In-game Items - The Big Flood
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 14:09
I think we have a problem with the way we gain items, and the way we loose or spend them. We gain them plenty while we're roaming the depths, but we have no real way to spend or lose them? Sure we have alchemy, but we can't possibly spend all our materials on that? I personally have an incredibly amount of materials that I find no use for. That doesn't feel right. When I try to put them to use by crafting another set of gear, I just find myself having extra gear that I can't quite put to good use either. I can't lose gear, so I'll just have it sitting in my inventory, waiting for me to wear it occasionally when I'm in the mood for it.
What do to with it?
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 15:51
#2
You can't quite reduce the
You can't quite reduce the cost for them though. Unique variants come at a "set" cost price each in a way. Reducing the cost of Alchemy in order to allow you to try and make a unique variant more often, would be similar to keeping the costs the same but increasing the spawn chance? (except for the usage of materials, but it's not really an amazing solution to encourage people to simply waste them?)
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 17:09
#3
Honestly, I have a feeling
Honestly, I have a feeling that's because we're in beta. They'll probably slash the drop, crown, and heat rates in the future so that Crystal Energy is less valuable. That says a lot, though, because the mats that actually take some effort to get now will be extremely difficult to get in the future.
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 17:38
#4
Hm yes
Yes, materials do indeed start to pile up:
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/images/6/61/Spiral_2010-12-29_21-17-35.png
Selling them to other players is a decent way to make some money, but maybe they should have some use.
I would like if alchemy could be done by free players. So 200/300 ce recipes can be made gradually in 2/3 days or something.
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 17:52
#5
They should let us donate our
They should let us donate our leftover materials, and each month, the top 3 highest donors, according to stars of the materials (5 star = 5 points, 2 star = 2 points...) gets a reward
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 18:16
#6
Or add the ability to
Or add the ability to alchemize large quantities of low-star materials into higher-star materials.
Or the ability to sell materials to other players even if one of you is offline.
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 18:30
#7
Donating would be a great
Donating would be a great sink.
Have a daily, weekly, monthly lottery.
This normalizes the donation amounts to a daily basis as people will want to get whatever the item of the day is.
Make the item(s) of the day/week/month known.
People will donate accordingly. You can expect spikes near the end of each week/month as people may want/not-want to get their chances improved.
This would also provide useful information to the developers on what stuff is more or less valued by players.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 01:48
#8
I don't feel a lottery would
I don't feel a lottery would be a great solution here. Materials are one the key elements in this game. When you go in a gate you gain heat, crowns and materials. The only real game-play affecting use we have for materials is crafting gear out of it. But that seems only necessary up until a certain point where you don't need that anymore, yet the supply of materials will still be present. I think there should be a greater purpose still for materials, if we can still find them right up until the Core. A lottery-deposit just feels like a quick fix for having too much of them without knowing what to do with it.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 01:52
#9
Well, the other obvious
Well, the other obvious solution would be gathering quest of some kind.....
Adding in some sort lottery capsule that you can make in alchemy that gives random costume items might also work, something that cost lil ec and needs a random set of material every time.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 02:05
#10
You'd be surprised
You'd be surprised how many people love lotteries. It's a common and popular money sink in many other online multiplayer games.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 04:38
#11
True. On the other hand
True. On the other hand though, another way to turn materials into equipment won't fix the overflow of equipment.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 07:20
#12
Yeah I fail to see the
Yeah I fail to see the overflow of equipment... really.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 07:33
#13
Do you mean that as in you
Do you mean that as in you don't feel like you have extra gear that you can't quite put in good use? Gear that you made just for the heck of trying it?
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 07:51
#14
Trash gate
Random idea: How about a special gate. Lets call it the Trash Heap.
It's closed at first, requiring a basic amount of junk thrown into its tray to open it, but only the first level. You need to throw more junk in, in order to open up deeper levels (each level at a time). After a week the trash is cleared away, so everyone has to start again.
It could be more complex, spawning different monsters etc based on the type of junk thrown in (majority swords would make melee monsters, jelly resources would make jelly monsters, etc).
Throw in some special monsters so people won't just unlock it, and then end up gettting back even more junk when they actually play that gate. Or maybe make it so no low level resources spawn inside.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 08:11
#15
it's just not a problem
Evo: sure I have equipment which is now outranked by other equipment (heck I still have my spiral starting gear) and equipment I experimented with. I just don't see the problem of it sitting in my inventory. I guess it is one of the ways I measure my progress in the game, the amount of leveled up gear that's piling up in my arsenal; quite a contrast with the time when I was trying hard to upgrade my first gear to something decent.
I'm probably one of the few who's actually sorry to see recipes require you to sacrifice an item, which typically eliminates you from battling in certain levels of the coliseum (unless you rebuy the sacrificed item and level it up again). The more gear in my arsenal the better. And if some item is really totally useless, I can always discard it. I don't need a certain lore or game feature to support this.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 08:49
#16
Mm well, I have a different
Mm well, I have a different opinion on the matter of equipment then. I don't feel like the only goal left should be simply crafting more equipment. There should be other goals left too? But that's a different topic.
I think there should be ways we can actually lose our equipment, apart from upgrading them. Perhaps only as an optional feature, that gives you a bit extra when you use it? (a quick example that popped in my head: equipping a Mecha Knight? Every time you use that feature, your used equipment loses a "health point", which will destroy the equipment when it reaches 0) Wouldn't it be neat to actually have a purpose for your extra-crafted gear?
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 13:34
#17
My name is SL, and I have an idea.
Here's a little something inspired by Dungeon Fighter Online:
Perhaps we can add a new feature into the Alchemy machine that drastically increases the chances of giving the created equipment a Unique Variant, but with a dangerously high chance of failing and taking away everything you put into the transmutation (though perhaps with returning half of the energy and only that). That way you'd have something to do with your excess equipment, either finding a use for it yourself, selling it to the highest bidder... or, of course, blowing it up.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 14:10
#18
Perhaps just something like
Perhaps just something like "tossing in higher quantities of ingredients gives a slightly better chance to get a unique item"? I've crafted almost all gear I ever had and I've never seen a unique item. Would kill two birds with one stone. :)
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 16:05
#19
I just want to be able to
I just want to be able to sell items faster, instead of clicking "green shard" 50 times.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 16:19
#20
"I just want to be able to
"I just want to be able to sell items faster, instead of clicking "green shard" 50 times."
Hold the shift key when you click and it'll pick up 10 instead :)
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 16:25
#21
Mats
I think giving them a better sell prices would solve the issues.
You sell the overflow of mats to an NPC and get some money.
But prices should be a litttle higher, not 1/10 of their value. Same for equip.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 17:38
#22
To clarify, the 'donating'
To clarify, the 'donating' suggestion wasn't with crowns (though I suppose that might work too). It was in donating materials that are unused.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 20:06
#23
NOPE
lotteries and donations are a bad idea. Lets say someone donates 1001 materials and I donate 1000. For some reason I get shafted out of a super rare item just because I didn't donate one extra.
It should be equal to all players, or the prize should affect everyone. Maybe every 20th gate or so requires materials rather than minerals. Along with the minerals, people submit their "dream" gate where they can choose which stages the gate is composed of. If they win the lottery/whatever, their gate design is chosen.
We don't need any more elitism than there already is. Unique variants were a bad idea to begin with. Thankfully their impact doesn't make too big of a difference.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 21:03
#24
>Random idea: How about a
>Random idea: How about a special gate. Lets call it the Trash Heap.
Simpler idea: Special minerals that require materials (or perhaps even equipment) to create. Add them to any gate to get special levels.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 21:38
#25
Add them to any gate to get special levels.
"Add them to any gate to get special levels."
If those levels are designed not to re-drop the same resources that the players just tried getting rid of, and you add them to the normal gates, then they'd impact all players, including those who DO want to actively obtain resources... which would be bad.
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 22:17
#26
Well if you change it so it'd
Well if you change it so it'd have some kind of effect to the level (rare monsters, slightly different enemies, buffs to enemies, debuffs, etc) it could end up really interesting. I'm okay with using alchemy to make higher tier materials though the lottery doesn't really interest me, I think this idea would be great as gate building is one of the important features for the game. Right now I find gate building rather bland and though you do get crowns, it's still kind of unrewarding as it's hard to get what you want.
If alchemy costs were cheaper, I'd suggest crafting many copies to get good unique variants.
But that gets expensive fast.