Inf Sink Ideas

[Gremlin]

I've been thinking about inf sinks that could be added to the game. I wonder how you feel about them and whether you've got some better ideas.

 

Ebil Merits

They're just tokens that you buy for 1 billion inf each. You can't do anything with them except admire your collection. They're just a way to keep score really.

 

Hero/Villain Bonds

You can buy bonds for 10 million inf. Bonds have a small chance to drop goodies from time to time. The goodies are similar to pack contents except that they only drop tradeable items. I'm not sure whether bonds should be profitable or not. If so, how long we'd have to hold them for to break even? I think bonds would have to be account bound unless they're profitable.

 

I look forward to your ebil comments.

[tidge]

Ideally, the inf sinks should be (A) things players *want*, (B) things players can *use*, and (C) things that don't change the underlying mechanics of the Homecoming marketplace. I suppose we should have some consideration for things like badge-collectors as well; I seem to recall blowback against 'buying badges' (not sure why, but some folks are more crazy about badges than things like set balance).

 

The only things that come immediately to mind:

 

1) Mission monitor missions cost a single merit, I suppose they could accept Inf directly. This is about as close to the underlying marketplace mechanics as I'd want to see, since merits can be bought directly elsewhere. I don't think many people use this method of sinking merits.

 

2) The temporary SG buffs consume salvage. I frequently use mine, but this is a pure salvage sink and not an Inf sink. With seeded salvage at a ceiling price, there is no mathematical reason why these can't accept Inf directly. I rarely am in a PUG where I notice players with any of these buffs, despite how much they help with certain content.

 

P2W is already a pretty good Inf sink, I'm not sure how many players use the 're-occuring costs' aside from temp travel and Envenomed Daggers.

[Yomo Kimyata]

1.  Bring back Prestige, but keep all base costs at zero.  This would be similar to your Ebil Merits, but would have the added bonus of affecting your SG ranking. 

2.  Badges for burning inf.

 

Neither of these deprives anyone of any new toys.  It's just for the Scrooge McDucks among us.

 

Somewhere, a dev mentioned that they felt that small, universally applied inf sinks were more effective than large scale sinks.  I guess it's a matter of scale.  Adding a new thingamjig for sale at the P2W for 1mm, or 10mm might remove a bn or ten from the system in aggregate, but a Dr. Evil badge would guarantee 100bn from me right off the bat.

 

I guess they could increase the market fees.  That would hurt everyone, and I think they are better off putting forth some sort of progressive sink that will take the most away (voluntarily of course) from those with the most amassed.

[nihilii]

Bulk amplifiers for level 50s only.

Give me 100 hours of defense amplifier at once, and I'll pay 250M for it and not think too hard about it. Perma mez protection, here I come.

Of course, it's not actually perma. There's the trick. Make it long enough we get hooked to it, instead of a sometimes thing.

 

Currently, with "just" 8 hours tops... I tend to *think* about my purchase. I don't want to go AFK in base, or to stand around doing nothing.

 

(Why level 50 only? Amplifier price scale with level. If bulk amplifiers were available at level 1, people would buy 100 hours for 100k inf.)

Edited April 7, 2020 by nihilii

[Gremlin]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

2.  Badges for burning inf.

Personally I'd like that one but I think the badgers would be sad. On the other hand, if you can get them to go for it you've probably solved the inflation problem. 🙂

 

[Gremlin]

1 hour ago, nihilii said:

Give me 100 hours of defense amplifier at once, and I'll pay 250M for it and not think too hard about it.

That's an interesting idea. I'd never thought of using these sort of buffs on a permanent basis.

[Redlynne]

Pay 100 million INF to cause a random type of invasion in a random zone.

[Apparition]

11 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Pay 100 million INF to cause a random type of invasion in a random zone.

 

If you really want an INF sink, pay two billion INF to cause an invasion of Atlas Park. 😛

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, Apparition said:

 

If you really want an INF sink, pay two billion INF to cause an invasion of Atlas Park. 😛

Or, just keep spending 100mm until one shows up in AP.  You can't have two invasions in a zone at once, sadly.

[Yomo Kimyata]

For 1bn, spawn a Giant monster on your location, but it can't attack anyone that is not in your team/league.

[Gremlin]

... or the GM follows you around for an hour. If you enter a mission map it sits outside smoking a cigarette and checking its watch from time to time.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Gremlin
Gah! Apostrophes.

[Obus Form]

Like World of Warcraft, give me a way to show it off.

 

In addition to badges, give us powers!

 

Entourage

5 billion to buy a "sprint power" pimp-mobile that has an entourage of women (or men) holding bags of money, following me around as I travel to missions. These people serve limitless drinks (dual inspirations only affecting you, not the team) that you can freely buy. Run speed is normal Sprint speed.

 

Jet

10 billion to buy a "flight power" Concord or Black Bird jet that serves limitless drinks (dual inspirations only affecting you, not the team) that you can freely buy.  Flight speed has After Burner already. Also allows you to.... CARRY ONE PASSENGER WITH YOU!!!!

 

Alfred Jarvis

15 billion to buy a "pet power" that summons Alfred Jarvis, a vendor/trainer/crafting table/dual inspiration selling/P2W Power Selling/Ouroboros crystal quest giving combat butler.  If you go /afk, he starts practicing his kunai/chains/sword/ninja shadow clone techniques/summons a mini gundam and flies away.

 

Gundam

20 billion to buy a "Super Speed, Super Jump, Flight Power".... you become a Gundam pilot.  Morphs you into a huge "Gundam" (like halloween costume toggles) complete with beam saber, rifle, dressed as Sub-Zero or Scorpion.  His new F7 line... GET OVER HERE!!!  Over course, this "travel power" allows you to carry one passenger with you

 

Gluttony

25 billion buy a permanent power to exceed the 2 billion inf cap by 1 inf

 

Plebian Repel

50 billion to buy a "toggle" power that repels anyone with less than 1 billion in their inventory.  Repel radius is 8, like all PBAOE damage auras

 

Life

100 billion to buy a real life

 

[Gremlin]

6 hours ago, Obus Form said:

Like World of Warcraft, give me a way to show it off.

Awesome! I'm going to be laughing about this all day.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Gremlin

[Redlynne]

13 hours ago, Obus Form said:

Like World of Warcraft, give me a way to show it off.

Easy ... 1 billion INF per purchase of Exorbitance Incarnate™ badge.

Can be purchased multiple times.

Has no game mechanical effect, but can be chosen as a title which will also display in the title how many times the badge has been purchased.

 

Mischief Managed.

[MunkiLord]

I really like the idea of Ebil Merits, also add it as an optional character title for a few billion. Someone needs to name their next market guide The Merits of being Ebil.

[Errants]

5 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Easy ... 1 billion INF per purchase of Exorbitance Incarnate™ badge.

Can be purchased multiple times.

Has no game mechanical effect, but can be chosen as a title which will also display in the title how many times the badge has been purchased.

 

Mischief Managed.

Make it just a title, or a non-counted badge (a la Bug Hunter) and I'm in.

[Redlynne]

2 hours ago, Errants said:

Make it just a title, or a non-counted badge (a la Bug Hunter) and I'm in.

You want it to be a counted badge.  That way you have bragging rights over how many billions of INF you've spent on that badge ... because there's no "limit" to the number of times you can buy it, only the number of times you can afford(!) to buy it.

[Grouchybeast]

I proposed an idea before to go in tandem with reimplementing prestige purely as a measure of bragging rights: replace the giant statue over the base portal with a hologram statue of the leader of the SG with the most prestige, with a matching statue somewhere Redside.

 

On reflection, though, this maybe doesn't need prestige.  Replace all four statues in Atlas with hologram statues, with a terminal next to each one.  By spending any amount of inf that is larger than the previous payment, a character can have the statue turn into them.  When a payment of 2 billion is made, the statue is fixed as that character for an hour, then resets.  Otherwise it resets once per day.

[Errants]

2 hours ago, Redlynne said:

You want it to be a counted badge.  That way you have bragging rights over how many billions of INF you've spent on that badge ... because there's no "limit" to the number of times you can buy it, only the number of times you can afford(!) to buy it.

Iterative, sure - Let's see just how much of an Inf black hole a player is.. But not part of the current 1580 possible badges (much like Bug Hunter isn't counted in that total).

[justicebeliever]

2 hours ago, Grouchybeast said:

I proposed an idea before to go in tandem with reimplementing prestige purely as a measure of bragging rights: replace the giant statue over the base portal with a hologram statue of the leader of the SG with the most prestige, with a matching statue somewhere Redside.

 

On reflection, though, this maybe doesn't need prestige.  Replace all four statues in Atlas with hologram statues, with a terminal next to each one.  By spending any amount of inf that is larger than the previous payment, a character can have the statue turn into them.  When a payment of 2 billion is made, the statue is fixed as that character for an hour, then resets.  Otherwise it resets once per day.

I like it...

[Redlynne]

1 minute ago, Errants said:

Iterative, sure - Let's see just how much of an Inf black hole a player is.. But not part of the current 1580 possible badges (much like Bug Hunter isn't counted in that total).

I'm good with keeping it outside the 1580 ...

[Yomo Kimyata]

40 minutes ago, Errants said:

Iterative, sure - Let's see just how much of an Inf black hole a player is.. But not part of the current 1580 possible badges (much like Bug Hunter isn't counted in that total).

I’m curious.  Since it would be a possible badge, I.e., one you could in fact get, how are you reconciling it being not counted?  
 

i understand the “gotta catch them all” thing, As I have my own OCD.  But what I don’t understand is why a badge, one you choose not to pursue, doesn’t count versus ones you choose to pursue do?

[Errants]

2 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I’m curious.  Since it would be a possible badge, I.e., one you could in fact get, how are you reconciling it being not counted?  
 

i understand the “gotta catch them all” thing, As I have my own OCD.  But what I don’t understand is why a badge, one you choose not to pursue, doesn’t count versus ones you choose to pursue do?

More because there's enough shinies with ludicrous requirements (Empath being chief among them), that adding another, especially if iterative (a la x Times the Victor, which are 10 different badges), seems not enjoyable to pursue.

[Grouchybeast]

6 hours ago, Errants said:

More because there's enough shinies with ludicrous requirements (Empath being chief among them), that adding another, especially if iterative (a la x Times the Victor, which are 10 different badges), seems not enjoyable to pursue.

Empath is pretty easy to get, though, in these Incarnated days.  I don't mind some grindy badges, as long as they're added in moderation.

[Yomo Kimyata]

10 hours ago, Errants said:

More because there's enough shinies with ludicrous requirements (Empath being chief among them), that adding another, especially if iterative (a la x Times the Victor, which are 10 different badges), seems not enjoyable to pursue.

No, I get that there are badges you don't want to pursue.  Why pursue those badges at all?  Is there an uberbadge for having every "official" badge?  I'm trying to understand the badger mentality and I don't understand why if there are badges that are too tedious to accomplish, you still do them.  Is it for the title, or for bragging rights in the forums with screenshots?  I'm definitely not criticizing; I'm just trying to see your point of view.  thanks!