So combined supple based armor is now 1b per piece

[Khlin]

That does sound like a pretty damn awesome idea. Equipping a character in this game is WAY too tedious by today's MMO market standards. While I agree that part of AO's charm is its old school somewhat hardcore-ness, that's going to lead to nothing but its continued decline. It's not attractive to new people, and there aren't enough vets for long term sustainability (escpecially when considering FC's current condition).

The charm is the twinking and the ability to make interesting builds / choices.

There is no charm in doing something tedious over the course of a few weeks to acquire 1 single item. I am not asking for instant gratification, but for some things it's becoming rather ridiculous.

Problem is not with the vets, but with the tedious tasks driving away fresh players: "Oh, so it took you about 2 years to actually finish a toon playing casually"

[Autohead]

The charm is the twinking and the ability to make interesting builds / choices.

There is no charm in doing something tedious over the course of a few weeks to acquire 1 single item. I am not asking for instant gratification, but for some things it's becoming rather ridiculous.

Problem is not with the vets, but with the tedious tasks driving away fresh players: "Oh, so it took you about 2 years to actually finish a toon playing casually"

The way your post is worded in places makes it seem like you're disagreeing with me, but you basically just said the exact same thing I did. /shrug

[Hulk]

Amazing how nerfing bounties in s10 really lowered prices of items, and also was really great for the tl5 scene. 150 bs runs so much now. It really helped leveling folks get started too. wtg. And keeping the cred sinks in game at the same time as removing new creds being created was a great idea.

[Esssch]

1b per piece you say? Hmm, sounds like it might be time to resub just to sell my CSS chest.

[Cratertina]

Here's a fix nerf Combined armor buffs by 50% :P give ql300 css +15 weaponskillls. That should fix it.

[Lazy]

Here's a fix nerf Combined armor buffs by 50% :P give ql300 css +15 weaponskillls. That should fix it.

not if every alternative for that slot gives 0 weaponskills ;p

[Rigister]

I stand by the APF bosses having a 100% chance to drop 1 random base QL bot and 1x random regular bot.

This would give a small fix not only on the ammount of bots ingame, decreasing a lot the pricing and also add another reason for people to raid APF´s more often.

[srompu]

Here's an interesting calculation:
Imagine that about 5 S42 raids are done each week. That means 5x12 = 60 ql300 lead bots enter the economy.
Using an estimate of 10% for ql300 lead bots from city raids, that's the equivalent of 600 city raids.
A rough estimate of 400 active cities at 2 raids a day is around 800 city raids per day. This seems rather high, honestly, with the lack of ICE/CRU lately.
However, even as an approximation, this means that the lead bots generated by S42 are likely 1/3 to 1/2 of the total lead bot generation. Cool, eh?

It'd be interesting to see how much decreased S10 activity raised prices on ql300 armor indirectly by raising the prices of lower armor.

[Leetlover]

Where will it stop...?

It has to do with LE-missions, arid rift and dailies. Thats what players do to axp.

Unlike what Masta says, it is entirely FC's fault that AI-raids not run often.

Edit:
had more ai-raids (+42) run more often, more bots would be produced which again would give lower prices.

[Leetlover]

HEY UR DROP SYSTEM IS BROKEN "KNOCK KNOCK"

supple was 350m before Lost Eden...same droprate as now. We need team-content w loot, like pre-le. AI-content pre-le gave both the maximum axp + bots/loot (or apf-items).

Lets say all solo-dailies was removed and the team-daily was changed to 'kill admiral' you would in just a few weeks see that botprices would drop. Ground + ship is a rather long game-session tho, considering there is other things 2 do.

[Vanillashake]

Supple is the only outrageously expensive bot. All the others have been relatively consistent since AI launched. So much damage has already been done that the only real solution is akin to Lazy's suggestion.

Or we can live in Masta's dreamworld and actively choose to be at a disadvantage over those who have alien armor.

[MachSchau]

I personally would rather see AI armor nerfed/no longer considered the end all be all armor for some toons. However, that is somewhat an impossibility due to the fact that even if you dont actually need the armor, it can be used for twinking purposes and some items out there will be impossible for toons to equip without it.

I think the price mainly has to due with the vast demand for it. Years ago supple bots were a lot cheaper probably because AI raids were the only form of aixp. Over time the population has dwindled immensely since those times and has really caused the prices to go up. Nowadays all I see are ranged toons everywhere and those toons, for the most part, require CC or CSS because it is the best option.

I dont like how long the ai raids themselves take and the monotonousness in waiting for the wave to come or when you are in the ship and the boss mobs spawning one by one by one by one. For me personally, an ai raid with ship from start to finish should take 30 minutes and yield about 500-1m aixp. The cloak should never have a lock out/cool down and once raised (after a new 30 min cool down) should be instantly available to be lowered again. I remember pre aixp boost an entire raid would yield you about 100k, then after the boost it was anywhere from 200-300k.

If the only constant and accessible way of obtaining lead bots is through city raids then the system in which it is based upon needs to be changed either through a revamp or a band aid fix by simply upping the drop rate. That is to say, if AI armor is going to be the end all be all for a majority of people. The other option is to introduce new, good, more easily obtainable armor alternatives.

To add, there was a time when there were vast supplies of various items/obscure items. Nowadays because people have become sooooooooooooooo akin to just buying everything no one sets out to farm that stuff and when it sells, it sells for an astronomical amount. Maybe farming stuff isn't fun to anyone?

[Gracee]

Maybe farming stuff isn't fun to anyone?

Not when you are close to 100% sure that you won't get what you are after time and time again.

If I want AI armor I plan to farm other things (that are likely to drop within a reasonable amount of time and effort) to sell so I can just buy it. Shouldn't be like that.

I like Lazy's idea, too.

[Utopian]

Not when you are close to 100% sure that you won't get what you are after time and time again.

If I want AI armor I plan to farm other things (that are likely to drop within a reasonable amount of time and effort) to sell so I can just buy it. Shouldn't be like that.

I like Lazy's idea, too.

Hence why groups that farm APFs, Xan and DB do those zones for credits - because the drops are more predictable to obtain credits over time. And I agree it shouldn't be like that - but afraid we won't see any changes.

The silly-rare items really need some love in this game

And I like Lazy's idea too -

[MachSchau]

I haven't played any other games really (they are quite boring to me), what are rare items like in other mmos? I know its not the best comparison to compare how one does against another but I am sure we can find some similarities.

For example, DC Universe there really isn't (to my knowledge) rare items that drop from mobs. How you get rare/good items is you do the many solo/team instance missions and you get a certain currency to buy the rare item, there are also different tiers of the rare items that you can only gain access to when you complete a certain amount of instances. Anyways, what I am getting at is, the price on those rare items require many months of farming to save up enough for one full set of the tier 1 (if I recall correctly there are 3 tiers). And if I am right, you only gain 1 a day, dont quote me on that, I haven't played the game in 2-3 years. That to me was a major grind.

While I do agree that time>reward when you could spend the same time farming something else and get enough credits to actually buy the item you want in a shorter amount of time than if you camped it and I feel that in those instances there is definitely an imbalance, especially when you need multiple items coupled with a process in achieving the end result.

[Vanillashake]

Currency and/or loot tokens is the norm with most other games. While I wouldn't want to see AO turned in to that, generic viralbots redeemable for viralbot type of your choosing is a humble medium that addresses the stupidity of supple bots.

[Khlin]

The way your post is worded in places makes it seem like you're disagreeing with me, but you basically just said the exact same thing I did. /shrug

I have a knack for overstating things

To add, there was a time when there were vast supplies of various items/obscure items. Nowadays because people have become sooooooooooooooo akin to just buying everything no one sets out to farm that stuff and when it sells, it sells for an astronomical amount. Maybe farming stuff isn't fun to anyone?

After countless AI raids (ground & full raids), it seems rather daunting to keep trying and get bots. So I'll farm other stuff I can sell to buy AI armor.

...I like Lazy's idea, too.

...And I like Lazy's idea too -

Bump! Lazy's idea is good.

Also, FC should do something with those inactive viralbots and how the general /admiral loot generation system works. General dropping 3 NT moulds and 2 lamnidae gloves of a general is utter crap!

[Leetlover]

Don't think lazy's idea is the ideal solution. I think players wanna roll a profession and then go in a team-scenario and perform the functions of that profession, and then at the end reap some rewards.

AO is diferent than FPS-games cause it is so left-brain heavy...but arid axp-farm is just mindless fps (run, tab shoot) unlike bossroom/ship in a more mortal team.

[Khlin]

Don't think lazy's idea is the ideal solution. I think players wanna roll a profession and then go in a team-scenario and perform the functions of that profession, and then at the end reap some rewards.

AO is diferent than FPS-games cause it is so left-brain heavy...but arid axp-farm is just mindless fps (run, tab shoot) unlike bossroom/ship in a more mortal team.

The only time when ship raids are difficult is the 100-180 bracket. A ship raid filled with average TL7 toons stopped being dangerous a few years back.

Actually, there's a lot more chances of TL7's getting killed in arid than on a ship raid.

[blindio]

my personal experience on my tl7 ma tells me different i can safe pull in arid, admirals room on a ship makes that a far riskier proposition, that said i never did arid for anything but my last half dozen dailies i got most of my aixp grinding for my apoc ring in raids, and people look at my alien kills and wonder why ive no ai armor, it's because few of em are from cities, that said you can make funtional toons with no combined which im glad cause the prices even for crappy combined put me right off buying it