Black Lion Chest Suggestion: Allow us to exchange unwanted BLC consumable items for Statuettes.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

@ParagonPaladin.7516 said:

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:Why would they do that when they want people to buy more keys for statuettes? Trash items bloating the RNG pool are a staple of lootboxes for a reason. It works.

I have another, more viable solution to this issue, one that also happens to be on the user end. You are guaranteed far less unwanted BLC items if you never buy BLC keys to open the gamble chests. This way, you 'll only have to deal with the few items you get from the tiny amount of keys in-game. A pretty easy task.

This would be a viable option if I didn't want those BLC only armor, backpack and weapon skins that they like to add for flavor.

Oh well...tough luck then. Literally.

@VDAC.2137 said:Huh, I guess it’s a different concept than the packs I used to buy in SWTOR: I’d always get some things I would like and could sell the rest.

I'm pretty sure I remember cartel packs having useless fluff too. The pool might have been smaller though, at least back then. Haven't played it since the Hutt xpac but I do remember similar threads in their forums too.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

It may be too much to make all consumables tradable, but there's definitely a bunch that could use this. And for others there could be some tweaks:

• Consumables that have an everlasting version are useless for those who have the everlasting one, so add to the BL exchange specialist a tab to trade them for statuettes at rates between 1:3 and 1:50 depending on the gem value of item and how easy it is to get them for free.
  • The banker golem from making a new character with Digital Deluxe would not be usable for this (they are already separate items).
  • Revive orbs: These would be another exception, these should be changed into a currency, so they are always available on the defeat screen without having to carry them around.
• Teleport to friend: Also make them into a currency, and add a teleport panel that we can open with a new button in the minimap toolbar map and/or the upper toolbar.
  • Allow unlocking all teleporting devices in that panel by right clicking them, like the Hall of Monuments portal stone and the home instance portal stone). Teleport to friend would appear at the top of the teleport panel while you have currency.
• Boosters: They already have an NPC to exchange them. But I'd like to have a method to trade time-based boosters for use-based boosters or "augments" that work like the bonus exp from Pools of Reflection in Diablo III.
  • Instead working on a fixed timer, augments would have a fixed 'fuel' that is consumed when you trigger, allowing you to sit around with them on without feeling like you are wasting time, they would work mostly like boosters, but they would the server storage of time variable to store the fuel instead. The higher the benefit (e.g.: XP, WXP, rarity of a dropped item for mf boosters), the more of the fuel is consumed.
  • The upside of using augments would be that you would never waste them if have to go afk as their fuel is only consumed when they trigger, the downside would be that they'll give less overall benefits than timed boosters if you were to take advantage of them for the whole duration. Time-based boosters and fuel-based augments would not stack, having both on would count only the timed one until the time runs out.
• Skins you already have unlocked: Right click and select a new option to trade them for a Transmutation charge.
  • The skins that are extremely cheap like the wintersday toy weapon skins and those that can be obtained endlessly from vendors for free or a very low price would not get this option either.

[Zushada.6108]

@VDAC.2137 said:Huh, I guess it’s a different concept than the packs I used to buy in SWTOR: I’d always get some things I would like and could sell the rest.

I'm pretty sure I remember cartel packs having useless fluff too. The pool might have been smaller though, at least back then. Haven't played it since the Hutt xpac but I do remember similar threads in their forums too.

I had the worst luck with RNG when it came to Cartel Packs. They were similar to BLC but I actually find BLC has more QOL/useful items than Cartel Packs. I would LOVE to see the OPs idea implemented in some way. I have so much crap I would love to trade for something useful.

[kharmin.7683]

@"Zushada.6108" said:I would LOVE to see the OPs idea implemented in some way. I have so much kitten I would love to trade for something useful.

But that is the point. ANet WANTS us to buy more keys to take more chances in the BLCs to get what we want rather than converting "junk" items into statuettes. The current system nets them the better result/profit. Why would they consider a change that would bring in less revenue?

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

@MithranArkanere.8957 said:

• Boosters: They already have an NPC to exchange them.

That's great, I didn't know that! Which NPC? I can't find anything about it on the wiki.

[Ensign.2189]

There is a gambling element to BLCs with its jackpot items, but the statuette loop does not diminish that at all. You can't trade in statuettes for the contracts, or for the rare weapon skins or the (current) set of exclusives.

The other element of a gamble box is providing a grab bag of stuff that can be a reasonable value for the cost. This is actually underappreciated by the industry IMO. Just because it is common doesn't mean it should be junk - there should be value in getting a bunch of stuff from a BLC for a casual player with more money than time.

With that in mind, I think that BLCs don't give out enough 'junk', and that trade ins on that junk that don't substitute meaningfully for the rares only increase the value further. I would expect that to drive an increase in key sales, not a drop.

[JJsan.4268]

Fully a yes on making the unwanted/unneeded things into something useful!Get cracking ArenaNet! :)

[VDAC.2137]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

It's roughly US$1+ per key and for that price, I can get a basic lotto ticket in the US. I figure if I'm buying a dream with impossible odds, I might as well aim big.

See, I never play the lottery because that just makes me feel rather bad and hopeless — I know I’m weird! I only find RNG fun when I at least perceive that I’ll get something of moderate value most of the time with a chance of something great. B)

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

@VDAC.2137 said:Huh, I guess it’s a different concept than the packs I used to buy in SWTOR: I’d always get some things I would like and could sell the rest.

I'm pretty sure I remember cartel packs having useless fluff too. The pool might have been smaller though, at least back then. Haven't played it since the Hutt xpac but I do remember similar threads in their forums too.

@Zushada.6108 said:I had the worst luck with RNG when it came to Cartel Packs. They were similar to BLC but I actually find BLC has more QOL/useful items than Cartel Packs. I would LOVE to see the OPs idea implemented in some way. I have so much kitten I would love to trade for something useful.

It’s entirely possible I misremember (haven’t played in a few years now). I know there was useless fluff too but I thought one always got something. At least that’s the overall feeling it left me with and I used to buy the crates whenever new ones came out. While I like many things better about GW2 (mount utility and dye unlocks and individual dye channels are some of the first that come to mind), I did like that I could sell most everything on the trading post, if I remember right. It’s very frustrating when you get a skin or even “fluff” item that you don’t want but know that others do. Being able to at least trade such things in for statues would be a great improvement from my perspective.

[mauried.5608]

Most people in RL who play lotteries keep doing it on a regular basis even though most never win anything, and most dont even know or care what the astronomical odds are of winning the first prize .Part of the reason is the thrill of possibly winning, ie you have to be in it to win.The BLC is the same , its all about the possibility of getting one of the super rare items , but in this game because everyone wants rewards for doing anything, Anet has to give everyone who opens a BLC something, even if its junk.Would people be happier if it was possible to simply buy the super rare items from a vendor at a far higher price than for example buying several hundred BLC keys?

[Skotlex.7580]

@"mauried.5608" said:Would people be happier if it was possible to simply buy the super rare items from a vendor at a far higher price than for example buying several hundred BLC keys?As far as I know, all those "super rare" items already are available directly for gold: via the trading post.

So they have already a market price, and setting one via statuettes wouldn't affect it much unless it was cheap.

Remember when statuettes were first introduced? Home nodes went down in price tenfold, so it's not like anet wouldn't want to reduce the value of super rare items, since they already did it before.

[Drecien.4508]

Or let you convert them to boosters like they did with the old boosters. At least they'd be used.

[Erasculio.2914]

@"ParagonPaladin.7516" said:Let me trade them back for a couple of statuettes so I can work towards saving for stuff I actually want.

I agree with you.

IMO, saying "ArenaNet is never going to add this because it would mean selling fewer keys" is short-sighted; it's basically saying that ArenaNet would never reward keys in-game, yet we have a reliable way of earning them through map completition.

Just like keys earned in-game have a purpose (to leave players with a "wanting for more" feeling, so they're tempted to buy more keys to see what they would get next time), being able to exchange "trash" for statuettes would also have a purpose: if players knew that even trash items could eventually become profitable, they would be more likely to buy keys, since the chance of a completely worthless result would be smaller.

Just make the requirement high enough (100 of a given item), and exchanging trash for statuettes would likely lead ArenaNet to sell more keys, not less.