Zen Sale booster ideas

free2pay

Here are some ideas that may boost zen sale!
(1) Buying zen with actual cash also gives zen buyer an equivalent amount of Astral Diamonds at 1zen = 1000 AD
(2) There should be mileage for buying zen with actual cash. For total of 1000 USD purchased, player can claim a Legendary mount bound to character, on one character only. For total of 3000 USD purchased, daily refinement cap is unlimited. For total of 5000 USD purchased, all refinement and and upgrade are always 100% successful.
(3) VIP rank 13 gives permanent storage space increase for crafting and costumes for all characters.
(4) VIP rank 13 has no leaver penalty.
(5) VIP rank 13 earn daily influence of 1200 per character,
(4) VIP rank 13 has no time cap for making keys
(5) VIP rank 13 earns 1.5x campaign currencies.
(6) VIP rank 13 always have items identified automatically without need of scrolls.
(7) VIP rank 13 have a movement speed boost of 150% in safe zone.
(8) VIP rank 13 ignores all item level restriction in queue; bypass unlocks requirement when queueing.
(9) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for Treasure of Tyranny on Monday
(10) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for Frozen Treasures on Tuesday
(11) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for Fey Trinkets on Wednesday
(12) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for Dark Gifts on Thursday
(13) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for Astral Diamond Chests on Friday
(14) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for Glory on Saturday
(15) VIP rank 13 can claim 1 purple voucher for each type (listed 9-14) on Sunday

callumf

Nice idea - my only point would be that for just over $100 I could get enough AD from selling Zen to get me a basic Legendary Mount - so maybe reduce these a little:

(2) There should be mileage for buying zen with actual cash. For total of 500 USD purchased, player can claim a Legendary mount bound to character, on one character only. For total of 2000 USD purchased, daily refinement cap is unlimited. For total of 3000 USD purchased, all refinement and and upgrade are always 100% successful.

Otherwise a set of great ideas *thumbs up*

micky1p00

So a single person, or people who invest 5k can crash and monopolize the entire game economy with 0 ward prices?
And ViP 13, which will be everyone who has some game time, can bypass both requirements and leavers penalty, as in endless trolling the queue with their invoke alts?

plasticbat

VIP13 means almost everyone does VIP and plays long enough will have it. I could be VIP 36 by now.
For (1), does that mean the Zax will just die?

free2pay

plasticbat said:

For (1), does that mean the Zax will just die?

Personally for me, when I buy zen (with real money ofc), it's with the intention to sell them in Zax for ADs. We all know there is a far greater supply of ADs (driving up prices except for zen) and demand for zen than there is supply of zen due to the artificial exchange cap of 1zen @ 500 AD. I definitely considered my 1 zen to worth more when zen demand is higher. The AD "top-up" or subsidy is just a mechanism that can be adjusted to match supply/demand and the Zax exchange cap of 1 zen = 500 ADs still remains.

micky1p00 said:

So a single person, or people who invest 5k can crash and monopolize the entire game economy with 0 ward prices?

If prices go down, who benefits? New players. And if prices remain unchanged, your item will get the same chance to get sold as compared to one who spent 5000 real life money.

plasticbat

free2pay said:

plasticbat said:

For (1), does that mean the Zax will just die?

Personally for me, when I buy zen (with real money ofc), it's with the intention to sell them in Zax for ADs. We all know there is a far greater supply of ADs (driving up prices except for zen) and demand for zen than there is supply of zen due to the artificial exchange cap of 1zen @ 500 AD. I definitely considered my 1 zen to worth more when zen demand is higher. The AD "top-up" or subsidy is just a mechanism that can be adjusted to match supply/demand and the Zax exchange cap of 1 zen = 500 ADs still remains.

So, the current Zax will just die. Zen comes from people who spend money to buy Zen. There is no other source to get new Zen (especially the Arc one is closed down). Zax works because these people use their fresh Zen to exchange for AD. If they can exchange 1000 AD per Zen, why would they even "try" to get 500 AD from Zax?
SInce no new Zen will be used in Zax, it will just die.
Yes, there may be some old Zen people are hoarding but when they use it in Zen store, they are gone. i.e. eventually, they will run out. In addition, nobody who has the right mind will release their old Zen in Zax if that happens. That would be pretty dumb. So, Zax wil die.

to make that works, they will have to raise the cap to be over 1000. If the cap is raised, many will leave the game including myself.

free2pay

Just to be very clear, I'm not suggesting to raise the cap of 500 AD per zen in Zax. Yet this exchange rate is very unfair to zen buyer who had bought it using real money, with the sole intention to convert it into ADs.

If it's possible for Zax to distinguish who bought zen through ADs (hereafter refer to zen(ad) ) vs those who bought it using cash (hereafter refer to zen(cash) ), then I'm all for Cryptics using Zax to match 1:2 or some other ratio to compensate those selling their zen(cash) in Zax.
For example, with 1:2 subsidy, a zen(cash) seller selling at 500AD per zen, the zen(cash) seller will receive 1500AD per zen, even though the zen(AD) buyer only need to pay 500AD. All these will be calculated by Zax and is invisible to the buyer. The zen(AD) buyer will never receive any extra ADs from Zax by reselling.

The mechanism I'm suggesting is to compensate zen(cash) selling their zen(cash) for ADs. If they are not compensated appropriately, why would they even want to sell their zen at all? The Zax will die when zen(cash) buyer don't feel it's worthwhile selling their zen to get ADs. You get no supply with high demand.

plasticbat

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regenerde

How about starting with ZEN Charge Promotions, that reward account-wide usefull goodies for those that spend real money, and that doesn't require the players to chase after the rewards later?
May be i'm wrong, but i think there wasn't a single promotion in the last years, that went through without any kind of issues along the way.

Considering how long ViP is allready running, it should have been upgraded to at least Rank 24 or perhaps even more, with a few more usefull (but reasonable...) perks based on player feedback.

Adding some extra AD to DLCs bought with real money could be an option, since those DLCs can only be bought once per account, but that should be it.

Adding vouchers based on the character level to the daily ViP bag... sure, why not.
Adding any kind of perks based on money spend to the game... NO.

Anyway, the best thing they actually could do is listen to player feedback more seriously, and don't come up with game changes based on some collected numbers alone.

gripnir78

Actually at that point your idea, very clearly lead to P2W model.
1 ZEN for 500AD from ZAX + 1000 AD from Cryptic would be a game killer, instantly.

soullesslords

I purchase zen on a regular basis and do not care to exchange it for AD, I can get that on my own so it just builds up because there is nothing in the zen store that I want anymore I keep it on hand just encase new things come along.

Having said that I would like to see legendary mounts in the zen store and account wide unlocked like the purple mounts I actually own every one of them. I also want to purchase things that I can actually use Ill make a list of things that would make me want to spend more real cash.

1. legendary mounts (I would have bought all of them)
2. Legendary companions
3. Upgrade VIP to let me teleport anywhere in the game like the garden I would love to teleport there from another location.
4. Stronghold instant upgrade tokens meaning after my guild grinds for months just to raise a structure it totally sucks that we have to wait days for the upgrade.
5. Crates of guild marks this would help people that need guild marks for professions.
6. Crates of campaign currency lets face it everyone has places that they don't like to grind and no I'm not going to buy genies gifts.
7. How about some unbinding tokens so that if you have something like gear or a companion that is bound to character you can unbind it to account.
8. How about gift token zen there are many players in the game that do not have the money to spend and I would love to gift them some zen or items that can only be exchanged for items in the zen store the only work around I have now is the gift cards I buy them and give them the code I would love an easier way to do this.

This is just a few ideas, remember allot of us have money and are willing to spend it to keep the game free to play but lets face it if you have nothing the people want they are not going to keep spending money as for me, I'm just here for a few friends if mod 14 flops I'm gone and so is my money. and yes I'm the leader of a level 20 guild maxed out and I have no problem walking away.

dionchi

After giving it quite a bit of thought I believe most players will gladly spend their in game currency on items that make playing quicker and easier for them, it's what's already happening and makes sense...

To that end I think 'god like (artifact) armor' (no minimum character level) would be something most players would be interested in.

Armor that mitigates any and all incoming damage by 75-80 percent when equipped but declines in resistance with successive opponent strikes or over a preset time period of say 30(?) in game minutes (or upon changing instances) at which point it becomes, for all practical purposes worthless as an armor choice. At any time a player can convert their armor to refinement points (1,000 at max strength to 100 min resistance) so even after it serves it’s original purpose it is still useful for something and not just a throw away item.

Along with that a special armor, a ‘god like (artifact) weapon’ (no minimum character level) that imposes massive (or one hit depending on the level of the opponent) damage but again has diminishing effectiveness the more it is used to again eventually bottom out at a modest item level where it can be converted to refinement points.

I figure particularly “lone wolf” players will appreciate something like this to allow them to purchase armor and weapons that allow them to solo and clear content they currently find difficult engage or survive, but a party of even lower level players equipped with ‘god like weapons’ and armor would be formidable force indeed when it came to things like Stronghold Heroic Encounters or Dragon battles.

Just a thought ~

free2pay

dionchi said:

Armor that mitigates any and all incoming damage by 75-80 percent when equipped but declines in resistance with successive opponent strikes or over a preset time period of say 30(?) in game minutes (or upon changing instances) at which point it becomes, for all practical purposes worthless as an armor choice. At any time a player can convert their armor to refinement points (1,000 at max strength to 100 min resistance) so even after it serves it’s original purpose it is still useful for something and not just a throw away item.

Sounds like Black Ice Armor except it can't be replenished? PvP would be an issue. Not sure how popular items that degrade over time would be (even Bethesda has moved away from item decay mechanics/repairs). I'd rather such item be an overload enchantment, rather than an actual armor itself.

Yet how your armor looks, I feel, has better potential to increase spending. The current design of applying transmutes on individual gears, and a separate UI to toggle to switch to wear costume, while adequate, I feel can be better streamlined, consolidated and improved upon. I want to continue to wear my costume while still showing my actual gears when I press 'C'. I want to transfer my transmutes over to costumes. I want a MTX (sorry I'm using term from Path of Exile) that changes how my skills look. And I want all weapon and armor effects as MTX.

asterotg

Or they could introduce some AD sinks and make the game more interesting. Even when Leadership still granted RAD ppl were able to buy Zen for 150-300 AD, bc many ppl played the game and invested, to catch up. Nowadays there is a small core of long time players and a few new players now and then. The long time players have millions of ADs, some via playing the AH, some via grinding and some via various exploits. Their 'demand' is higher, the the Zen influx via new players or whales. I know of players, who did exchange up to 150.000.000 AD into Zen, to buy keys, tokens etc.