Marginal Cost

First-level marginal cost: allowing free games, but designing implicit energy overclocking costs that are non-linear in production costs, making them difficult to calculate simply, avoids player anxiety and increases game depth.

Design Ideas:

• The energy core is a necessary item for any vehicle engine slot.
• Energy is similar to stamina in Dark Souls. Any use of skills will consume energy, which will be quickly replenished over time.
• Under normal daily use, the energy core itself will not be consumed and can be used permanently.
• After the energy is consumed by skills, the game allows players to overclock (that is, to use energy excessively) and release skills. After overclocking, the lifespan of the energy core will decrease. After multiple overclocking, the energy core will be completely destroyed and needs to be repurchased. Overclocking will also accelerate the aging of the accelerated vehicle.
• The market for energy cores is designed as a dual-track system, with the basic version officially sold and the high-end version synthesized by players using PvP rewards.

Design Purpose:

The existence of the energy core is similar to a point card, attaching basic marginal costs to the production of all resources. However, unlike point cards, the energy core consumes very little for novice players, and the more hardcore players are, the more it consumes. This nonlinear increasing relationship should ensure that the game still has a very low entry barrier, without affecting the entry of new players. At the same time, the advanced version of the energy core allows the entire economic ecosystem to further rent-seeking in the market, and can also consume a large number of basic version of energy cores and their produced resources in the game. For hardcore players, the energy core is not only a fixed cost item, but can also derive a series of interesting gameplay, such as god-level players beating up a group of overclocking players in PvP, and masters soloing instances without overclocking, etc. Entertainment-type players can appropriately reduce difficulty and gain higher degree of freedom through the overclocking experience, instead of the harsh stamina bar and negative feedback in difficult action games. Pure ROI speculators need to consider whether their skill level supports completing resource collection without overclocking, and the final price of basic raw materials will be close to the overclocking cost of the energy core.

Second-tier marginal cost: differentiate between speculators/competitive players and casual entertainment players, provide the former with higher achievement pursuit and more dynamic gameplays, control the production of basic resources and consume them in large quantities.

Design Concept:

• The energy core is a necessary item for any vehicle engine slot.
• Energy is similar to stamina in Dark Souls. Using any skill will consume energy, which will be quickly replenished over time.
• Under normal daily usage, the energy core itself will not be consumed and can be used indefinitely.
• After energy is depleted by using skills, the game allows players to overclock (that is, use more energy than usual) and release skills. After overclocking, the lifespan of the energy core will decrease. After multiple overclocks, the energy core will be completely destroyed and will need to be repurchased. Overclocking will also accelerate the aging of the vehicle.
• The energy core’s market is designed as a dual-track system, with the basic version sold officially, and the advanced version synthesized by players using PvP rewards.

Design Purpose:

• The existence of the energy core is similar to a point card, attaching a basic marginal cost to the output of all resources.
• However, unlike a point card, the energy core consumes very little for novice players, and the more hardcore the player, the more it consumes.
• This non-linear increasing should ensure that the game still has a very low entry threshold and does not affect the entry of new players.
• At the same time, the advanced version of the energy core allows the entire economic ecosystem to further rent-seek in the market, and it can also consume a large amount of basic energy cores and their output resources in the game.
• For hardcore players, the energy core is not just a fixed cost item, but also can derive a series of interesting gameplay, such as god-level players beating up a group of overclocking players in PvP, and masters soloing dungeons without overclocking. Entertainment players can lower the difficulty and gain higher freedom through overclocking experience, rather than the harsh stamina bar and negative feedback in high-difficulty action games.

The marginal cost of game resource production is the repeated purchase after the overclocking damage of energy cores + subscription to a license similar to a point card system. In the design, the cost for casual players should be relatively low, while the marginal cost will increase with the player’s progress and intensity to ensure that the higher the level of resources, the higher the marginal cost of production.

At the same time, offering free (and profitable) options is a great way to expand the player base. The game itself allows for the possibility of producing resources at zero marginal cost, but players need to bear the risk of incurring greater losses.