Now I'm a new user so I don't buy CE yet so this is probably less of a problem to more experianced users, but I just waited to get ten energy only to join a party at a subtown, so my ten energy got me no heat, money, or drops, just one room of minerals. This has only happened to me twice, but joining a party in a subtown is really annoying as you get next to nothing for your ten energy, which means you either have to wait another two and a half hours to play again, or you just wasted around 400 crowns. Not a major issue, but I'd appreciate not wasting more energy to get four minerals which get you maybe a 100 crowns.
Don't Join in Subtowns
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 15:26
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 18:49
#2
/signed
This happened to me for the first time today, I did the Tier 2 Join Existing Party only to end up in the subtown. Made me sad to have 10 energy disappear like that. On top of which, Basil lacked a single 4* recipe.
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 19:05
#3
Part of the issue is that the
Part of the issue is that the subtowns do have rewards (so making them free isn't a no-brainer), but they're totally different from normal level rewards. I actually had the opposite situation the other day. I was going to join my running buddy right after the subtown to conserve energy, but Basil had a recipe we wanted so I spent the energy to go get it. Usually, subtowns are worth far less than normal levels and joining in them is a mistake; in my case, it was worth more to me and my energy was well-spent.
I would say it should be free. I would guess that the first case is a much more common issue, and the bad feeling it causes is a bigger issue than the minor imbalance of occasional free recipe access and minerals. The minerals aren't worth abusing, and 10 energy isn't that much for the rare case like mine.
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 20:31
#4
Honestly, they should just
Honestly, they should just remove the ability to join in sub-towns period. Then we can get rid of the people selling access to vendors with certain recipes. Folks will have to actually have the cash to buy the recipes for themselves and then take the time to sell them on the market afterward.
EDIT: Actually I realize this won't completely remove the problem, it would just lead to those people having "buyers" mail them the cash to buy the recipe and send it back out...
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 21:42
#5
@xienwolf
Even that would be better than selling teleports to subtown. I saw someone selling invites for 5k today. Basically inviting people to subtowns for 125 CE (in the currency us struggling players flounder). I'd say that is getting close to excessive manipulation of the system in the wrong direction. Although, i'm sure i'd do it too.
I'll go 1 step further. IMO (even though it will inconvenience myself in the near future) either OOO and OOO only should directly sell visits to the subtown, or it should be disabled entirely.
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 22:08
#6
um isn't this really supposed
um isn't this really supposed to be about clockworks terminals, not subtowns... just a technicality...
anyway, it's a sacrifice you make when you press "join party" however, you forget that you gain several things. AscendantOat already mentioned the obvious recipe chance thing, but there's also the fact that you skipped 4 of the less profitable levels of a tier if you were lucky enough to appear there. You can skip to the "good" stuff faster. You paid 20 energy to skip four levels that probably weren't very profitable (as is the standard for the first half of any tier). To be honest, it's only really bad when you do end up at an actual subtown (Moorcraft/Emberlight) since THAT is a waste of crowns (not energy if you leave before going down a level but only in this case).
As far as removing terminal access. I don't like that idea, I may not sell access to vendors, but I've jumped in on friends and guildmates parties when they were there. Today I was lucky enough to finally get an ash tail cap recipe right before I had to log off for class. That was an excellent find for me. And in defense of the terminal sellers, well, they're not doing anything any worse than someone selling their crafting services or recipes. Actually when done right, it could be cheaper than buying a recipe from a user.
Anyway, if you want more control over how things work, just add a lot of random people You'll be able to jump in on their parties AND you can know roughly what level and depth you're on.
4 Minerals gives 20 crowns, 5 per mineral. You're getting shafted 500%. More than you initially realized.