PAY TO TRAIN

[michaelarby]

Since inflation is such a problem in the game, I have a suggestion to improve the situation- A player should have to pay a small number of CDs for every 5 energy spent on training. To begin with- Id like you to read this post i wrote for another thread, then i will explain my logic after.

the inflation problem stems from a general design flaw in the game- features such as servers and random hacks generate money out of thin air for the player. the more players, the more money generated. its like water filling a bath. what makes this so bad is that theres no way to remove some of this money- ie pulling the plug outta the bath. hell, even selling ECs is bad for the economy, since technically they are created for free and sold at a high price.

with the exception of buying equipment, healing or starting a gang and a few other things which are either negligable or one off expenses, there is no way to remove cash from the system. since the ec market place etc just transfer money around it stays in the system and still adds to inflation. eventually the rich become richer and the poorer new players will never get a chance to catch up.

the cash flow in does not match the cash flow out. its good that bank interest has been eliminated and that there is a tax on the marketplace (tho the market place tax is not a strong solution, it will only slow the rise in inflation)

it was the same in old CW- the oldest players always stayed at the top so long as they kept playing, as they could buy more ecs and increase their stats at a faster rate than newer players.

but back on point. If you want to avoid this situation happening again there needs to be some protocols put in place to remove money from the system. Some Suggestions:

- There could be a cash requirement for training for example, increasing with higher levels or whatever.
- Gang 'tax'. for a gang to exist it must pay a tax daily, weekly etc or else be frozen until paid. this will not only allow money to filter out of the game world, but will help promote activity in gangs, and provide more reason for individual gangs charging credit taxes
- Players could charge a weekly rent for their computer/apartment/base whatever.
- much lower payouts from servers and random hacks. Perhaps also limit max server numbers.

I appreciate that changes like this would be unpopular- no one wants to pay rent for example, and the whole point of the game is to get richer, but right now the system is equivalent to just having money rain down from the sky, rather than having someone pay you out of their pocket for your work.

If you have to pay to train, not only will it remove money from the Economy and as such keep inflation down, but it will also allow newer players to catch up with the older ones, and help add some competition which is lacking from the game- since the richer players cant just rest on their laurels, but will have to work hard for the cash to train (and they wont just be able to spend it on ECs from the marketplace either)

It might only be 5 CDs per train, or it could be 50, hell it could even increase as you level up or whatever- in fact this would be a better solution, allowing newer players to catch up with the older ones as you can train cheaper earlier and so train at a faster rate to begin with.

[Rusty]

Firstly, I'll repeat the question/assumption I asked/made in the other topic about you (You only need to confirm it in one topic though )

Am I right in saying you're someone who has recently come back to the game, having played a long time ago? Because much of this theory was debated

If that is true, then I'll fill you in again
In CW the inflation lecture has been given so many times (often by me so I'm party to blame ) that most players could qualify for a PhD in economics. Pretty much every idea ever has been debated over and usually rejected, though a few have made it through. We are all familiar with why inflation is here and its main problems, but what we really need are some good solutions. That said, yours aren't too bad...
Any form of gang 'taxation' or player rent is effectively negative interest. Seeing as in old CW we only just got rid of positive interest it was never a solution, however could be one to think about. Problems that occur with it are either that, if a fixed amount, it affects newbs disproportionately, and if a % of money in hand means that people just won't keep money in hand.
However, the main topic for discussion is paying to train.
Can you explain slightly more on your ideas? We already pay to train in all but beta, so I'm assuming you mean per 5 energy used. Doing that, IMO, would make it less efficient but so could changing the /170 number in the IQ modifier. All it means is that for every 150,000 energy you use in the facility (at 5 CDs cost per train), you need to use 75 to make 1 EC, which you can then sell on. Although the numbers are small, it's still the concept of just making it less efficient that I don't like.
Flesh the idea out a little and I may grow to like it.

[michaelarby]

yeah i meant that players should pay for each 5 energy used. since there is a stat limit depending on player level, the fee could be tied to player level quite successfully- say a fee of $(player level) or a multiple of that such as $(player levelx2) per train. this would be handy because not only would it allow money to be removed fro the system, but it would slow the rate of growth of higher level players, allowing noobs a better chance at a shot of top 100 or whatever. you made a good point there about how if it was only 5 credits per train then the cost of even just one ec would cover the cost of a lot of training- thats why i reckon it would be better to scale the money up based on player level- as its the only real general indicator of player advancement, and since its a numeric statistic, should be easy to do the mathematical coding with... Even at just 5 credits per train, its still filtering money out of the system, albeit at a fairly negligable rate... an appropriate cost would therefore have to be worked out by the admins, who have a better grasp of the current CW economic situation than i do!

[Rusty]

player level [is] the only real general indicator of player advancement

Let me stop you there. In reality, level means nothing in CW. There are very few level boundaries after 40 to hack CIA, 75 to hack the next one (which isn't worth the levelling IMO) and 100 to access one of the facilities apparently. This will simply encourage people like me who rank up a lot without gaining levels and can find a loophole in the system which means they can sneak past without paying high charges.
However, if you did want to bring this in then my calculations put that it would need to be 30 CDs per level per EC used, which would mean at level 50 you were paying 1% of the cost of the energy used. Inflation would eventually diminish this cost though...