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Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 9 post(s) |
Stefan Stahl
Seituoda Taskforce Command
951
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Posted - 2015.02.04 15:45:00 -
[1] - Quote
CCP Rattati wrote:Our design was, take it slow and it will be awesome when it happens. "Take it slow and see what happens" may be the polar opposite of how - fairly likely - the majority of the people who use AUR feel about these sort of things.
AUR is - mostly - a mechanic to turn the lack of self-control and patience of your players into money.
From this perspective you will of course receive negative reactions. Especially if the strongbox-feature has a hugely negative estimated utility to most people.
800 AUR worth of stuff is useless to me if they are things I can otherwise get very easily (thus low utility) or if I can't use them (thus no utility) or am not likely to use (thus no utility). These mechanisms explain how people can feel robbed out of their money by the strongbox-system, even if it is a good deal from your end. This also explains why people feel so negative about desirable content being deployed through strongboxes.
Here's a thought example: I have 150 mil ISK cash and it's been rising continually through leisure play. I have now started to desire the Tash-Murkon Assault suit. There is nothing else in the strongboxes that could possibly interest me in any way. Except for that specific suit, everything else is a dud with exactly 0 value to me. Under these assumptions, how much money would I have to spend to make 99.9% certain that I will have received the suit using strongbox keys?
For reference, for a drop-rate of 1/100 you'd have to buy ~688 keys to make fairly sure (to a probability of 1/1000) that you will receive the item you want. That is, in discounted bundles (60 AUR / key, I think) about 41k AUR. At a droprate of 1/200 we're already looking at ~82k AUR.
Notice how I'm asking for the pricetag to make sure I will receive the item. I'm not a gambling man, so personally I wouldn't go on this adventure even if the price associated with the 1/1000 probability was reasonable. |
Stefan Stahl
Seituoda Taskforce Command
966
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Posted - 2015.02.05 15:28:00 -
[2] - Quote
Here're some thoughts on strongboxes:
- Receiving 3 officer weapons is a great joy to most players, especially if they have the skills to use them. Their AUR value would probably be somewhere around 600 AUR.
- Receiving 15 Defender suits feels like a dud to most players, especially if they don't have the skills to use them. Their AUR value is almost 1500 AUR.
I conclude from this two things:
1. AUR value alone is not a good metric to judge whether the contents of a strongbox feel good to a player. If AUR value is used, it's value should be down-weighted by 50% if the receiver isn't skilled into the item or if the receiver has much higher skills than what is required (with the difference being taller than 2 levels).
2. Stuffing smaller quantities of several items into a strongbox increases the likelihood of receiving an interesting item.
5 basic bolt pistols, 1 Kubo's PLC and 5 defender suits is an acceptable drop.
10 STD PG upgrades, 1 Rattati's gk.0 and a skillbook is an acceptable drop.
(Basic items should be discounted if you're skilled way past them, so actual drops should be better. With the suggestion above I tried to mimic current AUR-budgets for boxes to demonstrate how this could work with a very simple change to strongbox-generation.)
If you put several items into a strongbox the RNG has a much easier job at producing relatively ok strongboxes. Really exceptional drops are going to happen less often, but that doesn't appear to be the problem right now.
Personally I prefer strategy #2. It will markedly improve the perceived value of strongboxes while maintaining 'objective reality', that means the contents of a strongbox are the same regardless of which character opens them. Without having analyzed the problem I do believe though that strategy #1 will not cause any issues and yield an even bigger improvement to the strongbox-system. |
Stefan Stahl
Seituoda Taskforce Command
966
|
Posted - 2015.02.06 15:14:00 -
[3] - Quote
CCP Rattati wrote:Stefan Stahl wrote:...
I conclude from this two things:
1. AUR value alone is not a good metric to judge whether the contents of a strongbox feel good to a player. If AUR value is used, it's value should be down-weighted by 50% if the receiver isn't skilled into the item or if the receiver has much higher skills than what is required (with the difference being taller than 2 levels).
2. Stuffing smaller quantities of several items into a strongbox increases the likelihood of receiving an interesting item.
5 basic bolt pistols, 1 Kubo's PLC and 5 defender suits is an acceptable drop.
10 STD PG upgrades, 1 Rattati's gk.0 and a skillbook is an acceptable drop.
... I think defender suits are skillless, to help new players graduate out of militia suits, and understand fitting better and the idea of "running out of" dropsuits. I realize that and I think they're great ... for new players.
Catch my drift? 
Also, what's your stance on recalibrating the strongbox item generator as suggested in strategy #2? |
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