Craftable Items in the Add-On Store

That seems odd. I was told previously by Dallas that add-on store items are exclusive to the add-on store item and you couldn't get the exact same thing in game otherwise. But for these craftable items they may be making an exception, which is odd.

 

The player craftable versions should definitely different as far as some sort of difference in look and extra stats. The general function should be the same though.

 

Thus, this thread.

 

i recently suggested something kind of similar to this...

a batch of recipes related to style and/or finish. for 5.00 on the store.

for example:
we currently have wooden place settings. spoons forks knives plates bowls mugs... but if i wanted obsidian-style plateware to go with my obsidian tower..or silver goblets to go in my lord marshal dining room, i want the ability to purchase the recipes, and then make them myself.

i can then sell them in game, but i can not teach those recipes to others.

extend it to other crafts:
carpentry. we have sturdy chairs, and gothic chairs. awesome. but i want all-teak furniture in my bachelor pad village home.
well, you start out with the standard maple.
then you buy an addon for oak, then an addon for level2, which is hickory, then the third level addon, technically fourth tier, teak. that is fifteen dollars to the portalarium coffers, and dozens of recipes i can now make.
the item you get in game, is a consumable journal. you read it, and it imports the recipes to your recipe book.

cooking: we have novia-style cooking. what if i wanted to cook creole. or if i wanted french, or if i wanted [the next continent's name]? lets buy the recipes and each recipe can have a slightly different health benefit to its counterpart from other continents..i mean one may use more peppers while another uses less onions.. since we're going to have a nutrition system, it could integrate with that.


if i already own 3rd level addon, and want to give teak frame recipe to a friend who's a painter...so i can buy her frames/paintings with the style I LIKE.. i'd pay 15.00 on the website, and gift the package to her. then she learns the book and can create frames in all three of those styles.

these are items that could be easily generated by not only the devs, but also the community and submitted to the devs. maybe have a list of items that must be in the pack...like a chair, a table, a cup, a frame, a board, a stack of wood, etc. let us get the asset wire meshes and we provide the textures.. i know it isn't as easy as that, but i think it would certainly help save time and money to do something like this.

basically, the items are already in game, but i want the ability to add variety to what already exists in my recipe book. so it isn't pay to win, it is pay to enjoy.. even helps with role play in some ways.. my toon is a lord marshal, but he's going to role play with preferences much lower in status, as he was raised up fairly quick and likes to remember where he's from.

 

Pianos are ultimately a vanity item.

I don't see any problem with game integrity by selling vanity items, especially when there is monthly fee to play the game online.

If they sold potions that made you earn skills faster, or kill your enemies better, then there would be an integrity issue.

 

when the funding is already there?
when the funding doesn't matter anymore?
honestly, i can't answer that.

i did wrestle with that very same question during my proposal above. hence why it is based on style as the key within the store. next chapter, new continent right? ok, they'll need a new style of craftable items....but the item assets are already in the game. as a way to trickle in money over time, this is a wonderful idea, especially because these items do not make the game 'pay to win'..just straight-up vanity.

 

People keep saying housing and furniture are not part of the main game...i feel that they are actually very important part of the game.

I want things that can be only findable in game, even things that are not creditable at all like lord British throne for example. Part of why I play games is to explore and see new things...lets keep those in game.

 

If said piano is craftable, it becomes more than a vanity item. It becomes a potential base of revenue for crafters. I can see musical instrument creation as a viable career opportunity.

Your monthly fee comment is confusing.

 

can't say i disagree with that..but i don't want everything in the game, because of the business model portalarium has taken. if this was a AAA game with a cash shop and a AAA budget to boot, i'd be right there with you, whole hog.

 

There is no monthly fee to play Shroud of the Avatar.
There never will be such a thing.

 

My view has always been that the only items available on the add-on store should be things like artifacts, certain art objects, rare items, and maybe rare versions of items that exist in some other form (prosperity tools).

But anything in the game that feels like it should be craft-able, should be. I really don't like the fact that the trees are add-on items, for instance, because I would have liked to see them as part of the gardening system, even if they're not fruit-bearing. The add-on versions I guess would be okay with me if you could get them through the game too, but the purchased trees don't require to be grown or tended, and can't be gathered from, so can be good merely as decoration. I'm also not happy about a lot of the hats being on the add-on store. And I don't like that some very plain looking cloaks, like striped or checkered cloaks, were added as pledge rewards, when they're a type of item you'd expect to be craft-able by everyone. I also don't like the pets as add-ons, because I'd like to see a lot of those animals in the wild (owls, eagles, ravens), and for them to be tame-able by the average player.

I'm not saying that because I'm unwilling to buy any of them... but I think its arbitrary to lock them off from players and is an "invisible wall" solution. I have some of these, including ones from my pledge rewards, and really don't care about any of my items being "rares." I'm not in the game to profit off of rares. Rares are okay, if the rares make sense.

 

This isn't like other MMOs, where the end-all is to be able to kill the biggest bad. This game is much more of a sandbox.

Earning combat skills and kill enemies faster is bad. So no buying swords and armor for cash. But in a sandbox, a player who wants to be a shopkeeper or craftsman is every bit as valuable as a warrior. The entire economy is designed around player created goods. So why is buying vanity items that cut out the craftsman and shopkeeper ok?

Its a double edged sword, I understand. I'm stepping on my own argument when I say that Ornate items that have no craftable version are ok, but I feel those are necessary for the good of the game. Heck, I've bought the ornate wooden lamppost, saddle and saddlebag stands, even the boats, so I can use them as props in my shop. But having the ability to get the same good that a craftsman can make, bypassing the economy completely... that feels broken.

 

The problem you get, as seen with other things like PoTs and housing, is it actually changes the main game and the only gate to it is cash. In an ideal world everyone would enter the world at the same level but obviously this is not the case here.

I think there is a balance to be found...what is it? I have no idea.

 

That's my point. They need to make their money elsewhere since there is no monthly fee. I don't understand why people are objecting to the add-on store. It is purely optional. If you don't like it, then don't buy add-ons.

 

I have no opposition to add-ons. I have almost $600 tied up in non-pledge content, most of it purchased from the Add-On Store.

I want to draw the line at selling items that could be crafted.

There are other things that can be put on the Add-On Store that will add value while not impacting game performance. Things like new houses and basement styles, variations of old houses with new exteriors/textures/colors, special decorative armors/masks/items, and the like.

If I know that there's a way to craft a certain item in the game, I'd rather get one in-game than buy it on the Add-On Store. If they make hard-to-obtain/make items available on the add-on store, then no one will try to craft them, and they'll just buy them instead. It doesn't help the in-game economy one bit.

 

I'm not objecting to the Add-On Store, in fact I think its a great way for them to get funding. I'm objecting to this change in what is offered in the store, what it represents if they continue down this road, and how it impacts the player economy.

Look at it this way. If this was a mobile app, no other players available, and you wanted a lute, you might have two choices: buy a lute as an in-app purchase for .99 or go gather 100 pieces of lumber over the next 2 hours and make you own. Ok, that choice is fine because it only affects your time.

Now, you are in a multiuser app where everything is made by players, and there is no add-on store. You have two choices: go gather 100 wood and make your own lute, or pay another player to make it for you.

In SotA, we have three choices: go do it yourself, pay someone to do it, or now you can go pay the add-on store for it. But, instead of only affecting your choice like in the mobile app, that choice now affects the other player. They can't even undercut the app store because it takes far longer to gather materials, process them, and craft the item, than it takes to earn $7 in the real world. If the lute took 30 minutes to craft in-game, it might be different, but crafting is a MAJOR undertaking in SotA.

This is why I have a problem with what is happening here. There is no way for a crafter to win. And now that our "price" is set, we don't have any recourse when it comes to other goods. Everything is going to be balanced around a 110-pack of stone blocks for $10. Bye-bye economy.

 

I was responding to someone else who said that selling add-ons was now questioning the integrity of the game.

They've said since the beginning that they would sell vanity items as part of the financial model of the game. The only change (and it is worth discussing @Browncoat Jayson) is why the add-on store items in this case are not unique and exclusive, but rather a duplicate of a craftable item.

 

thats why i was suggesting the recipes for the vanity side of the alread-existing items to be in the craft store.

the crafter, doesn't lose this way, because they now have the ability to modify the base recipe to a preferred style, therefore bumping the price on the item they sell by a small margin.
the non-crafter, don't lose either, because they just use in-game money to buy the item from the crafter who DID pay the extra real cash for that vanity change.
the devs, doesn't lose this way, because this also generates revenue for the game.

i do not see how ANYONE can lose from my proposal. not even the children who's parents won't let them play subscription games.. even today 5.00 is enough for a week or two of allowance money. it won't break the kids bank, nor the parents bank in the scenario. it enhances the gameplay for everyone, allows for further crowdsourced collaberation..

 

Do you mean ANY add-on store item? So buying like an Ornate Public Cache Chest would allow you to then make a chest with that style? I guess that would be ok if they are not planning to sell them in the add-on store after release. Otherwise, we are really cutting in to their profit margins.

If you mean just adding recipes to the add-on store as new items, I don't really like that. The diversity of crafting items isn't to the point where adding new exclusive ones doesnt seem like a hit to what is available. The clothing options in the store already kind of hurt what can be made in-game.

 

@Browncoat Jayson - nope. that is not what i mean. go back to post #54 . while i'd like to see the ability to change the skin of the public cache chest from novian to [insert next continent name here], later - thats something else entirely.

this is for, specifically, deco items with relation to styles, not new items per say...the items are already in the game, this is to just have them look differently when you build 'em.