Better than the last VIP thing but still very very bad.
My first and main question is, why the 12 month progression? I get the thinking of wanting people to get vip and continue it. My issue is, EVERYONE I know that used to vip, along with anyone I pugged with, ALREADY had vip on the whole time they were playing. No one had it for a month here, a month there, it was something they had while playing the game for years and years. Did you guys see data that people were doing that? Or did you see less people VIP-ing and not realize it was because they were unhappy with VIP?
On to rewards:
1 - 500 bonus pts: Fine start
2 - Garbage. Most of these items are things no player would feel excited about getting in a chest. If we got EVERYthing from this bag instead of selecting one, it'd be an upgrade from pure garbage to "ok I guess"
3 - bonus character: Meh. Not something to get super excited over for vets, and new people shouldn't really have that many alts 3 months in.
4 - worse than garbage. Worse than the previous fletching but not quite as bad as hireling duration. No one cares about item durability. Named stuff can't take permanent damage anyway.
5 - another grab bag of garbage
6 - lightning trail - Cosmetics are attractive to some people, but this isn't a battlepass (will talk more about that at the bottom) to hide it behind a pile of months
7 - What's a "small chance?" at getting a collectible token? If it's small as in 2%, not worth it. Also the 10% crafting xp should just be given from the start (and made 20%), and then this month the collectible token and something else, 250 pts?
8 - Better selection but still very very BAD. 4 hearts that are super easy to get in game. Are you just trying to trick newbies into screwing themselves over? 12 hours pots that, like people have mentioned, are difficult to use because then you're committed? We could really use a way to pause pots. The loot/xp elixirs are the only real choice here, might as well just give another 500 pts here. Ok the +20 heart CAN be useful if you make a really huge mistake, but that's extremely rare. Most people either hold onto their +20 hearts and will likely never use it, or, they use it as a +1 or +2 heart since they don't have any others.
9 - 1% loot boost - The only thing here I like lol. It's small, and I'd like a bit more but hey it's something. BUT, it should also be given right from the start of VIP
10 - garbage pt 2
11 - Nice but AGAIN, just give this to us at the start and we'll vip for as long as we play the game.
12 - Probably nice, the art department does a really good job on stuff. But I think there should be something else at month 12 (or better, no 12-month system) and the mount just be a bonus thank you for vip-ing for a year.
Misc:
- Shared bank slots: Always need more of these, but why so stingy with the 5 when every upgrade is 10? Really feels like you're trying to give as little as humanly possible
- Spell swapping: Handy, could use a few more from-the-start QoL upgrades. See my sig for some low tier ideas.
End of Month:
- Reading the q&a, it sounds like this is actually...a 13 month plan? You don't get each month's rewards until the end of the month? That seems very misleading and sleazy. You did the same thing with the year of the dragon and it didn't make sense to anyone then. Is there a particular reason that, once someone already GIVES you the $$, you can't just give them that month's reward?
Now on to the battle pass. This whole system really looks like you're trying to copy a battle pass. I get it, many other games use a BP and it's a successful system. The problem is, you're not bringing in all the stuff that makes a BP appealing.
- A FREE progression of rewards just for playing the game. The BP then runs side by side and gives additional rewards. People play the free one and see what they're missing and then hop on.
- Daily incentives. Games with BP have daily missions/quests, things to run, which progress the BP.
- Good rewards. Right now your whole VIP rewards list is like 3-4 decent things.
I buy overwatch 2 BP by looking at the big end reward, a ****** costume. If it's reaaaally good I'll get the pass. If it's cool but not enough on it's own, I'll then backtrack through the other rewards (that take roughly 3 weeks to get them all) and see if altogether it's worth it. BP requires getting xp so I play every day.
It's like you're only taking the worst parts of a BP.
- Instead of small, daily progression, you're making people plan/commit to a year.
- Offering cosmetics/mounts that are only available while VIP. If you're going to do that, make them available from day 1.
- No actual incentive to log in or play, just pay $$.
It sounds like you want people to play, desperately want them to vip for consecutive months. But instead of offering good prizes to tantalize, you're just trying to force them to need to subscribe for multiple months in every nickel and dime way. When, again, the vast majority of people ALREADY WANT TO DO THAT.
Why are you making it so difficult? There are more people than I'd expect that think this new system looks good, but I think those people didn't despise the old one and were already vip anyway. The other people, like my friends and myself, were the ones waiting for a half-decent system to get us to VIP again. This is far from it and will not get us back.
Please consider frontloading many of the rewards to immediate unlock: lightning aura, cloud mount, crafting boost, drop rate boost, character slot. Then, each month could have a bag of many things, but...maybe better? Remove the traps like sentient xp and plain hearts of wood, and give the option of another 250-500 pts if you don't want the box.
If you absolutely NEED to have a big finale prize at the end, have the cloud mount be a bonus I guess, but consider after 6 months? Also, you should be able to obtain it if you buy 12 months (6?!?) of vip all at once.
Long post, but please please can you explain the need for this to be a 12-month monstrosity? Not why a 12-month plan is a good idea but why you think DDO needs it to be that way.
