Replace Mithril with Silver Bars

Should be Mithril be scrapped and replaced by Gold?

What is Mithril?

A legacy of 'old' KAW Mithril was once an exclusive reward for warriors, to fund the purchase and upgrading of a matching set of equipment before other equipment became widespread. Mithril can be purchased for an escalating amount of gold based on your base building stats (mine is currently 2.3b each) until you have six Mithril. You can purchase up to a daily limit of 36 Mithril, so you can buy six Mithril and cast a 'spell' costing six Mithril, then immediately re-purchase six additional Mithril.

Mithril can currently be used to cast four 'Stats' spells, three 'Abilities' spells, thirty-two 'Equipment' items, and eight 'Other' spells to change the colour of your name in chat windows. The 'Stats' spells have a culmulative boost amounting to +70m/+70m/+55m/+55m, equivalent to +1.4m/+1.4m/+1.1m/+1.1m to a player's combined stats.
Mithril is also needed to upgrade Mithril-purchased equipment, for example level 15 of the Zephyr Armguards costs 350 Mithril.


How do I get more Mithril if I can only purchase six?

Mithril is rewarded for War participation. Since beta-testing Lowland Wars reward Mithril for winning and losing as an incentive for players to War, even though Lowland Wars de-activate Mithril 'Stats' spells. In EE Wars Mithril is rewarded to winners and losers in varying amounts depending on how much Mithril you spend on Spells between match-ups and the start of the war, and your participation and effectiveness during the war. Losers are capped to a maximum of 14 Mithril, effectively refunding the cost of the four 'Stats' spells. Mithril is rewarded in bulk for success in PVP Blitz-weekends, and is also rewarded in dribbles for the "Vanished Paladin" Epic Battle.


What's the problem?

• The 'stats' spells are de-activated during Lowland Wars and System Wars.
  During EE Wars 'Stats' spells are used by both sides, neutralising their effect, apart from the players who are inactive or forget to cast and consequently are targeted first...
  Compared to base stats the bonuses from Mithril spells are underpowered for bigger players.
  The original equipment was rendered obsolete by Event (and even some Epic Battle) equipment and consequently supplemented with more powerful (and more expensive) Mithril equipment that has, in turn, been rendered obsolete.

So What is Mithril good for?

Well players like the ability to hide allies, and also to change the colour of their name in chat windows. OSW players can best comment on Unholy Aura...I know 'open' Blitz-farms consider the spell to be misanthropic. New players may be tempted towards the cheaper Mithril equipment to get some early equipment on the basis that some is better than none and that decent EB equipment only really begins at the end of Tier 4 Epic Battles and for a long time is out of reach.

The basic Stat spells "Battle Fury" and "Fog of War" are also needed in part of one Epic Battle: "Sporavek's Revenge".


What improvements have been suggested?

• More Spells offering larger bonuses.
  Better War equipment.
  Retroactive increases to Mithril equipment stats.

(list may be added to and hyperlinked later)


Adding new Stats Spells would have to be balanced to make them inaccessible in lower-brackets, perhaps by linking these to unlocked lands as per the original spells when 25 Highlands was the pinnacle of achievement.

My opinion is that such improvements are only temporary fixes, prolonging Mithril's utility but not addressing the fundamental problems. Mithril Equipment will always become obsolete quickly, so why bother maintaining two lists? Most players who have Mithril already have a stockpile so gaining more Mithril is not an incentive to war any longer. Receiving Mithril even when losing in Wars just makes Mithril 'rewards' even more a joke.


If 'Mithril' is not worth collecting anymore then why keep it in the game?

The things that players spend Mithril on could be replaced by a flat-gold purchase cost, cutting out the Mithril-purchasing middle step.

In fact I propose that Silver Bars replace Mithril both for purchasing Spells and as a War reward, although perhaps with some revised costs.

The reasons for this are:

• Silver Bars are currently given out for free as Event rewards.
  If you have to purchase Silver Bars to cast Spells you're probably so big you shouldn't mind the cost; purchasing Mithril would cost you more than purchasing Silver Bars.
  War would be financially rewarding.
  Silver Bars as War rewards would allow Warriors to safely accumulate funds for later investment.
  Silver Bars as War rewards would encourage more people to War, and encourage more warriors to fight harder to win.
  Silver Bars as Spell costs would simplify 'banking' before sign-ups ended.
  It would enable new players to opt to outright purchase basic equipment rather than the steady accumulation through age, reducing the bfe gap and making new players more competitive in lower bracket wars.
  Having more reasons to purchase Silver Bars as and when needed increases the effectiveness of Silver Bars as a money 'sink' in the game.

Balancing issues:

• The Spell "Battle Fury" (duration: five hours) costing one Silver Bars (35b) is the direct cost equivalent of 240 Locust Swarms and Basilik Venoms. If you used Health Crystals this is still good value for money, otherwise only 156 Locust Swarms would be needed for that timescale. A six-hour duration instead would cover 180 basic attacks.
  The Spell ""Bloodlust" (duration: twelve hours) costing six Silver Bars (18b) is the direct cost equivalent of 827 Blizzards and Black Deaths. Again, if you used Health Crystals this is just about acceptable, otherwise for normal regeneration only 324 Blizzards would be needed for that timescale. Rather than extend the duration I propose instead reducing the cost to three Silver Bars (9b), equivalent to 413 Blizzards and Black Deaths.
  The total cost of all four Stat Spells useful in war would therefore be 24b.
  The colour-changing spells seem to have all been standardised at 1 Mithril after ASW, so a direct cost of 1 Silver Bars for these is fair. If you like these then you're probably big enough to quickly recoup the costs and have no reason to complain.
  The current Equipment offered by the Alchemist can be retained with a 1/10 cost to purchase, and then be upgradeable with Aqua and Inferno. For example the Helm "The Red Helm" would cost 5 Silver Bars (15b) to purchase for it's modest stats (+800k/+1600k/+190k/+380k). This would enable new players to opt to purchase a set of modest equipment early in the game.
  The rewards for EE and Lowland Wars need to rationalised.
  PVP Blitz weekends give out items, we don't really need the Mithril too so no Silver Bars should be offered.
  Because some players have stockpiles of tens, hundreds, and sometimes THOUSANDS of Mithril they might be angry when they go. REALITY CHECK: if you have that many stockpiled it's because you aren't using them anyway and probably never will, so why be unhappy? However I propose to 'stuff your mouths with Gold' to shut you up and propose a "Mithril buy-back" scheme, exchanging ten Mithril for one Silver Bar as compensation.

Think that's inflationary? ATA_Charlie is going to flood the game with Silver Bars, 2k SBs (4.5T!) for 2K event items...


TL;DR
Mithril sucks, Silver Bars rule. Post "Support" and go back to sleep.

Edits: apologies for all the edits; it's late. Also fixed my faulty maths.