AL Economy in Recession??

[xcainnblecterx]

I love the idea of the changes to the crates and we're going to try it out this weekend.

No more Epics, only Legendaries.
Not 100% drop chance on Legendaries anymore.
Slightly higher drop chance on Mythics and Arcanes because you now get three rolls so in theory, you could get up to 3 Legendary, Mythic or Arcane items in one crate.
Very high chance on Gold drops. Essentially you didn't get get Legendaries or Mythics/Arcanes? You got Gold instead (or possibly Plat, keeping Plat in there)

Also have another surprise for this weekend but I'll let Samhayne reveal that later.

You don't how good it is to hear that you guys(and girls) are listening to our feed back again. I'm only hoping that the changes this weekend are not only for crates and that surprise will be for drops all around. The crates is a good start but it doesn't really effect non plat users. As for volts post about dailes for items, I say no cause you still can't necessarily come out to farming cause you can only do it once a day for low chance. IMO I want gear to be farmible like in all sets games and not only elite. I really want to do away with these chests, I'm not sure about the rest of you but I'd be much happier being able to actually farm

[Taejo]

i agree mostly with lady and ener, and aedenos on the party matter. The prime issue is that farming costs more than it rewards if u look at it in the long run.

Very true. I've always said there needs to be more incentives to clearing "trash mobs" in elite dungeons. 20-30g drops, or unique legendary items/eggs that are only on the trash mobs' loot tables - think about the price of those goodies on the market! I think the fact that most elite maps you run, you clear some and run to the end is so silly (to phrase it politely). What's the point of having a full elite map? Every dungeon may as well be like Mines of Nordia in theory.

Also, why do potions only drop when you have less than 25 (I think it is) left? They should always drop.

BTW thank you for starting this thread, Energizeric!

[Pandamoni]

Any chance the join game system will be looked at as well?

[vholt]

Also, why do potions only drop when you have less than 25 (I think it is) left? They should always drop.

I think we get enough pots from the daily chests, and besides i'd rather have more gold drop over potions, you can just buy potions then

[thehopeless]

@taejo. I think youre talking bout pl. I've seen potions drop in al when I've had 200+ just rarer. Personally on pl tho the potions is fine never have to buy any even with 25/25. As vholt said I'd rather have higher gold drops then just a higher pot drop

[Taejo]

I think we get enough pots from the daily chests, and besides i'd rather have more gold drop over potions, you can just buy potions then

Yes, I agree. Was just adding thoughts to the discussion I guess I figured on a small scale, the less gold we give the STS server for potions, the more that can be spent on the economy. Every penny adds up

[drgrimmy]

@taejo. I think youre talking bout pl. I've seen potions drop in al when I've had 200+ just rarer. Personally on pl tho the potions is fine never have to buy any even with 25/25. As vholt said I'd rather have higher gold drops then just a higher pot drop

I wish we could farm for pots here in all too. In pl you could stash your pots so you had zero, then do a level, get 25 health and mana pots, stash your pots again and repeat. In al pots rarely drop and you can't stash or sell them. I guess they just wanted pots to be a gold sink in al....

[Kaytar]

I love the idea of the changes to the crates and we're going to try it out this weekend.

No more Epics, only Legendaries.
Not 100% drop chance on Legendaries anymore.
Slightly higher drop chance on Mythics and Arcanes because you now get three rolls so in theory, you could get up to 3 Legendary, Mythic or Arcane items in one crate.
Very high chance on Gold drops. Essentially you didn't get get Legendaries or Mythics/Arcanes? You got Gold instead (or possibly Plat, keeping Plat in there)

Also have another surprise for this weekend but I'll let Samhayne reveal that later.

What about gold drops on maps?

[wvhills]

Any chance the join game system will be looked at as well?

This is being ignored for some reason.

I love the idea of the changes to the crates and we're going to try it out this weekend.

No more Epics, only Legendaries.
Not 100% drop chance on Legendaries anymore.
Slightly higher drop chance on Mythics and Arcanes because you now get three rolls so in theory, you could get up to 3 Legendary, Mythic or Arcane items in one crate.
Very high chance on Gold drops. Essentially you didn't get get Legendaries or Mythics/Arcanes? You got Gold instead (or possibly Plat, keeping Plat in there)

Also have another surprise for this weekend but I'll let Samhayne reveal that later.

The problem we are having isn't in the incentive to farm. It's in the difficulty in obtaining good parties to farm. You are making changes to the incentive and ignoring the root cause. Like many of us have been saying for months- the way we join games in AL (and the party system) is not effective. As many of us have said, we log in, try to find a game, after 20 minutes we get frustrated and log out. Implementing PL's game joining system would result in making it easier to farm which would lead to more people playing and more people needing and buying equips. Also, it's a lot easier to make friends in PL. I used to host a game with one or two other friends and people we didn't know would join. We could then do a few runs together. If we like the new player we could become friends, if not we could boot them and find another. I made a TON of friends this way. We can't do that in AL. We form a party of two and no one else can join. We can spend 10 min spamming party invites but then if the person doesnt' work out we have to stop the game (in elite runs no one else can join after the timer has started) and go back and start over.

Wait and see, making a change in what's inside the crates will result in people playing for a few weeks but will drop off again because the root problem still remains. You've tried 2 different versions of the boss brawls to get people to farm and the same thing has happened- people play for a few days then lose interest. It's not because of the content, the content is great, it's just way to hard to get a group together.

Please, please, please, go into the game on your secret alts and just try to find an elite farming run. It's really frustrating.

[Swede]

We're not going back to the PL Host/Join system in AL, so there's no point in bringing that up over and over again. You as an ex PL player might think that system was amazing but for a brand new player that's never played PL or SL, that system is extremely unintuitive. There are changes I'd like to make to the current Party system but they all require new code and at this moment, my code resources are limited.

Ideally, I'd like the option to flag your party as allowing other players to enter the instance and for Elite dungeons to not cut off new player entries after you have defeated one third of the dungeon. We'll see when we can get to those things.

[Rare]

Nvm

[GoodSyntax]

We're not going back to the PL Host/Join system in AL, so there's no point in bringing that up over and over again. You as an ex PL player might think that system was amazing but for a brand new player that's never played PL or SL, that system is extremely unintuitive. There are changes I'd like to make to the current Party system but they all require new code and at this moment, my code resources are limited.

Ideally, I'd like the option to flag your party as allowing other players to enter the instance and for Elite dungeons to not cut off new player entries after you have defeated one third of the dungeon. We'll see when we can get to those things.

The biggest challenge is that there is no way to "browse" for games that you can join in on. I like the idea of flagging your party to allow randoms to join in, but as someone who is looking to join a game, there isn't a way to do that.

If you could at least provide a means to look through games to join, that would go a long way. For instance, if I wanted to farm Elite Bael, I could load up Maps>Elite Maps>Ydra Forest>Rooks Nest, then instead of just Go!, add two buttons, one labeled "Create", whose function should be obvious, and another button labeled Browse (or something) where I can see if there are any active games to join in on.

As others have said, it is simply too difficult to put together elite farming parties. In the current construct, I find myself continually running with the same dozen players in elite maps, so I am not really meeting new people as much. The only place where I actually meet new people is in the PvP maps.

[FluffNStuff]

We're not going back to the PL Host/Join system in AL, so there's no point in bringing that up over and over again. You as an ex PL player might think that system was amazing but for a brand new player that's never played PL or SL, that system is extremely unintuitive. There are changes I'd like to make to the current Party system but they all require new code and at this moment, my code resources are limited.

Ideally, I'd like the option to flag your party as allowing other players to enter the instance and for Elite dungeons to not cut off new player entries after you have defeated one third of the dungeon. We'll see when we can get to those things.

I have been thinking about my big issue with the way the AL system works compared to PL as I have been leveling up my ALT and I can sum it up with the statement : "Where is everybody?"
When it comes to different areas, players come to realize that certain boards are better for leveling and certain boards are better for farming, and well, some boards can just be avoided after cleared. Eventually they start to amass on specific boards and others begin to empty out. The great benefit of the PL join listing that is missing here is you could tell at a quick glance where all the players of your level were. That way you don't end up sitting in an area thinking no one is playing the game when in reality they are all off on a different board because perhaps you are too far ahead, too far behind, or just no one at your level range plays the board you chose. If there were some type of indicator to let you know how many games of ~your~ level range were going on in each board, then that would be, like, totally fantastic!

[drgrimmy]

We're not going back to the PL Host/Join system in AL, so there's no point in bringing that up over and over again. You as an ex PL player might think that system was amazing but for a brand new player that's never played PL or SL, that system is extremely unintuitive. There are changes I'd like to make to the current Party system but they all require new code and at this moment, my code resources are limited.

Ideally, I'd like the option to flag your party as allowing other players to enter the instance and for Elite dungeons to not cut off new player entries after you have defeated one third of the dungeon. We'll see when we can get to those things.

I think these two changes would be a fantastic start!

I have been thinking about my big issue with the way the AL system works compared to PL as I have been leveling up my ALT and I can sum it up with the statement : "Where is everybody?"
When it comes to different areas, players come to realize that certain boards are better for leveling and certain boards are better for farming, and well, some boards can just be avoided after cleared. Eventually they start to amass on specific boards and others begin to empty out. The great benefit of the PL join listing that is missing here is you could tell at a quick glance where all the players of your level were. That way you don't end up sitting in an area thinking no one is playing the game when in reality they are all off on a different board because perhaps you are too far ahead, too far behind, or just no one at your level range plays the board you chose. If there were some type of indicator to let you know how many games of ~your~ level range were going on in each board, then that would be, like, totally fantastic!

I agree. Even though I know that there are probably always hundreds of people playing at almost any time, I often wonder where everyone is and I feel like things are pretty dead.

[Zeus]

I love the idea of the changes to the crates and we're going to try it out this weekend.

No more Epics, only Legendaries.
Not 100% drop chance on Legendaries anymore.
Slightly higher drop chance on Mythics and Arcanes because you now get three rolls so in theory, you could get up to 3 Legendary, Mythic or Arcane items in one crate.
Very high chance on Gold drops. Essentially you didn't get get Legendaries or Mythics/Arcanes? You got Gold instead (or possibly Plat, keeping Plat in there)

Also have another surprise for this weekend but I'll let Samhayne reveal that later.

Thank you, Swede!

I don't know if others are behind this effort as well, but if it is collaborated, I thank the others which are unnamed as well! In AL, I really like how often ideas from players are implemented into the game. It is a rewarding experience in itself and usually it works out well. Why? We the players are the ones who actually play the game daily and a good handful of them can offer ideas that would work realistically.

So, thank you!

~Apollo

[Energizeric]

I do have to say that I agree with Swede about the PL system being confusing to new players. I think I played for about 2 months and reached level 50 before I figured out that you could browse and join games from the menu. I can remember needing a quest in the 3rd dungeon in AO3, and I kept joining the first dungeon from the AO town and working my way to the 3rd dungeon since I didn't know I could just join the 3rd dungeon instantly.

The party system is easier to understand, however I do agree it needs some changes. The changes Swede suggests are the most important ones. My biggest frustration is when you and a friend want to do a dungeon together but cannot find 2 more players to run with. There is no way to party up and then allow other players to join the game.

The other big frustration is when you finish half of an elite dungeon only to have a couple of players be disconnected or just leave. I can remember trying to do Elite Skull Cove and players kept giving up and leaving, and you would have to start over with a new party. Yet in PL you could just PM your buddies and say "join me, I need help with the boss" and they would come 2 minutes later. We need that to be possible in AL, even if it means I must add my buddy to the party. They need to be able to join a dungeon run mid-way or even right at the end before the boss. I realize this may present a difficulty with the timed runs leaderboards, but just make the leaderboards reflect whoever finished the run, not who began it. Besides, switching party members half way through a run is most likely not the way to get on the leaderboards for a timed run anyway.

And how much fun did everyone have in PL when your buddy would post in guild chat "come for free hooch hat" and you would rush to join him before it filled up. Or when someone would say in guild chat "free boss" and you would join to help with the boss for the easy loot. I miss that in AL.

[Swede]

The other big frustration is when you finish half of an elite dungeon only to have a couple of players be disconnected or just leave. I can remember trying to do Elite Skull Cove and players kept giving up and leaving, and you would have to start over with a new party. Yet in PL you could just PM your buddies and say "join me, I need help with the boss" and they would come 2 minutes later. We need that to be possible in AL, even if it means I must add my buddy to the party. They need to be able to join a dungeon run mid-way or even right at the end before the boss. I realize this may present a difficulty with the timed runs leaderboards, but just make the leaderboards reflect whoever finished the run, not who began it. Besides, switching party members half way through a run is most likely not the way to get on the leaderboards for a timed run anyway.

And how much fun did everyone have in PL when your buddy would post in guild chat "come for free hooch hat" and you would rush to join him before it filled up. Or when someone would say in guild chat "free boss" and you would join to help with the boss for the easy loot. I miss that in AL.

Agreed, I'd really like to get that changed as soon as possible. We'll see what I can wrangle up.

[wvhills]

Agreed, I'd really like to get that changed as soon as possible. We'll see what I can wrangle up.

I disagree with PL system being confusing. I was a new PL player once and it took me longer to figure out AL's system. Imo it's nothing a quick tutorial couldn't address. The ideas you have will be a great improvement but it would still be nice to browse games that are open (like fluffy explained).

[Swede]

Loosely related

http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...Elite-Dungeons

[Darko]

I loved pl, I also loved sl party system, beinf able to create runs with password for guild runs(pvp rooms) I also liked being able to browse rooms (this room has 3 lowest lvl is 31, this room has 1 at 1 at lvl 29, which one should I select???) I loved having a choice , now its so randomand most people skip regulsr bosses cause their is no incentive to kill them anymore...The arena to me has opened a new system that can be used...instead of just crates the bosses have ability to drop pinks...every boss should have 6-10 pinks each...all different....in other games we can farm lower levels (sandstorm caves for example) to get very valuable items....also to make pve content more playable (which is another huge issue) I think quests that can give u a valuable item or set like dark set in pl would be valuable.. (make different options though so not everyone has same set) and please please nake all content playable (xp and kills) just scale up to your level as u do in tombs and hauntlet....this would open up so many more fsrming options. ..maybe end game weapons are random placement each season, so u have to search arlor for it... it really sucks only to be able to play one level....I cant even do kraken anymore so im subjected to one level nodr...and that's how players get bored and quit...if I had a chance to farm a noble armor in brakenridge elite, im all for it....lastly, if we had a slight chance to drop arcane or mythic on boss, I think everybody would say theyd love that....