1.5 patch Money Rules!

[R26899989]

Being a free player shouldn't make them weaker than a pay player (drastically). The problem is the free players will leave, leaving the pay players to themselves. Now the light cashers are the weakest on the server. They have three options: pay more to keep up with the moderate cashers, accept they will always be the weakest on the server, or quit. If the free players are quitting, then let's say the light cashers quit too. This makes the moderate cashers the weakest now (and so forth)... This results in server populations dying.

When server population is dropping, most companies will just do server mergers and keep doing mergers without fixing the fundamental problem: the power difference of cashers and non-cashers.

The game allows for scaled spending, thus strength will scale with spending. Perhaps it shouldn't have been implemented that way, but it cannot ever be changed. Prices can never be changed. Balen value can never be changed. The current cashers -- the ones keeping the servers running -- would be extremely unhappy. They are more important to the company than the free players. Simple truth.


To your stipulations regarding player populations, that happens, yes. Free players eventually leave... I'm on s92 and a non-VIP player is a rare sight. I imagine that it's very similar on the older servers. Has that really changed anything for me as a moderate casher? Not much... the cashers were fighting each other when the free players were there, and they're still fighting each other now, only with less world chat chatter. In the lvl60 battleground, everyone is at least a light casher, bar none (at least from my experiences). The game model being used isn't intended to retain free players, and the scaling cash model that has been permanently placed in the mount training system means that more money will always buy you more strength.

As a serious suggestion to those people who want to play a game where cash only buys you visual distinction or maybe 50% more xp for an hour, I recommend you look elsewhere. I enjoy this game, and the people in it, and the free players in my guild are wonderful, but it's not for people who want to dominate based entirely on playtime, skill builds, or stat point choices, nor can it ever be.

Ammendment: There is one way the balen values could be changed: make $1 equal to 1,000 balens, then give every player who ever spent money on balens 10x the amount they spent to equalize the new values and insure that no one was screwed. This would, of course, mean that heavy cashers would instantly hit level 10 stables and still be way stronger than everyone else, but at least everyone could afford clothes and wings and some gem stuff.

[jmadrox]

Perfectly explained. Can anyone recommend a good browser game, because for this knight, this game just got borked.

sounds like you both suck. this knights staying on his server.

[D2droid]

The game allows for scaled spending, thus strength will scale with spending. Perhaps it shouldn't have been implemented that way, but it cannot ever be changed. Prices can never be changed. Balen value can never be changed. The current cashers -- the ones keeping the servers running -- would be extremely unhappy. They are more important to the company than the free players. Simple truth.


To your stipulations regarding player populations, that happens, yes. Free players eventually leave... I'm on s92 and a non-VIP player is a rare sight. I imagine that it's very similar on the older servers. Has that really changed anything for me as a moderate casher? Not much... the cashers were fighting each other when the free players were there, and they're still fighting each other now, only with less world chat chatter. In the lvl60 battleground, everyone is at least a light casher, bar none (at least from my experiences). The game model being used isn't intended to retain free players, and the scaling cash model that has been permanently placed in the mount training system means that more money will always buy you more strength.

As a serious suggestion to those people who want to play a game where cash only buys you visual distinction or maybe 50% more xp for an hour, I recommend you look elsewhere. I enjoy this game, and the people in it, and the free players in my guild are wonderful, but it's not for people who want to dominate based entirely on playtime, skill builds, or stat point choices, nor can it ever be.

Ammendment: There is one way the balen values could be changed: make $1 equal to 1,000 balens, then give every player who ever spent money on balens 10x the amount they spent to equalize the new values and insure that no one was screwed. This would, of course, mean that heavy cashers would instantly hit level 10 stables and still be way stronger than everyone else, but at least everyone could afford clothes and wings and some gem stuff.

I'm a level 60, free player. That aside, not retaining free players is a terrible mistake. If the plan is to only have paid players, just make the game paid. Require a subscription and then balance it around that.

Nothing wrong with allowing people to buy power as long as you allow people to earn that power without buying it. The problem with the clothing is without spending any balens how do you get clothing to match those who did buy them. Right now, it's literally impossible. Using balens is the ONLY option for players. If spire dropped clothing (not just shards for fashion cores), it'll be fine. If guild altar can drop clothing (like socketing rods), it'll be fine. If people can use vouchers to get clothing, it'll be fine. There are dozens of solutions but none are implemented.

[R26899989]

Well, there's the easter event going on this month; can get 1 piece and then upgrade it to lvl2 for free (helmet piece + fashion core). Not a huge improvement, but something. Once you have that piece, you can continue upgrading it through the spire shards once the spire is implemented, as well, without needing to spend the $4 to buy the initial clothing item.

I do think there should be a way to spend vouchers on any balen item, though. Make it absurdly expensive, sure, but still available. Wings at 20k vouchers wouldn't ruffle any casher feathers.