Wait, why is it ok and not to be expected for others to be doing something you are.
Come on, everyone keeps looking at this from the perspective of the free players and no one wants to address the constantly declining value of zen...aka real dollars being paid to Cryptic to keep the game running for those free players...against the AH items people trading Zen to get AD for.
Explain to me how your position benefits the person spending real live dollars to buy Zen and then exhange it for AD. If you can't, then I'm not the one heralding gloom and doom for the game. They pay for this game. Period. The end. If Cryptic isn't catering to them, they are doing it wrong. And right now they're not.
Also, you have loads of AD...yet you want to see AD prices kept low and say...say...that is for the poor new players who should not be expected to make AD the way you did. You clearly show there is a path to signifcant AD and yet you want to keep the AD/Zen ratio low instead of leeting it float and allowing Zen buyers (the real$ Zen buyers) to keep pace with inflation.
So, as far as you and others are concerned; better their dollars decline against AH goods continually while your AD continues to buy the same amount of Zen. Sounds fair?
Because my position took a lot of time, and a lot of investment. I've ran hundreds of CNs when the drops were worth a lot more than they are now. Coal wards used to be 100k so I've managed to make perfects and greaters, though I have been cheap on my armour enchantment. CN was also easier back in the day despite the lower gear level. I also have 17 level 20 leadership toons. Would I expect others that have recently(ish) started playing to reach the same place I have given time? Not really no, even older players I'd expect only a handful will have done so.
As for value for your zen, I'm not sure it's really gone down. People were happy enough to offer it at 300ad/z and top end enchants were no cheaper than they are now, though I think the refining system is now a mess. Having said that, with enough money I wouldn't really be happy to trade my zen for ad since it is kind of low. As I said though, the value I find that I get from my money from the zen store is also out of whack too. I tried my luck with boosters when there was a zen sale and booster sale, lost value on every single booster so in that case I did exchange my zen for ad for investing in tools. I think I did it one other time to buy dragon eggs for 20-25k or something too. If I wanted a lot of AD (for example for the insane rp you need for legendary artifacts), I'd be tempted to use an ad seller on a separate account to get at least a somewhat decent rate, however that's risky to both payment details and you account and I've never really been inclined to do so.
As I also said, I'd be fine with the cap being raised to provide a better rate for zen sellers, but coal wards must go down in price permanently. Even without a cap rise I want them lowered because it's what's needed to be fair to the playerbase and the ones who support the company. $10 for a ward is not ok. 500k AD for a ward is also not ok. Your suggestion of 1m ad wards means that it'd take 30m for a perfect armour and weapon enchant for 1 character. Pretty sure not many people will ever manage that. If they see an unreachable goal, they won't strive for that and will set goals that are achievable. Once they achieve that, they will leave the game out of boredom and the player base dwindles which is bad for us all. People get bored over time and will find something else, if we're not getting new players interested, well...
Also I find the best way now to earn AD is passive play in which case you might as well find something else that has more compelling gameplay. The combat is great, but playing is no longer rewarding.
I can get behind AD sinks like guild/player housing, convenience stuff like permanent teleport items (currently only a 4k AD one-shot scroll? really?) and so on. Seems quite reasonable to get players to want to spend a LOT of AD without it being a "necessary" thing for anyone.
Basically, the opposite of how they handled respecs/coals.
They just really kinda dropped the ball on that. I get why they did it, but... ah, sorry I sound like a broken record. LOL
Wait, why is it ok and not to be expected for others to be doing something you are.
Come on, everyone keeps looking at this from the perspective of the free players and no one wants to address the constantly declining value of zen...aka real dollars being paid to Cryptic to keep the game running for those free players...against the AH items people trading Zen to get AD for.
Explain to me how your position benefits the person spending real live dollars to buy Zen and then exhange it for AD. If you can't, then I'm not the one heralding gloom and doom for the game. They pay for this game. Period. The end. If Cryptic isn't catering to them, they are doing it wrong. And right now they're not.
Also, you have loads of AD...yet you want to see AD prices kept low and say...say...that is for the poor new players who should not be expected to make AD the way you did. You clearly show there is a path to signifcant AD and yet you want to keep the AD/Zen ratio low instead of leeting it float and allowing Zen buyers (the real$ Zen buyers) to keep pace with inflation.
So, as far as you and others are concerned; better their dollars decline against AH goods continually while your AD continues to buy the same amount of Zen. Sounds fair?
More or less this. Your time and effort does not put dollars into PWE's pockets. Recognize this. Any economic change you want will only be effective if it increases the demand to buy zen with money. All other ideas are a net loss for the business. True, player base is the product they sell and F2P is a signifigant part of that product. But economically, here in the real world, zen is the only currency that matters because it is the only one created by cash.
More or less this. Your time and effort does not put dollars into PWE's pockets. Recognize this. Any economic change you want will only be effective if it increases the demand to buy zen with money. All other ideas are a net loss for the business. True, player base is the product they sell and F2P is a signifigant part of that product. But economically, here in the real world, zen is the only currency that matters because it is the only one created by cash.
And without the freeps you don't have the population for the payers to play with and the payers leave and you lose money. This is the fundamental basis of the f2p model.
More or less this. Your time and effort does not put dollars into PWE's pockets. Recognize this. Any economic change you want will only be effective if it increases the demand to buy zen with money. All other ideas are a net loss for the business. True, player base is the product they sell and F2P is a signifigant part of that product. But economically, here in the real world, zen is the only currency that matters because it is the only one created by cash.
I agree here with the premise, but maybe caution you to not overly disregard F2P playersbase.. they just may be more important to the company than we realize. I wonder how many F2Pers would come to Neverwinter, and seeing a good environment and lots of opportunity for fun, decide to become a paying customer in order to have a shiny new mount/companion or what-have-you.
The better and more enjoyable of a world Cryptic makes, the more people will end up converting to zen buyers. I have no data about what the numbers are, but I think we can agree that this is common sense. As a player, you don't pour money into a game that is no **** good, right?
The trickier part is figuring out how much free milk there should be, and just how expensive they want the cow to be. Really, that's what a lot of us are talking about here. I don't think anyone has any illusions concerning zen sales that have to happen or else the game dies. Nobody is saying "everything should be free milk and screw the cow".
the problem with economy isn't zax as much as content. Here is why right now zen is worth more than ad to players right now as you can tell on zax. By the million of zen backlog, cause players aren't buying zen to sell and ad is so widely made in game when zen is being bought at 500:1 . it means zen is worth more than ad, When zen is at 300:1 means ad is worth more than zen which in turn players are more incline to go buy zen to sell it to make ad even new players. That is where ad sink hole are supposed to help drive ad up so ad is worth more than zen and player would rush to buy zen to get ad. In turn make pwe more money
But they can't do that cause there is nothing new in game even the new mod 4 coming out, except the new upgrade armor part. It the same old daily grind to get boons which we been doing since the modes started coming out. Gets old after 3 modes already and tiresome. players don't have a problem grinding, if the grinding will pay off. All armor in game are carbon copies which make for no new armor instead the devs rely on enchantments to make armor dif and it doesn't, Cause anyone can copy it. If devs really wanted to make new content. They would make armor unique like armor that can have 1 to 3 mystery stats on it that is generated by reforging the armor and make that reforge tool a sell able tool in wb for let say 300k ad and only make it to where max level professions can do it. They can even add dragon eggs to help. that would make a sink hole for game plus let a player reforge it as many times as they like. As long as they have a reforge tool each time, this way each try you need a reforge tool and it consumes each time u try. Plus take off bop and boe for armor and weapons let the players able to sell the armor and weapons even is they put them on. Cause if they did that, one might make them self a good armor. But then when they were making armor to try to sell they may make a better one than they are wearing . So they can switch it and sell the one they are wearing in ah which in turn. If they sold a really good unique armor for 2 mil that 10% of that would be sink hole. Pwe and dev would see the ad drop in game and players flocking to go by zen to sell on market just to get ad. You would still have players wanting mounts and the other stuff plus new stuff that is added to zen market. But more players buying zen to sell to get ad and they need to make cw able to buy in wb to let new players have a chance at perfect enchantments and rank 10.
Other thing is dif between pve and pvp whether you do either. one problem for both sides is content or lack of or skills for the characters both side complain about mages being able to do more in dungeons and gf less or tr and perma sealth or gwf op. Everyone has there own idea on what is wrong for both pve and pvp and devs either boost skills or nerf skills but either way it affects one side more than other. they say they trying to keep with the d&d tradition but cw is supposed to be powerful and controlling in d&d but they aren't in true d&d tradition, Just like every class in game. That is where they need to figure a way to change that whether that is in armor and make it to where if you are going to do pvp, you need to be wearing pvp armor. and that armor change the way that class is played in pvp matches. Same thing with pve. They can even have 2 dif set up tabs for armor and players can have there pvp armor in there and can switch into pvp mode or they can't go into pvp. this would cut the inventory problem down.
Other thing let players make pvp maps on test server that players can go over there and test out Maybe have a new foundry pvp. So people can go to test server and que up for foundry pvp and try new maps out and make it to where it has to comply with a general rule of normal pvp and it has to get so many likes before it can go to live server and then when its loaded to live server make a contest out of it. if it passes the test server and the live server it will get added to the line up for open pvp. I am sure this would add a ton of players wanting to make there own pvp map and to get it offical added to open pvp line up.
For pve if they made crafting material for the unique armor. grind able in the new areas for that type of armor guys would grind for it. even if you needed 1000 of one thing for a better chance at this stat or 2000 of this thing for a better chance at more than 1 mystery stat. Sky the limit and even make it the way dungeons used to be where you still have same chance of getting a drop from boss and getting what you are looking for from end chest, But every thing is sell able. Pwe going to make there money either way especially if players are buying zen to sell more to get ad. the zax started going up when they made everything bop or boe. They could even start making guild houses and even guild battles for area . would make game more fun players would stay more interested in game and economy would even out and pwe would make more money than ever. That is just what i think, But wont ever be and the game will continue down the spiral it has begun to. Most of guildies are gone a alliance guild most of there 200 players are gone. All because of boring same daily grind for what a few new boons maybe same carbon copy armor. zax so backlog it would take a month to get zen threw it. to get a mount that was on sale last week and isn't this week. Oh yea i know just go buy it with real money and you can get it when its on sale down from 30 to 25. That is why players are leaving nothing new that would spark players wanting to stay and topper why give us lockbox so we can go spend 11 dollars to get keys to open and get maybe 200 k in stuff. 4 tb on top of it. i might get enough tb in 6 month from now to buy a cw. like i said everyone has there own idea on whats wrong this is just mine
Comments
Because my position took a lot of time, and a lot of investment. I've ran hundreds of CNs when the drops were worth a lot more than they are now. Coal wards used to be 100k so I've managed to make perfects and greaters, though I have been cheap on my armour enchantment. CN was also easier back in the day despite the lower gear level. I also have 17 level 20 leadership toons. Would I expect others that have recently(ish) started playing to reach the same place I have given time? Not really no, even older players I'd expect only a handful will have done so.
As for value for your zen, I'm not sure it's really gone down. People were happy enough to offer it at 300ad/z and top end enchants were no cheaper than they are now, though I think the refining system is now a mess. Having said that, with enough money I wouldn't really be happy to trade my zen for ad since it is kind of low. As I said though, the value I find that I get from my money from the zen store is also out of whack too. I tried my luck with boosters when there was a zen sale and booster sale, lost value on every single booster so in that case I did exchange my zen for ad for investing in tools. I think I did it one other time to buy dragon eggs for 20-25k or something too. If I wanted a lot of AD (for example for the insane rp you need for legendary artifacts), I'd be tempted to use an ad seller on a separate account to get at least a somewhat decent rate, however that's risky to both payment details and you account and I've never really been inclined to do so.
As I also said, I'd be fine with the cap being raised to provide a better rate for zen sellers, but coal wards must go down in price permanently. Even without a cap rise I want them lowered because it's what's needed to be fair to the playerbase and the ones who support the company. $10 for a ward is not ok. 500k AD for a ward is also not ok. Your suggestion of 1m ad wards means that it'd take 30m for a perfect armour and weapon enchant for 1 character. Pretty sure not many people will ever manage that. If they see an unreachable goal, they won't strive for that and will set goals that are achievable. Once they achieve that, they will leave the game out of boredom and the player base dwindles which is bad for us all. People get bored over time and will find something else, if we're not getting new players interested, well...
Also I find the best way now to earn AD is passive play in which case you might as well find something else that has more compelling gameplay. The combat is great, but playing is no longer rewarding.
Basically, the opposite of how they handled respecs/coals.
They just really kinda dropped the ball on that. I get why they did it, but... ah, sorry I sound like a broken record. LOL
More or less this. Your time and effort does not put dollars into PWE's pockets. Recognize this. Any economic change you want will only be effective if it increases the demand to buy zen with money. All other ideas are a net loss for the business. True, player base is the product they sell and F2P is a signifigant part of that product. But economically, here in the real world, zen is the only currency that matters because it is the only one created by cash.
And without the freeps you don't have the population for the payers to play with and the payers leave and you lose money. This is the fundamental basis of the f2p model.
I agree here with the premise, but maybe caution you to not overly disregard F2P playersbase.. they just may be more important to the company than we realize. I wonder how many F2Pers would come to Neverwinter, and seeing a good environment and lots of opportunity for fun, decide to become a paying customer in order to have a shiny new mount/companion or what-have-you.
The better and more enjoyable of a world Cryptic makes, the more people will end up converting to zen buyers. I have no data about what the numbers are, but I think we can agree that this is common sense. As a player, you don't pour money into a game that is no **** good, right?
The trickier part is figuring out how much free milk there should be, and just how expensive they want the cow to be. Really, that's what a lot of us are talking about here. I don't think anyone has any illusions concerning zen sales that have to happen or else the game dies. Nobody is saying "everything should be free milk and screw the cow".
But they can't do that cause there is nothing new in game even the new mod 4 coming out, except the new upgrade armor part. It the same old daily grind to get boons which we been doing since the modes started coming out. Gets old after 3 modes already and tiresome. players don't have a problem grinding, if the grinding will pay off. All armor in game are carbon copies which make for no new armor instead the devs rely on enchantments to make armor dif and it doesn't, Cause anyone can copy it. If devs really wanted to make new content. They would make armor unique like armor that can have 1 to 3 mystery stats on it that is generated by reforging the armor and make that reforge tool a sell able tool in wb for let say 300k ad and only make it to where max level professions can do it. They can even add dragon eggs to help. that would make a sink hole for game plus let a player reforge it as many times as they like. As long as they have a reforge tool each time, this way each try you need a reforge tool and it consumes each time u try. Plus take off bop and boe for armor and weapons let the players able to sell the armor and weapons even is they put them on. Cause if they did that, one might make them self a good armor. But then when they were making armor to try to sell they may make a better one than they are wearing . So they can switch it and sell the one they are wearing in ah which in turn. If they sold a really good unique armor for 2 mil that 10% of that would be sink hole. Pwe and dev would see the ad drop in game and players flocking to go by zen to sell on market just to get ad. You would still have players wanting mounts and the other stuff plus new stuff that is added to zen market. But more players buying zen to sell to get ad and they need to make cw able to buy in wb to let new players have a chance at perfect enchantments and rank 10.
Other thing is dif between pve and pvp whether you do either. one problem for both sides is content or lack of or skills for the characters both side complain about mages being able to do more in dungeons and gf less or tr and perma sealth or gwf op. Everyone has there own idea on what is wrong for both pve and pvp and devs either boost skills or nerf skills but either way it affects one side more than other. they say they trying to keep with the d&d tradition but cw is supposed to be powerful and controlling in d&d but they aren't in true d&d tradition, Just like every class in game. That is where they need to figure a way to change that whether that is in armor and make it to where if you are going to do pvp, you need to be wearing pvp armor. and that armor change the way that class is played in pvp matches. Same thing with pve. They can even have 2 dif set up tabs for armor and players can have there pvp armor in there and can switch into pvp mode or they can't go into pvp. this would cut the inventory problem down.
Other thing let players make pvp maps on test server that players can go over there and test out Maybe have a new foundry pvp. So people can go to test server and que up for foundry pvp and try new maps out and make it to where it has to comply with a general rule of normal pvp and it has to get so many likes before it can go to live server and then when its loaded to live server make a contest out of it. if it passes the test server and the live server it will get added to the line up for open pvp. I am sure this would add a ton of players wanting to make there own pvp map and to get it offical added to open pvp line up.
For pve if they made crafting material for the unique armor. grind able in the new areas for that type of armor guys would grind for it. even if you needed 1000 of one thing for a better chance at this stat or 2000 of this thing for a better chance at more than 1 mystery stat. Sky the limit and even make it the way dungeons used to be where you still have same chance of getting a drop from boss and getting what you are looking for from end chest, But every thing is sell able. Pwe going to make there money either way especially if players are buying zen to sell more to get ad. the zax started going up when they made everything bop or boe. They could even start making guild houses and even guild battles for area . would make game more fun players would stay more interested in game and economy would even out and pwe would make more money than ever. That is just what i think, But wont ever be and the game will continue down the spiral it has begun to. Most of guildies are gone a alliance guild most of there 200 players are gone. All because of boring same daily grind for what a few new boons maybe same carbon copy armor. zax so backlog it would take a month to get zen threw it. to get a mount that was on sale last week and isn't this week. Oh yea i know just go buy it with real money and you can get it when its on sale down from 30 to 25. That is why players are leaving nothing new that would spark players wanting to stay and topper why give us lockbox so we can go spend 11 dollars to get keys to open and get maybe 200 k in stuff. 4 tb on top of it. i might get enough tb in 6 month from now to buy a cw. like i said everyone has there own idea on whats wrong this is just mine