SC Goods Account-Wide

I have this concern too. I have a character on each of the 3 west coast servers, but I'm leary to spend money on my non-Connery characters because the other two server pops are significantly lower.

The devs are gonna have to put this in... I'm in the same boat as everybody. This is a great game and has lots of potential, I'm quite happy to throw my money at them. Great job, keep it up! But now I'm put in a position where I have to be cautious because I refuse to spend my money stupidly. I'm much more hesitant to spend my SC on stuff because it unlocks for that one character on that one server only. I spent money on this, I shouldn't be locked in. I get cert unlocks being restricted to that character (though would that be so bad?), but not SC purcahses.

I see a lot of talk bouncing around on this topic and it seems most people agree, though the implementation suggestions vary. One thing I want to comment on is that some are saying it should be unlocked for that faction, regardless of character or server. Frankly, I also consider this unacceptable. If I want to play TR, NC, VS, or any of the above, if I've unlocked something by paying real money for it, I should get that anywhere. I'm still paying for it, I'm still playing the game.

It shouldn't be technically challenging, every item has a counterpart for any faction. I don't even know the names of these items, just their roles. For example, on my NC server, I unlocked the anti-armor turret on my vanguard. There is an item that fulfils this exact same role on TR and VS, those should be unlocked as well. I don't think there's anything truly faction specific that has no counterpart. WoW figured this out with mounts and achievements, I have confidence that the PS2 devs can figure this out too.

This is an issue that must be resolved.

After reading more replies and as my main concern is finding well populated servers I'd be happy with being able to move my character(s). I'd even be ok with it if it cost a couple hundred SC. Just having the option would make me far more comfortable with spending the remaining 3300SC I've got sitting there doing nothing at the mo. I'm basically waiting so see how things pan out after the release rush settles down.

My absolute ideal would be being able to select a server after you select which character you want to play so I can play on Connery in the AM and Briggs in the PM with the same toon.... FWIW.



-kaos

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...ely-overpriced-or-am-i-just-new-to-f2p.53160/

Signed and agreed. Not spending another SC until I can at least move the unlocks to a new character once a month or something.

So for those of you that feel that only cosmetics should be account wide, why is it that you feel this way? If you paid for a weapon or gear wouldn't you want it available to any character you choose to create in the future that the weapon/gear could be applicable to? For example, If you buy a camo on your Vanu character then the general consensus seems to be that it should also be available on all your other characters regardless of faction or class.

Now what's the foreseen issue in this next scenario: You buy an Armor-Piercing main gun for your Prowler on your TR character, you make a new TR character, Armor-Piercing main gun is still unlocked.

(please explain why you feel this shouldn't be possible if that's your view)

Obviously if you buy something faction specific you shouldn't have access to it as a different faction, but there's plenty of reasons for people to make new characters of the same faction on the same or different server. Most of these reasons have already been mentioned.

I understand some people who are saying that SOE wouldn't allow this because of the potential revenue loss. However, in my opinion the potential gain is even greater. There are a lot of people (myself included) that will be much more likely to continue spending money on SC and time in-game earning certs if I feel confident that my work and contributions will truly mean something and not be restricted. Keep the talks coming, the more the merrier.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you've already thrown cash at them (I suspect via a 3:1 or 2:1 sale, you're sitting on 350 bucks worth of SC).

I support this idea, I'm more than happy to spend money (and obviously certain items like boosts should be one shot per character) but I'm never going to pay to unlock again on an alt server.

What's an extra zero between friends? (whoops)

*grin*

I actually picked up 15000 (150 bucks) on the 3:1 sale a few weeks back so I'm familiar with the conversion rate of 1 point to 1 cent. Not bad because if I don't use it for PS2, I can use it to pay for an EQII premium sub as well (40 bucks for 12 months is a pretty good deal rather than 120)

Or make character transfers free with a heavy downtime inbetween. Like you can switch every 7 days or something like that. Plenty of time to consolidate all your friends together in one server.

I was going to drop money on the last sale but I wasn't sure I'd spend it while SC purchases are still character-bound.

I think it's also on some level psychological - The reasing I've put 400 dollars into LoL is because, in my mind, they are all "permanent" things that I will own and will be bound to my account forever. In PS2's situation, if my current outfit loses players or I want to play with my friends over at NC, I'll lose everything I've paid money for.

Also the whole "needing to buy the same thing twice if I want to play basically on a different server" thing.

its not just the station cash items, honestly, your character should be capable of going to any server you want to go to

honestly id rather just get my guns legit, that said... i would only really want the goods only available via station cash to be account wide, and honestly, i will NEVER buy the same camo twice to three times ( 3 characters ) nonononononono. JUST NO.

This is a must. Faction specific items should be for all characters for that faction and non faction specific items for all characters in all factions. It's ridiculous otherwise.

Mostly because I don't have the unrealistic expectation that stuff I earn/buy for a single character in an MMO will be available to my other characters, even if they are the same faction. Personally I don't understand why anyone expected any differently - it's not like it's not completely standard across the MMO industry for unlocks/acquisitions/etc. to be character-specific.

Had a thread about this a few days ago that went about seventeen pages long. People are pretty unhappy about this situation. Smed doesn't seem interested in changing it, but hopefully if SOE sees that enough people want it to change, they will.

The thing is, people switching servers and creating new characters is a rare thing. There are many reasons to do it, but it doesn't happen very often. Once server populations even out, it will probably happen even less. This means that there isn't much of a disincentive to keep players from keeping SC unlocks as they move. However, for the people who need to make those changes, it can be a very significant deterrent to buying anything at all.

At the very absolute least, cosmetics should be account-wide and faction-wide.

/signed.

I agree that at least cosmetic stuff should be account-wide.

I've got a sizable chunk of SC that I'm hesitant to use (and buy more to replace) because SC purchases are character-only.

I agree that for the steep price of the weapons, they should definitely be account wide.
I mean , come on - 7€ for a single weapon?
And then i only get it on one character on one server? You gotta be kidding.
I have bought some things here and there but I'm seriously questioning if i should be putting any more money into this game.
I definitely won't be spending any more money on alts - not like this.

I had no delusions about my weapon unlocks bought with station cash. The thing that shocked me was vanity items like camo and the like. I would of figured that would be account wide. Have an active account right now - and I have spent prob near $100 worth of station cash on all sorts of things. (I have the money and like the game so I will support it) However..... I will not be buying any more station cash past the 500 I get a month until vanity items are account wide. Not threatening or throwing a hissy fit - I just don't feel the vanity items are worth the cost if they are locked to a single character. So I just won't spend more money on it past the monthly sub - which I am keeping because I do enjoy the game and want to support it.

Make vanity items account wide and I will drop more cash on the camo and other items.

Point of clarity - just because a vocal group feels strongly about this issue, that doesn't mean that there's a consensus (see petitions for states to seceed from the union, for example).

That said, while I don't feel strongly either way? My general feeling is that, no, I don't think my paid-for weapon-unlocks should apply automatically to future characters, though I might make an exception for making another character on the same server (and, obviously of the same faction) - but then I have to wonder why I'd ever do such a thing since one character can do everything.

I've played MMO-style games since the days of Ultima Online. Maybe I've just grown jaded, but I'm well accustomed to the idea of "stuff" (unlocks, weapons, armor, whatever the "stuff" is for a given game) only belonging to a single-character when it has a mechanical game value (non-cosmetic items).

Whether it's a sword-of-uberness, a plasma-uzi, boots of butt-kicking, or any other number of items, I'm used to it just belonging to a single character. Whether you bought it on E-bay, or earned it. I don't want people to rush to buy a weapon unlock for their entire account (or 1/3rd of their account if faction-limited) for a single price-tag, because I worry that it will lead to "everyone" having "everything" in short order - which won't be good for the longevity of the game.

While I think the price-point on most weapon-unlocks is a hair too high, it's entirely too low to give out account-wide, in my opinion. ('d like to see the 750SC items drop to 500, and everything else to scale down accordingly - in my perfect world. At that point, if SOE wanted to offer "account unlocked" weapons for, say, 2.5x the "base" cost of an item, I'd worry less about it.)

These are just my thoughts off the top of my head, and based largely on gut reaction, however. I won't be at all surprised to learn I'm alone in most of these sentiments.

For the same reasons that earning it with certs doesn't unlock it across your entire account. Let's face it, 1,000 certs (assumed cost) takes FOREVER to earn - and let's be honest, SOE wants it that way so you're enticed to buy it instead with SC (spending 1,000 certs to upgrade/sidegrade a weapon just feels better than buying the weapon itself, right?)

I suppose maybe that's the crux of my feeling on the issue. You're not so much buying a weapon, as you're buying a shortcut. Because you're shortcutting that one character, I don't see why the rest of your characters should get an advantage. SC is just a shortcut for certs.

Agreed. Something unlocked should remain faction-specific - no transfers to other factions (balance issues) and no faction-analogs either (TR shotgun becomes a VS or NC shotgun).

I won't debate which end of the spectrum (single-unlock or faction-unlock) is better for business - SOE has way WAAAAYYY better metrics on that than I could ever imagine. I don't have a business degree to pretend to study those metrics with, either.

My gut feeling remains the same, however - at the current price-point, unlocking something account-wide just feels too risky. One of the many things that goes into this game is the desire to keep getting more/better/different "stuff". If you can buy something once, and have it for all your characters - a good chunk of that drive will go away. I worry about that leading to player drift (from people who no longer have any real big achievements to plan for, and from people being tired of everyone always having everything to shoot them with).

It's an issue regardless, as things stand with single-unlock - but it's ~less~ of an issue.

I'd say that if you don't know where to spend your SC right now - hold onto it until you have a favorite/main character, then treat that character to a shopping spree. But that's just me. I only have one character, and I'm perfectly happy that way.

I was burned by this. There is no indication when you buy SC that stuff bought with it is server specific and I feel cheated. Considering the high price of items, one would assume that these would be account wide because otherwise it would be f**king insane to ask for that kind of money repeatedly. Sony will not get a single penny more out of me until this policy of how much p**s they can take changes.