Megajoule

I define "normal play" as running missions, story arcs, and task forces. It is my understanding and belief that the total influence rewarded by defeating foes, completing missions, and selling unwanted TOs, DOs and SOs to vendors in the process of leveling a character from 1-50 is in the mere tens of millions - an order of magnitude less than can now be earned by placing a single lucky drop on the market.

I would assume from your join date that you are well aware of this, having played the game for three years before the market was added to it.

It is also my perception that the inflationary spiral has accelerated in the last year or so. It was formerly rare to see recipes going for more than 5 digits; now it is common. The prices of many rare salvage items have doubled or tripled from the ~1 million rule of thumb that once held true. A character who has been recently played will have more inf from selling their drops at the current prices than those who were last active when prices were lower.

Those were the days.

I don't really miss them.

With prices where they are now, maybe. I have several characters with less than that, or who only recently topped that as a result of selling one or two lucky drops at the current highly-inflated prices.

The game itself doesn't produce nearly that much inf through normal play. Before the market opened, it was common to have to rely on inf dumps from higher-level characters just to be able to afford a full set of SOs at 22. But that hasn't been an issue for years, and these days just one sought-after drop can pay for all the SOs a character will need to 50.

This is a good idea and (at first glance) a decently balanced set. I approve.

It's effective, but not as effective (ie, as fast) as Fly with a couple of slots in it.

If anything, dragging old farms into the light might be the only way to get the devs to remove them.

But for that, there's the "Hostage" "Hostage " " Hostage" trick.

I've always been much more interested in the stories (both creating and experiencing) than maximizing reward over time. However, some degree of reward is necessary or no one will bother. Even folks like me are reluctant to sink two hours into an arc for no return at all.

I was very enthusiastic about this feature at the start, made my two arcs in beta, even bought extra slots as soon as they went on sale. However, the Devs have dropped the ball in so many ways on this feature that my ardor has cooled quite a bit. I'm currently waiting for MA to get some real fixes, not just quick exploit patches that break other things... but at the rate we're going, that probably won't be until next year (after GR and the round of fixes that it will inevitably require) if ever.

I didn't see it before, but I'm glad it was bumped. It's still an idea that deserves consideration, IMO.
Thanks for posting.

FleetingWhisper:
On one of the mailing lists I subscribe to, it's known as the "Black Hole of Quality" which sucks up good stuff and makes it disappear (usually onto readers' hard drives) without comment.

Thanks for the bump - I didn't see this before. I'll give my arc a sanity check to make sure nothing's obviously broken by I17, run one of yours, and then call you.

I'd hate to lose the plays and stars I already have on my arc(s), but if it means actually fixing the system and getting rid of all the ****, I'll deal.

My AR blaster has always roleplayed that everything that isn't bullets comes out of the under-mounted grenade launcher.

My response is pretty much "learn where this stuff is" too. :/

IMO, the "I don't just want something cool, I want [other group] to not get it" needs to stop. It's childish and spiteful.

Inviting exploiters into beta will allow them to identify new exploits... which will not be dutifully reported so they can be fixed, but secretly disseminated so that they can be taken advantage of once the issue goes live. So that's a non-starter. You'd just be giving them a head start.

Like other authors, I'm sorry (but not really surprised) to hear that we're going to have to wait even longer to get an MA system that actually works.

As an old-time tabletop Champs player, it actually sounded very much like the classic experience. Character creation is amazingly detailed and customizable and fun; the actual gameplay is clunky and often tiresome.

Variation on the standard code rant. The OP clearly has no idea how hard it was to implement the degree of customization/pose alteration we have now, nor how long we had to wait for it. Even now, it's not a simple thing.

The character in my avatar is Science origin, and all of her powers come from that... except for Recall Friend, which is defined as a gadget which lets her retask the city teleportation grid for site-to-self transports. Can I actually brandish this gizmo in an animation in-game? No. So I use my imagination.

I have several natural characters. While one is "naturally" superhuman, the others are baseline humans with training and access to off-the-shelf firearms and other technology: one's an ex-Sky Raider, one's an Arachnos soldier, and one's a modern ninja. They get around with jetpack, jetpack, and jump pack, respectively. I had the first for years before the devs got around to actually putting jetpacks in the game; before that, I (and everyone else) had to pretend. And on the last, I used her Mayhem zero-G pack until it wore out, then bought Super Jumping and said it was actually the same thing.

This game cannot be all things to all people. At some point, you're going to have to step up and put in some effort, let something slide, use some of that imagination and suspend your disbelief. Because I'm warning you now, if you can't, then the contradictions and absurdities which the mechanics of the game force on the world/setting will drive you insane very quickly.

Depends on the character.
I got into the habit of picking the Sands, and was unhappy when I realized just a minute too late that the Axe would probably suit one of my characters better.
Fortunately, there is a veteran reward that lets you (eventually) make another pick, so now he has the Axe too. Waiting for that would be my suggestion/response to the OP.

Pretty much by definition, Stop Having Fun Guy doesn't care about friends or lack thereof. Much more important is stopping other people from having Wrong Fun.

Or, to sum up: the regular game screws you on more-difficult foes too.

Welcome! And the fact that you did your research before coming on here speaks well for you, IMO.

I RP plenty... with my friends/SG.
Go to the D, or Atlas? Pfff.