Spreading Yourself Too Thin (Why New Stuff Isn't Working)

Today's channel 6 mess, er, chat, was on new stuff that isn't working. So it gets removed (or will get removed).

As well, stuff not getting implemented because lack of enthusiasm.

And stuff never being used at all after being implemented.

The big question: Why?

I can only speak for myself as someone who tries most everything (short of PK) as an all-rounder, but I have a few thoughts on these issues.

They all tend to boil down to one issue though: Spreading ourselves too thin.

What I mean by that is this: It takes time to work up enough cash to do something that's a gc-loss. Ranging being a good example. Tailoring, manufacturing... anything where the gc gained is less than the gc put into it.

I use alchemy and potioning mostly as a means of earning gc, which I can then use on things that are a gc-loss. 34 ranging levels, a fully leveled mule, dropping bricks and degrading armor in invasions, working up tailoring levels, tossing away leather and thread in a manu school, working up engineering levels is pretty much a loss, summoning is a loss, anytime I use my mule I'm taking a hit...


You get the point. There's a ton of gc-loss things I already do. The more gc-loss things done, the more gc I need to stop and make. That gets to be a LOT of time as it is just with the things I do. Others may have different things they do but are most likely in the same boat, their gc is already tied up in a bunch of gc-loss things.


This is pretty much the situation:
* We've got tons of things in-game that cost a lot of gc.
* We've got only a handful of things that are actually profitable (most that aren't a loss hit around break-even) to pay for those things that cost gc.
* We get various new things added that are all in some way gc sinks.

Quite frankly, our gc is already spread too thin among other things to allow for any meaningful use of anything new that is going to be just added cost in the end.

And that added cost seems to be multiplying, like everything new has to cost more than the last thing that was added. Yet the ability to make gc remains about the same. There's just no possible way that anything brought in that's more costly "than the last thing" is going to survive. We just can't afford it.

I don't know if there's a few people stashing gc whose storages are being used as a way to determine whether something new can be afforded, but if it is, they're gc hoarders, they're not actually playing the game.

People like me who actually are interested in playing the game and trying different things rarely have such gc on hand because we've already spent it on the plethora of gc-killers already in the game.

Personally I'd like to start saving up for some Nexus as I'm getting to the point where I need them, and don't want to waste my rare OA pickpoints on them. Especially now when the nexus removal stone cost has skyrocketed. I got plans to buy 10 nexus, not to mention I need a removal stone because I got one too many on one of them. But the only way I'll afford this is to give up more than a few of my gc-sinks for quite a while. Ranging, muling, manufacturing... all gone while I work on those (not planning to get them all at once, but ~550kgc each takes a lot of time to earn... as well they should, not complaining about nexus costs).

But that's just another place I already need to put my gc on top of what I'm already doing. I'm one level away from the rec level for the lowest summoning stone, and I still need 3 animal nexus if I'm going to start those. I've got level 64 manu but only 4 artificial nexus so a lot of the stuff I could try to make, I can't. These are necessities for future game play, not just tossing away gc.


So where does that leave all the new stuff that's being brought in... normally more costly than anything else and less of a necessity to play the game? Of course it's going to not be used, as there's other gc-sinks already taking all the spare gc we/I got.

If everything to get added just increases our costs (and at a much higher rate than anything already adding to our costs), there's gotta be something added to balance it out. At this point we're just expected to want to spend a ton of gc on something that will give us what is essentially negative value in return, and with the number of gc-sinks already in the game, that's just not going to happen. Nothing, no matter how good of an idea it seems, can survive at this point if it's horridly overpriced. (And I don't mean "expensive", I mean horribly overpriced.)




What's Gone Right?

There have been a few new things implemented that have gone well though. Or at least, getting some use out of them.

* Mules - I was among those who originally thought these would just cost too much to be of any use. Now I'm a fully-leveled mule (the cost being aided by being able to make my own food), and I regularly use the mule for hauling things like leather, thread, and wine to storage. As well, it comes in handy carrying bolts to the new ranging arena.

Yes, I'm losing money each time I mule, but the time saved makes up for it in a good enough value to make it worthwhile to lose gc over.

* Ranging Arena - A cost to get in, and the average experience per arrow seems to be a bit less than regular ranging, but considering the time it takes to level this skill, the arena was warmly received by those who've attached themselves to this skill. Even with the 3.5kgc entrance fee. Adds more gc-pain to the already gc-painful skill, but still deemed a value for the money considering the time saved.


Just examples. These are two things that have been added that, though expensive, were deemed worthwhile by some. They hit that sweet spot between not being too cheap so everyone will do it, but not so expensive that there's not a single person in the game willing to waste the gc on (i.e. the att/def reduction pots).



All in all, this is not a complaint, nor a request to make everything cheaper (or worse, go the route of that god-forsaken idea to have a crap server that makes all skills useless).

It's just an observation that the balance in our Eternal lives financially is already delicate, and too much stuff is getting added that's too expensive while ways to make the gc to afford these things stays the same. There's just no way to implement new expensive things at this point, when those things add to the other expensives, not replace others. Expensive new things are in all likelyhood going to fail no matter what unless other things are added that balance out their cost. We simply can't afford more gc sinks.

Yes, there's a need to make new stuff cost more so it doesn't completely change gameplay. I can see that in the same way I saw the need to not let "gold member" status give benefits that would ruin gameplay for others.

However, I think we've reached our point where our gc is just simply already spread too thin over the many gc sinks already in the game, and the expense level has already been passed. Make things expensive, just not as expensive as things of late have been.