So it's me - back again, with another of these balance topics. Pull up a chair and join in! So, we know the devs are currently experimenting with stores (looks like regular stores are back to daily reset with next build - post 1.22) - and I recall Jon asking how we'd feel about treasure as reward from pvp (or at least a chance of it dropping at all, which doesn't seem to happen atm). What purpose does the stores have, what would we as players like the store to do for us - and what do we want to do with our gold? Hoard it for a chance at a rare/epic/legendary item after like x months, or spend it as we go? I've often championed the cause of daily reset stores (with guaranteed loot for all slots), as I really like logging on checking out what's popped up. I've felt like I've been missing this with the weekly resets - and before that the 100 item daily stores was a bit, crowded. There's been several suggestions of how this could be handled in the Game difficulty thread, and one I'm personally fond of is the 1 "guaranteed 17" (of common value) and maybe as many random items (of any rarity denomination). This suggestion is based around the assumption that BM wants us to actually use the store, rather than to actually only fall back to it as a last resort. The rare weekly store recently introduced could do with maybe double it's current (as per 1.22) item stock - and would mostly cater to higher level players wanting to collect or beef up some holes in their strategies. Also, recieving more treasure items as guaranteed part of missions would make the store something you went to check out actual upgrades rather than as a desperate attempt of beating adventures. Then again, this is part of the assumption that we should use the store in that manner. I would suggest adding guaranteed treasure as part of Premium adventures - as the epics items there can clash with your build (or you might have better), thus meaning some of the loot would actually feel like a let-down. Additonal high value treasure would actually benfit you - as you could use that money on something needed. The same goes for pvp - having part of the loot be treasure would make people use the store more. Is this a good thing? Is this something we'd want the game to do? It'd certainly fit with my playstyle - which is enjoying getting nice random drops and some purchaseable upgrades (random is random after all, meaning less chance of getting something you need). What other uses for gold could you imagine? Before getting into beta I suggested using gold/treasure as part of upgrading the Keep or your donkey, but that's not realistic as it looks atm.
So far I've pretty much used my gold soon after getting it. If I saw something in the shop that was clearly better than what I had and the price was 25g or below, I bought it. Sometimes I went there specifically to hunt for a better helmet/skill/staff/etc. if I didn't like what I currently had. I didn't see much point in saving up for an expensive item as there were always better stuff coming up as the heroes went up levels. But most of my equipment has still come from the random loot and I've liked it that way. It may be different when I venture into PvP and will need to optimize the decks more but in PvE I like having to plan around what I've happened to get. Getting too much of the loot as treasure would run somewhat counter to that. Although I have to admit that the farther I've gotten, the harder it has been to pick what to sell. So treasure does cause less headaches on that front
Before the free pizza method was revealed, I used to grind out treasure / loot until I had enough to buy a chest worth of gear. Rinse / Repeat. I will do the same thing once the game goes live after using my initial investment of pizza, I think. The constant headache of "do I keep this unusable item for later or sell it now" was an interesting problem, though!
I have to say i strongly support the treasure in premium suggestion as i only used a single one of the premium adventure items ever.
I've definitely used those treasure hunt items. Penetrating attacks from Woodhome (at one clear talent): very useful. Resistant Hide from Geomancers: heck yes. Cards and items have changed by now, but so do character builds. Anyway, other things: For the "guaranteed 17 Common" idea, I'd say "no" to guaranteeing that they are Common. Personally, all I'd need is code that parallels the current quest code: instead of guaranteed rarity at any slot (for quests), having guaranteed slots at any rarity (for stores). I can only see it being to the player's benefit to allow higher-rarity things into the mix: though you might not have intended to spend more than 5 gold in the shop today, once you see that the game has such awesome card suites at 25 or 100 you might appreciate that they exist. Also, I imagine there won't be much need for higher stock in the super-awesome-rare store. Don't forget that the general game map will stretch further and have more locations. Unlock another store, and another, and . . .
Woodhome's Wound is a great example of how good some of those premium item's can be, good point. Still that doesn't negate the fact that all items are not for everyone and that having treasure as a part of a guaranteed duality (one epic and one random treasure item) apart from any other loot could even more premium sales in. Myself I'd buy it for the experience and the xp, but I'm not Joe Everycustomer Also, while I agree with your point about higher stocks in the rare shop - it currently stocks for all levels and "rare+ rarities", meaning there likely won't be any other rare stores in the game, and I even feel that having to many general stores will turn into an annoyance as the game goes on. I really think having one single store is still a better general solution, just having different buttons for different stocks or something would feel more elegant - and not having to run around the map unecessarily.
I may not be reading how item level's work correctly but doesn't the level range of the store guarantee that the majority will be usable if you are in the middle of that range? If that's true couldn't one split the stores hundred item capacity into items from the 17 slots roughly evenly & just let it randomly populate still? The amount per slot could be randomised inside a min-max range to make it feel like the entire stock is still random if desired ( although I have no idea if that's easy or not) If there are concerns about the rarity of items all turning up too high for a starter character to afford anything would it also be possible to have stores stock from common up to rare, & then have a "backroom" tab with a smaller selection of the highest rarities? Kind of like rolling the regular stores & current rare store together.
A lottery of sorts would be cool. Maybe gamble a certain amount of gold for a chance at cards or something? I'm not sure how it works currently in terms of gaining cards/characters/tools/etc.. But that seems to be a popular idea amongst a lot of games these days.
18 gold gets you 2 random rarity items in a 9 level range currently if that is what you are talking about.
Speaking of woodhome's wound, I found one of these lying about after an adventure. Probably a low drop, but it does drop outside that dungeon.
It does yes, BM has stated all drops are "free" drops - Premiums are only the ones that can guarantee anything beforehand.
Common Store I'm basically here as well. I love logging in to see what's new in the store. The store itself has been my primary source of gear targeted at specific adventures. An example was my inability to really get anywhere against mobile casters. I specifically searched the store for Smoke Bomb, Resistant Hide, and Missile Block gear. Once I outfitted my team with some of these items I was able to deal with those pesky encounters. Rarities Store For the rarities store it is a bit tricky. I like faster refresh times with fewer items for the rare items. But this does not allow someone to try to save up for an item in the store itself. Over time the "wow what's new!" factor may wane. If that factor does diminish, longer refresh times may be more useful by allowing a player to try to scramble for the remaining gold needed for an item. I'm not sure about refresh timers long term, but currently I'd lean toward faster refresh with fewer items. Common Store Randomness Perhaps my main beef with current system is the variety (or lack of variety) of items in the common store. Side note - I have not seen any duplicate items in the rare store at this point. A number of my visits to the common store often leaves an entire category empty or with a single item. Since there are no rares showing up in the common store I don't have an issue with having at least 2 unique items in each category. I'd also like to see a limit on the number of duplicates. I can understand 3 or so duplicates of an item, but often there are 5 or more duplicates (seen up to 11, I believe Pengw1n has seen even greater duplicates). By having more variety in the common store I'll be more likely to use my gold to buy cards for specific adventures or trying different deck builds (before spending a load of gold on rares from the rare store). I'll still hunt for cards "in the field", as there are rares or better to be had out there.
I'm fine with a duping of 1-3x, but I would prefer if it didn't go higher than that. Currently certain item seem even likelier to turn up than others, which I bug reported, making daily clusters of these items. A dupe check that "rerolls" picks that gets above a certain number would be nice - or having it be a process of populating items with a set "amount" in every category (with a max duping number), then again, I'm a fan of there being guaranteed stock for every item category.
I'm in favor of rare stores restocking less often with a longer life span with a generous loot list. This will give you the time you need to gather up the money to buy the item you spot within that few day timespan and let the rare stuff cycle less often. This will also keep people like myself who play metric tons to buy out a daily store rotation because of sitting on a ton of gold. Should help slow high level play progress based on tme and people with less time can spend more time picking an choosing their best options.
