The_Alt_oholic

Some of what is going on with the higher priced items is obviously flipping.

It takes money to make money.
The price that items sell for is what people are willing to pay for them (the high price) or the price that someone puts something on the market because they want it to sell (the low price).

With Purples, ebil marketeers (as they have been called) can find the sweet spot to set up "price traps" to purchase all of these at what they are willing to grab them for and then re-mark the pricing to whatever they think will eventually sell.

If you are on the low-end in the market, you usually want to turn things fast to make a profit, but - if you are able to make a hundred million plus on one transaction - that slot can sit there for a while.

I know I've done this. I don't usually slot purples. I have slotted them, but it was more by accident than anything else. To me, they are much more useful in milking inf out of the players that want to be L337, Uber, or whatever you want to call the dime-store sucker I'm getting rich off of.
I craft that baby purple and start my search for a good price point. I go high. It might take a month or a month plus to sell, but I'm patient and crafty.

Craft on, Crafta!

So there's how the chips fall. <ul type="square">[*]Ultra-rare means that there aren't many of them. Supply versus demand. You want them; there aren't many of them; so the price is high.[*]Ebil Marketeer flipping. The Ebil Marketeers know you want them. They know how to get them. They know how to sell to the highest bidder (aka how far players will be willing to go to get these things)[*]Get your fair share of the loot! It isn't Ebil to see a Purple IO that you crafted! Even if it's for the same price as the Ebil'r of the Market PvPrs. You have a right to that inf as well! Craft and sell your Purples for fun and profit. Remember it isn't a race. Price to sell high![*]"Give the characters something to do at level 50" says the players! "Give them something to chase after that will take them a while to achieve" says the DEVs! And Ultra-rare Purples were born. Yeah, they are that rare.[/list]
So who's driving up the price of Purple IO's?
Obviously players that don't want them are the ones selling them. Otherwise they would be slotting them and you can't sell them while they are slotted, right?
So the players that don't care about purple IO sets are the ones making profits off the Purple IO sets (or are flipping them to get money to buy their own IO sets, but still - even so - they must not really "want" that one that they are flipping otherwise they would be slotting it!) ... or do I mean the character that bought it ....

Yeah, they are about that rare.

Use your Search-fu before posting please.
There are many threads that come up about good ideas.
Most of the time it will end up that someone has probably already posted a thread or 5 on any idea that you think needs to be worked on.
This isn't to say that I don't think that you can't think up anything new, but the game has been around for a while and people have been thinking about ways to fix since before it was released.

So yeah, there are a lot of threads about how to fix the AE -
I posted on one here ::

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...SID=&amp;fpart=

It was also discussed on a thread that the box says that AE is level 1-50 content, so, apparently, adjusting the level range for AE use will not be happening.

Contains to where levels can access the AE and what level characters can be on the same AE mission team - that isn't on the box, so it is an option to do this.

[ QUOTE ]
*plays devil's advocate*

What are these players doing that you can't explain to them how to improve?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not much.

That is to say"I could explain to these players how to improve on practically everything they are doing."

However, as you know many players in this game in general don't stop for long.
If you are trying to type out an explanation of something, someone has attacked before you have finished typing it.

Then you get the obligatory "I know what I'm doing. I've played MMORPG X before." or "You're bossy." or they simply ignore.

Part of the problem with a power-leveled noob is that they think they know how to play and/or think they have the right to ask other players about how to play the game after they just blew through all the content that would have taught them everything they needed to know.

Getting on a higher level team with someone that doesn't know how to play their character is pretty annoying if you have taken the time to work your way up and seen how the game teaches you how to use your powers and about the various aspects of the game.

Farmdumb and Virtue are the two biggest AE Farm servers at the moment.
Regardless of what others say, I find it easier to deal with less pro-farm tells and they are more abundant on Farmdumb and Virtue.

For this reason, I am not playing on either one of them until the situation has been corrected properly. I am not having a hard time finding non-AE teams/non-farming teams on other servers.

If you are having problems getting recruited to a team, the first - and should be obvious - option is to start recruiting for a team yourself.

You can use my macro for police mission teams to make it easier :

/macro SFT "t $target, Hello,hero. I'm gathering together a team to help solve some level $level DIFFICULTY problems that the police are having in ZONE. Would you like to join?"

Change ZONE to the zone that you will be running in.
Change DIFFICULTY to your difficulty setting.
Do these changes while you are creating the macro as the editing feature for macros is still wonky.

Once you have this macro set up, open the search window. Find a player that you would like to invite, make sure that they are blue (not on a team), click on their name in the search window, and click on the macro.
When they sent you a tell that they are interested, send them an invite.

Alternately, if you are running normal missions you could use this version of the macro ::

/macro SFT "t $target, Hello,hero. I'm gathering together a team to run some level $level DIFFICULTY missions. Would you like to join?"

Change DIFFICULTY to your difficulty setting.
Do these changes while you are creating the macro as the editing feature for macros is still wonky.

Easy enough. It takes a lot of the dread of recruiting away.

Of course, you will need to change the Hero part if you are on the Villain side...

To make use of the macro easy for all characters and easy to edit, open Notepad and paste in the macro. Save it. Now you can pull it up whenever you need it for a quick edit and "copy and paste" into the game.

Have fun.

Play the game. You will get them at the rate that the game intends to give them to you.
They are "ultra rares" after all.

[ QUOTE ]
Is it normal to take straight up "Taunt"

[/ QUOTE ]

For most Tanks these days, it seems that the answer is "$*(#$# NO!"
This is one of the reasons that Tanks have Gauntlet as their inherent power. It is also the reason that Punch Provoke was added to Tank attacks.
Many Tanks were not performing as designed - aka they weren't taking Taunt.

[ QUOTE ]
, or is there enough threat from the other abilities to make it obsolete?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. In PvE Taunt is THE 100% accurate agro magnet.
All other Tank gauntlet and related punch-provokes pale in comparison.
If you really want to be a Tank and protect your team, get Taunt.
As you may have noticed, TAUNT is available to all Tanker sets.
It is a part of all Tanker sets for a reason. Taunt really defines a Tank - regardless of the fact that many Tankers seem not to believe that.

[ QUOTE ]
I have seen some builds with it and some with out across the various Tanker posts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like I said.
If you really want to impress people with your ability to "protect the team" (the number 1 reason to play a Tank as far as I'm concerned), then you should take Taunt. You will be able to keep the agro 100% of the time. Your team will know that they are safe to unload their attacks relentlessly. The team will churn up enemies like crazy. So take Taunt if you want to be a "team player".


If you want to be a Scranker then you don't really need Taunt as you really don't want to be playing a Tank any way. You obviously don't care if a more powerful attack - like a blaster's AoE pulls the agro away from you and toward the "true" damage dealer on the team, because this is what WILL happen if you don't have Taunt. A good team will realize this, stop AoE'ing and start single target attacking through the tanker. It slows down the team, and the Scranker gets to think that they are gloriously defeating all the enemies single handedly - which is probably what they want to be doing anyway. This to me is the "glory hound" approach.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

np.

Play it the way that you think is the most fun.
That's really the key.

[ QUOTE ]
And while a character built with just SOs may not be the "worst player in the game" the odds are far better that the tank with the 500+ million build will not only be better equipped to handle what is thrown at him but will probably know a fair amount about how to play that character as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Slotting purples does not give a player any skills in playing any archetype.

I agree that Purpled-out characters will have better set bonuses and, therefore, be "better equipped".

[ QUOTE ]
Ohhhh, a new evil plot!!! You do realize that some ebil flipper could come in and buy up your supply and flip it at the current market prices?

[/ QUOTE ]

Mmmm. Like the OP maybe?

Nah, it could never happen.

Why does this thread make me want to make a really bad mission?

I could make a really really bad one, but I ONLY have 3 slots and I'm not wasting even the current revolving one on just intentionally being bad...but making a truly bad mission would be so much fun....but still...even so...I must remember that I have other arcs already in progress that I DO want to finish...before I get distracted with another one...'specly a reli bahd won.

27 Scrappers (First 50)
18 Controllers (Second 50)
17 Blasters (Third 50)
16 Defenders
14 Tanks
11 Masterminds
11 Brutes
7 Dominators
7 Corruptors
5 Stalkers
3 Peacebringers
2 Warshades

I just happened to end up getting the 50's in that order. It looks like I'll probably get a Defender to 50 next.
Of the villains, my highest level character is a Dominator that is in the 40's somewhere.

If this happened recently, I'm assuming something may have happened when the PvP only Phase Shift vs Phase Shift went into effect.
I know that was not to effect PvE, but it sounds like something that would happen if it did.

Since the various Make-enemy-intangible powers are hated by so many, this is a rarely used power, so I can't even tell you the last time I saw one of these power used.
One of the reasons that it has been neglected are two fold ::
<ul type="square">[*]It isn't easy visually to tell if an enemy is Phase Shifted, regardless if they are attacking you, running away, or standing still.[*]The Phase-shifted effect ends abruptly.[/list]
The first is clearly the main concern of the OP's post, but if you are going to take time to tinker with the power, it might as well be improved even a bit more to make the power more team friendly.

Giving a glow and increasing enemy transparency would go a long way for the power visibility issue.
As it isn't a toggle power and ends abruptly, a flicker warning that it was going to give out starting 5 or 10 seconds before the power ends would be nice. - ie. a strobing effect when the power is "counting down" slow at first and then increasing until the enemy remains solid. This would give a team or even a solo player time to react to the immanent re-solidifying of the phase shifted enemies.

Just a thought. I said I wouldn't do this any more, but this power does need help.

[ QUOTE ]
Alright, I need to find a server where people still team up to do regular missions.
The three servers I play on...Protector, Justice and Guardian...all seem to just be AE servers now

.....

Are there any servers out there that still do regular missions?

[/ QUOTE ]

I played on a non-AE team on Justice hero tonight.
I played on a non-AE team on Protector on Friday.

I haven't played on Guardian recently so I can't say what's up there.

I've been playing only on non-AE teams on Triumph for the last two weeks.

I've played on non-AE teams on several other servers, but I can't say which for sure. Probably Champion and Infinity.

I don't play on Farmdumb or Virtue at this point because of all the AE-exploiter activity on those two servers.

[ QUOTE ]
Thoughts?
Ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

Use your Search-fu!

Here's a post I did dated 7/9/9 to a similar thread (this comes up every so often)

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...ue#Post13732799

[ QUOTE ]
...quivers, sheathes....

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, please backpacks and other non-wing back gear! They are so long overdue!

Heck a parachute or para-glider would be awesome!
Yeah, I know it's kind of "Tech", but I thought it was better than asking for Flint and Steel and the ability to "create fire".

Next to Bubble-helmets, I would have really have liked to have seen the various non-wing back items as costume parts - raptor pack, jump pack, etc. in the Science Booster (but I guess they were more Tech and that's what the Cyborg booster "was"... *sigh*)

Various time periods
You know, like a Golden Age, Silver Age, etc. or just different time periods (ie. Max Mercury).

Battle Damage
I have a character that I play where if it ends up going to a hospital while on a team, it shows back up with robotic legs.
I have another one with costume to show that it taken dimensional-damage from jumping through so any different dimensions during the end game Portal Corp Story line.

Different People pretending to be or called the same "name"
Completely different people that say that call themselves by the same "super hero" name or often confused and assumed to be that "super hero".

Level Progression or SK/Mentor status
I have some characters that have costumes that they wear when they exemplar down or are sk'd to indicate a "less powerful" version of the same character.

Secrets of the Lake
174351
Level 20-40
Team missions (Designed with team play in mind)
Challenging, Pulp horror
Mission difficulty ramps with each mission.
Player Comment :: "Good job. Custom critters were a challenge but well balanced. Check out a movie called She Creature and this arc will get another level of appreciation."

DEV d'Arc
232506
Level 45-54
Team missions (designed with team play in mind)- can be solo'd by a 50 if careful.
Challenging, Game History, Save the World
Contains AV's in every mission.

Challenge of the Eagles
261446
Level 19-32
Team missions (Designed with team play in mind) - can be solo'd if careful.
Recently re-released arc.
Challenging, Save the World (Time Travel)
Contains Challenging EB in second mission.

Complexity changes from mission to mission, but many missions include triggered events.
DEV d'Arc contains many non-standard uses of allies and bosses.
I consider all these arcs to be Challenging.

[ QUOTE ]
Qr - one way to sort of get around the current filesize limits is to split your arc over two slots.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the way to do it.
Make sure both stories have the same name and the part number.

Example:

Really Cool Story :: Part 1
Really Cool Story :: Part 2

Make sure to put in the story notes that it is a part of another arc or few and list the other arc numbers involved in the order that they appear in the "bigger" arc.

Example:

Blah blah blah (This is Part 2. Part 1 :: ####)

You can use your own convention for this, but other players have been using it and it has worked quite well as far as I can tell.

With all the farming/pl'ing exploiters still utilizing the AE for an unintended purpose, the DEVs have no other choice but to keep nerfing the AE until they get to the point that they have surgically removed the ability to farm and pl in the AE.
As those of the community should have known long ago, the DEVs clearly stated that the AE was not to be used as farming or power-leveling tools and that players caught doing so would be punished. That is clear.

So all these nerfs are really do the players that insist that they have a right to exploit the game. If they would simply stop abusing the game then we could get on with using the AE for what it was intended to be - a playable story-creation tool for players to share their story ideas.
It isn't that hard to understand. I really do think that the farmers/pl'r are pretty much complete jerks for not understanding that by now.

I don't understand why they are pulling maps the maps that they are pulling out of the MA. I haven't tried to figure it out, but I do think that I have seen and have reported maps that I thought should be pulled that haven't been pulled. The maps that I reported tended to have dynamic spawns built into the mission that have nothing to do with mission setting and often complete mission goals by themselves.

As far as exploding items go, they are being abused by farmers/pl'ers to intentionally cause damage to spawns.
Though I think that this was one of the original reasons that these were added to "normal" missions, I do know that they are being abused.
I don't understand why they couldn't stay in the MA and still have the explosive effect - just remove or greatly decrease the damage component (ie. keep the knockback, but reduce to 1 hit point or something).

I think that the MA/AE is a great idea.

I really have a great distaste for the players that insist that they have a right to abuse the system.
They are cheaters. Cheaters ruin the game play experience of everyone that they come in contact with. Cheaters think that they aren't hurting anyone else by cheating. We all know that in reality that isn't the case; a cheater is always cheating someone or something or they aren't cheating.
I see the effects of the cheating in the game every time I play. I know it affects my gaming experience.
It is affecting my game experience right now.

Here's one of my fixes.

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...SID=&amp;fpart=

AE isn't the problem. It is the cheating exploiters that are farming/pl'ing in the AE that are the problem.

I'm against this kind of mechanic. It doesn't stop level 50's from stepping out of the AE that don't know where the trainer is. They are still level 50; they just don't have level 50 powers.

I'm against the farming and PL'ing that is happening in the AE.

What you are proposing doesn't help solve the problem at all.

And while one of my ideas ::

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...SID=&amp;fpart=

...does not completely stop noobs from being power-leveled, it at least it stops power-leveling from being shoved in the face of every new player.

I also think that the Ae Contact shouldn't "request your presence" until level 50 and then to the AE in the level 50 zone. There are contacts in the AE buildings that provide pretty much all the same info - and you don't have to run the arc to get that info.
I was working on arcs before I even read any of that stuff. I had posted an arc before I ever ran the AE trainer arc. So it isn't like it's required to be able to do anything.

My ideas have been posted and they may have become "unpopular" a new idea is hasn't gained any "popularity" to be judged one way or another upon conception.

Nice!
You quite clearly point out why it is bad idea to allow this.

Obviously, making another character is the way to "change" your characters power sets and/or origin.

I have basically the same character on many servers - that is to say its has the same "name". That character has been made as a Spines/Regen Scrapper (2), a plant/thorn dom (2), a Spines/? stalker (1), and a Plant/storm controller (2, maybe 3) and with different origins to match their various origin stories - which are all basically the same story but with "twists".

Remember, the point of the game is to enjoy the experience playing through the levels. It's a journey game. It isn't really the kind of game that you "win" in the classical sense. You "win" in CoX by enjoying the act of playing it.

First off, your Avatar is extremely irritating.
Maybe that's the point.
It is so annoying that I had to cover it up in order to read your post. I won't be doing this again if I come across this same Avatar again.

The key point seems to be :

[ QUOTE ]
Avatea:
It has been brought to our attention that some of our players have been sharing their game accounts with [u]others[u] (by this we mean sharing the license to access the game servers for City of Heroes and/or City of Villains) and that [u]those being shared with[u] (not the account holders), are breaking rules or exploiting certain aspects of the game, resulting in account suspension.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think the sentence is constructed appropriately.

My translation is this ::

"It has been brought to our attention that some players have been sharing their game accounts with [u]other players[u] (by this we mean allowing other players to use their City of Heroes and/or City of Villains accounts), and [u]those other players[u] (not the account holders) are breaking rules or exploiting certain aspects of the game and causing the account suspension of user that shared their account."

Player A let's Player B use their account for whatever reason. Player B causes the account to get suspensed. Player A has no recourse in regards to their account as the EULA says that Player A should not have shared their account with Player B to begin with.

[ QUOTE ]
A question, how do you define sharing? Is it against the rules for a father and son to use one account? Is it against the rules for a husband to log his wife's toon to help transfer money or invite to an sg?

[/ QUOTE ]

Letting anyone else other than yourself to have access to your account is technically sharing.
Technically, it is against the rules for a father and son to use the same account.
It is technically against the rules for a husband to log into his wife's account. It has nothing to do with character. It is all about the account.

The main point that the post seems to be making is ::

If someone else uses your account and gets your account suspended, it is suspended just as if you were using it and caused the suspension yourself. You can't say, "I didn't do the thing that cause me to be suspended - someone else did that" - in order, to get out an account suspension. That does not fly. If your account did it, and it gets suspended, then your account is suspended

So if your son logs into their fathers account and gets the account suspended, then the father can't say that the account shouldn't be suspended because they weren't responsible for the actions of their son that was using their account.
If a wife allows her husband to log into her account, and he does something to get her account suspended. Then she can't complain about her account being suspended.

This is a way to keep players from trying to "snake" being suspended - aka "saying someone else did something with their account and they weren't responsible for whatever it was". It is also to make it clear that if you "give access to your account" to someone else - say a PL'ing service, then you can't complain about being suspended.
Really, the same applies to your account being banned.

The reasons for warnings (e-mail telling you not to do what you did again), suspensions (account can not access the game for a certain time period), and banning (your account is closed) are listed in the EULA and Codes of Conduct.
If you haven't read them, you already should have done so.
Each time you log into the game you are confirming that you agree to abide by them.

The true joy is being part of producing graphics that can promote severe epileptic seizures or so it seems sometimes.

I don't think it is as fun as fighting Giant Monsters myself, but I do participate in Rikti Invasions and Zombie Apocalypses when they happen to be part of the massive gang fighting these things and helping to "save the world" and all that.

I wish it was structured a bit differently, but it is what it is.
Massive lag and a light show to produce some xp and badges.

only 4.5 billion for 25 super rares?
Seems kind of low to me.

It isn't like they are supposed to be something that is easy to find/buy/achieve.

[satire]OMG! Diamonds and gold are expensive! Let's fix the economy![/satire]

The one that will remove farming and power-leveling from CoX once and for all.