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Celestial Coin System - Destined for grief - for both players and devs
gadzewks
Member Posts: 8 Arc User
EDIT: As pointed out by other players, this should be about Ardent coins, not celestial. My bad for posting at work :P Since ardent coins dont go away if you dont log in, this is a non-issue. Thx to those who clarified this.
The Ardent coin system is one that is obviously Cryptics attempt to get people to log into the game often. By often, I mean at least once a day. This is fine. The concept is sound. Reward people for playing the game each day. The problem however is that this "Reward" system is actually going to end up being more of a punishment system, than a reward. Especially to those who have put forth time and effort to take part in the rewards, only to LOSE it all due to no fault of their own.
As the recent down time has shown, there can often be times when players cant log in, due to no fault of their own. No system has 100% up time. Players understand this. No MMO has stayed up 100% of the time. The devs need to understand this too, and their in game systems, such as the Ardent coin system, needs to reflect that they understand this.
To have a game mechanic that requires people to log in at least once a day, without missing a day, to gain stacking "Rewards", rewards that ALL go away if you miss a day, is just destined to cause grief.
All its going to take is for the servers to be offline for one day, 6 months from now, and people who have managed to save up close to 200 Ardent coins, will lose EVERYTHING. Want to go on vacation? Too bad. Your ISP goes down for a day or 2? Too bad. Natural disaster in your town that cuts power for a day or more? Too bad. Moving to a new place and your net wont be activated immediately? Too bad.
The Ardent coin system needs to be redesigned. It needed to focus more on rewarding those who DO log in, without punishing those who dont or are unable to. Other games do this by increasing the amount you gain for each consecutive day you log in.
Example:
Log in Day 1 = 1 coin
Log in Day 2 = 1 coin
Log in Day 3 = 2 coins
Log in Day 4 = 3 coins
Log in day 5 = 5 coins
(total coins after 5 days of logging in back to back = 12)
After 5 days, the process resets back to Day 1, giving you 1 coin, and so on.
Many games use systems like this, and they work great. If someone doesnt log in for a day, or a week, they miss out on the bonus coins, but DONT LOSE what they have already earned.
"But we didnt want someone being able to get the Angel Companion sooner than a year" - Ok, fine, increase the amount of coins it takes to buy things, taking into account the bonus coins you get from logging in back to back. This would still allow those people who manage to actually log in every day for a year, to get the Angel companion. It also keeps those who dont, from getting it as soon, BUT, without punishing them by taking away what they HAVE earned just because their ISP went down, or in the later case, Neverwinter servers were down.
Cryptic, You are going to have a lot of angry customers when they lose all those coins in the future due to something like extended server downtime or something else that it outside of the players control. If you keep the system how it is now, its just a customer service problem waiting to happen.
All you need to do to fix this system is prevent people from losing what they have earned so far, while keeping the goals still something that take time to achieve. Avoid the inevitable problems that are going to happen for players and customer support based around this.
The Ardent coin system is one that is obviously Cryptics attempt to get people to log into the game often. By often, I mean at least once a day. This is fine. The concept is sound. Reward people for playing the game each day. The problem however is that this "Reward" system is actually going to end up being more of a punishment system, than a reward. Especially to those who have put forth time and effort to take part in the rewards, only to LOSE it all due to no fault of their own.
As the recent down time has shown, there can often be times when players cant log in, due to no fault of their own. No system has 100% up time. Players understand this. No MMO has stayed up 100% of the time. The devs need to understand this too, and their in game systems, such as the Ardent coin system, needs to reflect that they understand this.
To have a game mechanic that requires people to log in at least once a day, without missing a day, to gain stacking "Rewards", rewards that ALL go away if you miss a day, is just destined to cause grief.
All its going to take is for the servers to be offline for one day, 6 months from now, and people who have managed to save up close to 200 Ardent coins, will lose EVERYTHING. Want to go on vacation? Too bad. Your ISP goes down for a day or 2? Too bad. Natural disaster in your town that cuts power for a day or more? Too bad. Moving to a new place and your net wont be activated immediately? Too bad.
The Ardent coin system needs to be redesigned. It needed to focus more on rewarding those who DO log in, without punishing those who dont or are unable to. Other games do this by increasing the amount you gain for each consecutive day you log in.
Example:
Log in Day 1 = 1 coin
Log in Day 2 = 1 coin
Log in Day 3 = 2 coins
Log in Day 4 = 3 coins
Log in day 5 = 5 coins
(total coins after 5 days of logging in back to back = 12)
After 5 days, the process resets back to Day 1, giving you 1 coin, and so on.
Many games use systems like this, and they work great. If someone doesnt log in for a day, or a week, they miss out on the bonus coins, but DONT LOSE what they have already earned.
"But we didnt want someone being able to get the Angel Companion sooner than a year" - Ok, fine, increase the amount of coins it takes to buy things, taking into account the bonus coins you get from logging in back to back. This would still allow those people who manage to actually log in every day for a year, to get the Angel companion. It also keeps those who dont, from getting it as soon, BUT, without punishing them by taking away what they HAVE earned just because their ISP went down, or in the later case, Neverwinter servers were down.
Cryptic, You are going to have a lot of angry customers when they lose all those coins in the future due to something like extended server downtime or something else that it outside of the players control. If you keep the system how it is now, its just a customer service problem waiting to happen.
All you need to do to fix this system is prevent people from losing what they have earned so far, while keeping the goals still something that take time to achieve. Avoid the inevitable problems that are going to happen for players and customer support based around this.
Post edited by gadzewks on
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Comments
Call me ignorant, because i don't really keep track of all these celestial/ardent coins and whatnot, because I basically don't care, but you lose all of the coins you accumulated up to now if you don't log in for more than 24 hours and pray?
Celestial coins only go up to a max of 7.
Ardent coins have no limit, but also do not vanish if you miss a day.
This is true? and not the OP's huge rant?
If this is what is true, it's fine.
It is true. The OP is mistaken
Yes.
Celestial coins have a MAXIMUM of 7 coins total at any given time. If you log in and pray for 30 days straight, without buying any of the Celestial items, you will still only have 7 coins.
Ardent coins have no maximum and do not vanish, even if you do not play for a month. You will always have the Ardent coins if you miss a few days, take a vacation, loose your ISP for a few days, etc, etc, etc, etc.
System is working as intended, then. Nothing to see here
i was mean
I personally plan to spend my coins on the 5-day reward (Blessed Profession Pack - or something). The 7-day reward just seems kind of silly to me with the fuse success stones and such, however, I have little issue with buying them.
I can see the value in it for people that don't want to buy the 100% success enchant stones for those 1% success chance enchantments you get in the level 60 dungeons. It is another option to pick them up without paying any money.
Ya but I kind of feel bad for him. His argument was strong, well laid out, and came across as intelligent rather than whiney. Unfortunately his entire premise was just factually way off.
easy mistake to make, Diamonds, Ardent, Celestial, different seals, gold etc. I'd bet most player right now don't know what gets what if they weren't in beta weekends or headstart.
It's HAMSTER. It's only resources, not assets. It's basically like opening a random resource node, with a guaranteed 10 Residuum. I mean 10 Residuum is nice to have, but not worth stressing about.
The celestial coins are kind of garbage, so even if you do fail to login in time and lose 4 of them (which I just did yesterday on 3 characters), it doesn't really matter.
Dude Amen to that. I sorta feel bad for my comment too, considering I hardly know which currency is which and I did play in the BWEs :P
Oh, I have no argument that they are HAMSTER or fantastic, however, I can at least throw Residuum up on the AH for good prices or use it on lower level crafting I'm still leveling.
I have more use for the 5-day reward than the 7-day reward. A few of my guild members were saying they would be spending theirs on the 5-day as well, rather than the 7-day.
I say go with whatever motor-boats your butt cheeks, personally.
Again, in reply to your post, I say:
Point of interest:
Celestial coins only go up to a max of 7.
Ardent coins have no limit, but also do not vanish if you miss a day.
Edit: And to quote myself from another post in this thread:
How is your issue still valid? There is nothing worth buying with celestial coins so if you lose them big whoop.
You can't buy the angel with the currency that disappears for not logging in - and that currency caps at 7.
So no, your issue really isn't valid at all.
Ok, so help clarify then.
Which coins buy the companion that costs 360 coins?
Your still mixing it up. Celestial coins are the ones you lose if you don't log in every 1 day 5 hours. They stack to a maximum of 7. The most coins you will ever lose due to not being able to log in is 7.
You don't lose Ardent coins.
Ardent coins
So, looks like my bad squared.
/facepalms himself in the mirror.
At least I better understand now, thx for helping clarify.