A suggestion for a couple of gold sinks.

[PurpleXVI]

Another idea that pops up occasionally is the option to socket gems into items for a fee.

That would kind of steal away some of the Alchemist's schtick, though, wouldn't it?

[HousePet]

They still have loads of money, a golem and exploding gems.

[Red]

What about paying money to respec more than usual? That'd let less experienced or more experimental players mess around a bit more late-game, and let powergamers use early-game powerful strategies without crippling their late-game build.

It would also make Adventurers even more overpowered than they already are, depending on how much you can respec, since it'd get rid of that whole nasty early game a lot of truly OP builds have, but whatever. They aren't balanced anyway.

Costs might be somewhere around 200 gold per class point, 100 gold per generic, and 50 per stat.

[Effigy]

A way to respec stat points would be nice. I don't think it's possible currently.

[Atarlost]

Socketing two gems where you otherwise couldn't is worth a prodigy and it's one of the strongest prodigies available. Fire Opals and Bloodstones are really big deals to make no mention of the artifact gems. If everyone could buy gemstone slots that didn't consume entire jewelry slots damage would skyrocket. 1% crit rate and 2% all damage per tier per slot has definite power creep potential. Money probably shouldn't be able to buy that.

[Dao Zeti]

1. Access to optional zones, which yield some bits of interesting lore, of course experience, a chance for a powerful artifact and maybe even achievements.

Examples:
a) Hire a digging crew for 1000g in Last Hope, that puts a hole (zone entrance) into a random part of the mountain chain surrounding the halfling ruins. Maybe you find something sher'tul related there. Condition for this option could be a quest that starts somewhere else and leads the player to discover a couple of hints about an important, but burried place.

b) Order a ship and crew for 2000g and sail to some isle close to the Wayists. Discover an isle with traces of an ancient civilization and some horror-, pirate or dinosaur inspired jungle zone. Maybe even find another intact farportal. After restoring the farportal in Last Hope, maybe you could (for another fee, of course) order help to activate this one, that then would lead to another point in time, where you get to witness (and play an important role in) the downfall of said ancient civilization. Begs the question if seafaring is an option, lorewise (at least, sometimes, for unknown reasons, adventurers turn into pirates!).

2. Expand on the jeweler option.

Another idea that pops up occasionally is the option to socket gems into items for a fee.

That would kind of steal away some of the Alchemist's schtick, though, wouldn't it?

At the moment, the jeweler in Angolwen and Limmir won't combine gems with other than basic rings/amulets. How about if for a high fee you could integrate some small gem related bonus onto an egoed/artifact piece of jewelry?

3. Order something special from the Brotherhood of Alchemists after completing their questline.

How about some immortality (a blood of life potion) or a treatment which increases the effect of infusions to the character (like a permanent 10% bonus to all infusion effects).

[HousePet]

pirate dinosaur horror filled jungle zone.

I'm sold.

For the gem socketing, I was only thinking something simple like a damage resistance bonus to a selected damage type. Artifact gems blocked.

[PurpleXVI]

The idea of paying for more semi-random adventure zones isn't a bad idea, but the Farportal already kind of has that covered and doesn't cost money.

[twas Brillig]

The idea of paying for more semi-random adventure zones isn't a bad idea, but the Farportal already kind of has that covered and doesn't cost money.

A lot of farportals aren't good for much besides that last little bit of EXP, though. Or it could be I'm missing out on some part of the experience by always waiting until I've visited all the static dungeons before going farquest. The big mechanical advantage of planned zones is they can have predictable difficulty and the possibility of boss/zone artifacts. Also vaults. Farportals are also sort of boring, so I might spend some resources to level somewhere a little more interesting. It'd definitely be cool if these were unique zones, with some kind of interaction beyond autoexplore-kill-autoexplore.

[Red]

1. Access to optional zones, which yield some bits of interesting lore, of course experience, a chance for a powerful artifact and maybe even achievements.

Examples:
a) Hire a digging crew for 1000g in Last Hope, that puts a hole (zone entrance) into a random part of the mountain chain surrounding the halfling ruins. Maybe you find something sher'tul related there. Condition for this option could be a quest that starts somewhere else and leads the player to discover a couple of hints about an important, but burried place.

b) Order a ship and crew for 2000g and sail to some isle close to the Wayists. Discover an isle with traces of an ancient civilization and some horror-, pirate or dinosaur inspired jungle zone. Maybe even find another intact farportal. After restoring the farportal in Last Hope, maybe you could (for another fee, of course) order help to activate this one, that then would lead to another point in time, where you get to witness (and play an important role in) the downfall of said ancient civilization. Begs the question if seafaring is an option, lorewise (at least, sometimes, for unknown reasons, adventurers turn into pirates!).

2. Expand on the jeweler option.

Another idea that pops up occasionally is the option to socket gems into items for a fee.

That would kind of steal away some of the Alchemist's schtick, though, wouldn't it?

At the moment, the jeweler in Angolwen and Limmir won't combine gems with other than basic rings/amulets. How about if for a high fee you could integrate some small gem related bonus onto an egoed/artifact piece of jewelry?

3. Order something special from the Brotherhood of Alchemists after completing their questline.

How about some immortality (a blood of life potion) or a treatment which increases the effect of infusions to the character (like a permanent 10% bonus to all infusion effects).

1) Is just plain awesome. I want that installed a year ago so it'd've been there when I started playing.

2) The issue is power creep. Already, socketing two extra equip slots is worth an entire prodigy, one that's not too easy to get. Even barring artifact gems, this really empowers players without any significant challenge or drawback.

3) Blood of Life sounds good, since it's just an extra life. That seems worth the oppurtunity cost of a randart. +10% Infusions, though, is another example of power creep.

Perhaps, for an exorbiant fee, you could trade potions from the quests? This would either require you to have the potion, or simply remove the advantage you got form the potion in exchange for the new one. No added power, but with enough money you can counter some randomness that might've screwed you over earlier.

For class or generic points being removed, they'll simply be taken from whatever points you could respec.

[Effigy]

It's important to keep the scope of your suggestions in mind. The more elaborate the idea is, the less likely it will actually be implemented. I'm more interested in adding some meaningful use for gold in the mid-game rather than adding something completely new that will completely change how everyone plays the game.

[Planetus]

The gem imbuing option could be beefed up for a higher fee by just allowing the gems to be placed on egoed (and possibly artifact) jewelry. That preserves the number of gems on a person as well as the item slots they take, but allows you to mix the gem bonuses with other bonuses already on an item. Still has some potential for power creep. Maybe reduce the max gem tier by 1 (so a T5 egoed ring could only take a T4 gem, and a T3 egoed necklace could only take a T2 gem)?

Personally, though, I like the options that allows you to customize your equipment (get something with one specific ego on it, or in one specific theme). There are a lot of situations where I've been gearing for one specific thing, and found next to nothing that gives it (crits, heal mod, life regen, bonus damage, whatever), where I'd pay a lot of money for even a random purple T5 with that one ego, or that general theme (spells, mental, physical, status defenses, damage resists) guaranteed.

[HousePet]

Once 1.3 is done, it would be very easy to make some ego manipulation code.
Something like transferring egos from one item to another.
Reforging an item with a specific ego.
Adding a specific minor ego to an item.

[Zireael]

I've been looking at this thread for a few days. Can't wait for new version, I love the new ego code but am too scared to port it over to Veins.

The gold sinks ideas are neat

[twas Brillig]

Adding a specific minor ego to an item.

I bet a lot of ridiculous builds would be really happy about a staff-shortener.