Updating Old Systems & Fixing game Inflation and Distribution
Hello KingsIsle,
I'm not sure where else to share this. I don't have a huge platform or blog. But I hope this message still reaches the right people for the sake of this game. I have invested a lot of time and money in Wizard101, so it's only natural that I start to nit-pick and find the flaws. One thing that's worried me is how the side systems appear to be in a bad state. So I want to give constructive feedback and offer possible solutions.
Treasure Cards: So for most of these systems, the murderer is the crown shop. Players who have spent hundreds/thousands of dollars on packs that give away gobs of treasure cards have hurt the game's economy. (Not mentioning the Golem Tower sun multiplier method.) I believe the discovery of the errors was in 2019, which is why I'm assuming, KI disabled the Treasure Card Vault, Witches Hoard Pack, and invented the Deckathalon. I'm glad you have finally addressed this, but is it helping?
The players can still have 1000 Treasure Cards per wizard. So if I have eight wizards on one account, I could potentially have 8,000 TCs at my disposal! The Deckathalon was a great invention, but I often wonder if the event fulfills its purpose. As a result, I find myself purchasing *more* Treasure Cards for the Deckathalon rather than depleting them.
Treasure Cards were intended to be a panic button - a quick fix in a sticky situation. (Or a wild card, if you will.) However, 1000 as the inventory cap is just insane! If you had to do it all over again, I would say, make it 100 max! I basically have Dryad trained as a permanent spell on my death wizard because I can hoard so many.
Gardening: Double Gardening rewards gave players double everything. Unfortunately, presenting a plant bank to players intensified the issue and worsened the Treasure Card inflation. On top of that, it also gave players way too many seeds and allowed them to stockpile rare reagents and jewels. As a result, the economy dived for many years and fell beyond a state of disrepair. Like the TC issue, I could potentially have endless seeds because I can carry two seed vaults per house. (Which homes could also be potentially infinite.) Players of an MMO should never have so much of something that they will never have to obtain anymore. If only there were a way to spend everything else like we do our crowns?
Reagents/Crafting: Due to crown packs and Double Gardening, the rare reagents became much easier to get and quickly began stockpiling. Unfortunately, crown Pack Players also sold what they spent with real money to the Bazaar, causing non-paying players to reap the paying player's reagents. This issue stole the challenge from crafting and, in a way, killed it. I noticed by Mirage the KI team had to invent new reagents for the new crafting quest. I'm guessing because players already obtained most of the reagents of the entire game.
So, how do we fix this? The issue these systems suffer from is the overlooked distribution from crown packs and way too much inventory space (vaults/banks). So, players were obtaining more than spending. It's tricky, and I understand you don't want to anger the players. But, I could only come up with three solutions.
Solution 1: Buy a new Engine. This is incredibly expensive for this requirement, but giving yourself a clean slate could be marvelous. Gamebryo is old; buying a new engine could allow you to restart many things and also open an opportunity to put this game on the new game consoles. I understand it's a gamble, but it may be less tedious to do a great reset than tweak every microscopic thing.
Solution 2: Retire all the current Treasure Cards, Reagents, Plants/seeds, and start a new generation with a revamped inventory. All the old ones can be sold for gold, fed to pets, or displayed as an OG trophy in your castle. Players will undoubtedly be upset because they might have spent money on the current ones. But that's where you have to ask players, do you want your game to last or not? We need to fix these issues. The new seeds should not be easily multiplied and should not have a vault. If players start asking for a vault/bank for something, that's where you have to see why...
Solution 3: The only other thing I can think of is to create more events that force players to spend more of these items (seeds/reagents). The Deckathalon was created to keep the flow of Treasure Cards moving. Can you do more of that for other bottlenecks? Perhaps you can edit the recipe cards from vendors and change the quantities. If only we could spend everything else like we do our crowns.
The Aftermath: If these issue gets solved, I encourage you to no longer place these items in 'cheap' crown packs. (399 č) Spellements need to be taken out of the crown shop ASAP! Some players will spend thousands of dollars to max out their Pigsie spell to the highest tier. This practice no doubt takes a jab at PVP. NO PLAYER should have a significant advantage in PVP because they spent more money than the other player. PVP will *never* be 100% balanced if that continues.
Other Issues:
Mana: By level 50, obtaining mana wisps become a thing of the past - or not as frequent. I hope you can find a way to make the Mana useful again, without removing it or making it a new annoyance to players. What’s a wizard game without that blue mana?
Spellements continued: Spellements need to be monitored a little better. The golden rule is potent in this game. The people who spend the most money rule this game! That's fine, but it's terrible for the game's balance when it starts messing with mechanics (spells). I understand that this is currently being investigated, but selling out your mechanics to make money is decreasing the longevity of Wizard101. Going back and revamping old quests to give spellements as a reward is a good option. (Like how the fourth arc worlds do.)
I, of course, want the KingsIsle Developers to make money, but I wish you could find another way other than spellements. It almost feels like the game's quality is being sacrificed for the paycheck. I know spells are the most desirable object in the game and will guarantee revenue. But, again, if only we could spend everything else like we do our crowns.
Pet Derby: I think the issue with this one is just a lack of interest. Maybe players’ arms got tired?
Rewards: Rewards need an audit of their own. Due to the above issues, the quality of prizes has decayed. This may be why many folks don't want to participate in the Scroll of Fortune. Crowns buy all the big awards in Wizard101, not participation.
PVP: PVP has been all over the place for many years. I'm so glad there is an ongoing project to fix it. Also, I love that you put level restrictions on the Treasure Cards. That was long needed! I hope 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 are not deleted. I'm sure I could say a lot more, but I will stop by saying we're all anticipating the gear audit and can't wait to see it play out as we head into the fifth age.
So that's all for now. But please know I'm using the Message Boards to help this game. I hope it reaches the right eyes, I'm not big on YouTube, so this will have to be the platform. I'm not trying to hurt any feelings or go out of my way to hate on this game. I genuinely want to see these issues fixed to secure the future of Wizard101. - No doubt there have been similar discussions within recent Development. I'm hoping the necessary steps will occur before it is too late for this game.
I hope they pay heed to it.