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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Is this MMO going to have any monetary features?
LeoManechest
Member
Is this MMO going to have monetary features other than purchasing the game and a subscription?
Examples: Paying to level up - Buying mounts and other cosmetic features, etc.
IMO if at all possible, if you can muster it (like the world most popular MMO for its first 3 expansions), I would not put any of these in game. If any monetary features are in the game even harmless skins I personally am going to be less inclined to purchase AOC.
Examples: Paying to level up - Buying mounts and other cosmetic features, etc.
IMO if at all possible, if you can muster it (like the world most popular MMO for its first 3 expansions), I would not put any of these in game. If any monetary features are in the game even harmless skins I personally am going to be less inclined to purchase AOC.
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Comments
There will be skins for your character, skins for your mount which you must own (the skin isn't a mount itself) and skins for your freehold.
It's not ideal, but it's a whole lot better than P2W.
You can go to the store page now and see the cosmetics they have for sale. In theory that's all the types of cosmetics they will be selling in the store
I would say thats pay to PvP without penalty lol.
im guessing the reward will just be cosmetics tied into a monster coin vendor which u get coin for if u participate in the monster or player side for clearing/winning it that would be my assumption since steven view on pay to win in games
The monster coin event ties out systems of the node under seige. It directly weakens the host node. It prevents resources added to the node. Its essentually all of the downsides of a node being underseige except there is no "player party" waring the node.
A node under a monster coin event could then be seiged directly after while weakend. And how well the player do while controling the monsters, effect how long systems are shut down for the node....
I think the monster coin system, is good and interesting. I think the monster event is good for shaking up the world in an interesting way. Making the coins purchasable is very much toeing the line of pay to win.
key points
Monster coin events do not occur before sieges.[15]
Monster coin events do not occur during sieges.[14]
Monster coins are obtainable from:
Rare drops in-game.[19]
Purchasable from the cosmetic store.[19]
Monster coins are not tradeable.[6]
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Expansions
DLC expansions (post-launch releases) are planned on a monthly, quarterly, or six-monthly basis.[1][2]
The frequency and size of expansions will be based on the popularity and subscription base of the game.[1]
DLC will not cost anything more than the normal subscription.[3][4]
Larger expansions will add new content and increase various aspects of the game.[1][5]
Increased level cap.[1][5]
New gear sets.[1]
New zones.[1]
New bosses.[1]
New skill levels.[5]
Increased power levels.[5]
Gear upgrades.[5]
New content will primarily be introduced through the node system. The goal is for existing content to remain relevant alongside the new content.[6]
Because of the modularity of a lot of the systems that we're working on, it's not too hard to iterate and implement new things... We're planning on going on a quarterly/ monthly cycle to continue to push out new content.[7] – Jeffrey Bard
The quarterly cycle for the big content is good for us and then, as you said, those modular components to our mechanisms in the game allow for us to introduce smaller content patches that can be seen in real time in the world.[7] – Steven Sharif
We don't intend to a wordsmith around future charge for DLC content. As a subscription model, that's part of the agreement between us as a Studio and you guys: That there will be regularly scheduled updates and chapters; and that subscription is what allows you to access that content.[4] – Steven Sharif
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Cosmetic_store
I want to incentivize purchase in the cosmetic shop for sustainability of what expansions we have intended, since we are not a box cost. I want to incentivize purchase by offering limited items: limited time, limited quantity, so you have confidence that when you purchase them, they won't be offered later on in some other way.[4] – Steven Sharif
Nothing in our shop will ever be pay to win as we believe this practice greatly hurts the MMORPG genre.[5]
Inventory slots, RNG loot boxes and XP potions are considered pay-to-win.[34][35][36][37]
There will not be level boosts or auto-leveling.[38]
There will not be a loot box system in Ashes of Creation.[34]
Can you point to even one game that has failed due to having cosmetic only microtransactions?
I mean, I am not the biggest fan of them, but if you look at how long the price of the average AAA game has stayed fairly level (realistically, 20 years) and you look at inflation over that time, games that were $60 should now be $100.
I'm ok with developers that opt to make up that difference via cosmetic only sales, rather than pay to win sales or an increased box or subscription price.
From what I've experienced, when companies start failing they often start including additional monetization models as attempts to prevent their failure. This is an especially common practice for MMOS. RuneScape is a great example of this, they consistently expanded on their monetization methods once the Solomon's Store (Cosmetic Store) was no longer viable.
Now they have loot boxes, battle passes, multiple optional subscription fees and Bonds (WoW Token). Not to mention every few years they seem to increase the sub cost. The sad and unfortunate truth is that RuneScape would most definitely be dead by now if it wasn't so heavily monetized.
This isn't additional monetization. It's pretty much been there from the get-go.
So, if players just keep pushing siege scrolls, we'll never get a Monster Coin event?
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Could you be more specific. What's been where from the get-go?
If you're talking about RuneScape's monetization, I can assure you. The monetization models I listed were not there from the get-go. The earliest additional monetization RuneScape implemented, as far as I can remember, was the squeal of fortune in 2012. More than one decade after the games release.
If for some reason you've misunderstood me and are referring to AoC's monetization, then I'd like to bring up that I never mentioned it or stated any opinions on the subject.
If you don't like cosmetics that's fine, but thinking the game will fail because they have cosmetics hilarious considering the most successful games out all sell cosmetics to some degree. This is one of the situations where you need to realize you're the minority opinion.
You're right, @Romancyy.
The above quote is a classic red herring logical fallacy ...
You said that when games companies start adding additional monetization, it's cos they're failing. But, the Cosmetic Store isn't additional, it's part of the intended revenue model. There's just no reason to suggest that Intrepid is already failing just cos they have a Cosmetic Store. It's a planned source of income.
I never said anything at all about intrepid studios or ashes of creation. I never mentioned AoC's cosmetic store, I most certainly didn't suggest intrepid studios was failing.
My statement was in reference of this one specific statement. Which has nothing to do with AoC or Intrepid studios.
"From what I've experienced, when companies start failing they often start including additional monetization models as attempts to prevent their failure."
Please read my statement again carefully and attempt to understand it's meaning.
I'm obviously well aware of Intrepid's monetization models, I'm $1500 deep since the Kickstarter.
I don't appreciate the underhanded attempt to insult me.
This thread was posted in general discussion not Support and FAQ, and the OP's question has already been answered. My statements had relevance to the topic being discussed.
It's definitely true that when MMOs start to fail they start selling p2w features, but at that point I'm not playing the game anyways and presumably others aren't playing either because it's a failing MMO.
AoC isn't a failing MMO so I'm not sure what the anger in this thread is about.
Getting angry about something that isn't even happening seems like a waste of time.
What makes cosmetic cash shops iffy for me is the thought, that every cosmetic found in the cash shop represents wasted potential content as they could have been in the game as rewards instead. As rewards for clearing raids, unlocking achievements, completing long quest chains, access a higher tier in faction or whatever.
However, as long as there are plenty of alternatives (ranging from mid to top tier quality) achievable in-game, i do not see the harm behind having some of them inside the cash shop.
That ship sailed with Kickstarter.
Failure to sell millions of copies of their MMO and have 100 000's of players playing it at any given moment.
It will fail if it's just some game with like 1000 players playing it after a year. If you were to log on. You would see everyone running around in completely different outfits. Some with higher resolutions and perhaps moving parts or glowing. Outfits which they paid for because they wanted to look cool and unique.
Running around in a game that might lack great core gameplay. Or is overly easy and leaves more to be wanted. Essentially just a dress up game ...
Even if the devs make their money back. I would consider the above a failure.
When it says "Before a siege" they mean this:
Once the siege scroll is brought to the node and is activated, the declaration period begins and a countdown is initiated for players in the region to see. This countdown runs for a number of days equal to the stage of the node being sieged.
Once the countdown is complete, the siege begins
So with this, and with the fact that A node siege may not be declared for 21 days following a node advancing to any stage
And the fact that if the node survives, there will be a cooldown before the node can be sieged again:
You'll have plenty of openings for monster coin events.