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Thoughts on scaling/skilling up...

jetsina

Active Member
So, Cyrene is new in an existing universe and hopes to bring in many new players.
One of the problems starting a new character now is probably the very long climb to even lower medium level.
The economic idea should be to try and keep as many players actively happy as possible.
Let me assume a large number of players willing to spend $10, $20 or $30 a month.
As the main chance of staying close to break-even while skilling up is to use mark-up (mu), it follows that some players WILL be spending more if they buy the items with mu, while more sparing players will be treating themselves to clothing, vehicles etc less often, but still be part of the economy by being a part of the materials chain.

In the soft launch we have seen a couple of potential possiblilities for 'slower-spend' newbies to 'play-pay' their way up: the good mu on one common low mob loot and the reward/imperium tokens idea.

I can easily see the spear vehicle as stabilizing the mats required price for the mission at 5 peds or so, but I think the mission chain should be a bit longer before getting access to the spear mission to deter alt farming. However, I do think it fine that people can take a final short cut by buying the finished mats off someone (or auction) instead of crafting them themselves. The final short cut is the 'mu price' that many people will pay happily while giving some others a workable market.

On tokens, I have no idea what value the tokens should settle at on the market, but I imagine it depends on what nice goodies can be bought with them. If I assume a reasonable 'subsidy' of daily mission work to be in the order of 30-40 pecs per token, then a purchasable item for 200 tokens would need to have an effective value of 60-80 peds to the purchaser (but maybe very little initial tt if unlimited but worth using or having for show). It occurs to me that desirable bps may fulfil the function of very low tt for the pp but high value to the crafter. Whatever the items on offer are, they will have to be worth an effective mu, however.... (doesn't seem to be the case yet).

The thing is, once markets pick up, then the gains for each element of 'work' should be small, but make a difference over time. This would also enable some people to play sparingly for for more hours, but also deter the creation of alts for repeat farming.

I would also like to see some way of making it easier for the lower players to sell their stacks of mats, maybe by creating a kind of marketplace where buyers can stand in certain places or rooms/areas of isolated chat. It could be as simple as painted squares on the ground with signs saying 'robot parts chat and trade' etc, instead of all buyers trying to stand on one tyre near a main tp ;). If a mat can be exchanged here for 110% or so, with an auction mu of 115% maybe, then players will be getting 30-50 pecs mu for every 3-5 peds of mats that they store from their activities, while the buyer also gains at a reasonable rate by standing there. Maybe there should even be 'official' market times where the pp or advisors etc help out here and create a certain market stability against lower prices... but I realise this would require 'organisation'.

Finally, the mission areas (for repeatables) seem to me to probably be too small if a good number of people start doing them on a regular basis.

I've called the thread scaling/skilling up because at the moment the planet is there with nice lands, but almost nobody there doing stuff. If only a small portion of people with higher skills return in the near future, then it will have to be new players on the long slow climb up the skills ladder.
I would also suggest returning the direweeds to level 2 or whatever, by the way - at least for 4 to 6 months or so.... I love the idea of the planet developing, but make it at a rate that the average new player can grow with :)
Ty for reading.......
 

jetsina

Active Member
so, none of the above has yet prompted anyone to write anything - maybe those also thinking mostly know too much to comment on the "economic background"?
Maybe I need to write about rumours - such as that the mission spear is only there until the limited craftables ones come out with the full launch! (i.e. the bps will start dropping).
Also, the mothership Kronan will be taking up Cyrene in its new tour of planets due to start soon, currently planned as the last stop before returning to Caly. I do hope we get lots of people going to Cyrene soon as it gears up!
 

Lykke TheNun

Well-Known Member
Hi jetsina

Thanks a bunch for a lot of good suggestions, point of views and comments about Cyrene.

We really appreciate all efforts people are/have been showing to help us improving the planet.

A lot of things are still in progress and will still be worked on though, and things will be polished as we are getting nearer hard launch. And even after that there might be room for improvements ;)

Some things cannot yet be discussed further, because (as mentioned above) we are still working on things - but that doesn't mean the team is not looking at the great suggestions from you and others - because also Kris and Ed are very active and daily keeping an eye on everything which is going on here.

So please, if you get time and feel like it, keep sharing your opinions and experiences with us :)

Again, thanks :)
 

Calli

Things that make you go Hmm!
I agree Lykke, what once seemed ideal planet for noobs to start up on changed when the levels of a lot of the mobs went up. For those that aren't depo'n or at least not much there's not enough to keep you going... which led to a lot of people planet hopping... including myself.. Cyrene is home for me now but Cyrene needs new players as well as established, with that said summer in the states is also hard time in game... people enjoying the sunshine :) Hopefully things on Cyrene and in forum will pick up more as we get closer to the hard launch.. and some more parties when MSR is ready ;) Just wanted to shout out about my agreement with planet growing needs to accommodate new players as well as established.
 

jetsina

Active Member
Ok, ty Lykke :).
I shall return then, to the technical nature of the hub. I know you have said you are keen to try out some things from the long time of development, but it is very easy for things to be imbalanced or for players to make it so. Simply meeting up with a friend more than doubles your chances against individuals, but then again, maybe 1:1 was never really the intention of the main areas, and you have now added 1:1 too (but I've not been there).
The thing is, if winners and losers get separated out too quickly, the losers will stay away and then the winners will starve too. I expect what you want is a high turnover of people having fairly balanced fun, paying a pec/ped price, but almost everybody being rewarded in part with low tt but mu-able tokens (as with the B.O.T.S selling at Janus).

My idea is to have areas of higher and lower risk, and with some kind of reward possible just for surviving in a high risk area. If things get too hot I think there should be pass gates for players with lowish or medium personal win stats to escape back to a lower level or sector, and they can then fight their way back up until their stats forbid them from escaping the heat at some point.
I don't know if the different ped areas should be in some way merged, or made accessible to each other from within, but it may be one solution if the fighting areas are limited in size...
Another idea I have would be to have sections of radar-off dotted around with multiple exits (if the random tp idea has been abandoned). This may be a way of shaking off a ranged attacker at least, or of getting some extra distance, depending on the setup..

I also think level layouts should be presented on the planet site so that new players can balance out their inexperience more quickly. I think most of the technical difficulties of getting a good hub will be about minimising inequalities, but this is simply an informational inequality, and easy to solve! :)


You have my latest thoughts on the main planet area in my OP. EU needs new players, and YOU will need new players, so you must make it likely that their peds will not rapidly evaporate in downswings! I like the idea of having a high mu on slowly gained stackables, which are not so appealing to higher players who prefer higher turnovers. In my opinion, the idea of skills and progression should mean being able to have higher turnover, turning towards other mobs and activities which provide different loots that also have mu, but can be collected faster. I hope you achieve this with your new economy! :clap:
 
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