The latest patch clearly caused a lot of backlash and negativity... Again. And that's right, since a lot of the content and changes from that patch aren't sufficient and sensible... At all.
So maybe time for us -as the minority of the playerbase (couldn't resist)- to drop some suggestions. Got a few and feel free to shoot them down or add more as you wish in this thread.
I've been in sales for a long time, both in the restaurantbusiness as in the art of selling advertisements. One thing i learned there is that you always have to give your customers worth their money. When a price is exceeding a certain average for that item you have to be able to show the merchandize and explain why it is worth that money. In general, Trion fails in all of this!
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When i go to the supermarket for some bread and cheese, i buy bread and cheese. I want to see what i'm buying and where i spent my hardearned money on. I wont be buying a closed box that could contain bread and cheese, but could also contain kidneybeans in tomatosauce. Certainly not if that box is overpriced because it has a very slim chance of 1% to contain a bit of smoked salmon.
Same goes for ingame content like lockboxes. You cant decrease the droprate of arkforge on the cheaper lockboxes (or rather remove arkforge as it seems), increase the price for keys and decrease the droprate for keys from events and expect people to run off and buy the higher tier boxes if those higher tier boxes are not significantly better! And they are not better. The droprate of legendaries from lockboxes are dramatic, and even if it drops one you still have to wait and see if it has the right rolls. Sure you can re-roll the weapon, but then you also have to buy arkforge from the bitstore to do so since arkforge doesnt drop ingame anymore in amounts big enough to justify re-rolling weapons. So we're getting into a vicious circle. If you spent money on high tier lockboxes, you also have to spent money to get the right rolls. Spending twice for the same item is not common in the real world! And imagine finding that gun you always wanted.. But it's blue... That will never be a legendary, so useless by fact. Even more so if it turns out to be encrypted to start with.
You want me to spent money on lockboxes? Fine! Show me the merchandize! For 5 bucks i want to have an outfit or a legendary, GUARANTEED! You can make the outfit or weapon random of course, that's the gamble.
You want me to spent 10 bucks in the bitstore? Fine! Show me the merchandize and make it guaranteed to start with for that price. Last year i bought the Drifter outfit for 10 bucks (i believe), simply because i liked that outfit. I bought it straight from the store knowing what i would get, and i thought it was worth the money. It was too! I still use that outfit a lot as i find it the best looking outfit ingame (personal preference). But dont expect me to drop 10 bucks for a box that drops an outfit, with me not knowing which outfit. No way i would have bought that Drifter outfit if it was put into a box with 20 other outfits and the chance of me getting that particular outfit was 1 out of 20. When charging over 5 bucks for an item i want to see what i get and the gambling is off, simple as that.
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People only buy a few things from the bitstore and that's it. There is just not enough to keep coming back. I never understood why outfits were only cosmetic. And i'll give an example:
Reviving a player costs 3 seconds (or something). You have that 'Doctors without Borders' outfit in the store and missed a great ingame opportunity! That outfit is for a good cause, sure. But by making it a bit more than an -ugly- cosmetic item you could have sold so much more. Simply by adding bonusses to the outfit. Imagine if a player buys that outfit and equips it a revive wouldnt cost 3 seconds, but 2 seconds. Also equip the matching headgear and another 0.5 sec goes off. Wow, only 1.5 sec to revive a player instead of 3 seconds! Huge difference. This would encouradge players taking a certain role inside a group, AND therefor spent money in the bitstore to be able to play that role.
Another example:
A nice 'Fire Fighter' outfit that increases resistance to fire-nano. You'd sell a cosmetic item that wouldnt only look great, but also gave the player a bonus ingame AND therefor a reason to buy it.
If items and outfits werent only cosmetic, they would be more attractive to buy and more would be sold.
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An auction house, bit- and/or script based.
If a player can offer his legendary weapon up for sale in an auction house you'd encouradge other players to buy bits for that. So the buying party gives you, Trion, the money. And then gives the bits to the selling party which then has to either buy another weapon themselves OR go to the bitstore and buy stuff there. Either way, the real money ends up in Trion's safe.
Afraid that players will start selling outside of the game? Of course not! You should never name the seller in the auction house, nor the buyer. The buyer only gets to see the weapon, the stats, rolls etc and can make a bid. The seller only gets to see the amount of bits/script that has been offered. The buyer will never know who sold him the weapon, the seller wont know who bought it.
Besides, not many people like buying outside an auction house that guarantees giving you the weapon upon an agreement from the seller. When i give another player money through the bank outside the game, i still have to wait if he's really going to trade me that weapon. Too much of a risk. And even if that happens, Trion has nothing to do with it and has it's hands clean.
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