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On the topic of fixing the ADx backlog

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  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,092 Arc User
    "Fixing" it implies it is broken in the first place. Doesn't seem like it.
    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.
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,043 Arc User
    Well, considering that the AD lockbox has the same crappy design as any newer lockbox, it's not a real surprise that this idea of another AD sink crashed and burned. They should use the Glorious Resurgence Lockbox as base instead, improve the content a bit, tag the loot bound to account and then start selling them in 10-100 boxes bundles.

    Hell, they could even start tinkering around with some kind of slowly increasing chance of pulling a top tier reward from those boxes - buy 100 lockboxes, get at least one really good drop from them guaranteed.

    I'm pretty sure that these kind of AD lockboxes would sell like hot cakes.
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
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  • psychoticsatyrpsychoticsatyr Member Posts: 195 Arc User
    greywynd said:

    "Fixing" it implies it is broken in the first place. Doesn't seem like it.

    23,557,683,750 AD sitting on the exchange waiting to be bought for ZEN says otherwise.

    that number has gone up 200,000 in 3 days and 100,000 in the last few hours.

    Will continue to grow once people realize that in 8 weeks (roughly the time it is taking to convert) will be Black Friday and no one will have any Zen.
  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,208 Arc User

    greywynd said:

    "Fixing" it implies it is broken in the first place. Doesn't seem like it.

    23,557,683,750 AD sitting on the exchange waiting to be bought for ZEN says otherwise.

    that number has gone up 200,000 in 3 days and 100,000 in the last few hours.

    Will continue to grow once people realize that in 8 weeks (roughly the time it is taking to convert) will be Black Friday and no one will have any Zen.
    Supply and demand. It is not exactly broken. My Black Friday planning was done after the Black Friday last year.
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • mullymoomoo#7130 mullymoomoo Member Posts: 81 Arc User
    Today there was an announcement about big changes to the mount system. included in that are changes to companions which includes making companions account wide and the zen prices for mounts and companions are dropping. Mount upgrade tokens will be zen/trade bar purchases. this will increase demand for zen and reduce demand for AD even further. no-one will buy a companion from the AH if theres an account wide version in the zen market.

    i just checked the wonderous bazaar, and this is just my opinion, but there is nothing in there of value that you cant get elsewhere. MOPs can be bought from sybellas legacy quest rewards, RP drops everywhere in game, the companions and mounts are not sought after. Wonderous bazaar is the only AD store in game where AD is removed from game. I know there is the AH as well and that it sinks 10% of the sale price.

    they can sink much more AD by moving a few select items into the WB from the zen market or from gold vendors. move health stones, health potions, scrolls of life, scrolls of mass life.

    and yes, if you're fairly new to the game, you may not be aware that IF there is a Black Friday sale (and there may not be this year, they aren't guaranteed) unless you whip out your credit card and use real world cash, the delay in the ZAX means even if you put a request in today you still might not get it in time for Black Friday (unless you plan 12 months ahead)
  • callumf#9018 callumf Member Posts: 1,710 Arc User

    Today there was an announcement about big changes to the mount system. included in that are changes to companions which includes making companions account wide and the zen prices for mounts and companions are dropping. Mount upgrade tokens will be zen/trade bar purchases. this will increase demand for zen and reduce demand for AD even further. no-one will buy a companion from the AH if theres an account wide version in the zen market.

    i just checked the wonderous bazaar, and this is just my opinion, but there is nothing in there of value that you cant get elsewhere. MOPs can be bought from sybellas legacy quest rewards, RP drops everywhere in game, the companions and mounts are not sought after. Wonderous bazaar is the only AD store in game where AD is removed from game. I know there is the AH as well and that it sinks 10% of the sale price.

    they can sink much more AD by moving a few select items into the WB from the zen market or from gold vendors. move health stones, health potions, scrolls of life, scrolls of mass life.

    and yes, if you're fairly new to the game, you may not be aware that IF there is a Black Friday sale (and there may not be this year, they aren't guaranteed) unless you whip out your credit card and use real world cash, the delay in the ZAX means even if you put a request in today you still might not get it in time for Black Friday (unless you plan 12 months ahead)

    Yeah i was going to say that I would happily buy Zen for money, sell it for AD if I could buy something really useful with AD.

  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,208 Arc User
    edited August 2020

    Today there was an announcement about big changes to the mount system. included in that are changes to companions which includes making companions account wide and the zen prices for mounts and companions are dropping. Mount upgrade tokens will be zen/trade bar purchases. this will increase demand for zen and reduce demand for AD even further. no-one will buy a companion from the AH if theres an account wide version in the zen market.

    1. Depends on implementation, assuming that will be implemented like account wide legendary mount, you can buy that from Zen store and sell that in AH. Hence, one can buy that from AH with higher price.
    2. Zen store mount has been account wide since (almost) the beginning but yet, people still buy single one from AH.
    3. Will you buy any companion in the current Zen store even if it is account wide? I won't. Zen store does not have all the 'good' companion if it has any good companion.


    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,043 Arc User
    edited August 2020
    Well, they allready had account-wide companions in the ZEN shop before, they were called "Class Packs", to this day i don't understand why those packs were removed, instead of improving them with fitting epic companions and new reasonable prices - considering how companions were changed over time, i'm pretty sure that new versions of these packs would still be selling very well today, if they just had brought them back into the shop.
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
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  • quickfoot#7851 quickfoot Member Posts: 488 Arc User
    edited August 2020
    Fixing the backlog is easy.
    Add a "Buy Now" option for 800 ad per zen. Huge ad sink, reduced backlog, lots of people will use it until the backlog goes down. Since it will be a huge ad sink, ad will rise in value until the backlog goes down and the price of zen drops as ad value goes up. Easy.

  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,208 Arc User

    Fixing the backlog is easy.
    Add a "Buy Now" option for 800 ad per zen. Huge ad sink, reduced backlog, lots of people will use it until the backlog goes down. Since it will be a huge ad sink, ad will rise in value until the backlog goes down and the price of zen drops as ad value goes up. Easy.

    You mean asking Cryptic to underwirte giving out 'free' Zen without receiving money. Okay.

    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • quickfoot#7851 quickfoot Member Posts: 488 Arc User

    Fixing the backlog is easy.
    Add a "Buy Now" option for 800 ad per zen. Huge ad sink, reduced backlog, lots of people will use it until the backlog goes down. Since it will be a huge ad sink, ad will rise in value until the backlog goes down and the price of zen drops as ad value goes up. Easy.

    You mean asking Cryptic to underwirte giving out 'free' Zen without receiving money. Okay.

    Despite the strawman, I may remind you that Neverwinter is a free-to-play game. We could go on about whether or not AD is "free" or whether or not "time is money" is true or not, the fact is that by increasing the value of AD, they can increase their Zen sales to players who are looking for AD. If a player needs AD and decides to buy zen and sell it through the Zax, if AD has a low value, they need less Zen to get the amount of AD they need, which means they spend less money. For example, suppose they implement the "Buy Now" option, and it does result in the Zen/Ad ratio in the Zax going down due to being a huge AD sink, if the price of Zen goes down 25%, that means people will need to spend 25% more $ to get the amount of AD they need, not only that, but since naturally the amount AD in the game will go down, it's value will go up and the desire to actually take the short cut and pull out one's wallet goes up as well.

    What I suggest is very easy way to achieve the desired results.

  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,208 Arc User
    edited August 2020

    Fixing the backlog is easy.
    Add a "Buy Now" option for 800 ad per zen. Huge ad sink, reduced backlog, lots of people will use it until the backlog goes down. Since it will be a huge ad sink, ad will rise in value until the backlog goes down and the price of zen drops as ad value goes up. Easy.

    You mean asking Cryptic to underwirte giving out 'free' Zen without receiving money. Okay.

    Despite the strawman, I may remind you that Neverwinter is a free-to-play game. We could go on about whether or not AD is "free" or whether or not "time is money" is true or not, the fact is that by increasing the value of AD, they can increase their Zen sales to players who are looking for AD. If a player needs AD and decides to buy zen and sell it through the Zax, if AD has a low value, they need less Zen to get the amount of AD they need, which means they spend less money. For example, suppose they implement the "Buy Now" option, and it does result in the Zen/Ad ratio in the Zax going down due to being a huge AD sink, if the price of Zen goes down 25%, that means people will need to spend 25% more $ to get the amount of AD they need, not only that, but since naturally the amount AD in the game will go down, it's value will go up and the desire to actually take the short cut and pull out one's wallet goes up as well.

    What I suggest is very easy way to achieve the desired results.
    What you propose does not change the AD:Zen exchange ratio. It is just easier for the AD holder to get Zen faster. It does not let Zen holder gets more AD. AD holder will still queue on Zax for long term Zen reserve. There is no point to leave that queue. They may use the "Buy Now" for "emergency situation" only. I personally would not use "Busy now" (since it is more expensive to get Zen) unless I really have to.

    It may do some AD sink but most people would not use it unless it is "emergency". It is like using Money Mart to cash the pay cheque.
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • darthpotaterdarthpotater Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,259 Arc User
    edited August 2020

    Fixing the backlog is easy.
    Add a "Buy Now" option for 800 ad per zen. Huge ad sink, reduced backlog, lots of people will use it until the backlog goes down. Since it will be a huge ad sink, ad will rise in value until the backlog goes down and the price of zen drops as ad value goes up. Easy.

    This is equivalent as if they introduce artificial zen in the game, so they can remove the zax instantly filling all the request. This wont fix the problem and with some time backlog will be in the same place again.

    The problem is that zen is more desirable than AD because of various reasons that we talked 1000 times. So you need to change that.
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  • namelesshero347namelesshero347 Member Posts: 2,109 Arc User
    My orders filled today after 49 days. I'm sure the back log is much higher now.
  • iandarkswordiandarksword Member Posts: 978 Arc User
    Who had AD backlogged on their BINGO cards? Folks, this has been going on for years, since Beta, the same arguments keep getting brought up. I'm no economist, but after 7 years, no matter what they do with the conversion rate, it always reaches maximum in a relatively short term, then there's a backlog, and then these same cyclical arguments are made. Continue on, it's entertaining to see how many times the same thing gets posted. Lol.
    "I don't know, I'm making it up as I go..."
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  • micky1p00micky1p00 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,594 Arc User
    edited August 2020
    Except that there wasn't a backlog up until the resonators thing spread, about mod 4-5. And it was reduced to 0 several times, until coalgate which cemented it with only few exceptions.

    I don't see why the need to laugh at people posting about this topic. People bring up what they care about, there are still mentions about the Foundry which been dead for years, and ZAX is somewhat much more far reaching than the Foundry ever was or would have been.
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,092 Arc User
    micky1p00 said:


    I don't see why the need to laugh at people posting about this topic. People bring up what they care about, there are still mentions about the Foundry which been dead for years, and ZAX is somewhat much more far reaching than the Foundry ever was or would have been.

    Not at all. The backlog is created by those that have zen not selling it. The "broken" aspect of it is the people that don't want to spend real money for zen tossing their AD into the zax and complaining because they aren't getting it fast enough to suit them.
    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.
  • xenocide#6119 xenocide Member Posts: 251 Arc User
    How to fix the ad backlog.

    Put a cap on Zen. 50000 limit.
    50k is more than anyone needs but low enough to stop the whales from using it as a savings account
  • carloswartune#5709 carloswartune Member Posts: 265 Arc User


    2. Add additional high-value AD sinks; examples:

    a. Remove all stones of health from Zen store and tradebar store. Make the lesser and greater stones of health purchasable in the Wondrous Bazaar (example, 75,000/250,000AD each) as a very consistent AD sink.

    b. Leave Astral Lockboxes in the WB forever. Keep them as they are, still markedly inferior to all other lockboxes that require keys.

    They did a loot box called the Astral Lockbox. Was a roaring success. lol Players don't want AD sinks so they just won't buy these.
    Many people here, including you, seem to think the Astral Lockbox was a failure but it wasn't. The ZAX backlog was steadily increasing everyday before it's introduction. When it was introduced, the backlog decreased each day the event was active. On the last day of the event, the backlog was 1M lower than it was when the even started. Given that it was going steady up before, the lockbox was in fact a very decent AD sink, despite all sarcastic remarks in this forum.
  • krumple01krumple01 Member Posts: 755 Arc User
    edited August 2020


    2. Add additional high-value AD sinks; examples:

    a. Remove all stones of health from Zen store and tradebar store. Make the lesser and greater stones of health purchasable in the Wondrous Bazaar (example, 75,000/250,000AD each) as a very consistent AD sink.

    b. Leave Astral Lockboxes in the WB forever. Keep them as they are, still markedly inferior to all other lockboxes that require keys.

    They did a loot box called the Astral Lockbox. Was a roaring success. lol Players don't want AD sinks so they just won't buy these.
    Many people here, including you, seem to think the Astral Lockbox was a failure but it wasn't. The ZAX backlog was steadily increasing everyday before it's introduction. When it was introduced, the backlog decreased each day the event was active. On the last day of the event, the backlog was 1M lower than it was when the even started. Given that it was going steady up before, the lockbox was in fact a very decent AD sink, despite all sarcastic remarks in this forum.
    Yeah this is like when there is a hundred acre fire and a barrel of water got spilled on the fire line after the fire consumed the barrel. Sure the fire was temporarily impacted by the small amount of water.

    The longer those AD lockboxes were to remain a thing, once the players realize its a gimmick for them to waste their AD they will not continue getting them.

    So yes, they are a failure. They provide no real return and players who buy them gamble with their progression.

  • carloswartune#5709 carloswartune Member Posts: 265 Arc User
    krumple01 said:


    2. Add additional high-value AD sinks; examples:

    a. Remove all stones of health from Zen store and tradebar store. Make the lesser and greater stones of health purchasable in the Wondrous Bazaar (example, 75,000/250,000AD each) as a very consistent AD sink.

    b. Leave Astral Lockboxes in the WB forever. Keep them as they are, still markedly inferior to all other lockboxes that require keys.

    They did a loot box called the Astral Lockbox. Was a roaring success. lol Players don't want AD sinks so they just won't buy these.
    Many people here, including you, seem to think the Astral Lockbox was a failure but it wasn't. The ZAX backlog was steadily increasing everyday before it's introduction. When it was introduced, the backlog decreased each day the event was active. On the last day of the event, the backlog was 1M lower than it was when the even started. Given that it was going steady up before, the lockbox was in fact a very decent AD sink, despite all sarcastic remarks in this forum.
    Yeah this is like when there is a hundred acre fire and a barrel of water got spilled on the fire line after the fire consumed the barrel. Sure the fire was temporarily impacted by the small amount of water.

    The longer those AD lockboxes were to remain a thing, once the players realize its a gimmick for them to waste their AD they will not continue getting them.
    I didn't say they were the perfect and final solution for the ZAX. They were good as a temporary AD sink and would ideally be paired with other, incremental methods. When things are not done incrementally you have situations like M16, where the entire country is put underwater to get rid of the fire. It works permanently, but the results are not really ideal.
    krumple01 said:


    So yes, they are a failure. They provide no real return and players who buy them gamble with their progression.

    Of course they don't provide real return. Lockboxes are gambling, gambling is not an investment. Many people knew they didn't actually were worth that much and yet bought them for entertainment. Granted, this would not last much, but still, worked as an incremental sink.
  • phneo#5260 phneo Member Posts: 14 Arc User
    To start with, sell some bound fashion wear, dyes etc. smack'em on AH for bidding or sell them for zen both works ;-)
  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,208 Arc User
    edited August 2020

    To start with, sell some bound fashion wear, dyes etc. smack'em on AH for bidding or sell them for zen both works ;-)

    They did that. It did not work. The item was bid to the highest amount of AD AH can support. Nothing change.
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • alanea#4230 alanea Member Posts: 48 Arc User
    greywynd said:


    Not at all. The backlog is created by those that have zen not selling it. The "broken" aspect of it is the people that don't want to spend real money for zen tossing their AD into the zax and complaining because they aren't getting it fast enough to suit them.

    err nope backlog was mostly caused by removing wards from trade bar store today 90%+ wards comes from zen store that increases price of wards and create whole issue you generate ad if you exchange ad for zen ,buy wards and resell for ad

    people massively abusing this creating extreme demand for zen backlog when backlog decreases people will get zen faster ... selling wards faster and instantly cycle it back into zen/ad exchange

    but cryptic wont do anything against this .. why should they look at it fromt heir side of view
    backlog:
    1) gives paying customers instant exchange instead waiting for someone to buy their zen = happy customer
    2) the less "friendly" exchange is the better .. if you have to wait month and half for your zen you are far more likely to actually buy it instead = profit for cryptic
    3)they can pump up price of zen whenever they want effectively decreasing value of all AD in game for example increase from 500 to 750 reduced value of any ad in players bags by 33,3% reducing player ad income and daily cap by same value .. excess demand in form of backlog ensures there will be smooth transition in such situation ... and backlog decrease will both 1) make community happier 2)serve as reason (apologize) to change ad ratio (exactly what they did last time)

    so yeah why would cryptic even want "fix" backlog thats positive for them on all fronts
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,092 Arc User



    err nope backlog was mostly caused by removing wards from trade bar store today 90%+ wards comes from zen store that increases price of wards and create whole issue you generate ad if you exchange ad for zen ,buy wards and resell for ad

    The zax operates on two currencies only: zen and AD. Trade bars have no bearing beyond the fact that certain wanted materials are no longer there to buy to dump into the AH. Those items are available in the zen market.

    There is no generation of AD with either the AH or the zax. AD is either gathered by the players or generated whole cloth by Cryptic.
    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.
  • rikitakirikitaki Member Posts: 926 Arc User
    greywynd said:



    err nope backlog was mostly caused by removing wards from trade bar store today 90%+ wards comes from zen store that increases price of wards and create whole issue you generate ad if you exchange ad for zen ,buy wards and resell for ad

    The zax operates on two currencies only: zen and AD. Trade bars have no bearing beyond the fact that certain wanted materials are no longer there to buy to dump into the AH. Those items are available in the zen market.
    And that is exactly what he said: By removing one opportunity to buy wards the Zen became more important, more desired - and ZAX got more attention.

    BTW: I am surprised that no one has yet mentioned that the backlog increases every time the game loses a big chunk of players. Exactly like now...
  • alanea#4230 alanea Member Posts: 48 Arc User
    greywynd said:


    The zax operates on two currencies only: zen and AD. Trade bars have no bearing beyond the fact that certain wanted materials are no longer there to buy to dump into the AH. Those items are available in the zen market.

    There is no generation of AD with either the AH or the zax. AD is either gathered by the players or generated whole cloth by Cryptic.

    additional sources of wards decreased their value so it wasnt profitable to cycle ad/zen/wards like now its main reason why huge backlog exist

    you just play with words here:) no one care where ad come from
    zen needed for coal ward cost 600K wards currently cost 799 900 720k counting in AH cut (avoidable)

    even with cut its 120k or 20% profit /per "time needed to exchange" and yes i know people with 5x 5k zen offer permanently up thats 3,75M ad per cycle passive income sure it means they have 18M at hand on other side they get 45M per year with almost no effort if we consider exchange window 30 days

    funny right ? now hold your hat because pres wards cost 937k/100 and while those would require too many coupons normaly -20% events will allow you dump all your current zen with more than double profit
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,092 Arc User
    And? If people need the wards, then they will buy the wards. If they don't like the prices in the AH, then they will buy from the zen market.

    I'm playing with words? Words have specific meanings. Getting AD from a sale in the AH doesn't "generate" it. It moves pre-existing AD from one account to another.
    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.
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