Ah, ok. I feel a bit differently about that in so far as I think we should be partly 'invested' in the levels of play we reach, so if good armour at full strength requires tied up peds, for example, then alright. There is also (L) armour at sometimes low mus that ties up less and keeps full defense as it wears, so we have choices.
(Harmless, light-hearted irony alert): In a bit of a plot twist, I wouldn't be surprised if MA just wanted the extra window implemented into the AH (edit oops, mean crafting) UI ready for UE5, and that an actually functioning autocon system won't come until then. They know they can hide behind any number of bugs these days, so maybe they are just pretending, and this is their way of giving us a sneek peek at a future feature ...
But what if it wasn't just a cash investment but instead you actually had to play the game. An investment in time and accomplishment. That's kind of why I love the H.E.A.R.T. FAP mission chain on Cyrene and I really feel it's a huge step in the right direction of how the game should be going. It takes a fair amount of time and money to get the upgrade but the fap at the higher levels is really bad ass. No way to just "buy into it" though, even if you buy the grindy resources, you still have to put in the work and grinding out the kills at different stages.
Yes, it's not tradeable... just like the Viceroy armor set and others... But I kind of like that to an extent. You earn something that has real value when compared to buying a comparable tradable item that will be with you going forward. Not just grinding to get an item you fire sale for a quick buck. A non-repeatable mission that helps you grow your avatar and unlocks the ability to reduce your overhead by playing to get these permanent items that are essential to the profession. So at least you can look at it like "well I was hunting a whole bunch and only got an 82% return, but at least I got this sweet UL item for my losses that can help me next time".
I would love to see that... as you get higher up in level you have chains that unlock these UL items... the H.E.A.R.T fap and Viceroy armor set for example. Even guns of various levels. They don't need to be amazing, just something with a reasonable DPS and average EFF you can grind to. And if all these items were like E.L.M. with under 1 ped TT and low decay... Hell, you could even have repeatable missions that give decent L guns if the cost isn't too crazy. The sheer cost for the L guns from the daily mission trader is psychotic unless you're only doing the bonus missions.
This rewards people for playing rather than rewarding people that can shell out the most money. Problem with the current game is there is zero real reward for progression other than "unlocking" having to spend more money to "hunt at your level". Once you get to a certain point in this game you either stop progressing to bigger mobs or the cost to get an UL gun that uses your max skill level is INSANE. It's like a mortgage payment lol.
Even if you want to play with limited gear, once you get to a certain point the cycle on the gear is nuts. L guns don't last remotely close to long enough from a kills per gun standpoint. Returns are horrible enough as it is on a lower budget of only 1000 peds or so, then you've got to contend with insane markups on L guns and enhancers and such. Armor lasts a bit longer but the overhead for a Persueus set or other higher end set for TT and markup is insane. If you don't already have all the overhead taken care of, a budget of $100-$200 is laughable. Counter this to the fact that I can deposit $100 into an online casino and play the slots or tables I want to play without first needing to put in a few hundred more just to have access to those games. Whether it's $0.50 a spin or 5 peds a kill....
"what about crafters and the markup of guns?". Simple.... fuck 'em lol. I mean the vast majority of activity in this game are hunters and the vast majority of Armatrix crafters aren't making a profit. Seriously though, there will still be plenty of people buying those L guns to help them unlocked better UL guns. Especially if the missions are tiered in such a way that the lvl 1 UL gun you unlock isn't strong enough to kill the mobs required to unlock the lvl 2 UL gun reward from a mission. Limited guns can also be redesigned to have better efficiencies and other benefits over the UL unlocked guns. Maybe those UL guns aren't tierable, I don't know...
Anyways, probably gone off on a big tangent here... lol If you read this whole post good job lol
