Okay. I've read enough. This wheel is so 'terrible', Dear OOO please remove it. I was fine without it. I'll be fine without it again. Sure it was fun. But clearly we need to be spoiled. :) Hand us more free stuff please.
You are a bunch of whiny fools who look a gift horse in the mouth. Shame on you. It's a game. Not your life, your job, or anything that really matters. Play some PvP for prizes. Or something. But don't 8!t(h about some new wheel that hands you a freebie every once in a while. No it is not meant to give you something useful every time. It would ruin the entire experience, challenge and reward that comes with playing this game. You want to win a real prize while complaining about the money you actually spent? Go to a casino. Until then get off your @$$ and look around you and realize how sad it is to make such a big deal out of such a small thing.

Yeah, but instead of actually ruining your day or poisoning you, getting an unwanted vial just means you have to drop it on the next level (and hey, maybe someone else in your party could use it to the benefit of all concerned).

You've got a point that the wheel doesn't really gel with the atmosphere of the game - it's a gameshow trope, not something I'd expect adventurers on a hostile alien world to encounter on a regular basis. Who installed this prize wheel in the lift network and where are they getting their stuff?

But the thing about it as a lockbox distributor - which is its primary purpose, really - is that it's fair. Everyone who finishes a level has an equal chance of receiving a lockbox (speaking of - "oh yeah, you ARE doing something to get to the prize wheel to begin with- you're playing the darned level. And to play the level you're paying with ME. Or CE, which you may or may not have paid for." You were playing the game already. You're not doing anything extra, unless you make a habit of entering levels, playing them a bit, then exiting to Haven before you hit the lift. Come on, that isn't a defensible position). Making them monster drops has the potential to be pretty unfair on gunners in a party, or indeed any lower-level players who've chosen to engage said beastie at a distance with vials; the result is either a mad scramble to grab the lockbox (which runs counter to SK's everyone-gets-everything approach to non-combat collectibles), or swordsmen always getting them by virtue of being closest when the thing died.

Making them treasure box drops isn't much better; have you never been in a party where one guy makes a beeline for any potential chests whilst their erstwhile comrades are left battling the monsters spawned by their proximity to the goods? It's irritating enough when these people end up scooping up desirable vials and pills; when they could potentially be bogarting rare items worth ¢10k at the AH, it's intolerable. Even current item drops tend to be either low-tier gear, or stuff that's available through other means; maybe have lockboxes as a vanishingly rare potential treasure drop, but there needs to be another way as well.

A possible solution to both would be to give everyone a box if one is dropped from a monster or chest, which I'd quite like - I mean, accessories are great and all, but they're fluff, and I'd like to see more of them around, just to get a greater variety of player designs about. The high CE cost to open them could potentially lead to greater financial gains for Three Rings, too. Of course, this could also quadruple the amount of lockboxes on the open market, driving resale prices down; I'm in favour of that, but I imagine it'd draw some extremely unhappy feedback from resellers and buyers used to hawking them/paying ¢10k.

A slot machine in Haven is slightly better, and might even make a decent Crown sink, but would almost inevitably put these rare and desirable items largely in the hands of high-level players with money to burn - a player stratum that already has a vice-grip on SK's economy. For all its faults, the prize wheel doesn't care how much money you've got; you give it a spin, and you win or you don't.

And if you don't, well, an extra ten crowns never hurt anyone, you know? Why wouldn't you want free money, even if it's not much? Even an unwanted vial, for me, prompts the response, "ah well, I'll ditch this on the next level." Even a heart just before a Terminal or subtown elicits nothing stronger than "aw man I'm just about to get to a heart pad, this does me no good at all." You might notice a distinct lack of the "how very damn dare you Three Rings I am furious at this bullcrap" in these responses.

I do not have it in me to be angry that I only got a bit of health, or some money, that I didn't really need. I'm a little surprised at people who do. Birthdays at your house must be nightmarish.

The real problem with the prize wheel is that the volume of the sound effect is controlled using the UI volume bar.
I like to play SK with the sound effect volume on low so I can hear the music better. (I don't lower the UI volume because I only ever expect to hear anything controlled by that bar when I open my pause menu/inventory) So imagine my suprise when I finish a level and this obnoxious scrolling sound blasts out of my earphones because it is for some reason, not considered a sound effect. :/

Just keep the wheel as it is. No buffing. "I want free 1k crowns for no apparent reason!" You get the stuff while battling. Lucky you if you get something rare. good for you. It's a wheel of uselessness, but you get free stuff anyways. It's like someone gives you a quarter everyday by their own expense and you demand a dollar. Give thanks you get free junk you can sell or make stuff with. You lose NOTHING if you get five crowns from the wheel. If it's Krogmo's energy bribe/gamble, you could demand a little more, but thats fine right now. Leave it and get on with fighitng on those Snarbies/ Vanadukes or whatever. You lost nothing to begin with with getting those stuff.

There are 2 points I agree with.

The first being that hearts are worthless when you go down a depth, and shouldn't be given after fighting a boss, or when visiting basil.

The second being that more stuff would be nice- I've seen quite a few rare things, like a cromalisk, and of course, the ever present box that flaunts me by being one off from what I receive. I favor decreasing the chances of finding a box, and inserting other prizes in instead- a .01% chance of a gear drop would be nice, as would a .5% chance mini mist tank. I'd rather not have boxes be made more common however.