I find the mechanics with boosters to be annoying when you have to switch clones.
Let say you want to run an abyss, you take boosters on your current clone , you have 1 or 2 hours boost. Then, you have a pvp opportunity presenting itself, so you switch to a pvp clone. You lose the boost because it’s on another clone, ok fine ! Then the pvp activity is done, you switch back to your abyss clone which should still be under the effect of the booster, but no, switching clones takes away the boosters.
Another example, I’ve taken a “radiance” booster recently which increases my attributes for 2 days. Unfortunately, it’s also attached to my current clone. If I want the full effect of this booster, I’m mostly limited to the activity of that particular clone, if I can’t switch clones freely, might as well not play.
Regarding the radiance booster, that effect shouldn’t be integrated into the clone or it puts way too much constraints on gameplay and most people will prefer to consume the full effect instead of losing it.
Concerning other boosters, there’s 2 ways to approach it to allow more freedom :
The boosters should be enabled on the clone that consumed it until the end time ; if you have 1 hour boost for a particular clone, you can switch clones as much time as you want. If you come back to the boosted clone within 1 hour the boosts will still be in effect.
Another variation, which I prefer, would be that the booster duration is consumed on 1 activated clone only. So if you have 1 hour boost, you consumed 15 min, you switch to another clone for 2 hours or 2 days, then you come back to the boosted clone, you’d still have 45 min left of booster duration. Basically, the booster effect is on hold while the clone is “on ice”.
Only the death of the clone could erase the booster effect before its end time.
The goal of these changes is to have more bang for the buck. This shouldn’t decrease drug consumption, less constraints should make it more appealing.
You’d be surprised how many people would oppose these changes because they use clone-switching to intentionally end “bad” booster rolls on specific clones, so they can switch clones and re-take boosters until they have a perfect roll with no side effects.
From an “immersion” perspective, the drugs are chemicals affecting the organic brain of the clone, so yes, the effects should simply stay on that clone (maybe with the timer stopped because the clone is put in stasis while not used?). If one jumps back into that clone, all the effecs (including side effects) should continue until they expire. The question is, would that be accepted by those players who like re-rolling drugs for perfection?
So now : what is the gain when the attribute-enhancing drugs are not removed ?
You already have a limit of clone swaps (unless same location) so there is no gain on long-distance swap.
What is the expected gain, compared to the expected loss of not being able to clear bad-roll drugs ?
I already described a scenario in my main post about the gain of not losing the effect but I’ll give you examples.
You inject yourself with boosters for a 2 hour boost. Something comes up, you have to switch clone for pvp, pvp is done and you have 1 hour left before quitting the game. Do you take another 2 hours shot of boosters for 1 hour of gameplay ? In my case, no way, I already wasted a dose, I’m not going to waste another dose for 1 hour only. So I’ll resume that activity another day when I’ll have 2 hours of free time.
Another variation of that scenario… you take boosters for 2 hours, a pvp opportunity present itself and you need to switch to your pvp clone (no implants), but you don’t want to waste the effect of the boosters, so you don’t participate in pvp.
See how much constraints the current mechanics can put on the players ?
In my case, I mostly use Synth booster combined with hardshell and daily login boosters. I don’t reroll the stronger booster variations. I live in a null sec setting where I can switch clones as I please. I’m sure low sec players and even high sec players who switch clones locally to change activities would encounter the same “problem”.
Concerning the rerolls of boosters, I bet they’re mostly used by T5/T6 Abyss runners + a few 10/10 runners and it seems to be a gimmick to go around an inconvenience of the boosters. They also need the best conditions possible to succeed.
Why not decrease the gain of boosters and take off their penalty ? On top of that, allow T3 cruisers to run T6 Abyss. Anything to get rid of gimmicks, they bring unhealthy gameplay behavior in my opinion.
Personally, yes, the drugs are not expensive enough to care about them.
If they were, I would care about switching clone. So in that example, it’s 2 hours without switching clone.
Also in the case I switched clone, if the boosters are mandatory yes I take them again.
I lost boosters already, so what ? That’s the fallacy of sunk costs. The question is : do I use boosters for 1 hour of gameplay ? Most likely, the drugs are cheap enough that you should still consume another set.
Also, how often does this happen ?
And how often do you consume a mandatory drug that has a bad effect so you NEED to stop playing until it’s gone ?
I guess the correct way to solve this would be to reduce all boosters duration to 30 min (60 with bio) so that this issue never arises ?
What about removing all the drugs from the game ? Would that solve your issue ?
I consider that a mechanism that requires players to make non-trivial choices is a positive assets in a video game.
Then you are wrong.
I don’t know why you talk about gimmick. But it’s required in some circumstances, including yes abyssal but also PVP.
There is no way you undock a raiju with a negative missile speed effect.
And there is no way you take expensive BS in arenas when the drugs have bad roll.
Then explain why penalties on boosters are necessary when most users can circumvent them so easily. Why is it important to keep rerolls of boosters as part of the game ?
What is the link ?
Your original statement was based on incorrect knowledge. It’s a reason good enough that you should accept you were wrong, and that you start learning instead of complaining.
Ignoring your misplaced judgement :
CCP already added a skill to reduce effect severity and chance, so they can’t just remove effect now.
What’s more, it’s more costly to keep your booster in cargo until you need them, because you can’t use them in space and ensure you won’t have bad rolls. For long fights, this makes a lot of difference.
I agree that having a fixed negative effect could be better. It depends though, every change comes with good and bad result.
You almost got it here. The real problem is not the one you think it is. The real problem is that the intentional design of risk for side-effects of the boosters can be completely circumvented for just addiontal ISK. Another problem is that some players today always aim for max, max, max. They can’t imagine jumping into a fight with an empty clone, no implants, no boosters any more.
