WOLCEN - Lords of Mayhem

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NemoJr wrote:

Btw, what you described in the quote is pretty much like PoE, if PoE had a fixed entry fee on top of microtransactions. Do you think that kind of system would work? Wouldn't that go against the biggest "lure" of F2P?

Depends on the way it's done and marketed, I suppose. Let's say you had full access to the 'demo', which is pretty much all of the content but buying the 'full game' would let you add as many premium and special stash tabs as you need, expand your player inventory, skin transfer items at will or make them invisible, stuff like that, it isn't hard to think of tempting perks that would make us open our wallets. The point of the whole thing being that doing the one time purchase would fully set you up for the game's lifetime as far as QoL and enhancement features are concerned. And on top of that, you can sell item/skill skins, portals and pets, the way they're doing now.

The main advantage of that would be that everyone serious about the game and has bought the full version will be on even playing field, you wouldn't have one player with 10 basic tabs and another one with 50 including all specials. And if you set it firmly enough that the free version is a demo you can't be accused of pay2win.

The disadvantage? I've spent more on those enhancements over time than would be tasteful to charge for a one time purchase.

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raics wrote:

Spoiler

Depends on the way it's done and marketed, I suppose. Let's say you had full access to the 'demo', which is pretty much all of the content but buying the 'full game' would let you add as many premium and special stash tabs as you need, expand your player inventory, skin transfer items at will or make them invisible, stuff like that, it isn't hard to think of tempting perks that would make us open our wallets. The point of the whole thing being that doing the one time purchase would fully set you up for the game's lifetime as far as QoL and enhancement features are concerned. And on top of that, you can sell item/skill skins, portals and pets, the way they're doing now.

The main advantage of that would be that everyone serious about the game and has bought the full version will be on even playing field, you wouldn't have one player with 10 basic tabs and another one with 50 including all specials. And if you set it firmly enough that the free version is a demo you can't be accused of pay2win.

The disadvantage? I've spent more on those enhancements over time than would be tasteful to charge for a one time purchase.

You summed up pretty well the kind of game I wish PoE were: One time purchase for everything the game has to offer mechanically, and cosmetic MTXs to support ongoing development & improvements. Throw in some basic cosmetic options to sweeten the pot, why not.

My one addition would be this: I'd bet my favorite pair of pants that, if no stash tabs were sold as MTX, then the game would be designed in a way which wouldn't require so many stash tabs to begin with. Think on that for a moment... Even if you have money to burn, and purchase more tabs than you could possibly need, ever, you're still having a worse experience than you could have.

But even in a "cosmetics only" scenario, "the pressures of F2P" as I called it, could and would influence game design. Current PoE examples would be: Limited graphics options, inability to start in hideout, "player interaction"-based trade... All of them inconvenient for players, yet all of them increase the visibility of MTXs (i.e. free advertising).


...I'm just tired, man; you know? I simply want to buy a good game and own it. And I want that game to be the best it can -- no strings attached, no incentive to make it worse.

___


Here's hoping Wolcen doesn't eventually take the "MTX in B2P game, because we can" route, as a sort of last-minute "Surprise, motherfucker."

Maybe I should keep my mouth shut and not give them any stupid ideas.

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I was surprised, delighted and then slightly embarrassed at both reactions when my 'ice damage' sword suddenly looked like it did ice damage...without me having to do a thing.

This is gold.

I hope they stay the course. I need a game like this in my life.

Man gamers are a fickle bunch. Steam rating of Wolcen dropped to "Mixed" (which is pretty terrible) because apparently they missed some deadlines.

To be fair, it seems some of them have been waiting for this game for 3 years, and they may be starting to get antsy. Also, "Starting from scratch after XX months. Again." is a hard sell, so some grumbling is to be expected.

That's just the recent reviews, anyway. Starbound had a rocky launch too, but now it's sitting squarely at "very positive", both recent and overall.

Save yourself some money, I just got Grim Dawn + dlcs dirty cheap in the Steam halloween sale. Got stuff to play till december whne incursion gets added to the game.

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鬼殺し wrote:

What it has that neither does is a worthy basic attack combo system, ensuring even basic attacks do substantial damage and have inherent effects like AoE, stun, bleeds, etc. depending on the weapon.

So the basic attacks are your bread-and-butter, with some "big booms" in between? I like the sound of that.

In PoE, mana management is the bane of my existence, so it could be a nice change of pace.