QoL suggestion: Companion Upgrade Token exchange

iandarksword · December 2017

During the course of this Winter Festival, my fourth to participate in, I have accumulated quite the menagerie of companions that are bound to character, but I either already have or have no need for them. Since the ability to change the bind status has been discussed and would cause too many issues, I propose a vendor exchange/salvage system for companion upgrade tokens based upon the quality of said companions. For example, white quality companions would be equivalent to 1 companion token, green for 3, blue for 5, purple for 7, orange for 10. This would help eliminate unwanted companion clutter and give an alternative to simply discarding them. Thoughts anyone? Everyone?

dafrca · December 2017

If you mean the upgrade tokens then it seems you have set the bar too low.

iandarksword · December 2017

It's not up to me to set the bar, it was just an example. If the devs like the idea, they can decide what each is worth. It will depend on how much feedback this and other posts receive as to whether they accept and decide implement the suggestions.

oldbaldyone · December 2017

This is raised every single year during the winter festival. It's a great idea, but it is unlikely.

Honestly, if they were to implement it, I think your token count is probably right in line with how they think. Can't say i would agree with it, but seeing as they are useless as duplicates, something would be better than nothing.

litaaers · December 2017

iandarksword said:
During the course of this Winter Festival, my fourth to participate in, I have accumulated quite the menagerie of companions that are bound to character, but I either already have or have no need for them. Since the ability to change the bind status has been discussed and would cause too many issues, I propose a vendor exchange/salvage system for companion tokens based upon the quality of said companions. For example, white quality companions would be equivalent to 1 companion token, green for 3, blue for 5, purple for 7, orange for 10. This would help eliminate unwanted companion clutter and give an alternative to simply discarding them. Thoughts anyone? Everyone?

If you are referring to the Companion *before* you have bound it to you, then:
1) I've never seen an orange Companion in the wild. The highest was epic.
2) If so, this would result in people storming the AH for cheap, white/green/blue Companions, flipping them into the highest cost epic/orange(?) Companions, and destroying the value of (and the market for) those high end Companions. People who paid for them before would lose their minds.

After binding, you should only be able to dismiss a Companion. Nothing more.

ecrana · December 2017

I believe he's merely talking about companions you win from gifts that are character bound not companions you have made character bound. Of course he did mention orange which I've never heard of as a drop from the fest.

If he just means companions that drop from the festival:
How the game would differentiate between the two in order to make something like this work is beyond me.

I think the token compensation is way overvalued in the eyes of the moneymakers except for orange which falls in line with the valuation of items in this game. In other words, if you value it highly, they'll find a way to make it lose value.
It would probably be something ridiculous like 3 purple for 15 tokens, 5 blue for 5 tokens, 10 green for 3 tokens, 100 white for 1 token.

iandarksword · December 2017

Companions that are BtC as a drop, not bound and named. Actually it could apply to any drop regardless of bind status, yes even oranges that drop from lockboxes, or "in the wild" as you describe it. Why someone would exchange an orange quality companion for upgrade tokens doesn't make much sense, but I've seen stranger things in my four years here. Nevertheless, the option would be there.

hirogarde · December 2017

How about simply allowing us to donate Companions to the guild coffer as Labor?

ianthewizard2012 · December 2017

+1. It's not just companions, but also mounts and transmutables. So far, I have gotten three Shadow Wolves and several duplicated companions in this year's winter festival. It is a pity to discard those items.

This thing probably would be more prominent after players had completed more of their collections. The gifting would be more enjoyable If we could exchange items we already have for something else.

ecrana · December 2017

Tis the season to fill you bags with garbage mounts and companions you've gotten a few dozen times over the years.

I think donating them to coffer for something would be a great idea. Not labor. Labor is so easy to fill up and has little value the further you progress. It was always one of the first things that got filled up when we were leveling our SH. Then people were stuck waiting for the next upgrade to dump labor in again. You would end up in the same situation, tons of companions and mounts and discarding them because you can't donate them.

hirogarde · December 2017

ecrana#2080 said:
... It was always one of the first things that got filled up when we were leveling our SH.

The key word there is "was." The Temporary Gemcutter uses labor now (23k/week). Even though it's still easier to fill than others, ours hasn't been capped in a while.

I think the real point is these BtC companions and mounts feel like that gift you get from your distant aunt - you know the one. You don't want to throw it away because she just might come visit someday - so it's gathering dust in the attic somewhere. Now if your aunt had given you a gift card to some store you never shop at... it'd still feel like a better gift.

strathkin · January 2018

Yeah I do wish they would change the ones from the Gift Parcel's you get from Character Bound to at least Account Bound; I generally think they mostly don't want people selling the vast majority of them. But I will say I have seen it many times myself when I'm being given a companion I already have more often; other than discard them or sell them to vendor for a tiny bit of silver it would have been nice to offer them to another character.

Regardless I think if most your characters participate every day and use their stars earned to buy more gifts; they should all at least come out with one new Very Rare Companion by the end of the Winterfest. I just wished the uncommon, rare and very rare or even legendary companions were worth considerably a lot more in gold.

An Uncommon Companion at the very least should be worth 5 Gold as a Common Mount costs 5 Gold. A Rare Companion should be able to be sold for likely 20 Gold and Very Rare Companion should be worth 80 Gold. At least then even if you already had the Companion you were at least able to possibly buy a few healing or health potions in exchange for the companion...

marv700 · January 2018

iandarksword said:
Companions that are BtC as a drop, not bound and named. Actually it could apply to any drop regardless of bind status, yes even oranges that drop from lockboxes, or "in the wild" as you describe it. Why someone would exchange an orange quality companion for upgrade tokens doesn't make much sense, but I've seen stranger things in my four years here. Nevertheless, the option would be there.

It could be that due to a game mechanic change that companion is no longer BiS as either summoned or active and they are replacing it, so perhaps upgrade tokens would be better than having it go to waste.

QoL suggestion: Companion Upgrade Token exchange

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