I believe I understand the reasons behind the binding update, but it does not mean that most of us like it. Many will adapt to it but many will not. The changes will make trying different builds ridiculous now, so when there are more class changes people will not be able to make their characters different or able to adapt to the changes. Over the last year I have tried every honor set (glorious, precious, etc.) on my cleric as well as reinforced, endowed, etc. And a combination of the different ones. All with gems and all refined. Each change to the cleric made me have to do adjustments to my gear and jewelry. I worked my ass off to get all the different gear, spent a lot of zulie to do it and IM. I have a set that I play with now for wars and it seems to be working, more or less, but knowing Rose there will be another change to the cleric class sometime in the next few months and I will be stuck with what I have chosen. To me that takes away from the fun of the game and the versatility. In addition, I have 2 mages on my main account that had to try all of the gear each time the mage was changed, but luckily I had the different sets so I could let them try them until I found a good set. Now they will be stuck with whatever the have on as well. But I am sure that over the next months the mage will be changed as well. If the gear could at least be account bound instead of character bound it would help make the changes more palatable to the community. The items would not be able to be sold, etc. But to stay account bound they will still be out of the system as desired, players will still have to get new gear as needed and players would be able to still try out different sets when there are changes.
As to the upcoming IM update I still feel very strongly about the IM costumes being bound. The devs finally figured out how we could wear costumes, which we all love. After years of being stuck in a freakin pink dimple set, then the next sets, it was so much fun to have costumes. But now the fun is being taken away. We will not be able to wear the gear as costumes since most of that will be account or char bound, but we should at least be able to wear IM costumes that we spend real money on. The costumes from Lucky Spin that have leveling stats could easily be account bound until the higher stats are done, then the costumes could be open for trade or vending. Many people can't afford IM or have no way to buy it. If the costumes are account or character bound those people will never be able to get them. If they are only bound once equipped then people will be able to still vend them, which is good. But it will still really limit the fun of having costumes. Our clan often decide to wear all the same costume, or wear certain costumes for clan pictures or event. Or when making videos. Or we lend each other costumes for events, videos, etc. Now that will be really limited. Even if we can use unbind coupons you will need 5 for the ninja set, etc. That is a lot and it will really limit the fun of costumes.
And I agree that for people that come back after being away the impact will be horrible. This game has been so long lasting due to the fact that people, for some reason, do not give it up easily. Recently we had 3 clannies come back after a long break (4 years for some). The class changes are one thing they have to adjust to but to find out that all of your gear is now account bound and probably on the wrong accounts and now you have to figure out what gear you now need but it is on a different character. It is very disheartening and it is tough to convince them to come back.
I am not sure what the answer is, and I do kind of understand the reasoning behind it, but I think there might be a better way to do all of this without such a huge impact. Updating the game to make it more like other games is all well and good. And there are a number of things that really needed improvement to make the game more exciting and fun for new players. But I am really concerned that the flavor of Rose is going away and that is what kept players playing for so many years. Finally giving us clan skills, clan houses, etc. Adding pets to the game that will help you pick up items, etc or to train would be fun. Adjusting mobs so there are more areas to level. Fixing up the storage system like you did. Adding more quests to help new players. Balancing classes more like you did. Things like that go along way to improving the game and making it more fun for new players. But making the old, loyal players suffer is not the way to go in my book. And making Rose like all the other games out that will not make Rose special. Rose is/was special already.
Edited by Bendersmom, 10 August 2014 - 04:21 AM.
