Devs Haet Hoarding

In various places, the game designers and developers have made it known that they dislike hoarding and try to prevent it from happening in the game. I've never really thought much about it other than a small, schadenfreude-fueled grin from time to time.

However, last night, I caught myself thinking, 'Of course I don't have enough incarnate salvage to make a new enhancer. I hardly ever do trials anymore. Those massive piles of Astral merits? What about them? Ah. Well. Yes... Er..."

I haven't spent a single empyrean or Astral merit on threads or salvage since well before the Incarnate Vendors were added to the game. Despite the fact that I've purchased all the costume pieces available from Astral Christy, I just KNOW there's a chance that the developers are going to lock more costume pieces behind the incarnate system and am, indeed, HOARDING, against the day whether it comes or not.


Why do people hoard? In the real world, people hoard because of fear or worry about possible shortages in the future.

Grandmother Schmidt hoarded canned food up until a few weeks before she died. As a young woman, she'd starved during a WW2-related famine in Europe. Despite the fact that a famine would likely never hit Montana during her lifetime, she'd be damned if she was going to go hungry again out of simple lack of preparation.

The rich hoard money to ensure that one day they and their descendants will still be rich.

Geeks hoard comic books because someday they may want them to reread or sell (despite there being massive DVD collections and a poor market for comics).

In game, players hoard because they perceive that, sooner or later, there's going to be a situation when the hoarded items will come in handy-- like me hoarding Astrals and Empyreans in case new costume pieces are locked behind the Incarnate content.

I had a buddy who played some time back. He was one of the i3-era fire tanks who'd herd vast numbers of enemies and kill the with burn patches. Even after i6, he'd spend hours soloing in the Crash Site (pre i9).

When I chatted with him about it, he was CONVINCED that he was hoarding experience points. As soon as the game developers raised the level cap, all those Rikti he'd been slaughtering would be retroactively be added to his experience bar, and he'd immediately be at the level cap again when everyone else would be struggling to reach 51.


A lot of the players I've spoken to are convinced that as soon as new incarnate abilities are added to game that they will be accompanied by yet ANOTHER currency. If we're very lucky, there will be a crushingly punitive exchange for Astrals or Empyreans to the new currency. Having looked at the above, I'm starting to agree with them.

Hoarding is a natural result of purchasable content. As long as there is content in the game in the form of costume pieces, new powers, or the like that is purchasable through the invention or merit system, players are going to hoard.

If the devs dislike hoarding as much as they indicate, the only way to stop players from using hoarded resources to buy this new stuff is by introducing a new kind of merit or game currency.

Posi actually has an article on his blog about currency

Yeah, multiple currencies are complexity for the sake of complexity, they only add problems, not solve them.

A lot of what was done with Incarnate Threads/Components could easily have been done with Incarnate Experience.

Unlock a slot, then begin levelling up an ability, selecting the branches you want it to grow into. So I could select Cardiac, and set it on a path to level with iXP to whatever.

BAF and Lambda would level your Alpha and then either your Judgement/Lore or Interface/Destiny depending on which you did. Keyes and Underground would level your Alpha, Judgement/Lore and Interface/Destiny.

Astral Merits and Empyrean Merits would be in place for conversion to iXP or to be redeemed for items from the two vendors in Ouroboros.

If you levelled up a branch of Alpha to full, you could select something else to level up so you can switch between them. The iXP can't be hoarded, so there's no issue of rushing new incarnate slots with it.

I personally think the Dev's would be fine if they kept the current currencies () for the new slots, but made the XP for unlocking those slots only available for whatever trial(s) they are released with, and removing the option to buy XP for said slots. This way, they can ensure that the new content would be run while dictating how often it would be run by adjusting the progression rate of iXP.

Do you prefer blueberry or raspberry sauce with that? I can whip both up no problem!

Also, I really like Madam Z's elegant solution. Because it's elegant and simple.