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_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_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_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_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]

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_backstaber]

Wow, an economics add-on!

[Defrag]

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?

You don't have to buy the scout on scoutzknivez (or at least I can't remember doing that in CS 1.6, I've not played many aim maps for CS:S, though). I think it only registers if you buy a gun rather than pick it up off the ground.

I don't think it will cause imbalances, it will just annoy people who love the most commonly used weapons (the flipside of any design decision). They might limit the amount a price can vary or set a baseline for a specific weapon sub-type (like rifle cannot be < $2000 or > $5000 ) or have some other ways to control the changes. However it pans out, I'm just interested to see it in action

[o_shadow34721]

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1

80 pages of whining in 14 hours. its a new record.

[Circuitous]

Sounds pretty okay to me, but it wrecks my buy scripts! Well. Sort of. Now it's harder to figure out what a set's gonna cost me.

Not that I ever play the game anymore, so I guess I'm whining for nothing?

[o_ivaqual]

I say cap or set a fixed armor price. Aside from the fact that vest and full armour are differenciated (which complicates the deal a bit), everyone buys armour no matter what. If it gets too expensive it's going to change the game in a very major and messed up way.

[o_skanky butterpuss]

cheaper tmp
cheaper para!!

ahhh i might have to download this bitch again!

[o_mooga]

So right before major compititions, NO ONE should buy the best weapons and then the prices will be dirt cheap

[o_sh4x]

Uhh... isn't it a per round price thing? Like, it resets every round...

[o_coldy]

I dunno when they nerfed the glock, but the last time I played it did about 3 damage per hit, and had none of those beautiful headshot tendencies. No wonder people started to use the deagle.