I was recently planning my faction's upgrades, and I started to feel that travel cost was really weighing me down in opening a new branch.
The way the economy is nowadays, the cost of flying is relatively minuscule, even for a new player. The most expensive destination, UAE, is 40k and a newbie can easily do one slut a day and have more than enough money to pay for a day's worth of travel to different destinations. So really, there's no good reason to spend respect on those 5 upgrades beyond just burning respect points to meet the challenge of opening a new branch.
So I was thinking, instead of having travel cost, why not make it travel time? There's already very little anybody can do to decrease travel time besides having a 5.5bil block benefit, or buying expensive business tickets. So here's what I suggest:
Travel Time I : 1% reduction in travel time | 3,000 respect and 2,500 hours of flight time
Travel Time II : 2% reduction in travel time | 5,000 respect and 5,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time III : 3% reduction in travel time | 7,5000 respect and 10,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time IV : 4% reduction in travel time | 10,500 respect and 25,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time V : 5% reduction in travel time | 14,500 respect and 50,000 hours of flight time
(optional)
Travel Time VI : 6% reduction in travel time | 18,500 respect and 75,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time VII : 7% reduction in travel time | 23,000 respect and 100,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time VIII : 8% reduction in travel time | 28,000 respect and 150,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time IX : 9% reduction in travel time | 33,500 respect and 225,000 hours of flight time
Travel Time X : 10% reduction in travel time | 39,500 respect and 500,000 hours of flight time
Making this change, whether going only to Travel Time V or adding the optional Travel Time VI - X would actually make this upgrade much, much more useful and actually worth investing respect in.
The only downside to making this change, is that travel time over-all will be decreased, possibly bringing down the prices of plushie and flower sets. That being said, I think the upgrades are hard enough to get over the long run, that prices shouldn't come down by too much, and should stabilize near to where they were before.
Either way, it will be great to have good lower-cost upgrades, instead of having to wait for the considerably more expensive, and useful, rehab cost and overseas banking upgrades.
Edit: Should probably mention that the travel time reduction would stack with WLT/PI and other time reduction methods.
Since I've been hitting the whole 'reduce travel time' stuff recently (see here), I think it would be nice to have a company that reduces travel time. Here's what I'm thinking:
Set-up Cost: 5bil - 10bil
1* special *Extra Carry On*: +1 travel item (passive)
3* special *I'm a doctor!*: Carry 1 medical item on next trip (5 points)
5* special *Magic Carpet*: 1 Business Class Ticket (100 - 150 points)
7* special *Let's go, go, go!*: 5% - 10% reduction in travel time | stacks with PI/WLT (passive)
10* special *Black Market Antiquities*: Random chance of an artifact (500 points)
Since this is a 'potent' company, I think it should have a high barrier of entry, and a higher cost to do company specials. Stats would have to be somewhere in the 50k - 150k range I think.
I haven't really gone into the specifics of the point cost, since the idea for this is the specials themselves. That being said, business class ticket is based on BB payout, it should take 10-15 days to get one in a 10* company. Similarly, artifact is 50 days to get a random chance.
The extra medical item I'm not sure. People travel often, so setting it at 5 points per use would mean people have to make a cost/benefit analysis when to use, for example when going to Caymans. As for the extra item, I think +1 is good so it doesn't OP the company or overshadow cruise-line.
I also think most employee jobs would be things like 'pilot', 'co-pilot', 'crew', etc.
Suggestions:
Candymonster: 1* special *Extra Carry On*: +1 travel item on next trip, stacks up to 10 extra items (5 points)
KermodeBear:
- Success Bonus to Transport Crimes (Drugs / Weapons Trafficking, since you can circumvent airport security).
- Papers, Please: An anonymous tip means airport security needs to conduct a, ahem, very thorough examination next time you fly. Target's happiness reduced next time they fly.
- Bomb Sniffing Dog: You're aware when a package contains an explosive, and you can disarm the device (and gain an SED in the process) when you open the package.
- Terrorist Watchlist: Prevent someone from flying out of (but not back to) Torn for 24 hours. Multiple uses stack. (this one I think would be to OP but def very interesting).
Hinotori: +3 travel items instead of +1.
Hexagon: Swap the 10* and the 7* special, but raise the current 10* special to 700 JP
Yeah, I know a lot of people think it's dumb, and not worth it compared to going with Xanax, but I've been aiming for this thing for well over 1.5k days, so I'm certainly happy I managed to get there!
Originally I didn't give a shit about the whole thing until I realized that committee members were involved. Well honestly, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You *are* supposed to protect the spirit and fair play of this game, not completely ignore a legitimate loophole because 'It gives us an advantage' or 'because we're smarter than the rest of the playerbase'
Also, the argument that abusing a loophole is OK because it doesn't stack the team is completely illegitimate. In fact, there is never a legitimate argument for a committee member to abuse a loophole. You should all know that very well by now.
Similarly, did any of you committee members ever think that you might be taking up spots from real female players? The teams have a capacity limit, and two big factions joining can make a significant impact on that capacity.
Finally, I don't appreciate any of you acting superior and holier than thou. Calling people stupid is completely unacceptable for committee members. What kind of good job could you possible do if you look down on the playerbase you're supposed to serve? People are having a legitimate gripe and all you can do is make it about yourselves.
I'm also very disappointed in both Harley and Bogie, you two are meant to be intelligent. Don't go around belittling people. You're supposed to be better than that.
Listen, just to be clear: I was away for a while and didn't check the committee thread on this, it was only brought to attention to me by KT yesterday when I made the post.
I just point this out to be fair to Ched that I specifically did not oppose this at the time I made my comment. Since then I have made a comment about it in the committee space.
So if this change takes place, I will never be able to do even the minimum hits without burning several millions as I'm an SSL user.
I might as well just leave my faction and never be involved in any kind of war again simply because I can't drop as much E in a short time period as Xanax users can.
Personally, I don't want to reset my API key because I don't want to fall under the new API rules. So I guess the changes to the API system just add vulnerability because some people (such as myself) would rather risk it than having to deal with the literal open buffet of the new API rules.
3,492 old player who doesn't know what level holding is, I think I may have found a unicorn.
Also, I don't care about networth. If you do, that's fine, but not everybody enjoys playing the game the same way that you do. You want to be a grumpy asshole about it, go ahead, but I'm done feeding the troll.
Thanks! I'm glad to know that the following makes me an average player:
- Having co-led a top100 faciton - Mostly ever been in top 100 factions/chains - Being a committee member - Enjoying the game by playing it the way I want to - Not being a whiny player that thinks they're better than everybody else because they follow the meta (which everybody follows)
(Also, just an FYI, SSL users can keep up with Xanax users in stats if they want to min/max as well)
Gym gains is an ever-moving target that you'll never hit, and so for me, it was much more fun and enjoyable aiming for SSL and being part of a small club of people who didn't use Xanax. Truth is, you're never going to outpace the people who've been training for years before you, so I don't necessarily follow the meta of training being the best thing out there. Like seriously, you'll never outpace BB in stats, or the hundreds if not thousands of people who came before you.
I'll also say that I wasn't really min/maxing my SSL training either with FHCs/LSD, so again, even with aiming for SSL getting the best stats wasn't necessarily my goal. I'm still able to contribute to wars, take part in dog tags, and even elimination, because there are always people with worse stats than me to hit.
So simply put, I don't regret it at all. With that portion of going inactive, I would have missed out on TONS of Xanax training if I went that route and it would have bothered the shit out of me. So overall, I think I made the right choice in playing the game the way that I think works best for me.
All that being said, I'm not blind to the fact that Xanax training is waaaaaay better, and if people prefer the gym gains grind, then that's what they should do. At some point you realize that this game is a marathon so its best to just play it the way you enjoy it the most :D
Yeah, I know a lot of people think it's dumb, and not worth it compared to going with Xanax, but I've been aiming for this thing for well over 1.5k days, so I'm certainly happy I managed to get there!