Not a fan of respec costs

zosoled

Background: I accidentally hit the respec feats button when I thought I was leveling up a feat instead (console navigation is sometimes weird, but the platform is somewhat irrelevant to the real problem I have with the respec system). It cost something like 35,000 AD. I asked for a refund and was denied. Here's my follow-up to the customer service rep:

So let me get this straight. Assuming I do the daily dungeon and skirmish for about 15,000 AD, and each run take 15 minutes, then to earn back what I lost costs me over an hour of gameplay spread over the course of two days. Conversely, at the current Zen trade rate on PS4, I calculate that my missing 35,000 AD costs about 81 cents. It’s really disappointing to hear that that’s what my time and frustration with your game is worth to your company.

In my opinion, respeccing shouldn’t even have a cost. I’m fine with mounts, professions, companions, teleportation, bags, bank space, character slots, and all the rest of the aspects you charge for in a free-to-play game. I might have even spent real money to get some of that stuff. But to be so frustrated by gating a core character mechanic like feats, and then providing zero help when a new player like me makes a mistake, leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. I’m sure your personal inability to help me is a rule that you’re simply following, so if you can pass my message and my displeasure up the chain of command to someone who makes decisions on these matters, I would appreciate it. I might even pay 81 cents to see it done.

I know I got a bit snarky at the end. In any case, I'm curious to see what others think of the AD cost of changing their character. Maybe it would make more sense as a gold cost, since gold is used for so little already?

armadeonx

I guess it's a bigger issue for newer players that don't have a lot of AD yet. I'd rather not be charged but the game has lots of AD sinks which the devs have said are for the purpose of de-inflating the overall economy.

Unknown

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spelldazer

There is a free respec token to collect from Sybella and it is account bound iirc, meaning an alt could do it too. So, the game does enable you to correct mistakes for free now. Plus, loadouts are essentially a free respec too. Just saying.

zosoled

I haven't gotten far enough to buy anything from Sybella, so I didn't know about the free one yet. That's a great suggestion. Loadouts didn't seem like a fantastic solution though, since I used my second one more to play with different trees (specifically, the cleric damage vs healing trees), but I'm sure it's a solution for others who just want one role.

I was more bummed about the response than the AD loss, tbh. I mean, if the devs are creating AD sinks anyway to give us opportunities to flush them back into the game, what's the risk of refunding the admittedly small amount I had used?

Thanks for the responses; they were all helpful!

trinity706

Know a player that got 6 months of VIP in about 3 weeks without spending a dime, the monetary cost of things is optional for the most part.

In Neverwinter players either put in effort for AD, spend money for AD or don't get AD.

As far as mistakes, seemingly if a player accidentally purchases the wrong item CS can replace/do something about it though for something like spending AD directly, in your case respec of feats it doesn't necessarily work the same (essentially someone would have to go in credit back the spent AD, change the feats back to where they were, etc.).

AD is the core currency therefore it has "value" and any/everything that is done to reduce that value ripples throughout the game.

The less value AD has > the lower the AD exchange goes > the less incentive players have to purchase Zen to sell for AD > the less Zen that is available for F2P players to convert their AD into to get Zen market items > the higher trade house items get.

During this past Holiday season the AD exchange hit 500 (cap) and there was a "Zen drought" meaning that for a while there was "no Zen" in the exchange due to so many players attempting to convert AD to Zen that as soon as some would hit the exchange previous posts to buy Zen gobbled it up.

A Zenless, true F2P experience (especially for new players) would be quite "bleak", limited to 2 characters, no VIP, account-wide mounts, campaign tokens, preservation wards outside of events, etc., etc., and eventually the game would shutdown due to not bringing in revenue...

mebengalsfan

zosoled#5762 said:

Background: I accidentally hit the respec feats button when I thought I was leveling up a feat instead (console navigation is sometimes weird, but the platform is somewhat irrelevant to the real problem I have with the respec system). It cost something like 35,000 AD. I asked for a refund and was denied. Here's my follow-up to the customer service rep:

So let me get this straight. Assuming I do the daily dungeon and skirmish for about 15,000 AD, and each run take 15 minutes, then to earn back what I lost costs me over an hour of gameplay spread over the course of two days. Conversely, at the current Zen trade rate on PS4, I calculate that my missing 35,000 AD costs about 81 cents. It’s really disappointing to hear that that’s what my time and frustration with your game is worth to your company.

In my opinion, respeccing shouldn’t even have a cost. I’m fine with mounts, professions, companions, teleportation, bags, bank space, character slots, and all the rest of the aspects you charge for in a free-to-play game. I might have even spent real money to get some of that stuff. But to be so frustrated by gating a core character mechanic like feats, and then providing zero help when a new player like me makes a mistake, leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. I’m sure your personal inability to help me is a rule that you’re simply following, so if you can pass my message and my displeasure up the chain of command to someone who makes decisions on these matters, I would appreciate it. I might even pay 81 cents to see it done.

I know I got a bit snarky at the end. In any case, I'm curious to see what others think of the AD cost of changing their character. Maybe it would make more sense as a gold cost, since gold is used for so little already?

The boon and feat respect cost is a bit steep when you can spend just as much at level 70 to respect your full character. Feat and Boon cost should be 2/3 of its current cost.