The lucky boxes where designed having in mind the difference between gold obtained by premium and non premium users...

the whole idea of the lucky boxes as they are is to generate trading between non-premium and premium users for gold.

If you are a premium users and you've got a good item that is not suitable for you our your sub-class... there's a good chance that there is a non-premium user out there who might pay a lot of gold for that item (much more than an NPC)

We cannot incorporate premium items into the game that generate gold instantly. that would break the whole economy.

(remember: gold given by an NPC is the central bank issuing more currency, gold given by another PC is just re-distribuition of wealth :))

best regards,

- Chilko

Chilko,

I understand that, but come on...the "economy" in Regnum is not all that well designed. We have older players (before the economy changes) with HUGE amounts of gold. We have newer players (before the drop system was nchanged) that are nearly broke. We have archers and knights that have to kill mobs to support themselves at 50 (which is totally unfair, in my opinion).

What happens when a level 50 barb spends the xim to purchase a platinum lucky box, rolls a weapon and gets a magical 2handed royal hammer with a slight bonus to hit-chance and dexterity? With the current system, his or her only option is to sell it to another player, and why would another player waste money on an item that is sub-par to one that can be purchased from an NPC? So then the item either gets banked, or trashed.

You are basically saying that there is no economic relationship between xim and gold, which I think is silly. Mounts can be purchased for both xim and gold. Repair hammers, essentially, are directly related to gold. If your reasoning is because of the standard lucky boxes (cheap xim wise, but mostly produce standard items, which could be exploited if bought en masse and sold) then get rid of them. This, of course is easy for me to say, but what exactly are the numbers? I'd imagine most would spring for platinum or bronze...I know that's all I would buy.

I think it's possible to don't make the economy crash when making box-items able to sell to npcs, because there's not only money added to the economy this way. but there's also a lot of money removed from the economy by repairs, this money is just gone.

I think we need an anonymous market system for this to work. Being a community driven game it's quite hard IMO as a buyer or seller to strive for a good price without coming off as an arse ^^"

Hm, from my experience so far, items are traded for items. No-one trades items for gold, except for magnanite. Magnanite has re-distributed much more gold than lucky boxes have, in my own personal experience. So if this was really the purpose of lucky boxes, I don't think they fulfil it.

"Lucky boxes are primarily here to generate $$$" wouldve been the right answer.

the whole economy is broken. and the lucky boxes cost too much.
this is what we as players think, if you know better then tell us.

edit: calculation from the poll..
premium votes: 50
happy: 7 - 14%
unhappy 43 - 86%

I think that lucky boxes should be removed due to the fact that they are nearly the only way to get magic/epic level 50 items. I have killed mobs for probably around 40 hours looking for high level magic/epic items and haven't found one yet.

Regnum has always been about giving those that play for free the same power as those that don't and I feel that the lucky boxes go against the spirit of the game.

I may feel differently if after 40 hours I had found one magic/epic item but as it stands now I do not like lucky boxes at all and would be very happy if they were removed.

I agree with Mira. With the current system of Player trading, magnanite is the easiest to sell.

Example "Global: I have Magnanite 1 for 20k."
ANY player is capable of purchasing Magna, and the market for it is profitable

But if I had a lucky box item (which I do), it becomes more cumbersome to sell it.

Example "Global: Sell/Trade Staff of ArseKicking (50) +20 Hit, +5 Intel, 50-150 Ice Damge, blah blah blah. PM me"
Notice it takes more effort to explain what your are selling, and you are only limited to a market of A)Mages B)Probably a subclass C)Any interested in lvl 50 items. While this announcement is made, the trader now has to wait for a response.

I've done ALOT of trading, and it is time consuming as it is (add the fact I have to use google for translations, you get the idea...)

So... Lucky Boxes = Improved Trading Economy? I'd be happier buying a "Sellers License" with a system of posting and alerting. THEN I'd be happy trading my lucky box items. This is a promising example of how trading should be done, many have seen it already, RoTrader

I don't think it will be a problem for the economy to allow lucky box items to be sold. Let's look at how much gold it would be. Assuming I was to buy the cheapest boxes with a lvl 50 char and chose weapons, as they sell for more than armor parts. Those rarely sell for more than 50k gold. So for 5€/$ I would get 4k xim, allowing me to 5 boxes at 800 xim each. So, if I am lucky, I'd get at most 300k gold for my 5€/$ real money. That doesn't sound like a good deal to me. Please correct me if you come up with other figures.

On the other hand, using repair hammers allows me to save 100k+ repairs. And I get 5 of them for 600 xim. So these have a higher potential impact on the economy. Of course, there's a huge difference between gold created and gold not removed. You can't create arbitrary amounts of gold by using repair hammers, you'd have to invest a lot of time in grinding.

But, while there probably are some people willing to spend high amounts of real money to get in-game gold, given the poor real/in-game exchange rate, I highly doubt this will be a mass phenomenon. Compared to the huge masses grinding and selling loot and drops, I'd expect the gold created by selling box items to be insignificant.

So, allowing lucky box items to be sold to merchants probably wouldn't crash the economy, but it would give the players a chance to get rid of unwanted items and cut the losses.

...?

In the real world at least, no economy has ever benefited from isolation. (And all 20th century experiments with planned economies have failed miserably.)


To get back on topic:
I tried a platinum lucky box on Amun first (for a hunter) and got a nice epic bow on the first and only attempt. Then I bought one bronze box on Horus (for marks) and actually got what I was realistically hoping for: a longbow suitable for my lvl. Nothing fancy but an alright tool. Inspired by this success I had two further attempts with bronze boxes, after gaining a couple of levels and needing to upgrade my gear, and got a couple of onehand fast weapons (one rapier, one axe) that I eventually threw away since I couldn't find anyone who wanted them (does any knight use a puny fast weapon?) and they weighed too much for me to drag around in my inventory.

Another thing worth noting that I haven't seen anyone mention is that in gold, a full set of armour costs about as much as a weapon. But from a lucky box you only get one armour piece for the same price in ximerins. So a full armour set from lucky boxes (assuming you either get something that fits you or can find anyone to trade with) costs, in ximerins, five times as much as getting a weapon for a warrior or archer, or three times as much for a mage.

All in all, my vote would be (I didn't vote), a nay. I won't buy another one and definitely not to get armour. But then I've never been interested in gambling. I am aware that 4 samples are far too few to yield reliable statistics. On the other hand you could simply declare, in %'s rather than a cryptic "greater chance" etc, what the chances to get various types of items from various boxes are, so we all could actually know what we are buying.

I use puny fast weapons :( i like rapiers :)

think of it this way, they do low dmg yes, but they have quicker strikes, which build up to the same overall dmg (usually), quicker casting times, and if you miss its not a big of a blow as a slow/vslow weapon, which can be critical at the wrong moment.

as for the lucky boxes, i dont think for me its a good deal, but then again i cant afford much but when i can i do pay to support the game, more so than anything, the fact i get a reward or some cool paint or whatnot is just a bonus :)

i have had some nice items on amun, but i been to scared to try on ra, as id prolly get a piece of junk..since sometimes i do get some really nice items but other times only so so with some trivial bonus that has no use for my class or some low percent of resist rating against some form of attack that i rarely will encounter :(