EQ2 also has items which change prestige to non-prestige because it uses a different type of database.
Just to note. The Player Studio program is still 'running'. They only have one person working on it (for EQ) who was from the finance department. He had to learn database entry and is continuing to add items that have been waiting for long periods (sometimes years). It continues, at an extremely slow pace.
You missed the point. He was replying to me. I was suggesting the bring back silver and charge say half the cost of all access and you get much better access to the game over current ftp/silver, but not quite as good as gold. It's just an option for those that may not be able to afford the full price of all access. I know plenty of folks that are fine with ftp, but if the could have better access to the game for.. $5-$7 a month they would go for it. Of course these access wouldn't get the DBC every month. But hey j5 Merc, access to all group gear, augs up to 95 are usable, rk2 spells and offline trader. Yeah I'd pay for that monthly for my ftp account. Heck just for the rk2 spells and trader it worth 1/2 price. And access to global channels. I think it's a nice common ground for those that can't quite afford the all access. Or someone that wants that 24/7 trader up while they're out hunting down some loots.
I think you miss my point. I was pointing out that player retention does not necessarily mean something good if what you mean is the game continuing. And as for your suggestion you are just looking at the accounts that might add this mid tier access but what of all the accounts that might drop from all acess to this mid teir access? All trader only accounts are going to drop to the cheaper access level. If people really want a trader they are currently paying for one. That is an income loss. I suspect a lot of people would drop any all access boxes down to the mid tier too considering all you want to give the mid tier access. Might as well go back to the other idea of Daybreak reducing the monthly subscription charge. But not sure that will happen either but they would be even more dependent on even more all access subs to make up the loss in income so that would not bode well for free to play features being added.
Honestly, offering mid tier access would bring more subs then people reverting from all access, imo. Plenty of ftp accounts that aren't paying at all. I doubt many all access would down grade. Silver should be desirable, but still not better then getting all access.
I didn't realize until very recently that the Silver tier is no longer something you can get on an account. At one point I had subbed my son's account and just assumed that converted it to Silver. Recently he's been playing and we couldn't figure out why he couldn't use higher than an A2 merc. I was used to my grandfathered Silver account where A5 was available when F2P. I'd love to see more options to deal with this, ones that could be monetarily beneficial for DBG without enticing people to unsub or go to a cheaper sub when they are already subbed normally. Ideally, for me, it would be handled like Merc slots, where I could just buy the upgrades from the store. But that could lead to subs dropping once they bought a high enough tier to survive on. The thing is that A2 Mercs are horrible. I could barely get one to heal properly in The Dream with 3 Heroic characters, a J5 tank and an J5 healer in the group. The merc would barely heal, barely med, just wouldn't do much of anything. We never fought more than 1-2 mobs at a time, adds were mezzed. There was just no point in even having the merc up. I get it, it's F2P, so it should suck, but let me buy access to A3 and maybe A4 in the store. Keep A5 and above for subs. There has to be a sweet spot where we get what we need and DBG gets a little more money that they weren't getting already. I may just end up subbing his account, but that would have more to do with him playing a Heroic character that will be leveling up and require a sub for the gear he needs. For now I'm just making sure we have one other subbed player to group with to cover the merc issues.
Yeah, they should bring back the silver tier but make it like a one time $20-30 account wide upgrade or $10 on a per character basis.
I could work with that. Also forgot to mention that I'd still end up subbing for auto-grant in addition to armor access. So I'd pay the upgrade fee and I'd still be paying a sub sometimes on the account going forward.
I appreciate that you are just asking or hoping for things and nothing wrong with that but I don't see these give more to FTP threads ever going anywhere. I guess the thing is that Daybreak feels they are in the sweet spot. And in some ways I guess this thread and its previous versions proves that. People feel they need more then a what a current Free to Play account gives to really enjoy EQ. They can play but find some things lacking. To be honest I think that is what Daybreak is looking for. Daybreak doesn't want to hear "You know they give us just enough in Free to Play that I can enjoy playing the game with just that and not miss a thing". If no one playing FTP was asking for anything to be added to FTP then Daybreak would be doing it wrong. I am going to assume they look at the number of active free to play accounts and the income they generate from other sources like the in game store or expansions to figure out how attractive they want free to play to be. And in essence what people are asking is for Daybreak to make adjustments to Free to Play. Thing is they have made them. Unfortunately those adjustments were things like removing All Access, removing unlockers form the marketplace etc. So Daybreak agrees about sometimes making adjustments to Free to Play but those adjustments have so far been to make it a bit less attractive. I know my comments aren't helping people get what they want out of FTP but I think its a realistic view of things.
That's why I was specifically trying to find a compromise that would result in us both getting what we want. I would get access to higher tiers of mercs for money, and they would get more money without reducing the number of months that I would sub the account. Auto-Grant AA's, by itself, is enough of a reason to subscribe, at least periodically. Once you get a character past the Heroic stage the sub is near mandatory to wear the gear you acquire. You may be right, they may feel they are already in the sweet spot, and maybe they are. But as was pointed out by Reht, there may be an opportunity for them to make money by offering a Silver upgrade on a per account or per character basis (per character would probably require development time though). If somebody pays for Silver they can play free after that and have more chance of leveling successfully than before. But as soon as they hear a ding, they need to sub for the AA's, and at some point they will stay subbed for the gear. If they lose interest and drop the sub, they will be more likely to come back later and putz around in F2P as a Silver account. That will likely lead to them subbing again and playing another cycle. I guarantee you, when I came back in April for the free Heroic, if I was stuck with A2 mercs on my account, I wouldn't have stuck around long enough to get hooked again. Now I'm subbed since May, bought EoK, and almost bought the Bag for Agnarr. My Heroic toon just hit 100, and I'm trying to get 105 and looking forward to whatever the next expansion is and the potential level increase. The last time I came back, several years ago, it was the same thing. Having to get by with an A2 Merc wouldn't have gotten me to sub, it would have gotten me to leave.
Apparently based on another thread called FTP the Sebs Hardcore zone armor which is a bit better then EoK armor is non prestige and available to FTP so maybe I was wrong and they are making some small steps in favor of FTP too. In that other thread someone also mentioned though that they feel most FTP accounts are run by people with existing All Access accounts not sure that is true but if so those accounts aren't likely to change. It is an interesting discussion and definitely nothing wrong with suggesting changes but like many things Daybreak is the only one who has the data on hand to make informed decisions.
I'm not sure if this is mentioned, but some of gear restrictions has to do with TLP and the fact that dev team doesn't want to deal with multiple databases.
