PFO moves to increase the gap between those who pay for the game in current state and those who may

Slapshot1188

Yup... despite the very weak prior arguments from the "Evangelists" that the game was not P2W and that you could supposedly catch up.  GW has now announced a new Veterans Rewards system.  Oh the pure irony of having "Veterans" for a game in it's current state is funny and the idea that they would devote resources to this instead of other more obvious needs is even bothering many of the "Evangelists".

 

Unlike most games that will give you some cosmetic item or something to hang in your house, PFO is giving you items that make your characters stronger.  So not only do you now have to sub during the horrendous "Early Enrollment" time due to the time based XP gain, but now they have COMPOUNDED that by announcing "Veteran Rewards" that directly increase your skills.  They are even creating a new character slot to hold these new items.  Wow... simply... wow.  

Veteran Rewards

Projected Release: EE9

The Veteran Rewards system will give players a new type of item, Azlanti Stones, on the last day of each month of their subscriptions. As players are subscribed for additional months, they get more stones and higher level stones based on a planned-out monthly progression. Each player effectively has his or her own counter for how many months he or she has been subscribed and what the next reward is. The first month may get you a Minor Sapphire Azlanti Stone, while month two rewards a Minor Ruby Azlanti Stone. Players who have been active since January will get all appropriate rewards for months subscribed already immediately and all accounts active since January are treated as having their first day of subscription being January 1st (and thus will get their new rewards on the last day of each month). Those accounts that have been subscribed for less time will get their backdated rewards immediately and will get new rewards on the last day of their current subscriptions. If you end your subscription, the counter on your Veteran Rewards stops, so if you subscribe for three months and then drop out for two months, when you come back you’ll get your month four reward at the end of your first month back.

Azlanti Stones will be slottable items that provide a constant, passive bonus to a limited number of attributes for a character. For example the month two reward, a Minor Ruby Azlanti Stone, may provide +12 Hit Points while slotted. Azlanti Stones will go into a new slot on characters that will only be for these items, so having one and equipping it is always better than not having one. The bonuses will go up with more powerful stones that are gained later in the monthly progression, but the bonus is never designed to be a fight-winning bonus on its own.

The Azlanti Stones come in a number of colors and power levels. These stones may be combined using special recipes to create different colors that have different bonuses, or to combine weaker stones into more powerful stones. With this system, players can customize their Azlanti Stone bonus to favor specific skills or attributes they particularly value.

In addition to the stone gained on the last day of each month of subscription, the character will get a rank in a new skill called Veteran. Ranks in Veteran will be required to slot and craft Azlanti Stones, and more powerful Azlanti Stones will require higher ranks of Veteran to use.

 

https://goblinworks.com/forum/topic/2910/

 

Some comments from even the "Evangelists":

Have to admit to being a bit disappointed by this announcement of Azlanti Stones in the new veterans rewards blog.

I really don't understand what these are supposed to add to the game at all.

At the best this seems like wasted dev time.

I'm willing to wait and see, but so far they sound a lot like something I'm going to have to convince new players that they aren't a competitive issue.

If they take durability hits, and they have 20 durability, and they only spawn once a month, then they are even more a waste of developer time.

I agree here, sounds like a lot of time spent else where, unless they have been planning this for awhile and already have assets in place.

The entire blog, I was thinking "this is where developer time is going?". 

Anyway, the Crusaders at Mmmorpg.com will be all over the Veteran Reward system no doubt. I know we have decided to discard them as just a couple of sock puppets but GW sure is giving them ample ammo. (my edit to add... note they still think everyone who understands where this game is going is a "sock puppet" acct which is pretty funny)

I was sortoff with the Azlanti-stone system untill I came at the very end where it was made clear that you can not simply trade these stones to a newer player who can then utilize them, since you need to have those veteran levels too if you actually want to be able to slot them. At first I figured, "hey, if we can trade these stones, this may be a way to spread the early-bird wealth a bit with newer players". But now these new players will be forever looking at a slot in their paperdoll that will contain a lower level item then people who have come before them.

I think this will feel more as "being behind forever" then the XP-gap. (I still think the XP gap should be mollified by flattening the curves and allowing players to reach tier 3 caps of a specific path in much less time).

I hope these veteran rewards never get implemented…

This is a cheap way of getting people to stay subscribed but i would never want to have this kind of advantage over others and i would never want others to have this kind of advantage over me.

If anything stuff like these will just make me unsubscribe.

-------------------------------------------

 

Hey since they like "Crowdforging" maybe we can Crowdforge a big middle finger and tell them this is a REALLY bad idea on top of other bad ones (Box price + sub + cash shop for a game in this condition).  Maybe they will listen and backtrack, but I think the comment above nailed it: This is a cheap way of getting people to stay subscribed

 

It will be interesting to see how the "Evangelists" respond here and explain how this is NOT P2W and how this doesn't further make it impossible for new players to catch up on top of the XP over time.  GW continually shows that if you do NOT pay for the game in it's current state (which Bill Murphy even said something along the line of "Don't even look at it for another year"), you will be forever behind the curve.

 

Just like GREEDMONGER, and Mortal Online... these guys just keep the laughs rolling.  Some games really deliver more on forums than they ever will inside the actual game.

 

 

headen

Love your stuff slapshot.

Dullahan

They should make the stone lootable upon death, and able to be destroyed.  Would be pretty fun to get an older veteran's stone and crush that thing into dust and let it blow away in the wind.

Azaron_Nightblade

I was originally going to point out that since it's a full loot open PvP game, couldn't they just loot the shiny crystals off their corpses? But... then I read about the veteran rank required to equip them... so you'd be left with a shiny, but useless crystal until you've been subbed for a while yourself (at which point you can just get your own).

So yeah, sounds like a bad move IMO. It'd certainly work as a deterrent for me personally.

Sounds like they want (need) money now, and to hell with the long-term consequences. Or they'll re-balance the whole thing once they get to a ready for launch state, and change the veteran rewards.

Azaron_Nightblade

Originally posted by Dullahan
They should make the stone lootable upon death, and able to be destroyed.  Would be pretty fun to get an older veteran's stone and crush that thing into dust and let it blow away in the wind.

That wouldn't work:

In addition to the stone gained on the last day of each month of subscription, the character will get a rank in a new skill called Veteran. Ranks in Veteran will be required to slot and craft Azlanti Stones, and more powerful Azlanti Stones will require higher ranks of Veteran to use.

Slapshot1188

Originally posted by headen

Love your stuff slapshot.

Thanks

 

I'd also like to point out that while they have plenty of time to design, code and implement the "Veteran's Rewards" they still have not delivered a bunch of items that people ACTUALLY PAID FOR in the Kickstarter like "Twice Marked of Pharasma" or any of the "Daily Deals".

 

Good to know that they have their priorities straight...

 

 

Dullahan

Originally posted by Azaron_Nightblade

Originally posted by Dullahan
They should make the stone lootable upon death, and able to be destroyed.  Would be pretty fun to get an older veteran's stone and crush that thing into dust and let it blow away in the wind.

That wouldn't work:

In addition to the stone gained on the last day of each month of subscription, the character will get a rank in a new skill called Veteran. Ranks in Veteran will be required to slot and craft Azlanti Stones, and more powerful Azlanti Stones will require higher ranks of Veteran to use.

It won't work because why exactly?  I'm assuming previous stones will be needed to craft the next rank.  Surely you don't just stockpile stones every month.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

maybebaked

I tried this game and there is no way in hell I would pay a monthly fee for this. I get they are trying to get more people to play, but not at this price. Not for something this rough.

MrSnuffles

 

Sounds like a classic scheme to keep people subscribed. While games like FFXIV do this in a very non intrusive way providing subscribers pretty pixels in the form of costumes, mounts, housing items or other fluff, Pathfinder Online has gone full dark side by making it not only a real stat improving item but also combined with a special ranking system that prevents others from using said items.

I am not at all surprised because the game frankly really looks amateurish at best, but this just proves to me that the game designer(s) have no clue what they are doing or what is more likely, the marketing/finance department puts a lot of pressure on them to maximize profits for a game that i would not even call Alpha.

I wonder what comes next. My money is on:

1. 6 Month Veteran Rewards Pack for $99 (all rewards just as if you subscribed for 6 months)
2. 12 Month Veteran Rewards Pack for $199 (all rewards just as if you subscribed for 12 months)
3. Lifetime Veteran Rewards Pack for $399 (all rewards even if you never subscribed)

I should not give them ideas...

sp4ce8oy

I think what the devs are saying can best be summed up by the eternal words of Spinal Tap. "Gimme some money."

https://youtu.be/I-BYzaDwNoE

Amana

Between this, the "evangelists" thread and your other one, it's likely possible to keep this general discussion in one place instead of in three separate threads on the front page of this forum.