To the Developers: Crystal Cove needs work.

[Ziindarax]

With the way the event is currently set up, it is extremely easy to stockpile large amounts of gems and doubloons. As of this moment on Orien, I have well over 600 stolen emeralds and over 600 stolen Diamonds. Had the selling of items from the barter box not been banned, I wouldn't have this problem, but as it is now, my only option is to destroy the gems and all the doubloons I've made.

I cannot possible store all of the elemental gems, which stack to 100, nor can I donate these items to my guild mates, who need them more.

My suggestions are as follows:

1) Allow barter box items to be sold, but at a reduced selling price (with maximum haggle, a player should only get 150 platinum per greater dowsing rod, and even less with the inferior versions - for example).

2) Enable the gems to be donated to one's own guild. The gems could be divided evenly among a list of people in your guild.

I know what some of the people on here are thinking: "You just want an easy button". Well, the truth is, I only really play one character on the Orien server, so I only need one set of epic items, which I've already upgrade to tier 3. As stated above, I have more diamonds and emeralds than I will ever need so it would be nice if I could give them to people who actually need them.

3) Allow for conversions; gold doubloons are next to worthless in the event, so we should be able to convert them into silver and/or copper doubloons. As I cannot sell dowsing rods, the only thing I can do with the gold doubloons is destroy them because they just take up a slot.

sub-suggestion: Gold doubloons need to be used more, especially when purchasing epic items.

4) Convert Doubloons into platinum - the rates could be adjusted so that it's reasonable; players who do this should get some platinum, but shouldn't be able to hit the "platinum cap" (even if they trade in 100k gold doubloons).

5) Put a banker in the Crystal Cove tavern so we don't have to run all the way back to the harbor.

[Adarro]

This is just my opinion, but I think the entire purpose of creating the 'doubloon' system was so that it would be like monopoly money... useful only in that exact and specific area, and an utter novelty anywhere else.

Overall, I'm pleased with the event. Some nice gear, phun fluff items and a welcome distraction. I see the gold doubloons kind of like the lich dust from the mabar festival. Or more accurately, like 90% of the collectable / turn-ins we all gather and have to sort out when we only really want certain ones (like Silver Flame Hymnals or Deadly Feverbranch vs say... an Icon of Khyber for Goldscuttle). While it would be nice to turn them into something useful (useful to our character in our view), it's more of a collateral splash collection damage thing.

On one hand, I would love to have the option of selling / buying the elemental gems on the open market (which I realize you aren't suggesting), but I am also glad they made the gems so accessible vs say the snow elemental from Risia.

I think you do bring up an interesting secondary suggestion, although you didn't state it out right.
What would happen with a 'Bound to Guild' flag?

[Ziindarax]

This is just my opinion, but I think the entire purpose of creating the 'doubloon' system was so that it would be like monopoly money... useful only in that exact and specific area, and an utter novelty anywhere else.

Overall, I'm pleased with the event. Some nice gear, phun fluff items and a welcome distraction. I see the gold doubloons kind of like the lich dust from the mabar festival. Or more accurately, like 90% of the collectable / turn-ins we all gather and have to sort out when we only really want certain ones (like Silver Flame Hymnals or Deadly Feverbranch vs say... an Icon of Khyber for Goldscuttle). While it would be nice to turn them into something useful (useful to our character in our view), it's more of a collateral splash collection damage thing.

On one hand, I would love to have the option of selling / buying the elemental gems on the open market (which I realize you aren't suggesting), but I am also glad they made the gems so accessible vs say the snow elemental from Risia.

I think you do bring up an interesting secondary suggestion, although you didn't state it out right.
What would happen with a 'Bound to Guild' flag?

Bound to Guild would be very nice; items bound to guild cannot be sold to vendors, or on the Auction house. These items should only be trade-able amongst other members of the guild. How can an item be bound to a guild? One way I am thinking it could be done is if it's put in the guild chest, another way is if it could be donated to a guild via a special NPC.

About the gems, I agree with you because the elemental gems are fairly accessible to everyone whereas the snow man gems aren't. Not to mention, the snow elemental gems require too many components compared to the actual power of said elemental; nice in the lowbie quests, but grossly lacking in mid-high level quests.

[BOgre]

I'm really pleased with the event as well. I think where many people are getting bogged down with the idea is that there is so much 'left over' of any particular commodity after finishing crafting what you wanted. Like, when I was done my hats, I had tons of gems left, because hats didn't need gems. And when I was done my ring, I had lots of dubloons and shards left over, because I didn't need to upgrade past level 8. Well, why not look at it this way: Be glad you had enough resources to get the item you wanted, rather than farming the event over and over for a chest, and not ever finding the exact item you wanted. Any excess dubloons/gems/shards you may have can simply be considered 'spillage'. Throw them out! It's not necessary to MAXimize every singly resource in the game. They gave us extra so we could all get what we needed out of them... period. I for one am happy I got some really cool gear that I can wear at my level, like the buc's ring: no breath bar underwater? sold! wicked cool.

[Teech]

Bound to Guild would be very nice; items bound to guild cannot be sold to vendors, or on the Auction house. These items should only be trade-able amongst other members of the guild. How can an item be bound to a guild? One way I am thinking it could be done is if it's put in the guild chest, another way is if it could be donated to a guild via a special NPC.

About the gems, I agree with you because the elemental gems are fairly accessible to everyone whereas the snow man gems aren't. Not to mention, the snow elemental gems require too many components compared to the actual power of said elemental; nice in the lowbie quests, but grossly lacking in mid-high level quests.

BtG sounds too easily abused. Invite someone to guild, trade, then kick him out. Might as well not bind it altogether? Doesn't seem a very useful flag to me

[Cleanincubus]

/signed
1) Just because it was exploited, doesn't mean it should be completely cut off. My gimped lvl 13 fighter use up 25K pp in hirelings and cure serious wound pots in this event (from either soloing the event or being in parties with clerics or hirelings that didn't want to do any healing.) It'd be nice to get at least a tiny percentage of that investment back. Yes, I realize that's not a very good argument; it's my own problem.

2) Motes from the Mabar & Risia events are sell-able and are able to be given to others, why not gems? Let's face it, most people spend more time in CC to get the green dragonshards, than they do to grind for gems. I'm assuming most people have far more gems than they need.

3) Agreed. I could use the extra copper and silver doubloons to make more greater air elemental gems, rather than doing absolutely nothing with them. The amount of gold doubloons one of my character has is excessive (33,000+.) It reminds me a lot like Khyber dragonshards. Other than the spell Trap the Soul, and binding items, the amount a character receives over time is excessive.

4) Even if it were 10,000 gold doubloons for 100 platinum, I'd be happy (see my #1).

5) After finally getting a shared bank a couple months ago /signed /signed /signed. I use one character to do the entire even, and sue the shared bank to transfer all the doubloons, gems, and items to my other characters. Even if the NPC in Smuggler's Rest gave you the option to go to House Kundarak, right near the major bank, I'd be happy.

[GotSomeQuestions]

Sounds like it's time for someone on Orien to stop slacking and set up a Air Elemental Gem Trade Thread.

Seriously, those Air Elemental gems are great. Just make a bunch, and use them up, if you're not going to trade them or give them to guildies. If you have 600 each of Diamond/Emerald, that's only 400 Air Elemental gems. Four inventory stacks is not going to break the bank, and you can always store some on an alt.

[ssgcmwatson]

How about 25 golden doubloons to teleport you to the harbor bank? A convenience and a use for the golds!

(But I agree there should be a c/s/g doubloon trading system).

[phillymiket]

I wouldn't mind if gold doubloons could be converted into copper or if, like gold/plat pieces you could put a stack of gold in and have it count toward the silver and copper requirement for crafting. (That would make buying the air ellies soooo much less of a PITA.)

I also wouldn't mind if you could convert, for example, diamonds into rubies to craft lower level stuff without having to run the lower level coves.

But all in all I can't really criticize an event that allows such cool stuff to be crafted so easily.

/shrug

[spyyder976]

What you should do is just save them as gems, because you never know if they might add new gear and/or consumables to the box next year.

[Ziindarax]

Sounds like it's time for someone on Orien to stop slacking and set up a Air Elemental Gem Trade Thread.

Seriously, those Air Elemental gems are great. Just make a bunch, and use them up, if you're not going to trade them or give them to guildies. If you have 600 each of Diamond/Emerald, that's only 400 Air Elemental gems. Four inventory stacks is not going to break the bank, and you can always store some on an alt.

I agree with you, but everyone on Orien pretty much has a stack of elemental gems; I had a hard time selling them in the harbor. :/

Even so, I'd have tons of gold doubloons sitting around doing nothing; I would like to see gold doubloons either count toward the silver/copper costs, or enable them to be converted into copper/silver doubloons.