SoE: I'm currently an F2P player enjoying the lower level content. There are a scattered few items from places like DoN and LDON that I would love to equip that are labeled as Prestige. Could you add a way to let us unlock these with SC please?
There is already a mechanism in place to permit players access to Prestige items. Upgrade your account from Free (with its limitations) to Gold (with no limitations).
What Xilbus is requesting is not out of line. There exists in EQII FTP per item per character Prestige Unlockers. My guess is that they have not assigned the coding time to make it work in EQ. To Xilbus, you need to be aware that when they do add these to EQ it will just unlock one item on one character.
Yeah and I don't see it happening anytime soon. Could be wrong, but between the runup to the expansion and the post-expansion issues (bug/exploit fixes, adding the content that didn't make the release, then the anniversary events and so on), it could be quite a wait. Remember there's also the "need" for the promised, delivered, then reverted LoN/claim item heirloom thing. At this point, upgrading to Gold will be the best/only option for the foreseeable future.
I'm currently playing for maybe an hour or so once a week. It simply isn't worth it to me to upgrade to gold for so little time played. However, paying 100SC to unlock a few prestige items that would make the game more enjoyable, I would do in a heartbeat. I'm rather surprised this doesn't already exist under their f2p system - why wouldn't they want to offer their customers the ability to buy the prestige items they wanted?
Part of the reason they don't offer this is because they don't want you to be able to wear the best gear in the game without going gold. Now of course DoN items are far from the best, but prestige is prestige and they would have to create an entirely new item label for items that you couldn't unlock if they allowed you to purchase the unlockers. Personally I don't see the point in prestige augment items except for how they work with more current expansions. If you can't wear anything above Tier 2 in more current expansions, only the augs from T3+ zones should be prestige. As for your low play time, understand you would be paying not 100 SC for a few items, but more likely 100 SC for each item you want to wear. So that could be as little as per slot (pretty unlikely to happen) or 100 SC for the aug, 100 SC for the item, and then all over again if you upgrade the item later.
It is not a matter of SOE not wanting it to work like that; but instead EQ is not coded for things like this as EQ2, Vanguard, and other newer games which have went to the f2p system are. I am sure they are working on it but it likely is not a top priority since it does not make it impossible for people to play. If it did make it where people were unable to play I am sure the coding time would be given to it; as seen by how they relatively quickly addressed the auged equipment issue for players returning or downgrading to silver. I have to disagree with this part. I don't think that is any part of the reason they don't haves these unlockers. I am quite sure that it is totally because they don't have the coding to make it work done. The existance of them in newer games which are coded to be more friendly to these kind of additions is really proof to this. As well as their statement originally that "Eventually everything that you can get on gold will be purchaseable via the Marketplace;" it just will not be nearly as cost effective. The prices for EQ2 gear unlockers ran 30SC per unlocker (25 unlockers for 750 SC to be exact). Vanguard has 5 for 450SC which translates to 90SC each. I figure that EQ will fall in the middle once they get it live, 5 unlockers for 300SC, ie 60SC each. I am guessing that by this time next year, if not a lot sooner, they will have introduced a way to unlock prestige items in EQ.
