Equipment Packs

/signed.

Also selling the 3 coin types for balth faction would help alleviate some of the overly excessive costs of the bags.

5000 faction = 1 gold coin
500 faction = 1 silver coin
50 faction = 1 copper coin

zkeys sell for 1 gold coin or 5000 faction
a flame of balthazar sells for 2 silver coins and gives 1k balth faction when clicked.
An elite tome costs 2 gold coins + 1 plat for the sig of capture to get the skill on another character. this is similar in cost to the 3000 faction for an elite pvp skill unlock.

Anet based the costs of these items off of faction already so they should easily be able to put coins up for sale for faction.

/Signed

anet could have done a way job with this update. they wanted this game to be fun? how is this fun? hour upon hours of farming our ass off you get one bag. not fun

/signed.

This is exactly what I was going to post.

7500 copper coins for a heavy equipment bag is asinine especially if you have a complement of 10 or more characters. This high cost wouldn't be an issue if you could trade your balthazar faction for gold z-coins at the same rate as z-keys.

I approve of this.

For something as simple as storage for your character, I do agree there is a pricing issue here, as well as an obvious time sink. I can understand putting in some heavy hours for items that have an actual bearing on gameplay, like armor, weapons, and even titles. But having what is essentially a storage bag, and one that is actually more limited than the rest, require so much time and effort is hard to swallow. At the very least it would make sense to have them upgradable.

Then again, it has only been a couple of days, so perhaps this is something that will be addressed down the line when ANet has gotten enough feedback.

There are some good opinions and suggestions coming out here, people. Keep it up!

As much as I approve of this, this stands to push aside the point of doing zaishen missions if people will be spending their time doing pvp and just think what this will add up for bots in the JQ considering how many we normally deal with.

Actually it doesn't. A non pvp player is very limited in the faction they can earn via "fake" pvp against the computer AI. In order to gain a bag in a reasonable amount of time they will want to be doing coin missions/bounties on top of spending balth faction for coins.

Someone without any sort of pvp cap can only get 2k a day and maybe a few more k if they do the zaishen elite runs and will be limited to 10k faction that they can hold. That's a whopping 2 gold coins that they'd be able to buy in a few days of doing the "fake" pvp vs the computer AI.

I'd surely be doing the Missions/Bounties on top of that to help obtain a larger bag faster.

Anet could always limit it to one gold coin bought a day if needed too.

Currently the time investment for a bag is just ridiculous as is easy to see from the number of people who are not happy over it. It's not like it's going to stop people who are already going to buy the storage tabs for convenience from getting said tabs.

I'd like Anet to come and make a statement on these new equipment bags and the horrifically slow method of gaining them, but I seriously doubt we'll see such a statement/discussion.

/signed

Overall I love the new stuff in the anniversary update (thank you ANet!!), but I do get discouraged envisioning myself nervously surpassing the Large pack milestone 2.5 times over the next 6 months holding out for a single Heavy pack and then kicking myself when either I give up or the rules change.

So please... make the packs upgradeable! I don't mind the long-term aspect of it, but we have enough difficult decisions to make in real life, lol. As it is now, pack grinding feels like that Deal or No Deal game show .

/signed

I like the new updates and things they've added. I do however agree with what others have said - the amount of time involved in getting another bag for a char is pretty ridiculous.

/signed

hard to get to conserve server space until they can expand the servers???

Or maybe a.net is trying to *gasp* encourage people who don't play PvP to actually play it?

The whole point of the zquests is to provide people with something to do and liven up the game with PUGs. Instead of people sitting around all weekend farming raptors, people are actually grouping with players to do missions for the z-quests. Encouraging people who haven't tried PvP to try it is a good thing, because it allows people to experience more of the game.

Now, if you don't like PvP or PvE, that's fine. You can stick to the quests that interest you. But this update is meant to get people to do things. I don't see how encouraging the very thing the update was designed to do is a bad thing.

I am not sure I would want to see trading solely Balthazar for coins, but yes the above model could work. This caters towards a whole different part of the community again, i.e. the Balthazar farmers and hardcore PvPers and might remove people from the Zquests.

The mission-and-reward system is fine as it is, I reckon it is just the scale and value of e-packs that must be adjusted. I don't mind having the different missions. It is quite refreshing to do the different missions - Bounty, Mission and then Combat.

I have seen high-rated GvG guilds and players doing THK on HM and likewise PvE'ers going into TA.
It's good for the game. They did a good job with these missions.
The value / scale will be the easier solution when dealing with the e-packs only. If they had to go adjusting the rewards from the missions, this will screw some of the other exchange items around and put that out of place again.

/signed

Make it a gold sink if you want, but not a time sink. I've sunk almost 4 years into this game and finished all 4 campaigns on 7 pve characters. I even grinded all eotn faction titles (doing book missions to the point I don't want to see them ever again) and prot+guard on my main. I do not want to now have to grind 14 hours a day doing the same missions I've repeated over and over for the next month or two for just a bag. A restricted bag at that.

Lets us buy for balth faction, increase the rewards (give me an option to drop all xp+faction+cash rewards for more z-coins), decrease the cost, get rid of waste by letting us upgrade the bags with runes or let us trade the coins for something else. One gold coin is worth a z-key right? 15 z-keys for a bag then. I'll take it. Hell, if someone's willing to sell me a heavy for 20 z-keys or 20 ecto I'm in. Pm me.

As for encouraging people, that's good in theory but you also got to be practical. Set the bar too high and you'll just do the opposite of what you want. An achievable goal, people will play for, and on multiple characters. Something that'll take you grinding till 2010 to get a full set, very few will do. They'll at most get one heavy for their main and their HoM armour and barely look at this again. Keep things at this level, and we'll see how many are still at this in 4 months time.

Or keep a permanent HA quest for 350 coins on top of whatever daily quest there is. Might bring more people to HA regularly if you want to go that way. Getting to a dungeon in the middle of nowhere and then doing a long slogging dungeon for 105 coins is fail.

But regardless of what gets changed, do it ASAP while few (if any) has a heavy, that way no one will qq about spending 7500 coins on a bag and now the price got dropped on them. Don't leave it like razah till quite a few paid their gems (when they were worth a bundle) and then had to refund the gems (and after they'd dropped to like 1/10 of their original value).

I agree the zoin cost is astonomical.... 7500 for a pack for 1 character... so if you have more than one you play on you have to grind for a few years to get a pack? omg.... no way.

My monk needs the pack for than any other for her 55 and 600 sets to sit in with her weapons, but I want it on my main too.... so that is 10 months down the line or I spend all the time I have doing the zquests.... no way mamma!

I sure hope they drop the cost, even perhaps put in a cost at a merchant.... I'd pay 20K for a heavy pack for sure !

/signed.

They are just way too expensive in Zaishen Coins.

if ur not willing to spend the time to get it, u prolly dont even need the extra space. it is an item that we haven't had for 4 years, how u gonna complain that it is too hard to get when it IS finally implemented? getting 50 iris flowers in pre would take longer than farming 2500g, lmao. if 2500 gold is too much for u, once again, u prolly dont need the extra space anyways unless ur just a packrat.

That's a stupid argument. I need the space and I'm not willing to spend time doing pisant things I've already done 298974 times just to be able to store my stuff.

Seriously, do you Anet nutswingers get paid commission off of each hour spent playing this game? Stop blindly making excuses for the company, they pay people to do that for them.

/signed

I know people are whining that anet could have done nothing. I wish they would, no con sets, no tonics, no everlastings, no inscriptions, zkeys, summoning stones, HoM all this extra useless shit. oh wait you talking about storage being added... They implemented more stuff ingame its there cause and effect to remedy us the situation. They are responsible.

/signed
/agreed
/YES!

Items that offer an advantage in function than just appearance should be able to be acquired by anyone than just hardcore players (with the 20-slot pack).

The packs are useful and should be more readily available. They follow the same line as the backpack, belt pouch and bags. No reason to make them so difficult to get (unless grind is the only way to go nowadays)...

If you consider prices and methods of acquisition of the other bags, you get this:
- Backpack - free upon creation.
- Belt - 100g for 5 slots. Also in some easy quests and collectors with quick-to-get trophies.
- Bags - 100g for 5 slots. 200g for 10 slots. 700g for 15 slots. 1200g for 20 slots. Also available with a few quests, and some collectors and quest reward collectors for 6 trophies in total: (1+2)+(1+2).

So, logically, going from 100g for 5 slots to 2500g for 5 slots it's a bit too much.
I'd rather go with:
- 1K for 5 slots.
- 2K for 10 slots.
- 7K for 15 slots.
- 15K for 20 slots.
That's sounds more reasonable to me.

/signed

There is always a disparity between newer and older players which Anet usually doesn't take into account. Older players have usually played most of the game many times and don't want to redo it over and over. Newer players have no problem with this as it is the first (or one of the first) times they are doing the missions.

An easy solution which resolves this issue is selling the equipment packs for gold, as the older players have usually amounted a hefty sum through their past years of play.

They cold give one pack per account for free, as big as many hard modes you have unlocked.

You unlocked all 4 hard modes, you get a 20 slot bag.

Or they could be added to End-game credit areas in collectors.

/signed

its ridiculous. imbalanced rewards from some missions being 10 minutes some 40 but same rewards. I never would have thought i'd spend more than 2 weeks tops geting one max zpack its like 2 months work...

I like to call this update, the SUPER GRIND. I do approve of the Balthazar Faction, or even KURZICK AND LUXON faction for a gold coin, even at 10k for a Gold Coin. But to have a "fun" game turn to a Grindwars is completely insane!!!! (Btw, on the Kurz and Lux faction note, it would make players without want to purchase campaign 2, *wink wink*). I haven't beaten a quest and gotten bored. It's almost as bad as raptors for an enitre 7 days, only without the profit!

There is profit. It just comes from doing the pvp quests. Just don't do it for z-coins. Do it for balth faction that you then change to z-keys. Sell z-keys for money and then wait for some other crazy person to get a heavy who wants to sell it. Give them your plat and you have a 20 pack without destroying your mind grinding 14 hours a day for about a month or so.

/NOT SIGNED

all 4 ideas absolutely terribad.

It would completely ruin the point of this whole update.
And prices in ZCoins are PERFECT imho, well thought for a long lasting game.

just don't expect to get everything given to you on a silver platter for just logging in.


EDIT:

Upgrading the packs is also a VERY BAD idea. Absolutely no need for that, the lesser packs can just be passed down to less used chars and mules or just sold. I can guarantee the 10-slot packs will sell well even several months from now.
Right now when you get 1 new pack you effectively upgrade 2 (or more) characters with it, for example when I got a 15-slot for my main, I moved the 10-slot to a lesser used char, and the 5-slot from him to a 2nd account mule. Boom - real 15 slots gained! With upgrading it would be only +5.

/NOT SIGNED AGAIN, please Anet don't listen to "gimme more gimme freee" crybabies.

All my chars are full of armors and weapons. Not extra bullshit, actually sets they use.

Here, I'll explain with pictures:

My Warrior (not even close to all its armor sets): http://i44.tinypic.com/284avl.jpg
My Monk (with a pack even): http://i40.tinypic.com/2lij514.jpg
Ele (without most its weapons): http://i44.tinypic.com/23ro18x.jpg
Mes (without weap sets): http://i43.tinypic.com/9k3x4w.jpg
Nec (without weap sets): http://i43.tinypic.com/6e2a9u.jpg
A mule I have to have to hold armors: http://i44.tinypic.com/nz3a4x.jpg
I have more...

Wanna tell me where my space is..? Cause I'd love to know. And if you think I don't have the money to afford the stuff, you're just retarded...

And what the f does it being implemented have to do with hard to get? Kay.. It's implemented. That's one thing. It's hard to get, that's a completely other topic.

I have money to buy the crap, but since some crackpot at Anet decided not to let people trade anything except the bags themselves and not to put them for sale anywhere else, I'm going to have to either shell out 100-300e for a fkn 20 slot bag or wait months for the price to go down, which due to demand, probably won't in the near future.

This what Anet wanted? 100e+ bags? I can buy a few, but just cause I can afford to equip my chars with bags doesn't mean I don't think the price is outrageous and I'm not about to pay it.

Sooo.. The point of the update was what, in your mind..?

Bend over?

The point of this update was to add longeivity to the game, to make it *alive* again.

They did that providing great rewards that players want and by pricing them well so the best ones will take a longer time to get and will remain valuable even after a year or more.

This thread is full of absolutely horrible ideas. Full.

*ZCoins for balth faction = lol 5k faction for 1 gold coin = I would get the max 20 slot bags in a day.
*Selling all EQPacks for gold at an npc = epic fail and ZQuests made pointless.

People posting terribad ideas have completely no clue about good game design, they just want easy freebies.

What makes you think a 20 slot bag should be ridiculous to get? I'd love to hear that logic.

They can make other useless crap for people to grind for, like tonics. People don't actually need those, they're aesthetic, and some people would indeed grind for them.

But bags? Those are kinda important. I don't feel like grinding it out for 1 char, well alone for all of my chars.

What would be the point then of doing the daily Zaishen quests? I mean, I don't agree with the copious amounts of work that are currently needed to be done to get a single bag, but hey, I don't want to see them at only 1 or 2 gold Zaishen Coins to get.

That being said; I'd love to see the Z-Coin price lowered and the gold price increased, to a margin of... oh..
Now I know this seems a tad strange, but it will keep people entertained at least for the remainder of the next... oh... 6 months, and then eventually, the bags become common and no-one does the Z-Quests anymore -- which will happen eventually anyways.

All I see ANet doing here is stretching the longevity of new content for as long as possible, and not really paying attention to the costs of getting these new bags. Also, they could possibly be setting the price so high to actually limit the number of bags to... I don't know.. limit the server space required for the time being.

tl;dr version: See second quote, read last lines.

All I know is that something with a real in-game purpose other than show-off or gain prestige should be easy and fast to acquire.
- For skills you have skill trainers.
- For all bags you have merchants, collectors and even quests in some cases. And you start with one backpack for free.
- For weapons you have drops, collectors and crafters.
- For armors you have crafters and colelctors.

It doesn't take much time at all to get all the non-prestige equipment.

Equipment bags ARE equipment. So they should be like that too.

The things that are slow to get are flashy stuff like prestige equipment with different skins, titles or party items.
Things that other players see when you use them.

No one sees the packs when you equip them.
They should be changed to an upgradable system like the other bags, and the prices of the runes to upgrade them must be cheaper.

The fact that maxing out everything else (xcept a few titles) in GW is soooooo easy was a *horrible mistake* and poor game design, resulting in a crappy economy and low rewarding and the problem of "more of the same" everywhere. It's great to see a change in direction here, finally after 4 years.

Getting 20-slot pack is far from ridiculous, far from being comparable to maxing one of the harder titles. I could have had got one myself already, but instead I went for a lot of 10-slots which is now the recommended thing to do to maximize storage space per time played. Prices of the bigger ones may seem high but they're good to ensure Zaishen Quests will be very popular for years to come.

Don't waste something done right by making it cheap and insta-easy like almost everything else in GW.

lol the update has been out for what 2 weeks and people already have heavy equip packs , if you were any good at this game and really wanted/needed one you'd have it too, its not hard to farm a insane amount of zcoins doing gvg/ha/hb

It wasn't a horrible mistake.... It's what made GW a good game. If you want to grind for something, go play a Korean MMO and you'll get your fix. GW was never intended to be like that.

Except that there's no grind involved - I can choose and play the ones I enjoy, for example HA. Going out and killing the same boss with 3 different characters in 3-minutes runs is far from a grind either. And the coins add up quickly.

Just play the game and stop QQ imho.

Ye, great. Do the PvP ZQuests that give the most zcoins and that also take the longest.... lolwut?

HA is full of discrimination with rank, gimmick builds being in demand and whatnot. The same goes for GvG and TA. You need proper teams to get the rewards, unless you make use of exploits (mass resign in FA) or previous agreement (/roll HB, now removed).

This just brings up another point. Not everyone wants to do the PvP quests. Why should they, if they enjoy PvE more.

Plus, that little example above, would have netted you a grand total of 105 copper zcoins for 9 mins (3 Boss bounties x 3 mins each). None of the quests that are so quick is worth anything. So, you just need another 2395 copper zcoins for a 15 slot bag. Work out how long it is going to take you.
OR
Start doing it on 10 chars, then maybe it is equivalent to a HA zcoin reward. This is where it becomes grind (doing multiples) and simply not worth the time effort. This is the only time the 'coins will add up quickly'.

None of the PvP rewards are that quick to get either. Not unless you are willing to spend hours playing on end. Which is what some people cannot do. There is such a thing as RL.

Plus, the ZQuests take away from normal GW play. You have to do the quest or risk your log getting full. I enjoy taking my characters through the campaigns as I see fit. This is what GW was made for, freedom and versatility, being able to jump from PvE to PvP with ease. YOU decide how you want to play and don't HAVE to do a quest on a specific day, especially if you have done it before.
So, I am paying the game, as you so aptly put it.

STORAGE is needed right NOW, which is what was implied with the content update. Yet, not. Now another few months pass before you can start hooking all your chars up to some 15 slot bags, which is the only one worth it imo.
The 5 slot packs barely made a dent on my chars. WTF was the point with this bag?

20 slot packs will be bought from players, since the time-cost to get these are simply ridiculous. The real ZQuest grinders will get these bags and sell it, just like the PvP'ers selling ZKeys.

STORAGE is something a character needs, as was pointed out earlier. Connecting it to such crazy time-costs (the 15 and 20 slot packs) and the daily demands is a very bad idea from the beginning. GW has the worst storage ever, compared to WoW, for instance.

You make it sound like everything should be grind in GW (this isn't WoW, you know), which I guess means this post will never make any sense to you anyway.
So, meh.

PS> For the 'smart' comments - I have 'earned' my storage.

earn your storage.

lol you dont need to spent hours if your actually good at this game , also it seems like everyone went by fine without this extra bit of storage for 4 RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing years what in the last 2 weeks has made you need 20 extra storage slots on multiple chars lol

Lol, learn to read. I'm saying that its far quicker to just pvp for the balth faction and turn them into z-keys -> cash. Then buy the bags. After all, 6 wins is like 350 coins, and 9 k faction. And 1.5 plat. You could just do the two wins three times for only 150 coins but get 4.5 plat and 27k faction, or 5 and a bit z-keys. Even at 3k a key, thats 15k +4.5k which is 19.5k plat.

To get a bag with z-coins and all objectives with a z-quest, is 7500/350 which is about 22 times. Not that bad true.

But going for the money route, with 19.5k plat (and this is rounded down, using only 25k faction and not 27k faction) taking the same number of wins as 350 z-coins, is 19.5k*22 or around 429k plat. Tell me which way is more profitable? Full Z-coins or going the balth faction and just buying the bags after they drop below 400k? You'd even have change leftover.

/signed

they wouldnt even have to cost less necessarily. changing the quest rewards would be easier perhaps. why do all the rewards have to be in copper? why not 1 silver for first bonus, 1 gold for second bonus (unless its stupidly easy, then maybe a few silver). or something along those lines. im sure the gold coin amounts for some things would need to be adjusted, but i doubt thats very difficult.

upgrades would make sense as well, since that was used for bags.