Been here since launch and have spent Money and lots of time on this game also just bought vip for my two accounts but after this leadership hammerdown Im out cuz this has gotten out of hand . Hope the rest of you can still enjoy the game make the AD's you need but I give up.
In some cases, AD was replaced with extra XP, but by and large, AD was straight- up removed from the profession.
Can anyone tell me where they did this? I haven't seen any changes other than just removing AD. They didn't even update the time required! Destroy Enemy Camp still takes 16 hours and rewards like 6 silver or so and 80 character xp? Don't you think that is a bit LONG for little reward?
I respect removing the AD from most Leadership tasks (Saw one with 3 blue marks/stones that still gave ad), but I had expected you to actually redesign those tasks, not just plain removing of AD. You did not. I am disappoint.
PS If you need help redesigning just tell me. Ill make a list with tasks and make them award more XP, Leadership XP or refinement chests.
Frankly, I think this new system will make earning AD harder, not easier. Seriously, 200AD per after the first three? Most skirmishes above level 25 take half an age! Grindfest! And the dungeon reward is useless unless you have a buttload of keys, which cost nearly as much as is rewarded!! Insulting!! This is just another case of the fools at PWI punishing their customers and expecting them to be grateful. I don't blame Cryptic; they're content developers. This is a money management issue, and thus the purview of the management at PWI. All accounts are that since they took over, things have gone quite steadily - and quite rapidly - downhill. And, sadly, there are no free alternatives that offer as rich and immersive gameplay as what Cryptic does - and it's being ruined by minkies!
I blame communism. ;p
If you want robofarming, go play farmville or something.
Frankly, I think this new system will make earning AD harder, not easier.
It will, they did not add any way to earn AD. They only removed AD from Leadership and changed the requirements for earning AD from foundry/pvp/dungeons/skirmishes. Unless you call earning 1k AD for doing 8 dungeons counts as adding ways to earn AD...
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sigillmacfinnMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 111Arc User
Open & honest feedback
Discovered the AH late in the game as it were but what a difference it made to our play [wife & I have char's on same account & she has an alt HR] instead of relying on what I could scavenge from my fallen enemies I could now gain an edge on the next foe that I faced using the AH - worked Leadership from the get-go without any worries [still lvl24 & been Lvl 70 char for months now] mostly to buy identify scrolls to identify the stuff to sell on AH
But, made & saved a mill then spent it then 500k then spent it & had over 300k til last week when that dwindled down to the 10K [ten] I have at the moment, partly as I like to give my guildings nice things like Glyphs, rings or belts
Don't get much gametime with work & the family & I do enjoy the guild admin & the forums we have - but & I suppose here's what all this waffle is about, why have you nerfed my leadership? 1 of the very few ways I can generate some AD? Dragon Eggs still have high AD as do GMOPs & don't even think of buying purple asset kit without 6 figures & oh boy those Tier 3 chausses aren't cheap - how is this all such a bad thing? That is until you nerf how I will be able to generate AD? PvP - no thanks - dungeons - hardly get time unless a guilding needs help - skirmishes - might get a few Dread Legions in & be lucky enough to do it when skirmish is [ha! was] running.
Is there a point to this - not really but had to let you know just what an impact these changes have made - losing it from gateway was bad enough but this, if it wasn't for the guild [what a top bunch - waves - hiya u lot ] ... .you'd have lost another 2 players today.
\You can and shall buy Zen and exchange them to AD.... ...the only problem is, soon there will be nobody left who could offer you AD.
This is the problem. They need people to buy Zen, to keep the coffers full. Only, people are going to 3rd party sellers, 'cos the cash to AD ratio is better. That costs them money. So, they have stop the gold sellers.
Go back to my Greek mythology analogy. Cryptic is Heracles and the gold sellers are the Hydra. They keep cutting off the heads, only to have them grow back. Only now, the heads have also become the player base and that is a SERIOUS problem.
It can be fixed, as I said, I have an idea, but the player base won't be happy about it.
At first......
But, you'll get your leadership armies back and your AD.
Frankly, I think this new system will make earning AD harder, not easier.
I agree, AD will be harder to come by; but don't worry, I have reached the black screen of death 3 times since the update while I was alting to work on different professions, Great job of getting rid of AD, now can you get rid of the black screen of death/screen lock up!
Frankly, I think this new system will make earning AD harder, not easier.
I agree, AD will be harder to come by; but don't worry, I have reached the black screen of death 3 times since the update while I was alting to work on different professions, Great job of getting rid of AD, now can you get rid of the black screen of death/screen lock up!
Look on the bright side. Maybe the player base will drop so much that the next time some script-kiddy mounts a DDOS attack we won't even notice.
*sighs*
In all seriousness, I've got several posts in here (at least I think I do, for all I know they've been removed by the Cryptic Cleanup Team (tm) ), but I had just started to have some fun with this game again. I had started out trying some alts, an OP and a GWF with the free slot that came with the standard Dragonborn package, and they're in the late 60s, level wise. But I don't have time to play them and have my main contribute to the SH for the New Outriders that kindly and graciously took my old guild (what little was left of it) in. I had bought a level 1 VIP, and was preparing to continue doing so because I thought it was a good system and so far it has paid for itself. I was finally able to run a T2 dungeon reliably and not have to worry about getting kicked because my CW wasn't a hyper-optimized killing machine with a 3.5k+ IL.
Now? With the plain-as-day evidence that they went into this half-cocked without simultaneously lowering the AD sink that is the current refining process and the SH... I just don't know. I hope NOR survives in this game, but if not, they're spread out across other MMOs, and if they perform an exodus I will be going with them. I've had fond memories of this game. I loved the lore. I loved the active, engaged combat system despite the frustrating difficulty spike of Mod 6. I loved the design of the Dragonborn and the core elements of the game.
But right now? While I may continue to play it and see if my main's AD stockpile will get him through the lean times to come, I know my Alts are going to remain undergeared chumps with 1-2 artifacts at best, and armed only with whatever enchantments I can scrounge up and upgrade once in a blue moon. And I know for a fact I will not be spending another dime for ARC purchased Zen until Cryptic/PWE bends over backwards to demonstrate that they're going to stop, as the saying goes, performing certain bodily functions upon me, my guildmates, and the rest of the player base while trying to tell us its just raining.
Just for your information: after this 'patch' one of my guild members was promoted to guild leader (next to my 2 'Fool' ranked toons). No rank has the ability to promote over their own rank.
I have no confidence in bug reports in the game, it saddens me to say, so I put it here because this is where actual people can read it, that show an interest in what happens at the moment.
Let me humbly suggest all of you who are in a guild check if nobody now unintentionally has the ability to 'break it all down'.
Good luck, Solar/Tales
<
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
Why can't players make full AD count for every epic dungeon/skirmish run..?
They claim this is to combat botters, so...
What, are they afraid people are going to farm epics for 12 hours and make 200k RAD..!? Is 200k RAD TOO MUCH!?
Actually, I wouldn't be so upset if A. Transmutation weren't so expensive (40k to transmute a lv65 mace to the Longsword of Accuracy!!!) and B. the auction house ran on gold (like the STO exchange runs on the equivalent currency, EC) rather than diamonds. In STO, you can farm massive quantities of EC, dump it into contraband on the exchange, and turn the contraband in for dilithium (the equivalent of AD) - you can't do that in NW. Partially, because the AH runs on diamonds, partially because there's no equivalent to contraband. That's where the leadership assignments came in. Alas, no more, apparently.
Of course, if PWI had any business sense - i.e. were inclined to respond to the wishes and concerns of their customer base - we could expect them to respond to the unpopularity of thier actions - by rolling them back. Sadly, this is not the case. They will continue driving their customers away, telling themselves happy lies like "Delta Rising is the best expansion ever, and the players love it!!!" and they'll never understand how much of a painful, insulting joke they have become. And, what is and always has been a good developer - Cryptic - will continue to suffocate under their misguided rule. It's really tragic and alarming.
Again, I'd take my custom elsewhere, if there were a comparable alternative.
If you want robofarming, go play farmville or something.
ARE WE PERFECTLY CLEAR?
Rage against the zeitgeist.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
What the hell are dummy's trying to KILL THE GAME. how hell are we going to make money.
Oh, there is a way Cryptic opened wide in their graciousness and will never shut down: You can and shall buy Zen and exchange them to AD.... ...the only problem is, soon there will be nobody left who could offer you AD.
Sooner or later, if Cryptic generates too much bad press for Wizards of the Coast and their D&D franchise, WotC will rescind Cryptic's D&D license.
Are you implying this whole thing is part of a conspiracy to get out of a bad contract?!
A "Springtime for Hitler" move?! (Look it up, it's not a Godwin's Law violation)
QUOTE: "Leadership, while no longer a major source of AD, is still a good source for XP, Gold, and loot items. All of these things are valuable to regular players, but less so to botters."
Like gold is equal to AD and ZEN. What PURPLE equipment can be bought with gold???? Answer - none.
If you really, really are serious about making up for the utter screw job you just accomplished on anyone with a leadership farm (I had 7 in mine - worked them 2 times daily) then you need to reward people differently for playing.
1) As others have noted, cut the cost of everything in the AD store by at LEAST 50%. 2) REDUCE the RP cost for upgrading everything- gems, weapon enchants, artifacts - again a 50% cut is in order. 3) Find a way to reward those players you KNOW invested a lot of time/effort into their alts. You just killed them - there should be some compensation.
Or, as is the more likely scenario, you can just - you know - say f u to all the loyal honest players with leadership farms who weren't cheating.
Because ignoring player concerns will never bite you in the a-- (can anyone say "Mod 6"?)
Oh yeah - forgot to mention - I'm sure all the fans of this decision will be only TOO happy to donate their AD for the Stronghold upgrades, right?
Sorry - I can't hear you above the crickets.
You fans of this move - you think somehow the leadership farms were bad - I'm SURE you'll show great leadership in sacrificing your 24k of AD a day for the cause of your Stronghold, right? Right?
It is to prevent 3rd Party Gold Sellers from undercutting their bottom line. They USE bots, in order to make their currency to sell outside the game. It hurts the player base, 'cos this is a band-aid fix, not a suture. It's like Big Pharma. It treats the symptoms, not the disease.
Methuselas, your comment on pharmaceutical companies inspired my sig. Thought you should know. They don't JUST create medication to treat symptoms. They create EVERYTHING. It's up to the doctors to write perscriptions that treat the disease. You can't blame the drugmakers for doctors writing off the concerns of their patients. I know all about that, trust me. When you have lupus, for example, they blame EVERYTHING on it. Which is how my mother went undiagnosed with DOUBLE PNEUMONIA for months. Then, of course, there's always the imfamous horses vs. zebras issue. Of course, you probably believe it's just some vast corporate conspiracy, like everyone else. Hence, zeitgeist.
Now that's off my chest....
I realize all this might sound somewhat in contrast to my points against PWI. Not at all; there's a wide gap between corporate conspiracy and bone-headed mismanagement.
If you want robofarming, go play farmville or something.
I feel the caps on the AD earned from skirmishes/pvp/dungeons etc is too low If it's meant to replace AD from leadership to some degree by making us play the game, surely you shouldn't be giving it such a low cap?
Getting rid of AD in leadership and professions I totally agree with, but such a small cap for AD earning by playing is not helpful. Why should someone play to earn AD when its capped at such a low amount? They may as well just grind in map and sell drops and gear, you'd get as much AD for less effort oh and bots can abuse it...
And wasn't that what this is all about? Penalising the bots and rewarding players?
I am a causal player who can't do dungeons and the like during the week because i have to get up from my computer frequently (I work at home) so i advanced my characters doing dailies and using leadership...I play dungeons and pvp on the weekends.. I have spent a fair amount of money on this game using the zen market (mounts, companions etc). With this change you have crippled my ability to enjoy solo play, so I'm done... There are a lot of other games out there that, at least, give me the ability to be a solo player and not be punished for it.
Thanks for not giving a damn about your customers! P.S. (I will not be coming back because if you do this now, you will do it again)
Ok - one sad/hilarious footnote here (depending on your point of view). How many sad sacks blew umpteen REAL DOLLARS on Blood Ruby packs over the last weekend, hoping to earn a Celeste they could turn around and sell for millions of AD?
Like ANYONE will shell out 10+ million AD for ANYTHING now.
This move actually puts a MAJOR hurt on the demand for Enchanted Keys. Because what did most of us do with the good stuff we got using them - like extra purple mounts, companions, equipment and artifacts? We sold it for AD to get what we really wanted.
Now that the value of AD will skyrocket - who needs Enchanted Keys to win HAMSTER no one will buy for a decent price?
And what is the single most popular (aka lucrative for Cryptic) purchase item on the Zen Market? Yup.
Shooting. Self. In. Foot. Cryptic's new acronym for customer service and efficiency - SSIF.
Methuselas, your comment on pharmaceutical companies inspired my sig. Thought you should know. They don't JUST create medication to treat symptoms. They create EVERYTHING. It's up to the doctors to write perscriptions that treat the disease. You can't blame the drugmakers for doctors writing off the concerns of their patients. I know all about that, trust me. When you have lupus, for example, they blame EVERYTHING on it. Which is how my mother went undiagnosed with DOUBLE PNEUMONIA for months. Then, of course, there's always the imfamous horses vs. zebras issue. Of course, you probably believe it's just some vast corporate conspiracy, like everyone else. Hence, zeitgeist.
Now that's off my chest....
I realize all this might sound somewhat in contrast to my points against PWI. Not at all; there's a wide gap between corporate conspiracy and bone-headed mismanagement.
It's the same thing as the corruption in the American Judicial System and it's Political system. People want results, but get treatment for symptoms, not the disease. The Judicial System is still corrupt and Politicians still get rich off lobbyists, while "enforcing the will of the people." The Patriot Act is a shining example of this. Yes, Americans want security, but they don't want to give up their personal freedoms to do it.
With Cryptic, however, the situation is different. Yes, the game is "Free 2 Play", but they still require an investment from the users, to keep the company afloat. Hence, the Zen Store. Now, players have been telling Cryptic, for YEARS, that the prices in the Zen Store are too high and the items lackluster. Once again, a management decision, not a developer's.
Now, when players are purchasing AD from 3rd Party Sellers, to get "more bang for their buck", they're under-cutting Cryptic's profit, which hurts the company and as a result, forces them to change their ability to do so, which in turn will hurt legitimate players, as well, but what choice do they have?
Trust me, I'm one of the biggest trolls on the forums. I give Cryptic no quarter when it comes to bad management decisions, but being someone that worked (and still does, albeit in a much smaller capacity) in game development, I'm starting to feel a little sympathy for the developers. Although, I don't agree with how they presented their dilemma, as I feel they needlessly lied to the user base, when it would have been far better to be honest, I know where they're coming from. My first experience with working with horrible management was with a game company whose management had NO idea what they were doing.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
Well, if the demand for zen relative to AD goes down, AD price of zen will go down, so everything should stabilize in the long run.
Why should someone play to earn AD when its capped at such a low amount? They may as well just grind in map and sell drops and gear, you'd get as much AD for less effort oh and bots can abuse it...
Who exactly do you expect to purchase said drops and gear, if no one has any Astral Diamonds?
I stopped spending real money when they made keys bound. Now I get to stop playing completely.
They just saved me a bunch of money, because, after a couple years of spending nothing, I need 40+ greater marks of potency to raise all my tier 8 enchants to tier 9. Now I don't need them. I was actually contemplating spending cash to get them. oops
Leadership had no use except AD. The 'resources' you get are garbage, and I don't need XP, at least not the piddly amounts you get from leadership.
I am not going to do dungeons, skirmishes or PVP. Didn't before, no reason to start. For the amount of AD they are offering, they are still not worth it.
My play style was to play the new content, each mod, then go 'dormant' and log in a few times each day to keep my 5 characters working on leadership. Now with no leadership, no reason to log in at all. With no progression going on, no point in coming back for any new content either.
I am a causal player who can't do dungeons and the like during the week because i have to get up from my computer frequently (I work at home) so i advanced my characters doing dailies and using leadership...I play dungeons and pvp on the weekends.. I have spent a fair amount of money on this game using the zen market (mounts, companions etc). With this change you have crippled my ability to enjoy solo play, so I'm done... There are a lot of other games out there that, at least, give me the ability to be a solo player and not be punished for it.
Thanks for not giving a damn about your customers! P.S. (I will not be coming back because if you do this now, you will do it again)
This is the approach many have followed. Their guilds are gone, there's no player base, they don't want to PUG, due to bad experiences, so they just solo and in doing so, they don't earn AD. Without AD, there's no incentive to play, as there's no viable currency to gain, to purchase needed items.
If you don't have the equivalent of a full 8 hour day job to spend playing the game, daily, you're not going to get your 24k AD/Day for ONE toon. Most people don't have that kind of time, which means the AD surplus grows smaller. So, you either buy Zen to convert to AD (which will be worth even less, as fewer people have AD to exchange) or you go to a Gold Seller.
I am a causal player who can't do dungeons and the like during the week because i have to get up from my computer frequently (I work at home) so i advanced my characters doing dailies and using leadership...I play dungeons and pvp on the weekends.. I have spent a fair amount of money on this game using the zen market (mounts, companions etc). With this change you have crippled my ability to enjoy solo play, so I'm done... There are a lot of other games out there that, at least, give me the ability to be a solo player and not be punished for it.
Thanks for not giving a damn about your customers! P.S. (I will not be coming back because if you do this now, you will do it again)
I know that the AD exploit needs to be fixed some how but I hope they will make some other changes to let those of us that does not have hours to play everyday enjoy the game. Here's a couple things that I think they need to address soon.
Just upgrading your companion from 30 to 35 to 40 will be almost impossible. I play less than 10 hours a week and at short stints. When they increased companion level from 35-40 and it takes 1 mil AD to upgrade, even with all the AD that I managed to save up. I only have enough AD to upgrade one companion per toon. I hope that once this change settles down. They will look at lowering the cost of companion upgrade. Otherwise, it will take forever to save up enough AD to bring another toon to 40.
Another point that I want to make is that a lot of the bind to character/account stuff seems to be implemented to offset the AD exploits. now that it has been handled. I would want them to ease up so those of us that does not have the time to make repeat runs just to get tier II gears will be able to find them in the auction house since I can't play with a lot of my friends anymore as I don't have the gear score to keep up with them.
Comments
Sikaril Shadowblade
I respect removing the AD from most Leadership tasks (Saw one with 3 blue marks/stones that still gave ad), but I had expected you to actually redesign those tasks, not just plain removing of AD. You did not. I am disappoint.
PS If you need help redesigning just tell me. Ill make a list with tasks and make them award more XP, Leadership XP or refinement chests.
I blame communism. ;p
Rage against the zeitgeist.
It will, they did not add any way to earn AD. They only removed AD from Leadership and changed the requirements for earning AD from foundry/pvp/dungeons/skirmishes. Unless you call earning 1k AD for doing 8 dungeons counts as adding ways to earn AD...
Discovered the AH late in the game as it were but what a difference it made to our play [wife & I have char's on same account & she has an alt HR] instead of relying on what I could scavenge from my fallen enemies I could now gain an edge on the next foe that I faced using the AH - worked Leadership from the get-go without any worries [still lvl24 & been Lvl 70 char for months now] mostly to buy identify scrolls to identify the stuff to sell on AH
But, made & saved a mill then spent it then 500k then spent it & had over 300k til last week when that dwindled down to the 10K [ten] I have at the moment, partly as I like to give my guildings nice things like Glyphs, rings or belts
Don't get much gametime with work & the family & I do enjoy the guild admin & the forums we have - but & I suppose here's what all this waffle is about, why have you nerfed my leadership? 1 of the very few ways I can generate some AD? Dragon Eggs still have high AD as do GMOPs & don't even think of buying purple asset kit without 6 figures & oh boy those Tier 3 chausses aren't cheap - how is this all such a bad thing? That is until you nerf how I will be able to generate AD? PvP - no thanks - dungeons - hardly get time unless a guilding needs help - skirmishes - might get a few Dread Legions in & be lucky enough to do it when skirmish is [ha! was] running.
Is there a point to this - not really but had to let you know just what an impact these changes have made - losing it from gateway was bad enough but this, if it wasn't for the guild [what a top bunch - waves - hiya u lot
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Go back to my Greek mythology analogy. Cryptic is Heracles and the gold sellers are the Hydra. They keep cutting off the heads, only to have them grow back. Only now, the heads have also become the player base and that is a SERIOUS problem.
It can be fixed, as I said, I have an idea, but the player base won't be happy about it.
At first......
But, you'll get your leadership armies back and your AD.
*sighs*
In all seriousness, I've got several posts in here (at least I think I do, for all I know they've been removed by the Cryptic Cleanup Team (tm) ), but I had just started to have some fun with this game again. I had started out trying some alts, an OP and a GWF with the free slot that came with the standard Dragonborn package, and they're in the late 60s, level wise. But I don't have time to play them and have my main contribute to the SH for the New Outriders that kindly and graciously took my old guild (what little was left of it) in. I had bought a level 1 VIP, and was preparing to continue doing so because I thought it was a good system and so far it has paid for itself. I was finally able to run a T2 dungeon reliably and not have to worry about getting kicked because my CW wasn't a hyper-optimized killing machine with a 3.5k+ IL.
Now? With the plain-as-day evidence that they went into this half-cocked without simultaneously lowering the AD sink that is the current refining process and the SH... I just don't know. I hope NOR survives in this game, but if not, they're spread out across other MMOs, and if they perform an exodus I will be going with them. I've had fond memories of this game. I loved the lore. I loved the active, engaged combat system despite the frustrating difficulty spike of Mod 6. I loved the design of the Dragonborn and the core elements of the game.
But right now? While I may continue to play it and see if my main's AD stockpile will get him through the lean times to come, I know my Alts are going to remain undergeared chumps with 1-2 artifacts at best, and armed only with whatever enchantments I can scrounge up and upgrade once in a blue moon. And I know for a fact I will not be spending another dime for ARC purchased Zen until Cryptic/PWE bends over backwards to demonstrate that they're going to stop, as the saying goes, performing certain bodily functions upon me, my guildmates, and the rest of the player base while trying to tell us its just raining.
Rage against the zeitgeist.
Just for your information: after this 'patch' one of my guild members was promoted to guild leader (next to my 2 'Fool' ranked toons). No rank has the ability to promote over their own rank.
I have no confidence in bug reports in the game, it saddens me to say, so I put it here because this is where actual people can read it, that show an interest in what happens at the moment.
Let me humbly suggest all of you who are in a guild check if nobody now unintentionally has the ability to 'break it all down'.
Good luck,
Solar/Tales
They claim this is to combat botters, so...
What, are they afraid people are going to farm epics for 12 hours and make 200k RAD..!? Is 200k RAD TOO MUCH!?
A. Transmutation weren't so expensive (40k to transmute a lv65 mace to the Longsword of Accuracy!!!)
and
B. the auction house ran on gold (like the STO exchange runs on the equivalent currency, EC) rather than diamonds. In STO, you can farm massive quantities of EC, dump it into contraband on the exchange, and turn the contraband in for dilithium (the equivalent of AD) - you can't do that in NW. Partially, because the AH runs on diamonds, partially because there's no equivalent to contraband. That's where the leadership assignments came in. Alas, no more, apparently.
Of course, if PWI had any business sense - i.e. were inclined to respond to the wishes and concerns of their customer base - we could expect them to respond to the unpopularity of thier actions - by rolling them back. Sadly, this is not the case. They will continue driving their customers away, telling themselves happy lies like "Delta Rising is the best expansion ever, and the players love it!!!" and they'll never understand how much of a painful, insulting joke they have become. And, what is and always has been a good developer - Cryptic - will continue to suffocate under their misguided rule. It's really tragic and alarming.
Again, I'd take my custom elsewhere, if there were a comparable alternative.
Rage against the zeitgeist.
A "Springtime for Hitler" move?! (Look it up, it's not a Godwin's Law violation)
Like gold is equal to AD and ZEN. What PURPLE equipment can be bought with gold???? Answer - none.
If you really, really are serious about making up for the utter screw job you just accomplished on anyone with a leadership farm (I had 7 in mine - worked them 2 times daily) then you need to reward people differently for playing.
1) As others have noted, cut the cost of everything in the AD store by at LEAST 50%.
2) REDUCE the RP cost for upgrading everything- gems, weapon enchants, artifacts - again a 50% cut is in order.
3) Find a way to reward those players you KNOW invested a lot of time/effort into their alts. You just killed them - there should be some compensation.
Or, as is the more likely scenario, you can just - you know - say f u to all the loyal honest players with leadership farms who weren't cheating.
Because ignoring player concerns will never bite you in the a-- (can anyone say "Mod 6"?)
Oh yeah - forgot to mention - I'm sure all the fans of this decision will be only TOO happy to donate their AD for the Stronghold upgrades, right?
Sorry - I can't hear you above the crickets.
You fans of this move - you think somehow the leadership farms were bad - I'm SURE you'll show great leadership in sacrificing your 24k of AD a day for the cause of your Stronghold, right? Right?
This made me lulz. I love Mel Brooks.
Now that's off my chest....
I realize all this might sound somewhat in contrast to my points against PWI. Not at all; there's a wide gap between corporate conspiracy and bone-headed mismanagement.
Rage against the zeitgeist.
Getting rid of AD in leadership and professions I totally agree with, but such a small cap for AD earning by playing is not helpful. Why should someone play to earn AD when its capped at such a low amount? They may as well just grind in map and sell drops and gear, you'd get as much AD for less effort oh and bots can abuse it...
And wasn't that what this is all about? Penalising the bots and rewarding players?
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
I have spent a fair amount of money on this game using the zen market (mounts, companions etc). With this change you have crippled my ability to enjoy solo play, so I'm done... There are a lot of other games out there that, at least, give me the ability to be a solo player and not be punished for it.
Thanks for not giving a damn about your customers!
P.S. (I will not be coming back because if you do this now, you will do it again)
Like ANYONE will shell out 10+ million AD for ANYTHING now.
This move actually puts a MAJOR hurt on the demand for Enchanted Keys. Because what did most of us do with the good stuff we got using them - like extra purple mounts, companions, equipment and artifacts? We sold it for AD to get what we really wanted.
Now that the value of AD will skyrocket - who needs Enchanted Keys to win HAMSTER no one will buy for a decent price?
And what is the single most popular (aka lucrative for Cryptic) purchase item on the Zen Market? Yup.
Shooting. Self. In. Foot. Cryptic's new acronym for customer service and efficiency - SSIF.
With Cryptic, however, the situation is different. Yes, the game is "Free 2 Play", but they still require an investment from the users, to keep the company afloat. Hence, the Zen Store. Now, players have been telling Cryptic, for YEARS, that the prices in the Zen Store are too high and the items lackluster. Once again, a management decision, not a developer's.
Now, when players are purchasing AD from 3rd Party Sellers, to get "more bang for their buck", they're under-cutting Cryptic's profit, which hurts the company and as a result, forces them to change their ability to do so, which in turn will hurt legitimate players, as well, but what choice do they have?
Trust me, I'm one of the biggest trolls on the forums. I give Cryptic no quarter when it comes to bad management decisions, but being someone that worked (and still does, albeit in a much smaller capacity) in game development, I'm starting to feel a little sympathy for the developers. Although, I don't agree with how they presented their dilemma, as I feel they needlessly lied to the user base, when it would have been far better to be honest, I know where they're coming from. My first experience with working with horrible management was with a game company whose management had NO idea what they were doing.
They just saved me a bunch of money, because, after a couple years of spending nothing, I need 40+ greater marks of potency to raise all my tier 8 enchants to tier 9. Now I don't need them. I was actually contemplating spending cash to get them. oops
Leadership had no use except AD. The 'resources' you get are garbage, and I don't need XP, at least not the piddly amounts you get from leadership.
I am not going to do dungeons, skirmishes or PVP. Didn't before, no reason to start. For the amount of AD they are offering, they are still not worth it.
My play style was to play the new content, each mod, then go 'dormant' and log in a few times each day to keep my 5 characters working on leadership. Now with no leadership, no reason to log in at all. With no progression going on, no point in coming back for any new content either.
Good job.
This is the approach many have followed. Their guilds are gone, there's no player base, they don't want to PUG, due to bad experiences, so they just solo and in doing so, they don't earn AD. Without AD, there's no incentive to play, as there's no viable currency to gain, to purchase needed items.
If you don't have the equivalent of a full 8 hour day job to spend playing the game, daily, you're not going to get your 24k AD/Day for ONE toon. Most people don't have that kind of time, which means the AD surplus grows smaller. So, you either buy Zen to convert to AD (which will be worth even less, as fewer people have AD to exchange) or you go to a Gold Seller.
Either way, you and Cryptic lose.
Just upgrading your companion from 30 to 35 to 40 will be almost impossible. I play less than 10 hours a week and at short stints. When they increased companion level from 35-40 and it takes 1 mil AD to upgrade, even with all the AD that I managed to save up. I only have enough AD to upgrade one companion per toon. I hope that once this change settles down. They will look at lowering the cost of companion upgrade. Otherwise, it will take forever to save up enough AD to bring another toon to 40.
Another point that I want to make is that a lot of the bind to character/account stuff seems to be implemented to offset the AD exploits. now that it has been handled. I would want them to ease up so those of us that does not have the time to make repeat runs just to get tier II gears will be able to find them in the auction house since I can't play with a lot of my friends anymore as I don't have the gear score to keep up with them.