getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
The Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) that you buy with 11 celestial coins. I buy the first one with the least amount of varying rewards, which from my experience with my many characters, seems to be the one that gives me the most Coalescent Wards. Your first invocation of the day rewards 1 Ardent Coin and 1 Celestial Coin. The last invocation any given character can do each day is the one that awards the 2nd Celestial Coin. So, if you invoke fully on a character each day, that means you'll get 11 Celestial Coins every 5.5 days meaning that each character can claim a Coffer of Wondrous (insert type here) every 5.5 days if you invoke fully on them.
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
Odds certainly were better but as of the last I played the game, around Mod 8 release, the last invoke box you could take did have a very small chance of giving a coal ward. Ima go out on a limb and say that very minor chance is quite a bit less now in a ninja nerf to support their new marketing strategy. No free coals = all the casuals handing over their CC for ridiculous prices in cash shop.
If they had just done a rework of the zen store prices at the same time as ganking the wards from t-bar this would have been a non issue. I think most ppl would agree that a couple of bucks each (or relative value in AD) for the wards would have been more acceptable. 10 bucks each is tantamount to financial HAMSTER which is why they have likely sold next to none of them in the cash shop. Its always give and take. Give first is usually best, not later as a panic move when you see the torches and pitchforks from the Keep's ramparts. Mr Shicoff could never be considered a financially inclined person, so I really wonder how he keeps being allowed to make these decisions.
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
Odds certainly were better but as of the last I played the game, around Mod 8 release, the last invoke box you could take did have a very small chance of giving a coal ward.
Ima go out on a limb and say that very minor chance is quite a bit less now in a ninja nerf to support their new marketing strategy. No free coals = all the casuals handing over their CC for ridiculous prices in cash shop.
If they had just done a rework of the zen store prices at the same time as ganking the wards from t-bar this would have been a non issue. I think most ppl would agree that a couple of bucks each (or relative value in AD) for the wards would have been more acceptable. 10 bucks each is tantamount to financial HAMSTER which is why they have likely sold next to none of them in the cash shop. Its always give and take. Give first is usually best, not later as a panic move when you see the torches and pitchforks from the Keep's ramparts. Mr Shicoff could never be considered a financially inclined person, so I really wonder how he keeps being allowed to make these decisions.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Reading a few posts on the Coal/Pres removal throughout the forum I had an epiphany...
I was turning my head into a pulp squeezing brain matter to understand why there are so many 2xRP events lately (maybe even twice a month) when a few mods (not too far) back you'd see one in every 2-3 months.
Then it occurred to me...
Of Course...
They've been helping speed up the refinement process, preparing to starve people of reagents and lead them to the ZEN store.
So what do we have post ward removal ?
We have a metric ton of players with gear ready to upgrade and no accessible means to do it.
They now have to decide.....
"Do I spend cash to do it now ? but I'm amost there!!! " or "Do I grind my mind out of my skull to do it, But I'm almost there!!!"
Same thing will happen to new players, they'll be all like "hey this is neat I can refine my stuff easily every month or so" then when the refinement bars are full they'll be like "eeerm...eh...how am I ever gonna make it?"
/tin foil hat
Put your tin foil hats on and BrainFoil storm this pweeeez xD
Well, they have a business to run and maintaining&developing this game isn't free. I assume recent changes mod6-> has affected negatively on cash flow (reading general comments about this game) so they have to come up some new ways to make some money.
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
Odds certainly were better but as of the last I played the game, around Mod 8 release, the last invoke box you could take did have a very small chance of giving a coal ward.
Ima go out on a limb and say that very minor chance is quite a bit less now in a ninja nerf to support their new marketing strategy. No free coals = all the casuals handing over their CC for ridiculous prices in cash shop.
If they had just done a rework of the zen store prices at the same time as ganking the wards from t-bar this would have been a non issue. I think most ppl would agree that a couple of bucks each (or relative value in AD) for the wards would have been more acceptable. 10 bucks each is tantamount to financial HAMSTER which is why they have likely sold next to none of them in the cash shop. Its always give and take. Give first is usually best, not later as a panic move when you see the torches and pitchforks from the Keep's ramparts. Mr Shicoff could never be considered a financially inclined person, so I really wonder how he keeps being allowed to make these decisions.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
A chance to get something, is still only a chance at the end of the day. I have seen 2 Coals in 11 coffers, and i have seen only a few Pres in 50+ coffers too.
And my personal rule for F2P games... never invest money into equipment (or in this case enchantments). Any update can replace them at any time with something "better", i rather invest my money into account-wide unlocks, but if the game doesn't offer me interesting ones, i stop investing money at all.
Just saying, they could have improved ViP instead, and they would have a solid way of gaining revenue month after month. Or they could have introduced new class packs with every last update, with better content in them and upgraded the existing "DLCs" too.
Anyway, all i'm saying is, i'm not against supporting the game with money within reason...
Well, they have a business to run and maintaining&developing this game isn't free. I assume recent changes mod6-> has affected negatively on cash flow (reading general comments about this game) so they have to come up some new ways to make some money.
I'm up for that. Of course they do, theres people to be payed for their work, Royalties for Brand Names (WoT DnD), etc etc and keep NW alive.
I'd spend my hard earned money on this game quite happily (i've done already elsewhere) if the Publisher or the people behind all these changes showed some integrity and not a cash grab roll back on services system.
How can I possibly trust them to even think of paying for an in-game service?! You can now, with evidence 100% assume that they will double back on anything instead of coming up with new ways to monetize their game.
This was downright lame and lazy (blame the botters).
And to get back on subject, I had a talk with some friends who told me they wouldn't be able to continue playing the game for the reasons/fears mentioned above and just quit!!!! damn it's frikkin mod6 all over again
A player shouldn't FEAR the developer of a game he plays will double back on what he has offered him for money. He should be happy to spend money to HELP the developer maintain the game and give him more fun content to play on.
There have been friends of mine who indeed had been amassing RP to upgrade their stuff feeling they were reaching that point where they would spend their bars and reach their goal.
Guess what....life - work got in the way, they didn't have time to cash in that day, and now they're done.
If the change was one bad move, the announcement timing was downright planned, evil and should be heavily frowned upon.
Ye I'm up for them making money to maintain a game. Not this way tho, not this way
Anyway, all i'm saying is, i'm not against supporting the game with money within reason...
You know, that's the most ironic thing. I bought VIP because I felt bad about the dev layoffs when I had been playing for free for years. I'm a software developer and I've been through a few. I wanted to support the game, but at the same time, I didn't want to ruin it by "buying an advantage". VIP was _perfect_ (I didn't even notice the tarm bars until after I had it.)
But I've also worked for some rather ruthless corporations; I feel like I can see, from the actions that are clearly forced down from above the devs, that their jobs are doomed, they just don't know it yet. This latest move makes me feel like I'm supporting the parent company, not the devs, and that's not really a good motivation for me. I really couldn't care much less about the wards being removed (except for its indications about the mindset of the parent co). It took forever to get my vorpal enchants to even need one, and by then I had one. When my VIP runs out in a few weeks, I'm going to have to decide two things: 1) whether I'm still enjoying running the same 2 skirmishes and 2 dungeons every day, and if so, 2) whether the lack of injuries and travel signpost are worth $10/mo.
Fortunately, we should have Mod9 by then, and I'll get to see how bad the treadmill will be to stay mediocre (3k, r9s, gvorp)
[Edit: honestly, guild-chat is about the most enjoyable part of the game these days. (Kudos to whoever planned that; they pretty much told us up front their intent was to give us something to feel invested in--and in that they delivered.) I'll feel truly ridiculous if I take a 1GB patch every 6 months just to have a chat-program]
LMAO to the activity of Mods to divert the nature of the damaging change of service that has occured. All this does is highlight that players are throwing cash into a profiteering scheme that upholds an EULA so biased that it can effectively take your money and end your account without recourse.
I'm happy to see what Paypal thinks of this, maybe the same as Microsoft
This game was never going to last forever anyway. Are they going to be able to make it as far as mod 12? Will mid-2017 see NWO still up and running? I'm not sure.
You'd think that a game that had a solid design and a good "feel" to it would seem to have some longevity. Like, you'd be able to say "oh yeah this will be around for a good couple more years still..."
I'm not sensing that solidity here anymore. It feels loose, weak, disjointed. Like it's time is coming. Probably not going to be neverwinter online in 2018, I would guess.
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
Odds certainly were better but as of the last I played the game, around Mod 8 release, the last invoke box you could take did have a very small chance of giving a coal ward.
Ima go out on a limb and say that very minor chance is quite a bit less now in a ninja nerf to support their new marketing strategy. No free coals = all the casuals handing over their CC for ridiculous prices in cash shop.
If they had just done a rework of the zen store prices at the same time as ganking the wards from t-bar this would have been a non issue. I think most ppl would agree that a couple of bucks each (or relative value in AD) for the wards would have been more acceptable. 10 bucks each is tantamount to financial HAMSTER which is why they have likely sold next to none of them in the cash shop. Its always give and take. Give first is usually best, not later as a panic move when you see the torches and pitchforks from the Keep's ramparts. Mr Shicoff could never be considered a financially inclined person, so I really wonder how he keeps being allowed to make these decisions.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
And hence my suggestion to make invoking possible via gateway, as not all of us manage to log into the game daily, or don't want to log a specific character (or many of those) every 15-30-45... min.
Please fix Zhentarim Warlock companion's skill "Arcane Warping" to the originally intended "Arcane Boost" zhentarim-warlock-companion
There is another D&D game out there on Update 30 celebrating its 10th anniversary right now. Cant see NW making it that far pulling stunts like this.
You mean the same that wanted real money for a token with a even worse drop than wards to progress beyond level 4, then again at 8, 12 and so on, and real money to do some of the content..... yeah i pass
Please fix Zhentarim Warlock companion's skill "Arcane Warping" to the originally intended "Arcane Boost" zhentarim-warlock-companion
What it was a reply to has no relevance. 12 hours is not sufficient time to warn tens of thousands of players of change with so much impact - which will become obvious after those who did get a chance to notice run out of what they stocked, unless a new change happens to counter this.
Fact is, that is the last official statement regarding that specific item. When you put together sentences such as "We reserve the right to change what we want" and "Coalescent Wards will not be leaving the T-Bar store", the only logical assumption one can reach is that whatever change may come will not involve the removal of those wards, unless the 2nd sentence is addressed; preferably within reasonable time frames.
Edit: If you wanted to make that announcement absolutely clear and impossible to link to the present situation, an additional statement along the lines of "This doesn't mean that, in the future, Coalescent Wards might not be removed from the T-Bar store, if necessary." would have been great.
Edit 2: That announcement states that it's addressing a discussion stirred by a different announcement (on Underdark) made 1 day before. I honestly can't find it, if you'd care to link it for me, please.
Which is a massive missing of the point.
You (as in Cryptic/PWE) clearly have the legal right (in the US at least) to do what you've done, which is all you seem to care about. That is utterly irrelevant, if you keep pulling immoral stunts like this which would equate to bait and switch fraud if perpetrated in the real world, players will vote with their feet/wallets, and some will have nothing to do with Cryptic/PWE ever again.
As an aside, your communication/PR is terrible. Giving only one day's notice is ridiculous (didn't cost me but cost some of my friends who are furious and left with several hundred completely useless to them trade bars).
1. Notice how anything that hurts the players and their ability to progress happens within hours or a few days at most - but things that improve the experience and QOL take weeks or months to implement. Hmmm..customer respect....
2. Why were Coal Wards in the T-Store made unbound? No reason to, during the price drop they should have stayed account bound. The logical choice would have been to just change the price and observe the impact on the economy. But no, as usual (in player benefit for a change) Cryptic do both and then claim it has upset the economy and go nuclear by removing them altogether. Are there no people with project management skills that could work through this??
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
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dademon1982Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 21Arc User
1. Notice how anything that hurts the players and their ability to progress happens within hours or a few days at most - but things that improve the experience and QOL take weeks or months to implement. Hmmm..customer respect....
2. Why were Coal Wards in the T-Store made unbound? No reason to, during the price drop they should have stayed account bound. The logical choice would have been to just change the price and observe the impact on the economy. But no, as usual (in player benefit for a change) Cryptic do both and then claim it has upset the economy and go nuclear by removing them altogether. Are there no people with project management skills that could work through this??
Hey Xeno, never noticed you were on forums too, lol. (love the sig btw, the olde Mystra days, getting nostalgic here)
Point to add to your nr 1. As said before after day one in this topic, but even more noticeable now, over a week since... There seems to be a sudden lack of communication on the side of the officials on this (and I am not meaning the volunteer forum mods, but either Strum, Asterdahl, Panderus, Sean or ANY other) NADA.
I assumed the info would get passed down the line in any case, correct me if I'm wrong, but for over 8 days without at least some response to a total outrage (this topic is NOT looking like 31 pages of sweettalk to me) to me feels kinda strange feels like it was too big of an "oopsie" and you're at a loss for words, or simply not caring.
No one in their right mind would commit $10,000s of dollars in corporate legal fees over $100 of in-game currency. It is exceeding rare for a corporation to win against an individual, and it is a PR nightmare to be "the company that sues its users over petty grievances".
On the other side, who in their right mind is going to spend the weeks of time and $1000s of dollars in private legal fees to pursue a corporation over something so trivial as a video game? For a court to award either side compensation for legal fees requires the case to be unquestionably one-sided, and this one is not.
When it comes down to it, they didn't modify VIP. it still gives exactly what was promised. You still get your lockbox keys, lockboxes still have the same things they did before. Some of the things inside have a different relative value now (I say relative because objectively, they're virtual and have zero cash value). R7 enchants aren't as valuable as when VIP started...neither are trade bars...but you still get them, just as promised. It was, however, a complete HAMSTER-move on PWE's part, so people are rightly pissed.
(The preceding is an opinion, and shall not be construed as legal advice, because providing legal advice incurs a fiduciary responsibility.)
I do agree with your statements. Someone had to play the Devil's Advocate to counter the heavy handed threats laid out and point out that if one was taken to court over a charge-back (as unlikely as that may be) they would have a chance to recoup the same kinds of monies they were threatened with having to pay up. The mods were implying that it would be an open and shut case in Cryptic's favor...which is not the reality of the situation. One of the benefits of being a Labor Activist for 30 years is that you develop friendships with Contract Lawyers who will give you legal advice for free. It also means that I do not personally need to know "legal definitions of words" as I have friends who can explain them to me in simple English. ;D
If Cryptic/PWE were the only maker of MMORPG's the threat of a perma-ban from their games would carry more weight. As there are a plethora of gaming companies wanting my money, it is utterly meaningless to those who take the time to think about idleness of the threat.
Have not spent a penny on this game since the LS nerf, so have no reason to request a refund or charge-back personally. Must say that the changes since that time, and how pissed off they have made much of the player-base, makes me think of the following quote:
"If you tremble indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine." Che Guevara
142 members in my guild when I last checked less than 10 online, and woo hoo Now 15% off enchanted keys you can use to obtain mostly rubbish!.
That is another point, that left me really puzzled. Why would anyone even want to buy more lockbox keys now? Unless you have at least some luck with those damn lockboxes... the daily key from ViP is more then enough and still cheaper. And with the Coals in the Trade Bar Store, we had at least something to look forward to at some point.
Anyway, my last drop worth mentioning from lockboxes were two Axe Beak while opening 10 lockboxes several months ago. Since then it's mostly 1-5 Trade Bars and some blue box/kit/pack/whatever.
Yep I had something similar, the only point in lock boxes was earning T-Bars for Coalescent wards, Reducing the coalescent in the T-BAR store obviously reduced there Zen profits, Ergo Coalecent removed from T-bar store, most of what you get in Lockboxes is Rubbish aside from the ultra-Rare item like an epic mount.
Only 80 more lockboxes to open at my current rate of ~8 Trade Bars per lockbox. But with my luck, they have either turned it bound to account, or nerfed the companion into oblivion, by the time i have reached the 800 TBs.
I do believe in killing the messenger...
Want to know why?
Because it sends a message!
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
Also, I keep forgetting that "Wondrous" was dropped from the coffer's name when they changed and added two more. To be clear, it is the "Coffer of Celestial Enchantments" that I focus on claiming and opening, rather that the latter two.
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
DUDE. That is some seriously consistent luck, unless we are talking like 50 chars here. Usually one a WEEK? Are you Irish or something? Holy HAMSTER!
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
DUDE. That is some seriously consistent luck, unless we are talking like 50 chars here. Usually one a WEEK? Are you Irish or something? Holy HAMSTER!
Yep praying army - greatest part of NWO Endgame besides Tempe of the spider -in the same boat here
Please fix Zhentarim Warlock companion's skill "Arcane Warping" to the originally intended "Arcane Boost" zhentarim-warlock-companion
Zeb, i only have 5 characters, from invokings, i only got 1 in 10 months, last time i got was 3 weeks ago on my 2nd main. you getting nearly every week? geez, seem i am Unlucky irish?
house always win, and you work for house and you get bonus rng. that what i look at.
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
News flash Zebular, most don't have 20+ characters. It's a terrible design flaw to try and force people to buy and make a horde of alts just for coal wards.
getting the majority of them from Wondrous Boxes during invocation.
@zebular: What is a Wondrous Box? I've been playing since Mod1 and I've never heard of such a thing. (I've also only ever gotten 2 coal wards Invoking near-daily in that period with 2 characters.)
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
All three Coffers of Wondrous (insert type here) have a chance to award Coalescent Wards. I've gotten Coalescent Wards from each of them. As I said above, it feels to me that I get more from the first of the three you can buy.
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
Nah, I just have quite a number of characters I've invested in. I usually get at least one Coal a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have gone a few weeks without any and on the flip-side, the most I've gotten in one week's time is 4.
Also, I keep forgetting that "Wondrous" was dropped from the coffer's name when they changed and added two more. To be clear, it is the "Coffer of Celestial Enchantments" that I focus on claiming and opening, rather that the latter two.
Well I have 14 characters, invoke them all twice a day and have got 2 coal wards in 4 months, and that tallies with my long term experience. Since the patch was I have only got 3 pres wards in 10-14 chests and no coals.
Comments
Something tells me that it was earlier. Like getting the greater marks in dread ring...I was lucky enough to save up about 60 of each so I didn't care when they removed them. I think this speaks to a general strategy: when you see something good, farm the hell out of it---it's not going to last.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
If they had just done a rework of the zen store prices at the same time as ganking the wards from t-bar this would have been a non issue. I think most ppl would agree that a couple of bucks each (or relative value in AD) for the wards would have been more acceptable. 10 bucks each is tantamount to financial HAMSTER which is why they have likely sold next to none of them in the cash shop. Its always give and take. Give first is usually best, not later as a panic move when you see the torches and pitchforks from the Keep's ramparts. Mr Shicoff could never be considered a financially inclined person, so I really wonder how he keeps being allowed to make these decisions.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
Reading a few posts on the Coal/Pres removal throughout the forum I had an epiphany...
I was turning my head into a pulp squeezing brain matter to understand why there are so many 2xRP events lately (maybe even twice a month) when a few mods (not too far) back you'd see one in every 2-3 months.
Then it occurred to me...
Of Course...
They've been helping speed up the refinement process, preparing to starve people of reagents and lead them to the ZEN store.
So what do we have post ward removal ?
We have a metric ton of players with gear ready to upgrade and no accessible means to do it.
They now have to decide.....
"Do I spend cash to do it now ? but I'm amost there!!! "
or
"Do I grind my mind out of my skull to do it, But I'm almost there!!!"
Same thing will happen to new players, they'll be all like "hey this is neat I can refine my stuff easily every month or so" then when the refinement bars are full they'll be like "eeerm...eh...how am I ever gonna make it?"
/tin foil hat
Put your tin foil hats on and BrainFoil storm this pweeeez xD
I have seen 2 Coals in 11 coffers, and i have seen only a few Pres in 50+ coffers too.
And my personal rule for F2P games... never invest money into equipment (or in this case enchantments).
Any update can replace them at any time with something "better", i rather invest my money into account-wide unlocks, but if the game doesn't offer me interesting ones, i stop investing money at all.
Just saying, they could have improved ViP instead, and they would have a solid way of gaining revenue month after month.
Or they could have introduced new class packs with every last update, with better content in them and upgraded the existing "DLCs" too.
Anyway, all i'm saying is, i'm not against supporting the game with money within reason...
Of course they do, theres people to be payed for their work, Royalties for Brand Names (WoT DnD), etc etc and keep NW alive.
I'd spend my hard earned money on this game quite happily (i've done already elsewhere) if the Publisher or the people behind all these changes showed some integrity and not a cash grab roll back on services system.
How can I possibly trust them to even think of paying for an in-game service?!
You can now, with evidence 100% assume that they will double back on anything instead of coming up with new ways to monetize their game.
This was downright lame and lazy (blame the botters).
And to get back on subject, I had a talk with some friends who told me they wouldn't be able to continue playing the game for the reasons/fears mentioned above and just quit!!!! damn it's frikkin mod6 all over again
A player shouldn't FEAR the developer of a game he plays will double back on what he has offered him for money.
He should be happy to spend money to HELP the developer maintain the game and give him more fun content to play on.
There have been friends of mine who indeed had been amassing RP to upgrade their stuff feeling they were reaching that point where they would spend their bars and reach their goal.
Guess what....life - work got in the way, they didn't have time to cash in that day, and now they're done.
If the change was one bad move, the announcement timing was downright planned, evil and should be heavily frowned upon.
Ye I'm up for them making money to maintain a game. Not this way tho, not this way
But I've also worked for some rather ruthless corporations; I feel like I can see, from the actions that are clearly forced down from above the devs, that their jobs are doomed, they just don't know it yet. This latest move makes me feel like I'm supporting the parent company, not the devs, and that's not really a good motivation for me. I really couldn't care much less about the wards being removed (except for its indications about the mindset of the parent co). It took forever to get my vorpal enchants to even need one, and by then I had one. When my VIP runs out in a few weeks, I'm going to have to decide two things:
1) whether I'm still enjoying running the same 2 skirmishes and 2 dungeons every day, and if so,
2) whether the lack of injuries and travel signpost are worth $10/mo.
Fortunately, we should have Mod9 by then, and I'll get to see how bad the treadmill will be to stay mediocre (3k, r9s, gvorp)
[Edit: honestly, guild-chat is about the most enjoyable part of the game these days. (Kudos to whoever planned that; they pretty much told us up front their intent was to give us something to feel invested in--and in that they delivered.) I'll feel truly ridiculous if I take a 1GB patch every 6 months just to have a chat-program]
I'm happy to see what Paypal thinks of this, maybe the same as Microsoft
You'd think that a game that had a solid design and a good "feel" to it would seem to have some longevity. Like, you'd be able to say "oh yeah this will be around for a good couple more years still..."
I'm not sensing that solidity here anymore. It feels loose, weak, disjointed. Like it's time is coming. Probably not going to be neverwinter online in 2018, I would guess.
zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
You (as in Cryptic/PWE) clearly have the legal right (in the US at least) to do what you've done, which is all you seem to care about. That is utterly irrelevant, if you keep pulling immoral stunts like this which would equate to bait and switch fraud if perpetrated in the real world, players will vote with their feet/wallets, and some will have nothing to do with Cryptic/PWE ever again.
As an aside, your communication/PR is terrible. Giving only one day's notice is ridiculous (didn't cost me but cost some of my friends who are furious and left with several hundred completely useless to them trade bars).
1. Notice how anything that hurts the players and their ability to progress happens within hours or a few days at most - but things that improve the experience and QOL take weeks or months to implement. Hmmm..customer respect....
2. Why were Coal Wards in the T-Store made unbound? No reason to, during the price drop they should have stayed account bound. The logical choice would have been to just change the price and observe the impact on the economy. But no, as usual (in player benefit for a change) Cryptic do both and then claim it has upset the economy and go nuclear by removing them altogether. Are there no people with project management skills that could work through this??
Funny Ive played for a year, and I have bought many of the coffers, and I invoke everyday, max amount of times a day...on 6 Different toons...in that year Ive recieved ZERO Coal wards...on anything...
So sorry, Im gonna say your a might skewed in your perceptions...or do mods get bonuses on rng?
Point to add to your nr 1. As said before after day one in this topic, but even more noticeable now, over a week since... There seems to be a sudden lack of communication on the side of the officials on this (and I am not meaning the volunteer forum mods, but either Strum, Asterdahl, Panderus, Sean or ANY other) NADA.
I assumed the info would get passed down the line in any case, correct me if I'm wrong, but for over 8 days without at least some response to a total outrage (this topic is NOT looking like 31 pages of sweettalk to me) to me feels kinda strange feels like it was too big of an "oopsie" and you're at a loss for words, or simply not caring.
FateSpinners Guild Leader We are RECRUITING!!
If Cryptic/PWE were the only maker of MMORPG's the threat of a perma-ban from their games would carry more weight. As there are a plethora of gaming companies wanting my money, it is utterly meaningless to those who take the time to think about idleness of the threat.
Have not spent a penny on this game since the LS nerf, so have no reason to request a refund or charge-back personally. Must say that the changes since that time, and how pissed off they have made much of the player-base, makes me think of the following quote:
"If you tremble indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine." Che Guevara
http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Shadow_Demon
might be still worth going after.
Only 80 more lockboxes to open at my current rate of ~8 Trade Bars per lockbox. But with my luck, they have either turned it bound to account, or nerfed the companion into oblivion, by the time i have reached the 800 TBs.
Also, I keep forgetting that "Wondrous" was dropped from the coffer's name when they changed and added two more. To be clear, it is the "Coffer of Celestial Enchantments" that I focus on claiming and opening, rather that the latter two.
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zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
you getting nearly every week?
geez, seem i am Unlucky irish?
house always win, and you work for house and you get bonus rng. that what i look at.
Some of the Players I know went straight to Microsoft on this....