Gold Crowns of the Obsidians

Ok I'm upto page 8 and understand the points of view I have read. As for me, if this is what Port needs to do, so be it.

I don't need to buy these crowns to have fun. But I will because I cannot help myself...

 

Just fine with me... im more concerned with the fact that they seem to be extremely hard to get any other way.

 

A lot of backers were using their tax-free deeds in POTs. Just because you are restricted to settling 80% of available lots (I don't know how many POT vs NPC lots there are) I don't understand the distinction, it's still a tax free deed. Whether it goes on land or water or POTs. It has always been clear that tax was something you paid or did not pay directly to Portalarium depending on the status of your deed (taxed or not) regardless of where you settle with that deed.

If they want to sell a bundle it could instead be "taxes pre-paid for the first year" or something. Unless tax free was not meant to be exclusive to pledges - I may have gotten that part wrong.

I guess technically they can call it fundraising for episode 2, it's just an expectation I had based on past communications. As we all know, expectations are not the best, expectations are similar to assumptions that way.

But I bought in to pledging above collector pledge strictly because of the tax free deed (and dev+ forums... which are quiet) I didn't think they'd be sold in the store.

I don't regret the funds I have in now, but I wouldn't have probably jumped in as early as I did knowing 1) how low taxes seem to be anyways and 2) Tax free deeds will be sold in the store after launch.

Im okay with it in theory, I wasn't here to re-sell my tax free deeds after launch - but it just sits funny because it seems counter to the initial fundraising model - tax free deeds only for pledgers. And it subjectively feels like going back on a promise that I thought was made in exchange for the funding to create the game.

Ultimately I want what is best for the game, and if this is best, then okay. It just caught me totally off guard.

 

The limits of the P2W are repelled, I am very disappointed and I find this uncomfortable. It's almost a little funny so it's ...

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As many, I hate P2W !

 

As far as I'm aware the only players in the game who are in competition with other players are those engaged in PVP. That is the only group for whom "winning" has any meaning in SotA. If they think that the sale of Obsidian Crowns in the add-on store is pay to win, then they should speak up. The rest of us should rejoice in the fact that Portalarium is acting responsibly to ensure that the money that we have already spent on the game does not turn out to be a waste.

 

This is not pay to win.

 

You mean my mining operation can't be driven into oblivion by being undercut? You mean a crafter that can't offer as low prices won't be overlooked? There are more types of competition than one in a sandbox game...

 

So my expectation when I bought into the game was that this was essentially a pay to play model (I buy the game and I can then play it). I also expected micro-transactions in the form of the usual suspects of exp potions, repair kits, costumes, and housing items. I did not expect a currency system. Usually those things are set for straight free to play games and I don't play any that allow me to then sell that currency to in game vendors for real gold. I can only imagine the inflation on items, quick acquisition of land and other disasters that a few with deep pockets can cause with such a system.

My biggest disappointment was upon reading Darkstarr's post on the reason for Max durability/armor breaking change and then seeing these crowns for sale and the intended use.

In my own mind's interpretation of the above followed by news of repairing gear with store bought crowns, I went to a place that I felt lied to. I feel, whether rightly so or not, that crafting and harvesting lengthening and even armor breaking were put in not for the benefit of the crafter (or the "player-driven economy", but for the relief of the tedium that was purposefully created by Port. for profit. I also agree with others that this is clearly a pay to win move. Pay to win is paying real money for significant benefit over another non paying player. How do the crowns exactly do that? Well with the new additions of add on combat stats to armor and crafting tools and the resulting durability; the balance for that was that these things would wear out faster and thus players would not put too many things on their gear. Well with these crowns that balance has been completely removed. Gone is the need to get new armor from crafters and gone is the balance of gear with tons of stats. How else might these crowns give a player an advantage over a non player? Lets talk about the addition of selling them to NPCs for real in game gold. In that case lot deeds will be immediately place able, this sucks up remaining spots in the game that then can be rented for exorbitant prices and take up more prime merchant traffic. Then of course these players will quickly be able to afford more arrows, reagents, and crafting components than the starting player who does not buy the crowns. Then there is the addition of potions, diminishing returns still does not retard the faster advantage that the purchasing player will have over the poor player. Now lets add the talk of "Hey when are you selling crafting mats?" and then you can buy your resources and go ahead and make your uber armor with significantly reduced actual effort.

Then we add the sale of tax free lots. I realize these are for player owned towns, but it was my understanding that the only way to obtain a tax free lot was through these expiring pledges. This belief was reinforced many times on the forums and by the addition of add on taxed lots. This was to be a benefit of early backing of the game. Heck here is part of the description for the add on store lots: "Backers at Ancestor pledge level and above already have one tax exempt Lot Deed as a pledge reward." Again that news is very dissapointing.

These changes leave me very concerned for the future of the game and I feel distrusting of a development team I was really impressed with. I know Port needs to make money, but there have been quite a few other examples of ways to do this to avoid this sort of heavily negative impact on the game. Please understand many of us paid a signficant investment in the game due to the trust and faith we had in the development team. We expected to have to shell out for more fluff stuff (and happily so), but I did not expect to have to shell out to the extent that has been currently proposed and pockets can only go so deep. While you are forcing me to buy anything , you are leaving me with a less accomplished game experience and a negative look on my fellow players with deeper pockets than I have.

Please restore my faith and state what exactly we can expect from the types of micro transactions you plan to sell. I would also like to hear a more detailed view of what combat/crafting/vendor/quest scope you plan to put in the game for episode 1. Current changes have left me feeling that you guys are hitting a moving target and don't have a definite direction this fairly late in development. It seems, with an anticipated end of year full episode 1 release, that you would be making polish passes now and not major system changes.

 

The purpose of a game is to have fun. The person who has the most fun "wins". Someone role playing an itinerant bard could be having more fun than you, even though you have established a successful weapons crafting chain in game and are raking in orders of magnitude more gold than the bard will ever see. In that context I don't see how the announced changes are in any way pay to win.

 

Okay.

Since the purpose of the game is fun... i see no reason to stop from making obsidian potions for 10% boosts on Strength, Dex, Int, Hp, Focus, HP Regen and Focus Regen. After all, its all about who has the "most fun".

 

That would not be fun. That would be boring because it's too easy. The ultimate extension of that argument is to pay someone else to play the game for you. Where's the fun in that?

 

Well people who play this game as crafters and merchants are having that EXACT thing happen to our playstyles.... Why should PVP players not sacrifice anything for the sake of getting this game made?

 

by your calculations if the purpose of having fun in the game is by giving everything via the shop then lets not stop at gold COTOs, why not offer tax free castle lots for $1 or how about a LOTM pledge for $1 as I know I would have fun buying them for a dollar

 

Can't help but think everyone got what they helped create. A game dominated by real life money. What you have ingame is dictated by your real life wallet - and there's an actual ingame class system that shows just how much you spent too. In that way you got all the realism you ever wanted. Whether other people decide to sign up to that is another thing.

 

This post makes me think of the narrator at the end of a play, chastising the absurdity of all of the characters before closing the curtain.

 

I'm just saying how it looks to me and I contributed to this project so I think I get that right. =P

 

There's definitely some grains of truth to it. I for one favor games with monthly subscriptions as they are easier to keep close to "fair" - but i acknowledge that they are essentially unfeasible these days because there are too many free alternatives. This game may act as a case study as to the upsides and downsides of having a large number of players heavily invested and actively influencing development of a game.

 

How is this not pay to win? You pay money you win the coin you need to repair your gear. You don't have to grind and hope you get lucky with random drop of rare coin. In order to bypass the random drop you pay money. Now if the system is setup as some on Discord have said then 1 in 1000 of getting the coin but also limited by the number dropped per hour(will be adjusted for number of people online (soon(tm))) but lets just say your an avg person.
So lets do some math.
If you kill 4 things every min that means it takes 4 hours 10 mins to get one coin. So for $1 I can bypass 4 hours and 10 mins worth of work. Now I also used a sword to do this so that sword is damaged really bad. Someone said the sword should last for 6 hours of use well we just put 4 hours on it. Not including the armor I was wearing. All those things need repair. Yes I got loot and gold but I will need that to repair/replace what I used up farming that one coin. But for RL money I can bypass that whole system for the repair system.
The other bonuses from the Crowns guy are also giving more bonuses for people not having to work for them. Carry more weight? How is that not game breaking? He can stay out in the field longer gathering more items cause he can carry more items. Swift harvest is also game breaking as it makes someone who wants to gather more quickly a fast way of doing it.

If TIME == MONEY then MONEY should not bypass the TIME requirement. Would much rather them give a xp potion that gives a 10% xp bonus for 4 hours but you can only use one every 7 real life days. This way you give options for quicker skill gains to the causal players without making it so its a requirement for all players to buy it.

But to say this is not pay to win is like saying the earth is flat.

 

Binding core game mechanics to real money in one way or another never went out well for most mmos trying it. source: mmo history

Since the game has to be financed somehow and beeing financed in a good way here my ideas:

- since ive seen ppl looking happily forward to the monthly game updates, why not use the mechanic. Just sell a package of new content aka 3-4 new scenes every 1-2 months, include new resources and stuff, so ppl wanna buy it and reach a full expansions (episodes) content this way after a year. ppl happily would pay 10-15$ all 2 months id assume. Add a fancy edition of each pack, higher priced, with additional stuff (costumes, pets, furniture whatever)

- the game is highly social with a lot of ongoing events,partys etc, ppl want to dress up differently for different events. Sell us some fancy costumes in a great variety, add a few every month. Another source for a no-brainer $10. Even add a custom outfit on top of our armor and sell even more costumes.

- to the above scene packages, add discounted scene "megapacks" with older content or a pay once, get all new scenes for a year possibility.

My thoughts for my case:

I played the game a week, liked it very much and got a deed, to have my own housing in this nice world and to support the game, i found i will easily play for years to come. This means too, since im no rich person or wealthy in any way, my gaming budget for the next 6-8 months is done. If i want it or not, ive got other stuff to pay besides my hobbies too, and ive got other hobbies and games i like besides this game. So i wont be able to buy the convenient crowns to repair my stuff, putting me behind others. Its not even gonna be "cheap" to repair a full set including weapon this way. But we dont know now. Im not gonna spend my limited free time grinding crowns too. If its impossible for me to keep up with other players without spending money id have to quit since id loose any interest at all, not including the fact this may split the playerbase into 2 classes, the rich and the poor eventually. After playing mmos since the genre established, ive seen a lot of stuff in terms of companies monetizing mmos and im having fears this is not gonna end well. You never know.

Im still believing in the devs doing the right decisions to keep the game and development going and im having high hopes for a great game i will play for years to come.

Because i like this game a lot!
grtx

 

Well if time is money that's EXACTLY what money should do.
Just sayin'.