I don't want to go into an argument on whether the rewards are worth it, that can be done elsewhere.

The major problem is having too many chips and not enough time to use them, which stems from two design decisions:

 

• It takes 3 seconds for each spin.
  
• There is a none negligible probability to get refunded the chip when you spin.
  

 

I propose to remove the probability to get refunded and bake its chance back into the rewards. What do I mean by this?

Imagine that there are three outcomes for a spin: 50% refund, 30% lose, 20% win. In reality, the chance to win something from a single chip is more akin to chance to win from the first spin, then a chance to win from getting a second spin by getting a refund first, then chance to win after getting two refunds in a row, etc. So the chance to win in reality is:

20% + 50%*20% + 50%*50%*20% + ...., which is effectively 40%, and chance to lose is 60%. This change will not affect the drop rates so whatever balance is in mind remains as it is. Second, reduce the CD on the spin to 2 or 1.5 seconds.

 

 

I believe those two changes will vastly improve the event and would be a great QoL.

Edited July 31, 2020 by znihilist

I don't want to go into an argument on whether the rewards are worth it, that can be done elsewhere.

 

[snip]

I believe those two changes will vastly improve the event and would be a great QoL.

 

I agree. Anything to reduce the monotony or speed up the process would be good. It does do a good job of simulating the tedium of an actual casino, however. This year your character can even get alcohol poisoning!

Yeah the refund chance is utterly pointless. just remove it and add that chance to the chance to get a real reward.

Yeah I like this idea. I'm often disappointed at getting my chip returned lol. It's just tedium.

Aye, I have thousands of kingpin chips or whatever the blue ones are called and I just can't deal with it anymore....but it's the only source of cartel market certificates. So I even have a much smaller win chance cause I don't care about mounts or companions. In essence when I get the main prize I feel like I lost cause it's not a cartel market certificate but yet another stupid mount that I already have 10 times.

In a real life casino, breaking even is better than losing.

 

In Nar Shaddaa Nightlife, I would actually rather lose a spin than get my chip refunded.

 

If you lose, then at least you can move on to something else. Getting your chips refunded just extends the length of time you spend clicking on the machine, to no point or purpose. It's just tedious.

 

It's not as if you gain anything from keeping your chips instead of betting them, like you would with real money in a casino. There is literally nothing else you can do with Nar Shaddaa Nightlife chips than bet them on the machines.

It's not as if you gain anything from keeping your chips instead of betting them, like you would with real money in a casino. There is literally nothing else you can do with Nar Shaddaa Nightlife chips than bet them on the machines.

 

Hey now, that would be kind of cool though wouldn't it? If smuggler coins could be used for currency to buy stuff on NS and Mek-sha. Not great stuff, like vendor consumables, planet-level armor etc. Kind of similar to the old commendations system. Reminiscent of imperial credits from The Mandalorian show.

 

It always bugged me that you'd get all these Ziost tokens and the devs expected that you'd shell out credits in addition to buy stuff that simply wasn't worth it. I'm fine with vendors ripping you off as long as they're just ripping you off with tokens, not tokens AND credits.

The sad part is that this could be done very easily. Just remake the payout table like:

0.05% Large Jackpot (Companion)

0.95% Small Jackpot (Mount)

4% Emperor Chip

5% Cartel Market Cert

20% Golden Certificate

70% Lose

Or whatever the desired payoff is.

The sad part is that this could be done very easily. Just remake the payout table like:

0.05% Large Jackpot (Companion)

0.95% Small Jackpot (Mount)

4% Emperor Chip

5% Cartel Market Cert

20% Golden Certificate

70% Lose

Or whatever the desired payoff is.

 

The chip back is stupid, it's just there so they can say the odds in the casino are % higher than they really are (if you discount the returned chip) And also so you waste more time spinning the stupid wheels.

i would assume it is because folks dont like to lose. if you lose the majority of the time...why even play? By getting your token back, you might not have "won" so to speak, but you get another chance at winning having "won" your token back increasing your chances at actually winning. Yes, it can be tedious, but arent casinos like that anyway?

 

Had Kingpin tokens not come so readily from emp machines im not even sure if this would even be an issue.

Or just make options to double down on the tokens or at least be able to put down 20 tokens at once for a higher chance at a prize or something like that.

Lol. People complaining about Nightlife are looking a gift horse in the mouth. Its the only way to earn Cartel Market Certificates using just your game time rather than using real money. In past years, you could just play slots to get the CMCs and your cost per CMC would be pretty low (under 100k credits per CMC ignoring all other prizes). This year, the deal is MUCH better. The interaction of the three slot machines with world drops of Emperor coins can be solved as a Markov chain to calculate the expected cost of each prize. Superficially they appear expensive because it appears you must buy a lot of Smuggler coins. But once you get a few Emperor coins, you end up getting hundreds or thousands of Kingpin coins. You need not buy any Smuggler coins, but they are useful for the buff that improves Kingpin slot odds. The Markov chain solution is barely divergent (meaning the slots pay more Kingpin coins than they take in) when you play to get the buff. This year, I've spent under 2 million credits for Smuggler coins, gotten about 30 Emperor coins from world drops and 45 from the Kingpin spots, and spent about 10 hours on the slots. In return, I got a Predator Mount, six Rodian companions, 80 Cartel Market Certificates, a dozen mounts, and over 300 Golden Certificates (good for 6 Kingpin Rancor mounts or other prizes). The profusion of high end prizes from Nightlife for very low cost is unmatched by any other ingame minigame.

While I agree that for my time, I'd rather remove the refund and adjust the RNG accordingly. But the nightlife event was also supposed to be a 'time-sink." It's something else to do. The problem people are having with it is they feel they have to stay there too long. Just play for 5-10 minutes and then do other things. Since it lasts about a month, there is no need to do it all in one day.

The part that ruined this year's nightlife for me was the "addition" of two new slot machines in the casino. The standard reward other than refunding your token is 50 Kingpin tokens, to then as people say input them one at a time into the machine. And if you decide Feeling Lucky is still worth it you find yourself going back and forth between kingpins and smugglers. My raiding team was talking about this over the weekend and it is far too tedious, even for people with macros who can just sit around while the spins happen.

 

I don't understand where the idea left the drawing room to make some games to play during nightlife that allowed greater stakes gambling of your chips. Have a bet min-bet max system for the slot machines? The countless sabaac tables? I even prefer playing Kotor pazaak over this event, why can't you guys input that???

Snip.... even for people with macros who can just sit around while the spins happen.

snip

 

since when could you use macros in this game without breaking the ToS?

since when could you use macros in this game without breaking the ToS?

 

Since never, but if you go on /general in Nar Shadaa, people are openly talking about using one for this event.

People really don't like just how much time it is taking them to use their Kingpin tokens.

Rather than using smug coins, use the bar to get the lucky buff. You get other buffs too and i'm not sure how effective any of them are, but I have won [and the buff was absorbed] on a emp slot with something other than the lucky buff. Yes, there's a small chance of dying but big whoop. My 75 died several times over four hours and never needed repairs.

or, just allow us to drop any coin grants from playing normal missions.