[Feedback] Resonance and Item Gifting

[TehGrief]

In the recent Development update that introduced the Merchant’s Guild and the Circle of Fortune, EHG has further described changes coming to the Item Gifting system:

“We’ll be introducing a new item type called Resonances that drop when you’ve played alongside a player for a very extended period of time. Using a resonance on an item will enable it to be gifted to that player even if they were not present when the item dropped.”

In an included example picture, we also know that Resonances are currently planned to be specific to the rarity of gear (Rare, Unique, Exalted, etc.); the player will need a specific type of Resonance to trade a specific type of gear.

What we do not know, especially since Resonance is a drop itself, is how long the “very extended period of time” between players is.

Using the information that we do have, I wanted to present my thoughts regarding the system and feedback going forward.

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Resonance Specific to Item Rarity

Having the Resonances be specific to the item rarity makes the system needlessly complicated. The player has already gone through all of the steps and played for a “very extended period of time” with the other player, having to then rely on a random chance drop to be what the player needs to gift an item that was found while the other was offline seems like an unnecessary extra step.

The Resonance should be generic/universal.

The ‘Very Extended’ Period of Time

I want to consider the amount of time I play with my friend group. We may be able to game together for ~2 hours a week. While in the early stages of the game it is unlikely that there will be anything worth using Resonance on (making the potential of Magic rarity Resonance a further issue). However, I would hope that I would be able to use Resonance in a week of gaming (despite only having played for two hours together).

If the requirements are 10+ hours, for example, this would mean that it could take several months before I would be able to even be able to start getting Resonance to gift the build-specific item to my friend. In this case, it would not be an appropriate system.

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To conclude, I am not entirely opposed to the system - especially if it is going to be the only real way to trade between my guild members / friends. It is acceptable only if it becomes less restrictive.

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TLDR;

• Resonance needs to be made generalized and universal across all item types/rarities.
• The time spent playing with friends should be reasonable and respect the time restraints that are present; it should not take longer than a few hours before Resonance becomes available as a drop (assuming that Resonance itself will have low drop rates).

[ExsiliumUltra]

You will also have the option to use your available Favor to trade directly with them if both of you are MG. This is stated by the devs as a reason p2p trade is there. Given the devs want resonance to be a system that is useful to as many people that want that ability for legitimate reasons as possible, I would not expect that requirement to be to demanding.

[Llama8]

@ExsiliumUltra

would not expect that requirement to be to demanding.

But all they said was that you’d have “played together for a very extended amount of time”. Clearly its not 5 minutes, but could it be hours? Days? Weeks? We don’t know and while the devs probably have an initial idea, they’ll tweak it as they see fit based on community feedback (and data).

But purely based on the language, I wouldn’t have said “very extended amount of time” really fits with “not too demanding”.

[Shrukn]

I would assume the ‘very extended time’ is actually monster kills or people will just AFK in town or inside a monolith to increase the timer, then kill a monster to force a drop

[Llama8]

I would also assume that.

[OurFriend]

This makes me curious about If my buddy was in the trade faction, and i was in the other faction, could i get really good items, gift them to him, and then he just trades them, circumventing the whole reasoning behind having the 2 factions?
Do we know how that works or am i missing something?

[psychodrive]

CoF items cannot be sold on the Bazaar.

• Is there any way to sell items with a CoF requirement as a MG player at all?
• No. Items with a CoF requirement can’t be sold.

Source: FAQ

Note that:

• Every item that drops while you are in CoF is tagged as CoF.
• Anyone who receives the item (e.g. via Resonance) will need to meet the CoF requirement to equip it

[Iceberg]

@TehGrief

In an included example picture, we also know that Resonances are currently planned to be specific to the rarity of gear (Rare, Unique, Exalted, etc.); the player will need a specific type of Resonance to trade a specific type of gear.

Where was this mentioned ?

Up until I saw this post I thought resonance will always be for uniques and exaltes only based on this image:

[Llama8]

No, I think you’ll be able to get/use resonances to gift other item qualities. Personally i hope it’s not going to be restricted to just exalted/uniques nor be a specific drop for specific item rarities, though the lower rarities could have more frequent resonances drop. @EHG_Mike

[EHG_Mike]

The image is an example of what one might look like.

Resonances as a mechanic will be usable on any equipment item type. Each resonance might not be usable on every type. So we might have universal types and we might have specified types like you see there.

[TehGrief]

I think it is important that Resonance is made to be universal. There are already many gating mechanics in place, there is no need to further complicate the process that is ultimately giving an item to a friend.

[EHG_Mike]

It’s a lot easier to justify removing that restriction than it is to add it.