Rebalancing WW to be Noob Friendly

As many of us know, Wild West has had a quite low player count for awhile (though it appears to be rebounding), due to both experienced players quitting and new players not joining or not staying long when they join. I have a couple of solutions to deal with the first issue.

Keeping Legal Items when Arrested​

As many of us know, once you are arrested your inventory is wiped just like if you had died. If you are doing something illegal, you have a choice to either run or fight the sheriff, because if you are arrested and sent to jail then it’s just as bad as if you had died since your inventory is gone. This can be particularly troublesome on noobs and small players who get arrested while processing that lose their weapons, food, and any additional armor in addition to their drugs.

I propose letting people keep their legal items when they get out of jail. That way you have a choice when approached by sheriffs: surrender and lose your illegals or open fire and risk losing everything to attempt to keep everything. This follows the risk vs reward style of the Wild West and makes it a lot more noob friendly.

Recognizing a Sheriff​

When I first played Wild West, I saw a sheriff come into the tobacco processor. I thought he was an enemy and almost attacked him. In chat, I would suggest putting notices saying that sheriffs will wear enchanted iron armor, will have an orange nametag in chat and on tab, and a list can be found using /sheriff. That way you can recognize them and realize they’re not a player there to attack you.

Legalizing Tobacco​

There are currently 5 drugs in the game. Wildgrass and coco are the most profitable and are often farmed by large teams, while tobacco is one of the least profitable and mostly farmed by noobs. It’s where I farmed when I first started playing, and it’s the closest drug to the starting city (Amarillo).

I think that tobacco is a drug that should be legalized so that noobs have a place that they can process in peace without being arrested while they are adjusting to the game.Then when they are more experienced they can process more lucrative drugs at illegal rebel bases. Processing tobacco would also probably be less likely to cause new players to quit because tobacco is a shorter distance, so they might not quit out of the boredom of walking or riding ponies from place-to-place as much.

I do not believe legalizing tobacco would be op. This is because it is one of the most visited crops and therefore one of the most dangerous in terms of pvp, probably only behind wildgrasss. It is also considerably less lucrative than other drugs, meaning it won’t make them as much money as other drugs.

Add Trade Posts​

Sheriffs tend to end up with multiple sets of diamond armor and legal weapons after they kill large teams who are processing. They can do little with these and typically only get to sell illegal weapons and drugs. Therefore, going after large teams is not very profitable, and instead cuffing noobs at tobacco or other drugs tends to be very profitable, so sheriffs basically target noobs.

I propose to add trade posts which would be an npc in a building where you could put items on the market. Sheriffs could then sell legal weapons and armor to other players at a reduced price. That way they would make more of a profit off going after large teams rather than targeting noobs.

To prevent the trade posts from being used as an additional storage, a tax of 5% of the price will be charged to the seller when they put it into the market, not when it is purchased. Each player will have a maximum of 9 selling slots. An additional 9 could be purchased for a price of $25,000 + $5,000 for each slot it is. (Ex: first is $25,000. Second is $30,000…)

Since you can get 5% of the profits from selling drugs in Wild West by taking over cartels, it would be nice if a “trade center” or “trade cartel” was added that when taken over the 5% tax would go to that team. However, if no one controlled the trade center/cartel then the tax money would simply disappear.

I am aware that a trade plugin already exists on the Raid server, so that plugin could be taken, modified, and implemented in Wild West as well.

List Nearest Town Beneath Items​

Even though I am somewhat experienced in the game, I still find myself going to the forums to find lists of what town is closest to mines, Indian camps, and rebel bases. It would be nice if when you hovered over a location it would tell you the nearest town.

Combining Items​

Currently in Wild West there is no crafting whatsoever. This means you cannot combine weapons, armor, or tools. I would like it if you would be able to combine those items. Personally, I end up with lots of almost dead gear and nowhere to store it. Noobs who raid Indian camps probably have the same issues.

Reduce Pickaxe Prices and Pickaxe Buffs​

Mining is something that veteran players typically avoid because processing is so much better. However, lots of noobs use it as a source of money. One of the main issues with mining is that pickaxes are incredibly expensive. A diamond pickaxe is $3000, which may not be a lot to veteran players, but it is a lot for noobs. I would suggest cutting all pickaxe prices in half and adding efficiency to them. That way noobs can mine ore faster and cheaper, and mining would be a better source of income.

Add Team Alliances​

Lots of noobs have solo teams or small teams, and often times they team up. I think it would be easier on them if there were team alliances so that noobs could team up easier and truce with larger teams easier. I don't believe this would be op because all it really does is prevent friendly fire between allied team members and prevent people who are new to the team from attacking allied teams.

 

Yeah I don't expect it to get done immediately. I was just putting these ideas out here when the devs do have time to work on Wild West.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your support as well.

 

1) Yeah that's what I was thinking.
2) There will be an npc inside a building just like the other npcs. You can find it via the compass just like the others.
3) Yeah I guess they are for most people, but when I was a noob I had no idea that orange tag was sheriff.
4) Yeah I think it would help a lot. Currently I think the system is broken because you're forced to attack sheriffs at processors rather than having the chance of surrendering and losing your stuff.
5) I'm not suggesting the ability to craft other items. I'm just suggesting being able to combine armor, swords, and pickaxes.

IMO there doesn't really need to be a cost on combining items as it's not very op and would just make combining items more painful because it would have to be done at a special crafting table or npc which would be more dev time. I wouldn't have an issue with items having costs to combine though, just don't see a huge point in it.

IMO when they do rework it they should add it as a separate game mode not reset it. People tend to get bored of Wild West after awhile, so maybe with two Wild West versions when they get bored of one they switch to the other.

 

On the contrary I think it would help the community. You get bored of one game mode so you play the other. I know there are lots of players, including myself, who won't really want to play the new WW and would prefer to play the old. If they keep both then we have more players because less quit from not liking the old Wild West.

Yes some do, but eventually they tend to get enough diamond armor that it's not longer worth anything to them and then just give it back to people or toss it out because they have no way of selling it since we don't have trade posts.

I suggested a trade post not sheriff post. Did you mean that? And if you did I believe you already have a functioning plugin on raid to do what I suggested. Why not use that?