For a couple of years now, we've been without a mechanism for breaking into players' bank accounts. Before you get alarmed, I'm not talking about anything extreme, just something in line with what we had in round 3.
People shouldn't be able to keep vast quant*ties of money with no threat of theft. It isn't great for the economy, and I think we're missing a trick in terms of gameplay too.
In round 3 we had an attribute on accounts called "bioenergy". It was essentially health, and if I brought it back, I'd call it Health, to avoid confusion. Anyway, the point of it was this:
- If you are attacked, you lose 1 bioenergy.
- If you attack others, you gain 1 bioenergy.
- The bioenergy is a value between 1 and 100, and as such, could be used as a % chance of a bank theft during attacks.
We also had two skills: Bank Theft and Anti Bank Theft. One gave you the ability to steal from bank accounts (if you were lucky), the other blocked such attempts. It was quite fun, and if you were paying attention, it was possible to protect your a**ets, for the most part.
It's worth bearing in mind that those skills worked differently to current time-based skills. You essentially bought X amount of skills, and one was spent every time you attacked, or were attacked. Therefore, you could erode a player's Anti Bank Theft if you teamed up, and attempt to steal some of their loot!
I would love to find a way to bring something like this back. I'm not saying we should do it as it was done in round 3. I know there were flaws. What we have now though, is the ability to create time-based skills, add a player health attribute; and a lot of banked money which needs the fear of God put into it
Feedback is most certainly welcome! Don't be afraid of the prospect of this change. There will always be a way for diligent players to minimize their loss. NOBODY complained about it in round 3. They loved it. It made sense to them, and they saw the bank feature as a secure-but-not-infallible alternative to keeping your cash on-hand.
People shouldn't be able to keep vast quant*ties of money with no threat of theft. It isn't great for the economy, and I think we're missing a trick in terms of gameplay too.
In round 3 we had an attribute on accounts called "bioenergy". It was essentially health, and if I brought it back, I'd call it Health, to avoid confusion. Anyway, the point of it was this:
- If you are attacked, you lose 1 bioenergy.
- If you attack others, you gain 1 bioenergy.
- The bioenergy is a value between 1 and 100, and as such, could be used as a % chance of a bank theft during attacks.
We also had two skills: Bank Theft and Anti Bank Theft. One gave you the ability to steal from bank accounts (if you were lucky), the other blocked such attempts. It was quite fun, and if you were paying attention, it was possible to protect your a**ets, for the most part.
It's worth bearing in mind that those skills worked differently to current time-based skills. You essentially bought X amount of skills, and one was spent every time you attacked, or were attacked. Therefore, you could erode a player's Anti Bank Theft if you teamed up, and attempt to steal some of their loot!
I would love to find a way to bring something like this back. I'm not saying we should do it as it was done in round 3. I know there were flaws. What we have now though, is the ability to create time-based skills, add a player health attribute; and a lot of banked money which needs the fear of God put into it
Feedback is most certainly welcome! Don't be afraid of the prospect of this change. There will always be a way for diligent players to minimize their loss. NOBODY complained about it in round 3. They loved it. It made sense to them, and they saw the bank feature as a secure-but-not-infallible alternative to keeping your cash on-hand.
Invisible War ][
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited by Cyberkilla @ Mon Jan 31 6:10:20 EST 2011
Hmm. I do like this idea, but I think it should just be a skill. Which gives you a % chance to steal from there bank. Alternatively, there is a defensive skill you can cast, that would lower the % chance of being robbed. So say the skill grants an extra 30% chance, added to a base chance on every attack of like 5%. So you don't NEED the skill to steal from a bank. The defensive skill could remove say 10% or 5% from that chance. Also have to keep in mind that if someone who has a lot of money will be high value targets, and losing all that bountiful booty would be disheartening. Maybe if you have 1b at the beginning of the day, you can only lose 60% of that over the course of the day, or something like that.
I honestly think Bioenergy would be too much.
If you decide to go with the Bioenergy health, you could go with a skill that might increase your cap of energy (or point upgrade). Or maybe increase the amount of Bioenergy you gain per attack.
Anyway you do it, should turn out quite good, would add another feature to be aware of. As you said, keep people on there toes about whether or not there money is safe, and spreading those billions around would help the economy.
I hope this helps you a little bit
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited by Symphony @ Mon Jan 31 6:50:29 EST 2011
This is definitely an interesting idea. I have a question tho. What would prevent someone from hiding all their money on the tradeblock instead of risking it in their bank? Also, I agree that there should be a limit to how much a player can lose in a day. I'm thinking this is where a point upgrade would come in handy. Something like, you start out with a base possibility of losing 5% each time you are robbed. You can then spend X amount of points in the Upgrade Center to increase the security of your bank to where you would only lose 4,3,2,1% each time.
Stealing 1% of someone's money may not seem like a lot, but if they have 1 billion credits you would be taking 10 million. Not bad for 1 attack. I'm sure there is a lot of other considerations about this, but as long as there is a way for players to minimize the threat of being stolen from while not being able to avoid it altogether I think this is a pretty solid idea.
Quote from Kuzachika
This is definitely an interesting idea. I have a question tho. What would prevent someone from hiding all their money on the tradeblock instead of risking it in their bank?
The fact that I can see a list of people who do that when I open my browser window, and I police the trade block now
But also, because the trade block is being rewritten and the auctions section split off into a separate page.
Quote from Kuzachika
Also, I agree that there should be a limit to how much a player can lose in a day. I'm thinking this is where a point upgrade would come in handy. Something like, you start out with a base possibility of losing 5% each time you are robbed. You can then spend X amount of points in the Upgrade Center to increase the security of your bank to where you would only lose 4,3,2,1% each time.
Stealing 1% of someone's money may not seem like a lot, but if they have 1 billion credits you would be taking 10 million. Not bad for 1 attack. I'm sure there is a lot of other considerations about this, but as long as there is a way for players to minimize the threat of being stolen from while not being able to avoid it altogether I think this is a pretty solid idea.
Yeah, a percentage steal would be bad. It might be wiser to have a number of thresholds, and for each threshold, set an upper/lower bound for the % you steal.
That way, you could steal 1% of someone with a million credits, but only 0.2% from someone with a billion. I just made those numbers up. Don't bother checking them
I'm sure something reasonable can be came up with though
Key points:
- I like the idea of being able to modify the amount that can be stolen via skills & upgrade centre.
- I like the idea of being able to modify the chance of someone stealing anything at all via skills & upgrade centre.
I'm glad I mentioned this in the forum, because it's been at the sitting at the back of my mind for a while now. Obviously some people with a lot of money will be wary, but you just have to think, if your bank is no longer infallible vulnerable, neither is your enemy's.
You HAVE to be able to do something to reduce the risk though, or it would feel totally out of your control. That's not obviously not the aim.
I'll try to post some of my own proposals later tonight. Thanks again, Heroin & Kuzachika, for the replies
Invisible War ][
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited by Cyberkilla @ Mon Jan 31 10:32:50 EST 2011
Could also find a way to factor in how many turns you use when you attack also. More turns increases the chances, but at a very small amount.