Power Amplifiers could become a major Influence dump if the Devs were willing
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-08-01 17:19 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Do you feel that there is a need to remove influence from the economy? I personally feel that the influence market is rather healthy as is-- particularly compared to another recently released game that use both GOLD and real money on its auction house. These boosts are better served as generators of revenue rather than used for the destruction of influence.
Don't see myself spending inf on this stuff. I don't even spend Paragon Points on the team insps so...
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While I would never spend paragon points on them, I would buy these all the time with inf. Inf flows like water in this game. I doubt it would ever happen, though.
Scooped by the devs?
0 for sale, so I guess they don't drop anywhere yet, but the recipes definitely exist (with salvage requirements and all!)
Items of this sort being for sale with inf for quite a large amount might help a bit to slow down the wild growth of inf in the game. There's so much inf floating around in the market that the amount gained from defeats/missions is nearly meaningless by comparison.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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I think that would be a great idea.
I treated my current main to a 8 hour Defense Amplifier to get through her 40's, and it made quite a difference.
An influence sink like this would be very welcome.
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Hmm I wonder if that is a bug or if that is intended? I never noticed that.
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Originally Posted by Codewalker
Scooped by the devs?
0 for sale, so I guess they don't drop anywhere yet, but the recipes definitely exist (with salvage requirements and all!) |
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Don't get your hopes up. Use to be able to buy an IO license for 200 merits but it only lasted about 2 weeks and was not wai. So apparently the devs code for things they never plan to implement. I wonder how a meeting like that would go.
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Originally Posted by Codewalker
Scooped by the devs?
0 for sale, so I guess they don't drop anywhere yet, but the recipes definitely exist (with salvage requirements and all!) |
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In that case, they had plans to implement it, but changed those plans before even reaching the beta stage, and it reached live only by accident. IIRC. This might be a similar case, but then it might not.|
Originally Posted by Lucky666
So apparently the devs code for things they never plan to implement.
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It wouldn't be the first time an upcoming feature was foreshadowed through the auction house, at least. See: Super inspirations, ATOs.
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That makes sense |
Originally Posted by Hopeling
In that case, they had plans to implement it, but changed those plans before even reaching the beta stage, and it reached live only by accident. IIRC. This might be a similar case, but then it might not.
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Why does the influence economy need help, its working just fine as it is. For every billionaire out there, there are 2 other players struggling to make ends meet to slot up.
If you play a lot of alts and like to slot them up then you will go through influence pretty quick. I would rather see these "vanity" buffs stay on the real cash market, and go on sale every now and again or show up in a future super pack. That way people who feel like they need them can help pay toward something new for me to play with.
Freedom Server - Main = Lil Bug & way too many alts to list
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WOW!! That's great news, great. I was very uneasy about these but if they are earnable in game, then my objection falls out.
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Originally Posted by Codewalker
Scooped by the devs?
0 for sale, so I guess they don't drop anywhere yet, but the recipes definitely exist (with salvage requirements and all!) |
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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It is possible they will simply allow you to buy them with real money and sell them on the market.|
Originally Posted by EvilGeko
WOW!! That's great news, great. I was very uneasy about these but if they are earnable in game, then my objection falls out.
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Does that count as earnable in game?
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
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No. But because of the potential to buy influence this way, I don't think they will. But who knows?
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Originally Posted by StratoNexus
It is possible they will simply allow you to buy them with real money and sell them on the market.
Does that count as earnable in game? |
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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Hmmm. I thought that might be viewed as a feature. Many other games seem to specifically add stuff to their real money market that can be sold to other players for in game for in-game currency (it may also be an incidental side-effect, but one they are well aware of). That seems to fall under the type of convenience item CoH has been willing to sell.|
Originally Posted by EvilGeko
No. But because of the potential to buy influence this way, I don't think they will. But who knows?
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Selling something on the market that can be bought by other players for in-game money doesn't seem out of line with how the ATOs exist.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
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Well see, buying anything through the auction house is not spending inf, it's trading it. I'm giving you the inf, and you're giving me the thing I want. But that inf doesn't leave the game... it just changes hands. So there is eight and a half years' worth of accumulated inf out there, flowing from one player to another like the tide. And when someone who has a lot of that inf decides they don't want to wait for something, they make a very high bid to ensure that they get it, or that they get it right away. These bids are out of proportion to what the average player is willing or able to pay, and it can lead to a chain of high bids made out of desperation. People looking at the market can never really see an item's long-term value, only the most recent five bids. This can make some folks think that those ridiculously high bids are the norm, which just puts people off from using the market at all.|
Originally Posted by monkey0707
Why does the influence economy need help, its working just fine as it is. For every billionaire out there, there are 2 other players struggling to make ends meet to slot up.
If you play a lot of alts and like to slot them up then you will go through influence pretty quick. I would rather see these "vanity" buffs stay on the real cash market, and go on sale every now and again or show up in a future super pack. That way people who feel like they need them can help pay toward something new for me to play with. |
Now, the market fees are spending inf, as well as buying things from vendors and the fees for crafting recipes. When you pay these costs, the inf doesn't go to a player, it just -poof- disappears from the game. What an inf sink would do is provide a way for even more of that existing inf to -poof- disappear from the game. This would give those impatient buyers less money to bid with, so they can't inflate the prices as high anymore. The more inf gets removed at a time, the better it works as a sink. And the more attractive the thing is you get from it, the more likely it is to get used.
I'm not sure what you mean by "vanity buffs" though... they may not be game-breakingly powerful, but they are definitely a boost. And as for them showing up in future super packs, amplifiers are already in the Rogues and Vigilantes set on beta. So unless something changes, that part's on the way
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The ATOs are the closest so far to this, but they aren't exactly a sure thing when you buy packs. Buy enough of them and you can, but it's not something you can depend on. If they allowed you to buy and trade amplifiers, you wouldn't be taking a risk, you buy amplifier, then you can sell it for influence. |
Originally Posted by StratoNexus
Hmmm. I thought that might be viewed as a feature. Many other games seem to specifically add stuff to their real money market that can be sold to other players for in game for in-game currency (it may also be an incidental side-effect, but one they are well aware of). That seems to fall under the type of convenience item CoH has been willing to sell.
Selling something on the market that can be bought by other players for in-game money doesn't seem out of line with how the ATOs exist. |
You're right, other games do allow this, so maybe they will. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
The people with the INF that needs to burn have enough INF to afford builds that wouldn't need Amplifiers.
I would thoroughly enjoy being able to unlock Invention System through paying Influence/Reward Merits.
The people sitting on trillion influence stockpiles probably aren't the type to piddle it away on boosts, unless the boosts end up letting them grind so hard that they actually make more Inf with the Amplifier on than it cost to buy the temporary boost.
A lot of the people with huge amounts of money haven't earned it via the inf that drops by mowing down mobs.
They've earned it via the IOs they've received, by using/playing the AH. A lot of the ones that know how to use the AH probably wouldn't think twice about dropping the kind of inf the OP mentioned, as they earn far more than that without doing anything (or to put it more accurately, spending a few minutes of time a week).
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Maybe it wouldn't be the best inf sink we could ever get, but I don't think it would be a bad one either. How much have people been willing to pay to get a 3% defense IO? 4 points of protection against just knockback? Set bonuses that give 4% damage buffs?
- The defense amp gives 5% defense, plus 4 points of protection against knockbacks and other mezzes, all in one, without taking up a slot.
- The offense amp gives almost half of the ToHit required for instasniping, two LotG Recharges worth of +Rech, and 15% damage, all in one, without taking up a slot.
- The survival amp gives 15% max HP, plus twice the regen & recov of the numina proc, all in one, without taking up a slot.
Is this game-breaking? Not by a longshot. But would it matter enough to min-maxers and folks wanting to level faster, for them to pay loads of inf to get it? Not a doubt in my mind, yes it would.
Edit: If nothing else, it'll carry you through until your bids fill or till you get the slots where you can put those full-time IOs.
Adding to what Kitsune said, as someone who's been sitting on 100B inf and loves rerolling, I'd definitely drop some of it on power amplifiers if I had the option to do so.
As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was buying the temp recovery buff, noticed these recipes alongside and was hoping I could buy one, only to be disappointed seeing 0 for sale. 
But what good would an Amplifier actually do you? It wouldn't boost your marketeering ability...
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Haven't even bothered to play the market in the last year. If they ever sell sarcasm amplifiers for inf, I promise I'll buy you the 8 hour one.
One of the issues in this game is that the economy does not have any major ways to destroy Influence or remove it from the economy. The auction house removes 10% for a successful sale, conversion of merits removes a few million, and same with the purchase of converters. I have been playing around with the Amplifiers from the market and I thought these could be a GREAT way to remove money from the economy.
One of the main complaints from people was that these amplifiers could not be earned in game. However, what if they were sold at 1 hour, 4 hour, and 8 hours in game? Other games do something similar where they sell flasks that last 1-4 hour duration and improve a character's hitpoints, damage, etc. They are mostly seen in the raid scene in the other games.
If amplifiers were sold in this game, they should be fairly expensive:
1 Hour = 35 million
4 Hour = 70 Million
8 Hour = 100 Million
Essentially, you could create a very interesting way to remove money from the economy.
Thoughts on this?