Elite unlocking in ddo store

[Asketes]

As a premium player - may I just say: Yes.



The mistake turbine made was naming the subscription people VIPs. It really should have been "Long term Player" for premium, and "Short term Player" for VIP, since that is how each payment plan becomes most worthwhile.

Giving VIPs more perks that are not put in the store would be a huge mistake on Turbine's part. First of all its a loss of revenue. Secondly its kind of a bait and switch thing since lots of VIP were lured to the premium side, spent thousands of points to get everything, and now have no way to acess these new perks without losing that investment.

Personally I would buy a higher unlock ability, but if I can't its no big deal since I have a 2nd account of mules that can already open all the good quests on elite already, including all the important parts of each chain.

eh **** you Lithic.


This make too much sense and your logic is really spot on here.

Can you see some way to allow the *pay per month'ers* to have something more than just 500 free points and still allow *pay per use'ers* to still enjoy all the luxories, at a cost.

[hiimbob203]

As a premium player i must say this is without a doubt the worst idea I've ever heard. that being said i will hopefully give you an idea. As the semi-old saying goes "if you have time to whine and complain about something you have time to do something about it". My recommendation is for you to get hired into Turbine's marketing department and use this position to somehow talk Turbine into doing this. Otherwise it ain't happening and shouldn't happen.

/not signed

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I am constantly amazed that so many people find actually playing this game.....doing a dungeon...being inside a quest...etc......so painful that they will go to great lengths to avoid doing content...more times than absolutely necessary to get some perk from it.







(and if that perk is one that gives a benefit from repeating the quest, they want to do it as fast and as easily as possible.)






Maybe Turbine should pay us to play the game.

[Krag]

I am constantly amazed that so many people find actually playing this game.....doing a dungeon...being inside a quest...etc......so painful that they will go to great lengths to avoid doing content...more times than absolutely necessary to get some perk from it.

There are people who..... enjoy the challenge. Who do not like running underlevelled content on a capped toon more often than necessary.

[SaisMatters]

U7 will allow VIPs to open all quests on elite. How about having this option in the ddo store for premium players?

I'm sorry. I must have missed this announcement. Can someone please provide a link that says this is coming in U7. It would be appreciated. thank you

[rage9]

/NOT SIGNED.
No, I do not think they should be able to purchase it from the store. No, I do not think they should be able to purchase opening on hard from the store either.
I do think that unlocking Veteran status also unlocking hard on Korthos Island would be fine though.
I do think they should take/never put in in the first place, 32 point build out of the store as well. I know it's not a VIP perk, but it was a learning/training session that alot of new players could surely benifit from.

[Lithic]

eh **** you Lithic.


This make too much sense and your logic is really spot on here.

Can you see some way to allow the *pay per month'ers* to have something more than just 500 free points and still allow *pay per use'ers* to still enjoy all the luxories, at a cost.

Heres a few thoughts (some or all of which were taken from my own reading of other people's posts):

1) Discounts on store consumables (10% should work, maybe 5% would be enough).

2) a free trial of any new consumables (with half or less charges if applicable) or a free time-limited item of non-consumable (every VIP character under lvl 5 would get a +1 frost dagger when the new frost weapons came out for example, and such daggers decay 6 hours of game time later, or during the first ice games every vip would have been given 6hours skates).

3) Give VIPs access to a barber shop that lets then change hair style/colour once a week for free (and for Khyber's sake give everyone a preview option to test the hair style and colour before we buy, you'd sell a ton more of these items if they weren't vaguely described mystery boxes that you then had to pay another 20pts to undo if it was ugly).

4) shorter reincarnation timers (3 days instead of 7)

5) Access to larger stacks at better prices for store consumables (bigger stacks of XP pots at slightly cheaper rates than the current maximum stack)

6) Shorter ransack timers on chests (5days vs 7)

7) Extend the length of time for VIPs to have access to new updates to 7 days, though release guest passes at the 3 day mark.

8) Tolero mentioned that she wanted to make VIP-only lotteries, but unless the prizes are quite good (like the 5 major xp pot thursday lotto), this wouldn't have much of an effect.

Another note is that a long term VIP player is likely on the 6month/60$ deal that is a permanent option IIRC. I don't see a need to increase VIP for short term players as they are getting a huge amount of content all at once for the few months they might subscribe. If you subtract 5$/month to take into account the 500 free pts, a VIP is only paying 5$ a month more than a premium player that buys 500pts a month on average. How much should the extra 5$ really get you?

Anyway the best way for Turbine to make VIP more worthwhile is for them to shoot out more content packs faster, as well as new races and other options that require spending TP but are free to VIPs (But no new classes please, some of us would like to enjoy our completionsit feat a little longer heh).

[Visty]

sure, but only if it costs 11.111 TP

other then that: /not signed

[LookingForABentoBox]

I am constantly amazed that so many people find actually playing this game.....doing a dungeon...being inside a quest...etc......so painful that they will go to great lengths to avoid doing content...more times than absolutely necessary to get some perk from it.

(and if that perk is one that gives a benefit from repeating the quest, they want to do it as fast and as easily as possible.)

Maybe Turbine should pay us to play the game.

It's not "great lengths" it's just being willing to pay x dollars for skipping to the difficulty which suits you more. Why should I have to run a quest once on a difficulty that's not challenging to me before I can get to the difficulty that is more suited to my skills?

[Asketes]

Heres a few thoughts (some or all of which were taken from my own reading of other people's posts):

1) Discounts on store consumables (10% should work, maybe 5% would be enough).

Yeah, just enough to say "hey, we love you"

2) a free trial of any new consumables (with half or less charges if applicable) or a free time-limited item of non-consumable (every VIP character under lvl 5 would get a +1 frost dagger when the new frost weapons came out for example, and such daggers decay 6 hours of game time later, or during the first ice games every vip would have been given 6hours skates).

hmm, This would be a meh to me, but after I thought about it. Even 1 or 2 of new consumable items would be neat to test out. Maybe it'll be something we just fall in love with and got to have.

3) Give VIPs access to a barber shop that lets then change hair style/colour once a week for free (and for Khyber's sake give everyone a preview option to test the hair style and colour before we buy, you'd sell a ton more of these items if they weren't vaguely described mystery boxes that you then had to pay another 20pts to undo if it was ugly).

ohhh this is great! (warforged hair-do's would be hilariously welcome)

4) shorter reincarnation timers (3 days instead of 7)

interesting. I think this *might* entice us lazy vets to LR a bit more to play around with build ideas.

5) Access to larger stacks at better prices for store consumables (bigger stacks of XP pots at slightly cheaper rates than the current maximum stack)

oohhhhhh, so far THIS is the best thing you've said. oh, I thought you meant: larger than 100 stack of scrolls/pots.. but what you said is alright too.. (still rooting for bigger inventory stacks (~pokes Silver flame pots~)

6) Shorter ransack timers on chests (5days vs 7)

hmm idk, that might be a little much (imo)

7) Extend the length of time for VIPs to have access to new updates to 7 days, though release guest passes at the 3 day mark.

~read by a lurker~

8) Tolero mentioned that she wanted to make VIP-only lotteries, but unless the prizes are quite good (like the 5 major xp pot thursday lotto), this wouldn't have much of an effect.

interesting

Another note is that a long term VIP player is likely on the 6month/60$ deal that is a permanent option IIRC. I don't see a need to increase VIP for short term players as they are getting a huge amount of content all at once for the few months they might subscribe. If you subtract 5$/month to take into account the 500 free pts, a VIP is only paying 5$ a month more than a premium player that buys 500pts a month on average. How much should the extra 5$ really get you?

Anyway the best way for Turbine to make VIP more worthwhile is for them to shoot out more content packs faster, as well as new races and other options that require spending TP but are free to VIPs (But no new classes please, some of us would like to enjoy our completionsit feat a little longer heh).

Really great post Lithic.

Thank you

[Waukeen]

Please no.

VIP's have very few "Perks". I'd like to see a few stick.

This.

give us something exclusive for monkey's sake.

(granted it is hard to complain about $10 a month)

[DrenglisEU]

/Not signed. Paying monthly bucks should bring something

[Richtenfaust]

Guess what, F2Pers and P2Pers...you can buy a temporary buff that will give you the amazing ability to open quests on Elite for the meager price of 1500 TPs...actually, 1000 TPs after rebate...and the "potion" lasts a WHOOOOOLE month...and it applies to *ALL* of your characters on one account!! ALL SERVERS!!!

Hint 1: It's not available in the Turbine Store
Hint 2: You get the title VIP for the *entire* duration of the "potion"
Hint 3: You get 500 TPs "back," though you don't actually purchase this "potion" with them in the first place

For all the people who would be willing to buy a temporary "open on Elite" buff, I salute you and thank you for keeping Turbine in business. After all...points aren't real money, anyway!

[Lorz]

Guess what, F2Pers and P2Pers...you can buy a temporary buff that will give you the amazing ability to open quests on Elite for the meager price of 1500 TPs...actually, 1000 TPs after rebate...and the "potion" lasts a WHOOOOOLE month...and it applies to *ALL* of your characters on one account!! ALL SERVERS!!!

Hint 1: It's not available in the Turbine Store
Hint 2: You get the title VIP for the *entire* duration of the "potion"
Hint 3: You get 500 TPs "back," though you don't actually purchase this "potion" with them in the first place

For all the people who would be willing to buy a temporary "open on Elite" buff, I salute you and thank you for keeping Turbine in business. After all...points aren't real money, anyway!

Good post....and four pages of people who cannot grasp simple concepts. Asking for things that already exist.

/where did I stick the clue stick....because there are several angry people in here that need it badly.

[Seihan]

U7 will allow VIPs to open all quests on elite. How about having this option in the ddo store for premium players?

We can. The catch is is you buy 'per-quest' at about a buck or buck and a half : )

[dunklezhan]

I agree that VIP sub should bring some stuff that a mere premium player simply cannot get. Hence, a VIP being able to open on Hard with premium only able to open on Normal made sense to me - as both a VIP and Premium player at various times since Sept 09. Now that VIPs can open on elite however, I see no reason premium players shouldn't be able to buy an option to open straight to Hard.

I don't mind if its an expensive option even. I don't mind account option stuff being pricey so long as its account-wide, it's stuff that only become available to one character like the extra bank slot that cheeses me off because it was just unnecessarily expensive, wasn't an account-wide option (so to me is not an 'account' option) and had no duplicate in game mechanism to get it (e.g. a higher level of favour reward with House K).

But I would pay a similar amount to the other account-wide options to be able to open on Hard, providing VIPs can open to Elite. I do not think that Premiums should be able to open at the same level as a VIP because a VIP already does not get enough to make that $15 a month really worth it.

Also please lets not use how much money a VIP contributes as opposed to a premium player as any kind of indicator as to whether Premium should get access to something. You want to talk steady, reliable income streams I'm all down with that (which is why I think VIPs deserve more), but I have personally spent a minimum of £250 on DDO since Sept 09 including three months as a VIP. That's about $300, minimum, $45 of which was VIP over Christmas last year. In the same time, had I just subbed I would've spent $225, including that $45. Suffice to say, I've contributed to Turbine's purse more over the last year than someone who 'just' subbed the whole time and didn't spend anything else. .

This may make me an exception rather than the rule, and in no way makes me more deserving of anything than anyone else. The point is that even if you only care about direct financial contribution the only people not contributing to Turbine's purse are genuine 100% Free to Play folks, not the Premium players, and I personally would argue (and have done so) that large numbers of them still add enormously to the game by their contribution to the community - they aren't all sponging noobs, regardless of what certain forums threads may indicate.

What a VIP should get is a whole other thread (edit: Lithic's post above is full of nice quick win stuff mind you), suffice to say if they get Elite opening then premium getting Hard opening does not devalue what the VIP has in any worse way than existed for the first year of DDO:EU (not DDO:SR, I know the difference!) when VIPs could open hard and Premiums only normal.

[Shaamis]

Please no.

VIP's have very few "Perks". I'd like to see a few stick.

It's ok Impaqt, F2P is the way to go, take it from someone who payed vip since head start, and we have received updates 10x faster since F2P, even though I gave them a monthly $$$ sub fee for just existing.

This is just a post giving Turbine more options to spend Turbine Points.

personally I'd /agree, we should get a chance to open on hard at least, 300 tp for hard, 1000 for elite.

[Macroscian]

It's ok Impaqt, F2P is the way to go, take it from someone who payed vip since head start, and we have received updates 10x faster since F2P, even though I gave them a monthly $$$ sub fee for just existing.

This is just a post giving Turbine more options to spend Turbine Points.

personally I'd /agree, we should get a chance to open on hard at least, 300 tp for hard, 1000 for elite.

I have recent experience with LOTRO (european version) and the store button suddenly being all over my interface - it is everywhere and I've come to hate it with a vengeance, why I'm...here. Silly but truly it's less prominent here. No doubt that will change to resemble LOTRO but no need to hurry that process.

Krag or whatever - comparing VIP with premium is just mush in most cases, I paid once to get a few extra character slots - I'm premium with an input of like 10 USD. EDIT: and dammit, I don't get to neg rep you for mindless bullying since I have no rep myself. Happy gaming! Stay nice!

It's a nice perk, let VIP keep it. Something like that could make me pay a few months once I get into the game proper (as is, I'm just powerloitering and having some fun after work).

[Shaamis]

Guess what, F2Pers and P2Pers...you can buy a temporary buff that will give you the amazing ability to open quests on Elite for the meager price of 1500 TPs...actually, 1000 TPs after rebate...and the "potion" lasts a WHOOOOOLE month...and it applies to *ALL* of your characters on one account!! ALL SERVERS!!!

Hint 1: It's not available in the Turbine Store
Hint 2: You get the title VIP for the *entire* duration of the "potion"
Hint 3: You get 500 TPs "back," though you don't actually purchase this "potion" with them in the first place

For all the people who would be willing to buy a temporary "open on Elite" buff, I salute you and thank you for keeping Turbine in business. After all...points aren't real money, anyway!

Sorry. Been there, and done that. No longer like the taste of that kool-aid. I'd rather have to start every quest on casual as a F2P, than pay a monthly sub again, even for ONE MONTH.

[Blackbird]

The mistake turbine made was naming the subscription people VIPs. It really should have been "Long term Player" for premium, and "Short term Player" for VIP, since that is how each payment plan becomes most worthwhile.

This is EXACTLY true. It is a bit of a misconception that VIP players pay much more than Premium players for game access. While it is true that a person could become Premium by only spending a small amount of money (maybe buying one pack or two then quitting), the same is true for VIP (only stick around for a few months).

For example, in my case, my husband and I went Premium back in late March, 2010. Since that time, we have spent $456.50 (looking that up just made me a little sad) or $228.25 per account (granted, I have spent more than him but that's always the case ). I own everything in the game, have 12 characters, monk, and WF (unlocked FvS, Veteran status, 32-point Drow, etc way before going Premium). He doesn't have some of the packs we never play (Catacombs, maybe a few others) or monk. Neither of us have half-orc/elf. Both of us have shared banks. Granted, some of the things we spend money on (reincarnations, xp pots) we would have spent money on as VIP as well. However, we would have had 500 points a month to offset it. I think our initial sink to purchase everything in the game was at least $100 and was probably closer to $150 per account (just based on when we purchased points, I know we waited for some of the lower level packs to go on sale before buying them). So at $15 a month that would be 10 months before we would recover our cost (I think my initial calculation was something like 7 months but some stuff has come out since then). That assumes nothing else comes out we want to buy. So, we have a lot more money to lose in the long run if DDO shuts down. We are quite vested in the game as this point and it would never be cost beneficial for us to go back to VIP. We definitely would have spent a LOT less on DDO if the store never existed!

I don't care as much about opening quests on hard/elite. We usually do it for xp anyways. The only time it would matter is if I was running a capped character for favor. My paladin is my favor character and she can open just about everything before Mod 9 on elite. So, the newer stuff it would be nice to open for favor. Not that running favor is worth it as much anymore I personally think that offering it on a per-quest basis in the store is an absolute rip-off.