Fusion/saved posts

2016-2017 Fusion Revamp

Category: Game Design Discussions
Topic: Fusion
Message #: 213
Author: SIMU-WYROM
Date: 10/06/2016 03:40 PM EDT
Subject: The State of Fusion

At long last, I have information to share with you.

Fusion will be separated into "old style" and "new style."

Old-style Fusion

Currently "old-style" has a chance to lose potency if pried too often, and will shatter when the bonus becomes 0. Moving forward, old-style orbs, when damaged, will become new-style orbs. This will result in the removal of the shattering chance (complete destruction of orbs). Instead pried-out orbs can be damaged. Damage chance of 5% when pried.

New-style Fusion

New-style fusion will never degrade their potency when pried from fusion, but will degrade at a rate of 4% a month (real time) to a maximum degradation of 50%. For example, +10 would lose 0.4 bonus points per month (becoming effective only when a full -1 value is reached, so only after 3 months in the case of the +10 item would any degradation of the bonus actually occur). It would take 13 months to reach max degradation in most cases. Values of 1 would round down to 0.

New-style fusion orbs can be refurbished to full base bonus as a future merchant option.

Prying new-style orbs will have a chance to damage the orb, similar to old-style. When damaged it will uncap the max degradation (i.e. can degrade to zero in all cases). Further damage would increase degradation rate by 1% per month per damage cycle.

Fusion Extraction Cost

Fusion extraction costs will be changing so that more potent (higher bonus) orb creation scales upward.

Increasing Stamina Regen costs that are over +10 by 5% per point above (so +15 would be 25% more, +25 would be 75% more). Mana Regen by 3% per point over +10. Spirit Regen by +10%, +25%, +50% per point. Max spirit by the same. No changes to max mana/health/stamina.

Stat Bonuses over +5 would be +10% per point and Base Stats over 10 would be +5% per point. Skill Ranks/Bonuses would also be +5% per point over +10.

If an enhancive property is extracted from an item with a negative enhancive effect also on it (in the event of a +10 Strength item that also gives you -5 Dex, for instance), then the item is subject to a (further) 2x multiplier.

Items can now be marked so that they cannot be used with the fusion system moving forward.

Fusion Recharging - Both Styles

Fusion items will cost 125% the value in BPs to recharge, or 150% in silvers (during that time of the year).

Category: Game Design Discussions
Topic: Fusion
Message #: 395
Author: SIMU-COASE
Date: 12/16/2017 04:45 PM EST
Subject: Re: The State of Fusion

The previously announced fusion changes have now been released. These include:

Fusion orbs have been separated into three tiers (T1, T2, and T3). All currently existing orbs are T3.

T3 ("old-style" fusion orbs)

T3 orbs do not decay their enhancive bonus. T3 orbs, when damaged due to PRYing, will gain the functionality of T2 orbs. The net result is that the old shattering chance (complete destruction of orbs) and degradation of bonus has been removed. Instead pried-out orbs can be damaged. Damage chance of 5% when pried. Special merchant services will exist to allow for risk-free pries in exchange for a fee.

T2 ("new-style" fusion)

T2 orbs will degrade their enhancive bonus at a rate of 4% a month (real time) to a maximum degradation of 50%. For example, +10 would lose 0.4 bonus points per month (becoming effective only when a full -1 value is reached, so only after 3 months in the case of the +10 item would any degradation of the bonus actually occur). It would take 13 months to reach max degradation in most cases. Values of 1 would round down to 0.

T2 fusion orbs can be refurbished to full base bonus as a future merchant option.

Prying T2 orbs will have a chance to damage the orb, similar to T3. When damaged, a T2 orb will gain the functionality of a T1 orb (which uncaps the maximum degradation of the enhancive bonus all the way to zero). Further damage would increase degradation rate by 1% per month per damage cycle.

Fusion Enchanting and Ensorcelling

The enhancive item enchanting/ensorcelling penalty is now based upon the number of orb slots that the fusion item carries (rather than its currently orbed enhancive properties), so it will no longer be necessary to pry out the orbs while the item is being upgraded.

Coase

Category: Game Design Discussions
Topic: Fusion
Message #: 413
Author: SIMU-COASE
Date: 12/29/2017 12:50 AM EST
Subject: Re: The State of Fusion

Regarding enchanting, it was previously the case that fusion items could entirely bypass the entire enhancive item penalty that applies toward enchant/ensorcell attempts with zero risk due to how the PRY mechanic used to work (riskless pries after a week or so). Unfortunately, fusion items are entirely about -being- enhancive items and they should have had the same penalties as equivalent enhancive items. The fact that they did not was quite a serious design oversight and it needed to be fixed.

It should be noted that T2 orbs degrade to half their base value and then stop there. Once it hits 50%, that's its actual permanent bonus. If you orb an item, we want to make sure that you (or someone) actually wants to make use of it in a fusion item right away, and not speculatively. We could have made all exactrations just extract half the bonus instead, but chose to allow players to have the opportunity to have some extra bonus for a year (which is a fair length of time), provided that it is actively being used. Refurbishments are an option, but its not really meant to be an upkeep service, but an actual upgrade service. A T2 orb extraction is an extraction to 50% of the bonus value being extracted, with a temporary bonus on top if it.

The reason why we needed to change how extractions worked is because it was becoming clear that players were increasingly seeing "vanilla" enhancive items as mere delivery vehicles for orbs rather than being actual items in their own right. Things like worn location, crumbly status, maximum charges, alternative item functions, weight, and so on are all properties of items that we try to vary to create items that provide interesting choices and character building "puzzles" and options. The ability to relatively trivially negate all those other properties to extract one property at its full value was a serious design flaw in fusion that needed to be fixed.

Duskruin put a lot of enhancive items out (and so does the treasure system), but the reason they can do so is because you often need to stretch a bit (or a lot) to actually use the items in their intended form. That is an intended part of the entire inventory system. If, instead, all those items' enhancive propertiers are just harvest-able to place in a single optimized item, then that is quite a big unintended bypass of most of the inventory system. Fusion extactions, as previously handled, were not sustainable going foward, unfortunately.

Coase