Carbuncle mounts have arrived!

[DRKoftheAzure]

Wasted potential for getting players to play other classes... simple as that...

[LittleChickenNugget]

Wasted potential for getting players to play other classes... simple as that...

To be fair, I think we're doing okay on DPS class numbers.

[Stanelis]

I suspect if they need, people would still complain because of the inevitably tedious grind. It would be something to incentivize queuing into MSQ roulette once people can't rush ahead without everyone else or an enormous amount of leveling roulette.

And what about providing it as a reward for doing something fun instead of, immediately, thinking about gating it behind something tedious ? And people wonder why MMORPGs becomes less and less popular by the day.

[BillyKaplan]

And what about providing it as a reward for doing something fun instead of, immediately, thinking about gating it behind something tedious ? And people wonder why MMORPGs becomes less and less popular by the day.

Because they're giving you something otherwise obtained through real life money. If that came to pass they would be paying you. It would be a job.
That said, people's definition of fun is subjective.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

And what about providing it as a reward for doing something fun instead of, immediately, thinking about gating it behind something tedious ? And people wonder why MMORPGs becomes less and less popular by the day.

Per the person I quoted, this would be an alternative to purchasing it from the mogstation. If I could do a short quest, what incentive do I have to give them $24? You also realize these types of micro-transactions are not unique to MMOs, yes? Every genre has them in some form or another nowadays.

[Alleo]

Per the person I quoted, this would be an alternative to purchasing it from the mogstation. If I could do a short quest, what incentive do I have to give them $24? You also realize these types of micro-transactions are not unique to MMOs, yes? Every genre has them in some form or another nowadays.

There is still a difference between a short quest and an horrible grind. Make it something that might take a bit of a dedictation (something like one relic step or the whole weapon) and you will have people that might like to buy it but also people that are willing to grind for it without it being horrible or taking years to finish.

Also you could simply give us one color ingame and the other in the cash shop. Those that dont care about collection all mounts will be happy for that one one mount and the others that want a whole collection or just a different color can buy it. This way they will still earn money but give people the chance to own it ingame. Just like they did in the past with the birds and the magitek mounts.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

There is still a difference between a short quest and an horrible grind. Make it something that might take a bit of a dedictation (something like one relic step or the whole weapon) and you will have people that might like to buy it but also people that are willing to grind for it without it being horrible or taking years to finish.

Also you could simply give us one color ingame and the other in the cash shop. Those that dont care about collection all mounts will be happy for that one one mount and the others that want a whole collection or just a different color can buy it. This way they will still earn money but give people the chance to own it ingame. Just like they did in the past with the birds and the magitek mounts.

To be fair, most of the relic steps are a horrible grind. We've had FATEs will abysmally low drop rates, Books that required doing specific content, light farming which essentially resulted in spamming Garuda or A1S for several hours and etc. Bear in mind, I'm not advocating this be the alternative. I'm merely saying if they ever did make cash shop exclusives obtainable in-game, it will almost certainly be locked behind an arduous grind. They want our money and aren't going to make an alternative method of getting these $24 mounts easy, otherwise most people aren't going to buy them. The majority of cash shop mounts are either re-skins or old event rewards. Only three are truly exclusive. Releasing one for "free" and only putting palette swaps on the Mogstation won't net them a fraction of what they have likely made now. At the end of the day, that is their concern.

If I were to offer my own alternative. I'd say use the achievement certificate system. Such and such points allows you to purchase certain things from the Mogstation. Granted, I have little doubt the amount required would be... high, but it's still an option.

[Reinha]

It would be nice to get the red, black or white carbuncles in game. I don't think game rewards should be available in the shop when they are still in the game, but recolors would allow the same mount model to be obtained in different ways. Like the Bennu/Zu mounts.

[Squintina]

I suspect if they need, people would still complain because of the inevitably tedious grind. It would be something to incentivize queuing into MSQ roulette once people can't rush ahead without everyone else or an enormous amount of leveling roulette.

I did not specify how it would be grinded/farmed in-game.

It could be quests, or a new vendor, or new achievements, but those might add significant effort to the core development team (cash shop team is separate, based on my understanding) who is most likely already busy on their own development schedule. Tying it to the roulettes or something to incentivize MSQ instances would also probably fall into this category of requiring significant core dev team work, but would still be within the realm of possibility.

But it could also be the following, which would require only minimal input from the core development team, and thus not alter their development schedule too much:

It could be trial/dungeon/raid drops, or roulette rewards which would just require the core development team to add to the loot tables.
It could be an existing vendor, at a crazy currency prize, essentially another loot table.
It could be the underused new achievement currency system. Let people farm whatever achievements they feel like farming in order to earn new stuff from the "cash shop" team. If an API was given from the core development team to the cash shop team to make use of this, it would enable future additions with no core development team effort. Personally I'd prefer this option because everyone has something they grind, even if they don't realize they're grinding it because they enjoy it, and pretty much everyone has "what I'd do next" grinds that they might not be focusing on right now, almost all of which come with their own sets of achievements, but might focus on if they could redeem the new currency for more items.

Notice I said "new stuff". I do realize that adding existing cash shop items to be purchasable in-game would be unfair to people who spent the money when no such option existed. Likewise I realize that adding existing rare mounts to the cash shop would make people who farmed for them feel like their efforts are undermined. Being both in-shop and in-game would have to be a "from now on" thing.

[The_Profezzor87]

I wonder if the people complaining about this are the same ones who bought the shiva figurine.....