Mystery Box

edited May 2015 in Ideas
The Mystery Box is an empty box that Glitchen can purchase from Vendors. After getting one, they can put in an item and give the box away. The box is now locked.

At this point, a hidden system comes into play—players will not see the value. Every time the box is passed along, it gains 1 point towards unlocking. If passed to a friend, it only gains a half of a point, and if passed to someone who has held it within the last, let's say, 37 passes, it gains no points.

Once it reaches, say, 100 points, or maybe a random prime number nearby, the box unlocks—but that doesn't mean it has to be open. The item placed inside will be multiplied or improved the more points the box gets. Around 31 points, a cherry may become two bananas, or a chick Cubimal may become a more rare one. After 100, the levels above grow more and more rare, with potential artifacts up in the 300 range.

When a player eventually opens the box, they will be told what was initially placed inside of it, and who put it there. Perhaps they could write a thank-you note!

In addition, when the box is opened, perhaps every player who passed it along gets a nice bonus! Especially players who decided to pass it along once it was unlockable instead of opening it!

Comments

  • Seems a *little* too harsh, 100 passes? How about it can't be done by the same person in x many glitch days, allowing people to get their box to stay alive. Also, I'm not sure the artifact thing would work. Maybe mystery box specific artifacts? Also, when you buy it you don't get to choose what goes in you just get to see what's in? Anyway I really like the idea and hope it gets built in!
  • Well, the deal with the artifact thing is that it would be really unlikely that you'd open your box and find it, because it would require a very large number of passes while the box is unlocked. In addition, yeah, a time thing like you said would probably be better, though the reason for the limitation on passing to friends is that this is supposed to encourage giving to random people.
  • edited May 2015
    +we are durza with respect, i beg your pardon here but in stating my humble opinion i apologize as it differs in outlook. i say keep the 100 passes and definitely count on the artifact thing working. cause if i know glitchen it won't take long till there are box sharing groups, box trading groups, black market box groups, unopened 100 passes silent auction parties, box hoarders groups, box hoarders and the glitchen who lobe them groups and it will just go on and on and on into infinity. lol. #29 reasons i love glitchen so hard.
  • While I do disagree with a lot of what We Are Durza said, I do at the least agree that if a Glitchen had already passed it, it should allow them to add a point by passing if it's been awhile since they had it.
  • edited May 2015
    I really like this idea too. I like the high challenge level, and the cooperativity it promotes, and like @coolbetty and others, I see a lot of potential for emergent community gameplay as a result of its introduction.
    One refrain I often hear is not to forget about the solo player, though. Not everyone wants to join an organized madhouse event or belong to a group. I think that it would be good if there was a way to allow a singleton mystery box player to cycle through the whole unlocking ritual, but with the goal that it takes something like 1 Ur year to unlock a box provided you attend to it regularly - I think maybe a cooldown of 7 Ur days. And it would be fun if maybe the mechanism to attempt it solo was something other than passing it - maybe attempting to Pick the lock? Maybe you'd need to make lockpicks, after learning how from a Smuggler if you have the appropriate level of Tinkering. Maybe once you attempt to pick the lock it can't be unlocked the usual way. Maybe lock picking attempts are only cumulative to the player making them, making it impossible to pick 100/101 times and then sell it for someone else to finish and open. I also think that once the box is unlocked it can be passed normally no matter how it was unlocked.

    Of course, this would also present community building opportunities, as people make a business out of prepping Mystery boxes.

    Oh! And I also think that you should get the boxes from the Rube, not vendors! I think the Rube should offer them at higher proportions to higher level players, for whom the Rube is less useful and typically just look for a doll. This would get them out into circulation, I think?
  • I like the idea of the Rube carrying them.

    And yes, still being able to pass them after unlocking was the idea. The thing is, passes after unlocking count for a lot more, and at certain levels of passes, the item inside can become an artifact, but this requires over half the passes to have happened while the box was unlocked, which, even in a community like this, isn't entirely likely, as that would be between 200 and 300 passes.
  • @seeen yes, that was my understanding! I just meant that although lock picking and passing were meant to be separate pathways to unlocking the box, once it was unlocked it could be passed either way.
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