Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

Amatiel · 2014-02-08 09:06:48

I am of course talking about 80-100k+ houses. These guys can easily become nigh untouchable if they pursue an active approach to bulldozing potential competitors with overwhelming numbers of tools. Mr price (aka josh) currently has 650k in value, and if any wealthy player starts screwing around in his house, price can just brute force this new threat with a fraction of his wealth.

I saw another thread suggesting a cap on tools carried etc, but i can see how this can easily backfire.

Ill get the ball rolling by suggesting a vault value limit. A single vault can only hold say 90k in cash and tool value. After that, another vault must be placed which can only be situated a minimum of 40 squares away from the first vault.

Thus will make the more expensive houses slightly more vulnerable, and more so if they wish to get richer. It wont make them pushovers if they have 2 vaults for instance, but a 500k player needs to protect at least 5-6 vaults to keep his overwhelming power advantage.

Archonn · 2014-02-08 09:29:50

Better yet (or completely crazy, you decide) everyone should have 2 vaults. They can divide their cash as they wish, even leaving one just as a decoy.

arakira · 2014-02-08 10:40:58

It is funny how 2 weeks ago, many threads started in attempts to deal with top houses being too easy to chain rob/brute force. Now, I read here and there the "problem" that Mr Price is too powerful, that any uber-rich player is totally immune because he can storm any house with a fraction of his money. These are both interesting discussions.

First, what I see, is that the in-game money amount is slowly reaching an equilibrium (no more 10 houses over 100k$ that you could brute force with 15 saws, top pages houses now hover around 40k, which I think is still a bit high but this may continue to stabilize), so less "easy" money is available. Chain-robbing can be effective, but I notice that when I get steamrolled this way, it is always by a player who is more skilled than me. If chain-robbing was so easy, everybody would be able to do it, and I would be stormed every day, but it is not the case at all. It looks easy when you watch the tapes, but to succeed you need to keep a high degree of concentration, make smart and quick decisions, you are not allowed to fail a single time, withstand the pressure... In some way, the same can be said about a super-rich player who is trying to take down a rising challenger. The longer your life is or the richer you are, the more difficult it is nervously (and also technically, because if you are at the top you will mostly rob top, better designed houses). Mr Price will fall some day, and it may be because of a stupid self-test mistake, a nervous breakdown, or simply when a good player finds a way to solve his house.
I consider myself an experienced player, and I truly think that he is not invulnerable. In the last 12 hours, I gathered 100k$, died, gathered 150k$, and died again. So, I got twice the opportunity to decently try his house. I failed, because, purely and solely, I was not good enough. I died "stupidly" because I didn't have strong enough nerves, or because I didn't choose the best moment/quantity of tools to attack. Many small details that are required to be at the top. But I'm sure it is feasible by a better player than me (or when I will be a better player )
Josh was already good at chain-robbing, and now he can design houses that can resist 100k$ brute-force attempts, and at the same time he can keep on taking down rising challengers. Why? Because, simply put, he is very good at the game! Again, if staying super-rich many consecutive days was easy, then many people could do it. To me, the fact that he can do it, means that the game is pretty well balanced, has still room for discoveries, and allows only good players to rise and stay on top, which is great!

Damn, while writing this, I timed-out and lost 37k$ between two chain-robberies. Nervous breakdown...

jere · 2014-02-08 10:45:57

It is funny how 2 weeks ago, many threads started in attempts to deal with top houses being too easy to chain rob/brute force. Now, I read here and there the "problem" that Mr Price is too powerful, that any uber-rich player is totally immune because he can storm any house with a fraction of his money.

These aren't in contradiction. Mr. Price was able to become so rich through bruteforcing and wipe out his competition through bruteforcing. And now that he has 20 times more money than anyone else, yea of course bruteforcing isn't a tactic to deal with him.

Price/josh is out to prove me wrong for saying this:

I'm just wondering if it's even possible with excellent play to stay at the top for more than a week. Unless that top house systematically wipes out all competition, it doesn't seem likely.

Except... that's exactly what he did. He took out the competition.

Amatiel · 2014-02-08 11:04:55

Yes thats the point i (cautiously) am making. He has broken through the threshold of experiencing risk during robberies. Ofc short of a silly mistake, he can now chain brute force any and every competitor in the game with tools and cash to spare.

Perhaps we could raise the vault capacity to 150k instead, just to target the absolute top tier of player who is really out to push the boundaries/prove a point. No player should have 600k in the bank whilst the closest a competitor can get is 50-60k before being bulldozed.

For me the jury is still out, and ill be watching how this goes before i 100% decide, but i suspect that in the right hands, this amount of cash is quite the game changer.

arakira · 2014-02-08 11:15:00

jere wrote:

These aren't in contradiction. Mr. Price was able to become so rich through bruteforcing and wipe out his competition through bruteforcing. And now that he has 20 times more money than anyone else, yea of course bruteforcing isn't a tactic to deal with him.
Price/josh is out to prove me wrong for saying this:
I'm just wondering if it's even possible with excellent play to stay at the top for more than a week. Unless that top house systematically wipes out all competition, it doesn't seem likely.
Except... that's exactly what he did. He took out the competition.

Allright, I better understand the context. Still, I think that even using bruteforcing, this challenge is very difficult to achieve. Also, it must require a big amount of time. Just being curious, Josh, how many hours a day do you spend on the game during the this challenge?

Amatiel · 2014-02-08 11:28:10

In fact that previous thread you are referring to, is attempting to address the exact same issue, that thread just doesnt quite get its wording 100% clear.

joshwithguitar · 2014-02-08 16:41:58

I've been thinking about it and I think I know the best way to make it harder for top houses to lord it over like this: make the sale value of tools 1/4 of purchase value (or less). This way players lower on the list could quietly build a tool stockpile and come after the top player. I was paranoid enough that players with $50k house value would come bashing at my door with $100k of tools, now imagine if houses with $25k value could have that many tools.

This would certainly encourage robbing in the game as selling tools to build with would seem a waste as opposed to using them to knock out houses and build up even more tools. I'm not sure how this would play out but it could be interesting.

jere · 2014-02-08 16:43:31

That's not a bad idea, josh. It might also help with house prices rising too fast. I dunno.

Amatiel · 2014-02-08 17:59:19

Yea i like the similar idea of a taxataion system. Ie: if u are worth 0-20k u pay no tool tax, if u are worth 20-40k then ur in then next tax bracket and u pay 20% tool tax, and so on

joshwithguitar · 2014-02-09 06:33:16

arakira wrote:

Allright, I better understand the context. Still, I think that even using bruteforcing, this challenge is very difficult to achieve. Also, it must require a big amount of time. Just being curious, Josh, how many hours a day do you spend on the game during the this challenge?

Well, I have had a lot of free time over the past few days and have been able to keep tabs on things throughout the day. Still, it only takes around 5-10 mins to rob most houses, maybe 20 if I have some serious scouting to do. It is certainly not something anyone with enough money will be able to pull off - you need a very good house that can withstand chain-robbers barging in with $100k of tools, you need to be able to rob houses whilst at least breaking even - hopefully making a profit - and without dying. Some of those houses were scary, even with lots of tools.

One thing that surprised me - I was able to keep my children alive through the entire ordeal.

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-02-08 09:06:48

Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#2 2014-02-08 09:29:50

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#3 2014-02-08 10:40:58

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#4 2014-02-08 10:45:57

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#5 2014-02-08 11:04:55

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#6 2014-02-08 11:15:00

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#7 2014-02-08 11:28:10

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#8 2014-02-08 16:41:58

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#9 2014-02-08 16:43:31

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#10 2014-02-08 17:59:19

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

#11 2014-02-09 06:33:16

Re: Ideas for a game mechanic that curtails the ultra wealthy

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