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FEEDSTOCK: What went wrong, how to fix it, and why the new system isn't as bad as it seems.
TL;DR Starfall was too easy to get, a feedstock event is all that's needed.
What went wrong
The main producer of feedstock has traditionally been low and mid tier players grinding dailies, and also people with many alts making gold by selling feedstock they got from also grinding dailies. The main consumers of feedstock are people enchanting mid and top tier gear. Top tier gear requires awakened enchantment, which requires significantly more feedstock than simply +12ing mid tier gear. In the first instance, top tier (Starfall) material were hard to gather, the limiting ingredient being Desolarus Heartbeats. Because we asked for it, the developer made Starfall materials significantly easier to obtain, collimating in FIHM, which made the materials arbitrary for a well geared, organised party to get. Sprinkle on some triple drop events. What happened is that demand for feedstock went up as Starfall materials became more accessible. Simply put, Starfall became too easy to get. It was supposed to be the top tier equipment, yet before the Ninja patch, it was hard not to even instance match with at least one player with at +15 weapon at worst. Part of the problem was that FIHM was simply too easy to grind. So, right before the ninja patch, as the casual player base (present most strongly after the brawler patch) dropped off in numbers, the supply of cheap feedstock dried out, while at the same time being swallowed up by people enchanting, awakening and +15ing their Starfall. Again, I'd like to stress that the core of the problem was that Starfall became too easy to craft. The new post-ninja patch system, did not take this into account. Ideally Starfall would still have been rare, and a solid baseline amount of feedstock would have been available. It didn't help that many players also stocked feed in anticipation of the ninja patch, hoping to gear their new ninjas. The new enchanting system, including the inability to dismantle gear would have worked fine, if it wasn't for this shortage at the start of the patch.
How to fix it
The economy simply needs an injection of feedstock to get it to a point where the new system runs smoothly. The actual system doesn't need changing. The easiest, most direct solution is a feedstock event. Most Starfall players have already +15ed their gear as far as they plan on taking it. Current demand comes from new and returning players. The new VM gear is going to be hopefully difficult enough to obtain, that a rapid demand in awakened enchanting won't take place. Part of the solution is making the new VM gear materials difficult to gather. What needs to happen is basically a flood of feedstock, in the same way Kyra's event has flooded the economy with various goodies. The only people standing to lose from such an event are those who have gathered obscene amounts of feedstock with the intention of selling it when prices inflate as they have now. EME/BHS have nothing to lose, because they will retain new and returning players and make money with costumes and the traditional bottlenecks (alkahest/spellbind lootboxes, etc).
Why the new system is... ok
The new system, where you can't break down higher tier equipment into feedstock, isn't amazing, but it isn't as bad as people think it is. The problem is the shortage of feedstock caused by Starfall being too easy to craft/ninja patch stockpiling, not the new system.
What went wrong
The main producer of feedstock has traditionally been low and mid tier players grinding dailies, and also people with many alts making gold by selling feedstock they got from also grinding dailies. The main consumers of feedstock are people enchanting mid and top tier gear. Top tier gear requires awakened enchantment, which requires significantly more feedstock than simply +12ing mid tier gear. In the first instance, top tier (Starfall) material were hard to gather, the limiting ingredient being Desolarus Heartbeats. Because we asked for it, the developer made Starfall materials significantly easier to obtain, collimating in FIHM, which made the materials arbitrary for a well geared, organised party to get. Sprinkle on some triple drop events. What happened is that demand for feedstock went up as Starfall materials became more accessible. Simply put, Starfall became too easy to get. It was supposed to be the top tier equipment, yet before the Ninja patch, it was hard not to even instance match with at least one player with at +15 weapon at worst. Part of the problem was that FIHM was simply too easy to grind. So, right before the ninja patch, as the casual player base (present most strongly after the brawler patch) dropped off in numbers, the supply of cheap feedstock dried out, while at the same time being swallowed up by people enchanting, awakening and +15ing their Starfall. Again, I'd like to stress that the core of the problem was that Starfall became too easy to craft. The new post-ninja patch system, did not take this into account. Ideally Starfall would still have been rare, and a solid baseline amount of feedstock would have been available. It didn't help that many players also stocked feed in anticipation of the ninja patch, hoping to gear their new ninjas. The new enchanting system, including the inability to dismantle gear would have worked fine, if it wasn't for this shortage at the start of the patch.
How to fix it
The economy simply needs an injection of feedstock to get it to a point where the new system runs smoothly. The actual system doesn't need changing. The easiest, most direct solution is a feedstock event. Most Starfall players have already +15ed their gear as far as they plan on taking it. Current demand comes from new and returning players. The new VM gear is going to be hopefully difficult enough to obtain, that a rapid demand in awakened enchanting won't take place. Part of the solution is making the new VM gear materials difficult to gather. What needs to happen is basically a flood of feedstock, in the same way Kyra's event has flooded the economy with various goodies. The only people standing to lose from such an event are those who have gathered obscene amounts of feedstock with the intention of selling it when prices inflate as they have now. EME/BHS have nothing to lose, because they will retain new and returning players and make money with costumes and the traditional bottlenecks (alkahest/spellbind lootboxes, etc).
Why the new system is... ok
The new system, where you can't break down higher tier equipment into feedstock, isn't amazing, but it isn't as bad as people think it is. The problem is the shortage of feedstock caused by Starfall being too easy to craft/ninja patch stockpiling, not the new system.
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Comments
The dismantle change was supposed to stop people from rolling on this gear but the thing is people will still roll until their stuff is fully enchanted, and that's the same as rolling on it because you need feedstock.
What went wrong here is the vg or feed drops in the dungeons, it would have been fine if they made this dismantle change but ALSO increased feed drop I dungeons and vg.
tl;dr: Dismantle change limits only a small amount of gear stealing do feed, because you can use said gear to combine so it will be rolled on even if they already have it.
Another good way to keep the feedstocks for VM and mid tier separate would have been to keep Slaughter as a T8, and keep T9 and 10 as VM only tiers. This way newbies and casuals wouldn't have to compete for feedstock against the well established veterans who can be quite the moguls in the matter.
However, I am wondering if you have any thoughts about dreadnought gear and T8 feedstock.
You are literally handed DN +9. You get the gear for free and you get 500 T8 feed from the starter 65 quest...
Which starter quest is this? You get 100 T8 Feedstock, which is enough to bring everything up a bit, but not 500. If it gave 500, that would be a bit improvement.
new Highwatch quest and IoD in total I guess? I should probably re-do all those on all my characters.