[eRepublik] Wishful Thinking.
Max McFarland 2
Dear Citizens of the New World,
Would you like some opening remarks?
~ Just sit back and listen before you begin to read. ^_~
Two days ago some changes were announced and implemented. Today some more changes were announced. Let me begin by saying that I'm thrilled to see the quick response and action to community feedback. That said... I'm a bit melancholy over the decisions for the economic module.
Any economy in transition has great difficulty in it's early stages. An economy moving from a position of heavy control and simple options to a more complex, more dynamic system will always have some speed bumps along the way. Sometimes these difficulties are accepted as challenges, allowing for tweaking of a system, for a final version much improved upon the original. Sometimes the reaction is to roll things back farther than the old status quo. I prefer the first option... but what's done is done.
This article is not a request. It's not a complaint. It's just some wishful thinking. This is a rough sketch of some changes I would have rather seen in our game economy... along with explanations of why such changes could be better for both players/customers and the management/sellers.
Theme:
~ The economic module might benefit from increased customization.
Workers:
1. Eleven Professions.
~ Keep the eleven professions. It may have been too many, too fast, but it is better to have the increased economic dynamism. One work skill makes communes very easy, but also makes bot-farms very easy. The eleven professions added nice complexity to the economy.
2. Re-Specialization.
~ Allow players to pay a fee in gold, at any time, to re-allocate their work skill points amongst the different professions. This allows people to change their skill sets if necessary, while providing revenue for the management of the game itself.
3. Job Offers.
~ Include an option for someone seeking a job to search all skill levels of a given profession, as checking each skill level individually is a pain.
Organizations:
1. Expanded Inventory.
~ Allow an option to purchase the expanded inventory for gold. Perhaps 2-3 times the cost of the RL $ required for this feature. Many players would spend gold, but cannot spend RL $. Further, allow for players to pay separately for expanded inventory and expanded inbox. Perhaps purchasing +20 inventory slots at a time for 5 gold. Many players would prefer to have more inventory in one organization for the same price as a new organization. This allows for the same revenue stream, while also making life better for the players. Some of would gladly pay the gold for a 200-slot organization, while we would never consider building 10 organizations or paying the RL $ to expand 4 organizations.
2. Transfer of Root Ownership.
~ Each organization is forever attached to the player who built it. Allow players to pay a fee in gold to transfer root ownership of the organization from one player to another. Following this, allow a marketplace to buy and sell entire organizations as we would buy and sell companies.
3. Deletion.
~ Allow us to delete organizations, to recoup 2.5 gold, or for nothing, just so we can wipe them out if we want to. Heck, some people would even pay gold to wipe out certain organizations they own.
4. Number of Companies.
~ Allow an option for an organization to pay a fee in gold, perhaps 5 gold, to hold a 2nd company of a given product type. This could be a permanent change to organization attributes, similar to company export licenses. Allow an organization to purchase an unlimited number of such upgrades. This way, players who want five iron companies, for example, still pay the 25 gold as if they had 5 organizations, but have the convenience of holding them all in one place.
5. Currency Accounts.
~ Please give us an option to delete/destroy currency. Some of us have way to many 0.00 or 0.01 currency slots that are an eyesore. Please just let us delete these. This also applies to currency accounts held in companies.
6. Company Donations.
~ Let us donate companies directly to other organizations. When players arrange outside-of-market deals, they still have to do the in-game transaction. So much easier if we can directly donate a company from one organization to another. Heck, maybe charge us a small fee in gold to do so, like 1-5 gold.
Companies:
1. Import Licenses.
~ We already have export licenses. Let us have import licenses. Let us spend the 5 or 20 gold to buy an import license, to directly purchase raw materials from a different nation. This will increase gold expenditure, as many people would rather pay the gold for this feature rather than engage in tedious donations.
2. Three-Tiered Market System.
~ This one is complicated, so bear with me. Let's call raw materials (stone) tier one, the components of a product (walls, roof, etc) tier two, and the finished product (house) tier three. The system of allowing companies to purchase tier one materials, to build tier two materials, to build tier three products is missing an amazing market opportunity. Let companies directly sell the tier two components. Since different points spread (1-100) require different tier two component values, let each number (1-100) be one unit, so companies can buy and sell tier two units on the market. This way companies are not forced to build everything internally. This would create a much more dynamic market system.
~ If you follow my recommendation on import licenses and export licenses above, then consider more gold income is possible here. I could have a company to make tanks, for example. I could have an import license for raw materials, a second import license for tier two components, an export license for tier two components, and an export license for finished products. This dramatically increases revenue potential, builds new market segments, smooths out market inefficiencies, and makes business more customizable.
3. Vertical Integration.
~ Let us have an option (paid for in a gold fee) to directly link companies. Specifically, perhaps a 5 gold license to link an oil company to a tickets company. Then the oil company can directly transfer raw materials stock to the tickets company, without the need to sell and buy their own products on the market. This increases gold revenue and makes life easier on the players.
4. Company Advertisements.
~ Please let us run advertisements directly from companies. This will result in more gold for the game's management, as it will be spent directly before being siphoned by taxes. It helps the players, as any budget allocated for advertisements from a company will accomplish more then if the gold is pulled, taxed, the spent by the organization. I know some people evade taxes anyway... but most don't. This helps everyone.
Please remember..... this is the mere wishful thinking of a single citizen.
~ It's not a complaint, critique, request, petition, etc.
Cheers.
🙂
😉
😉
😃
😎
V/r,
Max McFarland 2 (Мак МцФарланд)
Party President, Stone Ocean
Advisor, eUSA
Once and Future Serbian
We are Dio. You are Dio. I am Dio.
May the love of Dio be with you, forever.
Comments
wkwkwkwkwk humbug x_X
pertamax?
hehe my first time saying that
I like the green theme. Suits the mood.
good. what about military
btw your signature is going to give me a seizure ;_;
Some very good thoughts there, many I agree with.
I'm especially disappointed in the simplification of the econ module, it was finally moving towards being interesting to experiment with.
I think the transition from V1 to V2 would have been successful if the admins changed one thing at a time, instead of changing everything at once.
Step by step would have succeeded.
\m/
I like these ideas
awesomely awesome.
The simplification of the economy will indeed make things more dull....
There are so many things that could have done... Feels like steeping back to mediaeval times
One has to wonder if the admins wanted a simpler economy that them selves understood better 🙁
laya =[
way to much gold fees
\o/
very nice.
MAX MCFARLAND IS GLORIOUS!
I love you, sir.
i dont like most of your proposed changes to organisations and companies, the others sound good
Voted for epileptic picture at the end : P
go go go Max!!!
Max I love you, sir. : )
We are Dio. You are Dio. I am Dio.
May the love of Dio be with you, forever.
Ummm, can we hire Max McFarland to be the new game programmer. These ideas blow anything admin has ever come out with out of the water. The "new" caveman economic system is terrible, and admin looks weak with their "new" changes. This game will never last if it doesn't change some. I endorse all your proposed changes, especially now with this new economic system, I choose any kind of change.
Vote
Positive thoughts, but wishfull thinking for the most part, in my opinion.
e.g.
The 11 categories of jobs would never work; the three V1 categories DID WORK.
This is like a pendulum, the 11 'classifications' is way too many (overcomplicated); Admin over-reacted and reduced it to only one 'catch-all category' thereby 'oversimplifying' the game.
If I had a company... (which I don't).
Cool ideas, but I really miss something new on the political module. ;_;
Excellent ideas!
good stuff as always. Voted even though you don't need my vote when this will get like 2k votes on its own 😛
Too much complicated o_O
Max's mere idle musings should be akin to petitions with thousands of signatures as far as the development team is concerned. The only problem I see with these thoughts is that you are assuming they actually care about improving our experience here or making things easier.
I did like the insinuated Gold fees everywhere to get them excited.
Many great ideas you have here... Except for 11 proffessions - it was killer for smaller communities, but reverting to 3 different types of skill is way better than this 'merging' of all skills into one...
As you said - wishfull thinking
i loved the import license idea
great ideas
specially for the tier in the economy
Voted. Great ideas for improving the game.
hey max.
vted
Great ideas Max. going backwards is a bad idea - omg what were they thinkiing when they got rid of professions
Great! I really liked it. They must do it now! (or already have done).
We heard your feedback, Admin will implement this in V3. :ironic:
I think the system of licenses should be re-consider. Maybe a 30 day long export license for 2 gold is far better than everlasting ones for 20 gold.
About tier-system: supported. Maybe a company can use more than one raw /tier2 stuff to produce tier 2 / tier 3 goodies.
Skill migration: if I were an eGod, I'll allow a free migration every time a new experience level is reached. And put a nice button to "gold&extras" for 3 euros for the ones, who can't wait.
not bad ideas, however - organisations MUST have bigger inventories
the game is intensively gold consuming
boosters must be deleted from the game, or at least have their cost reduced by 90% (the old players will be happier, and the new ones would improve their skills)
i have other ideas but i have to go 😃
I agree with many of the smaller suggestions. The simplification of the economic module is not such a bad thing, as like you said it will help out commune style working, which is good for groups that build strong in-game communities. If this can be combined with better multi-detection (which I think we can agree is getting better, especially in the last two election, though not yet anywhere close to good enough) then the simplification is not a bad deal.
Also, as long as the military module is made more fun and balances out the ability for 1) all citizens to participate and 2) dedicated soldiers to fight more than a wall, then most of the complaining will die down. That said, there are a lot of your suggestions that could easily be put into place and could easily make things a lot better. Company donations, without a fee, would be fantastic.
Very Nice.
I had asked if semi products are available on market after the first day of V2 announcement, it could change entire game.
maksa ftw
1 econ skill is good news for everyone. 3 would be even better.
the vast majority of people do not have the time or the gold that you have max. the greatest lesson from V2 is that people like a game that is not too complicated.
I agree with most of these. Well thought out Max.
If you are a bit melancholy then who was phone ?
great ideas. you speak for most of us.
v
Voted
Voted. Good ideas!
there are good ideas here!
Nice ideas... hope admins will listen some of them😉
I have some ideas too, regarding millitary, economic and politics module:
http://tinyurl.com/w1ndu