Hello! This is a repost from my other thread in the general gameplay topic, where I talk about the harm that 'losing progress on enhancement fail' is doing to new players and the playerbase as a whole. If you'd like to discuss that topic further please check that post out :) This post here is simply to expound on that thought with an idea for an alternative enhancement system. 

I know that this is a pretty hot topic, has been since the game's launch, so rather than continuing to trade opinions back and forth I'd love for us to be able to come together as a community and brainstorm some ideas. This one here is something I came up with on the fly while writing my initial post, with the goal of finding a way to remove the punishing failure mechanics of enhancement (gear dropping down a tier and accessories being destroyed) without undermining its difficulty and rewarding RNG. Let's see if we can get some brainstorming going :D

Black Spirit 'Hunger' System

So! Obviously the biggest concern with removing negative effects on failure is that, without the risk of backwards progression, enhancing becomes way too easy and unrewarding. My first hope with this idea is that gear progression can stay a difficult, longterm, rewarding and RNG-based grind, but without also punishing players by reverting their progress. My second hope is that a system like this would provide a nice middleground for PA to both improve on the player's experience in the game, but without also forcing them to fundamentally change the entirety of the enhancement system. Most things about the current enhancement system could stay exactly the same.

The basic gist of the idea is that the black spirit is a greedy little bugger. If he's to be bothered with enhancement attempts, he needs to stock up on some power first, and the best way for him to do that is to consume some of the spare gear that regularly drops while grinding. Once his 'hunger' bar has hit max, he will then be willing to enhance your gear for you, allowing you to roll for one enhancement attempt before getting hungry again. The rates could be something like the following:

      +1 to +15 are enhanced as normal. The black spirit only starts getting hungry when you start trying to go past +15.

      +15 to DUO requires you to feed the black spirit gear of green rarity, with the 'max hunger' going up between PRI and DUO.

       DUO to TET requires feeding him gear of blue rarity. Again, the 'max hunger' goes up between TRI and TET.

       PEN attempts require feeding the black spirit yellow gear. Of course, this is incredibly expensive, as it should be with no risk of falling back to TRI.

Of course the actual 'hunger rates' would have to be carefully balanced, along with the amount of hunger that each piece provides, but this would both preserve the difficulty of gear progression (remember, success rates are still RNG) while also removing punishment on failure. And as an added bonus, it would give new value to all of the other useless gear that currently exists in BDO and provide a great money sink for the economy. There's only two other things that would need to be addressed with this kind of change (at least that I can think of):

1. They would have to put a cap on failstacking. This is an obvious balance concern. Endless failstacking would of course be nice, essentially speeding up the possibility of success with each failure, but that would most likely take away from people's sense of accomplishment in the long run. So in that case, my proposal would simply be to put a cap on failstacks, perhaps +50 at lower tiers and +100 or +120 at PEN tier. Thus things like valks advice and valks cry would still have a use, and players would still have a flat increase to the overall percent chance of success.

2. Some enhancement items would need a new function.

Cron Stones: Instead of preventing negative effects, crons could now prevent the 'hunger bar' of the black spirit from dropping back to 0 after an enhancement attempt. This would fulfil a similar function to the way they are used now, but the # requirement would probably need to be bumped up at later tiers.

Caphras Stones: These are a bit trickier to handle, as this system would essentially be replacing their function, aka 'guaranteed success.' My first idea would be to allow players to substitute the gear they feed to their black spirits with caphras, similar to the way memory frags work on durability. In terms of the lore, it kinda makes sense that they're his favorite snack, no? x) This might be trickier to balance at later tiers, but it's an idea.

Artisans and Memory Fragments: These would remain the same, as max durability would still decrease on every failed enhancement attempt.

Valks: As stated above, failstacking would still exist, so these would retain their function.

I'd rather just keep everything as is, but add another item like caphras stones, that when you put enough into the item garentees an upgrade to the next tier, up to pen, and then caphras starts.

this would function exactly like caphras and cron stones, except it would be cheaper to achieve pen.

the existing way is perfectly fine, it's a progrssion based mmo.

you can skip the enhance system all together with the marketplace.

Gear progression is rough, but is it really too punishing as it is?  

At least in NA server, you can order & successfully purchase like any TET or PEN you desire without any real trouble. Just get the silver and click buy and it's yours either immediately or in a few days with zero risk. Enough people are willing to gamble in your stead, that there is always a supply of finished items for you to buy.  

And if you HAVE to have your name on it at PEN, you can still caphras it for a price exceeding the upgrade's market value, but honestly not exceeding it THAT much. It's a more fair option than a lot of people seem to think, or maybe I am just crazy for thinking so.  You get a PEN with your name on it gauranteed, and caphras stones *are* in ready supply.  

Lastly, the only punishing system is the actual enhancing - plenty of people are willing to do it so that you don't need to deal with it. And even though enhancing can be punishing, you can use Cron stones to make it safe. 

I feel like I'm biased here, but really how many more options can they actually add? Besides for Tuvala, no one really *has* to gamble and risk stuff; it's a dangerous shortcut that people can do if they are willing, have a plan, understand the risks, desperately want to gamble for a shortcut, etc.  But it's never required to click "enhance." People get 600+GS just fine without personally enhancing. 

I guess I just don't see the point in adding another safe-enhance system. It seems redundant when there are already options available. 

I like the gearing system in bdo. I don't necessarily like the rng aspect to it, but it's generality of being "hard to get". PEN is the highest enhancement level. And because of its relative strength, needs to be hard to get (it's not really "hard" if you can plan to buy it, just takes time). RNG can be completely bypassed as it is.

I get what you're saying, for enhancing to be les punishing. But to me, it's like, if you have a good plan, you won't be punished at all.

Crons already prevent item degradation. Failstacks already increase success rate. And CM let's you progress gear with zero rng. So, I'm still a bit confused on exactly what it is that you're suggesting.

I would suggest that you try to actually understand the issue.

Learn the actual math behind these systems and the standard deviations.

Learn what that experience may be like for someone with less interest in the game.

Actually think about how the systems work and the FUTURE updates. You PRESUME you will always just be able to BUY everything.  There is absolutely no guarentee on that.

Learn the HISTORY of BDO and why enchanting has been the #1 reason PEOPLE QUIT THE GAME.

You are still pretending to care about the community right?

thats just literally caphras as it is

I suggest you show your character level and main character name like everyone else.

Why is your account, like, the only one that is cometely blank and empty under your profile pic?

Why is everyone else who comments here showing their level (some choose private, which is cool) and showing their main character name, but you aren't? GASP! Do you not actively play BDO? No way, what a shocker!!!

The things that make people quit BDO:

1) Lack of time

2) Lack of friends

3) Lack of knowledge

If people quit BDO over the enhancing system, they did it wrong. Plain and simple. They did not have the knowledge. And I can say this confidently because I've been there too. I've quit BDO 2 times because of enhancing. But I'm here to stay now that I've figured things out. 650 GS and rising baby -- minimal p2w (I bought VP, Kama Bless, Old Moon Book and 100 Artisans for $20, shoot me)

An example of knowledge I did not know: By only enhancing on backups, removes the threat of gear score degradation. Simply use the item that's enhanced higher and do attempts on the second piece. This is how I got to full TET, self-enhanced, including accessories with zero downgrades to my gear score. Learned this the hard way, though. Trail and error is part of all sandboxy games. Some people just don't make the cut, and need the game to hold their hands through it. The game didn't tell me to only enhance on backups, but after I did, made enhancing waaaaaay more bearable, and, actually quite enjoyable. All first hand experience, and zero made-up examples to justify my point. If I did it, anyone who's wants to can.

There's META ways of enhancing, and I'm here to help people gain the knowledge in how to do it with minimal headache. People will see who's here to help and who's just here to troll.

BTW, so when are you going to display your character level and main's name?

To be honest, I have to say that this time I must disagree with how the enhancing system looks like nowadays. In the near future stronger grind spots might(or might not)come with more AP/DP requirements than now. Even PEN might not be enough. And people struggle themselves to get to this endgame. Yes. You can skip the enhancing by buying your gear. Do you realise, that those items sold on the MP PEN accessories/armor/weapons were also done by players by enhancing? It's a real pain in the ... to enhance PEN boss gear. Why don't you ask the person, who made the item to PEN yourself, how painful can it be? The downgrade soon has to be gone for good. This gets outdated.

I completely understand where you're coming from, I get that it can 'feel' like a rewarding system once you've managed to slog through it and get to the other side, especially when placed in comparison to all of the other players that haven't quite done their research and are struggling hard on it. You feel good because you beat the system, and that gives it the impression of being rewarding.

But in my honest opinion, any system that requires you to tip-toe around it  just to make it somewhat bearable is not a well-designed system, period. And, forgive me, but I think we're being absolutely unfair to all future players of BDO to defend this kind of progression system just because we ourselves have already gotten to the end of it, and now feel rewarded for doing so. That shouldn't invalidate the actual rage-inducing frustration that so many players go through daily when dealing with this system, and it's certainly not looking out for the overall health of the game.

Again, I started this topic not to start a debate on how easy/hard it is to get PENs. I started this topic because it's caused nearly all of my friends to quit the game at this point, and I know that I'm not alone in this experience. It is not a rewarding system, it was not designed to be a positive experience, it was designed to give a fake impression of accomplishment by making you feel good for getting ahead of others that have failed. I whole-heartedly believe that there is a way to have a very similar system of enhancement in the game which does not needlessly punish its players, but still offers just as much opportunity for reward and accomplishment. We just have to come together as a community and try for it.

But, I mean, maybe I'm naive to think that way ^^; 

P.S: Also, on the topic of 'you can just buy your PENs off the CM now, it's not a big deal,' I think we completely forget that those PENs come from people who had to deal with or cash shop their way through the enhancement system for us. Is that really a valid point for leaving the system as it is?