Item-shop Suggestion

[Cago30]

I have a follow up suggestion to what Means posted in another thread.

I propose being able to buy "Quest-Completion" Item store items. An example would be the Pen Xan Civilization Quest. Charge $6 for example if you assume it takes a reaaallyy slow person 2-3 weeks to complete it. You won't get XP, but you would get quest completion and the rewards from it. This would be limited to everything but the XAN expansion pack.

As a father, I also have limited time. My show-stoppers are that usually I have to drop offline to attend to RL or I can only play when the family is asleep. (And at my age I don't usually last that long either!!!)

Thanks for listening,
Cago30

Snippet from another thread:

Many of us who has been around since 2001 have a different life situation today than we had 10 years ago. As an example I have a 125 % job, a house to maintain, and multiple kids that I did not have back in 2001. Will the Ingame Shop in the future be extended to contain EVERY item and levels in this game?

While the shop will likely include the ability to buy levels for veteran characters who have previously attained those levels we will not be adding "achievement" type loot items to the store. It is possible that lesser versions of these items will be available at some point...but the people who work to get those special pieces of endgame gear are not going to be matched by someone who gave us ten dollars. For example the Burden will never be in the in-game store while it is up to me. As a father of two with a busy lifestyle I understand your position and I miss the days where I could also invest 40+ hours a week into my hobby. When I play now I don't expect to have ALL the same gear as the most hardcore players...but I still manage to enjoy playing with my characters as they are (no I don't spawn anything I want before anyone asks.)
__________________
Colin Cragg
This "Means" Cake
Game Director/Producer

Filmed in 70's "tall-vision"

[Belligerence]

Big no from me.
How many of these types of instances (Alappaa) already don't run outside of org teams/farm teams? If you add the ability to 'complete' these, even without xp/credit rewards, how often do you expect to see people doing them?
It's bad enough having to sit on LFT for weeks as it is, or harrass friends, family, org mates, and pets to help you. This would just put another barrier between the casual player who doesn't have the money to buy it, and the hardcore/rich gamer who can pay or dual log 95% of the encounters.

[Cago30]

I hear ya. I'd like the option nevertheless. Make it $30 or something high then. I just can't count the number of times lately I've had to drop from a team event to do something for my family.

[Leetlover]

Loot should be produced via exitsting gameplay imo, instead of through itemshop.

Old AO doesn't offer the most intriquing gameplay, but very sophisticated class-repetoir and charracter-customation.

Pentulimate, mk6's (ofab was intended to shorten gaps between players like you and veteran/experienced/frequent players but failed to meet the targetgroup...miserably!), lots of the old nanorepetoir and items for twinking should be aquired through the levelingtrends of today, which it is not.

Bump for shortening quests and making them doable at minimum level by normal human beings ;p

[Cago30]

I'll take that bump! Good suggestion also. I can do the quests if I just had the time. Unfortunately, most days I only have enough time to do dailies. Even the weekends aren't exactly good for me anymore to stay on AO for hours at a time.

[MajorOutage]

Short answer: NO.

Long answer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[Belligerence]

I'll take that bump! Good suggestion also. I can do the quests if I just had the time. Unfortunately, most days I only have enough time to do dailies. Even the weekends aren't exactly good for me anymore to stay on AO for hours at a time.

What stops you from doing them now, though? I seem to recall the cast majority of the steps for the longer quest lines (Pen Xan, Ado Xan, etc) having no timer. Yes, some have timers on them, but if you run out of time, you can run back to the NPC and get a new timer. What stops you from doing, say, one step of the quest a day? Yes, it might take a long time, but IMO the rewards offered are worth the effort.

Why should someone who pays real money, even if it is 30$, be able to skip the whole quest? I haven't looked into it myself, but I've heard talk of being able to buy levels, up to 199. So, if this is true, we can pay to get to 199, pay to complete the Scheol quests, the Ado Xan quest, the Pen Xan quest (just to name the firsts quests that came to mind). What's next? Will we be able to pay for an item you use on the Mitaar boss that insta-kills him, so we can get our 'phatz' easier?

I'm seeing some content and items added that remove the early game experience, which is alot of fun, at least for me. I just did a Nasc heck team with my engi, 2 random keepers, another engi, and an enf. Guess what? The enf knew what Mongo was! I've teamed people in inf who don't know what their toolset consists of.

And don't say that this isn't connected to the OP, because it is. If we can pay to go through the game, you have people who never did DR solo, which requires you to use your toolset. You have people who paid to skip all the quests which are, admittedly, challenging for the levels intended, but when completed give you a better understanding of your toolset. Giving the option to pay to complete quests is a big step in the wrong direction.

[Cago30]

With the exception of MajorOutage (no offense intended, sir), good constructive feedback by all. Looks like this suggestion would not be good for the game and you all have convinced me.

Thanks for listening all!
Cago30

[Cogline]

How about a compromise of a store item that stops the mission timer when you log out? Then us casual players can take small steps here and there without breaking the game for everyone?

[Belligerence]

How about a compromise of a store item that stops the mission timer when you log out? Then us casual players can take small steps here and there without breaking the game for everyone?

I'm not against this idea, but I really don't see a need for it. The steps with a timer (not the ones with a 30 day timer, there's plenty of time to do those, even as a casual gamer) can be re gotten if the timer runs out by returning to the NPC who hands out the step in question.

I think a compromise might be possible, but I'm not sure how far it could go without dividing the playerbase even more than it is already. Possibly the ability to buy an item used to automatically complete one step of a quest might be a more plausible option. But if it was done like that, how would you prevent someone from buying, say, 50 of 'em and using them to finish Ado Xan quest in a couple minutes?

I'm not sure if there's a way to find a compromise that allows the more busy players (parents/students/people with demanding jobs/etc) to complete the more demanding quests without handing a free 'quest completed' item to the more rich gamers.

If a suitably toned down option could be found, I wouldn't be against this idea so strongly.

[Towerblock]

If all you had to do was buy something from a shop to complete any random quest you desired, then there would be no point to playing the game in the first place.

Why bother coding quests to begin with? It sets a precedence.

[Redbar]

I'm partial to making the "Peacekeeper Constad" line of nanos easier to acquire, as those nanos are quite important for many profs and the quest can be a pain to get done (due to needing lots of help and taking a bit of time). Doing something about the quest line to make it more user friendly is probably better than just item-shopping for it, though.

(idea for credit drain: for a bribe of 100 mill credits, Constad will hand over one nano crystal and falsify your records to give you the quest update).

[alfora]

How about a compromise of a store item that stops the mission timer when you log out? Then us casual players can take small steps here and there without breaking the game for everyone?

Why have a mission time out in the first place?

There are only a handful of missions that really "need" a timer because you have to be at a certain place within a certain time frame. But even then should you have the chance to repeat that part without having to jump through hoops to get your mission reset by a GM.

For all the self-instanced stuff (RK missions) it makes sense to keep the timer. But please get rid of the timer for quests.

[Watermellow]

With the exception of MajorOutage (no offense intended, sir), good constructive feedback by all. Looks like this suggestion would not be good for the game and you all have convinced me.

Thanks for listening all!
Cago30

Never heard that on the forums. Or, just about any game forums, really.

[Cerberry]

I hear ya. I'd like the option nevertheless. Make it $30 or something high then. I just can't count the number of times lately I've had to drop from a team event to do something for my family.

Well, you just need to set your priorities straight. Ruining the game to adjust it around your family schedule? Ha. If your family life does not allow you to play AO as much as you like, you have to make an obvious choice.

And how do you even envision that? You log your 1 lvl toon, buy levels till 200, pay for quests/gear then what? PvP? I imagine a family person like you would not be able to spare sufficient time for that as well.

You shouldn't even have this problem to begin with.

[Bluephazon]

Big debump.. heck noobs are bad enough as it is.....

[Cago30]

Big BUMP just to spite the Haters.

[Cago30]

In all seriousness, if it wasn't apparent, I withdraw the request. No more comments from me on this thread.

[Watermellow]

In all seriousness, if it wasn't apparent, I withdraw the request. No more comments from me on this thread.

Another double-impressed. Not in a negative way.