Fulmens

Sentry4: There are two reasons I disagree- perhaps, disapprove- of your viewpoint.

1) It's not a tax- unless a bookstore is "taxing" you by buying wholesale books and selling you retail books. It is a cost paid for a service. The service is "You don't have to start a thread here every time you want a Soul Trapped Gem; you don't have find a counterparty, set up a time to meet, negotiate a price, and worry about getting ripped off. You get access to 50,000 people whenever THEY feel like logging on." Taxes are abstract; you can argue about the justice of a tax; taxes may or may not be a good thing and fair. This is not a tax.

2) On a larger scale.
2a) If more influence is added to the game as a whole than removed, prices on the things people buy go up. Do you agree?
2b) Where does inf get removed from the game? Let's say more than 10 million inf per player, because a L50 frequently creates 10 million inf in an hour or two of normal play.

Another philosophical point: When you "relax, play, and enjoy them to the fullest" you are also making inf and getting shinies. Look up PumBumbler's post history to see what kind of money you can make while doing what you love.

You might want to leave a slot or two open "for whenever" [the Panacea proc, say.] At some point in August you will probably be able to fill it just through accidental revenue. Every time you go, "hey, purple, bonus!" or "When did I get another 50 merits?" you'll be that much closer to your stretch goals.

Am I telling you to give up early? Accept less than a perfect build? Maybe. But I'm also pointing out that you don't get that much more from the last couple slots of shininess and you're going to get there anyway. . . you can just start the fun part earlier my way. [figure a Panacea at around 1.8 billion, and a TF at ... maybe 50 million in cash and prizes, more if it's a L50- and you've got 36 TFs to go for the Panacea.]

Also if you're juuuuust short of 50 merits, remember that you get 5 merits for all the exploaration badges in a zone.

Those are pretty darn impressive rates-per-hour.

When I'm making inf other than marketing, it's usually by running task forces (or Ouroing) and converting reward merits to hero merits. You will make less money slower but you're doing something you'd probably do anyway. If you don't have Task Force Commander [blueside] that's 5% more HP you should be getting anyway...

You received Aegis: End/Rech (Recipe).
You received Miracle: +Recovery (Recipe).
You received Stupefy: Chance for Knockback (Recipe).
You received Impervium Armor: Resistance (Recipe).
You received Impervium Armor: +Psionic Resist (Recipe).

All at level 25, all going on Wents as recipes.

Also I think I got a L25 yellow or two on another character. Will check.

I've always liked the "pay to change" option, but I'm a fee-charging inflation-fighting weirdo like that

Stop sighing and send yourself a global email with 10% of your profits. collect and reply every time you sell something big. [remember to trim the contents every once in a while.]

Spend the profits on in-place replacements.

Or change your sig to "mediocrity is all right, I guess."

Yes, it's a bug and yes, it sucks.

One workaround is to watch the blue text -when that updates, it knows you've actually put something in there to sell.

Another workaround is to leave your "Are you sure you wanna spend that much money?" window up. I do this because, well, it actually DOES save me from extra-zero syndrome. Almost always.

If you don't trust yourself with a respec, couldn't you just put new, higher-level items in the same slots? Level 40 serendips instead of level 18? Step on them and squish them!

I have one. 2.5 billion as well.

I don't remember Team and Self defense. On one hand I've been here since June 2004, on the other hand my memory is ever more flawed.

I remember cone range and end recovery.

(If only they'd do something about phase enhancements. What powers do those WORK in?)

ok, hopping onto E K Nachtmusic if you want an invite to Midlevel Crisis and some fire support.

One thing I did at one point was pay midlevel strangers in Freedom/Atlas Park to roll merits for me. It was 20 million a roll (or 100 million for an Alignment Merit roll) last time I did this. Now it would be harder for you because you want exactly level 25- I was taking anything under L40- and there is always the risk that someone rips you off. It's a very small risk in my experience. But it gets the inf moving and produces the stuff you want. And sometimes you get valuable stuff (L25 stealths, spare Miracles and LotGs and whatnot) and make some of your inf back.

You can think of it as buying the risk - if they get a crap roll on a Hero Merit they still make 100 million, but if they get a freak double-LoTG roll, you get a bargain.

It gets mathy.

A lot of it depends on how you IO while you level up.

I think most people do one of these two things:
1) Storebought for the lower levels, Generic IO's at 25 or 30, fancy stuff at 50
2) Storebought for the lower levels, "frankenslot" at some point between 25 and 35, fancy stuff at 50

In case 1), a L25 generic IO is a little worse than a "white" SO. and distinctly worse than a +3 "Green" SO. (+3 green SO is 38.3% or so, white SO is 33.3%, L25 generic is 32%. ) A L30 is 35.2% or something, so about as good as decently-upkept SOs and a whole lot easier.

In case 2), L25 frankenslotting is still about the same as +3 greens. 32% * 0.625 = 20%/20% so two of those will give you 40%/40%. L30 gives you 44%/44%, a noticeable difference compared to the 38.3%/38.3% from a pair of +3 greens (L35 gives you about 46%. L50 gives you 53%.)

One practical "availability" reason to slot 30's is that invading Rikti and zombies drop 30's. So there's a spike in availability.

Personally I tend to frankenslot a little bit at L22 (L25 acc/dam pairs for convenience) but don't really frankenslot till about level 30-32. Then in the 45-50 range I start slotting for high-end stuff, if I'm going to at all. I've got a tendency to overdesign, though.

This is probably a little incoherent, because I've done this math so much it's obvious to me.

If you guys want to start characters on Freedom, Midlevel Crisis already has a base set up for people like us.

Maybe we could try to get another regular group going [Dark Astoria Tours? Sister Psyche's Pals? I don't even know.] I don't know how mowing down zombies compares to AE for "A" recipes. But for hero merits Sis P is pretty darn efficient. I'm currently free tuesday nights around 8 PM.

Crayhal: you can also think of it as "your 10 rolls should make you 125 million" - by converting R-merits to A-merits and random rolling.

My experience is not typical because I almost never roll in other than the 30-35 range, but I don't think I've ever had two bum AM's in a row. There's always SOMETHING in the 50-200 million range.

I still do some "Midlevel Crisis" work from time to time. Mostly I work in the 30-35 range but I did throw a few 25's out there last month.

If I get it I market it.

Anyone mention the "N P C" global channel yet? I believe the command is /chanjoin N P C
[spaces are necessary.] Place for new players to get help and support from more experienced players.

My wife and I have been playing since mid-2004, so we may not be good references for how easy it is to learn and find teams and make new friends in the game, but I think it's a pretty good environment. Don't be shy with /friend [lets your specific character keep track of other people's specific characters] and /gfriend [lets your account keep track of other people's accounts; other people can choose to not accept /gfriend invites, but don't take it personally. There's a limit on the size of the list.]

I ask only one thing: Do not judge us by Atlas Park on Freedom Server. Don't go there and if you do, run away as soon as possible. As I understand it, it's relatively mild by MMO standards but it's still got a lot of bad lessons to teach.

Random vs. selection is a very personal choice. A L25 LoTG Def/Rech is between 135 and 180 million, usually. Is that more or less than you'd get from taking those two hero merits and getting ten random recipes? It's random. . . but here are the things you can get from a L35-39 roll that are in the 100-200 million range:
LoTG (at 50)
Kin Combat triple
Oblit quad
Miracle +Recovery

And there's a dozen or so worth 40-60 million, another dozen in the 20-40 range.

Yeah, it's a lot of crafting and there is the chance you get ten "Chance for Vendor" .

I don't have any actual proof I end up ahead. I'm pretty sure a person would, though.

- - -
Looking at your list,above: I see about four 50-millions(TOD/DERs, the Numina H/R, Numina unique), one 100-million (the oblit quad), and a bunch in the 20-million range [Stink of the Manticore triple, other TOD, the Leap stealth, the Mako A/E/R) Not a great set of rolls, but still four or five hundred million inf.

"Hero merits to random rolls" is what I'd do.

*fireworks* #15, with around 266 million prestige!

I didn't cash ALL of it - I kept back 2 billion on a bid for a PVP 3% Def. Which filled. And I sold for 2.5 billion off market. So there's half a billion...

aside from that, the usual. Touch of Death [A/D, D/E, D/R], Kin Combat [A/D, D/E, D/R, D/E/R], Gaussian triples, respecs [that time someone bought it down to 3 left, I bought one for 201M , listed for 301M and sold for 500M], a lesser Shield Wall, Aegis [R/R, E/R, R], Luck of the Gambler D/E, I flipped about ten or twenty SHO's that I bought when Statesman was the WST... I'm sure I'm missing a few. I think I even went back to Impervious Skin and Impervium Armor Psi Resist for a few. Oh- Steadfast Res/Defs. Some LOTG level 25 global recharges. Probably one of the Numina's, though I don't think I'm in any of them right now.

Go ahead. Take my niche.

ALSO: Decimations and a few Miracles, some LOTG level 50 recharges. You know. Stuff.