credit degradation: make credits slowly disappear over time

[thecheeseman]

i propose a tax system in ao. every month or day or week depending on developer preference, make a percentage of creds in your account dissapear. anywhere to 0.5% to 10%. the more credits you have, the more you lose.
because billions of creds were obtained from ingots, if a tax system appears there would be no way to maintain those credits in game. they would inevitably disappear. the inflation problem would be solved in a matter of months

with this system you can farm pearls to some millions but soon it wil be obvious that billions disappear fast. why? because those billions werent obtained fairly

real world economies have tax systems. ao is very similar to a real economy except there is no taxes and price control. i think this is a very good idea to implement ESPECIALLY with new players joining soon, the make or break moment in some months

if the massive credit inflation remain, the extreme imbalance would soon show the flawed and outdated side of ao. many many new players would quit and not stay.

this proposed feature can also be taken out once the economy has balanced out.

i would like future new players to experience ao without the very negative atmosphere of player domination and gameplay abuse, and the feeling of hopelessness that someone else has control over your character that permeates throughout this game

[thecheeseman]

people say if you work hard you can get enough credits. that is a bold faced lie. everybody knows those are leftover from ingot farming days.
a long time ago i believed that excuse and as a low lv player tried to sell items to shops to gain credits. i read all the guides. i farmed everything.

one time i farmed tara too. took me 2 1/2 months, made 350m from igoc then after christmas cred seller spam and the ensuing inflation, lost all of it

if somone tries to gain credits as the game intends it, selling items to npc shops, he will never be able to buy ANYTHING remotely decent at higher levels
i farmed pearls and sold dyna loot. after one week of non stop farming i had enough to buy a couple of db infusers.
then a few months later i bought cheap symbs from clan gms and sold to omni ebayers on shopping channel. i made 350m under 2 hours.

this is so wrong and needs to change. the credits need to disappear one way or another, if not my suggestion, then some other way. change MUST happen.

[Ciex]

b00, an angry socialist ...

BTW, Ive made a billion of creds with a lowbie froob fixer, just to let you know ...

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I only have 1 piece of advice: don't farm credits to buy something you want.

Get the thing you want directly.

creds won't make your perks land. AI armour does, so, don't farm creds, farm LVB's.

I have about 6 AI armour sets, and all the crap I need to be competitive.

I have about 150m creds. screw em, don't need em for anythign except buying basic armour and nano solvent and human DNA.

Anything I want I farm it.

[Kahava]

real world economies have tax systems. ao is very similar to a real economy except there is no taxes and price control.

No.
This is a game.
Dealing with RL issues in RL is enough. There is absolutely no reason to import them into the game we play to relax.

There have been other, far better, suggestions to rid the game of excess cash. Ways that do not require major coding with the accompanying potential for bugs.
(As a systems dev I'm tempted to say "guarantee for bugs" but that could be taken the wrong way by some..)

[cratters]

Next up: AO wellfare.

[Moonleg]

You do realize that the insanely rich people would see this coming, invest their money in permanently expensive items (AI armor, Tara phats, int symbs etc.), while the starting player who only plays casually is going to be hit with dwindling funds through absolutely no fault of their own.

Whatever you're smoking, stop. It's not good for your brain.

[cratters]

You do realize that the insanely rich people would see this coming, invest their money in permanently expensive items (AI armor, Tara phats, int symbs etc.), while the starting player who only plays casually is going to be hit with dwindling funds through absolutely no fault of their own.

Whatever you're smoking, stop. It's not good for your brain.

Don't be silly. You make it sound as though cheesebrain would ever make a suggestion he hasn't fully thought through and subjected to careful analysis.

[Dooma]

NO! I started working on my first billion after ingots where patched away, i worked really hard to get the money i own today. Burning it just because you are to lazy to get some money yourself is crazy. I won't support that.

[Tradersoft]

What's wrong with the world momma?

[Wrangeline]

I don't think this is a good idea.

[Beersoldier]

This is just a horrible idea, take from the people who have worked hard and farmed their credits to make life easier on those who havent.

I got into the game after the ingots, didnt have that easy cred farm. I have made billions makeing and selling lvl 50 peren weapons for the past 4 years. Ao is a "free market economy". The players, aka the citizens, control the economy, not the game designers.

[tweeeek]

this may be bad idea but it is true that there are hundreds of billions of credits floating around way more then was ever intended and while there's tons of ways to gain more credits(every single person that does a mission, sells loot to a shop, loots a mob, ect) theres almost nothing removing credits from the game.


not to mention the billions of credits that have been exploited into the game.

this isnt from ingots its just a steady increase over time of more and more money coming into the game and not much money leaving the game, it mostly just transfers hands


EDIT: there should be credit sinks as the only people its hard on now is the new players still

[alfora]

EDIT: there should be credit sinks as the only people its hard on now is the new players still

There are very few credit sinks in AO.

* parts for AI city buildings
* initial price and rent for AI cities
* parts for AI armor
* parts for NW towers
* some Jobe stuff
* SL nanos from the gardens/sancs

The prices of the above things goes into the millions. You can easily spend 100 mil on SL nanos for example. But when you have the nanos, they stay with you forever. The same is true for city buildings. They are expensive but when you have built them they stay.

Towers might be a money sink. They get destroyed and you have to re-build them.

What else is there that has to be replaced and bought again and again?

[tradalotrox]

As always Thea you seem to be angry at the people who have credits and gear as you yourself don't. (similar to your nerf ai armor thread and various other posts etc. etc.)
Just because you can't get things yourself or do things efficiently enough to get a decent amount of credits is not anyone else's concern.

Credits sinks are needed but a tax is definitely not the solution.

[Obtena]

I'm willing to bet none of the devs have a degree in economics to understand why they need to control the economy and how to do it. Even if they recognized the need for it, they wouldn't have a clue how to implement it and regulate/monitor it.

It's a lost cause ... hate to say it but the best way to avoid the 'problem' is to get inventive with your credit farming.

If FC want to get revolutionary, they just need to remove a percent (or all) creds from the game periodically, as a renormalization of currency inline with reasonable levels of credits (i.e. the amoun of creds you can make doing missions)

[Manaas]

catcrab owns ai armour so thats not why he wants it nerfed.

AI armour buffs everything, like literally. So in 90/100 cases its the "best" armour to wear in a particular slot.

Im all for removing it so people would have to maybe choose between AR and evades since CSS provides both.

As to the credits thing:

Where do you think your "hard earned" creds came from? Billions and billions of exploited creds or ingot creds thrown around. Each little thing costing into the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS when the game provides missions that only give you around 2m at the top levels.

Imagine the game without the ingot explosion and the exploited creds. Economy would be balanced around who can farm creds more from missions, mobs, shopfood etc not those who hoarded hundreds of billions from years ago and making the market completely inaccessible to the new or casual players.

Wouldnt it be better if a supple lead viralbot cost 100m at ql 236+ because the same time and effort required to farm 600m creds would give you 100m? And all these people owning 10+ ai cities to themselves, ai cities should be a proud achievement for a dedicated organisation, not someones personal farm city for VBs.

Economy is ****ed, there's people around with billions and then even more people who dont even have 10m to their name. When anything that could make their gameplay experience better costs 50m or more, no wonder most people quit before they reach level 100.

A set of ql 100 implants costs close to 2m and ql 100 implants are easily doable on a level 60. How else do you get 2m credits at level 60 unless you spent days rolling buff items to sell to the rich people?

AoC had it right, the game progression with the quests and mob grinding, if you didn't spend outrageously up to level 40, you would have exactly enough for a horse, which is a big step up in your gaming experience since you can travel the world much faster and bypass more dangerous areas.

In AO, you could spend your time grinding in RK missions, you would probably end up with under 10 million credits at level 100 if you picked up everything and sold it to a shop (rare IDs and selling those to billionaires dont count) and rolled credit orientated missions. At level 100 you could be equipping ql 200 weapons like sps/spb or stuff like jobe pistols and CoH weapons. All these cost over 10m.

Also the same for nanos, some of the dynaloot is ridiculous at the moment. Izgimmers mockery i bought about 2 years ago for 9m, now i see its in GMS for 90m, NS2 was something like 60m now its 120+. What kind of person would have that amount of money at the appropriate levels? None.

The exploited and ingot creds need to go, seriously. Remove one digit from everyone's creds (for example 100 creds would then be 10) 10 times less creds in AO and then we maybe could start seeing some sensible prices on things.

[thecheeseman]

I got into the game after the ingots, didnt have that easy cred farm. I have made billions makeing and selling lvl 50 peren weapons for the past 4 years. .

the game was never expected to last this long. you have been farming non stop for 4 years probably daily, when most games are finished in a few days or weeks.
i dont think the devs ever expected this type of massive no life non stop farming, in both credits and alien armor.

things are different now and must change. many of you only play to benefit yourself, playing ao like a single player game, or perhaps play to become superior to the average player, so you can look down upon them, to make up for your personal failings.

NO! i worked really hard to get the money i own today. Burning it just because you are to lazy to get some money yourself is crazy. I won't support that.

i gave away what was left of my credits, about 400m to new players and froobs. all of it. i want them to be happy and have fun while playing this game. not worrying about credits and farming.
players like you are hoarding credits. there is no need to for hoarding untold billions. the only reason for it is to make average players suffer so you can feel good and have a twisted sense of power and control. i call that sad and selfish, and perhaps in need of counciling.
your "hard work" is disrupting the game and killing the game. you force new players to be poor and cant afford anything , and you say "too bad". i say no, this changes NOW.

What's wrong with the world momma?

you know, if the game wasn't dead, people like you could have buried my suggestion with troll post spam. but theres not enough players left for even that. you have lost your power and control over the forum. i speak for the average and new players that have seen the potential in this great game and was driven away by people like you. why dont you tell the truth, tell everyone what you really think.
that you DONT want new players into this game. you are bitter. you want to stay rich and bring this game down with you, then go and ruin another game when ao dies. you coudlnt care less about AO dying, as long as you stay uber, right to the end.

if there is any good left within you, dont you want to help save the game? cant you see you have destroyed ao?

if FC has the courage to take charge of their own game and make changes, then one day none of you will matter anymore. none of you.

[thecheeseman]

to funcom: why the opposition to my suggestion?

the more you have invested into this game, the more you are compelled to stay, because you put so much effort into it.
>>but is that the direction you want to develop this game? making people stay because they grinded so much and have too much to lose if they quit?<<
i would prefer people stay for the community, story, sci fi epic world, and role playing.

almost all the average players in AO have quit, with the hardcore elite few left. will you make the mistake of listening to their disturbing self absorbed basement boy banterings, or you take the step and bring change in this wonderful and immersive game, to help the new players?

as more and more players quit, more and more wealth are being consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer players. and as new players join in the possible future new engine, they will see a very ugly side of ao. the new engine wil be a wasted effort of resources that can be better spent on reviving age of conan, or the development of secret world, if you do not take action.


my message to funcom is: the elite playerbase you cater to is making you lose countless potential customers. they are making you lose money.

[Ciex]

One day we will strip those burgeoisie from their ai armors and reeducate them by blood plasma farming, comrade Catcrab. Hasta la victoria siempre!