A Letter to the Devs.

loonyscarab

To Whom it may Concern,

The topic I am about to talk about is something that need to be addressed if me and my friend, both of us being big-time spenders, are to ever spend another dollar on this game. We are both leaving this game as a result and while we both love your game, we are worn out from this one-sided relationship powered by greed. To make it easier on you poor brains, I'll even give you suggestions on how to fix this problem.

The thing I want to talk about is the lockboxes. I have easily purchased 1,000+ keys that have been used on Glorious Resurgence lockboxes. Out of those keys, only 2 have yielded a purple, let alone the Legendary pack. In what world is that even remotely balanced or fair? You really want to sit there and tell me that the PURPLES HAVE A LESS THAN 1% DROP? And this does not include keys I have used on other lockboxes. Now, here is my suggestion. You need to add some sort of "failsafe" mechanic (that isn't tradebars). This failsafe mechanic would ensure that the big spenders are getting some sort of reward. This mechanic, for example, could look at the amount of keys a player has used, and after a certain amount, would automatically bump up the drop rate of the higher end prizes until one drops. Another solution is in the VIP. You are already giving free keys with that. Maybe you could introduce a mechanic where that key has increased drop rates, or the higher your VIP, the better your chances get. Or you could simply tweak the drop rate. These are all just suggestions.

I hope that you, as the devs, look at this and actually see a problem that needs to be addressed.

Sincerely, A Jaded Player.

astrotiger5

They ought to have a exchance system...say one old lockbox = one tradebar or something like that...just a thought.

thefiresidecat

while I agree they should have a better drop rate.. the trade bars ARE a fail safe and while they don't have legendary they do have epic.

armadeonx

These 'open letters' are becoming fashionable, aren't they?

In response to the OP I'll say what I always say in this situation:
If you had instead purchased Zen and exchanged it for AD your 1000+ keys would've instead bought you in excess of 30 Million AD. This would've bought you just about anything you were hoping to get from lockboxes and had a bit left over.

Buying keys with real money is a mugs game and has nothing to do with progression, it's about gambling and in this game the house always wins.

sundance777

If you only opened 1000, that is like complaining that you did one coin flip and it was heads instead of tails. The drop rate on legendary is is the neighborhood of 1 in 2000, so you are halfway there...keep going...or stop and save and buy the thing you want. For everyone that hits the lotto or wins in a casino, there are millions that do not. The difference is these other forms of gambling are regulated and required to provide the odds so that the consumer can make an informed decision.

omegarealities

So you think because you spend more money in the game you have "bought" a right for better odds? {Just no words}.

thegravelnome

I'm not sorry to say this but this "letter " reeks of entitlement and self-pity. The Los Vegas metaphor is a perfect comparison. Should you cry if the slots don't payout? Do you get mad at the dealer if you get delt a 2 3 off suit in poker? No one owes you anything when you gamble. That is also rng. It's time for some tough love hear. Either gamble assuming that you will lose or don't Gamble.

zephyriah

sundance777 said:

If you only opened 1000, that is like complaining that you did one coin flip and it was heads instead of tails. The drop rate on legendary is is the neighborhood of 1 in 2000, so you are halfway there...keep going...or stop and save and buy the thing you want. For everyone that hits the lotto or wins in a casino, there are millions that do not. The difference is these other forms of gambling are regulated and required to provide the odds so that the consumer can make an informed decision.

It may have changed, but the last calculated odds (tested on preview server on PC) showed epic at one in 1000 and legendary at one in 10,000 (not 2000). But, I haven't seen any recent posts regarding current odds.

sundance777

zephyriah said:

sundance777 said:

If you only opened 1000, that is like complaining that you did one coin flip and it was heads instead of tails. The drop rate on legendary is is the neighborhood of 1 in 2000, so you are halfway there...keep going...or stop and save and buy the thing you want. For everyone that hits the lotto or wins in a casino, there are millions that do not. The difference is these other forms of gambling are regulated and required to provide the odds so that the consumer can make an informed decision.

It may have changed, but the last calculated odds (tested on preview server on PC) showed epic at one in 1000 and legendary at one in 10,000 (not 2000). But, I haven't seen any recent posts regarding current odds.

Thanks for the update! This is even more of reason to stop betting on lockboxes, they are a tax on those that are bad at math.

thegravelnome

"When you gamble my friend, eventually you will lose. "

Qui-Gon Jinn
The Phantom Menace

omegarealities

The thing I find sad is that people are complaining about spending thousands of REAL dollars to buy VIRTUAL currency, to buy VIRTUAL keys, to open a VIRTUAL lockbox, for a chance to get a VIRTUAL Legendary Golden Flaming Unicorn that poops starry rainbows, to ride in a VIRTUAL kingdom that might not even be around in six months.

mordekai

There are two scenarios here.

1) You bought 1000 keys from zen bought with cash. At a rough guide of 66% return, that would mean you have, roughly, 20'000'000 ADs worth of goods ready to sell on the AH.
Factoring the 10% levy, that will leave you with 18mill.
Woohoo!
Go buy pretty much anything you want. If you were crazy enough to dump the equivalent of £600 (GB... I don't have the price for US on 23000 blocks of zen)on a virtual slot machine, that's a good pay out.

2) You used the depreciation factor to sell the goods and buy more keys. At the same 66% that means you would have started with about 350 keys and worked down to the last one at a two thirds ratio till the last one went... this means you have no goodies left, but on the bright side... its about $4 or 5 hundred less than you would have spent.

Either way, 1000 lockboxes will have dumped about 8'000 trade bars into your account. So go buy half a dozen elemental "Symbol" artifacts, slap them on the AH, and stick another seven figure payout into your AD account.

Not to mention the fifty or so Frostborn gloves that will be another quarter mill.


Why do people always wait to "one thousand" before stopping and thinkīng, "hold on... this isn't working out the way I hoped"?

Is "1000" a genuine number or code for, "lots right... just LOTS!"

I remember someone complain about drop rates on one of the Portobello dungeons last year, he ranted about how he'd run this quest "over 1000 times, and got nothing"
The reason "1000" always gives me pause, is that doing some simple calculation revealed that to have done the dungeon 1000 times in the three days it had been live, he would have needed 2 consoles... and a time machine.

I think "1000 times" is the same as when African dictators always "win" their elections with 96% of the vote... 95 obviously sounds too low, but 97... no one's going to believe that... so its always 96.

Its just an arbitrary number to say, "lots and lots"

sundance777

I prefer to say 999 because that is a stack of lockboxes. So if I go through them all I know I have a problem

mordekai

I've still got about 800 Firemane left over.
I'll keep going with one a day plus an extra one whenever I get a 40% off voucher.
Since the advent of Mod 10, I don't want to risk wasting a key, cos even I think the Ostorian Relics that drop from a lockbox are a complete waste of time.