The transmutation charge system shouldn’t exist at all but, considering it’s unlikely to go away, I think the option to purchase unlimited charges is a good compromise, and I think 2000 is a fair price.
The transmutation charge system shouldn’t exist at all but, considering it’s unlikely to go away, I think the option to purchase unlimited charges is a good compromise, and I think 2000 is a fair price.
Would I buy one, no. Would I like to see it as an ultra-rare drop in the Black Lion chests so that it could be sold to people who want one, absolutely.
Would I buy one, no. Would I like to see it as an ultra-rare drop in the Black Lion chests so that it could be sold to people who want one, absolutely.
Gods no. -_- None of this exploitative RNG chest garbage. It’s a terrible habit that cash shop games have.
Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
I love the idea, although I suspect it’s impractical for ANet to implement.
The price for 25 charges is currently 600 gems.
At minimum, a character needs 9 charges to transmute a full armor set (six armor, one back item, two weapons); some will need 12-15 charges/character. I’ll estimate 10/charges per character.
A basic account has 5 characters, require 50 charges for one account-wide makeover, i.e. 1,200 gems.
Accordingly, I suspect that an unlimited transmutation charge would have to cost closer to 6,000 gems in order for it to make up for the change in spending habits. I doubt enough of us would be willing to spend anything close to that.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I love the idea, although I suspect it’s impractical for ANet to implement.
The price for 25 charges is currently 600 gems.
At minimum, a character needs 9 charges to transmute a full armor set (six armor, one back item, two weapons); some will need 12-15 charges/character. I’ll estimate 10/charges per character.
A basic account has 5 characters, require 50 charges for one account-wide makeover, i.e. 1,200 gems.
Accordingly, I suspect that an unlimited transmutation charge would have to cost closer to 6,000 gems in order for it to make up for the change in spending habits. I doubt enough of us would be willing to spend anything close to that.
Probably true, but if the amount is too high people might not spend cash either (cause if feels like too much at once, or they dont have it etc). If it was set at 6000 I expect many would start saving gold/converting waiting for it to come around again. Where as if it was 2-3k gems its still reasonable to buy with cash (doesn’t feel like a huge amount, but still notable).
Plus if they put it on a 1-3 day sale (not saying I like these but they do work) people will panic, gem prices will skyrocket and a lot will fold/buy gems with real money because of lacking gems and the gold to gem conversion is crazy enough/not worth. If this does happen the black wing gem influx will be put to shame ha ha. Plus an added bonus because of the crazy steep temporary gem/gold exchange a lot of people will probably reversely buy gems to convert to gold. Could be a win win for anet if done right.
I love the idea, although I suspect it’s impractical for ANet to implement.
The price for 25 charges is currently 600 gems.
At minimum, a character needs 9 charges to transmute a full armor set (six armor, one back item, two weapons); some will need 12-15 charges/character. I’ll estimate 10/charges per character.
A basic account has 5 characters, require 50 charges for one account-wide makeover, i.e. 1,200 gems.
Accordingly, I suspect that an unlimited transmutation charge would have to cost closer to 6,000 gems in order for it to make up for the change in spending habits. I doubt enough of us would be willing to spend anything close to that.
I think a better question would be, what is the average amount that people spend each year in the gem store for T charges?
Since most people, from what I’ve read have a lot of T charges from map exploration and PvP, then each of those charges represents a lost sale. If the average per year per account is less then 2000 gems, then ANet could easily, imo, make a profit by selling at that price.
If the average is 2000 gems a year or thereabouts, they could still at least break even or make a profit by making it unlimited for a year or even 6 months, if the average is high.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
You can assume nothing from forum posts. This is just a bit of community and usually it’s more concious part. The only informative data would be sale reports corelated with amount of trans charges bought with gold.
You can assume nothing from forum posts. This is just a bit of community and usually it’s more concious part. The only informative data would be sale reports corelated with amount of trans charges bought with gold.
Gotta work with the tools we are given. I would LOVE to have access to that information, but the best I can do is make a poll to get a rough estimate. Doing that purely in the hopes that anet reads this and says to themselves… “Hm… maybe we should check our data and see if it would be a good idea as all these people would buy them! (noting that this is only a small fraction of community)”.
Would I buy one, no. Would I like to see it as an ultra-rare drop in the Black Lion chests so that it could be sold to people who want one, absolutely.
Gods no. -_- None of this exploitative RNG chest garbage. It’s a terrible habit that cash shop games have.
Hey OP asked!
But this is kind of on the same level, if not bigger than the Permanent Hair Stylist Contract so it wouldn’t unprecedented to add it to the chest.
Granted, I am biased and do play that part of the game as well. Good hunting!
You can assume nothing from forum posts. This is just a bit of community and usually it’s more concious part. The only informative data would be sale reports corelated with amount of trans charges bought with gold.
/shrug
Since we don’t have access to sales reports, self reporting is all we have when speculating or making suggestions. However, both on the forums and in game, people who are not brand new consistently say they have a numerous T charges. Unknown of course is how they got them and the speed at which they use them but they do report having more than a few.
It’s not really though whether or not people have many or few. It’s that people’s behavior changes on how they use an item depending on if it’s unlimited use after a set purchase or if each and every use cost in time, effort or gold/money.
If it’s unlimited after purchase, it opens up the wardrobe to unlimited, frivolous, spur of the moment changes. It there is an awareness that each use needs to be paid for somehow, then that is an inhibiting effect and many will not change looks frivolously but only for a long term change in appearance.
In a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, opening up the wardrobe is always a positive feature.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Would I buy one, no. Would I like to see it as an ultra-rare drop in the Black Lion chests so that it could be sold to people who want one, absolutely.
Gods no. -_- None of this exploitative RNG chest garbage. It’s a terrible habit that cash shop games have.
Hey OP asked!
But this is kind of on the same level, if not bigger than the Permanent Hair Stylist Contract so it wouldn’t unprecedented to add it to the chest.
Granted, I am biased and do play that part of the game as well. Good hunting!
There is an underlying sense on these threads that we all feel. It is that if it comes it will be in the BL (we just don’t want to admit it). I and many others are just crossing our fingers that doesn’t happen ha ha. Basically you hit the nail on the head. Good Job =P
In a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, opening up the wardrobe is always a positive feature.
why
It lets you try more skins with less regret. Cant tell you how many times I haven’t got/tried a new skin that looked alright just because I didn’t want to regret it the next day and have to grind for an hour to change my look back. This is under the assumption of 10 minutes per transmute and I changed my entire armor look (which new looks tend to need).
I think anet will never do this but IF they will it will be the most expensive thing on the market. Price would be at least 5k+ gems and it will be available only for 24 hours every 6 months.
In a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, opening up the wardrobe is always a positive feature.
why
Why not?
burden of proof is on you, because you used a very strong implication that it is ALWAYS a positive feature, now provide an explanation to your statement, this is how healthy ppl discuss
In a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, opening up the wardrobe is always a positive feature.
why
It lets you try more skins with less regret. Cant tell you how many times I haven’t got/tried a new skin that looked alright just because I didn’t want to regret it the next day and have to grind for an hour to change my look back. This is under the assumption of 10 minutes per transmute and I changed my entire armor look (which new looks tend to need).
from bussiness point of view this is a loss of constant income which is against logic
In a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, opening up the wardrobe is always a positive feature.
why
It lets you try more skins with less regret. Cant tell you how many times I haven’t got/tried a new skin that looked alright just because I didn’t want to regret it the next day and have to grind for an hour to change my look back. This is under the assumption of 10 minutes per transmute and I changed my entire armor look (which new looks tend to need).
Lol. Yah. I changed the gloves and chest on a char just last night. It looks good but now I’m having second thought…..To recoup those T charges used and the ones I’m thinking of using to try again, I guess I can do PvP dailies for 8 days or make a brand new char and run 4 cities or wait 56 days to get my login T charges. But whatever I do, it’s a cost in time and effort to get back what I semi-frivolously spent. And that’s where I would love to have a Unlimited T stone.
Note that I didn’t say that I would buy single use charges.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
In a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, opening up the wardrobe is always a positive feature.
why
It lets you try more skins with less regret. Cant tell you how many times I haven’t got/tried a new skin that looked alright just because I didn’t want to regret it the next day and have to grind for an hour to change my look back. This is under the assumption of 10 minutes per transmute and I changed my entire armor look (which new looks tend to need).
Lol. Yah. I changed the gloves and chest on a char just last night. It looks good but now I’m having second thought…..To recoup those T charges used and the ones I’m thinking of using to try again, I guess I can do PvP dailies for 8 days or make a brand new char and run 4 cities or wait 56 days to get my login T charges. But whatever I do, it’s a cost in time and effort to get back what I semi-frivolously spent. And that’s where I would love to have a Unlimited T stone.
Note that I didn’t say that I would buy single use charges.
That’s exactly how i feel. I love changing my outfit. And with my increasingly limited time, i don’t exactly have all the time in the world to farm gold, or charges, and I’d like to be able to change to what i want, when i want. Especially if i’ve payed real cash $ to support anet.
I feel none of this would ever be an issue if they didn’t have a way to trade gold or gems tbh, since that;s how ever other micro transaction store works, and most companies are successful on that alone.
If it’s a succesful way for them, why should they change it?
If you dont want to spend transmutation charges for looks buy outfits only, this is why they were created.
I am changing my skins every few days. because this system is fair for players it is their right to be paid fo additional service. However they are kind enough to give us a very easy way to obtain charges for free in the game. This is fair! This is good! This is how other companies should work.
If it’s a succesful way for them, why should they change it?
If you dont want to spend transmutation charges for looks buy outfits only, this is why they were created.
I am changing my skins every few days. because this system is fair for players it is their right to be paid fo additional service. However they are kind enough to give us a very easy way to obtain charges for free in the game. This is fair! This is good! This is how other companies should work.
Other companies DO work this way, without having another item gate, or additional charges. The difference being is that they offer items available normally for cash only by other companies, for in game currency converted to gems.
I am used to most other types similar to that. I have no issue supporting companies, but because of that I typically expect to use items when i want because i have paid for it. And that’s normally what happens. What would need to change, idk, but many other people have expressed the same concerns.
In a business world, those people using the ingame conversion is not making anet profits, until they spend cash. They way they have it setup now, actually starts to alienate those who spend cash, from those who have unlimited time to farm for gold and charges etc. In this scenario, buyers are forced to pay more(if time is the issue), where in a normal scenario, both sides would be equal because everyone would be paying for them.
You bought 1 skin and used it – transaction ended.
Transmutation charges and wardrobe is another service which allows you to store bought skins for additional usage. And you can do it for trans charge. This is fair because in normal situation to use the same item twice you should buy it twice.
Buyers also benefit from rising gem conversion because they get more gold for the same money spent on gems if they convert.
Lets try to keep this topic more on the side of an unlimited transmute charges. Not a debate over whether transmutation charges are good or bad. Not that I don’t enjoy debate, just wanna keep on topic somewhat. Much appreciated. =)
Also thanks for all the excellent comments so far! Lets keep it going! Even if what you think has been stated, just quote and put a +1!! If you don’t then your opinion doesn’t get to matter! Cause we look forward to hearing yours.
I think it would be of interest to know how often people buy gem store T charges and whether or not the current system inhibits their changing their char’s looks.
For me:
Buy gems?
1) never buy, always get in game
Current systems effect on changing the way my char looks
2) severely limits how often I change looks. Rarely on the spur of the moment.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
2000 gems is already $25 dollars…. and you think that isn’t expensive enough…. You are the reason pay to win games with $60 mounts exist.
Yes. Because paying a subscription every month is a much better revenue stream. Not.
I will no longer play subscription based games. However, I have no problem dropping $200-$500 on micro transactions in games such as this. Its much more rewarding than paying a sub and having everything everybody else has. :P
The thing all the whiners missed about my post was that I specifically referenced $60 mounts.
>>>>> This game doesn’t have mounts. <<<<<
I don’t think there is anything wrong with this game’s gem store. What is the most expensive single item on the shop, that is not a bundle? The infinite tools, at a flat 1000 gems. Which are, infinite use convenience items. They already push the edge of the freemium model by costing more than $10.
Yet, people in this thread are actually calling for, specifically asking for, this item to be added at a price range between $30 and $60. It just seems insane to me that they would actually want to turn GW2 into a Perfect World cash grab…
There is nothing wrong with the devs making money, there is nothing wrong having these convenience items. But if they added something like this to the store for the cost of an expansion there would be.
Because it makes for a terrible cosmetic system in a game that’s supposed to place a heavy emphasis on cosmetics. Switching armor and weapons skins should be free. What we should be paying gems for are a) new skins, and b) additional skin set slots that would allow us to save multiple sets of skins as swappable “outfits”. And no, this would not result in less money for ArenaNet, it would result in more, because people see more value in a permanent purchase. Basing an appearance-altering system around a consumable cash shop resource is counterproductive, because it actually discourages people who like to change their appearance a lot from spending. I barely touch trans charge purchases and I’ve only every bought one skin because I know I’m going to have to shell out more in order to swap them out with others. If it was unlimited, I’d buy every skin that hits the shop, even if I may never use it, just to increase my options. This is the way costuming types tend to think.
You don’t make money off of us by charging us to change clothes, you make money by increasing our clothing options. We’re fine with paying for new clothes and more wardrobe space, but tell us we have to pump quarters into the dressing room every time we want to use it, and we’ll go elsewhere, and never buy clothes to begin with. Other games with cosmetic clothing systems, like LoTRO, Champions, The Secret World, and DC Universe, figured this out just fine. GW2 needs to as well.
Because it makes for a terrible cosmetic system in a game that’s supposed to place a heavy emphasis on cosmetics. Switching armor and weapons skins should be free. What we should be paying gems for are a) new skins, and b) additional skin set slots that would allow us to save multiple sets of skins as swappable “outfits”. And no, this would not result in less money for ArenaNet, it would result in more, because people see more value in a permanent purchase. Basing an appearance-altering system around a consumable cash shop resource is counterproductive, because it actually discourages people who like to change their appearance a lot from spending. I barely touch trans charge purchases and I’ve only every bought one skin because I know I’m going to have to shell out more in order to swap them out with others. If it was unlimited, I’d buy every skin that hits the shop, even if I may never use it, just to increase my options. This is the way costuming types tend to think.
You don’t make money off of us by charging us to change clothes, you make money by increasing our clothing options. We’re fine with paying for new clothes and more wardrobe space, but tell us we have to pump quarters into the dressing room every time we want to use it, and we’ll go elsewhere, and never buy clothes to begin with. Other games with cosmetic clothing systems, like LoTRO, Champions, The Secret World, and DC Universe, figured this out just fine. GW2 needs to as well.
this is bullkitten
I’ve already posted about burst sales and constant income. You WANT transmutation to be free while this is only cosmetic service with 0 gameplay value. Additional services should be for additional money.
1 word, 3 letters…..PVP, ull never run out of stones anymore.
Technically you only get as much so long as you play and get it as a reward. While it is a good way to get transmutes, it can be quite a drag if that is your goal in mind. I still think we should have an unlimited transmutation stone for Black Lion chests though. If it were part of the selection of items in the gem store, then there is just no purpose to getting the ones in limited quantity anymore.
been playing for almost 945 days now whichj is about 30 months, I spend roughly 25 tansmutaion stones/ 1, maybe 2, months so in these 30 days I bought ~20*25 transmutation stones worth ~12000 gems… This includes the precvious ones of course. used bothe the cheap and the expensive ones at the time, loved a skin while levelling.
Trust me I ’d pay 2k instantly…. not even going to think about it. 4k would also be ok, bui most would find it way to expensive…
But most of you would probably get 5 stones for 15-17 gold I guess.. as 4k gems will require the wallet for the majority of players.
23 lvl 80’s, 9 times map, 4ele, 4ncr, 3war, 3grd, 3rgr, 2thf, 2msm, 1eng, 1 rev.
Been There, Done That & Will do it again…except maybe world completion.
An unlimited use Transmutation Stone would definitely be inside the Black Lion Chest lottery, not in the gem store.
If it was in the gem store, you’re looking at 10,000+ gems (due to the amount of revenue they would lose over the game’s lifetime for each person who buys one, especially when you consider that the people who would buy one are the same people who currently generate most of their Transmute revenue now).
What revenue will they make putting in bl chests?? All it does is make people farm keys more or buy from other players that got lucky. If it was direct gem store many people would pay direct money. Especially if it was limited time and exchange rate was crazy for gold to gem. If bl chest drop, it allows people to buy with gold, yes it would be expensive but gold is not hard to come by in this game. And gold gives anet nothing. Most players are smart enough not to play the bl with real money unless they plan on loosing. Even if this was a rare chance in it. Where if it was expensive but guaranteed in gem store a lot of people would buy it, me included.
An unlimited use Transmutation Stone would definitely be inside the Black Lion Chest lottery, not in the gem store.
If it was in the gem store, you’re looking at 10,000+ gems (due to the amount of revenue they would lose over the game’s lifetime for each person who buys one, especially when you consider that the people who would buy one are the same people who currently generate most of their Transmute revenue now).
That is the reality of it. Regrettable, though moreso that some people in this thread would actually ask for it to be RNG gamble-bait in chests. :\
I think the only market they could capture with an item like this is the people who would use it regularly but get their transmutation charges by patience and/or PvP.
Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
Perhaps but from what I’ve read most are new/unknowing players that are upset they lost it all. Plus this is just my opinion. As previously states I have no statistics and data only anet can state which is better or will make more money. I’m just voicing a side.
I’d be down with it being 2000 gems. That seems a fair price.
If I were a bean counter for ArenaNet though, I would put it in as a rare chance to drop from the BL Chests just like the Perm. Makeover Kits. Those people are against fun.
Leader of The Guernsey Milking Coalition [MiLk] Sanctum of Rall
The wardrobe is great but the transmutation charges still fall through. Especially if you are using ascended equipment to share gear between characters. It gets worse when you waste extra charges because you want to share ascended gear between two different race characters.
I would be happy if using a charge on a skin would unlock it for re-use without cost. The real issue I have is having to pay a charge again to switch back to gear already used and unlocked. This still would require thousands of charges to unlock all skins over time. But for those of us who switch between a few skins or appearances, especially for ascended, would be much more enjoyable.
All this results in is making universal appearance gear for all my characters and never changing weapon skins around. So much for appearance enjoyment especially after working on ascended equipment for the account bound benefit.
I’d like them to remove all the essence of luck rewards from daily log in and replace with transmutation charges. Essence of luck will eventually cap and getting 3 charges for an entire month’s worth feels so little.
The wardrobe is great but the transmutation charges still fall through. Especially if you are using ascended equipment to share gear between characters. It gets worse when you waste extra charges because you want to share ascended gear between two different race characters.
I would be happy if using a charge on a skin would unlock it for re-use without cost. The real issue I have is having to pay a charge again to switch back to gear already used and unlocked. This still would require thousands of charges to unlock all skins over time. But for those of us who switch between a few skins or appearances, especially for ascended, would be much more enjoyable.
All this results in is making universal appearance gear for all my characters and never changing weapon skins around. So much for appearance enjoyment especially after working on ascended equipment for the account bound benefit.
I’d like them to remove all the essence of luck rewards from daily log in and replace with transmutation charges. Essence of luck will eventually cap and getting 3 charges for an entire month’s worth feels so little.
^
I’m sharing 2 pieces of ascended armor (chest and legs) between my engie, my thief and my ranger. The problem is, they are different races and I initially put Sylvari cultural armor on them (for my thief). I had to switch to armor that all 3 can use which now means that since it’s not a full set, when wearing my 2 ascended pieces the look I made for those chars is ruined as I’m not going to spend T charges each time I switch the armors between them
Anyone who crafts one set of ascended gear for one armor weight to share is going to have to abandon the look they got for each of their chars and use one look for all of them for that armor weight, or use a lot of T charges. Unless all of those in that armor weight are of the same race, they can’t use cultural armor and share one set without 6 (to 12) T charges per switch.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
The wardrobe is great but the transmutation charges still fall through. Especially if you are using ascended equipment to share gear between characters. It gets worse when you waste extra charges because you want to share ascended gear between two different race characters.
I would be happy if using a charge on a skin would unlock it for re-use without cost. The real issue I have is having to pay a charge again to switch back to gear already used and unlocked. This still would require thousands of charges to unlock all skins over time. But for those of us who switch between a few skins or appearances, especially for ascended, would be much more enjoyable.
All this results in is making universal appearance gear for all my characters and never changing weapon skins around. So much for appearance enjoyment especially after working on ascended equipment for the account bound benefit.
I’d like them to remove all the essence of luck rewards from daily log in and replace with transmutation charges. Essence of luck will eventually cap and getting 3 charges for an entire month’s worth feels so little.
The idea of once its unlocked on an item it stays unlocked is great! If that was the case I would have no problems for the most part. Wish that was implemented. Or the unlimited charge whichever comes first. =P
