Lvl 400 "Public Servant"

793 Posts

Hi everybody!

The trinket system is one of the major strategy pieces within the game. Since the launch of the game, we have been carefully watching how players have been using it and how the odds adjustments have been impacting gameplay. We have noticed three main things:

1) The odds adjust is too low; trinkets don't feel like they really have an effect.
2) There's no reason to buy trinkets you aren't going to use, and not much incentive to buy new trinkets at all.
3) You don't win enough gold to buy all trinkets and still have money left for ranch, trinket slots, energy packs, etc.
4) Some players aren't making the best use of energy regeneration trinkets.

In order to mitigate these issues, we have decided to make some adjustments to the trinket systems. I'll go through each point and what we're doing about it in order.

First off, the odds adjust on each trinket is simply too low. The system was balanced for all trinket slots being unlocked and all trinkets that adjust a given stat being available, however when you only have three or four slots unlocked, and you only have three trinkets that affect a given stat, the system just doesn't adjust your wins enough. Of course, increasing the odds across the board would cause imbalance later, so our solution is called the Odds Rating system. With the Odds Rating system, instead of assigning each trinket some odds directly, we assign it Rating Points, which are converted to odds based on your level. The higher your level, the more points that are required to adjust your odds by 1%. What this means is that a low level trinket with 20 Rating can adjust your odds by 20% at level 1, but by the time you're level 40, it will only add ~5% to your odds. By assigning more Rating on higher level trinkets, we ensure that a player can always make meaningful adjustments to their odds.

The Odds Rating system helps with issue #2 as well, since you're always encouraged to buy the latest versions of the trinkets that adjusts your favorite stats. But that's not all we're doing to fix point #2. We've gone the extra mile and added a new use for old, no longer meaningful trinkets: Trinket Combination. Trinket Combination allows you to take old trinkets that you may no longer use and combine all of their stats into a single trinket slot. The process generally lowers the rating given to each stat, but overall it creates a trinket that is useful at higher levels. For example, one of our new trinkets combines five old trinkets that each increase your rating by 20. The new trinket increases your odds in each stat by 10, but only takes up one trinket slot, instead of 5! On a per slot basis, that trinket gives 50 rating in one slot instead of 20! Very useful!

New trinket schematics can be found in chests or earned from quests out in the world. Some chests in old content had new drops added to them, but all those drops have been automatically given to players who already opened the respective chests.

The third issue was with not having enough gold to purchase all the trinkets. To mitigate this, we've moved some of the trinkets out of the store and into a new crafting system. The new system requires you to collect a number of trinket pieces in order to construct the trinkets from scratch, bypassing the gold requirement. With these trinkets removed from the store, the gold required to purchase all the trinkets is more reasonable for the pace at which you earn it. Players should find themselves with more free cash to use on ranch decorations, energy packs, or just saving up to unlock your next trinket slot. Schematics for crafted trinkets can also be found out in the world.

The new Trinketsmith in the Commons is used for both Trinket Combinations and Trinket Crafting!

Finally, we come to the energy regeneration trinkets. We've found that there are players who simply don't know these trinkets exist, or have them but do not equip them. The time it takes to refill your entire energy bar for any given level is balanced around using both energy regeneration trinkets available, so to further these goals we are going to alter two of the trinket slots to lock in your energy regeneration trinkets at all times. You will not be able to adjust these trinkets, and when you find an upgrade it will automatically be equipped. The two energy regeneration slots will actually be trinket slots #9 and #10 (which would have unlocked at higher levels then are currently available), so everyone will effectively gain two free trinket slots from this change.

That's all! Now get out there and enjoy the new update!

Cheers,
- Justin

FAQ:

Will my trinket odds go down in this update?

Not immediately. The balance is such that any old trinkets you had will, at the old max level, increase your odds by at least as much as they did before (with a few exceptions in the case of puzzle piece and quest item trinkets). As you level up, these old trinkets will lose more power, requiring you to purchase new, more powerful trinkets to replace them.

Can Flux trinkets be combined?

Flux trinkets cannot be combined using the Trinket Combination system at this time. We plan to address this issue in a future update.