Gold Crowns of the Obsidians

I can't speak for anyone but myself, and I don't consider myself to be typical in any playstyle. I'm very passionate about pvp and roleplaying and attempt to integrate the two - that's not typical. I like the addition of Obsidian Crowns for several reasons. However regarding only PVP, there's nothing that gives a noticeable advantage in pvp that I can see. One person noted that there is a potion that allows players to sprint at 50% of the focus cost. But you don't kill people by sprinting them to death, you kill people by doing damage and you can stop people from sprinting in a variety of ways (root, stun, etc..).

Kytail, I think the first defense of the Obsidian Crowns is that this kind of purchasing power has existed in all MMO's throughout the history of gaming. For example, there's virtually no difference between buying an Obsidian Crown and buying an ornate dresser and then selling it for gold in-game. If we focus only on the fact that Obsidian Crowns also have the ability to repair items, we have to ask ourselves an important question. Without Obsidian Crowns, why would players ever buy new gear as opposed to repairing it? The answer is, they would do what is most cost effective. So if we give people repair kits in-game or crowns out of game, the only real difference is that Portalarium makes money off of the out of game Crowns and that helps fund the game that would not exist if it wasn't funded. Crowns can still be traded and found in-game, for example I can buy high quality gear from a crafter using crowns, and the crafter doesn't have to pay cash for anything yet still has access to Crowns.

In short, I understand your concern but I don't share it. The economy is not currently balanced and is probably more out of whack now than it ever was, but it will be tweaked and polished over time (probably a good 6 months) and eventually once all systems are in and changes have been made based on player feedback, I believe it will be challenging and fun regardless of how much money a person has paid.

 

I'm sure it will have the impact its had in most games with PVP; they will not be wearing their "best" gear on a regular basis, or will make do with only the gear they can afford to lose. I'd expect most will be wearing +1 or +2 gear, and using until it falls apart, then replacing it. Its not worth repairing that kind of gear in the long run. If they get a realy highly enchanted item, they might use it for special events, but since they tend to take a lot more durability damage than a typical PvE player, I doubt they will use it day-to-day.

It will be interesting to see how COTOs play out in PVP. There was a Oracle use for the coins noted in the R27 instructions...

 

The same thing could be said regarding looting.

 

On the repair process bit... I've not played with it a lot, so may make some factual misstatements. Please feel free to correct me.

Here is what I believe should happen: (My Opinion, not graven into stone by any means)

1. Field Repair - Doesn't Require appropriate repair skill, but could be enhanced by it. Requires an appropriate repair kit - Repairs some small portion of the current durability up to the current maximum.
2. Table Repair - Does require appropriate repair skill, greater skill would repair a greater portion of the current durability up the the current maximum. Should also require appropriate materials in addition to the piece to be repaired.
3. Durability Repair - Does require appropriate repair sill, greater skill would repair a greater portion of the current maximum durability up to the pieces Maximum Durability. Should require appropriate materials + a Crown of the Obsidians, and could only be performed at a table.

Currently the Maximum Durability is simply repaired by dropping a CotO and the Piece to be repaired on the appropriate table and pressing the Repair button. To me that's too easy, but I'm assuming that that is not the final intended state.
I agree with the crafters that have posted their desire that crafter skill be important in the repair process.
Better crafters can then charge a rate commiserate to their skill level for both normal table and durability repairs. They could also keep a supply of CotO on hand to sell to those that wish to have repairs done and charge for those as well.

 

Don't you think the quoted scenario may be considered a noticeable advantage?

 

Having them be a requirement to repair, that makes it far more vital than a completely options item like dyes or house deeds or other ornamentals.

 

I would if they weren't able to be traded in-game, and sellable for in-game gold in-game.

The market will determine the in-game gold cost, but I can't see them being a rare commodity. As others have pointed out, having them available for real money is simply a convenience for those who have more money than time.

 

This is one of those times where I really wish I was face to face talking with people. There are a lot of "what if" scenarios.

But look, the combat system we have right now is not very balanced. So it's really difficult to say "oh Obsidian Crowns are going to unbalanced pvp!" because there was never much balance to begin with.

The idea that people need the best gear to compete in pvp is debatable (even now). Why? Because if you have the best gear but I have 5 friends with me, we aren't going to care about your shiny gear.

The idea that even if we're talking about a balanced pvp system and 1 v 1 pvp fights (for the sake of argument) that somehow it's a big advantage to have max durability gear verses gear that's at 10%, I don't think that's a big deal. Naked mages are going to be a problem anyway, there's just an unlimited about of what ifs that can be applied to this conversation and we're not going to get anywhere.

As you know I'm super invested in pvp and I want pvp to be as balanced as possible. But I can't see where having a lot of Obsidian Crowns changes anything. You either decide to wear good gear or bad gear, that was always going to be a choice you'd have to make. And it kind of comes back to the idea of "what is winning anyway?" Is someone that wins a battle in good armor better than someone that loses a battle in cheap armor? There's too many variables to consider. For me pvp isn't an arena sport where you keep score of all your kills, it's a means to an end. It's part of the story. That hasn't change any, imo.

 

Just thought of something related to PVP and COTOs:

Since many pvp players are still not huge fans of a non-pvp player having the option to attack pvp players first even though it now takes a trip to the Oracle to undue the flag, how a bout uping that with a COTO to unflag?

• If you flag PVP at the Oracle it's free
• If you flaged PVP at the Oracle and want to unflag later, it's free
• If you flag PVP out in the field via some PVP skirmish and then want to unflag, you must visit the Oracle AND donate a COTO

 

I had a similar thought. I also wondered if perhaps at the beginning of the tutorial that Arabella should offer you the Protection of the Oracle, so its almost like you are opting out of PVP up front. Then its fairly seamless; you can reject the Protection of the Oracle at any time, but can only get it back in exchange for a COTO. I wouldn't just limit this to how you got flagged, however.

 

This is the scenario that I had in mind while writing my previous post. The idea that "the richest" could afford to waltz around in the shiniest of gear, without having to spend time grinding/PvE all day to maintain that gear. They can essentially spend 100% of their time doing said waltz and PvP all day. I see a slight imbalance/advantage there.

 

I'd just hope it wouldn't be easy to attack someone and flag yourself by accident.

Btw, this brings up an interesting idea about paying ransoms and bounties with CotOs...

 

Do you also find it to be an advantage in pvp if you have tons of free time to grind? Because I do, I think it's unfair. In fact, I have proposed and hope the devs soon implement a way to purchase an experience bonus using Obsidian Crowns precisely because I don't have time to waste on killing the same stuff over and over again yet would like to be competitive in pvp.

There was a guy that said he averaged 590 hours a month playing this game. How is that fair to everyone else?

 

That's an interesting perspective - thank you for sharing.

I don't have a good answer, but I'll think about that.

 

That is along the lines of Time = Money, but equality is an uncommon term. What's more likely is that time > money or money > time.

Suppose we have two guys; one is the average worker with family and expenses that has some game budget every month and plays whenever he can. The other is an average freeloader who does nothing but playing. If Time = Money, the average worker should get enough spare cash to buy the same amount of GCOTOS that the gamer farmed during his extensive playing. If the worker has the advantage then Time < Money. If he doesn't, then Time > Money.

I think busy players having some convenience in exchange from their money is good. Is good for them that are able too keep up, good for the game that's further funded and good for the rest of players that have more people to play with. But when you make a monetized aspect mandatory everything start going around that; the worker buys the GCOTOs while the freeloaders farm them (or the gold to buy them).

Even if you don't need to buy them because you can get from other players for a reasonable amount of in game currency... if Time = Money and i'm forced to farm to get enough GCOTOs to keep up my gear... aren't they taking my money? aren't they forcing me down a path when i'm suppose to create my own? If it was optional then we could deem it as convenience. If it is mandatory then it's not.

Yeah it's hard to consider every single aspect through here... I agree everything is discussed face to face and with a couple of beers!

But nevertheless let's look at it globally. Better gear means more power. Even if gear matters less than other games, even if the combat is incredibly well balanced and skill based... no matter the case you are facing, better gear implies more power because if it doesn't, it's not better gear. That's why even if combat reaches the desirable state where a player can supply his lack of gear with enough skill, given two high skilled players the one with best gear will be in a slight disadvantage because more gear = more power. And even in the 5vs1 scenario the 1 will get his ass kicked assuming the 5 knows his way around combat, but if he's top geared he may resist enough to flee, or at least he'd be able to hang in there more time just because he has better gear.

Winning is definitely defeating your opponent. And cases will come where players in rags are able to defeat top geared characters; that happened in WoW where gear mattered like everything so it will happen again. But everything becomes simple when you imagine a case where the rest of variables are equal and only the one you're trying to study matters. And i think it's safe to conclude that given two players with equal skill, same PC, same connection, same build, and same reactions, the one with best gear has an advantage.

From there, it's a baby step to infer that if you are able to get as much GCOTO as you want, you are able to enjoy more power than the rest of the players.

I also think that grinding is a bother. We should do better. But there GCOTOs are a convenience, an optional road busy players have to keep up with those that are investing time. And to me that's more than OK for the reasons i stated above (it has been suggested a potion that grants a bonus on experience gain, i think it's interesting). But GCOTOs for repairs are a different case, because everybody must repair his top notch gear. It's a mandatory stepstone and it's probably to lean towards Time < Money because if it's the other way around, the system has no reason to exist.

Won't that create a way for players to hide behind their money? The Green Curtain! Also (albeit its flaws) i think non pvp players being able to gank pvp players is an interesting way of simulate the PK vs righteous scenario.

Now this i like. Since COTOs are going to be the premium currency involving them in the PVP aspect could spice things up

 

I hear you. Yes, that's true.

But at some point there will be imbalance because of the choices people make. Look man, I live in Rats Nest (open pvp), connected to another PVP POT and a PVP Shardfall. I can already lose items by being looted. So there's already a use case in ALL pvp where you have to decide if you're wearing good stuff or bad stuff. It has nothing to do with repairing things. If you're good at pvp you can take stuff from other players.

Just thinking about this as Crowns = Power is not correct. The game is more sophisticated than that.

 

Do not pretend to summarize my post in one sentence !

... Even if it was fun.

 

I tried to sell one of my Gold Crowns today so that I could upgrade some training that I need, and I could not find a merchant that could take it. Apparently an error is happening?

 

I think they locked the sales to NPC vendors this morning before applying the patch that reduce the price down to 250g (npc vendor will price at 125g now). I haven't tried to sell the coins after the patch, yet.

 

This is all that's in the patch notes:

• Dropped price of Gold Crowns of the Obsidians to 250 Gold