Cosmetic DLCs vs Battlepass+Bazzar... what the future holds?

Foxdie491 · 2022-09-09T19:58:38.616Z

So for what I’ve seen, the old model of cosmetic DLC packs based on different cultures has been well recieved by the community since the get go. Expanding our building capabilities and custom character aesthetics for a reasonable price while expanding the lore and world of the exile lands (at least from a visual point of view, since the in-game lore-focused content is still as lackluster as it was at early access despite the petitions for a more in depth content on this regard).

Now the new change to “Battlepass + Bazzar” (which has a very steep change on the pricing of lore-based building pieces, weapons and armor) has been seen as a cash grab and overall microtransaction model (a model that, at this point, should be very clear for every single company in existence has a bit of a risk: ALL THE VIDEO GAME PLAYERS IN THE WORLD HATE IT TO DEATH) and have rightfully so returned the game on steam from Mostly possitive to Mixed review average once again in the blink of an eye, with players literally leaving the game for good as a result of the risky change.

I personaly have a very specific way of playing this game; mostly PVE on my own server and with my own configuration and pace since I don’t really have the time to be concern of with a purge or a PVP raid on open servers, much less to follow a kiddy, post-modern “battlepass” to get new stuff, a monetization and gameplay model that, at no point in time was mentioned or planed since Early access until a couple of months ago (this is what we call a scam in some countries). Specially after I paid for what is called a “Complete Edition” of the game (which by concept should entitle me to the full content that the game has to offer without exceptions, further payments or compromises)… I’m not quite sure how this whole mess, for lack of a better term, will affect my personal play style outside of missing content that, by definition I already payed for (again, scam, no other way to call it really).

Now is really hard for me personaly not seeing this ordeal as a broken promise and a straight up lie, since I’ve follow this game since its announcement, I bought the Early access version and later on I got all the DLCs in the so called “COMPLETED VERSION”… at no point during the marketing and social media campaign or comunication, Early access road maps or post launch road maps there was mention about this mobile-gaming monetization model, nothing at all (That’s unequivocally False advertising under the Lanham Act law in the states, not sure if there’s an equivalent in Norway or if any party or group is moving forward with legal actions, but I digress)… and after 500+ hours of gameplay I obviously can’t refund it, not even under such cleary unethical circunstances.

However, I do know some people with more free time from a younger generation will take the scam with a smile and life will go on so… seeing the crystal clear push back, at least on steam, from the player base to this shady change on both user-flow and monetization, I wonder…

Will Funcom listen to the obvious negative reaction to this ill-concieved and dishonest change and course-correct to save the Conan Exile brand and community, turning back to pretty much WHAT THEY PROMISED since early access (paid and free DLC expansions and NO MICRO TRANSACTIONS or shady models)?
Or will they double down with the usual “sense of pride and accomplishment / you don’t have to buy it” narrative and ending up killing the community, any further content packs and expansions at fair price (Again WHAT THEY PROMISED since day one) and incidentaly the entire appeal of the game to make a few bucks and jump ship after the servers are empty, the support to the game is gone and the community is another ghost that “rememebers the good old days” of a dead game?

I’m curious to see what you guys think.

Full disclosure, I have no I’ll will towards Funcom, or the supporters of this monetization scheme… Funcom has always been an interesting company to me, and their handle of the Conan brand, even if not ideal (still waiting for a single-player, full-fledged Conan adventure that explores the vast Hyborian age where you get to be the man himself), has been decent and fun. This are my personal views alone and I don’t judge those who think differently. This is a great community overall.

Cheers from Mexico.
WJ

Denversetti · 2022-09-09T20:49:05.564Z

For now BP idea and realization not that bad
Maybe more COOL rewards, for now, most of them are waste of lvls (and our time)

My biggest concern is bazaar prices (most of people are really sick about it)

AND new skin items restrictions…
For me its really gonna break the immersion and RP
if we wont be able to pick\use skins we didnt buy anymore imagine this:

you cant gear up your clan mates
you cant share and make gifts to people (trade)
after pvp battle you wont be able to fully to pick a reward (from chests or bodies) - imagine all gear is rare skin items…
if you die, your mate wont be able to retrieve your loot
etc etc…

Foxdie491 · 2022-09-09T20:55:12.644Z

“if you die, your mate wont be able to retrieve your loot” Oh, I play co-op now and then. This is a deal breaker really.

In PVP sounds even worst. Also, with all the modding support, I wonder how Funcom is gonna stop players from getting content out throught mods.

Don’t know… it sounds like by design Conan Exiles is the wrong game for this type of scumy monetization and content lock… it seems like too many conventions from the game are incompatible with this the new model they are trying to push. Just saying.

Foxdie491 · 2022-09-09T21:08:22.189Z

One thing to keep in mind here is defference in pricing from, the value of items from the previous DLCs to what they cost now in the Bazzar, which is where the more clear changes in pricing can be seen and overall change in approach to what was advertised or priviously implemented, this table puts it very clear I think:

-OLD DLC-
*Riders of Hyboria Pack contains:
-2 Exclusive Mount Skins.
-6 Mount Saddles.
-25 Mounts Related Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-11 Weapons, including lances.
-14 Stable Placeables.
*Cost:$9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.14

*Seekers of the Dawn Pack Contains:
-39 Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-12 Weapons.
-5 Pet Skins
-5 Warpaints
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.13

*The Savage Frontier Pack Contains:
-39 Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-9 Weapons.
-5 Pet Skins.
5 Warpaints.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.14

*Jewel of The West Pack Contains:
-39 Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-9 Weapons.
5 Warpaints.
-25 Placeables.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.11

*Architects of Argos Pack Contains:
-49 Building Pieces.
-18 Placeables.
-3 Mount Saddles.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-9 Weapons.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.11

*Debaucheries of Derketo Pack Contains:
-10 Building Pieces.
-10 Armor Pieces.
-12 Emotes.
-10 Outfit Pieces.
-6 Warpaints.
-29 Placeables.
-10 Jewelry Pieces.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.11

*Blood and Sand Pack Contains:
-29 Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-19 Weapons.
-15 Placeables.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.13

*The Riddle of Steel Pack Contains:
-24 Statues.
-5 Helmets.
-5 Placeables.
-3 Warpaints.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.27

*Treasures of Turan Pack Contains:
-39 Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-9 Weapons.
-5 Warpaints.
-9 Placeables.
-2 Pet Skins.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.13

*The Imperial East Pack Contains:
-39 Building Pieces.
-15 Armor Pieces.
-9 Weapons.
-5 Warpaints.
-25 Placeables.
*Cost: $9.99.
*Cost of Each Item: $0.11.

*Isle of Siptah Pack Contains:
-An Entire map.
-New Dungeons.
-New Features.
-Much, Much more.
*Cost: $19.99.

-Crom Coins-
1,200 Crom Coins. $9.99
2,640 Crom Coins. $19.99
5,040 Crom Coins. $34.99
7,800 Crom Coins. $49.99

-Battle Pass-
-1 Outfit Pieces
-15 Armor Pieces.
-20 Placeables(?)
-1 Pet Skins.
-4 Emotes.
-8 Misc Items/One Time Acquisition.
-6 Building Pieces.
-4 Warpaints.
-3 Weapons.
-3 Pet Skins.
-1 Horse Saddles.
*Cost: $34.99(Unlocks 15 ‘free’ levels.)
$9.99(Pay 2 Grind.)
*Cost of Each Item: $0.50
$0.15
This doesn’t include time you have to spend farming out the ‘challenges’ in order to level up the Battle Pass…………. This also doesn’t include the Crom Coins you get from the battle pass, as those are filler items and are just there to pad out the item count. But for those who are curious, you get 10 ‘rewards’ of 120 Crom Coins which would be enough to buy the next pass, though I doubt they’ll continually put that amount in the battle pass… given that it defeats the entire purpose of the battle pass.

–Bazaar-

*Black Magic Starter Set:
-5 Placeables.
Cost: 2,100 Crom Coins ‘discounted’ to 1,365 Crom Coins. $19.99(Either way).
Cost of Each Item: $4.00

*Echoes of Acheron Set:

5 Armor Peices.
1 Weapon.
Cost: 1,340 Crom Coins ‘discounted’ to 804 Crom Coins. $19.99(Not Discounted), $9.99(Discounted).
Cost of Each Item:
Not Discounted: $3.33
Discounted: $1.66

*Sandstone Set 2:
-10 Building pieces.
Cost: 1,000 Crom Coins. $9.99.
Cost of Each Item: $!.00

*Ancient Armaments Set:

3 Weapons.
Cost: 1,000 Crom Coins ‘discounted’ to 663 Crom Coins. $9.99(Either Way.).
Cost of Each Item: $3.33

*Emote Bundle 1 Set:
-3 Emotes.
Cost: 1,050 Crom Coins ‘discounted’ to 525 Crom Coins. $9.99(Either way).
Cost of Each Item: $3.33

*Arcane Bookcase:
-1 Placable…
Cost: 760 Crom Coins. $9.99.
Cost of Each Item: $9.99

*Duo Candelabra:
-1 Placeable…
Cost: 250 Crom Coins. $9.99.
Cost of Each Item: $9.99

And then of course we have this in-depth calculation from FireSpark81 on you tube:

So I’m not quite sure how to make of Funcom intentions or what they expect to be the reaction from the community with such change. Is very strange to say the least.

auticus · 2022-09-09T21:52:30.836Z

Yep it went from ridiculously undercosted to overcosted. People didn’t mind the undercosted, but they scream salty murder when its overcosted.

Foxdie491 · 2022-09-10T06:43:10.620Z

I’m sorry, english is not my first language, I have no idea what this mean, could you elaborate please?

Denversetti · 2022-09-10T06:43:10.847Z

Just saying but there is no problem to let people use every item they find, they cant duplicate it, craft it, even repair it - fair enough
You want to owe this particular skins\items? you buy them - fair enough

But access block to ANY of this items really break game process…

imagine you jump to the decaying base… my luck! oh… 99% ot loot are skins… what a waste (nice game immersion guys really)

and this is only 1 example…

clearing dungeon with mates… here pal, take this, more effective with boss, ah… you cant have this skin…

etc etc

auticus · 2022-09-10T06:51:38.811Z

I think its as easy as knowing you’re going to be fighting a boss with people you know so if you want to share weapons you make sure you are equipping weapons that they can use.

Xelander · 2022-09-10T07:04:24.864Z

The future holds monetization typical for free-to-play or mobile games and that was to be expected from the moment they announced the battle pass and the bazaar as the main features of 3.0. So there’s nothing unclear here.

Dia · 2022-09-10T08:03:12.167Z

The whole thing just feels like they want to milk CE community for the last time before pushing out the Dune mmo and then concentrating their development on the new flagship game.

Xelander · 2022-09-10T08:19:26.062Z

Yup. Then they’ll do the same when Dune starts to lose players, rinse and repeat. Who knows, maybe they’ll even do CE2, but this time the “correct” way - with the bp and bazaar there from the start.

Foxdie491 · 2022-09-10T08:59:29.462Z

Not surewhat’s your angle, are you defending the change in user-flow and monetization? I mean do you think the Battlepass + Bazzar is better than the content DLCs and Expansion on a single pay method?

auticus · 2022-09-10T14:50:19.266Z

The world is not binary. Its not either this OR this. Its not red or blue. Its not this or that. Its not “oh Auticus is saying its not that bad that must mean he thinks its better”.

Of course ridiculously laughably cheap one time DLC is better for the consumer. Its not very good for the business though and if I want the game to continue to exist, I know that it has to make money.

I’m also not assed because I had to pay $10 for a battle pass to do tasks I do on a daily anyway and the bazaar I can just choose not to buy things out of.

biggcane55 · 2022-09-10T15:26:43.780Z

Denversetti:

nice game immersion guys really

Kinda of moot as you way to decay a base with 1 button press.

Foxdie491 · 2022-09-10T17:32:08.019Z

True, the game has to make money. The thing is that the way they are making money is not in line with business model promised at early access or after launch and in many ways is incompatible with the game itself:

Heavy Mod support + locked content behind paywall? not exactly a match made in heaven, It wouldn’t surprise me if they take out mods, since it will be very easy to make mods packs of bazzar and Battlepass content for free.
RPG/Solo/co-op focused part of the community are not exactly the target of this new monetization and will have an inferior experience (My co-op companion can’t loot my body if I die to safe my stuff? ridiculous).
Leisured type players will miss a lot of content since not everyone is an unemployed youngster without a family here and not everyone can play the game religiously to unlock the battlepass content (Which is why we buy all the DLCs, to not miss content in our more relaxed gaming schedule).
PVP (which is supoused to be the target of this changes) has been completely castrated now that you can’t fully loot corpses of enemies and bases because some of the items held by characters and chests are now again, behind paywalls and “battlepass”… this is beyond absurd in a game where the very focus is to raid enemy bases to literaly STEAL goodies from other clans. Completely incompatible with the very core of the game as a whole.
Early Access and Complete Edition players are been directly scamed by this change, since the game advertised at the time as a complete package with paid and free future content, again, NO MENTIONING OF MICROTRASACTION, IN GAME STORE OR BATTLEPASS WAS MADE DURING ANY OF THE ROADMAPS FOR THE FIRST 4 YEARS AFTER LAUCH!!! said players have too many ours to refund the game and are now stuck with a product that was changed years after they bought it (100% false advertisiment, imagine you buy a house and 4 years after it’s been replaced by a bicycle by the company that sold you the house, are you supoused to take it with a smile? Not many ways to defend this particular point, this is not the game or monetization model that was advertised, promised or planned, period)
Battlepass and Bazzar are monetization schemes designed for free-to-play games, not 25 dollar games (I personally bought it a 40 dollars during early access) and if they make the game free-to-play in the future to sustain this new model, they basically scamed every single player that bought the game in the pass 5 years so…
Whales might get some money to the company, but mid-to-low economy players (most of the player base) will jump ship, which doesn’t really assure the long term survival of the game itself or its community.
The game still have many issues, exploits and bugs that should have been the focus (polishing) to bring in new players and costumers instead of deviating resources to put in a model that probably broke another hundred things within an already buggy product…

Again, I get your point that the game need money to contunie, but this particular path is, from a very obvious and objective perspective, seems INCOMPATIBLE with most of the core mechanics, community interests and player styles of this particular product, which really lower the long term survival of the game you want to continue playing so… as much as you want to support the new model, is not in your best interest or in the company best interest out side of very short term gains.

Everyone in the community would have gladly payed for the Sorcery update (or any major update for that matter) at 25 dollars or more, there has been countless threads in this very forum about the community willing to pay for content, and Siptah expansion proved and even if they up the pricing of future cosmetic packs we would have pay it without breaking the balance and overall stability of the game that we already learned to play.

That beign said, I don’t think that I hold the absolute thruth, I look forward to see what you think of all this and to hear your perspective, you might be right and I might be missing something.

Cheers

It’s hard for me to see how is this good for anyone in mid to long terms.

auticus · 2022-09-10T19:38:44.436Z

So I’m going to come at this from two perspectives. The first is Auticus the gamer. The second is Auticus the game developer that has a game studio and works with game studios and publishers and needs to make money. From that perspective I’m going to speak to you as both a game developer engineer and a commercial software engineer who will be next summer in his 30th year in the business.

Heavy Mod support + locked content behind paywall? not exactly a match made in heaven, It wouldn’t surprise me if they take out mods, since it will be very easy to make mods packs of bazzar and Battlepass content for free.

Auticus the gamer and Auticus the game dev 1000% supports modding. I am a tinkerer at heart and love that the community is involved in making the games what they want. I doubt they will take out mods, and for right now I am going to go with what we currently have and know and not speculate because speculation doesn’t really provide us a good avenue to communicate.

The locked content behind the paywall and mods are to me two different things that can coincide with each other. And yes that means the community can just mod the items they want anyway.

RPG/Solo/co-op focused part of the community are not exactly the target of this new monetization and will have an inferior experience (My co-op companion can’t loot my body if I die to safe my stuff? ridiculous).

I would prefer that items can be looted. Maybe not used but looted. Auticus the game developer understands why you cannot loot currently, because people will just give the middle finger and one person will craft everyone’s new things for them, so I am not bothered that I cannot use an item I did not pay for, but I would think that we should be able to loot it still. Or even better from pvp - let me convert it into its basic weapon equivalent since the items are all cosmetic anyway (revert cosmetic to default skin)

Leisured type players will miss a lot of content since not everyone is an unemployed youngster without a family here and not everyone can play the game religiously to unlock the battlepass content (Which is why we buy all the DLCs, to not miss content in our more relaxed gaming schedule).

I am the dictionary definition of a leisure player. I have a full time job, run a full time studio and I normally put in maybe 30-60 minutes into the game a day on average. I am almost done with the battlepass, and its been out less than a week. I don’t feel that you need to play the game religiously to unlock the content.

I feel that one is a person that says “I WANT THIS RIGHT NOW NOW NOW I DONT WANT TO GRIND AHHHHH” which I have read on the forum, that this doesn’t matter because they want instant gratification; however I am speaking from the objectively incorrect statement that one needs to play the game religiously to unlock content. They made it so ridiculously easy to level the battle pass.

Early Access and Complete Edition players are been directly scamed by this change, since the game advertised at the time as a complete package with paid and free future content, again, NO MENTIONING OF MICROTRASACTION, IN GAME STORE OR BATTLEPASS WAS MADE DURING ANY OF THE ROADMAPS FOR THE FIRST 4 YEARS AFTER LAUCH!!! said players have too many ours to refund the game and are now stuck with a product that was changed years after they bought it (100% false advertisiment, imagine you buy a house and 4 years after it’s been replaced by a bicycle by the company that sold you the house, are you supoused to take it with a smile? Not many ways to defend this particular point, this is not the game or monetization model that was advertised, promised or planned, period)

They never promised there would be no microtransactions. They said that the game content itself would be free. They have never lied about that. Sorcery is a free update, it is a game mechanic. The microtransactions are for cosmetics only. In this quote, you are simply tilting at windmills.

I bought the game day one, was in the beta in 2017, and 1000% disagree that I feel I have been scammed.

Battlepass and Bazzar are monetization schemes designed for free-to-play games, not 25 dollar games (I personally bought it a 40 dollars during early access) and if they make the game free-to-play in the future to sustain this new model, they basically scamed every single player that bought the game in the pass 5 years so…

This is your opinion. It is neither right nor wrong, for it is yours. If that is your opinion, then your choice is to simply walk away. Auticus the gamer does not care about monetized cosmetics. Auticus the gamer will walk away from a pvp game if Auticus is playing pvp if I have to buy items to keep me competitive.

Auticus does not feel that appearing in rags with an illusion over me is pay to win either. What I mean by advantage is… the strongest weapon in game may give me 100 damage, but the bazaar weapon gives me 130 damage. THAT is an in-game advantage. Or the longest range of a bow is 100m but the bazaar has a bow with 180m range. THAT is an in-game advantage that I’d be 1000% against.

Auticus the game developer knows that you have to keep money coming into the coffers or else your publisher will abandon your game, and you basically will get one-off games with very little extra content if any where you will get your way - you’ll pay for the game once. And thats the game you will play forever more.

1000% against that idea from both gamer and game developer.

Whales might get some money to the company, but mid-to-low economy players (most of the player base) will jump ship, which doesn’t really assure the long term survival of the game itself or its community.

You’ll forgive me but not only do you have no data to back any of that statement up, you are speaking as if you both know the economic status of the global player base, and you are speaking for the global player base on whether or not they will jump ship, and then you are using those assumptions to jump to a conclusion. This statement cannot be debated because there is no data to back anything up.

Auticus the game developer who has to sit in marketing meetings for games both video games and tabletop miniatures games also knows that you are very wrong. This same jump to conclusions can be read all over Games-Workshop forums and media, and Games-Workshop and its games has been reportedly since AOL chat room days of the 1990s been ready to “die any day now” for the same reasons of their pricing model and the alleged whale hunting.

The simple truth is that gamepasses are not seen as evil by as many people as you’d like to believe. Yes a vocal minority screams about it and yes in marketing sessions people will complain about it, but a lot of people also praise it as something that is fun for them to engage in. The bazaar in and of itself is also not a bad idea, both from me as a game dev (because people WILL buy cosmetics to customize their appearance) but as a player (because I like customizing my appearance and I don’t mind dropping $5 / $10 on some things, I do it in Sea of Thieves, I do it in Path of Exiles, I’ve done it in most gmaes. I have restraint and only buy the things I want and it amounts to fractionally less than what I spent on miniatures as a hobby.

The bazaar is in this case very overpriced, and as such I don’t know that it will get them what they want, but maybe it does who knows. I bought a couple things out of it myself /shrug/.

The game still have many issues, exploits and bugs that should have been the focus (polishing) to bring in new players and costumers instead of deviating resources to put in a model that probably broke another hundred things within an already buggy product…

This is the same mantra marched out at every game studio since internet days anytime a studio would march out a game update. “WHY DIDNT YOU FIX THESE BUGS THAT ANNOY ME FIRST ARGHHHH”

Thing is - much like you don’t know the global economic status of the player base and you don’t know the global opinion of battle passes and you don’t know the marketing efforts that went into this, you also have no idea what resources they allocate. Teams like this have a dedicated bug team. I know Conan Exiles has a dedicated bug team. Then they have a feature enhancement team which includes a game dev or two and artists putting new content into the game.

You may feel that is a bad decision. Thats your right to that opinion. I can tell you right now that after 30 years in the business that there is no such thing as a bug-free game, and no matter how many bugs you fix, there will be bugs, and it is a known truth that the internet will never be short of individuals screaming at us to fix more bugs before new features.

You will find if you venture out and do your own game studio that that is not sustainable. You need to both improve quality of life, and you need new features.

This is not just true in video games but commercial software as well.

So… I do agree that there are bugs that need fixed, but I as a gamer have fully LOVED the sorcery update (this is the most fun I’ve had with the game in a couple of years) and I as a game dev know what you are asking for seems elementary and obvious to you - but is not how the software world works in general. If you’d like to try for yourself - have at it. Start a studio, and make that promise for a bug free game before moving onto a new feature.

You’ll be broke and looking for a new job very soon after I promise, because you will have no revenue coming in since you will solely be trying to fix bugs, which are in and of themselves feature updates that can break other things, and you don’t charge for bug fixes. And because you are solely trying to fix bugs, you are not producing new content, which means no revenue is coming in. Additionally the average attention span of the average gamer is very small, and no new content is seen by many studios as death for that game.

That is also the opinion of gamers - a game without new DLC or new features in a timely manner will be something that they abandon. (which leads to no revenue stream which mean you get to try to pay your mortgage and feed your family off of the good will of others because you are just simply trying to make all the bugs go away).

My last words in this long wall of post
I strongly feel that you need to step back and realize that you can’t use data that you don’t have for your arguments and to form your opinions around. You can’t parade around your opinion as a fact based on data you jumped to conclusions to get. You just can’t hold any water if thats the argument you are trying to pass forward. Additionally a piece of advice that I picked up long ago: most often the loudest people complaining are not the majority - but because they are the loudest and most common voice - people assume that they speak for everyone and that echo chamber feeds those people into thinking that everyone else agrees with them.

Cheers.

Sairdontis · 2022-09-10T19:47:29.763Z

Denversetti:

AND new skin items restrictions…
For me its really gonna break the immersion and RP
if we wont be able to pick\use skins we didnt buy anymore imagine this:

you cant gear up your clan mates

you cant share and make gifts to people (trade)

after pvp battle you wont be able to fully to pick a reward (from chests or bodies) - imagine all gear is rare skin items…

if you die, your mate wont be able to retrieve your loot
etc etc…

Foxdie491:

“if you die, your mate wont be able to retrieve your loot” Oh, I play co-op now and then. This is a deal breaker really.

In PVP sounds even worst. Also, with all the modding support, I wonder how Funcom is gonna stop players from getting content out throught mods.

Don’t know… it sounds like by design Conan Exiles is the wrong game for this type of scumy monetization and content lock… it seems like too many conventions from the game are incompatible with this the new model they are trying to push. Just saying.

Is painful to watch a game that I have spent quite a few hours on go this direction. It does feel a bit EAish with a sprinkle of A/Blizzard, unfortunately. There is still time to change, but is there will ? Time will tell.

darthphysicist · 2022-09-10T20:07:24.008Z

Foxdie491:

I do know some people with more free time from a younger generation will take the scam with a smile and life will go on

Be careful how you paint with that brush… it may be you have nothing to back up that world view.

LostBrythunian · 2022-09-10T20:35:25.207Z

This one does not like the new format at all.

Microtransactions are, well, supposed to be micro. The smallest transaction for Chrome Coins is $10.00
Which is not much, but also is not in the mindless micro range. This one can get a decent meal for that.

The previous DLC packs were, in the opinion of this one, extremely good value for money. Especially the Nemedian one.
This one would find double the previous rate also well within reason for the full affair.

If they broke the cultures into two, one set for the Gear, and one set for the Build pieces, that would be very reasonable.

Microtransactions are a good venue for items that wouldn’t fit in a pack. Of which this one can imagine dozens.

But splitting a build piece pack in half (leaving aside the fact that the contents match not the label) is… What the cluck?

Grouping three rando weapon skins, two under the names of existing in game sets or partial sets but sharing no traits with those sets…
Also, what the cluck?

So much clucking… please cease choking that chicken, he’s not long for this world.

The loot ban is, absurd.

Now, for the battle pass.
This one sees too much filler. Too little unity.
Who are these Gurnakhi? Why a Chicken emote?
What do they have to do with Sorcery.

Why not have a good and propper “culture pack” exploded across the Battle Pass rewards.
This level is doors, frames, ect…
This level is swords, that level is saddles, over there are the roofs, near the pinnacle, vaulted roofs (kids love those).

As expensive as the new Bazaar build pieces are, this one would expect them to (for starters, actually have the pieces advertised) be applicable for any tier of building.

It’s not just an issue with the format
This one makes no mystery of their distaste for Battle Passes and time limited affairs.
But even acknowledging the format, it’s not being executed tightly. It’s feels very cobbled together from pieces that don’t all fit.

If one is going to walk this route, at least let it be done well.

Sairdontis · 2022-09-11T00:14:07.505Z

So much truth here it is hard to add to it. Many already from other present threads my feelings on the prices and the purchasable pvp advantages available from the Bazaar. Give us more deco for a reasonable price and the need to make purchasable advantage will not be needed for your profit margin(s).

We players have always liked our shiny, spikey, and flashy things to spruce up our bases and outposts even on pvp servers so there will be no shortage of buyers for those things in this game providing , of course, that they priced correctly and are available (down with slimy FOMO) when we have the cash to purchase them.

Patients please @funcom at least allow us the span of time required to gather the funds for the goods and pretties you are creating (remove FOMO). Do this and you get your money rest assured.