The case for apartments; a way to combat inflation

Let's face it; this game's inflation rate is increasing at an extreme rate. With cash a common commodity and skyrocketing prices a solution will have to be made or the prices will get to the point where those who wish to "play the market" have the largest amount of money, and casual players are left in the dust.

This is not an attack on marketeers; i profit greatly from the market and it's a good thing that rare things are more expensive, but the problem I wish to combat is inflation.

People have been wanting player-based homes or a "secret hideout" for a while. This request was answered in the form of bases, allowing supergroups to meet, have teleporters, ouro crystals, etc. Very nice places.


So why am I suggesting apartments?


I think that this would be an extremely signifigant way to sink the tar out of the inf pile that's been building up and is beginning to raise questions of raising the inf cap as well as other solutions.

The idea is that the "personal home" or apartment or whatever you'd call it is fully designable, much like a base, you can have all sorts of decorations, but you should also have it be a place that one can show off their personal acheivements, souveniers, hell have it be a way to "hang up your suits" or whatever.

Each of these things would drain INFLUENCE as opposed to bases, who use prestige.

To make it an even bigger drain, have each person able to have up to 3 of these places, have them not just be a portal, but a tangible location, you can "rent" out the various places throughout zones (note, other people can rent out these places too, so it's not just one person buying all the spaces) You go through the door and there's your apartment, personal lair, etc.

You can have them have a theme which each zone (Have the PI one have a portal for example)

So overall, im kinda suggesting this more as a way to burn influence than just a "neato thing"


Also another idea, make bases require you to convert inf into prestige, have a "Fee" for each character that the leader sets (30% of inf gained goes to group 40% etc)

I wouldn't mind getting apartments but I don't think they would work as a way to combat inflation, for various reasons.

As a way to combat inflation I'd introduce something like a lottery instead. It would basically be a way to create salvage or recipes without also creating influence but rather by destroying influence. A character could go to a special contact or vending machine or casino or whatever we would call it, and by spending influence have a chance to win "stuff".

The "stuff" could be special IO recipes that would only be available through the lottery, the equally special salvage that would be necessary to use these recipes, and so on. The enhancements these recipes would make would of course have to be attractive enough to make people want to play the lottery. The chance to win any of these special prizes would have to be low enough to make people destroy vast amounts of influence in the process.

Instead of a mere lottery we could make these things appear like robbing other dimensions of their natural resources, strip mining the moon, merciless exploitation of the Third World, demon-summoning for fun and profit, or similar activities that ultra-rich super-people might want to invest in. Basically anything that would let a player put up a large amount of influence for the chance of winning something unique.

The key element to remember is that in order for this to combat inflation it must destroy Influence while creating loot. The existing system creates loot but it also creates enormous amounts of Influence at the same time. If we could only create one or the other we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

While I love the idea of apartments, I don't think it would do a damn thing for market inflation or the Inf problems. Most of the people who farm and spend tons on IOs because they can, wouldn't stop for a second to make apartments for themselves.

In the end, making it a large INF sink would just bum out the people who are already feeling stretched (the ones that don't farm and don't play the market).

Hint for Future posts: It doesn't pay to suggest a big system addition to "solve" another problem. Propose the thing you want, explain why you want it, but don't try to make it the cure to cancer.

Open up Golden Giza's casino See if you can beat Johnny 'The Pipes' Sonata at his own game.

/Signed for apartments, though not sure if they would work as an inf sink.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I'm all for the idea. Sounds like fun. /signed

If you were to draw a Venn diagram, I suspect that the intersection of the "People who make billions playing the market" and "People who want apartments" would be rather small. Most of the first group would rather sink their profits into small but tangible increases in their powers (or plow them back into the market) than indulge in "useless", cosmetic RP frippery.

I'm all for apartments but not for the reason you proposed.

I wish we had Secret Bases instead of SG Bases.

I doubt they'd do anything to be a moneysink. To make a real a moneysink Posi is going to have to sit down with Castle and be like, "ok, we'll sell a level 50 character a new Enhancement slot for 1 billion influence" or "OK, Invention Enhancements need to have a Durability mechanic implemented to become an Inf sink, even though classically everyone subjected to durability has hated durability, because it's designed to be a moneysink".

There's just ridiculous lumps of money floating around in CoX and there's never been any real drainage besides...I dunno, Costume Contests.

Reason that it would cause an inf sink is that you basically pay upkeep on it, and you have to pay more the more you have.

This works in other games where player housing is more free-based and everyones house actually takes up-in game space. I just think that they should be there 1. for the coolness.
and 2. As a way to drop the amount of inf.

The apartments would be great. But costing inf.? It would have to be a very low amount because most people spend inf. on inspirations and such. That's probably why they made prestige.
No upkeep and make it pretty cheap and it might work.

Great Idea

As said, this won't combat inflation. The people who have the huge piles of money aren't likely to bother spending much on their apartments unless they get real mechanical benefits from them.

Making apartments cost large amounts of Inf is a terrible idea. To be a viable inf sink, everything would have to be priced far beyond what the average player can afford, while the rich would just farm and marketeer even more to make the money to customise them, if they even cared.

This would anger far more players than it would satisfy.