Nerf INF Trading Plz

[RandoHero]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but here we go.
 

Influence isn’t just some pile of Paragon Pesos you can slide across the table like you’re tipping the bartender at Pocket D. Influence is earned. It’s the lifeblood of your heroic reputation — the nod of respect from the shopkeep when you stroll in wearing a cape still smoldering from yesterday’s Hami raid.
 

When you “buy” an enhancement from a vendor, you’re not really buying it. You think the guy at Cooke’s Electronics is swiping your debit card? Please. He’s giving it to you because your influence says you deserve it. Just like a diner might comp a police officer’s meal — except instead of free coffee, it’s a level 35 SO that lets you melt Clockwork like butter.
 

Influence is personal. You have to keep earning it with good deeds, daring rescues, and the occasional giant monster smackdown. Stop doing the work, and your influence fades. Hit zero, and you’ve got no stroke, no pull — Serge at Icon won’t even let you try on that new cape. “Sorry, champ, we save the good stuff for the people actually saving lives.”
 

Now imagine you could trade influence. That’s like your sidekick‑wannabe walking into Wentworth’s, pointing at a bin of D‑Sync Provocation IOs, and saying, “Don’t worry, I know Super Bob. Load me up.” You try walking out that door and see how fast the PPD drones drop from the sky to zap you for shoplifting.
 

Influence trading doesn’t make sense in lore, and it never has. You can’t hand someone your reputation. You can’t say, “Here, take half of my street cred.” That’s not how trust works in Paragon City… or anywhere else.
 

So let’s keep it pure. Let’s keep it earned. And if you want more influence? Do what every real hero does: get out there, save some lives, punch some Freakshow in the face, and let your legend grow.
 

Or — you know — work that auction house like an ebil marketeer.

Edited August 5 by RandoHero

[Snarky]

Please donate now to @Snarky  (whatever you can) before the evil "must play our way" overlords take away YOUR choice!

[macskull]

This is way too well written to not be a troll, but just in case it isn’t:

 

/jranger

[High_Beam]

@RandoHeroI do not agree with your position, but thank you for sharing.

[Lunar Ronin]

Except it's not just influence.  In Praetoria, it's information.  Information can be freely traded.

 

In the Rogue Isles, it's infamy.  You can get some infamy just by joining a notorious supergroup.

[ZeeHero]

7 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:

Except it's not just influence.  In Praetoria, it's information.  Information can be freely traded.

 

In the Rogue Isles, it's infamy.  You can get some infamy just by joining a notorious supergroup.

In fact the OP has gained infamy just by making this thread!

[Glacier Peak]

Let's go back to when you could only trade 9,999.

 

[Bionic_Flea]

What if I tell Serge that I vouch for that guy?

 

Isn't that sharing my influence?

 

"Yo! Vinny!  Hook my buddy up and put it on my tab, capische?"

 

[skoryy]

[BasiliskXVIII]

In practice, the economy of CoH makes absolutely no sense. You ever taken a look at your SOs?

"Yeah, I want to trade off my ninja training and those last three times I got exposed to Xenon and Boron. In return, I'd also like you to mutate me a bit more. Oh, and here's three bits of regenerating flesh to go with it, I don't need that anymore. I used one of those earlier to become blessed by wind to move faster."

Better to think of it all as a really weird abstraction and assume it makes more sense in universe than in the real world.

[Skyhawke]

You mean I'm not wearing 4 sets of pauldrons, 3 greaves, carrying a butt ton of urns and don't have both arms covered in bracers?

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

In practice, the economy of CoH makes absolutely no sense. You ever taken a look at your SOs?

At least with some of the origins, the SOs are essentially invisible on the character. Take a look at the DOs, and imagine what a hero would look like staggering down the street with multiple urns, bracelets, earrings, amulets, and other Magic-related gewgaws hanging off their body. Or a Technology hero sporting a dozen Benedict Tech Telescoping Eyes.

[BasiliskXVIII]

23 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

You mean I'm not wearing 4 sets of pauldrons, 3 greaves, carrying a butt ton of urns and don't have both arms covered in bracers?

I mean, I don't know your character. Maybe you were drawn by Rob Liefield.

[BasiliskXVIII]

14 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

At least with some of the origins, the SOs are essentially invisible on the character. Take a look at the DOs, and imagine what a hero would look like staggering down the street with multiple urns, bracelets, earrings, amulets, and other Magic-related gewgaws hanging off their body. Or a Technology hero sporting a dozen Benedict Tech Telescoping Eyes.

It's the superhero that AI art was made for!

[Skyhawke]

17 minutes ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

I mean, I don't know your character. Maybe you were drawn by Rob Liefield.

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, RandoHero said:

Influence trading doesn’t make sense in lore, and it never has. You can’t hand someone your reputation. You can’t say, “Here, take half of my street cred.” That’s not how trust works in Paragon City… or anywhere else.
 

So let’s keep it pure. Let’s keep it earned. And if you want more influence? Do what every real hero does: get out there, save some lives, punch some Freakshow in the face, and let your legend grow.

 

I like it!

 

Walk into Image Inc., buy some enhancements, then when they ask you to pay you slap your hand on the counter and thunder, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?!?!"

 

I'll give that a shot at Whole Foods later this week, let you know how it turns out.

[TheMoneyMaker]

3 hours ago, RandoHero said:

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but here we go.
 

Influence isn’t just some pile of Paragon Pesos you can slide across the table like you’re tipping the bartender at Pocket D. Influence is earned. It’s the lifeblood of your heroic reputation — the nod of respect from the shopkeep when you stroll in wearing a cape still smoldering from yesterday’s Hami raid.
 

When you “buy” an enhancement from a vendor, you’re not really buying it. You think the guy at Cooke’s Electronics is swiping your debit card? Please. He’s giving it to you because your influence says you deserve it. Just like a diner might comp a police officer’s meal — except instead of free coffee, it’s a level 35 SO that lets you melt Clockwork like butter.
 

Influence is personal. You have to keep earning it with good deeds, daring rescues, and the occasional giant monster smackdown. Stop doing the work, and your influence fades. Hit zero, and you’ve got no stroke, no pull — Serge at Icon won’t even let you try on that new cape. “Sorry, champ, we save the good stuff for the people actually saving lives.”
 

Now imagine you could trade influence. That’s like your sidekick‑wannabe walking into Wentworth’s, pointing at a bin of D‑Sync Provocation IOs, and saying, “Don’t worry, I know Super Bob. Load me up.” You try walking out that door and see how fast the PPD drones drop from the sky to zap you for shoplifting.
 

Influence trading doesn’t make sense in lore, and it never has. You can’t hand someone your reputation. You can’t say, “Here, take half of my street cred.” That’s not how trust works in Paragon City… or anywhere else.
 

So let’s keep it pure. Let’s keep it earned. And if you want more influence? Do what every real hero does: get out there, save some lives, punch some Freakshow in the face, and let your legend grow.

Influence trading absolutely makes sense.

 

As a good guy, you're vouching for someone else, spending that goodwill and reputation you've earned by asking others to treat them well as a favor to you.

 

Infamy? You're spreading your villainous reputation around. For whatever reason, you're investing some of your rep in someone else, suggesting that they've earned a measure of your respect and you want that fear and intimidation that people owe you paid forward to whomever you're giving the infamy to.

 

This is a bad suggestion from the start, so thumbs down to you.

[Mopery]

Praetoria wants Information...

Information...

Information...

[BlackSpectre]

Pssssssst! I'll give you 100 influence if you give me 1,000 infamy.... wanna trade?

[JKCarrier]

25 minutes ago, Mopery said:

Praetoria wants Information...

Information...

Information...

[Luminara]

[Andreah]

It would be cool if it could work the way it was originally imaged to work, but it won't.

 

This is fundamentally a game with an economy that needs a fungible, tradeable currency. You could make Influence/Infamy/Information work the way you want, but then you would need to add a new proper currency as well.

 

If you want to go that far, then the interfaces to the Inf "stores" need to be changed -- they act like cashiers in stores right now, and they shouldn't. They should be something else, and you'll have to come up with whatever that is. I don't know what it is, but is sure isn't a chain of stores.

[Ukase]

Influence trading? I'm sorry...but who trades influence? 

Lately, when I do dfb, and we get that Cadaver Cleanser badge, I'll announce to the team that I will give starter inf after the trial is over. All they need to do is walk up to my character and open a trade window. And then I give them 200M. I guess because I say starter inf, only a few folks take me up on it. Now this might rile your feathers, me giving away my influence. But they earned it. They had to cooperate with a player like me. That's almost as challenging as a posi with Snarky. Almost. 

I give stuff away all the time, when it's my idea. Now, if you ask me straight out, the answer is usually no. Some folks love to grind and earn what they get. I respect that. But some folks just don't have the time to do that. or they lack the knowledge. Some of the ebil marketeering is darned tedious. It's not for everyone. If I want to help someone out, at least they'll be able to have some decent enhancements, and hopefully, they bought a team teleport. 

[GM Crumpet]

I suppose we could change the title to pounds, or dollars, or Triganic Pu  or gold, but it seems gauche to have heroes working for cash. And villains are rolling in cash. They rob banks like the rest of us pop to Starbucks. Most level 50 villains make Scrooge McDuck look poor.

[UltraAlt]

6 hours ago, RandoHero said:

Or — you know — work that auction house like an ebil marketeer.