Astral Diamond Exchange

hymenoptera1223 · April 2016

So I am a fairly new player, less than a month. When I started I remember the exchange rate being about 180AD. Now I see it over the past week raise dramatically to around 320 as of now. I am curious as to whether this is normal fluctuation or some people just now playing the market to increase its value on purpose. I was all set to buy a VIP and now I have to make twice as much just to get it,

xrawcarnage · April 2016

It's a series of things causing it to rise. New lock box started it out. Whenever a new lock box drops, the Zax rises significantly. Also dbl events such as double rp and ad make it rise. We just had a dbl ad and about to get a dbl rp in a little over a week. Other things can cause it to rise as well. People playing the zax market typically a group, 3rd party sites etc. This time I'm sure it's the lok box and double events. Again this is an assumption.

cscriv79 · April 2016

also fewer players spending real money on Zen causes it to rise, with recent moves by the devs a lot of ppl have left the game.

missdayum · April 2016

Yeah that change rate is brutal currently. Wouldn't think it hit THAT high.

quazakaharet · April 2016

it has not stopped rising since the last update dropped and events following that.
it has been slowly climbing, and i dont know when or if it will stop.

i am used to seeing fluctuation from when i started it was as low as 115 and would go up to about 195 when a new lockbox arrived, or during double ad weekends. but not like this.

its crazy high now. but its closer to what the pc version is, so.......

xpilosive · April 2016

Agreed, probably hanging up my jersey. Sad they take such a great game like this and ruin it for the people who don't want to spend real life money. If the rate goes p the drop and rewards from running things should increase to help balance it. Note I have spent some real life money, not a ton but with the wards only being able to be purchased by Zen and the exchange being this crazy it takes so long to grind to get one ward etc to keep upgrading or buy things. Sad.

destrowod · April 2016

Well the cause is as fellow

1) The coalescent ward scandall

Now the C.Ward is almost exlusively buy in the zen market(unless your super lucky out of a celestial coffer from the vault of pity) So this not only made the price of zen rise up by itself but the fact that lots of players decided to quit because of this made it that people buy less zen. Not to mention now buying lockboxes keys do not guarentee you c.wards down the road... So less lockboxes opening im pretty sure.

2) Third party websites have seen there business decrease because now they are banning permently people that get AD from there, so this mean less AD to convert for zen for a lot of people.

I really doubt new lockboxes etc have anything to do with the prices skyrocketing, im sure its simply the c.ward that make it change that much. After all its an item you NEED in this game.

The key is to avoid the zen market as much as possible as long as prices stay that way or C.Ward do not get back in the tarmalune trade bar store. DO NOT SPEND ANY REAL MONEY as much as possible. Show with your wallet that you are unhappy, its the only thing those devs will understand sadly.

xpilosive · April 2016

Yeah but I wont continue to play if I cant progress or in order to progress I have to grind something 100+ times to get one item I need, crazy! So I will probably just quit to be honest unless the exchange rates come back down. I am fine with people paying to get things as long as it doesn't screw over the people not paying for things (again I did use some real life money to help my character boost since I work 60 hours a week and don't have the time to grind like people who are unemployed, in school, or part-time workers, not a knock on them at all, I was there before.) Just sad to see the game get effected by this. In the meantime until something worthy comes out, Rocket League it is

wdj40 · April 2016

lol, don't play the game then.

Me, I am playing and enjoying it, saving up salvage so I can get double AD out of it one day and then in the future I will have a boatload of AD again and come back here to see the same old people whining they have no AD to convert for Zen etc etc... blame it on this and that and everything else... meanwhile I am earning lots of AD.

kreatyve · April 2016

Best thing to do - buy Zen now (with real money - the legit way) and convert to AD. Hoard as much AD as you can for when price does drop again.

grandpaxxx · April 2016

Too late!

cesar · April 2016

It's a mix of things... and it's crazy.

I think what has influenced this increase the most is the new rings. Farm like crazy and you will get yourself some good ADs to exchange for Zen. My wife farmed about 1.2M during this 2x AD, and I am sure there are other players who've farmed waaay more than that. Finish a DHE or demonic skirmish and you will usually see someone salvaging right after.

Another thing is it seems more players are working professions. Gemmed adamant rings now sell for a ridiculous price (down to 65k, compared to 130-150 a few weeks ago), and BiS shirts and pants' prices have lowered too. Dragon eggs now drop from this new lockbox with more frequency and their price has lowered from 30k to 11k on average, but unified elements had slowly increased their price from 20k to 27k, and elemental aggregate price has gone up from 2k to 6k.

Also, greater marks of potency drop more frequently... Nice move, Cryptic! People will get these for a very cheap price from AH (they hit a low 2k a piece, and now average 6-7k compared to Bazaar's 25k), which makes upgrades "easier"... But then they have to buy the wards from Market.

And I'm sure there are other factors that come into play. You name it.

sundance777 · April 2016

The current pricing of Zen to AD is fairly new on xbox, the first almost year of the game the prices were moving between 125 - 200 AD per zen. At one point the price fell to a very low point of 110 AD per zen and the developers worked to change the economy. To me it seem there is a potentially both a lower influx of Zen and a higher demand for Zen for lock box keys, and maybe other Zen Market items. To the best of my knowledge we have not seen an exchange rate this high before on xbox but there is a hard cap supposedly at 500. While the market may come down again it is just a guess, past performance cannot predict future results.

shazza53 · April 2016

wdj40 said:
lol, don't play the game then.

Me, I am playing and enjoying it, saving up salvage so I can get double AD out of it one day and then in the future I will have a boatload of AD again and come back here to see the same old people whining they have no AD to convert for Zen etc etc... blame it on this and that and everything else... meanwhile I am earning lots of AD.

This is the way to do it. And, compliments on your always positive attitude Rydia.

armadeonx · April 2016

sundance777 said:
The current pricing of Zen to AD is fairly new on xbox, the first almost year of the game the prices were moving between 125 - 200 AD per zen. At one point the price fell to a very low point of 110 AD per zen and the developers worked to change the economy. To me it seem there is a potentially both a lower influx of Zen and a higher demand for Zen for lock box keys, and maybe other Zen Market items. To the best of my knowledge we have not seen an exchange rate this high before on xbox but there is a hard cap supposedly at 500. While the market may come down again it is just a guess, past performance cannot predict future results.

We were at around 300-350 toward the end of mod 5. It is very uncomfortable with it being above say 250 as it makes everything from the Zen store very expensive. I have now to be very select with my purchases.

wdj40 · April 2016

@shazza53 thank you and good to see you still around here

thefiresidecat · April 2016

quazakaharet#6375 said:
it has not stopped rising since the last update dropped and events following that.
it has been slowly climbing, and i dont know when or if it will stop.

i am used to seeing fluctuation from when i started it was as low as 115 and would go up to about 195 when a new lockbox arrived, or during double ad weekends. but not like this.

its crazy high now. but its closer to what the pc version is, so.......

yeah the lockbox was not causative, it was already on this path. the lockbox did make it worse because lack of zen and more people converting their ad to zen.. causes prices to rise. too many people quit and closed up their pocket books who were buying before. it's all coalgate. they really need to apologize and add coal wards back.

thefiresidecat · April 2016

destrowod said:
Well the cause is as fellow

1) The coalescent ward scandall

Now the C.Ward is almost exlusively buy in the zen market(unless your super lucky out of a celestial coffer from the vault of pity) So this not only made the price of zen rise up by itself but the fact that lots of players decided to quit because of this made it that people buy less zen. Not to mention now buying lockboxes keys do not guarentee you c.wards down the road... So less lockboxes opening im pretty sure.

2) Third party websites have seen there business decrease because now they are banning permently people that get AD from there, so this mean less AD to convert for zen for a lot of people.

I really doubt new lockboxes etc have anything to do with the prices skyrocketing, im sure its simply the c.ward that make it change that much. After all its an item you NEED in this game.

The key is to avoid the zen market as much as possible as long as prices stay that way or C.Ward do not get back in the tarmalune trade bar store. DO NOT SPEND ANY REAL MONEY as much as possible. Show with your wallet that you are unhappy, its the only thing those devs will understand sadly.

mostly I agree with this although the lockboxes do play a roll because people want to openthem and they're not spending money any more on the game. that means they're converting their ad even at the inflated rate. more people wanting to convert a limited amount of ad causes rises in ad prices. in the past it was a more limited rise because people were buying zen. now the people buying zen are very limited so the market was already slowly rising.. the extra demand caused skyrocket. and there is so little new zen activity there is no natural trend downward after awhile. It's kind of a vicious cycle.

they do need to make some amends if they want people to spend money again or some how attract a ton of new players.

xpilosive · April 2016

wdj40 said:
lol, don't play the game then.

Me, I am playing and enjoying it, saving up salvage so I can get double AD out of it one day and then in the future I will have a boatload of AD again and come back here to see the same old people whining they have no AD to convert for Zen etc etc... blame it on this and that and everything else... meanwhile I am earning lots of AD.

Not blaming anything on anything. You clearly don't understand the point here as your post is irrelevant. The price to BUY things PERIOD is over priced for anyone who doesn't buy zen, if you don't see that I don't know what to say to you. In addition, not all of us play 12+ hours a day, we work, have family and friends. The "casual" gamer is at such a huge disadvantage and I think that is the point people are trying to drive home.

If you are still playing and enjoying that is awesome, I still enjoy when I play. the only point I was trying to make is things are overpriced and its due to the exchange being so crazy.....

Carry on,

destrowod · April 2016

Look RAW, the lockboxes may play a tiny factor, but its certainly not what made the prices sky rock to 320... Especially since now you can't buy C.Ward from lockboxes so i doubt people open as many as before. The new ones don't even have mounts while they advertised a stable system for a futur mod, so im sure lots of people still open old ones too before new ones.

And yeah call me Mr Negativity, i don't care, i prefer to see myself as the voice of reason

smellycat2012 · April 2016

I expect it to hit 500 by summertime

thefiresidecat · April 2016

yeah, I'm kinda thinking it's going in that direction (hitting 500) I'm hoping that more people open their wallets to the game, more people start playing or come back to the game, and that some kind of serious amends are made to the player base.

I really like this game. I don't want to see it flounder. Personally, I'm over coalgate. they did increase the drop rate of coal wards from the incantation packs. I got two a couple days ago after grouping up five boxes over my numerous toons. I was able to get my vorpal to perfect. i've got ten 3 in the last month in a half. that's a sufficient rate for me without having to drop a massive amount in the zen store. . (disclaimer, I have 9 toons and I make sure to get my two coins every day on all of them)

destrowod · April 2016

Lol firecat , go buy a lottery ticket !!! I had around 2 or 3 max total since i play NW... One right after the scandal and that was it... Mostly i get junk from the vault of pity... green marks and preservation wards is all i get. May i know what pack you pick? Maybe ill have better luck with a different one.

Personally i am not over it tough, and the tricky part is yes if people open there wallet, the price of zen will decrease, but then why should people open there wallet after that? I am not in favor of that. If serious amends are made, then ok its a different story

thefiresidecat · April 2016

I've had luck when I group them up and open them all at once and I open the coffer of celestial artifact equipment. (pres wards aren't junk. while they don't seem to work for the 1% chance they do work for a 3% chance. )

people should spend money because they have enjoyed doing so. personally I don't give them actual cash. it just seems pointless to me when I traditionally am rolling in AD..(and they irritate me too often to want to give actual money to. I dislike being lied to) but a lot of people don't have the farming time I have and enjoy giving neverwinter money. I appreciate those people because they make my game time better. and they keep this game going. if no one pays the salaries of the people who make this game than this game goes bye bye. sad fact. IMO there needs to be a balance. the game needs to make money and they need to give the player base what we want and need to enjoy our game time. some cash grab is ok. all cash grab makes people run away.

wdj40 · April 2016

destrowod said:
Lol firecat , go buy a lottery ticket !!! I had around 2 or 3 max total since i play NW... One right after the scandal and that was it... Mostly i get junk from the vault of pity... green marks and preservation wards is all i get. May i know what pack you pick? Maybe ill have better luck with a different one.

Personally i am not over it tough, and the tricky part is yes if people open there wallet, the price of zen will decrease, but then why should people open there wallet after that? I am not in favor of that. If serious amends are made, then ok its a different story

Ha ha now here is where we agree Destro lol

RNG hates me and always has, I opened 26 Coffers today I had saved and received 0 Wards. I have had the odd 1 or 2 over my time of playing and they have always come from the same coffer thefiresidecat mentioned, the Artefact Equipement one... well the one with the least amount of items in, which is why I thought there may be a better chance of getting one due to less items dropping.

thefiresidecat · April 2016

did you do the serpentine dance whilst facing from the uprising sun at dawn of a blue moon? if not maybe that was your bottleneck.

seriously though. while it's not what I'd call a common drop by any means I do think they've increased it to not be an impossible drop like it used to be. a lot of people get drops now who never used to (myself included) I've talked to a good number of people who have had luck since the fiasco with drops. it does happen now.

regenerde · April 2016

I wouldn't recommend to spend any money right now.
Too many bad changes happened in the past, and it looks like a lot more bad changes are going to happen in the near future.

Play the game as it is, see what you can get within your game time, and wait for the Devs to come up with improvements.

I haven't seen any C. Wards drop from a lot of coffers for some time now.
And the bottom line is, that invoking isn't a reliably way to get the C. Wards you need to improve your characters.

destrowod · April 2016

IMO there needs to be a balance. the game needs to make money and they need to give the player base what we want and need to enjoy our game time. some cash grab is ok. all cash grab makes people run away.

I agree with this. I know they need to make money since the game does not sell for a retail price. But lately i am not approving there business decisions, as you say they should give what the people want. After all how do you get tarmalune trade bars? Open Lockboxes, and for that you need the keys, wich you get from.... ZEN MARKET !! They would still sell as much zen. Really i do NOT understand this move at all and the fact that so many people spoke about it, and all they came with as amend was a one time deal is not good enough.

(pres wards aren't junk. while they don't seem to work for the 1% chance they do work for a 3% chance. )

Sometimes i need 8-10 to have a 25% chance work... so one full week of incantation for 1 tiny preservation ward... lol, thats why i said junk... If they came as pack of 5 alright... but just 1, thats really too little.

Ha ha now here is where we agree Destro lol

Lol its a miracle :P

kreatyve · April 2016

All you people who are saying "don't buy Zen" - you are part of the reason why the ZAX price is so high right now. The economy is totally player driven. Less people are buying Zen, so less people are exchanging Zen, so there is a higher demand for Zen which is causing the price of Zen on the ZAX to climb. If more people bought Zen, the price would go back down.

armadeonx · April 2016

I disagree Kreatyve. You have to look at the reason why people are not buying zen with cash.

It's not a coincidence that on xbox the exchange has more than doubled since the coal ward/tarm bar incident. We were stable for months between 120 - 150 AD then overnight it started climbing rapidly and is now around 350 AD.

People will only spend cash on a product they have confidence in and players confidence in Cryptics decision making has been seriously dented.

As such, not only is the company unhappy at less money coming in, but players are also unhappy that on top of not trusting the company, they also cannot afford to buy zen with AD. It's a catch 22 for players as both buying and not buying with cash are unattractive options.

This situation was created entirely by poor management and the resulting economic difficulties are a predictable result - I did in fact post a prediction to this effect when the c-ward decision was made - that's how predictable it was.

Edit: I suspect Cryptics approach will be to wait until the exchange rate goes so high that players will see extra value in purchasing zen with cash - and so improve their sales.

What is also likely is that many players finding themselves in this situation will choose the 3rd option & move on. Whilst Cryptic may see some sales improvement in the near future the fact remains that the player base will have declined, along with the company's reputation.

Consumer confidence is hard won and easily lost and it is the keystone to long term success or failure.

regenerde · April 2016

What armadeonx said.
Action <-> Reaction.

Action:
+ AD Changes
+ Trade Bar Store Update
+ Queue Update
+ and soon the Power Changes

Reaction:
+ players stop spending money

And there are questions regarding those decisions:
- Why was Leadership not reworked and improved with the AD Changes?
- Or why are the costs for upgrading companions still that high?
- And why was the possible ring drop (at least one other chance for some extra rAD) removed (or rather replaced with some useless RP drop) from the demonic "overlord" heroic encounters?
- What are the plans to improve the Trade Bar Store?
- Why is the queue only working sometimes, but not most of the time?

... and then we have all the other questions and suggestions in player feedback all over the forums here, that are waiting for some official answer or a Dev reply.

In the end even the calmest player will just say, enough is enough, and stop spending money or even walk away from the game.
Which will lead to another thing, a happy player tells his friends about a game... an unhappy player tells everyone about a game.

Astral Diamond Exchange

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