Some inf sink ideas would be nice, but what do you tell the people who BOUGHT the costumes and other packs, now who not only have enough inf to buy these packs, but are disgruntled over not having the opportunity.
I know I would be horrendously POed if I was told that I could purchase the Cyborg, Magic, or Valkyrie pack with just influence, no matter how much the cost. I'd demand my money back for the packs, since it's just not fair that others have the opportunity to NOT spend real currency on them.
As for 'endorsing construction'? I'd rather see a them work with what zones they've got, especially since Issue 14 made a LOT of zones almost completely obsolete.
Not the current costume packs, Siggy.
New ones. Different and just as neat. Heck even sell single costume pieces.
Like a hat pack which lets you use different hair under it. Or a new set of capes, auras, etc.
Not the Micro-payment packs. New stuff AFTER the Origin Packs are done
-Rachel-
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Not the current costume packs, Siggy.
New ones. Different and just as neat. Heck even sell single costume pieces.
Like a hat pack which lets you use different hair under it. Or a new set of capes, auras, etc.
Not the Micro-payment packs. New stuff AFTER the Origin Packs are done
-Rachel-
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Again, even if it's future packs, I like them as booster packs. Don't get me wrong, I'm as broke as they come, but it's like an opportunity to support the devs, especially since they've already said that the influx of additional income REALLY helps the development process move along, and makes things a bit more stable over at NCSoft.
I'm totally behind the idea of more inf-sinks in the game. Maybe not these particular ones (though the base-adds sound nice), but more ways to drain inf out of the system would be a boon, in my opinion.
But, I'm also going to have to partially agree with Sig: I really like the idea of the booster packs (non-essential fluff that supports the dev team), and I'm not really sure I'd want to cut back on that with other stuff available with just an inf-sink (though I certainly wouldn't object - I am a fashion [censored], after all).
The only problems I can see with ANY White Elephant is that
A) Making them good enough to keep attention for weeks or months on end.
B) Making them useful without leading to easier gameplay (more farming, more money, inf sink becomes 'required')
So the only thing I can really see being USED for a White Elephant is Fluff that's nice to have but not -needed-.
-Rachel-
Well, to make them truly inf sinks, the price would need to be prohibitively high. Personally, I think that it would make more sense to have them as in-game single character benefits rather than costume options.
Examples could be paying 100 million inf to expand your Vault size by 10, increases the number of slots for Wentworths, and another costume slot. None of them actually affect the game in any appreciable way. All they do is provide the super wealthy with a way to dump some of their super wealth for an invisible benefit (at least, it's invisible to everyone else).
QR
A true White Elephant wouldn't confer any benefits. The term originates from Southeast Asia where a monarch would grant a white elephant as a gift - a great sign of honor from the monarch, but since the animal was sacred you couldn't do anything with it except pay for its care.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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QR
A true White Elephant wouldn't confer any benefits. The term originates from Southeast Asia where a monarch would grant a white elephant as a gift - a great sign of honor from the monarch, but since the animal was sacred you couldn't do anything with it except pay for its care.
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I think the intention of the OP was to have the devs create some interesting functions in the game that had hefty upkeep costs associated with them. I doubt they'd really be popular except with the marketeers who are actively looking for ways to spend their money.
A better term to use for the discussion would be the term "inf sink", which has already been used for a decent portion of this discussion anyway. I do strongly believe that the game needs some, if not only to slow down the continual inflation of the market, but also to provide things to spend money on aside from costume changes and more enhancements.
No, it's...
Okay, so, when you extract a term from its original context and use it metaphorically, it can embrace a wider spectrum of meaning than it did originally. It's like if you were to call something "like Pokemon," even if in fact you it was a game about collecting dresses and having dress competitions rather than collecting pocket monsters and breeding them.
Anyway, on the subject:
Sure, whatever. While I'm dubious about the long-term benefit of any kind of inf sink, it can't really hurt anything unless it's done with spectacular stupidity or misfortune.
The issue is that adding whatever it is that's added for this stuff is still work, and so saying, "Add a whole bunch of new hat/hair options to the game and a barber shop!" isn't going to get in any faster even if the preface is, "We need inf sinks, so..."
But hey, as long as we're wishlisting... my vote for "white elephant"? New craftable decorative base items. Maybe even new craftable base themes. *fingers crossed for I15, a "content issue."*
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QR
A true White Elephant wouldn't confer any benefits. The term originates from Southeast Asia where a monarch would grant a white elephant as a gift - a great sign of honor from the monarch, but since the animal was sacred you couldn't do anything with it except pay for its care.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think the intention of the OP was to have the devs create some interesting functions in the game that had hefty upkeep costs associated with them. I doubt they'd really be popular except with the marketeers who are actively looking for ways to spend their money.
A better term to use for the discussion would be the term "inf sink", which has already been used for a decent portion of this discussion anyway. I do strongly believe that the game needs some, if not only to slow down the continual inflation of the market, but also to provide things to spend money on aside from costume changes and more enhancements.
[/ QUOTE ]I merely skimmed while my code was compiling. I agree that money sink is a far better term than white elephant for what's being suggested. Though I'm sure there's more than a few IO enthusiasts that would argue we have enough money sinks already 
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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Though I'm sure there's more than a few IO enthusiasts that would argue we have enough money sinks already
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IOs work as a decent enough Inf sink for when builds are changed, whether by tweaking numbers or altering/adding IOs, which doesn't really happen all that often. The point of inf sinks generally not to give everyone something fancy, nice, but mostly pointless for a crazy huge price. It's to give those people that already have everything they want on that one character something fancy, nice, but mostly pointless for a crazy huge price.
(Also, the big problem with white elephants was that you couldn't have them do any work because they were sacred. All elephants had incredibly high upkeep costs, but non-sacred elephants were more than capable of making up for their costs by being able to do incredible amounts of work. The only thing you could do with a white elephant was to give it to someone else that you thought deserved the dubious honor, generally after a period of expensive waiting. This semi-vindictive regifting is the reason why some families have White Elephant Christmas traditions. At least, that's how I've always had it explained to me.)
[QR]
Wait, your other thread complains that the market prices are too high and restrictive.
Now you're asking for something to dump your money into that may or may not have any sort of function/benefit?
....My brain broke trying to think of how to word that accurately, and I still failed....
The problem underlying everything I've talked about recently is the amount of influence/infamy flooding the system.
By flooding the market with a pile of low-cost salvage and recipes the Devs would be removing the influence used to purchase them. It would be gone. For good. out of the system forever.
Same thing here. It's a way to get rid of in game currency.
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I'm sick and tired of this. I've got 5 people sending me PMs over how the farming situation isn't contributing to inflation, how inflation has nothing to do with the amount of money in the system, that the money entering the system is totally stable, just like the amount of recipes...
I'm sick of it.
Someone who will remain nameless sent me a PM about the market price fluctuations and we got into it over the casual gamer versus the hardcore gamer... So here's a nice money sink.
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This is the preamble to the other thread. Emphasis (and original post) mine.
-Rachel-
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Now you're asking for something to dump your money into that may or may not have any sort of function/benefit?
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No, she's asking for something that is, ideally, *extremely expensive* for people in general to dump their money into that has no benefit whatsoever.
If you've ever had that feeling that you're not getting a joke everyone else is in on, are you having it now? Because it's not a joke, but the principle's the same.
That's not totally true, Jack.
I'd be okay with something minor, like a Base transporter that would work like the Mac Edition Mission porter. Something that doesn't give a numerical advantage in combat but might make things easier.
I'd LOVE Craftable Base items that are non-functional but awesome. I'd really enjoy having a ton of new costume options that require influence to get initially.
Ooo! How about Day-passes to the Ski Lodge in the D? =-3
-Rachel-
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Would they work in this game?
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Five years ago, before there was a market, before the MA was added, before players had years to grind out up to two billion inf* per character, before there was base storage which could be used to stockpile more inf* in the form of enhancements, yes, it would've worked.
Now, no. Too much already stashed away and too easy to get more.
Would they work in this game? Special items that are put into the base which cost a certain amount of inf to maintain? So long as they don't cause people's power levels to go out of whack I don't see why not?
How about a Base Teleporter that is functionally identical to the Mac Edition Mission Teleporter... But it costs influence to buy, influence to build, and prestige to place. And then each use of the thing takes a certain amount of influence scaled to player level.
How about the Devs opening up a poll based on inf for new zones. Want your name on a specific street, building, or part of the zone? Suggest it and put down an Inf donation. In game it would be superheroes (or villains) endorsing the construction (or intimidating the builders into putting a name THEY like on it)
Have the poll last 2-3 weeks with a running tally on the amount of inf put on each idea. Any amount put into the poll is gone. Even if you don't win you don't get it back.
Either have it do a lottery on the winer or a straight tally for highest total. Or the Devs can take the top 3-5 and pick one so we don't wind up with BeZZleBuB's B00B tOwEr.
How about selling costume packs IN GAME on a per-character basis with exorbitant prices on them?
just some Inf Sink ideas...
-Rachel-