jambon
Stalker
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2006
- Posts
- 1,813
- Location
- Ottawa
- Society
- Shaolin
- Avatar Name
- James Jambon Zidane
Way back when (like the era of pre-gold) the game was much cheaper to play....
From what I hear even hunting carelessly would get you about 95%+ back almost all the time on hunting runs. Most players could last a long while playing mid-level on a mere $100 - $200 deposit.
However back then globals and hofs were not as frequent/beefy. The HoF board was quite small and a loot of only 5000 peds would land you on the ALL TIME HIGH board.
...Fast forward to closer to within the last few years and the game seems to have slowly turned into a "winner take all style" game that seems to cater more towards only those who have a lot of expendable money in real life to invest, dangling the carrot of massive ATH's in the hundreds of thousands of peds (the 331k mulmun looter) as incentive to deposit and gamble big. Of course common place return for most players seems to to be quite poor unless you're invested in the right gear, skill and grind specific higher end mobs. Not to mention having a sizable bank roll (enough to kill 10,000 of a specific mob is what I believe is recommended.)
So the question is... would you still play if things reverted more to what they were before. Where the cost of gameplay is on a much smaller scale. Markups are low but you still get closer to 95% return on every hunt and there's a chance to global but the odds of getting something bigger than 10-20x the cost to kill is GREATLY reduced. So the HoF board rarely will have top position over 2000 peds.
Essentially, do you prefer to have the goal of sustainable gameplay (working to play for free with a small chance to make a few bucks with an even smaller chance to make a few hundred as a "jackpot"). Or do you prefer things as it is now where cash drains REALLY fast but one lucky click on EPs (or a 30+ ped mulmun kill) can take you from -$4000 USD in the hole up to $12,000 USD profit.
*EDIT*
I think we're getting a little off topic here with some of the responses...
To clarify, yes I realize that the game wasn't even EXACTLY like this and I'm not talking about EVERYTHING going back to exactly the same way it was with the lag, bugs, lack of content, peds in loot, no limited items...etc.
I'm mostly talking about what if they went another direction with the gameplay from the start. Rather than opening it up to attract gamblers (with press releases boasting loots up to 331k), they focused on this more of a small-ball approach limiting the max cost to play (and max possible loot). Yes, have some large investments available (like the banks) but what if you were almost guaranteed to get 95% return even on small runs but there were no mining amps, or condition crafting higher than 1.5ped/click, or mobs that can be solo'd with hp higher than 1000?
Along those small-ball guidelines - there was no gear or item in the game that had a markup of more than 500 peds. Hunting is less of an eco chase securing the rarest and most expensive gear but instead simply unlocking the ability to use the right gun that dealt the right damage type to take a certain mob out.
I think a lot of us came to the game with the dream of making money but if there was virtually no chance to ATH higher than 10,000 ped.... would you still play?
- Shadow sets and ESI were TT food
- Unlimited armor sets had full protection regardless of TT value
- There were few items with high TT value or markup
- Skill gains were linear
- Loot had peds and items in it regularly
- Most mobs had under 1000 HP and regeneration was VERY slow (if at all)
From what I hear even hunting carelessly would get you about 95%+ back almost all the time on hunting runs. Most players could last a long while playing mid-level on a mere $100 - $200 deposit.
However back then globals and hofs were not as frequent/beefy. The HoF board was quite small and a loot of only 5000 peds would land you on the ALL TIME HIGH board.
...Fast forward to closer to within the last few years and the game seems to have slowly turned into a "winner take all style" game that seems to cater more towards only those who have a lot of expendable money in real life to invest, dangling the carrot of massive ATH's in the hundreds of thousands of peds (the 331k mulmun looter) as incentive to deposit and gamble big. Of course common place return for most players seems to to be quite poor unless you're invested in the right gear, skill and grind specific higher end mobs. Not to mention having a sizable bank roll (enough to kill 10,000 of a specific mob is what I believe is recommended.)
- Mid level unlimited guns have max TT values into the thousands of peds with several thousands peds markup on top of them. IE the gun I'm currently using has a max TT value of 1500 peds and a markup of 3000+ peds.
- Even limited sets of armor warrant huge markups. (Shadow L = +200%, Perseus = 180%, Aquilia = 140%)
- Almost all new mobs have HP in excess of 1000 peds and have high regen rates
- Most missions with decent rewards require grinding tens of thousands of peds hunting
- Most investments (CLD = $190, Shops $600+, Land Areas$10,000+...etc) cost obscene amounts of money that is completely out of the reach of most people.
So the question is... would you still play if things reverted more to what they were before. Where the cost of gameplay is on a much smaller scale. Markups are low but you still get closer to 95% return on every hunt and there's a chance to global but the odds of getting something bigger than 10-20x the cost to kill is GREATLY reduced. So the HoF board rarely will have top position over 2000 peds.
Essentially, do you prefer to have the goal of sustainable gameplay (working to play for free with a small chance to make a few bucks with an even smaller chance to make a few hundred as a "jackpot"). Or do you prefer things as it is now where cash drains REALLY fast but one lucky click on EPs (or a 30+ ped mulmun kill) can take you from -$4000 USD in the hole up to $12,000 USD profit.
*EDIT*
I think we're getting a little off topic here with some of the responses...
To clarify, yes I realize that the game wasn't even EXACTLY like this and I'm not talking about EVERYTHING going back to exactly the same way it was with the lag, bugs, lack of content, peds in loot, no limited items...etc.
I'm mostly talking about what if they went another direction with the gameplay from the start. Rather than opening it up to attract gamblers (with press releases boasting loots up to 331k), they focused on this more of a small-ball approach limiting the max cost to play (and max possible loot). Yes, have some large investments available (like the banks) but what if you were almost guaranteed to get 95% return even on small runs but there were no mining amps, or condition crafting higher than 1.5ped/click, or mobs that can be solo'd with hp higher than 1000?
Along those small-ball guidelines - there was no gear or item in the game that had a markup of more than 500 peds. Hunting is less of an eco chase securing the rarest and most expensive gear but instead simply unlocking the ability to use the right gun that dealt the right damage type to take a certain mob out.
I think a lot of us came to the game with the dream of making money but if there was virtually no chance to ATH higher than 10,000 ped.... would you still play?
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