Zen purchase required to play new trial on launch?

oracle

The release of Crown of Keldegonn (Master) has been announced for January 18 on PC. What degree of campaign progress will be required for players who wish to play this content?

The most progression possible in the campaign by the January 18 release date, based on the campaign weekly haul, is 600 Northern War Commendation. In order to create a Keldegonn key, 750 Northern War Commendation is required, which cannot be done by the launch date without multiple purchases of the Undying Pack, priced at 3000 Zen each. This is far out of reach of most players. If the new trial has the same unlock condition as the key, most players will be barred from participating, based on the resources they have access to rather than their level of participation and achievement in relevant content.

Would it be possible to get some clarification on this subject?

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abanindra

Whoever enters dragonvale zone before january 18 th will always have access to the zone and quests. Only if any one tries to enter dragonvale after januray 18 th for the first time they need the req 45 k Il. So you guys can try th new trial maybe a week after it launches

oracle

abanindra#4113 said:

Whoever enters dragonvale zone before january 18 th will always have access to the zone and quests. Only if any one tries to enter dragonvale after januray 18 th for the first time they need the req 45 k Il. So you guys can try th new trial maybe a week after it launches

I'm asking about the trial, not the zone. When you say "maybe a week after it launches", is this speculation or have the devs commented on this? If no one can access the trial on its release then it's not really "released." So I'd assume that some people are able to play it starting on the release date. Will this be limited to only those players who are able to spend large amounts of Zen to acquire multiple Packs of the Undying from the store in order to get 750 Northern War Commendation campaign progress?

stark760

Some clarification would be nice. Not sure how much campaign currency needed to unlock trial, but if you cap the weekly on monday, and have 600, and it takes more than that to access it, that means you have to buy zen packs to unlock on the 18th.

mentinmindmaker

ifs#2910 said:

The release of Crown of Keldegonn (Master) has been announced for January 18 on PC. What degree of campaign progress will be required for players who wish to play this content?

The most progression possible in the campaign by the January 18 release date, based on the campaign weekly haul, is 600 Northern War Commendation. In order to create a Keldegonn key, 750 Northern War Commendation is required, which cannot be done by the launch date without multiple purchases of the Undying Pack, priced at 3000 Zen each. This is far out of reach of most players. If the new trial has the same unlock condition as the key, most players will be barred from participating, based on the resources they have access to rather than their level of participation and achievement in relevant content.

Would it be possible to get some clarification on this subject?

The purpose of the campaign keys usually is to open the _second_ chest in the trial. There are no signs that it will be different this time. If you look at the tooltip for the key it says it is for opening chests.

No other trials got any entrance requirements beyond having sufficient IL.

As far as I can see, no progress in the campaign will be required to enter the new trial. You just will not be able to open the second chest until you have progressed in the campaign.

oracle

mentinmindmaker said:

The purpose of the campaign keys usually is to open the _second_ chest in the trial. There are no signs that it will be different this time. If you look at the tooltip for the key it says it is for opening chests.

No other trials got any entrance requirements beyond having sufficient IL.

As far as I can see, no progress in the campaign will be required to enter the new trial. You just will not be able to open the second chest until you have progressed in the campaign.

Other endgame content has required campaign progress to enter. When I first attempted to queue for TOMM, the tooltip for the padlock icon preventing me from selecting TOMM in the queue interface informed me that I had to have run LOMM and completed a quest that is part of Stardock, thus requiring me to progress through Undermountain. For VOS, you needed to complete a quest that was unlocked at a certain point in the campaign. There are items available in the Wondrous Bazaar on the preview shard (such as Bane of the Mad Mage) specifically to bypass these types of requirements for players to be able to enter certain queues.

I'm also aware that practices may change over time, and regardless of what has been done in the past, the possibility still exists for exclusive "headstart" access to be offered behind a Zen paywall, in essence. I have some doubt that this is the case, yet have enough uncertainty and concern that I am seeking assurance.

plasticbat

I doubt you will get the official answer in 2 days. So, you will know what it will be on Tuesday. In the meanwhile, don't do anything that can harm you if you guess wrong. If there is a pay wall, what can you do about it? If there is no pay wall, what can you do about it?

oracle

It can take a significant amount of effort and lead time to form coordinated, viable groups for this sort of thing. Right now no one I know is able to plan or commit to any runs forming because no one knows who will be able to do the trial or not. It would have been really helpful for Cryptic to give us any information at all about trial access when they announced the release date, but it looks like there will be no such information until it's already released. (Actually, this information could have been provided long before a release date announcement)

Waiting until a last-minute release announcement to *still* not clearly indicate how to be able to participate in said release isn't cool. Having a surprise de facto paywall at launch (even if temporary) to profit from consequent impulse spending because people don't want to miss out on plans to play it with their friends and family, would just leave an awful smell. Please don't do it this way. If something is going to be effectively limited access based on Zen spending at launch, say it is so beforehand.