Skill Training - Gold Sink Suggestion

I had an idea late last night while training magery on a new toon. Now keep in mind, it was really late... so this idea may be terrible. But... what if we implemented some kind of gold-sink training system that allowed us to spend gold on skill points during the character creation process (and only during that time.) I mean, we all know skill training is automated these days. Sure, some skills take a little more effort than others but in the end it's mostly about time and money.

So my thoughts are;

- During the character creation process, allow the option to pay for skill using a Sponsor's gold (gold from an alt's bank box, from the same account.)
- You could buy anywhere from 0-700 skill points if desired. (depending on skills, discussed below)
- This option would not be available after the character creation period to ensure stat loss is still a joke punishment.

- The cost of each skill will be based on the time and resources required to GM if you were to use Razor, in real time. Then add 20%-50% cost as a convenience fee, depending on the difficulty of training the skill and/or its OP-rating (Over Powered Rating in game.)
- Example 1: Lets say it costs 100k to GM magery using normal methods/Razor. This system would charge you 120k and your new character would start with GM magery.
- Example 2: Taming costs almost nothing to GM, but it's considered OP (OP-Rating 10/10?) so this system would charge you 200k to start at GM taming.
- These numbers mean nothing, they are just examples.
- This system saves players time while taking more gold out of circulation. WIN, WIN!


Just off the top of my head I could see this system negatively impacting the player resource economy (it would take away the need to buy some resources for training purposes.) So maybe we could limit which skills are in this system. Then again, people still use resources throughout their gaming life, not just during character training.

This is just a quick down-n-dirty. Thoughts?

It might sound good at first glance, but imo it's a really bad idea. I am sure, others will politely explain why. I dont want to type it on my mobile.

Skill gains are very quick here as is. But, whatever the hive mind thinks I am fine with

As long as this is being done with in-game currency then I don't see a huge problem.

I mean, we allow unattended macroing here. What's the big deal whether I pay 200k to work up magery instantly or set up a macro that takes two days. With the macro it'll cost me around 60k simply in regs.

I see two drawbacks, negatively impacting the era-accuracy feel (which IMO we are way past at this point anyway) and essentially negating stat loss.

How about this does not apply for toons with murder counts. And or you can only buy skills at the start of character creation if you die in stat and Rez you would still have to macro

I do agree with cynic on all points as long as it's in game currency I'm fine with that

Call me cray-cray but I find that building characters, albeit with macros already ramping up the process, some of the exciting stuff around excluding holidays.

Yeah but some players would rather ramp up the process and just have them done for a more expensive cost. It may help the shard who knows

@Cynic @scuba I agree this should not work for regaining skill from stat loss. Please see the above excerpt from my OP.

Also, this is designed as a gold-sink, so in-game currency would be the only way to purchase skill.

Thanks for all replies, keep 'em coming!

It's fun to a point. After a while it becomes somewhat annoying. I'm not the type of person that likes starting over, once was enough for me. This is one of the biggest reasons I've resisted the countless amount of invites I've been getting to play other servers. Aside from the loyalty I have to UOR, I just don't like to start over again. In the sense of new character creation, if I could pay 3M so that I didn't need to work taming.. I would shell that out in a heartbeat.

@Valrick this system would be optional.

This would likely have a negative impact on the player vendor economy. I'm sure there are quite a few vendors that make their living selling regs for people to macro magery with, ingots for smithing, etc etc.

I see this as installing automated kiosks and firing the guy behind the counter.

Just throwing up pros and cons as they come up in my head

$20 donation = 7x skill ball. (Non-transferable)

It's time to give the people what they want.

I think speeding up skill gain takes away from the game experience. For both the gainer and the shard.

Where would the Jhelom pens PK play? Who would pick those pesky chests in dungeons?

You'll still find new players there to PK, which is the majority of who gets killed there anyway.

You'll also likely still find the same recall bots picking the chests.

You'll also still see resist events succeed because why pay the money when it's free, aside from the new players that won't have the gold anyway.

You're seeing the system as the end of the new player macroing magery at Occlo bank, the new players will still be there. Hell, even cheapo vets will still macro in the confines and safety of their own homes. The point of this system is to SINK the money of vets. New players who are still saving up to buy a large home aren't going to spend millions of gold to raise magery. I, however, who don't have the time nor the inclination (along with a lot of free money laying around) will see the system as a small cost that'll save me precious time.

Hey, I wonder how I would do with XXXX template in this AMIB... 5 minutes and 1M later.. dammit, this template sucks. That's a win/win and it doesn't hurt anyone. Whether I macro swordsmanship for free in my fort or I pay 100k to save me time, what did it effect anyone?

I still see it as a loss of player-based economy when those skills that you're raising from the ether are no longer using actual resources (such as spell reagents) that are usually provided by other players. Sure there are some folks who farm out the mage NPC's to buy them all themselves to save a few gold, but I know that I myself don't really have the time to do that and happily pay others to do that work for me.

I guess there would be less impact of this was limited to raising skills which took time online and no actual resources (weapon skills, barding skills, etc). I suppose taming also doesn't require any resources, but god dammit if you wanna be OP you should have to spend the time to get there IMHO.

I think having the option to pay in stat loss is good. We want a gold sink after all

That argument doesn't fly for me. I've always seen reg buying as unattended resource gathering. People set up unattended bots to either buy from town vendors or faction vendors and then make money, unattended. If this crashes the player reg selling market then I'm a happy camper. We all know, however, that it won't effect reg buying as much as you're making it sound.

But, unattended reg buying as unattended resource gathering is an argument for another thread.

I think is bad idea... is not fair for the young players... and the activity of training makes the shard more alive. There are already a huge gap between the younger and the "super players" and this could increase it. Some youngers could feel frustrated.

This would be most likely for vets who already train toons within there homes away from any towns