13 replies to this topic

[Kitten]

There's been a lot of discussion about this lately, and Heimdallr mentioned on yesterday's uSteam that it was a real concern with them and they realize that, as things stand now, we are paying for very few advantages and many of the "disadvantages" on Valkyrie actually end up being beneficial to that playerbase. Unlimited accounts mean easy and free access to slave characters and all the storage you could ever need.

I don't want to start a flame war about the servers, which is mainly why I am posting it here. So let's keep this organized and constructive. Now that we know the GMs are actively trying to enhance the Premium benefits let's help them out with some realistic ideas.

Common Suggestions

• Some sort of discount for multiple Premium subscriptions registered under the same WarpPortal account.
• Another storage boost. We've had a few episode expansions since the last one (lots of new items in game)... And many of us have very full storage and venders.
• NPCs to convert high level drops into common supply items. (Heimdallr mentioned this in a community chat on the Yggdrasil test server, so I believe it's in the works.)

And personally, I'd like to see cards that add a chance of gaining a certain item when defeating a monster get a slight buff for the Premium server. These were nerfed to discourage bots... However we all know you can't really discourage a bot in this manner since they have all the time in the world to bot a map and they'll always have the advantage. It's the real players who were hurt... Making these items nearly pointless to use. Who wants to give up a useful accessory for one of these cards when the chance of gaining something is so low? Ecspecially when most don't even give very good items. I'd like to see these cards reevaluation and certain ones given substantial boosts. Since the Premiums servers do not have an issue with widespread botting (not to say bots don't exist) we shouldn't have to struggle with a measure that was made to combat them.

Add your ideas while this is still a fresh topic. I'll edit this post, as I'm aware I missed a lot of great suggestions from the past.

[porty]

Higher EXP and drop rates, 2- 2.5x.
Priority in ticket submission and answering times.
More exclusive server content.
NPC turn in selling rates increased.
Higher level of safety when using Enriched ori/ elu +5 instead of +4


General changes:
allow all potions to be made in one go. making 5000 condensed potions 1 at a time is mindblowingly boring. the option to create as many potions as you have ingredients is long overdue.
same goes for steel etc...
God items available in kafra shop, although item must be account bound and NOT available for use in WOE.

[Kitten]

Eh, there's a tricky balance between just right and too much. And upping the server rates is really too much... Exclusive Kafra Shop content is also a bit far fetched, since we already get a discount...

But maybe you could expand on what sort of exclusive content you want? I agree this is a good idea. Premium only quests and maybe quest rewards (headgears and such) would be a nice perk.

Edited by Kitten, 08 October 2010 - 03:26 PM.

[ZeroTigress]

Take off cooldowns for BGs and Eden Group quests.
Increase safe upgrade to +7.
Sera's proposal to remove the dungeon warp voting and give us NPCs that have the warps.
Have a clothing shop NPC in Prontera that sells the Santa suit and beach outfit.

Edited by ZeroTigress, 08 October 2010 - 09:37 PM.

[Mwrip]

It's actually going to get even worse when Renewal hits, since with the elimination of the REQs, the premium advantage that came with it (double-questing via both kills and items) poofs too.

A few ideas to make premiums more premium:

1. Exclusive content, quests in particular. The quest to open a shortcut from Magma2 to Thor2 was a nice little extra perk, the Office Space references were good for a quick laugh, and the "I can fly if I fall off" reference was great for a simultaneous laugh and facepalm from anyone who played RO's beta. However, this is the ONLY premium quest in the entire game. Why not make a bunch of these, possibly including some that award account bound KP items?

2. Give Valk full Kafra warps, and give premiums a 1z gear that grants Level 4 Warp Portal. Valk's warp reduction is simply an annoyance, while having full warps when the warp acos exist isn't much of a bonus. On the other hand, if we could all warp, THAT would be a significant travel convenience. There's no risk of this lowering demand for priests - they're RO's ONLY primary healing class, so they're needed in nearly all types of parties.

3. Extra event awards. Bonus green ales and holy eggs on the yearly quests for those, for instance. (Please give us real quests for those next year, not the garbage we had this year.) Giving premiums an extra week of a popular event would also help.

A few ideas to reduce the penalties of going premium:

1. Scrolls of endowment (in exchange for the appropriate element stone) and scrolls of soul link (free or for some trivial amount of z). Absolutely everyone on Valk has a slave account to handle these 2 functions, but premium players have to buy a second account to do this.

2. A multiplier on the lower level card drop rates. It's no secret that the overwhelming majority of commonly used cards are dropped by low level stuff that no one wants to fight, and that because of this, nearly all of these cards are bot farmed. Since Ymir is mostly bot-free, this actually works against us, and we end up paying 2-3x what Valk players do for the same cards... and most of these are the basic cards everyone is expected to have in a party. I strongly suggest kicking the rates up to compensate for this. Being bot-free should be a GOOD thing, not a penalty.

3. Reduce the spawn timers of stuff like blue plants, and maybe even allow multiple herb drops, again, because we don't have a bot supply line in our economy. Current blue pot prices on Valk? 14k. Current blue pot price on Ymir? 50k. Paying more than triple for SP doesn't feel very "premium".

4. Figure out a way to let us vend and play at the same time. RO is a game where nearly all gear is tradable, and where almost the entire economy is player-run. Vending is a huge part of the game as a result. Valk players of course simply make a Vend account, while premiums are forced to either buy an extra account, or not play and vend at the same time. Would it be possible to let us spawn a 1 slot account that automatically contains a merchant with the carry capacity of a 99 str mechanic, L10 DC, L10 OC, L10 Vend, L1 Pushcart, and no ability to actually fight?

Responding to some other ideas:
-The higher safe limit sounds great. Unlocking the +9 effects that many items have without bots providing enough gear for the gazillion attempts falls firmly under the "good freaking luck" category.
-I wouldn't completely eliminate the BG cooldown (because people waiting want to get in), but make it very, very, short. 30 seconds is more than enough.
-Free santa suits and beach towels (and maybe even an extra 1 that isn't on Valk at all) is a nice little perk, and as it of course has no impact on gameplay whatsoever, doesn't require any balancing, at all.
-Some kind of autocraft or multicraft would definitely be nice.
-Storage boost. It's just extra rows in a database table. Why not give us something huge like 2000 slots?
-The drop converter sounds great, and another way to make sure not having bots is a GOOD thing rather than a bad one.
-The overall server xp and drop rates are something we have to be very careful with. Too high and it becomes basically a p.server. I think we should give renewal a month or so to get a good feel for what an appropriate rate would be.

Edited by Mwrip, 09 October 2010 - 07:45 AM.

[Kitten]

I really love the idea of additional event awards. I know in the past certain events (like the Christmas event with the Crystals spawning on every map) were nerfed because there was concern it would be exploited by botting. This isn't speculation, it was the reason publicly given by the community managers. If that is going to be the attitude the GMs continue to take I really think Premium players should be gaining additional awards.

A vending solution that doesn't include the auction house is an excellent idea. I still say make it merchant class only, as it's a class benefit. Not everyone has access to a side account to vend on while duel clienting, and not all of us are able to or willing to duel client either.

I loved that old idea of having kill counts for obtaining cards. After a certain amount of monsters are killed (likely somewhere around 3,000) you are awarded a card. It gives a clear goal and assures you you'll get what you're after... Provided you're willing to put in the effort.

[brokenguy]

2. Give Valk full Kafra warps, and give premiums a 1z gear that grants Level 4 Warp Portal. Valk's warp reduction is simply an annoyance, while having full warps when the warp acos exist isn't much of a bonus. On the other hand, if we could all warp, THAT would be a significant travel convenience. There's no risk of this lowering demand for priests - they're RO's ONLY primary healing class, so they're needed in nearly all types of parties.

Don't think this is a good idea. It's mostly helping valk players more and it doesn't take much to teleport and go to the place you wanted to.

1. Scrolls of endowment (in exchange for the appropriate element stone) and scrolls of soul link (free or for some trivial amount of z). Absolutely everyone on Valk has a slave account to handle these 2 functions, but premium players have to buy a second account to do this.

The scroll for link is ok, but for the endow would kill the sage element convertor.

2. A multiplier on the lower level card drop rates. It's no secret that the overwhelming majority of commonly used cards are dropped by low level stuff that no one wants to fight, and that because of this, nearly all of these cards are bot farmed. Since Ymir is mostly bot-free, this actually works against us, and we end up paying 2-3x what Valk players do for the same cards... and most of these are the basic cards everyone is expected to have in a party. I strongly suggest kicking the rates up to compensate for this. Being bot-free should be a GOOD thing, not a penalty.

Getting a better drop rate for monster's card that everyone uses would be nice.

3. Reduce the spawn timers of stuff like blue plants, and maybe even allow multiple herb drops, again, because we don't have a bot supply line in our economy. Current blue pot prices on Valk? 14k. Current blue pot price on Ymir? 50k. Paying more than triple for SP doesn't feel very "premium".

I would say leave plant alone so it'll help out with new player needing to earn the extra cash to start off. Since many high level character can farm other monster that give better zeny per kill than herbs and can kill more faster as well.

4. Figure out a way to let us vend and play at the same time. RO is a game where nearly all gear is tradable, and where almost the entire economy is player-run. Vending is a huge part of the game as a result. Valk players of course simply make a Vend account, while premiums are forced to either buy an extra account, or not play and vend at the same time. Would it be possible to let us spawn a 1 slot account that automatically contains a merchant with the carry capacity of a 99 str mechanic, L10 DC, L10 OC, L10 Vend, L1 Pushcart, and no ability to actually fight?

Something like this would be nice.

Responding to some other ideas:
-The higher safe limit sounds great. Unlocking the +9 effects that many items have without bots providing enough gear for the gazillion attempts falls firmly under the "good freaking luck" category.
-I wouldn't completely eliminate the BG cooldown (because people waiting want to get in), but make it very, very, short. 30 seconds is more than enough.
-Free santa suits and beach towels (and maybe even an extra 1 that isn't on Valk at all) is a nice little perk, and as it of course has no impact on gameplay whatsoever, doesn't require any balancing, at all.
-Some kind of autocraft or multicraft would definitely be nice.
-Storage boost. It's just extra rows in a database table. Why not give us something huge like 2000 slots?
-The drop converter sounds great, and another way to make sure not having bots is a GOOD thing rather than a bad one.
-The overall server xp and drop rates are something we have to be very careful with. Too high and it becomes basically a p.server. I think we should give renewal a month or so to get a good feel for what an appropriate rate would be.

Upper safe level upgrade is a big no no, it'll destroy whatever people already created high level of. Imagine you have a piece of gear that is worth 500mil and now it drops to like 250mil because they upper the safe level.
Increase storage would be nice and don't limit to 30k limit per item in storage >.<.

[ensignfluke]

I loved that old idea of having kill counts for obtaining cards. After a certain amount of monsters are killed (likely somewhere around 3,000) you are awarded a card. It gives a clear goal and assures you you'll get what you're after... Provided you're willing to put in the effort.

I like this idea too, but not the having to kill 3000 monsters part, something significantly less would suffice. Try doing the cat footprint hat quest and see how long that takes now and imagine that in renewal where high level monsters have significantly more hp than they do now. The point is it should be something players can do themselves without having to mindlessly grind for days on end and resorting to botting to get cards they need and want.

[Kitten]

I've done the Catfoot quest many times over, actually. -Shy- I can also say the number of cards I've gotten doing it has been surprising (not that they're good card, of course). Grinding a map does work. The pay offs are certainly there. I can understand why people dislike doing it, but I've always believed those putting in the extra effort should get the rewards.

I don't believe we should have things given to us too easily. I think the point of having a kill count to earn a card would work more as a safety net rather than a short cut. Because, remember, it's still very possible (even likely) that you'd receive a card killing that amount of monsters. Statistically you should get one but we all know how that works. It would work more like a guarantee that your work won't be wasted, but not a free ride. A slight decrease in the number required wouldn't be such a big deal, but I don't think it should go too low.

I can see your reasoning with Renewal concerning monster levels but it's a bit flawed. Since high leveled monsters are so much easier to kill now due to their damage being reduced and changes in the defense formula, it won't be such a hassle to grind on mid to high level monsters anymore if all you want is a card. It's something you can do yourself. Monster levels being balanced to reflect their difficulty would only really be a problem with low level characters and let's be realistic... There are few players who do not have characters above a certain point, and in Renewal it will be easier for the casual player to level. So they would hardly be left out if this system were to be implemented.

[Allysia]

I would like just this on Premiums:

- 3X Drop rate(So the malus would vanish)
- Remove the malus at exp and let the persons chose the monsters they want.
- Implement the Summoner as permanent quest.

Anyway this is just a my personal wish.

[Heart]

i only agree to the multiple account subs part on the first post..
since we on valk can have like 3-4 acc full of aco's and can warp anywere we want so...yea thts a good idea
those safe limits are juz asking too much..
a few extra KP items wudnt hurt ...but yea God items and Kawai Headgears r too much imo


+xfer frm Ymir->valk (keep like 6months cool down so ppl dont up the economy)

[Akihiro]

Mainly I'd like something that makes it seem more like we're premium, rather than Valk just being nerfed.

[KeitobiPepsi]

The Auction house in morroc is expensive for having an item on there for more then a day. They should decrease the amount for having an item on there per day, increase allowed time with a few weeks and bid capping it at 10b. In game auction would be nice

Maybe for multiple accounts on Warp Portal, instead of paying for each account you pay for your both accounts at the same time, like binding them together. (possibly only for two at the same time if you have more then two ragnarok accounts under a warp portal, so it wont be exploited)

Great Premium Ideas
I agree on these:

I like the soul linker tickets idea, maybe make them a premium quest for soul linkers. (Like elemental converters on sage classes)

The Vending Merchant idea on a account like an extra slot kind of thing for premium accounts
(...im going to make a WOW reference, when Lich King came out, you got a lv40 Dark Knight thing for free. Maybe give us a vendable merchant while being on the same account, so you can still have access to your equips that you want to vend)

Safe Refine to +5 or +6 with enrich elumium is better so you wont exploit +7 and its still a challenge.

Increase Drop rate for renewal would be a best idea for people that still want to farm when over the monster level.

[Ghost007]

I think exp rates/drop rates at 1.5x is just fine, lvling is pretty quick on ygg, i'm lvl 90 already with only 1x exp and no battle manuals, drop rates are ok, but an npc that turns high lvl common monster drops into stuff like stems would be nice.

We need to officially know if the drop rate penalty effects cards though, and items that are like .02, cause it would suck if it became like .005(1/20,000) or something. if it can't go below .01 I don't think its that bad then.

Bonuses for paying for more then 1 account, like pay 6 months for 1 account, get a 2nd account free for 6 months.

+5 using enriched 100% sounds fair.

An in game quest to get a not very useful but cool looking headgear for premiums only.

A permanent summoner with a 48 hour cooldown perior per account, not per character. That way there is some rareness to items, but a casual player can mvp once in a while, without having "mvp time + fast kill" to mvp.

A bonus town + dungeon map, for premium only. Have it be more about fun rather then new powerful items, ultra experience.