11 replies to this topic

[Elizander]

This is mostly a game economics idea more than anything. We are all familiar with 'gem slots' on armor and you just pop a gem (or a rune or a card or whatever) in that slot. In some games you can replace it by popping another gem over it but you lose the old one.

Now if we're going to get salvage and stock up say... 100 ER Medium Lasers... we don't really need more than 12 of these babies at any given time. The bloat in weapons would be quite huge and they will end up as useless clutter.

If we have mech customization, we pop these weapons into the slots to attach them to our mech. If the system considers the old weapons as destroyed if we replace/remove them then there will be a steady need for ER Medium Lasers. Similar to replacing a gem in an item slot. There would be a reason to buy more and to sell them to other players if any semblance of a game economy or player trading will be present.

It will also give a reason for members of a company to stock up on these things for their members. Same would go for Heat Sinks, extra Armor, Jump Jets, etc and you can give your best lance buddy that extra ER PPC you picked up the other day for his birthday.

Ye'ole boring Medium Laser will now become a standard commodity instead of paperweight and it can be traded or bought for C-bills, cash from the item mall or given as salvage.

It will also put a definite cost in modification because you can't just change your configuration everyday unless you have an unlimited supply of weapons and buying more mechs for your hangar in different configurations would be more cost-effective in the long run.

This is just a suggestion. More like food for thought because I have no idea how the game economy will work (if it has one). It's nothing original and if you've played World of Warcraft and gemmed your armor over and over you get the idea on how it generally works.

If you have your own ideas you can toss them in here as well and I guess we'll all be glad to have more stuff to read and discuss while we wait for more updates in the next six months or so.

Edited by Elizander, 12 January 2012 - 11:30 AM.

[T0RC4ED]

Sounds good to me... there is nothing worse then when a game's currency is worthless except to NPCs (DIABLO). I would hope we can rent additional storage space for more mechs, weapons and what ever strange stuff we can pick up... HULA GIRL figurine... using C-Bills. Also maybe a permanent storage space boost...HINT HINT micro transaction. I would also like to see a huge market/economy for weapons and player to player equipment transfers. For example my buddy joins the game after me... it would be nice if i gift him a slightly upgraded mech still within his skill range (provided there is such a factor...and I hope there is)

[VYCanis]

like the idea a lot

[Dlardrageth]

Open, unregulated in-game trading = invitation to the RMT crowd to jump the game. You sure you want that?

[Elizander]

Dlardrageth, on 12 January 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

Open, unregulated in-game trading = invitation to the RMT crowd to jump the game. You sure you want that?

It would be up to the developers (and publisher) to decide if they have the resources to handle such a thing. The "Selling Cheapest C-bills! Only $10 = 10,000,000 C-bills. Buy now and get 5% more C-bills as a bonus! Go to ***.suzaneexprezz.*** today!" and the "Most TRUSTED Mechwarrior Leveling services! Unlock BEST mechs and weapons in just one week!" spam will certainly be annoying in the lobby but if the game becomes popular they will find a way to make a profit out of it.

Even if they do come, they wouldn't really affect the outcome of any official match with what they did (they will flood you with AFK mechs in random matches though unless the devs make it impossible to accumulate levels by AFKing) and you can probably just put them on ignore. There is no guarantee that having no player trading would keep them out as they could still level and sell accounts.

Also please note that I just tossed in trading there incase the devs allowed trading. The point of the post was generally to give constant value to things like weapons by making them disposable after you remove/replace them on your mech. If you get new mechs and you like customizing, you will always need more Medium Lasers (as an example) instead of just being bored while sitting on a mountain of 99 unused ones that you've stocked up over the last month.

Edited by Elizander, 12 January 2012 - 12:06 PM.

[Dlardrageth]

A rather simple and yet somwhat effective way to deal with this is to disable direct player-to-player trading. Force players to go through intermediaries (ComStar Trade Board/Auction House/whatever) to keep an eye on things. For the individual player it doesn't change much, takes maybe a minute longer per transaction (yes, I know, short attention spans and yadda, yadda, still... only one friggin' minute more). For the RMTers it negates half of their business with MWO.

Of course, that doesn't even touch the account/leveling matter.

[aglarang]

This is assuming there is any in-game economy, which I am not so sure there will be since this is not a persistent world MMO. It has some of those aspects, but I do not know if the devs want to implement that. Secondly, if there is no crafting, this devolves to salvage only. I am assuming that a medium laser will be a medium laser (and an IS ER medium will be an IS ER Medium) so everything is just a commodity at that point. Will there be rare salvage? If not, then again, its just a commodity and doesn't really seem to fit in what they are doing. Of course, I could see how an economy could be done, and it could be interesting.

[Morashtak]

Not liking the gem-ing - doesn't make sense for mechanical parts. Magical parts, okay. But not something that can be destroyed by another player. Bad enough that should happen let alone I do it myself by a retrofit (ex. Clan upgrade from stock IS).

A player driven economy doesn't need to implemented at start-up but gut says that it should be added as soon as reasonably possible. Players and houses/regiments/mech corps will eventually have too much of one thing and not enough of another.

ComStar Trading Co-op could be the sole clearing house but will start to feel like any of the previous single player games. Player to player trading and a clearing house/AH will add a sense of community to the game.

PGI can balance the number of weapons in game through attrition and availability on the open market. Should someone try to corner that market (and someone will try) there are ways to level that out tho' being a free market guy would love to see someone drive the price up of, oh say, medium lasers so I can offload any extras I might have for a better price. PGI would simply make more available by means of the factories seeing the jump in prices and increasing their output, eventually driving up supply and lowering prices (depending on demand level staying static, of course).

[MaddMaxx]

This is why Salvage would be a nightmare if the Population at launch is any real good #, as I hope it will be. Auction Houses create Markets, that if not seriously regulated, get out of whack very quickly (player driven) and then as noted, if the Dev have to devote human resources to deal with it, Supply and Demand needs, over and over, it detracts from other important stuff said staff could be doing.

If they do an Economy it is best done FULLY and correctly first time out. A poorly done one is a waste of better utilized Dev resources.

Sorry to be such a wet blanket btw.

Edited by MaddMaxx, 12 January 2012 - 04:28 PM.

[Omigir]

Where I agree with items and currency devaluing if you have a constant influx and expenditure/loss, I do not think 'gemming' is a good way to deal with it.

For starters, salvage should not be common.. I.E. i finished a match and got another four or five med lasers..

No.. i think you should maybe come out with an item or two and some spare armor for repairs, but nothing substantial.

On top of that, if they make weapons destructible, IE, your mech has its arm blown to peices, rather then just blown off, that weapon or group of weapons on that arm are now ground glitter and you have to replace them.

Salvage will never be a primary means to obtain replacement parts or mechs, I can only assume there will always be an NPC run market that has items that can be baught or sold so you can continue to maintain your battlemech. Not to mention purchase ammunition, paint schemes decals Etc Etc.

If you ever did end up stock piling like a bunch a machineguns, why not just sell them back to the NPC dealer at cost/loss and use that little bit of spare cash to put towards your next battlemech chassie.

I think there are other more substantial ways to deal with this then just arbitrarily destroying an item because you want to 'replace' it... or put something else into that spot.

Edited by Omigir, 12 January 2012 - 06:52 PM.

[Elizander]

Omigir, on 12 January 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

Where I agree with items and currency devaluing if you have a constant influx and expenditure/loss, I do not think 'gemming' is a good way to deal with it.

For starters, salvage should not be common.. I.E. i finished a match and got another four or five med lasers..

No.. i think you should maybe come out with an item or two and some spare armor for repairs, but nothing substantial.

On top of that, if they make weapons destructible, IE, your mech has its arm blown to peices, rather then just blown off, that weapon or group of weapons on that arm are now ground glitter and you have to replace them.

Salvage will never be a primary means to obtain replacement parts or mechs, I can only assume there will always be an NPC run market that has items that can be baught or sold so you can continue to maintain your battlemech. Not to mention purchase ammunition, paint schemes decals Etc Etc.

If you ever did end up stock piling like a bunch a machineguns, why not just sell them back to the NPC dealer at cost/loss and use that little bit of spare cash to put towards your next battlemech chassie.

I think there are other more substantial ways to deal with this then just arbitrarily destroying an item because you want to 'replace' it... or put something else into that spot.

The post I made was with a few assumptions though all your points are valid. Thinking at it from the more hardcore point of view where:

1) Your mech repairs would go through the roof each game
2) Your mech can get destroyed
3) Critical hits really permanently destroy your weapons and equipment

...then the system above would be an extreme penalty addition and is not necessary.

If, however, they go with a more casual approach where:

1) Repairs are not as crippling
2) Critical hits do not permanently destroy weapons and equipment

...then it would help create a steady need for C-bills and replacements.

If there is no salvage, no trading/auction/player driven economy, and everything will just be run by c-bills, then it probably won't be necessary either as you'd just buy a new one from an NPC and plug it in to replace the old one or have it repaired from 0/100 durability back to 100/100 without permanent weapon destruction. If there is no customization then it would be moot as well.

If by chance that they pick a system though that is more forgiving then I think it would be a good way to add an additional sink into the game to keep the c-bills and (if ever) salvage from bloating. If nothing else, it would add additional costs to reconfiguring your mech.

[Omigir]

Im hoping they skirt 'casual' game play. Microsoft took a marry little trip down the casual game play and most will agree those games were probably the worst for the fan boys. MW4 and the MechAssault series were unpleasant to say the least.