Crates and keys

Rules at a glance

• Crates stand in the lobby, in Farpoint. Each crate has its own key. One key is one roll.
• A key is an ordinary item. You can buy it, loot it, get it from another player or roll it in another crate.
• The reward is rolled by weight the moment the key is used. The animation only reveals it.
• The reward can be an item, VED, experience or a pet.
• The reward is never lost: not when you close the window, not when you leave the game, not when the server shuts down.

Crates in the lobby

The crates stand in two rows of three, at height 44. Each one is a real chest block with particles in its color circling around it. They are on every lobby server and work the same way.

Keys

A key is a tripwire hook with an enchantment glint. Its description says which crate it opens. Keys stack up to 64. Using one takes a single key from your hand.

Merchant's Shop

Five keys are in the Merchant's Shop window (the Merchant NPC or the command /sklep, also /shop and /handlarz). They are the only items in that shop paid for in VED. A key's description in the shop shows the price and "Click to buy".

1. Clicking a key takes the price from your VED account. A second click during the purchase is ignored.
2. Not enough VED: "Not enough VED - this key costs X VED." and a refusal sound. Nothing is taken.
3. After payment the key goes to your inventory, or drops at your feet if the inventory is full. Message: "Bought key for X VED."
4. If the key cannot be issued, the VED goes back to your account: "Could not issue the key - VED refunded."

The VIP Key is not for sale.

The Old Mage's quest

A new player's first task. The Old Mage asks for 10 Zombie Hearts from the zombie zone near Farpoint. After you hand in the hearts, you get once:

• 500 VED,
• 100 experience points,
• 1 x Copper Key, so you can open your first crate right away.

Mob drops

Keys drop from wild mobs. A farm mob never drops a key. Looting changes neither the chance nor the number of keys. The key goes to the inventory of the killer or of a party member, according to the loot sharing rules (Society and party).

The "Magic Find 50" column is an example: a player with Magic Find 50 has a chance higher by half, but only for drops up to 5%. "Avg. kills" is 1 / base chance.

Key from a crate

Almost every crate can give a key to a higher crate. This makes a ladder: copper -> iron -> golden -> diamond -> obsidian.

Opening

Clicks

A crate never opens an ordinary storage inventory.

Preview window

• Title: "Rewards: ... Crate". Gray glass pane background.
• Rewards lie in rows of 7, in the order of the tables below. Each has "Chance: X%" in its description.
• A reward with an amount range has "Amount: min–max" in its description. VED and experience have the range in the name.
• At the bottom center lies a key icon with the hint "Hold this key in your hand and right-click the crate."
• The window has 2 border rows plus as many rows as the rewards need, at most 6 rows. So it fits up to 28 rewards.
• Nothing can be taken out of or put into the window.

Roll and animation

1. The key disappears from your hand. The reward and its amount are rolled immediately.
2. The chest lid rises. After 0.6 s the window "Rolling: ... Crate" opens (3 rows, black glass panes, green arrows v and ^ above and below the center).
3. The middle row scrolls left by one icon per step. Each step is a click of an ever higher pitch. The icons next to the reward are rolled with the same weights, so common items often show up.
4. The steps slow down: 27 shifts, 5.05 s in total. On the last step the rolled reward stops in the center, between the arrows.
5. The reward is given immediately after the stop. A level-up sound plays. The window stays open until you close it.

Interruption

• Closing the window during the animation ends it immediately and gives the reward.
• Leaving the game during the roll (also before the window opens) gives the reward before the inventory is saved. So the item is in your inventory the next time you join.
• Shutting down the server gives rewards to everyone who is rolling at that moment.
• The reward is always given exactly once.

Lid

The lid stays open as long as anyone has a window of that crate open: preview or roll. Several players can watch or roll at the same crate at once. The lid closes when the last of them closes the window or leaves the game.

Rolling the reward

Every reward in a crate has a weight. The chance is the share of the weight in the total weight of that crate. A reward with weight 0 is disabled and does not appear in the window.

1. We roll an integer r from 0 to (total weight - 1).
2. We go through the rewards in the order of the table and subtract weights. The winning reward is the one at which r falls below zero.
3. We roll the amount from that reward's range.

The chance does not depend on the player: Magic Find, level, skills and the number of crates opened change nothing. Consecutive rolls are independent. There is no guarantee after a streak of bad luck.

Reward types

Full inventory

An item goes to the inventory first, filling stacks and free slots. The part that does not fit drops at the player's feet. The win message appears the same way. VED, experience and pets do not need space. A key bought in the shop works the same way.

Reward tables

The full contents of each crate in the order of the preview window. "Chance" is the exact value, "in window" is the rounding the player sees. The average amount is (min + max) / 2.

Special rewards

Things you cannot buy from the Merchant and that crates give rarely.

"Avg. keys" = 1 / chance. "Key cost in shop" = avg. keys x the key price at the Merchant, not counting the value of the other rewards.

Key value

A summary for the designer: how much VED and experience one opening gives on average. Items have no price here, so this is a lower bound of the value.

Avg. VED = sum over VED rewards: chance x (min + max) / 2.

Crate configuration

• Crates, keys and rewards are in the game database. The list refreshes every minute, without a server restart.
• A crate without any reward with a weight above 0 does not work.
• A minimum amount below 1 counts as 1. A maximum below the minimum counts as the minimum.
• An item reward is a Minecraft item or a game item (e.g. a key). A pet reward is a species and a rarity (Common ... Legendary).
• The order of rewards in the window is set by the designer. It does not affect the chances.
• The preview window holds up to 28 rewards. Further ones would be rolled but invisible.

To be decided

• The VIP Key has no source. It is not in the shop, in drops or in any crate. The VIP ranks in the shop menu are "Coming soon". The VIP Crate stands in the lobby, but the player cannot open it.
• A reward can be lost. When an item cannot be created, a pet cannot be saved or VED cannot be paid in, the player gets nothing and the key is not returned. There is no key refund and no message.
• Overflow at the feet can be picked up by anyone. With a full inventory, the item from the crate lies on the ground with no owner. Mob loot in this situation can be picked up only by the recipient.
• Rounding in the preview window. Chances from 1% are shown in whole percent, so the sum in the window does not always give 100%, and e.g. 4.50% shows as 5%.
• Minecraft item names in the message are in English lowercase ("3x iron ingot"), regardless of the player's language.
• Crate names come from the database in Polish, while the other game content is in English (Vault Seal, Bee Minion Skin). This page uses the English names of the crates and keys. To be decided whether to rename.
• Different win messages. Item and experience have "You won: ...", VED has a deposit message, a pet has a collection message.
• Pets in crates have a fixed rarity and can repeat. There are no rules for duplicates.
• Profitability. The average VED return is much lower than the key price (table "Key value"). The rest of the value is supposed to come from items, but they have no set price.
• Ancient Vault Key needs on average several dozen Obsidian Keys. To be checked when balancing the level 10 bank.
• Minion skin weights. The minion plan assumed a weight of 3 for each of the three skins in the Gold Crate. In the game Bee Minion Skin has weight 3, Snow Golem Minion Skin has weight 3, Dragon Minion Skin has weight 2.