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Whats the catch?
MikeJezZ
Member UncommonPosts: 1,268
in Neverwinter
Whats the catch here with f2p?
Does it cost to respec or anything?
Comments
No you don't "need" to spend real money as long as you are patient. I've spent a few bucks, but I don't see the issue with spending money on a game that I enjoy. Just stay away from the lockboxes. Those will drain your wallet.
Respecs cost money, large bags cost money, certain exclusive mounts and companions cost money, certain items that allow you to have an easier time creating stronger enchantments cost money, and changing your character's appearance cost money.
Of course, it is possible to get all these things without paying a dime, but it will require you to get a lot of astral diamonds and/or fill out numerous surveys to get free zen.
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
Some items take a very long time to farm, however as long as your patient you can do pretty much everything. My only complaint was that it got very boring very fast. For a F2P game though its well made.
There are a lot of catches...
You CAN purchase anything without spending a penny if you do not want to, it all depends on how you want to work the system..
But, they have three primary forms of currency... Zen (the one that costs money to buy, but they DO provide an exchange broker you can trade your Astral Diamonds for).
Astral Diamonds...gained through dailies and Auction House transactions, there is no direct way to transfer these, so you are forced to lose 12% on transaction costs, plus listing fees ofc.
Coinage...used primarily for injury/dungeon kits, healing potions, and tradeskill supplies.
There are other form of earned "tokens" you can spend too.
But once you get beyond the theme-park progression (which is VERY fast, even if you are casual, if you just follow their glowy line progression quests), the game is terribly flawed. The shining point are the foundry zones (player-made content).
They have an overly flawed gear-score system, dungeons which are highly exploitable, bosses are wholly a matter of having someone tell/show you how you need to overcome the zerg of adds (every boss uses exactly this "mechanic" to make it "challenging"), you can buy all the best gear from other players, gold farmers/sellers will spam zone in PE 24/7, their mechanics often do not work properly, their new "end game content" GG has been broken for over a week, and wasn't original, interesting, or well-implemented, there is ZERO customer service, there are a number of exploits people can use to scam you if you don't use the auction house, their mechanics often just fail (potions don;t work, you get hit by ae's outside the designated area, CC doesn;t stop ae's from going off), a main mechanic of doing dungeons involved pushing mobs off a cliff, class balance is a joke, it does not in any way represent AD&D as advertised, they promise features and do not deliver (or they do not work after saying they have been introduced), a horrific loot system both drops and the need/greed system which is borked), the fact the party leader can kick you at any time (what, you finally saw a piece of loot drop and he was the same class? viola gone, oh wait, you didn;t have 11k gear score in a zone that requires 8300...gone), pvp that is a joke...and there are a LOT more
I realize the official release was recently, but when you see cosmetic changes that took precedence over substance, class nerfs for new "end-game" content (GG , which is disbaled, because they spent no time quality testing it, but still wastes 2 hours of event timers every 6 hours...) which adversely affects the rest of the game, poor class design with NONE of the promised path choices...
They seem to be hemorhaging players due to disappointment and boredom. You can buy the best gear, and re-run the same dungeons over and over, for what? Unless you have a group of gamers you really enjoy working with, or are really into creating or running foundries, you hit the wall quickly.
Like others have already stated while the content is free they do charge you every way possible for every single little thing that is not content related. Mount training (at least during "open beta"), enchantments, respecs, purchasable gear, AH items, bags, companions, crafting tools, ect ect the list goes on. Not to mention the market has been completely fucked up by the exploits which they refuse to do a reset nor a new server for a fresh start to fix the market. And it will likely happen again in the future as people find new exploits. People in DDO find exploits all the time but it is in the form of experience and not economy which xp is trivial to the ramifications of exploits dealing with the economy.
While you can earn AD to buy these things but it's like playing WoW and leveling every single profession to get what you need from professions.
Companies need to make money, and they went with a horrid cash shop system where they charge you every way possible for not content relates items. This is turning off a lot of people.
As people have coined the phrase, "pay to enjoy" which I think is a very apt saying for Neverwinter.
The REAL catch though is that people play Neverwinter expecting a D&D experience and they get anything but that. The only thing D&D is shared names and lore, everything else mechanics wise is anything BUT D&D.
Question is how much do you value your time and whether or not you are willing to pay for a good game. Neverwinter is like the homeless shelter where you have to wait a very long time for an edible essential meal vs going out or buying food to make a really good meal. If you want a good game experience without having to be restricted then look elsewhere, now if your a cheap ass who expects everything will be free (which is a sizable portion of the Neverwinter community who apparently are too poor to shell out even a retail price for a game and are playing only because it's free) then Neverwinter is your game.
The Foundry is a D&D experience.
I have yet to see an MMO come out where people were not bashing on it, including WoW and many of the other highly popular ones. Take it with a grain of salt. It's free, try it for yourself.
What's the catch? Convenience costs money. If you stay in the game for any length of time inventory will be an issue, and you will need to splurge for inventory space, both bank, and personal...for each character.
You start with 2 character slots. If you want more, you have to buy them.
Many features like respecs, renames, appearance changes, etc... all cost money.
At 20 you get 3 free tokens to rent a horse for 5 game hours per token, after that you can buy a 50% speed increase horse for 5 gold. For faster horses, or more exotic mounts you have to buy them, though you can use AD to upgrade your 50% mount's speed.
Certain dyes and things cost money.
There are a few other things too, but you get the idea. Most things you can do without, or save up in-game currencies to buy.
It's funny that some people feel that the cash shop is greedy, when the game is otherwise free to play. Even if you pay for some things, it is a lot cheaper than paying $60 up front for the game, and then a recurring monthly membership fee. In comparison, paying a little money to unlock some additional inventory space is not so bad.
The catch is , the make the game as annoying as possible, and limit you as much as they can without being too obvious unless you spend money.
Other then the people who got huge amounts of AD because the pre ordered or took advantage of the bugs.
As I said, you pay for convenience. It is f2p, and despite what some people want to believe, it is still a model designed to make money. Games spend years in development and build up a ton of financial debt. It is certainly not unreasonable that they want to make money, but you can play for free to see if you like it before you ever spend a cent.
As for AD, that is really only an issue if you want to buy something expensive very early on. You can make thousands, if not tens of thousands of AD on a daily basis. In time you can very easily get what you want without paying a cent out of pocket. The choice is time or money.
For most, the answer will be time and money. Spend a little on basic conveniences, like inventory space, and save AD up for less pressing needs/wants.
I love the players that complain about what is in the cash shop. Yet they have paid nothing for the game. Yet they don't have a monthly subscription to pay to play this game or even try it out. They expect the publisher and developer to give them everything for free and wipe there ass after they go to the bathroom. lol
Yes, I hope they put an end to F2P crap too......So, Free players play on !
I live with this hope,
My perfect cost is Free trial say 14days - see if you like game, Then subscription based , but with 0 costs for releases/ or any in game that has effect on gameplay whether its movement speed/XP bonus / Bag size etc.
But i dont mind if it IS PURELY cosmetic changes you pay for, want a pink blouse pay , want to level quicker PLAY
oops just realised i described EvE Sub model
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy
You think EvE cash purchases are purely cosmetic?
PLEX is P2W.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
So now we can use plex as ammo for our guns, who knew!
Plex can only be used to extend your gametime by 30 days, or you can trade it either with another player for ISK, or with the cash shop for Au, which is used to buy .. cosmetic items, last time i checked a monocle did not give you any kind of tactical advantage in the game, nor did the skirts and trousers
Plex is P2P ... whether you win or lose is entirely based on your own abilities.
How is Plex P2W?? You can buy GTC > Convert to Plex > get isk and buy ships??? so then what about your skills, you buy more to buy a toon lets say a 20mill SP toon thats 10bill isk
So another £300 for 10gtc = 10bill give or take / then say 10bill play money £300 so £600 will get you a 20mill sp toon
Thats about £30 per mill SP which guess what is above double what it would cost if you played the game normally
Finally the most important point, I have yet too see anyone WIN in eve
EvE has no goal / No endgame thus no rush to get there....?? So if you can't win how can you pay to win??
So how is plex P2W ??
What is it you think plex can buy you to help you 'win eve' ??
Also I have played a lot of hours and as of yet i have not paid a single penny in Game Time since my toon was about 3/4months old (about middle 2007)
So make that 6+yrs of free to play, and yes i have done most things in eve you can think of, or at least everything that i wish to do???
VERY VERY last point
What can plex get you that in game currency CANNOT?? And this is the main point on P2W things in cash shop cannot be bought with anything in game, and in EvE nothing cannot be done without isk...
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy
It costs money to have fun and that cost never goes away because just like a kid in the candy store you want this and that. Then just like a gambling addict you think just one more purchase......Its the same P2W that Zen/AD in Neverwinter is P2W, or REX in Rift is P2W, or Gold/Gems in GW2 is P2W, or SC cards / whatever tokens they use now are P2W in EQ2.
Yet somehow Neverwinter gets ire for this system because it was marketed as a F2P game from the get go.
You can get a fully decked out character in Neverwinter without ever opening your wallet for your credit card. High tier runes will take longer, as will cosmetic gear, fancy mounts or more bag space. But everything is obtainable in game through the exchange system. If you play more, you can buy Zen off players who want to save time by using RL cash. That's how the system works.
Astro I fully agree, I have never denegrated their Cash shop, what i dont like is where YOU CAN buy something that will help you
Their in lies my difference between eve and other cash shops is that Plex cannot help you get along with eve, well no more than just buying a character which you can do on Ebay anyway or other random shops on web
But thats a different argument, my whole point originally was that Plex does give you financial security - if you need it -- But does not advance your character in anyway, unlike most / if not all other cash shops (or well certainly games ive played)
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy