Simple buff management solution.

[Splotch]

I've seen a few threads asking for better buff management but they are all asking too much when there's an incredibly simple way to improve buff management with, in my mind, an investment of virtually zero development time. I can't find a thread where it's been suggested like this so here goes :

1. Players click the buff icon on a buffed structure.
2. Cancel dialogue is displayed offering buff cancellation at a cost of 1 gem.
3. Clicking confirm removes buff entirely.

And that's it, it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that! This could re-use the confirmation dialogue already in game for resources consumed by an upgrade, in terms of code I'm not sure how you're storing this information or what database you're using but I can't see it being anything more complex than a one liner DELETE statement.

At a cost of 1 gem it's affordable to all players thanks to the 45 gem weekly activity bonus, it provides a viable and relatively enticing gem sink for these freebies and paid gems, it is also a small resource sink due to the fact that cancelling a buff will stop it early consuming the resources used to create it.

Problem solved ?

[RuneMunki]

I like the concept but I think that people prefer to spend gems on positive actions (maybe it should cost an item relative to the building). At the end of the day why should somebody spend gems to remove a buff they didn't ask for?

[SirRoy]

What would necessitate removing a buff?

I've seen a few threads asking for better buff management but they are all asking too much when there's an incredibly simple way to improve buff management with, in my mind, an investment of virtually zero development time. I can't find a thread where it's been suggested like this so here goes :

1. Players click the buff icon on a buffed structure.
2. Cancel dialogue is displayed offering buff cancellation at a cost of 1 gem.
3. Clicking confirm removes buff entirely.

And that's it, it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that! This could re-use the confirmation dialogue already in game for resources consumed by an upgrade, in terms of code I'm not sure how you're storing this information or what database you're using but I can't see it being anything more complex than a one liner DELETE statement.

At a cost of 1 gem it's affordable to all players thanks to the 45 gem weekly activity bonus, it provides a viable and relatively enticing gem sink for these freebies and paid gems, it is also a small resource sink due to the fact that cancelling a buff will stop it early consuming the resources used to create it.

Problem solved ?

[Splotch]

I like the concept but I think that people prefer to spend gems on positive actions (maybe it should cost an item relative to the building).

I think that would be too complicated, the reason I suggested 1 gem is that it's a simple payment to get your head around and you don't need to look any further than the top bar to see how many gems you have. Having a resource relative to the structure would make it impossible to use the feature if you didn't have enough of the relevant resource and the cost of cancelling the buff would be relative to the market value of resources, that would mean cancelling a buff on some structures would cost more than others.

At the end of the day why should somebody spend gems to remove a buff they didn't ask for?

That's not the only use case for this feature. For example, it's entirely possible that you have buffed several buildings with baskets and they are going to run out in fifteen minutes but you have a taxi due outside your house in five minutes and want to apply your baskets again so you can run buffed for the next six hours, the other option is running unbuffed or even disabled because you have a personal policy of never running certain structures unbuffed.

If you find yourself in a situation where you are buffed by a friend and the buff is counter-productive then you should be thinking about why your friends are applying buffs that are so annoying that you want them to be removed, if they accidentally buffed one building then the cost to you is minimal at 1 gem and you could easily negotiate compensation but if they are buffing large sections of your map without consent then that's less of a buff cancellation issue and more of a friend management issue. We already have an option to remove a friend, there's already a guild channel, global channel and player to player whispers so players can discuss things like this that are all completely free... Everyone on my friends list knows I don't want to be buffed without prior consent or if it's for a daily they can throw it on a forester.

[Splotch]

What would necessitate removing a buff?

I've sort of just covered one aspect of that in my reply to RuneMunki but the only reason that I personally ever want to remove a buff is where I have to either postpone doing something in real life to reapply a buff or have to disable a structure because I can't postpone doing whatever it is I'm doing. For me it's a case of the game interfering with the flow of real life and for that reason I would be willing to pay 1 gem per buff removal, no more, to get around that issue.

The other option is to play it as is and in all honesty I don't care if it stays the same because it's not a major problem for me and that's why I would only be willing to pay 1 gem per buff. The only reason I'm suggesting this is there are a few threads that are overcomplicating the issue and they are all geared around the player gaining from better buff management by allowing things like buff stacking and such, I think that'll never happen because it's complex and it'll impact on the economy. This way you have the option to cancel a buff for 1 gem or, as I say, you suck it up and play as is.

[DonDa]

Sound good to me; but you good just put the building in sleep mode to!

[RuneMunki]

Thought I'd replied to this the other day :s

That's not the only use case for this feature. For example, it's entirely possible that you have buffed several buildings with baskets and they are going to run out in fifteen minutes but you have a taxi due outside your house in five minutes and want to apply your baskets again so you can run buffed for the next six hours, the other option is running unbuffed or even disabled because you have a personal policy of never running certain structures unbuffed.

If you find yourself in a situation where you are buffed by a friend and the buff is counter-productive then you should be thinking about why your friends are applying buffs that are so annoying that you want them to be removed, if they accidentally buffed one building then the cost to you is minimal at 1 gem and you could easily negotiate compensation but if they are buffing large sections of your map without consent then that's less of a buff cancellation issue and more of a friend management issue. We already have an option to remove a friend, there's already a guild channel, global channel and player to player whispers so players can discuss things like this that are all completely free... Everyone on my friends list knows I don't want to be buffed without prior consent or if it's for a daily they can throw it on a forester.

The first quote equally applies to the second. My point wasn't that I want to dictate what buildings my friends kindly buff, more that I might find myself in a situation where I can't rebuff due to a friends longer buff. Also if friends want to buff a load of my buildings - thanks! They don't have to!

[Orisitthebagel]

Removing a buff is a simple thing (imagine in real life: giving someone a basket, letting them use it for a while then take it away) which does not require any additional resources to do. If you are to remove a buff, you would be removing from the building your own resources which you made yourself, so it should not cost gems to remove. It should not cost anything.