New shop (and membership changes, hopefully soon)

Po_gg

It's odd that no words about it so far, besides the short @Rawiz post about FC is adding p2w... you'd think at least bar-brawler Elsa would jump on the opportunity of throwing some punches at Funcom, rightfully so this time...

Rightfully, because as much as I like FC, one can't really find positive parts in the latest change, not even with the thickest rose-coloured glasses.
At best (IF the membership changes will be awesome) it will be "just" a usual PR fiasco - since they should've release it alongside the raid finder and the new membership benefits. They could've save themselves the damage control and the heavy crossfire they're in now...


So, what's this all about, in case you've missed it? 4.10 went live 2 days ago, and resulted more comments in hours, than the entire forum used to have in days   http://www.ageofconan.com/news/the_new_item_store_open_for_business

Membership update is still in the works, but they just had to (for some reason) quickly and prematurely release the cash shop for it - and as stated above, it's quite bad... In short:

- new layout (the least bad change, but still). It's fugly, it's clunky, it's slow.
- lots of items were removed. Most of them were quite popular, like cosmetics, or the option for account-wide unlocks.

- remaining items got a price increase. Seriously. An 8 years old game, raising its prices. Probably it's hard to manufacture those pixels   or maybe the logistics of storing and moving those items around in big trucks... oh wait it's digital
So, bigger items got a 10-20% increase (like the expansions, yup, want that 6 years old expansion? pay more than it was last week), smaller stuff went up even 3 or 4 times (like TP, from 16 to 60)

- added power items. I think Rawiz referred to this as p2w, mid-range raid gear is now in the new store. True, lower-tiered raids weren't lively anyways, but surely the solution is to simply making them irrelevant and give the players T3 raid set for money?
There's also the insta-level80 option, with extras. So it's not the usual (like in other games) "skip the leveling, start at the level-cap", it's more like "skip the leveling and half of the endgame grind, start at the very end of the endgame". I detest the insta-leveling options since years, but this one caught even me by surprise  

- and at last, gambling boxes, with endgame gear inside. So, if you bought the afforementioned insta-80, drop some more cash and you can skip that very last part of grind too, grab your T5 gear from the boxes. That's just... sad.


When the forum exploded Andy tried to calm the peeps and said there will be a large post on Monday about the new membership details and some reasoning behind the shop changes, and also a bit later nophex had to enter and giving some details in advance:
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?193643-Update-4-10-Consolidated-feedback-thread&p=2142120&viewfull=1#post2142120
Plus they were in-game too, answering the (quite heated) questions, which is cool. Still, the rage would've been much lower if they're smart and release the membership changes first, and only after the new shop. What's the hurry? They don't need the cahsgrab, they just got some money allegedly...


Anyhow, base line is, the shop will stay, raised prices will stay. But at least free players will have access to Khitai without subscription, and also they will be able to use the AA system. Based on what nophex posted, it will be quite similar to TSW's model.
I guess we'll see more clearly on Monday...

LIOKI

They need to fund Ark: Hyborian Adventure Time somehow I guess.

Tiamat64

Po_gg said:

- new layout (the least bad change, but still). It's fugly, it's clunky, it's slow.
- lots of items were removed. Most of them were quite popular, like cosmetics, or the option for account-wide unlocks.

The warehouse and storage costs for holding all that cosmetic pixel inventory was too much for them or something.

Rawiz

Why would there be comments? Funcom game (or games) is/are funded by a small group of players that just got shafted up the you-know-what for no reason really. This is more about cutting costs and keeping a game on maintenance mode. Expect the same in TSW in a year or so.
The only good thing here is you can actually play Khitai, the what, 6 year old expansion for free? Otherwise they think they can get money from F2P players.... I would actually be surprised if they had more than 2000 regular F2P players at this point.
Also you can't really say people "now can rightfully throw punches" as it has been valid for nearly 10 years - it must be that funcom love you have that blinds you from that.

Po_gg

Rawiz said:

Also you can't really say people "now can rightfully throw punches" as it has been valid for nearly 10 years - it must be that funcom love you have that blinds you from that.

True, I like them, but that never kept me from pointing out their errors, if there was one. I admit, jumping on the failcom bandwagon, just for the hate-fun, that never was my style indeed

Po_gg said:

[...]
I guess we'll see more clearly on Monday...

As promised, Andy posted the details yesterday, and... let's just say it doesn't explain all the shop changes.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?193691-Upcoming-Changes-to-Membership-Offline-Levels-amp-more

On the surface it's very similar to TSW's update: 30% advancement gain, bonus gain on tokens and AA, no more Vet tokens but the existing sum can be spent in the future, etc.

However, there are weird parts as well, like removing the offline levels, as in deleting them.
Now, I was speaking against offline levels since FC added it into the game, so on one hand, yay   but on the other, I actually understand why that part made a lot of peeps angry. Discontinue offline levels, sure why not? But erase the existing ones... seems dumb. Players got those in part of their subscription, in a sense they paid for those levels. Telling them "just spend them quickly" is not helping, when players have more than 100 Spend on what? Creating 2 characters and pulling them to the cap?

Other weird part, no more stipend. Only days after the shop change and the price increase on every item, with the player expectation "maybe they raised prices because the stipend will be 1200 like in TSW", this one is quite harsh.
Actually, I couldn't say a single f2p game out there, with a sub option, where the sub fee doesn't give some amount of shop currency. AoC was already left behind with this aspect, for a 15 bucks fee they gave 1.66 bucks stipend, while they had a very over-priced shop in the first place. Now the shop has even higher prices, and the stipend will be 0. Interesting... (their own other game TSW gives 10 bucks per month for subscribers)

Weird part 3.0, since AoC is not TSW (capped instead of "endless" progression / grind), for most current players the sub bonuses are worthless, simply because they're already at the cap. The whole model is more suited for new, leveling players (or maybe alts), and in AoC those players are the very minority. For capped players the only reason to keep the subscription will be the Loyalty rewards, which are not detailed yet, except there will be a cool mount after subbing for a year. Errrr.....


On the brighter side, leveling subscribers will have a smooth journey all the way to the cap. Free players will have access to everything they once purchased, without a further subscription needed. AA system will be open to everyone, not only the sub isn't needed for AA anymore, but don't need the Godslayer expansion either.
So, free players will have access much more of the game, subscribers will leveling more easily and conveniently, and current veteran players... well, they don't get much from the changes, just losing their offline levels, and can't get more Vet tokens for the stuff they couldn't buy yet.

At least the sub fee will be lowered

Quazal.A

It still makes me sad this game, this was THE game that had everything in place to be a serious player, but was let down by some FATAL mistakes (one being funcom) but its sad, i still look back with 'teary eyes' at what this game was/could have been

Rawiz

hate-fun? so mature.
Link your posts to where you actually point out FC errors?

Rawiz

I'm sure Po_gg will post links soon. Surely he isn't a liar.

Edit: Almost the 2nd of July. Still nothing.
Legit.
Edit2: 13th of July.

ossur

New patch:
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?193768-Update-5-0-Notes