Runes of Magic US / AU

I think RoM is in need of a major change that will shake things up a bit and make it exciting again.

Basically, I think all stats should be turned into runes. Yes I realize this is a major change but it's far from impossible. Some new coding and a script to alter current server databases.

I'm sure everyone's gear could be changed so nobody would lose anything. But instead of having 6 stats and 4 runes, they would simply have 10 runes in each piece of gear.

Gear tier levels could be changed to something completely different. Tier level could simply be an upgrade you pay an NPC to do for you.

You can keep rune tiers and crafting the same.

You can still use purified fusion stones but now they make stat runes instead of mana stones.

This would allow people to customize their gear and upgrade easily.

It's also much easier to understand for new players I think.

You could have an extraction cost but I'd get rid of that all together.

The point here is to make customizing, statting, upgrading, as easy and as cheap as possible.

After all RoM should be all about easy customization and creating unique characters, that's why we have multiple classes after all.

There's no need charge people for wanting to try every class combo and find something that's right for them. There's so many other ways to sell diamonds you don't need this leverage. But that's a whole other topic.

But you still sell puries, you still sell hammers, you still sell mounts, you still sell angel sighs, and so much more. You may think you'll sell less puries but with more people playing you'll actually sell more I think. But even if you don't, all you're doing is allowing people to buy other things. My point is you don't have to force people to buy diamonds for every little aspect of the game. You may think gearing is the one place you're certain people will pay for to improve but it's the one place that shouldn't cost anything imo. It's the one place that defines the game in many ways and defines whether or not it's a great f2p game.

While you're modifying all gear, I would also remove all gear bindings and the need for regular and advance bind lifters. Again, there's so many other ways to sell dias you don't need to make buying and selling gear difficult for players. And you certainly don't need to force players to buy dias for such a basic priviledge. Again it's about making the core gearing mechanism free, fun and flexible.

I'd even go a step further and make plusing a guaranteed thing you can purchase from NPCs.

You will still sell diamonds!!! I'm telling you. People will love the changes and support the game more than ever. What people will buy more of is gingerbread transformations, aggs, house items, experience pots, mounts, and all the other things you already offer but people can't afford because they have to buy puries, plussers and abls.

You should realize that you've added costs to just about everything making it not really a free to play game so you're not really getting the free player base that you should.

Many players spend lots of money on the game and leave because their gear loses value and they can't try something new without spending a huge amount again. But they would pay a smaller amouont to keep playing. They would buy a reset TP stone or Fruit of Forgetting to delete a class and reroll another, and many other things. But they'll quit before they spend another $200 on the game to make a whole new toon.

Some keep spending that's true, but the loss in player base is not worth the loss of countless small purchases. In many businesses 95% of business is repeat customers but you're losing 90% of that 95% of customers to keep the 5% who spend the most. That's probably a flawed business model. So I suggest and hope you do some sale estimates with this new model and see what's better. If you think it's worth the risk then contact the game designer and recommend the changes.

As a side note, you wouldn't get accused of having a flavor of the month combo just to get people to reroll and buy more diamonds.

Anyways, I realize a major change is risky and not usually done once you find a working business model. But things change, and it seems like you almost have nothing left to lose, at least from my limited perspective. But one thing is for sure, with all these changes you could really reclaim the title of the BEST TRUE F2P GAME EVER.

Imagine how great it would be for players to simply pull out their worse stat and pop in a new stat they just won in a roll. That's what players want I think, well it's at least what I want. And everyone knows A HAPPY CUSTOMER IS A REPEAT CUSTOMER!!! If anything I've said sticks I hope it's that. Give customers what they want, it's not that hard.

Anyways, I could go on and on but I'll leave it at that.

But one last thing, obviously a ton of stats may flood the auction house, so I would create subcatagories for each type of rune perhaps. Perhaps group all similar runes, like put all hero stat runes together, all frost runes together, etc. Or, group all dex stats and then seperate them by rune name.

pff you'd love it! you just like to oppose people on forums i've noticed, that's my opinion!

you make no arguements just spew crap, you even admit to derailing threads

here you go troll, quotes from your post history...

"why thank you! this is the 3rd thread i've derailed in the past 2 days..."

"*shocked* sudden realization: we completely derailed OP's thread..."

btw, thanks for keeping my thread on top

Odd way to basically agree with me. Your "exceptions" are exactly what I'm addressing.

You can't predict what gameforge will do. But even if they did add stats to the cash shop it wouldn't stop people from getting them for free by doing events or running instances. So your arguement would be a good thing in my opinion. People with little free time can gear up and join in the fun. They don't have to spend months and months gearing because they only have a few hours of leisure time every night, and the stats they want are not available. Anyways, it's not what I suggested.

It seems the only people who post are the ones who want to argue.

How can anyone in their right mind argue that not requiring abls has no benefit to players?

How can anyone in their right mind argue that being able to buy guaranteed plussing from NPCs has no benefit to players?

How can anyone in their right mind argue that being able to swap out any stat in your gear for a better one has no benefit to players?

You'd have to have some amazing logical replies to convince me these things wouldn't benefit players.

Like my god, think about your replies before you post.

The only real honest logical arguement I can think of is from players doing really good in the game and they don't want others to benefit from these changes. It's a pretty selfish reason but damn at least it's honest and logical.

I guess you could also argue that it's too risky and they might lose too much income. I can respect that arguement even if I don't agree with it. But to argue it wouldn't benefit players is beyond absurd in my opinion.

Quoted from "ruisen2000;601106"

I'd disagree with changing stats into runes. I really don't see why these two need to be merged.

Why would you disagree? You haven't presented a good arguement against it. Do you not understand that it would allow players to upgrade their gear without costing them lots of time and money? Do you not understand that you could easily remove a stat just like you would a rune?

If you don't like this idea, it's like you're saying you don't like that runes can be extracted. I don't want to put words in your mouth but isn't that what you're saying? I just want you to be clear so I can understand you.

If your opinion is that it should be hard to change and upgrade gear because it makes it more challenging or some other argument then maybe I can just agree to disagree with you.

Quoted from "effervescent;601109"

I didn't agree with you.

You say we'd still have to use puris. What's the point, then? You farm stats for free, use puris to attach them to gear. With your "improvement," you farm runes, use puris to attach them. Why bother with the massive coding it would need for that to be implemented, just for nothing to change?

At this point in the game, such a major mechanic overhaul is not going to happen. If they re-made a new version of RoM, I could see them switching some things around, but a game that's been out this long isn't going to spend the money or time required to completely overhaul their gearing system.

Just because I don't agree with your suggestion doesn't mean I posted just to argue. We're allowed to voice opinions on suggestions, and personally I don't like this one. Stop attacking everyone that doesn't praise your idea and accept that people have differing views.

In your original reply you said "I don't see anything wrong with the current stat system tbh, besides the fact that it disallows for hybrids to get enough of the stats they need, and the fact that it requires a large amount of CSing".

So the only 2 arguements you made actually support the change but you disagree with the change. Does that make any sense? I guess 2 wicked improvements is not enough for you?

And now you're trying to say nothing would change? Now I think you're just trolling.

Pointing out one thing that wouldn't have to change doesn't mean nothing else would change.

The goal of the change is to allow for easy upgrading, moving stats, and trading stats so you only have to invest alot into the game ONE TIME!!!! After which you can try different things for minimal cost.

If you're not posting just to argue then try making some legit arguments. I've even given some legit arguements. I'm not closed to other's opinions as long as they have a shred of logic in them.

If people don't make any sense at all I'm going to point it out. If people just want to troll, I really don't mind because it keeps my thread active, and it's more likely to be seen by those in charge.

Also, it's not just because you disagree with me that I think you like to argue. It's because you're argueing against your own arguments. You're not making sense at all.

I thought about extraction stones that are not random.

But you're missing the point that, with my solution, once you use a purie to make a stat rune there's no further cost to move them around and/or trade them for other stats.

My solution offers complete flexibility once you've invested time and/or money in getting your stats.

You're also missing the point that you don't need 2 extra clean stones, of equal tier, to add or upgrade one stat on your gear!

You're also missing the point that it's much easier for new players to learn how to stat and tier their gear.

You're also missing the point that being able to increase tier lvls cheaply will help balance the game.

You're also missing the point that you wouldn't have to buy cleaners anymore.

You're also missing the point that jewels wouldn't cost diamonds anymore and would also help balance the game.

You're also missing the point that you wouldn't have to buy ABLs or BLs anymore.

You seem to missing the point to just about everything I suggested.

How anyone can not see the benefits of all these things amazes me.

You can't see how it would be cheaper? Are you friggin kidding me?

In a f2p game you shouldn't have things in the CS that creates such an imbalance between players in the game. It's bad enough that they offer things like gingerbread transformations and high level runes that cost 1500 dias each to make. But maybe I could accept those things if at least we all had similar tiered weapons, fully plussed gear and equally statted gear.

I'm sure some wouldn't like the changes because they wouldn't have as much of an advantage over other players. That I can understand. But I think many more players would like an even playing field. I also think players would support the game much more buying those extra advantages, all else being equal.

I know for a fact that at least 10 players in my guild left for GW2 for exactly this reason. They didn't just go for the hot new graphics. They left because they were tired of having to pay huge amounts of real money each chapter to remake their gear. We're not talking about $40 or $60 either. We're talking about $200+, from users who've already spent over $500. It's ridiculous.

On the flip side, if they only had to pay $50 to get some more gingerbread, some more puries, and some more mount speed pots, they wouldn't of been so frustrated that they felt they had to leave the game.

I will admit that there's the problem of too many players making enough gold to purchase diamonds off other players. However, that's sort of the whole point. New players can pay for existing players in order to catch up with existing players of the game. What does it matter who's paying the bill as long as it's being paid! And besides, many old players get tired of farming gold and end up buying diamonds anyways.

But at the same time, they are in control of the prices!!! They can make those bonus items costly enough where it would be near impossible to farm so much gold to buy many of them. They seem to already do that anyways.

Quoted from "Djed;601164"

They won't make this kind of massive overhaul to the game because it would cut too deeply into their profits. I agree with your intent (making it easier for f2p gamers to upgrade their gear) but the execution would not benefit Gameforge and that's always going to be the main issue. In order for them to continue this game they need to make money, and gearing is one of the major money makers of this game because it's what separates players during SW, wars, arena games, etc.

I do agree that it takes a lot of time to get stats, gear, etc. for f2p but if you're not willing to put in the effort then pay for it. It wouldn't be fair for someone who is f2p to get the same gear and stats at the same rate as someone who is willing to put $100 into the game; what motivation would anyone have to spend money?

What could benefit the game in regards to gear would be to bring back ABLs to IS and allow them to be bought with dias and tokens. When they were around more gear and stats were available in AH at lower prices, making it easier for f2pers to obtain good gear w/stats already on them.

That's a fine arguement, I can accept it. It does boil down to profits for GF after all. At least you're not trying to say these changes wouldn't benefit palyers like some freaks who've posted.

However, no players = 0 profits. And there's still plenty of incentive for players to buy things that don't affect the balance between players, like xp/tp pots, house furniture, faster mounts, 2 player mounts, aggs, tp resets, class resets, and much more.

AND a few imballance items like gingerbread transformations, titles, pet transforms, I wouldn't mind as much if all else was at least near equal.

But I'd also like to see new players pay like everyone else has had to pay. Forcing old players to pay huge amounts over and over just makes most of them quit eventually. New players still have to buy many puries. They could even raise the cost of puries knowing that's all new players absolutely need to buy now and old players wouldn't make so much selling stats.

And when new players see it's not a money sink they'll choose to pay a lot more often than they do now. When all new players hear is that the game is dead, not many of them choose to buy diamonds. When all they hear from old players is the game is a money sink what do you think happens? People are not stupid, well most people anyways.

Regardless, only GF can determine how much profits they would lose or gain by making these changes. You can't just conclude they'll never make these changes. I've seen some pretty huge changes in the game over the years.

If they can understand that a HAPPY CUSTOMER IS A REPEAT CUSTOMER, then maybe they'll realize they'll make much more money by making customers happy than by twisting their arms to buy something they need versus buying something they want to buy anyways.

If they can realize that these changes are like lowering taxes on existing players. It drives more players into the game. The player base increase, more groups form, more fun happens.

It's easier for new players and it's a more attractive game to buy in essence.

But even some old players like me refuse to buy anymore dias because it seems so pointless.

The negatives of the current system just keep increasing and the benefits of new system keep increasing. How much does it really take for them to understand?

It's almost like some guy had a great idea and understood that a f2p game would generate such a huge community of players that he could easily make a profit by selling non essential bonus items to this large community. But then along comes a company who makes or buys a f2p game and doesn't seem to understand this concept or business model at all. And they try to force players to pay more and more until the business model has completely changed and no longer works!

If we don't tell them it's not working for us, short of quitting, there's nothing that will make them realize it and make the changes that will keep players happy.

But it also wouldn't surprise me one bit if some smart exec read this thread and relaized everything I'm saying is makes sense. And that the next chapter has all the changes I suggested. It wouldn't surprise me because they are damn good ideas if I do say so myself.

And it's not really that big of an overhaul I think. A few new npcs, a bit of new coding most of which they have for runes anyways, delete some functions from the transmuter code, not hard to hit delete, and a script to alter gear data tables on the server databases. Not as much work as designing a whole new zone with multiple instances. Making some simple clear cut changes is much easier and much less time consuming than creating new creative content.

How funny would it be to see the shock and surprise of those who say they'll never make these changes.

Don't worry I'm not holding my breath!!!!