Orb of Fusing and general currency problems

Main Point

In order to get one Orb of Fusing one has to 'endure' the following:

1. Go to ACT 1 trader and open the Purchase window and exchange 4 Orbs of Transmutation for 1 Orb of Augmentation.

2. Close the Purchase window and then re-open it to repeat the transaction.

3. Repeat this process 32 TIMES(!) to get 32 Orbs of Augmentation.

4. Repeat this process 8 TIMES(!) to get 8 Orbs of Alteration.

5. Repeat this process 4 Times(!) to get 4 Jeweller's Orbs.

6. Finally exchange your 4 Jeweller's Orbs for 1 Orb of Fusing.

7. Apply the Orb of Fusing and watch it not do anything of interest to your item


My Observations

The trader should not 'sell out' after selling one Orb, but should instead have unlimited supply - which they do, one just has to KEEP REOPENING THE DAMN WINDOW. I have no idea why this hasn't been SORTED yet, it seems incredibly obvious.

Secondly, is it really worth farming for 128's worth of Orbs of Transmutation (approximately 64 unidentified magic items) simply to purchase an Orb one KNOWS will LIKELY have almost zero impact.

I have got my character to level 60 and I was 'hoping' that by level 60 and on the hardest difficulty that I would start 'collecting' the 'good' Orbs by drops rather than have to do this mind numbing process.

I was 'hoping' that everything post-Alteration (Jeweller's, Chromatic, Fusing, Regal, Exalted and Blessed) would become as common as the (useless?) Orbs of Transmutation, Augmentation and Alteration. I was 'hoping' that the traders would actually sell these 'rare' items and that I could get my character as 'complete' as possible before entering the Pyramid for the last time.

I'm not really interested in grinding for the sake of grinding once the game is complete, I like to do my grinding in 'preparation' for 'completion'.

In the entire 60 levels I have 'found' just one Regal Orb and one Blessed Orb and and scant few Orbs of Fusing. I am not interested in the Recipe system (fun for new items, but tedious for Orbs) - If the trader has them then sell them, it makes sense for new items as one can imagine a 'blacksmith' system, but for Orbs, which are supposedly currency, it seems ridiculous.


The whole problem with the 'currency' system

While there is a framework of a good system in place, the current system of currency is, quite frankly, silly, confusing and haphazard.

Act 1 dealers provide one set of currency while Act 2 dealers provide a different set of currency. Lots of unnecessary waypointing here.

Some Orbs form a logical chain to an end destination whereas others are isolated in their own little cul-de-sac of uselessness and others still are simply traded one for one:

Useful - Transmutation to Augmentation to Alteration to Jeweller's to Chromatic/Fusing

Cul-De-Sac - Orbs of Chance, Orbs of Scouring, Orbs of Regret.

(And what IS it with Orbs of Chance anyway, they are just very badly worded Orbs of Transmutation are they not?)

One for One - Armourer's Scrap = Blacksmith's Whetstone

Non-Existent - Chaos Orbs, Blessed Orbs, Orbs of Alchemy, Regal Orbs, Exalted Orbs.

(And by non-existent I mean cannot be purchased by the use of other currency)


Conclusion

In the 'majority' of cases there is no point at all using the currency system as the end-result of collecting the currency is to spend IT ALL on one Orb that doesn't do anything when one can often get the desired item simply by waiting for a drop or just ploughing on with with the game with not much difference with slightly sub-standard equipment.

The currency itself is not uniform and takes at least one playthrough to even understand what does what and why (which is all much too late for any one-time-only player - the kind of people the game needs for word-of-mouth praise).

The currency is not balanced enough so that the 'value' of each Orb actually matches it's pay-off. By far the only ALL-GAME useful items are the Orbs of Transmutation and Orbs of Alchemy and these two, which are so similar in use, are light years away from each other in the mechanics. (Orbs of Chance are Orbs of Transmutation). Chaos Orbs are a nightmare, I destroyed a damn fine piece of equipment with one of these and are effectively 'better' Orbs of Alteration but, again, are leagues apart in the mechanics. You get the idea.


Your Thoughts

While it may please some hardcore grinding players to have such a bizarre system, for everyone else it just comes across as sloppy, confusing, disappointing and comically bad. Don't you agree?

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Treaclepie - Treacle... in a pie, whoever woulda thought'o'that!

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Never_nou wrote:

for everyone else it just comes across as sloppy, confusing, disappointing and comically bad. Don't you agree?

no, and claiming that more people agree with you than you have any right to isnt really a valid way to prove your statement.

While I don't agree with all your points there are some very valid points raised...

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The trader should not 'sell out' after selling one Orb, but should instead have unlimited supply

6years in dev & 2months away from OB & yet you can only buy 1 item at a time from a vendor...I find it hard to believe something like this is present at this stage of the game, surely it's a quick fix & wouldn't take too much time away from the main development?

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I was 'hoping' that the traders would actually sell these 'rare' items

I also find it strange that the vendors don't sell all the orbs. They can be super expensive if need be but if left to the current drops rates then people will retain high level orbs for trading purposes only. It may be a none gold game but ex's & gcps might aswell be called 1000 & 6000 gold coins.

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Act 1 dealers provide one set of currency while Act 2 dealers provide a different set of currency. Lots of unnecessary waypointing here.

Yep don't see what this adds to the game other than a little more waste of time going between wp's.

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The currency is not balanced enough so that the 'value' of each Orb actually matches it's pay-off.

For me this is an important one. Currently an Ex is worth 2 Divines or 6GCP & so on. There is a set exchange rate that most of the community seems to follow. That being said the value of the orbs is not representative of their actual usefulness & is more representative of their drop rate.

Ex's are useful but they aren't 6x as useful as a gcp but they retain their value as a trading currency. People should be using ex's more frequently on gear rather than saving them in stash to use purely to trade.
I have over 2weeks in game time & have found 2ex. There is absolutely no way in hell that reflects the usefulness of ex's & now when I do find one there is absolutely no way I am gonna be using it for anything other than trading.

Let vendors sell all orbs except the mirrors, make them expensive if you want them to remain fairly rare but with the way things stand there is an ocean gap between an orbs usefulness & it's rarity.

Other then the 1 per transaction vendor problem I think the currency is great and im very grateful that we dont rely on shitty Gold or "Soj" items.

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While it may please some hardcore grinding players to have such a bizarre system, for everyone else it just comes across as sloppy, confusing, disappointing and comically bad. Don't you agree?

No, I don't agree. I am absolutely not a grinder and I definitely do not include myself in your baseless 'everyone else' category. In fact, I laughed out loud while reading much of your post. It's quite evident that you have no understanding of the intentional design behind the vendor system. It's quite evident that you have no understanding of the crafting system and which currency is and is not useless. I'd argue that there's really only one truly useless currency in the game right now and it's solely a supply and demand issue. Everything else has it's purpose, and it's use is clearly stated on each currency item.

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The trader should not 'sell out' after selling one Orb, but should instead have unlimited supply - which they do, one just has to KEEP REOPENING THE DAMN WINDOW. I have no idea why this hasn't been SORTED yet, it seems incredibly obvious.

This is the only thing I agree with you on. It does seem incredibly obvious and it's the most annoying aspect of the whole vendor process.

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Secondly, is it really worth farming for 128's worth of Orbs of Transmutation (approximately 64 unidentified magic items) simply to purchase an Orb one KNOWS will LIKELY have almost zero impact.

That's for each person to decide on their own. If you really need Fusings that badly, then yes, ultimately it is worth it. If it annoys you that much, then you need to learn how to trade with other players to get what you want or create a build with a lot of IIQ and attempt to get the items or currency yourself.

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I am not interested in the Recipe system (fun for new items, but tedious for Orbs)

It is intended to be tedious for currency. It's quite evident throughout this entire post that this a concept that eludes you. If you don't like the recipe system, you certainly do not have to use it. Again, create a character with high IIQ and get the items yourself or trade with other players to get what you need.

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While there is a framework of a good system in place, the current system of currency is, quite frankly, silly, confusing and haphazard.

Act 1 dealers provide one set of currency while Act 2 dealers provide a different set of currency. Lots of unnecessary waypointing here.

Some Orbs form a logical chain to an end destination whereas others are isolated in their own little cul-de-sac of uselessness and others still are simply traded one for one:

Again, this is all intended and a concept which you clearly do not understand.

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(And what IS it with Orbs of Chance anyway, they are just very badly worded Orbs of Transmutation are they not?)

Orbs of Chance are gambling items, they give a chance, just as the name suggests, to create a magic, rare, or unique item. Orbs of Transmutation are guaranteed to create a magic item just the same as Orbs of Alchemy are guaranteed to create a rare item. Chance currency and guarantee currency serve their purposes and are both an important aspect of crafting.

I'm not saying that currency system or vendor/recipe system can't be improved. I am saying that you seem to have a lot of misconceptions and a general misunderstanding of how the whole crafting/vendor process work.

By the way.. here's my stash from just before the last wipe.

This is from playing on average 2-4 hours per week and without a single character above lvl 40. As you can see Alts are quite plentiful. You can pretty much skip points 1 and 3 in your vendor process. Transmutes and Augmentations are quite plentful too, so if you really had to you could trade them up for fusings as well. But again, if you don't feel that it's useful, then don't do it. The vendor/recipe system is there as an alternate method to obtain certain items. You can easily play the game and get what you want from drops and trading.

I agree its stupid to have to open close the vendor windows to keep buying the same orb they have unlimited amounts of.

Otherwise i like the currency system, just wish it wasnt so freaking hard to get gemcutters, exalteds, blessed and divine orbs. In two months of playing i've only had two gcp's drop, one blessed, and zero exalteds...

I think raising their drop rate a little wouldnt break the game and would give some people an actuall chance to get and use a few. After all, no one wants them just to hoard them , they want to use them. They wont stick around for long.

Thanks for the responses so far!

It looks like we can all at least agree on the 'single sell then re-open the sell window' issue :)

As a quick note to future posts suggesting I'm an 'idiot' or the like for suggesting the currency system is 'over-complicated' and 'confusing', please don't counter this by saying 'You just don't understand what they're trying to achieve with the confusing currency system' - you're kind of proving my point... I would be delighted if the replies 'neatly' described 'exactly' what it is that this money system is trying to achieve and why making it 'simpler' and more 'linear' would disrupt this process. Why can't Orbs of Transmutation purchase Orbs of Chance, thereby bringing that tree into the currency framework rather than excluding it.

Also, simply saying 'You're wrong' isn't really that useful, readers, devs and myself need to actually know WHY otherwise you might as well just type 'retard' and go on your merry way so that I can type 'retard' in return and be on my merry way. In the mean time, I have enough RPG experience (forums included) to know that nothing that I have written is of zero 'value' whereas a simple 'retard' post does indeed have 'zero' value.

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For me this is an important one. Currently an Ex is worth 2 Divines or 6GCP & so on. There is a set exchange rate that most of the community seems to follow. That being said the value of the orbs is not representative of their actual usefulness & is more representative of their drop rate.

This is precisely my issue. Orbs of Scouring are Orbs of a similar nature, supposedly rare and 'valuable' but I have never used one once and I have no need of passive skill respec points - I've used just one all game and I have 18 left from rewards and Regret Orbs drops. Yet I cannot exchange these Scouring Orbs for anything in the shops, they are, effectively, useless. Maybe someone can tell me when actually using one might be useful and then quantify the 'value' of this process?

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Never_nou wrote:

This is precisely my issue. Orbs of Scouring are Orbs of a similar nature, supposedly rare and 'valuable' but I have never used one once and I have no need of passive skill respec points - I've used just one all game and I have 18 left from rewards and Regret Orbs drops. Yet I cannot exchange these Scouring Orbs for anything in the shops, they are, effectively, useless. Maybe someone can tell me when actually using one might be useful and then quantify the 'value' of this process?

Scouring orbs are part of the process of rolling rares. Use them on those items of excellent base type and socket layout, but that are only blue, either because they dropped that way or by failed orbs of chance. Scour the item, then try your orbs of alchemy. Also if you have a surplus of alchemy over chaos, then scouring+alch works as chaos.

Useless, definitely not.

1 item per buy is dumb,i dont think its high on priority list tho

i dont find the system confusing,if you deal with it every day you get use to it

my issue is that a lot of people still pretend not having gold is god given gift to the players while bad drop rates of some of the currency make some of the orbs currency only items,they are not used in crafting because they are so rare - its like gold but here we call it exalted orb -same shit different day

and before 1% of hardcore players and boosters jump on my balls with their "i use exalted orbs in crafting herp derp" shut up, majority of players dont

id like to see higher drop rates of rarest orbs - chaos,alchemy orbs,fusings are pretty common yet they keep their value - im pretty sure exalts,divine orbs would keep their value too

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Scouring orbs are part of the process of rolling rares. Use them on those items of excellent base type and socket layout, but that are only blue, either because they dropped that way or by failed orbs of chance. Scour the item, then try your orbs of alchemy. Also if you have a surplus of alchemy over chaos, then scouring+alch works as chaos.

Useless, definitely not.

So what you are saying is that an Orb of Scouring has a 'high value' when combined with a surplus Orbs of Alchemy. A very specific scenario.

So if Orbs of Chaos and Regal Orbs were more common, then an Orb of Scouring would be completely almost useless?

What you are doing with your Orb of Scouring is the same function as if you were using Regal and Chaos Orbs, yet one method is 'Ultra Rare' and the other method, to produce the exact same result, is widely available?

Aren't you mocking the system by using Orbs of Scouring? If what you say is what you do, what use do you have for Regal Orbs and Choas Orbs, doesn't your system completely devalue Regal and Chaos Orbs?