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Relic distribution - scaling repop to time held
So, when relics were put in, I'm fairly sure they were intended to be a set of fun, OP items that switched hands frequently and spiced up group combat a little. In practical terms, a few months after implementation, they seem to have become a new means of entrenching the combat advantage of whoever the "top dogs" happen to be, as the vast majority of the time the relics are either sitting with nigh-unkillable denizens or are held by the "top dogs."
Earthshaker, Huskmaker, and the EQ Gem are likely the worst/most noticeable offenders, as they add significant offensive combat advantages, but others (Golden Braid, Luckbinder) are also problematic for the benefits they offer. A situation where those who have the most artefacts / the biggest team can be in a position to get Icons and deny Icons to others, get relics and deny relics to others, etc. is inherently lopsided. Games (like golf, or Super Smash Brothers) introduce "handicaps" for the explicit purpose of evening out playing fields, and in professional sports league drafts, the losing teams after a given season typically receive the top picks in the next draft to compensate. While that has never really been Achaea's MO, the current dynamic could probably use a bit of an adjustment towards this model.
To retain the flavor of the relics (i.e. they make you open-PK and they're a reward for combat prowess) but help spread the fun of using them, I propose a new mechanism - a "possession time" counter that makes it more likely that any given relic will randomly reset from your hands (as they are already designed to do), scaled proportionally with the amount of time that you have held a relic in the past 144 RL hours or so. That way, if people really want to harvest them constantly to maintain a consistent advantage, they'll need to put more work in to do so.
tl;dr: The more you've had a particular relic or any relics recently, the sooner they should randomly repop from your hands.
Earthshaker, Huskmaker, and the EQ Gem are likely the worst/most noticeable offenders, as they add significant offensive combat advantages, but others (Golden Braid, Luckbinder) are also problematic for the benefits they offer. A situation where those who have the most artefacts / the biggest team can be in a position to get Icons and deny Icons to others, get relics and deny relics to others, etc. is inherently lopsided. Games (like golf, or Super Smash Brothers) introduce "handicaps" for the explicit purpose of evening out playing fields, and in professional sports league drafts, the losing teams after a given season typically receive the top picks in the next draft to compensate. While that has never really been Achaea's MO, the current dynamic could probably use a bit of an adjustment towards this model.
To retain the flavor of the relics (i.e. they make you open-PK and they're a reward for combat prowess) but help spread the fun of using them, I propose a new mechanism - a "possession time" counter that makes it more likely that any given relic will randomly reset from your hands (as they are already designed to do), scaled proportionally with the amount of time that you have held a relic in the past 144 RL hours or so. That way, if people really want to harvest them constantly to maintain a consistent advantage, they'll need to put more work in to do so.
tl;dr: The more you've had a particular relic or any relics recently, the sooner they should randomly repop from your hands.
18
Comments
Did they change sniping into retardation or something?
downside is, still only one group of people will use them (because everyone else sucks/cares too much about losing them to use them)
Penwize has cowardly forfeited the challenge to mortal combat issued by Atalkez.
I get the feeling that everybody likes the OP mostly due the fact that it would basically be a nerf to the A-team.
I mean, I'm a big fan of keeping theory separate from observed reality, and while in theory, they're pretty cool, the reality is that they usually are not. Every interaction I've encountered involving relics has been someone finding some "clever" way to abuse them (/use as intended?).
I mean, you can't put a +33% eq gem in the game and expect every eq class to not find some ridiculously broken way to use them.
Again, they look sweet on paper, until you realize you'll probably never have one for more than 3 minutes (*unless you're one of the 6-8 designated people in Ashtan who get them fed to them*), and every time you actually see one, it's going to be in the form of someone 1-shotting you with husks, spamming 0.8 second kai chokes, running around doing 50% damage jabs with rageblade, and so on. Again, in theory you could just get them and do this back, but theory doesn't always match reality (which we seem to be witnessing very succinctly).
OK, I will admit that was a derail. Sorry, and disregard.