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Player Warning about Z-Store Companions
angrysprite
Member Posts: 4,982 Arc User
This is not a thread proclaiming "ZOMG! Don't buy Z-Store Companions, UR Scrood if U DO!!!!"
No, no, no. If you have the money, want to buy a Z-Store Companion then by all means you should do so. Supporting Cryptic is always a good thing and it keeps the game alive.
HOWEVER, a word of warning to anyone considering the purchase of a Z-Store Companion: there is a major, game-changing policy change from Cryptic about Z-Store Companions: they are not and will now never be "unbindable". This means you buy one and only one for your character and that's all you will ever get.
You must understand this, no matter what word of mouth you have heard or any other information source: Z-Store Companions are only ONE per character and NOT transferable. Ever. Unless Cryptic makes a change to turn them into "Account-bound" items, rather than the current state of "Character-bound". Up to today, this was TRUE.
But as of today the official word after all these months (since Closed Beta 1 and Alpha, etc.) is:
The above statement is a typical politically-correct Cover Your <censored> statement and here's why: "message" and "corrected" are misnomers and made to cause you to believe this was a simple "error" on their part. it was not. It's not a "message", it's a "process". "Corrected" is a less-than-honest statement because it is not being "corrected" - it is already intentionally-written code being removed or rerouted to be avoided.
Ever since the beginning (Closed beta 1) it has been clearly understood Z-Store Companions where character-bound (you buy one for your character and that's all you get) - but that you can spend (an exorbitant amount of) Astral Diamonds to "unbind" the Companion which makes it transferrable (to an Alternate Character or Auction House or whatever.
This is not just assumption or hearsay because to unbind a Companion you had to select "Unbind" in the game UI, then the game would caution you that there is a cost of Astral Diamonds to do so. However, doing so did nothing: the Diamonds were never deducted from your in-game wallet and the Companion was never unbound.
The very fact that this code was written into the game and entirely functional up to the point of actually unbinding means this was the original intent, and therefore players presumed (rightly) that this "feature" would be fixed eventually. Hence, Z-Store Companions were purchased at upwards of $40 (4000 Zen) per Companion on the FAITH that this "bug" would soon enough be addressed.
Cryptic may have never officially announced or endorsed this process (and the assumption it will be fixed,) but they have never, ever (even unofficially) denounced it, either - even as prominent as the subject has always been in these forums. Meaning the best-case scenario on Cryptic's part was complacency in allowing player to believe this is and was always the intended function.
Now Cryptic says "no". What's worse is a Moderator statement a few days ago proclaiming "unbinding companions is not and never was intended to be possible". (Paraphrased - and funny I can't find that thread now - go figure). I call <censored> on this.
It is now a case of "Bait and Switch". (I am not proclaiming this, I am simply stating this is now the perceived scenario.)
Cryptic: you need to fix this problem and perception. There is only one way to do it: convert all Z-Store Companion into Account-bound items.
CRYPTIC: How will you do right by your customers who have, as of now, spent ridiculous amounts of real money on an item that cannot be reclaimed by the purchaser on more than one character other than what we are asking (turn them into account-bound items)?
TL;DR:
CRYPTIC: Please make this right: Convert all Z-Store Companions (including and especially those already purchased by users) into ACCOUNT-BOUND Companions so they can be reclaimed on alternate characters by the purchaser.
That is all.
No, no, no. If you have the money, want to buy a Z-Store Companion then by all means you should do so. Supporting Cryptic is always a good thing and it keeps the game alive.
HOWEVER, a word of warning to anyone considering the purchase of a Z-Store Companion: there is a major, game-changing policy change from Cryptic about Z-Store Companions: they are not and will now never be "unbindable". This means you buy one and only one for your character and that's all you will ever get.
You must understand this, no matter what word of mouth you have heard or any other information source: Z-Store Companions are only ONE per character and NOT transferable. Ever. Unless Cryptic makes a change to turn them into "Account-bound" items, rather than the current state of "Character-bound". Up to today, this was TRUE.
But as of today the official word after all these months (since Closed Beta 1 and Alpha, etc.) is:
UI
An incorrect message that stated you could unbind companions has been corrected.
The above statement is a typical politically-correct Cover Your <censored> statement and here's why: "message" and "corrected" are misnomers and made to cause you to believe this was a simple "error" on their part. it was not. It's not a "message", it's a "process". "Corrected" is a less-than-honest statement because it is not being "corrected" - it is already intentionally-written code being removed or rerouted to be avoided.
Ever since the beginning (Closed beta 1) it has been clearly understood Z-Store Companions where character-bound (you buy one for your character and that's all you get) - but that you can spend (an exorbitant amount of) Astral Diamonds to "unbind" the Companion which makes it transferrable (to an Alternate Character or Auction House or whatever.
This is not just assumption or hearsay because to unbind a Companion you had to select "Unbind" in the game UI, then the game would caution you that there is a cost of Astral Diamonds to do so. However, doing so did nothing: the Diamonds were never deducted from your in-game wallet and the Companion was never unbound.
The very fact that this code was written into the game and entirely functional up to the point of actually unbinding means this was the original intent, and therefore players presumed (rightly) that this "feature" would be fixed eventually. Hence, Z-Store Companions were purchased at upwards of $40 (4000 Zen) per Companion on the FAITH that this "bug" would soon enough be addressed.
Cryptic may have never officially announced or endorsed this process (and the assumption it will be fixed,) but they have never, ever (even unofficially) denounced it, either - even as prominent as the subject has always been in these forums. Meaning the best-case scenario on Cryptic's part was complacency in allowing player to believe this is and was always the intended function.
Now Cryptic says "no". What's worse is a Moderator statement a few days ago proclaiming "unbinding companions is not and never was intended to be possible". (Paraphrased - and funny I can't find that thread now - go figure). I call <censored> on this.
It is now a case of "Bait and Switch". (I am not proclaiming this, I am simply stating this is now the perceived scenario.)
Cryptic: you need to fix this problem and perception. There is only one way to do it: convert all Z-Store Companion into Account-bound items.
CRYPTIC: How will you do right by your customers who have, as of now, spent ridiculous amounts of real money on an item that cannot be reclaimed by the purchaser on more than one character other than what we are asking (turn them into account-bound items)?
TL;DR:
CRYPTIC: Please make this right: Convert all Z-Store Companions (including and especially those already purchased by users) into ACCOUNT-BOUND Companions so they can be reclaimed on alternate characters by the purchaser.
That is all.
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Comments
/10char
It was always meant to be in the game, the Devs just now decided that it is more profitable not to have it implemented.
At first I was going to reply; THEY SHOULD MAKE ACCOUNT BOUND COMPANION IF YOU BUY W ZEN!!!
but i see you have that covered already:)
hahahah! Awesome comment.
Though I must point out I'm not rage-quitting or retiring or anything like that and neither do I suggest or recommend anyone else do so (I'll still play, I'll just put a padlock on my wallet from here on out).
The simple fact is: we whom have made these purchases did so because of an understanding we had about the mechanics of the system and to support Cryptic.
Now that Cryptic has made a serious game-changing new policy decision, it behooves them (Cryptic) to "make it right" for those who've made such purchases on the faith that Cryptic would not do the unthinkable, which they now have done.
I am not a "Cryptic fanatic" or anything like that, though I've been a Cryptic player for more than three years now. But I'll defend their policies and procedures when they make sense and are fair. However, I am just as quick to criticize when it is warranted and in this case it is an egregious offense against players until (with a heavy dose on IF) they "fix" it.
I suspect it will be a while (if ever) that anyone from Cryptic (possibly even Forum Moderators) will ever comment in this thread as they have to step-back, regroup, meet with Public Relations and Marketing and possibly Perfect World Entertainment Kahunas to figure out how they will move forward on this major f*ck-up of a policy decision.
There's a blaze-a-burnin', they are now trying to figure out how to put the fire out. That might take some time. But I'll keep bumping this thread if necessary to keep it near the top of the threads list.
And let us make no mistake here: this is not a Cryptic Developer decision. This is a Cryptic Marketing or PR or some other department decision. It is not the Devs' fault this is happening. I have no doubt whatsoever the Devs and Sominator and many on the Neverwinter team are feeling our pain.
However, it is Sominator and the Devs who peruse these forums the most. So let us hope and pray THEY will shout-out our cries to the appropriate department heads who make the final decisions on these type of things.
@Cryptic: we are BEGGING you. Please fix this.
I can say this is the first time I am glad botting is rampant, as it's lowering the price of rank 7-9's, helping toons that I will NOT purchase another companion for.
Sad day for Neverwinter when the game is in dire need of a better AD sink, this obviously was intended. Fewer and fewer are going to pay for unsocketing enchants when u can purchase that enchantment for less than the cost of unsocketing it.
Hope the devs of other MMO's are taking note on how not to run their game post beta.
MAKE COMPANIONS BIND-TO-ACCOUNT
The panther is Bind-to-account, so it is easy enough to do this for ZEN purchased companions.
Even the new Nymph you can have on ALL your characters.
Thinking about it, I think the only reason why the are changing their mind is because of the "Ioun Stone" is too powerful. This is because once they bought their stone they would not need to buy any other pet except for cosmetic reasons in which case remove the Ioun stone from the Zen store. Though you can still purchase it with bars and cat with AD. Even if the stone was too powerful I would still purchase a companion from time to time for fun ONLY if it was available to all my characters.
On a side note, you should only get 1 Panther and be able to transfer it between characters. Having to re-level a pet 4 times is annoying....
A city to protect
innocents to save
"Why?" They ask "they hate you"
We're heroes it's what we do.
*patiently waiting on Paragon City*
If they keep them as they are I think a price reduction would be nice considering that at 60 they seem to be useless in dungeons (everyone seems to want stones or cat).
+1
That is all.
i think that this is the way to go (or they could increase the price and make them bound to account)
one that's BOA and one that's BOE, the bind to character versions of course will be 1/2 to 1/3 the price
of account versions and will be sellable on auction until used,
and the account versions will all be Bind on pickup. this way existing versions that people have purchased
will not need to be changed. maybe give account versions a slightly different name so that they count as a
different pet for title/collection reasons.
this way those who have less diamonds can maybe get that rock guy on their wizard character
alone and then save up to get a nice account honey badger for the rest of their chars.
I feel this methodology will increase both impulse buys and investments. especially since pets
count towards a badge and have an idle pet tab so they don't take up inventory.
having character based zen mounts may be good also especially if you ever add a mount tab.
People very much like to sort things so you could probably SELL mount/Fashion/Enchantment tabs
for 500z a char to offset the bank space or 1000z for account.
(Above is an extracted phrase for brevity sake, not intended to misrepresent anything)
I expect the first comment will likely be some contrived statement about this or that rule being violated, as the thread is locked and sent to the depths, safely out of easy view. Even though I don't see any rule being broken..
Anyway.. that's just 'murphy' being paranoid.. I hope.
I bought 4 purple companions (three stones and a cat,) one for each of the four characters I had at the time.
I was under the impression when I bought them that if I ever decided I wanted to delete one of the characters (to try a new class, or to get out of a hopeless mess left by mad nerfing, or whatever..) I would be able to transfer the companion to the new character. It was, after all paid for, and it wasn't cheap.
So yeah, I totally agree with the OP and pretty much every followup post here, so far.
Cryptic, PWE, whoever, needs to own up.. I mean.. I don't know which was more detestable.. the withdrawing of the given but bugged benefit or the outright FIB being told about it being a 'correction.'
Roland Mac Sheonin GF | Tarron Direheart SW |
This is an incorrect assumption.
STO Starships average 2500 Zen and are account-bound - they are highly successful. On the other hand, Neverwinter Mounts average 3500-4000 Zen, (before/after price changes) - they also are account-bound; you can claim and reclaim them on every character on your account forever.
However, Z-Store Companions also cost upward of 3500-4000 Zen, the same as mounts, but they are Character-bound - you cannot reclaim them. The reason for these prices was because it was intended to allow them to be transferred.
Now that the transfer *feature* has had the plonk put on it, these Companions should *also* be made account-bound to fall in-line with Mounts and other like-priced items that are account-bound.
Sure, Cryptic could lower the price for character-bound Companions, but how is that fair to the thousands of players already purchasing these?
Cryptic needs to make this RIGHT.
As for support tickets: done it. Even got a reply within hours. The paraphrased short answer: Not "no", but "hell no".
@Cryptic: the pot's percolating. Do something. Even a comment of "we're looking into it and considering options" would be something.
I suspect these account-unlock companions are a major reason why unbinding has been taken off the table.
Account-unlock mounts are not tradeable because there would be nothing stopping a player from claiming infinite mounts to sell. Per-character mounts can be sold or traded until bound; there is no way to unbind a mount, nor has there ever been any indication that there would be. So, that basically works.
Likewise account-unlock companions (dire wolf, panther, sylph, tiefling cleric from promos) come bound, even if you haven't used them. Per-character companions can be traded or sold until bound. So a big problem with the hypothetical unbinding of companions is that without complicated coding to specify which types of companions can be unbound, there's a big exploitable loophole built into the concept. Plus, even with the exploit plugged, it would be even more confusing for players: why can I unbind companion X but not Y?
I do agree that the Zen store companions are poor value compared to the mounts, being single-use instead of account while having a comparable price point.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Good points. All the more reason to make them ALL Account-bound rather than character-bound. This is the fastest, easiest, most efficient solution with the least "disruption" in Player-base "intellect".
Tough, with this thread getting so few comments, I suspect it'll fizzle away. Cryptic only tends to reply to threads with several pages of comments. So I supposed Cryptic will believe we all are in the minority with regard to how we feel about this policy change. More because we are in the know, the rest will discover it eventually. By then it will be too late to make loud attempt to get Cryptic's attention.
Cest la vie, I suppose.
Between the very high cost (for a digital item) and losing that investment if I want to recreate the character, I'm very very turned off spending any more money on this game, not to mention that it brings to mind that I've spent around $400 on this game, with the justification that it'd be worthwhile over time. Now I'm feeling like cutting my losses.
Actually, it's more like people making plans based on the information available (companions were supposed to be able to be unbound), and then complain when the devs retract their statements with 'working as intended'.
They're 'fixing' bugs by claiming they are 'features'.
Precisely. And this "feature" was a major factor in purchasing decision. Now that Cryptic is changing policy by eliminating the feature, many might consider it "bait-and-switch" - which is a problem (that it could be considered such). I don't personally feel this way because I made the decision on my own to make those purchases, albeit that feature being (barely enough) justification for the high prices. This is why I'm trying hard to not sound like I'm bichen about it, but begging Cryptic to make it "right".
In short, and speaking only for myself, this policy change means I'll never purchase a "character-bound" item from the Z-Store ever again, in any PWE game, save for consumables - those items that are expected to be temporary use. I'll most certainly never buy another Z-Store Companion again forevermore unless they either drastically lower the prices (like around $15 or less) or make them Account-Bound, (which would justify the current pricing,) considering their playability worth (meaning their function in-game is barely worth the monetary investment they require).
I am only hopeful Cryptic Studios (and PWE) chooses to do *something* to do right by those who chose to support them by these high-cost investments, which is what they were: investments. Buying into any Free-to-Play game company is much like the stock market, I suppose. There always will be risks like these.
Caveat emptor! Hahahah!
Yeah. On my first character, still low level, I was tempted to buy an Ioun Stone. The only thing holding me back was that it was my first character and I didn't know how permanent that character would be. What tipped me into buying the stone instead of waiting was the info about unbinding companions being fixed sometime. I figured worst case, I could let that character sit there and recover the stone at some future point if I ended up not liking it.
You've hit the nail on the head. This is the exact same reason I decided to make the purchase and I'm willing to bet the same reason most others have decided to make the purchase.
I agree this policy change is probably most wise for Cryptic to adopt - I can clearly understand confusion regarding the difference between the account-bound companions (those coming with paid-for packs and special offers) and those purchased through the Z-Store. And I also can clearly understand that writing the computer code to distinguish between them so the unbinding feature works correctly could be a nightmare and unreasonable workload (if this is the reason or not for the new policy, I don't know - but it makes sense).
Therefore, it behooves Cryptic to simply keep the existing pricing in place and simply convert all companions (except for the freebies you earn in-game) into account-bound items. The difficult part of this scenario is having the Z-Store figure-out who already has purchased what and I'm not so sure this is a very easy task, short of having the system scan everyone's account logs to see if they have one of these companions or not and which one, then "flagging" the account to tell the Z-Store that account may continue to reclaim those particular companions from the Z-Store. Account-bound items are really Character-bound items with the only difference being that the Z-Store allows you to reclaim the item without paying for it again.
In short: I understand what we are asking is not so easy for Cryptic to implement. And I know Cryptic will not "pre-announce" such an effort because then it becomes a promise, which could break if they run into major technical issues. This is why the whole scenario is so darned frustrating.
Either way, this is why I hope Cryptic is working to figure-out how to do right by their paying customers. And why it may take a long time to do it (possibly a couple months?) Even if Cryptic never officially announced support for the feature, the fact that the game client allowed the feature, albeit "broken", and Cryptic never denouncing the feature is what makes it the whole scenario stink.