For the time being this is just an idea but I'd like to hear opinions.
What if item costs were not linear?
Yes, a hero with Haste is really good.
A hero with 25 defense is amazing.
A hero with Regeneration is awesome.
A hero with Wraith Form and 20 resistance is really hard to kill (except for Chaos mages).
But a hero with several or all of the above is where things start to get out of control.
So what if item costs were going up faster the more it already is?
For example an item with no abilities could gain Regeneration for 500. An item already having 1500 points worth of abilities would need 1000 to add Regeneration. An item with 2500 points would need 1500. Something like that, basically, the first 1 mana cost of the original price would only be 0.5 in the new system while the 2000th mana crystal would cost, maybe 2? We can worry about formulas later, the concept is the question first.
I feel the value of creating items with fewer abilities is nonexistent unless it's an earlygame item. How often do you make a Regeneration item without the other 3 slots filled with the best 3 abilities you can reasonably afford? I don't think I do that ever because my hero needs 3 items anyway so putting 4 slots worth of abilities on the first item is strictly superior to making 3 items that each have a third of those abilities. It costs the same but the former leaves me with a perfect item instead of 3 that will be obsolete once I make more. But if the cost difference was larger then investing into weaker items to be able to use them earlier AND not lose the ability to cast other spells for a consecutive 15-20 turns might make casting those items worth it.
This feature could be limited to enchant item and create artifact only, while treasure can stay linear - I think lair difficulty already increases faster than the budget involved (as it often means a higher tier creature or twice as many things shooting your guys the first turn) making the linear cost there completely fair.
One more time, this is just an idea, not something already decided.
What if item costs were not linear?
Yes, a hero with Haste is really good.
A hero with 25 defense is amazing.
A hero with Regeneration is awesome.
A hero with Wraith Form and 20 resistance is really hard to kill (except for Chaos mages).
But a hero with several or all of the above is where things start to get out of control.
So what if item costs were going up faster the more it already is?
For example an item with no abilities could gain Regeneration for 500. An item already having 1500 points worth of abilities would need 1000 to add Regeneration. An item with 2500 points would need 1500. Something like that, basically, the first 1 mana cost of the original price would only be 0.5 in the new system while the 2000th mana crystal would cost, maybe 2? We can worry about formulas later, the concept is the question first.
I feel the value of creating items with fewer abilities is nonexistent unless it's an earlygame item. How often do you make a Regeneration item without the other 3 slots filled with the best 3 abilities you can reasonably afford? I don't think I do that ever because my hero needs 3 items anyway so putting 4 slots worth of abilities on the first item is strictly superior to making 3 items that each have a third of those abilities. It costs the same but the former leaves me with a perfect item instead of 3 that will be obsolete once I make more. But if the cost difference was larger then investing into weaker items to be able to use them earlier AND not lose the ability to cast other spells for a consecutive 15-20 turns might make casting those items worth it.
This feature could be limited to enchant item and create artifact only, while treasure can stay linear - I think lair difficulty already increases faster than the budget involved (as it often means a higher tier creature or twice as many things shooting your guys the first turn) making the linear cost there completely fair.
One more time, this is just an idea, not something already decided.
