Discussion: Disabling XP No Longer Increases Influence

[Grouchybeast]

25 minutes ago, Crysis said:

We don't discuss exploits on the forums, now do we?

According to you, yes.

 

On 4/19/2020 at 2:05 PM, Crysis said:

Fortunately, several of the more prolific Marketeers have been profiting off of Marketplace exploits for months now, most bragging about it openly. 

I'm sure you can link those threads.

[tidge]

29 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

In my head Switchfade is more like this:

 

If we must go Marvel, I prefer to stay with the Red, White and Blue:

 

[MunkiLord]

48 minutes ago, Crysis said:

We don't discuss exploits on the forums, now do we?

Ah I see. Just a vague accusation that you refuse to back up and therefore nobody can dispute. That's super convenient! Or since this is supposedly done openly, surely the open discussions are easy to point to?

Edited April 20, 2020 by MunkiLord

[Ironblade]

5 hours ago, Digirium said:

The normal rules of economics (if anyone in the real world really thinks they're normal or benefit everyone, not just a few) do not apply in a video game.

 

That's been said so many times I wonder why it's not sinking in yet?

It's not going to sink in because it's wrong.

The game DOES have an economy and the basic rules of economics DO apply.

Is the game economy the same as the real world economy?  Of course not.

Are there enough similarities in the systems that we can draw conclusions and make predictions?  Hell yes.

[Saikochoro]

3 hours ago, Gremlin said:

Sometimes it seems like this thread exists purely to torture @SwitchFade.

Not just Switchfade. I may not be a supply chain analyst, but I am a CPA with substantial background in capital markets. I am also well versed in economic and money matters.
 

Honestly though, you don’t need to have a degree or experience in economics, finance, or accounting to understand these things.  I may be setting the bar too high for the average person, but this all seems like common sense to me. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Saikochoro]

3 hours ago, MunkiLord said:

I'm still curious about these market exploits you mentioned a few pages back. 

I’m beginning to think people consider typing /ah with intent to sell is an exploit. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Hexquisite]

21 minutes ago, Saikochoro said:

Not just Switchfade. I may not be a supply chain analyst, but I am a CPA with substantial background in capital markets. I am also well versed in economic and money matters.
 

Honestly though, you don’t need to have a degree or experience in economics, finance, or accounting to understand these things.  I may be setting the bar too high for the average person, but this all seems like common sense to me. 

 

I don't think so. Numbers make my brain hurt and I barely comprehend economics, and most of what Switchfade and others have said has gone over my head, but it's been explained well enough that I understand quite easily. My money (pun intended?) is on willful and deliberate ignorance at this point. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

58 minutes ago, Saikochoro said:

I’m beginning to think people consider typing /ah with intent to sell is an exploit. 

I was enraged by that at first, to be honest.  Making a simple game even simpler and catering to the lowest common denominator.  I'd be over the moon if everyone had to travel to Wentworth's again, but I don't expect it so I moved on.

[Parabola]

4 hours ago, Lockpick said:

On another note, I never really knew much about AFK farming.  When people talked about farming and making their billions I always thought they farmed like I do in that they go in and actively clear the map.  I didn't realize they went into a mission and alt-tabbed out and were able to make millions doing nothing.  That seems like an exploit to me, so should probably be fixed.

Yeah I hadn't really paid attention to this either. I have my farmer on a second account for giving level bumps so the last couple of days I've experimented with afk farming her while I've been playing a proper character. It does feel a bit off to be honest.

 

Idle speculation but a way of nixing this (and afk door sitting in general) might be to introduce a timer that freezes out xp, inf and drops gain if an input hasn't been given for a certain time. I think it's reasonable to expect the game to actually be interacted with in some form or another to benefit from rewards.

Edited April 20, 2020 by parabola

[Blastit]

16 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I was enraged by that at first, to be honest.  Making a simple game even simpler and catering to the lowest common denominator.  I'd be over the moon if everyone had to travel to Wentworth's again, but I don't expect it so I moved on.

I believe the /AH command was first introduced as a veteran reward, and since HC doesn't do subscriptions they've just straight up given out most of the veteran rewards. That's what P2W is for and why a freshly made character has so many costume slots.

[Yomo Kimyata]

26 minutes ago, parabola said:

Yeah I hadn't really paid attention to this either. I have my farmer on a second account for giving level bumps so the last couple of days I've experimented with afk farming her while I've been playing a proper character. It does feel a bit off to be honest.

 

Idle speculation but a way of nixing this (and afk door sitting in general) might be to introduce a timer that freezes out xp, inf and drops gain if an input hasn't been given for a certain time. I think it's reasonable to expect the game to actually be interacted with in some form or another to benefit from rewards.

I think it's reasonable to speculate that AFK anything (but farming in particular) will eventually be another shoe to drop.  Maybe even power levelling.  Neither of those has any real significant effect on me or my game play, so I wouldn't get bent one way or the other.  But could you imagine?  Heads 'sploding left and right!

[Grouchybeast]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I was enraged by that at first, to be honest.  Making a simple game even simpler and catering to the lowest common denominator.  I'd be over the moon if everyone had to travel to Wentworth's again, but I don't expect it so I moved on.

I remember when if we wanted to craft and sell IOs we had to run from the Steel Canyon University to Wentworth's and back, with no shoes, in the snow, uphill both ways, etc etc.

[Oubliette_Red]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I was enraged by that at first, to be honest.  Making a simple game even simpler and catering to the lowest common denominator.  I'd be over the moon if everyone had to travel to Wentworth's again, but I don't expect it so I moved on.

I was as fond of having to part in WW as I am of Atlas Park in general and around the Atlas statue in particular, always a lag-fest, all manner of toggles, AoE's, bubbles,, buffs, etc. running all while standing there interacting with the AH ui.

 

The only reason I set foot in WW's now it for the day job badge.

[Luminara]

3 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

I remember when if we wanted to craft and sell IOs we had to run from the Steel Canyon University to Wentworth's and back, with no shoes, in the snow, uphill both ways, etc etc.

 

Naked.

 

>.>

 

<.<

 

Just me?

 

Again?

 

*sigh*

[Haijinx]

7 hours ago, Digirium said:

I'd say the same about your opinions. Only one of us is right though, that's me.

This kind of sums up your barrage attacks in this thread.

 

Strawmen, mischaracterizations, personal attacks and so forth.   

 

Good luck with that.

 

 

 

[MunkiLord]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I think it's reasonable to speculate that AFK anything (but farming in particular) will eventually be another shoe to drop.  Maybe even power levelling.  Neither of those has any real significant effect on me or my game play, so I wouldn't get bent one way or the other.  But could you imagine?  Heads 'sploding left and right!

I wouldn't be surprised if AFK farming went away somehow, but I'd be shocked if they made an intentional move against power leveling since they've been aware of and supportive of it to this point. Fighting against farming/power leveling is a losing battle. I openly mocked Positron when he made that silly little statement/open letter to the community when he got all butthurt about AE power leveling. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mock the HC team, or even get mad since I play a lot less these days. But it would be an extremely short sighted move on their part.

 

Once I'm done with Borderlands 3 and No Man's Sky I will likely be ready for some more City of Heroes binging.

[skoryy]

6 hours ago, Crysis said:

I made 5 new alts last week.  That's about normal for me.  I do it differently now than I did before the Exemplar nerfing.

This kinda stuck with me while I was working from home today.  Five alts a week every week already almost IO'd out.  Do you actually play these alts once you're done top-tiering them out?

[Crysis]

10 minutes ago, skoryy said:

This kinda stuck with me while I was working from home today.  Five alts a week every week already almost IO'd out.  Do you actually play these alts once you're done top-tiering them out?

All to some degree yes.  But 20-30 played to 50 and maybe 2/3 of those through T4’ing out at around vet level 10-12.   And last week was a build week.  I don’t do that every week.  

 

Many are just holders of influence via builds.  I spent several years when game was hidden in MIDS creating dozens of themed supers.  Once the chat/costume creator came around, I made costumes and bios for all of them.  So when HC launched I set about building and equipping all of them.  In case the game ever gets shut down I have my own server instance (well for all my early builds anyways....EA and a few others won’t work there) and I’ll port the toons there, maybe continue with my SG mates or family and friends.

 

Given the evolution of things that have been nerfed for years in this game I can see the end of quick leveling and farming AE.  So I make my stable of toons, equip them and if needed in future I can melt them down for parts.  If not, I pull out another virtual action hero and just run with it for awhile.

[Hexquisite]

2 hours ago, Grouchybeast said:

I remember when if we wanted to craft and sell IOs we had to run from the Steel Canyon University to Wentworth's and back, with no shoes, in the snow, uphill both ways, etc etc.

 

 

And Wentworths was only open 1 hour a year. You had to get in line and wait, and you couldn't "logout" or "go afk" 'cause then you'd lose your place and everyone would know and make fun of you. "Oh, look there's Cold Vengeance, she couldn't handle the line!" And when it was finally your turn, you had to pay a 120% listing fee! And then fight the consignment worker, who was a level 63 Archivillian with soft capped defenses and would fart Origin-specific debuffs!

 

That's how it was and we liked it! We LOVED it!

Edited April 20, 2020 by Shivertongue

[EmmySky]

RE: AFK farming

 

I made my farmer a tanker so that if I had to go switch the laundry around or something quick (5-10 min tops) she would be durable enough to survive.  I dont understand people who set up an afk farmer and tab out to do something else entirely.  But whatever floats their boat!  If the HC devs decide to close that loophole, that works for me as well.  

 

I personally prefer playing the game.  Actively pushing buttons and running and jumping, flying and arresting baddies.  Today was kinda slow.  I was on a level 9 brute looking for work (not the PI offer because I would die lol) but it took about 30 to 45 minutes to actually find a team.  I found myself following civilian NPCs and even joining the Longbow conga line around AP.  Not terribly fun.

 

Whatever you have in your head as your idea of fun, presupposing its not restricted by game mechanics or TOS, I think hey, carry on!  Dont judge me for conga line-ing around atlas and I wont judge you for afk farming 😁

[golstat2003]

12 hours ago, Digirium said:

I do both (farming and marketing, including flipping) and know just about what everything sells for. I really don't like the flipping part, to be honest. It means buying far too many enhancement converters and that part I don't think is right - enhancement converters ought to be account bound and not traded. That would mean players are limited to only the amount of converters that they earn through game play (purchasing with merits or drops if they are lucky). That would limit the players that setup niches.

 

Do not underestimate the niche sellers either. One or two might start a niche but that extends to 10 players, then to 100 players and more as players "dog pile" in at the same price.

 

I've not witnessed prices get any lower since the great nerf at the start of the month - they stayed the same.

Waaaay too soon to judge if prices will stay the same or increase.

[Coyotedancer]

10 hours ago, Digirium said:

 - nobody farms when they are not motivated to pay for a build. 

 

Hmm. I guess there are a fair few of us who have to be deemed serious Nobodies, then.

Because, yes... There do exist people who, believe it or not, farm FOR FUN.

 

Active farmers who actually enjoy jumping into those maps and going to town on a bunch of goons are real. We're not Bigfoot. XD  

[Coyotedancer]

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I think it's reasonable to speculate that AFK anything (but farming in particular) will eventually be another shoe to drop.  Maybe even power levelling.  

 

That would annoy me enough to actually make me leave Homecoming, I suspect.

Not the farming bit... I'm strictly an active farmer... but the leveling.

 

At this point, I've played the low-level game so many times... red side, gold side and blue... that I have absolutely ZERO desire to ever do it again. I still have alts I want to make and play, though. As a mostly-solo player, dual-boxing and tossing a new toon into the ant-hill with Harry (my farmer) to get them to 32 is how I get around my lowbie-game burnout.  

 

Take that ability away and I'm just... done. 

So call me a /jranger on that idea, even if I do sort-of agree that AFK farming feels a little cheaty. 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[golstat2003]

10 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

Hmm. I guess there are a fair few of us who have to be deemed serious Nobodies, then.

Because, yes... There do exist people who, believe it or not, farm FOR FUN.

 

Active farmers who actually enjoy jumping into those maps and going to town on a bunch of goons are real. We're not Bigfoot. XD  

/Raises hand . . . guess I'm a nobody also.

 

Also I use the market and converters to avoid builds. I've never farmed on homecoming trying to avoid a build. It's a waste of time when a faster, easier way exists.

 

But the person you're responding to seems to not want to know about actual information and just spit uninformed posts, so I won't even bother trying to direct them to the market form to actually learn something. 

[Crysis]

23 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

Waaaay too soon to judge if prices will stay the same or increase.

Prices in certain niches have dropped considerably but I don’t know for sure the net impact is worse or better.  Things like Achilles Heel have increased but that’s likely due to flippers who have discovered the quick and easy flips from Undermined will net you 5M in profit for 2-5 converters.

 

But what i HAVE seen is an increase in ratio of for sale vs bidders.  This means the influence nerf has increased market activity in total.