The core of the problem is there is not enough of interest to do with AD, so there is too much AD available to buy Zen and too little incentive for the Zen holders to buy AD.
Usually the RPx2 event leads to a brief drop in ZAX exchange ratio, as everyone need AD to buy RP when there is RPx2. The ratio usually slips right back up after the event though.
Cryptic needs to implement more worthwhile AD drains.
The thing is, the current backlog happened more or less over night. The ZAX was fairly stable for a long time and over the course of maybe a day a backlog of 1.4m suddenly appeared. After that it slowed down again. This growth doesn't seem "organic" IMHO. Makes me wonder whether it's just a few indivduals with a ton of AD whose actions crash the market.
There are a few issues that likely play a factor in the zen exchange backlog. Firstly, all gear in the game that is meaningful is now BoA or BoP. Secondarily, professions like masterworks have no place in the game right now because the gear produced was outmoded by the gear you can get with tarmalune bars, professions were further crippled by the loss of the gateway.
The only things left to purchase with AD are mainly rp, enchantments, insignias, artifacts, and mounts. The most coveted legendary mounts are cost prohibitive to the vast majority of players, buying one with Zen even at 500:1 ratio would be extraordinarily expensive. The economy used to be rich and vibrant but with each mod has allowed less and less variety with the changeover to BoA/BoP frenzy that has occurred. The result is a stunted market.
I wouldn't be surprised if the newly purchasable campaign unlock for the ToD campaign may also be a factor in driving up the Zen backlog as it was simply the worst campaign for boon progression considering the currency cost for the last 2 boons, therefore making purchasing your way through it more tantalizing. Also purchasing premade level 70 characters may be aiding in keeping the backlog high, people may be trying their hand at new classes (perhaps combat HRs?).
Basically, besides upgrading your existing enchants and artifacts, there is little to spend AD on in the game atm that is particularly valuable in advancing players characters.
On ambush rings: "How would you like PVE if all the mobs were invisible?"
What is the evidence botters are running their dozens or hundreds or thousands of toons through dungeons? Is there any, or just assumptions being taken as facts?
What is the evidence botters are running their dozens or hundreds or thousands of toons through dungeons? Is there any, or just assumptions being taken as facts?
I don't know how many toons they run. Did you ever spot them in dungeon yourself? Many of us have seen that for years.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
What is the evidence botters are running their dozens or hundreds or thousands of toons through dungeons? Is there any, or just assumptions being taken as facts?
Play enough CC and CT runs and you will spot it easily. Hint, turn on surnames so that you see that all those "slow" guys are the same few accounts with multiple characters. My 10 year old knew how to get through CT and CC in the first 5 runs, and these guys repeatedly take forever and will sometimes get stuck behind uncleared mobs cause their program doesn't account for solo'ing the content or running past it.
I have three hypothosises (spelling?) They are in no way mutually exclusive
#1 There is a charge bonus planned by Cryptic. This has some how gotten out probably via preview shard, and people are not buying as much zen now because they now that they can get more zen for their dollar during this charge bonus
#2 Cryptic is planning on copying what they did to the Russian shard here, and change the zen to AD cap from 1 zen = 500 AD to 1 zen = 1000. This has somehow leaked and enough buyers are holding back on selling their zen for AD until the cap changes that they are having an impact on the exchange.
#3 Enough people are ticked by the whole Gateway thing and are holding off buying zen with real money in protest to have some impact on the ZAX.
Bonus hypothesis: The exchange is just bugged so its not working right now
I'd bet on the bonus being right if anything, it's unlikely there would be such a thing and we wouldn't hear about it if 1-3 where true.
That said i agree there's an issue with a lack of AD sinks in game. It's true that Artifacts and Enchants can sink a lot of AD via greater and superior marks, and companions are their own sink, but none of this is stuff people use in mass quantities, so expensive as it is for a BIS character, there's a lot of players out there not sinking their zen save via the AH and the ZAX. And AD sinked through the AH mostly ends up in someone elses hands who does want to make a purchase via Zen.
The easiest thing cryptic could do IMO is decide internally where they want the AD the Zen ratio to be and then put the Wards and Keys in the Wondrous Bazaar at those rates. That would sink massive amounts of AD out of the system on a continual basis as those are things people want all the time. There's probably a few other items, (runeforge kits, trowel kits, stand alone lesser bonding stones, and bags all spring to mind, (bags especially)), that they could throw in in the same fashion. Those would deflate the market like a balloon thats developed a catastrophic leak.
Paingiver is not an acurratte or Useful measure of your actual sustained damage output, (i.e DPS), in various ways it lies. For a true idea use ACT. Link below:
No they cant, according to steamspy from these 70k players only +-20% are from US.
For those who dont know, steam offers regional pricing to each country making Zen effectively cheaper on steam than on arc website for regions outside of US (they made that because every country has different laws and incomes and such), the downside of buying using steeam is that you go on a probation period where for around 1-14 days everything you buy from the zen market is bound to account and you cant sell zen, but after its over you can make transactions normally.
Besides that, using steam you can sell items from other games (like CS:GO or Dota 2 or Team Fortress ) on the steam markplace and then use the money to buy Zen.
Now i dont know how much of their player base steam represents, but i know that at lot less people are buying zen (specially from Brazil, Russia and some countrys from asia) because they can't afford the price of US Zen.
I might be wrong, but what i wrote makes sense, and i know that if they remove this limit of 500 AD per Zen the market will regulate itself based on offer and demand.
BTW on neverwinter's steam forum there are lots of complains about this removal of payment method.
TL:DR - Steam zen payment option removed, less people buys zen.
I have three hypothosises (spelling?) They are in no way mutually exclusive
#1 There is a charge bonus planned by Cryptic. This has some how gotten out probably via preview shard, and people are not buying as much zen now because they now that they can get more zen for their dollar during this charge bonus
#2 Cryptic is planning on copying what they did to the Russian shard here, and change the zen to AD cap from 1 zen = 500 AD to 1 zen = 1000. This has somehow leaked and enough buyers are holding back on selling their zen for AD until the cap changes that they are having an impact on the exchange.
#3 Enough people are ticked by the whole Gateway thing and are holding off buying zen with real money in protest to have some impact on the ZAX.
Bonus hypothesis: The exchange is just bugged so its not working right now
Just a quick analysis - assuming the demand is the same as always (nobody thinks that its just the demand for zen that has gonne up):
#1 Speculation of the Zen price going down: more zen on the market means higher offer, meaning prices go down. #2 Speculation of the Zen price going up based on russian server (that means people are still buying zen, but not selling it). #3 Conspiration theory?
It must be because of all their anti bot measures are working. Yeah that must be it, taking down the gateway has helped the game so much that the Zax has become backlogged...... At least that is how Cryptic would explain it.
Personally, I think they have pissed off the player base to such an extreme that Zen buying for $ is down considerably that there is just no supply.
- Steam Wallet Disable - Drastic loss of CCUs - Gateway closing - General dissatisfaction
The loss of whales as CCus is probably one of the bigger reasons but without actual numbers, it's all just speculation.
You can see the number of steam CCUs using steamspy, it has been kinda constant the last 2 week but if we look at the data there since the removal of the gateway we can assume that not many people left (unless the players who stopped playing are only the ones playing using the Arc Launcher) so i dont thing the loss of CCUs is at blame for whats happening in the ZAX exchange otherwise it would be a phenomenon that would happen slowly overtime because the number of CCUs have been dropping ever since the launch of MOD 10.
I not saying the game haven't lost CCUs as i cant look at all the data, but if we are going to make assumptions its better to make them based on facts and as Arc does not provide us with it the only actual data we can look is from steam but we dont know how much it does represent, it might not even be relevant if it doesnt represent even 1% of the total population of the game
And BTW this have almost no impact on PS4 and Xbox version, but they dont use the gateway or play using steam, whici might be the major factors impacting this...
And BTW this have almost no impact on PS4 and Xbox version, but they dont use the gateway or play using steam, whici might be the major factors impacting this...
I dont believe that they have the invocation nerfs as well.
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demonmongerMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,350Arc User
There is no reason to spend in game. Because as soon as you spend better gear comes out. Spend once every 5 mods and you are ok. Don't spend a dime until you are level 70.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
After two and a half days of waiting, I finally got some zen. I go buy some pres wards with the 15% coupon i got from invocation. I clicked the coupon to get to the refinement section. Click the pres wards to buy it. Unfortunately I clicked so fast I did not noticed the coupon did not get applied for some reason and bought it full price. Sigh.
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vinceent1Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,264Arc User
3 600 000 backlog. any cryptic flexibility around here?
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,430Arc User
After two and a half days of waiting, I finally got some zen. I go buy some pres wards with the 15% coupon i got from invocation. I clicked the coupon to get to the refinement section. Click the pres wards to buy it. Unfortunately I clicked so fast I did not noticed the coupon did not get applied for some reason and bought it full price. Sigh.
Don't get all the Zen out from Zchg. Only take what you need out. For example, in this case, 85Z.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
I have three hypothosises (spelling?) They are in no way mutually exclusive
#1 There is a charge bonus planned by Cryptic. This has some how gotten out probably via preview shard, and people are not buying as much zen now because they now that they can get more zen for their dollar during this charge bonus
#2 Cryptic is planning on copying what they did to the Russian shard here, and change the zen to AD cap from 1 zen = 500 AD to 1 zen = 1000. This has somehow leaked and enough buyers are holding back on selling their zen for AD until the cap changes that they are having an impact on the exchange.
#3 Enough people are ticked by the whole Gateway thing and are holding off buying zen with real money in protest to have some impact on the ZAX.
Bonus hypothesis: The exchange is just bugged so its not working right now
I'd bet on the bonus being right if anything, it's unlikely there would be such a thing and we wouldn't hear about it if 1-3 where true.
That said i agree there's an issue with a lack of AD sinks in game. It's true that Artifacts and Enchants can sink a lot of AD via greater and superior marks, and companions are their own sink, but none of this is stuff people use in mass quantities, so expensive as it is for a BIS character, there's a lot of players out there not sinking their zen save via the AH and the ZAX. And AD sinked through the AH mostly ends up in someone elses hands who does want to make a purchase via Zen.
The easiest thing cryptic could do IMO is decide internally where they want the AD the Zen ratio to be and then put the Wards and Keys in the Wondrous Bazaar at those rates. That would sink massive amounts of AD out of the system on a continual basis as those are things people want all the time. There's probably a few other items, (runeforge kits, trowel kits, stand alone lesser bonding stones, and bags all spring to mind, (bags especially)), that they could throw in in the same fashion. Those would deflate the market like a balloon thats developed a catastrophic leak.
It's actually simpler than that. The exchange has been holding under the 1:500 mark only due to multiple events that served as incentives to either get zen (sale) or trade it for AD (double RP, gond, and so on). The problem is that events don't fix the underlying issue, which is the lack of good things zen buyers may want. IMO the excessive rarity of many desirable items is a major cause for that. Legendary mounts, the orcus artifact, BiS items that can't be created anymore by the game, and so on, are so expensive they're not going to be purchased by the average spender, ie the guy who spends maybe 30€ a month on the game. All these items cost more than that. So in return average spenders don't buy zen and don't trade it for AD, as there's nothing they want that's priced adequately for them.
There are two categories of items on the auction house: too expensive or worthless. There's no good stuff that's still worth buying at a reasonable price, so of course most players are not going to trade their zen for AD.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
So in return average spenders don't buy zen and don't trade it for AD, as there's nothing they want that's priced adequately for them.
There are two categories of items on the auction house: too expensive or worthless. There's no good stuff that's still worth buying at a reasonable price, so of course most players are not going to trade their zen for AD.
I think you're on to something there. Legendary mounts, anyone??
So in return average spenders don't buy zen and don't trade it for AD, as there's nothing they want that's priced adequately for them.
There are two categories of items on the auction house: too expensive or worthless. There's no good stuff that's still worth buying at a reasonable price, so of course most players are not going to trade their zen for AD.
I think you're on to something there. Legendary mounts, anyone??
: \
With the backlog at 3.6m and rising we might be looking at preservation wards being prohibitively expensive even. 2x RP has to clear this out or we're looking at a month or two where the AH is the main source of wards.
With the backlog at 3.6m and rising we might be looking at preservation wards being prohibitively expensive even. 2x RP has to clear this out or we're looking at a month or two where the AH is the main source of wards.
yeah thats my concern too. Wards are gonna get expensive fast and thats gonna drive all kinds of prices way up.
Paingiver is not an acurratte or Useful measure of your actual sustained damage output, (i.e DPS), in various ways it lies. For a true idea use ACT. Link below:
After two and a half days of waiting, I finally got some zen. I go buy some pres wards with the 15% coupon i got from invocation. I clicked the coupon to get to the refinement section. Click the pres wards to buy it. Unfortunately I clicked so fast I did not noticed the coupon did not get applied for some reason and bought it full price. Sigh.
Took my 3 days to get my 680 zen and I noticed a coupon wasn't applying but didn't buy for 100. I closed the store and opened again. It was definitely odd that that one time I activated a coupon it didn't work for a while.
There are two categories of items on the auction house: too expensive or worthless. There's no good stuff that's still worth buying at a reasonable price, so of course most players are not going to trade their zen for AD.
There is some stuff worth spending AD on in the AH but not that much "cool stuff" that is actually affordable for the average player paying cash. Artifacts, artifact gear and some pets are worthwhile and somewhat affordable purchases. You can always buy more RP but where's the great satisfaction in buying 1000 Zen worth of RP from the AH? You see your artifacts tick up a couple levels.
Comments
Usually the RPx2 event leads to a brief drop in ZAX exchange ratio, as everyone need AD to buy RP when there is RPx2. The ratio usually slips right back up after the event though.
Cryptic needs to implement more worthwhile AD drains.
The only things left to purchase with AD are mainly rp, enchantments, insignias, artifacts, and mounts. The most coveted legendary mounts are cost prohibitive to the vast majority of players, buying one with Zen even at 500:1 ratio would be extraordinarily expensive. The economy used to be rich and vibrant but with each mod has allowed less and less variety with the changeover to BoA/BoP frenzy that has occurred. The result is a stunted market.
I wouldn't be surprised if the newly purchasable campaign unlock for the ToD campaign may also be a factor in driving up the Zen backlog as it was simply the worst campaign for boon progression considering the currency cost for the last 2 boons, therefore making purchasing your way through it more tantalizing. Also purchasing premade level 70 characters may be aiding in keeping the backlog high, people may be trying their hand at new classes (perhaps combat HRs?).
Basically, besides upgrading your existing enchants and artifacts, there is little to spend AD on in the game atm that is particularly valuable in advancing players characters.
Is there any, or just assumptions being taken as facts?
#1 There is a charge bonus planned by Cryptic. This has some how gotten out probably via preview shard, and people are not buying as much zen now because they now that they can get more zen for their dollar during this charge bonus
#2 Cryptic is planning on copying what they did to the Russian shard here, and change the zen to AD cap from 1 zen = 500 AD to 1 zen = 1000. This has somehow leaked and enough buyers are holding back on selling their zen for AD until the cap changes that they are having an impact on the exchange.
#3 Enough people are ticked by the whole Gateway thing and are holding off buying zen with real money in protest to have some impact on the ZAX.
Bonus hypothesis: The exchange is just bugged so its not working right now
I'd bet on the bonus being right if anything, it's unlikely there would be such a thing and we wouldn't hear about it if 1-3 where true.
That said i agree there's an issue with a lack of AD sinks in game. It's true that Artifacts and Enchants can sink a lot of AD via greater and superior marks, and companions are their own sink, but none of this is stuff people use in mass quantities, so expensive as it is for a BIS character, there's a lot of players out there not sinking their zen save via the AH and the ZAX. And AD sinked through the AH mostly ends up in someone elses hands who does want to make a purchase via Zen.
The easiest thing cryptic could do IMO is decide internally where they want the AD the Zen ratio to be and then put the Wards and Keys in the Wondrous Bazaar at those rates. That would sink massive amounts of AD out of the system on a continual basis as those are things people want all the time. There's probably a few other items, (runeforge kits, trowel kits, stand alone lesser bonding stones, and bags all spring to mind, (bags especially)), that they could throw in in the same fashion. Those would deflate the market like a balloon thats developed a catastrophic leak.
https://github.com/nilsbrummond/Neverwinter-ACT-Plugin
#1 Speculation of the Zen price going down: more zen on the market means higher offer, meaning prices go down.
#2 Speculation of the Zen price going up based on russian server (that means people are still buying zen, but not selling it).
#3 Conspiration theory?
Personally, I think they have pissed off the player base to such an extreme that Zen buying for $ is down considerably that there is just no supply.
- Steam Wallet Disable
- Drastic loss of CCUs
- Gateway closing
- General dissatisfaction
The loss of whales as CCus is probably one of the bigger reasons but without actual numbers, it's all just speculation.
I not saying the game haven't lost CCUs as i cant look at all the data, but if we are going to make assumptions its better to make them based on facts and as Arc does not provide us with it the only actual data we can look is from steam but we dont know how much it does represent, it might not even be relevant if it doesnt represent even 1% of the total population of the game
And BTW this have almost no impact on PS4 and Xbox version, but they dont use the gateway or play using steam, whici might be the major factors impacting this...
There are two categories of items on the auction house: too expensive or worthless. There's no good stuff that's still worth buying at a reasonable price, so of course most players are not going to trade their zen for AD.
With the backlog at 3.6m and rising we might be looking at preservation wards being prohibitively expensive even. 2x RP has to clear this out or we're looking at a month or two where the AH is the main source of wards.
With the backlog at 3.6m and rising we might be looking at preservation wards being prohibitively expensive even. 2x RP has to clear this out or we're looking at a month or two where the AH is the main source of wards.
yeah thats my concern too. Wards are gonna get expensive fast and thats gonna drive all kinds of prices way up.
https://github.com/nilsbrummond/Neverwinter-ACT-Plugin
Caturday Survivor
Elemental Evil Survivor
Undermontain Survivor
Mod20 Combat rework Survivor
Mod22 Refinement rework Survivor
They didn't take anything out. It was posted from the beginning that it would be a trial period to collect data.
Tornado Of Souls
Sci-fi author: The Gods We Make, The Gods We Seek, and Ji-min