Finally thought of a suggestion of changing the anvil enhancements which can fulfill the criteria in the following:
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Doesn’t discount players for their effort placed in acquiring the equipment
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Not based on RNG
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Some degree of difficulty in getting high level upgrades for equipment
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Provides means of item decay (with the removal of potential system)
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Allows big spenders (aka Whales) some way to invest into it (to help the fund the game)
Suggestion: Same equipment as material for Anvil Enhancements (Non-bandaid)
Before anyone yells that it is too hard or near impossible to upgrade with this criteria, I say with this change there is also a need to change how fast and often players can acquire equipments with regards to farming/grinding for them.
How this anvil enhancement works:
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If a player wants to enhance a Masinios Mace, he/she will need to get multiple Masinios Maces to enhance it.
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Enhancement will be 100% successful.
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For +1 to +10, 1 item will be required for each level, +11~20, 2 items per level, +21~30, 3 items per level so on and forth.
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Enhancement limits is dependent on each equipment’s item level bracket. Lower level items have higher enhancement limits.
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Enhancement limits of existing items will increase as more item ranks are introduced in future.
For example in R9 content now, Masinios pistol (level 350) has an enhancement limit of +10 at max, same as Primus/Bertas Raffye equipment. For lower level equipment such as Manamana (level 170) the enhancement limit could be +40. Even lower level equipment such as Toy Hammer will have a higher ceiling of +90 or so.
What this does is the following:
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It creates a safe and guaranteed way for players to enhance their equipment without RNG
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It requires more gathering for materials and crafting, which are good time sinks
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Removes equipment from the game, prevents the market from overflooding with gear (This is what potential is set to do)
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With a different ceiling cap for enhancement, it allows equipment from lower item level brackets to compete with high item level equipment. Want that Toy hammer or Audra for your end game equipment? Players can work for them and be rewarded for it.
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It allows more options for fodder equipment, like 1 stat Primuses can be used a enhancement fuel instead of dismantling them
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It helps boost up the marketplace. Low/Mid level equipment has market value. No item tier is left out.
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With a cap in enhancement + transcendence (not that I like the idea of transcendence) it is easier to balance pve and pvp content.
But this suggestion can’t be done without the following changes:
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General item tier change in enhancement values. Solmiki equipment due to the difficulty in acquiring them and their Legendary status will need to have better enhancement/initial stat values than the other equipment.
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Recipe drop percentages to be tweaked to match the speed and rate where players get their upgrades.