Closing the Gap
Day 1,560, 17:12
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Published in Ireland 
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by
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by Sweet Drinker
Imagine 2 erep players: n00b & oldfg.
n00b is e-young and has only 1k strength
oldfg has been playing for 2yrs and has 10k strength
n00b is clearly at a disadvantage. Assuming oldfg uses full strength training there is no way n00b can ever overcome the strength discrepancy it would seem.
It's true that even if n00b uses full training he will never close that 9k gap.
However that's the wrong way to look at n00b's situation.
oldfg has 10k, while n00b has 1k, or... 10% of oldfg's strength
Hopelessly outmatched.
But n00b doesn't despair, he goes the whole hog with full strength training everyday until he's added 10k strength to his original 1k.
Meanwhile oldfg does the exact same training for just as many days and also gains 10k strength.
Now oldfg has 20k, and n00b has 11k, or.. 55% of oldfg' strength
Even though there is still a 10k gap in their strengths, n00b is clearly gaining proportionate strength vs oldfg.
Enter the addition of Training Facility Upgrades:
Once again oldfg starts with 10k, while poor n00b has only 1k.
But this time, they're both gonna fully upgrade their training facilities as well as going napoleon dynamite with their daily training for the same period of time!
oldfg winds up with 30k, and n00b ends up with 21k, or... 70% of oldfg's strength!
As you can see, the addition of training upgrades creates an opportunity for lower strengthed players to increase their proportionate influence.
Still not convinced that Training Upgrades are a good thing?
Then read this article written by Malbekh who was nice enough to do most of my job for me on this topic!!!
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Link to mals article is broken sw33t http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/qq-over-q2-training-upgrades-1976361/1/20
v
old players hate any change, just the way it is
voted and subbed! nice article
No, it still sucks donkey balls. Anything that involves paying real life money for in-game advantage utterly compromises the integrity of the game!
On my screen the upgrades are asking for gold.
Does it ask for Euros on yours John?
"Anything that involves paying real life money for in-game advantage utterly compromises the integrity of the game!"
And yet that is our new reality. I remember thinking the ability to buy weapon unlocks in Battlefield was unfair, and then saw you could buy items to heal injuries and improve stats in Madden and was dumbfounded, it seemed very odd. But now you can buy in game currency in Dante's Inferno for example, weapon upgrades in hyperdimension Neptunia, and the new King of Fighters even has an unlock everything pack you can buy.
If anything, eRepublik was ahead of the curve, and everyone else is playing catch up.
Gormley has the right idea here.
The real comparison should not be between the old credit card hero the noob credit card hero, but between the old straight-liner who has diligently trained for years with only what he makes in-game and the noob credit card hero who is now able to catch and surpass him more quickly and more undeservedly than ever.
thanks to Sweet who took the time to explain this to me last night
I agree with Stilpo, the focus of the admins is to turn as many players as possible into credit carders - and rightly so, this is a business after all. I only upgraded my free training ground because that's all I ever use. I have no issue with a noob who can catch up to me with bought gold. He funds the game that I enjoy playing for free.
Oh yeah, v + s
Excellent article \o/
sadly I cannot visit the links as I get message saying they are malicious
"I have no issue with a noob who can catch up to me with bought gold. He funds the game that I enjoy playing for free."
Interesting way of thinking about it. I'm still not happy about it, but a good point is a good point.
"On my screen the upgrades are asking for gold.
Does it ask for Euros on yours John?"
No, I didn't say that. But one can get the gold required using real life cash and that's precisely what will happen in many cases because why else would the Admins bring in this change other than to get real-life cash?
So, those people in effect are paying real life money for in game advantage.
And I'm saying that a game that encourages is really harming itself because it destroys the level playing field that should exist in all games. I believe that a game should be about winning via skill alone (as much as possible - obviously luck and other unavoidable factors may come into play sometimes).
However, there's no skill in buying your way to success.
That's what I've always hated about this game.
I think you're not seeing this properly though JG. Even if you never bought gold in your e-life, upgrading is still possible and is still a smart choice for the first 2 training grounds at least. With the increase in medals you would receive the upgrades would pay for themselves so if you had some Gold to spare then there is literally no reason NOT to upgrade, no matter what your Training routine is.
The way Sweet explains it I just think this is terribly unfair to old gold buying fags like me. Feel sorry for me people.
;_;
^ gets it!
Also, this isn't 200g for a sudden 'must have' Q6 weapn factory upgrade that most ppl would have no choice but to Visa.
This is a 'no timer, you can save up ingame' change to the game.
If your alrdy doing full training, gold obv isn't a problem for you. If all your doing is using the basic fee training, then watching other players strength outstrip yours isn't a new thing for ya!
If you can't scrape together 20g to upgrade your basic training facility, you might want to rethink your game strategy.
IBhoy: The issue here is not whether or not to upgrade - it is obvious that everybody stands to gain in absolute terms from investing in upgrades (compared to their own previous condition). The point is that the gold-buying class benefit far more in RELATIVE terms than most other players. Even after upgrading basic facilities and climbing centers, the big spenders are still pulling ahead at a faster rate than ever.
Me gives YD a few euro, there you go mate all better now : P
Fair play Sweet, I only noticed these new things. Very handy having an article to read and find out what there all about, voted.