macskull

That's just a combat log thing, as far as I'm aware. It is reduced by any negative energy resistance you may have, though.

For purposes of this argument, AFK farming and non-AFK farming are the same, as they're tied to the 5-minute rep timer. The non-AFKer might get more kills, but they'll have the same number of chances to get a drop every hour (12 chances, assuming a rep-valid kill every 5 minutes).

Anyways, I'm done here. Your insistence on ignoring facts and evidence which are staring you in the face means you're either being intentionally obtuse, or a troll.

Bringing them down recently? Prices lowering (I'm not sure why we're even having this discussion, when the whole thing started over someone mentioning they got a lowball bid on a single enhancement) is either due to an increase in supply or a decrease in demand (or deflation, but that's obviously not the case here). Since people are constantly rolling new characters, or respecing old ones, I doubt a decrease in demand is the major player here, therefore we logically conclude an increase in supply is the biggest factor. Of course not all of that increased supply is coming from AFK farms, but given the reasons I stated above why they're more efficient than the alternative method of getting these drops, it's once again a logical conclusion that AFK farms are having the greatest impact on the increase in supply (however small that may be).

One thing we know for sure, though: AFK farming is what's keeping the prices from being even higher.

With the only other "procurement method" being actual PvP, if you still believe farming isn't supplying most of what's out there, you have obviously never PvPd in this game, nor have a PvPer mentality.

Sorry, bub, but you're wrong on this one.

EDIT: I'll clarify, using a few scencarios:

* Busy zone PvP: given that PvP in the only active zone in the game (Freedom RV) is more often than not one-sided, you usually have a large group of people killing the same few people over and over again, faster than that 5-minute rep timer. Yeah, there are more kills, but you're not getting a chance for a drop on each one. That's not even factoring in the fact that your targets are actively trying to avoid being killed, which complicates things even further.

* 1v1 arena match: standard matches are heal decay and travel suppression off, lasting ten minutes. That means you're going to have at most two chances for a drop, if either of you actually scores a kill in the match (two competent people on evenly-matched builds means that won't always happen).

* Team arena match: same rules as the 1v1s: kills are a bit more common depending on player skill and team makeups, but again, two chances max for a drop, as the entire team gets "rep" off each valid kill.

If you think AFK farming (guaranteed rep every five minutes) is less efficient than zone or arena PvP (might get rep every five minutes), you're sadly mistaken. AFK farming becomes even more profitable when you have multiple targets to work with, and are therefore getting rep more often than every five minutes.

Well, y'know, except for the fact that PvP and PvE operate completely differently, you have a point. Knowing how something works in PvE has never meant a knowledge of how it works in PvP, and that's even more true since I13.

The only assumption going on here is your assumption that AFK farming is not impacting market prices. Everyone else has offered hard evidence, which you've chosen to ignore because it doesn't agree with your point of view. In most circles that's called "being wrong and being stupid about it," but I imagine you'd have a different definition.

"Needing to be AFK farming?" Are you suggesting that PvP IO farms need to be AFK, or are you suggesting that the AFK farms are the only way prices are/aren't getting lower? You'll need to make yourself much more clear if you want an answer that satisfies your unusually obtuse thought process.

Depends who you talk to, regarding whether it's "public information" or a "well-guarded secret." Anyone with an once of intelligence should be able to utilize this forum's search tool to find at least passing mentions of how to do it, and it's much easier in game. Yeah, every so often I run into someone who doesn't know it's possible, but c'mon, if you think figuring out how to do so is hard... Certain social circles might hold it to be common knowledge (*raises hand*) and then you've got large public channels where people are uninformed. Just because some people don't know how to do it doesn't mean it isn't public knowledge - citation standards dictate that a statement such as "the capital of Wisconsin is Madison" is public/common knowledge, yet if you asked random people on the street what the capital of Wisconsin is, many might not be able to answer. This is through ignorance, rather than this fact not being common knowledge.

Speaking of assumptions, you're now claiming that no one in this thread has had success AFK farming for PvP IOs - yet here I am as living proof of your inaccuracy. I've made billions upon billions of inf in farms you insist aren't having an impact on the market. Again, look at the prices of PvP IOs since the rep change was put into place, and you'll see this is where you're wrong - but I wouldn't expect you to see that.

I haven't seen prices lowering much recently. They peaked just after I15 when people weren't sure exactly what impact the rep change would have on PvP IOs (other than making them far rarer), and they've settled down a bit (emphasis on a bit).

Actually, we weren't talking about prices on PvP IOs falling due to AFK farming until you brought it up. The OP happened to mention one IO they won a lowball bid on, which was more than likely someone either accidentally listing that IO too low, or simply listing it low because they didn't have enough inf to cover the fee, or whatever other reason. It wasn't because prices are coming down, however. You came in and said "AFK farming is having a negligible effect on the market" (which, I should add, is completely unsubstantiated and was thrown out there randomly, just like you're now accusing us of doing... funny how that works, isn't it?), to which someone replied "I'd bet money that it is having an effect." That effect may not be lowering prices, but it's certainly keeping those prices stable.

You kidding me? When most of the IOs I get sell for 9 digits, how is that not lucrative? It's just the opposite - it's even more lucrative than before, because there's much more potential inf to be gained per drop, and if you're one of the people with the resources to do such a thing, you're almost guaranteed lots of inf. We know that farming was what kept prices largely in check on PvP IOs - if you think that zone/arena matches were the main source of drops coming onto the market, then you're woefully ignorant of how the playerbase, especially the PvP playerbase, acts. In PvP you're fighting targets that are actively trying not to die, which makes getting that drop that much less likely in the first place. When the method to easily and quickly farm the IOs was removed, prices skyrocketed because the supply floored while demand remained more or less constant. Is AFK farming efficient? Depends on your definition. I consider the chance to rack up a few billion inf while I wouldn't normally be playing (and would otherwise be gaining zero inf) efficient, which is why I do it.

You've been doing the same thing. You've heard, I'm sure, the common saying about people that live in glass houses.

The ability to AFK (or semi-AFK) farm PvP drops hasn't changed one bit since they were introduced, although the rep changes did alter the amount of people who were able to efficiently do so. Where does the majority of supply on the market today come from (talking standard IOs, not PvP IOs)? Farmers. Why? There are enough people mowing down large amounts of NPCs to significantly impact the supply on the market. Obviously, it's not quite the same case with PvP IOs since the way they drop is different, and you can't farm them solo unless you've got a friend, but the point stands - farming results in more rewards over the same period of time, on average, so it's only logical to assume there's a significant portion of the supply being generated that way. (Don't believe me? Look at what happened to the price of purples following I14, when farmers shifted from standard content to MA missions, which don't give a chance at dropping purples. Still don't believe me? Look at what happened to the price of PvP IOs when they tied them to rep - since it was a while ago, I'll refresh your memory; prices doubled or tripled on some of the more expensive ones. That +3% def PvP IO that you can't get on the market for 2 billion, and might be able to get off-market for 3-4 billion, used to sell for 500 million.)

Information on how to do these farms isn't exactly a well-kept secret. If you ask around, or even look on the boards, you'll find information. The only thing keeping it from being popular is that it requires lots of time and a second account, something which many people don't have access to. The information is there for whomever wants to access it - what they do with it is their own decision. If you think the situation Uber is describing "might" be happening, and is only happening "on one server," you're sadly disconnected with that's going on in the game these days. Of course, many of the PvP IO farmers are PvPers themselves, so they're mostly consolidated on a few servers, but I know of several people who farm on servers other than Freedom and Justice. I can say with almost 100% confidence that when I wander into Warburg on Justice and it shows the zone being empty, that there are at least a dozen accounts scattered throughout the zone farming for drops, and I've wandered across several farms in Warburg on Freedom, sometimes completely by accident.

Just because you don't want to admit you are wrong doesn't mean these things aren't happening. It's kind of like the people who said "there weren't any character deletions or bans because of MA powerleveling, because neither I nor my friends were affected." Get real.

The only NPC type in the game that gains significant enough defense on a regular basis to be an issue is the Cimerorans, but this can easily be countered with defense debuffs, slotting, or external tohit buffs (and Cim defense is everything except psi/toxic, not just smash/lethal). Other groups will have smash/lethal defense, but not in high enough numbers to pose a threat with even basic SO slotting.

If you're looking into making your first AR/ Blaster, I'd strongly suggest staying away from AR/Dev unless the playstyle of it sounds like it would appeal to you. In all honesty I'd really recommend AR/EM (and look at my sig, this advice isn't just me throwing out random recommendations).

Mids relies heavily on .NET, which most translation layers (Crossover, Darwine, etc.) have issues with. There were some people tooling around with Darwine and Mono (the open-source-ish version of .NET) but I don't believe anything ever came of it. I just run VMWare Fusion on my MacBook when I need to fire up Mids these days, but I run the game on my Windows desktop 99% of the time.