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Treasure Card Vault and Potion/Elixir Cabinet Solutions

AuthorMessage
Explorer
Oct 24, 2019
89
There seems to be a variety of discussions about why Treasure Card Vaults or Potion/Elixir Cabinets are never coming. I have a solution to both of these that could help bring both concepts back to the table.
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According to Ratbeard on Twitter about the Treasure Card Vault:
Consumables are meant to be consumed and not hoarded. Hoarding damages the Availability and Consumption Economy. The Deckathalon was created to promote the usage of TCs, thus scrapping the Vault.

What Ratbeard didnt mention also is that certain TCs like Empowers ended up creating an "underground market/trading system" that couldn't be controlled and that Kingsisle didn't intend to happen because Kingsisle set the Selling scale too high for Empowers.

Also, rare cards are being hoarded and simply never used (Simplify, Elucidate, etc.) for people to "claim that their Accounts are worth more or have more clout because of the rarity of the TCs they possess than others"

(Realize that Accounts regardless of having Elucidates/Lifebanes/etc. on it or not will be WORTHLESS if Kingsisle ever had to shut their doors. They're digital pieces of coding, nothing tangible or sell worthy if your Account simply ceases to exist)
(Rare TCs are also being used as alternative currency to Empowers)

Lastly, there were some people with extensive tampering knowledge that had abused the TC system by duplicating cards or obtaining illegal TCs that were not meant for Player consumption.

The above reasons have been cited for TC Vaults being impractical.
But what if you could do any one or more of the following...:

1. Illegal TCs (TCs not available by standard sources in the Game (Excludes: Old Packs, Boss Drops) such as Youkai, Star Blade, Moon Trap, etc.) become MARKED that if ANY Player possesses them (In Pack, In TC Housing Frames, In Vault, etc), they're AUTOMATICALLY banned.
(Some will comment "but what if a Player didnt know theyre illegal", take your case to Kingsisle and explain the situation. Kingsisle has the tools to backtrack chat logs and determine if you intentionally knew if whether or not the TCs you obtained were illegal. What do you have to hide if you didnt know they were illegal? Kingsisle isnt a ruthless robot that many people claim them to be.)

2. Empowers and Other Alternative Currency TCs become limited to 64 per Character (Size of a TC Side Deck in All Decks). This would basically create a dent in the Underground Market as it'd make it more time consuming and tedious to continue trading large amounts of Empowers and Other Currency TCs for Services, Rare TCs, Items, etc.
(I am aware that this wouldnt "end" the Market as there are some Players whose Accounts SOLELY store Empower TCs and that you could have more than 1 Character on a Single Account but it would be a measure to make people become more miserable at the limitations and hopefully curb some, not all of the Market.)

3. All TCs (Except Currency TCs) in Wizard101 would be at a carry limit of 100. (Could also be 64)
(Example: You may only possess 100 Tower Shields on a Single Character, 100 Fireblades, 100 Myth Traps, etc.)

4. Place a No Trading Label on Empowers, Other Currency TCs (Frozen Armor, etc.) and Extremely Rare TCs.
(Effectively killing the entire Underground Market, people would be forced to share real world money or help other Players quest/breed/etc. for Services/TCs/etc. going forward.)

5. New System to reject TC Trades that have only 1 Character trading TCs to another.
(Meaning a Trade is an ACTUAL TRADE and not someone dumping cards off or abusing Empowers to another Player. You could take this even further by adding that Trading TCs requires the same number of Cards by traded to BOTH Players. Example: 5 Firecats for 5 Frost Beetles, 3 Keen Eyes for 3 Toughs, etc.)

6. Devalue Currency TC Selling Rates to 1 Gold.
(You would still need to buy them at full price however)

7. Set TCs to expire after a certain amount of time if they're unused. I propose 1-3 months.
(If they're supposed to be Magical Cards that you can only occasionally obtain and use only once, Kingsisle could create some new Lore about them that basically says that the Materials within Treasure Cards are feeble and tear the Cards easily over time. This would force Players to NOT hoard cards and can open the idea for a TC Vault to be more practical as the Vault could come with "Special Powers" that keep your Treasure Cards safe until you need them. Taking them out of the Vault would effectively restart the Card's timers at 1-3 Months.)

8. New "No Vaulting" and "No Return" Labels.
(You want a way to forbid players from adding 999 Fire Cats into the Vault? Slap a "No Vaulting" label on it! You can also slap a "No Vaulting" label on TCs that you don't want Players to hoard like Empowers, Elucidates, etc. Can't find a way to prevent Players from abusing the Vault by putting TCs back in the Vault repeatedly, resetting the timers constantly after they've initially been taken out of the Vault? Put a "No Return" Label on Cards that have been taken OUT of the Vault!)

(I personally like and prefer the 8th idea the most, paired with a couple of other ones above)

When it comes to the TC Vault itself, to prevent Players from having 399250 cards in their Vault, you could simply restrict the number of storable cards to 2000. (Crown Worth of Vaults in Wizard101)
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The above suggestions are NOT meant to eliminate the Deckathalon, they're intended to promote some solutions that can allow Kingsisle to come out of their shell and allow their scrapped ideas to shine once more.

I always HATE wasting resources. Someone in Kingsisle put so much time and effort into making the TC Vault to make it so cool looking and usable only for it to go to waste.
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Next, the Potion/Elixir Cabinet. I don't think its been mentioned by Kingsisle for any reason why Potion/Elixir Cabinets couldn't be a thing in Wizard101 but I suspect that it has to do with the same reason why the TC Vault is a problematic feature.

Hoarding

Just like Treasure Cards, there are things that Kingsisle could do to promote the idea for Players to use their elixirs more often and having the Potion/Elixir Cabinet be healthily introduced in a way that won't promote extreme hoarding. The ideas below could help better stimulate active purchasing of newer Elixirs.

The ideas are as follows:

1. Set Potions to expire after a certain amount of time. I equally propose 1-3 months
(This would force Players to use Elixirs more regularly and make Elixirs feel more Valuable and Special)

2. New System that would DECREASE Elixir effectiveness over time if the Elixir isn't consumed.
(Example: Hyper Elixirs would decrease from 500 Health/Mana, 15% Misc. Stats to 250 Health/Mana, 5% Misc. Stats in 1 Month and then to 100 Health/Mana, 1% Misc. Stats in 2-3 Months.)
(Timer Elixirs like Double Pet XP, Double Gardening, etc. would scale back by Time instead of Stats. Example: 1 Hour Double Pet XP would decrease to 30 Minutes in 1 Month and then 5 minutes in 2-3 Months.)

3. Elixir Carrying Limits in the Pack, Bank, and Cabinet
(I feel like 8 Elixirs of a kind per Character is fair. Example: 8 Vengeful Elixirs, 8 Major Gold Elixirs, 8 Mega Health Elixirs, etc.)

4. Slap ALL Elixirs with a "No Bank Trade" label
(Can't migrate any Elixirs to other Characters to continue hoarding Elixirs as easily)

With the above, a Potion/Elixir Cabinet would allow the Player to store Elixirs within it that will not expire again until AFTER being taken out of the Cabinet. Taking an Elixir out of the Cabinet will reset the Elixir's Expiration Timer. To prevent any expiration abuse, Elixirs can be labelled as "No Return" when taken out of the Cabinet.

Kingsisle can also limit how many Elixirs players can place into the Cabinet. I propose 50.
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For those that say, "what if a Player's been on Vacation/Away/etc. or their Connection dies/goes out?"
You can discuss amongst others on what would be fair or not in those instances.
I personally wouldn't consider any exceptions.
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I figure that I'd consider it fair that Players who have more TCs and Potions than the limits would allow at the time of these adjustments being implemented should KEEP their current overlimit numbers of TCs and Potions but simply CANNOT add anymore of that kind of TC or Potion to any inventory. Thus forcing people to deplete their overlimits to obtain more similar TCs and Potions.
Vaults and Cabinets can also instead of preventing expiration, simply DELAY the expiration, if Kingsisle feels thats justifiable. (Example: Any TC or Potion left in the Vault/Cabinet would have their Life extended by a certain amount of time but still be slapped with a "No Return" label if they're taken out for immediate consumption)

Kingsisle could also make the Vaults and Cabinets, Limit 1 PER CHARACTER.

Lastly, the Expiration Concept could also be taken to Pet Snacks to devalue Snack Hoarding and promote consistent recollecting.
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I REALLY would like to receive a response about this specifically from Jetsers, Mattnetic AND Ratbeard to hopefully consider any of these adjustments that could help better promote the idea of having these Vaults and Cabinets.

Explorer
Oct 24, 2019
89
Providing some Edits to my original Idea:
~TC Vault Idea 4 - I meant "No Selling" instead of "No Trading", you could technically also do "No Trading" for those who trade Empowers to others to sell towards the Bazaar
~TC Vault Idea 8 - The 999 Fire Cat bit was meant to convey the idea of not having so many TCs in the Vault but I didnt word it well AT ALL. "No Vaulting" more or less should be for Cards that've been abusable. You COULD limit how many of a single TC can be deposited into the Vault like 100 for example.

Making long threads isn't easy.

I'd also like to add that I spaced to think about "Gift Windows"

I'd think to put Time Limits on redeeming those as well, regardless if its a "Gift", "Friend Gift", "Timed Reward" or "Crown Reward" for TCs, Potions, etc.

Champion
Nov 22, 2008
447
Maybe I just don't understand the problem, but it seems to me like you want to add items to the game to solve a problem (not being able to keep consumables around) but also are proposing mechanics to solve the problem thus discouraging the need for such an item.

While I agree rare cards being hoarded is very unfortunate and TCs that are unobtainable should be removed, I don't believe the Empower Economy should suffer. A lot of this was brought up recently in a discussion about people Empower scamming. Basically any TC you label as a "currency TC" and limit the quantity of or reduce the value of no longer remains a "currency TC" and other TCs will rise to take it's place, either ones which are "worth" more, but have a higher barrier to entry, or ones with similar bazaar sellback value. By targeting any specific TC you reduce it's value entirely.

I don't think there's ever a solution that everyone will like to the consumable issue other than "USE THEM." The point of deckathalon

Explorer
Oct 24, 2019
89
rest on Mar 2, 2021 wrote:
Maybe I just don't understand the problem, but it seems to me like you want to add items to the game to solve a problem (not being able to keep consumables around) but also are proposing mechanics to solve the problem thus discouraging the need for such an item.

While I agree rare cards being hoarded is very unfortunate and TCs that are unobtainable should be removed, I don't believe the Empower Economy should suffer. A lot of this was brought up recently in a discussion about people Empower scamming. Basically any TC you label as a "currency TC" and limit the quantity of or reduce the value of no longer remains a "currency TC" and other TCs will rise to take it's place, either ones which are "worth" more, but have a higher barrier to entry, or ones with similar bazaar sellback value. By targeting any specific TC you reduce it's value entirely.

I don't think there's ever a solution that everyone will like to the consumable issue other than "USE THEM." The point of deckathalon
The Empower Economy promotes an UNHEALTHY form of trading as people need to suffer by accumulating a ridiculous amount of Empowers for TCs, Services, etc.

I always hated the fact people charge whatever it is now for Pigsie TC (100? 150? Empowers) for a single Pigsie TC, that's someone's ENTIRE day wasting away collecting that many Empowers for a SINGLE ONE TC and on top of that you need to collect 10 of them to make a craft.

The meaning of Loremaster Farming/Grinding, etc. is diminished if people are just gonna Empower Trade everything.

Once you label something as "Currency TC" and limit quantity or reduce prices, others will take its place.
If you take out the main players, you'll have TCs leftover that're worth less than 500 Gold. I understand that "Selling TCs" will still exist but I am proposing things that would make it more difficult for people to abuse the original systems of selling TCs. Rules and INTENDED SYSTEMS are meant to be followed, not broken.

I dont think theres ever a solution other than Use Them
Start spitting some ideas out there and lets see what we all make of them. Perhaps we could make this thread into the be all and end all thread for officially approving or disapproving of the TC Vault and Potion Cabinet alongside solutions for TCs. Solutions and Discussions always begin when someone is brave enough to step forward and speak amongst the Crowd, in this case the Forums. Even if their opinions on things (Especially the Empower Market) doesn't meet your expectations and standards. I am a sort of gaming purist and traditionalist, anything that comes out of that traditionalism I see as problematic while others see it as opportunity. Hopefully with this thread, we can meet somewhere in the middle.

(Before people say well "Empower Farming" and "Loremaster Farming" are the same thing (Time Consuming, Grinding, etc.), I point you back to my traditionalist and purist statement. You can cheat and buy a $5 999 Empower Package from an Online Retailer to get your Pigsie Spell or grind Empowers and help feed a corrupted Economy Market if you want while I prefer the old fashioned method of grinding and playing the game the way the Developers wanted me to play to earn my rewards. I'm a Player from the 90s who grew up without the technology that made it easy for you today to circumvent grinding video games altogether, (not to say I want or need to inflict old fashion practices on players today as things will always change in life). What you see as the same, I see as different. Opinions, we all have them.)