5 replies to this topic

[ArmyOfWon]

Edit: ;tldr I'm a wordy ******* and I might ramble a bit too much. Before we can start discussing anything specific, we must start at the most general picture and work our way inwards. Here is my "most general vision" of how the economy and gamestate should look:

"The Best" Economy

We can disagree on how we get here, but this is my view on how the current economy should be:

No farmers, afkers, or any system ripe for abuse (e.g. 75% free rearm)

Rewarded for team performance, incentives for playing for the team before playing for themselves.

Team work is within any player's Best Interest.

edit:
Repair and Rearm costs that are roughly on the level of what you earn on a loss.

Preface

Yesterday, I published a very general model for how I believe the in-game economy should look, and it was received to varying degrees of warmth, to put it lightly. When people responded, I think they may have lost the bigger picture I was trying to paint (NPE, for instance).

When constructing a new paradigm, one must first build a general, "utopian" if you will, ideal. A new model for how the economy (or balance, or diversity...) should look.

So I will put forth just the idea. Just the goal. If you disagree with what I put forth, say what you disagree with and why. This isn't going to be a "How are we going to get there" post, as my original was, this will be a "Where should we go?"

As a note: Yes, this is only the "battle simulator" of the game. Yes, Community Warfare is coming, but we don't know how it will change anything at all. We don't know, and until PGI tells us anything, we can't know anything about Community Warfare. If the economy were to drastically change what we have now may fit it better, it might not. We can't say either way right now.

Also, we can't say that "The best economy is no economy" (as an argument) because, well, we have one. If PGI's vision didn't include an economy of some sort, then we wouldn't have R&R now, or equipment costs. I always advocate for Battlefield balance before Economic controls on weapon systems, but we need to have an economy of some sort, if only because PGI wants us to have an economy.

"The Best" Economy

We can disagree on how we get here, but this is my view on how the current economy should be:

No farmers, afkers, or any system ripe for abuse (e.g. 75% free rearm)

Rewarded for team performance, incentives for playing for the team before playing for themselves.

Team work is within any player's Best Interest.

edit:
Repair and Rearm costs that are roughly on the level of what you earn on a loss.

How does that "ideal" work? Whether this is unattainable or not is not the topic of this discussion, but would this be "best" possible? Could something be better than this? What are your thoughts?

Edited by ArmyOfWon, 18 November 2012 - 02:55 PM.

[ArmyOfWon]

So, what I'm hearing is that the economy with farmers, afkers, and non-repaired mechs is the best we could ever do?....

[Krivvan]

ArmyOfWon, on 17 November 2012 - 02:26 PM, said:

So, what I'm hearing is that the economy with farmers, afkers, and non-repaired mechs is the best we could ever do?....

No, that's not it.

I'll be frank, most of the people reading your post probably didn't even read past the first sentence. I read the whole thing and your points are not constructed very well and have unneeded fluff added on top.

Try boiling down everything you're trying to say in just a couple sentences and take it from there.


For example:

Quote

Also, we can't say that "The best economy is no economy" (as an argument) because, well, we have one. If PGI's vision didn't include an economy of some sort, then we wouldn't have R&R now, or equipment costs. I always advocate for Battlefield balance before Economic controls on weapon systems, but we need to have an economy of some sort, if only because PGI wants us to have an economy.

This entire paragraph is unneeded and only serves to make the post seem even longer and less interesting.


And also, in the end, through all the fluff, you aren't actually saying anything profound. Almost everyone agrees that the things you stated are desirable elements. No one thinks "yes, I believe that there should be farmers". They think "this solution for solving that may cause other problems" or "this is unfeasible" or "can't PGI hurry up and fix it yet?"

Edited by Krivvan, 17 November 2012 - 02:32 PM.

[Star Colonel Mustard Kerensky]

"A good post is like a skirt, it needs to be long enough to cover the important part, but short enough to keep things interesting."

[Krivvan]

An opening post that simply said "How should the economy eventually work?" with a simple one or two introductory sentences, your list at the end and then a conclusion of "if people want these elements, how should they be achieved" would probably have a better reaction.

[Vermaxx]

WTF is going on? They closed this thread right, because he had a previous open? So I posted in that one because THIS one kicked me while I was typing, and now THAT one is closed!

Your proposal is simple:

AFK needs to be dealt with (they're doing this)
Zero participation deserves zero reward (no free money for losses)
Increase participation rewards to compensate (higher damage pay, spotting, kill assist, anything I'm missing).

You want an overhaul, to a static economy only there to keep things running until Mystical Community Warfare (I'm going to call it that from now on) is ready. They are not going to do this. The simple stopgap is to make repairs mandatory to use mechs. No free armor/equipment/ammo. This solves the problem of people grinding their way to valuables.

It will also flat dismiss a large portion of the player base, because whether you agree or even accept it - some of us would rather quit or back burner this game than install voip and use it every session just to make the game playable.