What to do about excess cash?

[Troo]

20 minutes ago, DoctorDitko said:

giant versions of present players

 

A giant version of Troo invading Talos Island?!!

 

but red with horns, hooves, a tail and glowie pom poms. 

[Troo]

 

 

Why not populate one of the invasion events ala Brigg's Comic Con theme?

 

 

[twozerofoxtrot]

On 2/5/2023 at 5:41 AM, MHertz said:

AE costs money. The price can scale based on how popular (or how well-used) the map is, starting at 0 inf and going up to, say, 1M per activation of that map.

 

This is very easy to dodge. Dedicated farmers will just make new maps for themselves and dump it + reroll when it becomes "expensive." More tedious and will generate churn on the boards but it's still easily worked around. 

 

On 2/5/2023 at 5:41 AM, MHertz said:

• Using university resources (invention tables) costs tuition, maybe after level 20.

 

It already costs Inf to craft so I'm not sure what we're proposing here. Raising prices?

 

 

[Greycat]

50 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

This is very easy to dodge. Dedicated farmers will just make new maps for themselves and dump it + reroll when it becomes "expensive." More tedious and will generate churn on the boards but it's still easily worked around.

 

 

Pfft.

Farmer makes farm. File's saved on the local drive.

They publish the farm. Farm away on it. Unpublish when done. Rinse, repeat any time they log in to do some farming. Not really tedious, hitting "publish" takes all of a few seconds.

 

Edit: And the "popular" farms will be the ones with that file shared around so any farmer that wants it has their own copy to run at will. End result - no INF lost on the farms, AE arc numbers rocketing (new number every time one's published,) and non farm/story arcs launguishing.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Greycat
Followon thought.

[Rudra]

25 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

This is very easy to dodge. Dedicated farmers will just make new maps for themselves and dump it + reroll when it becomes "expensive." More tedious and will generate churn on the boards but it's still easily worked around. 

 

 

It already costs Inf to craft so I'm not sure what we're proposing here. Raising prices?

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Greycat said:

 

Pfft.

Farmer makes farm. File's saved on the local drive.

They publish the farm. Farm away on it. Unpublish when done. Rinse, repeat any time they log in to do some farming. Not really tedious, hitting "publish" takes all of a few seconds.

In the end leaving the only maps being paid for, and so even more ignored than they already are, are the non-farm arcs where players are actually trying to tell stories. Or causing players that actually make stories to just give up what little hope they ahve of anyone ever even trying their stories. Yep, nix this as an idea for an inf' sink.

[UltraAlt]

19 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Those days are gone, Homecoming power creep has trivialized giant monster encounters.

 

bah. I love a good Giant Monster bounty hunting team.

If the power creep is so bad, try not playing a level 50 and slot up with SO's and see if you get a challenge out of it or not.

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

If the power creep is so bad, try not playing a level 50 and slot up with SO's and see if you get a challenge out of it or not.

It doesn't matter how I'm slotted when there's an entire league taking their shots - the GM goes down in less than a minute. 

Homecoming power creep has trivialized GM encounters.

[UltraAlt]

2 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

It doesn't matter how I'm slotted when there's an entire league taking their shots - the GM goes down in less than a minute. 

Homecoming power creep has trivialized GM encounters.

 

Maybe try playing on a lower population server.

[PoptartsNinja]

53 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

It doesn't matter how I'm slotted when there's an entire league taking their shots - the GM goes down in less than a minute. 

Homecoming power creep has trivialized GM encounters.

Every giant monster in the game aside from Ukon Grai was implemented before Leagues. They were all designed to be fought by a team of 6-8 people and maybe one or two stray passers-by. Even the toughest one (Lusca) can be beaten by a single team.

If you've got an entire league bonking one, it'll go down fast. It's got very little to do with power creep and everything to do with sheer numbers. The only way to curb that would be to make giant monster HP and status resistance scale with the number of people in the zone, and while I know that's something the game can track I don't know of any mobs with dynamic max HP values. It might not be something the game can actually do.

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Maybe try playing on a lower population server.

You're really missing the point here.

[Captain Fabulous]

28 minutes ago, PoptartsNinja said:

Every giant monster in the game aside from Ukon Grai was implemented before Leagues. They were all designed to be fought by a team of 6-8 people and maybe one or two stray passers-by. Even the toughest one (Lusca) can be beaten by a single team.

If you've got an entire league bonking one, it'll go down fast. It's got very little to do with power creep and everything to do with sheer numbers. The only way to curb that would be to make giant monster HP and status resistance scale with the number of people in the zone, and while I know that's something the game can track I don't know of any mobs with dynamic max HP values. It might not be something the game can actually do.

All you would need to do is give GMs a scaling buff based upon the number of player entities within something like a 200 foot radius. The buff could be anything really (or even a combination of), +defense, +resistance, +HP, +regen, +damage, etc. Plenty of player powers do this, should be pretty easy giving it to GMs and adjusting as necessary.

Tho I'm sure people will find some way to game it. They always do.

[Doc_Scorpion]

30 minutes ago, PoptartsNinja said:

Every giant monster in the game aside from Ukon Grai was implemented before Leagues. They were all designed to be fought by a team of 6-8 people and maybe one or two stray passers-by. 

True, but we're not talking about when they were implemented, or what they were designed for.  We're talking about what happens on Homecoming today.
 

 

33 minutes ago, PoptartsNinja said:

If you've got an entire league bonking one, it'll go down fast. It's got very little to do with power creep and everything to do with sheer numbers.

Even before leagues were implemented, you'd almost always have multiple teams assaulting the GM.  We've always been capable of having sheer numbers dogpiling on a GM.  (And back in the OG days, we often did.)

Homecoming isn't the OG.  Teams assaulting a GM on Homecoming are far more likely to have a preponderance of 50's, and fully or at least heavily IOed toons.  GM's go down far, far, faster than they did in the OG.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

True, but we're not talking about when they were implemented, or what they were designed for.  We're talking about what happens on Homecoming today.
 

 

Even before leagues were implemented, you'd almost always have multiple teams assaulting the GM.  We've always been capable of having sheer numbers dogpiling on a GM.  (And back in the OG days, we often did.)

Homecoming isn't the OG.  Teams assaulting a GM on Homecoming are far more likely to have a preponderance of 50's, and fully or at least heavily IOed toons.  GM's go down far, far, faster than they did in the OG.

And a not insignificant portion of those 50s are fully slotted incarnates with passive debuffs such as -Max HP (which seems to be the favorite) triggering on all their attacks at a minimum.

 

I agree with @Doc_Scorpion. GMs have been getting easier and easier to deal with. Even back on Live. Once upon a time, GMs all had levels. Those levels were removed and GMs made the way they are now because players would hunt down and solo all the GMs. Which players are doing now. Sounds like it's time for GMs to get another buff to make them a threat again.

 

I am aware this has nothing to do with the OP. I apologize, but the thread has already derailed. Back on the OP? I am against "fun options" 1, 3, and 4. 1 because GMs are already plenty easy to trigger in zone as @Krimson said. 3 because when TFs that trigger zone invasions are the WST, I find street sweeping including as part of my current contact's arc to be more than tedious. And often, that is the only contact I have available on that character and that is the character I want to play on a contact I want to progress. 4 because of the hard limit of costume slots already being so easy to reach. I'm okay with 2 because it won't impact anyone outside the SG base, but it does require the devs to re-enable NPC movement in bases. And I have no idea how much work that would entail.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Rudra
Edited to add a missing apostrophe and space.

[Crossie]

Add a Casino to the game!

[Rudra]

8 minutes ago, Crossie said:

Add a Casino to the game!

We already have them. They're called Super Packs.

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

True, but we're not talking about when they were implemented, or what they were designed for.  We're talking about what happens on Homecoming today.
 

 

Even before leagues were implemented, you'd almost always have multiple teams assaulting the GM.  We've always been capable of having sheer numbers dogpiling on a GM.  (And back in the OG days, we often did.)

Homecoming isn't the OG.  Teams assaulting a GM on Homecoming are far more likely to have a preponderance of 50's, and fully or at least heavily IOed toons.  GM's go down far, far, faster than they did in the OG.

I blame @Krimson 😂

[Captain Fabulous]

16 minutes ago, Krimson said:

I've had the dogpilers get angry because I solo them. 

Hmmm, not sure if my main tank could take down a GM solo. I'm sure I'd survive, just not sure I could do enough damage. I'd need Daggers for sure. Don't often find one wandering around without people already wailing on it or announcing its presence. Unless you go to Monster Island or the Hive or something. But I feel like those are "lesser" GMs.

[UltraAlt]

5 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

You're really missing the point here.

 

Am I allowed to say it?

I don't think I'm allowed in these forums to say it.

 

I'm saying it as politely as I can.

You and others are clearly missing my point. I enjoy fighting giant monsters. I haven't experience the issue with level 50's ruining the fun that 1 (one) player has stated and you seem to be backing.

 

Avoid level 50's and the game can be a challenge. Your character doesn't have to be level 50. You don't have to team with level 50s.

At an rate, if I Giant monster is on-par with all characters then they should be able to stand on equal footing with these highly advanced level 50's. (Maybe the DEVs need to look into that)

Perhaps 50's need to be stripped of their incarnate powers when in a zone with a giant monster?

 

Level 50's shouldn't ruin the fun of Giant Monsters for other players.

That being said, I've seen level 50's go out of their way to ruin the fun of other players far too many times. The more populated the server, the more obnoxious level 50's I run into. These players join a team - not to team up-, but simply to show the rest of the players on the team that they don't need the rest of the team. That's my experience; your's may differ. 

 

Is their power-creep? Power-creep happens in any game where characters don't have a set group of skills, powers, move, etc. that never change (aka characters don't level-up). There is power-creep in the lower levels as well as in the end-game. I remember - long before the sunset - when I had characters that didn't have enough influence to fully slot even training enhances in the mid teen levels. Now I can slot SO's at very low levels (how low? I'm not sure if they go below level 5.) That itself is power-creep, but that doesn't ruin the fun of a good Giant monster battle.

 

I have played on many monster hunting teams. Sometimes the battles ended quicker than others, but none of them were simply the fight starts and the giant monster falls.

In the Winter Lord event, there was no super fast downing of the Winter Lord and his guardians. They were fun battles and these were leagues.

 

I think some players are so blinded and jaded by the end-game that that they don't realize that the game is from level 1-50. Level 50 is where the game end and the end-game begins. Stuff was tacked onto the end of the game to keep those players that only wanted to grind something to grind toward and for.

 

You don't have to have level 50's to fight giant monsters.

If there are too many high level 50's on a server that are ruining the fun of giant monster fighting, then there are lower population servers were you are less likely to see players exhibiting that behavior.

 

Fighting giant monsters is fun - at least for me - and I refuse to believe that fighting giant monsters isn't fun for other players as well.

 

 

Hopefully, I won't get in trouble with the GMs.

People can play how they want.

Players that ruin other players fun are no fun to play with.

[Captain Fabulous]

8 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Am I allowed to say it?

I don't think I'm allowed in these forums to say it.

 

I'm saying it as politely as I can.

You and others are clearly missing my point. I enjoy fighting giant monsters. I haven't experience the issue with level 50's ruining the fun that 1 (one) player has stated and you seem to be backing.

 

Avoid level 50's and the game can be a challenge. Your character doesn't have to be level 50. You don't have to team with level 50s.

At an rate, if I Giant monster is on-par with all characters then they should be able to stand on equal footing with these highly advanced level 50's. (Maybe the DEVs need to look into that)

Perhaps 50's need to be stripped of their incarnate powers when in a zone with a giant monster?

 

Level 50's shouldn't ruin the fun of Giant Monsters for other players.

That being said, I've seen level 50's go out of their way to ruin the fun of other players far too many times. The more populated the server, the more obnoxious level 50's I run into. These players join a team - not to team up-, but simply to show the rest of the players on the team that they don't need the rest of the team. That's my experience; your's may differ. 

 

Is their power-creep? Power-creep happens in any game where characters don't have a set group of skills, powers, move, etc. that never change (aka characters don't level-up). There is power-creep in the lower levels as well as in the end-game. I remember - long before the sunset - when I had characters that didn't have enough influence to fully slot even training enhances in the mid teen levels. Now I can slot SO's at very low levels (how low? I'm not sure if they go below level 5.) That itself is power-creep, but that doesn't ruin the fun of a good Giant monster battle.

 

I have played on many monster hunting teams. Sometimes the battles ended quicker than others, but none of them were simply the fight starts and the giant monster falls.

In the Winter Lord event, there was no super fast downing of the Winter Lord and his guardians. They were fun battles and these were leagues.

 

I think some players are so blinded and jaded by the end-game that that they don't realize that the game is from level 1-50. Level 50 is where the game end and the end-game begins. Stuff was tacked onto the end of the game to keep those players that only wanted to grind something to grind toward and for.

 

You don't have to have level 50's to fight giant monsters.

If there are too many high level 50's on a server that are ruining the fun of giant monster fighting, then there are lower population servers were you are less likely to see players exhibiting that behavior.

 

Fighting giant monsters is fun - at least for me - and I refuse to believe that fighting giant monsters isn't fun for other players as well.

 

 

Hopefully, I won't get in trouble with the GMs.

People can play how they want.

Players that ruin other players fun are no fun to play with.

While I don't disagree with any of your statements here, none of them were the point. If anything they only affirmed the assertion that was made -- that many GM encounters have been trivialized due to power creep. This doesn't mean all, or that they still can't be fun. Just means that they are often a lot easier to fight than they used to be, not because they've gotten weaker but because we have (collectively) gotten much stronger. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. YMMV.

[Yomo Kimyata]

4 hours ago, Krimson said:

I've had the dogpilers get angry because I solo them. 

 

I've always been curious -- how long does it generally take you?  I don't need or want an exact time.  1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour?  

[UltraAlt]

59 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

If anything they only affirmed the assertion that was made -- that many GM encounters have been trivialized due to power creep.

 

It's okay. You can be jaded. You don't need to understand.

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Captain Fabulous said:

While I don't disagree with any of your statements here, none of them were the point. If anything they only affirmed the assertion that was made -- that many GM encounters have been trivialized due to power creep. This doesn't mean all, or that they still can't be fun. Just means that they are often a lot easier to fight than they used to be, not because they've gotten weaker but because we have (collectively) gotten much stronger. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. YMMV.

 

GMs could be soloed in 2005 by a defender using pool melee attacks.  The difference between then and now isn't power creep, it's smarter and braver players recognizing that they were always trivial.

[UltraAlt]

I have to say, these forums make no sense some times.

 

"I like fighting giant monsters"

"It's no fun fighting giant monsters there is power creep"

"There are ways to avoid the power creep. I like fighting giant monsters"

"There is power creep. giant monsters are meaningless"

"I like fighting giant monsters. The teams that I run with fighting giant monsters are fun to game with and the monsters aren't going down fast"

"You don't understand."

"I think you don't understand. I like fighting giant monsters."

"You don't understand. You can't have fun fighting giant monsters because of power creep"

 

Seriously. That's the argument against me enjoying fighting giant monsters. That I can't enjoy it because of power creep.

Well, guess what, if you can't figure it out. If I enjoy doing it, then it is fun for me. If you don't like it, then you have no say in me enjoying it.

To continue telling me that I can't enjoy fighting giant monsters is jaded and self-centered based on your own opinions - and it has nothing to do with "the point" - which is "I enjoy fighting Giant Monsters."

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by UltraAlt

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

"It's no fun fighting giant monsters there is power creep"

Nobody said anything even remotely like that.
 

 

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

"You don't understand."

No, really, you don't understand.  Not one single person has said you can't or shouldn't be having fun fighting giant monsters.  Not one person has argued against you enjoying fighting giant monsters.  Not one single person has said anything that anyone could possibly construed as meaning that.  That's something created of whole cloth.
 

 

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

"the point" - which is "I enjoy fighting Giant Monsters."

That may have been your point.  But that's not the conversation the rest of us were having when you jumped back in.

[Greycat]

16 hours ago, PoptartsNinja said:

If you've got an entire league bonking one

 

... wow, some people see GMs *much* differently than I do...