AD Sink Idea - Not Mine

sandukutupu

So there I was playing in the game, farming and recruiting people I know for the Barovian Bash (shameless plug) when a player was telling me about their idea for an AD / Gold sink. They said, I could tell it to you here but they don't want credit... especially if it got added to the game as they fear lynchings.

Have a system where the more AD and Gold you pay your companion on a daily basis, the harder they will fight for you. The idea would be the amount you put in would boost all their stats for the day. The more you spend, the higher the stats until your Redcap Powrie can just one punch a dragon. Got 500K AD? Cooldown timers would end up non-existent for the day and the dungeon boss wouldn't see you coming.

I told them, it sounded a lot like a pay to win. They replied, what else are you going to spend all that AD on? So THAT is what I was talking about today with yet another player who claims to be too busy to assist on the Halloween Party. Odd thing is, I don't even have the date set yet and they are too busy??

Have fun!

sagakaiyume

Wouldn't be bad, but problem is with the devs they would create new content based around spending the max amount on each player/day, I really don't want to have to spend 500k a day to run newest dungeons/trials..

sandukutupu

I just tossed the number out there. I think their idea was spend a little get a little, spend a lot get a lot more help.
We didn't discuss any mechanics or the minimum or maximum. Just talking about how the companions have been hurting since module 16 and this is almost mod 20 now.

plasticbat

1. It is not a good way to do AD sink. This basically is charging a ever leaking fee to run a companion. If it is implemented, it will be the 'default' setting to run a companion and the game will be adjusted to be tougher to force everyone to pay the fee to compete.
2. If they implement this, the least bad is it changes the balance. The worst bad is it may work for some companion and not work properly to some. New player sees their AD disappears.
3. If they want AD sink with companion enhancement in mind, just put something people would buy regularly such as overload runestone. Older companion gear has overload slot. May just add some new companion gear which has 2 offense/defense slot + overload slot. Put some overload runestone (which has timer) in AD store. Since overload enhancement does not pass to character, regular companion may come back.

froger

I like this concept. I would put AD into temporarily increasing a companions effectiveness, attack/heal timing, etc. Something like this could make actual companions, not augments, useful in game again.

sandukutupu

I told them my thought on it. Who would pay out more than 100K AD per day when you are capped just to boost a companion? This would be operating at a loss. The originator of this notion was stating it would be a AD or Gold sink. While I don't see a need for a Gold sink, I do have a lot of gold piling up for sure. Their idea isn't to change any balance as we are talking about companions and they don't take an active role in PvP. I believe we both agreed, the idea would not be liked by the community, as many players have come to resent any changes made to the game.

Like I stated above, this was an idle conversation we had about what could be done with broken companion system. In all reality, my opinion remains, the companions need to be buffed back up to standard. As the current system is now, I only know of a select few companions that actually do a decent job fighting at your side. Augments are being pushed on players and I have no clue why the developers want augments as the standard. I can only suspect (conspiracy theory) it maybe a long term goal, to eliminate the companion system altogether by crippling it. Thus removing another aspect of this game and making the developer's task easier.

zimxero

They used to have pet equipment with overload slots for pets. If implemented, this would be the easiest way. They would just need to release better gear with the overload slots, and have different tiers of overloads available at different AD values.

Personally, I'd rather they just increased the abilities & damage of under-performing companions. Another thing they could do is give a .1% damage boost to all companions, for each companion owned. This would increase the demand-value of underperforming 'junk' companions. It would sink AD via the trade-sink method (10% per trade).

sagakaiyume

I joined NW at the end of the life of non-augments. Just barely hitting level 70, only having an energon. So never really got to make use of active companions. Would be nice to see them given some real value.

oldbaldyone

sagakaiyume#0847 said:

I joined NW at the end of the life of non-augments. Just barely hitting level 70, only having an energon. So never really got to make use of active companions. Would be nice to see them given some real value.

Give it a few mods, they will come back around. Companions have gone round and round being best. First it was active pets cause they were neat...then augments once people started min/maxing, then pets due to bondings, now augments again. Give it a bit and actives will be great again.

milehighxr

Horrible, just horrible idea. We don't need anymore AD sinks in this game. As it is I stopped refining the reforager box or whatever it is from bel simply because it requires AD to get it to max rank. While I understand they need to make money, and we can get AD fro free if we want to, I'm not gonna risk spending upwards of 100k AD or more to refine something to max for only 400 stat points over Legendary. I need all my precious AD for refining enchants and upgrading comps and soon mounts.

sandukutupu

I don't use AD to upgrade companions. The tokens Sybella gives you are good enough. I am pretty sure the game needs AD to be used up
(aka AD sink not a refinement) but this suggestion was about about paying companions to fight better. And the originator said Gold or AD to bribe them. Those who suggested a gear overload slot, this would not work as both the companion and augment would benefit and you are back to augments being the "better" choice. I spoke to my friend again about it and he said, he wants to pay the companions direct and is far too lazy to walk to any store to buy overload enchants.

@milehighxr#1299 I think the only way to remove AD sinks would be to remove Zen from the system, but don't worry that won't happen either.

regenerde

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

plasticbat

regenerde said:

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

Nice idea except the account wide option should be at most 5 times of the non-account wide version. Unless one really needs the same companion for 10 characters (and one indeed plays 10 characters), it would not be sold.

regenerde

plasticbat said:

regenerde said:

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

Nice idea except the account wide option should be at most 5 times of the non-account wide version. Unless one really needs the same companion for 10 characters (and one indeed plays 10 characters), it would not be sold.

Well, the 25% ViP discount plus any Wondrous Bazaar Sale event should get you pretty close to the account-wide companion price limit you're looking for here.

zimxero

plasticbat said:

regenerde said:

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

Nice idea except the account wide option should be at most 5 times of the non-account wide version. Unless one really needs the same companion for 10 characters (and one indeed plays 10 characters), it would not be sold.

3x to 4x price for account wide option seems about right to me. You can only play one character at a time. You can't possibly keep more than 4x characters at BiS, unless your spending thousands a year or playing all day long. We don't need to worry about those players anyway.. they are a tiny percentage of the whole.

sandukutupu

zimxero#8085 said:

plasticbat said:

regenerde said:

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

Nice idea except the account wide option should be at most 5 times of the non-account wide version. Unless one really needs the same companion for 10 characters (and one indeed plays 10 characters), it would not be sold.

3x to 4x price for account wide option seems about right to me. You can only play one character at a time. You can't possibly keep more than 4x characters at BiS, unless your spending thousands a year or playing all day long. We don't need to worry about those players anyway.. they are a tiny percentage of the whole.

I know plastic stated they play 6 characters and I actively play 8 myself. I never spent a dime, I don't do BiS or VIP, because I like to have fun. I don't see anything in the Wondrous Bazaar that I desire to purchase. Teleport scrolls for 4K AD when I can buy them for 250 AD in the AH??

I agree they need to fix the Wondrous Bazaar to something more along the lines of what Champions offers in their Questionite Store. I have purchased powers (such as Burgundy Beetle's tunnelling power) and many other things from that store. Their version of the Wondrous Bazaar keeps their Zen exchange operating in the black. I liked the idea of the Astral Lock Box in their too, it is a shame everyone wanted to buy it just to make a quick profit. AD sink means you lose AD and gain nothing but virtual items.

plasticbat

regenerde said:

plasticbat said:

regenerde said:

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

Nice idea except the account wide option should be at most 5 times of the non-account wide version. Unless one really needs the same companion for 10 characters (and one indeed plays 10 characters), it would not be sold.

Well, the 25% ViP discount plus any Wondrous Bazaar Sale event should get you pretty close to the account-wide companion price limit you're looking for here.

Good point.

plasticbat

zimxero#8085 said:

plasticbat said:

regenerde said:

Hmmm, would i be willing to pay extra for getting companions back into a usefull state, something similar to how they were working before they were nerfed to the Nine Hells and back?
Hell no!

Besides, the Devs allready have a good tool for AD sinks in place, it's called the Wondrous Bazaar, all they have to do is throw some good (bound to account, to avoid any "economy issues") reasonable priced stuff into it, rotate some special stuff through it on a weekly/monthly basis, and activate bigger sales for it around seasonal events.

For example, a solid epic companion could be priced around 100k in the Bazaar, with an account-wide option being around 1m AD.

That should drain some AD out of the game...

Nice idea except the account wide option should be at most 5 times of the non-account wide version. Unless one really needs the same companion for 10 characters (and one indeed plays 10 characters), it would not be sold.

3x to 4x price for account wide option seems about right to me. You can only play one character at a time. You can't possibly keep more than 4x characters at BiS, unless your spending thousands a year or playing all day long. We don't need to worry about those players anyway.. they are a tiny percentage of the whole.

Not everyone chases BiS. One can have multiple near BiS characters. One can have multiple near near BiS characters. One can have one BiS characters + multiple near BiS characters or any combination.

I personally play 6 characters. None is BiS. They all progress in more or less the same rate in terms of campaign. All of them finish all the campaigns. I do grind for all 6 characters. The difference is which I would do first. I invest more or less the same to each. Yes, some would be invested first and some would be invested later. So, yes, I prefer account wide stuff. It is just pointless for me to buy any account wide stuff which is over 6x of the normal version. Since I always cover 6 characters, yes, I always look for a deal and do thing 'economically'. I do believe I have enough fund/resource to make one to two BiS characters but I just don't have the urge to do so because I consider waste of resource to maintain it (because it will always be nerf'ed).