Remove Instant Build/Training

  • Thread starter DeletedUser21287
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DeletedUser32737

Guest
A lot of games make money without breaking the game with cosmetics. Perhaps something similar can be done here? Buy a UI re-skin for 500 gold, buy a different slinger icon for 100 gold etc.

This will attract a different crowd perhaps, golders would probably still leave as their P2W strategy will be gone. Superfans would stick around and probably purchase a couple of the cosmetics. Of course you would need some artists and perhaps a refactor to allow different images per user, might be quite an ordeal if the web app is not designed for this kind of thing (which I imagine it isn't)

You could always start small with say a Christmas reskin for all as a proof of concept :)
 

1saaa

Strategos
Inno have already proven to be capable of things like this anyway. See the halloween god designs. They could also let us have skins for troops based off those in the sparta vs hades event.

But, saying that I highly doubt that grepolis has the player base of other similar games to support a cosmetic program for making money. Gold in its current form is here to stay.
 

DeletedUser22951

Guest
Before 'Instant Buy' you could half the speed of construction of units for 20 gold, if i remember correctly this could only be done so many times.

So no instant nukes. You could have pretty rapid nukes, just not instant.

It worked well, was fairer and cheaper as it allowed people to accelerate production speeds at a cost they could afford.

Personally, i would like the instant buy removed or gold limits set on specific servers, pretty sure you would see way more new players enjoying the game.
 

DeletedUser38766

Guest
I support this idea as well partly. If gold can reduce 50 percent like in old days, then it´s good enough. Question is if maybe gold trading should be removed then too? If so then i personally would prefer instant buy/training. Gold is indeed overpowered but at the same time gold trading makes it possible to all benefit from it. And those who can benefit more, make it possible to benefit others as well in the first place. So from this point of view i see it as a win/win situation for everyone.
 
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OutOfCharacters

Phrourach
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:
CurrentScenario 1Scenario 2
Batch 1175175175
Batch 2175219219
Batch 3175263273
Batch 4175306342
Batch 5175350427
Total for Nuke 187513131436
% Additional Cost50%64%

Roll that forward to wanting to gold out another before cooldown, the second golded nuke would look like:

CurrentScenario 1Scenario 2
Batch 1175394534
Batch 2175438667
Batch 3175481834
Batch 41755251043
Batch 51755691304
Total for Nuke 287524064383
% Additional Cost275%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.
 
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DeletedUser38766

Guest
Or how would sound this: Lets say that instant buy/training was gone and system went back as it was in old days. Instead, what if every time those who buy gold, would get also special tokens( some amount of instant build/training tokens). Might this be a solution as well? Because those who buy should have some advantage over those who just gold trade. Back in the old days those who bought gold had advantage by speeding up building and training progression and had access to premiums. With this change Gold traders and buyers would have all this equal + gold traders would have access to premiums. Gold buyers would have advantage with insta tokens, resources and events but i believe wouldn't have that heavy impact/abuse as we've seen at the moment.
 
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DeletedUser56122

Guest
OOC's suggestion is pure genius. Plain and simple. It enables the insta-buy, but makes people think about whether the cost-benefit ratio makes sense.

I've been strongly in the revert back to the 50% cut time camp, but I could get behind OOC's suggestion as well.


But, no matter how to slice it, gold is currently overpowered.
 
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