Hello! My name is Eric.
You might also know me as that annoying guy talking in all chat called Huntermann.
Today I went over an "issue", if we can call it that, with Moh. It was about the way we open the sockets in the game.
The situation at the moment is the following; you farm for hours hundreds and hundreds of mets, to then spend hours and hours placing the mets one by one for a minimal chance of an item opening a socket.
After trying for myself, since there was no other option but to do so, and failing after wasting 600 mets, I began asking people. I've gone over it with several players, some stating that they've more than once gone past the 3.000 met mark without luck.
I complained in chat, ironically, on how stupid this mechanic of the game is. And then Moh quickly jumped in to defend his position in the matter. After some minutes of politely arguing about the topic, we came to the conclusion that the best idea would be to post a formal suggestion here. And so after this introduction, here we go:
Why is the system like this now?
- It's the way Conquer 1.0 was
- It's hard, it's random. A game of chance.
- Makes the high met drop rate have a purpose.
We all agree; hard, slow and random is good. What's missing, then?
Enjoyment; feeling like you're being rewarded for a task you're spending so much time and effort on doing.
- Some people farm the mets, collect the money and then buy the item with a socket they were looking for.
- Some people like to earn things their own way, not going the easy way, which would be buy the items.
But there's an issue for both ways here: barely anyone is willing to sell a socket item. It means potentially wasating money since you're going to sell it under the price all those mets were worth. Some don't sell them because it was SO frustrating to get, you never know when you'll need it. On the other side, players who like to go "single player" and earn things their way are not being rewarded with a fun and fruitful experience.
What do we do then... do we change the system? No. Simply add another path for people to take. Chained to the same ideas as the current one; a hard fought, random and potentially more expensive path.
My suggestion? A simple quest.
This is of course a quick idea I had while trying to find a solution for this issue. There's dozens of possibilities for a change, of course you guys have more experience with this and would clearly end up with a better and refined plan. This is just an example of how it could go:
First, an item with a socket is around 100M or 100kk. Why? Because it's more or less the amount of money they put in to have the socket.
So for the quest to be serious, and not make the market drop, You should pay a fee to get in. I would say pay in mets. Because the high met drop rate should have a purpose, and mets should always be relevant in the game.
For example; the NPC tells you, you have to give him 100 met scrolls (1.000 mets, 100kk worth of gold). This way you keep mets relevant. People still have to go out there and farm for those.
Second; we, players, like it slow and hard fought. Take us into a map (like the mine or jail map, for example), make us kill whatever many monsters you like (balanced, between the amount of time it takes you to open a sock the regular way). Make them tanky, so Archers can't kill 40 in one scatter. That makes Trojans and Wars more relevant in the "single player" type of game.
With a balanced and decent low probability, a tiny pearl or stone drops from the monsters you kill. (Did you get it after the second mosnter? wow so lucky. Did you spend an hour killing monsters and still haven't gotten any? Too bad, it's random, it's hard. Keep trying)
This "stone" or item you get is tradeable. Just like Moon Boxes and Celestian Stones are. Why? Because if you're one of those players who doesn't like doing the quests, you like buying directly, you can purchase it and get the socket. You have the option of purchasing this or the item itself. If you want a necklace but noone is selling them, someone might be selling that and you can make the necklace yourself.
Third; If we didnt have enough gambling, the stone itself doesn't have the 100% chance of opening a socket. Maybe a 70%, even a 50 (although too low of a chance would make the price drop).
The numbers can change, the whole idea could be different. I just hope you get the point.
Of course keep the main system aswell, maybe some players prefer to sit and try luck with their mets. It could potentially be cheaper, but give the other players a nice experience.
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Something along those lines solves a couple of major issues.
1. The current system is boring, it kills the experience and the motion of the game.
2. Makes your current set useless. All your effort to be able to farm quicker and more efficient are thrown out the window because the easiest way of getting a socket is upgrading low level normal items.
We all like Conquer 1.0 for basically the same reasons. It was hard to build up, sometimes frustrating, unfair.
What I heard most is "we have it like this because it's how Co1.0 was". But I don't remember having 40 mets in 20 minutes in the original Conquer 1.0, do you?
There's ways to keep the essence of the game intact. The randomness, the hard fought victories and rewards. We could have the good things Conquer 1.0 had, together with changing the bad things it had, for the best for us players. To make it more enjoyable. To keep us in the seat playing and jumping around.
Not only sitting, for hours, wasting our time sliding mets into Oblivion.
Thanks for your time :)
