Info about the Chinese Cash Shop "Level Jumping Potions"

[Rita1989]

I think it's ok. Doing 100 ARR quests doesn't suddenly make you know how to play your class better (we currently have a lot of players who don't know how to play anyway), but it is a problem for some people, who find them boring (and I think, that 100 ARR quests are boring). If they want to go straight for the end game, why not let them do this? And what if it is not their first character, so they already know how to play?

Same debates were about cash shop in general and additional retainers in specific. And I think additional retainers influence this game more then leveling potion. I currently have to choose my 2-nd retainer to be either btn\min or fisher, since I keep 1-st one on DoW job.

So, cash shop is here, and the game is not dead.

The cash shop is all glamour stuff and does not give you an advantage in game if they add leveling potion it turns the game into P2W.

[Tenured]

The cash shop is all glamour stuff and does not give you an advantage in game if they add leveling potion it turns the game into P2W.

The only thing a leveling potion, sans the extra offers, does is save you time. Also, you ignored their point about extra retainers having to be bought, which give a significant advantage in terms of total inventory space and the ability to farm materials. Isn't that P2W by definition? Also, though you didn't claim this, it's not like it'd offer endgame gear to people buying the level potion. And even if it did, the only reason to need that gear is for endgame itself, and if they're bad, no group will put up with them, they'll simply remove them from the group and find another person. Them populating DF is another matter though. Perhaps a training course which needs to be completed when you buy and use said potion could help, which explains the game to them, and then being made to go through several dungeons from early level onward, so they can practice their skills piecemeal, to higher level.

[Vaer]

The only thing a leveling potion, sans the extra offers, does is save you time. Also, you ignored their point about extra retainers having to be bought, which give a significant advantage in terms of total inventory space and the ability to farm materials. Isn't that P2W by definition?

Extra retainers are somewhat P2W, however you still need to level the class to actually get a retainer to the level you want (a level 1 retainer is basically useless for farming stuff, your retainer is level capped to you and if you don't have a gathering class high enough you can't do any gathering) and gear it somewhat if you want to do high level material gathering. You also need to have ventures which you need to play to get.

You can also just make a new character (with this leveling potion) to get 2 more retainers which actually makes the leveling potion give you a jumpstart at 2+ new retainers without having to pay the extra fee if you have a character slot.

[Tenured]

Extra retainers are somewhat P2W, however you still need to level the class to actually get a retainer to the level you want (a level 1 retainer is basically useless for farming stuff, your retainer is level capped to you and if you don't have a gathering class high enough you can't do any gathering) and gear it somewhat if you want to do high level material gathering. You also need to have ventures which you need to play to get.

You can also just make a new character (with this leveling potion) to get 2 more retainers which actually makes the leveling potion give you a jumpstart at 2 new retainers without having to pay the extra fee if you have a character slot.

While I understand that you must get a class to 60 for high level gathering, that, in my opinion, isn't that bad and will happen as you play the game as long as you decide to ever branch out from a DoW class, so in my mind you will eventually be able to do this if you wish to. I do understand what you mean that the P2W aspect is mitigated by the fact you have to put in effort. In my opinion, I make more then enough money doing activites that aren't gathering/crafting related, so I don't really bother with either.

Also, I don't understand how you would be able to make a new character and then level their gather/crafter to 60 without quite a bit of time investment, as the level potion should only level your DoW class, and not anything else. Plus retainers are only a dollar each, which to me would make just buying another far more profitable, money and time wise. And if you already have max retainers and want to try to level up an alt to have another 8 retainers as well, then good luck with that as that is a slog. Perhaps make the level potion only skip the story till a certain point, and then have you do dungeons and training halls (forget the name) till you reach around 50 and can begin 3.0? Might be better.

[Kerii]

Extra retainers are somewhat P2W, however you still need to level the class to actually get a retainer to the level you want (a level 1 retainer is basically useless for farming stuff, your retainer is level capped to you and if you don't have a gathering class high enough you can't do any gathering) and gear it somewhat if you want to do high level material gathering. You also need to have ventures which you need to play to get.

You can also just make a new character (with this leveling potion) to get 2 more retainers which actually makes the leveling potion give you a jumpstart at 2+ new retainers without having to pay the extra fee if you have a character slot.

If you want to get technical, you may have up to eight characters per server, so that's 16 extra retainers. Compounded with the retainer service it's 64 retainers with minimum effort required. (Since leveling alts is the only real aversion to doing this in the first place. I've tested.) Also, you can make lots of money by just farming mob drops or items that are "annoying" to obtain, but not difficult.

[Vaer]

If you want to get technical, you may have up to eight characters per server, so that's 16 extra retainers. Compounded with the retainer service it's 64 retainers with minimum effort required. (Since leveling alts is the only real aversion to doing this in the first place. I've tested.) Also, you can make lots of money by just farming mob drops or items that are "annoying" to obtain, but not difficult.

Depends, if you pay for entry, you only have 1 slot. But I was actually talking about how you can get around the retainer service with extra characters when people were saying the retainer service as P2W. The potion would actually mitigate the leveling alts part somewhat.

I would only include this as a skip to expansion boost (which is really most of the complaints are about) but keep everything else locked, so if you want to unlock roulettes and all that, you have to go back and do it. They'll have the advantage of unsync, but if they really have to do it then eh. They should also not be in the Mog Station in unlimited quantities.

I think trimming the MSQ and splitting off the extraneous quests into sidequests would be a better idea.

Also, I don't understand how you would be able to make a new character and then level their gather/crafter to 60 without quite a bit of time investment, as the level potion should only level your DoW class, and not anything else.

Battle retainers (which would be affected by the potion) can gather a lot of raw materials that are used in crafting so there's that. I've made most of my money doing hunting ventures.

[Tenured]

I would only include this as a skip to expansion boost (which is really most of the complaints are about) but keep everything else locked, so if you want to unlock roulettes and all that, you have to go back and do it.

Battle retainers (which would be affected by the potion) can gather a lot of raw materials that are used in crafting so there's that. I've made most of my money doing hunting ventures.

I see, I didn't realize that DoW retainers can still provide so much. I'm fairly new to the game, only starting in Feb, and have been focusing exclusively on raiding, so most of the game flew right past me. Also, the reason I like the idea of a jumping potion so to speak is that I was in a situation that would've been drastically altered by it, as I was late into 3.2 despite trying to rush the story, and hearing everyone talk about the new content and not being able to participate was a downer. Almost made me quit right there. Toughed it out though, and now I'm on A8S, so I guess it worked out. Still, wouldn't wish that on anyone, and I do quite like your method of the skip versus a straight skip with everything unlocked.