[UI] How to eliminate wallet warriors!

i came up with this in a reply to a seperate thread, but thought the ideas good enough to be their own thing, so it is copied, but its own idea. in my opion deserving of its own thread

add in your thoughts if you want

1, leave the drone designs (the decorative ones) a $ only purchase. they have no effective purpose therefore have no effect on balancing. also basically all decorations could get the same treatment, and for the free players they could be available as an event mission. that way they still have a hope of getting them but temporarily enough to still get bigpoint a few paychecks

2 the new crafting system, it has its flaws, but it has potential. one way to monetize this game is by applying the CoC kind of timer to the items crafted. the item will 100% be their item when it finishes, with 0 chance of failure, or players will only ignore the system. but if you add a timer, with say.. upgrade credits, 1 credit equal to each hour the upgrade requires, then sell upgrade credits in the shop, people will buy those credits out of impatience, while free players will just wait it out. also keep in mind, even a MAX upgrade in CoC takes less than 2 weeks. so keep wait times to scale.

 

1. i like the idea of getting the design in a event (for free right?), but i disagree with the idea of only for purchase all the time. i think every player should have the opportunity to get the "visual designs" with a high amount of uri and a cheap one for real money, then everyone win.
2. totally agree with this one. and yes i think the assembly has potential, please don't blow it

 

Wallet Warriors are what keeps D O alive. Get rid of the MONEY and the game is gone, they can not keep it running without money coming in.

The crafting system has potential as being a great addition, however, what I have heard is it is going to be a money pit to get anything other than ammo and stuff already in Shop and Auction, as the raw materials needed for the coveted items is not going to be available in maps but have to be bought to get them (whether from Uridium or Cash) but have to be purchased.

 

I am hoping that is not the case. The ore is supposed to come from npc drops. The big thing is how many of a certain npc do you have to kill. I tried the test server and was getting a ratio of 1:7. When it takes 90 of one thing, and then 400 of something else, can you say they just invented a new set of missions?

 

There is a thread from HQ that says where the Assembly Materials is going to come from and the items for the major stuff WE want is going to be BOUGHT.

 

$ = DO lights stay on. you want to be able to do everything for free, which means DO shuts down. when will people quit expecting everything to be free.

 

i get that d,o needs $, but that doesnt mean it has to be pay to play. look at the way it is now, the people that pay for this game only worry about other people who pay for this game, free players just do things to try not to get killed.

and putting decorations as $ only wouldnt look pretty, but it would keep things that are actually useful available to the free players.

and yes, what i said about getting them during events would be FREE during the events. i was thinking about it being an event mission reward. outside of the event it'd be $ only.

and also this was a response to a post about making this game like clash of clans, which if you play it, youd know the only thing you can put $ to is to make things faster. they dont make the good troops $ only. they dont make it so if you dont spend money you cant touch someone on your level who does spend money. and that game makes over 7 million a week. i think thats something all free to play games should do. otherwise its not free to play its pay to win

 

Thanks, I just finished reading it and once again they are pushing for players to run straight to uppers since lower parts would be available in shop.

Ok, just reread the thread. Assembly works off of chance?

 

Okay, so I re-read it again, myself. The post is here;
http://www.bigpoint.com/darkorbit/board/threads/testing-assembly.113915/

And as you say the items in SHOP are the opposite of what I said, but depending on the frequency of the drops and whether they are Automatically added to your inventory or have to be collected, has not been stated. The item that IS going to disturb (not the word I want to use) me, is if these are COLLECTED and we are in a ULTRA day we will be wasting our time as 50% of the bosses drop Chests not Cargo and if they set the drops to 10% chance that will mean we have a 1 in 100 chance of getting any resources from a BBK or BBL.

So, again the Assembly will be a waste of time trying to do anything with, unless they fix other problems in the game first. The biggest correction they need to make is to give the Chests (dropped from NPC kills) the cargo assigned to the NPC that dropped it and if the player wants to sit there the 5 seconds and collect the BOOTY they have that option (assuming they have a key for that purpose), although another idea would be to have the NPC drop a BK-100 (if it was going to drop a Chest) just before it popped so the player was tempted to collect the chest they were just dropped. I have found them to be just ammo anyway so what difference will it make to D O?

 

While I was in the test server, I found I had to pick it up, as my pet would not touch it with either auto looter or collector. Its really annoying as having the pet to pick stuff up is suppose to free you to attack/defend enemies and keep moving around. If you have to go back to see if anything dropped, its one more annoyance to add to the plate.

Its really a shame that newer players will be striving to crunch in lowers while watching over their shoulders for lurkers, while veterans are cashing in at the shop (or payment, we know how DO works) and then smashing in uppers.

You want to get rid of wallet warriers, get rid of Mega Happy Hour. Then watch them fade out as they can't get millions of uri in RSB and gate spins. Of course we will start talking about how dead the game is again, or more but it will be more of a level playing field unless players decide they can handle working with less.

We do need money in the game to keep it moving but we are really talking about the imbalance in power we constantly have to deal with. These kids, doesn't matter the actual age, with too much money on their hands just leave everyone frustrated to a point. My bigboy don't mind though. If popping it helps their jollies, its not like its going to move any faster.

 

You are asking DO to provide the knife that they cut their own throat with! I understand where you are going and there are MMO's out there that sell equipment to make you look different and that is all it is good for. They also make sure everyone, member or none member has the ability to get some armor, weapons and so on. This idea isn't new and will never happen. Sorry.

 

1. Nope, visual design should be achievable only from payment section. It should be exclusive and unique. Nobody would buy it then and BP would make some new thingy, which would affect game so much, you couldn't fly without it.

Every company needs some $ to pay their employes, servers etc. If you want to look great and be unique on maps, it comes with a prize tag. Nothing in the world comes free.

btw: If you gonna say, it's easy for me to say, cos I am WW, let me tell you, that I have been playing for free (if you don't count premium) for 7 years. Only the last year I spend some extra money in it, because I wanted my Citadel to look good.

 

premium does count as spending money. cost money to get it didnt it?

 

The only way to prevent wallet warriors is to make more equipment unbuyable. like the LF4. Its something you have to randomly get by completing certain prerequisites. Like make something, similar to the new crafting thing, where you randomly 1/5 or 1/10 chance you get this rare part. collect enough parts and you can craft a rare item.

I noticed something, other than terrible lag, that when they released the new update, i saw many people that would normally be in uppers in x-3 and x-4 maps where those maps would be basically empty normally. If you made pre existing npcs have brand new drops with brand new equipment, people would farm for them and people can just earn their equipment and not spend 200 bucks on 1.8 mil uri and do gate after gate. all weekend long. They'd have to put in the time like everybody else. Thats an exploit in my opinion (referring to the GG over and over). I did Kappa like 5-6 times and before that weekend i didnt have ANY LF4. I now have 8. So everyone who cant afford dropping a few hundred on Uri during Mega happy hour are SOL unless they npc farm for a year and save up to just blow it all on double GG weekend. And the competition have had UFE already as you're trying to play catch up. (for example have only the *UBER* npc's drop these rare crafting items for next tier equipment)

To make it even, you must make conditions that requires the expenditure of the most valuable thing every player has, TIME. You must make the next tier of equipment unbuyable and make it very hard to achieve. this will let the lower ranked players catch up, allow them to also participate in the gathering of required materials to create these new items.

And i say new items, not that i know they will make new equipment better than LF4, Shields and speed gens. I say it because they shouldnt go back and make it harder to get LF4 because alot of players already are UFE so that would just increase the gap between players trying to achieve UFE and those who rode the gravy train and already are.

This is the only solution in my opinion to fix the fact that someone can just pay their way into a higher ranking spot than someone whos played DO for the last year and is now under ranked compared to someone who started off in a Goliath with FE and premium.

What do you guys think about my idea? Is there any way this wouldn't work, or would cause issues im not seeing?
Let me know. I love DO and I want to be one of the members in the community that is actively giving ideas that could potentially aid BP in any way.

And i say prevent lightly, there will always be someone who spends money to get ahead. this will just slow down those that are already ahead, and let those who just started to those who've been grinding npcs hard to get FE or UFE without spending money to catch up to those higher ranked individuals.

I played dark orbit back in late 07 around the time it came out. And i stopped playing for a long time and they deleted my account. (computer went bye bye and i didnt have a replacement) I was an FE goli with full Iris drones, which back then was the best you could have. I will admit to spending the money to get that back because i wanted to continue where i left off. I wanted everything back that i lost and i didnt WANT to grind for a year and a half to not be where i left off.

That is my excuse for spending money on MHH.



I had a decent idea:

What if they made BRAND NEW NPC, for the BRAND NEW item sets that may or may not potentially be coming out (LF5? Better shields, speed gen. ect) And make only these new NPCs drop the items required to make the new items. But make their spawns rare, or only during certain hours. and to take it even further only make the drop a 1/5 or a 1/10 chance you will even get the crafting material required to make the next equipment.

Make their spawns on random maps, or lowers only one day, uppers only the next ect. That way, if its random, it will require players to constantly play, to locate these rare NPC to find out when and where they spawn. It will bring in a new hunt and track aspect to dark orbit, rather than, oh BK? theyre in x-7 and x-8. It would make the new item crafting system bring in an unpredictability to it. instead of LF4? oh just do Hades gate 1,000 times and youll have more than you need. Too predictable and boring. We should make DO a multi-faceted game.

What do you think?

 

the issue is free players are quiting after a few hours/days this is where DO has missed its mark its catering for loser wallet warriors to keep its game alive
they should employ gathering system with.....no chance of being killed in 2 seconds..... surgeon/wallet warriors/ubers dont give a rats
i cancelled premuim cos its more imbalanced now than before

 

With this in mind, they should make demilitarized MAPS and make home maps inaccessable to anyone but that faction. This allows weaker players to level up and complete missions, gain credits and uri, and gather resources without fear of having to run, and obviously being under leveled, not able to run quicker than a full equipped goli or veng. Allow those players to still have access to higher leveled maps if they choose to risk it. Then it would be on them if they keep dying because they have the option to stay in home maps and be safe.

They should just add more maps, NEW maps, that allow all players and have NPC. leave all home maps to company only.

Maybe during special events enemy company players can go to other home bases for some reason, ill leave that open.

 

Why would you want to get rid of wallet warriors? We are the ones that keep the game available for free for other players. Isn't that what's called shooting oneself in the foot? Really?

I do; however, agree with the idea of crafting items as opposed to buying them. But, then again, if that's the case, then stop giving the new players all kinds of stuff when the begin. Let them build their ships like some of us "wallet warriors" did when we started out. I haven't always spent money on this game. After 9+ years I have reached level 22, finally, and am now in a position where my continued employment has enabled me to spend some money on the game, which wasn't always the case. I don't have any problem working to build my ship, did that for my first 6 years of game play, from a pnut, no, I wasn't given a liberator or piranha when I started.

 

Seems like everyone wants something for free including the "wallet warriors"!!

 

Just an even playing field, there's really too much of a gap between people who pay and people who cant. There has to be a happy medium where BP gets paid, and its a little more on the fair side for people unable to contribute in that way. I think the crafting system is a step in the right direction, and making things unbuyable. Like ESO for example is a successful MMORPG and you dont HAVE to spend money to play, and if you do it doesnt give that much of an advantage either. People still play to boost their skills and grind to level up. It being like that makes getting a 16 vet player that much more rewarding. I cant buy levels or gear in ESO,( I have to FIND and CRAFT good equipment, the BEST equipment you CANNOT find in ESO, you MUST max out crafting and enchanting skills to get best gear, some really good, rare gear can only be found by killing NPC or FARMING specific locations from certain NPC that rarely spawn) only cosmetic stuff that really doesnt effect PVP or anything. They make money. But this is also Bethesda we are talking about, Big Point is on a lower scale of things in my opinion, however they can get up there if they make the right changes, and market those changes accordingly.

They need to find a way to change the game enough, to satisfy older players and make it fun for new players to keep coming back and wanting to level their ship, get a new ship, ect. Best way to fix the issues is look to other companies that are successful and what they do well and WHY it does well. And implement those functionalities into DO. All MMO's are the same. You start at LVL 1 you have some kind of upgrading system and gathering system that helps you in one way or another, there are special places and dungeons/gates to complete to get rare stuff and everything is probability. And you GRIND for DAYS to get what you need to get the next best thing.

What other games do have that DO doesn't is a good crafting system and PURPOSE to killing NPC over and over. I get the same stuff if i killed a mordon one million times. There are really only a handful of NPC and the same maps since the game came out. They need to add to the pre-existing world and expand. Add more NPC, add a crafting system (more elaborate than it is now) Maybe add a new type of skylab that is a crafting type sky lab that once leveled will allow you to search for and gather materials to create your own equipment. (Maybe merge servers and add an additional company?)

Theres an infinite amount of things BP can do. And making every single person happy is impossible while trying to pay themselves for creating a relatively good game.

But they do need to stop having events and things that require money until the base game is playable and totally functional. Which cannot happen as long as it's a browser game. Like, stop promoting stuff for us to buy at a discounted rate. Just use all resources you have Big Point and fix the major issues, it may hurt the wallet now, but if you can overcome the issues and make it better, you will make more money in the future.

 

Wallet warriors are a necessity. Without someone spending there would be no game.
The problem is that when they spend all they can, they get bored. The vanity items help until they have bought those too.
When wallet warriors get bored, they band together in MCC's.
We have a VRU clan that accepts MMO and EIC members. I watched this clan hunt in groups in the lowers and definitely pick on non-UFE players for EASY kills. And they bragged about it the whole time in "Gloat All " chat.
How ever....

....Wallet warriors are a necessity. Without someone spending there would be no game.