Partially Used: Custom Item Voucher Merchant

Hi, all!

Y'know what I would love to see - a custom item voucher merchant! I know, they're supposed to be really, really special, but you can only spend your loot on so many pairs of dragon slippers. As far as cost goes, this could be cranked waaaay up if deemed necessary, to maintain balance. I mostly make this suggestion because I just got Jane's 120k reward voucher, and the next big one is some 64 hours away ... and the fact that I play literally minutes at a time, 64 hours worth will be a long, long time coming.

Any thoughts?

As awesome as this would be I think it may lead to too many (more) over-powered characters. Granted, who doesn't enjoy being immune to everything and having an AC of 85? But the stronger you become the more it takes away from the realism of the game.

Gold also isn't a very scarce resource, so it wouldn't be hard for everyone to be decked out in 160k items. (btw, is there a limit to how many vouchers can be put into a single item? IE: 220k max or something like that?)

If does decide to implement something like this, though, My hope is it will be something ridiculous like 800-1000k for a 20k voucher or something along those lines. Not sure what sort of gold reserves anyone else's characters are at, but at level 28, Sevenar has amassed about 400k and (from what i've encountered) the best items buyable in Aenea with maybe an hour of collecting things to sell instead of sacrificing them.

Overall I don't think something like this would be a good idea, however perhaps more opportunities to earn, rather than buy, vouchers would be a nice reward to dedicated players. I've heard rumor of them being given as prizes for good roleplay or from events or something along those lines and I think that is a much more reasonable option.

If there was a way to check the creation date on a character file as well as timeplayed hours, perhaps the reward chests could trigger in the conjunction for characters who meet a certain ratio.

Such as 64 hours played.... but over the course of 6 months, spawn a voucher chest. If a PC has 64 hours but over the course of a shorter timespan, then they wouldn't get the chest.

I don't think that would be fair because the people who got to 64 hours in a month put just as much time and effort into that character as the people who did it over 6 months. Perhaps there could be a second timer on voucher chests based on the time the character file was created?

IE: You would still get the 1, 2, 4, 8, etc. chests but there would be a second set of chests at 1 month since creation, 2 months, 4 months, etc. or however long a reasonable time span would be?

Perhaps, the custom item merchant could only sell vouchers for items up to a certain value, and they could not be used to upgrade existing items.

I can see this being a really cool feature, allowing for on-the-fly customization (for example, a uniform of sorts for a militia could be made quickly by all the members just by purchasing a 20k voucher.)

The way the system works now, is pretty fair.

That being said, I can totally see Eric's frustration, and agree with it.

The chests are a way to reward players who stuck with Aenea (even if they have limited playtime).

I think it might be workable to have the chests spawn based on two variables... age of the character OR timeplayed, whichever qualifies first...

So... if you can only play for 10-15 minutes at a time...so you only have like 6 or 7 hours played over the course of a month, maybe at the one month mark, the 8 hour chest could be spawned for you.

At that point, you would need to either play enough to reach 16 total hours played (which is more than 8 hours away because you got the 8 hour chest at only 6 or 7 hours played), OR when your character becomes 2 months old.

One caveat I think would be good to put in would be a requirement that you must have logged enough hours to have qualified for your previous chest before your character's age will qualify you for the next one. This would be to avoid a character that has only been played for 6 hours getting the 256 hour chest because the character is 6 months old (because the player hasnt spent much of any time playing it).

Just my 2 cents.

that was the same conclusion i had as i began reading your post davey. or perhaps they have to have played X amount of time over the last month to receive a chest or something along those lines, i think i like your idea of qualifying for the previous chest more

I like this discussion! Woo hoo! The flow of ideas! Seriously, though, I am designing Jane's 120k item now (what is it, the 64 hour chest), but am also thinking designing the gear from her 128 hour chest. I have a twinge of longing, that's all ...

I think its it's a good idea... if just to get some custom appearances for items and descriptions from a 20k voucher, purchasable at a price 4 or 5 times higher... ... also some more DM overlooked stuff would help.. just random spawn drop an almost incridible ammount of monsters on a PC and see how it goes... ... some of my best Aenean memories are from noticing an "exploding Gorgon" out the corner of my eye.. a very memorable demi-lich filled crypt, and an almost impossible 4 strong group of draco-liches and undead horde atop the burial mound... ... whilst the items rewarded where valuble and rare.. a 20k voucher would have been nice... ... I'd even have preferred a 20k voucher over the Dragon Scale Talon Trophy... ... ..

However each new xxK item adds a new item to the game.. does this take up game resources??...

Here's another related idea... why not have a merchant that sells all the custom items people have designed.. ..for riducolous ammounts of cash... I'd love to actually see whats on Crideas' Rod of Translocation, or Angie's Armour, or a thousand other custom names that pop-up in the combat log.... ..... ..... ....

I wouldn't want people able to buy other people's custom items, because that kills uniqueness. A museum, perhaps, where replicas of famous custom items are put on display, but there should not be more than one Derfel's Ward running around the world. (Unless Derfel makes another shield, in which case it would probably be the Beuttlerian Bulwark.)

Another thing I was thinking ... I don't know about y'all, but one issue I've encountered with some of my custom items ... I didn't necessarily give their composition the thought I should have, and in an effort to utilize every last gp of value, I added properties willy-nilly. Now, having used the items, I realize that 1) I don't use certain properties much, if at all, 2) said properties are interrupting the flow of the piece that I was trying to achieve [a conflict with the 'theme,' if you will], and 3) rushed descriptions have, upon reflection, not exactly achieved what I wanted to with the theme.

This is one of the big rectifications that I think a voucher merchant will help with - a fine tuning process, if you will. Even if the vouchers are only 10k additions to existing custom items, that would allow me [and folks like me] to correct the perceived imperfections in our PC's custom items.

What think you?

I think both are actually a great ideas! (As ya can see in my sig I have way to much time on my hands, lol) I know Rayven's Blade of Nightkind could use a tweak or two. Especially as he gains levels. Don't get me wrong, I love the thing, and it's still my go to steel, but it could use a few tweaks.

Hehe, the same with my first custom items. Alastair's vest and cape... I look at their properties now and I wonder what the heck I was thinking. hell, I even somehow managed to put spell focus illusion on two different items O_o

Exactly! Wouldn't it be swell to be able to amend those items?

Indeed it would be quite swell, lol.

Hint: it might pay off to send Amethyst Dragon a private message about such issues, and also a small bri... erm, donation :-D

I would gladly offer such a donation, if I could, but right now it's unfortunately just not possible.

What, daveyeisley, you don't think is watching our posts, monitoring everything like Big Brother (but waaaaay cooler)? I must say, though, I can see the benefits of a ... what did you say, bride? Methinks he already has one of those, and I'm partial to the one I have, so ...

The Dragon watches. He just doesn't always comment on every thread right away. Donations don't get you anything substantial in-game, since I don't want to play favorites like that.

Oh, I know. I didn't mean to imply that you *did* play favorites, I was just making a joke... which unfortunately flopped

The private message suggestion was in all seriousness, though.

daveyeisley's joke flopping? Isn't that fodder for another thread?

Bump!

I have run into several people in my short time here that wishes they could redo their custom item. Not add to it, or make it more powerful, more like tweak it to make it better fit them, Aenea, and their play style. I think a method for doing just that should strongly be considered...

Good idea.

Best way to handle it is in private communication with . He may well approve certain alterations, and then you can re-submit your items for his approval to get the updated version, sort of similar to how you would "upgrade" a custom item by adding the value of a new voucher to it.

For those that like the idea, I am putting a "custom item redesign" voucher into the game with the next reset. You'll just talk to Talissa Moonweaver (the owner of the Sleeping Dragon) and you can buy one.