I would like some constructive feedback on this idea, as well as whether people like or dislike it and their reason why please. It's the concept itself I'm really wanting the feedback on. The numbers I've given here are just some off the top of my head so feel free to play with those.

I was thinking that it would be cool to have a new ability to recycle artifacts and turn them back into artifact points. This could be obtained from a medal, ally, ship mod, mission reward or whatnot. You would only be able to recycle artifacts that you receive from the Artifact Shipments in the first place. The ability would allow you to recycle artifacts for say 30 min, or 1 hr, or so. Associated cost could be 100 energy and 2k EM, with a 40 hour cool down. Recycled artifacts would give you say, 50% of the artifact points back. So if an item like a MSP, for example, was recycled, you would get 10k points back from recycling it.

Thoughts?

So lemme get this straight ... I stockpile a few thousand of all the artifacts that I don't use a very often. And by paying 100 energy and 2k EM I can recycle any/all of those back to try and turn them all into prisoners?

So if I had 10k Continuum Beacons I could recyle them back for 25 Million Artifact Points on the spot. Then collect those and get something like ... 262 rescued prisoners?

I personally think this is a good idea.... But like Serne said higher ranks will have a tonne of stuff which can be sent down to lower members and make them unstoppable.

way too OP, -1

It may not be a bad idea, but your return on the artifact is less ap than what the artifact is worth maybe 2% return? (50% is far to high). Using Serne's example of Continiuum Beacons which have an ap cost of 5000, using 2% the recycle value would be 100, then cash in 10,000 of those would return 1mil ap points. While it does still sound like a lot, consider that to gain those 10,000 Beacons it cost 50,000,000 ap points not to mention the time it took to save that number of them up.

I don't think it is a completely horrible Idea, but would definitely need to tweaked on the returns, and I would say a Higher cost to do so, maybe something like 10k energy and 10k EM or something else (just tossing out some numbers there)

-1, Serne more or less outlined why it a bad idear

my main conserne isnt Continuum Beacons but Crimson Obelisk (Uses Left: 18.669)
as you can pick those up from both NPC's and AP's and the system doesnt keep track of witch is witch

18.669 * 900 = 16.802.100 AP i have sitting just in CO's
and proberly scraped the same number of them

From the original post:



Or my addition of making the return only 2%.. which I think would be much more realistic

I would say make it only for nontradeable pullable artifacts and it seems ok, I don't like the idea of a rank 2K+ just handing over 10,000's of crap to people just to load em up on ap for stats.

I know, and you can multiply with 50%, 10% or 2% but it doesnt change the fact that NPC Hunters will pick up huge numbers of Crimson Obelisk you can turn directly back into AP's

at 50% 1 CO = 900 * .5 = 450 AP
at 10% 1 CO = 900 * .1 = 90 AP
AP 2% 1 CO = 900 * .02 = 18 AP

so main question for me is How many AP's do you want to give players for killing Crimson Flamehawks

make the suggested ability limited only for a certain list of artifacts (excl. those which drops from NPCs) and it could be less OP
EDIT: maybe exclude those, which can /can't be sent as it makes more balance

Good point with the Crimson Oblisks. We could certainly remove those from the list and have only certain artifacts that you can recycle.



Another point I hadn't thought about. For a suggestion there, would it be possible to limit the game to allow a player to recycle ONLY those artifacts they themselves collect? That way you can't send 150k artifacts to a rank 150 and have them get a bunch of free AP. The game would not allow them to recycle artifacts another player sent them. Could be a tricky bit of coding, but if that's possible I think it would work well.

If that doesn't work, certainly limiting the option to pullable, non-sendable items only would work well I think. Here's a list of those artifacts.

Alien Data Disc
Android Helmsman
Android Scientist
Containment Missile
Durtanium Brackets
Mass Storage Pod
Null Fuse
Phase Cutter Chassis
Processing Core Chassis
Refining Lab Chassis
Relay Tower Chassis
Rescued Prisoners
Ship-Bot
Space Elevator Chassis
Spy Uplink Chassis
Star Chart Purger
Tesseract Container
Warp Gate Chassis
XCharge Cells


And for the cost and return now. Your right about the cost needing to be higher. 10k energy may be a bit much maybe? Say 5k energy or 7500 energy. That should balance well with the amounts of the artifacts collected as well. A player with lower than that much total energy probably won't have collected enough to make it worth recycling anyways. Course, I could be wrong on that. So around 5k to 7.5k energy and 10k em (even 15k em maybe?). Return would be 2% of the original cost to obtain the artifact. (2% seems to be popular, so we'll stick with that.)

The idea is fundamentally unbalanced.
Any kind of trade in scheme will mainly benefit those with high AP and who have played longer.

Does Squishy Minion really need a sudden deluge of AP just because you think it would be cool to trade in your ship bots?

However you try to change it, it's still way too OP... generally horrible idea, all round.

Adding new things after a game has already been going for a while is pretty much always going to benefit those that start earlier. In order for it not to do that, it has to be part of the game at the start. Trying to implement new stuff after the game has been going for awhile that equally benefits, or even only benefits the lower ranks and newer players is pretty much impossible. Plus, as they continue to grow, they'll get the same opportunities to acquire and use the new abilities and functions. They just have to work for it, just like the long time players already have.

And if you don't add new content, you have players leave after awhile because there's nothing new. I think everyone would agree we don't want that to happen. (my apologies if I'm incorrect)

If your worried about some players getting super instant AP keep in mind, they'll get a one time big payoff to start, but ongoing it'll be based off of all the new shipments coming in. You could also scale the cost based on the rank of the player. Say rank*10 = amount of energy required to use the ability. Then it costs higher ranked players more because they're likely to have more stuff to trade in.

I'm less than 2 years in, but I am one of the people who will benefit most from your idea.

That doesn't stop me realizing it will not help the game in the slightest to deliberately make the strong even stronger... not just as a one-off, but for every hour, of every day.
It won't be a "one time big payoff to start" ...as you point out it will be continual.
Because higher AP isn't going to suddenly disappear, the advantage of that will simply continue at an even greater rate than now.

All your idea does is to magnify the advantage already enjoyed by people with high AP.
By all means, feel free to shower me with even more rescued prisoners... but in terms of the game, it's just a really bad idea, sorry.

Diego, i think by "one time big payoff" he means the huge load of artifacts that people already have in store. I think he's well aware that there would still be a large, constant stream of artifact income. Also with the logic of "the strong will only get stronger" approach as to debunk a potentially good idea is considered a negligible point. As stated by Shadeslayer:



Limiting new content to favor the higher ranks and older players makes many of the lower ranks and newer players feel left out. The "they have lots of content at their rank" point doesn't not appear to hold their interest in the game any longer.

Adding content that favors all ranks equally would have to introduce a new element of gameplay. Given GL's huge potential for growth, revamp, and expansion, new elements of gameplay should be easy enough to think of. (In fact, there have been many of such attempts posted on these forums over the course of the game's life)

The way Dan currently adds new content will never, ever favor both newer players and older ones alike. With Dan adding new content that gets increasingly difficult to accomplish it is no wonder many players quit. Dan adds new content but the reason that the content never lasts is because not everyone can enjoy it. Many will quit before even seeing most of Dan's work. The pace of content is constant but nothing essentially new is ever added. Everything is just a small variation of existing content (not to mention that the higher-end modules have ludicrously large energy expenditures or costs for such inefficient production). Dan has basically wrung out all the content that could possibly be made from the existing game mechanics. He needs to venture to a new aspect of gameplay (like Legion Bases/Base Battles, the Battle Market, or the Mission Market).

This idea has it's merits, but it needs some tweaks. It would certainly spark my interest in the game again.

Hang on, I've completely changed my mind and seen the error of my ways.

I am now all for people with already high AP being rewarded even more.
Now my available cargo space is finally nearing 500k, I can't think of anything else to do with all those MSPs and tesseracts, let alone the 8k+ ship-bots.

Many thanks for looking after the poor hard-done by people like myself struggling to think of things to do with their unwanted artis.

In short, please ignore everything I said earlier about it being a fundamentally flawed and OP idea that will only benefit people with already high AP.
I was completely wrong and deeply regret suggesting it would not help the game.

*clinks champagne glass, lights cigar, rubs hands together and laughs maniacally*

Diego, that logic is completely flawed. That logic renders the justification of future updates flawed and/or insignificant because in endgame "everything favors the higher ranks".

So what you're saying (or encouraging) is that GL is stuck in a loop and new content should not be added ever again. (Because if you haven't noticed, content for the past few months only made the strong stronger and increases the gap)

This is why I mentioned Dan needs to implement something that revolutionizes the GL experience...

Play, are you deliberately trolling or are you really that dumb?

The logic of the OP's suggestion is just so flawed.
Me correctly pointing out its flaws in no way "renders the justification of future updates flawed and/or insignificant".

How about instead of failing dismally to put words into my mouth, you concentrate on the very simple thing that I am saying:
Giving people with high AP more AP is just a dumb idea.

I am in no way encouraging that "new content should never be added again".
I am saying: "Giving people with high AP more AP is just a dumb idea."

Strength in the game is determined almost solely by AP.
People with high AP already enjoy an advantage.
This suggestion INCREASES that advantage, for no reason, not by content or work, simply because you have AP.
So, it is a bad idea.

I have absolutely no idea why someone with your AP would want to increase the AP production of other people.
It's like a homeless man, starving and penniless, standing on a soapbox and advocating for tax breaks for the ultra rich.

Play the game more, worry about revolutionizing the GL experience less.

Watch it there...



Can be fixed with adjustments. It is not a terribly bad idea...


The example you used for your counter-argument to my statement says otherwise...



I did NOT put any words into your mouth. If you can't take some critical analysis from me of your sarcastic remark then go cry in a corner. I do not appreciate sarcasm when used as blatantly as you did...


The grounds you used for debunking the idea is a bold example of why I assumed that...


Isn't Dan already indirectly encouraging this? Excuse me if I'm wrong, but every new piece of content Dan has added (recently) gradually increased the strength gap. Unless Dan puts some cap on ship strength the gap will continue to enlarge with time. With the boldface quote above it makes me believe that you are not aware of what you're saying.


So basically, everyone who hasn't played this game when it first started will never get anywhere near as strong as the original bunch? OK. Thanks for iterating yet another well-known fact bruh. Please continue on schooling me with your condescending knowledge...


Everything Dan adds increases the advantages of everyone with high AP. Your point is...


I have absolutely no idea why I even typed this sentence in... It lacks purpose...





Umm... I have a life outside of GL. But this is the internet, you're not going to believe me and I don't have to prove it.



And continue on proposing essentially the same old stuff with a different name slapped to it? How original would I be then?

Please, continue on. I know you wont resist replying to this. Your blood must be boiling by the end of this sentence...

*sigh* Sadly, I know exactly who I am dealing with... a long-term, slow-rank, low-activity veteran player that is about as scary as a small kitten.

My argument against the idea has almost nothing to do with time played, but with AP/hour.

Specifically, how do you think giving people rich in AP even more AP...for doing nothing... is going to help either veteran players with lower AP or new players?
Knowing that AP is everything, why do you want to make that gap even wider?

My less than 2 year-old ship proves that with good AP you can easily compete with, exceed and eclipse long-time players with lower AP...
See, I do know who I'm dealing with.

If you insist on giving me even more AP, then why should I complain at leaping even further ahead?
Perhaps because I realize that though it would benefit me by at least 3 or 4 times as much as you for every hour of every day, it is still an awful idea for the majority of players.

I salute your ability to ignore simple mathematics, complete inability to comprehend simple logic and mad meme skills.