SpittingTrashcan

To say nothing of the demons. Sorry, Infernal-Americans.

Seeding the market is indeed an inf sink.

Seeding the market with vendor trash is a dumb inf sink, since it only increases supply of things that already have too much supply, drives down their price even further, and therefore doesn't sink much inf.

There was actually a fairly intensive discussion of this possibility a while ago on Black Pebble's marketing thread. The results, as I recall them: Yes, it is possible to export character models from the game in a format that other programs can use. However, the character models are not in a form that can be easily translated into figurines:
- They include sheets of material that have zero thickness.
- They do not have any geometry for clothing - it would have to be painted on.
- They are rough and polygonal in shape, and would need sanding down to look good.
For these reasons, they would be considerably more difficult and expensive to create than WoW character figurines, which already are in the hundred-dollar range. Because of the high price and low volume, the work necessary to make it possible might not be economically viable.

If it were, though, I'd consider buying one.

Mod08 is a smart person.

Another example in the same vein: when Demon Summoning hit, someone made a good sum on selling Bone, Dragon, and Burned Wing costume recipes. They wouldn't have been able to get as much as they did for these fairly common recipes if they hadn't suddenly come into high demand - as always, the buyers drive the price.

So, the question is, what will people be doing when GR hits?
- Rolling alts
- Playing the Mysterious End Game
- Switching sides

I can think of a few things one might want to buy now and sell later based on these likely activities. But the more important point here is that, as the market increases in size, individual sellers will have even less capacity to drive prices than they do now. Which means that the big winners will continue to be those who observe the practices of buyers rather than sellers.

There are essentially three time-tested ways to make money by buying and selling on the market, in order of risk:
1. Buy something for less than its guaranteed vendor value, then sell it to a vendor.
2. Buy components, create an item of higher value, and sell it.
3. Correctly predict that an item will increase in value, buy it cheaply, and sell it dearly.

The market merge, like any change to the game, will allow some money to be made through method 3, and may create a price discontinuity that affects method 2.

I initially read the thread title as "Dating and Immorality in COH", and my immediate thought was "well, there's plenty of both..."

On the topic at hand - this has an interesting application to Kheldians. A Kheldian's host is not immortal, but the alien is, and the two together are more or less of one mind. The mortal host may not mind pledging "until death do us part", but the Kheld may have done so countless times and be less than enthusiastic about loving and losing once again. And what about when two Khelds who have been lovers meet again, but lifetimes later and in different hosts? Hilarious levels of awkwardness might ensue.

As for Marcus Cole: to me, he has always seemed to be the signature character with the greatest disconnect from humanity, and that's saying something when the roster also includes a fish and two dead women. He has no less than three twisted mirror images of himself to remind him what would happen if he ever deviates from his moral code, and several square miles of blasted city to remind him what happens when he forgets his own strength. Under those conditions, it's probably best if he doesn't form strong emotional connections with any one individual at the expense of his broader sense of duty to humanity.

In other words Statesman should date everyone.

In a word: confidence. A tanker moves forward without trepidation. A scrapper or brute does also, but they ride the razor's edge alone; the tanker's certainty extends to their team.

A side note on damage. Tankers do have a lower performance peak than some other ATs, but their performance band is also pretty consistent - and the damage they have, particularly AoE damage, they can usefully leverage against more and harder foes with less investment. I'm sure you know this already, but I did want to point out that calling Tankers "the least damaging AT" ignores the breadth of possible performance within ATs and the capability to use that damage freely. Will a Rad/Son Defender outdamage a Stone/Ice Tanker? Probably. Will a FF/Elec Defender outdamage a Shield/SS Tanker? Perhaps not so much.

My predictions:

In the short term, there will be a period of normalization. Items with a moderate supply disparity (Luck Charms) will see a rise from their low price and a fall from their high price. Items with a high supply disparity (Pool C/D special-use recipes) will see a considerable price spike as the existing supply becomes available to a pool of highly motivated buyers.

In the long term, with a higher supply base, prices will be more stable over time. The periodic supply droughts (mostly natural, occasionally artificial) that drive price spikes on common items will be more rare and less severe. With the ability to migrate freely and without the powerful motivator of market disparities, more players may end up redside. More frequent play of SFs, particularly by less experienced players, may drive up the median completion time, ameliorating the vicious cycle of decreasing merit rewards driving decreased median completion times (this is, perhaps, excessively optimistic).

In the final accounting, the market merger will not be sufficient to deal with the pinched supply of Pool C/D recipes brought about by the peculiarities of the Merit system. But most other items will probably end up more broadly available at more consistent prices. What those prices will be depends on what measures are taken with regards to the inf supply, but one thing is certain: they will have an extremely tenuous relationship at most with the fixed prices offered by vendors.

On a personal note, this news means I can stop trying to divest myself of infamy, and start actively trading again on redside. That's pleasant.

With regard to schedule slip: The first 90% of the work takes 90% of the available time. The remaining 10% also takes 90% of the available time.

Why making one bid across multiple levels is better than making multiple bids across multiple levels:
1. You use fewer market slots.
2. If the item is expensive, you may not have the inf to make multiple bids.
3. If you make multiple bids, you have a chance of buying multiple items when you really only wanted one.

Point 1 is more relevant to heavy market users; points 2 and 3 are more relevant to casual market users (and in fact, point 3 was the first one I thought of).

Never going to happen (in this game): Raising the level cap. Not only would it be painful for the engine to accommodate such a change, it would be bad design. Right now, due to SSK and Ouroboros, the developers can add or improve content at any level they want and it benefits all existing characters. Raising the level cap means adding a bunch of new content that reduces the value of existing content - rather self-defeating.

PS. Yay market merge.

You must have a level 20 hero to create a Peacebringer or Warshade.
You must have a level 20 villain to create a Widow or Soldier.

I like Fortunatas a lot, but I would not recommend them as a "beginner" AT. They present many more options than any of the standard ATs, and while their peak performance is very, very nice, it takes considerable knowledge to fine-tune them into that performance. Although the level requirement for unlocking SoAs and Khelds has been lowered, I would still recommend leveling a non-epic AT before taking either one on.

If you want a character that starts strong and stays strong, with interesting powers unlocking at virtually every level, I would recommend a Fire/Radiation controller. They introduce you to a lot of interesting mechanics, including mez, buffs, debuffs, and pets, and they're strong solo and useful on teams. They're less robust in the face of mistakes than Scrappers or Brutes, though - they rely much more on tactical application of active defenses, rather than the automatic protection of armor powers.

That's one down.