Self-Style Hair Kit and Total Makeover Kit no longer a Black Lion Chest drop?!

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

As far as I remember, Self-style Hair Kits were one of the most lamented drops from Black Lion Chests. It would seem ArenaNet tried to listen to the playerbase.
Of course, damned if they do, damned if they do not.

[lare.5129]

don't see any problem that self-style hair is dropped and very sad that total make kit is gone.

[Udolpho.1209]

@Dawdler.8521 said:Do you honestly believe this change was made because some people complained they got too many of them?

No. You literally declare the real reason in the first paragraph. People desired them and Anet weighed random drops vs purchase for gems only which either drain the economy (less gold->gems) or force people to buy gems for cash.

Its as simple as that. Anet did it for money.

True. It IS about money. About who desired kits & who did not. The complaints motivated the decision to remove them.

The people who buy lots and lots of keys complain about stacks of hundred+ kits: they don't want more kits. They have more than they can use, and there's no other benefit to them. The people who only farm the weekly or only occasionally buy keys, don't have a stack like that: they likely do want kits. Anet wants to sell keys. They've decided to cater to the minority that pays the most money for those. They don't want to alienate those people. Makes sense.

Those people who do buy tonnes of keys won't be purchasing kits for cash. Those who don't will now purchase kits for cash; they're unlikely to waste precious statuettes. Oh, but one could use statuettes, so it's ok.

It is win-win for profit, win for the 1%, lose for the general base.

Perhaps as you say this was always coming, or inevitable.

It's just sad to have something nice taken away.

[kasoki.5180]

This is absolute garbage to people who don't open chests regularly or to the new players. Instead of removing it, Anet should have introduced some sort of trading mechanism for players who have abundance of these items. Like trading them for BLS or something similar.

Sometimes its hard to understand why Anet thinks that most draconic option available is the best solution to what is a marginal problem

[Endless Soul.5178]

I get why the Hair Kits were removed, they were starting to stack up ever since I got the Permanent Hair Contract thingy, but I'm really disappointed the Total Makeover Kit was removed. I only have one left as my character army grows.

[Rasimir.6239]

According to the wiki you can get a total makeover kit for 10 Black Lion Statuettes . That's 10 keys at most, less if you are lucky with additional statuette drops, and probably a lot quicker to get than relying on them dropping from the previous generation of black lion chests.

Looks to me like ANet took them out of the chests but put them within easy reach of those who buy/farm keys. This way they are still available to people who open chests, but won't annoy those who have no use for them.

[TheGrimm.5624]

Have to put me on the side that I am glad they aren't in there, but that said the price of the statuettes should come down to 1 or 2, IMO.

[Xanadrine.4352]

@Udolpho.1209 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:Do you

honestly

believe this change was made because some people complained they got too many of them?

No. You literally declare the real reason in the first paragraph. People

desired

them and Anet weighed random drops vs purchase for gems only which either drain the economy (less gold->gems) or force people to buy gems for cash.

Its as simple as that. Anet did it for money.

True. It IS about money. About who desired kits & who did not. The complaints motivated the decision to remove them.

The people who buy lots and lots of keys complain about stacks of hundred+ kits: they don't want more kits. They have more than they can use, and there's no other benefit to them. The people who only farm the weekly or only occasionally buy keys, don't have a stack like that: they likely do want kits. Anet wants to sell keys. They've decided to cater to the minority that pays the most money for those. They don't want to alienate those people. Makes sense.

Those people who do buy tonnes of keys won't be purchasing kits for cash. Those who don't will now purchase kits for cash; they're unlikely to waste precious statuettes. Oh, but one

could

use statuettes, so it's ok.

It is win-win for profit, win for the 1%, lose for the general base.

Perhaps as you say this was always coming, or inevitable.

It's just sad to have something nice taken away.

The problem is the forums are not really representative of the playerbase, complaints here are a small minority of players that come here. Never trust forum numbers is one thing i have learned , they are a small percentage of the playerbase.

@"Rasimir.6239" said:According to the wiki you can get a total makeover kit for 10 Black Lion Statuettes . That's 10 keys at most, less if you are lucky with additional statuette drops, and probably a lot quicker to get than relying on them dropping from the previous generation of black lion chests.

Looks to me like ANet took them out of the chests but put them within easy reach of those who buy/farm keys. This way they are still available to people who open chests, but won't annoy those who have no use for them.

In other words people like me that have been saving up some statutes to get special items now have to dump 10 of them for a hairstyle? Thats a bit much imo and i would never dump statues into it at that cost. Not when there are so many other things of better value to get. Its not very fair when you look at the value of the items.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@Zuldari.3940 said:

@Udolpho.1209 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:Do you

honestly

believe this change was made because some people complained they got too many of them?

No. You literally declare the real reason in the first paragraph. People

desired

them and Anet weighed random drops vs purchase for gems only which either drain the economy (less gold->gems) or force people to buy gems for cash.

Its as simple as that. Anet did it for money.

True. It IS about money. About who desired kits & who did not. The complaints motivated the decision to remove them.

The people who buy lots and lots of keys complain about stacks of hundred+ kits: they don't want more kits. They have more than they can use, and there's no other benefit to them. The people who only farm the weekly or only occasionally buy keys, don't have a stack like that: they likely do want kits. Anet wants to sell keys. They've decided to cater to the minority that pays the most money for those. They don't want to alienate those people. Makes sense.

Those people who do buy tonnes of keys won't be purchasing kits for cash. Those who don't will now purchase kits for cash; they're unlikely to waste precious statuettes. Oh, but one

could

use statuettes, so it's ok.

It is win-win for profit, win for the 1%, lose for the general base.

Perhaps as you say this was always coming, or inevitable.

It's just sad to have something nice taken away.

The problem is the forums are not really representative of the playerbase, complaints here are a small minority of players that come here. Never trust forum numbers is one thing i have learned , they are a small percentage of the playerbase.

@"Rasimir.6239" said:According to the wiki you can get a total makeover kit for

10 Black Lion Statuettes

. That's 10 keys at most, less if you are lucky with additional statuette drops, and probably a lot quicker to get than relying on them dropping from the previous generation of black lion chests.

Looks to me like ANet took them out of the chests but put them within easy reach of those who buy/farm keys. This way they are still available to people who open chests, but won't annoy those who have no use for them.

In other words people like me that have been saving up some statutes to get special items now have to dump 10 of them for a hairstyle? Thats a bit much imo and i would never dump statues into it at that cost. Not when there are so many other things of better value to get. Its not very fair when you look at the value of the items.

Total Makeover Kit, not Self-style Hair Kit.I'm guessing the Black Lion Statuette cost is based on the Gem cost. More or less, anyway.

[Ashen.2907]

Kind of a bummer. One of the few things in BLC that I enjoyed getting other than some of the weapon skins.

With those gone the gamble for something like the new outfit is more onerous. Knowing that every key bought is guaranteed to provide me with nothing of value until/unless the outfit comes up disincentivizes key purchases for me.

[Redsnabba.9172]

I find a lot of the posts here very selfish tbh. "I don't need hair style kits" well i'm glad if you don't but that doesn't mean nobody else does. there are a lot of new players and people who do enjoy making over their character and this change makes that unreasonably expensive.

You can either expect the whole playerbase to get a permanent hair style contract (lol), spend all your statuettes that you probably want for other skins and useful stuff on makeover kits or spend around 100g each time you don't like your appearance. And as i've mentioned before the permanent hair style contract doesn't replace the total makeover kit to begin with.

We didn't get any reasonable alternatives of getting any of these items and for a game that puts a lot of focus on fashion and skins i think this is a really terrible change. I'm fully aware that utility items you drop from the bl chest become useless when you have the permanent version but the solution to that should be to give them some use not to remove them from dropping. YOU may not need them but plenty of people do and the same goes for any other items like trading posts etc.

Overall i really just find this change very sad and it's gonna end up dampening the creativity and uniqueness of players character models. They should have made the makeover kits easier to get, not harder.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@Dawdler.8521 said:Do you honestly believe this change was made because some people complained they got too many of them?

No. You literally declare the real reason in the first paragraph. People desired them and Anet weighed random drops vs purchase for gems only which either drain the economy (less gold->gems) or force people to buy gems for cash.

Its as simple as that. Anet did it for money.

shocked pikachu face

I dont really blame them though. I consider the kits a luxuary and paying 150ish gold or whatever it is for it is fine.

Full disclosure, I won't speak for others but I have been one to complain about them as drops over time. I can not talk toward your second point but as far as your first I have done said posting in the past. To me they have been wasted rolls. That said I don't see why for others that do want them they shouldn't still be a chance in the rolls of the black lion chest we get for the daily rewards and they should remain at a lowered cost in the statuette vendor.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@Redsnabba.9172 said:

Overall i really just find this change very sad and it's gonna end up dampening the creativity and uniqueness of players character models. They should have made the makeover kits easier to get, not harder.

Have said in the past and will say again, make everything in the chest to be tradable, remove the account bound on acquire. I would love to sell the excess ones to players, have destroyed them in the past to make space. If I could have given them to guildmates that were looking for ones all the better. ANet could add them back in and a good compromise would be to remove the account bound bit so that the player base could balance the supply out, they could also do that even if they leave them out for now.

I don't think this is some deep plot. We have seen posts that say:

• Increase the value of items from chests, bound items have no value since they can't be traded, the kits would fall under this
• We have players say why would these be in there when I have a permanent one, this is either complex code or an oversight or logic that doesn't exist that links these item in the loot generator
• Allow us to buy items instead of have them in random loot rolls, these fit that and they did so, players now say its a scheme
• We have players asking for these to be removed, guilty of this in the past
• We have players asking for less random chance items and more they can just buy if they want it
• We have players saying remove the BL chests completely since they are addictive and prey on players

So where is the middle ground or the mix of solutions? You are right there is a lot of no's and yes's here. So we now have achieved less randomness in getting them, removed them as undesirable drops for those that don't want them, have a way to get them directly from store, increased the value of drops, since until they can be sold they have no value though they cost gems for those that would buy them, removed the issue of people with permanents ones (I don't own one and have sold one in the past) getting them, removed them as temptation of randomness from drops.

So options, doesn't have to be a one size fits all and players can't measure their worth to ANet and their sales transaction team:

• Add a way to acquire via zone currencies (In my book wouldn't be cheap and would need to be a measure of time it would require to gain the value of those gems in gold)
• Reduce their cost in statuettes (Guaranteed drop that would therefore have a fixed value)
• Allow them to not be bound (Players would drive demand and set prices)
• Put them back in but allow them to be traded (this would counter a number of points above but be as mix of people saying want vs those saying don't and random bad)
• Increase their drop chance in the kits that come from the daily login rewards or make them part of the daily rewards(not in favor of second part but would fit the situation)
• Do nothing and call it balanced (keep the fact their call meet a number of previous requests from forum goers)

2 cents. Good gaming.

[Frostfang.5109]

No.... plz make it possible to get them in any other way than by gems!

[otto.5684]

@Blocki.4931 said:This is a huge boon to everybody who owns even a single one. They're a dead roll. I have over 100. I don't need any more. Now if only revive orbs were gone...

Unless you buy a significant amount of BLCs, you would not have that many of them. This is most definitely a huge nerf to the pool. It was one of the average drops that have any value. It was a good deal, since it gave the ability to not spend gems for changing hair or face, while hoping to get rarer items from BLCs. Now, I am very unlikely to even consider buying them. They drop nothing of value, unless you get really lucky.

[Tiviana.2650]

@otto.5684 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:This is a huge boon to everybody who owns even a single one. They're a dead roll. I have over 100. I don't need any more. Now if only revive orbs were gone...

Unless you buy a significant amount of BLCs, you would not have that many of them. This is most definitely a huge nerf to the pool. It was one of the average drops that have any value. It was a good deal, since it gave the ability to not spend gems for changing hair or face, while hoping to get rarer items from BLCs. Now, I am very unlikely to even consider buying them. They drop nothing of value, unless you get really lucky.

Amen its such a letdown. Im not going to lootbox gamble on this stuff.

@"Redsnabba.9172" said:I find a lot of the posts here very selfish tbh. "I don't need hair style kits" well i'm glad if you don't but that doesn't mean nobody else does. there are a lot of new players and people who do enjoy making over their character and this change makes that unreasonably expensive.

You can either expect the whole playerbase to get a permanent hair style contract (lol), spend all your statuettes that you probably want for other skins and useful stuff on makeover kits or spend around 100g each time you don't like your appearance. And as i've mentioned before the permanent hair style contract doesn't replace the total makeover kit to begin with.

We didn't get any reasonable alternatives of getting any of these items and for a game that puts a lot of focus on fashion and skins i think this is a really terrible change. I'm fully aware that utility items you drop from the bl chest become useless when you have the permanent version but the solution to that should be to give them some use not to remove them from dropping. YOU may not need them but plenty of people do and the same goes for any other items like trading posts etc.

Overall i really just find this change very sad and it's gonna end up dampening the creativity and uniqueness of players character models. They should have made the makeover kits easier to get, not harder.

I am in agreement with you, it was a bad move, and makes them look greedy over something that was already tied to rng in a lootbox.

[lezbefriends.7516]

With the focus on “keys” and loot boxes, I feel like I’m playing an RNG cash grab game now. Can anyone lift my spirits up and remind me that this is the same game it was before those things became a huge, predatory thing?

[Trise.2865]

What? microtransactions and lootboxes are predatory and ultimately self-defeating, given greedy upper-corporate business practices? Whoever could have told you that?

Oh wait...

[lezbefriends.7516]

@Trise.2865 said:What? microtransactions and lootboxes are predatory and ultimately self-defeating, given greedy upper-corporate business practices? Whoever could have told you that?

Oh wait...

This game is supposed to have a “fair” system, but the focus on chests feels similar to the RNG lootboxes of other games. Even if it’s purely cosmetic, the prices are through the roof, which feels shady. Plus, the whole implementation of it preys on addictive habits, which is not very ethical.

[miraude.2107]

All the main content is in the game itself and living seasons are free to own until the next one arrives. The cash shop is more or less cosmetics and only add a 'look at me, I have disposable income' to someone's account. They have added events (Boss Rush, Event Rush) to entice the player base to participate in events that usually either have to wait for a daily for or organize a group for.They could...make so that you have to pay for the living seasons even when they are current (ESO), add all legendary gear behind a irl paywall instead of a grindwall(ArcheAge), gate it so that each race is only able to choose 3 professions (like only elementalist, guardian and engineer is available to you) and you have to pay to unlock the rest...for each race (Wild Star). That if you spent even a dime in the cash shop, if you don't do buy anything again they have your account banned and have a 'all bans are final' so you can't even dispute or find out why you are banned(Aura Kingdom), or simply be owned by EA.

[Batel.9206]

But, according to you, this isn't a real game.

And, also according to you, it'll be dead with WoW Classic.

And [insert your other doomsday/I'm dispirited threads].

So...you're concerned about this now?

[lezbefriends.7516]

@miraude.2107 said:All the main content is in the game itself and living seasons are free to own until the next one arrives. The cash shop is more or less cosmetics and only add a 'look at me, I have disposable income' to someone's account. They have added events (Boss Rush, Event Rush) to entice the player base to participate in events that usually either have to wait for a daily for or organize a group for.They could...make so that you have to pay for the living seasons even when they are current (ESO), add all legendary gear behind a irl paywall instead of a grindwall(ArcheAge), gate it so that each race is only able to choose 3 professions (like only elementalist, guardian and engineer is available to you) and you have to pay to unlock the rest...for each race (Wild Star). That if you spent even a dime in the cash shop, if you don't do buy anything again they have your account banned and have a 'all bans are final' so you can't even dispute or find out why you are banned(Aura Kingdom), or simply be owned by EA.

But Fashion Wars 2 is a cosmetic game, so why lock cosmetics behind RNG or an absurd price?

[Linken.6345]

havent you got bored of all these doom and gloom posts yet mate?

[Ototo.3214]

@Mortifera.6138 said:

@miraude.2107 said:All the main content is in the game itself and living seasons are free to own until the next one arrives. The cash shop is more or less cosmetics and only add a 'look at me, I have disposable income' to someone's account. They have added events (Boss Rush, Event Rush) to entice the player base to participate in events that usually either have to wait for a daily for or organize a group for.They could...make so that you have to pay for the living seasons even when they are current (ESO), add all legendary gear behind a irl paywall instead of a grindwall(ArcheAge), gate it so that each race is only able to choose 3 professions (like only elementalist, guardian and engineer is available to you) and you have to pay to unlock the rest...for each race (Wild Star). That if you spent even a dime in the cash shop, if you don't do buy anything again they have your account banned and have a 'all bans are final' so you can't even dispute or find out why you are banned(Aura Kingdom), or simply be owned by EA.

But Fashion Wars 2 is a cosmetic game, so why lock cosmetics behind RNG or an absurd price?

If you're referring to anything in the gem store, it's because this game doesn't have a subscription fee. So they put fancy things that you can try to get for gems since they have to make money somehow. I agree things like loot boxes are stupid, but at least the Black Lion Chests include a statuette that lets you get something after a set amount of times if you have bad luck. And you don't even have to buy gems with cash, you can get it with gold in game if you don't want to pay.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

BL chests have been in the game forever. While they do have the occasional cosmetic or convenience item that is highly desired, they dont add a lot to the game. The gem store has always been a cash grab preying on people who like convenience or easy to access cosmetics, but gw2 is becoming an old ftp game which needs to generate income somehow. I would agree that lootboxes of any kind are a greedy business model, but compared to other games gw2 lootboxes arent that bad.