PPT

[semper]

ok..

well in the past four years I have been around for the start and beta of about seven or eight of these new mmorpg's and they all have one thing in common.

As soon as the game starts, everyone gets a 48 hour ppt. When the ppt ends, there is a msssive farm fest, and in each and every single one of the game I have been in it has all gone the same way. One person, maybe a few will farm an absolute fortune and this creates a massive power gap in the game, one that should not be there. A power gap will always be an inevitable feature..but simple..this is one that can be avoided, and one that if used in the right manner always creates the biggest gaps.

I mean, basically some of us have lives and quite genuinely cannot be online watching the ppt clock count down. Its insane and I am going to reach out to the readers and gary here to suggest an alternative.

I suggest that when you sign up (or when the game goes live, from when the beta accounts first sign in) then you only get a TWO turn protection, rather than a full 48 hours. As soon as that final turn ticks by, your out there and playing.

its the best way to avoid the massive farm fest, as obviously people will be logging in at different times, so different two turns and it stops new accounts when the thing goes live from facing the same problem. A full hour is by far more than enough for any boob to read the help and FAQ and get used to a protected account, before the ppt ends and they can be attacks.

This will also, and I am very certain, get rid of the potential massive power gap that is always an inevitable feature of that first farm fest. Fun it may be..but unfair and unnecessary it is.

What say you!?

[Duderanch]

Good suggestion I hope it's implemented

[Lore]

Being around in many betas, and actually still riding my advantage from farming near an entire quad myself at PPT end, I have to agree with this suggestion

[Juliette]

I agree. Well explained.

[Arcturus]

I agree as well. Nice explanation.

[semper]

Gary! I have a message from this post...

LOVE ME! LOOK AT ME! I am actually important.. pinky swear!

[Skunky]

agreed its always the most active at the start in Q who always do the best

[High Empty]

Ok well it's like this
We are suppose to be getting a bank.
So have the start up fund start there.
Or ...
While having a bank. you " gold can earn interest" however to buy anything you have to convert your Gold " into credits and the convert is a random number between (1-20)*x making it interesting on when you spend your stuff...

..." gold" being anything you want to name it. the interest being converted directly into credits, and added to your overall income. at say 10% per day.

yeah i know this isn't on topic...
but since when do i follow topics.

anyways
no to PPT
you can always make more off it.

oh and an AUTO trainer would be nice...

[Cole]

Now...why keeping PPT at the start is a good idea?
I'll explain.
I see some of you point out the farm fest at end of PPTs...It has one BIG flaw.
We all start with a certain amount of naq. I don't recall if it's 3mil or 4mil. Something in millions anyway. In beginning, 48hrs don't really add tons to that starting amount. With 48 hours ppt, people who are "meant" to be active (they'll take care to login), will bank their naq and use it.
Let's remember that game starts often at random times, and not everyone can be there within 20 min (we haven't a sort of sms program to get a message when game goes live to rush immediately to login). If it starts at 4am gmt, people from Europe will miss it. Your idea of no PPT will give an UNFAIR advantage to America and Australia/Asia players who will be there when it comes out, and those people will gain ALOT MORE than if there wasn't a 48hrs PPT. As there will be less people, given short amount between start of game and end of PPT. Less people, more growth for them. Bigger size for them than any PPT farmfest could have given them.
Most won't be able to use their naq, and a handful group of people will have a massive start, while 90% remaining will be left far far away.

[Juliette]

You explained nicely why giving a PPT at the start is a bad idea, Jim.

[Cole]

You explained nicely why giving a PPT at the start is a bad idea, Jim.

No I didn't...

Well, I'll make it short to avoid confusions:

No PPT/1hr PPT vs 48 hrs PPT

-Tiny time to use naq (wait infront of your pc that games comes out)
-Most can't be here to spend it (as I pointed out, timezones being different)
-People who luckily were around at starting of the game gets EVERYTHING on the server.
-One hour after there's nothing left and lucky ones are at top of all and rest is finished before starting

vs

-48 hrs to spend it (most actives will have spent it before PPT ends, 48hrs is two days, sufficient to bank imo)
-NO disadvantage for people nomatter where they live, or no matter if they were here or not at the start,
-More people for farm fest as we all know when it is, and more ppl were able to bank naq before it ends (less naq for more people)
-People who waited 48hrs will loose stuff, farmers around will have advantage to sleeping ones, but NOT as FAR as previous situation

As we all know accounts don't get activated when they are logged in...as they are registered already (see Quantum example: many unlogged accounts get farmed). People registering during live will be only ones who avoid all of that.

It's based on Quantum wave 11 database, and I'm sure it would need alot of work to change it to the way you said (part I didn't consider in my argument earlier). So if we don't get PPTs, it will be the way I described.
It would require it to be like every account not logged in gets unranked till it's logged in accordin to you.
For some reason, let's say 15% of beta testers don't want to play live. Your idea, as much good as it can be to wait account to drop off unraked when logged into, will have this issue of "not logged in" accounts.

It's for all above reasons, and maybe some others, that admins do start games with PPTs. Afterall, different games with different admins. Some of them being players in other games who are very experienced there, I'm sure if it is always the same start, it's not because they didn't think of it, but because it was best way available work required/results given on all possibilites.

I have an idea to avoid this farm fest, and also to avoid admin having more work for live version. Make PPTs last 4 or 5 days, and all people who didn't log let's say before 3rd or 4th day, have their production of naq/uu stopped until they login (like at very beginning of origins beta when no naq or anything was produced). That way, many more people will be able to spend their naq, and the "farmfest" will become more random than it has ever been. I suppose it would be difficult as well, but I think it could be a better idea for active ones, and that way they wouldn't get advantage (by farming) on inactive ones, but have a good start, even better than idea of login then 1hr PPT. All active ones will have same advantage and no 24/7 online person will grow quicker from a farmfest.

[semper]

no..no no... you obviously did not understand what I said.

You get your two turns grace from when you log in for the first time after the game goes live. You think I wanted to give the yanks and the roo's an advantage...

everyone gets the two turns to spend their 2mill naq or whatever it is, then they're out in the wild. You dont need longer, and YES it does create a mass of naq when we do it this way. Inevitably loads of people are not online at the end of their ppt, and loads of people will start at the same time.

Where as if you log on and you know you only have 2 turns to spend your naq...you are going to spend it immediately..and then the 'oh so massive farm fest' that would usually come after 48 hours, comes after an hour and you'll find a turn of income perhaps.. two if your lucky...on average probably nothing worth clicking the mouse for. There will be nothing to give anyone a massive advantage.

I mean.. does anyone log in, see 'Protected for 120mins' and then think "Oh I will leave that"... no.. everyone logs in and is in the mind set to get going, start moving. Making an account, and logging on are two different things.

Logging on for the first time after the game goes live tackles the beta account owners worries too, that also means people who played beta dont necessarily have to rush on in the first two days to make sure their 48hrs ppt (again.. for the love of god! rename it!) is not left unchecked.

The system works for everyone. The single.. and ONLY flaw I present you with is... normally you could spend all your naq on UP and then let that 48hr get you naq to build a defence or strike. Now you dont got that grace period... so you can see it as a flaw.. I see it as adding a new dynamic to the game to cut out some of the weaklings early on.

[Cole]

As I pointed out, some people from beta might not like/not have time and then not play origins live. As much as it can be good to *only* have active people...with easy farms (not talking of farmfest here) it's usually better to play. If there are no easy farms, people will attack each others for ridiculously small amounts, and we will see the overly annoying farming for crappy ratios coming very quicker than in sgw. Which is one of worst things that could happen for this game.
As you pointed out, people wouldn't have time to build defences, it would be a bunch of strike people (earliest ingame logged who have advantage to have extra army compared to others when they login) who would then farm for so low amonts among active ones (as free farms wouldn't be here considering the logging thing), that the earliest in, would be the ones having advantage over others.

[semper]

will reply later.. must work now!

Though..I do have counters to your arguments Jim..and explanations.

[Juliette]

*sigh* I side with Semper's idea here, more as with your idea, Jim.
48 hours is just way too much time, and breeds people who only play to get on PPT every time they have a chance to. It stops the game from actually being played.