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Idea to Make Lockboxes Less Risky without Flooding the Market
arontimes
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 0 Arc User
I got burned out by Neverwinter three weeks into the Curse of Icewind Dale, and played other games on Steam in my free time (I play Neverwinter through Steam), and I returned to Neverwinter a day after Tyranny of Dragons was released. One game I played during my hiatus was Valve's DotA 2, which also makes use of a lockbox system to generate revenue. Valve recently changed the entire system to make it better for occasional lockbox openers and worse for mass lockbox crackers and market speculators.
Basically, when a player opens a lockbox for the first time, he gets one of the possible rewards from it. The next time he opens the same type of lockbox, the item he got from the first opening is taken out of the random drop table. The third time he opens the same lockbox, the two items he had previously gotten from it will no longer drop, and so on. This goes on until the player gets all of the possible items from it, at which point the lockbox contents are randomized. This means that you will get that guaranteed rare drop if you open enough of them, but you won't be able to flood the market with them after your guaranteed drops are used up since the drop rate for the really rare items becomes really low.
What do you think?
Basically, when a player opens a lockbox for the first time, he gets one of the possible rewards from it. The next time he opens the same type of lockbox, the item he got from the first opening is taken out of the random drop table. The third time he opens the same lockbox, the two items he had previously gotten from it will no longer drop, and so on. This goes on until the player gets all of the possible items from it, at which point the lockbox contents are randomized. This means that you will get that guaranteed rare drop if you open enough of them, but you won't be able to flood the market with them after your guaranteed drops are used up since the drop rate for the really rare items becomes really low.
What do you think?
Post edited by arontimes on
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Comments
Yes, your idea guarantees someone will get what they want - but the point of the lockbox isn't to give you what you *want*. It's a gamble. If you want the big payout, you need to take a risk. You might break even, you might win big, you might lose your shirt. Why would anyone bother buying keys if they got what they wanted after buying just 10? Why would Cryptic bother killing off a cash cow?
So, I like this as an idea but aren't going to pin any hopes on it ever happening.
Maybe the guaranteed drops could be made Bound to Account, to prevent market flooding?
P.S.
I just remembered. In addition to the guaranteed drops in DotA 2, there is a small chance of a Rare and a Very Rare bonus drop from each lockbox (I think it's 1% on the Very Rare drop). Epic mounts could be made Rare and legendary ones Very Rare drops, so they wouldn't be part of the list of items guaranteed to drop.
Taking a break from Neverwinter indefinitely...
LOL!! This is how I think, sometimes! But I also know that my chances of being hit by lightning are greater. I have opened a lot of boxes - maybe not hundreds, and have never gotten a mount. I did get several Phoera, though, I was pleased by those. I have many, many profession people, and a lot of refining stuff. -_- I rarely sell what I find, as I have alts who can use most of it.
Why not let mounts from lockboxes be account bound? Or even bind on pickup? That way mounts would be a lot easier to get, but they won't flood the market. Same with other fun lockbox-stuff, like companions.
I think this is a horrible idea either way.
If you want an item so badly, just buy it off the auction house
And alot of ppl would never buy anymore Zen for IRL money, this is a silly idea and will never happen.
I WOULD like better drop rates of decent stuff. But I would greatly prefer being able to buy exactly what I want from an AD sink.
If I want Epic Weaponsmith tools, I want to buy Epic Weaponsmith tools. I do not want to have to open dozens of boxes of a certain type on the off-chance that I might get a Weaponsmith Booster pack, with the off-chance that I might get the tool I want, with an even more off-chance that I might get an Epic one.
But what is the problem of flooding the market with Epic and Legendary Mounts, Artifacts and Enchants? That would just drive the prices down and benefit people buying off the AH. Supply bigger than Demand. What is wrong with that? Not so good for those buying Zen to buy Keys, of course, but much better for the Free to Play people.
When I get that sort of stuff from a box, I always sell it cheaper than other items already up, and they usually sell very quickly. Sometimes, they sell before I have exited the AH screen.
Combating Bots and Illicit Farmers need something more sophisticated than HAMSTER over the loyal fan-base; especially those who support the game by spending €150.00 per month on Zen.
One thing would be that logging in to the game and putting an item up on the AH requires a visual recognition code to be entered to prove that you are not a Bot. Same with buying stuff from the AH.
That would be MASSIVELY inconvenient, especially with the number of times I get Server Redirect Errors when changing characters to do Professions three times a day, but surely it's a price we would all pay to bankrupt the Bots and illicit AD farmers?
~
This I agree with. The The zen profession asset pack for example should not be random IMO but in the absence being able to directly purchase the items from it the pseudorandom described earlier is much better than pure random.
I admit to being horribly cynical about the Neverwinter RNG though.
Lockboxes I'm still iffy on, I don't mind so much that these are a gamble.