Runes of Magic US / AU

Quoted from "mindlessthinker;601229"

I think what the OP is trying to say is that, as the current system stands, it takes at least 3 stats to even begin to stat a piece of gear. And, if you want to clean your gear, you have no choice but to wipe every single stat, including the ones you were happy with. The OP's suggestion is to break down this add/remove system so that it only applies to adding and removing one stat at a time. This would allow for much smoother gearing for people who are just starting out in the game and are not just alts of endgame players. If you could add stats one at a time, like you can with runes, then the player can actually see the benefits of the stat and better monitor what type of stats are best for them or which one to get next (ex: if I add a stat that gives me only phys attack and I still end up dying to mobs, I can just search for a stam/hp stat for my next one). If you make a mistake, you haven't wasted 3 stats or 3 spaces for stats on your gear, and the amount of money you sunk into those three stats can be more easily regained. Basically, the system as it is right now forces players to pay a huge price for making what they think is a good piece of gear at the time and finding out later that they should have done X better. Starting players DO NOT have 200mil sitting around in their banks like the endgamers---the price for making mistakes and following a natural learning curve is too steep for them to recover from. You either do it "right" the first time around, or be set back by another month of farming---it doesn't leave room for error or experimentation.

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP. Making the stat-gear exchanges more fluid would be much more player-friendly, exciting, and fun. To the OP: the reason you will get opposing arguments is that endgamers simply do not see, or refuse to see, the problems that the rest of the player base is having. They have all of this money to make changes to their character on a whim. The reason they don't see these problems is that they had the LUCK, when they started the game, to get into guilds that allowed for a speedy rise to the top (most endgamers I know hit max level in a week, and were endgame geared within a month---why? because of their guild). I know I'm going to get flamed for stating these things, but the fact is that everyone sees it but the endgamers---that their way was greased, and now the game is easy for them. For that reason, they will never see how much other players struggle with the current way the game is set up for gearing, and they will never try to understand where other players are coming from with the complaints. Whether these changes are implemented or not all depends on who the developers want to cater to---the endgamers, or those players who are struggling to become endgame. So far, the developers seem to focus mostly on the endgamers.

Quoted from "Blade187;601237"

So your solution is for Gameforge to LOSE money because once you have the stat you wont have to BUY another item if you wish to keep the stat.

Gameforge LOVE those of us that spend the extra money for those convenient items............

Quoted from "FarmerTom;601275"

i do not support the changes am i helping?

Quoted from "Ziav;601300"

I would hate to see what proposals the OP has made to brick and mortar stores. This proposal won't ever work or even be considered simply because you are asking a business to lose money to keep customers happy. What happens when that business in out of money and doors close for good? Will the customers still be happy then? GF needs to make money, period. The way they make it, is by allowing you the opportunity to upgrade your gear the way you want. It's simple economics, it'll never work. Sorry you spent the time typing out your post.

Quoted from "timthum;601344"

I do like your ideas for gearing but it appears that gameforge is low on programmers and support staff.my cash shop and diamond suggestion should be an easy thing for them to do. Bottom line is they need tp make the game less expensive to draw in new players and get existing players to spend some cash.

Quoted from "Ziav;601363"

This is what I am going off of. YOU clearly state in the above quote you want the company to lose money to make the players happy.

Sorry, but no business in the world is going to lose money on ALL their products to make customers happy for the long term, you can not survive in business like that.

Before you start spouting off your bs, try opening a business, pricing everything so you make zero profit and see how long you can operate. That is what you want GF to do, price themselves right out of business.

Quoted from "FarmerTom;601418"

yes and we also get a cut for wastin our time readin this nonsense too

Quoted from "ruisen2000;601468"

I'll try to sum up my arguements - I do like some of the benefits, but I'd prefer if it did not involve a massive overhaul, and I do think these benefits can be implemented without an overhaul.

However, some of the other benefits you mentioned I would consider "luxury" and I'd strongly disagree making them free, such as allowing players to pay gold to clear their their gear.
Imo, F2P games need some aspect of P2W.

In an interview with Runewaker a couple years ago, when RoM was still successful, RW proudly admitted that 12% of their playerbase were paying players, one of the highest % in any F2P game at the time. Even if you could somehow get 40% of your playerbase paying $10-15 in a convenience oriented CS, you simplely cannot compete wit the P2P games that have the majority (if not all) of their players paying.

Someone needs to be paying the for other 60% of your free players, and those require the small P2W aspects, such as clean tiering gear for example, which I'd argue is a luxury, because it makes a tiny difference per tier, yet requires spending enormous amounts of money. As shown by the top end guilds, there are people willing to spend that money to be a bit better, and in doing so, they're paying for the other free players.

I think I can safely say that the current cash shop system is almost completely reliant on selling P2W items. Some, like plussing, really need their prices toned down. But if the majority of them is made free, Gameforge would stop making $$.

Your suggestion of making the cash shop back to the convenience oriented CS requires a large playerbase, and RoM just doesn't have that. So far, Gameforge has done no large scale advertising, and I doubt they ever will unless RoM suddenly starts making a huge amount of $$ for them. With the current suggestion, this would reduce their current profit by quite a large amount, and I doubt they would that would make them want to spend $$ on advertising.

The current playerbase is already used to "Spend only in P2W items and nothing else" type. If the P2W items were to be made free, would they actually want to spend, when it is no longer necessary, when they are so used to not spending anything on convenience? I don't know, but personally, I think the amount of diamonds I would spend would be far less. You mentioned in your post that They would make more $$ even if things were made free and people spent less, because this would get more new players, and total to more profit. And everything is really getting stuck at the "playerbase", since when people start spending less, they wouldn't do more advertisement, so the "new players" that you were hoping to come in and spend $$ would not likely exist.

Quoted from "Borella;601469"

Cash shops that only sell convenience items work in some games, but not free to play ones. Convenience item cash shops: Go play WoW or GW2, but good luck finding a cash shop that only sells convenience in a game that's already free to play.