Rune System Overhaul concept
Since Meddler has stated they are looking at potentially overhauling the Runes system for 2017 (likely midseason), I thought I'd share what I came up with earlier this week. It's a moderate overhaul, but wouldn't be to terribly difficult to transition from the current system.
Runes and Rune Slots also grouped into three categories: Offense(Red), Defense(Blue), Utility(Yellow). Rune Slots are divided into three Rune Slot Groups, one for each type of Rune. Any type of rune may be inserted into any Rune Slot, with the exception of Premium Runes. Each Rune Slot Group has an Affinity Bonus or Penalty for each type of Rune inserted into it.
Offense Runes are Neutral when inserted into Utility Rune Slots, but have an Affinity Penalty for Defense Rune Slots. Defense Runes are Neutral when inserted into Offense Rune Slots, but have an Affinity Penalty for Utility Rune Slots. Utility Runes are Neutral when inserted into Defense Rune Slots, but have an Affinity Penalty for Offense Rune Slots.
Bonus and penalties are all 1/3 of the normal effect. Example: Offense Rune: +0.75 Attack Damage Inserted into Offense Rune Slot: +1 Attack Damage Inserted into Defense Rune Slot: +0.5 Attack Damage Inserted into Utility Rune Slot: +0.75 Attack Damage
Each Rune Slot group also comes with a single Premium Rune Slot. A normal rune may be inserted in addition to special Premium Runes. Not all Runes will have an Premium Rune variant. Premium Runes usually have a higher base effect than a normal Rune would have. The Rune inserted into the Premium Rune Slot never gives less than the base value, but is instead boosted by having Affinity Bonuses in it's Rune Slot Group. Affinity bonus ranges from 0 (no Affinity Bonus from Runes), up to 3.0 (9 Runes with an Affinity Bonus). Hovering the mouse over a Premium Rune Slot shows the total Affinity of it's Rune Slot Group.
How is this system better than what we have now? For starters, it is much more flexible. Lists of runes would be much smaller, since you don't need Armor Quints, Seals, Marks, and Glyphs. The Affinity Bonus and Penalty amount can be adjusted, which gives additional ways to adjust balance, in addition to the stats of the Runes themselves. You can have 30x of a single Rune if you REALLY REALLY want that one single stat to get that extra bonus. The Affinity system makes sure you receive diminishing returns once you stack past the first 10 though. Existing runes transfer fairly easily (each Attack Damage Seals/Marks/Glyphs would all become a single Attack Damage Rune). Quints would become a Premium Rune of the proper type. If a certain type of Rune would be removed completely, some sort of compensation would of course be needed though.
I've got a few thoughts on what might be improved upon, but will hold off on posting them for now. I'd like to see what others would think, and don't want to provide a bias for people to focus on before actually analyzing it properly and providing their own feedback.