Curios combination!

[Luanes]

Last time I saw the combine mechanic it was quite op and removed, and Jorb said that they should think again how to make the combination.

The problem with the last implementation was that LP was increasing too much and age less ice would be really op with this. So, how could we do this?

If we want to combine to make more curios worth, how about if instead of increasing the LP ammount we just reduces the total time by half for each combination? So if we have tons of shitty curios, we could just combine each until it reduces to a time the is realiable for us.

Example:

Toy chariot q10 = 1400 LP, 21h 53m and 64 lp hour
2 combinations = 1400 LP, 11h 19m and 128 lp hour
3 combinations = 1400 LP, 5h 59m and 256 lp hour
4 combinations = 1400 LP, 3h and 512 lp hour
5 combinations = 1400 LP, 1h 30m and 1024 lp hour

It would make that shitty and long curios more realiable. And we could even give some skill to it, like using will to determine how much it would decrease, instead of a rough 50% it could be based on will or something.

[jorb]

Equally crazy. The incentive either way becomes to spam fully melded trash of whatever kind. Dragonflies, for example. Suddenly you have to gather hundreds of dragonflies a day to stay competitive.

[Headchef]

No.

Curio combination was a stupid idea because it allows the crafters to determine curio length (in this example, previously LP) which leads to big groups botting it heavily to supply entire group with fastest version of curio.

Unless you find some magical way to balance this (I don't think there is any) this kind of ideas make the gap between casuals and botgroups (factions) even bigger than it already is.

[Luanes]

So make It asymptotically go towards the double like

Each combine increases the LP/hour

actualLpHour = (actualLpHou r + baseLpHour)/2

And decreases time by half

So, for toy chariot example

1 toy chariot = 1400 total LP, 21h 53m, 64lp/hour
2 toy chariot = 1084 total LP, 11h 19m, 96lp/hour
3 toy chariot = 672 total LP, 5h 49m, 112 LP/hour
4 toy chariot = 360 total LP, 2h 25m, 120 LP/hour
5 toy chariot = 183 total LP, 1h 12m, 124 LP/hour

edit: And If you want to attach a attribute, you could multiply the "baseLphour" by( 50 * sqrt( attribute ))/(100+sqrt(attribute))

[Headchef]

That still does not work.

`Raising the LP or the LP/h is basically the same thing once you have plenty of them.

Toychariot.exe will ensure plenty so it's still creating a bigger gap that there was than before.

Because currently; you're either studying an item or you're not. And then the quality affects some LP.

But to also have to worry about this dillution system of falling behind (especially early world) is just broken in my view.

[Luanes]

Why my new suggestion would not work?

For the toy chariot example, a casual player could combine 4 times 3 toy chariot for a total 2668 LP in 21h 53m

While a bot could combine 16 times 5 toy chariot for a total 2928 in 21h 53min, it's less than 10% more for a bot

[Sevenless]

The only way I see curio melding working is if it decreases LP per hour minorly, but increases time the curio runs (XP per LP remains static). This would allow some currently tolerable Curios that run too quickly to be used. Off the top of my head: stalagooms, ant soldiers, and poppy caps fall into that category. All are tolerably decent curios, but you need too many slots on a study table to run them.

[Headchef]

Because suggestion would apply for all curios so yes sure for this toy chariot example impact wouldnt be that big but imagine maintaining every aspect of game and at same time needing to have all curios you want x4 to get 1x a reduced studio cycle to then need another x4 load only to have rest in this shortened study time to do other things. Can choose to partially ignore this but means defenitely falling behind. If it's a possibility then people will do it, to get an edge on their opponent. So basically who bots the hardest and most efficient has relative best LP compared to time invested while char goes to do non bottable things in actual playtime. Such as harass the noobs who fall behind because of too many things to do too little hours in a day to keep up without scripts.

[Luanes]

Well, that's why that using the attributes may help against it. Taking the dragonfly example, it's easy for dozens of bots run through swamps and keep combining dragonflies for a best result ( even if they just stack 2 times each). But if you make the efficiency increase with some attribute, like will and psyche, you will have to feed this bot with food to be more realiable ( so they will need more bots to make food for their bots ). So a casual player on a journey through the world, would just combine whatever he founds that still pleases his time offline. While, for each bot, would need to increase their own attributes, or go back to the village, stack their stuff, bring another bot with a high attribute and combine. If the "another bot with high attribute" is a problem, you can make it take some time to each combination ( like 30s for each ) and use stamina ( so if you have a bot the entire day combining stuff, you will need to feed him too, and if you want to reduces this craft be a subscribed bot hoorraaaaayyy), and if all of that is not enough, put an exp cost for each combination.

So what i think about casual playing : Go enjoy the world and if you happen to find some shitty stuff that fits for you, take it.

[Aceb]

I know You want to keep this game without much magic, but here You go anyway:

The only way of balancing is either to remove icycles or whatever it is called or make it a hearth magic that costs.

For 30XP * X , You can meld two curios of the same type into one.
Quality of that is average of both.
Every meld action reduces 10% LP of final product + 5% * X.
Time of study is increases by 10% * X.
Mentality is increased by 20%.
Melded curio is immune to icycle.


- where X is number of time You use magic on the same type (group) of curio

If possible to implement, it should reduce the "meta" aspect of medling thousands of dragonflies, increase people to wanderm socialize in quests and gain experience (or bots have to do that), give an option for some people to go on "vacation" for more than a day if needed.

@edit
And make it restore back to 30XP every 3 in game days since first/last use, but, like wells, keep the melded curio cost at same or something like this.