Bun-Bun wrote:Seems like kind of a kick in the teeth to people that care about such things though. It used to be one of the fun things when people switched in the past, seeing a enemy with a "stolen" mode. It also became like a prize alt in that they had to be careful how they upgraded since they couldn't reset.
Fair point. Let me elaborate on my way of thinking.
Any changes at this particular point in time are manual. Your reasoning for switching is to balance the game. A move which MAY have very little impact. However, there may be others who want to switch for more selfish reasons but instead give the "balancing" excuse.
By adding a cost, I hope (and I'll probably be wrong) to deter the selfishness.
Down the track
if it becomes more of an automated feature then things may be different as other hoops may be needed to jump through.
Loss of Energon...
As you said it'd be easy enough to get a donation after the switch as both sides are pretty generous with it. Seems that it hurts the side accepting the transfer as a) the transfer is in less of a position to spread the wealth they had accumulated and b) that side could be put in the position of using funds that could have allocated to new players to bail out said transfer.
Fair point, one I didn't consider.
But given that I dumped a "1" in front of Wingz's energon the other day (strictly as an experiment to see if it would work and to see how long it would take her to notice), there's no risk of energon shortage.
Considering that in the current situation the switching from one side to the other is only on the table because of an imbalance of players the "cost" would be losing the advantage of practically guaranteed mission support and possibly floundering until they adapt to the new conditions.
ehhhhhhh I get where you're coming from, but I think this may be at the far end of the scale in terms of problems. If you switch, Wingz will give you energon, you'll armour up in no time and be out fighting within 24 hours or so.
You have to look at the long term of "defecting" as well. It may end up an automated feature so consider yourself a test bunny.
But hey, you make the rules.
Oh the sarcasm is strong in this. I'm asking because I want feedback from the players. We've already had one guy in charge with his own ideas that he never bothered to tell anyone about, and now Ryan's cleaning up a **** tonne of dodgy code because of it.
Those conditions are far easier to swallow than xp loss!
Yeah, XP loss is absolutely off the table. I will argue until I'm blue in the face (and then some) to ensure that NEVER happens.
Though I just can't understand why this insistence of a "cost" unless this is going to be a process that can be done by anyone at any time and not just a limited thing to boost up a side. Is that what we're talking about here?
It's planning for the future yes.
But I don't see why you seem to have the impression this is detrimental to a person changing "to balance things".
You change sides. You retain your XP. You may just need an energon boost and 24 hours (or so) to armour up.
Why shouldn't there be a cost?sprockitz wrote:Those both seem reasonable to me. I also agree it should be somewhat limited in who is allowed to go. Maybe start with you can't defect a second time, or at least for some time period (say 1 year). You can add you need to move in a direction that improves balance, though this could be a little harder to prove.
Thank you for the reminder! I was leaning towards it being a one-off thing but a time period would be fairer.
Bun-Bun wrote:As I think more about it, loss of alts and loss of 50% Energon seems like a double whammy to anyone that uses a lot of armor.
You would have to re-equip and repay for it all. That could wipe some people out!
Not a dig at you, but I see a lot of people chopping and changing armours which chews through energon as they try to work out what's best.
That should already be known. Chewing through energon for the sake of research seems kind of pointless these days as pretty much everything is known.
Plus again, donations. I'm more than willing to give energon out in exchange for certain tasks being met (e.g. collecting certain alt modes, beating players etc).
ENERGON SHORTAGE IS A NON-ISSUE