A new feature is going to be trialled tomorrow, which you may find interesting...
Many times, I've been asked where items that were dropped on maps went if they weren't picked up, or treasure from raids that was never collected...
Well, currently, it is destroyed from the server, but this may change very soon. There will be a new page tomorrow, which I've been calling the Abandoned Items page. If you can think of a better name, feel free to tell me.
It works like this:
- Items which are dropped on the map, and never collected, are swept up and placed into the Abandoned Items spool. This also includes uncollected treasure, and possibly directly abandoned items (via the new page).
- Players can visit the Abandoned Items page, and see a small, random selection of the items in the spool. If they like any of them, they may take them!
- The spool may have hundreds of items, but you'll only see a tiny, random subsection at a time, which will change periodically, to give every item some exposure.
- If items simply aren't being taken, after they've been displayed X amount of times, they'll just be automatically deleted from the game.
Some other points:
- The spool is only going to bother displaying items that are of use to someone. This means, no junk items, probably no quest items, and potentially no super low level items. Precisely how I'll deal with low/high items isn't certain yet, but for now, I'll just show them all indiscriminately.
- Everyone has a daily quota for item collections, so you can't just pick every damned thing up and give no one else a chance. There's also a cool-down after every item you collect, so you can't just collect the entire page worth of stuff.
- There may be other limitations, but that's probably something we'll have to work out once it's running.
- I'm in two minds as to whether I should incentivise the abandonment of items to this page directly, so that users feel compelled to put their useful-but-not-for-the-current-owner items into a place where others might benefit from them.
This isn't a huge feature release, but hopefully it'll turn out to be another page to check periodically to see if there are any good things for the taking!
If you have any ideas that might make this more interesting, please post them in this thread 
Invisible War ][
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited by Cyberkilla @ Sun Jul 8 15:46:13 EDT 2012
Hell ya ...i like that too
Damn fine idea....
Damn fine idea....
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I like it.
Quote from Sdiddy73
Hell ya ...i like that too
Damn fine idea....
Damn fine idea....
I was hoping that would be the response 
The nice thing about this is that there's scope for seeding it with rare items. I could put the occasional potions and set items into the spool, and they'd be exposed in a more controlled manner.
Currently, if I were to do that with the armoury or the speciality store, one person would just buy all of them 
Actually, I really should implement a quota system on those pages too 
Actually, I really should implement a quota system on those pages too FYI, I have the hourly lottery page to put up too, but that might take until Tuesday.
Invisible War ][
Edited 2 time(s). Last edited by Cyberkilla @ Sun Jul 8 12:52:58 EDT 2012
Love the idea also, however, instead of just being able to pick up the items how about having to bid on them? For instance, if I see an item I like I can bid 10 points on it, if no one outbids me within a certain time frame then I win the item. But, if someone else bids on it then there could be some sort of bid war. And there should be a special page linked directly to that item for players bidding on it, that way they can easiy keep track on where they stand on the auction.
If we do this then we can use the proceeds to supplement the lotto and raffle giving those a nice boost. The currency for each item could be randomly a**igned also, that way sometimes we have to use points and sometimes we have to use credits.
Quote from Kuzachika
Love the idea also, however, instead of just being able to pick up the items how about having to bid on them? For instance, if I see an item I like I can bid 10 points on it, if no one outbids me within a certain time frame then I win the item. But, if someone else bids on it then there could be some sort of bid war. And there should be a special page linked directly to that item for players bidding on it, that way they can easiy keep track on where they stand on the auction.
If we do this then we can use the proceeds to supplement the lotto and raffle giving those a nice boost. The currency for each item could be randomly a**igned also, that way sometimes we have to use points and sometimes we have to use credits.
Interesting idea. I can see the merit of that, especially if it was only a bidding war between players that managed to make a bid in the X minutes that it was visible. That would be slightly more fair.
Still, it means that you lose the bid if you can't afford to compete in the bidding war. It detracts slightly from the feeling that this is a first-come-first-served sort of feature.
On the other hand, if this really is just for those cases where you have a few people trying to grab it within X seconds of the first person trying to take it, it might be okay.
I've probably explained that terribly.
Invisible War ][