Buckle up. I spent 10 minutes on an idea that, if implemented, ties together some of my least favorite events in the game and turns them into a fair resource sink that distributes some of the game’s most valuable rewards and reintroduces old weapons on theme.
New character: Some mystical weaponsmith who has time powers and can forge any weapon that’s ever been gnown in Krystara. For a fee.
New currency: Weapon shards. They don’t drop normally from any game mode, and are tied to a kingdom. So there are Karakoth shards, Merlantis shards, etc. How do you get them?
Gnomes. But not easily.
New Gnome: Weapon Gnomes are kleptomaniacs that value nothing more highly than the broken shards of heroes’ weapons. They wander the countryside looking for weakened heroes they can shank, break weapons, and collect. Kill a gnome in The Pridelands, and you get a Pridelands Weapon Shard. Easy to understand. If you’re in a non-kingdom-affiliated mode whatever the heck is the current rule used for traitstones applies.
Weapon shards only drop from weapon gnomes. But. Weapon gnomes do not spawn normally. Oh no. You have to work, buddy. We’ve got an event I hate to jazz up.
New event store: When a gnome event occurs, a wandering merchant arrives with questionable wares. Each item has a heavy price (I’m not going to name it but I think it should cost gems + souls + maybe traitstones.) What do the items do? Well, there are flavored items like “Anu’s Sweat” that attracts the glory-seeking Glory Gnome. But most relevant will be the “Hero Chum” which smells like a wounded hero and attracts Weapon Gnomes.
If you purchase an item, the only gnomes you will encounter will be the gnomes of the type you bought. You get to buy one potion, no refunds, and it wears off at the end of the event. That’s why I think they should be expensive. Now, let’s talk economy.
I think, given that the main thrust of this change is to introduce Weapon Gnomes as a farmable thing, their drops and the costs of the Weaponsmith should be tuned very specifically based on the data the devs have. However many gnomes the top 5% of current players find should be just enough to get 1 weapon over the entire weekend. I think the top 20% should be able to do it in 2 weekends. And the top 50% should be able to do it in 3.
That means that half the playerbase can, on average, craft an old weapon in 3 months at heavy cost. It means they have to plan their play for 3 months. It means they have to hoard resources for 3 months. It means they have to spend their gnome weekend farming one particular kingdom. They’re going to earn that weapon. Time travel’s expensive.
It also means if you are a lucky duck (or a cat, or horse, or whatever) who already has the weapon, absolutely nothing changes for you. Weapon gnomes won’t pollute your gnomespace with rewards you don’t want or need. But since the shop has other items, maybe you decide you want to use the “Anu’s Gem” to attract the attractive Jewel Gnome. Or “Anu’s Herb” that summons the elusive Pet Gnome. And so on. If you want to spend a gnome weekend getting one kind of reward, gnock yourself out!
That’s my idea.
I think it takes an event that is liked but not loved and dresses it up into something a little special for everyone. Those economy numbers are important to me: I think it should be guaranteed that someone who goes all-out and kicks gnome butt for the weekend deserves 1 weapon. I think it gives the gnomes a purpose that they sort of lack right now. And I think it reserves the weapon smithing as a very special event that you plan for and feel like you fought to do.
That’s the kind of feature I expect when it’s years in the making!
I give the developers of Gems of War free license to use all or part of this idea with no attribution required.
what do you think?