New merit upgrades: Energy Bar

Sorry if something similar has already been suggested before.
But I've been thinking about this suggestion for a while.
Would like to hear feedbacks and thoughts about this suggestion, especially for balancing.

Summary

Add new merit upgrades to increase max Energy bar.
With 10 Energy per upgrade level, up to 100 additional Energy at level 10.
So at maxed 10/10 upgrades, with Donator status on, max Energy bar will be 250.

Balancing: maybe reduce to 5 Energy per upgrade level.
So with 5 energy per upgrade level, up to 50 additional Energy at level 10.
So at maxed 10/10 upgrades, with Donator status on, max Energy bar will be 200.

Why do we need it?

1) To increase Energy full bar regen period because the current 5 hours is too short.

2) To minimize Energy wasted when being offline for more than 5 hours (especially during overnight period).

3) To upgrade current Energy bar limit, to be inline with Nerve bar upgrade by Crimes 2.0.

4) To increase attack hits count for full Energy bar from 6 to 10 (or 8 for balancing) .

5) To make Energy stacking easier and less awkward, where most people stack up to 900 Energy.

Comparisons: current use cases

1) With Donator status on, 150 Energy full bar regen period = 150 / 5 * 10 minutes = 300 minutes = 5 hours.

2) 5 hours is too short for overnight offline period for most people.
For examples, with offline period of:

6 hours: 1 hour worth of 30 Energy regen wasted.
7 hours: 2 hours worth of 60 Energy regen wasted.
8 hours: 3 hours worth of 90 Energy regen wasted, which is more than half bar!

3) Compared to Nerve Bar, we already have merit upgrades to increase max Nerve for ages.
With Crimes 2.0, faction perks and company perks, max nerve bar has significantly increased.

For example: 90 Natural Nerve + 5 (from Nerve merit) + 40 (from faction Criminality maxed Nerve) + 15 (from Pub company 10* perk) = 150 max nerve.
For 150 max nerve, full bar regen period = 150 * 5 / 60 = 12.5 hours.
That is 2.5 times more than full regen period for Energy!
Quite long period for most people so that no nerves are wasted during long offline period.

Even with only Nerve merits upgrade and faction perks, for low Natural Nerve like 55 + 5 + 40 = 100 max nerve will take 8.33 hours.
Which is still much longer than only 5 hours.

4) 150 Energy = only 6 attack hits. Plus refill, becomes 12.
We are used to the strange numbers but they certainly can be improved!

5) When stacking Energy, 150 + 750 (from 3 Xanax) = 900 Energy.
So close to 1000 but not quite. If another Xanax is taken, 150 Energy is wasted.

Comparisons: new use cases

1) With Donator status on, 250 Energy full bar regen period = 250 / 5 * 10 minutes = 500 minutes = 8.33 hours.
Balancing: 200 Energy full bar regen period = 200 / 5 * 10 minutes = 400 minutes = 6.66 hours.

2) 8.33 hours is quite long period for most people, especially for overnight offline period.
Can significantly reduce natural Energy regen from being wasted.
Balancing: 6.66 hours is still long enough and better than only 5 hours.

3) With the new merits, the 250 (or 200) Energy full bar regen period will be inline with Nerve Bar.
And it is time to upgrade Energy bar since it has been the same for ages.

4) 250 Energy = 10 attack hits. Plus refill, becomes 20.
Perfect even numbers for chaining and warring.
Balancing: 200 Energy = 8 attack hits. Plus refill, becomes 16. Still a good improvement.

5) When stacking Energy, 250 + 3 Xanax (750) = 1000 Energy!
Perfectly at max Energy after 3 Xanax. No need to take 4th Xanax and no Energy is wasted.
Balancing: 200 + 3 Xanax (750) = 950 Energy. Almost maxed but not quite but still a good improvement.

6) At 250 Energy, the 25 points for refill will be even more worth it.
This will also be inline with Nerve refill, which with Crimes 2.0, the same points can refill 100+ nerve.
Balancing: For either 200 or 250 Energy, increase points required for refill to 50 points (2 points per level).

Balancing

1) The effect from the Energy Bar merit upgrades will be active only when Donator status is on.
If Donator status is off, max Energy bar will be 100, even with maxed 10/10 Energy Bar merit upgrades.
Indirectly, this can be a good reason to always have Donator status on.
And perhaps open the possibilities for other new merits that will only be available when Donator status is on.

2) The regen rate for Energy will remain the same: 5 Energy every 10 minutes.
So that at 250 Energy, full bar regen period = 8.33 hours.

3) If 10 Energy per merit point is too high, then perhaps 5 Energy per merit point can be considered.
However, if only 5 Energy, max Energy will be 200 at 10/10 merits, so full regen period = 6.66 hours only.
Kinda defeat the original main purpose to increase the full regen period to over 8 hours and minimize Energy wasted.
And 200 Energy = 8 hits, so close to 10 but not quite. With refill it's 16, so might as well make it 20.
For Energy stacking, after 3 Xanax = 950 Energy, so awkwardly close to 1000 Energy.

4) Maybe increase the points required to refill Energy with maxed upgrades from 25 to 50?
And for every 2 level upgrades, perhaps can increase the points required by 5.

Edit 1: improve content display and added comparisons between the current use case and new use cases in table format.
Edit 2: Added notes on balancing in Summary and New use cases sections.

The current use case vs new use cases

Comparisons between the current use case and new use cases in table format.

Current use case: No Upgrade
New use cases: 5 energy per upgrade level (balancing) and 10 energy per upgrade level (preferred)

#	Criteria	No Upgrade	5 energy per upgrade level	10 energy per upgrade level
1	Extra Energy	0	50	100
2	Max Energy	150	200	250
3	Full bar regen period	300 minutes (5 hours)	400 minutes (6.66 hours)	500 minutes (8.33 hours)
4	Energy wasted after offline period of 6 hours	30	0	0
5	Energy wasted after offline period of 7 hours	60	10	0
6	Energy wasted after offline period of 8 hours	90	40	0
7	Hits count from full bar	6	8	10
8	Hits count from full bar + refill	12	16	20
9	Total Energy after stacking 3 Xanax	900	950	1000
10	Total Energy after stacking 4 Xanax	1000 (150 Energy wasted)	1000 (100 Energy wasted)	1000 (No need 4th Xanax)
11	Compared with regen period for 100 max Nerve *	-3.33 hours	-1.67 hours	0 hour
12	Compared with regen period for 150 max Nerve *	-7.5 hours	-5.84 hours	+4.17 hours
13	Max Energy with Donator status ON (balancing)	150	200	250
14	Max Energy with Donator status OFF (balancing)	100	100	100
15	Energy regen per 10 minutes (balancing)	5	5	5
16	Points required for refill (balancing)	25	50 (+5 points per level)	50 (+5 points per level)

Notes:
a) regen period for 100 max Nerve = 8.33 hours
b) regen period for 150 max Nerve = 12.5 hours

Bump. Would love to hear thoughts and opinions about this.

Not sure I'd want this to be a merit upgrade but I otherwise fully support this. The current energy bar system has always encouraged unhealthy real world habits in order to get the absolute maximum use out of it at any given time.

Exactly. Some people have alarms ready around the clock including night time, affecting their sleep time.
So even if each upgrade is only 5 Energy per level, full regen period of 6.66 hours will still be beneficial for everyone.

bump

Bump

Bump! Added comparisons between the current use case and new use cases in table format.

I disagree. Makes the game too easy. This suggestion will even out the playing field too much.

Many players, such as myself, set an alarm in the middle of the night to wakeup, spend our E, and travel. Among other various things such as stacking E etc. This is dedication. With dedication, you see results; giving you a competitive advantage over players who are lazy slobs... sleeping IRL when their E bar is full!

Bump

I think 8 hours to refill might be overshooting it. We dont need that honestly. 6.66hours sound sweet! Sleep sound and wake up for a full bar, without losing natural regen

This will drastically affect the prices of Fhcs used to refill to a 200/250 max bar and even Points market to some extent mayb

R+ for the effort put into this suggestion

Bump

Definitely need this, I lose so much E overnight, I'll be damned if I'm setting a alarm half way through the night

B

I do like this idea with the merits increasing energy capacity to help get the most of energy after a 5-8 hour sleep. What im not keen on is the idea that FHCs and refills is also effected giving a potential 250 energy instead of the maximum 150 energy... I feel that this is too much (and obviously will impact on the price of FHCs).

I feel the idea should only focus on the concept you have mentioned:

"To minimize Energy wasted when being offline for more than 5 hours (especially during overnight period)"

This alone is great incentive as it will mean people like me can not worry as much from longer sleeps.

The extra stuff like increased energy from FHCs/ energy refills is not needed... Keep it the same, so they never give more than 150 energy if used (even if your energy bar has the potential to go to 250). You could get to 250 energy by using a FHC (150 energy), then waiting a few hours so it will naturally rise to it.

Thank you for your feedback. You brought a good point on FHCs.
But I don't think it can work that way as it is meant to refill the Energy bar.

If this suggestion is to be accepted in the end, I think the upgrade will most likely be 5 Energy per level (the balancing option).
Which will make it max 200 Energy and using FHC to refill 200 Energy is not that imba IMO.
It's just extra 50 Energy, which is equivalent to only 2 extra hits.
And yes, this will naturally make FHCs become more valuable later.

bump

Yes, but the fhcs in their current state already provide only 6 hits, so to shift the perspective, those 2 extra hits account for a 1/3 increase in their efficiency, which is a fairly considerable amount.

Personally I like this idea a lot. It would be great for people who don't want to mess up their sleep schedule for extra bit of energy and each merit increment would add extra 3,33% energy which is pretty on par with the rest of the upgrades providing anywhere from 1% to 5% bonuses depending on the upgrade. Just didn't like the part where you said it's only two extra hits because IMO its too high to be shrugged off as just two extra hits.

Still R+

I won't comment on the Suggestion just yet, I'll let it sit in my brain for a while, but I'll share some immediate points that need further balancing:

FHC, obviously, since FHC refill your energy bar, this would increase energy per FHC by 66.6%, which is massive, it would make cans obsolete in both efficiency and value.

Max Energy Book, would have to be rebalanced with FHC use in mind.

Flight times, current flight economy revolves around 5h energy regen time, balancing out lower earning short flights with higher earning long flights that would waste Energy.

Another effect would be Happy jumps
On 1000 E jumps, it would make the jumps one xanax shorter and provide extra 100 Energy per jump,
In one or zero xanax cholocate jumps, it would drastically increase jump efficiency, giving extra 200 Energy per jump.

Also stacking in general would be one xanax shorter, doing the "ghetto stack" except getting full 1000 energy, rather then only 900.

Im going to hit a +1 on this but also just state, Ched has said on numerous different types of Ebar booster threads that he will not be changing the maximum amount of energy by any means. So I support this, but i doubt he will