Inf Sink: Allow Gambling Martial Casino

I am reasonably sure that gambling fake money for fake prizes isn't yet illegal.

I think it would be better to gamble inf for prizes because that actually removes inf from the game. Whereas inf for inf just shuffles it around (minus the house's cut of course.)

Inf to play
Winnings in chips
Chips to merits or tickets or w/e
Merits / tickets to goods

AND / OR
perhaps similar to the current drop situation except that instead of killing a mob for a chance at a prize, you spend inf for a chance

Suggested prize: I'd drop millions on chances for unlockable costume pieces.

The possible combinations of methods and rewards are quite numerous.

possible rewards could include

enhancements (the full range from TOs & IOs to HOs and of course special TBAs)
recipes (the full range from TOs & IOs to HOs and of course special TBAs)
inspos
temp powers
costume pieces
emotes
unlockable missions / contacts
special titles


slots machines are a gimme -- relatively easy to set the percentages precisely

but I think some additional pvp gambling would be more attractive to the kinds of people who tend to accumulate inf in this game

Science vs Luck by Mark Twain

+1 /signed

I think this is an awesome idea. Waiting for the tf to start? Logging in a half hour before SG night begins? Getting a little weary of running newspaper missions? This is a perfect inf suck and time suck for the game.

Can anyone see the high roller room in Peregrine Island? "I'll see your 100M inf, and raise you an Armeggedon proc." *Tents Fingers*

First, I like the idea, and I think it would be fun to be able to bet on the Monkey Fight Club battles.

There may be some resistance to a casino, because I believe the official line is still that INF isn't just "money," so you can't necessarily drop it in a slot machine. (Easy enough to handwave away, though - a casino could give a hero a line of credit out of good will or forward a villain some free chips just to keep him from trashing the place.)

Should winning goodies from the casino be less efficient than buying them from vendors? Also, I think it might be a good idea not to put anything TOO good up as a prize just to keep another tool out of the hands of RMT farmers.

I've heard level 50 characters can earn a million INF/hour. Would the casino be set up so that they could blow that amount per hour as well?

The cruise ship setting would be fun, regardless. Imagine seeing Captain Mako in a tux, trying to do his best James Bond impression.

sign me up for betting on monkey fights. Slots are easy to code but meh

So recap this thread and do a little creative work:

Introduce a gambling mechanic. Multiple Variations are possible, none of them mutually exclusive:

* Slot Machines
* Bet on Arena Matches (variant: Bet on monkey cage fights in Pocket D)
* Various gambling games PvE/Single Player
* Various gambling games PvP/multiplayer

Locations:
* Golden Giza, St. Martial
* Monkey Fight Club, Pocket D
* Big Bucks Casino, Bloody Bay
* New Riverboat-Style Casino, Striga/Peregrine Island/Talos, etc.
* New Street Hustlers
* New offshore co-op zone (unlikely due to high development time, but we can dream)
* Unknown potential Praetorian locations

Key Concepts:
* Keep % return low enough that inf is drained and RMT don't farm it, but rewards good enough people want to use it a lot
* Minimize vendorable rewards to ensure it works as an inf sink, not an inf source
* Good rewards: Costume pieces, temp powers, emotes, titles, unlockable contacts/missions
* Standard rewards: Enhancements, recipes, insps

Ideas:
* Problem: Inf is not money in the dev eyes.
Solution: New game currency: Gambling Chips. Purchase from vendors, use in games and redeem to collect prizes. Yes, you can skip the game and go straight to buying prizes. No you cannot ever turn chips back into inf. Yes you can sell them on the market.
--> Advantages: potential for second-hand inf destruction as they are sold and resold on the market.
--> Immediate removal of Inf from circulation, delayed return of inf from selling/cashing in.
--> Solves problem of too few merits to buy a roll or a recipe on each of three characters.
--> Turns this problem into a plus, as some players/characters will purchase chips and never use them, and/or delete them.
--> Includes recent developer desire to allow direct choice (cash in inf for chips walk to store and turn in chips for reward, skipping the gambling but still destroying inf)
New Problem: If chips for recipe, that means sets buyable for direct inf, may not be an option the devs will accept.
--> Want to avoid having two new currencies, but could possibly let chips be turned into merits.

* Problem: Gambling is illegal
Solution: Only when real money is involved. Play gambling is not regulated, multiple online games do this already (Potco, Runescape, etc).

* Additional non-inf reward items:
--> Prestige
--> New Base Items (even new functionless art items is fine)
--> New Insps with random effect similar to winter event presents except instead of not knowing whether or not it will heal or buff, the amount of the heal or buff is what is random.
--> Ability to alter level of existing set recipe or enhancement
--> Temp Power Idea: Stacking charges instead of a fixed amount: cost to purchase additional charges goes up based on how many you already have. Combines functionality and convenience with additional Inf Destruction.
--> Temp Power Idea: access to variant already existing jet packs (pay card pack, goldbricker, jingle jet), access to "artless" flight as if from the fly power (for non-technology/natural origin characters who don't want a jet pack on their faerie or whatever), access to zero-g super jump pack and "artless" version thereof
--> Obligatory badge (like the AE badge for 1000 tickets)

A little more dressing and polishing and this may be ready for the suggestions forum.

I just wanted to run it by the market moguls and mavens 1st.

Thank you GR that's a very nice compilation you have done.

I like it too.

One thing I would want to mention is to Godpants. A million Inf an hour? Really. I would have to say something like ten million an hour is more like it. More if you farm.

Yeah, I was going to mention to Godpants that a million an hour is about the WORST you can do with a level 50. Like "Soloing a FF/elec defender before the 30% damage bonus" bad.

I still like the "Bet inf, win/lose inf" option. We could kill two birds with one stone- if you can hold 99 chips worth 100,000,000 each we've just raised the inf cap you can hold by 9.9 billion.

EDIT: if we're adding unique temp powers, how bout brief periods of stealth? I was originally thinking 15 minutes for 15 million inf, but that may be too obvious or too prone to short bursts (lasts too long). 10 charges of "2 minute stealth" (like what you get from a teleport stealth power) for 10 million?

Yep, the million/hour figure was something I pulled out of thin air and faulty memory, and it probably is close to the minimum earning rate of a level 50 character.

The random temp power or buff prize is also a good idea. Heck, there could even be vending or gambling machines dishing out copies of the empowerment station buffs.

I like this. I'd pay through the nose for some decent costume stuff. (like a robe) Plenty of good ideas here.

If the gambling is inf for inf then the only inf that's destroyed is the house's cut (and, of course w/e is lost).
If instead it's inf for stuff, then there's more inf destroyed per interaction.

Right, if the gambling house is supposed to be an INF sink, I believe it would function better if its prizes could not be sold or traded and if it could not generate INF or provide a method to store it.

If the game is roulette, for instance, you're going to lose 1/17 of what is bet, total. (I believe if you bet the same million 10 times, you lose on average 10/17 of it.) More if psychology and game theory play out the way they inevitably do. [Game theory: you don't HAVE to leave if you're winning, but you have to leave when you lose enough. The hardstop means the average person leaves poorer than expected. Beyond that you need Arcanaville-level math. ]

Will the people who play roulette be the same sort of people who get a lot of money in the game? I don't know.

But inf-in-inf-out can be a pretty darn efficient way of ripping money out of people's pockets.

**** the naysayers this is a great idea!! I especially like the idea of gambling for prestige.

Donna: Nice house. Is it all glass?