Ok, this was not documented in the release notes (I thank you for this), and this is half way corrected by 1.10.
I have to test something but I think you still can generate money out of nothing.
First I must say I'm impressed and very gratefull by the quick reaction on this matter.
In the ticket I wrote, I described 3 exploit, whose combinaition made this possible.
- You corrected #1 (the "hello" thingy) : this is nice, I was thinking it was the most difficult. I am not sure you still can use this by do this, save, reload and do this again). I think there is still a possibility there but let's say it's corrected this way because I would not ask to save those data in the save file.
- #2 was corrected the brutal way (selling those items is now forbid) but if the player still could loot them, the player will soon have hundreds of them clogging the inventory.
I think you should have divided both the selling and buying price by a number I told. Buying one of these item when the merchant sells them for ~200 to 2000 is really too much (really, if you look at what they does in the game, for 1x, it's too expensive), there it's a balance problem.
- Then there was a #3 dismantling exploit. In the ticket I was not sure but it is still here in 1.10. I have to check if you can make money with it, if you buy all items, buy / craft / dismantle / sell dismantled parts instead of crafted items like in the original exploit.
I think #3 is stilll here, (because selling 0.5*20/6 > buying 1). Selling thing should not be allowed to be higher money than buying things. I will make another ticket (more clear this time) if I find new problems, but the #1 fix / #2 brutal fix greatly reduce the effectivness of this.
Thank you !
---------- Updated at 05:06 PM ----------
Ok so now I can tell since I tested that the exploit is out of the game, even by dismantling.
For people who did not know, there was an exploit involving 3 glitches. Before 1.10 you could craft bolts and sell them for 6 times at least what it cost to make. That way you could sell "free" bolts to nearly all merchants in the game and steal their money, but herborists.
#1 is the "hello merchant" exploit.
Problem - Saying "What do you have for selling" before 1.10 pach refilled the merchant inventory with basic wares. Using that bug, you could craft infinite bolts, in particular the frangmentation bolt which use basic wares.
Solution brang with 1.10 - The merchant don't refill inventory with basic wares when saying hello.
My tests about this - Nicely fixed. Now the merchant doesn't refill the inventory anymore unless... You still can make refill a merchant inventory by buying, then saving the game then reload. Asking the game to save every merchant in the save game is not a request. If some player want to abuse this, it's not a problem for me, that is their time after all.
#2 is the "item in batch" price
Problem - bolts are created in 20x packs. Buying them or selling them is based on their material + crafting cost x20 for a (buggy) reason. Say buying crafting a pack of frag bolt cost 116, you could sell them for 440/660/880 depending of the merchant level. Using #1, you could infiny craft bolt that you could sell to many merchants around.
Solution brang with 1.10 - You can't sell bolts.
My tests about this - I understand this is solution as a "quickfix" but wow I think that was a to much quick fix maybe
Why not having changed their price to their current price divided by 20 as suggested in the ticket ?
The player still can loot bolts, now after 1.10 I think they will clog the inventory (unless dismantled / sold).
Currently, I can buy back the bolt I created using the exploit before 1.10 from Hattori for
223 a unit (see end of post for conditions).
Shooting one bolt should not cost you 223. Shooting 20 bolts for 223 could be ok.
Crafting 20 frag bolts from materials cost 116. It's ok to pay 223 for 20 that you don't craft, not 223 for only one bolt when you craft 20 for 116. Today 20 merchant frag bolts cost 4460, or you could craft them for 116, your choice
That way, you could still permit the player to buy their bolts for 223 / 20 = 12 rounded up (so full price for 20x bolts should be, in fact,
240) then divide by the selling factor (if that's / 5, then it's, say, 2 rounded down per bolt. So selling 20 frag bolts would be 40).
That would cost you 116 to craft, you can sell for 40 and not craft for 116 and sell for 880 like before 1.10.
Actual bolt price are direasonnably too high. I think they are 20 times too high because of this, so changing their price to 20 times less would rebalance the game in a good way
.
#3 - dismantling bolts nets you 20x too much materials
Problem - dismantling 20x frag bolts from a master crafter gives you enough materials to craft 400 of them.
Solution brang with 1.10 - I think none.
My tests about this - I craft the 20 bolts for 116 + dismantled 20 for 240 = 356. Sold materials = 260. I had to test this before talking about the exploit in public.
That's err... Unlogic but at least it's not an economical exploit anymore (if you infiny craft bolts, you go for a theorical 32+240 buy limit, then sell for 260, so you still lose money), unless you want to shoot infiny bolts without seeking the materials or
find easy silver for all your witcher swords.
I understand it's maybe uneasy to fix as you need to go "behind" the dismantling screen UI, but it's still a problem.
You should only dismantle bolts by batch of 20.
So:
When looking at a bolt stack in dismantling screen
- for the scale "ticks" divide by 20 rounded down
- for bolts displays ticks x 20
- and don't forget to erase ticks x 20 if the player hit ok.
- Hoping refine material quantity is based on ticks on this screen.
- I don't know what other impacts (dismantling price ?) : irl I'm a dev but not working with you guys
)
Testing conditions
1.10 patch, 1st saturday after 1.1 release (before HoS release)
Gerald level 26 (since merchant inventory levels with Gerald's levels)
Hattori master crafter (after his quest)
Shopping list:
3 feather cost 3
3 wood cost 6
1 meteorite mineral cost 21
1 steel ingot cost 3
1 silver ingot are get from 2x silver mineral for 36, crafted for 15 = 51
Fragmentation bolt craft cost 32.
Dismantling 20x frag bolts = 240
Nets you:
- 60 feathers, sold for 60
- 60 wood, sold for 60
- 20 meteorite minerals, sold for 20
- 20 steel ingot, sold for 20
- 20 silver ingot, sold for 100
=> meaning easy silver : 20 silver ingot for 356 - 160 (selling other parts) = 196, instead of 20x51 = 1020 (price crafting from minerals you got using glitch #1 with a tedious load/reload)
Total to craft 20 fragmentation bolts = 116
Buying 20 new fragmentation bolts (the one I crafted using that exploit before) = 4460 (should be
240 (not 223, see #2))
Selling 20 fragmentation bolts = impossible (should be possible in my opinion, sold for 40)
Total to craft 20 fragmentation bolts, then dismantle = 356
Total to sell dismantled materials = 260 (should be 13)
ANYWAY, AGAIN, JUST "BECAUSE" : I <3 you guys !! You were very very quick to adress this, I'm really surprised. The problem was maybe more complicated than how I described it, so part of this situation is totally my fault. I hope you have enough elements here for this problem. This is now an item exploit (especially the "rare by design" silver).
Anyway, <3 !
