Fleeting Whisper

Avilans = wing costume pieces

When they implemented the under-level-six policy, they told us the name-clearing script could be run at any time (presumably only during maintenance) without warning. The only time we'd be told anything is if they decided to change the policy.

Architect has some extra variables not available in normal chat. Like $himher and $heshe, for example (and variants on those)

Extremely unlikely. For one, infamy and influence are quite literally the same thing, as far as game mechanics are concerned.

But unless you're on his friends list, you're just a creepy lemuridae stalker

What version of Chrome are you running? I remember a little while ago someone posted a screenshot of Paragonwiki being screwed up in Chrome, but it turned out the be a problem on pretty much all MediaWiki websites for the beta version of Chrome he was using. In other words, a problem with an unstable version of Chrome, rather than with the website.

Does double XP weekend count? Double XP before last, I rolled up a brand new Ice/Stone tanker Friday afternoon, and dinged 50 Sunday evening. No powerleveling (unless you count playing and participating on 8-man teams turn double XP as powerleveling), and I'm pretty sure I didn't have any 12-hour shifts

Things that weren't unheard of before IOs existed (admittedly, it's something that's much more common now than it was then)

http://www.iparklikeanidiot.com/

Ohhhh... you meant a different kind of Forgotten...

Which loss of players?

Why the **** are you using DOS? (Unless you mean MS-DOS, which isn't really an operating system any more, or you mean "used to use")

Of course, as I mentioned earlier in the thread: Based on the information so far released for GR, the markets WILL NOT be merged by the time GR rolls around

Beyond that is still up in the air, of course

Only if you want to squeeze every possible percentage point of effectiveness into your character. Which isn't really necessary unless you're going to be competing his high-end PvP, and only marginally necessary then.

I question "several million" and "active" together. I know that stats for RS list it's number of players in the millions (#2 after WoW, according to MMOGChart.com), but since the majority of its accounts are free to play, and pay to play accounts drop to free to play when the subscription expires, I suspect their "active" numbers are lower than their reported numbers. Particularly since accounts don't get deleted; hell, the account I created oh-so-many years ago before members had anything west of White Wolf Mountain (when the game was still isometric 2D, rather than true 3D) still exists, and is theoretically playable if I could remember the password (or the email I registered it with)

It doesn't make Villains richer than Heroes. It makes Heroes slightly poorer than they were, and Villains slightly richer, and they meet in the middle. That's the point.

The problem with a market merge, so say the devs, is that Heroes overall have more money than Villains do. Yet since both sides have approximately equal earning potential and approximately equal inf sinks, that difference stems from two sources: the larger number of Hero characters, and the Hero characters that have been around longer than CoV has.

There is no one solution to equalizing the number of characters on each side; it just can't be done. There are people who simply don't like the Rogue Isles, or don't like Villains, or like their Heroes too much to play something else. It is theoretically possible that redside could be made more enticing than it currently is which would equalize the numbers, but it's extremely unlikely.

There is no solution to Hero characters that are older than CoV, other than deleting them outright, which would understandably make many players mad.

Since the two causes for inf disparity can't be resolved themselves, the inf disparity can only be resolved in some other way. One way is to allow for transfer of inf between sides, acting as an economic siphon to equalize the inf totals. One way to allow for that transfer is to merge the markets.

But that's just it. One side doesn't gain more inf per level or per time. Heroes just have more characters and older characters. Create a Hero and a Villain character (preferably with comparable builds to try and negate extra variables), and level them to 50 without using their respective markets or selling/trading with other players. Both will reach 50 in approximately the same amount of time, and both will have the approximately the same amount of inf. The issue isn't per level or per unit of time, it's per side.

After a market merge, there will be some instability for a time as the two sides begin to equalize. But eventually, they will equalize, and the markets will stabilize. To paraphrase Smurphy on the subject of merging the markets: flippers want unstable prices, so that they can make greater profit. With the two markets split, they are less stable than they would be merged. So, the flippers and ebil marketeers should want the markets to stay separate. Other people, those who want a stable market with stable prices, should prefer a merged market.




Assume Villain prices are lower than Hero prices, and the average Villain has less inf to their name than the average Hero (this is not exactly true, but run with it for the example). With split markets, these facts will remain true indefinitely, but it doesn't really matter, because the price difference is proportional to the wealth difference, so the Hero and Villain are able to obtain the same stuff via the markets.

When the markets merge, initially, the Heroes will constantly outbid the Villains. The Villain buyers won't be getting stuff, but the Villains sellers will be getting the Heroes' money. The Hero buyers will be getting exactly what they want (as they already were), but the Hero sellers will be undercut by the Villains, who had set lower prices.

This will siphon some inf from Heroes to Villains, partially equalizing the overall wealth of the two sides. A new selling point will be reached between the buyers and sellers of each side, which will be somewhat stable, and more likely than not it will be between the original selling points from when the markets were merged. At this point, the inf flow from Heroes to Villains will slow, because some Heroes are able to sell their wares as well. But Villain sellers (who got inf from Hero buyers) and particularly rich Villains will also be able to meet this new selling point, so Villains will begin getting stuff again, and a portion of the Villain inf will transfer to Heroes.

This process will repeat a few times, and will probably last a month or two (my personal estimation) before the two sides become approximately equal. And then, not only are the Villains richer, the Heroes who had too much money to know what to do with it poorer, but both sides also get an increased supply to meet their existing demand. The buyers who were not generally rich either get richer than they would have otherwise, or have lower price points they need to buy at due to increased competition among the sellers.




There are two groups who lose out on a market merge: the people who make money by flipping, and impatient buyers during the instability period.

It's like a pony, only steampunk!

Sometimes I wonder...

Hehee