I was just reading some threads recently, and decided i'd try and explain this to anyone that wasn't in beta. You see, during the beta, this game actully had a point. It was called auraxium, and it was the universal currency. Quite simply, it was needed to buy new weapons, and the world revolved around it. Auraxium gave this game a point, and some regreted seing it disapear. But, now to the drawbacks. You see, auraxium was a passive gain. Every major base in the game, tech plants, bio-labs, and amp stations, would give a certain amount of auraxium along with your normal resources, like mechanized and infantry resources. What this meant, is you're auraxium gain (A.K.A. paycheck) and your population/territory control pretty much went hand-in-hand. This whole system blew up upon us getting a mere second continent. And so, i honestly shudder at the idea of bringing it back today. However, everyone recently has been complaining about this game having no point. Even if you take over every continent in the game, will that of honestly made a diffrence? So, theres the explanation of what this is, and why it would be idiotic to re-insert this. All the same, it had positive aspects, and was the point this game was originially built up upon. So, you either now know what it is or you've been reminded of it. I just though i'd let everyone try and use this as a base to discuss any ideas on improving the current, pointless game. Although i have no ideas myself. So, anyone got any bright new ideas?
There certainly needs to be more incentive to hold as much land as possible. Some form of currency might be a step in the right direction. It would have to be global, though. It's bad enough with populations stacking like crazy to one continent.
I would love to see this come in as back-hacking. Remove key resource nodes from the lattice and let anyone cap them at any time if they decide to drop in. THAT is you get a defense going. Even if the zerg crushes it for half an hour or so, they'll get bored and move on to taking the next base and the next base, but even when the continent is locked you can have an insurgency from other factions go back and take just those two or three spots on the map outside the lattice that give resources. Create some small-scale fights that way.
I had the same thoughts, however I feel going to a system that favors defense at all will only promote turtles and AFK bots.
An interesting note regarding cont. stacking - SOE put in an experience bonus to encourage people to space out across the multiple continents, but we still see a problem. A lot of people have said that it's because the bonus isn't sufficient, which might be true, but I suspect there is another psychology at work here. Personally, when I look at a massively stacked continent, I don't think "Hey, 20% exp bonus" or whatever it is, I think "Oh crap, I'm going to get farmed by that massive amount of zerg. I might as well go to that continent where all my allies are." Does anyone else also think this way?
I really do miss the fact that Arx gave the game purpose land held a point you wanted to own as much land as possible because then you got more arx unfortunately this system showed its huge flaws when they released Esamir and basically only one faction would have it and they would not leave that continent they'd sit at the other two warpgates holding the ground around them and forget about the other continent because you got less then you would by sitting around AFKing. It was a nice idea and I despise how turning Certs into the golden currency has killed alot of the defense in-game because if your not making XP your wasting time. Of course saying that I don't miss all the afking wankers either.
really it did not have a point. Auraxium was passively earned and earned after getting some xp... The same way certs work now. It was 100% a waste of a resource and unneeded. The rate at which it was earned was slow and it promoted people camping locked down continents. If they had that it in the game now they people would only be complaining more at the slow cert gain. They removed it and upped cert gain. This also helps them with sales since you cannot go and camp a warp gated continent and unlock weapons. You would see less fighting and more afk'ing of sorts on locked continents
Main issue was the passive nature encouraged people to sit AFK logged on 24/7 to farm it. They could make it like xp though only awarded for doing things. But then the second issue was the rich get richer effect. There was a server dominated by NC in beta with most of the population, and by holding all the land most of the time they were getting tons more Auraxium an unlocking everything weeks faster than the already underdog outnumbered sides. Basically yes the devs were right to remove it as it didn't work in that form. I suspect they will bring it back as a 4th resource maybe used for other things like construction of temporary bases. If it's done right it would add a feeling of more persistent value to your conquests in the game without completely overpowering the side that can control more land.
I made a long thread about this. Auraxium was fun because it catered to the "loot *****" aspect of gaming. The thing that keeps you playing for "just another hour" in Diablo, Borderlands, Dwarf Fortress, Port Royale, heck even friggin Minecraft! It ties in to a very core instinctual mental desire we all have to hoard goodies for the future. Not to mention a recent sociological aspect in terms of money. Hoarding money and gaining money is fun. Period. In every game, in every genre. Auraxium filled this mental desire very well. It felt satisfying each "tick" of Auraxium that you got, it felt satisfying to save imaginary "money" to buy weapons. Then they replaced it with just using certs for everything. Certs are boring. Certs are not imaginary "money" despite them both being numbers. If you renamed Certs into "Auraxium", and called it a currency, suddenly it would have that effect again, seriously it is that simple. All in all, i wish they'd bring back the "money" aspect to the game. It's what makes every other genre that contains it so satisfying. As i said, even just renaming certs to Auraxium would do it, even the tiniest change can have a major effect in how the mind percieves something. SOE desperately needs a psychologist on their team. They're trying to make a free to play buy-cool-stuff game, yet they removed the one aspect that made it work.
The problem for me isn't getting zerged, I kinda like being the underdog. The problem is that once you deplete your resources you're basically screwed. Waiting 40 mins just to be able to buy a tank is not OK in any way. Especially not considering you're already at a huge numbers disadvantage. Resource gain really should be global.
I love this Idea. The point when they tied Auraxium to XP gain turned me away from Beta until a week before launch. It just felt silly to have to currency systems that were effectively the same. If I was in charge of getting rid of one of them, I would have cut Certs. As for adding incentive to cap continents, and have some long-lasing influence on how the short term metagame develops, would be to add one extra passive cert per hour for every continent you held.
Auraxium can not work without continent locks and continent locks cant work without the Lattice System. Implement all three and you would fix at least 1/3rd of the games core problems.
It's not that Auraxiam can't work; it's that the old implementation of it can't work. Having a separate resource for weapons made class/weapon/vehicle upgrades a lot more reasonable.
Wasn't it removed because the majority of the community wanted it to be? Personally, I don't care either way. They do however need to make defending more useful, the current system encourages zerging way too much.
The rate at which you gained Auraxium was sooo painfully slow that while in beta, I recall fully kitting out my mosquito before getting the A2A missile pods. It was the fact that by having two resources, one for upgrades, one for new content, and you earned them independently, it just led the game to slow-roll you content at an even slower pace. The only way I could see it returning, would be when there are 5ish continents (+sanctuaries) and you receive auraxium based upon how many territories you have, at a constant rate (likely with the restriction that you must have played on that specific character within two days)
I thought it was removed because people afk and flock to the continents they control the most auraxium on instead of spreading out... which I note hasn't been mediated much since the switch to making everything certs; people still group up on their better populated continents.
Yes, its what i said. The implementation must be appropriate to the goal and other mechanics. Its not impossible, just requires a bit of effort. There are other games that do this as well in a different form, EVE for example. XPs in EVE are entirely passive, but ISK (currency) is what you need to earn. If we could have a similar system but tied to territory-control, we would be golden. But of course proper territory control can only exist if we have: a. more players per server than right now b. the territory is actually defensible and c. the territory can be locked for a certain amount of time. All of which the lattice system (or a similar system) should provide.
They could just implement it as being gained at the same time as certs even. 250 xp = 1 cert and x auraxium. Resources that you have to actively gain without any ties to territory are better as they don't encourage BS.
Well here's my take on what could work and has a good failsafe in it. Currently the only incentive for owning land is decreased costs. And even then it's to hard to cont-lock at times. What SOE needs to implement is Main facility bonuses. Basically the more of the main facilities you have connected to You'r warpgate the more of a bonus you get. So say you have 3 Facileties then give the players an increased XP boost of somekind. And upon that the entire boost needs to be global. No continent specific bonuses. Even better would be to reintroduce Araxium and have special weapons, vehicles and equipment that can only be bought with araxium. Making them really really rare and possibly a little more powerfull than the regular ones.
I would bring Auraxium back and treat it like any other resource. The only difference being Auraxium can be used to replace any of the three resources if you, for instance, could not afford your Prowler or Vanguard or Lib, etc. Makes main bases (or whatever random outpost generates it) a tad more useful, but doesn't promote continent squatting like the old system.
