Add on store rage

Yep. I agree that they aren't worth it. Chris posted the math on them a few months ago and the advantage gained is mostly perception and not very real. Even for power levelers. Casual players won't really benefit that much at all anyway.

He's doing the right thing by not buying them any more. They are only for people that have excess money to burn. And that's ok because they get a small boost that makes them happy and Port gets money.

Even if Port changes it to online only it still won't be for casuals though.

 

for some reason (please don't get mad at me)... I feel that some Avatars don't like "Avatars with cash to spend" and "Avatars with time to waste"... I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with that... but that's just my views... ^_^

 

I think that's a good point. Players are getting their money's worth out of Obsidian Potions compared to other games. But the complaint is that some players are getting an abnormal amount of use out of them. It's not that fans don't want to use the potions longer and stay in game longer, it's that they can't. They have responsibilities and realities that are not easy to ignore or overcome. This imbalance exists in many areas of MMO's, but it would be nice if less of them existed here.

Potions are a great example of something that could be easily balanced between those with time and those without by making (as the OP suggests) the time run out only when you're playing. Of course that might not agree with your business model and the overall time would have to be adjusted to compensate for that. Or you could look for another solution, making the potions less effective the longer they're in use. So that once you begin to play past whatever the average playing time is the potions have less and less of an advantage. Take a break (from killing and not playing) and they become more effective over time. This seems like a good way to dull down some of the continuous min/maxing by people that have all the time in the world without hurting the people that don't. The end result being that someone using potions for just 8 hours a week would see the max benefit, and someone using the potions for 80 hours a week might see an average rate of return that is comparable to that.

 

true that... in my view... any change that will benefit casual Avatars will also benefit those Avatars that play a lot... and when that happens, we will get a new set of not happy casual Avatars... there is no win/win here...

now... if casuals want to compete then Portalarium will need to limit the playing time of every Avatar to maybe 1 or 2 hours a day... will that make everyone happy... of course not... ^_^

 

If potions had an 8 hour time limit that only counted down while in game... active commodities traders would be buying three a day to build the bulk inventory they require for trade in the forum marketplace. This might even drive up the price of the COTO in game; economic stimulation!

 

But...
I'm going to guesstimate that the majority of players who spend the most money in the store does not correlate with those who spend the most hours in the game. (Based on the assumption of work = more money and less time).
As such you'd sell more obsidian potions if those were more appealing to the largest demographic spending money in the store.
As is the sentiment in the op has been expressed repeatedly in forums, chat and discord. So I'd again guesstimate that those expressing such views are those willing/wanting to buy but who does not find the offer appealing enough to buy due to the subjective perception that they can only utilize a portion of the purchase.

Might I suggest a readers digest approach? (Paper only 50, digital only 40, paper+digital 60)
If you anchor the price using a worse or more expensive deal the appeal will increase since players don't compare vs eachother but versus the other deal.

For instance off the top of my head, a 5-pack of potions that last 1h each for the same price.
Then the week potion will suddenly seem like a good deal since it will no longer be how little out of max that they can utilize but rather how much more than 5h they might play that week.

 

The potions are fine as they are currently, no need to change anything, imo.

 

This is the core problem though. Where's the balance? It's as if people with large amounts of time are somehow special and can't have limitations on their time. Time is something we can control in this game yet we intentionally don't. It's the same thing with experience gains. Why do we want to reward people that max out grinding to a ridiculous degree when the base requirement (massive amounts of time) is not something most players can control?

It just seems like we should be looking for ways to curve the balance a little more in favor of a more reasonable expectation of "playing the game". Since this is a roleplaying game and roleplaying is a social event, it would be nice to know that when I take the time to roleplay I'm not screwing myself out of my available game time for use of an Obsidian Potion or just going out and farming experience points. Can we find a way to encourage "breaks" from farming XP and being "100% efficient" for the collective good of the game?

 

People complain about things that don't affect them all the time. Who knows why. Oh yeah...

I hate to sound like the grumpy old man around here, but this modern-day trope that "everyone's feelings matter" just doesn't sit right with me. People have all kinds of feelings all the time, some of them unspeakable horrors. I'm not saying we should crucify people for thoughts; at the same time, we can't validate every single little whim that occurs to anybody.

Or maybe we can.

EDIT: Actually when I wrote this, I was thinking about another thread where someone's angry because they feel like they're testing the game. Didn't mean to sound harsh, but I'll leave it. Yeah, the potions aren't worth it for casual players (I'm one of them!). Maybe we should charge by the hour (or XP point) so that everyone is getting their money's worth...

 

Good old DDO did it right, their treasure hunter potions (temporary buffs just like ours in question) are only used in, loosely phrased, adventure areas, but not public zones (timer stops). Everyone gets comparable 'live time' regardless of daily play time.

 

I havent bought a potion in a few months now. They were great to accelerate my initial grinding to adv lvl ~80. The most usefull being the increased capacity which helped a lot when you could carry less then 400 stones with your normal str bonus, the +30% speed on resource gathering and earlier on the one that slowed down durability drain on weps and armor. None of that really matters to me now with high skill levels.

Certainly nothing to be offended at that stopped me from buying from the add on store. So many more important issues to complain about.

 

I'd rather have 12 hours in game time than 7 days real time.

 

I understand this. But consider placing it in the context of a broader time period. Several years from now still playing this game, will you feel you 'missed something' by taking time out to role play today? I'd bet most people wouldn't give it a thought. There are too many other things to either worry about or look forward to. There is a difference between 'angst to grind to the top today' vs. what really matters over the course of one's MMO career.

This is small stuff. Don't sweat the small stuff IMHO.

 

That's just it, it's small stuff to some people but it's big stuff to other people.

Power Gamers want to power game, I get that. But roleplayers want to roleplay. No one's making power gamers roleplay, so why are power gamers making roleplayers power game? There has to be balance. That's what's often lost in MMO culture, there are different playing styles and they all need support. It's not enough to only create a world where achievers are the kings of the universe. It's ok for achievers to slow down a bit so that other groups of people that enjoy the game in different ways can stay semi-close to people that have too much time on their hands.

 

Agree completely. So why not just get rid of it?

 

I respect the amount of thought you're putting into this, but why do you have to settle for just one type instead of having multiple types for people to choose what best fits their goals and playstyles at any given time while creating more options for you to get funding?

 

Appreciate the reply, but let's try looking at it from a slightly different angle...

The potions give things like XP, Reg burn reduction, weapon/armour preservation and carrying capicity boosts. None of these things impact the social game, you won't be a better dancer or conversationalist because you took one. On the other hand they all help you maximize your levelling, allow you to harvest more or improve gold savings. So saying that I'm not convinced that if the boosts were based on in game time, that it hurts the social crowd at all. Why drink a boosting pot if your going to watch a wrestling match in Rifts End? People would just be more strategic about their use.

Obviously Port needs to generate those sweet green bills in order to continue development and I have handed over thousands of mine because I believe in the team and the vision. But what really burns me (and for full disclosure I'm not a social player, I mostly came for the PVP and the dungeons) is the feeling that because I cannot invest 5+ hours a day in the game...

1: Will never be able to compete in the game style I love, As even with the current decay system death is meaningless to those with dozens or 100+ GMs.

2: That my dollars spent for the obsidian potions (one of the ways I try to get the best effenciency out the the time I do have) , my dollars are somehow valued less by Port then the same dollar spent by those that have more game time then I do. At least that's how I interpret the current system.


I'm very confident I'm not alone in either of these sentiments, what I am asking is for the team to evaluate and look at it from the average post launch players perspective. Would they really think either scenario is fun or fair?

 

Thank you @Chris for responding. I know you are so busy.
To me fluff is safest even if controversial because worries and concerns I hear about the add-on store and especially if people mention to make fluffy things is that it will be hurting in the game by taking away from system designs and development to create fluff instead of game things. So here are mostly safe imo from ptw complaints and extras;

Ideas:

--Personally I think the fluff is easier to take if it is not ptw at all imo.

-Things like ball-gowns/town clothes(all dyable of course),special robes, cool looking head gear, weapons, even pets, and emotes. Things that are not adding any advantage to a player other than perhaps the best dressed title and I paid for it too .

-Also another thing people are willing to buy is character slots, character models, and game features that we need extra cash for. ( I know the stretch goals were not successful as advertised but we were not ready for them at the time.) I did fund all but one of them but that was because I ran out of money to fund one of them.

-We could pay for game features people want or see as missing as well with 50/50 going to develop them and the rest goes to game development.

******Plus a question @Chris why can we not hire more developers? Do we skimp on features because of not enough cash?******
- How about a pay the developer fund? For me I would so wish for more coding and design people, I truly wanted hunger and resting bonus to be parts of the game.

-I want this game to have what it needs and not have to skimp on important things and to do them right. We would so help if it is set up to allow us to even if it is money, time, talent whatever. This game deserves it.
edited

 

The potions are fine the way they are currently.

If I am not going to play much, I won't buy them. It's not game breaking to play without potions.