Item Quality Enchancement - Credit Sink

[dgvol]

Hi Guys,

 

Just going to necro an idea from an old thread + a bit extra. 

 

Repeatable In-game mission to get a repair contract (consumed on use via the web-portal to enhance item quality)

 

Via the web portal - screen to increase an items quality to 200% + fee

- drop the item + repair contract from the avatar inventory into slots, set the desired quality and hit 'repair' 

 

Thinking something along the lines of the following to work out the fee:

 

bf * lvl * ( n * (n+1) / 2 - c*(c+1) / 2 )

 

bf = base fee

c = current item quality

lvl = item level

n = new quality

 

At this stage was thinking a base fee of 100,000 (yeah might be a bit much)

(which would mean taking a non-manuf item from 125% -> 200% would cost just over 11b creds)

 

 

 

[Terrell [BT]]

I'd like that, at least for those non-manufacturable items that are irreplaceable.  In the future, there will be the items Loony's Special Gizmoblatsit, and Chili-Popper, if the game follows the same trajectory as EnB Origins.  If they work out the same way as the original game, PE and JE will want to get those items, as they're very good for miners.  The items in question were Terran Restricted, Explorers Only.  They're also non-manufacturable and irreplaceable.  If I could get those repaired if their quality was dinged, then I'd gladly save up the credits to do so. 

 

In EnB Origins the Chili-Popper was given at 100% quality at the end of the mission chain, if you picked that choice, the Loony's Special Gizmoblatsit, was given at 200% quality during the chain.  It was VERY good for mining and looting, since it had several buffs.  Fast Tractor Beam, Long Tractor Beam, Reduce Signature, and Scan Boost.   Due to this item's value, I used it only when doing things that were unlikely to get me killed frequently.

[Morumbi]

I'd love to see this. I think the correct BF value is somewhere around 10,000 credits. To go from 125 to 200% would be 1.1Bn credits. To get a 125% device to 140% though would be 180mil or so. This would really help balance the market out.

[dgvol]

Well the idea is not to make it easy to get a 200% non-manuf, but then perhaps that can be controlled by the mission to get the "repair contract".

 

Just to complicate matters reward could be a random contract type - ie Engine / Weapon / Shield ....

[Terrell [BT]]

IMO the 200% thing for non-manu items should be for things like the Gizmoblatsit, assuming it ends up like EnB Origins where it's given at 200%, or better still would be nicer if it was given as a print instead, where you could build it yourself, since it's a PE/JE thing and both classes do have the build device skill.  For those other items where 125 is the normal limit, that should still apply.

[dgvol]

Fair enough on the non-manuf % limit. - perhaps not all the way to 200%, possibly to 135/140% just to make them more exceptional but not over-powered.

 

 

(Gizmoblasit as a print + non-trade would solve having to worry about that)

[Morumbi]

I don't see the point in capping a 125%. Being able to go to 200% is what makes this a great credit sink and worth while. Costing 1.1bn to do that is quite a sum of money. You're not going to have all that many devices at that level. If the idea is just to restore the item to the % it was, I don't see the point in working to impliment a system. My items haven't lost any percentage, but I guess I could see it happening if you were to die and JS a lot.

[Terrell [BT]]

Fair enough on the non-manuf % limit. - perhaps not all the way to 200%, possibly to 135/140% just to make them more exceptional but not over-powered.

 

 

(Gizmoblasit as a print + non-trade would solve having to worry about that)

 

I'd love that, especially since the 2 classes that can use it both have the Build Devices skill.

[Flesson]

great idea, prolly the best money sink there could be and let people get their non-manu items better. 

[SiSL]

While my heart is willing such thing, my logic says no...

 

Quality factor esp. on non-manufacturable items and Quality Decay over time/damage is there for people to encourage people hunting / raiding for better quality items than what they already own... For manufacturable items it is already a type of credit sink for components and paying for manufacturer... 

 

It is for continuity of hunting for them...

Edited April 10, 2013 by SiSL

[efialtis]

On the flip side it will give smaller guilds and regular players a break from 'guild campers' will it not?

[Zackman [LDEV]]

Cant  imagine this would ever happen as the whole game would become unbalanced/broken.

 

There are gazillion  buffs and stats based on the fact that the item can never exceed 125%, therefore the buff modifiers cant scale higher than that.

If such item would suddenly jump to 200%, you start to see very imbalanced buffs breaking every balance.

[Morumbi]

While my heart is willing such thing, my logic says no...

 

Quality factor esp. on non-manufacturable items and Quality Decay over time/damage is there for people to encourage people hunting / raiding for better quality items than what they already own... For manufacturable items it is already a type of credit sink for components and paying for manufacturer... 

 

It is for continuity of hunting for them...

You're going to need to continually hunt to be able to reasonably increase the percentage. The cost would be huge even with a 15,000 base price. 1.1bn to take a device from 125% to 200%. Can the wallet even hold that much credits?

 

Yes some devices would need tweaking or would be really powerful... but the cost can be made equally staggering.

[Kyp [LDEV]]

By "some devices" Morumbi, you're including about 75% of the set which were designed with 125 as a maximum in mind. It simply creates too much of a balance problem to do this with most devices. Even if the cost gets astronomical.

[Kingdud]

Yes. If this were ever implemented it would need to be such that manu items could go to 200 and non-manu would be capped at 125%. This is the only way to have it any sort of balanced while giving the core idea, which is "get a perfect toon via min-max with credits instead of time and spawn camping."

[Morumbi]

By "some devices" Morumbi, you're including about 75% of the set which were designed with 125 as a maximum in mind. It simply creates too much of a balance problem to do this with most devices. Even if the cost gets astronomical.

I guess I could see that. How about 150% or something more than 125%. The astronomical price of that "little bit more" is a good credit sink and adds value to endgamers.

[Kingdud]

I guess I could see that. How about 150% or something more than 125%. The astronomical price of that "little bit more" is a good credit sink and adds value to endgamers.

...no. The stats of the items were balanced such that 125% non-manu = 200% manu. >125% on non-manu = OP. It is very, very simple on that front.

[Progen74]

I would like to see something along these lines, but limited to something like you can increase the quality of a single item once a month (quarter?) by 5%. Make it expensive, in time, credits and resources required. Non-maunfacturable limited to a max of q125 and manufacturable limited to q200. I guess my contribution is to say make it limited to only a single 5% increase per month on a single item.

 

Ok, new thought. Also, limit the ability to increase an item quality to only those items that are non-tradable. Yes, this would eliminate repairing most manufacturable items, but tough, that is what the market is for! :)

[Terrell [BT]]

I would like to see something along these lines, but limited to something like you can increase the quality of a single item once a month (quarter?) by 5%. Make it expensive, in time, credits and resources required. Non-maunfacturable limited to a max of q125 and manufacturable limited to q200. I guess my contribution is to say make it limited to only a single 5% increase per month on a single item.

 

Ok, new thought. Also, limit the ability to increase an item quality to only those items that are non-tradable. Yes, this would eliminate repairing most manufacturable items, but tough, that is what the market is for! :)

 

That makes plenty of sense to me.  When it comes to valuable mission rewards, that cannot be replaced if they get dinged, perhaps the quality repair should apply to things like them.  Alternatively they can have their stats adjusted, and be manufacturable (finish the mission, get a print).  I'm not as worried about quality damage to a GoD should I manage to acquire one, since another one can be acquired in it's place.  I'd be inclined to try and get it increased, given the rarity of said item, but it wouldn't be irreplaceable, just very hard to replace.

[Nervestrike [Fmr. ADV]]

I wouldn't mind seeing something like this as a true form of repair, but not enhancement. If the mission could be somehow limited to items that are truly irreplaceable, such as mission reward items in cases where the mission is non-repeatable. A couple of good examples would be items like the NOS or the Mark/Seal of the Dragon. In the interest of preserving the game's balance, restrict the mission to only be able to restore the item to it's initial quality. This would offer a 'true' repair system for the items that cannot in any way ever be replaced.

[Kingdud]

Now we are seeing good, rational, ideas. :)

[Stanig[IS]]

This did come up at the meeting yesterday and I can tell you from the reaction many had, this idea is not likely to happen.  The balance issues alone, and loss of item decay (which is an intended consequence of using uber gear in dangerous situations), did not go over well with a few guys.

 

By all means discuss but realize it might be an exercise in futility at this point.

[SiSL]

This did come up at the meeting yesterday and I can tell you from the reaction many had, this idea is not likely to happen.  The balance issues alone, and loss of item decay (which is an intended consequence of using uber gear in dangerous situations), did not go over well with a few guys.

 

By all means discuss but realize it might be an exercise in futility at this point.

 

I believe I can imagine the reaction:

 

[Stanig[IS]]

Not to be condescending, but yes that was basically the reaction.

[Terrell [BT]]

This did come up at the meeting yesterday and I can tell you from the reaction many had, this idea is not likely to happen.  The balance issues alone, and loss of item decay (which is an intended consequence of using uber gear in dangerous situations), did not go over well with a few guys.

 

By all means discuss but realize it might be an exercise in futility at this point.

 

Item decay isn't really a problem with respect to manufacturable items, or items that you can replace if they get damaged, or destroyed.  Can some form of solution be given for the NOS device today, or in the future when the Chili-Popper and Loony's Special Gizmoblatsit come out, to allow people who thrash theirs in combat, to be able to replace them?  In EnB Origins I had 2 of those 3 devices, but when going to fishbowls with my JE (Led by Serinna) I did not use those items, because they couldn't be replaced if they suffered quality loss. 

 

Possible solutions could be allowing you to turn in the item, do a mission and get a replacement, but only for those items that cannot be replaced.  Another possibility, is having the stats on those items adjusted, so that they can be manufactured, without breaking game balance.  If they're to remain both non-manufacturable, and one time only, people will be more likely to remove those items and leave them in their vaults when they are doing things that are likely to get them damaged or destroyed.