Insurance

[zdoofop]

Someone posted this on Discord as a joke, but I thought it was a good enough idea to post here:

Given the way that breaking/repairing works, you run into a sort of problem: What happens if you run out of resources and all your frames break? Sure, it's not likely, but you run into similar, more likely problems that can be solved in the following way:

Insurance. Frame insurance, THMPR insurance, Dropship insurance, etc. You pay a regular premium for each frame you want to insure, and as long as the tech tier is available, the insurance company will cover most of the repair cost of your frames, and it will be available sooner. Or, alternatively, while the frame is repairing, the insurance company will cover the co-pay cost of a rental frame while you wait for your old one to be fixed. Try not to break too many though, or your premiums will go through the roof.

 

[Wyntyr]

Hmmm...could be a guild perk as well.

 

[MattHunX]

May be more...realistic, but could still be restrictive. I mean, given the level of technology and how things are constructed/fabricate/printed/assembled...etc. everyone Reaper should probably have an always uP to date blueprint of their current frame, from which an assembly process could work off of, able to rapidly reproduce the frame as it was, prior to the events where it sustained the critical damage that rendered it inoperable. Also, we're likely going to have several different frames with could switch between and to fall back on, each Reaper with a small selection of frames in their own "garage" or "locker" (we could come up with a nifty new word to refer to that place, by the way. Calling it "garage" is very FireFall-like, and it could be an homage, but maybe something new would also do).

 

[liandri]

I like it in theory, but it sounds like you're just paying money to save money later. Good players will rarely have to pay anything and could just forgo insurance, while less skilled players pay. Mechanically, I'm not sure.

At the very least, you could allow players to recover and repair up to 10% on their own, enough that they can go thumping or space trucking and have enough to repair to full on their own. If you still want to impose a cost, maybe Darla can put it on your tab and you have to pay her next time.

Hmmm...could be a guild perk as well.

It would definitely be a good reason to join a guild/house and it would work if you were contributing resources to your guild anyway. I think this is the best solution.

(we could come up with a nifty new word to refer to that place, by the way. Calling it "garage" is very FireFall-like, and it could be an homage, but maybe something new would also do).

I like 'garage'. But I'd accept 'hangar' as a substitute.

 

[Valaetoshiru]

Would be another level to the economy to manage. Could be fun. Kind of like managing clones in EvE ✌️

 

[Pandagnome]

What if insurance was competitive so you could have

Surely not insurance, Reaper Breakdown, Kaiju Protect, and many more insurances then there would be a comparison site where you find the best deal and they could hike your price if its not on a fixed rate so you have to read their terms and conditions otherwise its a bad surprise for your resources/monies

Depending on the insurance contract lasting anything from a month to a year+

Alternatively you could go to the underground and find a nice hackers who will create an insurance signature deed and use that but if the GCSF find out your in BIG trouble!

Then you could go to jail but if you have paid already for extra services such as get out of jail. The hacker may get you a lawyer that has represented many tsihu and folks in the Em8er just like the saul of earth and then you are eventually free.

 

[Omnires]

In some of the games I play where they try build a sense of community with the players one of the tactics they use is a shared pot or banking system.

For example, let's say you are in a guild and you don't the time or gear to need to farm the resources you need to build something. So you go up one of the guild NPCs and post a request. It'll show up as one of the optional tasks all members of the guild can do. Drop off X amount of resource at guild hall to complete (player's name here) request. This way even if the person who made the request is not online their guild mates will still know what they need and might be able to help out.

That is one way of doing it that I seen in a few games to help keep up with things like repairs and crafting. But there is one other way that I know of that I only seen once and never again in any other game. And that is have player made quests. This was a different way of doing the whole player trade chat thing that a lot of games do but it was far easier to get what you wanted. Rather than sitting in a chat full of people spamming things or running around a field fill of AFK player shops. People would just go to a job's board or something and post what they needed, and give the reward of the job over to an bank NPC. This NPC is who you turn the items over to and they pay you.

But given how this is a sci-fi game and all. What if rather than a job board you can get a ping when you are need or gathered things other players wanted. If you have enough to full another player's order a drone can be sent to you to pick up the items and drop off your pay at the same time. This why you never have to do things like go back to town or look for NPCs to talk to complete missions as you can just one the radio and drones. And this would fit in more with the whole sense of community the game is trying to build. After all, we are all on the same side trying to work together to build a new home on this planet sense our old home is not longer an option. It is only logical that in order to build up a safe place for people to live everyone would need to openly share their resources with each other. Even more so in cases of all out war. Lots of examples in real life history shows how people can pull together for their shared survival. Hell, even the government tries to enforce these idea with things like war bounds.

*Note this only really works if things in the game have a real fixed value. And the game will not let people over price things more than 10% of that value. The game keeps track of all the things on the market and knows the value of them as well as the price most players buy them at. So when you go to make a request or take on a request all at information is given to you. This helps to cut down on things like run away inflation and price gouging. And one of the best ways to do this to have real world value that everything in the game can equate to.*

 

[Pandagnome]

you don't the time or gear to need to farm the resources you need to build something. So you go up one of the guild NPCs and post a request. It'll show up as one of the optional tasks all members of the guild can do. Drop off X amount of resource at guild hall to complete (player's name here) request. This way even if the person who made the request is not online their guild mates will still know what they need and might be able to help out.

This is especially good with people on strange time zones too.

Rather than sitting in a chat full of people spamming things or running around a field fill of AFK player shops. People would just go to a job's board or something and post what they needed, and give the reward of the job over to an bank NPC. This NPC is who you turn the items over to and they pay you.

That would be very cool to have because then you can get on with other things!

What if rather than a job board you can get a ping when you are need or gathered things other players wanted. If you have enough to full another player's order a drone can be sent to you to pick up the items and drop off your pay at the same time. This why you never have to do things like go back to town or look for NPCs to talk to complete missions as you can just one the radio and drones. And this would fit in more with the whole sense of community the game is trying to build. After all, we are all on the same side trying to work together to build a new home on this planet sense our old home is not longer an option. It is only logical that in order to build up a safe place for people to live everyone would need to openly share their resources with each other. Even more so in cases of all out war.

Makes even the solo players feel appreciated too

*Note this only really works if things in the game have a real fixed value. And the game will not let people over price things more than 10% of that value. The game keeps track of all the things on the market and knows the value of them as well as the price most players buy them at. So when you go to make a request or take on a request all at information is given to you. This helps to cut down on things like run away inflation and price gouging. And one of the best ways to do this to have real world value that everything in the game can equate to.*

Your ideas led me to something like ebay where you could bid something not just with currency but with resources and any junk you may not want

So as an example

Player -A wants to sell a set of wheels with sensors

Lets say that the price is set to 1000 potatoes and max is 1100 potatoes
However to make the deal extra sweet you can add some junk and resources

Player - B would put a bid of 1005 + grassonium456 x 340
Player - C would put a bid of 1006 + jellybeanite789 x 200
Player - D would put a bid of 1100

Depending on the requirement of Player A say if jellybeanite was alittle tricky to obtain and to have 1006 potatoes would surffice even though it was not as high as player D's bid.

So from that selection Player C would get a message even offline that would say the player has won that bid and to go to the npc. The other players would get a message saying that the bid is over and item is not available giving them alternative players who are selling the same item or similar if you have ticked that option to have another go to get that item.

 

[zdoofop]

In some of the games I play where they try build a sense of community with the players one of the tactics they use is a shared pot or banking system.

For example, let's say you are in a guild and you don't the time or gear to need to farm the resources you need to build something. So you go up one of the guild NPCs and post a request. It'll show up as one of the optional tasks all members of the guild can do. Drop off X amount of resource at guild hall to complete (player's name here) request. This way even if the person who made the request is not online their guild mates will still know what they need and might be able to help out.

That is one way of doing it that I seen in a few games to help keep up with things like repairs and crafting. But there is one other way that I know of that I only seen once and never again in any other game. And that is have player made quests. This was a different way of doing the whole player trade chat thing that a lot of games do but it was far easier to get what you wanted. Rather than sitting in a chat full of people spamming things or running around a field fill of AFK player shops. People would just go to a job's board or something and post what they needed, and give the reward of the job over to an bank NPC. This NPC is who you turn the items over to and they pay you.

But given how this is a sci-fi game and all. What if rather than a job board you can get a ping when you are need or gathered things other players wanted. If you have enough to full another player's order a drone can be sent to you to pick up the items and drop off your pay at the same time. This why you never have to do things like go back to town or look for NPCs to talk to complete missions as you can just one the radio and drones. And this would fit in more with the whole sense of community the game is trying to build. After all, we are all on the same side trying to work together to build a new home on this planet sense our old home is not longer an option. It is only logical that in order to build up a safe place for people to live everyone would need to openly share their resources with each other. Even more so in cases of all out war. Lots of examples in real life history shows how people can pull together for their shared survival. Hell, even the government tries to enforce these idea with things like war bounds.

*Note this only really works if things in the game have a real fixed value. And the game will not let people over price things more than 10% of that value. The game keeps track of all the things on the market and knows the value of them as well as the price most players buy them at. So when you go to make a request or take on a request all at information is given to you. This helps to cut down on things like run away inflation and price gouging. And one of the best ways to do this to have real world value that everything in the game can equate to.*

See https://forums.em8er.com/threads/discussion-in-game-terminals.1260/

 

[Skube]

No, I don't want to waste money/resources on Insurance cause this shit sucks!
It's a video game why do you have the desire to put these awful real life "features" into a game?

It's a video game! can't fix your frame? You get degraded performance until you do! Or a super basic frame ( frame of shame how it was called on CC).

There's no point in having insurance in em-8er cause your stuff will be constantly destroyed! And if you know anything about insurance, the more you claim the more you pay!

And lastly, IT'S A VIDEO GAME I WANT TO HAVE FUN BLOWING STUFF UP!

 

[Sy]

I think this idea would benefit good players and punish poor or unlucky players, and I am against insurance because of that consequence.

 

[Mahdi]

I think this idea would benefit good players and punish poor or unlucky players, and I am against insurance because of that consequence.

I didn't consider this perspective, but it is a good one. Out of the many necessary mechanics of the game, I will caution against one that can unbalance the player base. Try to stay focused on hsrdcore players get justly rewarded for time invested, but the casual player still can hang with all Em-8ER will deliver.

 

[zdoofop]

I think this idea would benefit good players and punish poor or unlucky players, and I am against insurance because of that consequence.

quite the opposite, the idea is to give bad players a way to lessen the cost of their frame repair by paying a small premium. If it's a guild perk, I agree that would make it easier on individual players, but what's supposed to happen is that bad players spend less CE/time repairing all their frames every 5 minutes and more time improving their skills on the battlefield.

 

[Nightallen]

quite the opposite, the idea is to give bad players a way to lessen the cost of their frame repair by paying a small premium. If it's a guild perk, I agree that would make it easier on individual players, but what's supposed to happen is that bad players spend less CE/time repairing all their frames every 5 minutes and more time improving their skills on the battlefield.

I say just make sure a basic frame always available. Something that anyone can use to thump and gather and earn the money in there own time. Make its power be below average but functional. A standard issue army mech. That way players will never fell like they are truly stuck and unable to play the game. You can add some inconveniences to it so they will really want to get back to the nicer frames they have built but nothing that would truly restrict a player from playing.
This way players can keep playing while earning the resources they need and hopefully get better in the process.

Plus I think that it would seen be upfront cost or "tax" to the not as good players or players who don't have the time to grind out resources. The good players would never buy it which mean they keep more of their abundance of resources while the not as good will almost feel forced to spend from their much smaller resource pool to to keep up and would come to resent it. At that point it might be better to have repairs cost time instead of resources. Depending on the amount of damage equals time. Just random numbers for example. 50% damage takes 15 min to repair, or fully destroyed takes 30min. Not an ideal solution but would be fair to all players.