Hello. Im making this post because a few minutes ago a Sub ‘Tell’ me and asked me if i want to join a dungeon, i had to answer to that question in NPH chat because im free to play. If you want to protect Subs from gold sellers or spam, then restrict Free to Play until level 30, at level 31 the Dungeons start, and we kinda sort of need the ‘Tell’ option. Earlier today i was gathering people for Sanctum of the Burning Souls, i had to ask subs in my guild or in group to contact people of my level in that zone to ask them if they want to join, i couldn’t because they were Subs. Please reconsider your restriction, it get’s in the way of the Subs too when they look for players for a dungeon. Make Free to Play to be able to ‘Tell’ subs from level 30 or 31.
Yes they should definitely get rid of this restriction, it’s really annoying for F2P players as well as Premium players, there were so many times I tried to help someone by sending tells but they weren’t able to see them.
I wouldn’t even say they need to be level 31 to use tells, just remove the restriction all together because lets be honest: gold sellers are really rare nowdays and they would never make the effort to actually send tells to individual players.
Absolutely they should get rid of this restriction. As soon as that restriction was placed into the game AND the stupid inability to see the “global” and “LFG” channels where the majority of the groups and raids are formed … I protested it on the forums …but nothing from funcom …no response at all …no changes made.
… the “tell” barrier is a pointless restriction which makes it harder for new players to communicate with people.
The inability to see all chat channels unless you have spend money in the ingame shop also means new players checking out the game do not see the full range of activity…
I have lost count of the number of times a new player has ask “is this game alive, is there still lots of pvp/groups/raids?” Only to be told by players “yes, there are but most form in the “global” channel and as f2p you can’t see it” … come on - how off putting is that to a new person… “welcome, but you will be excluded from 90% of the content as you can’t even see it is happening”
…it’s broken code …it is NOT linked to your account being “free to play” but to the account never having spent any money with funcom. If an account has been premium and lapses to free to play - they can STILL send tells…they can STILL see global and LFG … the code should be removed full stop … do not try to “fix” it …just get rid of it … put in place a better system to deal with gold-spammers IF that is justification for having channel and tell restrictions.
Its another outdated limitation that was placed in the game when F2P was still young and I noticed that the really old F2P games like LoTRo and EQ2 still have these things in place despite the fact that many of these limitations harmed their games more than helped. Most games that went F2P afterwards either made the limitation one that goes away after 10-20 levels (to try limit gold seller spam) or got rid of them all together.
Companies really do need to revisit their older games and increase the odds of seeing more revenue. EA just made a few changes to SWTOR and saw an applause from players when it comes to their shop and happy players spend more.
Unfortunately funcom went the other way with their shop. The ingame shop used to have a wider range of items to purchase from vanity to cheaper options on things like resurrection potions which resurrected you with differing amounts of health depending upon how expensive they were. eg something like 10% health for the cheapest to 75/100% at most expensive.
They also used to have options on some items, such as vanity and inventory bags to buy for your account for more money. It was coded very stupidly however because you could not see there was an option to buy account-wide unless you already HAD enough funcom points to purchase it. Resulting in players not knowing about the option and hence not spending more at the shop to unlock it. (Yes, players did post this on the old forums, but funcom did nothing to address it.)
Honestly I do not know if the current prices for the inventory bags etc would make it a similar amount to buy per character (say 9 characters) as it would have been to buy an account-wide option from the old shop. But instead of making them only available per toon, they could have made an option to also buy a bundle of them for your account for a discounted price …eg for three times the price of one bag you get five/six bags to claim on any toons on the account.
Changing the riding learning options from cheaper single training options to only one more expensive bundle that covers everything was also a dumb idea …
With regards to vanity items, mounts and pets … most of those social items got moved to the gilding token vendor. Which immediately became less appealing to players as gain in gilding tokens is rather limited and the items no longer sit in your claims…so NOW you have to have inventory space to hold the vanity clothing even when you don’t want to wear them … instead of being able to delete and reclaim later.
Not many in the community thought the reduced options and increased prices were a good move.
The restriction doesn’t stop anyone from SEEING the tells you send. They just are unable to reply, which is what the prompt says that you get when you send a tell to a F2p player.
Even though I’ll know a player can’t reply to me, I’ll still send them info in a Tell as I’ll know they’ll get it and it won’t be lost in the normal traffic on the chat channels.
Wait a second…you want to tell me that once Saga of Zath is over and my main is transfered to Crom, i won’t be able to see Global and LFG chats? If that’s true, im out of here. This is beyond ridiculous. This is not a good tactic to make Free to Play players think to spend money on a game, this is annoying and really off putting.
EDIT: I didn’t even knew until now that there are Global and LFG chat’s. Wow, just wow.
If you had / have premium or bought something in the item shop you should always be able to see (and be able to reply) all the chats as far as I know. This counts for the account so all your characters can use the chats, not only the one you bought something with.
Yes I know it is really stupid. I really wish Funcom would recognise this.
For people participating in Saga there is a strong incentive to make a purchase from the ingame shop … because in order to complete all of the Saga of Zath quest line you need to participate in four specific raids … two of these (the jade citadel and temple of Erik) are in zones that you have to purchase … (of course I am making the assumption that you will get to that stage in the quest line before Saga closes.)
Once you have spent any money on the ingame shop …no matter how trival…then all the chat channels will be permanently open to all your characters on the account. To see them you may need to check that you have “Autosubscribe to new channels” ticked in the menu that come up when you right click anywhere in the chat window interface other than the chat line …
I can’t say if the tell restrictions are removed by spending money in the ingame shop, I know they are when you go to premium and Stay removed even when you go back to free to play.
Even if you do not get to the point that you want the adventure packs whilst on Saga, after you reach level 80 and want to explore further or participate in a wider range of group dungeons and raids then purchase of one to three of the adventure packs will be of interest … you can do a lot without them …but eventually they are needed for raid and character progression if this is of any interest.
You will get those channels just by buying something from the shop and everyone, and I mean everyone should be buying at least 2 of those expansions if they want to stay. The most higher raid gear are from the expansions raids and Godslayer has a good deal of the level 80 content this game has.
Considering how Global is about 90% of the time you’re not missing much.
Honestly if you didn’t even know the channels existed than it’s not really effecting your gameplay. And if you have it on Saga, you’ll have it on Crom.
Most dungeons / raids are announced on both Global and NPH channels and if it doesn’t get listed on NPH it’s because it’s a dungeon / raid that F2p wouldn’t have anyway; Dragonspine, Turan, Khitai etc… If you had any of those, you’d have Global.
The LFG is actually the least used as most use NPH or Global.
Yeah i over reacted in that second message i wrote that you replied to, especially since i plan on buying one of the two AoC bundles from Steam anyway, but still my main problem and the reason i made this thread is Free to Play not being able to send Tells to subs, which is damaging in my opinion not only for grouping but also socializing.
In my week of playing this game i had lot’s of cases when someone said something funny or asked something in NPH chat and i wanted to send a Tell instead of writing in NPH and i couldn’t, not to mention a few cases where i wasted 20 seconds to write a paragraph to a player and in the end i got the message that i can’t send Tells to that person, so i just gave up. It’s annoying and of putting. In my opinion this restriction must either be removed completely or they should allow Free to Play to send Tells to subs from level 30 or 31.
EDIT: By the way, as Free to Play i can’t even send Tell’s to subs that are in the guild im in. Not even to guild mates.
The system is very restrictive and should be changed. F2p CAN send tells to those sub’s that they’re FRIENDS with, not a very useful feature when asking / answering a question I’ll grant you, but you’d think they’d code fellow Guild Members into the Friends category so you can conduct business some where other than the Guild Channel.
It is true that it is not a simple or useful system, it is necessary to enter a premium’s friendlist to be able to communicate with him, but I would not define this system as too restrictive.
Just pay one premium month or buy even a potion or a peanut at the shop (if you love the game, € 5, the price of a pack of cigarettes, ONCE IN LIFE) you spend them with pleasure and you get rid of any constraint, you become a f2p VIP user, you can read the GLOBAL chat and you can send TELL to anyone you want!
I find the new system of AoC f2p very forgiving, compared to many other fake f2p that are around, while the old AoC system was a fake f2p!
Can someone clarify this for me? Is this right:
- F2P (never paid a dime): Can not see Globals, can only see NPH and LFG, can only send tells to premium users if they are on the premiums friendlist, can send tells to other F2P
- F2P, bought something (anything) in the item shop: Can see Globals, but can not post in them (?), can only send tells to premium users if they are on the premiums friendlist, can send tells to other F2P - Or does buying anything in the item shop remove ALL chat restrictions forever?
- F2P, EX-premium: Can see Globals, can post in all channels, can send tells to everyone just like someone with a running sub can
It is confusing and outdated. Yes, I am a fan of paying for things and hobbies I like, and I do not quite understand the mentality of people who want everything “for free” (not realizing that they will get persuaded to pay anyway, but in a much more hidden and not open way). But as already mentioned: New people do not see the activity of the community. I do not share the impression that most dungeons open for F2P are anounced in NPH - I most certainly do rarely do that, just because it sucks to have to watch the NPH because real F2P can not tell me, and frankly because I do make destincions between F2P and premium players, assuming teaching the first ones is more likely a waste of time, because they are not commited enough to the game to pay. But this idea actually comes from the chat restrictions, I think. Otherwise I personally would not even know who is F2P or premium, becasue I play with a custom-ui that does not show this glowing stuff around names in raids (and groups?).
Bottom line: + for removing chat restrictions past lvl 30
F2P (never paid a dime):
1 - can write in every chat except GLOBAL
2 - can read every chat except GLOBAL
3 - can receive TELL from anyone
4 - can only write TELL to F2P or Premium players if they have added him in a friendlist. The premium player receives a message stating that this player is f2p and may not be able to respond to his tell.
F2P, bought something (anything) in the item shop:
no chat limitation. Can read global, can write in global, che receive tells from everyone, can send tell to everyone, forever.
F2P, EX-premium:
no chat limitation. Can read global, can write in global, che receive tells from everyone, can send tell to everyone, forever.
there is no difference between F2P, bought something and F2P, EX-premium they are seen by the game as the same thing!
FYI those Steam bundles are outdated and carry the old prices. Right now, you can buy that $59.99 Steam Package for around $20…in game (in America). Each expansion is on sale for $5 each in the in game store and that vanity item really is worthless unless you like the look so much you would pay $30 for it.
- Correct.
- NO, once you’ve bought something with real money all restrictions on chat go away. You can post, chat, tell to anyone.
Correct.
There’s really no way to tell who’s who while playing. And all the above info is kind of flexible depending on how old your account is. My main account was started when only sub’s were a thing so I’ve never had any restrictions.
My oldest alt account (2009) was started right when the game went F2p, has never had any money spent on it, but can still see Global and use tells. I also have an alt account started in 2010 that can see everything and send tells.
My newist alt account from 2016 can’t see Global or use Tells.
It is a silly, confusing system. One ‘cheap’ way of explaining it better would be to just list 3 account types like many other games do; you’re either F2p (never spent money), Premium (you’ve spent money in the store or used to have an account) and VIP (actively paying for an account). If you think in those terms explaining the restrictions is easier, in nothing else.
I’ll second the comment on this being the time to get rid of those restrictions by spending money in the store. While Saga is going all expansions work out to less than $5.00 in cost, which beats the normal price by a mile.
you are in wrong. They can send tell to other f2p players or to premium player that have them in friendlist.
I didn’t know that, never had a reason to send tells on my no gloabal alt account. Just tested it and corrected my above post.
Thank you for pointing out my error.