[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
EMP Rules Everything Around Me
Observation: Hmm... condensing that into an acronym did not work like I thought it would.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking that the EMP Store needs some work. It's pretty disheartening to run the numbers on the odds of getting a premium item from a loot box only to realize that said odds are greatly stacked against you, even more so than what may be seen at first glance.
But I have some ideas. Some may be good, others not so. All I ask is that someone up top hears me out.
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1.) Mystery Boxes
- I said way back when during the Mystery Weapon Box event(?) that I thought it was a great idea. Sure, the weapon skin you got was completely random, but it was guaranteed. I'd like to see that back, but lower the price to compensate for the large swathes of items available (*cough*castanicfemalegarmentbag*cough*).
2.) Increase Odds to Correlate with the Number of Options Available
- what I mean by this is that, currently, the number of items available in a loot box greatly outweigh the number of options available to select. We'll use the new Bonefury wyvern dragon mount as an example - one can extrapolate that he/she has a 20% (1 in 5) chance of getting said Bonefury and thus being the envy of all their friends/guildmates/sugarwhatever/so on. Simple math, right? But closer inspection reveals that the other items have multiple versions to obtain. The masterwork alkahests, for example, can come in a stack of 150, 250, or 300. Assuming each stack is a separate item, that means one instead has something around a 9% (1 in 11) chance of receiving a bone wyvern dragon. Oh, and that's before actually opening the box and choosing one of the 4 squares (which decreases the odds even further).
Not so enticing now, is it? But here's the idea I have: reduce/increase the stacks spellbinds/alkahest to a flat amount (say, 250 in this case) and increase the loot box options to 5 instead of the current 4 (adjusted appropriately for the loot box in question). That gives everyone a very smooth and easy to swallow 20% chance of gaining that particular bone wyvern dragon. One could still spend gobs of dosh trying to get one and just be unlucky, but at least the chances aren't as heavily against the player as they are currently.
3.) Item Is Guaranteed, But the Price Is Higher Depending on the Version of the Item
- the Diablo-inspired Path of Exile has a model of this fashion, and I think it's one of the best cash shop models I've seen yet - in fact, I've seen many people on these very forums asking for something similar. To compare, both the Steam-Powered Pack and the account-bound mounts are great examples. If one's not feeling the loot boxes, there's always the reliable, if less glamorous, direct purchase of certain items. But let's say you did that with the loot box items as well. To use a bone wyvern dragon as an example again, we currently have the basic Boneclaw sitting at 3995 EMP. Assuming that's only character-bound, you can have an account-bound version at, say, 4995 EMP, a Bonefury mount at something like 6495 EMP, and an account-bound Bonefury costing an exorbitant sum like 7995 EMP.
This wouldn't have to be regulated to just mounts either. The way Path of Exile handles microtransactions is that every item (with the exception of I think 2) is automatically account-bound, but can only be applied to one character at a time - if you want to use, say, a weapon skin on a another character, you would have to remove it from the first character, put it back in the bank, then redeem it on the second character, but one can do that as many times as they like (or just buy it again and have multiples, I guess). TERA being built the way it is (*cough*), that's a bit impractical, but someone could make it so that there's a smartbox always available for the player at any time. Or have it be like the Steam-Powered Pack, where all options are available at all times, and you redeem the item appropriate for your race/class.
---
Those are just a handful of ideas I could think of. The possibilities are potentially endless, and I'm curious to see if anyone else has any ideas for the EMP Store. Questions, comments, concerns?
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking that the EMP Store needs some work. It's pretty disheartening to run the numbers on the odds of getting a premium item from a loot box only to realize that said odds are greatly stacked against you, even more so than what may be seen at first glance.
But I have some ideas. Some may be good, others not so. All I ask is that someone up top hears me out.
---
1.) Mystery Boxes
- I said way back when during the Mystery Weapon Box event(?) that I thought it was a great idea. Sure, the weapon skin you got was completely random, but it was guaranteed. I'd like to see that back, but lower the price to compensate for the large swathes of items available (*cough*castanicfemalegarmentbag*cough*).
2.) Increase Odds to Correlate with the Number of Options Available
- what I mean by this is that, currently, the number of items available in a loot box greatly outweigh the number of options available to select. We'll use the new Bonefury wyvern dragon mount as an example - one can extrapolate that he/she has a 20% (1 in 5) chance of getting said Bonefury and thus being the envy of all their friends/guildmates/sugarwhatever/so on. Simple math, right? But closer inspection reveals that the other items have multiple versions to obtain. The masterwork alkahests, for example, can come in a stack of 150, 250, or 300. Assuming each stack is a separate item, that means one instead has something around a 9% (1 in 11) chance of receiving a bone wyvern dragon. Oh, and that's before actually opening the box and choosing one of the 4 squares (which decreases the odds even further).
Not so enticing now, is it? But here's the idea I have: reduce/increase the stacks spellbinds/alkahest to a flat amount (say, 250 in this case) and increase the loot box options to 5 instead of the current 4 (adjusted appropriately for the loot box in question). That gives everyone a very smooth and easy to swallow 20% chance of gaining that particular bone wyvern dragon. One could still spend gobs of dosh trying to get one and just be unlucky, but at least the chances aren't as heavily against the player as they are currently.
3.) Item Is Guaranteed, But the Price Is Higher Depending on the Version of the Item
- the Diablo-inspired Path of Exile has a model of this fashion, and I think it's one of the best cash shop models I've seen yet - in fact, I've seen many people on these very forums asking for something similar. To compare, both the Steam-Powered Pack and the account-bound mounts are great examples. If one's not feeling the loot boxes, there's always the reliable, if less glamorous, direct purchase of certain items. But let's say you did that with the loot box items as well. To use a bone wyvern dragon as an example again, we currently have the basic Boneclaw sitting at 3995 EMP. Assuming that's only character-bound, you can have an account-bound version at, say, 4995 EMP, a Bonefury mount at something like 6495 EMP, and an account-bound Bonefury costing an exorbitant sum like 7995 EMP.
This wouldn't have to be regulated to just mounts either. The way Path of Exile handles microtransactions is that every item (with the exception of I think 2) is automatically account-bound, but can only be applied to one character at a time - if you want to use, say, a weapon skin on a another character, you would have to remove it from the first character, put it back in the bank, then redeem it on the second character, but one can do that as many times as they like (or just buy it again and have multiples, I guess). TERA being built the way it is (*cough*), that's a bit impractical, but someone could make it so that there's a smartbox always available for the player at any time. Or have it be like the Steam-Powered Pack, where all options are available at all times, and you redeem the item appropriate for your race/class.
---
Those are just a handful of ideas I could think of. The possibilities are potentially endless, and I'm curious to see if anyone else has any ideas for the EMP Store. Questions, comments, concerns?
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