Shop Renovation

DeletedUser

Problem:

Shops get boring, or don't carry good items (or any of the other common shop-related gripes).

It admittedly doesn't seem fair that through all of the massive work required for upgrading shops, the town's rewards come down to cold, unfeeling luck. Some have suggested inventory rotation (no), some have suggested that shops sell whatever is sold to them (no). None of these ideas are feasible or friendly (in my opinion).

Solution:

Shop Renovation.

Once a shop has reached its final level, clicking on "Construction" for that building will take you to a familiar construction window, but with "Renovation" as the window title.

Shop Renovation's difficulty is 10% higher than the previous upgrade/renovation.
Example: Difficulty for upgrading the Gunsmith to level 15 is 180 with a maxed-out Town Hall. So, the first renovation's difficulty would be 198. The next renovation for the Gunsmith would be 218. The next would be 240, and so on.

Experience gained may raise with each renovation, to a cap of 60-70% (or something).

With each renovation, one random item in the shop is upgraded, like thus:
Gray Shawl --> Red Shawl
Plain Metal Cross --> Silver Cross (or gold if Silver is already there, etc.)
Derringer --> Precise Derringer
And so on.

In some case, if there are no gray, rusty or metal objects, then a colored item might simply change to another color (but cannot get downgraded to gray). So, if your Tailor has no gray items, a red shirt might upgrade to a Fancy Shirt, or it may simply become a Green Shirt.

So, the feature's item upgrade priority is:
Upgrade rusty, metal and gray items first.
Then, it's a random upgrade for any item that isn't already fancy, precise, etc.
If all items are maxed out (Gunsmith), then nothing happens. Congratulations.

Effect on Game Mechanics:

  • This feature allows towns to work toward bettering their shops late in the game. The rewards may be subtle (or even completely underwhelming; i.e. "Rotten Club --> Club"), or the rewards may be wonderful (i.e. "Gray Shawl --> Brown Shawl").
  • The feature tracks how many times it's used per building, and adjusts the difficulty each time accordingly (+10% per renovation). This prevents repetitive renovation on one building in order to "max out gear." Sure, it's possible to have a "perfect" Gunsmith, but it's going to take you a very, very long time -- and lots of cash -- to get there.
  • The feature bolsters town pride, resident-retention, gives Builders something to live for after the 42,800, and allows the excitement of wondering "what are we gonna get?!" to continue past the 10-10-15 milestone.
  • Points gathered while renovating do NOT affect the town's point total. 42800 remains the max.
  • It may be nice to feature a designation beside the Shop's level while viewing the shop's inventory. Example: Level 10 (R3)

SUMMARY:
1. The item to be upgraded or re-colored is generally RANDOM each time. You literally CANNOT plan for a "perfect shop."
2. Each renovation becomes exceedingly more difficult than the previous one.
3. You carry the risk of a colored item you like changing to an item you do not like. "Upgrade" is a relative term!!
4. Every town's gunsmith has at least 2-4 rusty weapons. This means that you have to conduct 3-5 renovations before you upgrade a regular weapon to a precise weapon, and it just MAY be your slingshot.
 
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DeletedUser

Fancy items are not always the best items for all jobs. The Brown Riding boots are better than Fancy riding boots for many jobs - an upgrade is therefore not always good, depends on what skills is required.
 

DeletedUser

Exactly (to all replies).

1. Not all upgrades will be liked. That's just the nature of the beast!
2. Renovation are ONLY available for maxed shops.
3. Towns can continue to develop, albeit somewhat slowly.
 

DeletedUser8950

I like it, however maybe make it harder to renovate then to build?

Also, as said, fancy spiked shoes are worse then brown ones for fighting, fancy boots are worse then brown boots for fighting, so not entirely necessary.
Still, another good idea courtesy of yellow dart!
 

DeletedUser

No. 2 days work = all the best stuff = bad

Rebuttal:
1. 2 days work? By my estimation, a single renovation (which upgrades only one, random item) would require at least 2-3 days -- presuming you have lots of dedicated builders and a steady, high cash flow. Remember that each subsequent renovation adds +10% difficulty for that building. By the fourth renovation of the gunsmith, your best builders are going to be aching. Even after four renovations, you are not guaranteed to have "all the best stuff." For instance: with the gunsmith, you would need around 10-15 renovations to guarantee all precise weapons in an average town. Doing the math, the difficulty for just the 10th renovation would be... hm... 515-ish! How many builders do you know with the chops for that kind of labor?? :)

2. Measures can be taken by developers to make rapid-fire renovation extremely difficult. And if a town wants to plunk down the cash and sweat, why shouldn't they be able to? Let's remember that players are already able to buy any shop item in the game currently (via traveling). Even if a town ends up with "perfect" shops, it doesn't make its members demi-Gods (in the grand scheme). ;)

3. Motivation: the ultimate equalizer. 1500 building points at 198 difficulty is going to require some time, and it's going to blow through builder motivation pretty quickly.

This feature is NOT intended to be a quick way of maxing your items, and there is literally no feasible way to make it work that way. It is merely a way for towns to better their shops over an extended period of time. This also helps developers. More goals in-game = higher player retention. To be honest, the real intent of the feature isn't even to upgrade items; it's to add continued play-value!

Also, as said, fancy spiked shoes are worse then brown ones for fighting, fancy boots are worse then brown boots for fighting, so not entirely necessary.

Exactly. What I truly like about this concept is that there is still an element of risk, especially in the Tailor. You're gambling... does my Green Checkered Shirt become a spiffy Flannel Shirt, or does it just become a lousy Blue Checkered Shirt -- or do my Checkered Shirts even change at all??

Only the shadow knows!
 
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DeletedUser

My builder is only lvl 40 and already has 650 total used skill points at construction... so you 500+ is not undoable... and as said not all fancy items are better than colored, so there could be an option, that the town founder can mark items in shop, which then would not be upgraded...
 

DeletedUser

Maybe just more work to add more like items after you max out. Ex: You already have the yellow indian necklace, you will still have it afterwards, but also have a red indian necklace. Therefore, no items will be lost, but more available.
 

DeletedUser

Maybe just more work to add more like items after you max out. Ex: You already have the yellow indian necklace, you will still have it afterwards, but also have a red indian necklace. Therefore, no items will be lost, but more available.
I would tend to go with the first one, because this way families have a higher chance of getting every item (bad thing)
 

DeletedUser

i suggest that the new item be random(better or worse) if you renovate it shoulg pose a risk to you too.
 

DeletedUser

It seems to be a really great idea. There are already numerous max-out towns, and many of them still have cash remaining in their town treasury. Above all other things, the fact that towns can always grow further is a key advantage of this idea. I hope this could be implemented soon.
 

DeletedUser

Maybe just more work to add more like items after you max out. Ex: You already have the yellow indian necklace, you will still have it afterwards, but also have a red indian necklace. Therefore, no items will be lost, but more available.

I like the idea from start but need some tweaks like yoru idea here.
Just add a random item to the shop.

May it be rusty gun when you allready have one.
It should be very expensive to upprade and this way it will be
 

DeletedUser

i suggest that the new item be random(better or worse) if you renovate it shoulg pose a risk to you too.

I believe there is already inherent risk -- at least with the General Store and Tailor.

Black Shawl --> Red Shawl = most town members will be a pretty bummed out.

I do not think items should be altogether downgraded (Black Shawl --> Gray Shawl). Renovations cost a lot of time and cash, especially for "normal" towns (who are not part of massive town families). I would propose that MOST towns fit into this category, so if most towns are putting everything they have into renovations, I believe the rewards should be -- at worst -- a push (A Green Top Hat changing to a Yellow Top Hat is arguably not good, but nobody's going to cry over it).

Some folks have mentioned the "Brown Boots/Fancy Boots" scenario, as well...

Most players agree outright that the Brown Boots are "better" than the Fancy Boots (100% true for duelers). If your Tailor has Brown Boots and Black Boots, and a renovation upgrades your Brown Boots to Fancy Boots, some of your members will be quite sad. As I've stated: that's the risk of renovating. Not all "upgrades" are as good as they seem.

A lot of people are underestimating the full cost of renovation, I feel. The process is anything but "easy," certainly not cheap, and definitely not a way to guarantee "perfect" shops, even with the Gunsmith. Example: Your first 3-4 Gunsmith Renovations may upgrade your Broken Whiskey Bottle, your Club, and your Slingshot. There is no way to know which items will be affected by any given renovation!

I do appreciate all of the input. As long as it keeps coming, the idea gets more attention and developers are more likely to catch wind of it. Hint hint. ;)
 
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DeletedUser

This does seem like a pretty good, and well thought out idea. Something to allow towns further growth would obviously be very popular. Personally I'm hoping that the developers have some plans of their own to add to towns in the future, or do you think I'm being overly optimistic?
 
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