The True Price of DDO Unlimited Free to Play & Getting the Most Out of Free to Play

[Furluge]

Greetings DDOers,

Recently I have written two articles on my blog about DDO which at the behest of my guildies I am posting here for everyone to see in the hopes that the greater community may find them to be useful. The two articles are as follows.

The True Price of DDO Unlimited Free to Play - This article provides in depth analysis of the Free to Play Premium accounts, price structure, exchange rates of USD to Turbine Points, and gives real USD price conversions for Adventure Packs, Leveling Sigils, Account Options, and gives you a realistic idea just how much real world cash getting the features you need and/or want will cost you in the Free to Play pricing scheme. Beware! Charts ahead!

Let Free-dom Ring: Getting the most out of DDO Free to Play - This article lists all of the Free to Play quests by level and the favor they grant and explains how Turbine Point rewards are given out based on the favor milestones your reach. It talks about how many free Turbine Points are available to the Free Player and Premium accounts, what you'll have to do get those points, and what you'll need to spend those points on given the holes in the free quest lineup.

I hope everyone finds these two articles helpful. If you like what you see here please consider telling your friends about www.furlugedepot.com or even subscribing with such services as Google reader or RSS. Enjoy

PS: Does anyone think this post would be more appropriate in another section? Oh and if you have any comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment on the relevant article or use the contact forms or IM provided.

[Arianrhod]

Thanks for going to the trouble of spelling all this out for folks...of course, with "specials" and all, the prices are subject to change, but having the charts can at least give people a rough idea for planning purposes.

I would like to mention, however, that a few of the things included in the cost are things many free players will not actually need to pay points for. Leveling sigils, for example, are available as quest rewards, and with a little luck or perseverance, they won't need to be purchased. Drow race and Favored Soul Class are unlockable with favor, and drow is actually quite accessible at only 400 total favor. Anyone amassing favor to get free Turbine points is likely to unlock Drow fairly early in the process. Favored Souls, at 2500 favor, are another story, but they are technically unlockable as well.

[RedlineJunkie]

Good read, both of them. I like that your charts include the discount prices for the stuff you are buying and also the discount on the Turbine points. Makes it really easy to see what stuff truly costs. I am kicking myself for not buying the 5000 points for $49.99 now! Hopefully it will come around again soon.

[Furluge]

Originally Posted by Arianrhod

I would like to mention, however, that a few of the things included in the cost are things many free players will not actually need to pay points for. Leveling sigils, for example, are available as quest rewards, and with a little luck or perseverance, they won't need to be purchased. Drow race and Favored Soul Class are unlockable with favor, and drow is actually quite accessible at only 400 total favor. Anyone amassing favor to get free Turbine points is likely to unlock Drow fairly early in the process. Favored Souls, at 2500 favor, are another story, but they are technically unlockable as well.

You mean like this Arianrhod?

Leveling sigils may be received for free in the course of playing as quest rewards. The lesser value the sigil the easier it will be to find with copper sigils easy to acquire and platinum sigils very difficult to acquire.

Now in the interests of being fair remember that you can still get the Drow race as a free to play player by getting 400 total favor, and the favored soul class by getting 2500 total favor.

Those two are quotes from the article. Specifically each is in the text right before the relevant chart appears. I don't blame you for missing it though, because that article is really long, it's tempting just to look at the charts.

PS. The most favor a Free Player or Premimum account can get on one character with free quests is 915, so favored soul is right out unless you buy some packs.

Good read, both of them. I like that your charts include the discount prices for the stuff you are buying and also the discount on the Turbine points. Makes it really easy to see what stuff truly costs. I am kicking myself for not buying the 5000 points for $49.99 now! Hopefully it will come around again soon.

Thanks. Glad to hear it. I hope you find some of what else is on my site as interesting a read as well. And yeah I'm sort of kicking myself for not doing that either. But I eventually decided to bite the bullet and subscribe. I'd gotten very used to being able to do a wide variety of quests, meaning I'd have to purchase every single adventure pack. : /

[Necromas]

Very useful information.

[Uska]

Interesting stuff. +1

[Furluge]

Thanks for the endorsement guys. I'd like to say I'm astonished by the kind of traffic I've gotten from people passing around this article. To celebrate I've put up a poll to choose a (lame) gift to celebrate my first time getting over 1000 hits. As always the URL is www.furlugedepot.com

[Cyr]

Very interesting anaylsis of the 'true' cost of premium. However it contains some signifigant gaffs. First, you count the cost of level characters. This cost is only there if you do not bother to grind to find a sigil yourself. As this cost is ~$10 a toon it signifigantly throws off any extrapolations you make about the cost. Second, you calculate a full unlock cost for all adventure packs. This again is not the entire picture. If you instead only count the highly desirable packs (as stuff like catacombs and necro 1-3 some people have never played who have been long time players and never will or more likely never would want to again) you cut a good amount off that cost. Third, you do not include the favor rewards towards the cost. As someone who let's say only plays on one server will get about 500 turbine points per toon that reaches 2000 favor (not including the additional what is 350 points for first time on server) you end up with about $25 dollars less on total expenditures for four characters on one server hitting 2000+ favor. Lastly, there is no analysis for cost over time based upon the 'hardcore' factor of the player. This is important as the more casual the player the less content they will want or even need to purchase over time. This creates a very different cost/benefit picture.

All that said very nice work on extrapolating out sales prices and such for various options. That part of the article itself is a very useful tool for those not mathematically inclined.

[Mockduck]

Very excellent work. Thanks for doing this!

[Furluge]

Originally Posted by Cyr

Very interesting anaylsis of the 'true' cost of premium. However it contains some signifigant gaffs...

Cyr,

First of thanks for the feedback. I really enjoy hearing back from anyone regarding the article, even if (And often especially if) it's negative. But I have to say I don't think you're being to fair to me about the gaffs you speak of. If you don't mind, I'd like to respond to each of your points in turn.

On Leveling Sigils
Here's a quote directly from "The True Cost of DDO Unlimited Free to Play"

Leveling sigils may be received for free in the course of playing as quest rewards. The lesser value the sigil the easier it will be to find with copper sigils easy to acquire and platinum sigils very difficult to acquire.

Remember the charts are talking about the costs assuming you choose to buy your sigils with USD rather than giving up your quest rewards in exchange for leveling sigils. What method you choose to get your sigils by is up to you. If you're not buying your sigils then you don't exactly need a chart for their cost, do you?

On free Turbine Points for Favor
Here's another quote directly from "The True Cost of DDO Unlimited Free to Play"

Now while it is possible to acquire points by earning favor, we’re going to assume that points spent throughout this article are points that have been purchased in the DDO store.

I'd like to point out I have an entire article, "Let Free-dom Ring: Getting the most of of DDO Free to Play" that is all about how to get those free turbine points, and how to make those points go farther. I don't think it's fair to say I ignore this point when I've got an entire article about it.

Also, the maximum favor a free player or premium account can gain from free quests on one character is 916, enough to earn them 150 Turbine Points in once per server awards and 225 in once per character awards for a grand total of 375, not 500 points. You could of course buy adventure packs to get access to more favor but then you're spending the points you're earning to get more points. Getting enough free Turbine Points to purchase the kinds of things we're talking about is a significant time investment. It's not really realistic to include a discount of 375 Turbine Points which the reader may or not be willing to invest the time (79 quests on elite) to acquire. You'll note that when I compare the cost of packs to VIP accounts I don't include the 500 per month as a bonus amount to the value of the VIP subscription either. I consider these things to be more in the fringe benefit category more than anything else, and while they're mentioned in the article, they're not something I think belong in the analysis charts or the total charts in an article about how much things cost if you decide to buy your Turbine Points.

With the two articles each article is going to have more appeal to different people depending on how they want to go about getting their Turbine Points, which is why I made them two separate articles.

On purchasing only the "popular" adventure packs / Casual vs Hardcore needs
I think this is pretty subjective. What DDO Store items you need is determined by what each particular player wants. That's why all the adventure packs are listed on the adventure pack section with their individual costs. Yes there is a total, and yes I relate that total to VIP subscription costs, but that's just what it is, a total. It's there for convenience. Everyone's personal "grand total" is going to be different. Also once again the "Let Free-dom Ring" article is more geared toward the player who intends to go with a lean purchasing plan for DDO Store items.

@Mockduck
Don't want you to think I forgot about you. Thanks for the compliment. BTW, this is the first time I heard of DDOcast. Looks like something I'll need to check out.

[Angelz_Fire]

Ok well your information is good however based on your f2p favor chart it's not working according to the information given.

Ok let me explain
I'm a founder came back to check it out again, I was able to keep 4 characters on my main server and had favor gained from last time i played.

here is the chart i tried to use to figure out what turbine pts i should be getting

Favor Milestone Turbine Point Rewards

Once Per Server
Total Favor Turbine Points
5 50
25 25
50 25
500 50
1000 100
2000 100
3000 100
Once Per Character
Total Favor Turbine Points
Every 100 25

My main character has 1735 favor (quit playing at lvl 12)

total turbine points from favor recieved by this character was 250
when i do the math based on the chart above she should have gotten 675 favor......
Is is wrong?

The ONCE per character every 100 total favor points were not given to any of my other 3 characters I have on that account. (each of those characters have over 1000 as well) which means each should have at least added a minimum of 250 turbine points to my account.

I maybe wrong on this but that is going off what your charts/guide says so please help me to figure out what is wrong.

[RedlineJunkie]

Originally Posted by Angelz_Fire

total turbine points from favor recieved by this character was 250
when i do the math based on the chart above she should have gotten 675 favor......
Is is wrong?

I think it's probably part of the bug that is mentioned on the front page of the forums, AFAIK it still hasn't been resolved:

"We are aware that some players are not receiving their favor reward point grants. We have identified the cause of the issue and are working on a solution. All outstanding points will be awarded once we’ve resolved the issue. We will notify everyone when this happens. We thank you for your patience and apologize for the inconvenience."

[Furluge]

Originally Posted by RedlineJunkie

I think it's probably part of the bug that is mentioned on the front page of the forums, AFAIK it still hasn't been resolved:

"We are aware that some players are not receiving their favor reward point grants. We have identified the cause of the issue and are working on a solution. All outstanding points will be awarded once we’ve resolved the issue. We will notify everyone when this happens. We thank you for your patience and apologize for the inconvenience."

Bingo. That would be my guess too as to why the free Turbine Points haven't been awarded out.

[Angelz_Fire]

k thanks was kinda hoping that it was part of that bug and that my calculations where correct. I kinda shot myself in the foot with a lvl 12 on f2p with no quests open at my lvl so would be nice to have the points to unlock content.

[Dungnmaster001]

Originally Posted by Angelz_Fire

Ok well your information is good however based on your f2p favor chart it's not working according to the information given.

Ok let me explain
I'm a founder came back to check it out again, I was able to keep 4 characters on my main server and had favor gained from last time i played.

here is the chart i tried to use to figure out what turbine pts i should be getting

Favor Milestone Turbine Point Rewards

Once Per Server
Total Favor Turbine Points
5 50
25 25
50 25
500 50
1000 100
2000 100
3000 100
Once Per Character
Total Favor Turbine Points
Every 100 25

My main character has 1735 favor (quit playing at lvl 12)

total turbine points from favor recieved by this character was 250
when i do the math based on the chart above she should have gotten 675 favor......
Is is wrong?

The ONCE per character every 100 total favor points were not given to any of my other 3 characters I have on that account. (each of those characters have over 1000 as well) which means each should have at least added a minimum of 250 turbine points to my account.

I maybe wrong on this but that is going off what your charts/guide says so please help me to figure out what is wrong.

If I remember right, the 25 points you get for every 100 favor isn't retroactive which is why you didn't get them. It's 25 points for every 100 you earned since mod 9 went live.

[Scyth]

Kudos for putting this information together.

In a related note, I lol'd at the "gift" article, especially the "trove of treasures" line.

[Angelz_Fire]

Originally Posted by Dungnmaster001

If I remember right, the 25 points you get for every 100 favor isn't retroactive which is why you didn't get them. It's 25 points for every 100 you earned since mod 9 went live.

so basically you get a penalty for spending time/money on the game at release? That really suxs and was a bad idea by turbine!

[Pharaz]

Originally Posted by Angelz_Fire

Ok well your information is good however based on your f2p favor chart it's not working according to the information given.

Favor Milestone Turbine Point Rewards

Once Per Server
Total Favor Turbine Points
5 50
25 25
50 25
500 50
1000 100
2000 100
3000 100
Once Per Character
Total Favor Turbine Points
Every 100 25

My main character has 1735 favor (quit playing at lvl 12)

total turbine points from favor recieved by this character was 250
when i do the math based on the chart above she should have gotten 675 favor......
Is is wrong?

The ONCE per character every 100 total favor points were not given to any of my other 3 characters I have on that account. (each of those characters have over 1000 as well) which means each should have at least added a minimum of 250 turbine points to my account.

I maybe wrong on this but that is going off what your charts/guide says so please help me to figure out what is wrong.

As far as I've found you don't get the 25 tp per 100 from before ( not sure when before is except maybe before module 9) only when getting the points now (as in since module 9).

And if I remember right you get 25 tp at 5 favor not 50 points.

You do get 25 tp at 10 favor.

Once Per Server
Total Favor Turbine Points
5 25
10 25
25 25
50 25
500 50
1000 100
2000 100
3000 100

[Dungnmaster001]

Originally Posted by Pharaz

And if I remember right you get 25 tp at 5 favor not 50 points.

You do get 25 tp at 10 favor.

Once Per Server
Total Favor Turbine Points
5 25
10 25
25 25
50 25
500 50
1000 100
2000 100
3000 100

Pretty sure I got 50 at 5, I know because I did it on every server that I didn't have characters on to make a couple hundred free TP right after mod 9 went live

[Furluge]

I believe the chart on my site is correct as it's what I remember experiencing and it matches what I've confirmed with others, but if someone else wants to double check this right now as an experiment it'd be appreciated.