Wealth redistribution system to help new players

[Intermipants]

Quick suggestion to help new players get up and running with influence - create a repository where veteran players can donate excess influence and any player can withdraw a certain limit of influence per day, perhaps a limit of 1 million per day.

 

Players who have been playing for years have billions in influence and have run out of things to spend it on and while it's nice to give new players ten million or so when you encounter them on an ad hoc basis, I think it would be even better to have a more systematic approach that could help everyone.

 

Quick edit, one other thought - to encourage donations maybe put badges in place for influence donated.

Edited Sunday at 05:10 PM by Intermipants

[Rudra]

How would you ensure only new players can access it?

[Intermipants]

I wouldn't.  I think any player could withdraw from the fund.  Veteran players with billions wouldn't need to and it would help anyone who's short of cash.

[MTeague]

Solution in search of a problem, I think.  I've found veteran players to be reasonably generous when new players are having trouble affording enhancements.  Now, yes, possibly there are some new players suffering in silence, without the gumption to speak up and ask for advice on how to get influence (Which then can easily get them an email donation...), but in all things, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. 

 

[EDIT:  that said, as long as we're talking a donation system and not some kind of tax, sure why not. I don't see any harm in it.]

Edited Sunday at 05:17 PM by MTeague

[Intermipants]

1 hour ago, MTeague said:

Solution in search of a problem, I think. 

My suggestion was mostly prompted by posts on here and Reddit where players bemoan a lack of funds or ask for advice on how to make influence, although perhaps you’re right maybe it’s just a very small minority of players who are in that boat. 
 

It’s also born a little bit out of frustration at the feeling that you can be sitting on a mountain of influence and can’t find an effective way to give it to people who need it more than you do.

 

I like your conclusion too - there’s no harm in setting something like this up (unless of course it’s difficult for the devs to do) and even if it only helps a few players that’s better than nothing. 
 

Thanks for commenting!

Edited Sunday at 06:25 PM by Intermipants

[El D]

The main hang up to making anything like this via a new system is that it makes a new system. It has to be designed, implemented, and then after that continually monitored and maintained. There's also no guarantee it'd even be used in the intended fashion. There's no requirement for veteran players to donate so there's no assurance of funds for new players to access in the first place, at least not without seeding the repository when first implemented like Wentworths was. There would also need to be monitoring for it, because if anyone could access the depository via any character, there's nothing stopping someone from continually raiding it on tons of alts and just hording the influence in their email. Or continually remaking the same level 1 alt to get another 'daily 1 million' every two/three minutes. There's also no guarantee the same amount of funds would be available on each server without direct dev maintenance, as some servers with lower populations might have far fewer donations. On the other end, the funds on larger servers might be depleted faster than they can be renewed.

 

There's a lot easier and more direct ways to solve the 'new players often have very little' issue. Have every new account get five dev global emails of 1 million influence to use at their leisure. Have the SCORE vendor offer a 'Claim 1 million inf' button with certain character amount/account restrictions. Have the game actively encourage new players to reach out and ask questions. Hell, do all of those. As other posts have said, CoH already has a ton of vets who happily drop millions onto newbies. This offers routes for new players to figure the game out on their own and encourages more interaction with the existing community without sacrificing one option for the other or leaving the available resources up to chance.

Edited Sunday at 07:31 PM by El D

[Luminara]

Seems like it would be about as useful as the guides they don't read, the farms they don't join and the players they don't ask for help, another resource they wouldn't access because they're unaware of it or have some aversion to using it.

[lemming]

I say. This redistribution of wealth thing is trickier than I thought.

[LightMaster]

Other than directly helping out newly created toons via donations, of which we don’t have to partake if we really don’t want, I don’t see much solution for this supposed problem. Plus donations can be exploited by creating multiple toons, so a limitation per player might be needed like a cooldown-on-creation.

 

Everlasting, the server I’m maining, have players that grant around 10 million inf or so for low level players. I also received 2 mil inf from a player during a SF in Exelscior, which helped me a lot for enhancements.

 

Otherwise, it is not a gigantic problem even for new players that don’t speak up, and even then, new players that stick around figure to make the most of the Auction House. That is how I got much better at managing enhancements, btw… back before I realize how easy it is to use once you understands the basic, I was stuck using Merits to directly buy SOs, and not convert them into Converters / Unslotters / whatyouwant then sell then to AH. Ever since, my Inf income got a lot more stable.

[Intermipants]

Thanks everyone for commenting, especially on the logistical problems which I hadn’t considered (not really my forte!)

 

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, lemming said:

I say. This redistribution of wealth thing is trickier than I thought.

— Dendis Moore

 

"Dendis Moore, Dendis Moore, riding through the land. 

Dendis Moore, Dendis Moore, without a merry band. 

He steals from the poor, and gives to the rich. 

Stupid bitch." 

[Rudra]

9 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

— Dendis Moore

 

"Dendis Moore, Dendis Moore, riding through the land. 

Dendis Moore, Dendis Moore, without a merry band. 

He steals from the poor, and gives to the rich. 

Stupid bitch." 

I never heard that before! I had to Google it to see what it was from! 😄

[TygerDarkstorm]

I'm sorry, but we should not just be handing out large amounts of influence to new players simply because they're new. Everyone should be learning how to generate influence on their own. 

 

Others have already touched on the fact that you're always going to have bad apples as well and that this sort of system would be set up to fail as someone will go in and snatch all the inf to horde it as opposed to it actually being spread around.

 

Teaching someone how to achieve something they want is often better than just handing it to them.

[DrRocket]

Getting influence in this game is almost trivial, there are guides in wiki, forums and Youtube on how to get wealth quick. Like just to the markers in Atlas, you get 1 merit, exchange the merit at the merit vendor for an enhancement booster and sell in AH, that will get yo started fast.

 

Regards

[macskull]

Prismatic Aether kind of already does this. It's only really good for cosmetic stuff so the players who are chasing them have the inf to throw away - and you can get them early on by running the WST or randomly from mission completions.

[SirArthurIV]

On 8/31/2025 at 9:43 PM, TygerDarkstorm said:

I'm sorry, but we should not just be handing out large amounts of influence to new players simply because they're new. Everyone should be learning how to generate influence on their own. 

 

Others have already touched on the fact that you're always going to have bad apples as well and that this sort of system would be set up to fail as someone will go in and snatch all the inf to horde it as opposed to it actually being spread around.

 

Teaching someone how to achieve something they want is often better than just handing it to them.

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

 

Also influence being, essentially destroyed once it reaches the top is good for the overall economy of the game. If every newbie had a way to access a billion inf even if it works as intended, it would drive up the prices of basically everything in the market and make influence worth even less than it already is. n00bs don't know how to spend their inf wisely, especially in a blind-auction economy.

[biostem]

There's nothing stopping YOU from taking a little time out of your play session to hang out in the starting area and giving a couple mil to a low level character that looks like they've put some effort into their character, (costume, bio, general good/earnest behavior, etc)...

[UltraAlt]

On 8/31/2025 at 1:07 PM, Intermipants said:

Quick suggestion to help new players get up and running with influence

 

Well, I think @Yomo Kimyata will still give some amount once to a @Global.

And at one point I seem to recall @GM Crumpet saying the same thing.

 

I wouldn't depend on it, but if you ask for help on the /help channel you sometimes get it.

I've been known to help someone out that asks in /help.

 

If you are trying to get enough loot to fully slot out a power-leveled/door-sitting main or alt,  ... well ... as far as I'm concerned ... you can forget about it.

[Oklahoman]

On occasion, I run a DFB and give a cash reward for participating, as well as several other things that happen during event. The barrier to me doing it more often if that it works best for me to email those rewards, and getting their global is a multi-step process. I've suggested before that you should be able to click on a character name and select "Email Global" and it will pop up with an email pre-addressed to the players global name. Maybe some day we'll get a feature like that.

[UltraAlt]

2 hours ago, SirArthurIV said:

If every newbie had a way to access a billion inf even if it works as intended, it would drive up the prices of basically everything in the market and make influence worth even less than it already is. n00bs don't know how to spend their inf wisely, especially in a blind-auction economy.

 

And, in that, you explain my marketing profits for the most part.

 

It got so bad before the Sunset that I was selling level 45 end reducers for 4 million a piece consistently across pretty much all of my characters (I had all slots on all the servers filled) when buying them on the market for 100k and not even bothering to craft them for cheaper because of the insane profit margin. And I'm sure that was due to new players not knowing what they were doing, getting inf from others or simply buying it from gold farmers.

[Snarky]

There does not need to be a complicated system.  Donate what you have in excess to @Snarky and I will distribute it across the players and economy.  Thanks for making a place Heroes can be heroic!

Edited Tuesday at 03:20 PM by Snarky

[Yomo Kimyata]

32 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Well, I think @Yomo Kimyata will still give some amount once to a @Global.

 

Discontinued.  Nothing personal everyone (and I still give out inf, but on my terms when it strikes me).

[ShardWarrior]

26 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

And I'm sure that was due to new players not knowing what they were doing, getting inf from others or simply buying it from gold farmers.

 

The idea of a "wealth distribution system" would lead to exactly that - gold farmers setting up shop.

 

On 8/31/2025 at 4:13 PM, Luminara said:

Seems like it would be about as useful as the guides they don't read, the farms they don't join and the players they don't ask for help, another resource they wouldn't access because they're unaware of it or have some aversion to using it.

 

^ Spot on

[Bionic_Flea]

18 hours ago, macskull said:

Prismatic Aether kind of already does this. It's only really good for cosmetic stuff so the players who are chasing them have the inf to throw away - and you can get them early on by running the WST or randomly from mission completions.

 

Not just Aethers but everything you can sell on the market is a wealth distribution system.  I have met so many players who just hoard stuff they aren't going to use, or vendor it (better than hoarding or throwing away), or even delete it.  Put your stuff up for sale!

 

Quote

Discontinued.  Nothing personal everyone (and I still give out inf, but on my terms when it strikes me).

 

Dang it!  Now I have YOMO FOMO.

Edited Tuesday at 03:56 PM by Bionic_Flea

[golstat2003]

48 minutes ago, Oklahoman said:

On occasion, I run a DFB and give a cash reward for participating, as well as several other things that happen during event. The barrier to me doing it more often if that it works best for me to email those rewards, and getting their global is a multi-step process. I've suggested before that you should be able to click on a character name and select "Email Global" and it will pop up with an email pre-addressed to the players global name. Maybe some day we'll get a feature like that.

 

A few other mmos have this as a feature already. I'm always surprised when I come back to COH and find that they have not implemented that feature here.