Economy End game content suggestion: Reverse equipment

From talking to many end game players, and seeing how their gameplay devolved to either market, bossing, or hene hoeing, i realized how stale it is.
So like many before me, I'd like to make a suggestion for end game content that doesn't involve bossing.

Bringing grinding back through introducing of "piece of time" and the crafting of (hopefully nerfed) reverse equipment.

Ok, hear me out before you bring out your pitchforks.
My goal is to open a money stream for end game grinding in ToT from people selling pieces of time, equipments and weapons, and shaking up the game for players that are waiting for something to change.

Reverse equipments:

So lets talk about what these equipments are, and how we could nerf them to a point fair enough to introduce to the game:

Reverse equipments are weapons and armor that are crafted from an ore that drops from some mobs in ToT. They are lvl 120, and are capable of gaining exp when equiped to get slight upgrades to their damage. These items can be only traded before getting equiped, afterwards they become untradeable.
They also have a 10% chance to increase a certain 4th job skill max lvl by one point if you lvl them 3 times (up to a cap).

Considering their stats, and what they are capable of doing, i believe these items are way too strong to simply implement.
So first lets talk about nerfs that would make them more fair:

Weapons:
Simply put, they'd overshadow most end game weapons from their attack alone. I suggest that their attack would match their dragon weapon counterparts, and that the lvling would give the weapons between 0 and 1 weapon att per lvl (instead of 0-2), so these weapons could only get 3 more att at best compared to dragon items.
Considering that in weapons, the skill that is upgraded would be the main damage skill of the class, i believe that they'll need to be very careful with how much will it be able to increase, if at all.

Armor:
Stat-wise, i think they could be left alone for the most part. The skills would have to be looked into separately in each scenario though.

These weapons and armors would have higher stat req, so any advantage they might have on other items in the market is not as big as you'd first guess. Not to mention they are untradeable after use.

Crafting:

Crafting the weapons could be done either through the smith in leafre, or maybe through some npc in ToT. It would require pieces of time (a rare rock that would drop from ToT mobs), normal/power ores, and a large crafting fee.

Why should the devs bother?

Adding reverse items would open up a lot more gameplay for many players. Grinders would be able to make money from farming ore, min-max players would be able to craft or buy high damage weapons and try to perfect them, and players who want to try their luck could buy the low stated item and go for the 10% chance of increasing their skill lvl. Which would be another goal other than chasing the next 1 att upgrade.

These items are not tradeable after use, and crafting them would be a pain in the ass, so i dont think they can damage the value of tradeable weapons.

If you managed to read through this ramble, please tell me what you guys think.

(That includes you too @iSaind f3)

 

I think you are overly nerfing them. Just remove the level up mechanic and let them keep their base stats. 4-5 extra attack isnt game breaking (especially for classes that need more secondary stat).

People still use perfect cravens even though purple sleeve is better.

 

I'm mostly overnerfing them so that it would still be fair to include the leveled up skill system. And to not get pushback from people complaining they are too op. I do agree that if they were 5 att better with nothing else it will be ok. But I want these items to be unique instead of a straight up boring power creep.
Having them only increase 0-1 per lvl might be too harsh now that i think about it, and maybe it will be ok to leave it at 0-2 per lvl

 

I think its a great idea - anything that involves diverse maps in the game and has an actual impact or benefit on endgame stats, is a good idea. Maybe you could even add some low lvl drops such as red dragon skulls or something like that. They are not useful for the game now but this would bring crafting back and also such places as the oldschool maps combined with this high lvl grinding in ToT. (Anyone remembers that back then it was a thing to craft items with drops such as dragon skins or skulls? ^^)

 

I remember the only way to get this was just by killed Pink bean (ToT boss AKA most cute boss ever). Unfortunally Matt already said he doesn't have any plan to implement Pink Bean.. so i guess you can forget about this idea. Also the 10% chance to increase a skill job lvl is a really good idea, however looks for me a little overpower.

 

I remember you said that 1 year ago in a general post o: yeh i didn't check news about it so i'm just wrong about i say /:

I really don't expect this D: i tought never will be perform

 

Pink Bean and these items would definitely bring more people to the server and for sure it would encourage and motivate old players to return.

 

I wrote this post because i was sure there are no plans to implement Pink bean any time soon.
in gms, the reverse set was craftable. So i thought, if there's no boss, at least we can bring the equips through crafting, and encourage grinding in ToT.

 

Introducing piece of time gives hackers another avenue to farm them in ToT mobs. If you make it untradeable, then they'll farm it to create reverse/timeless eq and sell them. Right now the not so end game perf eq can already be hunted in high traffic maps such as ulu2 and petri where hackers least likely do their business at. The dragon end game weapons are crafted, gacha or hunted in HT. The crafting process is just not worth the time and money to many adult players here. ToT maps being an area exclusive to high level players only will not see as much traffic therefore making it harder for people to spot hackers, a hacker's paradise. If you'd like to make the godly system as difficult to achieve as dragon weapon crafting, then this avenue for reverse/timeless eq will also be pointless.

Im just saying these things to think about the possibility of hackers. Im not against the idea nor in support of it. Meh

 

What if both the pieces and the weapons were made untradeable?

 

Possible, but to make up for it, does it have higher stats? What if u spend all that effort to get it and feel like remaking or quitting the char? Item untradeable, no market for it..players might not want to risk wasting their time cuz it gives them back nothing in the long run. Dead end. That's not what the OP intended. Probably a different discussion altogether.

 

I would say yes to higher stats (than the Purple Sleeve). I think that would be the trade off and only the absolute top players would be willing to make such a sacrifice for the absolute best weapon(s). True about it not aligning with the OP's suggestion, but still on the same topic/spectrum of Reverse weapons, only a different method of implementation.

 

The fact that there are hackers shouldn't be the leading factor for game design choices. If it was the case, zakum, or more specifically, golden teeth would never be a thing on this server.
It doesn't matter what you'll do, hackers will find their way to make money out of something. I wouldn't let that discourage us from throwing ideas out there, because if we turn completely defensive and shoot every idea in the foot, then you could say that the hackers won f3

 

This might encourage more multi-target classes to grind and farm at ToT instead of only relying on bosses to level up, which makes single-target classes like NL so dominant and saturated right now.

While it is up for debate, I also feel like the items should be untradable meaning each class must farm for their own weapons instead of relying on mages. Or perhaps tradable but reduced drop rates for mages. By doing so we can encourage grinding parties again that is almost non-existent in royals due to the allure of using a mage to train/farm for every single thing, nothing nostalgic about that..

 

Feel free to discuss it, this is why i made this thread

If it will be completely untradeable, then i think it would be right to lessen the nerf i suggested

 

untradeble pieces of time and reverse weapon sounds like a great idea

 

Thank you yuval for bringing this Ideia.


You exactly said what we discussed in the last weeks and bring it to the Point. Yes I did read everything @Yuyal6161

This would bring classes such as Paladin , Marksman their fullpotential. Everyone who played Marksman in the past knows what im talking about.


As a Old Oblivion 4 Grinder. I support this.

I dont quite remember.I think there is Timeless weapon which doesnt need anything from Pink bean or was it reserve weapon?

Please bring it to mapleroyals

Edit: This is also kind of a solution for people who used to Grind+ Farm stoppers with atleast like 3+ Farm Clients. Because it was very convienient to Buff every 120 SEC when HS runs out and buff also the summon mules.

With this implementation Grinders will finaly have some money to make (Okay besides the NPC and Scrolls that Obv Monsters drops... i get it!) . Atleast it was the case when it came out in GMS

I remember being able to afford 2x Family Buffs on FM just from the massive Farm + Put money aside to get better Gear. This was for me the first time since where as a Attacker you could make money by Grinding.

Of course depending which droprate Royals GM's will put, Prices will go down over the time. I suggest to make it a challenge like the same droprate as GMS back then. From my experience I can tell I got in average 2 pieces each Hour. In a 4 hours 2x EXP card i got in total between 10-15 pieces.

 

This sounds like a good Idea. Hackers won't be able to take advantage once things are made untradeable.

IF this ever gets implemented, can the attack speed of Reverse Alchupiz increase to normal instead of slow? Every other class will benefit from the new set of weapons except Drks as it will be the only (except unused weapons like polearm, BW) weapon that cannot reach the max att speed with full buffs.