test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Astral Diamond Changes

1101113151675

Comments

  • azurerogue1824azurerogue1824 Member Posts: 22 Arc User
    edited September 2015

    Snip

    You forgot to account for something: if everybody earns less then the value of AD goes up. :)

    As Scott said Cryptic wants a more standardized level of income based on how much time you are playing instead of how many alts you have and how much play time you sacrifice to farm AD on them. Yes you will gain less, but so will everybody else and some more so than others. Many more so than others in truth.

    But this will mean increase in value of AD as well as more gain for the time you do spend playing the game. You might not get 100K AD...but you likely will get more than the current 100K AD is worth in true value with the amount of AD you do gain.
    I didn't forget that. What I said was that without fixing/scaling the cost of items that Cryptic controls this change will make the game frustrating for everyone. It doesn't matter how much players value AD if the GMoP still costs 100k AD to purchase from the Bazaar.

    Honestly, if the items that Cryptic controls the AD cost of get scaled appropriately (putting them in reasonable range of people who earn AD by actively playing under this new system) then I'm actually fine with these changes. The leadership alt-army stuff that people are upset about is, frankly, something that shouldn't have ever been around.

    People got USED to needing this alt army to survive the game. If the game becomes playable (as in, making progression actually possible) without the alt army then it's an all-in-all positive change. The problem is this announcement doesn't make it sound like this is going to be the case, sadly.

  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,046 Arc User

    My prediction is the user base is going to drop significantly.

    http://steamcharts.com/app/109600

    Peak usage is already dropping and Strongholds hadn't brought back many folks as it was.

    The problem I see with these changes is they haven't introduced new sources of AD that can even remotely compensate for the extreme in game AD costs. Take GMOPs for example. At 100K a pop and not much to sell, no one will be able to afford them by "just playing" the game.

    Leadership took months and months to get to level 25. It was a reward to players who stuck with the game. I guess Cryptic hates their players more than they hate botters. Botters will just keep doing what they always did. Once again the real players are the ones that get burned the most.

    By the time they really see those player numbers, and react on them, it might be too late...
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • ambisinisterrambisinisterr Member, Neverwinter Moderator Posts: 10,462 Community Moderator
    greyloche said:

    Ahh, the russian economic theory....

    No. In fact you were wrong about everything in that but let's just stick with supply and demand.

    After World War I the world decided it was all Germany's fault. They demanded money for repairs...Germany had no money....so they printed a ton to pay the debts and thus made the currency worthless.
    So worthless that people burned their money instead of firewood because it was cheaper.

    All economies run on the supply and demand of their currency to be worth value. If you print money more money (gaining AD was akin to printing money) then the value of that currency goes down. If you print less money the value of the currency goes up.

    That is basic supply and demand and it applies to currency. Please feel free to ask any economist, they'll be happy to explain it to you in larger words.

    What happened during the great depression was actually very similar to what happened in Germany. People bought on credit until everybody owed everybody something and nobody could collect. However instead of the government printing money in excess it was people buying on credit so although the value of money existed people bought items with money that didn't exist until the bubble burst. But that's a story for another day and another thread. ;)
  • silvergryphsilvergryph Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 740 Arc User
    For solo players, the game is more about Quests and Campaigns. Make those a primary source of AD for the solo player.

    Campaigns: Replace every daily Campaign task reward that is currently in gold with a rough AD reward equal to 1 RAD per copper. For example, Blighted Beasts in Sharandar rewards 16 silver, 56 copper. It would instead reward 1,656 RAD.

    Quests: For each regular quest that sends a character to a new area and each quest that sends you back to Knox because the area is "completed", replace the gold reward with 100 RAD x the Quest level. So, completing the Sleeping Dragon Bridge tutorial quest sends you to Knox when the tutorial is finished. It's level 1, so you get 100 RAD. Grave News sends you to Neverdeath Graveyard and is a level 26 quest. You get 2600 RAD. Graveyard at Rest sends you back to Knox at 30. So, you get 3000 RAD. A lot of work went into each of the game's environments. Give player's a reason to visit them all.

    Leadership: If AD is being removed, I would rather see it replaced with account-bound RP than with XP. Either increase the total amount of RP that comes out of all the Leadership chests or replace the AD rewards with RP in the form of account-bound White Pearls, Peridots and Aquamarines. If Leadership becomes all about XP, then it will be abandonded after reaching max level.

    If you do not replace the AD with something of comparable value like RP, then the time required for many of the tasks should be reduced significantly.

    Without the AD, the crafting experience awarded for Leadership tasks should be increased. It doesn't have to be as high as the other professions since it also rewards some player XP, but it should be higher.

    I would also like to suggest some rare tasks to offset some AD sinks in a way that thematically fits Leadership.
    • Create a "Companion Training Drill" task that awards character-bound Companion Upgrade Tokens.
    • Create a "Mounted Combat Training" task that awards character-bound Mount Training Tokens (a new item that would work just like the Companion Tokens, but for mounts).
    • Create a "War Games" task that has you drill with the troops to earn Training Certificates (This would be a new item that can be spent for retraining Feats, Boons, Power Points or Stats. Different costs based on character level would apply to each type of retraining.)

    Foundries: These need some differentiation from the other gameplay types. Have the first three fifteen minute Foundry missions completed each day reward 500 refined AD, not rough. 100 refined AD for each of the next three fifteen minute Foundries, and 25 refined AD per fifteen minute Foundry aftwerwards. Cap it at 2000 refined AD per character per day from Foundries.​​
  • fatgunsfatguns Member Posts: 410 Arc User
    Realy? Now how the actualy HAMSTER should i be able to aford rings costing 300k each when i stil get complete HAMSTER from PVE/PVP, RP is droping in price? What the actual hell do i have to do to get AD now?! run 100 dungeons/skirmishe for 500AD EACH?! MAX?! like you guys are geting dummer every week.
  • ayrouxayroux Member Posts: 4,271 Arc User

    Snip

    You forgot to account for something: if everybody earns less then the value of AD goes up. :)

    As Scott said Cryptic wants a more standardized level of income based on how much time you are playing instead of how many alts you have and how much play time you sacrifice to farm AD on them. Yes you will gain less, but so will everybody else and some more so than others. Many more so than others in truth.

    But this will mean increase in value of AD as well as more gain for the time you do spend playing the game. You might not get 100K AD...but you likely will get more than the current 100K AD is worth in true value with the amount of AD you do gain.
    The only problem with this is the costs of items that are more or less bottle necked or fixed on "fixed" prices such as GMOPs and Wards.

    So take it to the extreme, lets say you can only make 100 ad per day, well yeah the value of 5,000 AD shoots through the roof but it doesnt matter when a GMOP is fixed at 100k....

    The big difference between Xbox and here is that players have been able to do these things and earn ALOT of AD over the course of the game, so all these changes will do is create a near permanent divide between "new" generation players and "old" generation players.


    Something that SHOULD have been done at the release of module 6 is adjust the cost of items/enchants on the level 60 "BIS" gear.

    Instead they just added ontop of rank 10s and Perfects without reducing the cost of rank 10s and perfects which is what created a massive massive AD demand for the game without increasing its supply. So players FLOCKED to doing things like leadership.


    So now Cryptic removes leadership. GOOD! They have squashed MOST if not ALL of the ways to make AD in the game aside from a tiny amount you can get per day from playing. Im not against these changes IF!!!!! they look at reducing the costs of other things.

    Most notably in the TWO biggest "sink" areas:
    1) Enchants
    2) Artifacts and artifact gear.

    I made this post earlier and I will make it again. I have run the numbers on this and this is what I honestly believe needs to happen for the economic survival of this game. Atleast to get rid of that "wall" I spoke of earlier with the new versus old generation players.

    1) Remove the "double" requirement of upgrading enchants. This will reduce enchants (radiant/silvery/dark etc) prices by ABOUT 35% and will reduce the cost of weapon enchants (V0rpal/Fey/Lightning etc) by about 40-50%.

    Why this works perfectly is this actually puts the current "BIS" costs at about the same level of "cost" as the lvl 60 "bis gear" was.... Meaning it would still take about the same amount of AD as it did back when perfects and 10s were the best. Almost ANY game I have seen, when they do a release like mod 6, they make the old stuff cheaper since its obsolete, we didnt really see that here, only an add on to the current prices which is why Trans enchants are over 10 mil and rank 12s cost 3-4 million.... MOST of that is based on fixed costs like Coal Wards and GMOPS.

    2) Make artifacts bound to account.
    This doesnt even make them cheaper. ALL it does is make them a BETTER investment of AD. Currently when you play alts, you need every character to try and get up 4 artifacts. Its ridiculous! Noone is going to do that in their sane mind especially now with AD income slashed. Allowing these (and artifact equipment) to be bound to account just makes it worthwhile for players to upgrade 1 "Set" of artifacts.

    I guarantee this will lead to an increase of sales because now players might actually be willing to drop $100 into the game to get a primary up to Mythic, knowing he can use it on his 3 characters... Its more universal.

    Those 2 things would reduce prices in the biggest cost sink areas of the game, which I think is NEEDED with this change, as well as make artifacts and arti-equipment a much better investment for your account.

    Without these changes, you will never see balance in the game. "Old" generation players will have and retain such and advantage over the average or "new" player you are basically giving old schoolers like myself a permanent advantage in this game.... Its not fun and not fair and wont promote this game.

    You wont lose sales I promise. If anything players will spend more money.
  • mirlegrismirlegris Member Posts: 309 Arc User
    Without AD, any reason for the "3 same task" limit ?
  • zorothegalladezorothegallade Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    So...let's have a little Pindaric flight into what this "fixing the economy" is bound to do...

    Here's what is going to happen. Or rather, a logical prediction of the consequences of such an update.

    -Leadership becomes basically unused, making not only all Leadership resources and assets worthless, but also slowing severely the inflow of materials from Leadership rewards
    -With a long-term source of diamonds gone, "casual" players who can only dedicate a couple hours to the game per day are left with few ways of making them.
    -Diamonds become scarcer, and with that the price of certain items starts to fall...but diamond sinks like Strongholds, GMOPs, and such hold strong, actually making diamonds LOSE trading value in spite of there being a higher demand. This happens because people will be less likely to buy stuff with diamonds since they'll have less to spend on the Auction House with the sinks eating everything they can make
    -With the demand on diamonds being high, Zen will in turn lose value, but since the exchange rate is capped at 1 zen per 500 diamonds, nobody will sell their Zen anymore since the buying power of diamonds has collapsed.
    -Likewise, Zen purchases will also go down for crates since there is a VERY high chance of not getting what you're looking for, and selling them becomes a much less profitable option. This from a maneuver that, like most others, was meant to constrict non-paying players even more, and ends up also constricting paying players forcing them to pay more to get a sensible boost in the game.
  • anguis3anguis3 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 13 Arc User
    So why is there even a place to flag spam bot AD sellers (which I do every time I am in PE) if you are not going
    to take action against them? I guess it is easier to take action against the actual players!
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,046 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    The "money printing" doesn't stop, it's just moved to another place... again.

    LS removed from The Gateway -> botters moved ingame.
    RAD removed from LS -> botters will run dungeons/skirmishes 24/7.

    What's next on the list?
    Removing AD from the game at all?

    You're not going to stop the botters, you're just going to stop players from playing NWO.
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • ambisinisterrambisinisterr Member, Neverwinter Moderator Posts: 10,462 Community Moderator
    anguis3 said:

    So why is there even a place to flag spam bot AD sellers (which I do every time I am in PE) if you are not going
    to take action against them? I guess it is easier to take action against the actual players!

    They are banned on a daily basis by the thousands.

    And seriously...anybody who thinks gold farmers are kids in their mothers' basements haven't been paying attention for the last five to ten years. :)
  • zacazuzacazu Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,934 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    the best hint is: forget all the feedback of this thread. the best that you will read here is based in doctrinal conceptions of people that MAYBE DONT KNOW why some changes are made. you guys dont need call Peter Schiff, but call some profissional to put order in the house.


    the simple idea to put a lot more effort to have FAR LESS REWARD because maybe, MAYBE sometime in the future that will fix the economy (HAHA) is absurd.

    the single thing that i igree is: you need work for your money.
  • zorothegalladezorothegallade Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    edited September 2015

    Players base is low now - it is fact. And developers have to know that.

    Not productive discussion.

    You are like Angry Birds.

    Fly away.

    This. Such a change would probably be justified if there was a large playerbase and thus there was enough freedom and money in the player-run economy that the change would be gradual and eventually be absorbed into the game. But right now Arc needs to appeal to its players...so many are leaving and so few of the new players are sticking around, most because all they have left is the hope the game will get better eventually.

    The devs should make the game interesting enough to get the player to spread the word and get friends into it. I've seen so many people who reinstalled the game after months (and had level 60 endgame gear from the previous mods) who got a look around, got informed on the changes, and simply left after learning the devs moved the goalposts and basically made them the bottom of the endgame food chain.

    The game right now is unfriendly to pretty much everyone: veterans who know how good it was and have seen it waste away, returning players who can't bear the shock, new players who find a mediocre game with slow grind and a very steep progression, and even players who started just near the end of mod 6 and are starting to see how the game can basically turn the tables on them and make all their efforts moot overnight.
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,046 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    And what is really funny about all of this... there is still no word about how they will remove all the AD gained through bugs, exploits or even botters from the game.

    Not to mention, that some players will take the time to collect/create as much AD as they can from now until this change goes live...

    Beside, there are many other MMOs out there, where you can send some "minions" out to do some work for you, and you get rewarded with something after a certain amount of time.
    Sounds familiar?
    So, when this can work in other MMOs, why can't this work here as well?
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • rippemrippem Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2 Arc User
    From the very release there were problems quite possibly caused by poor security, design work and programming. Case in point the trillions (?) of AD exploited from the server in May of 2013. This had nothing to do with bots for those unaware of the incident.

    After that bots did become a serious issue to the in game play and we are repeatedly told economy. We should also not forget the bugs and exploits that remained unresolved for multiple mods. None of these helped the honest in game population and led to many loyal followers leaving the game. Oh did I forget that the best game content was deleted as well? Or offending players were rarely if ever expelled from the game?

    Now we find ourselves with the last legitimate way to gain the AD necessary to play this game and remain competitive being removed. Unless you want to take out a mortgage to subsidize your game play.

    The lead developer places the blame on bots, once again. Perhaps the finger should be pointed at them? Are the bots so much more talented and innovative that the developers cannot stop them?!?

    Personally I suspect it is someone's desire to kill off the PC version of this game and force all of us to go Xbox. My recommendation to all players who invested time and energy in this game. Move on!!!! But, remember the names of all contributors to this platform. Both companies and individuals and ask yourself if you truly wish to invest any further time in any venture they are associated with.

    Better yet spend less time in game and more time posting your experiences about the game and its evolution on the Internet. Who knows maybe you will find your time is more rewarding and less frustrating?

    To all friends and competitors thanks for the good times! Be well and happy. Hopefully we will meet again on another platform that is better managed.



  • darkstarcrashdarkstarcrash Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,382 Arc User
    I know I'm repeating what many others have said, but ...

    -- Lower fixed costs like GMoPs, or increase chances to get them in other ways. Also look at cost of campaign tasks.

    -- Leadership tasks can't just have the AD removed with no compensation; add account-bound RP in rough equivalence to the time the tasks take (Battle Elemental Cultists: 2 aquamarines, Fight Off Spellplagued: 1 peridot).

    -- You need to give AD for non-group content. My characters are focused on SH dailies and doing the daily campaign areas for Adventurer's shards and items for the mimic, and I have a fresh 70 OP who is currently running 5 campaign zones (ToD, Shar, DR, IWD, WoD) for boons. He will make no AD beyond maybe one dungeon, because all his time is spent on quests.

    -- Cost of dungeon keys must be lowered, or salvage value has to go up.
  • shurato2099shurato2099 Member Posts: 171 Arc User

    Snip

    You forgot to account for something: if everybody earns less then the value of AD goes up. :)

    As Scott said Cryptic wants a more standardized level of income based on how much time you are playing instead of how many alts you have and how much play time you sacrifice to farm AD on them. Yes you will gain less, but so will everybody else and some more so than others. Many more so than others in truth.

    But this will mean increase in value of AD as well as more gain for the time you do spend playing the game. You might not get 100K AD...but you likely will get more than the current 100K AD is worth in true value with the amount of AD you do gain.
    You ignore one very, very important thing: The Fixed Costs. Everything in the game is monetized to AD: from refinement (GMOPS and Wards) to respecs and appearance changes to mount and companion upgrading. All of these costs were set up with the assumption that players would have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of AD to throw around. That is no longer going to be the case, unless a player saves up for months at a time for a single GMOP or the like.

    And economic balance is a relative thing: sure the prices will drop but so will the buying power of the average player. The only people that will come out ahead on that one are those that already have a lot of AD, either hoarded up or backlogged.
  • perfectt0mmyperfectt0mmy Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    How about this: in game bots get automatically flagged for PvP when their script behavior is identified. They can't fight back. Killing them rewards you with AD. Open season on bots with no limits.
  • golkaxgolkax Member Posts: 26 Arc User
    That would just result in bot vs bot pvp farming.
  • vinceent1vinceent1 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,264 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    dear devs, although i agree with free AD cut down, this whole picture is unacceptable. With this you completely lock down my characters progression at PVP. I mean current price for GMOP! How can i compete with Icyphish, who is already bis? I hope there is some complete rework masterplan for pvp behind this, because otherwise, it will be so bad even for you, you can start looking for new job
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,046 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    It will probably take them months to come up with something usefull, after they cut the AD out from LS.

    And good luck to any small or medium sized quild with upgrading their Stronghold from now on.
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • odnnauqodnnauq Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 67 Arc User


    Fairly certain that they will find ways to combat this. Probably just because you mentioned this, actually.

    Here is my prediction of how they will combat this....they will require you to buy a pvp token with zen. Now you need to pay to pvp. Another excuse to fight bots by making us spend more money. Each attempt to combat bots have been an excuse. To force players to make a choice (a) spend more money, (b) be lowly geared punching bags to wealthy customers who spend money, or (c) quit. This has been the pattern long enough and fighting bots are an excuse.
  • lordsmokeslordsmokes Member Posts: 18 Arc User

    greyloche said:

    Ahh, the russian economic theory....

    No. In fact you were wrong about everything in that but let's just stick with supply and demand.

    After World War I the world decided it was all Germany's fault. They demanded money for repairs...Germany had no money....so they printed a ton to pay the debts and thus made the currency worthless.
    So worthless that people burned their money instead of firewood because it was cheaper.

    All economies run on the supply and demand of their currency to be worth value. If you print money more money (gaining AD was akin to printing money) then the value of that currency goes down. If you print less money the value of the currency goes up.

    That is basic supply and demand and it applies to currency. Please feel free to ask any economist, they'll be happy to explain it to you in larger words.

    What happened during the great depression was actually very similar to what happened in Germany. People bought on credit until everybody owed everybody something and nobody could collect. However instead of the government printing money in excess it was people buying on credit so although the value of money existed people bought items with money that didn't exist until the bubble burst. But that's a story for another day and another thread. ;)
    First of all, how in hell can you compare the world's currency to that of a game? Any economist would be laughing at your face right now. I will just list the top 3 reasons of why you're full of it.

    1. Zen/AD doesn't really exist.
    2. Even if Zen/AD really existed in a tangible form, they have no country to contain any form nor quantity of natural resources to give it any value in the market.
    3. You can't get a Zen/AD loan.

    Stop petty fogging the issue with your psuedo-intellect and drowning posts with coherent responses.
  • fastrean1fastrean1 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 25 Arc User

    How about this: in game bots get automatically flagged for PvP when their script behavior is identified. They can't fight back. Killing them rewards you with AD. Open season on bots with no limits.

    i like this idea :p
  • devaneiodevaneio Member Posts: 142 Arc User
    I can finally uninstall the game, thanks for changes in leadership.
  • reiwulfreiwulf Member Posts: 2,687 Arc User
    they should make it so all character progression is easily attainable by everyone in a fair amount of time and leave AD and zen market for more cosmetic stuff (or just to rush progression for those who want it faster).
    2e2qwj6.jpg
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,046 Arc User
    fastrean1 said:



    How about this: in game bots get automatically flagged for PvP when their script behavior is identified. They can't fight back. Killing them rewards you with AD. Open season on bots with no limits.

    i like this idea :p
    Will you still like this, when botters use this "feature" to open fire on anyone from below the map?
    Or fly above you, while they nuke you into the ground?
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • zeusomzeusom Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 810 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    No it was 14,800 players at the beginning of 2014.
    Then it was 6,000 players at the beginning of 2015.
    Now it ranges from 2000 to 4000 players online.
    Now this. Only steam player of course. Arc unreported.
    Sopi (aka Haxbox) SW [Synergy]
    Sopi SW Youtube channel pvp brickabrack

  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,046 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    zeusom said:

    No it was 14,800 players at the beginning of 2014.
    Then it was 6,000 players at the beginning of 2015.
    Now it ranges from 2000 to 4000 players.
    Now this.

    After this goes live, i'm guessing we will be lucky to see half of those last numbers by then.

    And i just bought 12 months VIP and the Dragonborn Legend Pack, and i was even thinking about getting the Knights of the Feywild Pack too...
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • zorothegalladezorothegallade Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    fastrean1 said:



    How about this: in game bots get automatically flagged for PvP when their script behavior is identified. They can't fight back. Killing them rewards you with AD. Open season on bots with no limits.

    i like this idea :p
    Yeah. More class imbalance (DPS getting all the kills), more exploits (keep making bot accounts, have a gold farmer kill all of them), more possible misfires at players (say, getting "Bot-flagged" because you are just farming zombie hordes for DHE RP).
This discussion has been closed.