Throughts on the energy and lb system

[Serancha]

After running the leaderboard for 2 days, I added up the bosses killed (thanks to the new count on the hud), multiplied that by 5 plat per run and then added resurrection costs. While I wanted to run this event for fun and enjoyment with my friends, I just can't afford what this added up to.

Event Leaderboard costs based on the first 2 days of running:

NOTE: These numbers are estimated and a bit on the low side. I have updated with numbers adjusted to be more accurate to the point count rather than the boss total. These are still a bit off but close enough for an estimate.

Platinum
Daily cost: 900 platinum (approximate depending on how much you die to spikes)
Event cost: 12,600 platinum
Conversion: $750 in platinum packs

Gold
Daily cost: 5 million gold
Event cost: 70 million gold

Everyone on the lb gets all 3 vanities, so that's 75 vanities for each class. Even considering some people will be hoarding, I don't believe the value will accomodate the energy costs. That means I will save my gold and try buy Whim in the winter event.

In the end it's not level or speed of killing that will win this event. It's straight up who has the most money. I find this disappointing, since the game should be set up so those who have time can get as far as those who have money. Requiring both is not really cool for anyone.


Essence Farming

In 2 tomb hours (by elixir clock) of essence farming I got 17 bones and 33 energy essences. That means I can craft a maximum of 5 event items and 11 energy for 2 1/2 - 3 hours of my time (including in / out of the tombs, pack emptying etc). After waiting for all these things to craft, I then have 11 energy which lasts less than 30 minutes when running the event with a decent team.

To work that much for that little makes little sense to me. I wanted to run the event, and here I am farming tombs for 2 1/2 hours and waiting for energy to craft just so I can spend 30 minutes in the event.



Suggestions

Portals in maps should be free, and when someone finds a portal in a map, others should be able to join that person for free also. If people want to use energy to run straight from the event town, that's fine, but nobody wants to have to waste all their free time farming just for a chance at 1/2 hour in the event. This system would give free players an equal chance, and also get full guilds involved. More people running maps means more elixirs purchased, more resurrections bought, and more people buying the Nom nom nom thingy because now it's worth their while since they can run the bosses a decent amount.

If players could run maps until they found a portal, and play the event that way, people less wealthy may not keep up with the top of the lb but they would have a chance to get on it and even win something. It would generate the community feel again, such as what we had in Tarlok, and keep all players engaged. Right now the population in game is already dropping again. By the end of the 2 weeks it will only be lb runners playing as everyone else will be gone because they can't afford to participate.

Who wants to be on the lb in a game where nobody is interested in playing? Who wants to be the top player where the only thing that counts is money? Certainly not me. I'd far rather be known for skill and integrity than the size of my wallet (good thing cause my wallet is really small).

Really it comes down to inclusion. Right now 98% of the players are being excluded, which just isn't right.


Until this system is remedied, the drop rate of bones needs to be substantially higher, given that crafting is the only way to participate for normal people.




Note to players
Please keep comments constructive, and try to refrain from the usual "rich vs poor" drama we see so much of. This post is constructed to help point out how this system could be improved, and no offense, but whiney complaints about "rich people" don't help anything.

Thank you.

[Kakashis]

yes I would have to agree with everything that is said. I always wished that the rare portals would provide a free path to the event! Plat players just pay straight up and wouldn't have much time for farming or crafting. Make the portals uber rare if too many are getting through but make them free!! Recently I just picked up a few high valued items at a super sale fair price due to the people needing all the gold to keep funding their portal runs and it's only on the second day. Don't know how they'll stay competitive for a whole week! Maybe selling the socks off their feet!

[Dogoeswoof]

I love the idea of all 50 in each class getting vanities. However, i know that for the people already in the top 25, they will see the value of the vanities go down so they will not like the change. Instead, maybe top 26-50 should get only their class vanity while the top 1-25 should get all three classes. Just a suggestion because i know getting top 25 will be hard. There are a lot of pro rouges . I'm #31 right now and there is like 10k point difference between the top 25 and me. Nice ideas!

[Helicopter]

+1 I agree with the "Much Work Such Pay" thought of yours, but based on experience, farming does help a lot. It motivates players to keep playing and even during the Ursoth's Assault, farming unexpectedly capped me. Those 30 Min could earn you a hefty amount of tokens. This is almost like a giveaway for players (w/ a decent team) as you can kill the bosses in no time. Lots of other players could probably enjor over an hour of event because the bosses were challenging. In other words, you're way too strong for Paracelsus.

And the Free portal idea, would be great if it had the spawn chance of...........Skratch maybe?

[twoxc]

yea make those portal more rare and free to enter. it wouldn't make much different but it does make the community a whole lot happier. as of right now those portal are annoying and really gets in the way, there's no point or sense in having them at all. or better yet just make them open up in elite mob lol then yea it will be a whole lot more fun and interesting. bring the elite map back into play ^^

[Serancha]

Clearly the free portals would have to be rare. STS has shown us that they are getting much better with keeping things rare in accordance with the population, so I have no doubt they would be able to calculate how to do this.

In the Tarlok event the portals would only spawn sometimes, and only after the boss died. The elite map portals had a higher chance of getting the best boss. This was an excellent setup since it did not interfere with people who just wanted to run maps, yet encouraged the majority of the players to complete full runs, and many of them. There is no reason to use elixirs for this event, so STS is losing a lot of sales on those, from what I can see. If people were running maps, and a lot of maps, it's likely those sales would be much higher, and would at least offset any losses caused by letting people into the event maps for free on occasion.

The way things are set up right now, who actually uses those portals that spawn all over in WT4? Nobody, right? How many people are running non-tomb maps? Very few, I imagine. How many people are calling out bosses in guild chat to help out other players? Not a lot because everyone is waiting for energy to craft or regenerate.

In short, we just want to play. We don't like having to wait to play or run tombs mindlessly to play. Please, STS, let everyone play as much as they can, not as much as they can afford.

[Ninjasmurf]

STS doesn't care. They want $$MONEY$$

[Serancha]

STS doesn't care. They want $$MONEY$$

Let's try to be constructive please.

[twoxc]

inaccurate boss count. as you can see here.

[Serancha]

Yes, my boss count adds up to less than half my points. Adjusted the totals in the first post accordingly. It is still a low estimate, but closer to actuality.

Thanks for catching this. Mine are inaccurate by a whole lot. Here's the screenies. With the boss points calculated, that adds up to 13,840 points, which is clearly way off.

[Raregem]

If I never hear the word WT4 again it will be too soon. I have spent prob 16 hours in there and 3 hours on the event (rough estimate). I would love if they would go back to Tarlok style boss portals that are free.

They've got people spending tons of plat on the last event boss as well with the pools and one hit spikes. Getting across is a feat. So I think they could think of different ways to make plat part of the event without having to relay on energy for all portal entries. Or make energy essences drop rate higher and craft time shorter. It takes 6 hours (2 in tombs and 4 to craft 10 energy) it gets frustrating.

That being said I have had fun running the event when I've had enough energy to do it.

[Axesam]

I really miss the first time event use portal, dont remember what event, last year halloween maybe?
Everybody farm portal in that ship fighting sark (dont remember the name of that map)

Past:
/g Portal
-me
-me
-me
-tons of me

Now:
/g 2 slot para
-me
-no energy
-damn u late, i spend my last energy fighting wolf
-goodluck

[Anarchist]

To be frank this is nothin new under the sun since the goblin event.

Now you ran LB and understood it too.

[Serancha]

To be frank this is nothin new under the sun since the goblin event.

Now you ran LB and understood it too.

I have been running leaderboards since season 3. I also ran a couple of days in each of the last events.

The difference is that now it's the third round so this can not be seen as a panicked reaction to something just because it's new. This is an honest response to something that has been tried and run through more than once. There is also no plat farming now, so the numbers are not falsely inflated, making it a totally different situation for the community.

We're now talking about people's real dollars, the kind that pay rent and buy groceries.

Sure, there's some people who can afford to spend $750 on 2 weeks in a game. But those people are not the majority, and treating all players as if they can afford large amounts of cash is neither fair or beneficial to the community. Sure, we get one energy regenerated every 12 hours and can farm 2-4 hours and craft another 4 for 10 energy. That's not encouraging player involvement, is it?

[Limsi]

I'll agree to this. All my gold earned from years of merching have been depleting fast. Let's just say with the current price of the event kits today plus the points I have amassed (70k atm), I have at least spent 14m in 3 days.

I'm not complaining. I knew this from the start, but it's just funny how those who have little cannot compete for the coveted vanities.

[Sibayjing]

Sts know to keep interested of loyal players, they know lb reward will be a competition of platinium purchasers.

sts need to make real money, players need to earn rare stuff ( in this case: vanity)

So If players continue to walk in this way, why sts will change?

I think if players doesn't keep interest for running lb with their money, maybe sts will make more thing free and keep game play for all

[Serancha]

I think when the next event comes in under a month, they will find that the player's resources have been pretty much tapped out. December is not a time where people have tons of extra cash floating around, or even that kind of gold if they used up almost all their resources at Halloween.

[Anarchist]

I have been running leaderboards since season 3. I also ran a couple of days in each of the last events.

The difference is that now it's the third round so this can not be seen as a panicked reaction to something just because it's new. This is an honest response to something that has been tried and run through more than once. There is also no plat farming now, so the numbers are not falsely inflated, making it a totally different situation for the community.

We're now talking about people's real dollars, the kind that pay rent and buy groceries.

Sure, there's some people who can afford to spend $750 on 2 weeks in a game. But those people are not the majority, and treating all players as if they can afford large amounts of cash is neither fair or beneficial to the community. Sure, we get one energy regenerated every 12 hours and can farm 2-4 hours and craft another 4 for 10 energy. That's not encouraging player involvement, is it?

Look i a m not saying you are wrong or anything i totally agree with you but this is the third time lb contest been around and i am asking myself where were you when the goblin poo event was introduced?
I didnt see the top players asking for it to be removed.
They said it sucked but they were willing to play it, they did play it so sts kept it.
Even right now as we speak there are players ready to run it to the very end.


Nobody is gonna stop now. As far as i am concerned and i think everyone has adapted to the idea LB is for the rich and top players and the rest of the event is for average joes, personally i think the rest of the event is damn good so i am enjoying it.

For those who wanna run LB contests brace yourself with gold/plat/coffee and extreme will to win or don't go there at all.

Just my 2 cents.

[Serancha]

I'm not asking to change this particular event, but suggesting ways to improve future ones. It's not even all about leaderboard, it's about including the rest of the players in the game. The other 98% of the customer base.

If you look back to the goblin event and Ursoth, I was there and posting also. I have been heavily involved in the game, testing and the forums for almost 2 years now.\

The goblin event was a trial, and the answer to everything was "this is a trial, we're still working on it".
In Ursoth it was "this is the first real run of this system, people will suck it up and get used to it"

Well we haven't sucked it up, and we're not liking it any more than we did when it was released.

[kjed]

Its been obvious money runs the game right now, f2p is dead.theres no more free in this world.