I think if the cost per elevator was changed to 12, and the party all contributed towards that 12 instead of each paying, it could reduce the CE strain on us while promoting group runs and things would still be balanced. If it's set at 12 that's 3 CE per person in a 4 person group. 4CE/per for a 3 person, 6CE for a duo, and 12CE for a solo.
Just a thought.
How about 10 for solo, 14 for duo, 18 for trio and 20 for a full party? That way the individual price goes down with each additional member.
I like that suggestion, with the 10-20 cost. I was actually just thinking about something like this earlier. It would certainly make people more likely to do runs in groups, I think.
Even a 10 18 24 28 system would work, where you pay 10, 9, 8, or 7 depending on how many players are in your group.
It wouldn't be a HUGE difference, but it would be enough to make the players who group a lot happy without damaging the soloers or having a huge impact on the energy economy.
you're right, that works even better. Hopefully if we can get enough people behind this it would be considered by the devs, I think it would make a huge difference.
I think the current price structure (pay the same regardless of group size) is perfect.
Smaller groups face higher energy costs when they have to revive for energy instead of having a teammate do it, so group play is already gently encouraged without the need to change elevator costs. Making it so people pay more for elevators with smaller parties will make people feel like they can't/shouldn't leave their friends before those friends are also done playing. Putting pressure of that sort on players can turn them off to the game over time as play becomes an obligation instead of pleasure. The current setup, on the other hand, encourages teamwork without punishing groups that don't all keep the same play schedule.
I would also like to price for elevators to go down when you're 2 or more people! It would really encourage players to play together.
Bump just in case there's more support out there.
I'm not in favor of increasing the energy for a single player run. Because stuff can happen and you can suddenly find yourself alone out of nowhere (people having to go, disconnections, and so on).
Say you're on a run as a duo. You have 10 energy left. You and your friend reach the end, well the friend decides to leave. Then you're SOL if you don't have CE.
So even though it won't create an even divisible by 3 method, I say go with everything you suggested but if you're alone, it maxes out at 10.
And with that said, I'm going to leave before others show up saying that this would make the game too easy or that it would ruin any incentive to play on future reduced energy weekends, and so on.