iBot

This odd phenomenon only happens during the Yin cycle... On a serious note: I thought that a previous patch made it so that these sorts of powers do not spawn if there is another nearby same as Ouro portal.

Poorly phrased on my part so I apologize for that. More accurately would be "what impact does it have on your experience in game to care that someone may not want to lead?" As to your hypothetical: If I expected to gain a bunch of levels for a TF I would plan accordingly. Meaning I would know what level to do it at, have the double xp boost active, and recruit a proper team expressly stating in the LFG that my goal is to gain XP so the TF will be KILL ALL. If someone asks for star I say No. They don't like it they are free to go find something else to do. I feel no different then any other time in game since I'm in game to have fun which is entirely my business and has zip to do with any of the other players in game at that time. Good?

So we've come to the conclusion that: 1.) Farming with a dabble in marketing from there does give an increase in inf but it is not significant compared to pure marketing 2.) Dedicated marketing is a thing though tedious at times and down right boring to others 3.) As with most things in life this is best done in moderation 4.) Don't cross the streams

😄 Fair point. I know a lot of players that made insane inf early on because of the initial rush of "OMG! CoH is back and I HAVE to have all the stuffs" and we may return to that if the game ever gets the "Legit" stamp of approval. I think it is why I enjoyed the write ups you were doing about the meandering road to riches. Dedication can give higher margins but even us mere mortals can still use the market to increase our available funds with minimal effort.

Yeah I noticed this weekend that all but 30 or so of the winter packs I had bought to sell back have sold. I had them all listed at 24.5 million. I think this was faster than last year as I seem to remember it taking to June for the market to rebound in price. Nice thing to log into after a rough week.

I will push back a little bit on the idea that the market isn't *big* enough for a lot of players. While I concede that certain niche points do get flooded at times, the thing I always tell people who ask is to diversify, diversify, and maybe diversify. What works great one week may not work then next. That doesn't mean the underlying strategy is poor just that you've got to adjust to market realities. There will always be sets that are in demand because the min/maxer types say so. There will always be sets that players wonder why they are even in the game. The proximate opportunity is always to turn the undesirable into the desirable. For example, after a farming session I'll list 10s of common, uncommon, and rare salvage. Sometimes those items sell in a day or two. Sometimes it takes a week. A few times it has taken several weeks for the last of the common to sell. I don't sell to get rid of it I sell for a profit meaning I don't list for 5 inf. The point is it does sell which means that there is still room even at this stage for people that want that salvage NOW and don't want to wait the 15 seconds it takes to maybe fill a lessor bid. It just takes patience to wait out the lower sells. Same thing goes for crafting set IOs. I list for what I think is fair given the cost of salvage, crafting, and listing in order to still make a profit. That is the key piece of knowledge. It is also why I don't bother with generic IOs since I've not figured out how to make a profit with them. And while I certainly don't make billions every week, I've made enough to kit out each of the 27 50s I now have with builds that are good enough which I think was the original point of the exercise to begin with.

My farming toon I always sell stacks of 10 and I've seen times where my sell list has 4, 5, 6, etc sold so I know they can be broken. How the AH determines it I don't know but I've had stacks sell for something that isn't a multiple of 10 meaning that some sold for a different amount then others.

To my knowledge there is no reason to split stacks unless you want to list them for different amounts. Same goes for buying. You can buy 10 but only receive 5. The other 5 wait for someone to list them under your bid. Your listing breaks up once it hits the AH.

Because you asked: The original post is now buried on page 3 of the Excelsior forums but we still actively look for new/returning players to join our ranks. All the info is on our discord channel so have a look. As for the other questions: 1.) Some still like to have a particular name above theirs for groups but a lot of players have personal SGs because they can then make a personal base to house all their stuff. Just a preference really. 2.) The LEGION and Sisterhood are the two that I personally deal with all the time with LEGION being the main. I've seen a few others floating around but they don't usually post much in terms of recruiting at least here on the forums. 3.) No 4.) Up to you. The LEGION has several members that also have their own SGs and also have a few alts in other SGs. We don't require to you always play within the SG itself though we do encourage our members to include their SG mates whenever they are planning to run a TF or missions. 5.) No idea on rankings but I suggest mine. Anyway, welcome home!

@Andreah ... 🤑 ... well all I can say is that is way more math than I'd apply to this situation but very interesting and insightful. I do know this much. Bashing mobs nets more inf than not bashing mobs. Selling items at a vendor nets more inf than not selling them but not as much as certain items on the AH. Opportunity costs for all three activities differ slightly but I think time probably cancels out. Total inf is then expressed as M+V+A. Maximize each of those values and you have the highest possible inf gained for the invested period of time. M is inf earned by defeating a mob. V is inf gains by selling to vendor - time spent getting there. A is inf gained selling on AH minus the costs of market fees, salvage, crafting, and converters. I'm not sure how to include drops in the A but I suspect some sort of time invested there.

I suppose to answer that question we'd need to answer this: "Do you earn more inf by bashing more mobs in the time it normally takes to craft->convert->sell?" Taking into account the cost of the craft, convert, and sell. The time invested in each activity I think is important because without that calculation it isn't a fair comparison. Beyond that I'd say the combination is probably the best since you are already farming but you personally have a ton of knowledge about where sweet spots in the market are so you don't need to spend a bunch of time doing research which is another sunk cost that is usually ignored in the discussions but skews the calculations.

If memory servers you are talking about a Nash Equilibrium but that generally applies to your optimal strategies when confronted with choices involving other players and trying to predict the best result for you based on what they choose. Is also referred to as the Prisoner's Dilemma. However in this case I think the correct analysis would be closer to maximizing profits relative to time spent. Your thought that low bid buying works is correct and there are people who do only that. They purchase blocks of yellow recipes, craft, convert, and sell result. If you factor in the cost of the craft, convert, and market fee sometimes you come out ahead if you get really lucky on that convert. Other times you will actually lose on the transaction because of the lost profit that could have been made by just selling the converters outright. So really it depends on the final goal as well. The strategy used to gain maximum inf is different then the strategy used for fun. Personally I do what is fun and the extra inf is a bonus.

I use a multi button gaming mouse so all my targeting is done with buttons on it that are bound to mapped keyboard keys in CoH. It boils down to target nearest and target farthest depending on if I'm on melee or ranged. I also use the follow trick in case the mob starts to run or knocked around a bit. Beyond that I don't really bother with targeting specific mobs in a group since the nasty ones are usually high on teammates hit lists and there is a good chance the mob will be dead before I even get there so I tend to look for the outliers on the edge of spawns for my attention.

@Ukase Well you are in luck cause I'm one of those farmers that sells everything so I'll give you a run down of my thoughts here. Quick side note, when I mention using merits to pick up a PvP recipe I mostly mean if there is one that you want for a build and the number for sale on the AH are low and / or you don't want to spend converters to roll for it I think it is acceptable to use merits for that one recipe. Never to sell it there I agree the math says sell the converts/boosters/catalyst/unslotter. Anyway... When I'm done with a farm run I sell all SO and generic IO recipes at the vendor. I sell any yellow or orange recipe that is not currently going for 10k+ on the AH at the vendor. I sell all white, yellow, and orange salvage on the AH in lots of 10 meaning if I don't have 10 to list I wait. I generally hold onto converters and catalysts unless I notice the selling price has spiked at which point I may dump a lot of 10 or 20. That is the extent that I wish to invest in my inf making efforts after a run. This is by no means the best when it comes to maximizing my profits but that is my choice. It is quick, easy, and I don't have to spend a bunch of time using that pathetic AH interface to try to find sweet spots to target. I get in, get out, and go on with mob bashing. I know plenty of people that farm and then use the stuff they find to craft and convert to boost their profits and they sit in Pocket D spending 30-45 minutes doing so. I don't have that kind of free time in game. 😜

A large part is also that here on HC alignment can be changed at will by seeing Null the Gull in Pocket D. So ultimately you aren't stuck on one side or the other. Personally, I prefer the blueside zones but the mayhem missions are much more fun. So new characters normally start purple (either vigilante or rogue) so I can go between zones without alignment adjustments. There are a few limitations when not full hero or villain but a quick visit to Null fixes that and you can immediately switch back afterwards.

x2 is usually 2-4 minions and an LT. x4 is usually 4-6 minions, LT, and maybe a boss or second LT x8 is usually 6-8 minions, 2 LT, and a boss or 2. Really depends on the mob type since a few of them spawn extra minions or such like CoT or Lost. It really is just a matter of what you kill fastest. I've noticed that going up in level isn't really as much of a gain as it is handling larger spawn sizes unless I'm going for XP over inf. Then higher level is better. And I always vendor 95+% of what drops since I don't like playing converter roulette but I know a few that do which really boosts the inf gain for the same mission + a bit of time to convert and market. Getting really lucky and changing a yellow to a high demand orange is almost worth it if you are patient and have converters to burn through. AE is nice because you always know what you are getting in terms of map/spawns. Papers are better if XP is the goal. I think drop/inf are about the same between them though missions give slightly more because of end of mission bonus. And don't neglect merits either. A bunch of tip missions and the alignment mission nets a good number of merits for minimal investment. Those can be very lucrative for converters or PVP recipes. Also, always run a Market Crash at 40. It is a free purple recipe first time. And all those are iBot's tips for riches 😁 though I probably borrowed a few from @Yomo Kimyata

@EmperorSteele your insight there is correct. Fighting +4 gives a boost to xp and inf however if it takes you 4x the amount of time to kill that +4 versus an even con then you aren't really gaining anything by doing it. This gets more into efficiency then anything else. Personally I shoot for the highest difficulty I can run within a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes that is 4/8 other times it is barely 0/2. The drops are really the key to boosting your farming which is why the current thoughts are for best results pull the slot machine lever as often as possible and then sell everything that you don't personally use.

Luckily for us we don't ever have to team together... problem solved. Thanks for the implied insult though neither am I. There are a myriad of reasons why a player may not want to lead a team and none of the solutions proposed here would have any impact on that.

Personally I think this falls under the category of "solution in search of a problem." Why does OP care about others' feelings on leading teams? If I want to run a team, I'll run a team. If I don't, then I won't. It really is no more complicated than that. As for people joining a team then immediately trying to take it over there is a solution: kick. It is my team and I'll decide what I want to do with it. If they don't like it they are free to go make a team on their own. Course, I have probably run a PuG twice in the entire time CoH has been back since I'm lucky enough that my SG from Live is active and thriving. And moving the star to the highest whenever we TF is SOP for us.

No worries... we were all there when first coming back. Thinks like "OK so how do I get to DA again? ... oh and what does DA mean?" or even better "what the heck are incarnates?!??" ... see you in game 🙂

We are always happy to help out returning vets. Give us a look. We have members on all through the days and nights though not quite as many as when CoH first came back but still regular to see 20-30 in channel during peak and even 7-12 on off hours.

My $0.02 and it probably isn't worth that much... I tend to say "good run" as part courtesy and as part "thanks for continuing to play this boring game with me." CoX has been boring for a very very long time since probably about 2007 for me. It has always been about the people I get to play with regularly. Our SG isn't quite as large as it was during the peak of "OMG! CoH is back!" but we still have regularly 20-30 people on during peak and even 12-18 on the oddball (for us Americans) hours. And yes we do have a few members across the pond. Anyway... Personally I don't PuG. I find it boring and a bit frustrating because I cannot easily predict how a random person is going to play and therefore cannot anticipate how I should play my characters. So I don't. Sure it means if I'm on when few others are then I have to solo... or <shockingly> I just log off and go do something else. As for being overpowered and balance those are going to be pipe dreams for the foreseeable future. The sad truth is we are still playing an unfinished game. Generic IOs were a big change and sets made the issue even more pronounced. Incarnates take it to another level and were never finished and polished. In time, maybe there are things that could be done but honestly this seems to be the exact same problem that occurred when they first tried to shoehorn PvP into this game. Anyone remember the horrid balance issues that had when it first came out??? In a game where the point is to build an unstoppable character, how is it reasonable to wish for a team to be "less" unstoppable? Challenge is relative and a very elusive goal in games in general not just CoX. I wish the best of luck to any developer that will tackle it though I'm just glad it is not me.

Troll power... not particularly. Power some don't understand when best to use. Yes. Like everything else in this game using it when appropriate is part of the learning curve. Personally if I'm on melee and the team has a few with this I simply wait for them to fire it off before jumping in. Or... <shocking> I just move. Seriously. I have never fully grasped the reasoning behind melee players thinking there is some rule that says once they engage a group they never have to move. Anyway that's just a personal peeve of mine. It is also why I tend to only team with friends. Knowing the playstyle of everyone on the team allows for better anticipation of how fights will unfold and negates a lot of these sorts of coordination problems.

I understand your points and do not disagree with you. However, now we are talking about two different goals. I'm all for raising the rewards when the players take on more challenge. Personally I think merits should scale with mob level so a TF/mission arc run at +4 gets more merits then one run at 0. Same goes for those options when creating the TF/flashback to buff enemies or debuff players. Those should have increased rewards since the players took on greater risk. However I'm not chasing rewards, I'm chasing longer fights. You see longer fights as a waste of time which is certainly valid. And I do love a good steamroll run once in a while. But to have some option to have more engagement during each spawn is my desire here. Any thing that I'd like to see implement must be optional so that teams can make the choices themselves.

I doubt there is much if anything that could ever be done about the AI. Add more mob buffs/debuffs sure. Again "harder" is subjective. And I'm not sure why you are against HP increase since really any buffs/debuffs/resists etc are just under the hood mechanics ways of increasing/decreasing the HP available to the mob. As I said, I'm not sure what the final solution would look like but I think something needs to be adjusted so that fights with groups aren't over 3 seconds after they start. I don't mind say every 4th group or more that the team can manage enough buff or debuff to wipe an entire spawn. What's frustrating is when it is every single group on the map and sometimes even 2 or 3 groups when pulled together by different sources of agro negating the agro caps. And I'm not knocking teams that can do that cause I think it is a viable strategy to the game. I'd just like there to be better ways to fine tune the battles so everyone feels as they are contributing no matter the team make up.