Runes of Magic US / AU

i'll just dive right into it:

1) reduce the base price of ALL items by 75%, unless specifically listed here
2) triple the price of purified fusion stones
3) leave AC charges as they are
4) leave aggs/adv aggs as they are
5) return costumes to the old price
6) add rotating costume sets and titles into the shop
7) add ABL, extractors, and purifiers into the shop on a permanent basis
8) add expansion tickets into the shop perm. both class and equip slot, as well as crafting
9) keep all ruby bonus and ruby shop prices the way they are (<--this may change)
10) add perfect plussing stones into shop for 4x the new(proposed) price of the regular plussers(current reg plusser price)
11) ????

note: i may change/add some items depending on what new ideas discussion brings(and when people remind me of something i had forgotten)
note #2: i will probably write this up as a formal proposal once i revise it based on feedback and such

have a nice day,
cike

let me explain the puri thing.

price reductions across the board will NOT make the game cheaper. people will still pay the same as they always have to clean teir higher, because they can. clean teiring past t7+ has to be made so expensive such that people won't even bother with it, unless you are willing to pay out of the butthole, while still keeping the price of "normal" t5-t6 gear cheaper than it is currently.

essentially: clean t9 is just as or more expensive than currently, clean t5 is a whole lot less expensive, when runes, plussing and the rest is factored in.

the only solution to this is to make puries the most expensive part of gearing.

I opted to keep AC charges the current price for the same reasons.

you can pretty much see the effect of universal price reductions on "that other server" where stupidly OP gear is the norm.

the problem with p2w model is the fact that eventually, the rest of the demographic is so shunned due to the pursuit of big spenders that they leave. we have all seen this happening for years.


TL;DR: cheap puries will never, ever allow the cost of the game to decrease, which is the point of this thread.

if that has not made it clear, please say so so I can try to explain better.

ok, right now say you spend $20 a week on RoM(random number). if all prices in the IS were cut by 50%(another random number), how many people would actually reduce their spending to $10 a week, and keep the same level of gearing/modding? most likely most people would just say "hey, i get double the stuff for my RL money, i can buy more stuff!". that 'more stuff' will directly result in people clean tiering higher, as all of a sudden that guy that could never afford the t8 clean chest piece like his guildy has all of a sudden can. so he'll make it. and no RL money will be saved. and the game will have not gotten cheaper.

the tiering system in RoM has no cap. so it is all up to how much you are willing to spend. since we know how much people are willing to spend, what is stopping them from using all their resources to make the highest tier gear they can?


aside from changing the tier system to have diminishing returns, there is no way to counter this issue aside from making it too expensive for the average person to clean tier to t8, because the big spenders will ALWAYS want to have their gear a tier or 2 higher.


my main point is cheaper puries =/= cheaper game. cheaper plussing stones, bind lifters, and everything else = cheaper game. heck, even if u dropped puries to 1 dia per, the game will NOT be ANY less expensive, because people will just decide to clean t10, t11, t12+ their gear.

yes, i know this may seem weird, and against everything i have been promoting, but just think about it. please.


let me ask any1 who disagrees with me: if ALL prices were to drop by 75% overnight, would you start spending a quarter of the money you currently do on RoM, and no more?

unless people start spending less to gear a single char, RoM hasn't gotten any cheaper(the whole point of this thread, and any other price reduction appeal). if you want to use those extra dias to gear more chars however, by all means, have at it, and i wish you good luck.

Quoted from "ruisen2000"

If we're going with this model though, where a huge part of the cost of gearing is siphoned into puris, what of people who would spend huge amounts of $$ anyway?

puries. i kind of alluded to this, but following this model, the OP p2w will have clean tiered gear that others won't be able to afford. however, the aim was to make it such that the extra money spent returns less than it does currently. plus, puries are only 3x as expensive, so t7 becomes the new t8 if you really did want to pay the same price for tiering.

Quoted from "ruisen2000"

You mentioned that decreasing prices across the board doesn't help, because people who spend the same will still spend the same, but get even more. What would prevent them here?

that is something i have been trying to find an answer to for a long time. it's essentially the crux of the problem. unfortunately, i still don't have a good answer, even after years of thinking about it. best i have come up with is diminishing returns on tiering(1 tier higher is +30%, 2 tiers higher is +45%, 3 tiers higher is +52.5%, 4 tiers higher is +~56%...etc..but then even that would have disastrous consequences for gearing when the base tier of gear changes, we already have people complaining about lvl 80 gear, and thats only 10% difference). IS rework would be easier, as it doesn't mean changing game code, but will probably not be as effective.

Quoted from "ruisen2000"

If this model truly decreased the overall price of gearing, then people would spend more into tiering their weapon ever higher if tiering gear is no longer cheap, and the cheaper you make the game overall, the higher the tier people would take their weapons, and we'd still have the problem of a giant gap between midgame and endgame. Endgame instances would still be prohibitively difficult/expensive like it is now.

yes, i debated increasing the cost of AC charges as well, but i did not want to start an all-out riot :D

aside from physically capping tiering(which would be a disaster, even i could see that), there is really no other way to stop people than increase the cost to do so, and reduce the reward for the increased cost(essentially like diminishing returns).



essentially the whole point is to have diminishing returns on money spent -> gear level diminish a whole lot faster than it does currently, while keeping "standard" t6, +16, 4 slot gear a whole lot cheaper than current. that way you can buy as much power as you want still, but the cost to "buy power" is increased, attempting to discourage your average people from doing it.

Quoted from "TWMXC"

Big spenders are good for the game. Keeps the servers running.

yes, they are. they are great for the game, which i have stated in previous posts. i love big spenders to death.

the problem is the game essentially revolves around them. which is not healthy for the community. big spenders should have better gear than everybody else. i'm not arguing that. i'm saying the average spender should be getting better gear relative to big spenders than they are. the gap is just too large right now for a unified community, and the most prominent cause is the p2w model.

my solution does not get rid of pay to win players. it simply makes it more expensive to get the same "win", while making it easier/cheaper for your average player to have "standard" gear.

Quoted from "TWMXC"

You guys must have your eyes closed and don't see people leaving the game every day for cheaper sources of fun.

this is where i don't think i have made myself clear.

using the adjustments i proposed, clean, t5, +16, 4 slot gear is 75% LESS cost than t6, +16, 4 slot gear is currently. the ONLY thing more expensive is clean tiering. and that should not get more expensive than current until t8ish.

people will pay for power, we have all seen that. call it an assumption, but the game will NOT be cheaper if ALL prices are reduced. that is really the big point i am trying to make in this thread.