2008-04-16, 23:09:14
Being a somewhat regular trader, I think I can say that traders are overpowered. Why are they overpowered? Because people don't hunt them down enough. Also, once your team has taken all CPs, trader is free to make loads and loads of money; this makes it nearly impossible for the losing team to make a comeback when the winning team has a trader. Even if they DO kill the trader a few times, the only thin they do is slow the inevitable. Killing a trader doesn't give you any sort of significant advantage - all it does is somewhat counteract a disadvantage.
To combat this, I propose that a trader's bounty significantly increase as he acquires more trading items in his trading run.
I make this suggestion because currently, unlike normal tanks, the only real incentive to get a trader kill is to prevent him from giving the enemy team trader gold. It is, at best, an indirect incentive. The bounty on a trader is unbelievably low compared to his actual worth on the battlefield. Increasing the traders bounty to more properly reflect it's value to it's team makes sense IMO.
Currently a trader's bounty is the same whether his inventory is empty, or whether is inventory has 30k of trade items. I suggest that the traders bounty increase by a certain percentage of the value of the trade items in his inventory. I would say at least 10%, but no higher than 50%. For example, if the trader has an inventory with 30k of trade items, his bounty would be increased by 15k if the percent increase was set at 50%, 3k if the percent increase was set at 10%. Once the trader's trade items disappear (either because he was killed, or because he cashed in his trade items), his bounty returns to normal.
If this change were implemented, I believe it would make games more interesting. Traders would have to seriously consider the dangers of attempting to trade near the front lines. A team which is losing due to trader gold could try to recover by "assasinating" the trader at the right moment for a huge infusion of gold.
Anyways, I leave this suggestion to the community for discussion.
To combat this, I propose that a trader's bounty significantly increase as he acquires more trading items in his trading run.
I make this suggestion because currently, unlike normal tanks, the only real incentive to get a trader kill is to prevent him from giving the enemy team trader gold. It is, at best, an indirect incentive. The bounty on a trader is unbelievably low compared to his actual worth on the battlefield. Increasing the traders bounty to more properly reflect it's value to it's team makes sense IMO.
Currently a trader's bounty is the same whether his inventory is empty, or whether is inventory has 30k of trade items. I suggest that the traders bounty increase by a certain percentage of the value of the trade items in his inventory. I would say at least 10%, but no higher than 50%. For example, if the trader has an inventory with 30k of trade items, his bounty would be increased by 15k if the percent increase was set at 50%, 3k if the percent increase was set at 10%. Once the trader's trade items disappear (either because he was killed, or because he cashed in his trade items), his bounty returns to normal.
If this change were implemented, I believe it would make games more interesting. Traders would have to seriously consider the dangers of attempting to trade near the front lines. A team which is losing due to trader gold could try to recover by "assasinating" the trader at the right moment for a huge infusion of gold.
Anyways, I leave this suggestion to the community for discussion.