I'd love insta-build to disappear and to go back to the 50% model-- that allowed you to spend to help yourself, but didn't change the game nearly as much. I said elsewhere that the insta-buy turned me off of CQ worlds completely. However, you just couldn't come close in that model to spending the gold people spend today. So while for game enjoyment I think it's necessary, I don't know if it's a viable business model. Also, taking it away from a player base that's used to immediate gratification could turn off inno's biggest spenders and have an even more negative impact on revenues. A better approach might be to make it successively more expensive each time. This wouldn't hurt what we call "emergency golding" as much, like a snipe, but costs more for harrassment/bully golding. Inno might even make more money, for fewer overall nukes and a better player experience.
Example, golding out batches-- first click is 175 gold, then for a length of time it's 25% more, then 50%, etc. This 25% could be a penalty on the initial amount, additively, or geometrically based on the last spend.
Scenario 1-- each successive click costs 44 gold more than the prior (adding 25% of the initial cost each time, successively)
Scenario 2-- each successive click is compounded on the prior, so costs 44 more than prior, 55, 68, etc.-- grows more quickly
Cool off period would need to be determined, but should be related to the time it would
actually take to queue a nuke, so not fast.
So 5 batches building one nuke might look like:
| Current | Scenario 1 | Scenario 2 |
Batch 1 | 175 | 175 | 175 |
Batch 2 | 175 | 219 | 219 |
Batch 3 | 175 | 263 | 273 |
Batch 4 | 175 | 306 | 342 |
Batch 5 | 175 | 350 | 427 |
Total for Nuke 1 | 875 | 1313 | 1436 |
% Additional Cost | | 50% | 64% |
Roll that forward to wanting to gold out another before cooldown, the second golded nuke would look like:
| | | |
---|
| Current | Scenario 1 | Scenario 2 |
Batch 1 | 175 | 394 | 534 |
Batch 2 | 175 | 438 | 667 |
Batch 3 | 175 | 481 | 834 |
Batch 4 | 175 | 525 | 1043 |
Batch 5 | 175 | 569 | 1304 |
Total for Nuke 2 | 875 | 2406 | 4383 |
% Additional Cost | | 275% | 500% |
Total for two golded nukes is either 2406+1313 = 3719 or 1436+4383 = 5819, vs. 1750 currently.
In this example, a snipe might cost 175+219-- not too much of a penalty, just 45 gold.
Things like golded level 25 walls and successive on-isle nukes would cost more. Heavy golders would likely do this at least once or twice before considering whether it's worth continuing, and would certainly do 1 or 2 in a CQ world if they think they have a quick chance to kill it. But it would likely reduce the over-abuse without reducing revenue.
As for a cooldown period, it needs to be related to the length of time you should have spent building the full nuke, OR a set time designed to prevent using it during a revolt or siege period (e.g., 8 or 12 hours). The cooldown would not be gradual, so once you've started spending, it stays high until the 8 or 12 hour period ends, then snaps back to normal.
Edit: This would apply city by city, and to any golding. So if I gold slings, then hops, then LS, it doesn't matter. Every insta-click adds to the insta-penalty, until the cooldown period ends.