For those of you not familiar with expressions and haven't caught on, this is another thread about the relationship between CE and Crowns in Spiral Knights.
Everyone else has taken a swing at the issue, and I've read a whole lot of them. A few friends of mine, and myself, have recently started the game. We didn't start it right away when it came out on Steam, we were a little late to the party, back when CE was going for 4k or so. We were fine with this, we didn't make a lot of money, but one pop of 2.50$ got us out of Tier 1 and on our way with plenty of energy to spare. Then the price started going up, and all of the little things started eating away at us. This wonderful beat-em-up mmo hybrid turned on us right as the difficulty took a spike, and it's left a bad taste in our mouth. The thing is, we actually like the challenge, it's the constant, looming threat of energy that sets us off.
That's why we got together and looked over a hundred, million, bajillion, side-ways 8 threads to see what people had to say. After enough time, we came to a solution we thought the devs could agree on, one that would keep the game from going belly up without sacrificing OOO's profits, and yes, it will go belly up. The entire thing is geared towards an unfortunate end that involves only well geared players with no real need for crowns and oodles of CE stockpiled playing, which means no money for OOO, and a dead game shortly thereafter.
For convenience's sake, we've split this into a fairly simple and easy to understand 3 step plan that's elaborated on in each column.
Step 1: Advertise. This may seem like a no-no to those of you that aren't a fan of such things, but advertisement can be incredibly harmless if it's put in the right places. For example, using a gate could cause a window with an ad to pop up and show off a product while the elevator animation plays and the game loads. It's completely harmless, as you wouldn't really be using the time for anything anyway. What this does is gives OOO more money without tampering with the CE, which MUST happen first. The plan, no matter what it is, has to be tailored towards the best interests of the company, or they'll be a lot less likely to adopt anything close to it.
Step 2: Adjust energy costs in one of two places, or both, or offer an oft-suggested alternative. What I mean by this is; reduce the energy cost on using gates, reduce the energy cost on crafting, or make mist tanks purchasable for a sum of 2-3, or even 3.5k crowns. I pick this number as it is quite noob friendly. The mist tanks can be modified to only add 70-80 energy if necessary, the point is to make it possible for a player to get back into the action *while* making a profit. These things keep people happy and playing, which is good, because the more people that are happy and playing, the more potential profits from advertisements.
On top of this, I'd like to suggest that OOO implement a method of upgrading materials. It could be as simple as 10 of a 1 star item into a 2 star, with a crown fee based on the way that quality of item generally sells on the Auction House. This isn't necessary, but it added crown fees give this form of currency more value in other areas, which helps in creating the sinks that are desperately needed to keep them worth something.
Step 3: The most important step. Fluff. Yes, Fluff. This may confuse some of you, but it's really quite simple. On top of the obvious added content that will probably eventually lead to 6-star items, fluff objects need to be added that require large amounts of money and give a person a reason to want to have them. Repairing equipment is a good place to start, as it will exist beyond all other costs, and the price can be based on equipment quality. There should be more, less "hassley" types of crown sinks though, which is why I say Fluff. This could be as simple as "costume apparel" that can make your character look silly or extra awesome, or as elaborate as in game housing that you can show off to people. Step 1 and 2 only delay the inevitable without these things, as crowns will still eventually become worthless to more and more players. The reason why step 1 and 2 are step 1 and 2 is that we have more time, and this potentially keeps new players coming in and profits rising for OOO. The nice thing about step 1 and 2 is that they can basically be handled fairly quickly, although their implementation may not be the smoothest. That is irrelevant and can be polished later, though, as the major new influx of players are in desperate need of steps 1 and 2.
Added ideas for fluff in Step 3: Armor Dyes.
They don't make the crowns older players do, and as such, the game isn't free to play as advertised. As I speak, the price of CE is rising to a point where new players cannot break even. Sure, ME recharges, but there's a glaring issue there. It takes a long time. People want to play the game before them, not persist the way an npc does, but that's what it has become for many. They sit there, repeating content, but never actually getting anywhere unless it's the rechargeable ME that's being used. This scares them off, and F2P players will never, or buy very little, CE, which only further hurts OOO.
Now, as a quick recap, let's look at what the plan accomplishes:
Step 1: Advertise. Create new revenue so energy changes can happen without hurting OOO's profit.
Step 2: Make changes to energy costs. Several options are up, but the point of them is to decrease the costs on players and to keep them playing, which only further increases the effectiveness of Step 1 and makes them happier to play the game (and, as an afterthought, leads them to recommend it to others).
Step 3: Fluff, or in other words, Crown Sinks. Give those people with everything a reason to keep spending crowns on things other than CE, as vets buying CE at exorbitant prices makes things rougher for the new players that will eventually cause the game to become stagnant and halt growth. It also gives vets a real reason to keep playing (other than for the hope of content updates). As stated, the easiest and simplest way to start with this is repairs, but that isn't exactly "fun". It's simply a necessary evil that can be implemented quickly and gives crowns *some* sort of value outside of trading for CE. It's also easy to tweak based on a character's strength, and gives players a sort of reward for playing better than well enough to get by.
TL;DR - If you don't want to read it, it probably wouldn't interest you anyway. Move along.
To those that did read, even if you hate me and everything I've said, thank you for the time it took you to look over it. Comments and criticism wanted.
step 1. this sounds good
step 2. decreasing energy gate costs increases the about of crowns on has and ultimately increases inflation. same with crafting but that also causes players to reach endgame more rapidly than OOO can churn out content. u give any group of players an alternative to paying with real money to get energy they will jump all over it (currently using the crowns into energy) mist tanks would be exploited by the masses and ultimately will hurt OOO
step 3. this is a given we really need sinks for the massive influx of crowns that happens with every day