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EME needs to do something about the Cash Shop, Dressing Room and Fashion Coupons...
Hey everyone.
I'm making this thread because I feel like these three things should be addressed, especially when they're lacking in comparison to other versions of the game. I have been bouncing around in and out of the game since 2016 and just recently started being active in-game again... so take this with a grain of salt.
Alright, so let's start with the Cash Shop:
The Dressing Room is an oddity in my opinion. It's getting worse patch after patch, and I've been lead to believe it'll become empty in a matter of time if this keeps up. Here are some of its problems:
And now the biggest problem for me... Fashion Coupons. I fell in love with this feature when it was released. I found it to be incredibly useful as it offered players ways to keep their characters' looks consistent instead of having the player rely on costumes and other silly cosmetics. Sadly, things have become much worse over the years:
I think that's all for now. I'll add more if they pop into mind. I wish these issues could be addressed. I thought Enmasse wanted to find ways to keep players around rather than push them away?
I'm making this thread because I feel like these three things should be addressed, especially when they're lacking in comparison to other versions of the game. I have been bouncing around in and out of the game since 2016 and just recently started being active in-game again... so take this with a grain of salt.
Alright, so let's start with the Cash Shop:
- the removal of major costumes, mounts, weapon skins and bundles three years ago have turned the shop dull when it comes to variety and character customization;
- players aren't as willing to spend money in the Cash Shop due to its lacking nature;
- the prices in the TB have become unstable as a result;
- TERA EU has non-dyeable versions of most costumes available for direct purchase, and even though some of their prices aren't as low as EME's counterpart, at least the option is there;
- there's a lack of payment options, SMS and Paysafe Cards being a major example (last time I checked, even contacted Support back then);
- if EME wants to profit from TERA ELITE, they should offer players unique and alluring mounts rather than recolours or laughable ones;
The Dressing Room is an oddity in my opinion. It's getting worse patch after patch, and I've been lead to believe it'll become empty in a matter of time if this keeps up. Here are some of its problems:
- most of the costumes, weapon skins and mounts are missing from the Dressing Room:
- players are unable to preview exclusive underwear sets and hairstyles;
- other cosmetics are also gone;
- TERA EU allows players to preview armor sets from the Fashion Coupons and all dyeable and non-dyeable versions of each major costume;
And now the biggest problem for me... Fashion Coupons. I fell in love with this feature when it was released. I found it to be incredibly useful as it offered players ways to keep their characters' looks consistent instead of having the player rely on costumes and other silly cosmetics. Sadly, things have become much worse over the years:
- not all major sets are available to each class;
- apparently most of the weapon skins that were available at launch have been removed;
- the existing tabs are constantly shifting and sometimes items go missing;
- Fashion Coupons have become harder and harder to get. What used to take only a a few days to get one desirable skin has now been turned into a RNG and grind fest;
- exclusive items have been removed;
- once again... TERA EU has a better Fashion Coupon method, including Store cosmetics that can be obtained through coupons;
I think that's all for now. I'll add more if they pop into mind. I wish these issues could be addressed. I thought Enmasse wanted to find ways to keep players around rather than push them away?
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Comments
Cash shop:
- They actually brought a lot of the cash shop items they took away back within the last few weeks. Of course they've still been retiring costumes over the years, but the big retirement people didn't like was walked back.
- Not all the dyeable costumes in EU are available for direct purchase, but many are. (They have a different set of items they continue rare and handle in a different way.) EME has experimented with that here, but it got a mixed reaction. I personally hope they keep moving away from lootboxes.
- There are more payment options available if you choose Xsolla (the one listed as 700+ payment methods). Both PaySafeCard and SMS are options (among a lot of others) if you go through there.
- I'm not sure what you mean by unique skins for Elite. Do you mean unique mounts?
Dressing Room is a known issue that I raised with them when it got wiped in a patch without notice, so it's missing a lot of stuff. I'll check with them again.
Fashion Coupons:
- I think most of the weapon skins that were removed were restored, but we never had that many. (If you can think of one that was listed on our fashion coupon store before but is gone now, let me know.)
- There was a problem that we don't have NA-specific versions of the items that was a roadblock for a while. That has been the main barrier to getting additional weapon skins added for years. I don't know if there's a solution yet, but I can ask again.
- Tabs aren't "constantly" shifting, but during the merge it got reverted to an earlier state so they had to re-add stuff. Otherwise, last time the tabs changed was when Fed Bills was moved over, so been almost a year now I think.
- Has the way to earn fashion coupons actually changed? The main way has always been drops from level 65 BAMs, as far as I know. Otherwise, last change I can think of was Fed Bills, again a long time ago.
- What exclusive items have been removed in particular? I know of a few items that were mentioned to me (Brawler weapon skins), but if you have a list it'll help.
They removed them from the Novelty Merchant as a gold purchase some time after that, IIRC.
Though as far as earning them goes, they seem to have actually increased their stack size for the lower level BAMs. (I saw a stack of 5 on a Basilisk on a new character.)
Farming them, on the other hand side, can feel slower now, given that we have more strongboxes that seem to share the drop table with them. But that's ultimately just a question of RNG, I feel. If you get lucky, you'll see the same rate as ever, if you don't, you'll drown in the strongboxes instead.
Given that you can also get fashion coupons from the leveling strongboxes, to some degree that makes it seem that they intend that to balance it out. Much like how the level 65 strongboxes are meant to help you get what you specifically are lacking in.
Which, given that we don't really have any ways to farm the keys in-game, is not going to be seen as actually addressing the issue that players have. (The only sources for the keys seem to be the store, the rewards emporium (which depends on actually having the tiers to both be able to buy keys, so likely going to be dismissed again as a real in-game source), the occasional event that hands them out, and buying them from others who acquire them through the other methods.)
Did anyone actually buy them for gold on the Novelty Merchant? Weren't they really expensive considering they drop like candy on IOD?
Maybe OP was talking about how the order of the items on each tab is constantly changing? This can make things hard to find, and leave the impression - real or imagined - that things have been removed.
I don't think so, but it was a change after the Fed-Bill changeover, so more mentioned it for the sake of completeness. And yes, they were something like 23 gold per coupon, IIRC. Not really cheap.
But it's probably really just the larger number of strongboxes throwing the perception off. They'll still build up over time all the same. But it may well be a bit slower. It certainly feels like there are fewer Semi-Enigmatic Scrolls, Complete Crystalbinds, and Fashion Coupons coming in.
I'm not in a position to easily tell how many of them are dropping per session though, since I've had to start buying the apothecary dyes with them just to avoid building up multiple stacks of them at the bank, so I only pay attention when I get close to 10k on a character. I only know that the supply seems to be more than enough for any personal needs.
That always just seemed to be an artifact of how they keep needing to manually add them back in, and for some reason that kept having them be different between servers and even patches. I don't know if there is just some lag (or server doing whatever it wants) when whatever script executes hits or if they need to do them literally individually by hand.
Yeah, that was my impression as well, which is why I didn't consider it. I suppose maybe they'd consider adding it to the Novelty Merchant again, but I have a feeling that most people wouldn't buy it considering how resource-starved people are feeling in general these days.
My understanding is that, when the merchant contents get reverted by a patch for some reason (as happened during the merger), they have to manually re-add them by hand to each server.
This is why EME should test new updates before releasing them to the masses. That's bare-minimum IT knowledge.
If nothing else, it'll cut down on the "The Coupon Store/Dressing Room sucks. Fix it." posts.
My understanding is that the tools they have to add things to the merchants can only be used once the servers are live, and that due to the nature of these merchants, they are not the same in the dev and live environments. (This is why when they do streams on test servers, they always point out to not pay attention to merchants, because they're not the same as live.) Why it is that way, or why it has to be that way, I have no idea.
I miss the noctenite powerfists, while they're a the same as the frostmetal powerfists, I don't think they should've been removed, it's the one FC skin that combines naturally with the "classic" armor templates.
Yeah, this one I have on my list, as it was pointed out on Discord as well. They also mentioned the Red/Black Powerpulse Fists, and Noctenite skins for Ninja and Reaper, too. If it was on the merchant before, I think there is a pretty good chance it can come back. (Of course, there's the never-ending fight for the stuff other regions have and we don't...)
Bluehole doesn't even care about the story anymore. And [filtered] sells. They already released fully-covered costumes for females and it's quite pricey.