We took interest out of the banks to try and reduce cash and even it out but even so I believe v. few people use as much money as they make/can make. Certainly by the end of the game there are few people who cannot afford whatever ships they like.
Looking at the trade profit hall of fame for the current game I cna see that more than 42 people have made more than 235mil. Another 17 have collect 200mil in bounties not to mention the amount they collect from their kills.
In my opinion the game should work as a steady state system where there is very little cash generation (i.e. total cash in the game is approximately constant). I think this is one of the main reasons games get stale.
In such I suggest:
1. Make bounties far lower (or exponentional). Bounties are too high - killing should be something you do for the alliance advantage, the rush or the stats. If we can make killing less sustainable hunters will have to kill better quality people (and so stop newbie killing). At the other end of the spectrum we need to encourage people to target hunt (when was this last really used?) - if people really believe that bounty makes people target hunt then leave it in but make it exponential - e.g. additional bounty is rand*10^(kill number since last death)/50). Make bounty for PRing smaller - say 10k for each PR.
2. Make ships more expensive. Mar and I have talked about have ships cost related to user ranking (we even joked about a 430mil FU!). Would a 50mil top racial not be the best thing to help promote hunters? It would also promote planets - what cost a PB? So something like:
Newb: Nothing
Begin:1/4 now
Fledge: 1/2 now
Adept:2x now
Expert:3x now
Elite:4x now
Master:5x now
3. Make planet building more expensive. The cost of building a lvl 70 is nothing compared to the worth it has. How about turrets at 5mil each, hangers and gens 500k each.
4. Reduce trade profit - say to 1/3 of what it is now.
Of course not all these should be implement like that (otherwise noone would ever afford a FU!), but I think keeping cash levels lower would keep the game competitive longer.
Anyway thats long enough for a post.
Money in game
I agree that too much money ruins a game, but I am not so sure that there actually is too much right now. I know that DC were spending everything we earned until well into the game, and I believe that alliances such as Crusaders and UB never really had as much cash as they would have liked. The point I completely agree on is that indiscriminate killing should not pay as well as it does - there should be very little (if any) profit in killing IMO.
i agree with the basic concept, but i dont like the implementation. multiplying ship prices as a function of player ranking will probably make people less eager to move up in the stats and whatnot. why should i try hard to make expert when i can i take it easy and save millions on every ship in adept?
and are you saying newb should pay nothing for ships? dont you think that will get abused?
and are you saying newb should pay nothing for ships? dont you think that will get abused?
Re: Money in game
Let's see, if i'm Alskant, i get trip-maker at beggining, (1tph better than GS) and then trade to get a trip-maker, I'm expert so 1,354,955*3=4,064,865. At 1/3 cash for trading it will probably take over a week just to get out of a small-timer, dont even want to think how long to get into an ATM or PSF...RedDragon wrote: 2. Make ships more expensive. Mar and I have talked about have ships cost related to user ranking (we even joked about a 430mil FU!). Would a 50mil top racial not be the best thing to help promote hunters? It would also promote planets - what cost a PB? So something like:
Newb: Nothing
Begin:1/4 now
Fledge: 1/2 now
Adept:2x now
Expert:3x now
Elite:4x now
Master:5x now
4. Reduce trade profit - say to 1/3 of what it is now.
Maybe have the stay the same no matter what for trading ships, and possibly only half the cash for trading but have prices for capitals raised by a percentage and same for hunters depending on level but a lower increase for hunting ships.
I will suggest what I always suggest when this topic is brought up:
Make trade cash vary inversely as trade experience increases on distance routes.
In simple terms, as experience modifier rises due to distance trading, make the money modifier DECREASE. This will force traders to either trade short distance routes for good cash, or trade that 14x perfect route that is netting you 3000 credits per round trip. It also makes all those routes in racials actually helpful for newbie users who can't get out and get good exp on the mined up 8x route. They can now make decent cash (relative to the long routes at least) on 2x routes. Trading is the stupidest thing right now since a high money route = a high exp route. No variety whatsoever. None. A good alliance only needs 1 route for alliance fiscal happiness. Another side benefit is that many alliance will have decent, useable cash, earlier in game then they can set up that big exp route for their rank achievers. Everyone gets involved earlier.
I am not proposing to raise the starting cash but perhaps
on a 1x exp route cash is 3x,
on a 2x exp route cash is 2x,
on a 3x exp route cash is 1x,
on a 4x exp route cash is (1/2)x
on a 5x exp route cash is (1/3)x
on a 14x exp route cash is (1/12)x
something like that anyway.
Make trade cash vary inversely as trade experience increases on distance routes.
In simple terms, as experience modifier rises due to distance trading, make the money modifier DECREASE. This will force traders to either trade short distance routes for good cash, or trade that 14x perfect route that is netting you 3000 credits per round trip. It also makes all those routes in racials actually helpful for newbie users who can't get out and get good exp on the mined up 8x route. They can now make decent cash (relative to the long routes at least) on 2x routes. Trading is the stupidest thing right now since a high money route = a high exp route. No variety whatsoever. None. A good alliance only needs 1 route for alliance fiscal happiness. Another side benefit is that many alliance will have decent, useable cash, earlier in game then they can set up that big exp route for their rank achievers. Everyone gets involved earlier.
I am not proposing to raise the starting cash but perhaps
on a 1x exp route cash is 3x,
on a 2x exp route cash is 2x,
on a 3x exp route cash is 1x,
on a 4x exp route cash is (1/2)x
on a 5x exp route cash is (1/3)x
on a 14x exp route cash is (1/12)x
something like that anyway.
-
Vladdy
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I'd say, don't change cash like that, the further the place is where you get your goods from the more money you getImhotep wrote:I will suggest what I always suggest when this topic is brought up:
Make trade cash vary inversely as trade experience increases on distance routes.
In simple terms, as experience modifier rises due to distance trading, make the money modifier DECREASE. This will force traders to either trade short distance routes for good cash, or trade that 14x perfect route that is netting you 3000 credits per round trip. It also makes all those routes in racials actually helpful for newbie users who can't get out and get good exp on the mined up 8x route. They can now make decent cash (relative to the long routes at least) on 2x routes. Trading is the stupidest thing right now since a high money route = a high exp route. No variety whatsoever. None. A good alliance only needs 1 route for alliance fiscal happiness. Another side benefit is that many alliance will have decent, useable cash, earlier in game then they can set up that big exp route for their rank achievers. Everyone gets involved earlier.
I am not proposing to raise the starting cash but perhaps
on a 1x exp route cash is 3x,
on a 2x exp route cash is 2x,
on a 3x exp route cash is 1x,
on a 4x exp route cash is (1/2)x
on a 5x exp route cash is (1/3)x
on a 14x exp route cash is (1/12)x
something like that anyway.
change Experience! You don't get a lot of experience when you are buying something they want to have badly, because no1 close sells it,
so something like the first idea, except for cash replace it with experience
yes, i know 1x's will give you the most experience then, so i think that needs a bit of tweaking, also, this would remove SMC Hunting so you can remove CPL delay
like:
1x dist = 2.00
2x dist = 3.50
3x dist = 4.00
4x dist = 3.50
5x dist = 3.50
6 = 3.00
7 = 2.50
8+ = 2.00
PS: don't go into 'stupid idea' mode right away but give it some thought first, this is just an idea scheme
Well, either way, you get the point. Long routes give the best exp AND money right now and that is just plain wasteful and boring. If shorter routes had a benefit, then there is actual variety in trading. And the more people trading on that perfect 2x route, the harder it is to find everyone since there are plenty of shorter routes around. I like my idea better than Vladdy's because the post is stating there is too much money in the game and therefore my suggestion limits the cash that can be made.