How to Improve the Skin System

[Toast1070]

The current drop rate for elegant items on PS4 is too low, as I have only received one in my hundreds of hours playing since launch. This wouldn't be too much of a problem on PC due to their ability to buy/trade/sell specific skins on Steam. I have a few proposals to make the gift system feel more rewarding and less menial for both platforms as well as a proposal for a PS4/Xbox/Steam improvement. 

Overall Improvements:

1. Trade Inn - The Trade Inn could slightly increase it's chance at giving you an item that is of higher tier as opposed to the next tier. Example: Trading 9 Commons would now have a 3-5% greater chance at rewarding you with a Spiffy Item rather than the usual Classy item. 

2. Decrease Chances of Duplicates - Make it so that duplicate skins are less common. Getting two of the same skirts twice in a row doesn't feel that rewarding.

3. Gift Stacking - Allow for players to obtain gifts without having to open their previous ones. This is especially problematic when you're in the Ruins or generally away from base and you have no means to open your gift. Stacking would encourage people to idle for gifts, so maybe this should be limited to two at a time. Opening multiple gifts would be fun and something to look forward to as opposed to the getting one gift and having to open it immediately.

4. Gift Giving - Players should have the ability to give/trade gifts with other players in game. Think Runescape, you could access the players "inventory" and choose items to give them and an item that you want in exchange (or no item at all.) This would work similarly, with players having the ability, upon consent, to view another players collection and either gifting them with an item or requesting to trade an item. 

5. Objectives with Rewards - Every week, there would be a new set of objectives. These objectives, when completed, would reward you with a gift. These gifts could have a preset minimum rarity based on the difficulty of the objectives. Example Objectives:

Spring Cleanup - Vanquish Two MeeseGeese

KoalaHunt - Hunt and Defeat a Koalafant

Over Easy - Successfully hatch a Tallbird Egg

Reward: A Classy Tier Item or Higher

 

PS4 Suggestion - Applicable to any console really, but there should be Gifts that you could buy in-game. Micro-transactions, yuck, but I feel like this is something that would please many players and increase the marketability of the game. Think about it, buying twenty gifts to do an unboxing video would without a doubt generate a new aspect of interest in the community. I also think this is a good idea because it gives us players a chance to give Klei our money, right now we only have the Klei Store and not everyone has the dough to buy Plushie Chesters or Winter Hats to support the devs. Making gifts purchasable grants accessibility to a plethora of players to throw their money at the Klei folks. It would allow people who usually don't have the proper money for buying merch on the site the ability to support Klei through purchasing Gifts on Steam/PS Store/Xbox Market. The gifts could have tier selections; a pack of 5 Commons would be cheaper than a pack of 5 Spiffys with a chance of Distinguished, for example. 

Thank you for listening.