CS:S dynamic weapon prices

[Defrag]

I've long wondered why they never fixed the weapon prices in CS to make them reflect their usefulness. When I emailed Cliffe years ago (sending in some suggested changes for crosshairs, radar and other stuff), he said they were aware of the problem and would be altering the cost of the weapons at some point.

It's finally happened, and I must say the solution ( http://www.steampowered.com/stats/csmarket/ ) is a lot more interesting than a standard tweak. Basically, the cost of the weapons is now based on how many people are buying them. I.e. the price will roughly reflect the weapon's demand/usefulness. People won't buy weapons that aren't cost-effective, so if a weapon is under-utilised (see TMP, mac-10 and the rest of the crap weapons) it will react to its unpopularity and its price will change automatically to make it more enticing and cost-effective. The cool thing about this is that things will probably reach a natural sweet-spot as determined by the players. AKs and M4s will likely see a large increase in price as they're the most commonly used guns, but it will eventually level off, as obviously nobody will use them to the same extent if they cost $5000 each. The reverse obviously applies, as if a weapon reaches a bargain basement price, people will start using it more (driving the price back up).

It remains to be seen how they're relating the purchase information to each sub-class of weapon (e.g. does a lot of people purchasing a certain kind of sub machine gun indirectly push down the price of all other weapons, or only the other sub machine guns?)

Judging by the shift in pricing of the desert eagle, I would suspect it's the latter

It's a really interesting solution IMO -- a self-pricing market and, as a result, a self-balancing game.

[o_sobe green]

This would make matches really bad. No deagle in the first round is not cool. But it is a cool idea overall.

[o_ivaqual]

Yes, this is a really good one. I always found "sad" that everyone just used ak47/m4a1 and awps, with the occasional deagle. It's one of these "it's so simple i can't believe i didn't think of it before" yet essentially genius ideas.

(CHEAP night vision goggles ! great deals inside)

[o_tennovan]

I wonder how skill maps like scoutzknivez will affect the pricing. If thats the only weapon being used on those maps, won't it make the overall price of the scout more expensive for everybody?

[o_ivaqual]

Originally Posted by Tennovan

I wonder how skill maps like scoutzknivez will affect the pricing. If thats the only weapon being used on those maps, won't it make the overall price of the scout more expensive for everybody?

i imagine they'll limit the stat mining to official maps. as an unrelated note, i think you don't even have to buy the scout/other weapon in these kinds of maps anyway ?

[o_ginger lord]

Should be fun, anything to make the "pro's" whine is good enough for me. Love how the pro people don't want to have to learn a new skill

[o_sureshot]

I was just about to post about this. It's going to cause some awful imbalance.

Before they even think about implementing this kind of system, they need to look at some of the actual reasons that people don't buy certain weapons... no wait, they don't - it's because they're shite.

Not that I play Source any more, but I hope this serves as a reminder for people looking forward to TF2 about how much Valve loves to meddle with things.

[o_loader]

Originally Posted by SoBe Green

This would make matches really bad. No deagle in the first round is not cool. But it is a cool idea overall.

Have you watched professional matches? Don't know of one that uses deagle's frist round.. Actually, I haven't been in one match myself where deagels are used first (first meaning after knive, im not being pedantic).

maybe its different in US?

[o_sureshot]

In my experience, deagles are usually bought on a round where you're expected to eco, but want to take a risk and catch your opponents off-guard with some extra power. Particularly useful on the T side if you lose the pistol round, as CTs will usually go for MP5s or FAMASes for round 2 in this case.

[mervaka]

well i can certainly see the HMG's price fall through the floor!

[o_tennovan]

This means I can buy the TMP for even CHEAPER. tmpwnage

[o_sobe green]

Originally Posted by Loader

Have you watched professional matches? Don't know of one that uses deagle's frist round.. Actually, I haven't been in one match myself where deagels are used first (first meaning after knive, im not being pedantic).

maybe its different in US?

It is a large gamble when you do it but it is done ocassionally most of the time on longer range maps like cbble. This just doesn't effect the pistol round though. If the prices are jacked up alot it means that a team might have to have more than one save round just to buy a rifle again. In a sense this will almost create a "SMG Round" which I think is kind of cool but I just don't think the esports community will take to this very well without changing their tampons and diapers a few times.

[o_rp]

I think it's a great idea, finnaly we'll see more weapons being put into use.
Valve realised that if CS:S will be CS with upgraded graphics it will die, since that CS is a better CS game than CS:S (that sounds wierd) - there for CS:S most stray away from the original, and ultimately making it a different game.

And like Ginger Lord said, what ever makes the so called "pro"s to whine - I'm all for it.
The "pro" community is trying to take away all the fun from games, look what they have done to Quake.
They even manage to convince ID to screw Q4 to an upgraded version of Q3, and that is why almost none one plays it.
I'm really happy they are not trying to make this game more suitable for “competitive” gaming (such as eswc and the cpl) but attempting to increase the fun factor.

[o_nezumi]

I was going to say that this was a terrible terrible idea, and would completely fuxor competitive play (which is the only thing that makes CS fun), but then I remembered that I don't like CS:S anyway and also that this is an exreemly good point:

Originally Posted by RP

Valve realised that if CS:S will be CS with upgraded graphics it will die, since that CS is a better CS game than CS:S (that sounds wierd) - there for CS:S most stray away from the original, and ultimately making it a different game.