03-27-2012, 01:40 PM
The changes are planned to achieve the following things:
1) Ensure that top end AR is not overpoweringly good or expensive, the reason for this is that having a high-cost way of buying a big advantage in PvP tends to be a bad idea, c.f. HFs, SoVs and so on from IN1. Furthermore, the going rate for exceptional sapphire appears to be about 800k: this is quite simply too high.
2) Redistribute the range of ARs such that there are less duplicated/1-AR-difference armours.
3) Improve the economics of wearing mid to high level armour for PvP and PvM, this means bringing the prices down and increasing turnover in the economy.
To achieve this we are looking at some or all of the following measures. Although I cannot stress this enough: Discussions are still ongoing on the staff forum and we promise nothing specific at this stage.
a) Removal of some of the less popular/aesthetic ore types such that a better distribution of ARs can be achieved and better drop rates on remaining ores should increase their presence in the market.
b) Reduction of AR on top end gear but a proportional increase on their drop rates, the top gear will still have a reasonable amount of additional AR and will still comparatively rare, but the distribution will be more logical and the drop rate will aim to produce a price that is a little more realistic on the top AR types.
c) We have already cut the amount of AR from exceptional to 4, we may also improve the chance for exceptional crafting, this is such that less ingots are "wasted" by failing to get the (extremely significant) 8AR bonus we used to have.
d) Low end armour will inevitably see less use among experienced or wealthy players, but it is that way on every server I've ever played and that is OK. It is better than having prohibitively rare and expensive mid and high range AR. To give low AR colours a use we may introduce a crafting system more like IN1/default sphere whereby you can craft plate out of low end ingots at a much lower skill and with much better success rate making them the staple training/cheap and accessible option for new and low skilled players.
As usual I ask that players try to look beyond their own business/personal interests and see the problems the staff are trying to solve:
- Low use of armour in PvP and even in hunting
- Ridiculous prices on suits of exceptional high end AR
- Uneven distribution of AR in the current system
- PvP and other types of damage are balanced around either average-AR (say 40) or invul (53) keeping top gear at AR around 68 is likely to cause problems when/if those armours see common use in hunting, duels or tournaments.
1) Ensure that top end AR is not overpoweringly good or expensive, the reason for this is that having a high-cost way of buying a big advantage in PvP tends to be a bad idea, c.f. HFs, SoVs and so on from IN1. Furthermore, the going rate for exceptional sapphire appears to be about 800k: this is quite simply too high.
2) Redistribute the range of ARs such that there are less duplicated/1-AR-difference armours.
3) Improve the economics of wearing mid to high level armour for PvP and PvM, this means bringing the prices down and increasing turnover in the economy.
To achieve this we are looking at some or all of the following measures. Although I cannot stress this enough: Discussions are still ongoing on the staff forum and we promise nothing specific at this stage.
a) Removal of some of the less popular/aesthetic ore types such that a better distribution of ARs can be achieved and better drop rates on remaining ores should increase their presence in the market.
b) Reduction of AR on top end gear but a proportional increase on their drop rates, the top gear will still have a reasonable amount of additional AR and will still comparatively rare, but the distribution will be more logical and the drop rate will aim to produce a price that is a little more realistic on the top AR types.
c) We have already cut the amount of AR from exceptional to 4, we may also improve the chance for exceptional crafting, this is such that less ingots are "wasted" by failing to get the (extremely significant) 8AR bonus we used to have.
d) Low end armour will inevitably see less use among experienced or wealthy players, but it is that way on every server I've ever played and that is OK. It is better than having prohibitively rare and expensive mid and high range AR. To give low AR colours a use we may introduce a crafting system more like IN1/default sphere whereby you can craft plate out of low end ingots at a much lower skill and with much better success rate making them the staple training/cheap and accessible option for new and low skilled players.
As usual I ask that players try to look beyond their own business/personal interests and see the problems the staff are trying to solve:
- Low use of armour in PvP and even in hunting
- Ridiculous prices on suits of exceptional high end AR
- Uneven distribution of AR in the current system
- PvP and other types of damage are balanced around either average-AR (say 40) or invul (53) keeping top gear at AR around 68 is likely to cause problems when/if those armours see common use in hunting, duels or tournaments.