I was talking with a buddy of mine on disc about investments, I'd got out of the PI rental game as soon as stocks 2.0 had come out figuring I'd do better day trading then renting out PI's in an ever increasing saturated market, but he hadn't and still has quite a few PI's. He mentioned he was finally going to sell for multiple stacks of BB's as it was less frustrating "now that the PI market has tanked", I assume it's worse now then when I sold. But it got me thinking about how that part of the game is stale and generally broken.
Part of the joy early on this game, years ago, was the grind for better happiness right? Happiness effects all kinds of outcomes in the game and maybe should play an even bigger "behind the scenes role" then it does currently, but I digress. Teaming up with another newish player to pool your money (merits aside, the biggest incentive for marriage) and slowly climb in to a better property both as an outward status indicator of your wealth and growth as well as the most obvious benefit in better training. Then of course there was the thrill of making the leap from ranch to mansion, the ranch itself was great happy and yeah sure the mansion better but man, you now have access to the all important vault. Then the further grind to palace leading to the choice, do you buy the castle or shoot straight for the ultimate goal of the PI.
That was a fun climb and yeah it's a pretty definitive one, almost impossible to make it an infinite experience without it being game breaking. It's also an experience that very few new players will ever really get to take part in, every new player that takes the game half way serious is renting a PI in a month. Yeah eventually buying is a nice accomplishment but even us older players tell new players that buying a PI isn't the wisest of goals, for sure better things to do with your money.
All in all it's lead to a mostly pointless system where there is no real thrill...it's just kinda a meh mechanic at this point. Years ago with the unique properties being released...that certainly helped but it's also incredibly niche.
Well as we've all seen with weapons and armor post ranked war, a very stale "this is the way you do it" system can be made fun again with what amounts to more variation built on top of the existing system. There are so many combinations of builds now that didn't exist prior, arguments can be made to use crap weapons with amazing bonuses or good weapons with so so bonuses. Same with armor to a certain degree. With the degree of randomness of bonuses coupled with the "quality", the system feels as though you could experiment with it forever. Why you can end up with a 15b glock secondary or a 800m AR or anything in-between above and below.
What if the same were true of properties? Implement some kind of bonus system alongside a "quality" stat? Hypothetically make an argument out of moving in to something other then a PI? Quality could behave just as it does on gear in that it provides variation to base "stats" of the property, i.e (not quite) no two PI's are exactly the same etc. as well as some type of bonus or possible dual bonus on the properties themselves? Doesn't need to be god like, just variation, variation would kick start that market again.
I mean I could think of a million specific bonuses that could work with properties but in an effort to make it work, bonuses could be triggered much like "hiring staff" so there's some cash sink in it for the economy. Maybe even make the bonuses not actually be revealed until the property is fully upgraded or something so there's a bit of a commitment to it.
Like I said it could be done in a number of ways but the key here is creating a much larger degree of variance and a reason to spend money in that market again.
*EDIT* It was pointed out to me that this would likely end up DOA even if the community loved the idea of it without concrete examples of what bonuses could be or the quality variation etc. When I get the kids in bed later tonight I'll come up with a rough plan...this was meant to be a rough plan lol not spelling it out, but I'll do my best to come up with what I would do were I the czar and not ched. Obviously if in principle folks agree the system needs an overhaul theres that, as far as what these bonuses could be or the variation in quality...post away with ideas too.
Part of the joy early on this game, years ago, was the grind for better happiness right? Happiness effects all kinds of outcomes in the game and maybe should play an even bigger "behind the scenes role" then it does currently, but I digress. Teaming up with another newish player to pool your money (merits aside, the biggest incentive for marriage) and slowly climb in to a better property both as an outward status indicator of your wealth and growth as well as the most obvious benefit in better training. Then of course there was the thrill of making the leap from ranch to mansion, the ranch itself was great happy and yeah sure the mansion better but man, you now have access to the all important vault. Then the further grind to palace leading to the choice, do you buy the castle or shoot straight for the ultimate goal of the PI.
That was a fun climb and yeah it's a pretty definitive one, almost impossible to make it an infinite experience without it being game breaking. It's also an experience that very few new players will ever really get to take part in, every new player that takes the game half way serious is renting a PI in a month. Yeah eventually buying is a nice accomplishment but even us older players tell new players that buying a PI isn't the wisest of goals, for sure better things to do with your money.
All in all it's lead to a mostly pointless system where there is no real thrill...it's just kinda a meh mechanic at this point. Years ago with the unique properties being released...that certainly helped but it's also incredibly niche.
Well as we've all seen with weapons and armor post ranked war, a very stale "this is the way you do it" system can be made fun again with what amounts to more variation built on top of the existing system. There are so many combinations of builds now that didn't exist prior, arguments can be made to use crap weapons with amazing bonuses or good weapons with so so bonuses. Same with armor to a certain degree. With the degree of randomness of bonuses coupled with the "quality", the system feels as though you could experiment with it forever. Why you can end up with a 15b glock secondary or a 800m AR or anything in-between above and below.
What if the same were true of properties? Implement some kind of bonus system alongside a "quality" stat? Hypothetically make an argument out of moving in to something other then a PI? Quality could behave just as it does on gear in that it provides variation to base "stats" of the property, i.e (not quite) no two PI's are exactly the same etc. as well as some type of bonus or possible dual bonus on the properties themselves? Doesn't need to be god like, just variation, variation would kick start that market again.
I mean I could think of a million specific bonuses that could work with properties but in an effort to make it work, bonuses could be triggered much like "hiring staff" so there's some cash sink in it for the economy. Maybe even make the bonuses not actually be revealed until the property is fully upgraded or something so there's a bit of a commitment to it.
Like I said it could be done in a number of ways but the key here is creating a much larger degree of variance and a reason to spend money in that market again.
*EDIT* It was pointed out to me that this would likely end up DOA even if the community loved the idea of it without concrete examples of what bonuses could be or the quality variation etc. When I get the kids in bed later tonight I'll come up with a rough plan...this was meant to be a rough plan lol not spelling it out, but I'll do my best to come up with what I would do were I the czar and not ched. Obviously if in principle folks agree the system needs an overhaul theres that, as far as what these bonuses could be or the variation in quality...post away with ideas too.