A great money sink Idea!!!

[___________Admirable]

I'll give credit where credits are due! This post is from Nevver at the AOvault forums

Nevver
Posts: 1,387
Registered: Apr 02
Date Posted: 8/5 11:19am Subject: RE: Item decay....Think FC would ever implement this?
I couldn't even guess how difficult decay would be to add to the game now.

I'm always leary when "better" items are added to a game as it tends to shift everything up a notch and render other items obsolete (AC anyone?). Definitely some sort of money sink is needed but I would rather see things like services offered. Maybe NPCs that provide buffs that aren't normally available (Multi Melee comes to mind). That way, the money really does go away rather than become converted into an item instead.

What a great idea for a money sink. Just imagine if a buffing NPC were placed in game. He has buffs that aren't available from other sources and at great cost.

For instance:

Buff #1: put in a +100 multi-ranged/multi-melee buff and charge 1million credits for it. Now 1 mil creds is well within many people range of affordable and it would help drain a lot of money out of the economy quickly.

Buff #2: people have been wanting a 2he buff and a 1he buff... put it here. Charge for it... offer several different sizes, +20, +40, +60 and incrementing prices for them.

buff #3: how about a shotgun buff, not really any good ones out there.

buff #4,5,6... etc... buffs similar to those you find in solo missions.

I'm sure plenty of ideas can be made. These greatly help. As much money as can possibly be taken out of the game, needs to be. These buffs would highly be desirable to anyone that uses that particular weapon or what not, while not affecting those that want to sell their buffs, since they don't conflict with anyone's class buff.

Anyone else with ideas on this???

[___________Urbanmech]

I'm afraid I don't have much of a suggestion for the idea, but wow, what a great idea it is!

[Acardia]

awesome bumb this all the way

[Cerber]

I like that idea bump for it.

Also some NPCs could make items, really rare ones for really big money. For example Uncle Bazzit Weapon Forgery or Mosquite forgery, could be used to purchase special components (for enginers and other classes to build some items) or a blueprints of some rare and very rare items. Or for ALOT of money to purchase an item (armor, weapon, gadget).

That would strongly support game story, create a nice money sink, and will give a way for a new (Phat) items in a game besides acquireing them from camping uniques.

Keep this bumped .

P.S. Cz could you please reply to this thread so we would know that it has been noticed. Thank you in advance.

[Rubirango]

Buff #2: people have been wanting a 2he buff and a 1he buff... put it here. Charge for it... offer several different sizes, +20, +40, +60 and incrementing prices for them.

People want these 2he buffs not to actually equip better weapons but to be able to use 2he weapons more effectively like 2hb ANd actually be able to use the Edge of the taresque with out it being OE.

Other than that, it could be an ok idea

[___________Admirable]

Originally posted by Fluffor "Tanyr" Neblett


People want these 2he buffs not to actually equip better weapons but to be able to use 2he weapons more effectively like 2hb ANd actually be able to use the Edge of the taresque with out it being OE.

Other than that, it could be an ok idea

Aww didn't even think of that, but I'm sure there are plenty of good ideas of what buffs could be added. Maybe a very expensive Map Navigation buff.

[___________Admirable]

Just think about it... no Agent standing around casting Feline Grace... OK.. I'll just have to pay that stupid NPC 150k for it, since I don't have the time to run around looking for it. How about +80 treatment buff for 400k. How about a +20, +40, +60 multi-ranged/multi-melee buff for 500k, 750k, and 1mil respectively... How about Riot Control for 500k? Maybe +132 Wrangle for 1mil...

This won't cut you out if you are trying to make money off of buffing (it might even inflate the price per buff you can get)

This does not hurt the honest people and removes a lot of money from the game. MANY PEOPLE WOULD USE IT FOR CONVIENENCE. Especially those with the most money.

Money sinks could save the economy... and too many people would pay dumb prices for convience... I've seen plenty of people that don't want to spend all day on the shopping channel. They'll be the one saying Paying 500k fro a QL20 NovaFlow....

I think Buffs are clearly the best, quickest way to remove money from the game without giving the people who got excessive amounts of money under the screwed up economy an advantage!!!

[______________Mylast]

Interesting proposition, i like it BUMP

[Blueprint]

Good idea. One addition I'd like to see is some kind of supply/demand pricing for NPC buffs. Say an NPC doc charges 100k for IC initially. Nobody comes to him, so the price starts falling slowly and gradually. Then the next person comes to him, gets it for maybe 98k, and the price ticks up 5k for the next person. And so on; so the price goes up as the requests go up (or down as the requests tail off). That way, there will be (a) some kind of simulation of market pricing (with which economies can't function) and (b) a means to allow PCs to still use their in-demand buffs as a source of income (i.e., a fixed NPC price would effectively put a cap on the price PCs can charge; and price controls only make economies go FUBAR).

Actually, this would be a good feedback mechanism for the developers to guage how effective the players find certain buffs, independent of their say-so.

[Czarina]

Originally posted by Blueprint
Good idea. One addition I'd like to see is some kind of supply/demand pricing for NPC buffs. Say an NPC doc charges 100k for IC initially. Nobody comes to him, so the price starts falling slowly and gradually. Then the next person comes to him, gets it for maybe 98k, and the price ticks up 5k for the next person. And so on; so the price goes up as the requests go up (or down as the requests tail off). That way, there will be (a) some kind of simulation of market pricing (with which economies can't function) and (b) a means to allow PCs to still use their in-demand buffs as a source of income (i.e., a fixed NPC price would effectively put a cap on the price PCs can charge; and price controls only make economies go FUBAR).

Actually, this would be a good feedback mechanism for the developers to guage how effective the players find certain buffs, independent of their say-so.

Oh wow... cool idea... not sure how hard it would be to program, but dynamic pricing would be neat! Plus, psychology is supposed to effect your ability to haggle prices with NPC's... would be neat if as your psychology went up the price went slight down (similar to the way comp lit works on terminals)

[Blueprint]

How about NPC tradeskill specialists? Need a MCS? Take your hacked MPS to the local gunsmith. Need an implant made but can't find a willing MP? Go to the local nanoprogrammer. Have monster parts beyond your skill to convert? Go to the local pharmacist (actually, it would be nice if you could sell unprocessed monster parts to current pharmacists at a premium over what regular vendors/vending machines would pay, simulating their using pharma skill to convert them themselves.)

Of course, implement some kind of dynamic pricing to reflect demand; and you can still have a supply coming from the player base. I think this would have a lot of potential to stimulate interest in tradeskills. It would be a no-brainer for skilled gunsmith PCs to hang out near the gunsmith's shop and advertise their services. Sort of like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

And: I agree, psych skill in helping you haggle with NPC buffers would be nice (everyone's raising it for DeCranum's anyway).

[_________MonstaJugga]

People might blame exploiters for the rapid inflation, and i agree with it, but no matter what we're always going to have inflation because there is always a steady increase in money. There is nowhere else for the money to go besides to other players. There is the occasional item purchase from stores, but I think I've made back the money i've spent in stores at least 100 fold.

I like the Buffing-NPC idea. Unique buffs only available at certain NPCs.

Low level tradeskills should be available at certain NPCs also. I don't think high level tradeskills is feasible to add because it takes the uniqueness away from tradeskill players who have spent many points and much time attaining the necessary levels and skills.


---------NEW IDEA--------
What about illegal teleportation service where grids and/or whompas don't exist. Maybe to the middle of DAV, EFP, SFH or something. So people could save time going to a mission but they would have to pay money for it.

The amount of money would be proportional to the level of the player, so low level players can still use the service, but since high level players would obviously have more money, they need to pay more.

[Czarina]

Originally posted by MonstaJugga

---------NEW IDEA--------
What about illegal teleportation service where grids and/or whompas don't exist. Maybe to the middle of DAV, EFP, SFH or something. So people could save time going to a mission but they would have to pay money for it.

The amount of money would be proportional to the level of the player, so low level players can still use the service, but since high level players would obviously have more money, they need to pay more.

I like this idea a lot. Maybe like some random fixer NPC's that can do one fo two things:
1) send you to the fixer grid (for a hefty price)
2) let you give him coords you want to grid to and he will drops you within +/100,+/-100 of the coords and it's completely random.

Also it could require a certain level of psychology to "convince" the fixer to take you where you want to go. Adds another skill to further diversify players and helps sink the excessive cash out of the game!

[___________Admirable]

More great ideas, all of which will lead to mass amounts of money leaving the game.

I like the idea of paying, per se, 1million creds, so that you don't have to spend 20minutes of your real life time flying to Southern Foul Plains, or DAV, or wherever....

It's a guaranteed winner for ways to get money out of the game. Most people value real life time more than imaginery credits... so if you add it, people will use it. Credits will disappear quickly and deflation will occur.

[_______________Tourn]

All these ideas detract from the 'multiplayer' part of the game. In general their just bad.

[___________Admirable]

well... the point of this is NOT to detract from the multiplayer aspect of the game... HENCE why we have all suggested to charge a very high amount of money for these things. Would you be willing to pay 750k for a buff that you can get for free?? well... some people would, because it is convenient and they have a lot of excess money, and that removes money from the game, so that people can be lazy. Honestly, the game can't continue to keep added excess amounts of money without some leaving the game... on average, for ever lvl 180+ mission run and fully looted I'd say about 1mil+ creds are being added to the game...

I do know I've had times that I'm running around with 5minutes to go on a treatment buff, trying to find an agent to cast feline grace... I offer and offer and ask and ask... and no one is willing to cast or just ignores.... I end up having to offer some stupid amount over the shopping channel til someone finally responds willing to help me, because there greed has set in..... In cases like these I'm already paying an outrageous amount for a buff, I'd pay even more for the convenience of knowing where to go get that buff....

The idea is for money sinks... there are RELATIVELY FEW ways to provide a money sink if you want to make it involve multi-players... currently the only money sinks in the game are Shop Terminals... Mission Terminals... Engineer Bots.... a few trader Nano's.... and the Agent Balaclava.... so the point is... even the money sinks in game aren't involving multi-player transactions.

It is a lot cheaper and involves more interation to go get a QL40 mission for a new piece of armor... but some people still go to the shop terminal and buy it for a high price.... I've paid 100k+ for NCU from Shop Terminals for my agent, since I didn't feel like doing missions for them...

The idea is getting money out of the game... the game is already team oriented if you want to level... we have also discussed not taking the place of buffers and even in one of my original statements I said.. charge a high enough price so that those who want to peddle their buffs still can and still can do it effectively.

To leave such a short useless statement as "All these ideas detract from the 'multiplayer' part of the game. In general their just bad." Just detracts from people trying to help find away to add money sinks to the game. In general your comment is just bad. If you have better ideas.. feel free to share... but based on your comment... I guess all shop terminals should be removed (they detract from the multiplayer part of the game)... they should also remove Single Person Missions and the ability to solo altogether.... Because "these detract from the multiplayer aspect of the game".... Please, c'mon, get real... the best ways to help alleviate the monetary situation is of course going to not be entirely multiplayer, since it will involve one player paying his money to a non-player/machine/etc. so that the money disappears from the game. That is the idea of a money sink...

If you don't think the game needs a money sink then you didn't play from the beginning of the game, and haven't had a chance to see how bad inflation has gotten.

These ideas in no way 'detract from the multi-player aspect of the game"... Nobody who doesn't already have some level of excess money is going to pay for many of these unless they are more desparate as I have described above. The same people with excess money who roll a twink and then offer 500k for a QL20 NovaFlow will be the people that are in a hurry to level and will pay more to get their buff and go on...

I think there already is a great deal of 'multiplayer' in this game... there is clearly VERY FEW money sinks however.

[Kuro]

Originally posted by Admirable
well... the point of this is NOT to detract from the multiplayer aspect of the game... HENCE why we have all suggested to charge a very high amount of money for these things. Would you be willing to pay 750k for a buff that you can get for free?? well... some people would, because it is convenient and they have a lot of excess money, and that removes money from the game, so that people can be lazy. Honestly, the game can't continue to keep added excess amounts of money without some leaving the game... on average, for ever lvl 180+ mission run and fully looted I'd say about 1mil+ creds are being added to the game...

I do know I've had times that I'm running around with 5minutes to go on a treatment buff, trying to find an agent to cast feline grace... I offer and offer and ask and ask... and no one is willing to cast or just ignores.... I end up having to offer some stupid amount over the shopping channel til someone finally responds willing to help me, because there greed has set in..... In cases like these I'm already paying an outrageous amount for a buff, I'd pay even more for the convenience of knowing where to go get that buff....

The idea is for money sinks... there are RELATIVELY FEW ways to provide a money sink if you want to make it involve multi-players... currently the only money sinks in the game are Shop Terminals... Mission Terminals... Engineer Bots.... a few trader Nano's.... and the Agent Balaclava.... so the point is... even the money sinks in game aren't involving multi-player transactions.

It is a lot cheaper and involves more interation to go get a QL40 mission for a new piece of armor... but some people still go to the shop terminal and buy it for a high price.... I've paid 100k+ for NCU from Shop Terminals for my agent, since I didn't feel like doing missions for them...

The idea is getting money out of the game... the game is already team oriented if you want to level... we have also discussed not taking the place of buffers and even in one of my original statements I said.. charge a high enough price so that those who want to peddle their buffs still can and still can do it effectively.

To leave such a short useless statement as "All these ideas detract from the 'multiplayer' part of the game. In general their just bad." Just detracts from people trying to help find away to add money sinks to the game. In general your comment is just bad. If you have better ideas.. feel free to share... but based on your comment... I guess all shop terminals should be removed (they detract from the multiplayer part of the game)... they should also remove Single Person Missions and the ability to solo altogether.... Because "these detract from the multiplayer aspect of the game".... Please, c'mon, get real... the best ways to help alleviate the monetary situation is of course going to not be entirely multiplayer, since it will involve one player paying his money to a non-player/machine/etc. so that the money disappears from the game. That is the idea of a money sink...

If you don't think the game needs a money sink then you didn't play from the beginning of the game, and haven't had a chance to see how bad inflation has gotten.

These ideas in no way 'detract from the multi-player aspect of the game"... Nobody who doesn't already have some level of excess money is going to pay for many of these unless they are more desparate as I have described above. The same people with excess money who roll a twink and then offer 500k for a QL20 NovaFlow will be the people that are in a hurry to level and will pay more to get their buff and go on...

I think there already is a great deal of 'multiplayer' in this game... there is clearly VERY FEW money sinks however.

I posted elsewhere that a good money sink would be a toll on using Whompas/Grid terminals. Say like 100cr per level for Whompa usage and 200cr per level for grid term usage. Have it kick in around level 30 or so, that way it avoids trapping newbies.

Something like this would remove credits from the game and it *might* encourage people to use their feet a little more. One of the most depressing things I heard was someone that was around level 75 say they didn't know how to get from Omni Trade to Omni Entertainment without using a whompa or grid term.

[Cerber]

Also, tax on next lvl apartments. Not the basic ones but the next 'upgrade', you pay for it first and then its getting taxed.

Add more twiks for organizations to choose from :

10 + to 1HB, Pistol, 200+ to HP and so on. If organization (guild) willing to purchase them, fine, but they would have to pay nicely for each 'bonus'.

[Conrad]

Hey Postbee, Great Idea!!!

And i want to add some suggestions to it

In the lastest patch, level requirements were added to some new lines of nanos. Apparently what funcom trying to do was to prevent low level characters from having a very high lv buff.

Hence, if the organisation can buy the "bonuses", these bonuses will also have a level requirement on them. For example, +50 to 1-Hand Blunt buff will only apply to members who are say, Lv50 or above. That way we can prevent a situation where the organisation has a +1000 hp bonus, and it applies to a lv1 character. :P

By the way, there should be a maintenance cost to the bonus. For instance, +1000 hp bonus available to Lv100+ charges 10k per person per day from the organisation bank. If your guild has 50 Lv100+ players, that means you have to pay 500k per day to maintain the bonus or it will disappear immediately.

Hope these ideas would really make ao a good game.

[phil]

Its blatantly stealing from Diablo 2 but it was a great idea. Have some kind of General of sorts standing in the middle of Trade/Tir that has mercenaries for sale. You can only buy one at a time and they cost a certain amount per day per level. They wont be quite as strong as you cant buy mercenaries above your level, so itd just be like a charmed pet. They dont listen to your commands so they end up dying off easily. Again they should have about the same power as a mob. Maybe they can just be some sort of hybrid class, which would add to FCs felxibility.

There could also be a penalty for the death of your mercenary, if you let him die then you ahve to pay the "pimp" General extra cash. When you log they also get deleted like engineer pets do. I guess there needs to be some elaboration on this concept but it could be workable. With this implemented if you reallly had to kill Trash King and there was nobody around to help, you could buy the help.

Anyway i think it has potential for being a big money sink. There isnt that bad a problem on RK2, which is where i play but any of these idea you guys came up with could be great. We just need to Funcom to get all this new stuff crammed into there To-Do list. There are so many improvements that need to be made in a game like this, and some are more of a priority than others. Cant wait to see the next patch to find out if they took anyone's advice about anything and made some changes. *Hope* they did.