Guntango
Well-known member
Damn, I was kidding.
SSG: Please confirm if there will be Rare Loot Mechanic for "The Chill of Ravenloft"
- Thread starter Kitty2Meow
- Start date
End game, whether it was achieving unhittable AC, or ROSS for casters or bauble, fully upgraded blue dragon armor + twilight, S/S/S for ESOS or LGS enders or TF T3 or a fully charged sentient weapon has never been about swapping builds easily as gear to do so was always an immense grind.
Just because leveling in E/R1 is easy and you can swap builds because the content played is easy isn't the same thing as ever being able to gear up for end game easily.
Besides, the player base bears a fair amount of the responsibility for charging for drops to acquire incremental power since they wouldn't bear charging for hearts to acquire incremental power. The player base just shuffled the bill around, but it still comes due. If rare loot is so bad, suggest a less bad alternative.
Just because leveling in E/R1 is easy and you can swap builds because the content played is easy isn't the same thing as ever being able to gear up for end game easily.
Besides, the player base bears a fair amount of the responsibility for charging for drops to acquire incremental power since they wouldn't bear charging for hearts to acquire incremental power. The player base just shuffled the bill around, but it still comes due. If rare loot is so bad, suggest a less bad alternative.
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GrizzlyOso
Well-known member
We already have. Stop pretending like no one is suggesting things.
Straw men, extremely old examples, good stuff. Literally citing things we moved away from because they were awful (s/s/s)
Swapping non btc Dino stuff across my builds / alts is pretty easy , I will continue to do so.
I fail to see how them torpedoing vip and expansions and me not paying $300 over this past year has increased revenue. Perhaps it has in rerolls. I guess they will tell us.
If revenue is a problem the egregious waste we’ve seen on non revenue generating work seems even worse (year of dragon, vip program, etc)
To me making a good game that people want to pay for is always the way forward. Bg3 is the obvious example. See how they just built a good game people wanted and people bought it?
Necrodancer
Ancient beyond measure
I guess it's only normal, If Konami turned castlevania into a pachinko game, SSG can turn ddo into a slot machine. Ka-ching.
Guntango
Well-known member
People who don’t like rare weapons, didn’t like s/s/s, didn’t like dragon armor.
Funny, I had dragon armor in every color and type, I had updated SoS on all my melees, even had one on my bard. Seems like rare loot isn’t as bad for people who happen to farm for stuff they want.
I’m betting if some of the loudest voices here spent more time in chests, they’d have some rare loot.
Funny, I had dragon armor in every color and type, I had updated SoS on all my melees, even had one on my bard. Seems like rare loot isn’t as bad for people who happen to farm for stuff they want.
I’m betting if some of the loudest voices here spent more time in chests, they’d have some rare loot.
Jack Jarvis Esquire
Well-known member
This line of argument makes no sense to me. You're talking as if rare loot is some inevitable consequence of player rejection of paid TR in favour of paid rerolling back in history.
I'll leave aside the voracity of the claim made regarding any such player "decision".
But will state that paid rerolling was never that much of an issue, for many years, until only the last expansion and this failed rare loot experiment.
Rerolling isn't the issue here. It's the leveraging of it as a direct consequence of the unnecessary introduction of an abominable rare loot system that is.
For me at any rate.
Dandonk
Beater of Dead Horses
I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.
Jack Jarvis Esquire
Well-known member
Haldonk! 
MCPeePants
Well-known member
Again - do you assume everyone plays the way you do?
And I see this stated often, that players are asking for the game to be easy. I have only seen players ask for things to be as they were before the drop rate changes introduced with Myth Drannor. Is your position that it was easy then?
I believe that in 2020 when EG7 bought Daybreak, it came out that DDO had the highest average revenue per user of the games in Daybreak's portfolio (higher than LoTRO and even Everquest). You're stating here that because the players did not wish to be further fleeced, they deserve to be further fleeced? Is that something you feel like is a defensible position?
Both those other games had higher user bases, so may be operated at a lower cost per user. What was that better alternative again?
Anurakh
Little Nixie
Here's a summary without AI. The OP asks if there will be rare loot in Lamordia. The majority of the player population who responded to this thread rebels against the most likely possibility: that there will be rare loot. At a certain point, it's confirmed that there will be rare loot, and people rebel even more. A very small minority of dissenters disagree, some because they love to oppose it, others because they genuinely don't care about any kind of loot.
There's no need for AI when the majority position is so clear
Pretty Good Old One
Well-known member
If the current situation is players getting fleeced, what is a fair price? DDO is a game with a smallish player base, likely limited market for growth due to older technology, significant fixed costs (licensing fees, server/support contracts), a need for development team for new content, and tied to a holding company which likely demands a minimum profit margin. As old as the game is, it likely needs a lot more revenue than most people expect to stay afloat.
The money has to come from somewhere, and the company has to show projections to their holding company that show where the revenue will come from.
I don’t know that anyone posting here knows how much revenue comes from VIP vs. Expansions vs. shards for re-rolls, but it has to come from somewhere… and it has to be wrapped up in a plausible plan for at least several quarters going forward.
If you believe that re-rolls were a big revenue source for the company, and you want them to go away - what replaces them? Right now the board is filled with - don’t buy the expansion - it has predatory re-rolls, don’t buy VIP - there is not enough value, etc…. How many customers and how much per customer is needed to keep the lights on and satisfy the holding company? Without new tech, rapidly growing a paying player base seems very difficult - so how do you generate enough revenue in the next year?
Maybe I am naive, but it seems to me that the prices for most items and the practice are much more a out keeping the lights on than milking the customer base for every last dollar - is their information that suggests otherwise?
The money has to come from somewhere, and the company has to show projections to their holding company that show where the revenue will come from.
I don’t know that anyone posting here knows how much revenue comes from VIP vs. Expansions vs. shards for re-rolls, but it has to come from somewhere… and it has to be wrapped up in a plausible plan for at least several quarters going forward.
If you believe that re-rolls were a big revenue source for the company, and you want them to go away - what replaces them? Right now the board is filled with - don’t buy the expansion - it has predatory re-rolls, don’t buy VIP - there is not enough value, etc…. How many customers and how much per customer is needed to keep the lights on and satisfy the holding company? Without new tech, rapidly growing a paying player base seems very difficult - so how do you generate enough revenue in the next year?
Maybe I am naive, but it seems to me that the prices for most items and the practice are much more a out keeping the lights on than milking the customer base for every last dollar - is their information that suggests otherwise?
Guntango
Well-known member
Hard to believe how much revenue DDO brought in prior to the “predatory” practices adopted with rare loot.
Is it predatory if it makes LESS money? lulz
GrizzlyOso
Well-known member
Here's some options:
- don't spend the time (dollars) on "new VIP program" - which has literally only caused problems, I can't imagine has raised subs, and as far as I know, has lowered subs. Instead, you could've tweaked a few numbers, for example given VIPs permanent buddy bonus, and immediately, and cheaply, made the game better
- don't spend the time (dollars) on a terrible, huge, wilderness zone
- don't spend the time (dollars) on a completely free for no reason year of the dragon program with free best in class archetype (dragonlord)
- re-vamp the store to make sense, this has been covered, but prices in the store are nonsense. On top of that, the store interface is nonsense.
- charge for more of the cosmetics you just give away (dragons, etc)
- don't spend the time (dollars) on at least 5 staff meetings to try to justify rare loot. Just make a good game. I for one would've paid for the ultimate bundle to support a good game. Now I, and many others, aren't.
But of course, the only solution, is MORE REROLLS.
Anurakh
Little Nixie
Predatory policies always seek to achieve large profits. However, intention and success don't always go hand in hand. Sometimes these policies misfire.
I'm not saying it's happened here, just that it sometimes happens. In fact, I think they've been successful in the short term. In the long term... we'll see. Another risk of these policies is that customers will tire.
waxinglyrical
Well-known member
You'd have to dare to enter the mind of the wizard to understand just how random or deterministic the 12pt 20pt, bold or underline really is.
Guntango
Well-known member
Yes, you should google capitalism for a real shocker.
Instead of predatory, wouldn’t it be more accurate to refer to them as the worst predators in gaming history?
I'm curious, what rare drops are people having a hard time getting, is it just the artifact rings?
The way I see it is while the armor and weapons are a bit less common, they need to be upgraded so I don't care about getting the drop with mythic + reaper bonuses.
The drops from the rares in the explorer also can't drop with reaper bonuses so no need to try for that.
Which just leaves the artifact rings as rare loot with mythic + reaper?
Clarifications greatly appreciated, to sum it up, is this whole thread really about the artifact rings....
The way I see it is while the armor and weapons are a bit less common, they need to be upgraded so I don't care about getting the drop with mythic + reaper bonuses.
The drops from the rares in the explorer also can't drop with reaper bonuses so no need to try for that.
Which just leaves the artifact rings as rare loot with mythic + reaper?
Clarifications greatly appreciated, to sum it up, is this whole thread really about the artifact rings....
Guntango
Well-known member
Do you put a lot of weight on the data collected in the forum bubble? I’d prefer a more diverse (accurate) sample before making hasty conclusions.There's no need for AI when the majority position is so clear