How POTCO can increase the game quality.

[Davy_Mcwrecker]

Hello again, I was off pondering, and I realised something. POTCO is going downhill for one reason. Money. Err, lack of it, I should say. As many of you have noticed, the over-all quality of the game has declined recently. Used to, we were complaining about too many Ideal servers, now we cant find a server with enough people on it. But people have left because of many reasons, whether that be hackers, boredom, lack of updates, etc. Well, all of these problems are a "problem" because of the absence of money. Now, the game doesnt have money coming in because of no one playing, so there is hrdley any members so there is no stream of money. The easiest solution to this is to change from P2W* to Microtransactions. Take Team Fortress 2. This game has perfected the microtransaction system. Within a metter of 2-3 years, this game has built an actual economy. Things have set values, and there are fluctiations, item worths going up and down. It's like a real world economy. And the thing is, it isn't an Equilibrium. You don't have a certain amount and stay at that amount. You can trade up in value or down. It's an Arbitrage economy, which means that with every trade you make, you are either going up or down in value. ( But both sides can go up, which is how it's economy is perfected.) It has trading, and random Item Drops. Every person is F2P, and there is really no limits on anything, except they can't trade. This one thing makes people want to upgrade, but it also allows people to play without feeling bad about being F2P. In the following Tabs are information on the economy. This Game is one of the things that Pays most of Valve's bills if you catch my drift. (Allows them to have numerous employees to make better quality stuff with.). I thank you for reading this, and feel free to tell me what you think about this.

Spoiler for Trading:

Trading is one of the number one things in TF2. You can trade weapons, metal, hats, paints, etc. And certain Items have prices at specific times. However, there are certain tems that have a set price and will never change due to the fact that they are the economic place-holders. (They are the staples, what you base prices off of. No economy has this in the world, so that is what makes this game's economy one of the greatest.) I will give more detail in prices and values. The Arbitrage economy isn't an eye for an eye, or a hat for a hat. ( Only 2 of you will get that, but it was worth it.)It's more of values and who can what for what and slight gambling. This is where everything else comes into play.

Spoiler for Prices & Values:

For this, I will go cheapest first. Price Holders are bolded.

Weapons
Scrap Metal
Reclaimed Metal
Refined Metal
Craft Hats
Keys
Bills
Buds
Unusuals

These are your money, You will probably want to have this. At the lower end, Weapons and Scraps. Because this Economy works so well, you can go back and for and make a constant profit. You sell a Weapon which goes for a scrap, you scrap bank (form of money making), and get 2 weapons. You sell those 2 and get 2 Scrap. Continue. Profit. Then you have Craft Hats. These are regular Hats, which are at a value at 1.33 Ref ([ 1 ref and a Rec] 3 Scrap ameks a Rec, 3 Rec makes a Ref). These are where you start getting into items that have real value. 2-3 Craft Hats will get you a key, which is used to unbox crates. (WHich can give you Unusuals. Check the Unusual Section.) So people want keys. Keys an fluctuate based off of the "Mann"conomy prices (The In-Game Store). But they have a high value ranging from 2.50-3.44. 8-10 of these will buy you a Bill's Hat, which is worth alot in game. (Don't expect to sell this for real life money!) 2 Bill's will buy you a Buds (Earbuds, given during the iMac Update. Highly Values at $30 USD.) Buds are the most Valueable stable item in the game. If you have 2-3 of these, your set for the next part.

Spoiler for Unusuals:

Unusuals are special items. The most sought after. They are hats that have a purple name, and have an effect. (Basicly, a Legendary for us) These are in teirs, and based off of what the hat is, what class can wear it, and it's effects, you can get anything from $60 to $1,500. I won't go into detail but I'll give some information to help. "Flies" which makes a bunch of flies buzz around your head is low, because it's hard to see and doesn't look good. "Green Energy" which is like a green flame is a Medium Teir, because it is greatly Visable, Looks Good but fairly common. "Sunbeams" which makes your hat have, well, sunbeams is rare, visable, and looks good. This is High Teir. You can trade up and down, because some people like certain things. This is more of a free trading zome where you can trade anything for anything in your teir. Get a good low teir hat? Get 2 bad low teir hats and sell for a med teir hat. These are the single most valueable items in the game that is avalble to everyone. And sometimes you can get lucky and unbox one (1% chance).

And that is a game that has a running Economy. People pay, buy 1 Item, get premium, and they get better drops. People buy keys. People buy lot's of stuff. If POTCO switched to something similar, an economy would grow. Yes, it would be smaller (Because this is a kids game and TF2 is for adults, but the all the same, an economy). This would boost profits, numbers, and not give people hopeless dreams from the loot system. POTCO could add updates, and it would be loads more fun. Please tell me what you think about the economy and tell me what you think about POTCO Adopting an in-game economy. (I put this in the POTCO Section because it involves POTCO and the game). Personally, I feel that POTCO should adpot this, but make some changes so that kids wont start scamming other kids. IN all games it happens, but TF2 stops this from having Steam Based websites where if you get scammed, you report the guy. No one trades with him, and they give you your stuff back. (They have your Inventory in their Cloud and they have a trade history that's pemanent.) Thanks for taking the time to listen to me drone on!

[tayseth]

ahem.. it wouldn't work like that, not for a disney childrens game.

also, there is no evidence that the production team is lacking money.

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Originally Posted by tayseth

also, there is no evidence that the production team is lacking money.

I found a source that says that DIMG made profit for the first time on record last year (that would mean, net earnings after subtracting all costs from the profits made). This doesn't necessarily mean that POTCO has made a profit or anything, but I'll just throw this statistic I found out there.

Back to Davy's idea, I think that it would work... but not with POTCO. I am a fan of the F2P system; however, I think POTCO is too small of a game to incorporate it well. I have not played TF2, so I can't say much about that (although I have heard of its good F2P system), but I have played Dungeons and Dragons Online, a game by Turbine, that uses the F2P system. In that game, you start out being able to do quite a bit. What you buy in the Turbine Store would be things such as new classes to play as (there being about 8 F2P classes and 4 paid ones), new races, quest packs, various account upgrades, special types of currency, etc. In addition to those bigger things, you can also buy smaller items such as cosmetics, guild items, questing items (potions and other consumables), and countless other items. Believe me, there is a vast amount of items that can be purchased from this store. In addition, they have an option where you can pay $15 per month (or solid payments for X months).

However, how would POTCO be able to incorporate this effectively? The problem is, I don't think that POTCO has a gameplay that would allow for a good balance of F2P v. P2P. Almost all unlimited access items would need to become P2P, and the amount of little things that come with being unlimited really just make buying the monthly subscription more worthwhile than buying things little at a time. Most unlimited access players use all that they are given, minus perhaps one weapon or a certain ship class. In the end, it probably just comes out more cost efficient to buy unlimited access. There just aren't enough "big" things that could be purchased from a POTCO store. Instead, it would just end up many little things.

In my humble opinion, I feel as though making POTCO a F2P game wouldn't work out very well. The game just isn't built around that system, and it is probably too late to change the game's system now.

[Panos]

We are talking about DISNEY! They can do ANYTHING if they want!

[Eliza Creststeel]

I've pondered on the concept of creating an economy in POTCO and all the elements are already here.

Personal Items (Weapons, Cannon Rams, Potions, Tonics, Garb, etc.)
Building Materials (Steel, Iron, Pine, Oak, Silk and Canvas)
Base Currency (Gold Coins)

So, overriding the entire game is not necessary for establishing an economy.

At it's base level, trading an item for an item or trading items for gold coins is rudementary but functional.

As I've mentioned before adding any kind of crafting skills could allow player to upgrade crude items to rare or even famed with some material and money invested. That item could then be traded or sold. Now you have a functional economy where individuals can produce and distribute.

NOTE: To make crafting even easier for weapons and items, a crude item could be upgraded to an existing rare then up to a famed, like upgrading ship hulls. No NEW items would be created but imagine the bank you could make if you're a blacksmith cranking out Revenant Rams. How much would they be worth to someone who doesn't want to play 2 hours of Cannon Defense?

A lot of this discussion may be coming too little, too late but if Disney wanted they could salvage POTCO. It can be upgraded, overhauled etc. Just a matter if its worth their money and time.


PS - Panos there was a small update over the weekend.

[Elizabeth Trueskull]

Originally Posted by Eliza Creststeel

I've pondered on the concept of creating an economy in POTCO and all the elements are already here.

Personal Items (Weapons, Cannon Rams, Potions, Tonics, Garb, etc.)
Building Materials (Steel, Iron, Pine, Oak, Silk and Canvas)
Base Currency (Gold Coins)

So, overriding the entire game is not necessary for establishing an economy.

At it's base level, trading an item for an item or trading items for gold coins is rudementary but functional.

As I've mentioned before adding any kind of crafting skills could allow player to upgrade crude items to rare or even famed with some material and money invested. That item could then be traded or sold. Now you have a functional economy where individuals can produce and distribute.

NOTE: To make crafting even easier for weapons and items, a crude item could be upgraded to an existing rare then up to a famed, like upgrading ship hulls. No NEW items would be created but imagine the bank you could make if you're a blacksmith cranking out Revenant Rams. How much would they be worth to someone who doesn't want to play 2 hours of Cannon Defense?

A lot of this discussion may be coming too little, too late but if Disney wanted they could salvage POTCO. It can be upgraded, overhauled etc. Just a matter if its worth their money and time.


PS - Panos there was a small update over the weekend.

This.

I know this is an old thread but I certainly agree with the crafting idea here. I personally do not like cd nor do I want to play 2+ hours of it to get a rev ram, but if I want it looks like I'll have to do just that. If crafting were put into place, and someone would sell rev rams on that market, atm I have an almost maxed out money bag that I could use on one.