- Proposal
- Consolidation of the multiple space player voices with one overhaul of the space end game and credit generation issues. Details below.
- Justification
- Having multiple different player voices for adjusting different parts of space leaves room for favorable adjustments to be made while ones that people don’t like are significantly downvoted. There must be concessions made, like it or not, to find balance. Otherwise the devs may just decide to nerf space how they see fit (and still could). Combining everything into one revamp shows a clear path forward, with actual balance changes designed to shift the focus of space from credit farming to ship building and combat. I’ve compiled this list based on discussions held by people in discord, other player voice posts, as well as my own thoughts.
- Motivation
- An attempt to find common ground that players can agree upon, shifting the focus of space from farming credits to building better ships and enjoying more content.
Issue #1 – Credit Generation
Between credit chips and part drops, the amount of system generated credits per kill results in a large disparity between how much can be earned in space per hour when compared to ground activities. There are locations in space where credits and parts can be farmed without having to move at all. Running a simple macro can net you upwards of 750k per hour with zero effort. There is no similar activity on ground that comes close to matching this.
Proposed Solution
Simply nerfing credit reduction in space will only create disparity for newer players in an already inflating economy. Rather than only reducing space credit generation, we should shift some of this generation to ground combat activities and rewards so that both paths provide opportunities for new and existing players to make decent earnings. Targeting higher tier ships for the credit chip reduction will keep new players from being heavily affected, so that they can still earn towards purchasing future upgrades. I’m proposing a 60% reduction to weapon value to the junk vendor while a sizable increase to the current value or armor and jewelry. This should balance out as armor/jewelry drop heavily compared to weapons, yet currently only sell for a fraction of what a weapon goes for.
Issue #2 – Ship Decay
Currently, ship parts have zero decay. This means that there is zero cost to a decent pilot while farming. Their ship remains in perfect condition while they amass a fortune. Even if your ship is destroyed and you repair it to full at a space station, the cost is minimal.
Proposed Solution
There are too few credit sinks at the end game of space. Once you’ve finished leveling up your pilot and building your high-end ship, several things happen. You no longer need to buy components from a shipwright. They are reduced to selling you missiles, repair kits, and the like. As your ship and piloting skills both improve over time, you are needing to repair less, thus negating any potential credit sink of having to do so. These changes would offer Shipwrights additional avenues to continue making credits through new and rebuilt parts. It would also help prevent some credits from entering the economy due to parts being needed to rebuild a reversed engineered component. There was talk of making space collections repeatable, but I think this is a poor choice because it will flood the market with these parts, thus decreasing their value. Making the components deconstructable so that it can be recrafted achieves the same goal of the part not ending up gone forever, while also keeping the value of the part intact.
Issue #3 – Duty Tokens And Their Rewards
Currently the amount of duty tokens received from missions, even while overt, is low compared to the cost of obtaining a ship part from Kash. Kash himself is another problem, being essentially a slot machine that makes all those duty tokens you just farmed mostly worthless. This combination makes duty missions less enticing than simply farming for parts.
Proposed Solution
The consistent message about the end game of space is that it is focused on Reverse Engineering and PvP. Increasing duty mission payout will allow players to purchase parts from Kash at a faster pace, and the pity timer will ensure that your efforts are not in vain. Duty tokens are typically junk not only because of their low drop rate per time spent, but also due to poor rate of return when purchasing parts. Only increasing their payouts will just result in more useless parts, keeping these activities unattractive compared to regular farming.
Summary
Just implementing one of the changes by itself does not solve the problem. The changes proposed are designed to compliment and work with each other to bring space more in line with ground regarding credit generation, provide shipwrights with more work at the end game of space, and provide the space player with more worthwhile activities at the end game. There was some math done to obtain the numbers I used, but this is just a starting point for discussion and fine tuning.
Between credit chips and part drops, the amount of system generated credits per kill results in a large disparity between how much can be earned in space per hour when compared to ground activities. There are locations in space where credits and parts can be farmed without having to move at all. Running a simple macro can net you upwards of 750k per hour with zero effort. There is no similar activity on ground that comes close to matching this.
Proposed Solution
- 50% reduction in credit chip value per kill of T6 and higher enemies.
- 50% reduction in value of ship parts sold to the chassis dealer.
- 75% increase in credit generation from ground kills/missions. (Excluding BH Payouts)
- Adjust the value of weapons, armor, and jewelry to sell to the junk vendor at 40 credits per CL.
Simply nerfing credit reduction in space will only create disparity for newer players in an already inflating economy. Rather than only reducing space credit generation, we should shift some of this generation to ground combat activities and rewards so that both paths provide opportunities for new and existing players to make decent earnings. Targeting higher tier ships for the credit chip reduction will keep new players from being heavily affected, so that they can still earn towards purchasing future upgrades. I’m proposing a 60% reduction to weapon value to the junk vendor while a sizable increase to the current value or armor and jewelry. This should balance out as armor/jewelry drop heavily compared to weapons, yet currently only sell for a fraction of what a weapon goes for.
Issue #2 – Ship Decay
Currently, ship parts have zero decay. This means that there is zero cost to a decent pilot while farming. Their ship remains in perfect condition while they amass a fortune. Even if your ship is destroyed and you repair it to full at a space station, the cost is minimal.
Proposed Solution
- Introduce a stat to both crafted and RE’d parts that matches ground items, Condition.
- Condition should wear down through use of the components or other factors such as being destroyed, shot, or overcharged. This should happen at different rates to ensure a player isn’t having to essentially build a whole new ship all at once.
- Normal crafted ship components should have a repair system similar to weapons and armor and then eventually need to be replaced once broken.
- Collection ship components should have an option to deconstruct them back into a schematic once broken and be recrafted by a Shipwright.
- Reverse Engineered components should be able to be remade in the same fashion they were created originally, with the broken component being rebuilt as it was or even upgraded if better parts are used during the recrafting process.
- Starter ships and their components should be exempt from this as to allow new pilots time to familiarize themselves with piloting and to start saving credits for a better ship.
There are too few credit sinks at the end game of space. Once you’ve finished leveling up your pilot and building your high-end ship, several things happen. You no longer need to buy components from a shipwright. They are reduced to selling you missiles, repair kits, and the like. As your ship and piloting skills both improve over time, you are needing to repair less, thus negating any potential credit sink of having to do so. These changes would offer Shipwrights additional avenues to continue making credits through new and rebuilt parts. It would also help prevent some credits from entering the economy due to parts being needed to rebuild a reversed engineered component. There was talk of making space collections repeatable, but I think this is a poor choice because it will flood the market with these parts, thus decreasing their value. Making the components deconstructable so that it can be recrafted achieves the same goal of the part not ending up gone forever, while also keeping the value of the part intact.
Issue #3 – Duty Tokens And Their Rewards
Currently the amount of duty tokens received from missions, even while overt, is low compared to the cost of obtaining a ship part from Kash. Kash himself is another problem, being essentially a slot machine that makes all those duty tokens you just farmed mostly worthless. This combination makes duty missions less enticing than simply farming for parts.
Proposed Solution
- Increase duty mission payouts by 50% for regular duty mission rewards.
- Increase duty mission payouts by 100% for overt mission rewards.
- Add a pity timer to Kash Nunes that if you have not received a part that has a stat of 95% or above in your last 15 purchases, the next one is guaranteed to have at least one that meets this (excluding armor).
- See Narmy’s post regarding introducing new duty missions. This additional content is needed for end game activities. Here is his player voice.
The consistent message about the end game of space is that it is focused on Reverse Engineering and PvP. Increasing duty mission payout will allow players to purchase parts from Kash at a faster pace, and the pity timer will ensure that your efforts are not in vain. Duty tokens are typically junk not only because of their low drop rate per time spent, but also due to poor rate of return when purchasing parts. Only increasing their payouts will just result in more useless parts, keeping these activities unattractive compared to regular farming.
Summary
Just implementing one of the changes by itself does not solve the problem. The changes proposed are designed to compliment and work with each other to bring space more in line with ground regarding credit generation, provide shipwrights with more work at the end game of space, and provide the space player with more worthwhile activities at the end game. There was some math done to obtain the numbers I used, but this is just a starting point for discussion and fine tuning.
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