Starting Gold

Northern Silence · 08-15-2009, 10:44 PM

I think should bring back new chars starting with some amount of gold.

Checking around starting ports there are quite a few with 99% interest large plexes around them, (especially SW sur). Meaning you cant make any money, and you cant set sail to anywhere else with no money. Have to move 50+ spaces to get to a kd with 0% tax.

This also makes a problem for Mentors to help the new player pick equipment and stuff when they relise they have been playing for an hour and have made 0 gold due to a 99% tax kingdom.

Should have some starting gold or disable Tax on ports.

Jimcav · 08-16-2009, 08:40 AM

I think it would be best to just roll back the starting point to giving them 50k gold again. I don't see how changing it to 0 gold improved their initial experience, it just makes a fairly dull process of getting started take even longer. They can't chat or trade initially and if the home kingdoms are also fleecing their gold from kills it all just makes some newbies get frustrated and leave before they even get a good taste of the game.

My own opinion is that the best way to improve the experience for new players would be to scrap the mentor system entirely, it's been helping mentors more than mentees since it began, and remove all the level 10 restrictions. Let newbies chat, trade and settle if they want to right from the start with no concern about anyone buying their mentor ash. They would get a feel for the game without needing to invest 3 hours or more in playing to really get started and we would be able to use mules again without spending 3 hours on them. I have a vested interest in keeping the current system but I honestly don't think it's helping newbies as was intended.

Northern Silence · 08-16-2009, 01:55 PM

I agree scratching the mentor system, when it was put into place was when there was 20+ newbs asking stupid questions. Nowaydays even if we had that many newbs, the stupid questions would help keep chat active and gameplay up. Trade restriction should be removed or dropped to level 1. chatting at level 1 should stay, keeps the spammers away.

As #1 and formerly #1 guides I hope our opinion on this is taken in higher consideration.

08-17-2009, 07:17 AM

I agree that starting gold should be brought back, I'm not sure why it was taken out in the first place. Also, I think tax should be removed all together.. does it really serve any purpose anymore? I'm not aware of anyone who relies on tax income from their kingdoms, all it does is rob new players of their gold without their knowing it. I made a mule the other day and as NS said, I had to walk for about 3 minutes to find a kingdom that I could actually make some gold in to start buying some equipment.

Soul Thrift · 08-19-2009, 11:03 AM

Maybe it was supposed to be there so new players can ask why they don't get any gold due to taxes. You tell them about taxes which would lead early into kingdom stats. But that is unimportant at such a low level. Starting gold for me making more mules doesn't bother me one bit, but i know what i am doing. Mules might be a reason for trade restriction, but thats it.
Yes, scrap mentoring since we have patrons. That should be the only way to get ash off new players. I have tax on kingdoms but that's only because i don't want to deposit menial gold to see where people are walking. 99 tax on ports makes players move, or even quit because they think the gold they make is really that low everywhere.

05-13-2010, 07:37 AM

how about making a smaller limit for the tax income? like 90% or 80% xD
cause if 99% its almost like 100% tax.

100 times less gold drop (1% total drop) just sux hairies balls ever made

Grenth · 05-13-2010, 01:45 PM

I don't think anyone will miss tax if it's removed. It lost its usefulness long ago and the only real impact it has on the game these days is making it harder for newbies. Some plexes are bought and sold with 99% tax and walking 10k kds to remove tax from them is pretty annoying as there's no direct gain.

IIRC admins stated when the trade restriction was first added that gold isn't really meant to be muled, it's supposed to be put in plexes. It's pretty annoying, however, for a new player to have to reach level 10 before being able to play poker, store gold in runes, sell ash, buy impets, etc.
A potential solution would be to remove the mentor system, but keep a trade restriction so that you can't accept EEoTs and EEoGTs until a certain level is reached (for example, 10 and 75 respectively). Just because there isn't a reward for doing it doesn't mean newbies won't ever get answers, and ultimately some sort of tutorial quest could be implemented as seen in some games.