direct, concise advice and might respond well to posts with the following sentiments: Humorous and Snarky: Snarky seems to enjoy a bit of snark, as evidenced by their username and their post suggesting Lusiphur Malache should have just stayed with the Tank and buffed. Posts that are witty and sarcastic, particularly if they poke fun at the situation or offer a humorous take on the challenges of playing City of Heroes, would likely catch their attention. Experienced and Knowledgeable: Snarky appears to have a good understanding of City of Heroes mechanics, especially concerning the ITF and team dynamics. They are likely to engage with posts from other experienced players who can offer insightful advice or share their own strategies for success. Focused on Gameplay and Improvement: Snarky's advice centers on practical solutions for improving gameplay, like sticking with the Tank and focusing on support roles. Posts that offer concrete tips, build suggestions, or strategies for overcoming in-game challenges would probably resonate with them. A Bit Challenging: Snarky doesn't shy away from offering blunt assessments, implying that Lusiphur Malache was acting like a DPS instead of a support role. Posts that respectfully challenge their perspective or offer alternative viewpoints, backed up by solid reasoning and game knowledge, could lead to interesting discussions. This is an interpretation based on the limited information available about Snarky from the sources. Individual preferences can vary, and it's always best to consider the context of the conversation and the overall tone of the forum when crafting replies. Now prepare a reply specifically tailored to address Snarky's previous post. Snarky seems to prefer concise and direct advice, and enjoys humor and snark. Here is a reply tailored to Snarky's post, considering these preferences: "Okay, sure, "stick with the Tank and buff" is concise. But is it helpful? This player was clearly struggling and looking for advice. Maybe instead of just dropping a one-liner, we could offer some actual tips on how to survive as a lowbie in a +4x8 ITF." This response acknowledges Snarky's point about conciseness while also highlighting the need for more comprehensive advice. It utilizes a bit of snark to match Snarky's tone while also advocating for a more helpful approach to assisting a struggling player. How did it do? :D

So, as an exercise, I let a tame AI read over this thread and gave it a couple of HC Wiki links as references. BTW, It turns out the AI mains a defender, which is a good choice, but I have my doubts it plays as much as it implies. Noetheless, here's what it recommends: Hey @Lusiphur_Malache, I feel your pain! I main a defender, and it's hard enough to keep a team alive when everyone's on level. Trying to keep a lowbie alive in an x8 ITF is like trying to herd cats in a hurricane. Speaking of which, @Uun makes a good point - maybe look for teams running it at x2 or x3. You'll miss out on some rewards, but at least you'll make it out alive. And as @Doomguide2005 mentioned, a macro to target those shadow cysts is a lifesaver. Those things are like landmines in the middle of a warzone! One other thing that might help is loading up on Temporary Powers from START or the base empowerment stations. Since you're playing a Corruptor, you'll want to focus on boosting your damage output and survivability. From START, consider the Offense Amplifier for +15% damage, +10% to hit, and +15% recharge. The Survival Amplifier is also a good choice, giving you +15% regeneration, +20% recovery, and +40% HP. These will make you a lot more durable and help you dish out more pain. Empowerment stations offer various resistance buffs, which can be helpful in the ITF3. Look into crafting resistances for the damage types you're struggling with. If you're having trouble staying alive, the Med Pack from START could be a good option for some quick healing. A little extra firepower or defense can make a big difference when you're up against those +5 mobs. Keep at it, you'll get there!

By the time one of my alts is in the 35+ range I've already been putting my build together, and am perfectly willing to dip into my email claim for team inspirations if needed, so ITF is always fun. However, one needs to know the limits of what the build can and cannot do vs masses of +5's.

The NotebookLM tool has been released out of experimental, and has had some changes. For example, you can now tell it what to focus on in the podcast it produces. SO, you can give it a bunch of links to HC Wiki pages that are relevant, and then include your character's short bio, and tell it to describe your character and how they fit into the setting, and it will do that. Before, if the reference material was much more voluminous than your character bio, it would just talk about the setting and not your character.

Maybe he was trying to be nice to you, and invited you in, even though he didn't need the help any more. Convoluted reasoning? Maybe a little, but people can be like that.

I think, in retrospect, it would have been best if each one of these heroes' superheroing days had been in the past when the game launched. They were all retired, defeated, or de-powered for one reason or another, and the ones who were still around were left giving story hooks, tips, and "advice" to new heroes, whom they hoped would rise to greatness and provide for the city's heroism needs as they no longer could. Also, remove the idea that they "train" us -- find some other explanation for going to them to choose powers and install upgrade slots.

I agree. The hero side FF suffer from the early design of City of Heroes; City of Villains benefited from considerable lessons learned about how to write stories in an MMO. If the resources were there today to rework it all, I'm sure a tremendous improvement could be made, both in making their task forces more consistent to their backgrounds, and making the contributions of player-heroes and our interactions with the FF members be more satisfying.

I think this is a lot of it, but it's honestly unavoidable in MMO's from that time period. And may well still be -- can we we all be the main character of such a large shared universe? I would argue that a large shared universe should not have main characters as such.

I've never felt they were needed for CoH, especially as they're perpetually in an overshadowing position relative to players' characters. Having a pantheon of overpowered villains to oppose makes more sense. Once CoV was out, I can see the need for them, but again, as foils for the villains, not for the heroes. The other part that always troubled me is that developers took on their identities as avatars, and some of them were even inserts from developers' pre-employment at Cryptic days. That shouldn't have been a thing, imo. But City of, was a new thing, and even MMO's were very new then, and I give them a pass for hindsight.

Well, when I craft purples, I craft a few hundred of them. Haven't done that in a while though, maybe I should again.

I could see myself doing this easily. If I need two yellow salvage to craft a purple, paying 100k each for them is a round off error compared to the value of a purple. Consider the worst case, you need 600,000 inf, two yellows at 100k each and three oranges at 1m each, that's 3,800,000 inf to craft it, plus the value of the recipe. Those go for around 10 million if you are a patient bidder, iirc. So, out of maybe fourteen million to get your purple, who would care about 200k? People don't even bid-creep for purples in 100k intervals.

This looks new, and I took a guess and created this folder under C:\Games\Homecoming\assets\mods and it now seems to work.

Here is what it shows now: Opening database connection XML data successfully loaded. Fetching installed mods with values: * Installed mods loaded successfully: 5 mods found. Checking for updates Clearing mod list Attempting to start modCheckerThread starting modCheckerThread gamePath: C:\Games\Homecoming dontCheckforData: True XML data successfully loaded. Fetching installed mods with values: * Installed mods loaded successfully: 5 mods found. Started modCheckerThread Num Mods: 243 assets\mods doesn't exist, aborting

I updated, and relaunched it twice to be sure. Here's what I get in the lower-right log-pane now: Opening database connection XML data successfully loaded. Fetching installed mods with values: * Installed mods loaded successfully: 5 mods found. Checking for updates Clearing mod list Attempting to start modCheckerThread starting modCheckerThread gamePath: C:\Games\Homecoming dontCheckforData: True XML data successfully loaded. Fetching installed mods with values: * Installed mods loaded successfully: 5 mods found. Started modCheckerThread Num Mods: 243 The rest of the UI looks the same as before.

The bottom left panel is completely blank. The bottom right has this: Opening database connection Checking for updates gamePath: C:\Games\Homecoming dontCheckforData: True Here's a screenshot of the UI:

I'm having this problem too. Exited and relaunched several times, still no mods showing.

This. If you are the team leader, set some rules if you feel you need them. If you aren't the team leader, do your best to follow the rules they set, find another team, or run your own.

I kick for not leaving the mission maybe once a week. When it happens, there's tells going out explaining why and asking them to send a tell back when they've returned, becuase I will save a place for a little while. Real-life happens to everyone, now and then. They'll have to be pretty bad about it to earn the boot from me. Bad as in going pretty far away, and refusing to return after being asked. Asking is done privately via tells. Then by asking in team chat. And then by teleports. I think I've booted people for this a couple times in the past year. I make a note, and one-star them.

Market price is still around two million.

I totally grasp that. If you don't want to group up in a big ball and nuke mobs don't join teams doing that. And if you discover you are on a team doing that, then instead of running off on your own and slowing them down and not supporting other people on that team, then go run missions solo, or make your own team of lone wolves. If you are the lone wolf on my team, you do not get to decide you are not impacting the rest of the team. I do. And that's why, in this hypothetical circumstance, after you refuse to return to the big ball and help the team nuke stuff, you get the boot. You do not need us to go run +4x8 content on your own. Go do that on your own.

I believe how Fold Space works and what affects it is absolutely on-topic for discussing the etiquette of when, where, and how it's used.

If you are rich enough, you can enjoy the multitude of benefits from and additional level shift as often as you like. There are circumstances where you can't use the inspirations though.

Exactly correct. If they are on my team, the team I started then they play by the rules I set. I'm never obnoxious about it in-game, however people here in forums may think I come across. The way I don't play with them, on the team I created, recruited, and manage, is that I boot them off. A hard requirement for being a level 50 on my teams when we're doing content open to all levels is that you help carry the lowbies by staying with the main group. And when they're tough super-powerful 50's, they'll come back and help carry other people's new alts, too. You may say, oh I leveled myself up to 50 solo and have no obligation to carry anyone else's low level alt. You're right, go make your own team, you'll be booted from mine.