disappointed

[nukedwolf]

Just a little disappointed in sts. Your using a holiday to increase your income. Events are ment to give back to the players that keep you in business not a way to get more money out of them. Personally ive invested over 90$ a month to sts. now when its time to give my money to my family you try to suck more money out of me? No more money to sts from me hope your kids get everything they want.. just my 2 cents.

[Kxrma]

Just enjoy the game.
At least you can buy platinum, I pay bills, rent... Ehhh..

[Samhayne]

Hey Nukedwolf,

I'm sorry that you feel that way. From my standpoint I feel like we are working hard to give free-to-play players more and more options. For example the Bard Quests and how you can get previously only obtained with Platinum extra character slots, Face and Hair options and inventory slots. In the future we will be adding avenues to get respecs without having to have Platinum and extra stash slots. We strongly value our free-to-play players. Without all of them in the game, well, it just wouldn't be the same or nearly as fun.

In the Tarlok's Wrath event you can obtain everything (with the exception of the Winters Rage vanities) for tokens, all of which can be obtained by simply playing the game, for free. Sure, it can take some time to accumulate them, but the event will be around for a month, so there is a good amount of time to go for what you want.

We sincerely appreciate your business. We know that the holidays are a time of family and friends. While we hope that Spacetime Games entertainment alternatives are fun options for you to consider, we can totally understand your decision to save your disposable income for other pursuits. As to the feeling that we are trying to trick you somehow (if I am summing up your feelings correctly) - again I'm sorry you feel that way. Our objectives are not to trick anyone, but to provide fun entertainment for people who enjoy our type of games. The option to pay is just that - optional.

Many people have additional time and disposable income during the holidays. Looking around the web and around the retail space, many companies run promotions, events and sales during this time. Some appreciate that (by taking advantage of the offerings) and some bemoan how the holidays have become more mercantile. I can see both sides of the coin and I get where you are coming from. I edited your post to remove a bit of name calling and appreciate you keeping the feedback friendly in the future. We are all people too.

Respectfully yours,
Samhayne

[Rare]

I don't understand. I haven't spent any money on this event. And no platinum either. So I have no idea where you're coming from.

If you need to spend money on your family, you should do that. Don't blame sts for the fact you are conflicted about it.

[UnderAgeKids]

Its not STS fault that make u press the PLAT PURCHASE button. Its your own decision..

[nukedwolf]

I agree with you on the free-to-play players sam. Im just annoyed with the lack of portals I hunted portals all day yesterday and only opened 3. I have been playing mmos since the early 90s and have watched alot of games I enjoy to play go under becuase the push for cash spending. And yes I do agree you guys are working very hard to improve the over all game play for free players. Im speaking directly on the events last years xmas event was the same way. The october event was extremely well designed and well balanced for both payed and non payed players.. I guess what im trying to say is with the length of the event and the way its been setup cash players will flood the game before free players even have a chance to experience the event.This event is basically designed to make the rich richer and the poor to hope more. And I appologize if my word come off as negative. I enjoy playing this game and have since day 1.this is why I invest 20-90$ a week and rarly do I spend that on me most goes to my guild for the players that cant afford good pets and gear. And sorry if this isnt articulated very well I had a heat stroke when I was younger and its hard for me to put sentences together. I just want to see everyone enjoy your hard work not just the people that have platinum. I have the platinum to run tarlok over and over but id rather save it to help players then to flood the server to better my toons, however not everyone feels the same as me and if you look at you cs youll undersrand what I mean. With that said Sam your guys do an amazing job I hope to be as talented as them one day as a fellow autodesk enthusiast. I just see my friends already giving up on the event and it hasnt even hit full swing yet. Hope you understand and again sorry if im hard to understand I deal better in numbers than words

[Samhayne]

Hey Nukedwolf,

Thanks for your understanding. I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know how you feel. Tarlok's Wrath is an evolution of what we did for Halloween. The portals are a method to stretch the event over a much longer timeframe. At the end of the day we will see how thigs play out, evaluate and go from there.

Warm regard to your family and friends for the holidays.

Respectfully yours,
Samhayne

[Anarchist]

Nuked i will be frank and sincere this game is actually free to play and you can REALLY buy anything you want if you know how to make money and grind those maps till they are dry...buying plats in my opinion is just a
means to fasten the process of you getting the best things ingame you can actually get for 0$ and more gameplay and efficient merch...Now nobody forces anybody to to buy plats its a gamble you take on your own and if you gamble get very prepared to lose. for me plats are for those "lazy" players who want the best and want it now, Patience is the key bro...just my 2.


Omg increase the portals chance rate, meeeh!!!

[Impact]

I agree with you both, the new events are more for plat users but if you really wanna complete the 15 days, just farm for the quest drops while fighting bosses, I've done so and got so far usually at least 1 portal/10 runs in rooks hideout. But, the new things from Rodrick are a bit overpriced... I vanity costs 550 tokens,convert that that to plat and it costs over 60... Many people don't get enough plats from native x so its kidda a problem. U get like 8 tokens per portal run so not that much... However, i think sts should indeed make some money from richer players due to their hard and long work on al and the other legends games. But the event should be so you get 1 free portal a day so people can actually get the banner and some tokens.

[Sage south]

Hehe hint: just do southern seas and you won't be disappointed. Takes about 2 minutes to run the map and you will see those pesky portals pretty fast (at least from my experience).

Also, regarding plat, I haven't spent a cent on this event yet. I just did a few free offers to fight tarlok about once or twice, but that's it.

Anyway, just remember to enjoy yourself. When you see yourself get frustrated, take a break and come back later.

[nukedwolf]

And again I sincerely appologize to anyone that took offense to what I was trying to say like I said I am no good with words. Hope the very best for everyone

[GoodSyntax]

I will admit that in Shuyal elite maps, these portals open quite often (probably about 30-40% after a boss kill).

True, you will go through pots like they are on fire, but I enjoy elite runs immensely, and the fact that 1 out of 3 Ferrix or Overgrowth kills yields a portal is just a bonus.

I think that the reason for the difference between Halloween and this event is that so many players just abused Brackenridge and Yrda Forest maps, which, as if it's not bad enough everyone farms locked there, you had those maps swamped during Halloween. Frankly, my thought is that the harder maps should yield better and more consistent rewards, which is what this event seems to be doing.

True, there is the shortcut, pay some plat method to attain the gear, but this seems good.

[MetalForce]

I raged when the event first came out, then calmed down and grinded for portals to see what would happen. Still have yet to see a Tarlok portal, and the other 3 drop seldomly. So yes, this event was poorly made or intentionally made to force you to spend more platinum.

[xXz21]

I agree with you both, the new events are more for plat users but if you really wanna complete the 15 days, just farm for the quest drops while fighting bosses, I've done so and got so far usually at least 1 portal/10 runs in rooks hideout. But, the new things from Rodrick are a bit overpriced... I vanity costs 550 tokens,convert that that to plat and it costs over 60... Many people don't get enough plats from native x so its kidda a problem. U get like 8 tokens per portal run so not that much... However, i think sts should indeed make some money from richer players due to their hard and long work on al and the other legends games. But the event should be so you get 1 free portal a day so people can actually get the banner and some tokens.

Make money? sure if u play all the days all the time u make good money and got rich fast..

i have a life, work, home, friends and i don't have the same time than urs. im a casual player and this game have no fun for casual players thats 1 of the reason why i left AL and return to Aion..

if anyone of u guys play AION just go to check the AION event. and come back to talk.

OFICIAL AION EVENT NA AION.

just to see the big diference. all is free for all any any with money can get a advantage than u.. thats very good. and u don't need play 2-3 years to be good thats all..

i like AL but really i see the commercy is destroyed in this game. i see the people who play AL 90% of then is the first MMORPG theys play on all life..

why Malison down price? i never see the pets are for diferent lv so i can't understand the people for down price..

why Grimm don't up price after event finish? i don't see how the people can get it again if u CAN'T get it bcus no more with plat.

Grimm down price LOL should up more..

Farming on AL is destroyed all the stuff u farm cost 50-100k and mytics/arcane 3-50m

just the archon rings are good to farm and the drops is very hard and is not easy to sell. (now with ''gems'') impossible..

Craft is very strange and i don't like it..

crafting stone? lol and need wait 24 hours? this game is very hard for non-money players but very easy for money players WHY? bcus if u spend money u don't need wait 48 hours for a SIMPLE STONE.

compared to another game really i never see another game u need wait 48 hours to put a stone or make it normally on all games i just go to kill mobs and drop all stone i need..

crafting stone is not really good i think crafting is to made armors/helms/weaponds/potions/scrolls or upgrade items.

should be a Drops and should be a diferent lv gems.

this is my opinion pls don't take it bad.

[Enikuabe]

You definitely do not need to spend plats during this event unless you want to buy snowball.The rest can be obtained through farming portals and besides like Sam side they gave us a whole month to get what we want.Average farming should at least get you 50 tokens at least?Thats 1.5k tokens in a month and thats only a minimum estimate.Therefore this event is not actually platinum oriented unless you are a lazy player and decide to buy portals/tokens.

[MetalForce]

How can you average 50 tokens when portals are random? That's means 50 tokens could be 2 hours of play or 12 hours of play, either one is a lot for a casual player. I've spent enough time grinding to earn almost 200 tokens for event. Probably took about 10 hours gameplay. And during that whole time spent grinding, I got 2 chests, 1 silver and 1 copper. For 10 hours of straight grinding. THIS is what ppl are complaining about, is how bloody long it takes if you're not spending plat to quick access zones

[Sceazikua]

Nukedwolf, you dont need to spend plats on the portals to Tarlok. If you only want to complete the quest, then its easy because you only need 1 portal, and if you want to farm strong bosses for better frozen chests without effort to find many portals, you can make a choice to use plat. The Tarlok's gears would be rare without the exploit. And all you should do is to get a better tatic, I dont mean the exploit. This is what I and my guild mates were doing when it came out: we make party of four, split up on ydra maps and grind the easy maps over and over, one finds portal in every 5 minutes of the runs. If you do the easy maps, there is a chance for locked grand crate too, and ribbit egg if you do the mother. On the other hand, if you make a party and run elite Shuyal or Nordr, you have a chance for elite legendary gears too, which is very awarding and also higher chance for portals. For example, if you loot a pylon of bru lvl 36 and sell for 500k, it is more than days of grinding the winter bosses for the flooded legendary gears in cs.

[nukedwolf]

Enik your basing your math off of end game players. Do the math for a lvl 15 player that cant enter kraken, nord, elite, ect the average lvl 15 player can earn about 24 tokens a day based of the percentages of the portals in there level range. Now if that player would like to use any of the new recipes, how long do you think they will have to farm essences before the event is over? Still seems like a 1 sided coin to me. The coding and visuals of this event are in a term immaculate. But formulas used seem to negate lower levels, I understand they dropped the bosses down to be more forgiving to lower lvls but that does minimal good if they cant get there. And on average it takes 2hr to complete these dailies on a lvl 21, my lvl 35 takes about 45mins to complete, and my lvl 10 has taken anywhere from 2-3hrs just to put it into some perspectives of time, the achievement savior of frozen hope is a long shot for lower levels. Not saying its impossible just a long shot and i feel the happiness of future players is crucial. I would hate to see some one work an entire month towards a goal they phyiscally cant achieve. My apologies for seeming like a negative nancy. Next time I see a concern I will try to aproach it in a more postive/private matter. I just knew there wasnt much time for debates or politcal punctuation and was unaware of the speedy response I would recieve by the staff. If I would have known I would have never made this post I would have sent my thoughts privately to the staff.I am glad to see sts follow so closely to there players and do care about their opinions. Hope everyones a savior this winter

[Striderevil]

They are allowing mythic eggs to be bought and traded, most gear can be bought if you grind and get good drops especially on elite maps. In fact this time Slag cant be directly bought so I'd say its an advantage for free players.

Nuked lower level players can be higher level in around a week of grinding. Sure they can't enjoy every event to its fullest due to the limitations of their level (like killing Tarlok at lvl 15) but that is to be expected. Their gear is not expensive to obtain and reaching lvl 25 is fairly simple. At this level most really good gear can be purchased for less than 10k. Also this is an add on event that makes it interesting. First the holloween and now this. You can't really say anything that justifies this being a pro pay game.

However some amount of payment for gear is also justified unless you like to work for free. This game is very balanced as far as pay vs non pay goes and I'm hard pressed to find fault with the developers. If anyone puts in the time they can get all the gear from mythics to arcane

[nukedwolf]

They are allowing eggs to be bought and traded, but where do you obtain these eggs? Locks, how do you open locks again? I forget;) thanks for proving my point about it focusing more on the platinum spenders:) if that was for free players those eggs would have a .0002% chance to drop from imbued chest

[MetalForce]

Well, it SHOULD be engineered to give paying customers something for they're money. But I see what you're saying. Up until this event I would say its been very fair for free players vs "whales". I use the term whale because if you only spend under $20 a month you're not really buying everything, you still have to grind with all the free players. This event was the first time I went on forums to say that the plat vs non-plat is incredibly one sided. Oh, and still have yet to get a Tarlok portal... if I spent more money I could fight him 10 times a day, but since I only spend $10 or so a month, I don't have the plat right now to face the Arlor boss

[Sceazikua]

you didnt get the point, nukedwolf. What MetalForce was saying is that: you cant purchase the pets with gold before,so its impossible. and now if you have enough gold you can buy the pets with gold, so its possible. He didnt say that "you have a chance to get mythic pets with plat" but "with gold".

[Anarchist]

Sts said This event is based on a long period term thats why portals are so hard to find and i understand this it make sense to me. So organize with ur guildmates split up in different easy maps and farm portals things get easier if you do this way in 1 hrs farm u can get 5-6 portals...Trust me if u farm portals alone get prepared to have a haaaard time.

[nukedwolf]

Think you missed my point if somebody didnt use platinum to obtain those eggs they still would not be available. And at roughly 5m an egg proves my point of the rich get richer. But then again if someone didnt spend real money none of the mythics or arcanes would be readily available. So its safe to say im loosing an uphill battle, I wont post on this topic anymore since it is basically a waste of time and is an unnecessary arguement. I dont have 4 years to explain long term physics of storyboarding and balancing of consignment for the longevity of a game without effecting income.lets just say theyre limiting the potential of this game based on the ability for players to play. please understand im trying to say this without spilling the beans of how free-to-pay games work cause if I did I can assure you nobody would be happy anymore. And just a mear glimpse of that, the average price of an arcane egg based on its rarity and price to open lock your looking at about a 300 $ (us currency) pet. Now kids go ask your parents for 300$ for a pet on a free to play game, your parents will probably laugh and tell you a real animal doesnt cost that much. Just one perspective of free-to-pay

[Frohnatur]

I have never spent a dime.

I am: Full myth, including scythe. I was leaderboards (before I went on 8 weeks vacation, lol). I am guildmaster of a nice and friendly guild. I have 80+ pets (including twink pets). I have 2 twinks, endorsed with top notch equipment and the best pets I need for that level and class.

Again. I have never spent a dime.

All I have is a little more time than the average joe, because I am a housekeeping dad (with all the disadvantages that come with it, but I do not complain here).

If you dont have much time, then you use this time obviously to make money. Therefore, it is okay to spent money to save time. Thats the deal. You cant have both.

Dont blame sts. Their model is perfectly socialist, in the best meaning of the word. That a company needs to make money... I even get that in to my old east german socialist brain.

What is left to complain? Technicalities. And only that.

If you spent $90 a week and you cant move on properly, well, then there's something to consider about your play-style.

Top Positions are not buyable. Believe it or not.

[BodMaster]

They are allowing mythic eggs to be bought and traded, most gear can be bought if you grind and get good drops especially on elite maps. In fact this time Slag cant be directly bought so I'd say its an advantage for free players.

Nuked lower level players can be higher level in around a week of grinding. Sure they can't enjoy every event to its fullest due to the limitations of their level (like killing Tarlok at lvl 15) but that is to be expected. Their gear is not expensive to obtain and reaching lvl 25 is fairly simple. At this level most really good gear can be purchased for less than 10k. Also this is an add on event that makes it interesting. First the holloween and now this. You can't really say anything that justifies this being a pro pay game.

However some amount of payment for gear is also justified unless you like to work for free. This game is very balanced as far as pay vs non pay goes and I'm hard pressed to find fault with the developers. If anyone puts in e they can get all the gear from mythics to arcane

Unsure if you have read this back to yourself, but I'm in total disagreement with all said above.

First off the whole Pet Egg = Plat sales has always been the gig there's no denying that. People that like to be rich ig buy hundreds of the things and sell them when the event drops (The longer they wait the higher the value, this doesn't just go for Pets this goes for all Plat obtained and not farmed items that can be traded hence the current economy). This works for both players and StS since both are getting "rich" in their own ways. Which leaves the freemium (non-plat) players wishing they could even have the slight chance of ever obtaining one of them. Their belief would be that there should be some way no matter how small the percentage of obtaining these through normal means.

I'm not sure if you're aware but even when this model first appeared in SL Xmas event, you could challenge the Xmas boss for rewards at any level. Level shouldn't be a restriction, since it's all about the holiday spirit.

I've not been back long, but I for one can tell you it's not as easy to level and have Mythic/Arcane gear as you're making it out to be, not even Legendary. The only way I see a freemium getting this sort of gear is being at Cap when the release hits so you can farm the the Elite maps at your leisure. I'm lvl 28 (from 21) after two log ins (one being the double xp wkend) and without Plat haven't obtained a single piece of gear that is better than any of the S2 gear I have on atm. Not even a accessory or pet. Though if I was a Plat player I would have the equivalent to the top tier gear at every campaign to advance. I do not see how this is as you put it "pay vs non-pay goes" as you're making it out to be for lower levels trying to advance. Sure like I said if I was around for each Cap raise and at Elite lvl then it be just as you say for a freemium player, but not for player levelling up/trying to advance in any way, shape or form.

Since I've been back from a very long break, I can easily see how this game has become/or is becoming P2W, I had seen the signs early on, the above statement plus the feedback from well known players (Tell me as it is, no sugar coating) only proves this further.

On the portal subject, the portal's idea was well planned out, I have no issue's about that. Sure premium players have a helping hand (and also get to rudely jump in your portal run and get the chest drop and then thank you for it d: ) But it's a huge step forward from the previous games events in the sense of content for all. (2p per run, unable to run more than once a day without was dire)

Guess I have been pretty lucky, as I've come across 3/4 portals while running solo through all new maps trying to get a feel for the game again. Though I'm sure that luck would change if I was actually farming them :p

[MetalForce]

I wish I could "like" the last two posts

[becky_xil]

Plat spending is at ur own wil.. but this event.. naaa.. prefer form locked and elite bacj

Send using my cellphone.. yes my cellphone

[aarrgggggg]

My 2 cents, The only two things i am interested in from this event (now that the portals have 90 second timers on them, and rift drop rates seem very low)

Is the banner i will receive after i have completed 15 days and Delphinas contest.

Rifts are certainly not a viable way 2 make in game gold unless u get super lucky and get breezaga and sell it.

Rifts are like a bonus you might get throughout your normal gameplay, but farming rifts seems a bit daunting.

In short these rifts are like essences, something you will get via regular gameplay not something you should set out to farm.

With that said rifts drop rate does seem slightly low.

Yes plat spenders have a new way to make gold giving them a huge advantage yet again, but this is not new to this game.

Plat spenders have always and will always have an advantage.

[LordDravek]

The never ending battle of plat play vs free play strikes again! No matter what you think or say, just remember, this is a game... but it's also a business. The plat player advantage is what the game is built around. The free play is something thrown in, like a demo that attracts new players. Someone has to pay the bills for all the planning, coding, designing, support, servers, and maintenance... and that's what plat players do.

You have to put things into perspective:

Kid Billy plays for free all day long. Teen Dereck uses mom's credit card for a one-time deal and bought $100 of plat and plays after school. Hard working Drave pays $1000/month and plays 1 hour when the woman isnt looking. Who should have an advantage? "Lets base it all on luck and keep the market pretty!"

I think the STS team has done a great job in balancing the budget. I think they've also done a great job with allowing free players to acquire the plat purchased gear via the cs. My worst fear about these type of games are always lazy designers who have cash fever... Which we are starting to notice (different pets with same stats, plat purchasing fast track areas, new crap pink gear that doesn't do anything better than white crap, etc...) Most of us don't even recognize the white green blue junk anymore due to so much crap pink we sort through.

There's a lot of statistics involved.

[drawfflerz]

Sam, u already told that.... so... why not make platinum sale for discount? This is holiday event!

[nelson131]

yup i know that this event is free to play, but the lair spawn rate is way too low. i killed bosses 10 times and didnt even get a portal.
should slightly increase the spawn rate. thx

[Samhayne]

Thread closed at original posters request.