While running my vote thread for rather the players want or don't want Lands, I've read through the comments. One thing some players say on both sides is the need of a Gold Sink. Rather with Lands or with new routes. As someone who enjoys OSW and off system PVP, I can attest that my favorite ideas for gold sinks revolve around strips and hits. But not every player plays that way. That, and the endless land upgrades and dev ran events have really killed the importance of strips and hits when it comes to gold loss. Yes, they still take a ton of gold. But not enough to matter like they once did when gold and max plunder was not so easily gained. The current gold sinks are Lands, Building Upgrades, and allies. With strips and hits taking gold as well. You can also use gold for inferno, a few mith, clan roles and making new clans. This post should be used as a platform to gather ideas about what could be Kaw's next gold Sink or sinks. I do request that if your idea is long, to place an introduction at the top of your post or a summary at the bottom of it as well. Make sure it is something that can sell your idea. I ask this for your benefit so that players won't skip any walls of text you may put out. Also break your paragraph up with a space between them for easier reading. Pictures and graphs are welcome. Feel free to debate subjects but do not troll, name call, or call other morons if you disagree. Feel free to further discuss an idea through other means if you and a group like it. Then retool it and allow the original poster of that idea create a new forum post to push that idea. Also, please add the area of the game that is being suggested at the top of your idea: an example. "Clans" Clans should be the next evolution of Gold Sink. By adding (your idea) it will not only allow a new Kaw gold sink but also help clan locality. It could also bring a new aspect to EE and OSW! In conclusion (The Idea) would be the best route to go because (List benefit weighted with negatives) Or you can look at Kasama's reply for a great example. I look forward to your ideas. Please keep all ideas within the topic of Gold Sinks. Gold Sinks are where you would spend a lot of in game gold to further your kingdom/clan/or gaming experience.
Over the last few years, a suggestion by ShadyMarine stood out to me as a potential gold sink. He suggested that the devs introduced NPC accounts into the ally market at all possible ranges. NPC = Non playing characters (auto generated accounts by ATA) Eg: Account X with 500m CS Account X1 with 250M CS A few hundred+ of those wouldn't do any damage but only lower the ally market inflation rates and revitalize the ally market. The ally market has always been a great gold sink but with KaW's dwindling population it's only been slowing down.
Many other games have Donation abilities for clans that fend off inflation. Donate gold (with a limit to daily donations) for boosts such as small percentage attack and defense boosts for clans, maybe a costly function that allowed clans to extend an eb an hour in a time of need, possibly even a decrease in building prices for clan mates. That would help smaller guys catch up while people with gold to spare invest long term and it comes back to help them when the next lands come out inevitably. All percentage boosts should be worth it but remember it boosts the whole clan so they will be small Edit: Positive externality is that it boosts clan loyalty and unity
I wrote the following in another thread but it seems relevant so... If you want to fix strips, you must make gold worth something. Now how do we make gold valuable again? It's certainly not flooding the market with more gold i.e. b2b events that provide bars. Suggestion 1 Limit the amount of events we have... Why this won't occur? Events are what keep players active and it gives them a goal to strive for. Ofc a good money sink leaves the person who's about to dump all their cash, feeling satisfied. Suggestion 2 Make a money sink that requires something that costs a lot of gold. This could work off inferno (although pricey, it could do with a price-hike) A legendary chestplate/bracer/whatever that will be birthed in the fires of your forges... Make it difficult but worth acquiring. Then make the level upgrades require craploads of inferno... The stats however will make it necessary. Ofc this doesn't fix the inflation with stats Why this won't happen? It seems pretty technical and no one buys inferno anymore. They just wait for the inferno/aqua event. Which is why I suggest no 1. Or maybe just add a new item that'll cost lots of gold. Also it caters more to bigger players, perhaps making the price dynamic related to a players level will make it accessible to smaller players. The price for inferno/item to increase the level of your eq. Also if you add a little sparkle animation, people will flock to it even more. Humans are so simple :cry: Suggestion 3 Raid everyones bar storages and send us back to the stoneage. Why this won't happen? Because so many people would be angry Why it would work? Now people wouldn't have the power to flood the market/make it rain of their own accord. Also limits amount of cash floating around. IN TURN MAKING GOLD SCARCE Suggestion 4 Without anyones knowledge, edit the plunder algorithm so it favors smalls while makes the bigs earn slightly less. They have enough gold hoarded, they are set. Letting the rich get richer ain't exactly right... Why this won't happen? If anyone ever found out about this, people would be pissed so maybe having a big announcement would lessen the outrage? This barely does any damage, bigs will still be making heavy amounts of gold. It'll make little to no difference unless the previous ideas are already established. Why it would work? Smalls would benefit from this and maybe there'd be a rise in retention. There's more suggestions but these are the main ones I could think of. Can the ally market even be considered a gold sink? I mean you temporarily drop your cash but you gain profit if your ally is hired. Gold sinks usually dont return you any cash. Once it's gone, it's gone and you're left with something.
My idea is b4 new lands come out. (which they will) half all building prices, this would shorten the gap by giving smalls the ability to catch up. During this time events could be based towards smalls also to shorten the gap even more. Then once new lands drop the gap wouldn't be as drastic when bigs drop all their SB to BC. Just a thought.
This thread is for Gold Sinks. Which means adding something that cost gold to have the influx of gold coming in to be spent on. Something other than Lands or Builds. Your idea to cheapen cost, though good for smalls and not necessarily a bad idea, is off topic to the current subject. I feel that idea would be good in another forum or in one of its own.
ALLIES New NPC allies could chew up a lot of gold. Could even have them not be part of market, think anyone could buy WeatherBot for 10T and you can ask it in ally chat if it's gonna rain. Or what's an ally with a certain guaranteed growth rate worth? A big premium I imagine even without prospect of resale. Possibilities are limitless!
Until about a week ago, I hadn't been an active kawer for 2-3 years. Coming back, it's interesting to see that many of the old problems persist. Kaw has had problems with its 'economy' for a long time. In rl, we call it inflation. Too much inflation isn't good for any economy--even our beloved tap-tap game. Modern monetary theory suggests that reducing inflation requires taking money out of circulation. An easy way to do this is to do what the US Fed recently did--raise interest rates. In theory, raising interest rates triggers investment, which moves money out of the economy. How can kaw do this effectively? I love one of the ideas above: clan investment. It would create some issues to be managed for sure, but overall, it's a win-win-win as Michael Scott would say. But the idea I'm presenting is a little different. How about making new lands and buildings (when they inevitably come out) cost something other than gold, like silver bars. Using a currency other than gold has a dual advantage--it takes gold out of the economy and it would add a new layer to the game. Imagine if the devs announced that in one week, new lands and buildings would be available, but they AND Osmon Roi lands could only be purchased with silver bars. People would start hoarding bars, banking gold, and the incessant ally buying would stop. Yes, people would also be pissed. How do you stop that poopstorm? By paying interest on silver bars daily. Giving folks an opportunity to really invest and plan ahead is the cornerstone of any stable free market. i.e.: assume I have 100 silver bars at 2% interest. One day's interest is a bleh 2 silver bars, but in a month the compounded interest is about 81 bars. Not much but you get the idea. Something more realistic: if took the 2500 bars I won in the recent event and held them for 30 days, I'd have 4528 bars. Not bad for someone still working on hoarfrost. Paying interest in silver would also provide a real safe haven for gold. After about a week your interest (at 2%) would offset the sale penalty. One more fun thing, paying interest in silver would also rekindle something that kaw desperately needs--the fear of strips. Silver bar banks paying interest would create monstrous strip banks. As a big osw fan, this really appeals to me. Just an semi-retired kaw player's point of view.
Dirty Animal I understand the Kaw retirement life. I only returned a week ago after a year of on and off play. But you do have a very interesting idea and points.
Let buildings break 10 % when attacked (= all troops in building killed), when building hit 0% stats is removed from total stats on player. That way same attacking player cant keep farming same target as the defender will slowly be out of range. As a defender u can rebuild at anytime using gold. If all buildings are demolished incl castle, a extra bonus drop should be rewarded to the attacker, ie mith/inferno/equip/silver bars or whatever to give the incentive to actually hits other players instead of ebs.
Lots of games have success with purely cosmetic items too. Charge 50t for a custom name flair, like ASW but different. Or 100t for access to rainbow text spell. Or just charge ridiculous amounts (500t? 1qt?) for a castle upgrade, give it an achievement but no plunder bonus like the old upgrades. Not many are gonna do it but it'll suck $ out of the economy anyway
I actually like this idea. Building that can break durning play. It would make OSW fun. You could also create a pay to play item here that player could do to lower percentage of damage per hit. Like a shield
If this were incorporated it would have to be on a set of new lands and isolated to those lands. Why? 1 it is far too easy to trash smaller growing players thus forcing them out of the game totally if done using existing buildings. 2 it doesn't detract from anything people have paid for up to the point this is implemented and won't offer any excuse for tantrums over past expense and people frustrated. 3 it would give the lb a massive way to excite the top of the lb with them being actively able to compete with each other and fight for positions whilst smalls try to grow over the next year or two to compete Would work well on the alternative builds idea. I like.
You do know those smaller players are out of most people's hit ranges and the devs plan on making hit ranges smaller...
Devs plan on making hit ranges smaller in the future but currently they are incredibly incredibly warped
The current "gold sink" is new lands and buildings - the issue is that these are one and done sinks, they work once and then inflation occurs once again. Pots/bars are another but really aren't bought en Masse enough to have a huge effect. Also thank all the osw clans pulling massive strips, that's pretty much the only PvP action that knocks gold out of the system. We need sinks that are repeatable (and have a reason to be repeated), and have a wide appeal so they're used by a full range of players, from the OSW vet to the EB fairy. IMO your best bet here is build alterations (for example, being able to have like 5 maxed Osman rai buildings in a "storage" that doesnt apply to stats but let's you swap out these buildings for ones on your lands for a fixed cost per change) Maybe not that idea specifically, but it's repeatable and could be used by a variety of play styles. Although, any sink is just slowing the inflation. Unless the mechs change (which I doubt will happen) so I can't pull tens of billions out of apherium's or any other EB's ass we're always going to have this problem.
So how would it work for osw? Don't like pvp - don't build those? Kinda like ps with atk building? lol Does my opponent have to have those lands in order for me to cause that damage? Applying it to existing lands and buildings is not a good idea I think..
The damage to buildings sounds great and all but I would like to see the damage to be reflected on plunder. So let's say I dump a full bar of troops on the random their plunder is cut for a duration of time including the gold loss. Force them to unbank to active a spell or such to regain that base plunder. Numbers and such would have to be developed by well the devs. Forced kingdoms to pay tribute would be another idea. Interest and lending and open item markets are another. An in game structure for alliances to be grouped such as clans are groupings of members.