Spiral Knights - Just Business!!

Just Business!!

6 replies [Last post]

Fri, 07/10/2015 - 11:43

Blandaxt

My idea this time is a simple one.

Idea summary:

Create a new hidden city called black market. This new city will be run by friendly fiends who do not have any sort of attack power, but focus on work and profit. These fiends do not care about where we come from, and only care about how much money we have in our pockets.

Purpose:

The purpose of this new city is to have it be a sort of a forgotten/special market place that offer items that use to be promotions 2 to 3 years ago. This city will also have really hard to find items that usually take a lot of dedication and luck to find. For example, the heart locket or the DarkFang Shield could be there to grab. All of these items will be Bid at 50 thousand crowns or more and cannot be bought but only bid. This means that this city is for knights who are either super rich, or pour all their game time into making money to save for one specific item.

Mechanics:

(City)

The city would only grant access to knights who are of champion rank or higher. The city entrance would be located in the Garrison of Haven. The entrance will have to be unlocked/secret code for every knight before gaining access to it. The knights would first head to the bridge and flash a gold coin permanent ticket while on top of the bridge. This ticket will be a reward item from the supply depo knight (hopefully she gets a name) after reaching champion rank. After flashing the ticket, a fiend devilite with hat will pop out wink and make one of the trumpet sounds. Then the entrance to the city would open up behind the alchemy machine on the top right of the garrison.

Edit by Fangel: " Have the item be perma-bound to you, and introduce some new champion tutorial missions about a "mysterious black market that has opened up under the soil of Haven". This way, all players of champion rank or higher will learn of this new market."

(Items)

Every item on for bid will have a limited amount for the day. Something like 5 a day for good items, 2 a day for rare items and 1 a day for super rare items. Also every day, there will be a different kind of item up for bid. This means that players will have to come every day if they are interested to see what is up for bid on that day. Some items will be randomly on sale once a week. Every item on for bid will be bound to the player once bought. This way, the players will not try to resell for a higher price on the normal auction house. Ultra rare Phantasmal items like the darkfang shield or the Wicked Whisker would be up for bid either every 6 months - 9 months or every 12 months of the year.

Also, every shop within the black market city would be categorized within their own category and would not be one huge auction house like the main. So that means there would be one market for each kind of item they are selling. Items like materials, usable, armor, helms, costumes, etc. would all be their own market. This way players would have to move around and search for what they want, and not be grouped up in one place. It would give a more bustling filled atmosphere even if it is annoying to the players.

Edit by fangel: "Perhaps in this area we could also have a long-awaited unique variant merchant that will sell you either a specific unique variant ticket type (eg. ASI damage bonus vs fiend), or of a certain level (eg. MAX, low). You'd bring that to Punch and he'd give you either a specific UV, or make a certain item have a random UV of a specific level.

I would recommend to have a "prize box merchant", that you can purchase the current promo boxes from for a set energy price."

Usables:

Other things that are offered there can be refreshment shops that sell Spiral FOOD that are sold as usables that can be used in the clockworks to heal yourself or a party. Also, other things can be sold as usables that can be used in the clockworks for fun or have actual effects which we can allocate to our inventory slot. (I threw this in as a last minute thought, but i think this would really change the tactics in sk where players can stock up on these usables before embarking on a run. Also allowing us to not only find things in the clockworks to help our runs, but actually make or buy them. These usable's would be more of the rarer types, sense the usables should be introduced to players by the time they acquire there 2 star gear. But this will be the only place you can buy usables where if you did not have access to this place, you would have to only make them. Took this from an idea i made a bit ago in the Suggestion forums.)

Finally:

Having these kinds of items up for players to buy would give a huge window of opportunity for collectors of any kind to find something they want to buy, but have not have been having luck on getting it in their pockets. This would up the chances that more players can get what they want and give OOO more revenue when players spend money on energy to buy crystals to trade for more crowns to bid.

Fri, 07/10/2015 - 13:09

Fangel

Hmm.

Really liking the format on this one, haha. And as heads' up for the future, the "supply depot knight" has a name, and it is 'Kozma'.

Interesting idea. I would however suggest we do not buy the golden entrance ticket thingy from the supply depot, and instead get it as a mission reward for becoming a rank of Champion. Have the item be perma-bound to you, and introduce some new champion tutorial missions about a "mysterious black market that has opened up under the soil of Haven". This way, all players of champion rank or higher will learn of this new market.

The news of such a market would, lorewise, be given to us by either King Krogmo himself or Sullivan, his assistant. Seeing as the market is hidden under our soil, perhaps protected by various devilite magics to keep knights without coin out, a devilite or monster contact would make the most sense.

I like the idea of all things being bid-only. Perhaps in this area we could also have a long-awaited unique variant merchant that will sell you either a specific unique variant ticket type (eg. ASI damage bonus vs fiend), or of a certain level (eg. MAX, low). You'd bring that to Punch and he'd give you either a specific UV, or make a certain item have a random UV of a specific level. Obviously these items would be expensive, and on a bid-only system.

I also really like the idea of splitting up merchants. It means it will be harder to "snipe" items that you want, especially if they are all different.
Keeping everything on a daily cycle would be good.

My only other bit of work I'd suggest it to have rare items show up semi-frequently. Yes, this will throw merchants for a loop, but if you are putting all your eggs in one basket that's a risk you take. Wicked whiskers can show up every few weeks or so, however a book of dark rituals itself should only show up every 6 months at most.
For items on the market, have ultra rare items be up for bids for two days, rare items up for one day, uncommon items up for 12 hours, and common items up for 4 hours. This mirrors our auction house already, and makes people want to check in every couple of hours to see what's going on.
Also for the sake of enjoyment, I would recommend to have a "prize box merchant", that you can purchase the current promo boxes from for a set energy price. If you don't have money to spend outside of the game, but have plenty of cash to blow inside the game, then you've got a way to play with the prize boxes too.

Lastly, food items are a completely different suggestion, don't know why they're really in there. For now, let's just stick to the black market idea and try not to get sidetracked on something like that. :)

Fri, 07/10/2015 - 15:09

Blandaxt

hehe

@Fangel:

* "he "supply depot knight" has a name, and it is 'Kozma'."

- Oh that was her name, my bad. Thought she was nameless.

* " I would however suggest we do not buy the golden entrance ticket thingy from the supply depot, and instead get it as a mission reward for becoming a rank of Champion."

- That is what i meant lol, but Kozma would personally give it to us before we get on the elevator after going through the inspection.

* "and introduce some new champion tutorial missions about a "mysterious black market that has opened up under the soil of Haven". This way, all players of champion rank or higher will learn of this new market."

- I agree that this would really make it so everyone is up to date to this new area. Nice idea.

* " lorewise, be given to us by either King Krogmo himself or Sullivan...perhaps protected by various devilite magics to keep knights without coin out, a devilite or monster contact would make the most sense."

- I agree that having a devilite granting us access to it would be pretty cool. Sullivan sounds like the guy for the job. Hmm, i think you might have meant contract towards the end there.

* " Perhaps in this area we could also have a long-awaited unique variant merchant that will sell you either a specific unique variant ticket type (eg. ASI damage bonus vs fiend), or of a certain level (eg. MAX, low)."

- That would be a great addition to the list of different merchants. And the fact that these items change everyday like the prestige missions and the fact that there are only a limited number of items makes it that it is hard to cheat this system. Not to mention that these items are bound to you.

* "My only other bit of work I'd suggest it to have rare items show up semi-frequently. Yes, this will throw merchants for a loop, but if you are putting all your eggs in one basket that's a risk you take."

- I'm a bit confused at this sentence. I understood the rest though and i do think that you are mostly correct. All items will not be repetitive every day. There will be a different assortment of items every day for each different merchant. This makes it still hard for you to acquire a rare item, but easier then going through the clockworks to find it. And of course ultra-rare items like the book of dark rituals would only show every 6 or 9 months making it very unpredictable.

* "I would recommend to have a "prize box merchant""

- Sure, that sounds like another good merchant addition. OOO can name him and it would be pretty cool if he looked more like a circus boss or clown knight. Clown usually portray weird mysteries.

* "Lastly, food items are a completely different suggestion, don't know why they're really in there. For now, let's just stick to the black market idea and try not to get sidetracked on something like that. :)"

I figured i should throw them in their to revive my old thread. Even though they are different, they would make good discussion and i could just ask the posters to carry it to the other thread.

Sat, 07/11/2015 - 11:23

Fangel

Yeah.

Food sounds like its own thing. I mean, after a black market implementation we can really have any old merchant down there for anything new that pops up.

Another essence of unpredictability for merchant would be for their internal clock to change randomly. This means one day a merchant will restock at 4am PST, but the next day they might not have anything in stock for a good 6 hours and then suddenly have stock again at 10:44am PST. That sort of unpredictability will also make knights unable to pinpoint a sniping moment due to the nature of the system.

Hmm, i think you might have meant contract towards the end there.
Nah, I did mean contact. Like, a "monster contact" would be some monster who has relations with both us knights and the devilites of the black market.

I'm a bit confused at this sentence.
Having rare items show up semi-frequently I meant more like we'd have a wicked whisker show up every week or two, or a darkfang shield once a month. This brings those items into a market ever so slightly, and makes more players have access to them. Having more reliable access to reskinned items or rare and powerful items makes the market seem more healthy.
Putting all your eggs in one basket is a phrase used to say you've invested all in one thing, so if something happens to that one thing, you've lost everything. If merchants only make money off of darkfang shields, selling kat cloaks, etc... Then it's their fault for not having reasonable prices and stuff for their items if they get mad at what's in the black market.

Sat, 07/11/2015 - 13:36

Blandaxt

hmm..

@Fangel:

* "Another essence of unpredictability for merchant would be for their internal clock to change randomly."

- That sounds like a good idea. This would really get players heated about their items because the market is so unpredictable and hard to grab.

* "Nah, I did mean contact. Like, a "monster contact" would be some monster who has relations with both us knights and the devilites of the black market."

- Oh i understand now. Like how some of the gremlins have relations with the gremlin against the knights.

* "Having rare items show up semi-frequently I meant more like we'd have a wicked whisker show up every week or two, or a darkfang shield once a month. "

- That is a pretty good idea, though when it comes to the darkfang shield, i think it should show up once every 6 to 9 months. Why? Because i have spent 2 to 2 and a half years trying to get that shield, yet so many other players got it and i haven't even saw it drop of those grubby gremlins. So sense this item is so rare like the love locket, it show up also rare to keep the rare atmosphere of the item.

Nice ideas, I really hope OOO considers this.

Sat, 07/11/2015 - 13:57

Fangel

Well actually...

yet so many other players got it and i haven't even saw it
Last I checked we only had like, 7 darkfangs in existence, at least recorded. I would say we have less than fifteen in total. So, not too many people have seen it drop, and it only dropped for certain in the past before battlesprites.

Having a cosmetic such as that shield is good to have every month or so. It means we might have 30 or so shields after a year or two, so it doesn't take the value out of the shields completely, but it makes it a more reasonable goal.

True love lockets are not as rare, seeing as any turret can turn into a love puppy, and if you're in the correct strata you'll get them dropped from love puppies rarely. I've come across two love lockets myself, and both times it was during a black kat event actually.

Darkfang shields are 4* too, so they're purely for cosmetic appeal. Having them show up on a regular but extended timer would be for the best. One month to 90 days would be a good time period, with a maximum of 180 days for another one to show up. Again, the randomization between the two times would make this market so much more fun to look through.

Sat, 07/11/2015 - 22:31

Blandaxt

hmm..

@Fangel:

* "Last I checked we only had like, 7 darkfangs in existence, at least recorded. I would say we have less than fifteen in total.....Having a cosmetic such as that shield is good to have every month or so. It means we might have 30 or so shields after a year or two, so it doesn't take the value out of the shields completely, but it makes it a more reasonable goal."

- I understand what you are saying. I just did not want to see the prices of these super rare items drop because of a new way of availability from the black market. And you are right that it is purely cosmetic sense the stats are exactly the same as the owlite shield.

* "True love lockets are not as rare,.... I've come across two love lockets myself, and both times it was during a black kat event actually."

- I have encountered a total of at least 20 to 25 love pupies over the years i have played sk. None of them dropped the rare true love locket. So, it really breaks my heart that so many other people have gotten their hands on an item i have been searching for for so long, and i have yet to even gotten one. Oh well....

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Just Business!!