iBot

All very true and certainly lessons that can be applied across the spectrum. Still it is an amusing area of human psychology which is really what economics is all about anyway.

Agreed there and trade is always about what I value vs. what someone else values. My line of reasoning was just that don't spikes have to be caused by buy NOW? Meaning they cannot be driven by sellers placing items on the AH for very high prices unless those are the only ones listed. And since players cannot corner the market on certain items why does the price of those items not drop to 1? And yes I know there is an opportunity cost for everything in that I had to spend time to get it. There must be some reward mechanism in our brains that gives us a nice dopamine hit when we have a successful transaction because I really can't think of why I don't sell everything for 1 inf other than because I don't want to because I know it is worth more than that but less than some other completely arbitrary value. Oh darn... now I've gone cross eyed 🤪

Something still seems counter intuitive here though and maybe it is definite motivations are at odds with each other. When I sell something on the AH I try to determine two things primarily: what is the maximum I can sell for and what is the minimum I will accept where I don't feel I cheated myself out of inf by not asking for more. Same thing goes for when I buy something on the AH. I want to know that I paid a fair price that wasn't inflated. So then what is the driving force behind spikes in prices for anything on the AH and not just salvage? So a hypothetical. Let's say someone that lists common salvage on the AH decides that they will no longer accept any sale under 10,000 inf. What happens? Well human nature comes along and someone else decides you know I'll accept 9,999 inf and so on until the price drops all the way to 1 inf. Same thing on the other side. Someone bids 1 inf and they don't get what they want so they go to 2, 3, 4, ... etc all the way to 10,000 inf. What then is the value of common salvage? Is it the price that buys/sells NOW or is it the average across the entire margin? The spikes have to be driven by impatience don't they? But shouldn't impatience be satisfied at some point and prices settle back to what the general populace will bear? Ultimately we the players decide the price of these things but being human we refuse to act collectively to keep the price artificially low because someone will always decide I will accept less or I will pay more. No real idea where I was headed by with this other than to say that while I hadn't thought about the AH being connected to all the servers hence a larger populace for buyers/sellers I don't completely agree that a technical working of the AH would affect the pricing that dramatically. Possible I am missing something more fundamental there so please enlighten me 😁

I've personally not come across one though I rarely look at others info while playing. Possible to check the "unofficial" RP server Everlasting.

I tend to treat salvage as just inf that takes an extra step to claim. Certainly not going to get rich off it. When it sells on the AH for more than I can vendor it I see it as a net plus. The spike in price continued through the weekend so I'm still puzzled as to why. You'd think by now most people would either have a massive stash themselves or would have realized that there is no reason to BUY NOW at 500 a pop or whatever the price ends up. Not that I'm complaining though. A few months back it seemed as if common would not sell for anything more than 100 inf. Which also baffles me to this day from way back on live. Why would you sell something on the AH for less than you could vendor it other than not being bothered to head over to the vendor? Such are the mysteries of humans.

I'm not certain the economic term for this but there is definitely something in human nature that causes the thinking: "I want this. It is too much. And I don't want to provide it myself." Maybe one of our more learned colleagues can share some insight there. I noticed an odd run on all salvage yesterday afternoon (my time). I was selling off some stuff from my fire farmer and all of a sudden yellow salvage was going for 10-20k a pop. Common was going for 500-1k or more. Rare was hovering around 475k. And this wasn't just a few pieces. I sold probably 50 or so items before the buys started to level out at the normal values. Then it spiked again about 45 minutes later. Was very odd. At first I thought maybe someone had accidentally added a zero to a stack of bids but I ran out of salvage before I saw prices drop down again. Would be interesting to know what occurred if it was a batch of new players or if someone was just amusing themselves by placing high bids for salvage.

I've always wondered if the yellow recipes that require orange salvage were some sort of database entry error. And if that is the case wonder if at some point HC will fix that error. Same goes for the few orange recipes that require no uncommon.

I think Arachnos would have continued to expand operations and started to impact more of the "hero" zones. New factions would arise to make up the purple types to give rogues and vigilanties more things to do. And of course there has to be the next "unstoppable" threat that all would need to band together to give it our all to defeat. Gains would need to be made on both fronts red and blue in order to maintain chaos that gives us all things to do. Any resolution would result in the end of the story which no one wants. More powerful character result in more power foes appearing. So pretty much the typical comic book tropes from the last what 50 or 60 years 👍

Agreed certainly wouldn't try to do something that taxes even most PCs but just to jump in a fire farm or maybe do a few solo missions I think it would handle it. I mentioned the graphics because it really depends on what libraries the underlying game engine uses. Circa 2004 there weren't a whole lot of available cross platform game engines so most games used some form of home grown implementation. Those dependencies are then difficult to port to other platforms. If memory serves, CoH is some form or other of OpenGL but I could be wrong there. Again not impossible but a technical challenge to be sure. Hadn't thought of a bluetooth keyboard. Good call.

How much time you got? Anyway... General rules I use as I build toons. These are by no means fullly min/max nor are they probably optimal. It is just what I do. If the toon is an experiment meaning I'll probably not play it much beyond getting to 50 then I'll slot generic IOs starting at level 22 (to slot 25s) then re slot again at 32. Those 35s last until 50. Any new slots I gain I just slot the highest level IO at that time I can. If at 50 I've decided I really like the character but don't care about exempting then I'll just slot the IO sets that make sense and don't cost too much. Incarnates I slot as they come but I don't go out of my way to get beyond T1 for most except alpha to T3 for shift. If the toon is something I know I'll play a lot I'll slot attuned sets at whatever level they are first available. There are a lot of good bonuses to be had but some of the nicer ones aren't available until lvl 27. At 50 I will slot 1 or 2 purple sets and also work on getting incarnates at least to T3 and possible alpha to T4 eventually as I play. If the toon is something I know I'll play across all level ranges and fully want to be bad ass at those ranges then I'll slot the best attuned sets along with ATOs and at least one Winter set. At 50 I use catalyst to make those ATOs and winter superior versions. At 50 I slot all relevant purple sets. I work to get incarnates all T4. I never craft any sets. I sell everything and then later buy what I want as needed. The exception is the generic IOs since I have a dedicated toon that has all the recipes memorized that I use to craft those. So the only costs there are the components and the craft itself. Using crafting discount tickets helps a lot if inf is tight. But with concerted effort inf is no problem in HC.

Interesting comparison and I hadn't thought of it along those lines. I wonder if the high prices are players that don't realize that they can use threads that are useless once you are T4 to get the insp instead of buying them on the AH. Honestly I would have thought that given how many threads are laying around on all my various characters that the specials would sell for no more than 50k - 100k depending on demand. And given that you can run DA arcs to get components you don't even need to use threads to get to T4 so it really means they are worthless and in large quantities that should drive any cost basis for them towards zero. Going to have to noodle on this one a bit. And damn it I hate thinking on a Monday 😜

Possible? Yes. Most things in coding are possible given time and resources to do it. My guess would be the biggest hurdle is the underlying graphics engine used to render the game and then the networking code that controls the server communications. Beyond that the game is designed to run keyboard/mouse so not sure how easy it would be to convert to a touch interface. Again not impossible but certainly not a project to take lightly.

What server? What time? What level? What alignment? What else was going on at the time? All these play into the availability of potential team mates. There are times when say a Hami or MSR is going on so a lot of the available players are going to do that rather then run radios/papers. Also if one of the popular TFs is the weekly sometimes people are more focused on getting the bonus merits then doing normal content. Lots of things. Sometimes players join radios to just run one or two until something else they want to do is advertised. Don't take it personally, they don't know you ... you don't know them. So there really is no feeling of need to stay on a pick up team. Now if it is a group of friends that you've played with many times I'd be annoyed. Otherwise, you are just strangers that happened to share a bench for a little while. Also if you are looking for an active SG on Excelsior give us a look:

Nice write up... you win a cookie! (Not actual cookie and may not be exchanged for any item of real value) 😆

I've never fully looked into how debuffs are affected by insp and what it takes to overcome certain break points. Whenever I'm playing I almost have to force myself to remember to use the insp even during a tough fight. Sometimes I remember to pop a purp or orange if I get overrun but typically if I'm that bad off I did something poor tactically and will be dead before the insp even fires. I find that the desire to hold the insp for a "tough fight" is probably the main reason why I don't just use them more. My builds are designed to handle the "tough fight" so the insp doesn't matter even if the mob has some form of debuff. Personally, I don't bother trying to solo AVs or GMs so I'd say that is probably why I never really looked into what it takes to do it. Still you'd think that given how useful they can be for certain tasks that the market would be more liquid and definitely a higher base price. But that requires more psychology then I'm equipped with. 👍

Interesting question and possible hijack of a thread so I approve. I will admit I've also wondered why insp sell for what they do on the AH. The normal large ones can go sometimes for more than 50k which seems ridiculous to me. The dual insp I can see sometimes going for a bit more but even those are a pain cause while they do drop they cannot be combined. The team ones I guess some use them but honestly I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've actually seen one pop on my buff bar because someone on the team used it. Maybe more so during iTrials or Hami since I haven't done those since coming back I've no data there. As for the supers I think the only reason I have one or two is someone gave them to me when HC came back saying "Look at this!"... and I've never used them. They sit in my AH stash. I think that is the primary driver for those types of insp. Players just don't use them enough to see them as anything worth having. When you can cap most of the important stats with a proper build why bother with insp at all? You'd think that lower characters would utilize them more but since you can only carry so many at once and they don't drop while in mission it makes them even less likely to rely on them. And turning them on so they do drop just increases the number of items for RNGesus to decide you really don't need that enrage for a long long time. That's my initial thoughts at least. ... And now back to your regularly scheduled thread 😇

<captures bad guy... proceed with monologue...> I sell everything on the AH. All salvage goes on there. All yellow, orange and purple recipes go on there. All catalysts go on there. All converters go on there. Then when I need something I just use the easily emailed stash of inf I have on hand to buy it. I have started to also purchase either hero/villain packs or winter packs when the IO I want is either in short supply or is priced higher than the pack itself. When I was younger I was stupid and would pay 15 mil for an ATO but no more. Now I pay 10 mil for the pack and just convert to what I want sell everything else. Bonus if the pack had 2 enh in it. No need to build a base. No need to remember what character has my stash of stuff. The email system and AH for the win and with the side benefit of I can access it from almost anywhere. I've also started to place a stash of large insp in email as well. I just empty my tray of them whenever full and I'm running around doing 50s stuff. Fills up quick and I get to have plenty on hand for when I want those special loadouts for a tough fight. Wait... where'd that villain go?!???

Give us a look: We have active players all across various time zones and even in EU. So there is normally a group on that is running teams or TFs or even farms if the idea strikes them. Welcome back!

Bump because I don't wanna be on page 3 anymore 😇

When I decide to do this arc I generally wait till I'm roughly 20 or 22. 22 seems to be best since level 25 IOs make the missions much better in terms of hits and damage potential. Also, that last mission curing the Lost isn't such a pain because all the mobs in Skyway are now below me and I don't have to worry about getting defeated while I try to cure a large spawn. Just a preference. I do agree that I'd think the arc should be moved to later teens or early twenties but I have no issues with it being available at 12 as is. Or even beef it up a bit and make it more about the midnight club unlock then anything else which is most useful post 35 for ITF.

This sort of discussion always amuses me. Back in the early days of live the prevailing wisdom was always let the tank gather as many mobs as possible and then when they are all packed in fire off your nuke and move on to the next big gathering. Then the devs changed how agro works and tanks could no longer pull entire maps to one spot. If you didn't have a tank then someone was designated as a "puller" and you'd try to split mobs up as much as possible before going in to finish off the groups and agro'ing more than one group was usually a team wipe. Fast forward to now and you can build a blaster that can tank 4/8 by themselves without any issues. Mind you I'm not complaining here in that I firmly fall into the category of "We are playing a 17 year old game. Why are you stopping to admire the graphics?!?? Just play." I've already done all the stories, read all the dialog, memorized most of the maps so the only fun I have is really chatting with those on the team and once in a while laughing when someone does something silly and gets themselves defeated. Add to that the fact that we are not a group of teens anymore. A lot of us can play while eating/drinking/smoking our favorite mood enhancing substance. So "efficient" play is not always on the menu. If you've never seen a drunken ITF it can be an experience all by itself. So my advice to anyone that is miffed that sometimes players aren't "efficient" is to do your best to find friends that think just like you. You'll enjoy the game much more and won't waste any energy trying to change those that don't play like you. Because for some, mass chaos IS the whole point of playing. And before you ask yes I play an NRG/NRG blaster that is actually slotted for maximum knockback that I know how to fully utilize to not only keep mobs off me but send them flying back to the melee group when they try to run at me. And if they've run away from the melee and I notice, chances are they'll be dead before you even get there so don't bother chasing just go on to the next large group. 👍

Depends on if I'm leveling a character that I feel like I know what all the powers do or if I'm leveling something that I'm trying a different set of tactics so I don't want to gain too much too fast. So sometimes I use it 1-50 maxed out. Other times I use it sporadically when I'm say at a break point where I want to quickly get to a particular level to gain a new power or slots and then let it lapse while I integrate that power into my attacks etc.

I can't say I'd fit your definition since I don't buy things on the AH to turn around and sell them. I do however sell everything that I earn as I play. All salvage goes on the AH and any set recipe that sells for more than I can vendor it as well though lately I've been lazy and just sell these on the AH as well for say 1000 inf. All normal (TO, DO, SO) enh and generic IO recipes I vendor. When I go to outfit a new character I just buy back what I want when I want it. So ultimately I'd guess you could say I convert all my loot into a liquid asset that I then use later to acquire the loot I want without the messy need of storing all that stuff myself. I let the market store it for me.

If memory serves a few powers store energy then if you hit with a power that releases it, which is lit up with a yellow ring, there is a bonus chance to stun the opponent.

Yeah possible the code only works with same team. Maybe in future the devs can adjust it to not stack. It is kind of annoying to step out to 3 or 4 of them packed because you don't know if someone on team spawned it so you stand around waiting for the pop up as.