"What if" for store items...no trade...cotos...and Port revenue stream

1) BUYERS CLUB DISCOUNT: Ascending discount for consecutive months of subscription, with 5% for 1st month, 4% added second month to make it 9%, 3% added third month (12%), 2% added 4th month (14%), 1% added each month until you arrive at (20%), then .5% added per month added until you reach (25%), and .25% added thereafter with a cap of 50%. This DISCOUNT applies to COTO purchases as well, but after the 20% milestone is achieved, the COTOs would be NO-TRADE and only spendable on website if you choose to use the deeper discount level you have achieved.

2) WE LEAVE THE LIGHT ON FOR YOU PROGRAM: If you get butt hurt, bored, or have personal financial setbacks that cause your subscription to lapse; you can simply pay the subscription gap and resume your fully accumulated discount as if you never left. IE: If you are gone for 3 months of lapsed subscription, you anti up 3 x $9 to catch back up and resume.

3) ACCELERATED SUBSCRIPTION: So new players are not left behind, any Player can elect to pay any number of back dated subscription months they desire, at any time.

4) TITLES: Every month Players will be able to add 1 NEW title to their subscriber account, from a pull down menu. The title pool of options grow/expand each month, based on the total $ you have spent on this account. IE: If it took $500 minimum to be a Founder, after you have spent $500 you can select that title from the pool. All players may submit a UNIQUE TITLE request at every $500 interval of spending.

5) NO TRADE ITEM POLICY: Any item purchased with COTOs will be NO-TRADE. Any item can be paid for with non-discounted CASH EQUIVALENT at any time and WILL be tradable. Personally, I think that if a non subscriber acquires any CROWN STORE ITEM in game, other than consumables and crafting materials, it should probably become NO-TRADE in 30 days.

6) NO TRADE STATUS REMOVERS: These are available through subscription only. Subscribers receive 1 of these per month per SUBSCRIBER LONGEVITY LEVEL, up to a maximum monthly distribution of 6. IE: A 2 month subscriber gets 2, 3 month gets 3, and so on. NO TRADE STATUS REMOVERS are NO-TRADE.

 

Nice ideas!

 

Let's add:

EXPERIENCE: The team seems to be a metricizing bunch of folks for some reason...why not have metric based exp bonuses to incentivise group and zone participation? Risk vs reward is not obvious or appropriate at times and this helps to "balance" things.

How many folks go to Despair vs UT? I imagine the the gap would create despair amongst a team that spent sooo much time and resources on it? (Sorry, just had to)

If it is fewer than desired, and a group is needed in Despair, why not incentivise players with an EXP BONUS zones somewhat like fishing and LOOT BONUS TIER LEVELS based upon group size?

This encourages players to try areas and take the time to master them, as well as encouraging group making, which helps new players in the game, right?

So...so...SOTA MATH at it's finest...

1) EXP HOT ZONES: 4 levels of hot zone with exp bonuses. A diminishing EXP bonus is awarded for hunting in these zones, once a week. The bonus is 20% first hour, 15% second hour, 10% third hour 5 % forth hour.

2) GROUP BONUS: 4 Tiers of loot as well as EXP bonus based upon the total group size and numbers of guilds in group.

GROUP EXPERIENCE: A total of 50% bonus achievable, and the matrix would look like this based upon MAKING FRIENDS(MF) encourages groups with multiple guilds, SKILL DIVERSITY(SD) encourages groups with multiple specializations and the pursuit of balance, HELPING NEWBS(HN) encourages senior players to mentor newer players:

1) MF - Guilds*(Comprises 30% of total potential bonus): 2 (5%) 3(10%) 4(20%) 5(25%) 6(30%) *non guilded person counts as a (1) guild for total, IE: Group made of 3 different guild's members and 1 non guilded player achieve rank of 4 which =(20%)x(50%)=(10%) Exp bonus

2) SD - Specializations* (Comprises 30% of total potential bonus) 5 (5%) 6(10%) 7(20%) 8(22%) 9(24^) 10(26%) 11(28%) 12(30%) *non selected specialization counts as a (1) specialization for total, IE: Group made of 6 different specializations among members and 4 non specializations in players would achieve rank of 7 which =(20%)x(50%)=(10%) Exp bonus

3) HN - Total Exp* (Multiplier for the other 40% of potential bonus) 2(10%) 3(15%) 4(20%) 5(25%) 6(30%) 7(35%) 8(40%) EQUATION: (PTE/GTE) x (GBP)= BONUS EXP IE: Group made of 6 different players with a total of 200M EXP and player 1 has 100M of the total EXP of the group combined. (100M/200M) x (40%x50%) = 10% EXP for Player 1

GROUP LOOT: Rank 1-18 based on MF rank + SD rank, creating enhanced loot levels based upon group rating strength.
Tier 1 Groups Ranked 1-5
Tier 2 Groups Ranked 6-10
Tier 3 Groups Ranked 11-15
Tier 4 Groups Ranked 16 or more...

 

And to keep crafters alive, because players will desire to get attuned weaponry and armor based upon factional essences...make it where the factional adds are done by crafters, and no drop after being used in combat if you like.

Use the various essences to create meaningful faction based enhancements that are specialized for use in battle against various types of foes...
Kobolds - Elves - Liches (Undead) - Trolls - Barbarians = even Dragons, Demons, Unicorns, Nightmares, etc

 

With all the recent despair (yes, I wanted to continue with the theme) around potential player population decline, nerfage, sub no-drop decisions by Port, weight gain, hair loss, and uneven tire wear patterns, it is refreshing to see players continue to take the time to provide some good detailed concepts to improve game play, despite (likely a future co-joined dungeon to Despair) knowing that the chances of a Port dev actually reading and/or looking into the concepts are less likely than the Savage Sash of Swiftness dropping in Tartarus.

To all the suggested improvements, bravo! To those that have already hit the reply button with a partially filled in reminder stating that Port never reads the posts or ignores player suggestions, save your time and effort, I get it and quaff from the same kool aid filled sippy cup, which make the situation all the more regrettable.

 

I think you have some good ideas and would love for Port to entertain them...

 

I am looking forward to the post from @Chris tomorrow...

Twas the night before posting and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse,
When all of the sudden without further adieu.
Comes a post from Saint Chris directed towards you...

 

I thin the subscription ideas are very interesting

 

Whatever they end up doing, I hope it involves change and creates a continuously improving reward as an incentive to stay subscribed...

 

"No trade removers" are a reasonable middle-ground to tagging all the things no-trade, I think.

 

Want to add:
If the heritage / no-trade thingy can not be avoided.....:

The customers should have a choice if they want to buy the item as heritage / no-trade or normal item. It was said the heritage items are discounted. The idea is to display the items that are "heritage-able" with their full / normal selling price and when such a item is selected a costumer can select to buy it as heritage item with the discounted price but it is not trade-able then. (Directly above the Buy-button).
At any time heritage / no-trade items should be able to transform them to normal items buy paying the difference from the heritage-discount to the normal price. Similar to the upgrade function from quest-deed to full-deed.

Example: The Spiderweb-Trees are sold at 100 coto as heritage item, currently. Other trees are sold at 200 coto as normal items. The spiderweb-trees are discounted by 50% or 100 coto. They may also displayed with their full price (200 coto) and show the heritage logo. When they are selected a customer see a choice to either buy them as listed at 200 coto as normal / trade-able item or as heritage / no-trade item at 100 coto. If the customer has bought the item as the heritage variant the customer is able to "upgrade" the item to the normal / trade-able variant by paying the remaining (prior saved) 100 coto at any time to change it to the normal / trade-able variant. (right click menu on the item).

 

Please no more titles for spending money. It'd be nice for having ones for GM'ing or or completing quests.

 

I think we need to do -something-
If you look at the draft release notes for R71, over 75% of the text has to do with stuff you can buy from crown shop or replacements for stuff you coulda bought from kickstarter. The remaining 25% talks about deco palette and a handful of other changes. We all understand that you need to put stuff for sale, but 3/4th of the monthly "release" content is a bit much.

We made all these changes to the store and got rid of stuff on the website and got rid of bundles because of the poor impression it makes to new players that its all about buying stuff from crown shop, but month after month its literally most of what you see being added. More stuff to buy.

And I'm happy to buy it, but throw us a bone here. Its cool if there's a couple new things to buy every month but can we please put these efforts toward fixing or completing existing systems. I

 

Call me oldschool, but I just want to subscribe to a game, pay my monthly fee and not worry about a slew of other expenses to access stuff in the game. The only real problem Shroud has is that it doesn't have enough subscribers, and that's never going to be fixed by adding more stuff that makes people feel like everything nice is behind a paywall. I mean when was the last time we got some awesome new costume pieces or decorations that weren't rewards or crown store items?

We just need a great game with a subscription that feels worth it and let economics of scale take over.

 

I understand the whole thing with the Heritage Stuff but geeez . Alot of the stuff...new stuff is now Heritage. Not understanding the reasoning in this. I thought that is what the Vault was for. Some of the stuff that is heritage now seems a bit over the top as now new or old players cant get it from crowns so now they cant get it from player vendors either. Sometimes i might need ONE of an item and i would shop around to see if i could find one....now cant do that. They sell stuff in packs of three when i need 4 and would willingly pay for that single 4th item from another player. Makes no sense to me. Easier to pay for something for ingame gold than to wait for the elusive coto drops off mobs. Just kinda kills some vendors business. They talk and talk about player market to keep things alive but dont realize is that Everyone is selling the same stuff. The only difference in the each vendors sales is the price. Unless its been enchanced/enchanted. That has been the whole thing with alot of player vendors...Same old stuff. So it was nice to run to someone and buy something unique if they had it. I dont always have the cotos or can buy cotos to buy stuff in the Crown store so it hurts me as a buyer to not be able to get the nice trinkets and deco at times. There is just no reasoning for Everything to be Heritage. And the inflated cost of somethings in the Crown store is just crazy. Like those Dungeon Teleporters.....not that i want one when i can just tele scroll there on my own.....but those things are outrageous. I guess that keeps the volume of them out of the game. Just my feelings on it. I am not fond of Everything being Heritage now. And with everything on the coto store there is no way to buy as a gift to someone either. What is i wanted to buy someone something as a surprise....nope cant do that now either. And if its heritage i cant just buy it and send it to them or give it to them as its no trade. Wrong in my book. SOrry

 

@Belladonna Rose FYI, Chris said that he is looking into the option of being able to gift something to someone. He also stated that things will get cheaper soon. Take your Dungeon Teleporters example, they are making a smaller version that's not as fancy which will cost less. So while I share your frustration Chris has said he will be working to make it better & cheaper. We just need to be patient. Good things are coming.

 

Someone asked me what is something that a die hard Ultima Online fan may not like about SotA. On my list was titles being held behind cash. Granted there are titles for Obsidian Trials and the Chaotic title, as well titles being a subscriber to the game that I proudly display, but yes.. Having to earn titles in game would be really nice.

 

In my example, titles are selectable as a reward for subscription longevity, and only "CUSTOM" titles are behind cash. I also like the idea of the earned titles in game...questing for titles, successive logon weeks, quantity of critter kills, adventure specialization, crafting specialization, crafting accomplishment, lot ownership, gathering skills, etc.

 

In fairness, "as a reward for subscription longevity" is behind cash, as a subscription is payed. Even the pledge titles were "behind cash."

I'm not calling for their removal here, just calling a spade a little up-side-down black heart!

 

I like some of the subscription ideas, but agree the titles are probably not a great incentive (maybe exclusive emotes?). I like the heritage unlocks/month. I think a discount on the cash shop and for cotos for subscribers is an excellent idea, but doubt we will ever see 50%.

Oh and don't get me started on those teleporters and price tag. So much for heritage items being cheap and the idea that, "Those are for POT owners that really want to support the game and add something special to their town." All I can say is that statement was painful being a POT owner, never mind just a player in general, that the idea that giving you any amount of money was not good enough and didn't count as support to the game. That is just a statement that reinforces the idea that the game is a "cash grab" type. The vault re-release of the village obsidian home is 25,000 crowns, that is just a crazy price point and no trade on top of it. Lets add 10 blood splatter for $20; that seems a bit of a right before Halloween price gouge.

The group incentives and some of the progressive subscription incentives sound a bit complicated for a small team to program; there are a lot of group size variables to compute in your suggestion. The more complicated we get the more bugs we get. Hot zones that run for a three month piece and swap are great ideas to visit low traffic spots; but please make this experience gain and not just fast pool consumption. Crafting exp gain needs a better mechanism as well. While groups need love, please allow some continued love to the solo or duo groups out there that don't have time to be high end grinders all the time. The one bad thing about EQ was searching for a group for the two hours you had to play and not finding one. You just wasted your free game time doing nothing but spamming LFG. Lets not go that way please. Also we have a population issue that complicates grouping mechanics, especially if there isn't enough on to group with at the given time you can play. Subscribers should also feel the advantage of increased exp; that is pretty common as well as in game gold drop increase.