Let’s Chat – Cartel Market and You: New pack design (Underworld Alliance)

[JAOMSYH]

I agree go back to the old format. I used to spend quite a bit of money on the cartel market. Not any more. Now it just feels like I'm getting screwed and you didn't even have the courtesy to use lube or buy me a drink first.

[Alec_Fortescue]

I used to buy (check your metrics on my account xD) dozens of hypercrates almost monthly. I didn't buy a single one of the new packs. It's just not worth it, got more expensive both in CC and credits.

 

If I may throw in a suggestion:

- Scrap reputation. I am glad rep-based items are gone now as they were items with access hidden behind a pay wall!

- Add Cartel Certificate to have a chance to drop instead of a gift. There is an over-abundance of companion gifts in the game.

- Add vendors with some items from the shipment to the Cartel fleet area. Let unfortunate players at least exchange their certificate for something what they might have wanted.

- No exclusive items from cartel rep vendors!

- Return the Jawa junk

- Make packs drop two guaranteed armor pieces / boxes (as outfits are most desirable items) and two of the following: decors, mounts, toys, companions, weapons, pets. Six items in total with the gift/cert.

 

I think that there is no point ot exp boosts anymore. Leveling is fun and fast and overleveling is easy!

 

Thanks.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Alec_Fortescue

[Drudenfusz]

Regarding the monthly packs, I have to say with just two items they feel kinda empty and thus not really worth buying.

 

Regarding the gold deco packs, please don't put event stuff like the Statue of the Agonised in there, it feels like I get robbed when I get one of those dropped, since they are durring the event much cheaper.

[Avicii]

So I am curious they asked for feedback, did they make any changes before releasing this new hypercrate?

[Jaspin]

Jawa junk is now included...

[JediBoadicea]

Toby, in the event that you are still reading this thread (and I hope you are), I wanted to offer feedback after the release of the Force Alliance pack.

 

Unfortunately, it's not too positive. Rather than make one or two $99 CC purchases as I usually do on the release of a new pack, I made a $5 purchase to buy just two individual packs to test the water. I can say that I probably won't be buying any more.

 

While I appreciate the return of Jawa Junk, and absolutely feel that Jawa Junk should remain as part of packs, I feel that the return of Jawa Junk alone does not resolve the problem. I think it's important to note something that most of the people offering feedback here tried to point out, which is that Jawa Junk was a very desirable filler or secondary item. But by itself it does not make up for the reduction of primary items to one - which is still the case in the new Force Alliance pack. Filler items (Jawa Junk, Companion Gifts, etc) were always just that: filler, padding, etc, and serving as a consolation reward when the RNG worked against you with the main drops. They had/have real value, but should by no means count as a main drop.

 

I have tried to remain tonally positive in my feedback because, as I've said many times in the past, I want the Cartel Market to succeed and I want to spend money there. But I was pretty appalled by the changes to packs in 4.0, and am disappointed to see that they persist into the second pack of the shipment as well. The feeling of being cheated is increasing, and the sense of anticipation and fun I always got when a new pack was released has changed to disappointment. In the event that you might be coming back to this thread with the release of the new pack but not had a chance to read all the pages previous, I'll just link to my previous post here, in which I went into more detail about the packs.

 

Or... fingers crossed... perhaps the Force Alliance pack only featured the return of Jawa Junk as an interim measure while further revisions are planned? I hope that's the case. Although I would suggest that you speed up that revision if at all possible, so as to stem profit loss. I'm a bit mystified as to why revisions should be so difficult. While I understand there's a lot more that goes into this stuff behind the scenes than we might guess, at the end of the day it's all virtual stuff, and just requires a coding change to give us more. What's the harm in giving us more items per pack, if it keeps us buying?

 

P.S. I regret sounding more negative than positive with this post, but I also feel compelled to remark that I think the items in the Force Alliance pack are pretty unimaginative. The reskins are getting a little egregious, and it seems like most of the suggestions and requests people make for gear or decorations are being more or less ignored... which seems like a very odd marketing choice to me. (I can guarantee that a pack that offered a Covert Energy head piece that hid hoods would be an instant best seller.) As an avid Stronghold enthusiast, the Alliance packs mark the first time I've looked at all the new decos and felt very little interest in the offerings. And... no pets, or dyes, or weapons, or color crystals anymore? I guess all I can say is... maybe it would behoove you to assign an intern or even a paid employee to spend a good solid week scouring the forums and cataloguing the most requested items... or even just requests that seemed at all sane... and then actually delivering those items. My primary reason for not buying packs now is because of the drop/composition changes, but even if that weren't the case I can say that nothing in the new pack particularly struck my fancy, and that's rare.

[wolfyde]

Unfortunately, it's not too positive. Rather than make one or two $99 CC purchases as I usually do on the release of a new pack, I made a $5 purchase to buy just two individual packs to test the water. I can say that I probably won't be buying any more.

...

 

I agree with everything above basically. Adding some jawa scrap does not in any way change how unappealing the packs have become. You still only get one real item per pack. They're still less than half the value they were before.

So no, I will once again not be buying CC to acquire them.

Edited November 18, 2015 by wolfyde

[kentuch]

Please make it possible to buy cartel certificate! Why remove them? There is for the moment no way to gett them. Verry frustraring to say it the least.:mad: Edited November 18, 2015 by kentuch

[bseefeldt]

 

P.S. I regret sounding more negative than positive with this post, but I also feel compelled to remark that I think the items in the Force Alliance pack are pretty unimaginative. The reskins are getting a little egregious, and it seems like most of the suggestions and requests people make for gear or decorations are being more or less ignored... which seems like a very odd marketing choice to me. (I can guarantee that a pack that offered a Covert Energy head piece that hid hoods would be an instant best seller.) As an avid Stronghold enthusiast, the Alliance packs mark the first time I've looked at all the new decos and felt very little interest in the offerings. And... no pets, or dyes, or weapons, or color crystals anymore? I guess all I can say is... maybe it would behoove you to assign an intern or even a paid employee to spend a good solid week scouring the forums and cataloguing the most requested items... or even just requests that seemed at all sane... and then actually delivering those items. My primary reason for not buying packs now is because of the drop/composition changes, but even if that weren't the case I can say that nothing in the new pack particularly struck my fancy, and that's rare.

 

Agree 100% they wont see a dime from me until there is value added back in

[Ferretfur]

Okay, so you asked for feedback and mostly ignored it.

 

One of the biggest things was for the CC cost to be reduced given that the packs were giving a lot less. Returning Jawa Junk does not justify the cost.

 

If you bring the cost down by about 1k CC I'd start buying the bundle packs again. Last time I didn't purchase a single pack and I probably wont again until they are on an extra discount sale (and actual vale for money) or you actually sort them out.

[Ferretfur]

Please make it possible to buy cartel certificate! Why remove them? There is for the moment no way to gett them. Verry frustraring to say it the least.:mad:

 

I think you can get them on the awfully expensive to use slot machine decoration as a result. Not saying it is a good option, but it is an option...I think.

[roachfex]

 

While I appreciate the return of Jawa Junk, and absolutely feel that Jawa Junk should remain as part of packs, I feel that the return of Jawa Junk alone does not resolve the problem. I think it's important to note something that most of the people offering feedback here tried to point out, which is that Jawa Junk was a very desirable filler or secondary item. But by itself it does not make up for the reduction of primary items to one - which is still the case in the new Force Alliance pack. Filler items (Jawa Junk, Companion Gifts, etc) were always just that: filler, padding, etc, and serving as a consolation reward when the RNG worked against you with the main drops. They had/have real value, but should by no means count as a main drop.

 

 

This.

Edited November 18, 2015 by roachfex

[bseefeldt]

I think you can get them on the awfully expensive to use slot machine decoration as a result. Not saying it is a good option, but it is an option...I think.

 

No they were removed

[Fordbird]

The fact still remains that instead of 60% of the items being removed now with the addition of jawa junk we have still lost 40% of the items previously included in packs. 200 CC is still too expensive for 3 random items. If the value does not return in one way or another, either by lowering the cost to reflect the amount of items contained, or the amount of items increased to reflect the price, I will buy 0 packs/hypercrates.

[Mahrdol]

So I opened 3 of the new Hypercrates last night.

 

1 had 1 Gold item

2 Had 4 Gold items

3 Had 3 Gold Items

 

Some of the Bronze and silver items I got 6 or more of each. Not good.

Overall not enough gold items to be worth the expense. I still have to buy with credits most of the items I want.

 

Next time I will just buy with credits what I want.

[AutoCocker]

Gotta say the new design of the cartel packs is pretty terrible. After seeing them first hand I won't be buying them again.

[Trelinker]

In the past i've always worked on the concept that it'll always be better to buy the items you want off the GTN rather than playing the lucky dip of the packs and after buying one of the new 30 packs off of the GTN I confirmed that belief after getting zero gold items, only a few silvers (mostly worthless) and bronze stuff.

 

Overall just over 6M for the crate on our GTN and probably only 900k-1M back if I sold everything.

 

To me - simply increasing the drop rate for the good stuff isn't a solution - since more of them being in the market will only crash the prices anyway resulting in exactly the same situation as above.

 

So I think we just need to actually make a lot of the stuff you get from the crates be Bind to Legacy meaning the GTN market would not be affected, meaning you could increase the yield of items contained within the crates, thus giving them a lot more value (but in a different way).

 

So For example:

Leave existing drops as is - but add the following:

- Additional Armor/Weapon crates - but with the items being Bind to Legacy and to be guaranteed to not be items already in a persons collection. (also allow these items to be Auto-Shared if the complete set is added whilst the 2 day CD is still active on all items in the set).

- Random Reputation Cert (chance of it being for ANY reputation in the game not just the cartel market reps).

- Instead of Companion Gifts - Create a New Bind to Legacy Influence Certificate which simply applies a fixed amount of Influence to any companion (these could be in multiple values, but would give a lot more than current gifts).

- Additional crate of bound decorations (more than one).

 

Overall - what I'm saying is there should only be a few BOE items in each crate (since the GTN being flooded by bronze/silver) sets is the reason why they're all worthless.

 

Also - for the benefit of those who actually buy the Hypercrates with CC's rather than from the GTN - I think there should be a couple of additional Bound crates - thus giving a nice bonus to people who use real money over people who just use credits.

 

Also, I tend to think the way collection Sharing is done should be changed:

- If you buy your item from the GTN - Full Price sharing would stand

- If you get your item from a crate and full set still has the 2 Day CD, Sharing would be discounted by 50%.

- If you get your item from a bound crate and full set still has the 2 Day CD, Sharing would be free.

- Also Subs should get a CC discount for all Cartel Items and Collection sharing.

 

Doing this would add value to crates rather than simply buying items from the GTN and would do so in a way that probably benefit the GTN since by making BOE armor sets of all Bronze, Silver and Gold rarer would reduce the flood of items on the GTN.

[roachfex]

TBH I'm not sure if Bioware should / is worried about GTN price performance when it comes to CM items. IMO they would more concerned with CM sales, as that means cash-in-hand. Having Bound To Legacy items in the CM packs would only decrease their appeal further - well for me anyway.

[BobandMurphy]

I noticed the last two packs included companions, would it be possible to get a sith pure blood companion this way? I think it would be cool for other classes to recieve a companion like this besides the knight. I personally would think this was well worth the coins

[alceleniel]

I am not sure if I would buy more hypercrates or packs in the future. I had 0 gold packs in the recent hypercrate and that just feels frustrating. Not worth my money. I know it is just RNG but it nevertheless should give you a good feeling after opening 30 packs. I am usually someone who wants most of the mounts and armors so that's the reason I gave the last two alliance packs a chance but not anymore I think.

 

And why are there no pets in the packs anymore?

[Cyber-Blade]

(value): Dear Bioware. Please replace the companion gifts with types of Jawa Junk. I have no idea why they were replaced with companion gifts. Companion gifts shouldn't even be near the Packs because I usually get about 15 companion gifts a day just by playing the game. I bought one of the new packs and I got two companion gifts and nothing else. That really annoyed me.

(Satisfaction): I do not feel hardly any satisfaction opening the new packs anymore. I'm just getting companion gfts, and bronze pieces of armor, that sell for 5k on the gtn. And it's almost near impossible to get the companions in the new packs anymore. Being on the biggest server. there are only about 10 Akk Dog companions on the gtn, which are going for 10mil. I really think they need to have higher drop rates on the higher rated items(Which I feel has lowered). There is almost no enjoyment in opening these packs anymore because you get the same item every time. Mostly disappointment.

(CREATIVITY): This is a BIG ONE. Within the last couple of shipments I've noticed that all of them have a mass of RESKINS. You can not put something in a pack with a different color and call it new. Sure getting a mount in a different color you already had can be cool. but after almost every mount being released you start to get bored. This seems really lazy. I'd really like to see the art team actually care about their product. If you guys' don't care about what it looks like, then why should we? I remember the days when I opened packs and saw something completely new original and quite artistic. That really made me smile. The way I see it, is the cosmetics in a game are kind of like an art project. making something original, and amazing would make people really appreciate your art. But now, i'm seeing you guys sketching a picture, without finishing it, and saying its done.

(Decorations): I think the strong hold's system is awesome. I've enjoyed decorating my home, and making it look different than everyone else'. I think you guys should still create new, themed, decorations. But I miss the system of the original Stronghold packs. Getting a decoration in every pack would be a lot more helpful, because with us not being able to unlock decorations that we already have through collections, makes this a real grind to get copies of a decoration. and that prevents others from trying to achieve the same thing.

(Reputation): The reputation system was great. Even if your pack opening wasn't that great you at least got reputation. It was basically a bonus, for buying packs. (a thank you) and you would actually feel more incentive to buy more packs. Secondly, please don't either give us a reputation OR a certificate. the certificates are hard to achieve on their own, plus you cant even do anything with your reputation if you don't have certificates. in my opinion Packs have turned into a money grab with a slap on the face for a side dish. Packs USED to be, an encouraging way to support the game and community.

(And finally my Suggestion of what should be in a pack)

* 1 Decoration (any rarity)

* 1 random item (Emote/Mount/Pet/Companion/Companion custimization/Color crystal/Dye/Toy/Weapon(seriously, bring weapons back!))

* 1 armor lock box (any rarity)

* 1 Assortment of random jawa junk.

* 1 cartel market certificate

* 1 reputation item.

Thank you for letting us give you feed back on the pack system! I hope some of the changes I suggested will be considered.

[Ferretfur]

(And finally my Suggestion of what should be in a pack)

* 1 Decoration (any rarity)

* 1 random item (Emote/Mount/Pet/Companion/Companion custimization/Color crystal/Dye/Toy/Weapon(seriously, bring weapons back!))

* 1 armor lock box (any rarity)

* 1 Assortment of random jawa junk.

* 1 cartel market certificate or (added by me) Companion Gift

* 1 reputation item.

Thank you for letting us give you feed back on the pack system! I hope some of the changes I suggested will be considered.

 

This would indeed be value for money. I finally decided to buy a few packs the other day and was horrified to find that decorations actually counted as my rare item (in the same category as armour/mounts).

Edited November 20, 2015 by Ferretfur

[Sildanar]

Not really a fan of the packs since 4.0 dropped.

Seems like Im getting less value out of packs of any size, previously I found it great value and the variety of stuff dropping in the pack felt good.

 

Now, it feels like there is not as much dropping by a long way, and thus I have to buy more to get even a remote chance of getting what I want.

The end result of this is I find myself not really wanting to buy ANY at all.

Less value means I buy less and this I feel is a common feeling as the price in the GTN seems to have gone up quite a bit imo since 4.0 for items in packs.

 

On the specific packs ie gold, silver bronze armour or deco packs etc, these are a good idea also the 5 pack is a good idea.

My issue is with the lack of value in the revised standard packs. Basicallly less in each pack = less value ----> buying less of them for me.

 

Thanks for listening

[TikkyLightmaker]

Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?

Less likely. Getting less things for the same price is a powerful deterrent to buying.

Edited November 21, 2015 by TikkyLightmaker

[ZanyaCross]

I appreciate adding the Jawa junk back in, but I'm still not compelled to buy any of the latest set. I got burned bad on the last set, and the value still isn't that good. Yeah, one item might include up to three pieces of armor, but it also might include a complete waste of inventory space like that log.You get way less total stuff on average from a hypercrate these days.

 

If I had one suggestion? Give up on making the comps some kind of super-ultra rare exclusive find, and just include one in each hypercrate as a bonus. No praying to the RNG. You drop $40 of real money on this thing, you get the comp as a bonus (and maybe the RNG is benevolent and you get an extra to sell to those who don't want to spend real money).

 

I know you want players to buy more and more of the packs hoping to dig up a rare comp, and you think if the more rare you make it the more people will buy, but if the rate is so low then people are just going to feel ripped off and demoralized and never trust the packs again.

 

Believe me, you'll make a lot more enticing a hundred semi-hardcore customers into buying one hypercrate each, than one or two giant whales buying a dozen.

 

Never, ever cater an MMO to the whales.

Edited November 22, 2015 by ZanyaCross