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Other [Other] Spells for Transmuting Rune Shards

Are you in favor of this idea?


  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .

DeletedUser1767

Guest
Summary
Add a spell to change rune shards into different rune shards.

Description
I think it would be cool if there were a high-level spell that allowed players to transmute rune shards into different rune shards. There are a lot of different ways this could work, but they fall into two basic categories:

1) Spells that multiply existing broken shards.
2) Spells that directly transmute runes from one type to another.

Possible implementations of (1) include: a spell that directly multiplies the current total number of broken shards by X (probably two? possibly three), or a spell that multiples a set number of broken shards (probably something like three to five) by X (again probably two or three). Advantages to this spell, in addition to the obvious "get the rune shards you want faster," include that it's a direct magnification of a mechanism that already exists in the game, which is essentially what all our current spells do. The main disadvantage from a player's perspective is that it still doesn't let you use rune shards you can't insert into a ring, so those 55 Crystal Lighthouse runes I have on Arendyll will continue to gather dust.

Possible implementations of (2) include: a spell that takes X runes (assuming a one-to-one conversion is way too powerful) of the player's choice (could be of any type) and transmutes them into a single new rune of the player's choice; or a spell that takes a rune of a specific type and converts it into a rune of the partner-type -- e.g. I could turn Watchtower runes into runes for Thrones of the High Men, and vice versa. The second variation would be a lot easier to implement than the first because the results are automatic, but it also has a much more limited utility -- e.g. I have 55 Crystal Lighthouse runes and I don't want a Martial Monastery, and converting some of my CL runes into MM runes in order to generate broken shards for some other Wonder is a thing I could definitely do but amounts to adding yet another, more expensive step in the already-torturous "build unwanted Wonder, destroy, make broken shards" strategy, even if a broken-shard-multiplication spell also existed.

Motivation
The advantage to this idea in general is that it provides a partial solution to two persistent player complaints in one stroke: the increasing frustration in getting Shards of the right kind and a lack of interest in the Magic Academy.

Possible downsides
The primary disadvantage I can see upfront is that it would be tricky to balance a (2)-type spell so that it's not too powerful, but also does what the player really wants it to do. It would be very unfortunate if we got spells for Rune Shards but were still unable to use them to get the ones we really want.

I kind of like the idea of having a broken-shard-multiplication spell, a partner-rune spell, and a third, much more expensive, general-rune-alchemy spell, but that's a lot of spells around a single aspect of the game, and also might violate the devs' maxim of making it hard to get the runes you want. But maybe if the tech for these spells was unlocked relatively late, and not all at the same time? You could get the broken-shard spell in Chapter Four or Five, the partner-rune spell in Five or Six, and the general-alchemy spell in Seven, or something like that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

SoggyShorts

Well-Known Member
I like the ideas. I was going to suggest a spell that just transmutes a rune into another random rune, but I wasn't sure what a good balance of cost for the spell would be. Even a fairly cheap spell that turned a rune into a broken shard could work.
Would you spend 45 of your unboosted relics to smash your unwanted 45 crystal LH runes?
 
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DeletedUser1767

Guest
I like the ideas. I was going to suggest a spell that just transmutes a rune into another random rune, but I wasn't sure what a good balance of cost for the spell would be. Even a fairy cheap spell that turned a rune into a broken shard could work.
Would you spend 45 of your unboosted relics to smash your unwanted 45 crystal LH runes?
I like the versatility and simplicity of this -- and the fact that it more or less eliminates the need to use the circles for the Wonders you don't want in order to break runes. You'd conserve resources by not having to build the Wonder prior to demolishing it, and you'd have more broken shards to use towards the Wonders you do want. That's so much better!

Also, if you had both a smash-runes spell and a multiply-shards spell, you could use two spells in tandem to accomplish a single objective, which would be kind of neat.

Personally, I wouldn't balk at using one unboosted relic per shard. If we take that as a basic unit of conversion, maybe we can figure out what the cost of a more direct rune-to-rune conversion spell should be? To get one new rune with a smash-relic spell, you'd need ten shards and ten unboosted relics. If a rune-to-rune spell cost one rune and ten unboosted relics, that's literally ten times better. Would that be too cheap for something that powerful? Maybe ten unboosted relics and two runes to get one new rune?

One of the reasons I like the idea of spells affecting runes is purely for story purposes -- the Ancient Wonders are pretty magical, and they use relics just like spells do, so it seems intuitively like there should be a lot of interaction between the Magic Academy and the Ancient Wonders, but right now there isn't, and this just seems like a wasted opportunity.
 

DeletedUser1817

Guest
+1

One reservation though: the developers apparently already work on a system to allow easier recycling of unused rune fragments (Timon told that in a live Facebook session). So this idea might be considered redundant...
 
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