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Looks like they took my "ultimatum" to heart (coal wards)
rashylewizz
Member Posts: 4,265 Bounty Hunter
In the previous thread, I argued that certain minor (but a big factor) of the playerbase controls coal ward prices and that coal wards have degraded into being used for underground trading and AH manipulation. Neither of which benefits Cryptic nor majority of the playerbase.
I pleaded with cryptic to make coal wards drop off a future event or future dungeons. I stressed that the only reason cryptic would be resistant to this idea is that they are bent on that $10 price tag on the zen store. I thought it was ridiculous and questioned them why that pricetag even exists. Looks like they answered all my points. I disagree with some of it, but at least they finally chose a direction.
Now I understand that I wasn't the sole reason for this change, My thread probably wasn't even in the top-100 reasons for this change. I was just wondering what people thought.
I pleaded with cryptic to make coal wards drop off a future event or future dungeons. I stressed that the only reason cryptic would be resistant to this idea is that they are bent on that $10 price tag on the zen store. I thought it was ridiculous and questioned them why that pricetag even exists. Looks like they answered all my points. I disagree with some of it, but at least they finally chose a direction.
Now I understand that I wasn't the sole reason for this change, My thread probably wasn't even in the top-100 reasons for this change. I was just wondering what people thought.
Post edited by rashylewizz on
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I cannot speak as to why this was done as it doesn't make much sense (coalescent wards were already expensive and have been going up crazy for a few days, maybe because this change was on preview, I don't know). It is not as if coalescent wards were cheap to begin with and this will only make them more expensive. It's absolutely going to kill casual and new players who are looking for enchantments. All the folks who have their enchantments already will become permanently overpowered compared to up-and-coming folks who don't have time to grind or play all freakin' day. Ham-n-eggers are just lost unless they break out the cash. I have not thought much of Cryptic's supposed money grabs until now but this certainly feels like an artificial way to force folks into spending Zen for coalescent wards, mainly because they had to know that this would cause inflation in MANY other areas. Key prices will go up because people will be looking for wards in lockboxes. Enchantment prices will rise because of the cost of making them will skyrocket. Zen exchange will continue to be maxed out because people will need Zen to buy wards from the store. AH prices will of course go nuts for the remaining unbound wards.
The worst part is that this benefits only the richest, most active, and the very people who already had a monopoly on the coalescent ward supply. The people who have all the wards get richer; the folks that don't can't afford them. It was absolutely the wrong thing to do.
The Coalescent Ward Bottleneck hasn't, historically, helped Neverwinter retain players. Forcing the remainder to budget for a 1hr long dungeon delve event run or using the keys for dungeon chests also forces players into running the content, which maintains the staggered progression between Tiered dungeons and the additional zones. Malabog's Castle and the even easier Valindra's Tower will be where the sophisticated players farm their equipment, prior to Black Ice Gear. and the ham and eggers will still be running T2 dungeons to upgrade their alt friends, new guild members or facilitate selling power on the auction house with BiS gear.
On a side note, T3 Black Ice gear has an extra 40 stat rating (on mainstay stats) than T2 Black Ice Gear, which has more base stats than T2 Dungeon gear, this means that some will surpass the Avatar of War set bonus using the right combination of enchants and black ice choice, meaning further stratification of end game progress.
It does not make the enhancement process any easier, which only keeps it in line with the previous refine limits, from all players that have refined AD. It does make coal wards more valuable as a device (chance of success) than a commodity. I would expect the enchantment market to go crazy and stay crazy for long enough to drive players away prior to stabilizing into a state that facilitates community growth.
I ran 70 keys and only snared 2 coal wards with the bars, they aren't profitable at all. It only favoured the boxers running multiple batches of keys, however they will now face the chance to fall out of the market unless they buy the shards from dungeons and skirmishes. Forcing people back into the content, it's just too much impact for a viable plan and only the community can cause the impact.
If the price of shards now tends upwards the profit will come from running the dungeon content.
All of this knocks on from the Coal change, which is only going to make the F2P aspect more time consuming and appear fruitless for those cursed on the RNG front. I'd not have squinted viewing this patch note if it weren't for the fact that Tarmalune bars are still BtC
So why even have that server for free to play people?
Can't have said it better mate! Shake Hands!
Where i live, it is a poor country, we are happy to be able to play, or some days it comes as a gift from parents or ourselves-, if we work-, that we can put a few euros in to the game. I understand the company too, they need an income, it is totally ok to me, but this time they gone a bit too far.
We have a phrase here in Hungary: they didn't see the wood from the tree. Sure money rules, but it makes things this way only counter productive. By having to mainly buy coalescent trough them is sure a huge income for them, but taking out the opportunity to buy it from other players who don't need them, was a good choice, now look at the prices, everything which is somehow related to a ward, it has or will rocket high regarding prices.
And to take out the manipulators from AH this isn't the right way, it would have been better to set a minimum or maximum limit for prices and so no room for manipulations.
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
You won't accomplish much. I know people that never spent a dime that have rank 10s in Utility and maxed AD.
There is a free to play server. Import your character into the preview server multiple time trade items then delete it then re import it again. You can make all rank 10's perfect enchants and guess what it plays identical to the liver server plus you get to play new content before everyone else. and you have the choice between owlbear and mimic.
Great for you. I am not an exploit abuser. I don't really have to remind you of all the past ways with which everybody could get free rank 10's/perfects and how many people took advantage of them, do i? As a suggestion, always think before you post. You seem to have a terrible long term memory or maybe you are in belief that other people have already forgotten about it, which isn't really the case.
What about coal wards being used for underground trading?
There's also ways of not exploiting to make that AD if you pay attention to the market. When I had 10 mil floating around, it was quite easy to keep that 10 mil generating revenue by simple market tricks. I ended up spending it more on frivolous things and not making constant profit but once you hit a certain range of AD you can make AD easily. (Crafting perfects, making good trades, crafting enchants)
Honestly what Cryptic should do is pretty simple. Lower their prices so that they're not double what the Chinese farmers are. As it sits, I could buy 1 mil AD for $6, or buy 2000 zen for $20 (1 mil AD). If Cryptic made Zen $5 per 1000 zen, they'd immediately see people flocking in droves to buy Zen especially with the market so depleted. Their pricetag is just too big and I'm guessing they don't have someone sitting down doing the financial analysis. By making coal wards BoA they don't hurt the Chinese farmers, or their buyers. They hurt their own buyers and new players. It's a dumb move. I have no idea how a new player is going to ever get normal or greater enchants to be able to run the dungeons that would actually make them AD. I have no idea what Cryptic is doing or what their goal is. They're not making people buy their product, they're making people dependent on the Chinese farmers to actually play the game.
I was just trying to tell you that even if you get rid of all the paying customers, you will still go against people in full Rank 10s, and the market will still be theirs.
That's all. Not sure why you thought it necessary to jump to insults without reason.
I think the poster (without supporting the insult) was trying to say that free 2 play players try religiously to bump up the prices of everything, in order to make 20k AD refined per flip, whereas Zen buyers want to buy that stuff.
The guide, you know the guide, recommended to everyone that reads the forums. Tells everybody to flip any valuable or useful item.
Zen buyers, typically, wouldn't do this as it lowers competition and makes the remainder of the crowd look unhealthy.
A market run by flippers would just look like a hegemony and more fool those for facilitating it willingly hoping for favour.
People buying Zen usually know it's to contribute to development, and remarks about free 2 play having it easier because they charge more than zen buyers is hurting the core community more than some fringe group of rank 7 only types keeping it game.
It would be a complete shock to all concerned if the 6k gs pvp members were advanced AI to facilitate the match. People can get 9k gs for 1500AD buying the cheapest blues...... with the domination rewards having tenacity there is no reason for the 6k gs players to be in there, unless they are funneling the AD somewhere else, and when that sinks in, every diamond counts for them. Which is again less than community spirit.
Rank 10/perfect types running the market? to having buying power if anything changes? instead of having contingency items for if anything changes?
- Evolved to Hegemony from fresh start. If Feudal Tyrant is reached people will be chucking bones down and the economy helps F2P players again.
And? That is their right to do that. It has benefited everyone playing the game. Thanks to those "market manipulators" they kept the coal and enchant prices at reasonable rates. They also opened large number of lockboxes which kept keys flowing and rare items, like purple mounts, in the market. And guess what? They will still be around manipulating the market. The only difference is now they will be using those coals they buy from the trade market on making lesser weapon and armor enchants to sell (at much higher rates now). The only thing that has really changed is that now you just have to pay PWE $10 or 500K+ AD for the unbound coals. Enjoy your diminished game.
False. People who buy hundreds of keys kept the coal ward prices in check. These AH manipulators are not necessarily in the same circle with those people who buy keys if we were to put it in a venn diagram.