Influence sink...good? bad?

[Ukase]

15 minutes ago, Krimson said:

Ooh.. what if we had Enhancement Converter superpacks? Spend 10 million, get like 150 or something which works out to about 66667 INF per converter. 

Would save a lot of clicking, to be sure. I'd go for that. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

but the case remains - I do not dance.

 

 

Looks like I win!

 

1 hour ago, Luminara said:

 

A winner-take-all-off dance would be more entertaining.

 

Looks like *everyone* wins!

 

55 minutes ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

Who ever wins, we lose.

 

Looks like VT loses...

 

 

[PLVRIZR]

And also referencing Krimson and BZB, there is already another way to pay, what, 200,000,000 INF to "craft" Rare incarnate components (25,000,000 each for Uncommon x4 and another 100,000,000 for the Rare)....

[iBot]

I think the last time we kicked around INF sinks we came to the rough conclusion that no matter the sink players would ultimately find a way to earn that back in a few days so ultimately it was a self defeating problem that wasn't worth the time it would take the devs to implement it.  They could confiscate all of @Yomo Kimyata and @Ukase assets and the two of them would be right back on the leader board in a matter of days if not hours.  And those two are just the most visible here on the forums.  There are dozens if not hundreds of others just like them or damn close.  So where do we go?  Well this is an age old problem.  When is enough enough?  I'm all for trading INF for reductions in time required to do something.  I am grateful for the double XP boosts (and the fact that they cost nothing) gee maybe a cost added there.  I'd be happy to use extra P2W boosts for other things too like incarnate XP or threads or emp merits or even reward merits.  But ultimately those fall back to the same problem at the start.  At some point you have enough that the cost of those things is negligible.  Some things are just a result of playing the game and really the only way to not earn more is to stop playing which is something no one ever wants to admit but sometimes it is a good thing.  A break is nothing to fear or be embarrassed about.

 

Anyway my 0.02 INF.

[Without_Pause]

The winner should get their own personalized big red ball.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Without_Pause

[Erratic1]

54 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

 

I've been playing on HC for most of the time it has existed.  I play a decent amount.  I've yet to ever reach the inf cap on a character even a single time.  I probably have maybe 300 million right now across all my characters for inf on hand.  Although, I do have quite a few decked out characters and quite a lot of enhancements in storage.  But to this day I don't feel like I have an overabundance of inf yet.

 

Maybe because I don't farm?  And I only play the market once in a while.  Not overdoing either of those things and this isn't a "problem".

 

Not sure this is true.

 

I have only two characters who have ever pushed past 50 million (one of which I do not play any longer). One is at 190 million now, but that is after having shipped 70 million off to another character. I mostly play the character when I need a break from levelling up new characters or want to payback a group which has carried one of my lower level characters by bringing in someone who can carry his weight. A such, I do not play the character a lot and even so running a single ITF clear most was worth 20 million or so influence or so.

 

Now imagine he were my "main" that I played daily and did a lot of TFs and missions on. 40 million per day would not require a ton of time to hit the cap. Of course that depends on what one defines a farming but doing TFs and playing on mission teams is not what is usually meant.

 

[InvaderStych]

9 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

The winner should get their own personalized big red ball.

 

Only if it is the "Please, Please Tell Me" Ball.

[Bill Z Bubba]

43 minutes ago, PLVRIZR said:

And also referencing Krimson and BZB, there is already another way to pay, what, 200,000,000 INF to "craft" Rare incarnate components (25,000,000 each for Uncommon x4 and another 100,000,000 for the Rare)....

 

Still takes threads. It's *almost* there.

[Dazl]

Hummm something you can’t buy with all that influence, maybe that’s a good thing. Getting out there to earn the emps might give you a new goal to work to. You can get 4 emps if you do one round of the 3 round hami raid on Excelsor, and you could pick up more if you do some server surfing to the other raids.

[Nemu]

So many people begging for inf and it's disgusting. You all should be ashamed of yourselves!

 

Ukase, buddy, let's talk business.

 

I offer panda services for inf.

 

And no one offers panda services like I do.

 

And what's better to sink your inf into than Panda Services?

 

So, do we have a deal?

[Ukase]

7 minutes ago, Dazl said:

Hummm something you can’t buy with all that influence, maybe that’s a good thing. Getting out there to earn the emps might give you a new goal to work to. You can get 4 emps if you do one round of the 3 round hami raid on Excelsor, and you could pick up more if you do some server surfing to the other raids.

I have to be careful here and be more receptive to perspectives that I haven't thought about. I don't want to bemoan every suggestion. So, I hope I'm not coming across that way. 

But, how many times can someone stomach doing the same thing over, and over, and over again? I earned ...maybe 800 hero merits worth tanking hami a couple of years ago, doing that every day for months. The only reason I do those now is for the buddy badge. Once I get the 100 buds, I stop, until the next character wants/needs the badge. 

MSRs and Hami raids are a great way for folks that need the influence that those merits from those tasks provide. I almost feel guilty for taking up a spot as it is! 

Yet, perhaps if I can buy whatever I want - that would also detract from the game itself. Maybe it's for the best. I dunno. But I know I'm going to opt to farm for the foreseeable future for those emps, rather than attend Hami raids & msrs  (though I do have several characters who will be in pursuit of buddy badge and those two irksome MSR related badges for Ukon and the bombs) 
Even so - 4 emps per hami raid, per character. 
You'd have to do that same thing 45 times to get the necessary emp merits. I've already done that thing 1000 times, at least! Enough of that tired story. The chatter while waiting used to be somewhat entertaining, but the more amusing players have left, gone on to other games, it would seem. I don't mind repeating certain things a number of times, but that's too many times, and you can only get 4 per day. (per character). 

I could swap characters, and send the emps to a specific alt, but that's still doing the same thing ad nauseum. I may as well farm. I can get a few vet levels, I think, before a triple run hami is completed. (maybe not...I'd have to check & verify that. I think I can, tho.)
 

[Bionic_Flea]

I like influence sinks, but not for powers that make you stronger, and certainly not powers that make you stronger in perpetuity.  I've always felt that the boosters for sale in P2W were a little much, but at least they scale up in cost and have to be repurchased.  Vanity items or convenience items are OK in my book.  I could also go for some kind of upward conversion of i-salvage as Krimson mentioned.

 

Also, did someone say dance-off? 

 

[Songseven]

40 minutes ago, Ukase said:

chatter while waiting used to be somewhat entertaining, but the more amusing players have left, gone on to other games, it would seem

 

 

maybe its time to take a break or move on,

 

 

no need to become a drag, your attitude just seems miserable.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Songseven

[Aurora_Girl]

I know it isn't "supposed" to sound this way, but I don't love reading about how rich people are miserable because they're rich. Virtual or otherwise. 

[Luminara]

A serious point to make:

 

The economy is stable, and has been for quite some time now.  There's no sign of inflation growing at a significant rate (or even a measurable rate, right now.  prices have remained essentially the same for at least a year).  Between the market tweaks (salvage seeding, auto-attunement) and the broad availability of converters, inflation has been very effectively controlled.  As such, there isn't a need for a sink from an economic perspective.  Even if we significantly increased the population, the costs of various things would (theoretically) remain relatively flat, because those costs are now ultimately tied to merits, not inf*.

 

Now, obviously, people with more inf* than they know what to do with would like something productive, fun or even moderately worthwhile to do with that inf*.  There's only so long anyone can sit in their counting room, polishing their stacks of coins and whispering "My precious" before it ceases to be entertaining, after all.  But this isn't really a sink being requested, it's a reason to spend some of that inf*.

 

Should people have something to spend exorbitant sums of inf* on?  Yes.  Every activity in the game should be rewarding in some way, even mass accumulation of currency, or the activity itself is meaningless and shouldn't exist.  But should it be a sink?  That would depend on how badly those exorbitant sums of inf* could damage the economy.  If someone can demonstrate a detrimental effect on the game as a whole which comes from having several hundred billion inf*, then it would justify a sink.  If not... then the discussion should revolve around finding a rewarding method of spending that inf*, rather than simply removing it from the economy.

 

And while it might appear to be picking nits to point out that there's a difference, it is important to separate "fun way to reward having piles of inf*" from "too much inf* destroying the game".  Though the two concepts might be superficially similar, they're wildly different in implementation and purpose.

 

I'd also recommend that anything the developers implement, should this reach that stage, should recycle the defender inherent code to shut it off when teamed.  That would alleviate a lot of issues before they become issues.  No bruised egos (if it's a cosmetic effect), no power creep complaints/leveraging it in multi-box farms (if it's a buff), et cetera.  This would ensure that it's personally rewarding, but not game-breaking or useful as a means of lording it over others.

 

Now, back to one-liners and lame jokes that make me laugh like the Joker.

[Songseven]

i dunno, some people just wanna farm and flex!

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

18 minutes ago, Luminara said:

There's only so long anyone can sit in their counting room, polishing their stacks of coins and whispering "My precious" before it ceases to be entertaining, after all. 

 

Blatant lies!  It is infinitely entertaining.

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

I think the developers should put these items on the P2W vendor for 25 million apiece.

1. A one use instant level 50 token that is character bound.
2. Cool gold colored titles. "Terminator" "Sith Lord" "There can be only one", etc. Bonus points if there's a badge associated getting any one of these titles.
3. A power that's a one use giant banner that says the character's SG name in giant letters, or "Costume Contest" or something else useful. Like the banner should be bigger than a GM. Useful for meeting spots or recruiting or RPing or costume contests.
4. A power that summons a chair and then has your character sit on it. Also useful for meetings or RPing.

[Bionic_Flea]

14 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I think the developers should put these items on the P2W vendor for 25 million apiece.

1. A one use instant level 50 token that is character bound.
2. Cool gold colored titles. "Terminator" "Sith Lord" "There can be only one", etc. Bonus points if there's a badge associated getting any one of these titles.
3. A power that's a one use giant banner that says the character's SG name in giant letters, or "Costume Contest" or something else useful. Like the banner should be bigger than a GM. Useful for meeting spots or recruiting or RPing or costume contests.
4. A power that summons a chair and then has your character sit on it. Also useful for meetings or RPing.

 

My take:

1. No.

2. No.

3. Hell yes!

4. Yes.

[Vulpoid]

I volunteer to be an Influence Sink.
Heck, I'll be an Influence Toilet.

[gamingglen]

54 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I think the developers should put these items on the P2W vendor for 25 million apiece.

1. A one use instant level 50 token that is character bound.
2. Cool gold colored titles. "Terminator" "Sith Lord" "There can be only one", etc. Bonus points if there's a badge associated getting any one of these titles.
3. A power that's a one use giant banner that says the character's SG name in giant letters, or "Costume Contest" or something else useful. Like the banner should be bigger than a GM. Useful for meeting spots or recruiting or RPing or costume contests.
4. A power that summons a chair and then has your character sit on it. Also useful for meetings or RPing.

 

1. no

2. "Mr. Burns is poorer than me" (could use better phrasing?)

3. meh

4. make it a throne-like chair

[gamingglen]

How about a new emote:

 

/emote McDuckdive  -  into a pile of gold, of course. 

 

a second one:

/emote swimingold - do you really need an explanation?  😄  

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

Blatant lies!  It is infinitely entertaining.

 

[Riverdusk]

3 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

 

Not sure this is true.

 

I have only two characters who have ever pushed past 50 million (one of which I do not play any longer). One is at 190 million now, but that is after having shipped 70 million off to another character. I mostly play the character when I need a break from levelling up new characters or want to payback a group which has carried one of my lower level characters by bringing in someone who can carry his weight. A such, I do not play the character a lot and even so running a single ITF clear most was worth 20 million or so influence or so.

 

Now imagine he were my "main" that I played daily and did a lot of TFs and missions on. 40 million per day would not require a ton of time to hit the cap. Of course that depends on what one defines a farming but doing TFs and playing on mission teams is not what is usually meant.

 

 

So, my own experience "isn't true".  Got it.

[macskull]

I'm not entirely sure we need more inf sinks which is funny because back on live I would've been crucified for saying that. Prices on high-end items are lower now than they have been historically which is the opposite of what everyone's expected to happen.