One of the complaints I keep seeing the players that own shops want more players to use them and my response back has been it is a hassle to find anything in shops so why waste the time. I think if shopkeepers want to incent players to find their shops then they need to be willing to have some changes made to the game. The way it currently works a player with a shop gets footfall for a visitor even if they did not have the item in stock or had it at a much higher price than the competition. It is just the way the system currently work.
I propose the following changes:
1 – When you use a portal the portal owner get footfall for the passage through the portal. The owner is the player that is fueling the portal. Portals are unique in that once set up they require a constant source of fuel or they close. A Shop owner or crafter can stay away from their shop or workshop and not have to refuel it or it closes. They are making items which have value and can be sold for coin. I would use the current parameters for calculating footfall for this.
2 – Flip footfall to the visitor versus the builder. If the game is about exploring then provide incentive to explore. In this case I would not use the same mechanic as it would incent players to go to larger cities over single player builds. Make it a flat per visit to a beacon over a certain prestige level, but use the same declining return methodology currently in place to prevent a player from merely running around a mall or city in circles for 3 hours to gain footfall. I would also grant footfall for visiting regions on a planet for those looking for meteors or resources or even just exploring. I would not give footfall to a player that crosses their own beacon or one belonging to alts.
Since it seems a large number of store owners are against an auction house, this is an alternative that does not require one. At least if a player has to wander around for an hour trying to find something in a store, they are rewarded for the effort. Right now all they did was waste time since they get no coin and no xp. The store owners that keep stock get coin from sales and those that do not get nothing.
What would you think about having ff for exploring other sites along side the way it is now? Total payout might need to be adjusted in that case but that might be an interesting fix.
Great ideas! I love running about planets, but the last few updates have tied me to my plots tending to my farm, adjusting my build and crafting. This would get me back out into the MMO world and visiting places and shops again. Currently it’s TOO much hassle and too much time to go search all the shops to find a deal. I have better things to do unless I get paid to do it.
Absolutely, you get footfall for all beacons over a certain size and for regions you explore. You are correct the payouts might need to be adjusted.
Edit: I think I may have misunderstood. and will change my response if needed. Are you suggesting that the beacon owner still get some footfall for players crossing their beacon even if it is a reduced amount?
Edit2: It sounds like from your response I did not misunderstand. Yes if you want players to walk around more and see more and visit more then this gives them a reason.
Then I think I really like this plan.
I like to see myself as running around exploring the sights. But I tend to just gather what I need to build and spending my time kicking around my plots building away. I imagen there are others like me and this would go a long way in braking my mold.
Maybe I misunderstood the overall point but had a question. The way I see it - the person that is fueling the portal isn’t the only one that is supporting it. The person on the other side (if different) should get some type of benefit.
I guess I don’t understand how the first point is different than the way you propose.
Point 2 is interesting… I agree the explorer should get the benefit. I do think builders should get something, though.
If we are keeping footfall then I think all need to receive it…
Totally agree with this assessment. Split it. Give some to the builder and some to the visitor. It encourages people to get out more, check out builds as well as find new shops. It also rewards the builder as was the original intent. It’s a great stimulus package tbh.
Some things will go up in price as a result because money will be used more freely but this economy needs an adjustment badly anyways. So many items just sit there because there are so many of them.
If people got out more and found more shops in an easier manner this would encourage more involvement as a result of a) finding new shops and b) having more money to spend when they find these shops.
I am not sure if I understand this at all, your proposed solutions i don’t think would fix the problem of someones shop not being used by whatever Quota they have set up for themselves,
Point 1 seems to be designed to reduce the stress of running a portal, which i do not really understand how it would attract even more players to the shop.
Point 2 seems to be designed to buff Exploration, which might have the side effect of people stepping into peoples shops for the purposes of trying to abuse the system, but i don’t think that will make any of the items on sale any more attractive when the goal of the player was exploration or footfall collection and was not looking to buy stuff at the time.
I am not seeing the connection, could you show me what it is I am not understanding or missing?
This probably where I struggle the most. As someone that likes to build, I immediately want to say yes. But since it is really location being rewarded versus any real value in a build then I come up asking why? If you have a store and sell things you get coin. If you have a workshop and craft items you can sell them for coin, if you have a portal this proposal gives you coin.
So should every build no mater if it has any visitors or not generate coin? If yes based on what?
I would think the best solution is an Auction House since that puts every store on an even footing. A new player has the same chance as a higher level player. But it seems to me that a lot of shop owners and others do not like this and seem to think it removes the exploration aspect. If the point is to encourage players to spend time wandering through shops I thought this might incent them. I did not want to dump too much coin in the economy so removed footfall on the other side.
Since this would punish portal networks and portal owners that do have an ongoing cost to fuel them, I felt they needed to get coin for use versus just stepping in front of the portal
Need to see numbers on this. I think the majority want some form of AH now and did with the last poll… and not surprising, considering general market saturation including inactive players’ dusty shop stands
“Reverse footfall” for the visitor should work as “store credit” for said beacon. You don’t get the money, but if you spend it at the beacon it then becomes real money for the beacon owner.
Good then this would be unneeded development effort. I think overtime and as the universe grows an Auction House in some form would be the best solution.
Perhaps but I think the effect would be weak at best.
There are many many many shops out there, and as such, it might just be an unreasonable expectation for most people to want their shop to just rake in the money, unless they are doing something special.
Players spend crafting materials to create a quest scroll, and get a small amount of coins when a player completes their quest. The player reward for doing the quest is larger. More expensive mats = better quest = higher difficulty or time to complete = better rewards.