The base depletion is too fast?

Ilya_Lizard
Ilya_Lizard Member Posts: 26

I like the game very much, but I cannot stop wandering about the outposts upkeep/depletion balance. Currently, outposts are depleted and deactivated ridiculously fast. It's literally about 24 hours or so - and it means one needs to grind at least 650-700 orange every single play session to keep one dungeon playable - and it's without making any other upgrades to traps or guards.

The game is built around community-generated content, and I tend to assume that it could be a wrong and even potentially disastrous decision to make base building and keeping such a time-consuming activity. After all, it's not only part of the gameplay, but also a kind of community service - to make enjoyable play levels and keep them challenging and fun.

Comments

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,706

    I think 24hrs per activation is about right, but the cost for purchasing/prestiging burial grounds could be reduced a little.

  • Ilya_Lizard
    Ilya_Lizard Member Posts: 26

    The problem with a 24-hour outpost lifespan is that it obliges the builder to enter the game on a daily basis, which makes Meet the Maker feel like the worst kind of mobile free-to-play titles. And I do not think it's the right feeling for a regular, decently-priced game.

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,706
    edited April 2023

    No? You're not losing anything if you leave the game for a few days. Your currency is still waiting for you when you return.

    There's no pressing need to 'keep up' with other players or anything.

    To get 24hrs of 'free afk gains' for each day you log in is perfectly fair.

  • TragicSolitude
    TragicSolitude Member, Alpha Surveyor Posts: 6,679

    24 hours is the max. For the Burial Sites I'm offered, 12 hours is the most common lifespan, followed by 18 hours, and the rarest is 24 hours.

    It sucks. A 12-hour lifespan makes the time at which you activate the Outpost extremely important. If you activate it at the wrong time and there's a lull in players, you risk getting few to no Raiders. A lack of Raiders has been a big problem for me. How many Raiders are there? When are they raiding? What day and time are the best for activating an Outpost? No one knows. Is the reason some of us aren't getting Raiders because we activate at a bad time or is day/time irrelevant and there simply aren't enough Raiders to Outposts? No idea.


    I'm okay with making people stay active for their Outposts to be available for play. Outposts don't expire from sitting around untouched, you can come back a week later and re-activate your old Outpost. My Outposts don't get much traffic, so I'd be annoyed if people who don't even check in daily get all the Raiders while I play daily and my Outposts are practically unvisited.

    My problem is that the Outpost's activation time is based completely on hours with no guarantee that it'll see a single Raider. Builders have no control over whether their Outpost is even offered as an option for players to raid. It's very discouraging to spend more time building an Outpost than the total amount of time spent by all Raiders within the Outpost because it's just not getting any views.

  • Ilya_Lizard
    Ilya_Lizard Member Posts: 26
    edited April 2023

    It's like you do not lose anything in a free-to-play grindhole - it's just using a FOMO syndrome to make you play every day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's a psychological manipulation, but many people think that it is perfectly fair.


    I understand your point, it has some legitimacy, but the problem is, it triggers some kind of negative natural selection - soon we would have a lot of outposts made by schoolkids with a lot of free time (not like I have something against a young people) and much less content by grown-ups, including architects, professional designers and so on. And I would like to get some outposts made professionally and with the intent to entertain now and then, and not only death-boxes, copied from youtube tutorials.

    (I think, the outpost visibility should be hard-linked to player responses. The more people had fun and leave positive feedback - the more visible the outpost should be. It would give creators the motivation to make not only frustrating farming machines but also good, entertaining game levels)

  • Darkyan
    Darkyan Member Posts: 122
    edited April 2023

    What really bothers me about the decay is that it deactivates my outpost.

    I couldn't care less about the 6000 resources I can farm daily, but seeing all of my hard work, prestige 10 usually accoladed as "Fun to do" outpost being deactivated for the public to enjoy, simply because I have work on the week is extremely unsatisfying.

    And in order to share my content with others, I need to farm 900 yellows from Basic Killboxes abusing guards and flamethrower and blocking their nodes.

    My point being ; How are we gonna have fun "Certified/Accoladed" outpost in the community if all we have on the daily is people farming money with killboxes to restock their outpost.

  • Ilya_Lizard
    Ilya_Lizard Member Posts: 26

    Couldn't agree more. It's not about the passive farm, it's about builders, who need to grind points just to be able to provide outposts to the playing community.

    It's totally ok not to get passive level points when the genmat is out, but devs totally should let the depleted outposts be part of the game.

  • magic1236
    magic1236 Member Posts: 106

    Sorry if I maybe wrong on this. But there is always the option to active your outpost in a social sense. If the outpost was acolatted as fun to do, make it a social outpost once it has reached max presage or during the times you know you won’t be able to reactivated it for a few days and such. That way the outpost is still playable, it just won’t be gaining any resources for the builder or raider. It’s made for the fun of raiding and building and such.

  • Ilya_Lizard
    Ilya_Lizard Member Posts: 26
    edited April 2023

    As for today, the game is massively focused on looting. So I am afraid, there aren't too many people who would consider an overall enjoyable but "unrewarding" outpost as a part of daily gameplay routine and prefer it over the one that gives you resources. After all, the game demands a considerable amount of grind, especially the red currency.

  • chezpizza
    chezpizza Member Posts: 120

    I'd prefer the outpost went on cooldown rather constantly having to prestige it then reactivate it again, just to retire it at level 10 (retire to social raids).

    The cooldown could be like 12 to 72 hours depending on the outpost's level. If you want to skip the wait, then prestige it to reactivate immediately. P10 outpost must wait the full cooldown.

    I feel this method could allow interesting things like maps challenges, random effects on maps when purchased, like only can't use more than 3 types of traps for 5% in parts per kill, etc. [Will add link to forum with idea already]

    Idk just an idea.