Boas

How is this build working for you, Warshades? I've got mostly the same thing (haven't respecced or slotted), with disruptor blast from Mace Mastery. Think it'll make my AOE attack chain too crowded? edit: Forgot to mention, the AO Overpowering Presence: Energy Font proc isn't slotted on your build. What don't you like about it? Just not as effective as a straight-up damage proc?

Maybe so, but that's not really what I'm talking about. Some examples might have been helpful... Say, for instance, the team decides they want to implement account-wide currency, accolades, or whatever. Digging in and untangling the systems involved in a project like that is a job. If someone wants it done, they might only get it done by offering a financial incentive. That's more what I was trying to say.

A project like Homecoming would challenge just about any professional dev team. Ours are volunteers. The argument that their time is limited seems to come up a lot on these forums, so I'd like to explore and anticipate the pros and cons of a bounty system for development tasks. I'm talking about something like a "bug bounty" system, used by software companies to detect and correct vulnerabilities in their product. The Homecoming team could use these bounties to investigate the feasibility of certain additions or modifications to the game, or to fast-track jobs that require a lot of work. Unfortunately, Homecoming is not a multi-billion dollar software company. I imagine the available funds are limited. That's the first hurdle: does Homecoming take in enough donations for a system like this to be feasible? If not, oh well, close the thread. I think they might, otherwise I wouldn't have posted this. I should clarify that I don't necessarily think this is a great idea. The reality, though, is that certain things just can't get done in timely fashion without someone getting paid to do it. Think of it like an old castle restoration. You enjoy the work of keeping it up and even making improvements, so your friends can come over and LARP in the courtyard or whatever. Sometimes they give you some money for your trouble. But when the toilets back up, and you want to hire a plumber, some of the LARPers get mad. These LARPers, they don't want working toilets. If the toilets need fixing, they say you should do it yourself, so you can keep spending their money on Natty Light, which they pour into plastic horns and pretend it's mead. So, you know... It's kind of like that. Pros: Get stuff done faster Volunteer organization avoids having to hire regular employees (also a con, in a way...) Frees up volunteer devs to work on what they want Could players contribute donation monies directly to bounties they want to support? Cons: The paperwork The expectations Exploitative? Someone could spend a lot of time on a problem without ever satisfying the conditions of the bounty, and wouldn't get paid. One might say that comes with the territory, but I don't like it. Transparency required, to the point that it might compromise the dev process, to head off accusations that bounties (read: "my donation monies") are being awarded unfairly. Does anyone have experience with a similar system? If you do, it might be obvious that I don't.

I've made a few dual pistols characters over the years, including one just today, and yeah, the animations are wild. Wish there was someone devoted to adding more alternate animations and weapons, for all sets. I want more axes!

On the male model (and only on the male model, as far as I could tell), the "Omega" gloves go missing from the list, when you switch gloves to asymmetrical. I discovered this while trying to select the "Omega" left glove with "Robotic Arm 3" upper body, and couldn't find it.

I can't tell you how much I'd love this. There's a lot of unused space between the list and the selected character, so it would be great if we could customize that and have it display some useful information. What about trading items between characters in the character selection screen, though? Being able to consolidate your stuff without logging in to each character individually? It would be way handier than using the mail system. Could you drag and drop items from the items/currencies displayed on one character to the nameplate of another character on the account to transfer them? Wonder if it's possible. Edit: I mentioned the mail system but could have expanded on that, too. Mail access from character selection?

The difference is that there ends up being way less of it. And, In order for crafting to mean anything, there should still be some material component... at least in the higher level IOs, where you start seeing uncommon salvage in the recipes.

Might sound hypocritical, but I like the salvage system. I like the weird artifacts and powerful components you mash together to make IOs. I'd love to see my salvage inventory filled with yellow and orange. Those pieces are actually worth something for crafting. I just think there's too much busywork involved, and white salvage is the most easily identified culprit.

So you're in agreement with the person who busted in here like the Kool-Aid Man just to call me a troll, refuse to address the subject of the thread, then declare they were blocking me? OK... but how do I know you have me blocked? I want some kind of guarantee. If you can read this, post a screenshot of your block list, with my name on it. Make sure to spell it right. Thanks for trying to refocus the discussion on what really matters: fun. I should have talked about that right off the bat, but it's such a subjective thing. I also wanted to bring up how removing so much unnecessary stuff from players' inventory, the AH, and the market in general might take less of a toll on whatever database structure Homecoming runs on, but I know nothing about databases. I wouldn't be able to articulate that point. I DO know that my SG base lights flicker and my guy jerks around for second whenever I take salvage out of the racks. That's kind of messed up, right? Isn't that... uh, a bad thing to be happening? So, if it can't be fixed (I'm assuming if it could, it would have been by now), maybe the focus should be on forcing fewer interactions with those inventory racks. How? You know it. Eliminate white salvage.

Oh, please. It's cringe to say cringe now, right? Damn. Cringe. Double down on your comic misunderstanding of the difference between currency and commodity. Then keep pretending that's even remotely relevant. That should do it. Sorry you forgot uncommon and rare salvage exists. I know, dude. Three pages of dishing out my incredibly witty retorts before I decided to give a little. Should have held out longer. I'll never hit a 5k+ post count at this rate.

That's pretty much what I arrived at as a more diplomatic suggestion. I'd love to just turn off common salvage drops and be able to pay a fee where they are required. But I still think it's a worthy goal to try and untangle some of the more daunting systems in this game. I can't even imagine coming in as a new player and seeing everything I needed to fully deck out my new character. I'd probably just quit. And I think removing white salvage would make that just a little less intimidating.

That's just not true. I really do think eliminating white salvage would benefit everyone. I think it would streamline the crafting process in pretty much every aspect. I think it would help declutter the inventory management system. I think it would make crafting and the game in general more approachable to new players. Are those not valid objectives? And I did try to provide an alternative system. You even quoted the post where I brought it up. Did you even bother reading it? Are you trying to bait me into replying to you, by telling me to stop posting? Not gonna work! Nice try!

In the post you yourself quoted, I described white salvage as outdated, overly complicated, and tedious. Apparently that just means I don't like it. Are you ignoring all the reasons why I don't like it? I've talked about a lot of them. Which do you disagree with? I'm suggesting the revision of an outdated, overly complicated and tedious system, by excising an element of that complexity. Now, there definitely is an argument to be made about the precious time our devs have to devote to this kind of a project. Aside from that, the consensus seems to be "well, I like it the way it is." That's fine, you're allowed to like it, but I'm not just advocating for the elimination of white salvage because I don't like it. You're just dismissing out of hand the points I've tried to make. Also -- and this is something someone else said too, and it's bugging me -- the fact that I can dispose of entire stacks of white salvage at a time does not make that an adequate solution to the problem. That's just my way of trying to make it less bothersome... and I still need this worthless junk for crafting!

Nothing you've said explains why white salvage is critical to the economy. You're just completely missing the point. You are defending outdated, overly complicated tedium with scary imaginary scenarios and a barrage of irrelevant links. I'm asking you why, and you're just saying because. You tried to tell me in the post you re-linked (twice?) that new players would suffer. How do you know this? If a new player wants to deck out their first character, they need inf more than anything else, to buy the recipes and materials. White salvage only represents the least necessary, most annoying extra step between inf and a crafted IO ready to be slotted. And let's be real, if you care about the new player experience, you should be advocating for the revision of these convoluted old systems... like I am! Real-world economic principles do not translate accurately to this ingame economy. You can't use demonic blood samples to buy drugs or guns. You can't barter for groceries or pay rent with your stacks of regenerating flesh. Once it's in your hands, the only things it's used for are crafting and selling. You can't do anything with salvage that doesn't involve inf. Yes, this also applies to empowerment tables. Why? The salvage you put into it can be bought with inf. The price is capped by salvage that's artificially seeded into the market, and thus insulated from inflation. This makes salvage more akin to a commodity than anything else. Moreover, it makes your repeated assertion that it's an alternate currency (which, again, is not an argument for its relevance) invalid. Link all the wiki articles you want, you're wrong. Someone disagreed with me and said I didn't have an alternative. How about this? Imagine if, anywhere in the game you see a requirement for a piece of common salvage, you also see the option to pay an inf fee instead. Let's be punitive and say +20% the seeded market price of common salvage, 12k inf a pop. If I completely ignored white salvage and only paid the fee, and I needed 50 pieces of common salvage for a build I'm working on (which is more than I'd need, but I'm making a point), I would still only end up paying 600k inf. That is practically nothing. You can vendor a few white IO recipes for that much inf. I would pay the fee every time. How critical is white salvage now, really?

Just to make sure you did it right, my name is Boas, not Boss. Please correct your ignore list entry, thank you.

Oh, so the economy wouldn't collapse if white salvage was eliminated? Thank you for agreeing with me. (edit) You're calling salvage a currency. Can I trade it for anything but inf? Then it may as well just be inf. You're playing with a definition of currency that has no correlation in the real world. We can assume you've read the Wikipedia page for "economy" longer than I have. That is a concession I will make. So, let's just get back to the main point. What horror lays in wait for us when common salvage is eliminated from the game? Bread lines? People selling off their malnourished alts? What's the worst that can happen?

Easy, just think of how people are with you, but the opposite. I want everyone here to do something wild. Boot up the game. Yeah, yeah, a lot of you just play the forums these days, but this is an exercise. Find a build you like. It doesn't have to be an expensive one. Start putting together the sets you need for it. Pay attention to how often you zone and /ah for more of this junk. Every time an old bone, or a broken watch, or anything else with a white name passes through your hands... imagine it DIDN'T. Imagine it didn't HAVE to. The economic argument may be a valid one, but remember, I'm not saying ALL salvage should be eliminated. White salvage represents a tiny fraction of transactional volume on the marketplace. If anything is going to stabilize or destabilize the economy, it's going to be IOs, IO recipes, rare salvage, and those special enhancements that somehow sell for 300+mil. The fluctuations alone in the prices of these items represent values you'd need hundreds or thousands of white salvage pieces to match. Compared to these, and with inventory limitations, white salvage is effectively valueless. Now, as an aside, I will admit it is sometimes fun to be able to link a piece of salvage in chat. And the icons, they're pretty neat. Some artist at Cryptic back in the day probably had fun making those. So, the artwork should stay in the game, in some form. Maybe as icons for souvenirs. Hey, why don't souvenirs have icons? They're all just little question mark blocks. That's boring! If you read this much, thanks. You're welcome. If you're still trying to convince yourself that you're not convinced, and assuming you still play the game at all, I have a surprise for you: whenever you see a piece of white salvage, you'll think of this thread, and how you sneered at it. You'll wonder if I'm right. Eventually, you'll admit I am. Eliminate white salvage!

White salvage is not an alternative (or complimentary) currency. It is effectively just a different denomination of inf. Suggesting the HC economy would collapse if white salvage was eliminated is like saying the US economy would collapse if $2 bills were taken out of circulation.

Oh, I'd LIKE the option to block white salvage drops... but I still have to procure white salvage for just about every little thing I want to craft. I have to load into an open map from my SG base to access the laggy auction house interface, just to throw a negligible amount of ingame money at this little thing I need. It's just busy work! I see I'm getting a lot of opposition to this idea. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm confident you all secretly agree with me and see the absolute merit of the points I'm making, and I forgive you.

This game is already full of weird little consolations and evasive sub-systems to let players avoid certain mechanics they don't like. Personally, I don't like res insps showing up in my tray, so I turned them off. That's good, because I still want to use inspirations. That makes sense. There is no way for me to NOT engage with white salvage. It is not an opt-in system. Adding another P2W category for salvage drops does not adequately address the problem. White salvage must be excised from the game entirely. It will be eliminated from the auction house, drop tables, and recipe requirements. You have no reason to advocate for its preservation aside from some misplaced sense of nostalgia or knee-jerk contrarianism. I guarantee you will not miss it.

Well, it looks like no one can make any suggestions, because any suggestion that gets implemented would force other players to adhere to a different playstyle. Pack it up, fellas! Just go ahead and delete this whole board! You have absolutely no valid argument for how white salvage contributes to a positive game experience. That's because it doesn't. If white salvage was eliminated from the game entirely, your experience effectively would not change. You'd have to click on menus a bit less. You might make a pittance less inf. That's it.

I'm talking about deleting the stack. You're talking about selling it. I don't want to bother selling it, I just want it gone. It's worthless.

Yeah, that was the point. Even when white salvage is grossly over-valued, it's still not worth enough to bother with it. Just get rid of it!

I can clear a full window of common salvage in seconds too, and I don't even need a vendor. Right click, S. Anything else is a waste of time.