Saltmarsh details from today's live stream.

[Tlorrd]

As the saying goes ...buy nice or buy twice

There are some extra items here that are appealing to casual players. For those who are only saying they'll purchase the low levels ... Don't fall into the trap of doing that and then seeing the nice new stuff that you wish you had and subsequently re-up your ante. It's a classic marketing technique.

Get it all up front.

As a side note, if you want the Elieri level 3 hireling heals ... She is on sale on the website for $9.99 along with some other stuff.

[Dandonk]

Couple of followups:

- The Dimensional Hireling Folder is Bound to Account and delivered to the first character you log into after purchasing the expansion.
- The Unlimited Spark of Logic Access is a spark that will unlock one Filigree slot, is Bound to Account, and can be acquired by speaking to an NPC. This means you can get the spark any number of times. This Spark is available in-game as a rare drop in the Epic Saga reward list for Saltmarsh.

BtA folder is fine, but the problem remains when we are getting a dozen perma-hires on each alt. Sure, this helps my main, but what about my other characters?

Spark of Logic... unlocks a new filigree slot. Decent, but my current problem is to actually fill out the sentient weapons with xp. I play a couple of alts along with my main, and I TR a lot, so I have several weapons I would like to have sentient XP in. This is not a huge deal for me, since I doubt I'll ever fill out enough weapons to ever make anything out of this bonus.

[Mindos]

cool, now i can carry around all my elieiri perm hire healers all in one place.

[valkrei]

So I just spent $27 on 3 person lunch, and $53 bucks for smokes

I think I can find $20 for 10 quests,
And they do good modules

Ppl complain the 20 bucks are the same ones too cheap for $10 a month
I mean if you play one hour you get your value

Now, I won’t spend MORE than 20 tho
Because vip
Oh I guess that makes it $18

See saving money already

I’m sure this’ll be a good job
They took extra two weeks

Not everyone has money to buy smokes as you put it or eat out for that matter. $20 is ok but would be nice for VIP to get more value. Prices should be $20, $35 and $50. Also as someone else mentioned the Cosmetics are out of control until we get a fix for space. I spent over 4 hours on my most recent TR just trying to unload the **** out of the cache.

[ned_ellis]

snip

Try and put yourself in the place of the players - the TR train rider, the end game raider, the clothes horse, the newbie, etc and think how can I enhance the experience of each type of person - Saltmarsh fails on so many levels. Give the punters what they want and they will open their wallets and spend, spend, spend. For me, I'll be shielding the moths from the light yet again.

Not that your msg deserved a snip - all valid points! - but this bit is just...perfect! Does anybody in SSG have marketing/communication experience? If DDO isn't an easy milieu to create Personas I don't know what is

I think I will be buying the $20 pack just for the basic reason SSG is tone deaf when it comes to alts - over and over and over. You give us a hireling on every character and now you give us just one hireling folder? And that is really the only interesting thing in here. I mean with the amount of weapons needed to upgrade to the next tier in our sentient weapons is the bottleneck - not the spark.

For our $200 expansion packs you gave us a +1 racial tome which sells in the store 1995 to every character on our account.

for our $100 expansion you are giving us a a hireling folder which maybe will sell for 995 but only to one character.

Do you not see the problem here?

I think the idea is for us not to see the problem here!
As always, honourable mention for the bolded part...

I have wanted to invest an extra something in the game for almost 3?, at least 2 years but haven't because they have not offered anything of interest (to me) and double downed on most of their negative aspects (imo) of game development/commercial offer. I'd hoped Saltmarsh may have filled that niche but it has just continued the trend of cr*ppy bundles; if possible they've actually gotten better at making them cr*ppy. They even took away decent black friday sales where I would buy extra copies...I hate being so negative so...nice Lizardfolk cosmetics/horse!

[Chacka_DDO]

Not everyone has money to buy smokes as you put it or eat out for that matter. $20 is ok but would be nice for VIP to get more value. Prices should be $20, $35 and $50. Also as someone else mentioned the Cosmetics are out of control until we get a fix for space. I spent over 4 hours on my most recent TR just trying to unload the **** out of the cache.

Indeed DDO needs urgently a UI for cosmetics, at least Cordovan stated that the developers also would like that so there is at least the insight that this is needed.
If I remember correctly what Cordovan said on a lifestream the problem with a cosmetics UI (similar to companions and horses) is that the cosmetics are different and it is difficult to make a UI for all kinds of cosmetics.
But honestly, it would be enough if we had a UI for one kind of cosmetics (the kind you can buy currently in the DDO shop and the cosmetics you get with expansions).
And later they might find ways for a conversion of the other cosmetics into a format that is compatible with the new cosmetics UI.

And also at this point, the reincarnation cache (aka TR cache) is superfluid if a TR works exactly the same as an ER and an LR, there is no need for a new invention of the wheel, we just need what we already have with LR and ER to get rid of this super annoying reincarnation cache! (this includes of cours that we don't lose the coin lords and Kundarak bank and inventory space)

[tygara]

Oh god...
Here we go again, with another HORRIBLE offer from SSG.

1- Why do we have to get once again destiny access. Most of the players have unlocked it already TWICE BEFORE with other expansions. Both MotU, and the Feywild. Why for flip sake so they once again offer it as a "bonus" Its not a flpping bonus, its a wasted flipping thing for most of us. Give us the option the get Destiny access, or 500DDO points (destinies are with 995 points in your story, so you can easy give us half, if you "offer it up" anyway!)

2- Why once again all these cosmetics, horses and pets. All that fluff is inventory filler, that makes most of us go crazy. Offer all that fluff in the DDO store, and give us something that we actually will use.

3- I hope for the love of god that the rogue hireling is better then the bard one ya offered up with fey, coz thatone his song is just horrible.



IMO, I said it before and ill say it again... Give us stuff we actually want, It doesnt cost you folks anything.
For example:

$20:
- Access to quests and wilderness
- 500 DDO points
- MM8

$60
- Access to quests and wilderness
- 500 DDO points
- MM8
- Heroic rogue hireling (1/character)
- Horizon walker tree
- 3x 50% xp potions (1x/account)
- 3x 200% slayer potion (1x/account)
- 10% discount code for all the store-sold cosmetics, pets and mounts of this expansion
- 1 month VIP

$100
- Access to quests and wilderness
- 500 DDO points
- MM8
- Heroic rogue hireling (1/character)
- Horizon walker tree
- Epic rogue hireling (1/character)
- Unlimited Spark of logic access
- Dimensional hireling folder (1/character)
- Sentient jewel - lizardfolk (1/character)
- Instant teleport (1/character)
- 5x 50% xp potions (1x/account)
- 5x 200% slayer potions (1x/account)
- 25% discount code for all the store-sold cosmetics, pets and mounts of this expansion pack
- 3 months VIP


The above is just a stupid example, of how you can offer a good selection of bonusses that I think most people would be interested in buying, and would be actually be willing to think of spending the full $100 on this mini expansion.
I would even dare to say that if you offer the above, you could remove the measly, rediculous (insulting) 10% discount you are offering for VIPS!

[bryanmeerkat]

So change the name of adventure packs to mini expansions and then you can get away with not letting VIP have the adventure pack for free and still claim that VIPs get all adventure packs for free.

Genius

[Marshal_Lannes]

This thread makes me sad. I've read the entire thing and there isn't a single positive reception to the mini-expansion packages. There are a couple of lukewarm supports and all the rest are varying degrees of disappointment. How can marketing miss the mark by such a margin? The whole enterprise is starting to take on the feel of watching your favorite sports team make front office blunders. You're not going to switch teams and you'll still watch them play but you don't understand how they can be so poorly run. Why don't they care about the fans? Now maybe you learn later that these decisions were forced on them for economic or personal reasons but everyone works under internal barriers and restrictions. One can only hope this collective feedback causes a late-hour adjustment to the package content (prices are set in stone I'm sure). If not, then I'll play on knowing that we're going to lose to Ohio State again come November.

[SpartanKiller13]

- The Dimensional Hireling Folder is Bound to Account and delivered to the first character you log into after purchasing the expansion.
- The Unlimited Spark of Logic Access is a spark that will unlock one Filigree slot, is Bound to Account, and can be acquired by speaking to an NPC. This means you can get the spark any number of times. This Spark is available in-game as a rare drop in the Epic Saga reward list for Saltmarsh.

Soooo if I just save the $ and buy one Hireling Folder for my main I'd save money? Or does the BtA bag allow me to transfer normally-BtC hirelings between characters?

Does the Spark of Logic directly unlock a slot or do you need to feed another 50k+ SXP into your Sentient Gem? If it unlocks a slot I'll probably spend the $100, if not I'll spend $20.

From what Cordo said I believe the new spark is a free, no sent xp needed, slot on all your sentient weapons. This is why the ‘unlimited’ holds value. No sent xp cost.

If so, it'd be pretty great getting +1 free slot on every sentient weapon - I would likely buy the pack just for this, as it makes swap sentients and sentients for alts a bunch better. If it requires another 50k+ SXP to feed, I'll be easily able to farm one out for every time I'm getting anywhere near a 10-slot.

[Stoner81]

For a supposed "mini expansion" what is being offered and what is being charged is BEYOND insulting... it's downright offensive!

$100 for the Ultimate package is almost the same price as to what you were charging for full expansions like Sharn and Feywild and it is ridiculous to say the least what you are trying to charge for this.

The VIP discount should have been at least a third off of the price at this pricing model and even then I am not sure it's worth it.

Very very angry and disappointed with you SSG, I thought you were better than this.

Stoner81.

[Oxarhamar]

More storage space filler with only a partial solution


How much storage space bloat does a new character with every top tier expansion start with at this point


We need a cosmetics closet & hirelings could have had UI like horses instead it’s more inventory clutter


Sure cosmetics looks cool but who has room for them


What exactly were the lessons learned ?


There was discussion about adding Value to VIP to counter balance the mini expansion is the 10% off supposed to be that? Because it falls far short giving VIP 10% off a stack of redundancy that VIP already paid for

[Tyrande]

From what Cordo said I believe the new spark is a free, no sent xp needed, slot on all your sentient weapons. This is why the ‘unlimited’ holds value. No sent xp cost.

That said that is the biggest value item in the pack imo. $100 (or $90) is still to steep. Should have been $75/$50/$25 with a 25% discount for VIPs. The $20 is fine, plus EDs for new peeps. Middle tier needs more content, and top tier just a bit too high, again IMO.

If what you said about no sentient xp needed for that 10th slot that that is a great value. Imagine the cost of a Weapons Tenser's Box. Its 3995 DP, i.e. close to $39.95. That pack gave you one for each of your characters for a free slot, while costing only 2x the cost of the Weapon Tenser's Box. Going from 8th slot to 9th slot costs around 50,000 sentient XP, which is what a Weapons Tenser's Box provide.

Edit: add 3 sparks to middle package. Maybe include some shards or something.
The elixirs of discovery are a nice touch available at all 3 tiers, appreciate that! Assume they are btc. Are they only useable in Saltmarsh?

I think Cordo said in the livestream that those Elixirs are the same as regular elixirs of greater discovery, and won't stack with the regular stack of greater discovery, and should be usable every where including raids.

Live everyone said, I was hoping the hireling folder would be 1 per character BtA, since the hirelings themselves are BtC, making the bag effectively BtC.

[Xgya]

And also at this point, the reincarnation cache (aka TR cache) is superfluid if a TR works exactly the same as an ER and an LR, there is no need for a new invention of the wheel, we just need what we already have with LR and ER to get rid of this super annoying reincarnation cache! (this includes of cours that we don't lose the coin lords and Kundarak bank and inventory space)

The issues here are multiple.
If you kept all your inventory every TR, you'd sometimes be stuck with a character with no space to move anything and always encumbered from low Strength.
I have some characters I TR that would be most affected, not because of lack of Strength, but because I'm a hoarder, and need ALL that space, including but not limited to some of my equipment slots, to carry all of it. Those slots would HAVE to be lost on TR, since the items should reasonably unequip.

Keeping bank and inventory upgrades from Favor between TRs would solve part of the issue, but certainly not all of it.

I'm all for removing the TR cache altogether, but this needs a LOT more work than initially apparent.

[cru121]

I think the rogue hireling is a big motivator for the middle package. If you enjoy heroics.

Perhaps I'll grab it for one of my accounts.

[Carpone]

From what Cordo said no sent xp needed, slot on all your sentient weapons. This is why the ‘unlimited’ holds value. No sent xp cost.

He did NOT say sentience XP is provided by the spark. It's just a spark, which works like the other two sparks. It simply raises the sentience XP cap, nothing more. You still have to fill it with sentience XP, which is 60k assuming you already have a Spark of Dream and Spark of Memory slotted.

[devashta]

If what you said about no sentient xp needed for that 10th slot that that is a great value. Imagine the cost of a Weapons Tenser's Box. Its 3995 DP, i.e. close to $39.95. That pack gave you one for each of your characters for a free slot, while costing only 2x the cost of the Weapon Tenser's Box. Going from 8th slot to 9th slot costs around 50,000 sentient XP, which is what a Weapons Tenser's Box provide.

Spark of logics will just open an extra slot in your weapon - you still need to feed it with items/sentient xp.

As a VIP this is downright insulting to rename an adventure pack and have to buy it as mini-expansion at the same cost of expansion. All the money we spend is not going to the most required area of the game: Storage update, Megaserver and UI update.

[Acrisius]

And another thing...
When will we have the ability to purchase an expansion (excuse me: "mini-expansion") as a gift for someone else? We've been begging for a solution for this problem. I haven't seen/heard of a fix yet. Will Saltmarsh be purchasable as a gift for a friend?

[Carpone]

And another thing...
When will we have the ability to purchase an expansion (excuse me: "mini-expansion") as a gift for someone else? We've been begging for a solution for this problem. I haven't seen/heard of a fix yet. Will Saltmarsh be purchasable as a gift for a friend?

No. Cordo covered this in the livestream. SSG doesn't have a date when gifting will be available.

[Tlorrd]

This is 'Murica ... capitalism reigns supreme.

You want a ferrari? well then do something that allows you to afford one --> Ultimate package

You want a mercedes? well do something that allows you to afford one --> Collectors edition

You want a ford? well do something that allows you to afford one --> Standard edition

You want to take public transportation? well do something that allows that --> Open for favor/buy with DDO points when its available

All of the above will take you from point A to point B ... just depends on how you want to get there.

Its pretty simple. Stop complaining.