UPDATED 11/7/2018: Some new information regarding this mechanic was released to the round table. To ensure no unfairness in terms of the market situation, we're releasing the same information here:



Activating the overcharge mechanic will consume a small amount (currently 1) of Siphoned Energy, completely independently of what gear is overcharged



This acts as a price floor to ensure overcharging lower end gear has an associated cost higher than just the base cost of the item, allowing us to somewhat control and balance effectiveness overcharge on low end gear



This MAY have an influence on market prices of energy, although we don't anticipate significant impact at the expected amount of overcharges per day at the currently planned cost with the current energy yield from territories



What is Overcharging

Example

Details

You can overcharge all your equipment items at any time. There is no cast time or anything. It is pretty much instant and enemies can't prevent it. UI details are not decided yet, but it will likely be a new button in the UI and a short cut that is not easy to accidently hit. (something like CTRL+O)



Once an item is overcharged it gets an additional flat boost of 100 IP, independent from masteries or gear level



The overcharged status lasts for 30 minutes or until the player dies.



After the overcharge time is over the item will return to it's normal state and the game rolls the virtual dice to determine if this item is trashed. Trash chance is 15%



Upon death all overcharged items in the inventory will go back to their normal state. The overcharged status is also immediately ended without the additional destruction chance on top. Because dying already has a trash chance, there is no need for an additional roll. This means you will get the same amount of loot from killed players, regardless if they overcharged or not.



Overcharging has no extra economic cost. You only pay with the trash chance and a durability loss AFTER the overcharge finished.



All items from T4 and above can be overcharged for the following slots: mainhand, offhand, head, chest and shoes. (including Gatherer Gear)



Item Power gained by overcharge is also scaled down normally by cluster IP caps.



Our Goal with Overcharging

Current Situation

What Overcharge changes

Economic Benefit

Hey everyone,I'd like to share some more details about the Overcharge feature we mentioned in this anouncement: Next Content Update: Merlyn Overcharging is a new mechanic that allows players to temporarily increase an item's Item Power. BUT this comes with the risk of this item breaking after the boost duration.Overcharging your weapon, would give this weapon falt 100 IP bonus for 30 minutes. But after these 30 minutes have passed, the item will have a 15% chance to trash. (final values might be different, but just to give you a general idea of the direction)PvP has an economic cost in Albion, the lost gear on death. Right now this economic burden is entirely put on any losing team / player in the game. Which leads to heavy snowballing, which is particularly stong in controlled PvP scenarios like GvGs or Hell Gates, but also affects the open world meta gear level.Let's say there is a very skilled team, let's call it Team A. They keep winning with no deaths on their side and they will have basically no economic costs. They only cash in the loot of their defeated enemies and accumulate more and more wealth over time. The richer team A then gets, the higher becomes the gear level they can afford to use. Thus dictating the gear level playing field for all other challengers. Which leads to an unhealthy cycle, where it becomes harder and harder for new players to catch up economically.Now there is Team B, they are similiarly skilled, but they are newer in the game and can only afford gear that is a tier lower. When they fight against Team A they can now choose to Overcharge their gear and fight them on equal levels. Allowing Team B to catch up. Of course Team A can now react by either not overcharging their gear and play on the same level or overcharge their more expensive gear, keeping their Item Power lead, but paying a price for the trashed gear even when they win.The additional overcharge costs really only matter for the survivng side in a fight. As an example: On live a losing hell gate team loses 100% of their gear. And the winner takes it all. Now if both sides overcharge, the losing team still loses 100% of their gear. But now the winner also has to pay the additional cost of their overcharged gear. Because of this additional cost for winners, it is likely that they decide to bring lower gear on average.If you assume both sides overcharge in clutch situations. The overcharging would be an additional economic cost, which only the winner has to pay. Therefore it is very likely that the meta gear level drops, because even with flawless victories it will become less sustainable to bring expensive gear in general in all situations.The additional destruction of items increases the demand for items throughout all tiers, which is very healthy for the economy.Due to the build-in trash chance overcharging high end gear would be extremely expensive and probably only be used in very important battles. But even if one guild becomes so wealthy to be able to afford constantly overcharging 8.3 items, this guild would at least have a significant economic cost every time they do this, even if none of their players ever die. We think the chances are high that overcharging would become the norm in GvGs and Hell Gates. Which would really help reducing the economic snowballing currently happening in the game. And since even the winning teams have a constant economic upkeep it would likely also lead to a reduction in meta gear level across the board. Which would make it easier for new players to become competitve and Which is something we see as something very important to keep Albion Online in a healthy state longterm.I hope this clarifies most of the details and the intentions of this feature.Cheers,Retro