Hoo boy.
Okay, so I won't respond to everything, and just start from pw's announcement. If there's anything one would still like to see me answer from before that for whatever reason, you can still ask (or better yet, pm it).
3. Anyone who designs a weapon and puts it in the armory, regardless of if they're from heph or not, will get 25% of all money spent by people buying that weapon or tool, and any ammo or other things directly associated with it. We'll even round up for you. With this money you CAN buy things from the ship and do stuff like that. I hope it motivates you to create things guaranteed to sell. Things everyone will want.
I suppose this doesn't count for 1-token things, and while it counts for new purchases of old designs, it doesn't for old purchases?
4. I'm giving more power and control to the council, and looking for one more member, to ease the burden on the existing council. I want to essentially give the council the veto or acceptance power for new weapons and tech on a balance perspective. In other words, the stuff with Sy that I've been doing, the materials science and all, or any experiments or that sort of thing would be handled by me, but things like the number of shots a weapon would have, the price, the size, etc would be handled, for the most part, by the council. So me for science, them for applications of what that science discovers. And of course I would have ultimate accept or veto and probably be consulted on anything they can't figure out.
*Initiate Phase 2*
How will we talk to the council for designs? Posting marked actions in the Heph thread, and we get responses through PW? Or will we be doing the old method, where we discuss things with Radio and the council speaks through him?
Initially with the council, I wanted to maintain full anonymity and work via pw, but that was so slow it really didn't work out. So, via me or hapah sounds best, I guess?
I, on the other hand, foresee that between the Council being full of metaphorical realism sharks, and apparently our future effectiveness being dependent on building things that sell, the future of our Armory is going to be fairly gray. Or brown and bloom, as it were.
If you don't design something to sell in the armory, and not something vague for background stuff, then what would you be designing anyway? Intentional armory clutter, so to speak?
I'm personally more concerned about the concept of balance as a whole in this game. I was under the impression that our job is to tip the scales as far into our own favor as possible, and if it doesn't conform to previous pricing patterns, then so be it, because the UWM would still be doing R&D for their own military and that balance would occur out of Red Queen Hypothesis (we make better or cheaper gear, so too does the UWM, so even though the quality of the equipment increases, there is no relative gain) more than us overpricing new equipment that we could mass produce relatively cheaply if necessary.
It's less "you cannot have an improved laser rifle for the same two tokens as before" and more "no, you cannot have that battlesuit for three tokens" I'd think.
3) What precisely qualifies as a developed item? For example, referencing some of my discussions with you, would Skylar's light-robolimb count, but not the ordinary limbs/organs I asked the AM about?
Hmm. Maybe only items that are clearly 'newly developed'? So yes for an assault suit, no for an AS variant perhaps?
Okay, in my capacity as Deputy Admin of Engineering, I have to make this statement:
Even though the current prototype system is being abolished, the Admin of Engineering reserves the right of final judgement on admittance of a design to the armory list, after the GM's and the Council's approval.
This is the sacred right that I inherited from my predecessor, and this is how I shall pass it on (return to him) when the time comes.
AKA an IC check after the OOC checks?
- Avatars of War now cost 50 tokens to allow an appropriate price gap between them and other gear.
Payment plans hoo! Here's hoping I don't default on my debt!
Congratulations to the council, you have solved the "possible overcreation of suit variants" problem by making it so that there is absolutely no reason to ever buy a variant suit. ever.
Why thank you, we try our best.
But seriously, we shouldn't bury the body before the coroner has had his chance! Let's first give it some time and see where this goes.
I support the idea of increasing the gradient of token values (like doubling every token value across the board) to allow finer tuning.
I proposed, waaay before, multiplying all the tokens by ten. Easy, just putting a zero behind every armory item and inventory total, and now you have more leeway. If nothing else, it could stimulate inter player economy.
I hate power creep.
Understandable. PW has said though we are supposed to increase in tech (and thus, power) over time to keep up and give an edge. But getting a laser rifle of +5 lazering for the price or a regular laser rifle is still in the same 'power' category as before. Another way to see it perhaps: it's ok for a newbie running around with weapons more powerful than what newbies had at ER start. But that doesn't mean we should have 0-mission newbs running around as giant robot overlords because the new battlesuit suddenly only costs 5 tokens.
Sean, if you still want the pyramid, the team fund can buy it for you probably.