A Chorus Of Moos

Cash cow? Udderly ridiculous!

I had to post a letter yesterday, a rare thing in this age of electronic communication.  It’s been so long since I’ve posted a letter, the price had risen and I had to rummage in the family stamp trove to find the correct postage.  Whilst rummaging, I stumbled across a Christmas stamp from 1980.  Back then, it cost 15c to send a Christmas card by post; it cost 55 cents last Christmas.  That’s a measure of inflation over the past 33 years.

Dimensions underwent a sudden inflation on June 12th this year, with the release of new dimension items vastly more expensive than pre-F2P.  The sudden hike in item prices left many players feeling exploited by the apparent push to credit purchases.  Cries of ‘cash cow’ entered the forum threads as players let their thoughts be known.  How accurate is this player perception of dimensions as a cash raising exercise?

Dimensioneers Rewarded For Loyalty

One of the nicest dimension items in the game, now available for platinum or credits.

I hopped over to the Public Test Shard today, downloaded the huge patch and looked at what changes there might be to dimensions in patch 2.4.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a new category added to the dimension tab of the store, a Loyalty category.  This new tab contains all the dimension items granted with the tiers of loyalty and they can be purchased with credits or platinum.

Prices seem reasonable in comparison to the other store bought dimension items.   I expect prices to be adjusted before the patch is released, due to pricing inconsistency.  For example, the decorated Shimmersand tavern is only 86 platinum but 109 credits, which doesn’t seem consistent with usual pricing policies of about 1.2  to 2.4 platinum per credit.

This is exactly what we needed to lift our flagging dimensional spirits.  A big thanks to Trion for listening to our pleas and providing an alternate source for the loyalty dimension items.

The Mystery Of The Box

Mystery boxes.  Who doesn’t love that feeling of anticipation just before you open one, the unlimited possibilities of what you might receive.  Mostly followed by disappointment as the box fails to meet your hopeful expectations.  With patch 2.3 and free2play, dimension mystery boxes will be available for sale in the store.  Many people bought these on the PTS when credits first became purchasable.  The boxes have changed a lot since then.  I spent the last day of PTS access opening mystery boxes to see what we could expect when the patch goes live.

As with all things PTS, the information presented  here may change (and is most likely to) especially the drop frequencies of items.  We won’t know the real value of the mystery boxes on live until a few hundred have been opened.  Hopefully the following information will give you a good feel for whether you want to indulge in them or not.

The Radish Dim-Rex Hypothesis

The new way to farm for platinum in the F2P regime. ‘Gold’s Farm’ by Zyonyx@PTS Alpha.

Free2play is almost upon us, bringing huge changes to the game we love.  We’ll have a whole new way of buying goodies for our toons and a whole new economy, now that so much of what we strive for in Rift has been monetorised.  In this article, I’m going to speculate on what the new economy might do.

Free2play: The Good News

Orphiel’s Planar Telescope, a most useful item used for checking the accuracy of your Magitech Orrery.

With all the doom and gloom about dimension item prices, I thought we’d take a break today to look at all the good things coming in patch 2.3.

One good thing is the new dimension items.  Our new selection of items are colourful, stylish and versatile.   My favourite new addition is the Magitech Orrery (video below).  This device accurately represents the positions of the planets and moons of the Telaran solar system.  I know the orrery is accurate because I measured the planetary orbits with my Orphiel’s Planar Telescope.  Both the orrery and telescope are impressive,  they move, they’re magitech and I could easily see people laying down moderate sums of cash for them.

Free2play: Free2pay

Fifth tier of item space added to all dimensions. This is Hailol, a 600 item dimension.

I thought that might catch your attention.  Patch 2.3 has landed on the Public Test Shard and I spent today having a good rummage around.  First off, we have two new dimensions, Hailol and Temple of the Abandoned.  Second, the sheer number of dimension items is overwhelming.  Wondered why we’ve had no new items to speak of for the last few months?  They’re all here for us to buy with cash.

Free2Play: The Livestream Edition

WARNING: INFORMATION DISCUSSED HERE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

TAKE WITH A PROVERBIAL GRAIN OF SALT

New dimension, Hailol, available from the cash shop.

In the Friday livestream on TwitchTV, Trion gave us our first in-depth look at the free2play cash shop and some of the changes coming our way.

With the advent of patch 2.3 and free2play, there will be lots of new dimension stuff added to the game.  New dimensions, new dimension items, dimension achievements, multiple dimension slots for each toon and the frequently requested increase in item slots for existing dimensions.

Some of these new items and services will be available for both money and platinum, some through credits only and some via the loyalty programme also being introduced with free2play.  It was said that some dimensions will only be available through the loyalty programme.

Free2play And Dimensions

Deeps – the cash shop we will come to love?

How is free2play going to affect the dimension community?  I bet that’s the big question on your mind, I know it’s the big question on mine.

Introducing a cash shop as the revenue raiser means items that tempt players to buy them will be the main priority of development.  Dimension goodies are potentially big sellers. I can see a market for dimensions, dimension items and extra item slots for dimensions.  The dimensions and items acquired through the cash shop are likely to be interesting and high quality.  We pay $15 dollars a month now for our dimension goodies; under a well designed cash shop, we should be able to satisfy our dimension cravings for a similar amount.  Some months we might pay more, other months less.