ZP in the future:
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Sparkplug.
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@Spider
I bet you get that a lot. People stop trying to explain themselves to people like you because you refuse to look at things from a different point of view. You just keep regurgitating the same thing over and over. It doesn't stop making sense to them. They realize it doesn't make sense talking to a block wall.

In my view premium is worth it for several reasons. In yours it is not, also for several reasons. I understand yours, but disagree with most of them. And you disagree with many, if not all of mine.

When a stalemate of that nature is reached then there really isn't much more to debate over. I'm not arguing with max to convince him, that seems unlikely at this point. I'm arguing with max and laying out my viewpoints so that others reading the thread may consider his viewpoints and mine and come to an informed conclusion, regardless of what that conclusion may be.

Also, it's really pathetic you'd stoop so low as to make a dig on someones signature. It's really sad Max had to defend his signature just because he's trying to explain a point of view different from yours.

Max seems unwilling to adapt to the new rules (keyword in that sentence being ADAPT). Therefore my comment to his signature had specific point to it, and wasn't a "your signature sucks, you're stupid, LOLWUT!" as you seem to imply.

I totally agree with Max. If I got more use out of my SP I would be much more inclined to pay for more SP. Right now it's just a waste of time so it's not worth wasting money. I really do plan on buying a premium account but right now it just seems like a waste of money. However, having a faster SP regen across 4 characters would give me a lot more to do. I don't really want to play 4 characters or 2 for that matter. I want to be able to get more enjoyment out of my 1 character without having to pay all the time. Mind you I don't mind paying a little here and a little there. I just can't justify spending a great deal of money on a game that is supposed to be free and marketed as free. Before you go off spouting its only 15 bucks for premium and a buck for a refill of SP. Since SP gets burned off so fast, even being super picky with looting and travel, those 1 dollar refills add up rather quickly.

You find current SP amounts/regen/costs for free players unreasonable. You also find the advantages of going premium do not provide the gaming experience you seek vs the cost implied. I disagree and my arguments have not convinced you. That's really all there is to it.

BTW, I have spent money on a few refills and I have done surveys but the free credits have not appeared at all. I don't seem to be worthy of a reply as to why I did not get my credits. Facebook seems more concerned with pushing out their next update full of yet more bugs adding to those that still have not been fixed after many, many months.

Sponsorpay and super rewards are a bit iffy when it comes to paying up. You can put pressure on ZP to put pressure on them, but it's not really ZP's fault.

Also, your cable tv analogy doesn't really fit the situation. Most people don't even watch more than 3-5 of the normally 60 available channels. In this game I, like most people, play and enjoy every aspect of it. Missions, exploring, zombie killing, looting and safehouse building/upgrading. If I paid for twice as many channels I'd still just watch the same 3-5 I was before. If you want me to spend money for cable I want more out of those channels, not more channels I won't be watching. For example, if I paid for cable I would want fewer commercials so the shows I like would last longer thus giving me more entertainment for my money. You'll also notice you pay for cable once a month and don't have to put more money into it throughout the month so you can watch more tv on some days than you do others.

The original cable analogy was mainly intended to demonstrate that people won't go and pay for something if they can get it for free. Which was what max was stating.

In regards to the rest: It's simple mathematics. Current premium gives you more SP. More SP lets you do more.

You want it in reverse? you got it. New premium: Doesn't give you more SP but lets you do things for less SP. Which lets you do more things.

1+3 equals 4. 3+1 equals 4 too. The end result is the same.

But I'm tired of arguing this right now. Complain about the game all you like.

PS: Sorry to keep bringing your name up max, I'm not trying to bait you or anything. But I was discussing the issue with you for quite a bit, so your name turning up was inevitable.

Sometimes the game isn't based on players wants. The SP limit is in place as a balancing, to decrease superhuman players and to give the devs an easier time with the servers. Extra SP isn't intended to be part of the game. The game was designed for 480. Extra is just an incentive to support the game and if you want more SP, the devs will need to start getting more money to pay server costs. The way i view it, premium players are paying for themselves to get the extra SP. Besides, if you really wanted to get more SP that badly, you'd complete free offers in the get credits section and buy it with those and you'd be supporting the game and getting what you want.

Let's revive this tread!

Cool! What do you want to say?

.

My two cents about the SP cost for moving around the map vs. free-movement : why not a compromise? I totally understand having to spend 4 SP to move to an UNEXPLORED part of the map, but why could it not be just 1 SP to move to an EXPLORED part of the map?


Another retake or enhancement of this could be FREE movement to TRAVEL to any explored location just to SEE what is there (for you realism-fanatics, think of it as a "flash back to what I explored before"... this means I can go to a location at no cost to check the containers (and the timers on them, whatever) but I CANNOT LOOT or interact since I am not "physically" at that location.


This will give people who are at zero SP something to actually DO while waiting for the SP recharge, they can plan their routes in advance, maybe even be allowed to "look" into clan safehouses to see lockers/constructions/members? (When PVP comes out, the "free move/look" should not show players in each location obviously.)


For (active) mission objective locations, then the 4 SP cost should still be there (the player has to physically move to the mission location, no "free" peeks at the area even when previously explored).


And to get back on topic (about scavanging and SP costs): how about changing the "search" option to depend on intensity of the search? Example, 2sp to "Quick Search" (50% chance of not finding anything at all), 4sp to "browse" (70% chance to actually find something, ANYTHING), and 8sp to "scavenge" (100% of always finding something, but still has a "loot table" on how rarely you can find great items in that container)?

Someone care to take my ball and run with it?

My two cents about the SP cost for moving around the map vs. free-movement : why not a compromise? I totally understand having to spend 4 SP to move to an UNEXPLORED part of the map, but why could it not be just 1 SP to move to an EXPLORED part of the map?

I suspect the devs have a specific period of time/Sps they want you to spend getting from point A to point B. And peeking into non explored squares remotely would take some of the fun out of exploring methinks.

Also, the complaints were more of a physical "we want to move and loot and it's too pricey and the drops are crap" nature and not so much of mental "there's nothing to do when I run out of SPs" nature.


I do see alot of merit in the "flashback" concept, though not exactly in the way you pictured it. I often forget where I've been, and being able to "take a peak" at a previously visited location and seeing I looted it 48 hours ago (and therefore there's nothing to loot there) would save me the trip. And lots of SPs.

I also see merit on the "Searh intensity" idea. Not quite sure how it would affect the looting balance of the game though, would take some formula crunching on the devs' part.

Maybe you should make these two suggestions separately and see if anyone rolls with your ball?

Ok now ive had a few weeks to scavange, and i feel that the drop rates have changed a little bit.

Counters and shelves (inside buildings) have higher drop rate on food / booze / dollars (like 4-13 dollar / drop)
Cop cars have a bigger chance to drop walkies / 9mm ammo.
Ambulances have a higher rate for stimpacks / bandages.

Military vehicles and dead soldiers have less drop rate than before.
Dead people / raiders have less drop rate than before.
Dumpsters / garbage cans have less drop rates.
Pile of junk has less drop rates.

This is over a 3 week period sense my last post in this thread.
Anyone noticed the same things?

I'm happy to say I've been getting quite a lot of drops in comparison to before. These are my results:

Ambulances: Painkillers, very frequently.
Police cars: Mostly walkie-talkies, valuable enough to sell.
Dead cops: Nightsticks with quite some frequency, nice for selling.
Food trucks: Food with moderate frequency.
Trucks/Vans/Buses: Money, running shoes and painkillers or stimpacks, if I remember correctly.
Dead raiders: Usually nothing, but on the rare few occasions I found something, it was either ammo or weapons.
Pickup trucks: Boxes of nails and handguns, not so frequent.
Military stuff: More often than not, nothing, but when I do find something, it's usually military clothing and ammo.

From all of these, the ones I've noticed an increase in are, in particular, ambulances, from where I keep getting painkillers, dead cops, from where I keep getting nightsticks, police cars (walkie talkies) and trucks/vans, where I find running shoes and painkillers, if I remember correctly. Either that or stimpacks, I'm not sure, but it's actually common. I didn't use to scavenge those things and now I always do, I keep being positively surprised, especially from commercial trucks.

Military spots are the ones that are dropping less for me, too.

Another great discussion! How about that. :-)
Some personal highlights, completely out of context:

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 24-07-2011 02:12 AM
So let me get this straight: If I'm given free cable I'll be more inclined to go out and pay for it? Because my paid cable shows will then be SIX TIMES more fun? Wow. And here I thought the shows would be exactly the same. Except now I was paying for them.

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 24-07-2011 05:07 AM
You don't HAVE to go premium, it will simply make your life easier and allow for a gameplay lenght adequate to your needs. If you prefer your life harder, your gameplay shorter and $15 in your pocket you're quite free to make that choice. However... you can't have your cake and eat too.

Posted By Spiderjerusalem on 24-07-2011 08:25 PM
When a stalemate of that nature is reached then there really isn't much more to debate over. I'm not arguing with max to convince him, that seems unlikely at this point. I'm arguing with max and laying out my viewpoints so that others reading the thread may consider his viewpoints and mine and come to an informed conclusion, regardless of what that conclusion may be.

For those who lack the context, it starts at page one.
For those that don't, I apologise and applaud to you.
Ps: How the hell do you post links in this forum?

Edit: hmpf. Annoying tendency this forum has to remove empty lines.

I have to assume your level decides the drop items not the area of the mapp your scavaging. I just found a piece of armor 3 times the strength of my old and a high power 9mm which I have never found in the same square. A square I had visited before. Scavaging is getting better for me as my levels increase.

No not rly, im getting less and less for everyday i play.
Getting hard to afford ammo
Myb a trucker cap here and there, and a pack of ciggarettes if im RLY lucky.

Today I am finding NOTHING when I scavenge.

WTF.

I thought we've discussed this and have come up with solutions and improvements.

Are the developers just sticking their fingers in their ears and determined to turn the game into total boredom that no one will play?

Here's an idea to get rid of scavenging altogether? Just have a central welfare office in each map. You go there once a day and pick up a roll of ten $100 dollar bills and then head off to the gun shops!

I live in Vegas and there are places here that make a fortune off of people who think they should get lucky every day.

Keep scavenging till you drop, friends. It'll come around.

I just scavenged over 5K dollars worth of good in 1 scavaging trip. The 4 BDU jackets were nice. Either I hit it really lucky, or the higher you go the better the scavaging. I'm selling everything as I am happy with my set up and not finding anything better, but the amount of good money finds is just through the roof. I have no sense of urgency or being concerned with running out of ammo now.

Since the new scavenging start i have looted soo much to buy some of the best weapons and armor without problem since i mostly exploring was not a major issue for me, some day are less lucky than other but in total is not bad.
I gladly appreciate that farming was reduced sincerly found it annoing (just my mind).
The feel o wandering looter for resource and make the economy run is more intese and nice, so thumb up for the new scanvenging sistem.

I have to say I am disappointed. Up until now I have had to be vigilant and watch my ammo. I had to spend runs scavenging just for cash. Seems those days are gone. Map 1 at the grocery store at 25/25 there is 3 rooms. main store had 6 lootables, I got 8 food items. Back of the store had 2 lootables, I got money and a phone, storage room had 1 lootable I got a food item.
Out of 9 lootables I got 11 items, all usable or sellable but the 1 item phone, none were empty/nothing. Its been like this ever since breaking level 20. I think its bad for the game. I'm finding more and more high dollar items as well. Good bags, BDU jackets left and right, ACU pants and such. I can use my 6 shot SMG all the time now and never run out of AMMO.
I must say I like the challenge of scarcity much better then this abundance.

@Lord Simon Cross:

I think it's probably relative. My scavenging runs usually result in some food/medical supplies, some ammo - but usually the types I don't use on my guns - and the odd military clothing piece or nightstick, as well as the usual odds and ends that all added up provide for a nice selling value.

Perhaps you just got lucky; I don't feel the scavenging system is too rewarding in my case. And let's be honest here, luck is always a factor in every online game. I mean, you'll always hear about players that make loads of money every day off of their findings, while you struggle to find something good to sell. In your case, maybe it's the other way around? : P

Still, ranged players spend so much in ammo that I feel the scavenging system should accommodate for that. I am *NOT* going pure melee just because it's cheaper. I like my guns, thank you very much. If you're going to reduce drop rates, then at least compensate on ammunition costs, to balance it off.