Sell more upgrades.....

[PenguinJoe]

I totally disagree with your weapon options.
1. I will never buy a 30 days weapon even if it is 899 RPs. In long run you will pay more money than the standard price for an epic weapon on IM.
2. Character bound weapons is killing the flexibility of the game and the flexibility of the players.

(1) Permanent upgrades are costly as hell. Expect to spend $150-$200 USD to make one and get it forged/reinforced. And staff is opposed to selling them because they do make the game unplayable for those that can't afford them. Temporary upgrades allow even folks that can't afford the permanent ones to play with the big kids at least as long as their monthly gaming stipend lasts.

(2) I would much rather see character-bound weapons than those that are passed around and sold on EM for stupid amounts of RPs. I believe staff would rather see the lower, but steadier income from character bound pre-made epics rather than the hassle of forged upgrade parts (which have the danger of being broken during the forging and reinforcing processes). They are less problematic to support and because they are somewhat cheaper than tradeable upgrades, they are more affordable by those players that don't have huge amounts of money to throw at this game. I actually still have a character that has those bound noobie epics they sold a couple years back. The character has long since outgrown them, but while that toon was leveling they were .... epic.

What makes you think that a character bound one will be less than 500 US dollars? considering there is the weapon + the character?

Not sure what the character has to do with it, but not even the Epics or Upgrade v1.0s were sold for $500 US back in the day. I can't see the cost of a character-bound epic being more than 6000 rps (12000 ecash) which to me would be a fair price for such a weapon that can't be traded or stored in your bank.

[SerpeleRosu]

1. Why you can't understand that in long run you will pay more money than for a standard IM weapon?
2. They can put for sale 2 different weapons. One like we know with very good stats and expensive and another one with lower stats and cheaper for those who, like you say can't afford an expensive one.
I doubt that a char + weapon will be 6000 RPs, when only a high lvl char is more than 6000 RPs.
You have a higher experience than me, you have 2895 posts so who knows ))

[PenguinJoe]

1. Why you can't understand that in long run you will pay more money than for a standard IM weapon?
2. They can put for sale 2 different weapons. One like we know with very good stats and expensive and another one with lower stats and cheaper for those who, like you say can't afford an expensive one.
I doubt that a char + weapon will be 6000 RPs, when only a high lvl char is more than 6000 RPs.
You have a higher experience than me, you have 2895 posts so who knows ))

Why do you keep saying char + weapon? A character costs you NOTHING to create and build. You can play it for free if you don't want to spend anything. Not saying it would be easy, but you can. What you put on that char is entirely up to you and will cost whatever you want to spend either in a lump or on a monthly basis. A weapon is only ONE of those things.

Nobody forces you to buy an upgrade. You do it if you want. I am only putting out there cheaper alternatives that might be attractive to PW because it could generate more money that the upgrades they are selling now (ie none) and that more people would be able to afford.

You are going on about 'rental' epics costing more in the long run. Well, duh! Of course if you are gonna keep buying them each month, yeah. In the long run they will cost more if you intend to keep using rental epics only. Just like renting a car. You will pay more for it in the long run, but for short term use there are no better options.

But then again - how much do people spend here on ASES, scrolls, costume patterns and the like? Add in another 10 bucks for a rental epic! Taking it on a month-to-month basis a $10 rental is a lot easier to swallow than dropping $150 on a single upgrade (if you can get someone to sell one to you that cheap -- good luck). But over time, yes it does add up. Rohan is not a cheap game to play. Never has been, never will be.

That is why I am putting forth more than one option. Each alone doesn't solve the issues, but both as a 2-part solution will make a better all-around solution. because rental epics opens a monthly cash flow stream for PWI and it makes the sale of permanent epics a little less viral when it is char locked - it is easier for the GMs to manage and sell to their management.

[SerpeleRosu]

Why do you keep saying char + weapon? A character costs you NOTHING to create and build. You can play it for free if you don't want to spend anything. Not saying it would be easy, but you can. What you put on that char is entirely up to you and will cost whatever you want to spend either in a lump or on a monthly basis. A weapon is only ONE of those things.

Nobody forces you to buy an upgrade. You do it if you want. I am only putting out there cheaper alternatives that might be attractive to PW because it could generate more money that the upgrades they are selling now (ie none) and that more people would be able to afford.

You are going on about 'rental' epics costing more in the long run. Well, duh! Of course if you are gonna keep buying them each month, yeah. In the long run they will cost more if you intend to keep using rental epics only. Just like renting a car. You will pay more for it in the long run, but for short term use there are no better options.

But then again - how much do people spend here on ASES, scrolls, costume patterns and the like? Add in another 10 bucks for a rental epic! Taking it on a month-to-month basis a $10 rental is a lot easier to swallow than dropping $150 on a single upgrade (if you can get someone to sell one to you that cheap -- good luck). But over time, yes it does add up. Rohan is not a cheap game to play. Never has been, never will be.

That is why I am putting forth more than one option. Each alone doesn't solve the issues, but both as a 2-part solution will make a better all-around solution. because rental epics opens a monthly cash flow stream for PWI and it makes the sale of permanent epics a little less viral when it is char locked - it is easier for the GMs to manage and sell to their management.

A character cost a lot: pack + scrools and so on...
So at the end you agree that it will cost more in long run... So how you will do? explain a bit... you will buy it only for 2 or 3 months? and then? you will buy a permanent one? or how? because if you buy a permanent one at the end, this mean you spent more: permanent + 3 months rental epics... this is bad business...
I have a suggestion for you: if a character cost nothing like you say give me a 115 character for nothing and than you prove ur ideas.
Or sell me an 115 character plus a 4x upg at a price to cover only the 4x upg.
And than I agree with you...

[PenguinJoe]

A character cost a lot: pack + scrools and so on...
So at the end you agree that it will cost more in long run... So how you will do? explain a bit... you will buy it only for 2 or 3 months? and then? you will buy a permanent one? or how? because if you buy a permanent one at the end, this mean you spent more: permanent + 3 months rental epics... this is bad business...
I have a suggestion for you: if a character cost nothing like you say give me a 115 character for nothing and than you prove ur ideas.
Or sell me an 115 character plus a 4x upg at a price to cover only the 4x upg.
And than I agree with you...

Again, you still don't seem to get it.

1. To create and level a character costs you nothing unless YOU CHOOSE to buy scrolls, SES/ASES, equipment, pets and other things you need to pay for. You do not have to do so, but most people will because it is easier to do so. It is a choice. Nobody forces you to buy RPs.

2. If you choose to spend money on these things each month, then you have an easier time of it. In my perfect world you can also rent an Epic weapon to make your PvE & PvP easier. But to rent it is up to you and what you can afford.

3. If you have enough money and don't want to rent an epic in my perfect world, you may choose to purchase one of my perfect world one of my perfect world permanently character bound epics instead. They would be cheaper than buying & forging an upgrade (keep in mind that PW staff have already stated they do not intend to sell them anymore). I would suggest that they NOT be as good as the rental ones so that people will be enticed to rent theirs instead.

4. If you are super rich and can find someone to sell you one, you can choose buy one of the tradeable Upgrade (whatever version) weapons from EM.

In all cases in my perfect world it is a choice. It is up to you want to do - spend less now but more over the long run, or more now and less over time. But I will go a little deeper here.

Not everyone has the kind of money to drop all at once to buy permanent upgrades/epics. For those that don't in the perfect world there are cheaper options. But at the end of the day the player is the one that chooses how they are gonna spend their money right now and over time. It is a choice just like everything else in this game.