I came across an idea that I thought I'd throw out and see what folks thought...
After playing for a few days, I came to realize that I always had a couple of energy points left over in my mist tank; not enough to do anything with (less than 10 points, and most times 2-3), but enough that I felt like the points were wasted if I was 'done for the day' anyway.
Here's my idea:
Have a second energy storage bank that you can put unused ME into. Have it be NOT able to trade from, only use yourself. Have it be capped at, say, 300 units.
Since I'm not hovering over the game waiting for my tank to refill, the only thing that the 'left-over' points in the mist tank are really doing is making the recharge time a bit less (maybe by an hour or so) for the next day. If I'm already done for the day, then I'd like to be able to have those couple of extra points the next day for that one revive, or e-gate, or something.
Or, I can save those points up to the cap for crafting that lvl5 recipe if, say, I just got the last material piece I needed while crawling, and don't have any CE or enough crown to buy 300 units of CE to do the crafting.
I know that there are probably ways to abuse this, and I know that it would cut into the CE market, but with the energy in it being not sell-able and capped, I think it would work.
What do you think?
-Ma3a
This has been suggested in a different way....paying CE to increase the capacity of the ME tank. I honestly (as an economics/business guy) cannot see how that can be effectively done for both players and 3R profits. Having 2-3 points left over for today isn't wasted until you're away for roughly at least 20 hours, putting you almost in the same boat as the "casual player."
In order for 3R to not lose profit in this idea, you would get a temporary increase in ME equal to the CE you spend (so spending 300 CE to get +300 ME temporary). When you use ANY energy in the temporary tank, the temp tank will decrease in capacity until it's all used up. This amounts to the exact same thing as you not having the temp tank to begin with....here's an example:
you have 100 energy, you use 97, giving you 3 left. You spend 300 CE to get +300 TME capacity (you still have 3/400 ME). 24 hours later, you get +100 making it 103/400 ME. You use 103 energy, bring you to 0/397 ME.
Compare that to:
you have 100 energy and 300 CE, you use 97, giving you 3 ME left. 24 hours later, you get +100 but max out at 100/100 ME. You use 103 energy, which means you are now at 297 CE and 0 ME.
It amounts to the same thing. If 3R were to do something different than this, they would suffer in profits, and players would still complain that they want more. Call me capitalist, but 3R comes first in my opinion....if they don't make enough to support the game, then we don't have a game to play, that simple.