Need some input : Premium Weapons

[PenguinJoe]

Myself and a few others are working together with PWI staff in a skunkworks think tank project to see what we can come up with for premium weapons.

I know a bunch of you have been beating your heads against the screen to get the Rohan GMs to put upgrades on sale again. For many reasons they are reluctant to do that even though they know that some form of premium weapons is necessary for the ongoing playability of this game. We have submitted proposals to the GM team and on the whole they are receptive to the ideas but very nervous about unbalancing the game with them.

Here is the gist of the proposal so far:

Timed premium weapons:

• Each has a 7, 15 or 30 day limit.
• Each provides targeted attack %, health / mana % and absorb % benefits.
• Works like a 30-day costume - you take it from your IM inventory to activate and the weapon disappears at the end of the time period purchased.
• Each will be like the "Epics" a few years ago in that they are fully forged and reinforced (I suggest +15)
• Based on the highest tier weapons.
• refined to -32
• Proposed pricing is $1 US per day, meaning 7-Day = $7.00 US = 700 RPs, 15 Day = $15 US = 1500 RPs and 30 Day = $30 US = 3000 RPs. (I suspect ecash prices would be double)

Permanent premium weapons

If you remember the sale a couple years back of the "Newbie Epic" weapons, these would be something along similar lines.

• All of the same attributes as the Timed versions
• Can not be traded
• As a consideration of the non-trade-able nature of these, they will also be cheaper. We have proposed a cost of $80 US = 8000 RPs/16000 ecash.

It is not expected for these to be better than the trade-able upgrades, but closer to the original Epics in capability. As it is expected the current supply of upgrades (1.0, 2.0 and 3.0) are the last of that style of upgrade, they should retain a certain level of value in the Rohan economy. The idea of the premium weapons is to give all players access to weapons that are better than forge-it-yourself in-game goods but something that will give those who are not wealthy a means to compete.

Here is what I am looking for from you folks:

What are your thoughts for the amounts of attack, health/mana and leech properties. I strongly suggest you consider all classes since even Trinities could transmute the permanent versions of these (with the failure rate, I would strongly advise against that!!). I would also suggest specific attack types rather than "All" attack since "All" attack would give double-dipping Templars an unfair advantage.

So have at it guys. What do you think?

--------------- EDIT --------------

One of the guys just reminded me.

While we do have an inside guy listening to our proposals and very hyped by them, he still has to sell the idea to his management. That means that none of this may fly at all, or it may happen only partially or differently. All we can do is feed the info to them and in a way that they can study it internally. To don't expect this to be what will be. All we can do is try. I think the approach our team is taking is a good one since it is done in such a way that the right people have a chance to see it (i.e. those that don't look in the forum).

Cheers!