Sharding legendaries and why this won't be enough to save rune accessibility

Figured we could open this discussion again after reading poxbox's magical idea of sharking customers in order to save the game.

Anyhow, sharding right now is poor. Next to a joke. Why is that? You only shard using low -market value- runes trying to shard to high -market value- runes. Trying to shard runes that are on the low value curve of their kind (commons/uncommons/rares/exotics) is an incredible loss of value. The saving grace is sharding those 200 magma bunnies you had lying around. It's a tool that can be useful in some situations when trying to obtain certain runes, but it fulfills the role of a secondary trader. You can't only use shards to keep obtaining runes without watching your collection shrink to bits.

Related to this problem, gold gain is so low that trying to acquire boxes in order to shard the runes obtained is downright silly. Also because most of my gold is drained by those 3k sexy ass token packs to level 2 champs.
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Moving on, where does that leave us? Pretty much with just poxbox or the bazaar. Neither of which are truly beneficial for someone who just wants to trade runes to play. Both of them intend to shark you for all you're worth, no thanks. Both of them won't trade you those high demand legendaries/limiteds even if you have the needed trade value! I can't stress this enough. Some runes just can't be found on the market unless you're willing to buy them for the fair price of half a kidney on poxbox or axeraiser's black market. Taking into account that legendaries will be available for sharding, unless the value mechanisms are different from those currently used, the same problem will still exist. Some runes will be unavailable to the majority of players while the same people keep making money off those who get fed up and buy them straight up.

Having this game rules by third party stores and a black market older than baskitkase is NOT healthy. Whatever nonsense olaf/deconder may spout about helping the game by hoarding/sharking the high value legendaries, it's an incredibly frustrating issue that adds to the unplayability of this game. Since DOG categorically refuses to start it's own store, please revisit the current sharding mechanisms. Please look at token packs and gold gain in general. Give the people who want to play your game and are willing to invest a reasonable amount of money and time in your company the chance to do so.

As someone who 's been trying to start to play new factions by trading runes around, for the love of God. So much runes can't be obtained by trading. Let me help you by helping me.

TLDR Market is really bad. Sharding and gold is mediocre. Players are suffering.

My thoughts on this issue, feel free to discuss/add to in a contructive fashion.

I thank you.

 

I usually like your reality check posts Burn, but this might be going too far. You could at least wait for the changes to happen before you criticize.
And yes, I'm aware of running into a "I told you so" trap here.

 

Mods running the blackmarket? Oh, I never. Mods are unbiased and don't do bad things. How dare you suggest such things nubro!

 

If you read my post carefully, it's not a "ya'll done ****ed up now" post. It's more of a "hey this is kind of a problem, I hope you guys are doing the necessary to combat this in order to maintain a healthy market for the game".

 

Oh and in my defense, I started writing this before said statements about friendlier prices were made. Was writing it in between league que's.

 

I am at loss of what exactly is the problem here. You shard runes that you find effectively useless, probably having multiple copies of (= not legendaries), that you wouldn't be able to trade away, in order to obtain a rune of a higher grade and price. Yes, the exchange rate is steep (will see what it will be on Ronin release), but it really has to be unless you want to completely eliminate player trading as such. How many sharded Magma Bunnies is a legendary worth? As many as someone is willing to give for it.

I'd rather see trading fixed than gotten rid of - let people set runes for sale for shards: you replace arbitrary prices set by 3rd party store owners with a plain and transparent market, you get rid of barter trading which doesn't really work (especially when people expect overbids judging runes by what they are worth on the 3rd party stores). you don't flood the market with runes that shouldn't be there since all of them (and the shards they are traded with) come from boosters or gold purchases rather than an in game store as was the case ages ago with Octopi. Done and done.

 

This is an huge problem. But as Rasiel said, i will wait until Ronin will be relased to see the change and than judge.


However i still wonder, why 3rd part store are allowed to exist.

 

The fact that trying to get into a new faction without buying (with that real green paper) the high value runes is impossible.

 

Ye, I get that, I'm just at loss how a change that makes the situation better is at fault.

 

I'm not sure what you're saying here.

 

"Anyhow, sharding right now is poor. Next to a joke."

Edit: also I meant "is at fault" if that wasn't clear, I need more coffee.

 

I'm stupid, but i still don't understand what you said >.<

 

Ok, there seems to be a common theme here.

I'm curious why BurnPyro thinks sharding is [next to] a joke, when it's actually helping.

Better?

 

Because the prices of sharding cost more than dealing with trade sharks.

 

Don't deal with the trade sharks? Actually support the game by spending money on it? Help ensure the game will stay around?

 

Which would be relevant if sharding was introduced as a replacement to trading rather than a way to do something with excess of runes that nobody wants. So since it's not relevant, can we take a breath and not cry murder over something that actually makes the game better?

 

I believe he tried to point out the relation between gold gen/rune acquisition/current shard rates not being good enough to ensure accessibility. It's obviously not a preferred method because it doesn't pay off compared to trading with other players.

Gotta wait till Ronin hits to see the new rates and make calculations based upon them, but his take is pretty accurate with the current status of the shard system.

 

Imagine the following scenario:

There is no trading. You only buy packs and pray to god you get the right runes. Then they add a feature where every runes costs a 1000€. Sure it helps the game. That doesn't mean that it's a great feature.

 

It doesn't mean it isn't a great feature either. It only means that it doesn't solve the problem that you want fixed, which it couldn't.