Does the cost of changing item augmentation need to be reduced?

[Avocado]

With the addition of the set augments and the augments change from 6 or so months ago I find myself spending an exorbitant amount of jewelers kits and sentient toolkits to remove set augments once i am at cap for a new life. These kits arent cheap, coming is 995 ddo points for 10 and no way to get them outside of the store. A game about changing and trying builds out only to be hit with a paywall at level cap, 10-12 sentients toolkits and 3-5 jewelers toolkits every life. My gear changes every life so i need to rearrange everything. The chances of using the same gear each life is low. It's around 600 ddo points every life to get everything in working order. If you tr about once a month, and you're vip, that is all your DDO points and extra. I'm wondering if this is just the cost min maxing in 2021 or is it too expensive? Augments are not so easily attained as filigrees are and you cant just trash ones you have extra of because you dont have extras. So you HAVE to buy kits.

My recommendations:
Maybe jewelers kits come down in price to 500 for 10. Sentient kits down to 200 for 10.

Jewelers kits drop from quest/raids to a slightly less rate then sentient kits

Trade in vendor for mysterious rem or commendations of valor for sentient kits and jewelers kits. Commendations of valor are in high supply with not much to spend them on. I accrue them faster then i cant spend em. Maybe commendations 500 to 1 ratio for sentient kits and 1000/1 for jewelers kits. Or mysterious rems 200 to for jewelers kits and 100 to 1 for sentient kits.

[Blank_Zero]

Honestly, these kits need to stop being a store item altogether and get shunted into General Vendors. It is a common use item, and Augments are supposed to be shuffled around by design. I shouldn't have to hoard a rare Augment to use on a very niche and specific bit of gear at endgame. I should be able to take it and use it on any item I wish asap and move it along accordingly with my gear changes as I level.

These kits as store items is archaic design.

[Firebreed]

Jeweler's Kits' prices and accessibility are in my top 5 problems* with the game.

*(things that can realistically change)

[timmy9999]

Stuff like this should be somewhat free for vip customers, use rems or other collectables to trade in.
Start hitting the non vip customers hard.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Agreed. Players should not be penalized so heavily for item enhancements that are supposed to be beneficial.

[ggmarquez]

Stuff like this should be somewhat free for vip customers, use rems or other collectables to trade in.
Start hitting the non vip customers hard.

this is a great idea. instead of making vip give more to the players who pay to sub... just start gauging everyone who doesn't. all of a sudden vip will seem tantalizing and worth every penny... when ftp accounts start getting xp decay for every day they don't log in. premium get xp decay after a week. ftp accounts get hit with an additional 50% fee for using the shard exchange. premium also have an additional fee, but only half that of ftp. ftp accounts have to spend twice as many points in the store, premium only 50% more. so many ways of making vip "better" without having to offer anything extra... just start taking things away from everyone else. genius.

[Justicesfury]

With the addition of the set augments and the augments change from 6 or so months ago I find myself spending an exorbitant amount of jewelers kits and sentient toolkits to remove set augments once i am at cap for a new life. These kits arent cheap, coming is 995 ddo points for 10 and no way to get them outside of the store. A game about changing and trying builds out only to be hit with a paywall at level cap, 10-12 sentients toolkits and 3-5 jewelers toolkits every life. My gear changes every life so i need to rearrange everything. The chances of using the same gear each life is low. It's around 600 ddo points every life to get everything in working order. If you tr about once a month, and you're vip, that is all your DDO points and extra. I'm wondering if this is just the cost min maxing in 2021 or is it too expensive? Augments are not so easily attained as filigrees are and you cant just trash ones you have extra of because you dont have extras. So you HAVE to buy kits.

My recommendations:
Maybe jewelers kits come down in price to 500 for 10. Sentient kits down to 200 for 10.

Jewelers kits drop from quest/raids to a slightly less rate then sentient kits

Trade in vendor for mysterious rem or commendations of valor for sentient kits and jewelers kits. Commendations of valor are in high supply with not much to spend them on. I accrue them faster then i cant spend em. Maybe commendations 500 to 1 ratio for sentient kits and 1000/1 for jewelers kits. Or mysterious rems 200 to for jewelers kits and 100 to 1 for sentient kits.

NO! This is DDO....pay up.

[Eme]

the store price for these is one of my top 'this makes the game ugly rip off prices' that I believe harms the game more than it benefits it.

[Loholt-UK]

The Sentience Toolkits are much more reasonably priced (in multiples at least).

Jeweler's Tool Kit: 1 = 150 5 = 595 10 = 995
Sentience Toolkit: 1 = 150 5 = 195 10 = 245

I see an easy fix here.

/signed obviously

[rabidfox]

The costs are annoying but mostly it means I spend way too much time playing tetris games in planner software vs trying it out directly in game.

[axel15810]

Agreed. With gear tetris you're using 10+ toolkits every time you want to swap gear around. Many augments are too rare and valuable to merit just destroying. I get they need to make money. But, jewelers toolkits is also one of my biggest aggravations with DDO. Bottom line, they should drop more in game. It would be wonderful if these were just a platinum item but I understand they want to monetize endgame players with them. So meet us in the middle here, SSG. Please let us be able to acquire them in game, in some reasonable capacity.

[Matuse]

I just end up not really using augments because the cost to switch them around is so prohibitive. The only ones I do use are ones where it's easy to get complete replacements and just destroy the old augment - like the ones you can get with Gianthold relics, since I'm swimming in those and the relics have no other real purpose so destroying the old augment is not really a problem.

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

With the addition of the set augments and the augments change from 6 or so months ago I find myself spending an exorbitant amount of jewelers kits and sentient toolkits to remove set augments once i am at cap for a new life. These kits aren't cheap,

This is by design. A very calculated business decision to generate capital - its the cheap candy from the candy machine.

Personally I find it very distasteful that they nickel and dime us for necessary tools. We should be able to craft the tools we need considering how long crafting takes in DDO and how expensive it is. These tools should be free for VIPS.

If I ran this game I would run it much differently.

Personally I would make hundreds of cosmetics and mounts and pets and customizations for hirelings and generate money that way. I wouldn't stick a digital stick in my players' faces and demand $$ for tools that they need to play the game normally - I would offer them carrots for $$.

These kits aren't optional items - this isn't pay to win, its pay to play - and I'm already paying for a VIP that grants me nothing but being able to open quests on elite and earn a bit more XP.

[Avocado]

Honestly, these kits need to stop being a store item altogether and get shunted into General Vendors. It is a common use item, and Augments are supposed to be shuffled around by design. I shouldn't have to hoard a rare Augment to use on a very niche and specific bit of gear at endgame. I should be able to take it and use it on any item I wish asap and move it along accordingly with my gear changes as I level.

These kits as store items is archaic design.

This would be fine too, have them cost a like 10k plat or 5 shards. SSG has never been one to make cost of convenience free. Slavers augments could never be removed, LGS cant be uncrafted and can only be removed with another expensive ddo store exclusive. I think there needs to be some sinks in game, but they need to be earnable in game or youre just a pay to not lose game. Which is the most toxic type of game to be.

Stuff like this should be somewhat free for vip customers, use rems or other collectables to trade in.
Start hitting the non vip customers hard.

Ummm yeah didnt you just post something about going f2p after being vip for many years? This seems counter productive to your agenda. Either way, its acutally not a bad idea, not that id ever think ssg would implement it. They prolly make more from the store sales then from vip sales.

NO! This is DDO....pay up.

I hope this a is a joke. Are you secretly a dev in disguise? You either A) are a troll B) not affected by any of this because you only play in heroic so you just dont care about anyone else or c) You really think its a fair price to pay for everyone.

I just end up not really using augments because the cost to switch them around is so prohibitive. The only ones I do use are ones where it's easy to get complete replacements and just destroy the old augment - like the ones you can get with Gianthold relics, since I'm swimming in those and the relics have no other real purpose so destroying the old augment is not really a problem.

Yeah that just means its poor game design when some players end up losing or not being as powerful as they could be because stuff is locked up behind a paywall. Shame on SSG!