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Suggestions / Sustainable Bottlecap income should only come from the core.
« on: February 27, 2014, 02:44:37 PM »
AOP's game design is very obviously based around PVP. The core is a magnificent beast of a PVP zone that offers rewards to anyone brave enough to venture in and take them. The risk is the constant threat of enemy players killing you and taking your things.
Initially core gameplay was pretty heavy, the only way to gain money was through the core and at the risk of other players. This is ideally how the game should be because it uses the core (the main mechanic of AOP) to the fullest potential, encouraging most online players to be in the core at the same time as one another.
The rewards in the core are
-Low Tier Crafting Materials (Junk, Metal Parts, ect)
-High Tier Crafting Materials (Polymer / Ceramic Plates, ect)
-Blueprints (Holodisks, Guns & Bullets, ect)
-Low Tier Vendorables (Melee weapons)
-High Tier Vendorables (Sherif's Badge, Water Bottles, ect)
-Low Tier ammunition and Weapons
-Chances at player PVP and loot.
Disadvantages
-Low income
-Slow, it takes a while to loot zones
-High danger of player PVP
-If you die to NPCs, a player may snag your stuff before you get back.
Unluckily we figured out how assignments work. Even before the cap income on assignments was increased, it was pretty obvious they were now the BEST choice of advancement for our characters and they provided most the benefits of looting the core with nearly none of the risks.
Rewards for Assignments
-Large amount of Caps (Upon Completion)
-Large amount of XP (Upon Completion)
-Reputation (Upon Completion)
-Low Tier Crafting Materials (Junk, Metal Parts, ect)
-Armor-Repair materials (Broken CA)
-Low Tier Vendorables (Melee weapons)
-High Tier Vendorables (Noodles, Water Bottles, ect)
-Low Tier ammunition and Weapons (Hunting rifles, 10mm SMgs, ect)
-Mid Tier Ammunition and Weapons (AK 74s, ect)
-High Tier Ammunition and Weapons (Advanced Missions only)
Disadvantages
-If you die in a bad place you might not get your loot back (Otherwise you can just run back and take it back as much as you want).
-Takes up a bit of Ammo
As it stands , Assignments are faster, multiple times more profitable, far less risky and so on and so on. The way they currently are it's extremely likely that most players will use them to level themselves and avoid the core entirely until they are higher level and willing to PVP, at which point they probably wont loot anything but blueprints, modules and high-tier crafting materials. Right now there is no reason to loot junk or metal parts because assignments give you all these rewards anyway from sciencing the drops.
All in all, Assignments severely undermine the base PVP aspect of AOP. They detract heavily from the core aspect of the game and give players the option to just silently level up and gather gear without any player interaction whatsoever.
But don't jump to conclusions and imagine that assignments need to be removed, or the rewards nerfed into the ground. They still provide a valuable source of experience to players (Which is missing in the core) and easily obtainable parts to repair armor.
Assignments should supplement the core, not replace it. A huge step towards making assignments a supplement would be removing the bottlecap rewards entirely. This would make assignments a challenge you take on for extra experience and reputation, while leaving players needing to return to the core to scavange the money for ammunition to continue doing assignments.
You get what i mean, the core should be where the money's at, the assignments where the experience is at.
Initially core gameplay was pretty heavy, the only way to gain money was through the core and at the risk of other players. This is ideally how the game should be because it uses the core (the main mechanic of AOP) to the fullest potential, encouraging most online players to be in the core at the same time as one another.
The rewards in the core are
-Low Tier Crafting Materials (Junk, Metal Parts, ect)
-High Tier Crafting Materials (Polymer / Ceramic Plates, ect)
-Blueprints (Holodisks, Guns & Bullets, ect)
-Low Tier Vendorables (Melee weapons)
-High Tier Vendorables (Sherif's Badge, Water Bottles, ect)
-Low Tier ammunition and Weapons
-Chances at player PVP and loot.
Disadvantages
-Low income
-Slow, it takes a while to loot zones
-High danger of player PVP
-If you die to NPCs, a player may snag your stuff before you get back.
Unluckily we figured out how assignments work. Even before the cap income on assignments was increased, it was pretty obvious they were now the BEST choice of advancement for our characters and they provided most the benefits of looting the core with nearly none of the risks.
Rewards for Assignments
-Large amount of Caps (Upon Completion)
-Large amount of XP (Upon Completion)
-Reputation (Upon Completion)
-Low Tier Crafting Materials (Junk, Metal Parts, ect)
-Armor-Repair materials (Broken CA)
-Low Tier Vendorables (Melee weapons)
-High Tier Vendorables (Noodles, Water Bottles, ect)
-Low Tier ammunition and Weapons (Hunting rifles, 10mm SMgs, ect)
-Mid Tier Ammunition and Weapons (AK 74s, ect)
-High Tier Ammunition and Weapons (Advanced Missions only)
Disadvantages
-If you die in a bad place you might not get your loot back (Otherwise you can just run back and take it back as much as you want).
-Takes up a bit of Ammo
As it stands , Assignments are faster, multiple times more profitable, far less risky and so on and so on. The way they currently are it's extremely likely that most players will use them to level themselves and avoid the core entirely until they are higher level and willing to PVP, at which point they probably wont loot anything but blueprints, modules and high-tier crafting materials. Right now there is no reason to loot junk or metal parts because assignments give you all these rewards anyway from sciencing the drops.
All in all, Assignments severely undermine the base PVP aspect of AOP. They detract heavily from the core aspect of the game and give players the option to just silently level up and gather gear without any player interaction whatsoever.
But don't jump to conclusions and imagine that assignments need to be removed, or the rewards nerfed into the ground. They still provide a valuable source of experience to players (Which is missing in the core) and easily obtainable parts to repair armor.
Assignments should supplement the core, not replace it. A huge step towards making assignments a supplement would be removing the bottlecap rewards entirely. This would make assignments a challenge you take on for extra experience and reputation, while leaving players needing to return to the core to scavange the money for ammunition to continue doing assignments.
You get what i mean, the core should be where the money's at, the assignments where the experience is at.
