Upgrade and switch item traits

ghost_pepper

I'm sure players have been requesting the ability to alter and switch item traits since forever. How else can we more easily acquire chase weapons and armor? Here's a sketched out idea to implement this.

Make a new building. This handles the interface requirements. The building allows for progression as different aspects of item upgrade can be unlocked sequentially. If there is no new building, make an entirely new "section" of the Workshop.

Make a new token. Like rerolls and upgrade tokens, this new token is specific to item trait adjustment. Trait tokens can appear in Distance, guild chests, seasons rewards, challenge rewards, anywhere else, and of course for cash purchase in shop packs.

Monetize through Trait token rarity, demand, and amount needed for the trait adjustment mechanisms.

Several ideas for new trait adjustment mechanics.


1.  Trait upgrade

One trait gets upgraded one level. A silver trait on a blue item gets upgraded into a gold trait turning it into a gold item.


2. Trait swap

One trait of one level switches with another trait of another level. On a gold item, switch the silver trait and a selected gold trait.


3.  Trait switch

Switch a trait of one type and level for another trait of the same level. On a gold item, switch the silver trait for a different silver trait. Or, switch a gold trait for a different trait.


Trait selection should *NOT* be randomized. Do not turn this into a slot machine! That will turn players away. Let the token cost for the functions scale upwards for trait rarities. 

If trait swap between brown and silver level traits costs 20 Trait tokens then trait swap between silver and gold traits costs 30. If trait replacement costs 30 Trait tokens on a silver item then make it cost 40 tokens on a gold item. 

There are probably other ways to modify items. I'd like to hear what more players think.

ghost_pepper

Trait upgrade


Trait swap


Trait switch

PigBenis

If players are going to purchase the tokens in the shop, then they are most likely just going to purchase the armor or weapon they need with the desired traits instead of taking the time to deal with altering traits. 

This idea has been discussed many times before and the general consensus is that it will never happen because they get a lot of money from weapon bundles apparently and this would deeply cut into that. 

If it did happen, I would propose that supplies or trade goods are used to reroll traits (no swapping, only rerolling as I believe this would be simpler to implement into the game). There doesn't need to be another token or currency in my opinion to make this idea feasible. 

An alternate idea would be to have the community vote on a weekly basis in game what gear they would like to see made available for a certain class and then the following week, release the items in the Trade Shop (to be purchaed with trade goods) along with a weekly class bonus. There are so many events and so much potential for this game and in my opinion the developers are squandering it trying to make a failed game mode (GW) work. 

ghost_pepper

I will not buy items for $ that i could theoretically pick up through in game play. Never going to happen. I will only ever buy the unique special items and that's more to put a few dollars towards the developers in support of a game i play. So right there we have a different approach to spending and value.

Blue items are almost totally worthless. With this development, blue items would actually have value if only one trait needed a bump. Gold items with 2 good traits and one stinker could become far more desirable.

This doesn't have to cut into weapon bundle sales if properly implemented. No, not at all. Instead,it could enhance item sales. Turning the game away from an xp/supplies grind that gets to a slot machine grind and moving it more towards an actual RPG with actual development goals is not a bad thing. It makes it more of a... game.

And as for TG, average and developing players do not have enough trade goods to purchase more than gas and basic x4 token bundles in the TG shop. I'm sure NG has the data on TG shop purchases for the weekly reroll and upgrade token bundles for TG. It takes quite a few weekly stars before you can begin affording those too. And making the slot machine pulls on randomized items... Even more. Unless you are grinding Outpost (and most of us don't) having an over abundance of TG is a rarity. Imo, not a good choice of currency for trait manipulation.

The currency value for Trait tokens could be increadibly high. And if they are as usefull as I'm suggesting they could be, then NG has created a long term goal which keeps people playing and is so valuable it helps spenders spend more.

If existing heros keep getting LT makeovers and new viable competitive strategies allow for more hero use in more situations, players will want more variety in their expanding gear stockpile. This would supplement that system and create another avenue for spenders to get situationally stronger without creating unrealistic to maintain powercreep.

It's actually a really good idea, how it fits in with some of the existing moves i see NG making. This isn't a do-it-tomorrow idea. This is a build-it-into-next-year idea.

IcePeter

I don’t see them letting us build unicorn items without chance involved. The business model for the game is for making everything chance-based.

brucewayne007

Love the idea. 

I really do! 

Just not sure they would do it. 

Firekid

Well thought out and love the idea, only thing I would say is... once you’ve got 1 or two unicorn pieces of gear for each class, then what? Getting tokens you never need? Also it wouldn’t really make NG much money as those who spend are going to buy the premium weapons anyway. Those who don’t aren’t, they will just save up and get their perfect gear for free. 

Also it takes away that excitement of getting an amazing piece of gear from a crate. Something I do actually miss since I’ve started buying gear. Oh look at this sweet knife. Oh it’s like daryls knife but worse. Ah an amazing pistol, why would I use that when I have bow. 

Maybe they could just decrease the odds of getting rubbish traits on weapons that don’t fit so that the joy of finding something good happens more often than the frustration of finding something crap. 

ghost_pepper

I was thinking these Trait tokens would be much more rare than Reroll or Upgrade tokens.

Maybe you only get a single Trait token in Distance. Maybe you only get a single Trait token in TG shop once a week. Or maybe you get a single Trait token as a gift very early in the challenge stars rewards. That's it. Nothing more. Then you have to save up 25 or 30 of these weekly tokens before being able to do the trait modification. 

2 pieces of premium item a year, if that. That's not unbalanced. Extremely long term goals like this keep players playing (especially the more casual ones). This helps convert non-spenders into spenders and modest spenders into more moderate spenders by expanding upon the opportunity to do so. This expands the diversity of possible bundled offerings. There really is no down side to this.

There comes a point with nearly every business model that you have to expand or die. All i see is bitching about gw, boredom over same same same, and very little real new content beyond these seasons missions. Any new content in any form should come with a method to expand upon the existing monetization model and make it newer and fresher. The existing one feels increasingly stale and, if another walking dead game comes along that isn't strictly a slot machine, i will probably jump ship. I love games and puzzles not slot machines.