The tone of this message isn’t to “whine” but to convey something a lot of people on these forums already are. There’s some really solid feedback on here from other people.
I’m not completely f2p but I’m not far off and by no means a whale. I have like $40-$60 into the game not including the platinum founders. I do however have a lot of hours and some alts. I have 1 character in t3 at 1350+ right now. I haven’t been honing much lately because I hit the 1340 threshold so instead I was saving materials and hoping the leaks for honing buffs would come through. It didn’t come through with this patch so I blew my mats tonight.
You know where this is going… I failed 5 in a row on 1 item and then got it. Then I have failed 9 in a row on another item I was trying to get 1355 with (still haven’t gotten it). These honing percentages are just wrong and I’ve thought this through every tier thus far. 9 fails in a row with the trash artisan energy bonus has a truly low statistical probability. There are people failing much higher percentages as well. Look, this isn’t whining. I’ve cooled off. I was pissed. This is more of a message to say that this is how you lose players. I don’t know if this is smilegate or AGS. Many many many people believe honing chances and other percentages in this game to be super suspect. Maybe these odds really are boning people honestly but if that were the case, there is still a lot that can be done for players to help ease this pain. Stop making 90% of the games items/content roster bound and then making so many of the honing materials character bound. You know what you’re doing so stop it. Stop shitting on the players who support your game. For a f2p game, you absolutely should not be making materials character bound.
… or get rid of the shit artisan energy system. That fake protection isn’t doing anything. I shouldn’t have to fail 12 damn times costing me thousands and thousands worth of materials before I receive any mercy. Put flat percentage increases in with a bit more mercy at least. Artisan energy is just another system that allows you to shit on people in a shady way. It’s garbage. The other robbery is literally wasting and stealing the time of f2p players who are spending hours and hours and hours grinding for mats legit just to be gated by these poor/innacurare honing chances. One of these days, f2p players will get to play the content. It just won’t be current.
Again, the main message is that this is definitely how you lose players. I hear the models in KR, RU are pretty different. Playing these chances isn’t the bad thing. These fake and merciless percentages are bad. Character bound mats are bad. The current Artisan energy is bad. There’s plenty to give here which will absolutely keep more people playing than quitting out of frustration. More people playing = more people spending money. Think, AGS, think.