A3 Altis PVE Server Bugs and Development

[Goethe]

On my server-hopping-journey today I have been on some servers that had that Trader-System embedded. Sure, without to have to donate to get the trading-option unlocked, one could just walk there and buy stuff. So I knew that it can be pulled off somehow.

This is what made me think: "Hey, I'd like that convenience on the CiC-Server, too (which I do consider my home-server ^^). To not have to run from trader to trader and check their inventories if you just want to buy a big backpack or a certain kind of ammo for example would be amazing. Sure, after the Server will be running for a while the Traders will have all kinds of stuff, but every trader will have other stuff and there will be no general guarantee that you will ever be able to find the particular stuff you are looking for somewhere.

AND stuff is organised in categories there, so you don't need to "scroll and concentrate" anymore .

I'm not sure if they had vehicles in there also, I think they didn't have them in tbh. But never mind vehicles, the rest of the possibilities of that "other trader" would be still worth a one-time-donation (like in a2).

I know how hard it is to keep the servers running as a gaming-community, and every donation helps. So why not "motivate steady customers?" was what I thought .

The existing traders would still need to stay, of course. Because "forcing" people to donate is not very nice. So the only thing that donating would bring here is "convenience".

On your A2-Server it had felt the same. Sure, as a non-donater one couldn't sell DMR's for example, but still, one could sell other weapons to gather money. So it's not "pay-to-win", that is what I liked about that idea.

[Cook]

I've seen the trader system you are talking about on other servers and I have to say I really didn't like it, the idea of been able to do a bit of looting and earn a little coin then walk into traders spend said coin and walk out fully kitted with everything really detracts from the feel of the game for me personally.

Yes you could argue that the prices were obviously too low on the server I tried it out on but as we all know making money on Arma 3 is not an issue anyway so unless the prices were made insanely overpriced within a short space of time you would have everything you needed leaving you left with little else to work for thus making playing boring.

In my opinion you want a certain weapon or item of gear or whatever then the doing the missions or looting towns looking for it is all part of the game, it isn't supposed to be easy to find exactly what you want.

[Pradatoru]

I agree on that trader but having only tool stuff like binocs radio and others like that , backpacks and ammo . That's all u will need . Everything else u should work for it

[Goethe]

Sure, if that trader has everything one needs, only costing peanuts, it will make the game boring, indeed.

But, as you already mentioned, you could balance that on several ways:

- increase the buying prices
- decrease the selling prices
- decrease the amount of goods offered
- ...

Jup, and therefore decreasing the amount of offered goods to the level where he only has tools, backpacks, clothing and ammo on stock would naturally be a good idea, too.

I think that the overall potential that this kind of trader offers is too nice to just "leave out of the game".

And some kind of "money sink" will be needed someday imo, because 1.000.000 Krypto on the Bank account are totally pointless xD.

Even with "money sink - possibilities" in A2, there were some players that still had one gazillion briefcases in their bases ... right cookie?

[Cook]

I stand by my comment, don't like it, don't think we need it but not my choice.

[Kroenen]

I stand by my comment, don't like it, don't think we need it but not my choice.

You said that about me too, and I'm still here

[Cook]

LOL!!! I never said such a thing

[Cook]

Plus just want to add in a game that already lacks the staying factor of Arma 2 due to the basic building options adding anything that makes it even remotely easier to play, gather, hoard is a mistake in my opinion.

[Cook]

Even with "money sink - possibilities" in A2, there were some players that still had one gazillion briefcases in their bases ... right cookie?

Who are you? you know too much!

[red_ned]

The trick is to consistently add into the game things which bring new challenges to keep it interesting.
Economy balancing is one of the hardest things we ever faced with Epoch; too much loot and high selling prices then people get rich quick and get bored, too little loot at too low a selling price then people struggle too much when starting out and they leave as it becomes a grind and not fun.
Sometimes i think that to prevent people hoarding cash and items we should run a season basis so people compete for say 6 months and we work out who wins at the end (ai missions, cash, and any other stats etc) then reset with different server settings for the next season but i know this kind of idea isnt always popular even though people get bored and wander off.

So with a community like CiC you have to make the choice to try to run in either a player centric way or a server centric way - which way do you lean the server with Ai and cash. Do you try to make it tougher on start so people last longer or make it easier for people to have done enough on the server to not leave as they put the time in. A2 was a little easier as you can do both like have easy missions spawning but really tough static missions and i think over the months we have changed and developed the balance but A3 has the issue where not that much is available atm and some decisions can only be decided once then you are stuck with it unless you wipe.

We have always looked at suggestions and i personally enjoyed upping the AI levels and pumping up the prices as we go in A2 but you cant in A3 so we can only go with ideas people suggest and we can work out how to implement so keep suggesting as we have taken on most suggestions in the past even if not quite as the person suggested, but don't expect all changes to happen all the time.

Recent server issues had both myself and Kroenen wondering if it was all worth it as we were just gutted at the hosts support and we realised we put somewhere in the region of 20 times more time coding than ever playing, and even if we spend a month coding it doesn't mean people will be on the server or be happy with what we have done and i think Frankie and Prad have both experienced the "time spent coding " to "time spent playing" ratio.

Keep suggesting and keep the faith that we all want the same thing: a server which is fun yet challenging and people want to play on so we don't play by ourselves while not bleeding my bank dry or forcing people to donate to buy advantages in game