You are certainly welcome to play elsewhere if the cost is too high.
IJS this does not sound like a healthy business model.
I don't know if it's common knowledge, but MUDs are very niche and often have loyal and niche playerbases to go with it. For me, it just seems to come with the territory. If we want to go full psychology, Breandryn is choosing to play here instead of any other IRE, which she mentioned she's spent several months in at least a few. Why is that? :P
I'm honestly not trying to dismiss it outright. I'm just trying to be realistic...especially since I've heard this argument before tons of times, and because honestly, I despise the price tag on credits myself. Pre-overhaul, the difference between the haves and the have-nots in PvP, at least, was so much more egregious. The vitals overhaul in particular and the removal of racial maluses, I think, allows people that are just picking their character up from level 1 much more comfortably; there are certainly races that are better for PvP but at least there isn't a huge pile of RP-only races anymore. Similarly, there are classes (bards) that require much less investment than other classes. The reason I mention this is because there is definitely an avenue out there for a relatively frugal and successful PvP viability.
Things like cyan says are a recent jump in the QoL sphere. Factions will hopefully make the game a little less empty. Suggestions are great. Complaints are counterproductive.
The biggest offender for me is lessons. Lusternia has a bunch of cool really cool skills and it sucks not being able to use them because you can't afford it. It's also a very dubious investment for a newer player. You don't even know if you'll enjoy your class or the game in general before you have to spend, especially if you're getting into combat.
So here's some ideas: - Inherent tritrans of guild skills at demigod. - Allow converting essence into lessons.
Yes this would be more 'freebies', but I think it would also greatly aid retention and reduce frustration.
Suggestions are great. Complaints are counterproductive.
Not everyone can be expected to make good suggestions. We don't know how to run a business or a game, really. We don't even necessarily know what the main problems is. We can just try to help identify what upsets us and what we like. So, I think complaints are fine and help identify problems. And I know I've complained about complainers before, but it's specifically complaining about people and not issues that doesn't help much.
The biggest offender for me is lessons. Lusternia has a bunch of cool really cool skills and it sucks not being able to use them because you can't afford it. It's also a very dubious investment for a newer player. You don't even know if you'll enjoy your class or the game in general before you have to spend, especially if you're getting into combat.
So here's some ideas: - Inherent tritrans of guild skills at demigod. - Allow converting essence into lessons.
Yes this would be more 'freebies', but I think it would also greatly aid retention and reduce frustration.
This. I've tried an alt or two a while ago, trying to figure out a few things and general trying to improve/gain perspective on a few skills / try out something new, but honestly the amount of investment required to even halfway being able to use your skills ( assuming you want tritrans and a -moderate- level of the basic skills ... easily nets you several 100 credits ).
You can make do without a good deal of the artifacts, but the lessons are quite a pain and I can really easily see people giving up way before they get there ( e. g. some base bashing attacks really do suck a lot compared to others high up in the trees and till you have the others you're either nearly demigod OR spent some money..., others examples, planar, the lack of ability to be heard from even something like a plane or two away... ) Something like what Shedrin suggests would certainly at least allow you to have -some- perspective upon eventually gaining the lessons you need.
The biggest offender for me is lessons. Lusternia has a bunch of cool really cool skills and it sucks not being able to use them because you can't afford it. It's also a very dubious investment for a newer player. You don't even know if you'll enjoy your class or the game in general before you have to spend, especially if you're getting into combat.
So here's some ideas: - Inherent tritrans of guild skills at demigod. - Allow converting essence into lessons.
Yes this would be more 'freebies', but I think it would also greatly aid retention and reduce frustration.
I would settle for a meaningful summary of the skill mechanics in the skill's help file. Something like, HELP HARMONICS: "This skill relies mostly on passive effects that either heal a friendly target or hinder an enemy." Except have them written by people who understand how the skills work instead of me so they're actually useful. Right now you don't actually have a good way of knowing class mechanics when you pick your class. You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
Any sufficiently advanced pun is indistinguishable from comedy.
I would settle for a meaningful summary of the skill mechanics in the skill's help file. Something like, HELP HARMONICS: "This skill relies mostly on passive effects that either heal a friendly target or hinder an enemy." Except have them written by people who understand how the skills work instead of me so they're actually useful. Right now you don't actually have a good way of knowing class mechanics when you pick your class. You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
That sounds like a great idea! The player run wiki would be a great place for that sort of summary. After all, you know the day to day feel of the skills better than we do.
I would settle for a meaningful summary of the skill mechanics in the skill's help file. Something like, HELP HARMONICS: "This skill relies mostly on passive effects that either heal a friendly target or hinder an enemy." Except have them written by people who understand how the skills work instead of me so they're actually useful. Right now you don't actually have a good way of knowing class mechanics when you pick your class. You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
That sounds like a great idea! The player run wiki would be a great place for that sort of summary. After all, you know the day to day feel of the skills better than we do.
You should post this idea in that thread.
Why wouldn't the game itself be a great place?
Mayor Steingrim, the Grand Schema says to you, "Well, as I recall you kinda leave a mark whereever you go."
I'm really not trying to cause arguments here, but a lot of this hair-pulling seems to come down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the free-to-play model. I think the least contentious way I can put my point is that if there is no advantage for a player to put money into the game (i.e., if there is not a clear advantage between paying and not paying), human nature is going to result in the game shutting down.
The advantage, by its very nature, is going to have to either go into PvP or QoL. If they put it into PvP people will say the game is ptw. If they put it into QoL, the snugglers are going to say it's cash grabby. What are the alternatives? Remove all artefacts from the game and everybody pay $X a month subscription? Have pay-only areas in the game?
You can dismiss my argument out of hand because I've tapped that plastic far more than I should have (it sure as hell hasn't won me any fights, and nobody in Kindred can hear me swearing about lag when I'm on Astral), but I literally cannot name another product that I've spent so much time and so little money on and had so much fun. Is it fair that people who don't have as much disposible income as me (or should I say, as much debt?) don't have the same experience? No. But it sure as hell is how the world works.
Certainly not all QoL improvements should be gated behind artifacts, but asking for no artifacts to be QoL related is questionable.
I think there are plenty of artifacts that have no business being artifacts/as expensive as they are. The glamrock is one of the biggest offenders. It's riddled with a ridiculous amount of drawbacks and difficulty, at a price far too high for the trouble, to accomplish something that everyone should honestly be able to do.
So, to fix the glamrock, here's what I'd do. Make the outfit saving skill of the glamrock, as it stands now with all the annoying limitations, an actual skill you can learn in a skillset that everyone has access to. Turn the glamrock into an artifact that lets you save the outfits permanently instead of having to fuss about with the decaying crud. Non-essential convenience artifacts are fun for everyone.
Speaking as someone who has more or less moved to another IRE game, but has also repeatedly tried to get back into Lusternia, I must say that this particular IRE, for some reason, gates a lot of QoL things behind skills. LiquidRift, for one, although that's pretty low. Stratagems and serverside queueing are a more frustrating example.
The argument of "but they need this to fund the game" doesn't really stick. Achaea, for one, seems to be doing all right. And no, the effects of artifacts aren't as dire as some people here may think (in no small part because they have a lead producer now who was actually a recent prolific combatant). Even Imperian, although recently much reduced in playerbase size, does quite well on the fiscal side, and they have QoL functionalities out the wazoo.
I'm really not trying to cause arguments here, but a lot of this hair-pulling seems to come down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the free-to-play model. I think the least contentious way I can put my point is that if there is no advantage for a player to put money into the game (i.e., if there is not a clear advantage between paying and not paying), human nature is going to result in the game shutting down.
The advantage, by its very nature, is going to have to either go into PvP or QoL. If they put it into PvP people will say the game is ptw. If they put it into QoL, the snugglers are going to say it's cash grabby. What are the alternatives? Remove all artefacts from the game and everybody pay $X a month subscription? Have pay-only areas in the game?
You can dismiss my argument out of hand because I've tapped that plastic far more than I should have (it sure as hell hasn't won me any fights, and nobody in Kindred can hear me swearing about lag when I'm on Astral), but I literally cannot name another product that I've spent so much time and so little money on and had so much fun. Is it fair that people who don't have as much disposible income as me (or should I say, as much debt?) don't have the same experience? No. But it sure as hell is how the world works.
The big f2p games rely a large pool of actually free players, with a small percentage that get invested enough to purchase things. That means making the game compelling enough at base to retain players and convert the small fraction who have the means and willingness to pay to do so. The free players still provide value through participation in the game, interacting with each other and playing with each other. Right now I think Lusternia is filled with a few whales and not a lot of small fish, and that's not a healthy ecosystem.
I strongly feel that some artifacts are incredibly overpriced and/or their effects are quite underwhelming. The glamrock fits perfectly into the "both" juncture. It would make sense to adjust some prices-- if the value is more appropriate to the effect, you will make less per item but sell more items.
An idea of how to change it would be, perhaps, something akin to the current behaviour for everyone (preferably adjusted to be a bit less of a headache) and have the glamrock reduce restrictions further (or allow storing more outfits, changing more often, etc). Give the base functionality to more all, and let the QoL artifact provide benefits to it instead of gating the whole thing. People will still buy it (if the price is reasonable for what it does, at least).
The big f2p games rely a large pool of actually free players, with a small percentage that get invested enough to purchase things. That means making the game compelling enough at base to retain players and convert the small fraction who have the means and willingness to pay to do so. The free players still provide value through participation in the game, interacting with each other and playing with each other. Right now I think Lusternia is filled with a few whales and not a lot of small fish, and that's not a healthy ecosystem.
I totally get you, and don't disagree that the balance of paying-to-free players might be wrong (because I don't know either way), but the basic model still relies on incentivising investment. All I'm really asking is for the people who aren't paying and don't like the effect that has on their experience to make a (financially) reasonable statement regarding where the paywalls should be. With the greatest possible respect - and I see this in all games - that doesn't tend to be the way these discussions go.
Also bear in mind (obvs) that we're talking about a text game. Consider Paragon. I've not seen a single whiff of pay-to-win. In fact the only thing you can really pay for is 'fluff' like epic skins for your hero, so that when you rotate to midlane and catch Dekker out of position the last thing she ever sees is an anchor coming down instead of a meteorite. Given the specific demographic and setup of a text game, I'm really not sure what the parallel would be. Prestige races? Well, I wasn't around when Fink and Gnome were released, but I'm willing to bet there was some Grade A bitching.
The big f2p games rely a large pool of actually free players, with a small percentage that get invested enough to purchase things. That means making the game compelling enough at base to retain players and convert the small fraction who have the means and willingness to pay to do so. The free players still provide value through participation in the game, interacting with each other and playing with each other. Right now I think Lusternia is filled with a few whales and not a lot of small fish, and that's not a healthy ecosystem.
I totally get you, and don't disagree that the balance of paying-to-free players might be wrong (because I don't know either way), but the basic model still relies on incentivising investment. All I'm really asking is for the people who aren't paying and don't like the effect that has on their experience to make a (financially) reasonable statement regarding where the paywalls should be. With the greatest possible respect - and I see this in all games - that doesn't tend to be the way these discussions go.
Also bear in mind (obvs) that we're talking about a text game. Consider Paragon. I've not seen a single whiff of pay-to-win. In fact the only thing you can really pay for is 'fluff' like epic skins for your hero, so that when you rotate to midlane and catch Dekker out of position the last thing she ever sees is an anchor coming down instead of a meteorite. Given the specific demographic and setup of a text game, I'm really not sure what the parallel would be. Prestige races? Well, I wasn't around when Fink and Gnome were released, but I'm willing to bet there was some Grade A bitching.
People are willing to pay for aesthetics right now. Customization, pets, goop skins, stoles, etc. are pretty popular. It's hard to think about how if Lusternia had only aesthetics purchases things would work out. It's too different to really consider. There is a market for that, though.
All IRE games have moved constantly more and more into the areas of giving more free lessons and more free skills as time goes by.
Problem with getting people into the game is just to start combat is a big investment. When the games first came out it was an even bigger investment. You couldn't even get near to trans in a single skill by getting to level 100 in Achaea in the early days. Its been good practice to offer more skills so that people can get a good feel of a class and get drawn into the game. More players is more money and well if giving people two or three "free to get" guild skills will hook more people into the game then go for it.
I'd be a lot more likely to buy more classes if I didn't also have to buy an item to or pay to access the skills I've already bought.
EDIT: Literally the reason I haven't picked up bard on Enyalida is that I'd already be spending at least 570 credits to pick up the class, and I won't make that big of a purchase if I need to constantly pay class and skillflexing costs to swap back and forth or buy 1k+ of artifacts on top. So instead of paying 570 credits, I look at a 1570 expendature to have somewhat free access and will instead use up ZERO credits.
Okay, serious question to anybody who does combat:
What is the basic level lesson investment at which you could turn up to a GROUP fight and have more fun than getting instalocked? I just wonder what the actual entry level is, because it didn't seem that high to me.
What is your bar for fun here? Does spamming entangles at the primary target count? It varies pretty widely based on your class, and a big part of what's really needed to participate are artifacts.
And frankly, the way combat is now IMO the answer is "Be a class that has escape abilities or you're just going to get instalocked no matter your skill investment".
You can show up to a group fight and just spam web or damage and contribute. That can be fun, of course, but it can get repetitive and I imagine most people are looking for a bit more variety and to use their unique class skills, and if you want to spar (which a lot of people actually do want to do, despite knowing it "doesn't matter"), you'll especially need a lot more.
What I'm thinking as a base level is having all the "core" abilities of your class (varies, but usually tritrans) and common skills (tumble, climbing trees, parry, etc) necessary to not instalose to whatever is out there. You'll probably also want a nose as well.
Big group combat is basically: 1- Have a tarot user or two who lust your target. Have a bard pfifth them. Everyone point passives. 2- One guy entangle. One guy aeon the target on a loop. One guy work on mana/manakilling. 3- Everyone do their best damage ability. Warriors use mantakaya to lock the target further. 4- Target dies, new target.
There are some wrinkles to that, but the biggest part of strategy is meta-tactical: controlling when your group engages, being able to disengage from a group instantly (or near to it) if you get targeted. In the actual fight, you'll probably end up using 1-2 abilities on a loop, having your system watch for instakill conditions along the way. With that in mind, I'd say that the nose artifact and the timeslip watch if you aren't a timeslip, starleaper, or acrobatic class are both necessary.
The affliction system promotes just throwing as many high prio affs at the target until something sticks, and then bursting them out with big damage. Because there is very little encouraging groups to not just clump to hell and focus fire down one target at a time, that's all that happens and close to no amount of skill investment on your part will really solve this if you get targeted cleverly by certain skill combinations.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
@Portius said:
You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
The wiki is what I've checked while deciding on a tert and i link people to wiki if they're trying to understand the set before investing.
"Oh the year was 453CE, how I wish I was in Serenwilde now... aletter of marque come from the regent to the scummiest aethership I ever seen, gods damn them all...I was told we'd cruise the void for auronidion and dust, we'd fire no turrets, shed no tears.. now I'm a broken man on a Hallifax tier, the last of Saz's privateers."
I would settle for a meaningful summary of the skill mechanics in the skill's help file. Something like, HELP HARMONICS: "This skill relies mostly on passive effects that either heal a friendly target or hinder an enemy." Except have them written by people who understand how the skills work instead of me so they're actually useful. Right now you don't actually have a good way of knowing class mechanics when you pick your class. You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
That sounds like a great idea! The player run wiki would be a great place for that sort of summary. After all, you know the day to day feel of the skills better than we do.
You should post this idea in that thread.
Aetolia or Imperian do this in-game and it's pretty neat, you don't need to go elsewhere to find out stuff like "What do I do in combat?" and "What balance do I focus on?". Also, having it written by an admin (in collaboration with envoys) would make it more of an agreed upon goal for the class which becomes a clear point to balance around.
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Re: the rest of the discussion...
Free to play comes in a variety of flavours. Lusternia's model is pretty intense, large promotions running constantly, multiple items that cost hundreds of dollars, some of which are necessary to avoid further costs. Like, the only game that I can think of outside IRE that's similar is Star Citizen. The more typical model as I understand is to get as many small purchases over time as possible.
For things that could help... - Rework the classflexing system, you might be able to charge a far smaller amount of credits for class slots. Maybe 100 credits per slot, with the sixth archetype this would mean people who want every class in their org will need to spend 500 credits for the pleasure. This could replace the ongoing lesson cost and negate the need for the tam upgrade. If you have a long time between changes, there could be a series of artifacts that reduce the cooldown to the point that it's practically nothing. You potentially end up spending the same, but it's not the all or nothing of the doctoral Tam.
- Look into more artifact races. Might be difficult as we have so many races already, but this could be an option to get particularly out there. Gnomes and Finks might represent the top of this line of artifacts, but there could be others that might give one or two exclusive perks, maybe even others that don't offer any effectively just being a "skin". If not completely different races, you might be able to sell variant races, that modify certain aspects for the perk structure. An urban elfen, for example, might replace the lvl 50 perk, or a lunar faeling might be just be Elfen in terms of perks except with fly at 25.
- Potentially incorporate elite into monthly promotions where possible. Give subscribers a wondercrystal if that's the promotion, a stocking at the solstice, etc. They provide money every month but it can feel a bit meh when you pay the sub and then also get asked to give more money for the promo. Would also entirely be happy if we had like... fragile wondercrystals that can't be traded and if you shatter the item they're part of they're lost. (I.e if your completed wonderwand has 10 fragile crystals in it, then shattering it would mean you only get 10, maybe 9 crystals back) Though that's potentially a big ask.
- There's probably artifacts that could also be broken down to some degree and sold in smaller parts. The balloon comes to mind, if you just bought the balloon and then paid for destinations it might ultimately cost the same but be smaller investments over time, it would also be more easily extendable as you could just release new destinations for sale as new zones open up.
Oh and maybe do a survey when someone cancels their elite or you haven't played in over a month? This might have changed, but it's super weird that IRE is one of the few games that doesn't seem to try to find out why you're cancelling or what made you leave. Sure, lives change, maybe it was an alt that you don't care about any more (could link it through your registration so if none of your characters login then it happens) or whatever. But it's a simple way of finding out stuff like the feeling that people can't afford the game, issues within the community that are driving players away. It won't in itself generate credits, but it seems like it could help identify what causes people to leave the game and if we can stop that then we might have more people playing and in turn paying. It could even be worth doing game wide ones every now and then, rather than having the forum community fighting each other or those who will send an email to support or raise an issue. Just to find out stuff like, "hey a lot of people feel like the game is empty/too expensive", some might talk about it on the forums, but a hundred surveys coming back from unique accounts saying the same thing has its own weight.
I would settle for a meaningful summary of the skill mechanics in the skill's help file. Something like, HELP HARMONICS: "This skill relies mostly on passive effects that either heal a friendly target or hinder an enemy." Except have them written by people who understand how the skills work instead of me so they're actually useful. Right now you don't actually have a good way of knowing class mechanics when you pick your class. You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
That sounds like a great idea! The player run wiki would be a great place for that sort of summary. After all, you know the day to day feel of the skills better than we do.
You should post this idea in that thread.
- There's probably artifacts that could also be broken down to some degree and sold in smaller parts. The balloon comes to mind, if you just bought the balloon and then paid for destinations it might ultimately cost the same but be smaller investments over time, it would also be more easily extendable as you could just release new destinations for sale as new zones open up.
There is a reason why the balloon is so much. There are already 'bixs to the three current areas it goes to (lirangasha, Dio, icewynd), not to mention that there are curio collections that do the same thing basically. The whole point of the balloon is that it, supposedly, gets new destinations as new prime areas outside the Basin of Life are released.
Comments
Things like cyan says are a recent jump in the QoL sphere. Factions will hopefully make the game a little less empty. Suggestions are great. Complaints are counterproductive.
So here's some ideas:
- Inherent tritrans of guild skills at demigod.
- Allow converting essence into lessons.
Yes this would be more 'freebies', but I think it would also greatly aid retention and reduce frustration.
This. I've tried an alt or two a while ago, trying to figure out a few things and general trying to improve/gain perspective on a few skills / try out something new, but honestly the amount of investment required to even halfway being able to use your skills ( assuming you want tritrans and a -moderate- level of the basic skills ... easily nets you several 100 credits ).
You can make do without a good deal of the artifacts, but the lessons are quite a pain and I can really easily see people giving up way before they get there ( e. g. some base bashing attacks really do suck a lot compared to others high up in the trees and till you have the others you're either nearly demigod OR spent some money..., others examples, planar, the lack of ability to be heard from even something like a plane or two away... ) Something like what Shedrin suggests would certainly at least allow you to have -some- perspective upon eventually gaining the lessons you need.
I would settle for a meaningful summary of the skill mechanics in the skill's help file. Something like, HELP HARMONICS: "This skill relies mostly on passive effects that either heal a friendly target or hinder an enemy." Except have them written by people who understand how the skills work instead of me so they're actually useful. Right now you don't actually have a good way of knowing class mechanics when you pick your class. You either ask around once you're in game or you pay a bunch of lessons and help for the best. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious, which is always possible.
You should post this idea in that thread.
The advantage, by its very nature, is going to have to either go into PvP or QoL. If they put it into PvP people will say the game is ptw. If they put it into QoL, the snugglers are going to say it's cash grabby. What are the alternatives? Remove all artefacts from the game and everybody pay $X a month subscription? Have pay-only areas in the game?
You can dismiss my argument out of hand because I've tapped that plastic far more than I should have (it sure as hell hasn't won me any fights, and nobody in Kindred can hear me swearing about lag when I'm on Astral), but I literally cannot name another product that I've spent so much time and so little money on and had so much fun. Is it fair that people who don't have as much disposible income as me (or should I say, as much debt?) don't have the same experience? No. But it sure as hell is how the world works.
I think there are plenty of artifacts that have no business being artifacts/as expensive as they are. The glamrock is one of the biggest offenders. It's riddled with a ridiculous amount of drawbacks and difficulty, at a price far too high for the trouble, to accomplish something that everyone should honestly be able to do.
So, to fix the glamrock, here's what I'd do. Make the outfit saving skill of the glamrock, as it stands now with all the annoying limitations, an actual skill you can learn in a skillset that everyone has access to. Turn the glamrock into an artifact that lets you save the outfits permanently instead of having to fuss about with the decaying crud. Non-essential convenience artifacts are fun for everyone.
The argument of "but they need this to fund the game" doesn't really stick. Achaea, for one, seems to be doing all right. And no, the effects of artifacts aren't as dire as some people here may think (in no small part because they have a lead producer now who was actually a recent prolific combatant). Even Imperian, although recently much reduced in playerbase size, does quite well on the fiscal side, and they have QoL functionalities out the wazoo.
Accountability is necessary.
An idea of how to change it would be, perhaps, something akin to the current behaviour for everyone (preferably adjusted to be a bit less of a headache) and have the glamrock reduce restrictions further (or allow storing more outfits, changing more often, etc). Give the base functionality to more all, and let the QoL artifact provide benefits to it instead of gating the whole thing. People will still buy it (if the price is reasonable for what it does, at least).
Also bear in mind (obvs) that we're talking about a text game. Consider Paragon. I've not seen a single whiff of pay-to-win. In fact the only thing you can really pay for is 'fluff' like epic skins for your hero, so that when you rotate to midlane and catch Dekker out of position the last thing she ever sees is an anchor coming down instead of a meteorite. Given the specific demographic and setup of a text game, I'm really not sure what the parallel would be. Prestige races? Well, I wasn't around when Fink and Gnome were released, but I'm willing to bet there was some Grade A bitching.
Problem with getting people into the game is just to start combat is a big investment. When the games first came out it was an even bigger investment. You couldn't even get near to trans in a single skill by getting to level 100 in Achaea in the early days. Its been good practice to offer more skills so that people can get a good feel of a class and get drawn into the game. More players is more money and well if giving people two or three "free to get" guild skills will hook more people into the game then go for it.
EDIT: Literally the reason I haven't picked up bard on Enyalida is that I'd already be spending at least 570 credits to pick up the class, and I won't make that big of a purchase if I need to constantly pay class and skillflexing costs to swap back and forth or buy 1k+ of artifacts on top. So instead of paying 570 credits, I look at a 1570 expendature to have somewhat free access and will instead use up ZERO credits.
What is the basic level lesson investment at which you could turn up to a GROUP fight and have more fun than getting instalocked? I just wonder what the actual entry level is, because it didn't seem that high to me.
And frankly, the way combat is now IMO the answer is "Be a class that has escape abilities or you're just going to get instalocked no matter your skill investment".
What I'm thinking as a base level is having all the "core" abilities of your class (varies, but usually tritrans) and common skills (tumble, climbing trees, parry, etc) necessary to not instalose to whatever is out there. You'll probably also want a nose as well.
1- Have a tarot user or two who lust your target. Have a bard pfifth them. Everyone point passives.
2- One guy entangle. One guy aeon the target on a loop. One guy work on mana/manakilling.
3- Everyone do their best damage ability. Warriors use mantakaya to lock the target further.
4- Target dies, new target.
There are some wrinkles to that, but the biggest part of strategy is meta-tactical: controlling when your group engages, being able to disengage from a group instantly (or near to it) if you get targeted. In the actual fight, you'll probably end up using 1-2 abilities on a loop, having your system watch for instakill conditions along the way. With that in mind, I'd say that the nose artifact and the timeslip watch if you aren't a timeslip, starleaper, or acrobatic class are both necessary.
The affliction system promotes just throwing as many high prio affs at the target until something sticks, and then bursting them out with big damage. Because there is very little encouraging groups to not just clump to hell and focus fire down one target at a time, that's all that happens and close to no amount of skill investment on your part will really solve this if you get targeted cleverly by certain skill combinations.
You're welcome.
-Kilian
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Re: the rest of the discussion...
Free to play comes in a variety of flavours. Lusternia's model is pretty intense, large promotions running constantly, multiple items that cost hundreds of dollars, some of which are necessary to avoid further costs. Like, the only game that I can think of outside IRE that's similar is Star Citizen. The more typical model as I understand is to get as many small purchases over time as possible.
For things that could help...
- Rework the classflexing system, you might be able to charge a far smaller amount of credits for class slots.
Maybe 100 credits per slot, with the sixth archetype this would mean people who want every class in their org will need to spend 500 credits for the pleasure.
This could replace the ongoing lesson cost and negate the need for the tam upgrade. If you have a long time between changes, there could be a series of artifacts that reduce the cooldown to the point that it's practically nothing.
You potentially end up spending the same, but it's not the all or nothing of the doctoral Tam.
- Look into more artifact races. Might be difficult as we have so many races already, but this could be an option to get particularly out there.
Gnomes and Finks might represent the top of this line of artifacts, but there could be others that might give one or two exclusive perks, maybe even others that don't offer any effectively just being a "skin".
If not completely different races, you might be able to sell variant races, that modify certain aspects for the perk structure. An urban elfen, for example, might replace the lvl 50 perk, or a lunar faeling might be just be Elfen in terms of perks except with fly at 25.
- Potentially incorporate elite into monthly promotions where possible. Give subscribers a wondercrystal if that's the promotion, a stocking at the solstice, etc. They provide money every month but it can feel a bit meh when you pay the sub and then also get asked to give more money for the promo.
Would also entirely be happy if we had like... fragile wondercrystals that can't be traded and if you shatter the item they're part of they're lost. (I.e if your completed wonderwand has 10 fragile crystals in it, then shattering it would mean you only get 10, maybe 9 crystals back) Though that's potentially a big ask.
- There's probably artifacts that could also be broken down to some degree and sold in smaller parts. The balloon comes to mind, if you just bought the balloon and then paid for destinations it might ultimately cost the same but be smaller investments over time, it would also be more easily extendable as you could just release new destinations for sale as new zones open up.
Oh and maybe do a survey when someone cancels their elite or you haven't played in over a month?
This might have changed, but it's super weird that IRE is one of the few games that doesn't seem to try to find out why you're cancelling or what made you leave. Sure, lives change, maybe it was an alt that you don't care about any more (could link it through your registration so if none of your characters login then it happens) or whatever.
But it's a simple way of finding out stuff like the feeling that people can't afford the game, issues within the community that are driving players away. It won't in itself generate credits, but it seems like it could help identify what causes people to leave the game and if we can stop that then we might have more people playing and in turn paying.
It could even be worth doing game wide ones every now and then, rather than having the forum community fighting each other or those who will send an email to support or raise an issue. Just to find out stuff like, "hey a lot of people feel like the game is empty/too expensive", some might talk about it on the forums, but a hundred surveys coming back from unique accounts saying the same thing has its own weight.