Impact of large gifts of influence

[iBot]

48 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Because it often gets wiped.

Valid point.

[A Cat]

On 7/18/2021 at 9:51 AM, SwitchFade said:

I can show you how to level doing normal missions, fast, and by lvl 15 have 75 merits.

 

By 20, 116+

 

By 25 200 merits.

 

No task forces, only certain story missions.

 

With 200 merits you could easily turn that into 14million to 240million.

 

Not kidding.

Thanks. I looked into it a little and I guess I was sitting on ~150 merits so I am less poor than I thought! I still don't have a 50 so I'm only doing common IO's currently and it is cheap enough that I haven't even had to make any converters to sell. Somebody bought a recipe I was selling to clear my inventory for more than a million so I feel kind of rich on my highest level character currently. 

 

On 7/18/2021 at 11:23 AM, Ukase said:

So, I appreciate everyone's perspective. As much as I like the idea of a costume contest, I'm all too aware that a costume that looks great with one graphic setting may not look the same with another - so those are out. 
 

Another way is that you could always donate prize money to the organizer and let them worry about fairness in judging or whatever. Or just don't care! It is inherently subjective so I'm not sure fairness comes into it as long as you aren't accepting kickbacks or something. 

[Ukase]

7 hours ago, CrystalDragon said:

I find giving gifts to new players arriving to the servers such as influence is very helpful, though continuing engagement with the players helps with answering questions about skill choices, slotting, enhancements and so forth with keeping them involved and giving them guidance that new players frequently need.

I'm not sure, but I don't think there's ever been a time someone asked me a question about the game or the market in the game, or farming that I didn't take time to answer. It's almost always a welcome diversion to ensure someone gets multiple options for whatever direction a newer player wants to go. 

I probably disappoint some who ask what the "best" this, or the "best" that is, and I tell them there is no best. It's all subjective. Different judgements have tradeoffs. Some have better accuracy - which came as a big shock to me. Some are more "explosive" with a faster animation, It all depends. Clearly there's going to be some things that are "optimal" and somethings that will be less so. 

But they have to want the additional engagement. That is, they have to ask for it. I've never turned anybody down yet. 

[DSorrow]

As many others have pointed out, there is no one solution that fits every situation. Generally I follow the practice of giving less outright influence and more information on how to generate it to people I don't know, and I feel like in the long run this has been pretty successful practice considering the number of in-game friends it has resulted in. Then again, I also have a childhood friend whom I routinely gift full-purple builds to because we have a lot of fun playing together but he has absolutely zero interest in planning builds or marketeering / farming for enhancements.

 

From personal experience, as a new player I'd get the most out of a gift that boosts me up to the "premium family car" stage of gear. Good enough that every basic functionality is fulfilled to a good standard, but I'm also not completely overpowered in the content that's supposed to be a learning experience. At the same time, it still leaves the aspirational "sports car" and "super car" builds out there to be achieved later. In CoX I'd say some uniques (mostly Endurance related + Kismet) and ~20 million for some uncommon sets would be a good starting point.

Edited July 20, 2021 by DSorrow

[Nemu]

You are being too generous, make them work for it. Make them pass the hollows challenge.

 

Be level 1-2, run through hollows from the AP entry to  the skyway entrance, no temp/travel powers, no cheating with using emailed inspirations, just sprint. They must run through the igneous infested gulch. And they have to do all this without dying.

[Crystal Dragon]

Wouldn't that be something of a contest Nemu?

I mean, issuing challenge to new comers is great, if they have the means to learn their way around without aid, but not everyone has a solid knowledge of the game when they start out. I'm talking complete newbs here, but I get what you mean about issuing them a challenge like that.

Edited July 20, 2021 by CrystalDragon
Fleshing out my question a bit.

[Bionic_Flea]

There are better things to do with all your money other than giving it away to undeserving peons!

 

 

[Blonde_Ambition93]

I think the greatest amount I was gifted was 70,000. It was helpful at the time. However, now that I'm approaching level 20 with my FF/Rad Defender, I'm finding it difficult to afford the enhancements I need. Probably more of a salvage issue than monetary though, haha!

 

This community is just so lovely. Usually if I'm struggling I just send out an SOS on the help "radio". I always find other supers who will drop what they're doing to help me save the day ☺️

 

Ms Nebula (there is a Miss Nebula somewhere out there.. "hey girl!")

[UltraAlt]

On 7/18/2021 at 9:41 AM, Ukase said:

How much is too much? 

 

5-30 Million at a time seems to be a sweet spot.

"Enough for the time being" to "enough to get going"

 

If someone is trying to track down the Halloween costume parts, I'll buy them and mail them to them.

if someone is asking for small amount of infl, I'll usually email it to them.

 

Honestly, if you give them 100m, they are going to end up giving me some of that by buying my products on the market and I will probably make a killing off of them because they will have no respect for the influence they are spending.

[UltraAlt]

create new characters

 

On 7/18/2021 at 5:18 PM, DoctorDitko said:

Absolutely! And the hardest part to convey to new players.

 

On 7/18/2021 at 5:18 PM, DoctorDitko said:

is there another we could call out as an example

 

There really isn't.

I play other MMORPGs like I play City of Heroes. I like to explore as much of the different character creation options as I can in game. 

 

There seems to be a large number of players that are "one and done". They may have an alt or two, but they usually run their main - until they get bored with a game an leave.

 

City of Hero - obviously - has a far more massive and immersive character creation system.

I mean face it. Most games have damage dealers, tanks, healer, a stealth guy, and a controller (maybe). They may have 3-5 variations of each type.

And all of them essentially look the same other than possibly what kind of armor they are wearing (which may very well be related to its values in combat) or which weapons they are carrying.

Most players are going to pigeon-hole into one type of character and play that in every MMORPG that they play in. That's their niche and they work to be good at it.

They play up to the end levels of a game and get bored and quit or grind for eternity.

 

City of Heroes is a creative game.

And sorry to say, some players just aren't creative. 

 

That isn't to say that someone can't come to City of Heroes and want to make all of the Avengers and alt out on the rest of the Marvel Universe. Not being very creative, but if they are doing a good job on the costumes (before getting nerfed in order to protect Marvel/Disney's copyrights....) they are having to put some creativity into it.

And, if that is their trip and they do get nerfed, they probably will give up on the game.

 

Most players aren't looking for a game as in depth as City of Heroes.

 

[Col. Kernel]

Here's my personal story.

 

Pre Sunset I never bothered with Set IOs.  They were too expensive and too much of a time sink to bother with.  The market was not a useful tool for players, it was simply another form of PvP and I was there to play City of Supers, not City of Day traders.

 

Post Sunset I was invited to the SCoRE server.  Like many others I had to start pretty much from scratch (remember, no huge stockpile of Inf from Live for me), but the community was tighter knit and changes to the market made it into a more useful tool.  I ended up being able to IO out every alt I had with whatever build I wanted.  My small SG base still has bins full of IOs.

 

Then my Windows drive crashed and I only had a Linux partition on my laptop for some years.  I was too busy to try and get CoH running on Linux.  I installed a 2nd HDD but never could get the laptop to recognize it.

 

Eventually I got a refurb Windows box for other purposes, but it runs City so I'm back.  I have to say I was discouraged by having to start over yet again, but I was glad to be back playing City with friends.  Friends gifted me around 300-400 million total and I got a farmer partially outfitted but still couldn't solo a +4x8 fire farm.  I looked into marketing and found a post by Shinobu about crafting and converting, and got his build further along.  I still didn't want to do the crafting and converting, I'd rather play City of Heroes in my limited spare time.

 

Then an SG mate made up some spurious reason to gift me 1 billion inf for my spouse and me.  That made all the difference.  I finished my farmer (I only farm 2 - 3 times a week, I prefer teaming), and I found out that special salvage sells well on the market and you buy it with Merits.  It's slower than craft & convert but it doesn't eat up my play time either.

 

So this gift jumpstarted the game for my spouse and me, and seriously increased my enjoyment of it.  I'm currently playing less due to RL demands rather than a lack of enjoyment in the game.

 

Sorry this was long, but I wanted you to have the full story from someone who'd received an exorbitant gift.

[SwitchFade]

On 7/19/2021 at 4:54 PM, A Cat said:

Thanks. I looked into it a little and I guess I was sitting on ~150 merits so I am less poor than I thought! I still don't have a 50 so I'm only doing common IO's currently and it is cheap enough that I haven't even had to make any converters to sell. Somebody bought a recipe I was selling to clear my inventory for more than a million so I feel kind of rich on my highest level character currently. 

 

Another way is that you could always donate prize money to the organizer and let them worry about fairness in judging or whatever. Or just don't care! It is inherently subjective so I'm not sure fairness comes into it as long as you aren't accepting kickbacks or something. 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by SwitchFade

[Corythia]

I tend to run a character up to vet level 9-15 where they are pretty well IOed, and have mostly rare incarnates.  At that point, I make something else I have been wondering about or wanting to try.  I dig those 50s out from time to time, but mostly I am engaged on the journey.  So if you gave someone enough to finish their build, it was probably appreciated, but also likely led to that char being stabled, since it was now complete.  There are quite a few people who will get into a new game, play hard to 50, do a lot of the post 50 content, then quit and find another game.  It doesn't matter how much you give or don't give them, they weren't going to stay anyway. 

 

For the most part, if they are going to stay, a big gift could go a long way, since it can fund a lot of experimentation/exploration of the game.  I think most people don't stay though.  Of the 9 friends and family I started Homecoming with, one is still playing regularly and he had played for years before sunset.  So I think you are looking at only 5% or less who will stick around for any real time.  Maybe smaller gifts (60millionish) spread out more might be more likely to actually help someone who is going to stick with the game.

[Lens Perchance]

I gift usually between 1 to 5 mil in an email containing notes on how to start earning more quickly. They've all been appreciative of the help, but it's hard to say how much it influences their decision to keep playing.  

I've made probably close to 20 such donations over the last 2 yrs and none of them are still around as far as I can tell. Most I never see again actually, but it could just be new players who roll one toon up to the mid 20's when the difficulty increases a bit and decide it's not for them. They all note however, how overwhelmingly friendly and supportive our playerbase is. 

Perhaps it comes across as a burden, like they are then expected to perform for the money.

[Ukase]

So...I have given away 99 level 10 PvP IOs - the panacea +HP/End, the glad armor 3%, the Shield Wall 5%, 1 each to random folks. Well, not truly random. 

If they already had set bonuses, I didn't give. If they had more than one level untrained (looked like sitters in fire farms to me) in Atlas, I didn't give. The bulk of the gifts went to lowbies - levels 1-10. 

I tried to give away in red side zones. I'd do a search by zone..maybe see one or two players there. I pop in, and look around, and if I found them, I'd give 'em. 

One player sent them back with a global name of Hedgefund Prime or something like that. Said he had an overflow of them in his base. I should've checked global names, lol. After that point I began to check global names, and if I saw something like @global2 or @global3, I assumed they had multiple accounts and didn't need any assistance. 

The disappointing thing was only 2 of the 32 took the time to thank me. Not that I was looking for that, but some acknowledgement would've been nice. I suppose, though, it's possible they were afk and had no idea where they came from when they came back, as the system messages would've scrolled up before they returned. 

Not sure which server I'll visit next. 

[GraspingVileTerror]

On your next run, try sending a Tell like "Boop." when you drop off the present.
You'll probably see more responses that way, albeit more than a few will probably be "?" or something like that.  At this point you can say "Nothing to worry about.  Just check your Enhancement Inventory."

At that point, I think you'll see a lot more "Thank you" messages, or the "oh geez, are you sure?" (I get a LOT of those), or the occasional "Hold on, let me give it back.  I don't need this."

 

At least, that's been my experience when dropping gifts in to strangers' pockets.

[Bionic_Flea]

Send it via e-mail.  That way they are sure to know where it came from, but it may be some time before they realize they have it.  It's a secret bonus surprise!

[Ukase]

Fair points, but not doing it for the recognition. I figure eventually they'll open their enhancement tray and figure it out. I just figured folks were paying more attention when they play. 

I find email to be annoying, too. Having to get a global, fill in all the fields..then do that 3x...and when their global has an l or a I it can be hard to tell the difference. (that's L or i) 

[MunkiLord]

I like to walk up to random people and offer a trade, if they accept I'll give them a random amount and just run away. And never respond to the messages when they say thanks or just send a question mark because they are confused. Or sometimes in Atlas broadcast I'll see someone offer X million influence if you can find them. I'll double that amount for people not to find that person. Giving away influence is something nice to do sure, but in the end it is about me and my amusement.

[Ironblade]

On 7/23/2021 at 7:30 AM, Ukase said:

One player sent them back with a global name of Hedgefund Prime or something like that. Said he had an overflow of them in his base. I should've checked global names, lol. After that point I began to check global names, and if I saw something like @global2 or @global3, I assumed they had multiple accounts and didn't need any assistance.

But, but . . .  maybe Ironblade Too and Ironblade III are destitute!   🙂

[ironjoe]

I typically give away 50 mill influence to new players and tell them about all the fun stuff they can get as the P2W vendor for travel, ect. In my SG I give away 100 million as a signing bonus to new members that want it. The last costume contest I gave away 1 billion influence to the three winners and gave out some purples and super inspirations as gifts to those attending. I don't farm though so I typically only have 2-3 billion influence across all my Iron Joe's. I find those are all amounts that are appreciated. Though I recently helped judge a base contest on Everlasting and a total of 20 billion was given out but the builders put some serious work in to earn the influence.

 

 

 

 

[Nerio72]

On 7/24/2021 at 10:39 AM, Ukase said:

Fair points, but not doing it for the recognition. I figure eventually they'll open their enhancement tray and figure it out. I just figured folks were paying more attention when they play. 

I find email to be annoying, too. Having to get a global, fill in all the fields..then do that 3x...and when their global has an l or a I it can be hard to tell the difference. (that's L or i) 

To send myself inf I made a template and sent it to myself and all I have to do is reply to it and put the INF amount in. This could be adjusted to do the same thing for gifts, your just have to change the global and put the amount in. Also it can be easier to copy and paste globals out of chat (find global and then Ctrl C to copy them Ctrl V to paste into email).

If you knew all this I apologize, but it may be helpful to someone else.

[PeregrineFalcon]

1 hour ago, ironjoe said:

In my SG I give away 100 million as a signing bonus to new members that want it.

What's your SG's name, and which server are you on?

 

Asking for a friend.

[GraspingVileTerror]

Someone informed me that SCoRE gives 2 billion Inf to each account, if you ask, apparently?

Any of you SCoRErs able to confirm that?  Any of you seen any kind of indication of a negative impact to player retention there that isn't more easily attributed to Homecoming having the larger and more stable population?

[Marine X]

19 minutes ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

Any of you SCoRErs able to confirm that?

I'm confused, I thought the SCoRE Server that was setup after the Code was released became Homecoming, but now there is a new SCoRE Server that is separate???

Guess I just am not "Cool Kids" enough to keep up with all this, lol.

 

On the subject the OP started with, I guess it depends on the person receiving the gift, and if it's welcome. I try to keep it between 1 and 5 Million, and give to as many as possible during the Christmas Season. I understand that high earners are probably looking for an Influence/Infamy sink, but I think that is enough for most lower level Characters to get going. Of Course, if you want to lavish Influence on me, I will humbly accept, and give it away to others for you, lol.