[TERA PC & Console] En Masse is closing, but TERA lives on! We will continue to support TERA PC (NA) and TERA Console until service is transferred. Stay tuned for more information.
[TERA Console] The Grotto of Lost Souls update (v85) is now live! Read the patch notes here: https://bit.ly/TERACon_v85
[TERA PC] The 64-bit update (v97) is now live. Check out all the changes delivered on August 11 here: https://bit.ly/tera64_patchnotes
[TERA PC & CONSOLE] Summerfest Part 2: The Beach Bash is on from August 11 until September 1! Participate in event activities to earn tokens redeemable for costumes, consumables, mounts, and more! Details: https://bit.ly/tera_sf20
Suggestions for toys and trinkets
@Noesis @Spacecats , if you don't read the below, at least read this line: Stop making toys and trinkets RNG-exclusive.
So let's begin. I've always said this game needed more toys and trinkets (and more horizontal content overall).
Half/Quarter-day signs
Sandcastles
Disco [filtered]
Fireworks (all sorts)
Toy tanks
Go-karts
Zombie potions
Snowman scarves
Etc.
Toys are a part of the little horizontal content that this game desperately needs more of. Does @EME think that everyone is joking when they say "Endgame TERA is AFK in Velika/HW?" They're not joking. And it's not a joke that TERA loses half its players 3 months after every major patch. It gets boring fast.
And so toys are meant to inject some fun and relief into the daily grind of TERA, but they are always made too limited, by either making them as consumables, limited-time items, or like in the case of the recent disco ball and recent/last year's snowmen scarves, RNG. Why is that? Players already have to grind for levelup and grind + RNG for gear; they should NOT have to grind + RNG for toys.
Whatever new model TERA is beginning to set for the toys, by making them harder to attain & keep around than actual gear and equipment... it's very disheartening to the players. {Salt} Sure, they got a lot more playtime outta me while I tried to farm catalysts; but in the end, it made me ragequit. Farming grinding on top of RNG for gear -- ok. Farming grinding on top of RNG for toys -- not ok. {/Salt} Noesis, Spacecats, please consider making these toys more available on a wider scale. Bring back the go-karts. Put the half/quarter-day signs on the General Merchant permanently. Make Wintera Tokens again, and let us purchase what we want from the Wintera store instead of making the scarves RNG. Put temporary disco [filtered] on the General Merchant. Or make the permanent disco ball a reward for an achievement or quest line or mini-game, just like the Sandcastles. These are just some suggestions to make toys more available.
Give us more access to these toys, (including removing RNG out of attaining a couple of them), and maybe more people will have stuff to do after the 3-month mark**. I know this post is going a little bit everywhere so I'll recap my suggestions:
- Do not make them RNG-exclusive. (examples: 2016 Wintera boxes--> Snowman Scarves, Kyra's Shack --> Perm Discoball, EMP Lootbox --> Temp Discoball)
- Bring back Go-karts
- Make supply more available (Half/Quarter-day signs, Dragon barrel fireworks)
- Do not make them disappear out of inventory after a set duration
- And I believe keeping them as Non-Tradable is ok.
** Note: I know that hosted events start to kick up after the 3-month mark in an attempt to keep players entertained until the next patch...but not everyone can attend hosted events. No matter when the event is hosted, a bulk of the playerbase is excluded, whether it's timezones or weekend availability. So. Please make the toys more attainable and available.
So let's begin. I've always said this game needed more toys and trinkets (and more horizontal content overall).
Half/Quarter-day signs
Sandcastles
Disco [filtered]
Fireworks (all sorts)
Toy tanks
Go-karts
Zombie potions
Snowman scarves
Etc.
Toys are a part of the little horizontal content that this game desperately needs more of. Does @EME think that everyone is joking when they say "Endgame TERA is AFK in Velika/HW?" They're not joking. And it's not a joke that TERA loses half its players 3 months after every major patch. It gets boring fast.
And so toys are meant to inject some fun and relief into the daily grind of TERA, but they are always made too limited, by either making them as consumables, limited-time items, or like in the case of the recent disco ball and recent/last year's snowmen scarves, RNG. Why is that? Players already have to grind for levelup and grind + RNG for gear; they should NOT have to grind + RNG for toys.
Whatever new model TERA is beginning to set for the toys, by making them harder to attain & keep around than actual gear and equipment... it's very disheartening to the players. {Salt} Sure, they got a lot more playtime outta me while I tried to farm catalysts; but in the end, it made me ragequit. Farming grinding on top of RNG for gear -- ok. Farming grinding on top of RNG for toys -- not ok. {/Salt} Noesis, Spacecats, please consider making these toys more available on a wider scale. Bring back the go-karts. Put the half/quarter-day signs on the General Merchant permanently. Make Wintera Tokens again, and let us purchase what we want from the Wintera store instead of making the scarves RNG. Put temporary disco [filtered] on the General Merchant. Or make the permanent disco ball a reward for an achievement or quest line or mini-game, just like the Sandcastles. These are just some suggestions to make toys more available.
Give us more access to these toys, (including removing RNG out of attaining a couple of them), and maybe more people will have stuff to do after the 3-month mark**. I know this post is going a little bit everywhere so I'll recap my suggestions:
- Do not make them RNG-exclusive. (examples: 2016 Wintera boxes--> Snowman Scarves, Kyra's Shack --> Perm Discoball, EMP Lootbox --> Temp Discoball)
- Bring back Go-karts
- Make supply more available (Half/Quarter-day signs, Dragon barrel fireworks)
- Do not make them disappear out of inventory after a set duration
- And I believe keeping them as Non-Tradable is ok.
** Note: I know that hosted events start to kick up after the 3-month mark in an attempt to keep players entertained until the next patch...but not everyone can attend hosted events. No matter when the event is hosted, a bulk of the playerbase is excluded, whether it's timezones or weekend availability. So. Please make the toys more attainable and available.
1
Comments
Two toys, Snowmen Scarves and Permanent Discoballs, are now "RNG-exclusive, non-tradable, limited-time/seasonal items." Think about it for a moment. Is there anything else in the game with those 3 parameters?
BiS gear? No. BiS gear can be bought with in-game gold from the trade broker after it's been liberated. And even though the enchantment process is RNG-based, you can ultimately say that with enough patience and a more-than-casual amount of hours of farming (that can be done at any time of day**), you can attain a full set of the best equipment in the game.
Costumes? No. Even the most coveted weapon skins and costumes like the dyables -- while RNG-based -- are tradable and may be purchased thru the trade broker.
The only exceptions are the Unity Stole and Bruiseweave Scarf. While you may be tempted to categorize them like the Snowman Scarves and Permanent Discoballs -- a "RNG-exclusive, non-tradable, limited-time/seasonal item" -- that is not true. They were actually GUARANTEED items that everyone attained 100% of the time if they were simply playing and logged into the game at the time of their release and promotion which lasted (if I recall correctly) at least a couple weeks, give or take. The only other requirements were being in a Guild for the Unity Stoles. And key codes that were handed out for the Bruiseweave Scarves. These events also did not narrow down to a set timeframe per day either**.
Therefore Snowman Scarves and especially the Permanent Discoballs, given the sheer probably out of the entire list of Pop-Up Shack loot list, are setting an unprecedented model for cosmetic items in the game in which: you rely on pure RNG to attain them, you only have a limited time**, and you cannot buy them. That arguably makes them THE HARDEST items (remember, they’re toys) to attain in TERA, especially if RNG has been against you the entire month. If this pattern of RNG-exclusivity continues for other toys and trinkets -- @Noesis @Spacecats -- I assure that a number of highly dedicated and pitifully "Unlucky" players will be burned and will deeply regret putting their time into this game.
** Note: To "increase probability" for players in this current Catalyst/Kyra’s Pop-Up Shack event, EME hosts a daily mongo spawn. But again, this is a limited window every day. And since it is the same timeframe every day, it excludes a bulk of players who cannot attend due to time constraints. Most likely, a scheduled time constraint, like work or sleep or school which can be an 8 to 10-hour time slot every single day. Thus it will consistently align with the event window, and these players end up excluded from the entire event from start to finish. That is another unfair and bad oversight on EME’s planning for this event.
Imagine being one of these off-hours players and having “RNG problems” while putting in all they can to grind for a RNG-exclusive, non-tradable, limited-time/seasonal toy.
(:
I am generally in favor of token or quest-based rewards rather than RNG. However, having desirable items during events that can't otherwise be easily acquired is a key event marketing strategy; all the more so if they're in the "toys and trinkets" category and don't impact progression in any way (so are less likely to "break the game"). So while I always support having some sort of failsafe system (e.g. every time you roll Kyra's you get a token, and collecting <x> tokens you can trade for the item of your choice, or just using tokens in the first place), that doesn't solve the problem of people who aren't around or can't play during the event. But if you just make it so that all these items are available permanently in a straightforward way, it removes one of the motivators for event participation.
There are some mediating measures you can take to address this. For example, you can make it so that the event is a sort of "timed-exclusive" and after a "lockout period" (6 months? 1 year?) the items (or a replica) are made available through some other method. This means there's still some reason to participate in the event (the desirability of a limited item), but people who missed out won't be out of luck forever. Or another option could be that the event rewards from past events come back consistently during future events and get progressively easier to earn over time. Or, it's possible during the event to earn tradeable versions of an item, but after the event is over only untradeable versions are sold (so people who participate a lot in the event can collect extras to trade later). Or some combination of the above... In the end, exclusive items are a sort of leverage to encourage event participation, and I don't think they should totally throw that out completely.
In the end, regardless of all the above, I'm pretty sure the disco item will come back at some point in some future event or way. The people who won it during this event just got it first.
That is true about every single item in the game. "Can't get VMX? Oh, next patch it will be cheaper." "Can't +15 your VM within 2 weeks of patch release? Oh, you didn't grind hard enough pre-patch or save your mats.. grind for 1 more month and you'll have enough to +15." "Still haven't +15'd? Err.. wow, ok try grinding for 2 more months. Or grind for gold to buy the one on the broker." "Can't get a Volcanic Armor from loot boxes? Oh, don't worry you can grind enough gold for a month to buy one from someone who had better RNG." "Oh, you didn't complete all the achievements to get the Flying Carpet? Don't worry, Rootstock happens next year."
Getting it now versus later is not the point.
There is a players' time and effort (and it shouldn't matter WHEN that time was spent--for instance, the same 8-hour timeframe every day) that is sunk into the game, and a certain high "guarantee" that should scale with it. That is -- if the EME staff care to balance it. This event was not balanced. The fact that there was an item that was placed with all three parameters, RNG-exclusive + Limited/seasonal + Non-tradable -- this has never been done before, and it should NEVER happen again.
It kind of is the point of an event-exclusive item, though. The motivator they are leveraging is "if you want it now, you need to participate in the event!" I can agree to a certain degree about certain concessions to make the way to get it more consistent/"fair", but exclusivity was part of the intent and design.
I can agree to a certain degree that it might be nice to have the times rotated around even more, but part of this is also part of it being a "scheduled event". You can add more options and times, but a) just like real-life scheduled events, part of the energy comes from trying to rally lots of people together at a specific point in time (and the window they chose is this game's version of "prime time"), and b) no matter how many options you have, some people still won't be able to attend. So the idea of "it shouldn't matter when" is sort of antithetical to the "scheduled event" portion of this overall event.
If you do a different type of scheduled event like "any time within this large window", then you need a way of capping participation so that people who can "no life" the event aren't inescapably further ahead. But, as noted, the central aspect of this event was already this way (rewards from dungeons), as dungeons are capped to some degree (maybe not enough for this particular reward structure) by instance reset scrolls. The Kyra's Catalyst interface may provide them with another way to do such a thing on an account level, if they can devote a few extra resources to it.
Beyond that, the tools EME have at their disposal are somewhat limited, so it's difficult to do quest lines or other things.
Well, given the constraints of this particular event, I can agree that it being tradable would have made the most sense. Given the rarity, you may have people who win it but don't particularly want it. So I guess I can generally agree that it's best to avoid rewards that hit all three of those axes at once.