TopDoc
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Quote:Expand means longer. Dumb it down means shorter. Which do you want?Originally Posted by graystar_blaster
I am not sure what your saying? please expand on this thought so i can understand. Im sure im just stupid but please dumb it down -
Quote:In the Updater right click on the regular City of Heroes button and select Properties. You'll see the version of the build that went live today, which includes a timestamp of 20120314 (I think). That means the Enhancement Converters were coded, possibly reviewed, and committed by 3/14. Double XP weekend has nothing to do with this.Originally Posted by Fulmens
You're right, Darth. There is no way they were making a mistake after playing all weekend. There is no way they were trying to encourage large-team play by making Reward Merits have some other value than fodder for Alignment Merits. There is no way they were trying to throw a bone to Rogues and Vigilantes.
Maybe it was a profit-hunting move. But saying "There is no way" it was anything else just makes you look unusually bad.
Intentionally making Reward Merits more valuable than other Merits by selling new things initially only for Reward Merits is possible, but there's no basis for making such a claim that I've ever heard. And this goes against the current push which is for Incarnate Trials which I think just give Astrals and Emps.
Rogues and Vigilantes already have a bone, they can do content on both side. All of the smart people were Rogues and Vigilantes after Going Rogue came out. There was no bone for true heroes or villains till Alignment Merits came out. Regardless, I don't see how not selling Enhancement Converters to Heroes or Villains particularly helps Rogues or Vigilantes. That doesn't seem relevant.
Are you just arguing or did you really mean all that stuff?
It is certainly possible that Enhancement Converters were fixed badly, either by someone who didn't know what they were doing or by someone who didn't have time to think about what they were doing. Then they were committed either without any review or by someone who didn't have the time or competence to properly review the change. The changes may have been tested. Then they were put into production, and after we complained about it they were listed as known to be broken. Maybe internal testing found that they were broken, but there were a lot of fixes in this build. It would not have been appropriate to hold it up due to Enhancement Converters even if they were known to be partially broken. That's a really simple business decision.
It's sad that multiple people dropped the ball, and those of us who have been looking forward to and preparing for Enhancement Converters for upwards of 4 months have to wait even longer. It's sad that the focus of the world today is on profit, do it well enough to attract customers, but you don't have time to do it right, because you have to work on the next big thing to attract customers. I can see someone in NCSoft saying, "Well at least some people will have Enhancement Converters, that's good enough." It's sad that we as customers have to deal with this, because every MMO does it.
But it's also sad that this could have been done intentionally to increase sales of Super Packs. A smart Marketing weasel could have said, "What would it take to sell more Super Packs? We already have unique costume codes. ATOs aren't doing it. People have complained about getting too many Reward Merits. Maybe if we made Reward Merits better somehow. What would make people want a lot of Reward Merits?" This isn't some conspiracy theory. People are really paid to think up things like that.
Finally, It's sad that I would really consider this, and that other people would consider it possible as well. -
On the Beta server you could buy Converters with Alignment Merits (in Fort Trident or The Crucible), Astral and Emp Merits (in Oro), or Reward Merits (at any Reward Merit vendor). They weren't for sale for 1 Inf just for testing purposes, they were all consistently priced at what appeared to be production values. For 10 Reward Merits and 250K Inf you get 1 Converter. For 1 Hero Merit and 2.5M Inf you get 10 Converters. That's reasonable since for 50 Reward Merits and 20M Inf you get 1 Hero Merit. Based on that, my expectation was that the live prices would be the same or at least consistent, and available for all Merit types.
When Issue 22 went live the "recipe" for creating Enhancement Converters wasn't changed. The recipe requires that a certain "product" is available or that you're running on the Beta server. Well the live servers aren't the beta server, and apparently no one turned on that "product", so Enhancement Converters didn't show up at the vendor. I can understand that was a bug.
The fix that went in today changed the "product" required for the Reward Merit "recipe" only. Apparently that "product" has been enabled in the live build. The "recipes" for Emp, Astral, and Alignment Merits still has the old "product" which apparently still has not been enabled. I hope they will come out with another fix soon that changes the remaining "recipes" to use the working "product". At that point in time it should be possible to buy Enhancement Converters for all different types of Merits.
But by then it will be too late. Mrs. TopDoc doesn't really participate in my marketing schemes, so she had a character with 150 Reward Merits on hand. Just to see what would happen, she bought 15 Converters and started converting some PvP IOs I sent her. The first thing she got was a Glad Armor: +3% Def IO. She immediately sold it, but the price was already down to 1B. I expect that to keep going down. Then she got a Shield Wall: +3% Res IO near the end, but that was already down to 500M. The PvP market will be all tapped out later today, if it isn't already.
I find it hard to believe that the current situation is an accident. Someone had to change the Reward Merit recipe requirements. It's hard to believe that the person responsible for that was clueless about the other ways to buy Enhancement Converters, and didn't bother to look. It's hard to believe that no one reviewing the change realized that it only applied to Reward Merits. It's hard to believe that the people testing this only bothered looking at Reward Merits. The only conclusion is that the Devs intentionally made this change ONLY for Reward Merits. Why?
I can't think of any reasonable explanation, but here is an unreasonable one. The people who are best able to take advantage of the current situation are those people who have a large number of Reward Merits. Conveniently, that happens to be the same people who spent a lot of real $$$ buying Super Packs recently, because you get a lot of Reward Merits with those. -
So everyone who realized that you can get twice as many Enhancement Converters per reward merit by converting them to Alignment Merits first is screwed. Yes it costs more inf, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to how much you can make converting purples and such. The purple Market will be dead in a few weeks when they finally fix this, with all purples costing about the same. Good thing I plan to use most of my purples. But the PvP market will also be dead, and I was hoping to make some nice Inf off that. While providing PvP Enhancements to those who really want them. I'm a giver.
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DOH!!! Yes Enhancement Converters went live. But you can ONLY buy them with Reward Merits. Not Alignment Merits. Not Astrals or Emps. That ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!!!
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Quote:I failed to take into account the publishing blackout before the DXP weekend. So they probably could go live tomorrow. But there hasn't been any announcement about downtime tomorrow yet...Originally Posted by TopDoc
I expect them on this coming Tuesday.
It seems that want to publish more stuff less often. So I'm going to guess next week Tuesday. And they should have fixes for most of the major issues, like the client crash when opening the LFG on a lower level char.
So that means another week of buying purples. I've been starting a lot of new chars recently to try every power set in the game, and realized I may not have enough for all of them. So time to hoover up the purple market as Arcanaville put it. -
Each bid is for 10 items at 100M each, so 1B total. No problem with that.
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But I don't care enough to prove it. Note that I consider Total Worth to include current market value of all assets (including slotted IOs), and there's no way I'd unslot and sell everything.
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Apparently he was very serious. He felt that selling PvP IOs for massive Inf was unreasonable at the time. Of course Enhancement Converters didn't actually go live when he expected they would. And I haven't seen any notice of downtime tomorrow, so they probably won't go live till next Tuesday at the earliest. And there's no telling if they will be implemented the same as they are on the Beta server. They may not work on purples or PvPs, it may cost more converters to do purples or PvPs, etc. And there may be enough demand to sustain fairly high prices on them despite my predictions to the contrary. In retrospect, his righteous indignation appears to have been slightly misplaced. Obviously the people selling their PvP IOs (me included) were gambling with their own Inf, rather than cheating people due to a sure-thing.
If/when Enhancement Converters go live, if they go live as implemented in Beta, and if prices on PvP IOs fall like I think they well, then he can bring out his righteous indignation again. -
My meter goes to 1 trillion! But I'm not quite that ebil yet.
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Not quite every server. I only leveled up CEBRs on the servers where I didn't already have a 50, so that's 11. But I also have about a half dozen other large personal bases from my years of playing. I can store a lot.
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I have plenty of Kheld and MM ATO procs, but those are really set bonuses. I don't have many of the others, so I would specifically have to buy them. But after Enhancement Converters go live I plan to convert the 1000+ cheap ATOs I have to random ones, and should end up with a full set of procs. I've got enough to do now, so there's no reason to spend the time or Inf to buy the procs now.
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Quote:ATO procs and PPM are near the top of my list of things to test once Enhancement Converters go live.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Honestly, my spider-sense has been tingling ever since I read that description of ppm procs. Something about it "feels" wrong, but I have no evidence to support that feeling. Besides, of course, the obvious problem that recharge time is not the same thing as cycle time.
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Enhancement Converters are not live because they cannot be purchased. The "recipes" for buying them from the various vendors require that you are on the Beta server or that the "coboconv" product is available. Don't ask me how I know, I can't say. I assume the "coboconv" product means Enhancement Converters, and someone forgot to turn that on. Fixing the requirement is very easy, it's just a bit of text, not really even code. I don't know how they enable or disable products, but they could simply delete the requirement if they really wanted Enhancement Converters to go live. I expect them on this coming Tuesday.
I don't know if there are any issues beyond that, but I suspect one of the devs will be doing some testing to make sure there aren't any other problems. They would be pretty embarassed if they fixed things so players could buy Enhancement Converters, but then couldn't actually use them. -
BUT ENHANCEMENT CONVERTERS DIDN'T GO LIVE WITH ISSUE 22!!!1!!!!1!111!
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I'm a power gamer. I like creating the best build possible for a character, which means purples and PvPs and such. And I have a LOT of characters. The different options for obtaining those Enhancements include farming, marketeering, or playing. While I love figuring out farms, and how to be efficient, I don't particularly enjoy actual farming. Ditto for marketeering. But those rewards are far higher than actual playing, so I do them from time to time. It's a question of ROI (Return on Investment) where the Investment is my time. I'm willing to do some boring things (farming and marketeering) in order to improve the quality of the non-boring things (playing with overpowered characters).
With Enhancement Converters that will soon all be behind me. I'll have all the purples, PvPs, and ATOs I'll ever need. I'll only need to use the Market for the lesser Enhancements in my build. And I'll have a huge wad of cash in reserve in case the Devs release something new that I'll want. So I'll never need to farm or marketeer again. -
The drooling has begun!
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Time to list a lot of Kinetic Weapons for 2B.
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I've been large scale farming since a while after Issue 21 came out, so I have thousands of level 50 PvP IOs. So do lots of other people. People have been farming PvP IOs since they came out. If they have any brains (and they probably do if they're farming them), then they've been saving the extra on general principle. About 1/2 to 1/3 of the PvP IOs have been expensive, but even the worst ones have almost always been worth crafting and selling. But if your market slots are full you still craft them and drop them in a base. So there is a very large supply of junk PvP IOs out there. If I have thousands, I'm guessing there are tens of thousands at least stashed away in bases.
If the devs stop AFK PvP IO farming, that huge supply is still out there. The PvPers will be able to convert and get whatever they need. The huge stash will slowly go down as people with them sell, but the big 3 will be WAY more accessible than ever. Anyone who claims that a dev fix for AFK PvP IO farming will hurt supply will be laughed at, justifiably so. Everyone who wants them will be rolling in them.
Given that PvP IOs work just fine when exemp'd, farmers have been farming level 50s probably without exception. It was never worth it to farm lower level ones since people would only buy the procs. So that huge supply of junk PvP IOs is all 50s. When Enhancement Converters go live, that huge stock of junk 50s will start entering the Market and people will start converting them to the nice ones. It may not be worthwhile for someone with a large stock of PvP IOs to sell then when the cheap ones are 5M each, but it's another story when they reach 50M. Price will go down on expensive ones across the board. Me and the other smart marketeers will squeeze out all the profit we can in the first day, crashing prices. Supply will go up as people convert junk ones for resale. All it takes is a simple guide from me and a LOT of people will be listing Glad Armor: +3% Def IOs for sale in the Market. Or they can sell lots of middle prices ones. Demand will go down as some people create their own. I doubt if the big 3 will drop as far as 200M, but they could be close. However there's no way a Glad Armor: Resist will stay above 200M.
Historically, the supply of low level PvP IOs has been nearly 0. Most PvP Enhancements and Recipes between 10 and 20 have NEVER sold on the market. So if anyone really wants a low level PvP IO, even after Enhancement Converters, their only option is paying an Emp or AM farmer who currently charge around 2B each. I do expect their prices to drop, but not nearly as much. It will still take the farmers just as much effort, but demand will go down given the price difference. I think the big 3 at level 10 will be around 1B.
Yes there is a difference between level 10 and level 15. I can make lots of 15s, but I can't make lots of 10s. The people who REALLY insist on one of the big 3 level 10 PvP IOs can pay 1B. The only other low level big 3s on the market will be mine for say 800M. I'll let the Market decide if they're worth it. Alternatively, I'll be able to sell my low level junk PvP IOs to people who want to convert their own. If the junk level 50s are going for say 50M, I expect I'll be able to charge 200M at least for my level 15s. As long as I don't flood the market. If I have a large stock and no one else has any, I can sell them slowly for a nice profit. -
Quote:Every reference to IO above means PvP IO. I have a large supply of level 15 PvP IOs, and will use Enhancement Converters to convert them into the big 3 PvP IO procs, and I may have the lion's share of the market.Originally Posted by UberGuy
I didn't think you could convert across categories like that, making a standard IO into a PVPIO.
Obviously I'm a market n00b who thinks that all of the outstanding bids are for the Last 5 price. Thank you for enlightening me oh glorious and wise marketeer. Do you have any other pearls of wisdom to pass on to this pitiful beggar, whose hundreds of billions is likely a drop in the ocean compared to your vast fortune?Quote:Originally Posted by Another_Fan
LOL, good luck with that. It's usually smart to do the market research first, before you build the factory, and advertise the product.
Oh btw of the 2k bids on gladiators +res/def @ lvl 10, 1200 or so are mine and they aren't for 2 billion a piece. -
Quote:Time for me to come clean. When I said nothing will sell for a billion after Enhancement Converters, that was a lie. Anyone remember in my Confession of a Power Gamer thread where I mentioned weeks ago it may all be a distraction from my next BIG money maker which involves a level 15 CEBR? it wasn't a distraction, but my next BIG money maker really does involve a level 15 CEBR. As I said in yet another thread, my next ebil plan is to acquire items that aren't available in the market at all, or for a reasonable price. And then use them myself, or sell them for an unreasonable price. I converted my AFK PvP farm to get level 15 IOs. I've already built up a stockpile of them. When Enhancement Converters go live, I'll be able to convert those (given lots of converters) to the big 3 procs. And while prices on level 50 versions of the big 3 PvP IOs will drop below a billion, prices on the lower ones probably will not. There won't be all that many people with low level recipes or IOs to to convert, since they aren't mass produced like the 50s are by AFK farms.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
Where are these level 10's coming from? PVP farms, I'm assuming most of that is being done at level 50. How many level 10 characters do you see farming PVP IO's, and what is the liklihood of converting a level 10 PVP drop to one of the 3 most sought after?
The uniques have been available through emp merits for a while, as with Villain merits, and the amount of time it takes to save the merits for them to me justifies a selling price over 1 billion. Granted as more trials are released, more emps can be collected per day and they can be obtained faster, but again I don't think it's going to warrant a dramatic drop in price for the low level sought after globals. I guess we'll see though.
Once Enhancement Converters go live, the Devs will be able to fix AFK PvP IO farms without a massive outcry from the masses, because people will be able to produce the big 3 using Enhancement Converters. As such, I wouldn't be surprised if a fix is in the works. After that, no one will be able to muscle into my market with mass produced low level IOs.
I'm glad there are lots of people running iTrials for Emps or SSAs & tips for AMs to turn into low level PvP IOs, because they set the price VERY high for their work. And it really is a lot of work to earn that many Emps or AMs to buy PvP IOs, MANY hours over weeks or even months. Meanwhile, I'll earn 2 Hero Merits in 20 minutes, convert them to 20 Converters, and turn a junk level 15 IO into one of the 3 rare procs in a total of 25 minutes. Then sell it for the same price. All because I have a stock of the low level PvP IOs.
This is my real plan to become a trillionaire.
I have no other ebil plans to earn silly amounts of Inf. Really. You can trust me this time. -
Quote:I probably play between 10-20 hours per week these days. These are my plans for the next 6+ months to come. I'm not going to respec 67 level 50s and level 24 more up to 50 in the next few weeks. I plan long into the future.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
I'm just wondering what your average play time is per week and average amount of time per day. I can't tell just how 'grand' your grand scheme is, and I'm curious about how quickly you're able to accomplish goals like these on average.
As to getting a 50 of every power set, I've already made a list and started roughly half of the characters. My original plan was to play each a few days to get them up to about level 25, then rotate them such that I played one every 10 days or so. Doing that I get full patrol XP and level at twice the rate for a little over 1 level. Basically one TF per character per night, when I have time. I'm really looking forward to the TF teamup teleporter. And on characters that can solo at +1/x6 while still leveling up, the levels fly by. But this will be my lower priority.
Middle priority is converting the thousands of cheap purple, PvP, and ATO Enhancements I have to worthwhile ones. I could spend up to about 12 hours each week rerunning WWD#1 for 72 Alignment Merits and 720 Enhancement Converters, but that gets boring fast. Fortunately I already have nearly 400 Alignment Merits saved up, plus I'll be buying AMs with Reward Merits from the chars I'm leveling up. The biggest chore is emailing the Enhancements around everywhere, as I'm trying to keep Enhancements of the same type in the same base. HOs on Champion villains, ATOs on Infinity heroes, purples on Freedom heroes, ...
Higher priority is testing powers and Enhancements, figuring out attack chains, and respecing most of my characters into top end builds once I have huge numbers of top end Enhancements. I also like to "finish" my 50s, which means get them Alpha T3 slotted, 4 auto-power Accolades, cape & aura & 5 costumes, Vanguard & Cimerora access if they don't have it, and other finishing touches like that.
I may also find other things worth doing that pull me away from these projects, the same way Enhancement Converters pulled me away from one project already. If I find some easy way to earn Incarnate Threads, maybe I'll spend time doing that on my 50s who only have their Alpha slot. -
Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by Plasma
What I'm wondering is: when you have literally more than you can imagine spending in any way, will you still think about mechanics enough to come up with the next ebil plan?
I already have one ebil plan in motion to acquire one class of Enhancements that generally aren't available on the Market. Most of my ebil plans in the future will likely revolve around getting things that Inf cannot buy at all, or cannot buy at a reasonable price. Then I'll use them myself, or sell them at an unreasonable price.
However I'm going to be pretty busy once Issue 22 hits. I'll have some badges to get and new content to explore and exploit. And I need to go and respec ALL of my characters to take advantage of ATOs, good purples, and PvPs. I need to remove HOs where they don't work any more, maybe remove BotZs since they got cut in half, etc. While I'm at it I might as well improve their DPS, Defense, etc. That will require a fair amount of testing of powers, ATOs, etc. And if I'm going to all that effort, I might as well write up a huge guide. I've already started, and it's called TopDoc's Complete Build Guide.
Then I need to get back to playing. I want to level up every power set. I have half a dozen mid-level chars that I had to put on hold a month and a half ago in order to prepare for Enhancement Converters. And I'll need probably another dozen characters after that. -
I wrote the guide and leveled up 12 CEBRs, that's enough for me. I've moved on to bigger and better things.