Locked behind a paywall

Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
41

I get it but I also think there’s a tendency to assume when Sirrian is on a Q&A talking about the future of the game, he’s going to disambiguate what is happening and what he’d like.

“I don’t like locking any of the game content away” is fun Uncle Sirrian who lets you stay up late and watch Ernest Goes to Jail and eat pizza for breakfast.

What I want is Game Designer Sirrian who knows he needs to manage my expectations of reality. “I don’t like locking any of the game content away, but for business reasons I’m going to have to withhold some of them. Before you start to riot, please calm down. I’m working out the policy right now and I promise the important weapons will not be locked behind a paywall. Salty is going to make a post some time this week and give you the policy. You’ll be able to get Rope Dart and all of the Mang-like weapons for in-game resources, don’t ask me to discuss how many yet, we’re still tweaking that and might change it after release anyway. Please look forward to it, and I hope your first time with Rope Dart you really stick it to your enemies!”

I don’t think there was malice intended here, but I’m going to beat the drum one more time: I think overall we’d enjoy new features more if we got the “Salty infotext” before it releases rather than after. The worst thing you can make a player do is guess the intent.

I was angry about it. I was the closest I ever came to deleting GoW. Had Salty’s post accompanied the release that wouldn’t have happened. Given that we waited years for this, I think it would’ve been perfectly fine to release Wednesday or Thursday in order to make sure player expectations had been set. I do not like the “secrecy” policy of the devs. It leads to mismanaged expectations which leads to misguided players.

6 Likes
42

The implementation of this entire fiasco is somewhat perplexing. It seems obvious that the decision to revisit old weapons is 100% due to repeated (and repeated, and repeated!) requests from the player base. However, for something that was done to appease those requests, it was rolled out in such a way that the player base is now almost universally dissatisfied.
The developers have stated on numerous occasions that maintaining the F2P aspect of GoW is sacrosanct. However, now, a list of weapons (and a rather lengthy one at that) will only be available via cash. Now, it may be, as indicated by other posters, that the publishers are pulling the strings regarding this. Although this may be the case, it still undermines any confidence the players may have in the developers. Betraying a tenant as fundamental as this is incredibly disappointing regardless of who is calling the shots.
I realize a valid argument can be made that locking away, what amounts to be cosmetic only resources that are only good for collection completion, is not truly pushing the game away from F2P status since these items are not integral to gameplay whatsoever. However, it still violates the spirit of F2P from my vantage point.
What is more egregious to me is how the developers implemented the weapons that are actually craftable. The resource cost seems incredibly excessive. These weapons are going to require a fair amount of the scarcest resource in the game - diamonds. Again, as many of these weapons are for collection purposes and will almost assuredly never be used, 300 diamonds is a very steep cost, Of course, there are weapons that are at the top of the list regarding value such as Rope Dart and Earth’s Fury. But, even so, having diamonds being the primary resource needed to craft weapons is punishing more so to newer players especially since these weapons were purchased for only Glory when they first came out.
I am hoping the developers reassess this entire facet of the game especially with all the player input/outcry. I, for one, am thankful they do listen to their player base (although not with the speed we would often like!). I encourage them to listen closely to their player base now.

4 Likes
43

They are far more important in the long run than you might realize. Kingdom power is heavily gated by fully upgraded weapons at higher levels. Some weapons have upgrades that are highly controversial, quite a lot of players avoid them like the plague.

Take Grosh’Nak, Earth’s Fury and Mang are both considered exceptionally good for high level content, and both acquire a high degree of randomness that can easily prove fatal when upgrading past +5. That currently leaves five weapons for kingdom power purposes, Bloody Axe, Knuckle Smasher, Primal Rage, Skull Cleaver and Spiked Mace. We eventually need four, then six, then eight.

Grosh’Nak already had a Boss Raid and Invasion event, so there likely won’t be any more of those weapons in the near (or even far) future. There’s a class weapon still pending, a faction weapon and possibly a Codex that has been lurking in the database like forever. Those who don’t own the non-craftable old event weapons like Skull Cleaver will eventually have to make a choice, permanently wreck their most powerful tools or stay locked into lower progression levels forever.

It’s still quite a while off but I think I can already smell a hell of shitstorm brewing up.

3 Likes
44

I wonder what Tacet the Terror thinks about this. I think he’s fine with their choice.
We better hear from @Tacet directly to know for sure.

45

I am not for it. XD

If they wanted to still make money from it, should have done something like 1k diamonds for some amount of money that occasionally pops up as an offer. People would buy it for the new weapons in soulforge and for mythics until they have them all.

I am fine with them selling weapons and such for $5, but there should be a non-money option for obtaining them.

7 Likes
46

Heck, they could just add ingots matching the weapon rarity to the recipe. There’s already an epic ingot bundle in the cash shop, and it’s the only way to get a reasonable amount on them without collecting for months.

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47

They actually could make all weapons be available both in shop and soulforge. The peeps can’t wait for another couple of months will be happy to pay, the ones don’t want to pay can choose to wait, then all happy players and Devs.

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48

There’s a Publisher also…

49

With all the money players will spend on weapons, I am sure they will be happy too.
The chance a player buy Rope Dart is way higher than buy Deepstone. Not all new players want to wait, they already wait for so long. Current arrangement actually deny these potential income.

50

I just can’t bring myself to be mad at this arrangement any further than, “I liked my non-soulforge idea.”

Some people don’t like anything being cash only. If you are one of those people: this post is over, I think your opinion is valid and I don’t want to waste our time arguing with you specifically. I like your idea too, I just don’t think it can be implemented.

Everyone else:

Some weapons are cash-only. They are objectively bad weapons that even the people arguing against cash-only agree will only ever be important if needed for kingdom stars.

The rest of the weapons will be available on an unknown cash schedule and a predictable but slow Soulforge schedule for in-game currency. This is a good change, even if you don’t like the particulars.

I don’t think diamonds are a terrible price. I think pricing a weapon at or around a legendary is fair. I never stated I thought a player should be able to get all of their missing weapons very quickly or very cheaply. I only ever fought for, “The Mang-likes and Rope Dart should be available.”

I think, under the new system, a player who saves properly and plays for a year can get all of these weapons. New players will have to decide if they want a Mythic or Rope Dart more. I think for new players that is a fine tension. I think endgamers won’t give a flip. I’m hoarding diamonds because the few mythics I lack are just bad enough I’m not sure it’s worth cashing in. So now I’ll have the option of rounding out my weapons collection if I want. And if some weapon I missed gets buffed, I won’t be out of luck forever.

Midgamers are going to hurt. They feel the need for both the troops and the weapons the hardest. I don’t think there’s a fair way to resolve this, I think everyone who has been through it agrees GoW’s midgame is tough but we’re all unsure if we did it because we have a problem or if we did it because the challenge made it feel like an accomplishment.

At this point I feel like we’re circling over discussions where players are trying to get the implementation changed by arguing “But Sirrian said he’d never do it THIS way!” Whether I feel like you’re right or not, I think you’re going to be more likely to get your way if you can make an argument based on the economy or propose a new, more fun idea for crafting weapons.

GoW was different even 1 year ago. Things devs said 3 years ago should hold some weight, but at some point we have to acknowledge if we upheld every policy that’s ever been stated for GoW we might not be happy.

3 Likes