Game Design The Value Of Equipment. Identifier/blacksmith

Introduction!

Before I get into this topic, I want to note that there was great efforts gone into preventing inflation, and I think that's been extremely helpful for the game. What I'm about to suggest goes against this all, and increases inflation, but I still believe that it hurts Wynncraft more to not have this feature, than it does having it.

So what exactly do I mean with this thread?

It's not explained well in the title, because I wasn't sure how exactly to word it. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that previously, you were able to make a small profit from identifying your Rares, Legendaries, and whatever else, and then selling them to the Blacksmith. This is no longer possible. Well, it's possible, but it very rarely happens, only when RNG works in your favor. The goal of this update was to eliminate a lot of RNG with crafted items, but this complete contradicts that, and creates even more RNG in another area that, honestly, didn't need changing.

Introduction to why this is a problem, and hurting Wynncraft

So, I loot run a lot, and I open thousands of chests each day usually. In about 2-3 hours at most, I have an entire bank page full of Unidentified Legendaries. I know this isn't the case for everyone, but bare with me. On top of the pages of Legendaries I have, I also have about 3-4 pages of late game Ingredients that I have a hard time selling. I have about 3-4 pages, only containing the materials that I obtained from mining 1-91, a lot of which was with double profession xp.

Currently I have one playable character of each class, that has a clear inventory, and I'm Hero rank. One of my characters is full of early-mid-late game items that I just use as I level my classes up. Another is quest items, another dungeon keys (there's lots of them) Another is full of my end game helmets for builds, another boots, another pants, another chestplates, and I have a character for weapons. I have dungeon fragments and items on another character. You get the point by now.

Now, why do I only have 14 bank pages, and wouldn't it be helpful to buy the rest? Yes, it really would. However, at 32LE each page, that's just ridiculous to me, even if it was lowered significantly from what it was. Instead of buying the rest of my bank pages, I could buy a super fun Mythic item that I've been wanting for a long time, which sounds a lot more appealing to me.

So thinking about what I've mentioned above, a lot of players don't even have a donator rank, and on top of that, the majority of players can't come anywhere near affording these bank pages. So now I'll get into the exact details as to what is hurting Wynncraft, and why it is, because I have yet to talk about that.

Why this is actually a problem, and hurting Wynncraft

So keeping in mind everything I stated above, it feels really terrible to have bank pages of Legendaries that just sit there and are basically useless. I can sometimes sell good Legendaries on the marketplace for 10EB if that, Unidentified. Even at 4EB, they still take a bit of time to sell. With the amount of items on the Marketplace, it can be hard to find a buyer, if everyone has the equipment they need already.

The thing that hurts me the most is that I'm, in a way, discouraged to even identify these cool items I get, or else I lose money already. And not just a little bit of money, a handful of EB each item. With multiple pages of these items, that adds up. It's ridiculous that I've had to ponder whether or not it's a better investment for me to take a stack of Emeralds back to the bank, or a level 96-100 Legendary Item. Let that sink in. That's something I have actually thought about, and for more than just a minute.

Currently in my loot runs, I take raw Emeralds, Legendaries, Tier 4 Powders, and about 3-4 specific ingredients that I know will be able to sell. The raw Emeralds are the largest part of my income right now, getting a couple LE each run, which takes about 30 minutes. A week ago, I made 8le an hour from loot running because of my ability to sell a lot of items that have now significantly dropped in value. Now I'm living off picking up raw Emeralds and gripping on to any hope of obtaining a Mythic, really.

In the 1.18 update, most things that brought money into circulation were cut down a bit. Seavale jumps out to me the most. However, you can still make a good amount of money by collecting and selling your precious water gems. The fact that you lose money from collecting Legendary items and selling them is beyond me. Again, you could just sell them straight to the Blacksmith for a whole 10-20 Emeralds, but at that point, a stack of Emeralds is just worth taking over any Legendary Item.

The other day, I sold four and a half bank pages of Legendary Items for 6le total, which, I thought was okay. I wasn't really complaining. Roughly 2EB for each Legendary was still better than one stack of Emeralds, so I was satisfied enough. The problem with this though is that now someone else has a full bank of Legendaries that aren't very profitable. On top of that, having to reveal all of the names to prevent any sort of scam was time consuming itself.

My suggestion on how to fix this issue

It's pretty simple. Make it so the profit you get from selling items to the Blacksmith, whether it be Unique, Rare, or Legendary, is worth your time. If you allow room to Identify a Legendary, Rare, or Unique Item, and are able to at least make 1-2 EB after selling it to the Blacksmith, it would be healthy for the game. A lot of players are still going to use the Marketplace to sell these items, as you can get a lot more Emeralds if you have the patience, but for someone like me who wants to continue loot running, having a full bank prevents me from doing so.

There needs to be some sort of pay off. Legendaries are exactly that. Legendary. They should feel that way too. They should feel valuable, and that's simply not the case in my eyes. It would be a lot more enjoyable if I was able to identify my items and test my luck, but I can't do that, and it's extremely lackluster and lame. Please, please, please, make it so you can at least gain a single Emerald Block from identifying and selling to the Blacksmith, that way, people like me, aren't losing money by collecting something that is supposedly "Rare" or "Legendary"

Last words

Thank you for reading this, was pretty lengthy, like always. Let me know your thoughts on the matter :)
Didn't really take any time reading through this after typing it, or fixing anything, but I'm pretty sure it's easy to understand the idea of what I'm saying here.

 

I would like if the bank pages were to be cheaper :(

 

Thank you for putting this into better words than I did during the Beta. Identifiable items are just no longer worth picking up anymore, simply because raw emeralds and powders are more valuable. Just some sort of positive net profit would fix this, even if it's only 5-10% (versus the 50-80% from pre-1.18, and the current loss of 10-30%).

 

Yeah. I'd be fine if I could identify them and sell them for just a single Emerald Block. As long as it's at least equivalent to a stack of emeralds, it would feel a lot better, and certainly be a lot more fun. There's not much that can match the feeling of identifying an item and waiting for it to stop spinning, excited to see what identifications you get

 

Thank you for the information!

Also, I do agree with what you said. I feel it's more that the risk is too great, rather than believing there should be none at all. The idea of having the option to take that risk or not would be great, with the sell price of Unidentified Items possibly being raised

 

Speaking of which, whoever came up with the spinning ID mechanic? Even after several years, that's still a really cool sight.