Spiral Knights - Purchase subscriptions to increase Mist regeneration

Purchase subscriptions to increase Mist regeneration

12 replies [Last post]

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 02:22

Vesuvius

Legacy Username

I've been confronted very often with this situation: I'm playing with 3 friends, and one of them decides to logout after getting to a terminal or Mooncroft. Not because he's not having fun, but because he's run out of mist energy and he's finding he's spending too much CE (bought with real money). I really breaks our group dynamic and can cause all of us to move to another game. This occasional party-pooping is what well-known magazines such as PC Gamer criticized in the game, and its driving even paying players away.

OOO should allow us to pay real $ to increase for one month the max amount of Mist Energy that can accumulate in 22h. Imaginary price: (Edit: see better examples below) pay 10$ and for one month you wake up every morning with 200 ME instead of 100. This privilege should not be purchasable with CE or crowns since that would be equivalent of giving it for free to players who farm the endgame - those can easily get enough CE for infinite playtime anyways.

The game as it is encourages you to play only a little every day to save on CE; with my proposed option people could pay to adjust the quantity of mist energy they get everyday to their typical play time. They get a better social experience since groups are less likely to disband for lack of ME. OOO still makes money. Everybody is happy.

I'm not an expert on the economy of this game, but I foresee people would buy less CE with both crowns and real money: supply and demand being both reduced, CE prices should behave pretty much in the same way as now. CE would still be necessary to craft high-level items beyond your max mist capacity, or to craft without waiting for the tank to refill. Finally CE would still be bought with real money as a source of easy, non-grindy crowns.

(FYI, searching yielded this thread about more or less the same topic, but it's ~3 weeks old and the emphasis wasn't on what I'd like to discuss.)

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For those too lazy to read the thread, my answer to the first 5 or so comments:
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I don't think the inflation fears are warranted, given that using more mist energy would reduce the demand for CE and therefore drive CE prices down. People would still buy CE with $ and sell it on the market when they want to make easy crowns (i.e. without griding), so supply wouldn't really change.

ME is definitely worth less than CE: can't trade or sell it, and it's not available all at once for crafting or working the market. Therefore you should get much more ME out of your investment into an ME booster than you'd get investing the same money into CE. I'd settle for 3 or 4 times more.

Some examples I actually thought out a little bit this time:
(Various other kinds of boosters could exist; only one can be equipped at a time)

Weekend ME booster
x10 ME regeneration for two days (your usual 100 ME tank fills up in 2,2 hrs instead of 22)
If you don't waste any by letting the tank get full (i.e. play day and night :P) that nets you 1800 additional ME over 2 days.
This would cost a bit over 5$ for equivalent CE
Proposed price: 1.25$ to 1.60$
Alternate price: 300 to 600 CE

Monthly ME booster
x2 regeneration for 30 days (your usual 100 ME tank fills up in 11 hours instead of 22)
Nets you 3000 additional ME over the month if you play everyday and don't waste any.
Would cost a bit under 10$ for equivalent CE.
Proposed price: 2.50$ to 3.33$
Alternate price: 750 to 1000 CE

I've dropped the idea of expanding the mist capacity as that looks like it would make crafting too easy/inexpensive for OOO's like. Those are just regen bonuses. I also put up alternate prices in CE, but I can't guarantee it's financially safe for OOO to let players get those boosters without spending real cash.

The whole idea is to give you the psychological benefit of not constantly spending your hard-earned CE on elevators and gates/robots/devices. A one-time payment and you're set for enjoying the game with less constant budget management.

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 04:54

Soulstaker

-1

..... I seriously think this will make SK worse.CE prices will be higher and there will be a huge crown inflation.It is totally unfair to free to play players too.what do you mean everyone is happy?

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 05:15

GoottiKustaa

Legacy Username

Well, what you describe is

Well, what you describe is practically the same as buying 3000 CE.
30 days/month x 100 ce / day = 3000 ce.
The cost of that is already on the same level as your proposed cost (IIRC 3500 ce costs around $12 at the moment).

With that pricing, I don't understand why you would not want to buy the ce over the mist booster, since the CE is also useable for crafting.

Also, there is plenty of playtime available once you get to t2. You should be able to make enough crowns to buy CE faster than you spend it, unless you have to use CE for reviving often (which I recommend, just don't do it).

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 05:32

Starlinvf

It wouldn't generate enough

It wouldn't generate enough ME to offset its own cost. +100ME for 30 days = 3000CE. The $10 package is worth 3500CE. If hes spending too much on CE, hes either blowing it all on crafting, or selling it to the market for quick cash. $3 gets you 75 elevator rides, or 3 full runs of the clock work, and gets cheaper as you buy in bulk.

Sub package would probably have to cost around $15 to cut the elevator cost in half in order to be worthwhile. But it has the side affect of inflation due to the resulting value shift in CE.

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 06:18

Soulstaker

CE is extra mist man...

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 22:31

Vesuvius

Legacy Username

better examples

Some examples I actually thought out a little bit this time:
(Various other kinds of boosters could exist; only one can be equipped at a time)

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 22:58

Vesuvius

Legacy Username

Bump. What do you guys think

Bump. What do you guys think about the revamped proposal?

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 00:34

GoottiKustaa

Legacy Username

I don't care much for just

I don't care much for just helping with "psychology" of the game when the system is perfectly viable now. Not a good idea to change crafting cost or the energy structure just because a few players somehow can't stop themselves from overspending CE. Just buy CE with a monthly budget and don't use it frivolously.

I just think that once you get to t2, you can easily make enough CE to do whatever you want, even if it takes some time. Adventuring time is practically endless. Just sell some materials to get extra credits.

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 01:22

Starlinvf

The weekend booster would

The weekend booster would land up wasting around 700ME since people tend to sleep at least 8 hours. With the monthly booster, you also end up wasting if you don't login at least twice a day... while not as severe, thats still money your not getting back.

However, given more thought, one possible niche to the expanded mist tank idea is to create a package that lets kids play more on the weekend/nights without directly giving them CE (so they don't just sell it). However the approach would need to be a 1 shot that overfills the tank, setting the budget for the day, and would also need to control how often to release ME to the player. This would potentially stop ME regeneration when the tank is overfilled, but fits perfectly into the "you can play for 2 hours then go to bed" mind set. If the tank is over 100 when they log off, it just holds the amount until next login, and stacks the next allotment on top of it if applicable.

Some examples would be:

After school playtime pack (1 week/1 month): +100ME added when the player logs in once per day (allotted daily at 7am EST)
Weekend Power play (1 month): +300ME added when player logs in once per day (allotted Sat/Sun morning at 7am EST)
School Break special (1 week/1 month): +250ME added when player logs in once per day (allotted daily at 7am EST)

Special rewards or mid week boosts would best be handled by purchasing regular CE.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 02:00

Vesuvius

Legacy Username

@GoottiKustaa: You're off to

@GoottiKustaa: You're off to a bad start by saying you don't care much about the game's psychology, as it's something all good game designers take into account. You don't like the word psychology? What about "maximizing the player's fun", that's what it's about.

Accelerating the ME regenerating for a CE or $ fee is hardly changing the crafting cost or energy structure, it's using an existing structure.

@Starlinvf: K, let's admit too much energy would be wasted, the prices just needs to be adjusted down then. (I don't get why people just look at the price and say "bad idea" if the only problem is the price itself... just propose what you think's a better one, duh.) Of course serious addicts to the game would get much more from a regen boost than regular player, which might not be a good thing I guess.

Your idea for kids is interesting, but it's hard for me to take that perspective since I don't have any :P.

But both for your kids idea and in general, I guess OOO could also just sell mist tanks either for $ or for a bit less CE than the 100 ME the tank gives you. Would work great for kids since mist tanks are bound to you and you can't sell them. Also there's no waste, contrary to the accelerated ME regen.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 02:14

#10

Melisan

joined 8/8/2011 ? all new

joined 8/8/2011 ? all new players seem to want to change the energy system. Once you realise you can make enough in a run to buy ce on the market i'm sure you'll stop moaning. Its not broken, its reasonably stable, play the game. Its hard at first with lower level armour etc. but then if you want something you have to work for it (if you don't pay real money that is). it took a week or so for me (using only mist energy) to be able to self perpetuate, but once you do its kind of easy.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 05:20

#11

Anisakis

A lot of us are long-time

A lot of us are long-time Steam players, and only made an account recently. I don't see what's wrong.

Sat, 08/13/2011 - 10:21

#12

Bigfootm

How about buying with CR?

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Purchase subscriptions to increase Mist regeneration