Hello! I’ve watched the march team update video where was presented the roadmap for upcoming year. And one thing that I want to give feedback about is “Expedition group finder”.
It takes time, resources and gold for players to craft tuning orb to enter the expedition (it also took significant amount of resources to level up stonecutting profession). And right now it is quite fair that players who crafted/farmed tuning orb take fee for expedition run from other players. This also balances ways of earning strong equipment (if you would can farm equipment in dungeons for free then why would you need to craft or buy it right?).
So the idea of this thread is to add ability for player with tuning orb who starts expedition to set fee for entrance in expedition for other players. And ability for other players without tuning orb to set min and max level of fee that they would like to pay for entrance in expedition when they queue for it.
For example I have tuning orb and I want to open expedition using group finder.
Then I should have ability to set for example 1k fee for each person (which will be automatically paid to me when other player accept group finder’s invite).
Also player without tuning orb up on queuing for expedition should have ability to set min and max levels of fee that he or she would like to pay.
System of group finder should give to other players (without tuning orb) offers from that interval of prices that they chosen.
If they accept offer they will be teleported inside expedition and fee will be automatically paid to owner of spent tuning orb.
I think system like this can keep fair conditions for all groups of players who farm tuning orbs and who don’t farm them.
Yeah. I hope they do as I suggested, that is what Team Fortress 2 MvM does:
Expedition entry is free.
Each player brings their tuning orbs and uses them to get extra loot.
No more of this disgusting fee. One of the most antisocial and immersion breaking initiatives I’ve ever seen in a fantasy adventure game.
Can you imagine Gandalf taking the fellowship to the Mines of Moria and, before entering, turning around and saying
“Before I use the keyword to enter, I am going to ask 1000 gold from each of you. You know? I need to cover the costs of all my grinding for lore.”
Disgusting.
Yes, it can be a possible decision. When you just craft tuning orb and gain additional gold up on completion of expedition. While entrance in expeditions will be free.
Good thing in your suggestion is:
People who craft tuning orbs still have something for their time and resources spent.
People who don’t craft tuning orbs don’t have to pay fee.
But there is one possible problem:
When you pay fee you don’t create gold from nowhere. But when you get gold reward for tuning orb you actually create gold from nowhere. This is not good for economy. In long term this can increase inflation of gold and people who don’t have high gold income will see that their current gold amount is nothing relative to auction prices.
And if you will try to give expensive unbound loot instead of gold to people with tuning orbs then there still will be one problem:
It is much harder for developers to influence auction prices. And in long term we can get problem that these rewards will cost nothing at auction house resulting useless of tuning orbs (what will hurt people who craft them).
That amount of gold is insignificant compared to the amount of gold that the devs are creating out of nothing from:
The housing tax. For every 1000 gold you pay in housing tax, the town owners get 5000. That is like 4 fees worth of extra money, per house owner, up to 3 houses, per week.
They are giving away about 350 gold every day just for killing 3 random mobs in juniper berry bags. Created out of nothing.
People salvage 99.9% of the gear that drops. That is 3 gold per drop for every player, every day.
A game needs gold sinks, sure. That is what repair costs, crafting, town projects.
But given that players have been quitting the game due to excessive friction on their way to enjoy the content, it is absolutely counterproductive to charge them a 1k gold entry fee to that content.
It’s no good that AGS spends thousands fo man/hours developing content if the players don’t reach it due to all the friction.
I’ve watched the march team update video where was presented the roadmap for upcoming year. And one thing that I want to give feedback about is “Expedition group finder”.