Andreah

These could be limited by archetype, by tagging them into a (hypothetical) new set of ATO/SATOs.

KANSAS, Part III Westminster Redoubt, beneath the ruins of London, Island of Britain. "Your Majesty, the operation was largely successful. All on-site objectives were met, except for final atomic demolition. All non-meta Americans present were slain, and over half the assault force was recovered. The fallback orbital strike had to be cancelled, the Americans routed an orbital destroyer group to the area and we had to pull the Nike forces back to avoid losing them. We estimate we set their project back by at least a year, perhaps two, and we gained the technical details for their gate generator. We confirmed their Doctor Philadelphia made a substantial breakthrough in field surface stablization, and they can produce gates as large as three meters across, but still cannot control the emergence point. None of their experiments were able to produce stable transit from a sender to a receiver, much less from a sender to a non-receptive point in space. Oddly enough, their logs show porting, but they could not locate the emergence locations. Our scientists believe we can have our own operational within one year. And we do know how to direct transits, Professor Newton has been transiting millimeter tracers to Luna and back for over a year; when we stabilize meter-scale gates, we'll be able to port miniatomics to any destination on Earth or in near orbital space. We'll take care of the Americans in short order and then clean up this Ravaging mess Doctor Forbyn created." Charles III replied. "Make it so. Whatever resources needed for this are granted. Pass Our gratitude to your teams on Diego Garcia." Lake Michigan Super Force Station, Lakebottom Bubble Four SCIF "That was a near run thing. How much did they get?" "Far too much. And they wiped the computers clean, even though they planted a bomb, too. They knew we were on something big, and wanted to stop us entirely. Risky." "Your girl Winters pulled the fubar out of that; right good work there." "Pure luck, she wasn't there in a research capacity at all; strictly security. Nothing nuclear about that work at all. It's all ultra-high density physics, gluon fluids, gravitons and singularities and so on. Makes my head spin, and I have two PhD's" "Cut the crap; yours are in political science and economics. What's our next play?" "The Brits already had a gate program, we have a mole inside it. What they got won't help them as much as they think; Philadelphia assures me there's two full dead ends to get past. And only then will they realize the large stable gates lead to other universes. And by then, we'll have Bolthole established and push a million top people through, a cross section of the best." "Do we have a universe picked out?" "Theoretically, we have six we can reach; something about a minimally quantized paratemporal hypercube. We'll test them in sequence and put Bolthole through to the one most similar to our own. We'll go in hot with Super Force, six cybernetic regiments, a nuclear detachment, logistics, and then the main relocation column. Most likely they're uninhabited, but if not, we'll have to put the natives down. How's the schedule looking?" "Simulations project we only have a year, or at most two, left. Two if we can defeat the Brits first. Six months if they get the upper hand; most likely one with the stalemate and the Ravaging advance. The President is readying the unlimited nuclear release authority directive; and Montana Buttes has been stockpiling half-gigaton weapons. Once we start delivering those ..." "I hate giving up on the Earth. But the space colonies aren't sustaining biomes yet; might never be. And certainly not with enemy forces still in orbit. Dueling radiation projectors; no way out of that alive." "If we can't make Bolthole work, there's nothing." "So long as those giant caves in Kansas doesn't collapse until we've established Bolthole and the Second Republic. When we have that, we'll burn the planet and close the gate behind us."

KANSAS, Part II Spencer Memorial Technology Center, Federal Republic Super Force, 15 Kilometers outside Lawrence, Kansas Research Wing B, Gate Reactor Test Chamber Something was tearing at the half meter thick steel door; the hinges were groaning and would rip soon. Victoria raced her fingers and mind through the workstation, and the team of engineers maneuvered the demolition device into place right on the half-constructed gate pad. "Gently now, lads, gently", the sergeant in charge spoke as they heaved the heavy atomic bomb into place and powered up the arming panel. "Ma'am, it would be best if you finished quickly..." Warspite worked quickly, indeed. There were layers of security guarding the backups, and she had to get them all, and only had seconds to do it. *Air-gap; Repulse may be able to trace across* she thought to herself as the last of the backups in the machines wiped themselves clean. "Done," she remarked, "all the station's systems are wiped." At that moment, the massive door behind her creaked again, and was thrown back out from its frame. "FREEZE!", a voice called out, almost as loud as a shotgun. Victoria turned, and saw the woman standing there, in Republic Scarlet, White, and Black. The floor shook as the blonde stepped heavily over the door frame. Super Force, as if her having torn tons of metal door out of it hinges bare handed didn't already announce it. A light blue glow emanated from her -- Cherenkov radiation. It was one of their bricks - Megaton. Victoria's briefing was extensive; she knew this meta had incredible strength and near invulnerability. But like most such, he mind wasn't well shielded, and Victoria sent waves of psi-power against her. She couldn't stop the meta, but she could slow her down. "Get out," she called to the engineers, "I can only buy us a few seconds!" The lead engineer called back "Armed and ready, nothing can stop it!" It was time to leave. But first, a parting shot; she turned back to the Super Force meta struggling through the psi barrage "Fool! You can't disarm it -- die in atomic fire!" Victoria and the engineering team quickly made their way out to the extraction rendezvous; leaving the Super Force meta behind, having given up pursuit, as Victoria had intended, to examine the two-kiloton demolition device. Outside, Lord Blood had the last extrication launchers ready to go; a fast, boosted pod, capable of a single suborbital flight. Flashes from the Nikes' kinetic weapons lanced across the sky. "Here, Warspite. Confirm mission status once you're in zero-G." The pod, basically a manned missile, would boost at five-G's and then coast in stealth to reentry over the Indian ocean, where the recovery flotilla waited. Not so different than the first satellite launches back in the 50's; except they hadn't had stressed molecular monofuels. The demolition device would go off just as the last of them evac'd. There were casualties all around them, mainly conventional forces, but even a few of the Emperor's Own lay dead. Lord Blood's work, no doubt, to slay any of their own they couldn't evacuate. The Americans would be swarming over the site shortly, but they would gain no prisoners to interrogate, only atomic deaths. Inside the gate complex, Major Megaton, codename for Jeanette Winters, huddled over the device they'd armed. One thing Victoria's briefing on Super Force didn't include was Jeanette's knowledge of nuclear weaponeering; related in fact, to her own origin as a meta human during a nuclear test gone wrong almost forty years back. She didn't need tools, she peeled the outer casing of the device off with her fingers, and turning her expert's eye on the nuclear mechanism, its superconducting capacitor coils, dynamic field generation ring, Plutonium weapon pit, laser compression drivers, multibeam focusing array, Helixium-124 detonator, and there, to the Tritium primary injector. With a grasp and a pull, she rips the small cylinder straight out. Radiation inside the device is intense, but it didn't slow her down -- on those very rare occasions when something manages to cut her skin, she emits more. All it can do now is laze a pinhole in the floor. The complex and the prototype gate is saved.

KANSAS January 11, 2018 Diego Garcia Imperial Meta Command Worldwide Operations Centre Deep Redoubt Alpha-6, Sublevel 5, HMS Marie Rose Conference Room MC-5 "Operation Olympic Strike is approved, and you, Ladies and Gentlemen, will be the Meta Command Expeditionary Group for this deep excursion into Federal Territory." Duchess Neptune paused while the graphics came up onto the projector. She was an older Meta, highly decorated and a veteran of the South Atlantic war, and currently ran what remained of the clandestine operations of Meta Command; most operations being operated overtly since the 2004 unmasking of the superpowers' various militarized meta groups. Still, a few operations were conducted entirely in secret, both during planning, execution, and in denial afterwards. "Unlike prior excursions, this one will be larger scale and quite risky." The audience of Meta Command operatives and non-meta planners and logisticians, stirred a bit. It didn't phase Victoria; after her experiences on the Nemesis-12 Radiation Projector, it seemed nothing could phase her. Everything around her had a slight shimmer, as if it wasn't real. She could dissociate her surroundings as if she was a passenger in her own body; unfeeling, abstractly watching, perhaps controlling, but not even that, at times. Whatever it was that was required, she could do. Her psychiatric evaluation had noted this issue, but such was their need, it was dismissed and she was here. "The target is the Federal Republic's Technology Centre outside Lawrence, State of Kansas. There will be four teams. Alpha will be primary insertion following orbital battlefield preparation, establish a secure ground level perimeter, and repel ready Republic conventional forces. Lieutenant Commander Excelsior will lead Alpha. Alpha will have his choice of four metas, and six platoons of Imperial Shock Marines. Insertion will be via orbital paradrop." Two squadrons of Space Command Nike-5 suborbital superiority planes will providing air and space cover. These will be coordinated through Platform Theta, which will have 1.5 seconds of comm latency, worst case." She uses a pointer to indicate the insertion trajectories, oval tracks of space planes, and the field of view of the high-orbit relay station. "Beta Team lands eleven minutes after Alpha, inside the secured perimeter. Beta will form the ground support logistical echelon, clear the extrication site, shown -here-, and assemble the extrication launchers. They will have no more than 205 minutes to complete this. This is critical, and without Beta's successful completion of the task, all four teams will have to fight their way out against rapidly escalating Federal power. Your alternative extrication routes are to the south, and terminate in Antarctica. Lord Blood will lead Beta." Victoria gazed over towards the inhumanly old meta Neptune had named. In fact, he was the first Meta known to exist in the Empire, and his powers were largely unknown and his stature such that he'd kept his codename from before the formation of the Command. "Sir, you will have your choice of powered personnel, and two platoons of conventional engineer troops to use. You will find an envelope in your briefing pack with special instructions for your eyes only." "Gamma Team will be lead by Lieutenant Capricious. Gamma's task is to effect penetration into the research facility, neutralize all Federal forces within the facility, including the Super Force attaches." There was an unsettled murmur through the group, but she continued. "Several Super Force agents will be encountered. Captain Kinetic, Detroit's Finest, Eighty-Eight States, and Doctor Philadelphia are confirmed present. Other suspected to be on site could include Yellowstone, Major Megaton, Swamp Terror, and Trials of Salem. Gamma will be spearheaded by a detachment of eight metas, and will be accompanied by a full company of Emperor's Own Armored Assault Dragoons. Brigadier Waverly will command the conventional forces for Gamma, giving Capricious maximum flexibility to use his meta team against any Super Force defenders. The Brigadier will also carry out executions of any Federals not killed during the assault, including civilians, verify there are no Federal survivors, and plant the demolition atomic." "Delta Team will be lead by Commander Medusa. Madame, your psi abilities will be necessary in two critical roles. Your team must identify and extricate the sensitive data we wish to acquire, and you will personally destroy any residual data, including backups, found in the facility. Not only must we have this data, but the Americans must no longer have it." Medusa nodded once. "You will have two metas with you; Lieutenant Repulse, and Lieutenant Commander Warspite; both with Level-B or better psychotronic sensitivity." "The data being collected are designs for prototype devices to open space-time gates. Both we and the Americans have been researching the possibilities of such techniques for some time. They have had a breakthrough at this facility, and it represents a tremendous threat to the security of the Empire. Killing Federal Metas, while not contraindicated, is not a priority on this mission. We need that data. Badly. Once the data has been secured, residuals destroyed, and all Americans within the facility have been slain, all four teams will extricate under Lord Blood's control. Orbital Command assures they will maintain local air and space superiority long enough to extricate fully. I will note the Americans have been using atomics quite liberally against the Ravaging in Central America, and we cannot rule out atomics or radiation strikes against the facility while we are there. The team planning packages you each have provide intelligence data and logistical details. I expect completed team plans and final personnel requests by this time tomorrow. The scheduled op-start is in 96 hours, and spacelift will be provided at Pad 19. Let's be about it." Victoria left the room, following Commander Medusa down the corridor. This was the biggest covert operation she'd ever been in, and in fact, ever even heard of.

I prefer corded mice. I use an older Logitech G-500, and it's perfect for me. It has little weights you can put in to get the right feel, and it doesn't have some bizarre markethypotonic blinkenizer shape, and has a few easily configured settings for sensitivity. I should buy a few before they're gon--- oops, too late. >.<

This is great, but, for every person who can do this, there's a bunch who can't, but think they can.

Zen and the Art of Driving in Heavy Traffic

I'm more interested in people turning off their repelling fields, and for the slippers/folders to coordinate with each other a bit.

Any competent Marketeer could have a billion or more inf in no time at all, just buying and selling things from the auctionhouse, and starting from the tiny bits of info you get from drops.

Accursed! Accursed are the people with screen sizes larger than developers possibly conceived of twenty years ago! Accursed I say!

I think it would be cool if the Atlas Pocket-D entrance, if there is one, was close to Back Alley Brawler. Give people more reason to see that he's there.

I run at 4k without scaling, and the rectangular blank areas that try to create the letterboxing don't cover all the way from left to right. They stop about 3/4 the way across, and on the far right hand side of the screen, I can see the full height of the rendered scene. The fakeness is pretty dumb, and ought to be removed. I'll go further, I'd prefer to have a global setting to disable all cutscenes, and just blast the text they provide into my npc chat tab in case I want to read it.

Maybe it's moved since I last checked -- it's been a few weeks since I've dabbled in it. But I was routinely buying at below 350k, and selling at 450k or more. Not huge amounts, but enough that it would be worthwhile for a starter.

I'll disagree back. 🙂 A good starter market should be a bit more work and less lucrative - that's the incentive to move on once you've learned from it. On the other hand, it can make a 20% profit per trade, on less then a million starting inf; and not by buying at 380 and selling at 420, no. I recommend new people bid pretty low, and let those bids sit overnights. They learn that even a market with a lot of volume can swing pretty far in a day. Then they learn how to set sell prices to get a fair profit after fees, and then to balance their buy and sell prices to prevent building up unsold inventory. They do this for a few days or maybe a week or three, and then they've outgrown it, have a stash of inf to play with, and want to move up. In the mean time, a better floor's been set on the rare salvage market than would have been present otherwise.

No change needed. There are tricks and techniques for handling aggro, and some actual teamwork can really make it shine. Someone had written up a very nice guide to how aggro work, in detail, and how it can affect your group tactics. Sadly, I can't find it at the moment. However, what I can say is your main tank is probably not the only character on your team that can handle aggro, and passing it around will let you do amazing fun things.

I did try to create a price floor on rare salvage once. Someone was saying in general chat that they had posted the first piece of rare salvage they got as a drop, all excited and hoping for the 500k windfall to pay for their enhancements, and then got stuck with a 10k sell. Chat helped explain how the market works and how posting at 1 usually is fine, but can have some bumps like that, and I think someone emails the person a little cash to help them get started -- our community is great like that. And then I put in a bunch of bids at some low number I thought would at least make sure anyone posting at 1 got some not unreasonable amount for it ... 250k, I think? Maybe 350? I don't remember the details. The problem was the volume was too high for me to keep up with (I supposed I could have but it was a pain and not worth the time), since I was only buffering the inventory in my character salvage inventory space. I quit doing that after a week or so, but I started recommending to my friends and SG's to flip rare salvage on the lower end. It's a good beginner marketeer's market.

I have purposefully bought things a bit higher than they would sell at, to intentionally reset the history list. A lot of players seem to bid whatever they see in the history, and some will list there too; and changing what the history shows them can have an effect on their buying and selling decisions. Results have been mixed and I doubt it would work at all on high volume items with well-known price points

The important thing was you were there, made a notable impact, and have fond memories of it today.

In television, the earliest series I can remember doing long, interconnected arcs, other than soap operas, was Hill Street Blues.

Workload is the usual reason many market schemes don't scale well. Now imagine if you could post stacks of 100's, or 1000's, or even millions of an item in the auction? Suddenly people would be trying to corner the common salvage market. And might succeed, too. As they say, you can make more money trading wheat than gold, but not one grain at a time.

I think I did that there too, but only for a few hours -- I think a lot of players tried it, it was almost a rite of passage for new marketeers. I remember losing money on the effort though. It would take deep pockets, a lot of marketing slots, and constant attention from me to keep ahead of it, and I just couldn't keep it up. I've tried short term experiments on HC to corner markets, and it's harder; possibly due to the greater overall market/game literacy here and market bucketing and seeding. I've not looked far into the inspiration market. They're hard to store in quantity. It might be possible to do on the more expensive higher-end ones, and even though I buy a few of those from time to time, I haven't seen anything suspicious in those markets. I so see the prices of EoE's ripple before and after scheduled Hami raids now and then. But manipulation there might be hard, since most Hami raids can get more than enough on the spot and not need to go buying them off the /ah.

I don't know if there's a guide per se, but some of the threads here will give you some good overviews. And we're friendly, and will answer questions and offer advice.

Market manipulation puts the "E" in Ebil Marketeering. This is not a how-to guide, but I am curious about what people have seen, experienced, or perpetrated; either here on HC or back on Live. I also want to draw the distinction between manipulation within the game rules, and any abuses or exploits which violate the code of conduct specifically or in spirit. If you believe someone is breaking the code of conduct report it through proper channels, please don't bring it up here. It might even be hard to define "manipulation". I'd leave ordinary buy/relist-higher flipping/speculation out; because it's not really trying to create a new buy/sell price spread, but rather make money through it, and there is arguably a service being performed this way -- economization of sellers and buyers' market slots, rationalizing listed volume, and stabilizing prices. To me, manipulation is not just finding a great niche to make money in; it has the deliberate intent to create one. It doesn't have to be malicious; this is after all, just a game. So, with those out of the way, what kinds of Wentworth's/ Black Market manipulations have you seen/experienced/etc.? My awkward wording is so that I'm not asking people to confess, only generally describe and discuss. 🙂 Have you ever seen/etc a large-scale manipulation? Have you ever seen/etc an attempt to hoard supply of an item to drive prices up? Have you ever seen/etc an attempt to crash a niche in advance of buying on a larger scale? Have you ever seen/etc more than one person conspire to corner a market niche? Have you ever seen/etc resetting of the price history on an item to look more favorable? Have you ever seen/etc Market-PvP, where one player is contending over a market niche with another? Have you ever seen opportunities to manipulate the market? (As a kind and good soul, of course you did not.) What limits on these naturally occur? Do you feel those to attempt to manipulate markets make money through it, or lose their shirts? I think the classic real-world case of this is "Silver Thursday"; March 27, 1980; which I encourage everyone to look up; there's a short and easy to read Wikipedia article about it. There's others, I'm sure. If you have an interesting experience in-game, please explain.

I'm assuming even though the time is listed in "EST" the event is intended to be at 8pm EDT, since most all of the US is observing Daylights Savings now? This might seem a technicality, but if players from outside the US use a time converter, it will probably give them the wrong time, and they'll be late by an hour.

/bind <key> "powexec_name Fold Space$$inspexec_name Ultimate" I actually use this on my tanker. I run on Ultimates almost constantly on them, and it's convenient to tie them to when I want to do a Fold. Ultimates help in many ways, not just for fold space, and a perk of being wealthy is I can afford it. I think most people could, once they're deep in end game and playing rewarding content frequently. An ultimate costs, reasonably, about 750K on the Auction. (You can also buy them with your excess Threads). They last for three minutes, which resolves to 250k per minute, or 15 Million per hour. That's not much for being a full +1 level shift over and above your normal level shift almost all the time. YMMV.