Test Discussion GU97: Catalyst Consolidation

The argument that by keeping the catalysts account-bound would force the player to either play the game or buy from mp is not much of an argument at all. If you really believe that limiting the catalysts to 3 types would eventually lead to astronomical prices in the future, then wouldn't THAT force the same player to either play the game or buy from mp?

What argument are you exactly trying to make? That we should create a situation where a player is forced to play the game or buy from the MP? Because if they are sell-able as they are, the market will eventually contain pages of them and prices shouldn't be astronomical and some players may feel it easier (in terms of time) to buy them.

This suggestion may also lead to a player falling behind in levelling up their artifacts which then leads to disinterest to the game.
As you know some players want to feel OP and if there is a quick way, a cheap way of doing things they will want those artifacts levelled up.

With your suggestion the only thing you removed is choice. The choice to either keep the catalyst or sell them. Either buy an expensive catalyst with in-game cash or buy it with real money or farm in yourself.

So you will remove the artifacts' catalysts from marketplace too? And you will never,ever put artifacts' catalysts nor source marks on the marketplace ,right?

I'm sorry Mepps I have to strongly disagree, many use trade chat so it's not only the broker. This and like other things are becoming more and more obvious for the community at the money grabs and the community for this game can only take so much. I really hope you guys reconsider this.

When Artifacts were introduced we were told all items would be obtainable in game thus you have removed the seals, which now can only be purchased in the Marketplace there needs to be ways to earn seals and then doing this move is such a bad idea.

The community is getting smaller and smaller I hope your data shows that and I hope your looking at end game not all the characters at level 30 or below who left without caring to level any higher.

This is a way to make money for many other people in the game that you are slowly removing all options for some people to make any money to go on playing the game.

All i make up from this move is that you don’t want people to get catalysts with in-game money. Now we can see the reason why you put source marks in the marketplace. I used to buy them from the broker when i was short on marks, guess that option is out of the window now.

Yep, they better reconsider their actions otherwise they will keep pushing more people away from this game. There are already many people worried about the upcoming <<weapons balance >> .
You think they will be happy with this catalysts decision ?
We can't get seals ingame by playing, only from marketplace and now you made it even more difficult to get catalysts too !

Keep risking loosing more members, keep pushing it guys, see where that leads you.

I find this incredibly disappointing, your right to make absolutely, mine to express disappointment as a customer.

You've put source marks on the market place, you've go the catalysts on the market place

First seals were tradeable and then seemingly out of no where you decided to push them non tradeable forcing people to spend money, your break through rates are as low as 3% on the breakthrough, so come on you know this is forcing people to buy them.

There's no where to obtain seals in the game, not even the lower quality seals of preservation.

Now you've made catalysts untradeable forcing players to spend copious source marks on them with no alternative route, marks you continue to control through your horrible relevancy window that needs to be extended, but I can't help but feel you won't because when it was suggested we've suddenly got source marks on the market place!!?!?!!?!

So with this move we've now got no alternative in game economy route and you've pushed players into either resetting or buying off the market place.

The trouble with your broker analysis too by the way is that it's faulty, lots and lots of people traded these catalyst cache's via trade chat as well and would sit at the phase shifter in the WT doing it constantly, something your broker analysis would have missed entirely because it only shows a small part of the picture.

In terms of the gifts etc, too you could easily have had two versions, one tradeable, one not, you have done this with numerous numerous items over the years.

I say with intended respect, but there are absolutely no pros to the customer for making them account bound, the only people that stand to gain from this change are the developers.

The top 1% spenders on DCUO are now buying all the available catalyst caches on the broker. Those people will not be spending $ acquiring catalysts from the Marketplace any time soon. They can keep the catalyst caches for future use, or funnel the items to their alts to gear them up. Or they could hoard and wait, in case the change gets reversed. Then they can sell the items on the broker to potentially get a profit.

Middle tier and low tier spenders will stop buying catalysts and buy seals only.

So, this one change has already had a huge impact on the in-game economy. Short-term, this change will very likely not bring in much $. Long-term, remains to be seen.

Seasonal currency, source marks, seals, catalysts..... the increasing monetization is quite scary.

The gaming company gains. The developers, not so much... unless their variable bonus is impacted by increased game revenue.

Not sure about Daybreak, but in other gaming companies, the devs sometimes have little control over how much or how little monetization should be in the game. They either have to follow the monetization directives given by the higher-ups. or find a new job.

Really, really disappointing.

Hmm, now where's that "dislike button"?

As mostly a premium player, legendary on and off, losing the ability to trade catalyst boxes will be a big hit to me. As I can't use the broker for high value items, I have to trade to get them. The catalyst boxes were like a currency that was widely useful to many. If you get a rare collection item and want to trade it for another rare collection, it is very very hard to find someone who wants what you have for something I need. Trading 50 boxes for a 15 million dollar item worked. Now it will become much harder to complete collections.

Mepps, I understand your argument about buying and selling in the broker but it seems you did not consider free and premium players earning catalyst boxes and trading them outside the broker for items not otherwise obtainable easily. This is much harder to track, so you may not have seen it. I also use shout, as well as trade chat to trade boxes for collections.

Can we open up some the relevancy window some more then with this decision?

When i say developers i mean daybreak, not the personal employees

^^ So this.

The decision to remove the ability to trade catalyst is horrendous and nothing but a blatant money grab when paired with the Source Marks on the Marketplace.

110% accurate. I have a ton right now and I plan on buying up more every day. I am going to try my damnest to insure I do not run out of Source Marks for a very...very...VERY long time.

Mepps, your explanation is complete nonsense. I don't know if you're trying to convince us, yourselves, or just plain lieing to us. You are yet again, destroying one of the last legitimate avenues for people to make in game money, and it's the actual players who dont have billions that you are hurting the most. A lot of us dont have stockpiles of thousands of source Marks, or banks full of discontinued items/old collections we can liquidate for hundreds of millions a piece. This economy is so bonkers, we already have trouble buying items. You lied to us about artifacts, and took our seals away. You add source Mark's to the marketplace at obscene prices, and you limit the content we can earn source Marks from. Your "gifts" are usually account bound already, so this "exploitation" you speak of is a lazy excuse which holds no truth. We already pay 15$ a month, buy stabilizers for tc feats (if we want to push our sp), have to buy seals of completion for artifact breakthroughs if we want to progress them and even more so now since we cant get caches any other way. It's almost impossible now for players to catch up unless we spend hundreds on the marketplace. Over 1$ for a cache... And your claim and reasoning, referencing broker activity. Did your analysts not see/factor the 24 hour a day trade chat selling of caches? BC we get/give better pricing in chat.

I have been disgusted and disheartened by the constant pushing and now forcing of your microtransactions in the recent past, but this latest one is a whole new level.

The ps5 is coming out soon, and with it a whole crop of next gen games, and DCUO will surely see competition. These games will no undoubtedly have micro transactions, but I have not played a mmo as laden with obscene ones as DCUO. I've quit this game in the past, to come back again just to play with leaguemates and spend a good amount of money in the process. But time and excuses are running out, and we are being given very little reason to stay. This doesnt even factor in the never-ending releases of recycled content, ruined pvp and ridiculous drop rates some of us seem to get compared to others.

Simply put, this. All of this. EVERY. SINGLE. WORD.

Very well said Dax.

If your going to make catalyst account bound fine then CR relevance needs to go ASAP. The reason we had it should of ended the day Source marks were added to the Marketplace .