Cash sink idea - buying missing rares

[William Antrim]

I just had an idea come to me from reading the Test server patch thread. Bear with me here because this is literally hot off the press.

On the Test Server we have an NPC who sells us rare weapons for testing.

On the Retail Server we all have hundreds of rare parts in our collections but many of us have missing ones. We usually have 3 or 4/5 or 5/6 to most guns and thus we continue to farm our asses off to get the last part.

What if we could buy these parts from a vendor in the HQ of our faction (if we had 100 sympathy) and they were available for huge amounts of money?

Right off the bat I can see one negative - buying the rare parts needed would kill the trading economy.

Ok so we set this price at 1m NC+ and this alleviates the problem of people buying an entire set of whichever gun they want. I do not know anyone who will pay 6m for a gun they might get 0 slots on.

The rare trading economy is now protected. People can still farm and trade as they did before but the fabulously wealthy/stupid players can buy a set of parts if they want to for that exorbitant amount or they can continue as before - trading and selling their parts to collect the majority but perhaps finally succumbing and coughing up 1m creds to get that last part they needed to complete a weapon.

Positives would include - removing a huge surplus of cash from the economy whilst at the same time allowing for player to player SALES and TRADES (part for part).

No one part would ever be worth more than any other now (you would hope) as parts would instantly have a capped value of money (1m credits) and the vendors get to suck money from out of the economy.

I remember a post a while back from Trivaldi talking about worthwhile and viable cash sinks. This (in my mind) would provide that cash sink perfectly.

In terms of new players also - over the course of a runners life - even as a brand spanking new player to the game they will amass a small personal fortune in credits. It is tough not to in nc. This sort of system would aid those players (particularly the ones with less time to farm) with getting their first, second or subsequent rare weapon. It would probably encourage some of them to pvp more (with the adequate tools).

It would probably help ALL of us get our fucking Special Forces chips... (please note the SF chip is now called a fucking special forces chip because it is so fucking rare )

It would appeal to casual gamers as well as hardcore ones. It is akin to a pay to win system without actually charging real money!

Having lots of money would now be useful at times rather than a chore!

[Kane Gregory]

Sorry I don't agree with u.
Rareparts are not any longer rare if they are buyable (however expensive they are). Currently there are enough chars who farm rareparts and trades with them. Items which are rare should be as rare that not every person can instantly equipped with them. Okay maybe u have to equip a few weeks another chip or carry another weapon with u but I think this is the original idea behind rare chips and weapons.

[Brammers]

Sorry don't like it. You would kill off the THN Rares DB

Jokes aside, still don't like it. The main reason as you pointed out, it would kill the trading and make existing rares and parts worthless.

[eNTi]

remove mob cash drops, make rare parts not drop that damn often. there's a player in thn rares db with over 14k rare parts. wtf? rare are actually not that rare.

[Arista Barret]

remove mob cash drops, make rare parts not drop that damn often. there's a player in thn rares db with over 14k rare parts. wtf? rare are actually not that rare.

Dude, some people live on cash drops. Agreed on making rares more rare. 14k parts, you should be happy for him if he wasnt an LE exploited farmer. He is probably a clan rare pool collector. Certain parts are rare, others more common. This may sound odd coming from me but you have to consider other peoples play styles (PvP first, Le's are cheats)

[Castr0]

I don't like the idea either, it would mess the economy.

[PsiCorps]

I think they should just alter the rare drop algorithm.
I know they deny that 'some rare parts are rarer than others' but it's complete nonsense.

We all know that each weapon has an intended RARER part than others (sometimes two).
People can link Terra drop percentages all you like.

But I'll direct them to 200 rare profiles with 100 of one part, 2 of another.

[Dropout]

I actually likes the idea. That way people would be able to get their (VERY) needed SF implants and such.
But maybe a pricetag of 2mil or so, would be more suitable.

About all the negative comments: As long as rare implants and weapons are as important as they are (with the current balancing anyways), there should be better ways of getting those.


@PsiCorps: This would be ideal yeah. There is just no way in hell, that the current rare drops are completely random lol.

[eNTi]

if people will be able to buy rare parts, you'll have diablo 3's auction house all over. people will find the most effective way of farming money and just buy all parts instead of going hunting.

[Faid]

I don't like this idea so much.

This will essentially kill the tech part trade, even with a high price tag per part. People won't trade for the garbage parts that already flood the market. The only parts that will be bought from this system are the actual rare ones (tech of SF - ATP of CS) ect. which will of course make them no longer rare.

I do think that rare parts should actually be rare, but the main problem is the amount of pointless rare parts in the pool. Literally 90% of the rare parts are garbage.

[Eternal Pink]

I like this idea as I've been trying for a part now for two weeks and nobody wants to sell regardless of the NC I offer and nobody wants to trade me the part either.

Though another fix would be to make a lot of the rare weapons actually worth using since part of the difficulty when looking for trades is there's only a few items per category that people actually want to use (nobody has yet come rushing to me asking for my 5 HP's of summer leach for example).

[William Antrim]

I agree wholeheartedly with your second paragraph Eternal Pink.

********** Warning LONG POST *****************************

I knew that this thread would receive some criticism and you guys have made some valid points. However I can counter these points with a higher price tag in many respects. What if the parts were 5m each? Think about the process for a moment rather than instant dismissal.

We would need to assume that as Eternal Pink pointed out that in an ideal world many more weapons were viable than currently are. The balancing project (that has already started with the disruptor nerf) would be complete.

THN DB would not get killed as people would still farm for their rares because it would be a lot easier to come by a single unressed rare part than 5m credits. They would still store their ressed parts there as they would gamble that they could either trade their parts unressed for the one they want or have them ressed to get lucky and find the one they need.

The excess would then retain some value to someone as these weapons are now viable and working as intended. So therefore they would need a place to be stored.

So the runner in the example goes out and farms another 20 parts - he gets 2 or 3 of the ones he wants and he makes some cash in the meantime. With a huge cost he could actually choose the part he needs and help him complete his weapon much faster. This is only going to be a benefit to the player and therefore a benefit to the game.


Enti in order to counter that problem we would have to nerf the shit out of the El Farid cash drops from mobs. This however I am sure could be done. We would have to stop the tronik parts selling for so much money too I think (or make other alternatives available dropping from every mob and use this as the most effective get rich quick method which can be tracked).

Psicorps they have said that the rare drop is ok as it is. Some people who know more about maths than I do have said it is random. I am in the same thoughts as you - there are parts that ARE rarer but I guess we have no access behind the scenes.

Faid people wont trade for the garbage parts anyway because theyre shit weapons. That will not be affected by these changes. For that to happen, you would need as Eternal Pink suggested, to make more weapons viable. That will come in the balancing project.


I ask all of you in this thread - why should rare parts be rare? What benefit is there to anyone?

The Le'd crowd will need to farm even more for their weapons as opposed to being able to complete a few that much earlier (and therefore more chance to get the uber 5 slotters! I can only assume that this is the endgame for the Le'd) and the non-le'd crowd can get more all arti guns to wage war on the rest of the server.

If you make rare weapons more rare it just means more grinding for the same thing endlessly, more disappointment in another batch of parts and building more weapons that you dont want. This leads to more disappointment, more boredom and eventually the move to find other more exciting things to do, like other games.

Having the chance to complete more guns sooner however gives the short term goals and good feeling of a quick win (albeit with a 5m nc price tag) and a shot at getting that 5 slot weapon sooner. It also places a clearly defined, measurable and achievable goal to the farming. E.g

"Ok tonight I farmed for 5 hours and yeah I got 3 or 4 of my 5 parts I need for X gun but I also made 500k towards the 5m nc I need to get that last part".

So this guy now has a choice. He can farm more rares for the next week hoping to get that last part or he can farm another 4.5m (pretty easily doable in a few days really) and then he can have a go at building that weapon.

It doesnt matter which crowd he belongs to (le'd or not) he achieves the same goal and receives the same reward.

It is rewards that keep people playing MMO's - not the grind.

[netster]

On Monday someone wanted to buy the CS rarest tech for 15mil, so where is the point on rare and extreme rare. There should be some jokertechs

[Doc Holliday]

I love how people are have dictionaries stuck up their asses. This is why the devs should, at times, blatantly ignore some of the stuff that people post on these forums.

Rares. Its a word. No "Rare" is that rare. It never has been. Its been a term coined to signify the next tier of weaponry after what can be be bought from a vendor and then woc is the third tier.

When some of you get that thought in to your heads then you are more easily able to discuss what is essentially a decent idea.

Cash sinks work. It would probably also clean up some of the database as peoples 5 unassembled sets find that sixth set and then get turned in to that amazing 0 slot weapon that gets vended at yo's.

It would be a form of gambling almost.

Now. For you close minded fools who say oh no it will kill the rare collecting economy. I stand here and say no it will not. Categorically state NO it will not. Im sorry but the majority of this community that actively play the game dont do it for pvp anymore. Thats evident by the amount of LE threads, LE bashing and general dissent towards the LE.

The obvious logical progression of this is that if people keep said chip in then it aint pvp they are doing. Its PVE. Which involves rare collecting. Farming for parts. Some people (myself included) actually enjoyed doing this and seeing what i had collected when i got a decent amount. I always enjoyed ressing my own techs as it was like a sub game and gave as much fun sometimes as dropping someone in an opfight and infinitely more relaxing. Humans by nature are hunter gatherers and this is an extension of that. As mentioned the amount of people in this game who do solely pve would still keep the rare economy afloat.

Secondly the knock on effect is that cash would become more rare again and people would save to accumulate cash in order to be able to afford the guns etc. 2m-3m etc for a part would be interesting. The most rare ones could have an algorithm tied to it to heighten the price as demand is heightened even. (suggestion purely) this reflects the concept of demand pulling up the price. like a real economy. Conversely you could have parts that arent bought so often fall in price over time. Fluctuating prices. could be polled on a weekly basis. again just a thought.

Besides. if your going out to try and make a load of money and level your char why would you not go hunting tech parts if you could. If your aiming for leveling and making some money to buy the parts and you are not a braindead moron you are going to double down and hunt tech part dropping mobs or am i the one whose the braindead moron.

seriously i read all the naysayers and i wish you would just actually think a little bit deeper about whats good for this game rather than coming up with short sighted denials or dissuasion of what is a perfectly good idea.

[eNTi]

blizzard thought the auction house was a good idea, because since people are hunters and gatherers they will go and hunt instead of collecting cash from vase drops, right? wrong... and that should make clear why this is not a good idea. it would simply make some rare parts, that are actually meant to be rarer than others, easily obtainable. this on the other hand would flood the market with an influx of cheap high end weapons. already rarely used weapons would never see any form of usage any more. this would make the current balancing issues even worse.