outfits gem store armor in game reward

[Balsa.3951]

So this has come to an end now as well.

[Danikat.8537]

What do you mean?

[mindcircus.1506]

4 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

What do you mean?

They are referring to the fact the new Ice Reaver set has been released piece by piece in the gem store (or will be, a chest and leggings were datamined) as opposed to them not being in game achievable like the last few armor sets, I assume.

[AgentMoore.9453]

I actually don't mind that they're offering armor sets in the store again - what I mind is that they're looking to land somewhere in the ballpark of 3,000 gems for a complete set (500 a skin). To put that in perspective, old gem shop armors used to cost 800 gems (and that was for the whole thing). I can maybe forgive some increase of price if they've crunched their numbers over the years and determined they need a higher amount to compensate for the time that goes into armor, but 3,000? Selling the set piecemeal? Hm. Dunno if I like that.

 

In a perfect world (for this extremely specific thing), you'd have armor sets available to earn in-game (which would justify playing through content more than once while still being rewarding) and then every now and then (like when they release outfits), they put a nice armor set in the shop at a reasonable rate as they used to do in the early days of the game.

 

So yeah. More fashion, nice, cool, armor skins, yes that is what we want. The price though, I dunno. Oof? We'll see if this becomes the new normal or if packaged deals at better rates come down the pipe.

[SpyderArachnid.5619]

Yeah this is a little disheartening. They stopped doing armor sets in the gem store and told us all future armor sets will be earnable in game and only outfits would be in the gem store.

 

Now it looks like they went back on their word and are releasing an armor set in the gem store again after saying they wouldn't. So we can't earn this set in game like they said we would be able to, we have to use gems for it now.

 

I don't care about armor sets being in the gem store (I own most of them already). The problem is Anet going back on their word after telling us armor sets won't be in the gem store anymore. It just puts a sour note on the whole thing that Anet would do that after saying they wouldn't anymore.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

46 minutes ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

I actually don't mind that they're offering armor sets in the store again - what I mind is that they're looking to land somewhere in the ballpark of 3,000 gems for a complete set (500 a skin). To put that in perspective, old gem shop armors used to cost 800 gems (and that was for the whole thing). I can maybe forgive some increase of price if they've crunched their numbers over the years and determined they need a higher amount to compensate for the time that goes into armor, but 3,000? Selling the set piecemeal? Hm. Dunno if I like that.

 

In a perfect world (for this extremely specific thing), you'd have armor sets available to earn in-game (which would justify playing through content more than once while still being rewarding) and then every now and then (like when they release outfits), they put a nice armor set in the shop at a reasonable rate as they used to do in the early days of the game.

 

So yeah. More fashion, nice, cool, armor skins, yes that is what we want. The price though, I dunno. Oof? We'll see if this becomes the new normal or if packaged deals at better rates come down the pipe.

Well, the old sets were only for 1 armor weight, and these are for 3 armor weights....so 3x the cost and 3x the value? 

[AgentMoore.9453]

1 minute ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Well, the old sets were only for 1 armor weight, and these are for 3 armor weights....so 3x the cost and 3x the value? 

Kinda-sorta? 3x800 is 2400, to start. Also, I'm hearing these pieces function similar to the shaman armors that were made available during IBS - visually they are (almost) identical across the armor weights (oddly, some of them aren't and have different scaling because ???), but for some of them the chest piece comes with the pants piece attached and other weird, jumbly combinations that don't truly allow for mixing and matching.

 

Full functionality would imply three distinct versions of the armor dependent on weight class or truly separated pieces that contain no elements of other parts of the set. What we'll be getting is a single version of an armor set that can be worn across armor weights, but with oddball mix'n'match functionality. And 'spensive.

 

15 minutes ago, SpyderArachnid.5619 said:

we can't earn this set in game like they said we would be able to, we have to use gems for it now.

I mean, technically you can earn gold in game and then buy gems, but I hear you. Plus, working up the gold to purchase 3,000 gems seems pretty unattractive.

[Rasimir.6239]

10 hours ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

I'm hearing these pieces function similar to the shaman armors that were made available during IBS - visually they are (almost) identical across the armor weights (oddly, some of them aren't and have different scaling because ???), but for some of them the chest piece comes with the pants piece attached and other weird, jumbly combinations that don't truly allow for mixing and matching.

Honestly I'm wondering if they are just "leftovers" of the 2nd half of the IBS. Lots of "features" we got lately look like they had planned to develop Braham and Primordus in the 2nd half of the saga similarly to how the first half developed Ryland and Jormag, and were likely designing another armor to go with that, too. When they butchered the IBS at half point, maybe the armor was already designed and they decided to throw it in the store instead?

 

No matter if that's the explanation or not, selling it piece-meal at premium price does leave a bad taste in my mouth. Anet has been decently good at keeping the store feeling "fair" to me, but putting full armors back into it at that price, no matter the reason, doesn't sit well with me, especially on top of the "champions" releases instead of "normal" living story episodes.

[Danikat.8537]

I don't like that after telling us they'd stop putting full armour sets in the gem store and would release them in-game instead they're now going back to it, but indirectly by releasing all the pieces separately. That seems dishonest. As long as it's not like the first year or so when we got no new armour sets in the game and several in the gem store it's not too bad, but still a step backwards.

 

I have mixed feelings on the general idea of selling separate pieces. I've always been put off buying the full sets of gem store armour because I generally only like one or two pieces and some I'm never likely to use at all, so it feels like a waste to buy the full set. Selling the pieces individually helps with that - if I only like the boots or top or whatever I can just get them and skip the rest. But the price increase seems to cancel that out. If individual pieces are 400 gems and a full set is 800 then I only need to like 2 of the pieces in the full set to get my money's worth, the other 4 are effectively free so it doesn't matter if I don't like them. And if I do like a full set I'm faced with a much higher price to get it and even more likely to decide I won't bother and will get something in-game instead.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if they do need to put prices up to cover the cost. The game is 9 years old now and we've seen no increase in either the real-money price of gems or the price of the older items in the gem store while most real life products have crept up in price in that time and I know at least one other MMO increased the price of their cash shop currency. Maybe Anet's alternative is to price each item appropriately for the time it's first released. If that's the case it might help for them to tell us that. But it still creates the problem that newer items are going to be compared to older ones and especially for people like me who don't think all the newer skins look better and make the older ones unbearable to use it's not going to be a favourable comparison.

 

My approach is going to remain the same: weigh up how much I want each item against what it costs and decide if it's worth it for me, but there's a good chance that will increasingly lead to decide it's not worth it and I'd rather not buy it.

[kharmin.7683]

Anet can't win.

 

Players: We don't want armor sets in the GS.  Please make them available in-game

Anet: Armor sets moved to in-game; outfits created for GS

Players: We hate outfits. Can't mix/match.  Want armor sets in GS instead

Anet: Introduces piecemeal armor in GS

Players: Why are armor sets in GS?  We want them available in-game!

[maddoctor.2738]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Anet can't win.

 

Players: We don't want armor sets in the GS.  Please make them available in-game

Anet: Armor sets moved to in-game; outfits created for GS

Players: We hate outfits. Can't mix/match.  Want armor sets in GS instead

Anet: Introduces piecemeal armor in GS

Players: Why are armor sets in GS?  We want them available in-game!

 

They introduced piecemeal armors at high prices, they did not introduce more armor sets on the GS. Anet can indeed "win" if they do what is being asked of them, more armor sets available as rewards in-game, or at the very least full armor sets on the GS (at their regular 800 pricing).

 

15 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Well, the old sets were only for 1 armor weight, and these are for 3 armor weights....so 3x the cost and 3x the value? 

 

From what I can see the Ice Reaver gauntlets, greaves and pauldrons use the exact same skin on all weights. That does make them far less than 3x in value

Edited May 12, 2021 by maddoctor.2738

[Vancho.8750]

7 hours ago, maddoctor.2738 said:

 

They introduced piecemeal armors at high prices, they did not introduce more armor sets on the GS. Anet can indeed "win" if they do what is being asked of them, more armor sets available as rewards in-game, or at the very least full armor sets on the GS (at their regular 800 pricing).

 

 

From what I can see the Ice Reaver gauntlets, greaves and pauldrons use the exact same skin on all weights. That does make them far less than 3x in value

Or they could have been less dumb about it and sold armors as DLC Pass, like the rest of the games are doing. You pay for the cosmetic DLC It is in game and you have to something for it like some REWARD TRACK or COLLECTION (we don't have such systems in the game sadly, who would have thought about them), and now they make content but they can add extra monetization on top of it. Raids could have had such system to get some money off them, instead of selling RAID skins in the cash shop to people that don't raid.  It is all about how you market it, but Anet is terrible at this so yeah.    

[Drakz.7051]

ANet don't roll like that, they just slap it all in the Cash Shop since that is their main source of income.