Guild Wars 2

Being able to customize your appearance is, in my opinion, the best part about Guild Wars 2! The bummer, of course, is that it’s not really feasible to transmute the appearance of low-level items when you’re just starting a new character, and that makes me a bit sad.

Obvously, transmutation charges are a money maker, but I wonder if others, like myself, would be more likely to spend a bit more money in order to alleviate concerns whatsoever? I’m not even going to pretend like I know what a “fair price” for something like that would be, merely that I’m more likely to purchase something like that, whereas now, I’ve actually never purchased a transmutation stone.

Just sayin’!

But….But…That would make it pay to win!! Because this game is all about skins and appearances!!

Seriously now, I think that would be awesome! I change my looks on my toons often enough, but always worry about having extra charges to do it, especially for low level characters. I don’t like waiting until lvl 80 to be able to play with my looks. I would be all for something like this.

The problem is, given the way they typically price trading post items, it’d probably be cheaper to change gems to gold and buy three years worth of single-use transmutation charges than what you’d pay for one infinite-use transmutation item.

Gibson.4036:

The problem is, given the way they typically price trading post items, it’d probably be cheaper to change gems to gold and buy three years worth of single-use transmutation charges than what you’d pay for one infinite-use transmutation item.

Yeah infinite sounds problematic. What if they did something like a three month wardrobe pass that allows to change at will for the next three months.

I’d be fine with transmutation working the same as the way dyes do.

An infinite use transmutation item would need to cost a LOT to offset the lost sales from the glamour “whales” that currently buy charges.

By “a LOT”, I’m hinting at $100+.

There is absolutely no way they could offer it for less than that without losing significant revenue.

Transmutation charges are easy enough to obtain. Make a new character, sent it for a trip to map the towns – BAM, you’ve enough transmutation charges to remake your entire outfit.

mtpelion.4562:

An infinite use transmutation item would need to cost a LOT to offset the lost sales from the glamour “whales” that currently buy charges.

By “a LOT”, I’m hinting at $100+.

There is absolutely no way they could offer it for less than that without losing significant revenue.

I have to wonder how many of these “glamour whales” actually exist and whether they are a significant impact on profit.

’Specially considering the ways to get ahold of charges outside of paying a dime.

6 charges are guaranteed because of the cities.
Then you have potentially 23 more just from mapping all the zones since you likely have a 95-99% of getting a charge instead of a BLK.

This is per character.

That is not counting doing PvP reward tracks.

So 29 charges? Let’s even round that up to 30 and say that your character can change clothes an entire 5 times in it’s lifetime @ that rate. And that’s not counting weapon skins or backpacks. As a limited resource, the majority of people will tend to conserve them.

Now imagine what infinite-transmutation charges means… This makes practical changing your characters appearance just because you feel like it, as often as you feel like it. You don’t have to save for those 5 special events in your character lifetime…. you can wear a tophat because it’s Thursday, or because it matches your Wintersday weaponry better than the mask you wanted for Halloween. You can change your armor skins, decide you didn’t really like it, and change back… just because you felt like it.

So yes! Bring on the unlimited transmutations! For Freedom! For Fun! For Antler Wednesday!

I have way over 1000 skins and wont use most of them. Why? Transmutation charges are a pain to farm and cost a lot on the gemshop. So I only use the most expensive/exclusive stuff I have because its not worth to waste charges on anything else.
Would buy an infinite transmutation charge item.

Malediktus.9250:

I have way over 1000 skins and wont use most of them. Why? Transmutation charges are a pain to farm and cost a lot on the gemshop. So I only use the most expensive/exclusive stuff I have because its not worth to waste charges on anything else.
Would buy an infinite transmutation charge item.

$15 gets you 50 charges. Costs a lot? That’s 8 full 6 piece armor sets.

The charges are so easy to get in game. I don’t know exactly where, but I have 4 level 80s all transmuted(some pieces multiple times) and still have about 10-12 charges left. My highest map completion is on my warrior at 55%, so I don’t think I got charges from that.
Even if I didn’t get enough from playing, they are super cheap to buy from the cash shop. They are actually one of the items that I think are priced nicely.

A temporary pass for infinite transmutations seems quite reasonable, even though i would go with 2 weeks instead 3 months.
Another solution might be to be able to charge skins, so when you use 5 or 10 transmutation charges on a single skin, it will be free to use from then on.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

6 charges are guaranteed because of the cities.
Then you have potentially 23 more just from mapping all the zones since you likely have a 95-99% of getting a charge instead of a BLK.

This is per character.

That is not counting doing PvP reward tracks.

4 charges are guaranteed.

I don’t believe that Black Citadel and Lion arch is a “free” transmutation stone.

I am for a item in the store for unlimited transmutations, not because I am against ArenaNet making money far far from it, I just feel in this day and age a game should have more to sell for itself by micro transactions than appearance changes.

mtpelion.4562:

An infinite use transmutation item would need to cost a LOT to offset the lost sales from the glamour “whales” that currently buy charges.

By “a LOT”, I’m hinting at $100+.

There is absolutely no way they could offer it for less than that without losing significant revenue.

If they give us a way to do that at least for characters under 79. I would raise their gems sales for alts.

I’d be okay with infinite transmutations myself, but they need to be either a bit costly compared to consumable charges or be a timed-offer thing.

runeblade.7514:

Ravion Hawk.4736:

6 charges are guaranteed because of the cities.
Then you have potentially 23 more just from mapping all the zones since you likely have a 95-99% of getting a charge instead of a BLK.

This is per character.

That is not counting doing PvP reward tracks.

4 charges are guaranteed.

I don’t believe that Black Citadel and Lion arch is a “free” transmutation stone.

Sure they are. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Map_completion#Cities

are you kidding me?

infinite????

anet needs this to make money

Siesta.3867:

are you kidding me?

infinite????

anet needs this to make money

I have no intensive to buy either BLK or Transmutations, I’ve brought many other things off the store, Character Slots, Extra Bags, Bank Tabs, Costumes, Mounts & Gold, for the exception of gold what do they all have in common? there all “permanent” items, I am * MUCH * more likely to buy another character slot to get the free ones which comes with a lot of other benefits over and above just buying Transmutations, not that I need to right now I have 65~ of the things at the moment, but I’m am extremely careful how and what I use them on.

I’d even buy those infinity harvester things too but I’m not a fan of the current style of these things, so I’m hoping that different better styles come out that more appeal to me.

As I said before I do not begrudge them in anyway to make money I want them to make money bucket loads of it, the more they have (in theory) the better the game can become.

Point though is we have infinite other items why not Transmutations ? maybe we could have one type for weapons only and another for armor only, cost I would imagine would be like the harvester type tools, 1000 Gems and I’m all good with that.

Siesta.3867:

are you kidding me?

infinite????

anet needs this to make money

Slow down there… whether Anet even makes a solid profit off of trans charges is just speculation and hearsay. That is, unless you personally are spending hundreds of dollars every month on charges.

If they did create some sort of infinite transmutation charge, it would be an obscenely rare black lion chest item like the merchant/bank/tp/hairstyle/etc are.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

If they did create some sort of infinite transmutation charge, it would be an obscenely rare black lion chest item like the merchant/bank/tp/hairstyle/etc are.

Yeah no way I’d wait for that I’d buy it and starve for week with no food instead

Overflowing transmutation chalice: Double click to obtain (6-10ish) transmutation charges. Refills at daily reset.

Loved using the lower tranny stones to give sub 80 alts different styles once in a while and alternate armour sets for others just for looks. Losing the town clothes slot at the same time made me sad, it also killed dancing with weapons out
Was really hoping the transmutations would affect a characters inventory slot not the item itself before release.

I was a bit worried about the transmutation charges as well (recently came back). Only had like 10 remaining.

Few days ago I was bored and decided to go through my mule char’s inventory one by one and actually realised I had a few stacks of the old transmutation stones (yellow). Now I have 100+ charges. Not so worried now :P

No idea how I missed them the first time I checked it lol

Aro.8275:

Overflowing transmutation chalice: Double click to obtain (6-10ish) transmutation charges. Refills at daily reset.

Loved using the lower tranny stones to give sub 80 alts different styles once in a while and alternate armour sets for others just for looks. Losing the town clothes slot at the same time made me sad, it also killed dancing with weapons out
Was really hoping the transmutations would affect a characters inventory slot not the item itself before release.

Yes the above would also be acceptable also.

This is not like Guild Wars 1, you brought your armor(s) and they where all you had for ‘fashion’, town clothes came much later on if I remember it correctly sometime around 3rd-4th year, maybe a little later, and they was affordable if you wanted a set you just farmed your materials/gold (much like you do today) and brought it, today though well… you would not keep armor around that wasn’t in use because its to darn expensive to just make level 80 gear (exotic/ascended), you’d only do it once per-character and even then you’d question if it was really really necessary for a 2nd set.

Funny .. i just thought about endless transmutation last night when i bought
myself an endless hairstyling-kit

.. but .. now of course i first have to grind again a lot of money

aerial.7021:

Aro.8275:

Overflowing transmutation chalice: Double click to obtain (6-10ish) transmutation charges. Refills at daily reset.

Loved using the lower tranny stones to give sub 80 alts different styles once in a while and alternate armour sets for others just for looks. Losing the town clothes slot at the same time made me sad, it also killed dancing with weapons out
Was really hoping the transmutations would affect a characters inventory slot not the item itself before release.

Yes the above would also be acceptable also.

This is not like Guild Wars 1, you brought your armor(s) and they where all you had for ‘fashion’, town clothes came much later on if I remember it correctly sometime around 3rd-4th year, maybe a little later, and they was affordable if you wanted a set you just farmed your materials/gold (much like you do today) and brought it, today though well… you would not keep armor around that wasn’t in use because its to darn expensive to just make level 80 gear (exotic/ascended), you’d only do it once per-character and even then you’d question if it was really really necessary for a 2nd set.

If you are referring to Costumes in GW1, they were a cash-only purchase. No amount of farming would garner you one.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

If they did create some sort of infinite transmutation charge, it would be an obscenely rare black lion chest item like the merchant/bank/tp/hairstyle/etc are.

I was thinking exactly the same.

People are complaining that it would reduce the amount of income Anet has considering the amount of people who purchase transmutation stones using cash. There are other gem-store items/gem-store only items that have their own infinite versions, but they are very rare drops from black lion chests (meaning that in some sense Anet is still earning money from these as people buy BL keys aiming for such an expensive/rare items).

So make it a very rare black lion chest item, e.g. “Permanent Fashion Stylist Contract”.

If they introduce this, maybe they should also introduce a permanent make-over contract too?

I think they should put it back the way it was. I would give up the wardrobe if it meant i could remove upgrades from karma armor w/o paying gems.

No transmutation charges at all. When armor pieces have been collected to wardrope, they can be used as skins arbitrarily.

I now don’t use transmutation charges at all. I have inventory full of armor pieces which I change arbitrarily. Most of them are fine and masterwork. I have one exotic PTV armor with original skin.

What I would like to have: (1) A possibility to change the armor piece to exotic or ascended, (2) increase the level of the armor – not all armor pieces are available as lvl80, (3) change colors of the individual armor pieces – e.g., each chest piece in my inventory would have its own color set.

They’ll make a Gem-Fed Transmut-o-matic.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

Hyper Cutter.9376:

If they did create some sort of infinite transmutation charge, it would be an obscenely rare black lion chest item like the merchant/bank/tp/hairstyle/etc are.

I was thinking exactly the same.

People are complaining that it would reduce the amount of income Anet has considering the amount of people who purchase transmutation stones using cash. There are other gem-store items/gem-store only items that have their own infinite versions, but they are very rare drops from black lion chests (meaning that in some sense Anet is still earning money from these as people buy BL keys aiming for such an expensive/rare items).

So make it a very rare black lion chest item, e.g. “Permanent Fashion Stylist Contract”.

If they introduce this, maybe they should also introduce a permanent make-over contract too?

Then they might as well just sell it right in the gem shop for ~1500g worth of gems because that’s how much those of us without Powerball Lottery levels of luck would have to shell out for one.

What if they made the infinite charge only usable on lv 1-75 armor pieces
than you can get your alts to look different as you level them and the price wouldn’t have to be ridiculous

Substance E.4852:

Then they might as well just sell it right in the gem shop for ~1500g worth of gems because that’s how much those of us without Powerball Lottery levels of luck would have to shell out for one.

I’d take that deal in a heartbeat. Actually if you think about it the hair contract goes for about 2-3k so a permanent transmutation stone would probably be upwards of 5k. Anyway, I’d rather have a permanent transmutation stone than a legendary any day.

• Anet KNOWS many player consider the ability to alter your looks endlessly is the “best part of the game” (they are counting on it).
• Anet KNOWS many players are full on ADDICTED to this mode of “play”.
• Anet SELLS (and provides as minimal rewards) the ability to “play” in this manner.

Do you seriously think a drug dealer would ever consider a “life time supply” plan for a known junkie? Grow up.

Now some sort of discount on applications to lower leveled equipment (for pre-transmutation charge parity) is not an unreasonable request.

I guess the idea might fly if the item were uber-rare much like the other perma kits but that would simply be introducing another lottery prize item into the game.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Do you seriously think a drug dealer would ever consider a “life time supply” plan for a known junkie? Grow up.

Some MMOs however also sold lifetime subscriptions .. in the end its also a gamble
where you are not sure who gets more out of it.

Also in case of MMOs they get the money at once and have no real further costs in the
future. Also people would maybe not really buy as much charges as they consume
with an endless kit.

I know i will play around much more now with my hairstyles and colors now than i
normally would have done.

I support infinite transmutations fully, but I understand transmutation charges must be a large source of income for Anet.
Why not offer infinite transmutes for characters under level 80? Once you are 80 and have your gear, transmutation is much less of a problem than when you were getting new gear every couple hours.

By the way, Brother Grimm, I love your signature! Roll the Bones is one of my Favorite Rush songs.

Beldin.5498:

Brother Grimm.5176:

Do you seriously think a drug dealer would ever consider a “life time supply” plan for a known junkie? Grow up.

Some MMOs however also sold lifetime subscriptions .. in the end its also a gamble
where you are not sure who gets more out of it.

Also in case of MMOs they get the money at once and have no real further costs in the
future. Also people would maybe not really buy as much charges as they consume
with an endless kit.

I know i will play around much more now with my hairstyles and colors now than i
normally would have done.

Do the MMOs you mention have a subscription? Keep in mind that Anet MUST sell gem items (again, MUST) to keep game servers on so we can have something to play…..it’s not just simple greed (as I tended to imply in my original post).

Comparing GW2 to “other MMOs” that have a different economic model to support the game is shortsighted and unfair. Nothing wrong with not liking GW2’s economic model, but this leads back the old cliche, “Maybe GW2 is not the game for you….”.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Beldin.5498:

Brother Grimm.5176:

Do you seriously think a drug dealer would ever consider a “life time supply” plan for a known junkie? Grow up.

Some MMOs however also sold lifetime subscriptions .. in the end its also a gamble
where you are not sure who gets more out of it.

Also in case of MMOs they get the money at once and have no real further costs in the
future. Also people would maybe not really buy as much charges as they consume
with an endless kit.

I know i will play around much more now with my hairstyles and colors now than i
normally would have done.

Do the MMOs you mention have a subscription? Keep in mind that Anet MUST sell gem items (again, MUST) to keep game servers on so we can have something to play…..it’s not just simple greed (as I tended to imply in my original post).

Yeah .. of course they had a subscription .. and even have them as alternative to
F2P now .. Lotro for example, and Champions Online where i have a lifetime Abo.

The thing is .. with an endless item you can maybe make 50 bucks now directly
instead of maybe more over long years .. or maybe that player would leave the
game and hasn’t even spent 10 bucks ..

Also .. if transmutation charges are such a big deal, i even wonder more why they
only brought us costumes in the last half year and no full armor sets, that also
bring people to use more transmutation charges.

nopoet.2960:

Gibson.4036:

The problem is, given the way they typically price trading post items, it’d probably be cheaper to change gems to gold and buy three years worth of single-use transmutation charges than what you’d pay for one infinite-use transmutation item.

Yeah infinite sounds problematic. What if they did something like a three month wardrobe pass that allows to change at will for the next three months.

I like your idea sir

Labjax.2465:

mtpelion.4562:

An infinite use transmutation item would need to cost a LOT to offset the lost sales from the glamour “whales” that currently buy charges.

By “a LOT”, I’m hinting at $100+.

There is absolutely no way they could offer it for less than that without losing significant revenue.

I have to wonder how many of these “glamour whales” actually exist and whether they are a significant impact on profit.

’Specially considering the ways to get ahold of charges outside of paying a dime.

Funny thing is, charges are reasonably priced. It’s (if I recall correctly) 5 for 150 gems? That’s a couple of bucks. More than enough worth to throw money at not-grinding cities or horking up 15-20 gold.

I like the idea of an infinite transmute charge though. Would it be worth 3000 gems? That’s like paying for 100 charges. Question is, would that be better profit than letting people buy them a little at a time, or would it spur other sales on armor sets? Could they focus on new armor sets instead of outfits? I know some people would dig it to have their mix-and-match potential back.

Infinite transmutations for 1-79, I agree.

Funny that it’s 5 for 150 gems while a full armor consists of 6 pieces. I see what they did there.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Do you seriously think a drug dealer would ever consider a “life time supply” plan for a known junkie? Grow up.

You lost me at implying that Anet is akin to a drug dealer.

i have over 100 transmutation charges and no need for them

i doubt they’re a money maker

I could see something like this added to the Black Lion Chest Loot table, but never sold outright, unfortunately. They really did do a disservice to the player base by removing the “cheap and easy” 1-79 transmute charges – but I suppose most people who care will just wear an outfit leveling up.

azurrei.5691:

I suppose most people who care will just wear an outfit leveling up.

That’s what I do!

Still, as a final, level 80 look, I’d like to be able to have more mix and match options.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

6 charges are guaranteed because of the cities.
Then you have potentially 23 more just from mapping all the zones since you likely have a 95-99% of getting a charge instead of a BLK.

This is per character.

That is not counting doing PvP reward tracks.

There’s also the potential to find charges in BLC’s.