Spiral Knights - Volatile Alchemy Machine (new Energy/Crown sink)

Volatile Alchemy Machine (new Energy/Crown sink)

5 replies [Last post]

Sat, 07/05/2014 - 17:29

Deleted-Knight

TL;DR
Create an "Volatile Alchemy Machine" (VAM) that takes in materials, minerals, and energy and spits out random prizes.

Details
1. Players can deposit as many minerals/materials as they want into the machine (kind of like old mineral deposits in arcade).
They then pay 10 energy to crank out a random material prize. The prize could be multiple materials or a single rare material. The minerals put in will influence the type of material that comes out. The star level of the material put in will influence the quantity and star level of the material that comes out.

2. Players can also choose to add a piece of equipment (armor/shield/weapon) into the machine. This will increase the cost (see costs), but the machine will spit out a random item of the same type (ig. sword in = sword out). The star level of the item could be lower, the same, or higher than the star level of the item put in (see sample probabilities). The minerals and materials put in can influence the item that comes out.

For example, I can put in a hot-edge, 400 dark matter, 100 dark shards, and have a shot (albeit a very slim one) at getting a Gran Faust.

3. There's a very small chance that the machine will mess up and return nothing (Display humorous VAM failure animation!).
All materials coming out of the machine would be unbound. The equipment created by the machine would be bound if the equipment put in is bound. Otherwise, it is unbound as well. Equipment crafted by the VAM will always be level 1 and have no variants.

Equipment Alchemy Costs
0 star - 400 energy
1 star - 600 energy
2 star - 800 energy
3 star - 1000 energy
4 star - 1200 energy
5 star - 1400 energy

Sample Probabilities (OOO would be better at balancing these than me)
If they put in 1 star:
Nothing - 1%
0 star - 15%
1 star - 20%
2 star - 25%
3 star - 35%
4 star - 3%
5 star - 1%

If they put in 4 star:
Nothing - 1%
0 star - 1%
1 star - 2%
2 star - 4%
3 star - 8%
4 star - 24%
5 star - 60%

If they put in 5 star:
Nothing - 1%
5 star - 99%

Benefits:
1. Players get a chance at saving a lot of money/grinding
2. On average, more energy would be spent upgrading via VAMs than traditional alchemy. More energy paid for same gear = better energy sink.
3. VAM produces random, non UV, items. Will not interfere with traditional crafting.
4. VAM lets end-game players try out different 5 star equipment without grinding forever to get each one.

Thoughts from people in the community?

Sat, 07/05/2014 - 19:20

Holy-Nightmare

Possibly but putting in boss

Possibly but putting in boss token items, event items, prize box items, or SL gear (short of brute jelly) no.

This would not help those who have spent their cash on UVs as they would almost never let those go.
It could also prove to be another source of addiction and disappointment.

Not certain about this but it is indeed interesting.

Sat, 07/05/2014 - 19:55

Deleted-Knight

You can buy boss token gear on the AH with the crowns you get from 1000 energy. The Vanaduke boss equipments are 4 and 5 star so their probability would be so low it won't be profitable. Also the gear produced is influenced by the mats/minerals you put in. It would make sense for shadow lair equipment to be accessible if shadow lair materials are put in.

Not helping the UV people is a good thing because it still gives people incentive to craft using the orbs (so they can save good UVs).
The VAM would help merchants much like how Punch does. Paying 1000 energy to turn an unbound dusker coat into an unbound chaos cloak, for example, is a huge profit. It's gambling in a way very similar to rolling for UVs.

It could also prove to be another source of addiction and disappointment.
Let's be honest here, addiction = more $$$ for OOO. UV rolling is pretty disappointing too, but tons of people still do it.

Sun, 07/06/2014 - 12:04

Fangel

I'll agree with Holy-Nightmare here

Boss token items should not be a reward at all outside of the boss. I am awfully disappointed that charged quicksilver mail is in the supply depot (last I checked), but other than that the boss rewards should remain connected to that boss. Also, the DLC items cannot be obtained in this fashion, nor can they be put into the machine.

The only alternative I can see is if the item you put into the machine is a boss token item, that you have a higher chance (60%?) at getting another item from that boss. (I.E., put an avenger in and get a faust, or put a pulsar in and get an industrial catalyzer)

Also, I would recommend you lower the percentages of the 5-star item chances while also decreasing the energy costs(or even have tiers you can buy things in that scale similar to Punch's services, with the highest tier being 1000-1500 energy), and also make it so any unique variants that are connected to the item are transferred to the new item, albeit one level lower(I.E., ASI medium would become ASI low, and ASI low would simply disappear).

Sun, 07/06/2014 - 13:07

Deleted-Knight

Fangel, the lottery is supposed to capitalize on "high risk, high gain" mentality. Lowering the chance of higher star equipment and decreasing the cost makes it almost like a normal alchemy machine. There has to be some incentive for people to use it while still making it a strong energy sink.
Creating a price gradient is a good idea since the probabilities do vary with star levels.

You can buy boss token gear on the AH with the crowns you get from 1000 energy.
This applies to all the boss items except Vanaduke's. Someone can just as easily get their boss item with 1000 energy instead of the VAM. Try saying "buying quicksilver mail for 1k energy" in Haven and see how long it takes for someone to trade you.

Sun, 07/06/2014 - 18:43

Dahall

Not long but didn't read

Here's my version of the idea.

Have a Slot machine in which you can insert a token of a kind(this token will determine what kind of prizes you can get e.g. putting vana token will allow you to win either a vanaduke gear or decoration). To increase chances of winning, you can insert 2 items, upto 1k minerals, upto 500CE and/or 47k CR. The minimum chances of winning start at 0.001% and can go up to 1%-5%, whatever feels fair for you.

Feel free to improve on this.

Search

Volatile Alchemy Machine (new Energy/Crown sink)