A collapse in the market also lowers the game playability

[OverkillEngine]

Heck I just found Homecoming a couple weeks ago and already have a very simple routine: get the Inner Inspiration prestige power, get 8 hours of double xp, go do story mission arcs and sell medium and large inspirations and one piece of orange salvage when one drops for 400K or more inf, which is usually shortly after hitting level 5-6. And then sell any common IO recipes that drop along the way.

Easily keeps me in enough inf to get to 20 in comfort while stockpiling merits I can abuse later for market games. And my storage has salvage to spare.


Starting an alt in this game is easier than ever, so long as you don't insist on decking them out in yellow/orange IO's by 20 or something else completely as ridiculous. Don't even *have* to throw a single inf at them.


Back in the early days of Live, I remember slotting TO's uphill in the snow, both ways! And we liked it!

Edited June 17, 2023 by OverkillEngine

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, OverkillEngine said:

Heck I just found Homecoming a couple weeks ago and already have a very simple routine: get the Inner Inspiration prestige power, get 8 hours of double xp, go do story mission arcs and sell medium and large inspirations and one piece of orange salvage when one drops for 400K or more inf, which is usually shortly after hitting level 5-6. And then sell any common IO recipes that drop along the way.

Easily keeps me in enough inf to get to 20 in comfort while stockpiling merits I can abuse later for market games. And my storage has salvage to spare.


Starting an alt in this game is easier than ever, so long as you don't insist on decking them out in yellow/orange IO's by 20 or something else completely as ridiculous. Don't even *have* to throw a single inf at them.


Back in the early days of Live, I remember slotting TO's uphill in the snow, both ways! And we liked it!

 

Welcome, home!

I'm glad you found your way here. (or back here as the case may be)

 

I agree with what you have to say.

The issue is that somewhere probably above 33% of the player base (not to exceed 50% from what I can tell) are not playing the game and power-level to level 50 before doing any slotting.

More often than not, they are the players complaining about not having enough influence to buy what they need to slot based on Mids.

[ForeverLaxx]

On 4/18/2023 at 8:20 AM, Black Zot said:

 

So it's another "nerf incarnates" thread?

No, it's another "Certified Diantane" thread.

[BlackSpectre]

Using reward merits to purchase a commodity to then sell, and in turn to bankroll your COH endeavors is... inefficient. In one hour, how many reward merits can you make? Maybe 5?  That will buy you 1 enhancement booster from the merit vendor, which translates into 900k-1.3 million inf.  In that same hour I can take my fire farmer and make 20 million inf.

 

That's on average 18x more than you make in the same amount of time! Eighteen times, man. That means you could bankroll 2 toons before you'd have to farm again for more moola. 

 

Hell, that's not even the most efficient way to make inf. When I want to make inf, I take 15 minutes and use my reward merits and influence to buy enhancement converters. Then I buy a bunch of cheap IOs from the auction house. Then I convert the cheap IOs into pricey IOs. Up on the market they go! The next day I check back into the auction house and I have made 100 million influence. Yippie!!  That's 360x more than you make in the same amount of time. In 10 days I can make 1 BILLION inf. 1 Billion inf can last you an entire year of playing COH without ever having to make more influence, longer if you don't trick out your level 50s. And even longer if you're frugal and smart about spending. Total amount of time spent to do that?  2 hours, 30 min spread over 10 days... which then enables at least 355 days of carefree leveling and alt-ing!

 

I'm not going to lie. This does take some time and work to setup.  It's 15 minutes per day once I have everything set and running smoothly. The first thing you need is at least 100 million inf. That will give you enough to buy what you need, and then sell to make enough profit to continue buying and selling. To get my first 100 million inf, I fire farmed. I should mention that you can make even more inf fire farming if you sell players spots on your team as you farm. People are willing to pay for XP (and incarnate salvage drops using the mission arc in Dark Astoria). 

 

At first, I'm not about making more influence. Instead my goal is to sell more items at a certain profit point (ideally between 2-5 million inf per item). Once I'm able to sell enough every day, I then focus on increasing my stash of inf. 10 days later I'm done... if I want to be. It can be kind of fun doing this actually, but I don't want to be a hog and I want to leave the market to make room for others to make the influence they need. Once I had passed 7 BILLION inf... I mean, how much more do you need???

 

Now I bankroll my entire SG. I give each of them about 1 billion inf each throughout the year. Why? Partly because they have a lot less time to play than I do, but also they just never took the time to learn how to make inf. So I'm elected... the lazy bastards! LOL 

 

Meanwhile, I support the rest of the Homecoming community by selling every piece of salvage and every recipe that my toons get for 1 inf. That helps players who are struggling with cash problems, and helps other players by letting them buy low so they can sell high and make some $.    

 

So anyway, I hope this helps. You can search for influence-making guides here at the forum. There are many. There's absolutely no reason to be flustered over how little inf you have... not when you know how to make inf. 🙂

 

 

[Mr. Apocalypse]

I read the last 5 pages of this thread, here is my take...

 

-music from worlds smallest violin plays in the background-

 

...You don't need to purchase a lot of items in order to "just play the game"

..The sky is  not falling, the market is not collapsing. it has an ebb and flow.

..There are many ways to make inf. in the game. relying on selling boosters is a pretty poor choice..Diversify, diversify, diversify.

..reward merits is an inefficient way to bankroll a character.

 

What did I miss?

 

now here are my 2 cents..

 

in 2 years, I have amassed well over 20B inf in this game and spent it like water over Niagara Falls on what ever I want. all without ever "playing the market" I sell everything I get for 1 inf, and take whatever the market pays me. The only things I do not ever sell on the market is Standard IO recipes, since they always sell for 100-150k at a store, and rarely fetch anything close on the market. I also only sell orange salvage on market white and yellow get deleted or sold at a store this is mainly due to not wanting to be bothered with the market for low hanging fruit.

 

my advice build a fire farmer and rake in the rewards, and you will want for nothing!

 

 

 

[lemming]

4 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

In one hour, how many reward merits can you make? Maybe 5? 

Hami, 120 merits in 30 minutes. (and that's the long estimate)

 

Quite a few arcs that can be knocked out much faster.   The new Stribbling arc you can knock out in an hour for 100 merits.

 

The rest of your post, sure.   As pointed out, there's no one path to building up inf.

[WumpusRat]

6 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

Using reward merits to purchase a commodity to then sell, and in turn to bankroll your COH endeavors is... inefficient. In one hour, how many reward merits can you make? Maybe 5?  That will buy you 1 enhancement booster from the merit vendor, which translates into 900k-1.3 million inf.  In that same hour I can take my fire farmer and make 20 million inf.

How many merits can I make in an hour? Well, depends on what I'm doing. With a brand new character fresh out of chargen? I can make about 40-50 merits in an hour (I timed it at one point because I was curious, and was farming merits).

With a higher-level character? Can vary, but usually between 50-100 in an hour.

 

And that's without doing Hami raids.

[BlackSpectre]

1 hour ago, WumpusRat said:

How many merits can I make in an hour? Well, depends on what I'm doing. With a brand new character fresh out of chargen? I can make about 40-50 merits in an hour (I timed it at one point because I was curious, and was farming merits).

With a higher-level character? Can vary, but usually between 50-100 in an hour.

 

And that's without doing Hami raids.

 That's not bad. At best it's just as good as fire farming! But can you maintain that level of reward merit gain throughout all levels 1-50? Can you do it on demand whenever you want like you could with farming?

 

Also, if that's true, then the OP wouldn't have any issues. Apparently they only need 12 mil inf for their toon. 100 merits will get you about 20 mil.

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by BlackSpectre

[Black Zot]

17 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

No, it's another "Certified Diantane" thread.

 

Either way, we need a "facepalm" reaction option.

[JasperStone]

15 hours ago, Mr. Apocalypse said:

I read the last 5 pages of this thread, here is my take...

 

-music from worlds smallest violin plays in the background-

 

...You don't need to purchase a lot of items in order to "just play the game"

..The sky is  not falling, the market is not collapsing. it has an ebb and flow.

..There are many ways to make inf. in the game. relying on selling boosters is a pretty poor choice..Diversify, diversify, diversify.

..reward merits is an inefficient way to bankroll a character.

 

What did I miss?

 

now here are my 2 cents..

 

in 2 years, I have amassed well over 20B inf in this game and spent it like water over Niagara Falls on what ever I want. all without ever "playing the market" I sell everything I get for 1 inf, and take whatever the market pays me. The only things I do not ever sell on the market is Standard IO recipes, since they always sell for 100-150k at a store, and rarely fetch anything close on the market. I also only sell orange salvage on market white and yellow get deleted or sold at a store this is mainly due to not wanting to be bothered with the market for low hanging fruit.

 

my advice build a fire farmer and rake in the rewards, and you will want for nothing!

 

 

 

 

This.

Most of this.

Just playing the market is .... inefficient.

Build an SG, give into altitis.

 

I have one farmer ... actually a gardener. I hit the tunnel once a week.

Craft and sell what I know I won't use on other characters.

Store the rest.

 

I also have one character that keeps getting set recipe drops. No idea why, I basically play the same content across all my alts.

 

12 hours ago, lemming said:

Hami, 120 merits in 30 minutes. (and that's the long estimate)

 

Quite a few arcs that can be knocked out much faster.   The new Stribbling arc you can knock out in an hour for 100 merits.

 

The rest of your post, sure.   As pointed out, there's no one path to building up inf.

 

Hami on Indom used to go right into MSR. Vanguard merits are 10:1

Weekly Task/Strike Force Speed runs too

 

There is no one path.

[Tobogon]

On 4/17/2023 at 2:37 AM, Diantane said:

Recently the auction price for an enhancement booster has dropped below a million influence each on Excelsior. That may sound like a bargain for buyers, but its a huge loss for the sellers. Selling these boosters provides me the revenue I need just to play the game. Of the approximately 8,900 boosters available on the Excelsior auction, about 6-7% belong to me and I can't sell them below one million each. So I'm forced to hold out with about 500-600 boosters in the bank.

 

When I start a new character it cost me 74,000 influence. I pay 24,000 to max out the amplifiers at 1,000 each for 8 hours. And 50,000 influence for a decent travel power until I train one in my teens. I play at double XP so there is no influence coming in. If I relied on the little money coming in from missions with no XP boost, I could not afford to buy more than 20% or less of the enhancements needed. Financing a character through level 40 costs between 7 to 12 million influence to upgrade the enhancements every five levels. It costs about 25 million for level 45 workbench IO's. If you use IO's during leveling, they don't expire, but then your percentage boost drops as you level (compared to the single origin counterparts). So you have to replace them too quickly which is expensive. I found that these workbench IO's only provide a few percentage points increase over buying level 50 SO's which are much cheaper.

 

I enjoy the storyline arcs in the game, but found that the high level arcs (level 40+) are mostly computer generated and boring. Playing them is just a grind which I do not enjoy. Have found that if I grind a level 50 doing these arcs, the influence coming in is decent, but again this is short lived unless the arc has a good storyline.

 

The bottom line is I'm holding out selling the boosters that I made from buying them with the merits I earned while playing the arcs. There will be a lull in the market until the price goes up. My funds have been disappearing and will be forced to play other games until the market collapse is gone.

[GamerKate]

MY method for the auction house from way back in L:ive to now has been this:

Play at normal difficulty. post everything that drops on the AH at 5inf for sale.

I rarely die when I'm playing and have plenty of inf for buying ctuff, I find.

This OP is baffling.

 

k

[Neiska]

For me, it depends on my mood and goals.

 

Sometimes, I'll just make something new to try it, and just play it to see what happens.

Sometimes, I'll do a hardcore(if i die, i delete the toon), self-found only, zero p2w abilities and see how far I can push it.

Sometimes, I will have a sudden idea for a character that I can't wait to try, power-level it up to 50, fully kit it out fo 600-800m, go full t4's, and play it, all in the same day or weekend. I really like to experiment, try new things, and push a character to see just how far it can go in various situations. I am by no means an expert in CoH game mechanics, but to me the discovery and learning is part of the fun. Also, I have found that by doing it yourself, sometimes what works best for you as often as not, goes against conventional wisdom.

 

Most of the time, I enjoy 3 boxing Masterminds. At this point I have mailed so much INF and EMP merits to myself, that funds are no longer a concern of mine. On a good day, I might walk out of the AE with 4-6 purple recipes. I used to take the time to craft them and sell them, but juggling 3 accounts to craft with is quite a bother, and often enough I just sell the raw recipes quickly just to get back to doing what I like doing, playing.

 

So, there really is no one thing. After I started farming or semi-playing the market, it really isn't an issue. I don't even focus on getting MORE money, I just earn far more than I spend. And so long as my 3 main Masterminds are inf capped, I am quite happy. The rest just goes into the mailbox for alts and experiments.

 

One thing I say is, is that it does seem that having money in the first place does make it easier to make more money. IE - having a character already fully kitted out, any INF gain they make from that point on, is a net positive. So I do think "time playing a character" once it's "done" is also a factor people might forget. If you are constantly just making new characters, then you are constantly spending money. If you wait a few weeks/month/etc between making new characters, then you will/could have a much bigger pile of excess money to spend on your next one, if you so choose.

 

Just my two cents.

[Nyghtmaire]

21 minutes ago, Neiska said:

One thing I say is, is that it does seem that having money in the first place does make it easier to make more money. IE - having a character already fully kitted out, any INF gain they make from that point on, is a net positive. So I do think "time playing a character" once it's "done" is also a factor people might forget. If you are constantly just making new characters, then you are constantly spending money. If you wait a few weeks/month/etc between making new characters, then you will/could have a much bigger pile of excess money to spend on your next one, if you so choose.

This so much. Playing a “finished” character however defined at 50 is just an exercise in printing influence, even if the market is utterly ignored and everything is vendored. Crafting and converting only accelerates that. And this isn’t farming. Merely playing the game - run a mission or 3, maybe a TF, jump in a group - whatever floats the boat. 
 

On 6/18/2023 at 12:07 PM, GamerKate said:

MY method for the auction house from way back in L:ive to now has been this:

Play at normal difficulty. post everything that drops on the AH at 5inf for sale.

I rarely die when I'm playing and have plenty of inf for buying ctuff, I find.

This OP is baffling.

 

k

Yep! 1 minute of effort = rolling in influence. 10 minutes and this is easily multiplied. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

2 hours ago, Nyghtmaire said:

Yep! 1 minute of effort = rolling in influence. 10 minutes and this is easily multiplied. 

 

Ten minutes?!?  What, do you think I'm rolling in minutes?!?

[UltraAlt]

5 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Ten minutes?!?  What, do you think I'm rolling in minutes?!?

 

[Andreah]

Imo, market prices have slowly been falling. 

 

Nothing sinister behind it, just a glut of goods. More people are learning how to play better. More understand how to make use of converters. More are buying efficiently instead of impulse-overpaying. Sellers have to compete with each other more. And so on.

 

And what's best about it -- the buying power of we already very wealthy players is higher than ever. :D 

[Andreah]

I'll add -- the price deflation is not everywhere equal. Boosters are down, but converters aren't. LotG globals and other higher-end uniques seem fairly stable. Regular purples seem to be down a bit, but ATO's seem about the same. Prismatics are way down from their original heights, but seem to have found some stability.