Making ADs more attractive / valuable should help with the backlog.
Knox - is a kind of start, a bad one, but the idea is there.
Items/Services only purchasable with ADs.
New packs, fashion items, flash sale at the WB, new Armor Reinforcement Kits, transmute items, some gears (only 1-2 items BIS adapted for each mods), new stuff to develop Stronghold... Whatever, just something helping to re-balance the Zens / ADs value.
All should be Account/Character Bounded to avoid any re-circulation of currency.
Not saying this is THE solution, but it is a start with a tons of possibilities and it should be very easy for Cryptic to implant it.
Making ADs more attractive / valuable should help with the backlog.
Knox - is a kind of start, a bad one, but the idea is there.
Items/Services only purchasable with ADs.
New packs, fashion items, flash sale at the WB, new Armor Reinforcement Kits, transmute items, some gears (only 1-2 items BIS adapted for each mods), new stuff to develop Stronghold... Whatever, just something helping to re-balance the Zens / ADs value.
All should be Account/Character Bounded to avoid any re-circulation of currency.
Not saying this is THE solution, but it is a start with a tons of possibilities and it should be very easy for Cryptic to implant it.
Insignia pack should of a been an AD sink and not a zen item. It should have cost 300K AD, a bit more than the price of Zen to AD at 500. Player would have bought it as it has Power/Recovery insignia along with other ones that are beneficial for various builds.
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
Unless you can see their books, don't think you can assume that. Printed zen cost nothing...
Only if you subscribe to conspiracy theories.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
In another game the devs made a tinfoil hat and gave it free to all players that log into the game during a specific week. It was account bound. Imagine if the devs did the same thing here.
Well, looking at it from a purely Accounting Department view; injecting Zen into the system disincentivizes the player from making the Zen purchase instead. From an accounting view it would be better if more of the VIP participants paid real dollars. The backlog probably works in their favor, as people may just give up and pay the money for VIP.
Perhaps what is needed is a lower cap on how much ZEN can be purchased with AD in a single order... which I believe is currently at 500k ZEN per order slot (five order slots) per account. If the order cap were to be lowered to a single 500 ZEN order (one order slot) per account, it would open the Exchange up to more players and ensure that Botters are not gumming up the works with fake Exchange orders.
"Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire." - Sir Bernard Williams
hes talking about players using the ZAX as a banking system rather than the exchange that its designed as. While i agree that may help, i do like to use the ZAX to move my AD around because in order to get to the bank i have to go through PE, port or SH and those take forever to load and have so much lag that its faster and better to use ZAX to transfer the AD i've earned to one toon. If ZAX were to count only the AD that is at 500:1 then the amount shown will be considerably less imo. I'd also like to be able to 'ship' my AD to a selected toon in my account using a system like ZAX at any time i want but that prob won't happen, so i'll just use ZAX.
deveelopers consider this: do real life people go to the bank to withdraw money to buy stuff at stores or do they use debit cards and such to make those purchases. Like-wise using a easy ZAX system (debit card) is more economical than making the long lagging trip to the bank.
hes talking about players using the ZAX as a banking system rather than the exchange that its designed as.
The exchange was designed to convert AD to Zen and vice-versa. And how does one use the exchange as a "banking system"? If you are talking about using the exchange as a way to transfer AD between toons, these transient orders do not negatively impact the exchange.
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
hes talking about players using the ZAX as a banking system rather than the exchange that its designed as. While i agree that may help, i do like to use the ZAX to move my AD around because in order to get to the bank i have to go through PE, port or SH and those take forever to load and have so much lag that its faster and better to use ZAX to transfer the AD i've earned to one toon.
Get VIP.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
If you spend a decent amount of time in the game, then VIP is definitely the first thing you should get come Black Friday. And speaking of BF sale, the backlog is 29.5 mio now. I would put orders in soon because in a few more days, new orders probably won't be filled before the sale is over.
0
adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
There are two reasons why the backlog has been growing.
First, players are trying to convert their AD to Zen in preparation for the (anticipated, but not guaranteed) Black Friday 40% discount.
Second, many players that have Zen (either from spending $$$ or through previous conversions) and want AD are not simply converting the Zen to AD directly, but buying items for sale on the AH, so they do not reduce the backlog. If you get, say, a "20% off any refinement item" voucher, that's basically 40K guaranteed AD profit. When those players then convert their AD back to Zen, they increase the backlog.
The back log is now 30.8 million. My next order waiting to be filled was placed 35 days ago. At that time, I think that backlog was in the low 20 mio. We are definitely well below the 1 mio per day turnover
Zen trade thinks Need to bè account bound if yu no trow in money cant buy 100kzen at time from trade and freeze economy.a 20k account bound zen +100m ad bound account cap to Will work for move economy again, and Force Monster player to buy/sell think.
Zen trade thinks Need to bè account bound if yu no trow in money cant buy 100kzen at time from trade and freeze economy.a 20k account bound zen +100m ad bound account cap to Will work for move economy again, and Force Monster player to buy/sell think.
a little hard to understand but i think what you are saying is: 1. bind Zen and zen purchases to account. 2 Zen account cap of 20k and AD cap of 100 million also bind to account. am i right ?
The making zen store completely account bound would go a long way to removing a large chunk of AD from the ZAX. but there are some items that need to remain unbound, but imo should be moved to bazaar store. the Campaign completions are one of them. Keys and Key bundles also should IMO also be moved to bazaar, as it is probably the top reason people recycle the zen/ad in ZAX to get. The Zen store should remain the limited exposure items.
The current backlog is a result of the up and coming Black Friday sale and the fact that quite a few players who use to put money into NWO are now forgoing that and instead transferring AD to buy zen. These players are also coming up on their VIP and need to renew it, so that pushes more AD into the Zen exchange.
One simple solution is to move the VIP off the Zen market and make it a purchase item from PSN Store, XBox Store and move to PWE are that is redeemable by a cash/CC/gift card purchase only without using Zen. This would than ensure that Cryptic would be able to generate some form of revenue if players want VIP and anything that offers VIP as a bonus should also be moved to said stores. When there is a sale on Zen, these items also should be discounted.
LB keys should also be moved to the PSN store if someone wants to purchase them with real world money and not zen.
NWO would still be 100% F2P but now to acquire VIP will cost real world money.
Next up is items in the zen store that should cost AD and not Zen. First are LB keys. As mentioned above you can buy them with real world money or if you use in game currency each key would cost 75K AD. The purchasable keys would be priced around 50K AD given the current exchange whereas the price to acquire a key with AD is higher.
Next is wards should be moved from the Zen store to the Bazaar and should be lowered in price to allow players to improve their enchantments, gear, etc.. easier than before as the game would other items such as keys taking some of the AD out of the market. For instance, 10 pres wards should cost 40K AD and 1 coal ward should cost 350K AD. Anything bought with AD will be account bound.
The Zen items that would be left in the zen store would be packs (account bound), mounts (account bound), companions (make them account bound), strong hold vouchers, bags, etc... make them all account bound.
The zen exchange would dry up pretty fast and players wanting AD for refinement would pay or grind out for it. These market changes would eliminate the backlog over time and make the game more profitable given that players will have to buy their VIP and will have to purchase keys with real money or use excessive amounts of AD to acquire keys.
Remember - PWE makes money when people buy Zen. By the time that Zen hits the ZAX, Cryptic has already made it's money. They don't really care whether the Zen sits in an account unused, is used to by VIP (without or without discounts), is traded to other players for AD, or whatever other use people might put it to. They've already made their money.
They use sales as a way to push people toward buying Zen - the specific sale is irrelevant, the goal is to get people to buy Zen. They're in a real bind here, because the Zax being effectively broken means:
1. Players are unhappy because the economy is HAMSTER 2. Players basically have to buy Zen directly because right now it's taking 2 or 3 days per million backlog (so, 2 or 3 months) to fill an order.
Which one of those do you think PWE (and therefore Cryptic) are really concerned with? Neither. They are making money hand over fist (yes really) and to be frank... the ZAX being locked down helps them.
Wards are a huge reason to buy Zen - people buy/hoard zen just for the purpose of buying wards in bulk for resale on the AH and Cryptic needs items that encourage people to buy Zen. Again, they don't really care what you buy in the zen store, as long as you buy Zen, BUT they still need items in the store that make Zen valuable enough to buy.
Neverwinter free-to-play model is predicated on the fact that you can get ANYTHING in the game without paying real money for it. They won't change that, and doing so would be a huge fail for them. If any portion of the game (VIP) can't be obtained without paying real money, then you cannot truthfully say the game is 100% free to play, and 98% F2P doesn't really have the same ring to it. So no, the notion of cash-only for VIP isn't viable.
Time-limiting the ZAX in the same way the AH is time-limited. That won't solve the problem - it will just solve the optics of the problem. You won't see 30 million + backlogs anymore, you'll just see 2 or 3 million and sometimes people will post, and never get their Zen, and have to repost it over and over. You'll be trading one bad situation for another one.
The solution is finding another, new way to make AD valuable on it's own. They can't mitigate the impact of major sales events, but they can provide additional ways to make AD valuable - and it needs to go beyond mere AD sinks, it need to be something people will be willing pay on a reoccurring basis. I still think a VIP addon existing VIP (which is required), would be a good solution here. For some AD cost monthly, you can (for example):
1. Teleport directly to quest giver from anywhere, or perhaps only from within the adventure zone 2. Teleport directly to the SH courtyard from anywhere 3. Access Knox's dialog from anywhere (particularly beneficial for new players) 4. Gain an additional 5 or 10% gold drop bonus 5. Gain an additional weekly Enchanted Key (per account) 6. Gain a weekly (bound) preservation ward (per account)
i just had a wild idea. How about a difference between fresh zen and recycled zen. Make some items only obtainable from fresh zen, like the new packs that come out, anything that has gone through ZAX then become recycled zen and therefore unable to purchase those buy to win items.
The biggest problem are the two ways to trade ZEN in ADs. All items, which are bought from ZEN store directly, should be Acc-bound. Otherwise all players would sell them on AH because of a better ZEN-to-AD-Ratio (who will blame them for this). In the same step they have to introduce more and worthwile AD-sinks, so players want to buy AD by ZAX.
As a player who needs something from ZEN-Shop for my char i can use ZAX. A player who wants to make profit shouldnt. A Player who buy ZEN can buy something from the shop or buy some AD from other players.
Having VIP be purchased through the platform respective stores is reasonable, it won't make the game pay to win in any ways since chests are being changed to not include a key so u won't be limited or handicapped in any way. As for moving stuff to the bazaar, I feel as tho instead of permenantly moving item to the bazaar having temporary sales of items from the zen market. Up to 3 items at a time for 7 days and changes at the weekly reset. Although with so many useless items, I would hope for a rework of the zen market before this happens unless they include strictly refinement/stronghold/bags/services only. I doubt most wants companions or mounts for the going zen prices atm
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
Forcing people to have to buy zen would also have an impact on diminishing the player base.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
One of the best way to remove the back log is to limit how much AD you can exchange for zen in a day, week or month. If you are not VIP you are limited to 100 zen a month. Each rank of VIP increases that amount by 100. This means a Rank 12 VIP player can only transfer 1300 zen a month. This would eventually result in a reduction of AD exchange and would favor more zen being purchased.
The game would still be 100% F2P it just would take longer to achieve what a player is seeking given this change.
The other thing I would do is move the Wards from the Zen market to the Bazaar, make them account bound, and cost 5000 AD for one pres ward and 500,000 AD for one coal ward with VIP getting their discount.
As for keys, I would keep them where they are under zen.
These are simple and effective solution that would encourage purchasing VIP for newer players to increase their ability to convert AD to Zen. The change on wards would reduce how players buy low and sell high on wards and earn AD that they continue to flood the Zen Exchange to earn AD from simply buying and selling.
I would also move over any companion that is sought after from the Zen Store that tends to sell for AD for a profit to the Bazaar but make it so these are special and the only time a discount would be applied is through a coupon from the Celestial Bag of Refining. These companions would also be bound to account on purchase; two companion I know that fit this bill are the Siege Master and Chultan Tiger.
These minor changes would definite reduce the back log as there would be limitation on exchange, items sold for profit would be moved away from the Zen store to the Bazaar and made account bound, and the items left on the Zen store would still be wanted by the true F2P but would take time to grind it out and earn what they need for Zen to acquire what they are seeking.
These are just thoughts on how to resolve the zen backlog.
Just move wards and other things that sell on AH buyable in WB, make it better to transfer for AD instead of selling it. Keep the new COMP/KEYS/CAMP purch in ZEN and VIP. that would propably get rid of half the need for zen if not more.
Comments
Knox - is a kind of start, a bad one, but the idea is there.
Items/Services only purchasable with ADs.
New packs, fashion items, flash sale at the WB, new Armor Reinforcement Kits, transmute items, some gears (only 1-2 items BIS adapted for each mods), new stuff to develop Stronghold...
Whatever, just something helping to re-balance the Zens / ADs value.
All should be Account/Character Bounded to avoid any re-circulation of currency.
Not saying this is THE solution, but it is a start with a tons of possibilities and it should be very easy for Cryptic to implant it.
The backlog probably works in their favor, as people may just give up and pay the money for VIP.
deveelopers consider this: do real life people go to the bank to withdraw money to buy stuff at stores or do they use debit cards and such to make those purchases. Like-wise using a easy ZAX system (debit card) is more economical than making the long lagging trip to the bank.
First, players are trying to convert their AD to Zen in preparation for the (anticipated, but not guaranteed) Black Friday 40% discount.
Second, many players that have Zen (either from spending $$$ or through previous conversions) and want AD are not simply converting the Zen to AD directly, but buying items for sale on the AH, so they do not reduce the backlog. If you get, say, a "20% off any refinement item" voucher, that's basically 40K guaranteed AD profit. When those players then convert their AD back to Zen, they increase the backlog.
The making zen store completely account bound would go a long way to removing a large chunk of AD from the ZAX. but there are some items that need to remain unbound, but imo should be moved to bazaar store. the Campaign completions are one of them. Keys and Key bundles also should IMO also be moved to bazaar, as it is probably the top reason people recycle the zen/ad in ZAX to get. The Zen store should remain the limited exposure items.
One simple solution is to move the VIP off the Zen market and make it a purchase item from PSN Store, XBox Store and move to PWE are that is redeemable by a cash/CC/gift card purchase only without using Zen. This would than ensure that Cryptic would be able to generate some form of revenue if players want VIP and anything that offers VIP as a bonus should also be moved to said stores. When there is a sale on Zen, these items also should be discounted.
LB keys should also be moved to the PSN store if someone wants to purchase them with real world money and not zen.
NWO would still be 100% F2P but now to acquire VIP will cost real world money.
Next up is items in the zen store that should cost AD and not Zen. First are LB keys. As mentioned above you can buy them with real world money or if you use in game currency each key would cost 75K AD. The purchasable keys would be priced around 50K AD given the current exchange whereas the price to acquire a key with AD is higher.
Next is wards should be moved from the Zen store to the Bazaar and should be lowered in price to allow players to improve their enchantments, gear, etc.. easier than before as the game would other items such as keys taking some of the AD out of the market. For instance, 10 pres wards should cost 40K AD and 1 coal ward should cost 350K AD. Anything bought with AD will be account bound.
The Zen items that would be left in the zen store would be packs (account bound), mounts (account bound), companions (make them account bound), strong hold vouchers, bags, etc... make them all account bound.
The zen exchange would dry up pretty fast and players wanting AD for refinement would pay or grind out for it. These market changes would eliminate the backlog over time and make the game more profitable given that players will have to buy their VIP and will have to purchase keys with real money or use excessive amounts of AD to acquire keys.
They use sales as a way to push people toward buying Zen - the specific sale is irrelevant, the goal is to get people to buy Zen. They're in a real bind here, because the Zax being effectively broken means:
1. Players are unhappy because the economy is HAMSTER
2. Players basically have to buy Zen directly because right now it's taking 2 or 3 days per million backlog (so, 2 or 3 months) to fill an order.
Which one of those do you think PWE (and therefore Cryptic) are really concerned with? Neither. They are making money hand over fist (yes really) and to be frank... the ZAX being locked down helps them.
Wards are a huge reason to buy Zen - people buy/hoard zen just for the purpose of buying wards in bulk for resale on the AH and Cryptic needs items that encourage people to buy Zen. Again, they don't really care what you buy in the zen store, as long as you buy Zen, BUT they still need items in the store that make Zen valuable enough to buy.
Neverwinter free-to-play model is predicated on the fact that you can get ANYTHING in the game without paying real money for it. They won't change that, and doing so would be a huge fail for them. If any portion of the game (VIP) can't be obtained without paying real money, then you cannot truthfully say the game is 100% free to play, and 98% F2P doesn't really have the same ring to it. So no, the notion of cash-only for VIP isn't viable.
Time-limiting the ZAX in the same way the AH is time-limited. That won't solve the problem - it will just solve the optics of the problem. You won't see 30 million + backlogs anymore, you'll just see 2 or 3 million and sometimes people will post, and never get their Zen, and have to repost it over and over. You'll be trading one bad situation for another one.
The solution is finding another, new way to make AD valuable on it's own. They can't mitigate the impact of major sales events, but they can provide additional ways to make AD valuable - and it needs to go beyond mere AD sinks, it need to be something people will be willing pay on a reoccurring basis. I still think a VIP addon existing VIP (which is required), would be a good solution here. For some AD cost monthly, you can (for example):
1. Teleport directly to quest giver from anywhere, or perhaps only from within the adventure zone
2. Teleport directly to the SH courtyard from anywhere
3. Access Knox's dialog from anywhere (particularly beneficial for new players)
4. Gain an additional 5 or 10% gold drop bonus
5. Gain an additional weekly Enchanted Key (per account)
6. Gain a weekly (bound) preservation ward (per account)
Etc.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Comments ?
As a player who needs something from ZEN-Shop for my char i can use ZAX. A player who wants to make profit shouldnt. A Player who buy ZEN can buy something from the shop or buy some AD from other players.
The game would still be 100% F2P it just would take longer to achieve what a player is seeking given this change.
The other thing I would do is move the Wards from the Zen market to the Bazaar, make them account bound, and cost 5000 AD for one pres ward and 500,000 AD for one coal ward with VIP getting their discount.
As for keys, I would keep them where they are under zen.
These are simple and effective solution that would encourage purchasing VIP for newer players to increase their ability to convert AD to Zen. The change on wards would reduce how players buy low and sell high on wards and earn AD that they continue to flood the Zen Exchange to earn AD from simply buying and selling.
I would also move over any companion that is sought after from the Zen Store that tends to sell for AD for a profit to the Bazaar but make it so these are special and the only time a discount would be applied is through a coupon from the Celestial Bag of Refining. These companions would also be bound to account on purchase; two companion I know that fit this bill are the Siege Master and Chultan Tiger.
These minor changes would definite reduce the back log as there would be limitation on exchange, items sold for profit would be moved away from the Zen store to the Bazaar and made account bound, and the items left on the Zen store would still be wanted by the true F2P but would take time to grind it out and earn what they need for Zen to acquire what they are seeking.
These are just thoughts on how to resolve the zen backlog.