Death to Beecoins

Suggestions
1

Over the last few months something sour has been eating in me, for I have seen what can be and what is not. I’ve slowly come to realise how backwards some of our systems are, that they only act as road blocks and add nothing. With the perfect example of this being beecoins. They are there to motivate you, to make you play the game and guide you with rewards for doing things that are preferable in a RP server, though, sadly to have value and a reason to be sought after you need to with hold something from the player. That thing is character customization and the ability to play an additional character.

Now this wouldn’t be a major issue if it wasn’t for the fact that you earn next to nothing each round, even if you play them carefully and perfectly, you’d only be awarded a maximum of 130 beecoins (40 from roundstart join, 40 for completing your crew objective (if you even have one to begin with), 30 for escaping and 20 for surviving). With rounds often being around 2 hours on the average non low pop round, that is only 65 beecoins an hour, comparing that to the US hourly minimum wage of 7.25$, thats not even 9 beecoins per us dollar (8.97~(roughly the same exchange rate as of the Swedish krona, 9.20)). All of this to then pay for items that, at its lowest, costs 1000 beecoins, not only that it’s often in double that range, but also it takes roughly the same time to unlock head roles as to get the beecoins.

The less you express your characters, buy outfits, accessories and cosmetics or get additional character slots, the less you engage in conflict and role play, the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt—your beecoins. The less your are, the less you express of your characters, the more you have, the greater is your alienated playing style and the greater is the saving of your alienated character.

  • Remove beecoins and make the loudout items free
  • Keep the status quo
  • Keep the system, but up the beecoin gain
0 voters
3 Likes
2

I do personally agree that the system seems… counterintuitive, and believe that beecoins can still have a place in bee, but to lock cosmetics behind them isn’t what they should be used for. I feel like they should be used for more actual round elements, like the antag token. It makes perfect sense for that to be behind the coins. It’s an actual reward for playing the game. But that’s a whole other system rework when antags and wounds are already planning on being overhauled, so if it comes down to keeping the system or getting rid of it, I’d say get rid of it.

4 Likes
3

Maybe if we had more cool stuff to buy in the shop I would give more of a shit

1 Like
4

I never thought I’d see this post.

Beecoins need to go. Let the players freely explore their creative character ideas without being limited by character slots, a mechanic literally no other server has. Let players freely customize the cosmetics of their characters to give them expanded individuality and personality. Special items, like the royal Heads of Staff cloaks or Swag clothes, and other items to-be-decided, can retain a Beecoin cost, but the players deserve this basic expanded freedom for their characters. If it requires a complete overhaul of the Beecoin system and the purchases that can be made with them, so be it.

3 Likes
5

Yeah, after playing on a few servers the loadout customization is extremely restrictive, the most similar system is the one on Monke where some items are similarly priced but the acquisition of their currency is faster for example there are bonus for playing sec and janitor lol, mentors get extra(we also have this), doing bounties get you, events and they even have some weird lootbox system, they also give you 20 character slots, but point being there is a BIG difference when a server gives you a zippo for free, obtainable after 5 rounds(Monke with a base job) or.. 7 shifts that you need to greentext/complete your objective. (Bee)

I remember the last time this was a discussion the reason for the prices and ‘‘restrictive’’ loadout was because of the aforementioned ‘‘Hey, play a lot and you can get what you want!’’ and ‘‘We don’t want people to show up dressed as deviantart OC’s, they’re here to work’’ Which is understandable but.. accessories and small miscellaneous items do add player flavour and being able to start with your iconic item is more comfortable than either saving for X amount of rounds or rushing a vendor roundstart to obtain your selected item.

As for the limited characters i do believe the main reason is to reward the Patreon supporters/Donators (alongside some exclusive items) those things makes sense and are fair! but we’re at a point when it’s been said many times that buying a character slot is super expensive and not everyone want to waste that amount for a character slot if they also spend on items but i don’t want to dig too deep into that side since there’s different ways to reward players that have continued to support the server.

This is also coming from the regular player who has the most amount of Beecoins on the entire server, that mains a single character (not counting 2 secrets) and I’ve never spent a single Beecoin! But I’ve read the frustration on players regarding this issue and I’ve seen how more free you feel when you have more options to add things.

1 Like
6

I recently had a look at the way some other servers handle this and honestly we should have more things in the shop, coin exclusive items or whatnot that are cosmetic or whatever, give people more incentive to try and gain coins to get said items for customization.

The more the merrier, and the fancier the better, players should be able to customize their character and personalize things to make them stand out a bit more, creating iconic looks that others can recognize and such. Maybe more Ghost forms/looks could be added too for coin unlock, or even species customization like mutant colors, IPC screens/Chassis Styles, Cyborg module looks, Hair styles, Lizard horns and tails, Diona eyes/leaves/flowers, and more! Hell even custom toys or fancier zippos would help.

Then adjust the way people gain coins, the passive gain from living in a round could be adjusted but, things like unlocking achievements, partaking in events, Helping other players, finding secrets, completing antag objectives, completing crew objectives, helping finish a station goal, and more could be ways to gain extra coins each round.

This would help with players interacting with each other, increase the customization and personalization of a players character, and if implemented properly help rounds flow a bit smoother with more things getting done rather than a players OOC goals for that round, driving IC roleplay and interactions.

=====================

But the main issue is…

WYCI

and WYSI

Coding and spriting these things can take a lot of time and effort, and finding one person who’s willing to do so can be hard, let alone a group of people which would be more ideal.

3 Likes
Absolute Crapola tier ideas thread
7

I think we should keep beecoins as a currency but not for unlocking character customization - for spending at roundstart to influence some of the random events or other temporary things like boosted gimmick roles, unlimited clowns for a round, etc.

7 Likes
8

Huh, I guess i’m currently the only person that’s fine with how it currently is. Although, I am a silicon main and i have no use for fancy loadout items and i get the same amount of beecoins alive or dead as a silicon. Sad fate of silicons you are treated as dead when getting beecoins last i checked.

1 Like
9

A hybrid system where most cosmetics are free but special fancier cosmetics (like, fancy hats idk..) cost beecoins, and/or a system where beecoins can be spent to influence rounds might be cool.

I think the loadout menus other places have make our character setup look a bit sad in comparison

5 Likes
10

Fortunately there is a PR up and awaiting approval which will massively increase the number of character slots for normal players and donators alike.

4 Likes
11

God please.. I never saw the point of being so limiting even with being able to pay for more. Maybe people will be encouraged to play a much larger range of characters

2 Likes
12

AFAIK
For character slots, its all dependent on the DB and storage space, so ittl be down to crossed if we get increased slots there…

1 Like
13

if they just halved, or thirded the prices thatd be a good start, after 4 years and 1000 hours i still at most gathered a total of 40.000 beecoins, so, thats about 10.000 becoins a year. Whats the point of being able to buy an antag token if it takes me 10 years to get it?

I understand some things should take a while to get, antag tokens are antag tokens after all, but cmon, this is excessive!

Edit: i dont even feel motivated to roundstart join, or do my objective or whatever, cause the discomfort of doing whatever it is, just isnt worth the pitance of beecoins it yields.

3 Likes
14

I havemt really read anything here but I wish we had a preview of things before you bought them, the majority if the beecoins ive spent have been wasted because I end up not actually liking the thing Ive bought or I thought it was something else :frowning: Id try code it but anything sprite related Im useless for

4 Likes
15

It’s all about consistency :flexed_biceps: and dedication :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

16

So like, using Bee-coins to intensify or relax a Dynamic game-mode’s Antag options, to add possible station modifiers, to change Antag or SEC power / toolsets, to introduce interdepartmental competition for resources or racing for objectives?

Honestly if the rounds had a Slider visible to everyone that could be tilted from a Neutral middle point, to either a green shift or straight up NUKEOPS.
a list that displays the number and severity of station modifiers or game mode secondary objectives that you can spend coins to add extra ones to the next round might be cool.

3 Likes
17

Only 3 people including me voted for status quo? Well, I guess i just dislike change.

1 Like
18

I have enough beecoins to earn me a few antag tokens. If the average income gets increased it also means the prices of antag tokens in beeshop will be higher, which basically means my purchasing power will suffer.
I demand coverage for my accumulated wealth in case the senate decides to print more money.

4 Likes
19

Always the bourgeoisie wanting more and more smh

3 Likes
20

Never thought I’d see the inflationary effect of quantitative easing coming up in the forums

2 Likes