Have you seen the drop in the backlog the few days after keys became BoA?
You mean the one that was done at the same time as an event that encouraged people to buy more zen that could be put back into the system and now that it's ever it's now upto 6.5m backlogged?
The zen "offer" wasn't that spectacular and maybe some people changed their minds because of it, but 12% of the backlog? I don't think so. Why would they re-offer AD for zen now if they just got a bunch? They wouldn't. Bots are just trying to use another tradable item people can't get normally for currency, and the people with millions of AD are all but too happy to follow their suggestion and raise prices in the AH.
I think it was pretty HAMSTER myself but it still would've put some zen into the system.
It costs them nothing and gains them 10% on CWards and 5% on ioun stones atm. And I don't expect it will stay such low %s if nothing's done to stop it.
You're ignoring the ah fee. Not sure where you got the ioun stone profit from either since the highest one listed is 600k which is at cost. Those 2 items aren't great if you want a profit. Though you do get a lesser bonding with the stones. If you make pets BtA then you kind of screw the ability to get perfect bonding runestones.
excluding people like me who believe that Cryptic has a responsibility to keep their F2P promises and won't spend another dime till they take up said responsibility
Have you been here for just a few weeks tops, and as such did not notice that over the past six months the devs have clearly moved from the nice guys phase to the milking one?
This game has started to take an obvious course a long time ago. They won't suddenly shift into the reverse gear unless they see the numbers dropping noticeably. Which they won't because
new lvl 60s in desperate need for a respec are not gonna wait 5 days or spend the money on something so vital to the game.
is where you're wrong.
If you're not an avid player, you won't mind playing with your flawed spec for a few more days. If you are one, there's a good chance you won't hesitate to open your wallet.
Add a ton of former long-term F2P's grabbing their credit cards for the first time because they don't wanna wait for five days and omg look there's a one-day contest sale on right now too. What a coincidence.
Clogged ZAX brings a lot of new paying customers, like it or not. Most people who quit have never charged any Zen anyway, so they won't be missed from the PWE's point of view.
And you personally will neither pay nor quit because you're a strong-willed individual that we oh-all look up to.
But most are not.
I think it's time Cryptic got his head out of it's rear end and start taking responsibility for their gamers. Therefor I'll wait.
Good luck with that. A non-paying (not anymore anyway, as you claim) customer not making another character is gonna render the entire dev team homeless.
Pretty sure they intend on keeping this backlog present in the future as a pay-barrier. If the cost of something in zen is over a certain amount you can be sure that attempting to trade AD for that quantity of zen will simply take too long to get any practical use out of it.
Eventually (once backlog hits 10m+) anything that costs over 1k zen will simply have to be bought with cash because it would take several weeks to trade 500 ad a piece for 1000 zen.
Hell it just took me 12 days to trade AD for 250 zen...
Hmm. I've also seen them for 700k over the last week, but nothing changes faster than a trading house, except for maybe a woman changing her mind.
As far as the AH fee goes.. nobody bothered with that until the ZAx got clogged up. Nor do I believe they do now. I bought ioun stones for 4 characters over the past 9 months and 550k is the most I paid for one. Compared to the 460k I paid for the first one I felt robbed. But I suppose it's one excuse you can give for raising AH prices. I just don't believe that's the only reason.
Don't forget they can keep or sell the bonding stones separately from the companion. Not that they are that good really, but I would sell them separately in the Zen store if/when everything becomes BoA.
Well coal wards are still cheaper than they should be (as in compared to be expected rather than whats fair), theres still some in circulation before they were bound if they were waiting for it to sell just above cost after the ah fee and then the ward sale would've reduced that so anyone wanting to make some ad from that will be wanting to sell theirs too. The stones on the other hand are cheap since some people may want the bonding runestone or sell both items and net a profit, something I think is fair since people can get either item individually for cheaper. If they were bound buying many companions would be more of a waste and they'd probably be less lesser bonding runestones available which makes the already expensive perfect bonding runestones even more expensive. The lesser ones are very cost efficient for even augments. A rank 9 equivalent for 2-300k? Yes please! Who doesn't like more power?
However unfortunately people are selfish and exploit one another, but that's not down to the exchange being backlogged, people sell marks of potency for over cost after all and you could make a profit on keys for a long time before the backlog. You can't fix stupidity or those that exploit it. I just don't think it's good to restrict the game even more than it has been since mod 1. It may help exploitation of market prices of those items, but why hurt the ones who want to trade, gift or sell part of what they bought?
Pretty sure they intend on keeping this backlog present in the future as a pay-barrier. If the cost of something in zen is over a certain amount you can be sure that attempting to trade AD for that quantity of zen will simply take too long to get any practical use out of it.
Eventually anything that costs over 1k zen will simply have to be bought with cash because it would take several weeks to trade 500 ad a piece for 1000 zen.
Hell it just took me 12 days to trade AD for 250 zen...
No idea what you mean, whatsoever.
If you request a certain amount at once, you will also get it at once, more or less.
Acquiring 5000 zen from ZAX takes as long as 50 zen, except for a few minutes more when requesting higher figures.
And the time to receive zen from ZAX has never been beyond six days. It's currently at about four and half days with ~6M backlog.
It may help exploitation of market prices of those items, but why hurt the ones who want to trade, gift or sell part of what they bought?
The big time traders that it would hurt are the exploiters. The small time traders would be better off. The gifters are probably an infinitesimally small percent of the population, and the ones that want to sell part of what they bought would just buy smaller quantities at a time or bank the remaining (probably p. wards) till the next thing they want to upgrade. Most would benefit. Sometimes you have to hurt a few to help the many.
The big time traders that it would hurt are the exploiters. The small time traders would be better off. The gifters are probably an infinitesimally small percent of the population, and the ones that want to sell part of what they bought would just buy smaller quantities at a time or bank the remaining (probably p. wards) till the next thing they want to upgrade. Most would benefit. Sometimes you have to hurt a few to help the many.
And yet I see gifting options in other games being both requested and implemented. In here it gets taken away. \o/
I just don't like anything to restrict players in any way just because people kept ripping themselves off and that will never change. I'd add something here but I think I'm on thin ice from the moderators ):
And yet I see gifting options in other games being both requested and implemented. In here it gets taken away. \o/
I just don't like anything to restrict players in any way just because people kept ripping themselves off and that will never change. I'd add something here but I think I'm on thin ice from the moderators ):
Don't get me wrong, I know myself well enough to know that I'm elitist and arrogant. I believe I know better than those that make what I consider poor mathematical choices, and I'm fully willing to advocate for something that will hurt a few to protect them from their own choices. That said I really believe that it will fix the problems and that hurting the few will be for the best.
No idea what you mean, whatsoever.
If you request a certain amount at once, you will also get it at once, more or less.
Acquiring 5000 zen from ZAX takes as long as 50 zen, except for a few minutes more when requesting higher figures.
And the time to receive zen from ZAX has never been beyond six days. It's currently at about four and half days with ~6M backlog.
No it doesn't. My orders for 5000 zen get filled piece by piece. If you happen to be around when it starts to get filled you will see it go through 100 to 500 at a time till the full amount finally gets completed .... and it can take several hours after it starts to get filled to complete.
I keep seeing where people are saying how much the backlog is or what it is currently. I have been searching for this info myself so I may keep an eye on it as well. Maybe I'm blind or just dumb and don't know where to look. Can someone please tell me how you know what the backlog even is at the current time?
**Edit: Also I want to toss out there I agree with the Key Bind to Account. At first I was a bit frustrated with it as me and my wife play and I tended to do most of the Key Buying with my AD and splitting them with her. Now we will just have to resort to trading AD on the AH so she can buy her own keys. Well, When the AD gets exchanged with the current Backlog. I think they should make the whole Cash Shop Bind to Account. I have played MMO's for a VERY long time. I started back on Everquest. Even then ALOT of stuff including what you could buy from SOE was bound to your account. Unfortunately in every game there will be cheaters, bots, companies that exploit whatever they can in game to make a buck. Its a fact of life and you wont be able to stop everyone. That being said, You can slow them down by taking away the things they use to exploit. Such as, Making all Cash shop Items Bound to Accounts.
Anyway that was my 2 cents worth. Have a great day.
I keep seeing where people are saying how much the backlog is or what it is currently. I have been searching for this info myself so I may keep an eye on it as well. Maybe I'm blind or just dumb and don't know where to look. Can someone please tell me how you know what the backlog even is at the current time?
**Edit: Also I want to toss out there I agree with the Key Bind to Account. At first I was a bit frustrated with it as me and my wife play and I tended to do most of the Key Buying with my AD and splitting them with her. Now we will just have to resort to trading AD on the AH so she can buy her own keys. Well, When the AD gets exchanged with the current Backlog. I think they should make the whole Cash Shop Bind to Account. I have played MMO's for a VERY long time. I started back on Everquest. Even then ALOT of stuff including what you could buy from SOE was bound to your account. Unfortunately in every game there will be cheaters, bots, companies that exploit whatever they can in game to make a buck. Its a fact of life and you wont be able to stop everyone. That being said, You can slow them down by taking away the things they use to exploit. Such as, Making all Cash shop Items Bound to Accounts.
Anyway that was my 2 cents worth. Have a great day.
Check the exchange in the sell zen tab. atm people have a combined offering of 12.9m zen for their AD at 500ad/z.
With the new lockboxes I wanted to get some keys, I invest it all (also at the wrong time) so would have got some on my 2nd account but because they're bound as well as the trade bars I didn't bother. Basically it solved nothing and just made things more difficult if you wanted legit keys.
Comments
You mean the one that was done at the same time as an event that encouraged people to buy more zen that could be put back into the system and now that it's ever it's now upto 6.5m backlogged?
I think it was pretty HAMSTER myself but it still would've put some zen into the system.
Also.
You're ignoring the ah fee. Not sure where you got the ioun stone profit from either since the highest one listed is 600k which is at cost. Those 2 items aren't great if you want a profit. Though you do get a lesser bonding with the stones. If you make pets BtA then you kind of screw the ability to get perfect bonding runestones.
This game has started to take an obvious course a long time ago. They won't suddenly shift into the reverse gear unless they see the numbers dropping noticeably. Which they won't because
is where you're wrong.
If you're not an avid player, you won't mind playing with your flawed spec for a few more days. If you are one, there's a good chance you won't hesitate to open your wallet.
Add a ton of former long-term F2P's grabbing their credit cards for the first time because they don't wanna wait for five days and omg look there's a one-day contest sale on right now too. What a coincidence.
Clogged ZAX brings a lot of new paying customers, like it or not. Most people who quit have never charged any Zen anyway, so they won't be missed from the PWE's point of view.
And you personally will neither pay nor quit because you're a strong-willed individual that we oh-all look up to.
But most are not.
Good luck with that. A non-paying (not anymore anyway, as you claim) customer not making another character is gonna render the entire dev team homeless.
Eventually (once backlog hits 10m+) anything that costs over 1k zen will simply have to be bought with cash because it would take several weeks to trade 500 ad a piece for 1000 zen.
Hell it just took me 12 days to trade AD for 250 zen...
Well coal wards are still cheaper than they should be (as in compared to be expected rather than whats fair), theres still some in circulation before they were bound if they were waiting for it to sell just above cost after the ah fee and then the ward sale would've reduced that so anyone wanting to make some ad from that will be wanting to sell theirs too. The stones on the other hand are cheap since some people may want the bonding runestone or sell both items and net a profit, something I think is fair since people can get either item individually for cheaper. If they were bound buying many companions would be more of a waste and they'd probably be less lesser bonding runestones available which makes the already expensive perfect bonding runestones even more expensive. The lesser ones are very cost efficient for even augments. A rank 9 equivalent for 2-300k? Yes please! Who doesn't like more power?
However unfortunately people are selfish and exploit one another, but that's not down to the exchange being backlogged, people sell marks of potency for over cost after all and you could make a profit on keys for a long time before the backlog. You can't fix stupidity or those that exploit it. I just don't think it's good to restrict the game even more than it has been since mod 1. It may help exploitation of market prices of those items, but why hurt the ones who want to trade, gift or sell part of what they bought?
If you request a certain amount at once, you will also get it at once, more or less.
Acquiring 5000 zen from ZAX takes as long as 50 zen, except for a few minutes more when requesting higher figures.
And the time to receive zen from ZAX has never been beyond six days. It's currently at about four and half days with ~6M backlog.
The big time traders that it would hurt are the exploiters. The small time traders would be better off. The gifters are probably an infinitesimally small percent of the population, and the ones that want to sell part of what they bought would just buy smaller quantities at a time or bank the remaining (probably p. wards) till the next thing they want to upgrade. Most would benefit. Sometimes you have to hurt a few to help the many.
And yet I see gifting options in other games being both requested and implemented. In here it gets taken away. \o/
I just don't like anything to restrict players in any way just because people kept ripping themselves off and that will never change. I'd add something here but I think I'm on thin ice from the moderators ):
Don't get me wrong, I know myself well enough to know that I'm elitist and arrogant. I believe I know better than those that make what I consider poor mathematical choices, and I'm fully willing to advocate for something that will hurt a few to protect them from their own choices. That said I really believe that it will fix the problems and that hurting the few will be for the best.
No it doesn't. My orders for 5000 zen get filled piece by piece. If you happen to be around when it starts to get filled you will see it go through 100 to 500 at a time till the full amount finally gets completed .... and it can take several hours after it starts to get filled to complete.
**Edit: Also I want to toss out there I agree with the Key Bind to Account. At first I was a bit frustrated with it as me and my wife play and I tended to do most of the Key Buying with my AD and splitting them with her. Now we will just have to resort to trading AD on the AH so she can buy her own keys. Well, When the AD gets exchanged with the current Backlog. I think they should make the whole Cash Shop Bind to Account. I have played MMO's for a VERY long time. I started back on Everquest. Even then ALOT of stuff including what you could buy from SOE was bound to your account. Unfortunately in every game there will be cheaters, bots, companies that exploit whatever they can in game to make a buck. Its a fact of life and you wont be able to stop everyone. That being said, You can slow them down by taking away the things they use to exploit. Such as, Making all Cash shop Items Bound to Accounts.
Anyway that was my 2 cents worth.
Check the exchange in the sell zen tab. atm people have a combined offering of 12.9m zen for their AD at 500ad/z.
With the new lockboxes I wanted to get some keys, I invest it all (also at the wrong time) so would have got some on my 2nd account but because they're bound as well as the trade bars I didn't bother. Basically it solved nothing and just made things more difficult if you wanted legit keys.