Prototypemind

http://vindictus.nexon.net/news/45292/coming-up-next

Welp, that seems to give extra confirmation that the preregistration event will be in the next week or so. Nexon isn't exactly know for teasing very far ahead of changes/updates.

Axes and claws would be fun. I really wish Hurk had gotten twin axes as his second weapon, would have fit him well.

Bots are not making the poor get poorer. Gold buys more with the bots in game. 20m is a lot for level 95 chunks; I specifically said chunks because that's what I meant. 100 is the focus, and for the prices of 95 and 90 components to have still been where they were when the bots disappeared was just another indicator of how low the NA population is.

Yes, bots are worse than they've ever been, and so is the population, and without those bots 90, 95, and 100 items would all be so ludicrously priced that no one but the old school Vindi rich would be able to afford them.

You're absolutely right that the seal shop being properly updated would be the kind of fix that would keep people farming and grinding for a guaranteed reward, but Nexon won't do that. The 95 mats that are there have prices that again are ludicrous. No one is going to pay 1k seals to put together a 95 weap when they can farm, get some okay drops, and buy what they need from the MP for far, far less.

You're right that prices used to be pretty high back in the day, but you also had full parties running content and people didn't mind carrying on trains. It wasn't a rush to gear, and people weren't locked out of raids by the QB wall. QB wouldn't be such an issue except for the fact that if you don't mega no one has any idea that a non-QB battle is even up because people either don't check the board or just glance by non-QB boats when checking the QB menu.

Nexon has done everything in the world to make the bots necessary. They've banned and harassed major content creators, they've region locked large numbers of people out of playing, they forced everyone to Steam or the Nexon launcher--neither of which are viable for some to the point of many quitting--and they've pushed new content without taking into account the adjustments that need to be made for the lower populations of East/West/Aus despite a merger.

I don't know why it's difficult to get, but getting more for your money is good for everyone. It means that if you already have tons of it you have more buying power, and if you don't then it takes less grind for you to earn enough even without major drops to get what you need. What's better for the majority of players: being able to earn a mil or so a day and having chunks at 8m or being able to earn that same amount and having chunks at 25m?

The saddest part is that there are so many easy fixes to make the bots irrelevant and gearing a smoother process but Nexon doesn't see the forest for the trees and refuses to make the changes they need to for that to happen. As long as they don't the lesser of two evils is having the bots stocking the MP and keeping prices reasonable. It will never, ever benefit anyone other than the richest players sitting on billions on multiple chars to have items that cost 100m+ to put together, scrolls at over 100m like we had at one point after the S3 population drop off, and outfitters selling at 500m plus when the gapchas are still in the shop. For the majority of what few players are left the bots are beneficial, it's that simple.

@LoLoBooty I said it can't be enhanced as received, i.e., it has to be reforged, which is why I said taking 30 days off at a time to get another set isn't worthwhile Also, you said yourself that the bonus seals, etc., will probably disappear when the event ends. We'll see, but whatever the case leaving for a month at a time just to get 90 gear and some seals is a waste.

I'd propose they adjust the steel costs or give us more efficient ways to earn it. There's little point to having a system like this if it's so prohibitive that simply buying what you want continues to be the better way to get there. Again, the issue is that NA/AUS players aren't plentiful enough to pull enough drops to give it balance.

That said, I know it won't happen. The point of what I was stating is simply that the system is not a good value, and watching guildies in chat getting dejected because they're blowing 200m a pop to get nowhere isn't very encouraging to players new or old. In theory this could have been a great system but in practice with NA's economy it just doesn't work. That's just Nexon/DevCat at this stage. NA's team fought for and got the seal shop that had seal prices that made sense and gave players a chance to guarantee reasonable returns for playing no matter how bad their RNG was. Then we even got +11, +12, and +13 stones after 95 dropped. The guaranteed stones are gone, and now we're at a point that the mat prices in the shop for 95 gear--which isn't even BiS anymore by a long shot--is obscene. The bots at least keep up enough that it's a much better buy to purchase 90/95 mats from the MP rather than from the seal shop.

Nexon reversed course from 90 to 95 with the seal shop changes, and Reforging is D.O.A. in terms of being a viable way to go. 100m or more per try for 95 gear when it's so cheap to take to +12? It costs less to yolo a new +12 and pop OJ chunks in it than to reforge a popped Dulla weap/armor. It's cheaper to buy premade +12 95 weapons and armor from the MP already full OJ than to try once with Steel. Reforging was great in concept and exactly what people had been asking for since this game launched, but the execution is horrid and it's exactly why Vindi will continue to burn people out rather than ever reaching steady retention.

My proposal would be that they fix the drop rates for Steel as a result of taking NA's population into account, but that won't ever happen. The numbers don't lie: it will cost more on average to Reforge than to just buy what you want, period. Statistics are statistics, and when the odds favor failure on every attempt you don't win against the house unless you're a statistical anomaly, it's really that simple.