TOPIC: Kurtreznor 2013 Review: Treasure

So, of course i have something to say about the treasure boxes.

my treasure experience this year started thursday night after the 7pm grind. one friend and i were also on the 9pm grind and went right to prepping for that. my wife wandered off with her one treasure token and came back 5 minutes later with a greater cloak of destiny! my jaw hit the floor. it wasnt until after the second grind that i went over and found out that one of the treasure boxes was loaded. i tried to watch and compare people's results to the monster bit box, but hardly anyone was pulling from it. by the end of friday night, i had LOTS of treasure tokens (golden apple=HoP for party, plus a few friends who send all the tokens my way for equipping everyone), so we pulled some from both boxes. after about 30-40 pulls from the monster bit box, i solidly decreed that ALL our treasure should come from the gear box the rest of the weekend. sure, monster bits might be worth extra in a year or two, but the relics pulled are easily worth more.

not knowing about the arcane recipe being used, i was VERY worried about the token economy. it seemed like jeff was just daring us to hold to our 'monster bit box is better' comments from before gencon, and went overboard with loading the gear box. now knowing the story behind, it is at least understandable, but shouldnt actually change the reaction; if the box is bad for token values, the why it happened doesnt matter.

so, really, was it bad for token values? theoretically, following supply and demand, more supply will cause prices to drop. but that will only happen if these tokens are offered up for sale (and a lot of people pulling them probably wont sell them). also, the gear box may have increased demand some as well. i know that i limited my relic making because i didnt NEED three of them, but now that i have a different relic that i may be able to trade for it, i want another (ie. i am looking for a girdle of frost giant). sure, some will sell for less now, but that is because the people who got them dont value them as highly, once the relics make their way to people who want them, prices will probably go back to where they were.

The only issue that might come up, is the potential precedent this sets (or reinforces for those thinking of previous 'one-time special offers'). while some big buyers are happy to fund true dungeon for a small reward (which jeff always makes sure is a good reward for the big buyers), many players will not be willing to pay $1000 for $500 worth of tokens if prices fall across the board.

also, either the pulls we made for monster bits were unlucky, or the monster bit box was really weak on monster bits this year. not sure which, since i dont have much data to work with.

You do know that someone turned in an Arcane Recipe to spike the Gear Box pulls right? That's why the Gear Box was full of Relics and UR tokens. It will *not* be that way next year.

As for the Trophy Box, yeah, it seemed like Monster Trophies were hard to come by as compared to last year.

However, keep in mind this is the first year they split the boxes like that. The ratio to the Trophy Box was off a little bit, but then they can attempt to fix that next year. I was fine with it being a little off since this was the first time anything like that box split had been done - getting that ratio right is tricky.

Being behind the desk where Treasure was pulled on Thursday and Sunday, I would estimate on the percentage of monster bit at 10 to 15% on Thursday and a bit higher on Sunday. But on Sunday monster bits were coming out of the gear box we were using near the end, so that skewed the results.

I don't envy the volunteers manning the treasure boxes next year, when the hundreds (thousands) of players that don't go to the forums expect a box full of relics again and are disappointed that it only has rares/uncommons/monster tokens in it.

It might be good for Jeff to go into detail on a newsletter why the treasure box was so special this year and why that was a one-year only thing, so people don't have unrealistic expectations next year

Mike Steele wrote: It might be good for Jeff to go into detail on a newsletter why the treasure box was so special this year and why that was a one-year only thing, so people don't have unrealistic expectations next year

Quoted for Truth.
(bold emphasis mine)

I agree with both Raven and Mike on the need for this to be addressed in a newsletter.

I'll agree with that, even though I benefited (and fervently wish I'd known for my first of two runs to go to that box).

As is...I'm trying to think of an appropriate way of saying "Thanks" to...was it Whirt? Trying to theme a few tokens I have along with a duck.

As it was, I enjoyed it...I'll hope to get lucky on a few pulls next year, though will be missing having a HoP effect.

Raven wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: It might be good for Jeff to go into detail on a newsletter why the treasure box was so special this year and why that was a one-year only thing, so people don't have unrealistic expectations next year

Quoted for Truth.
(bold emphasis mine)

I agree with this statement.

As someone who pulled a ton of tokens from the monster bits (bucket), I can tell you that my average was around 19%. So, I am faily confident in estimating the ratio between 15 and 20 percent.

It seems a lot less than last year (I pulled over 40% last year) but last year was an anomaly. In previous years the best I pulled was around 25%.

I only got a couple of rares (everything else was just uncommon) from the gear box but I was appreciative of it as this was my first year playing True Dungeon. I certainly felt gear was more appropriate to get myself set up for next year. I am hoping that they continue to have some impressive goodies hiding in that gear box for us "new kids" just coming into this game.

I have a recommendation for all the large pullers of tokens (I did it this year). Don't look at your pulls at the box. Pull them and move along so the next person can pull. When we are pulling 16 tokens each it slows down the line if you look at them as you pull them out. I stood behind one guy that pulled out 20 tokens individually and then examined each one. I pull them out in bunches and if they are face down I don't care because it will not change what it is when I look at them five seconds later when I am no longer standing at the box. I know it is an odd relax but it will make the line for pulls move faster. The only negative is the volunteers working the boxes get mad because they want to see what you pull too....lol.

jedibcg wrote: I have a recommendation for all the large pullers of tokens (I did it this year). Don't look at your pulls at the box. Pull them and move along so the next person can pull. When we are pulling 16 tokens each it slows down the line if you look at them as you pull them out. I stood behind one guy that pulled out 20 tokens individually and then examined each one. I pull them out in bunches and if they are face down I don't care because it will not change what it is when I look at them five seconds later when I am no longer standing at the box. I know it is an odd relax but it will make the line for pulls move faster. The only negative is the volunteers working the boxes get mad because they want to see what you pull too....lol.

Huzzah!

I wish I had known about the special box before it ran out after my Saturday runs, especially b/c of the AoW effect.