Thinking Outside the Box: What if we had dust instead of orbs?

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ScrotieMcB wrote:
And it shouldn't. Account-bound orbs would not prevent hoarding whatsoever; it would merely prevent people from trading them away. They'd still hoard them until they found (or traded for) high item-level items to craft. Obviously, account-bound would effect how trade works (and some of the ramifications are interesting to consider), but it would have absolutely no effect on how crafting works. This suggestion is trade-neutral.


It was a rather off topic remark that I made. It wasn't an alternative to your suggestion. just poorly phrased.
I think that the dust system is a very good idea.
Do we not already have a shard system to this game (up to alch)? All you are adding here is the ability to use these shards AS currency so you feel more rewarded. Crafting is hardly needed at low level as you find tons of decent stuff at those levels. The game doesn't need this at all imo.

Crafting is more utilized by the "well off enough" and the rich which each of us become when we:

1) Play enough.
2) Stop dieing. (HC relevant)
3) Trade smarter.

Players who are too poor to craft their own items are violating at least one of these rules stated above. When you are rich enough to start using Exalts on your gear, its an achievement. When you start alching and chiseling all your maps, its an achievement.

This game is not a hand holder, it will never reward those who dont have time to play to achieve that wealth. This is an online game and those who play the most are usually the richest ones as it should be.
As I've already said, this is great idea.
Now why is that?

Because it would simplify trading /pricing process. Money was invented for a reason, it's not all bad things. It would be easier to price /buy /sell things more correctly. It would minimize scamming, flipping, currency based quakes through the game (remember EX was 50 and then 25 chaos? Remember GCP went down the drain based on rumors?) Whole system would be more user friendly and more robust.

Because it would MAXIMIZE THE DAMN CRAFTING! No, really, it's worth of caps lock :) I love crafting mechanism, it's really good, smart, creative stuff. Now whole system makes it inefficient to use, preferring buying over making. By using "dust" system you could fine tune crafting cost. Adding an affix to high level, high stat item could cost just as much (or more) as now, but adding a suffix to 15 lvl rare would be much more affordable. Now low level /low cost /low efficiency craters must adjust to "best common nominator" value system. Meaning if 700ES mirror valued shield owner has certain value in eternaling and exalting his shield, it must be same as everybody else's in game. This system kills crafting and stimulates trading. Which is bad.

Less randomized game-play experience. Some people invested tons of their time in this game and have received nothing. Some people were insanely lucky and have received immense wealth on pure dice roll luck. "Dust" system makes things more fair and less random. Big thing.


And... do you really need more? All would remain the same. Currency that could be used for crafting same as now. nothing major would change. Except all things would be more scaled and more fair and easier to use in their original intent.

It's a really good idea, as I've already stated.


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ScrotieMcB wrote:
By dust I mean: instead of spending 1 Exalted Orb to add an additional affix to a rare item, you would spend X amount of "Exalted dust," which would vary from item to item based off of things like itemlevel, base item type, and so on. Based on these characteristics, each item would have have a stat called Dust Usage, displayed on the item; regardless which type of dust you're using, one crafting attempt would use the amount displayed, and if you don't have enough dust you'd get some kind of "I don't have enough dust" voice effect from your character. Dust would normally drop in piles of multiple quantity (for example, a pile of 7 Exalted dust).

Interesting.

Advantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
1. The Dust Usage stat on different items could be modified, to balance low-level crafting and high-level crafting. As many of you know, most players hoard the orbs they have instead of using them. The reason for this is simple: generally speaking, it's more effective to use a Chaos Orb rerolling a high-level item like a mid/high map or an itemlevel 78 Vaal Regalia, then it is to use that same currency on a low map or on an itemlevel 39 Grove Bow. Many players never even get to that level, and thus the best way for them to use their orbs is to trade them to other players, who trade them to other players until eventually the orbs find their way to those high-level crafters. Converting to a dust system would allow GGG to adjust the cost of low-level crafting relative to high-level crafting. If players aren't using enough Orbs on low-level items, GGG could lower their Dust Usage; if the pendulum of balance then shifts to the other side and no one crafts high-level items anymore, GGG could lower or raise Dust Usage levels again to compensate. Right now, GGG has no easy mechanisms to control the balance between low- and high-level crafting; a dust system would give them exactly such a tool.
+1: Being able to craft gear at low levels would make me feel much more in control when a character hits a gear wall. This is paramount to stimulating and maintaining interest from a player, rather than outright discouraging a player from progressing further. This is the single biggest drawback of our current orb system, the one thing that holds the whole damn system back from doing what it's supposed to do--replace a currency system with arbitrary item sinks, with a barter system with meaningful item sinks.

Advantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
2. Dust drop rates could be adjusted, to balance consistency against loot-finding excitement. Right now, when you find an Exalted Orb, you find, well, an entire Exalted Orb. There's no such thing as finding a fraction of one. With a dust system, that isn't the case; actually, almost any conceivable fraction of an Exalted Orb could be found. If GGG feels that players are too much at the mercy of RNG in this regard, and that instead of finding "1 Exalt" every so many hours they should find half as much twice as often, that's something they could adjust; if, on the other hand, players are so used to small piles of Exalted dust that it doesn't feel special anymore when it happens, they could make it so players find twice as much half as often. Right now, GGG has no easy mechanisms to control the balance between consistency and that "wow I'm lucky" feeling; a dust system would give them exactly such a tool.
+1: I'd love to be able to find portions of an exalted orb, in any quantity, and know I am absolutely this much closer to my goal, rather than counting every single alteration, jeweler, fusing, and chaos I find, and worrying about the market value tipping further away from me just when I have enough.

Advantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
3. Increased haggling precision. Right now, offering someone "1.5 Exalt" involves a bunch of currency conversions; with dust, it's possible to deliver 1.5 uses directly, without muddling in multiple currencies. (Of course, paying in multiple currencies would still be possible.)
+0: I feel neutral on this matter. One of the properties of bartering, is that it is always going to require more intimate knowledge of the components for trade, and will require more work than a straigh price-tag currency system. It's part of the package, and I don't feel it is necessarily good or bad as is, or would be necessarily good or bad to change.

Disadvantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
1. Since the numbers are bigger and each unit is smaller, it feels more like gold. However, as many of you know, orbs feel a lot like gold anyway; just as orbs feel like competing types of gold, dust probably would too. Still, it's possible that dust's more particulate nature could have psychological effects on the playerbase which I cannot foresee. (I guess part of the reason I made this post was to get some reactions and get some first impressions.)
+1: This is not a disadvantage; you have this backwards. Orbs currently feel like gold because they have no meaningful use for most players except as currency. They are to be accumulated for trade, because there is no value to be had in using them for their intended purpose (for most player).

Conjecture: Assume 100 dust = 1 current orb, and a level 40 item has dust usage = 5. Being able to spend 500-1000 alteration/augmentation dust, 5 regal dust, and 15 exalted dust to craft a relatively good level 40 item gives that dust meaning for a much larger base of players. Currently, nobody would exalt a level 40 item except for the lols.

Disadvantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
2. Not all orbs convert to dust very well. Almost all currencies do; pretty much anything which is used on gear or on a map. However, Portal Scrolls and Gemcutter's Prisms don't adapt to the mechanic particularly well, so we'd need some kind of alternate solution for those functions.
-0: Not all orbs need to convert to dust. A 1% quality bonus on a gem is as valuable at level 1 as it is at level 78; an alch/chaos/regal/divine/exalted effect is worth (a lot)^(alot) more at level 78 than it is at level 1. Scrolls of Wisdom and Portal Scrolls are theoretically worth more at later levels as well, but they are abundant enough that it doesn't really matter either.

Disadvantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
3. We already have an orb system, with a "no more wipes" promise. Would we suddenly have "legacy orbs?" What kinds of effects would that have?
-0: Vendor recipes to convert orbs to dust and leave current orb usage as is. Players can decide if it's worth it to convert their orbs, or if they're already getting the most band for their buck.

Disadvantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
4. Implementation would take significant developer effort. GGG does not have unlimited time and money. Would this be worth GGG taking the time?
-0: All good things cost money (or whatever the proverb is).

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ScrotieMcB wrote:
Thoughts?

Net total +3; 200% more +1's than most ideas get! Not really much else to say that hasn't already been said, except that I have already accepted the status quo and have learned how to fun within its constraints. But the concept outlined here would make my experience a thousand times more enjoyable.

EDIT:
Spoiler
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
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Inexium wrote:
1. I like this idea, however you are asking GGG to remove something they like seeing their players do:

Huge excitement when lady luck is with you. I read Qarl or another dev saying that he was very happy about someone being excited for his easy 6L in a lost general discussion thread.
What about the excitement of finding an exalt or a mirror compared to having ex and mirror dusts ?
That's why I used very precise language in the OP. ;) I actually agree with the devs to a certain extent: if you find a little bit of something too often, it becomes too ordinary and thus not exciting; if you find something less often in big amounts, it's a real thrill if/when you actually do! Once again, I don't know exactly where the right balance is on this issue, but this isn't about trying to make everything super-boring, zero-RNG; this is about giving GGG tools to balance the good side of RNG (excitement) vs the bad side (inconsistency).

This happens already. OMG I FOUND AN EXALTED. Meh, I don't have an item worth using it on, and it's not enough buy anything worth a damn. OMG I FOUND ANOTHER EXALTED. Well I still don't have an item worth using them on, but now I can finally afford tha... fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck youuuuuu, my dream item went up to 4 EX since last week! <--Happened to me five times with BoR until I finally traded a legacy unique for one. Actually, this has happened enough times now, I don't think I could give half a shit next time an exalted (or item valued at 1-2 exalted) drops for me. It's functionally useless, occurs too infrequently to accumulate meaningfully, and no longer has any value in a flooded economy. Now, I'm all for such a fluid market, but it sucks when you're stuck in the margin where all progress seems to be dependent upon its whims. It'd be nice to have the option to do something else.
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Last edited by CanHasPants on Oct 19, 2013, 7:33:55 PM
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Thorien_Kell wrote:
As I've already said, this is great idea.
Now why is that?

[snip]

Because it would MAXIMIZE THE DAMN CRAFTING! No, really, it's worth of caps lock :) I love crafting mechanism, it's really good, smart, creative stuff. Now whole system makes it inefficient to use, preferring buying over making.
I know it's kind of weird to play devil's advocate here, but I feel this is an important point.

Dust would help in the balance of crafting low-level items vs crafting high-level items. This is important. However, it would not help in the balance of crafting vs trading.

Why? Because of something I like to call the Thrift Shop Rule.

There is no getting around this through any modification to the dust sytem; no new crafting or trading mechanic I could ever introduce will make this go away. If the original crafter/finder uses the item, gets some degree of utility out of it, and then puts it up for sale, it will always be for less than the average craft price (unless he's trying to rip people off).

Why do people buy things new in real life? Simple: durability. Items in real life have a certain lifespan, influenced greatly by how they are treated, which means that buying something used can often lead to unforeseen complications when the item breaks before it completes its intended lifespan. However, PoE has no durability system.

If you really want to create an environment where crafting something yourself can trump buying it used, you must be an advocate of durability systems. And not just some "token durability" which is easily circumvented, but a system which introduces a very real chance of items breaking and becoming worthless. This is why I advocate exactly such a change, despite its rampant unpopularity. For example, here I argue for a different death penalty for softcore leagues.

That said, the dust suggestion and a durability suggestion are completely separate, meant to address totally separate problems. I understand fully that lots of people could be for a system which improves low-level crafting and has relatively few drawbacks, while a lot of people would be against a durability system, precisely because it has some severe drawbacks which are difficult to mitigate. Therefore, I cannot expect everyone who supports the dust idea to support a durability idea, and that's not what's being advocated here.

Instead, let's just focus on improving low-level crafting vs high-level crafting, and reducing the hoarding of orbs.
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Oct 19, 2013, 7:28:11 PM
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CanHasPants wrote:
Disadvantage
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ScrotieMcB wrote:
4. Implementation would take significant developer effort. GGG does not have unlimited time and money. Would this be worth GGG taking the time?
-0: All good things cost money (or whatever the proverb is).
This doesn't mean that the cost of something isn't a disadvantage. I think it's a very pertinent point here, especially since it would be very stupid to just implement a system like this without significant Alpha testing to iron out the wrinkles.
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
Bump for a good idea.
Have you made a cool build using The Coming Calamity? Let me know!
I don't like this idea for very simple reasons:

A pile of dust will look like a pile of gold... I don't want to run around pulling piles of currency off of mobs... Individual orb drops feel significant and fulfilling and this is a GOOD feeling. Finding one exalted orb makes 99% of PoE players' week.. I find an exalted orb and I go and kiss my wife. We crack open a bottle of champagne, call the family over to tell them the good news, update our facebooks, etc. Finding 12 chips of an exalted orb every day would cheapen that experience.

We already have a system of exchanges that allows us to pull "pieces" of high-value currency at a quick rate.. Scrolls can be converted up to Fusings and maybe even to a higher valued orb.


The beauty of the crafting system in its current form is that it is non-compulsory. Implement this system and we'll be able to chaos roll our noobie gear and exalt every piece... It would make it far too easy to min-max a low-level character.

Personally, I like that crafting for a low-level is a waste of time/orbs. Makes you want to spend less time in town worrying about your gear and more time rolling thru the game, leveling up and finding new gear.
My words are poetry and thus not subject to spellcheck or the laws of grammar.
just make it so that legacy orbs ignore item level and just perform a standard re-roll


you wouldnt even need to remove them from the game, they could still exist
op sounds like a lot of programming

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