Sorry for using the CoX terms in the title, what are we calling these in CoT again? I digress...
Here's my idea:
Salvage in CoX didn't have a level number written on it, but different types only dropped at different character levels. This made certain high-level salvage comparatively cheap, because there were a lot of level-capped toons running around, and it made some lower level stuff (like Alchemical Solver for example) comparatively more expensive, since people didn't spend as much time gaming at the level range over which tat stuff used to drop.
So to prevent that, I propose a system whereby all salvage is "level-less" in the sense that it still doesn't have a level number written on it like a SO or IO did, but as you level up, the odds of getting something that is considered "high level salvage" are really low and then they improve as you level up.
The Rogue-like game Moria has something like this. If you're on dungeon level X, then when you defeat a monster, it randomizes your treasure by consulting the random treasure table for dungeon level X, BUUUT before doing that, it rolls a die (I think a 12-sider) and if that die comes up "12" it will instead draw your loot from a different level's treasure table. Thus some really snazzy items find their way into the hands of low level characters somewhat infrequently, and the odds of getting that stuff get better as you progress.
The upshot is, the treasure tables pretty much just get expanded by level, so the "Potion of Apple Juice" or "Ration of Food" drop can still happen even at really deep dungeon levels too.
This system would be a good way to keep the higher level loot more valuable and the lower level loot less valuable, while still allowing the lowbie to find the occasional "WOW!" salvage item.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
To be honest, the only real problem with the old CoX system was that you could *outlevel* your mobs so that they never gave you anything even when you did defeat them.
Just *erasing* that limitation, so that no matter the level of the character defeating the mob, you could still get "loot" from it (even if no XP/minimal cash from it) you still got *something* from it.
So this would mean that groups of players teaming up to take down a *higher* level mob wouldn't be penalised, and neither would the high level character taking out the lower level mobs.
The rest of your idea though, let me think on that part...
I like this Idea but I would also like it if your defenses never got so powerful that you were absolutely immune to low level mobs, you could always take some damage.
That way there are always both risks and rewards to taking on any mob at any level.
Of course both the risk and the reward would go down once you out leveled the mob,
but if everyone could get something from any mob, then the low level drops would be much more common and therefore cheaper.
Also sometimes I like taking on a mob of low level punks just for laughs, If I can one shot them, it's lie playing a space invaders type game. Anyone else here old enough to remember space invaders? How about Gallaxian?
Anyway, it would be a lot more fun and I'd do it a lot more often if there were also risks and rewards, even if there weren't much.
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Gangrel, the reason for that limitation on the High vs Low was to discourage/prevent curbstomping at no risk. That's why Greys dropped nothing for your character. If you could get loot from a Grey con mob, you'd have Level 50s farming street mobs in Atlas Park.
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Naw the mobs in Atlas Park were too small, they'd do it in Perez Park, you could get mobs of 30 guys easy, a hundred if you moved around a little.
But like I said add a little risk, at any level and bam! it's fun as hell let's freekin do it!
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Another idea I had:
Say you have level ranges of 1-10, 11-20, 21-30
At level 1-10, when a particular type of salvage drops, it's usually a "copper rod" then at level 11-20 it would be a "silver rod" then level 21-30 it would be a "gold rod". Okay, in CoX the deal was that IO recipes of those level ranges required the level-appropriate salvage to craft them.
What if the deal was more like this:
1-10 you get copper, 11-20 silver, 21-30 gold. But now, gold can be used in places where copper, silver or gold is called for and silver can be used in place of copper but not gold. Copper is only good for things that specify copper. So the higher level salvage can supplant the lower level stuff, thus making it more useful and thus more valuable on the market. You might even make it work in such a way that when you use gold instead of copper, the IO or whatever works better. Like "craft a level 20 IO recipe using gold instead of silver, it automatically turns into a level 21 IO when created" or something.
Another thought I had was this: At level 1-10, you can only get copper as a random drop (not silver or gold), at level 11-20, you get a mix of copper sometimes, silver other times, and at 21-30 you get copper or silver or gold. Maybe not in equal probabilities, but you get the idea. So as a level 30 toon, your possibilities for salvage drops are a lot more varied than the level 1-10 people who only ever get the lowest "grade" stuff every time.
Anyway, my intention is to try to avoid the "inverted value" problem that CoX had, specifically the fact that some low level stuff was harder to find (and thus more valuable) then some highest level stuff, because of the constant supply of high level stuff and the need for low level stuff to make non-level-dependant Procs and whatnot. I mean, in CoX there were certain things you WANTED to be lowest level avauilable so that you could still use them when you exemplared down (or am I getting that wrong?). Anyway, you know what I mean.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I'm not sure that we'll 100% get away from some things being more valuable than others. It will all come down to supply and demand ultimately. Supply should be limited to a certain extent because we don't want things to be flooded so much that it's value basically becomes nothing. Ultimately I believe the best way to handle the situation is to make sure that there are plenty of options available for receiving all items that are needed. Some items may require a little more work than others, but at least it will still be available one way or another.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
Not bad. except.. "crafting a level 20 IO recipe using Gold instead of Silver just gives you a level 20 IO created, not 21". No benefit like that. It still Works, but at a Loss. ;)
Plus, I hate having to remember many names of different Salvage. Now i can just say "i need 3 more Gold Thing-a-ma-jig's"!
And 3 times less unique salvage types that i need to remember. :) But I'm just lazy. ;)
Personally, I prefer to let the market determine values. If the majority of the playerbase does not have low level alts then it provides an excellent opportunity for new players to earn additional revenue by selling items the majority of the playerbase no longer has easy access to. New players coming into a mature game have a hard enough time of it anyway. Letting the market pad their wallets a bit will help keep them playing.
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And then of course there's the idea of being able to up-convert 10 coppers into a silver and 10 silvers into a gold. etc. That's been done to death at this point too. It is one way to make crappy salvage somewhat palatable.
And I'm not against lowbies being able to randomly get the occasional "holy cow!" bit of swag, I'm all for it actually, but i feel like the supply/demand is going to skew low if there's any low-level stuff that most level-capped toons want (like the +Stealth procs CoX had). There will likely be a LOT of level-cap appropriate swag generated at random by all the level capped toons running around. CoX had that and I don't think it;s that uncommon a thing. I just think it would be better if the high-level swag were generally more expensive and hard to get than the low-level swag. One would probably expect that I think.
So in a world where lowbies only get copper (except when they roll that 12...) , midrange only gets copper/silver and level-capped gets copper, silver, and gold, you could ensure that gold, which is the most versatile and useful, is also somewhat rarer than the other two and thus still more valuable on the market, as one might expect given its level range (and name).
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising