Warning: Blessings nerf headed our way

[Kixxler]

Every time i'm way too lazy to go through all my chars and click daily blessing.

[McBain]

Im pretty sure they nerfed the plat rewards already. I got 100+ the first couple weeks, and 10-20 since. I have 17 toons I think.

That's weird, because after not getting anything except for gold and elixirs for the longest time, I've gotten 100+ plat in the past few weeks or so, and I only have 2 toons.

I'd much rather have 30 plat than a 3x combo myself. By far. Just my preference. I'll take whatever STS wants to dish out, since it's all free and whatnot. I feel a little sad for people who would create toons just to take advantage of this system, although I think we all saw it coming.

[Heroelite]

It has to already have been nerfed. This is BS I got 4 1 platinum rewards on my day 5 on my 35 characters in game. Got 3 3x combo elixirs, 3 2500 gold, and rest were shields and 1.5x combo elixirs. So now they are nerfing it twice??

[Suentous PO]

Any system that is exploitable will be exploited. This speaks to a bigger challenge that I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

We obviously don't want to give away huge amounts of plat because it is our source of revenue. We do, however, want to encourage you guys to come back on a regular basis.

What would be a set of awesome, non-exploitable rewards that would not ruin the economy (like gold) or our revenues (like platinum)?

Thanks Snakes for broaching the subject!

- g

Couple thoughts. I loved the blessings from day one because it's the perfect solution to gripes like "you have to have plat to play" ( I don't believe this, but hear it). When anyone said- this game isn't free to play I would reply that the blessings prove that wrong. Getting a free 3x is the best thing to happen in a while!
One solution might be that there is a cap of how much plat could be made on an acc. Say anyone had the chance to get the 30 ONCE on that acc ( or similar ceiling ) that way non buyers still had a chance. I think this would prevent exploitation to a large degree. To abuse this solution would require multiple acc, and even then it's only a chance at it receiving. This also would be time consuming to try to exploit. Even if (when lol) someone tried to exploit this they would only have plat spread across multi acc making it kinda pointless to try to hoard.
Or you could have a limit of how much possibly could be received per month on any acc. Once that is reached you only have the chance at better elixirs/vanities ect.
I think the elixirs are perfect as is. Please don't change these.

[Lowlyspy]

Please don't change these.

They've already been changed, i vote change them back (the elixirs anyway). I like getting the 3x then stacking a week long 2x and a thrasher for some massive xp gain, it's fun. The chance of getting a 3x before was perfect the way it was, between Blacksmoke launching and when the elixir blessings were nerfed (assuming they were and everybody else isn't just getting REEEEALLY unlucky) i got 2 3x elixirs. I got to use both of those to level my main rather quickly which is nice with these high xp requirements for levels.

EDIT: And of course some replacement vanities for those shields would be cool too. Never liked them to begin with tbh.

[Jcyee]

Hmm... I actually agree. I like the 3x combo elixir better than plat. Esp on my main. I just hate it when i get a 3x combo on my other char lol

[Suentous PO]

Hell I'd be fine if I couldn't get plat but still had a chance at free 3x.

[Ladyviviane]

Any system that is exploitable will be exploited. This speaks to a bigger challenge that I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

We obviously don't want to give away huge amounts of plat because it is our source of revenue. We do, however, want to encourage you guys to come back on a regular basis.

What would be a set of awesome, non-exploitable rewards that would not ruin the economy (like gold) or our revenues (like platinum)?

Thanks Snakes for broaching the subject!

- g

M graceful to have plats, elix n items on daily blessing . I have nothing to complain about coz Sts do not have to put those on games . Tyvm to make this more fun n more human 😘

[McBain]

What would be a set of awesome, non-exploitable rewards that would not ruin the economy (like gold) or our revenues (like platinum)?

I think DL has the right idea with the blessings in a couple ways:

1. In DL, you get XP with the daily blessings rather than gold. To me and probably a lot of other people, that's a better incentive to log in every day anyway, and furthermore it's not exploitable.

2. DL has all the special vanities that you can get as the 5-day prize, and you can create sets with them (or mix and match as you see fit). People are always clamoring for more and different vanities. The shields were a good start, but you could add other special vanities or simply color variations on existing ones. Again, this is something that I think people want, and it's not really exploitable unless you're just bat poo crazy about collecting vanities. And in the same vein as this idea...

3. In DL, you always get "something" as the 5th day prize. In order words, you're guaranteed to get one of the vanities unless you get platinum, but platinum is much more rare. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I've never gotten platinum as a prize in DL since the daily rewards were added. At any rate, knowing you'll get something every 5 days is an incentive to keep it going. Sure, with PL you technically always get something, but nobody gets excited about the 2500 gold, 1.25 elixirs, or the 1 plat prizes you can get on the 5th day, for example. We appreciate the fact that you don't have to do this at all, and these are being given to us free, but they don't provide a huge incentive to continually strive for the 5th day.

On the flip side, the daily elixirs are a nice touch to the blessings that DL doesn't have, so that is an upside. To sum up, my suggestion would be to give XP rather than gold as the every day blessings, and for the 5-day, ditch the 2500 gold and small plat amount prizes (just have plat in the larger amounts and make it rarer) and increase the number of vanities that it's possible to get.

[Cobraguy]

Any system that is exploitable will be exploited. This speaks to a bigger challenge that I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

We obviously don't want to give away huge amounts of plat because it is our source of revenue. We do, however, want to encourage you guys to come back on a regular basis.

What would be a set of awesome, non-exploitable rewards that would not ruin the economy (like gold) or our revenues (like platinum)?

Thanks Snakes for broaching the subject!

- g

The elixirs are great, has really helped me out on my current grind to 76. I agree with most by saying the 3x combo is the best reward of all.

Maybe make the system to where you can only claim a blessing on a certain amount of toons above a certain level. I'm sure most low level twinks arent that excited to get a 3x combo on their level 10-15 pvp toon, as it does nothing for them in said pvp.

I may be 31 years old, but the kid in me still gets excited when that 3x combo flashes across the screen on my main. Thats when its farming time, I take full advantage of that blessing.

The plat is nice to get for certain other elixirs and vanities I may want to get, comes in handy at times, but if I was to vote for anything to go away, it would be the plat rewards or the shields above the 3x. I really wouldn't play as much if that wasn't available anymore due to the fact that the 3x combo has been the major factor of me playing more now than ever.

[Rushorgtfo]

Any system that is exploitable will be exploited. This speaks to a bigger challenge that I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

We obviously don't want to give away huge amounts of plat because it is our source of revenue. We do, however, want to encourage you guys to come back on a regular basis.

What would be a set of awesome, non-exploitable rewards that would not ruin the economy (like gold) or our revenues (like platinum)?

Thanks Snakes for broaching the subject!

- g

Make blessings only available for 3 characters on one acc maximum. Or give "present boxes" filled with vanities 1-5 platnium 5,000 Gold. An anything else you feel is appropriate. This way even if people want to go through making more acc and buying slots to get the blessings it's only 1-5 platnium 5,000 gold and a vanity on day 5 so if anyone were to abuse it they'd one have to spend plat to get slots supplying your revenue and the plat they'd get would be such a low number it'd be no use. And they'd just give up every 5 days 40 plat for abusers? Enough for 1 hour elixer? Meh making. 3 acc to get 8 characters with blessing waiting every 5 days for 1 hour of elixer? I think my suggestion is reasonable. That's only my two cents

[Kraze]

I'd be ok with plat being dl rare with the mixing in like "red cyber" armor vanity or something along the lines. Have so many shields may need to start liquidating

[Cobraguy]

I also feel that a possible ban for CHEATERS would be a fair thing to do too...I'm sure its pretty obvious whose accounts have a toon army strictly for cheating this system. I've seen bans handed over for less....

[Snakespeare]

I love SuentousPO's idea of simply putting a cap on the possible reward an account can have per day, per week, per month. It's great as it is. All you really have to do is establish limits.

[Energizeric]

Any system that is exploitable will be exploited. This speaks to a bigger challenge that I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

We obviously don't want to give away huge amounts of plat because it is our source of revenue. We do, however, want to encourage you guys to come back on a regular basis.

What would be a set of awesome, non-exploitable rewards that would not ruin the economy (like gold) or our revenues (like platinum)?

Thanks Snakes for broaching the subject!

- g

Very simple, eliminate plat entirely from blessings. But instead give some more vanities, but not goofy rediculous looking ones. I know techno loves weird items and stuff, but for more serious gamers we just don't use them and they are pretty useless. How about some new vanity shields, but ones that people would actually want to wear as their regular shield. How about some vanity shields to match the very popular dragon sets? One in each color. Or how about some nice vanity armors. What we don't need is more vanity helms -- plenty of those already exist. Also, you could make some more variety to the elixirs. How about instead of just xp, armor, dmg, and combos, you could make a speed elixir (just increased speed for a day), or a luck elixir (just 30% luck for the day).

Also, maybe you need to put a limit on how many toons someone can have in one account. I just have a single toon, and have never made another. I realize that some people want to have a few, but having 30 or 50? That's just crazy and not useful for any other reason than to exploint the game in one way or another. Some people got toons to farm twink items -- an exploit of the game in my opinion. And now people making toons just for the daily blessing? Ugh!! Try playing fairly for once. I guess nobody actually wants to compete in this game on a level playing field.

Obviously way too late to implement this idea, but the idea of the stash should never have existed. The purpose of making a new toon is to play the game with that toon, not for that toon to be a "helper" to your main toon. If their was no stash, and each toon was self sufficient and no sharing between toons, then none of these crazy issues would exist.

[thekdub]

I don't think I get rewarded enough platinum to see how this is being abused. They are getting 1k gold daily and a slim chance at platinum every 5 days for each toon? Seems like way to much trouble to me.

[Piosidon]

Make the minimum lvl to use blessings lvl 30 and change 30 plat to 20 plat

[Energizeric]

Here's a very simple idea.... make it take extra time to change between toons. Just add a 30 second or 1 minute delay. For those who casually change between toons, this will make no difference, and for those who are abusing the system, this will put an end to it. If there is a 1 minute delay and you got 100 toons, they just added almost 2 hours to your daily blessing collection time.

[drewcapu]

Also, maybe you need to put a limit on how many toons someone can have in one account. I just have a single toon, and have never made another. I realize that some people want to have a few, but having 30 or 50? That's just crazy and not useful for any other reason than to exploint the game in one way or another. Some people got toons to farm twink items -- an exploit of the game in my opinion.

Nerf accounts that have over a certain number of alts. Maybe 20-30?
Who really needs that many alts anyways?

Excuse me. I disagree completely.

A long time ago I made a bunch of mage alts with the specific task of farming specific scaled level items. At the time I made one for every 5 levels up to L50. This was back when you actually had to have a group of 20-22s, 28-30s, 50-52s to get the drop level you wanted.

Around the time when the BS era finally ended I made more toons in preparation for new campaigns. I made mages that would end up being twinks up to L100.

When they changed the drop mechanic to have loot drop for your level regardless of the highest toon in the instance, I was quite peeved. Scaled farming was essentially nerfed since you could now farm while higher levels were present.

While the value of my farming twinks were lessened, I found an alternate form of enjoyment with them. I found that I actually like playing older maps with level appropriate toons. (Just don't get me started on the annoyance that they no longer gain kills) It's a nice feeling to find someone struggling on a map by themselves and then help them out without using "a main".

When the Forgotten event happened, I added a bird army so that all the bows I got could be used. Yes, every 5 levels. I only bothered getting Forgotten items every 5 levels, plus some strategic levels based on stats as well.

Then blessings were added.

I didn't really do blessings when it was first introduced. The SF Giants were doing well, and I attended as many games as I could.

Then I discovered you can get plat from them. So of course I tried it!

When my first 5th day finally came around, I got enough plat to essentially make a bear army, so I did! After all, I've got a ton of Str gear from all campaigns that are basically sitting around.

I'm not as big a plat buyer as a lot of other players who frequent the forums, but I do have "enough". I could've made a bear army a long time ago if I wanted. Blessings basically gave me the motivation to work on them sooner. I mean, c'mon, 3x combo blessings for 24 hours? They allow me to more efficiently play the toons with 3x + dailies for 5 minutes each and then come back around once all of them have exhausted their daily.

I played a lot during BS. Maybe more than I should have.
I didn't play much during Nuri because, well we all know why.
I played a bit during Mount Fang because some of the bosses were pretty fun. Almost to the caliber of AO3/BS, but not quite.
Humania I didn't play as much because I just didn't find it that interesting.

But now with blessings, everybody has a good excuse to at least log in every day and play for a bit. That's a good thing!

I'm all for a blessings nerf. I've pm'd G my basic thoughts on it, some of which others have now mentioned in this thread.

There is a balance somewhere, and I'm sure STS will find it.

But, please, don't ever say anybody who has a ton of toons has them to abuse the game just because of what such a person can do with them regarding blessings. There are many players who've had many toons long before blessings were around.

Here's a very simple idea.... make it take extra time to change between toons. Just add a 30 second or 1 minute delay. For those who casually change between toons, this will make no difference, and for those who are abusing the system, this will put an end to it. If there is a 1 minute delay and you got 100 toons, they just added almost 2 hours to your daily blessing collection time.

Won't work at all. Did you notice how people were dissatisfied when the DOTD popped up between every toon change during last weekend for the Big Lucks? Personally, it didn't bother me. But that was just one click and it was gone. A 30-60 second delay, heck even a 10 second delay is enough for people to bring out the pitchforks. People already complain when Fetching Greatness takes 10 seconds.

I don't think they need "another" delay. There's already an effective delay in place with the toon list scroll. I used to think that scrolling was a pain in the butt, but then I realized it had quite a few essential purposes which may or may not have been STS' intention. I don't think I have 100 toons, but I would hate to scroll though that thing with anywhere above 100 toons.

[Fyrce]

I actually think maybe it's already nerfed and it's ok?

As for level limits, most of my toons are below level 30 and have been there for most of this year or longer. They were made to play low level farming, areas, and events, NOT for blessings.

When blessings came along, great, but blessings were not the reason multiple low level toons were made.

There are many people who enjoy the low level game occasionally. Low level toons should not be punished just for existing. They have already been nerfed enough. L1's can no longer access the stash. I still have my L1s because I enjoyed them quite a bit when they were useful for kill farming and uncomplicated PvP.

Playing specific areas with specific level toons is still quite fun, though it definitely was more interesting when they could kill farm.

I am hoping that nerfing the rewards, to a 1-5-10 system for plat, should work. Perhaps a trade-in system for the faces might be interesting.

Another thought:

I think that for me, blessings worked the way they were supposed to -- they got me back to playing. At least for the characters that received the 3x blessings.

I had mostly stopped grinding in PL, particularly when DL did not require that. I played Humania for 1-2 days and have yet to be in that new area. I played with the idea of leveling my mains but grinding did not excite me that much.

One day, I heard some people talking about blessings in chat so I tried it. Once I got the hang of it, I noted down which toons got the combo ones and started playing when toons I wanted to level received the 3x combo. Usually I made use of just an hour or so of the 24 hours, but I think that was the idea behind the daily blessings: to get people to come back and play PL more regularly.