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Scarabs are only worth a relatively small amount of silvers, a fair amount of people think they belong to the picker, and we have ample evidence that they do little to nothing to drive traffic away from the NPC to players.
JGALT22
THROGG
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/20/2017 07:25 PM CDT
I refuse to use the town smith. (I have actually ended up losing money in the past). If no picker is available in town, I toss the box in the well, rather than use Larton.
OM1E5GA
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/20/2017 10:06 PM CDT
<Scarabs are only worth a relatively small amount of silvers,>
Unless you're hunting at/near cap or some of the richer hunting areas below that, scarabs can easily be worth more then what's in the box. How is that a relatively small amount of silvers?
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
Unless you're hunting at/near cap or some of the richer hunting areas below that, scarabs can easily be worth more then what's in the box. How is that a relatively small amount of silvers?
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
JGALT22
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/21/2017 08:46 AM CDT
>>How is that a relatively small amount of silvers?
I've been getting scarabs about 1/7 boxes and they've been worth around 3,500 giving me 500 silvers extra per box. For customers that may not be aware of how often scarabs appear and who may not accept them anyway, I don't believe they make any impact on the imbalance of this:
Customer considering going to NPC: I know where they are, I know they're available, I know they're essentially instantaneous, I know I won't get blown up, however, it'll cost some silvers.
Customer considering going to player: I probably know where they might be. I don't know if any are awake/available. I know they take considerably more time. I might get blown up. I'll earn some more silver, some of which may go back to the picker and it may be less than if I had spent that time going to the NPC and hunting some more.
I've been getting scarabs about 1/7 boxes and they've been worth around 3,500 giving me 500 silvers extra per box. For customers that may not be aware of how often scarabs appear and who may not accept them anyway, I don't believe they make any impact on the imbalance of this:
Customer considering going to NPC: I know where they are, I know they're available, I know they're essentially instantaneous, I know I won't get blown up, however, it'll cost some silvers.
Customer considering going to player: I probably know where they might be. I don't know if any are awake/available. I know they take considerably more time. I might get blown up. I'll earn some more silver, some of which may go back to the picker and it may be less than if I had spent that time going to the NPC and hunting some more.
TSORAN
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/21/2017 09:14 AM CDT
>>I've been getting scarabs about 1/7 boxes and they've been worth around 3,500
They max out at 5500.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
They max out at 5500.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
KRAKII
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/21/2017 09:43 AM CDT
My point was that the amount of silver coins in the box is routinely less than the amount charged to open it (I typically have very few boxes, one every so often, that have more coins than the fee), so all of the profit-to-player comes from the content--like the "two emerald & one diamond" box a couple of weeks ago--and the convenience & time savings.
Realistically, the only way to make it less attractive is to have it cost more, like "part of the contents".
Realistically, the only way to make it less attractive is to have it cost more, like "part of the contents".
RATHBONER
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/22/2017 05:23 AM CDT
>2) Charge more: base it on the trap as well as the lock. I might be wrong about it being based only on the lock right now, but the bottom line is make it more expense.
It is based on trap and there's a "tithe" on contents in addition to lock. Do some research with relocking and adjusting the contents and you can work out the formula pretty fast.
Its about as expensive as it can be already. There are circumstances where the total charge goes over 100% and where the "tithe" goes over 100% on particular items in boxes. Overhunted areas already get littered with boxes that players don't bother to pick up because they may well end up out of pocket as well as encumbered.
>3) Let the NPC sett off the trap sometimes. The NPCs should be worse than the PCs, not better.
Thats one of the new traps I think there should be. The NPC might just possibly be worse than a player on a new mechanic, but its not going to get worse at an existing one.
>Nerfing the NPC seems like "low hanging fruit".
Its not nerfing the NPC, its nerfing the general player population. Its not going to happen, other than as a side effect of a new mechanic to benefit rogues.
>4) A category of boxes that the NPC just can't open.
Thats one of the new traps I think there should be. The release event would involve lots of nasty things happening to Larton, and then he'd move to just refusing them altogether.
>I still think RT needs to be looked at, but if alternative ways are wanted I think the cocoons were close to being a decent solution. If there were something like that in boxes that could only be recovered by a player picker and that had even a tiny chance to contain something truly valuable like an RPA orb, unique boxfound, or a merchant service certificate, then the demand for player pickers would jump greatly.
Thats adding interest at the customer end, which I also think is needed. New dangers and rewards, boxes have got a bit boring all round.
It is based on trap and there's a "tithe" on contents in addition to lock. Do some research with relocking and adjusting the contents and you can work out the formula pretty fast.
Its about as expensive as it can be already. There are circumstances where the total charge goes over 100% and where the "tithe" goes over 100% on particular items in boxes. Overhunted areas already get littered with boxes that players don't bother to pick up because they may well end up out of pocket as well as encumbered.
>3) Let the NPC sett off the trap sometimes. The NPCs should be worse than the PCs, not better.
Thats one of the new traps I think there should be. The NPC might just possibly be worse than a player on a new mechanic, but its not going to get worse at an existing one.
>Nerfing the NPC seems like "low hanging fruit".
Its not nerfing the NPC, its nerfing the general player population. Its not going to happen, other than as a side effect of a new mechanic to benefit rogues.
>4) A category of boxes that the NPC just can't open.
Thats one of the new traps I think there should be. The release event would involve lots of nasty things happening to Larton, and then he'd move to just refusing them altogether.
>I still think RT needs to be looked at, but if alternative ways are wanted I think the cocoons were close to being a decent solution. If there were something like that in boxes that could only be recovered by a player picker and that had even a tiny chance to contain something truly valuable like an RPA orb, unique boxfound, or a merchant service certificate, then the demand for player pickers would jump greatly.
Thats adding interest at the customer end, which I also think is needed. New dangers and rewards, boxes have got a bit boring all round.
OM1E5GA
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/22/2017 02:06 PM CDT
<Overhunted areas already get littered with boxes that players don't bother to pick up because they may well end up out of pocket as well as encumbered.>
I love taking walks through these hunting areas....
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
I love taking walks through these hunting areas....
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
RATHBONER
Re: I think some wording may need to be changed...
08/29/2017 08:36 AM CDT
>"fix" is something of a misnomer. The pick is degraded by the "fix" in the same way as if it had been broken and repaired, so unless you actually want to make a lower mod pick, you should avoid using this feature of LM.
Here's an example.
R>lm app my lock
You examine the black invar lockpick very closely. It appears to be in excellent condition. It seems to have an advantageous level of precision and has excellent strength. Judging by the tip, the lockpick has been repaired about 5 times. You could probably handle a very difficult lock pretty easily with it.
Roundtime: 4 sec.
You examine the invar lockpick very closely. It appears to be in excellent condition. It seems to have an advantageous level of precision and has excellent strength. Judging by the tip, the lockpick has been repaired about 7 times. You could probably handle a very difficult lock pretty easily with it.
Roundtime: 4 sec.
Picks identically degraded as far as appraise can tell, The one with 5 repairs has been repaired with LM Repair after the first tip bend, the one with 7 has been left till it broke. Thats an awful lot more work out of the pick on the way down to this state if left till broken to be repaired. (I didn't actually intend to degrade it that far but was thinking 5 repairs from good condition would leave it usefully less degraded than 7 repairs from broken.)
Here's an example.
R>lm app my lock
You examine the black invar lockpick very closely. It appears to be in excellent condition. It seems to have an advantageous level of precision and has excellent strength. Judging by the tip, the lockpick has been repaired about 5 times. You could probably handle a very difficult lock pretty easily with it.
Roundtime: 4 sec.
You examine the invar lockpick very closely. It appears to be in excellent condition. It seems to have an advantageous level of precision and has excellent strength. Judging by the tip, the lockpick has been repaired about 7 times. You could probably handle a very difficult lock pretty easily with it.
Roundtime: 4 sec.
Picks identically degraded as far as appraise can tell, The one with 5 repairs has been repaired with LM Repair after the first tip bend, the one with 7 has been left till it broke. Thats an awful lot more work out of the pick on the way down to this state if left till broken to be repaired. (I didn't actually intend to degrade it that far but was thinking 5 repairs from good condition would leave it usefully less degraded than 7 repairs from broken.)
