This is a fairly simple idea, it revolves around the currently popular monetization model of other successful F2P games such as LoL and TF2, as well as upcoming games like Planetside 2 and End of Nations. The idea is: MOAR COSMETICS! Cosmetics are items that affect the appearance of the character, without changing their performance. Usually these items are only available through purchase with real-world cash. In TF2, these come in the form of hats, in EoN and LoL they are skins, and so forth. Here in SK we have a few cosmetic armors like Chapeaus/Tabards of the Rose, Hunter armor, and stranger hats. However, one department that the game is severely lacking in is cosmetic weapons like the Scissor Blades.These weapons, if added, would be simply reskins of weapons already in the game. For example, a reskinned Voltaic Tempest called the "Tesla Coil", that behaves exactly the same except the model of the VT is replaced by a tiny Tesla tower. You could even do licensing things like replace some sword with a Scout's baseball bat or switch out the WRH and Halo's Gravity Hammer. To remove the possibility of these items becoming yet another CE sink, they would only be available in the following ways:
1: lockboxes, but ONLY a possibility if you ALREADY have the weapon (to prevent lower level players getting random 5* stuff in a box)
- another possibility for this would be to only have the gear available dependent on the character's tier clearance.
2: featured auctions, same as Scissor blades.
3: with purchase of CE packs, like with the Hunter gear
4: the weapons WOULD be craftable using the crafting recipe of the equivalent weapon, but you would also need a special Modifier Ticket available from Bechamel for the low, low price of 5 million crowns. :3
It's true that these items may become out of reach for many players because of the extremely high prices, but that's the point. If they were accessible to everyone, they wouldn't be valuable. This way the P2P's get something else to spend large amounts of money on: making themselves look cool. Then it takes crowns out of the system, blah blah blah [insert paragraph about how the economy works here] and CE price goes down. That's good, right?
TL;DR: make exorbitantly expensive reskins of items to look cool for the P2P's and make playing the game cost less for everyone else.
<(^_^)>
"To remove the possibility of these items becoming yet another CE sink"
"1: lockboxes" (keys cost energy)
"3: with purchase of CE packs, like with the Hunter gear"
"4: the weapons WOULD be raftable"
"Then it takes crowns out of the system, blah blah blah [insert paragraph about how the economy works here] and CE price goes down. That's good, right?"
Only featured auctions will work properly as you want.