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Foundry Rewards Idea: Item Appearance Changes
bardaaron
Member Posts: 545 Bounty Hunter
There has been a lot of talk for a long time about how the rewards need to be improved for the foundry. We have discussed better items dropping, more AD from Rhix, changing the way Rhix assigns AD, getting rid of Rhix completely, Foundry doubloons, skill nodes, and so forth. The point of this thread is not to debate the merit of any of those. It is not meant to necessarily be a "better" or "worse" idea than any of these, just an additional idea that I personally think would be fun: Item Appearance Changes.
The author would get to name the appearance change, and the item's name would change to that new name, and adopt the appearance chosen by the author, but it would not actually change the stats of the item, and would be bound on pickup. It is therefore non-exploitable, and would allow players a way to create named items for their quests and campaigns that players will be able to keep.
Thus, if you want to create a quest centered on the "Gauntlets of Terror" then the players could carry away the "Gauntlets of Terror" and just change their arm item to look like them. Then when someone asks "hey those are some awesome gauntlets! Where did you get them?" They could respond, "In The Quest for the Gauntlets of Terror, by @author!" It would be a great way to advertise our foundry quests and provide unique rewards, while not being exploitable.
The author would get to name the appearance change, and the item's name would change to that new name, and adopt the appearance chosen by the author, but it would not actually change the stats of the item, and would be bound on pickup. It is therefore non-exploitable, and would allow players a way to create named items for their quests and campaigns that players will be able to keep.
Thus, if you want to create a quest centered on the "Gauntlets of Terror" then the players could carry away the "Gauntlets of Terror" and just change their arm item to look like them. Then when someone asks "hey those are some awesome gauntlets! Where did you get them?" They could respond, "In The Quest for the Gauntlets of Terror, by @author!" It would be a great way to advertise our foundry quests and provide unique rewards, while not being exploitable.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by bardaaron on
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The biggest drawback is it would require a new UI to support authors picking/coloring existing costume pieces.
The other drawback is -- existing costume pieces.
If they could "add" all the existing armors AND create an appearance customization UI, that would be awesome.
But, so far, they can't even correct spelling errors and/or fill in missing asset dimensions.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
basically nothing gamebreaking or exploitable really. If its only a chance you can't farm it. Also make it so the foundry has to be eligable for the daily foundry quest to be able to even have this chance for the end chest, therefore quick "in and out" foundries would be ineligable.
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1) Give authors a way of having some small control over loot,
2) Be absolutely non-exploitable, and non-farmable (since they are bound, multiples are useless, and you can't sell them).
3) Encourage authors to use existing features (quest items)
One, doesn't transmutation only work on same class items? So if the "gauntlets of terror" are GF based, and I have a HR, I'm not gonna be happy with my end-prize. The final treasure chest would have to be class specific - like the ones in normal dungeons - and you'd have to make a prize for every class to make it worthwhile for every player.
Two, rewards have to be consistent between the foundaries or players would complain. If they get special appearance change items from one foundry author, but another only ever chooses to give them "random" final treasure chests, then they'd probably complain about that author not giving away "good" prizes. But for every foundry to offer a new look would kind of flood the market.
So, I think it would be lots of fun, but I don't see it as doable.
Not necessarily. If the item could be a purely cosmetic, classless thing, it should be possible to use it for transmutation regardless of class. As the item would be purely cosmetic, it also shouldn't be viewed as giving a "good" prize compared to a piece of random gear.
You bring up class-based items. For one thing, some things like rings and necklaces are not class exclusive. These appearance changes could be equally valuable to all classes, no problem. Also, since the appearance change I had in mind is pretty much only changing the look and name of the item, nothing else, I don't see why it couldn't be made to apply to an item SLOT rather than an item CLASS. The "Gauntlets of Terror" would therefor be an "Arm Slot" transmute rather than a "gauntlet" transmute. "The Cowl of Meriah" might apply to any "head" slot, not just to Control Wizards.
I would actually really like it if we could use this to give the appearance of using some different kinds of weapon. Like maybe a transmute that makes it look like you are using a sword instead of an axe, or like a wizard is holding a staff instead of an orb. Some of these would be easier than others, and it would still be limited, as major changes would affect animation. (Can't give a GF a spear, since you can't slash with a spear, so the animations wouldn't look right, but a warhammer or a battleaxe could use a very similar animation; & giving a wizard a staff might not change much, except the grip on one hand)
As to the second concern, about some authors offering appearance changes and others not, I would suggest a "random/custom" toggle. If the quest does not include a significant item that the author feels like featuring, then it would default to random.
Transmute item appearances would be easy to fix. Just don't have the Helm of Awesome Looks in the foundry. There are very few item appearances specific to high level dungeon. As for the dyes, the first solution would pretty much deal with that too. Sure you could run a 15 minute foundry to get some predyed items, but fashion, rare event transmutes, etc you'd still need to buy dyes for. I'd say most dyes I use are on fashion slot items, and unless they put those in the foundry that still wouldn't change.
They already have non class specific items for every slot except weapons and offhands afaik. It wouldn't be hard to just let me make an item for each class for some things. For example, in one of my quests, I might create a Cult of the Eye Tyrant longsword and make that the item drop for Guardian Fighters in a quest about the Cult of the Eye Tyrant, but a Cult of the Eye Tyrant orb for Control Wizards, Cult of the Eye Tyrant Greatsword for GWFs, Cult of the Eye Tyrant pact blade for warlocks, etc. As for flooding the market, the suggestion was for them to be bound, so they wouldn't be on the market at all.
For complaints about the prize being better in one quest over another, that really isn't any different than other parts of the foundry. The more effort you put into designing it, the more people will like it.
When I said that it would be a lot of new looks flooding the market, I didn't mean the actual market (as in, selling them to others.) More along the lines of, right now there's only so many looks for any given item or class, right? And part of what attracts people to in-game events and certain dungeons is getting unique items/item looks. (Like the sunite items at the summer festival) So, if all foundry quests could give unique item looks, then you would go from x number to double that amount in a short time period. That's what I meant by "flooding the market". Because suddenly there would be all these unique looking items, and while - as players we wouldn't mind that at all, I can see that being an issue with the company running the game who want players to rely on them for unique looks/items. I'm not sure that explanation came out any better.
To keep it fresh, there would have to be a limit to the number available. Maybe foundry authors could only have a certain number of items appearance change "slots" with which to play around in? Sort of like how you only are allowed two characters when you start playing, and you only have four companions at first?
Unfortunately this part will never happen. The problem is the model animators have to create animations for all the different weapon attacks. If you gave a cleric a mace it would simply hold it out in front of them as though it were a symbol anyway. Same with a staff and a wizard -- you'd see a staff being whipped around like an orb.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
I would settle for being able to swap out the Orb for a spellbook, or maybe a floating rune symbol. I wouldn't mind having one of those revolving around me instead of an orb...
You mean like this Tome of Control:
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
(Also, I want one in-game...)
I just bought one for 15,000AD on AH.
They seem to be going for about 25,000 mostly.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Oh I can easily afford that. Awesome!