TL;DR
Recolour L48/50 weapons and armours, Nerf Napalm, allow ALL plat items to be purchased with credits.
I'll start off by saying that I've been playing Star Legends since the 31 cap,
and I've been playing MMOs since the days of Ultima Online. I know what makes them work,
and I know that adding new content isn't always an option -- trust me I do.
So I've determined the most realistic ways to fix the game without adding new content,
OR removing the P2W features of the game (Elixers, Credits, etc.)
The current problems with the economy/game:
I) Decreasing player base
a) Old players are quitting and taking their rare items with them
b) Not enough new players to farm these items to make up for the
steady demand of these items.
II) No new content
a) Obviously, with no reason to play -- players will quit.
(as I previously stated, I'm aware new content isn't always an option.)
b) With no new content more players are reaching end game (max level)
and are competing to get the same items as everyone else at max level.
I.E., there aren't enough items to go around.
III) Platinum economy & Not enough "Credit/Money sinks"
a) Because players are able to buy large amounts of credits with
real life money, items will continue to raise in price.
(As I said, I don't expect STS to remove these features from the
game.)
b) The increase in item prices is made worse without any way to
remove those credits from the game. (Currently there are
Stimpacks, Credit Enhancers and Crafting Recipes to remove
credits from the game.)
IV) Napalms
a) Because Napalms are so universally powerful they effectively removed all current
end-game alternatives from the economy. STS made a step in the right direction
by adding Armour to current end-game weapons, but it wasn't enough.
b) Likewise, because everyone relies on Napalms power to do the work for them,
nobody is learning how to play their class, and worse how to use teamwork.
Now I'll give my suggestions on how to fix the game with minial effort:
I) Recolour L48/50 weapons and armours
a) Recolouring the level 48 and 50 items to make them the same colour as L41-46 uncommon
gear (for armour) and Purple quest rewards (for weapons) would add 3 pink armour sets,
3 purple armour sets, and 8 more guns to the economy! This would require little effort
since the items already exist, they'd just have to switch some things around.
b) They could further add items to the economy by changing the colour of L48 & 50 H6's and XARs to
either match the colour scheme of L46 Purple/Pink quest rewards or just making them
the same colour as their rare counterparts.
This would add quite a few items to the economy, since most of these are not easily obtainable,
and are quite fashionable (I.E, People will want to buy them.)
Adding these items would mean people will have other things to buy than just Squids, X-rays, etc
so it would decrease the value of those items, and any expensive end-game gear.
II) Nerfing Napalm
a) Right now Napalm is the only real option if you want to compete in the PVE scene,
so by nerfing it players would buy other guns, thus improving the economy.
b) Because maps won't be as easily cleared anymore, players will have to learn their class
and use teamwork to defeat tough bosses like Dur'rex and Biomech.
c) Likewise, without Napalm it won't be as easy to farm end game items, making them rarer,
and forcing people to spend more money on those items instead of putting all their money
towards vanities or Napalms.
You might be curious how that last point is a good thing, because at first
it acutally sounds bad. Because players will have to spend, say 300k on a Va'k set
instead of 100k they won't have that extra 200k to buy a Rabbit Head, or a
Jacket set -- meaning, the price of many items will go down, not a lot -- but enough
to make a difference.
III) allow ALL plat items to be purchased with credits
Right now, the biggest problem with the game (right after no new content) is the fact that you
can buy credits with real life money. I've determined two realistic ways to fix this problem.
a) Allowing all plat items to be purchased with credits, I'm not saying they have to be reasonably
priced -- they can be 1m each, the purpose is to removed credits from the game. The removal of
these credits will significantly decrease the value of items. I think, however the items should
be reasonably priced, to get people to actually spend credits instead of using free plat offers.
maybe 350k for a x4 enhancer, for example. I know I'm lazy enough to buy a x4 enhancer for that
price.
b) Placing a cap on the amount of credits you can buy at one time. Like, perhaps placing a 300k
limit per month. This would keep players from buying 3m in one sitting to buy an X-ray. And,
at the same time still allow people to buy credits to get a jump start in the game.
This thread is mostly aimed at fixing the economy, not so much the game -- however, if you fix the
economy newer players will be more likely to stick around. Because, let's be real -- when a new player
sees how much items cost, and how much money "Pros" have -- all they see is that this is a P2W game,
and nobody wants to play a P2W game. More players = more money, more money = more support, it's win
win for everyone.
