Wings, halos and auras....

33 replies [Last post]
Bindi-Badgi's picture
Bindi-Badgi

So OOO, have wings (not mechawings - the armour back kind) and halos actually been seeded ingame or are they just so ridiculously rare that noone has got one yet?

So far the only pic of wings I have seen was on a gm :-/

If not, when can we expect them to be added and will you be kind enough to inform us when you do? Also, I believe Nick stated that there were more than two types of auras, yet to the best of my knowledge only two have been confirmed ingame.

I just wanna know if I am wasting my time looking for things that don't exist...

EDIT: it seems that there are now pages on the wiki for these items, confirming 3x halos (prismatic, divine & volcanic), all the wings in standard styles and 5x auras (flaming, ghostly, unlcean, twilight & twinkle). I am assuming that as there are wiki pictures that these items have now actually dropped...can anyone confirm this?

Memento's picture
Memento
We can't tell yet..

All we know by now, is that these are Game Master exclusive content. We can't tell yet if those things will be available to the community, But for sure, OOO would Tell us when they launch them.. It's their own profit to renew our interest in unboxing iron lockboxes, isn't it?

Bindi-Badgi's picture
Bindi-Badgi
Indeed...

I would really appreciate some developer respsonse on this though, the wings and auras are the only accessories I am really after - and I'm sure I'm not the only one searching for wings...

=[

Kickthebucket's picture
Kickthebucket
well if i could buy it from a

well if i could buy it from a NPC or trough CE purchase i would pay for it without question... but i'm not going to unlock 100 boxes just to get maid headbands and mecha wings... (god all the accessories are so fugly)

i made me a (blu) skolver knight with a (blu) halo and (blu) wings and i think it looked awsome! but again not worth gambling CE away i can use for crafting armor i can USE

and like the OP said we don't even know if they are in the damn thing to begin with

Aecarus's picture
Aecarus
Hmm...

I've already looked in to this significantly, and all I can say is: we can't tell. The Devs never truly confirmed that every single Accessory was released, however Nick did say this: There are hundreds of them to discover and include techno widgets like antennae and visors for your helmets, canteens and side blades for your armor and even holy auras and wings! (see Accessory release notes). This makes it seem as though Nick did in fact confirm that it is possible to obtain Wings and Auras from Lockboxes. Although personally, I find it extremely hard to believe that this would be true given that not a single Knight has (reportedly) found either one of these Accessories yet. :x

Also, Equinox made an interesting statement, regarding these elusive Wings, some time ago. I'm assuming when Equinox says "they are in-game", he/she is referring to the Dev being in game, not necessarily the Wings. (Technically speaking, the Wings are in the game as well, however the method of obtaining them may not yet exist.)

I think all we can do is wait until one of two things happens: the Devs make a release announcing a new batch of Accessories, or a Knight finds one of these insanely rare Accessories after more than a month of longing (and is hopefully willing to tell how, if not from Lockboxes as expected). I just hope the Devs don't "secretly" release these possibly-missing Accessories - this could really delude the rarity of them, especially if they are "secretly" released to be as rare as, say, Auras.

Nick's picture
Nick
Developer
Wings, auras, mustaches, etc.

Wings, auras, mustaches, etc. are all available to the players via lockboxes and have been since the release of lockboxes. Obviously, these highly desirable accessories are rarer than many of the other accessories.

Shidara's picture
Shidara
"Rare", you say...

It seems like these specific accessories were designed to not appear anywhere around the $50 mark worth in energy, seeing as so much energy has been put into lockboxes, yet, we have not had an evidently obtained piece even after all this time has passed. I wouldn't be surprised if as much as 100,000 energy ($250) was blown by one player before they obtained one of these. Then again, I like playing with high numbers, so we might see players obtaining these fairly early on in comparison, whilst still holding a high value. I wonder what kind of price they would go for on the Auction House, though...

It would be nice to have an estimated target-value for these rarer accessories, what with their demand amongst other things. Any chance we could have any hints regarding this matter? If yes, please say so, but, if no, please state so, lest the lack of a response becomes aggrivating for those of us who are actually looking to get one of these. I can live with a no, as long as I get an answer to my question.

Nick's picture
Nick
Developer
The value of accessories is

The value of accessories is entirely for the market to decide. We have no 'target value' for accessories save that it's at least the cost of opening a lockbox (since accessories can only be found inside lockboxes).

Shidara's picture
Shidara
Figures.

Makes sense, I suppose. If the common accessories won't pay off, the rarer will. Ha well. Here I was thinking there would be a target value. Bit of a naïve thinking from my end. Regardless, thank you for your response.

Aecarus's picture
Aecarus
Sdsgfasfsf!

I am both anxious and excited. Anxious because I know I am going to be paying a ludicrous amount for a pair of Prismatic Wings, but excited because I can continue to play Spiral Knights knowing they are still out there to be discovered!

(Time to revamp my thread...)

Thank you for the confirmation, Nick. =)

Tantarian's picture
Tantarian
Eh

Would be cool if the drop rates got increased.
Or the more common accessories were cooler.
There is really no incentive to open lockboxes when the good stuff is so rare.

Aecarus's picture
Aecarus
Sadly...

We have no 'target value' for accessories save that it's at least the cost of opening a lockbox...
- Nick

Sadly, half of the accessories that sell barely go for a fraction of this price. (I have seen some of the most common Accessories having trouble selling for less than 10k Crowns, which is roughly 20% the price of a Silver Key. :/ ) The demand for the common accessories is far less than their massive supply, yet the demand for the rarer accessories is by far superior to their nearly-nonexistent supply. :s This is why I'm going to have to agree with Tantarian, in the sense that most of those willing to open Lockboxes are going to be those willing to take a risk.

I wouldn't expect the Devs to alter anything in particular - we just need more players, and more players opening more Lockboxes. (Although of course better chances would always be awesome.) If Spiral Knights had a player base the size of, say, MapleStory, or World of Warcraft, we probably would have seen every single existing accessory unboxed several times before the end of just the first week. (I just counted the number of accessories in the AH and the amount is hardly short of 300, if that means anything.)

Also, relating the first and second paragraphs, if all Accessories did in fact sell for at least 750 CE, I'm sure we would have seen every Accessory as we would with a huge player base. As it is now, taking the risk at getting an Accessory that actually pays for itself (or better), is simply not worth it to most players. However, if every player could ultimately make that money back (or at least most of it), I'm sure everyone who knows how to use the AH would be willing to open Lockboxes without the fear of losing loads of money, as it is now. All in all, there does need to be a risk involved (otherwise Accessories would float around freely), but if you ask me, it's far too great in general. Mathematically speaking, the expected value of opening a Lockbox is probably less than 25% their worth, resulting in a huge loss on average. This is why Lockboxes are not very popular.

Thanks again for the confirmation, though.

Avihr's picture
Avihr
^ true story...

^ true story...

Mohandar's picture
Mohandar
correction to your statement

...most of those willing to open Lockboxes are going to be those willing to take a loss.

Taking a risk suggests that the average value of the accessories you get will be greater than 750ce. I doubt that is the case- it is much more akin to truly random gambling at a casino, which basically means given enough tries you are guaranteed a net loss. Of course there are the few who get lucky, but by and large, there is no profit to be had in opening lockboxes. And that is more the reason why they will never be opened in large quantities. The only thing that can change this equation is to introduce better odds, or an object (shadow keys) that is critical for some special thing that cannot be obtained any other way. The latter is a particularly distasteful method, imho.

Bindi-Badgi's picture
Bindi-Badgi
Nick said : "Obviously, these

Nick said :

"Obviously, these highly desirable accessories are rarer than many of the other accessories."

And:

"The value of accessories is entirely for the market to decide. We have no 'target value' for accessories save that it's at least the cost of opening a lockbox (since accessories can only be found inside lockboxes)."

Market value is determined by supply and demand, accessories operates a system high volume undesirables vs (very) low volume highly desirable items. Low supply means rare and people pay more for that too. So by designing lockboxes the way you have as stated, then you are knowingly setting target values by making the really good ones rare. You want us to open more boxes to get what we want - the problem is that the price of silver keys hasn't scaled in response to market trends - the monetary gap between desirable & undesirable items is huge.

Fehzor's picture
Fehzor
@nick

Perhaps you, OOO, should have a target value in mind.... I mean, if you can directly influence prices via drop rates, it might help to lessen out the extreme demand for items like wolver tail.

Fehzor's picture
Fehzor
Sorry bout the double post,

Sorry bout the double post, don't know why it did that.

Beans's picture
Beans
This reminds me much of this

This reminds me much of this article: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/09/22/nexon-ncsoft-refuse-to-fully-coo...

To TL;DR it, Game Rating's Board requested to investigate the rates for things like gachapon [Similar to our Lockboxes] of MMORPGs hosted by certain South Korean companies, because they're technically a form of gambling and the companies could be ripping players off hard for profit.

And the companies refused to be investigated, saying the investigation is "trying to touch their business model".

I wonder what the rates for our rare accessories look like, and how much Three Rings will be profiting off them by proxy.

Of course they say no one has to spend money, but they know people will. They're not that naive. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, specifically..

But it's obvious the rates are horrible if the devs themselves have to reassure the community that the items actually exist. Seems a little sleazy to me.

Yagballs's picture
Yagballs
^

What he said.

Atleast TF2's Unusual drop has a percentage clearly documented for everyone to see. I don't know why OOO is always avoiding questions like these. Same situation reminds me of Grand-Lord's CTR VH + ASI VH Sealed Sword which he refuse to show a screenshot of.

And I don't believe the lockboxes' accessories are "pre-determined", either.

Dirt's picture
Dirt
@Porky-Pig

Two different games, two different ways of doing things. I can't think of a single time that such black-and-white numbers have been available to the public about SK. You can take the stats system on all the gear as an example.

Mbcscp's picture
Mbcscp
its basically gambling

: this is basically gambling
buying LockBoxes + Silver Keys then opening them or rolling UVS

the drop rates of certain items must be almost zero
Prismatic anything = almost zero
Tail accessory = almost zero
auras = almost zero

if i blew 75k CE on 100 keys whats the odds of getting any of those ?
about the same as a shadow key .... almost zero

better odds then any Heart Pendant from a Love Puppy i guess

stopped rolling UVS after blowing about 5m CR and opening about 10 boxes

Nodocchi's picture
Nodocchi
@MohandarThere is no way OOO

There is no way OOO would let players make a profit from opening lockboxes, if that was the case what would even be the point of going into the clockworks if players can just make more money than they spend opening lockboxes? Yeah people are going to be taking a net loss from opening lockboxes, the only real way to gain money should be doing the clockworks.

Yagballs's picture
Yagballs
I saw someone last night who

I saw someone last night who rage-unboxed 40 lockboxes (and almost everyone was watching it, too) and the best he got was like, a Toasty Helm something and 2 Shadow keys.

OOO should really put in paper the percentage of each item in those lockboxes just so we know that there's an actual possibility in getting them.

Martinsen's picture
Martinsen
The wolver tails are quite

The wolver tails are quite rare as well, aren't they :u ?

Bindi-Badgi's picture
Bindi-Badgi
@ tazurin

That is a very interesting article, thanks.

I really don't see why OOO feels that they need to implement this kind of shady gambling into the game :-/ a little more transparancy over drop rates would certainly help people buy into it if that is the direction they wish to pursue.

It's a shame because all the players want is more great levels and gameplay, simply expanding the clockworks and adding new items/content as rewards for skill and perseverance would go down a lot better and pull in more revenue than this shady business mode based on milking people's wallets in a lottery for content...

Ah well, I doubt anything will change =[

Asthix's picture
Asthix
Saw an Aura

Saw an Aura for sale in the AH The day after accessories were released, I believe.

I'm not sure which wings people are talking about, but I played minigames against several ppl with wings.

Shidara's picture
Shidara
@Asthix

Mecha wings, as in side-head accessories, or the actual wings on the back of your character?

Bindi-Badgi's picture
Bindi-Badgi
@ Asthix

The Aura you saw for sale was a Ghostly Aura, the other confirmed aura opened early was Twinkle Aura - as I wrote in my OP, Nick stated there were more than just these two, yet no one has seen one (or at least noone that posts on the forums)...

Like I said in my OP I am refering to wings - as in an actual pair of wings attached to the back of the armour NOT the mecha wings for helmets.

Maybe if you actually read my post...

=/

Mbcscp's picture
Mbcscp
its a rigged game

yet to see a wolver tail on AH or wings "not mecha"

so me getting a Divine Wolver Tail = zero unless someone sells one which would cost a ridiculous amount

dont see prismatic accessories ofter either... and as for twinkle ... not paying 20k CE for that ...

these type of items are so rare their is no point trying to get them ...

Kickthebucket's picture
Kickthebucket
so nick (or any other

so nick (or any other dev/gm/admin) is there any news about (or are you planning to) accesoires beeing sold trough NPC or store like valve does?
just curious :D if they would be i think i would buy it hehe.

Wuvvums's picture
Wuvvums
I want to know why the

I want to know why the MUSTACHE is so freakin' rare. I mean, I could understand people clamoring for tails and wings, but mustaches?

Yagballs's picture
Yagballs
@Mbcscp: I saw a wolver tail

@Mbcscp: I saw a wolver tail on AH once. Sadly that's the first and last time I'm gonna see one there.

Mbcscp's picture
Mbcscp
LOL ... once

LOL ... once

Vainsacrifice's picture
Vainsacrifice
Its sad...

Well they said accessories would make everyone seem unique, but then they make the good ones (About 50% of them) have about the same chance of avalibility as actually winning the lottery in real life. Only lottery tickets seem cheaper than the whole rage key thing. People who do get them sell them for like 1 million cr, which... is overpriced. If the price is for us to decide then give all the items the same chance of dropping OOO, the rarity is basically stating that you are targeting a high price range for them.