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Please make zen companions bind to account
skarlspeed
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 74 Arc User
As it appears that companions are not going to be able to "unbind", I have not only been stupid in buying them, I have just simply placed them with whichever character I was leveling at the time. This makes me double stupid.
So in essense, I spent money on companions like an idiot, and I also failed to forsee the future, and realize that companions will now in the near future give little buffs, and in knowing the future I could have placed companions to the character I wanted to buff these certain things with.
Unless you make my companions AT LEAST bind to account, I cannot mix and match the companions to get the bonuses I may think I need. If you make the bind to acct at least I have the freedom to mix and match them.
I regret buying them now. This sense of regret is not something customers enjoy often.
So in essense, I spent money on companions like an idiot, and I also failed to forsee the future, and realize that companions will now in the near future give little buffs, and in knowing the future I could have placed companions to the character I wanted to buff these certain things with.
Unless you make my companions AT LEAST bind to account, I cannot mix and match the companions to get the bonuses I may think I need. If you make the bind to acct at least I have the freedom to mix and match them.
I regret buying them now. This sense of regret is not something customers enjoy often.
Post edited by skarlspeed on
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Pure content customers only ever purchase with in-game AD a single augment companion per character.
This combined with changes to Active Companions slots (now given for free) and Soulforged (now utterly changed) show borderline contempt to paying customers!
~sigh~
This would be great.
You guys might want to post your feedback about that in the preview thread about active companion powers. While I have my doubts that it will happen, I think a major change like this deserves it. You can find the thread here. Let them know that its the new active companion bonuses that make you want the unbind so it stays on topic.
I think they should just make the Zen companions account-wide like the mounts and most companions from purchased packs. You should buy it and you get a copy for all your characters.
Nope. And they aren't doing that anyway.
They are giving away active companion slots at 30 and 60. Even though some characters already bought them. They reduced the cost of some mounts after players bought them. Then started the sale system and gave players a chance to get them even cheaper. About half the original cost.
I'm not complaining. Just pointing out that they don't seem to be afraid to change things just because players in the past purchased something. I hope they take the same attitude with companions, and make them account-wide.
The info was there. It's nobody's fault but yours if you just bound companions to whatever random character.
That being said, I think that a one-time unbinding of companions with the new system is probably a good idea, and adding a selection of BoP account-wide companions in the C-store would have some upside as well.
Getting rid of the BoE companions is not a good idea because some people use companions as a way to turn their $$$ into ADs.
If they added a selection of BoP account-wide companions, though, I can think of two potential benefits:
1) Players would be secure in knowing that they could buy and use the companion with no fear of that companion not being available to their favorite character, no matter who that favorite character ends up being.
This is why I have a Halloween Skeleton sitting in one character's bag right now. I am 'afraid' to bind them to anyone for fear of abandoning that character and thus losing the companion.
2) Players would be encouraged to buy extra character slots rather than just making a new account to get more characters.
They would need to look at the impact of this on the BoE companions, though.
If they think that this would kill the BoE companions then they might have to set prices at some point that would be sure to get people complaining.
It's definitely doable, though.
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As an alternative, what about a price to just unbind companions? A token that you could purchase and use to turn an idle companion into an unbound companion reset to rank 1?
This would still solve the problems with issue #1, keep the market for BoE companions alive, and still allow for someone to keep those investments alive in the game long after the character that the companions were originally attached to is forgotten.
companion for each toon. 99.99% of the players won't do it, and the rest are
disappointed that their latest toon can't use the pet. It's always best - from
a customer relations/business point of view - to give the paying customers a
fair deal. Remember: without them this whole model fails.
Oh. And especially if they ALSO paid for more toon slots!
I have no problem with that. While I am sure there are some exceptions, it appears many of the people selling Zen shop companions on the AH are trying to scam people who don't know better. Most of the time you can get the companion much cheaper just trading AD for Zen on the exchange then buying it. Neverwinter would be better off without that kind of market.
Understand, a BOE to Account-Wide change would affect me too. I've bought 6 Ioun Stones at this point. If they turned them Account-Wide, then that means I wasted the Zen I spent on 5 of them. I still think it would be a good idea. And it would make me much more likely to buy other companions. If I know I can use them on all of my characters. Then their value goes up.
Account bound, with shared storage would be great. But for now we don't have shared storage. And as you mentioned, they don't want us to be able to unbind them anyway. So that has left me hoping for account-wide.
If they could change their mind on unbinding (only if they make them account-bound of course). Then that would seem a more reasonable solution. Players who bought multiples of a single companion would still have a convenience benefit of not trading all the time. And no one would have to worry about companions wasting away on characters they don't care about anymore.
One thing I want to point out though, is that this is likely to get a big push into the spotlight with module 2. With almost every companion getting a new passive power that benefits the character. Players will want to switch their companions around to where they are most beneficial. That would be the perfect time for them to adjust how companions bind. And show us how well they listen.
But I won't pay 30 bucks for a companion I only get on one hero.
When they brought out the Feywild pack, I bought it because of the fact that you were getting a pet for every hero you ever make, as well as a mount...the other items were just gravy.
Same reason I bought the pack at the launch, it was available for all heroes I ever make.
If they wanted to drop the price down, I might be fine with that...but considering there are 6 classes "counting ranger", they'd have to make it 5 bucks to make it really cheap. Before, it wasn't that big a deal to not have a certain pet on a hero, but with the new system I think it is.
For 30 bucks a companion should be claimable for every hero that wants it. I mean, I could go play subscription MMO's for less than that and get the pets on all my characters for free. (with a few exceptions)
I am all for supporting a game I enjoy, and I have done so with this one. But I am not a fool, and I think it's an insult to the playerbase to ask them buy the same thing over and over again at that kind of price range.
Just my opinion, of course.
Most of us don't have large chunks of expendable income, and most of those who do aren't silly enough to think dropping 150 bucks for a pet to get it on each hero is half worth it.
And I read something the other day saying that because we can trade zen for AD or vice versa, that they have to charge more....and that comment makes no sense. The zen you get from AD trades was paid for, and they got paid for that zen just like they would if you bought some to buy a companion with it.
Anyway, I won't buy any companions that I don't get for all my heroes. Just not spending that much for a single character pet. They could follow The Secret World and make it so you can spend an additional 25% and make something available for all characters, I'd probably be okay with that too.
maybe that mentality is if companions cost 500z, nobody would buy zen because it would be far more easily attainable for free. if it costs 3000z, you could pay for it with half purchased zen, half in-game earned zen.
in a twisted way, that does make sense. the only other thing they could do is actually have a cash shop and cut out the zen part.
It still encourages people to upgrade their pets to max. rank, it still leaves the 'special' pets as special, and it might even drive some new revenue from cheapskates (like me) who would drop cash to get a decent defender pet.
The problem with that theory is that the Zen has to come from somewhere. Even if you trade AD for it, someone bought it first. You never get Zen without the company getting paid.
Each companion should have 2 prices: 1 for a BoE, single use companion, and another for an account wide non-tradable compaion available for all toons on an account.
For a Green quality I would suggest 500zen/1500zen (single use/account wide)
Blue: 750/2000
Purple: 1000/3000
They also need to decrease the AD cost of upgrading a companion. Alternatively I have suggested that the new "Sword Coast Adventures" mini-game (through the gateway) allow a companion to earn a "Upgrade discount token" which allows a 10% reduction in the cost of an upgrade, 5 tokens max. The tokens would be hard to get, from a rare mission, but for the people dedicated to doing it it would allow a decent decrease in the cost while adding incentive for people to play the new mini-game. And the new game is a lot of fun to begin with.