View Full Version : Endless copper mine price
20,000 gems for an endless copper mine?!
That's £75 of real money. £75!
Insane.
Seriously... someone with some perspective at BB take a step back and look at about £75 or 100 Euros of REAL money as a value for a copper mine, no matter that it's 'endless'.
I wouldn't pay £75 for a game, never mind a small element of a game.
You are off your heads.
Great game mind. :)
117.0300 US dollars
20,000 gems for an endless copper mine?!
That's £75 of real money. £75!
Insane.
Seriously... someone with some perspective at BB take a step back and look at about £75 or 100 Euros of REAL money as a value for a copper mine, no matter that it's 'endless'.
I wouldn't pay £75 for a game, never mind a small element of a game.
You are off your heads.
Great game mind. :)
I can't help but agree, this is so far beyond the borderline of insanity that I'm considering investing in shares of strait jacket manufacturers.
All of the trader items added over the last couple of months have been grossly overpriced relative to both the real and the original items on offer. I'd go as far to say that everything is priced about 5x what it should be to encourage consistent and fair micro transactions.
...and then there's the interesting use of the word 'endless'. If it were truly endless, then it wouldn't amortise after 600 days at level 1 (or 120 days at level 5?). A recycling plant is endless and a watermill is endless and neither are subject to amortisation. They're also significantly cheaper.
should be the same price as a recycling plant, copper ore and coal have settled at similar trading prices so they both have about the same value to players.
should be the same price as a recycling plant, copper ore and coal have settled at similar trading prices so they both have about the same value to players.
Excellent point.
'Endless' coal plant is 990 gems, yet 'endless' copper is 20,000?! It simply makes no sense at all. These are similarly valued resources for players, but BB is altering their value by a factor of more than 20. Copper is NOT more than 20 times as valuable as coal.
Someone at BB has gone completely gem-crazy. I like this game, I've even spent money on it, but this is ludicrous. The gem pit looks an OK investment for someone planning to play for a very long time (a year to get double the gems), it's basically a £75 subscription for a year, but the copper mine price is crazy. I do hope this isn't a sign of things to come, because BB won't see another penny off me if it is. I'll keep playing, but there's no way I'm spending that kind of money for so little return in the game.
You don't have to buy them
Who is responsible for deciding on these prices? It would be nice to know if its someone at Bluebyte or Ubisoft, or maybe even the name of the actually person deciding it.
You don't have to buy them
That's not the argument and is frankly a tired non-sequitur that people seem to enjoy throwing into discussion where they have no valid point.
The suggestion is that, for people who do spend money on gems, the price of the Endless Copper Mine is hugely unbalanced relative to the cost of other infinite supply items. The fact this seems to be following a theme of recent high-priced items is only going to serve to put people off the game rather than encourage sales.
Sinister-King
28.06.12, 13:24
£450 for 6 endless copper mines..... bargain.
That's not the argument and is frankly a tired non-sequitur that people seem to enjoy throwing into discussion where they have no valid point.
Tierarzt makes a lot of dumb comments like that... I think his just a youngster tbh.
lordofdest
28.06.12, 13:44
Speaking as one who has spent a few pounds each month on this game, and is "prepared" to spend more, if the value is there.. I see the endless copper and the endless gems purchase price being the stop mark .. I shall not be spending any more after this month, if the value of these "add-ons" does not come into line with other "endless" purchases, such as the recycle plant, and the endless water mill.
WodzWielkiBuc
28.06.12, 14:36
Nope. Gem it's not endless... It caontains 40.000 gems to mine ;-) It's writen it's pays back in 6 months, so it means that you get 40.000 gems after the year. That's insane... LoL...
I thought as well that copper will cost maximum 2000 if recycling plant costs 990...
Have to agree, this is all getting a bit out of my league of what I'm willing to spend on a game. I will consider the gem pit, £75 for 40k gems is not bad and I think I can get a year out of this game.
That's not the argument and is frankly a tired non-sequitur that people seem to enjoy throwing into discussion where they have no valid point.
The suggestion is that, for people who do spend money on gems, the price of the Endless Copper Mine is hugely unbalanced relative to the cost of other infinite supply items. The fact this seems to be following a theme of recent high-priced items is only going to serve to put people off the game rather than encourage sales.
The point is, You don't need to buy one. They are a premium feature at a premium price
You don't have to buy them
I have full confidence that how Tierarzt meant it is not what I am agreeing with but in this case I do think what he said is perhaps our best option.
Talking about how insane the copper mine price is will only get us so far. What we simply need to do is just not buy it. It’s the only real say we will ever get in this game. Money talks as the old saying goes and if BB doesn’t get our money they will hopefully be forced to rethink the pricing structure.
The fact it only lasts for 600 days only makes things worse.
I have full confidence that how Tierarzt meant it is not what I am agreeing with but in this case I do think what he said is perhaps our best option.
Instead of talking about how insane the copper mine price is we simply need to just not buy it. It’s the only real say we will ever get in this game. Money talks as the old saying goes and if BB doesn’t get our money they will hopefully be forced to rethink the pricing structure.
The fact it only lasts for 600 days only makes things worse.
Indeed.
However, not saying anything about it achieves nothing. Voicing an opinion here is one way to gauge the feeling of other players and to communicate the fact that one is not happy with the situation. (There are other ways too.) Naturally enough I will not be buying an 'endless' copper mine at the current insane price, and by discussing it here I, and others, make it clear that BB will not be receiving money from us that they might otherwise have received.
It's a forum, it's for discussing things. :)
BB_Azariel
28.06.12, 16:18
Hi guys,
I feel I must intervene here...
When we say endless, we mean endless. The mines do not deplete after a certain amount or number of days. They will carry on indefinitely.
I really don't know where you guys got this idea that the mines would stop working after a certain amount of days x)
Best,
BB_Azariel
Indeed.
However, not saying anything about it achieves nothing. Voicing an opinion here is one way to gauge the feeling of other players and to communicate the fact that one is not happy with the situation. (There are other ways too.) Naturally enough I will not be buying an 'endless' copper mine at the current insane price, and by discussing it here I, and others, make it clear that BB will not be receiving money from us that they might otherwise have received.
It's a forum, it's for discussing things. :)
Edited my post :)
Hi guys,
I feel I must intervene here...
When we say endless, we mean endless. The mines do not deplete after a certain amount or number of days. They will carry on indefinitely.
I really don't know where you guys got this idea that the mines would stop working after a certain amount of days x)
Best,
BB_Azariel
http://i45.tinypic.com/303ddet.jpg
amortize, amortise [əˈmɔːtaɪz]
vb (tr)
1. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Banking & Finance) Finance to liquidate (a debt, mortgage, etc.) by instalment payments or by periodic transfers to a sinking fund
2. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Accounting & Book-keeping) to write off (a wasting asset) by annual transfers to a sinking fund
3. (Law) Property law (formerly) to transfer (lands, etc.) in mortmain
[from Medieval Latin admortizāre, from Old French amortir to reduce to the point of death, ultimately from Latin ad to + mors death]
For me this is what makes me think it is not endless.
christofari
28.06.12, 16:37
I agree that endless copper mine is way overpriced !!! but as this resource constantly runs out because there are only a few deposits across the island they got u over a barrel.... also the fact u need so much to replace recruits ( bronzeswords) i can understand it being more pricey than say a coal plant because once u have 200 odd soldiers steel can be put on hold ,and so wont use as much ..but more around the price of a veteran general would be more like it ... this can also be said for watermills and silos way overpriced compared to the vet who will make u money (adventuring)
The description has been adjusted on the latest test server, no mention of "Amortizes within 600 days (at base level)" or "Must be placed on top of a copper deposit", it does still need to be placed on a mine though (I tested it).
After thinking about it and reading else where if it is like paying off a mortgage then that means we own the building out right after 600 days. Which suggests that’s when we actually start making a profit. This still leaves me confused as to how they worked out when we make a profit since if copper ore prices fall to 1gc in 6 months then that will push back the time it takes to make a profit.
I would then also complain about using the word Amortizes, what the heck? Wouldn’t be so bad if its definition wasn't ambiguous. 'Reduced to death' doesn't sound good no matter what you’re buying. Well, maybe if printed on a weed killer bottle...
Cornelius18
28.06.12, 17:57
I have spent a fortune on starter packs and gems, but the price of these 2 items is plain disgusting, I am really annoyed as was planning to buy these items, maybe £20 would be a reasonable price but 20,000 gems is ridiculous.
Someone at BB really needs to take a look at the pricing structure. BB would make a lot more money if these items were reasonably priced, as I cant see many peopling buying these items at this price.
well i was thinking of buying some of those copper mines..... but at this price; which is roughly 20x the recycling plant..... hmmm guess not...
Some smart guy probably tought that the payers would pay it.... well guess again...
Wonder how much they sold already?
Cornelius18
28.06.12, 19:17
If 5 players buy it at £75 this equates to £375
If 20 players buy it at £20 this equates to £400 but we know a lot more players would buy this if it were cheaper, this would mean more revenue for BB.
Come on BB do the right thing, 20,000 gems is plain ridiculous, yes we know your game is free and we are thankful for that, but some of us spend a lot of money on gems, starter packs etc, and currently 20,000 gems is taking the urine.
Really gutted about this price as I was looking forward to purchasing these items.
The point is, You don't need to buy one. They are a premium feature at a premium price
I'll just repeat myself:
The suggestion is that, for people who do spend money on gems, the price of the Endless Copper Mine is hugely unbalanced relative to the cost of other infinite supply items.
FireKnight
28.06.12, 20:05
What does "Contains 40.000 Gems" means? I'm talking about the endless gem mine description.
Hi guys,
I feel I must intervene here...
When we say endless, we mean endless. The mines do not deplete after a certain amount or number of days. They will carry on indefinitely.
I really don't know where you guys got this idea that the mines would stop working after a certain amount of days x)
Best,
BB_Azariel
I'll just repeat myself:
The suggestion is that, for people who do spend money on gems, the price of the Endless Copper Mine is hugely unbalanced relative to the cost of other infinite supply items.
And I'll repeat myself. You don't need to buy one.
If you NEEDED the item to play the game properly, then I'd agree. But you don't need it. it's a premium feature with a premium price tag.
What does "Contains 40.000 Gems" means? I'm talking about the endless gem mine description.
The discussion here is about the copper mine. Nowhere does it say the Gem Pit is an endless supply.
What does "Contains 40.000 Gems" means? I'm talking about the endless gem mine description.
At no point anywhere does the gem pit suggest it is endless. It is a pit of gems and clearly displayed it contains 40,000 of them.
If you raise the point in reference to Azariel's quote then he is still referring to mines and i guess talking about our ability to have 3 of them. The gem pit is not called a mine. It is a pit so he is not talking about the gem pit. At least that’s the way I see it.
Edit: Tierarzt beat me to it i see :(
And I'll repeat myself. You don't need to buy one.
If you NEEDED the item to play the game properly, then I'd agree. But you don't need it. it's a premium feature with a premium price tag.
Its not about need it’s about want. Many want to buy it and would do so if BB stop charging insane prices. Charge a premium, sure. But £75 for 1 building? Its not even about if it’s worth it or not. The problem is £75 is a lot of money to most people, especially to spend on a web browser game all at once. There called MICROtransactions Not insanely expensive transactions! They need to think small and often, not large and very few. People complain enough as it is about free to play vs gem buying. It’s not so bad when a 10 year old can save up some money and spend £10 every couple of weeks. People who work also don’t mind spending a little to make up for them being at work and not able to play as much as they want to. But very few of the games main player base is going fork out £75 for 1 building. Its limiting who can and cant procure an advantage in game even more. And like had already been said, compared to endless devices already in the game there is no good reason to make this one 20x more expensive.
And I'll repeat myself. You don't need to buy one.
If you NEEDED the item to play the game properly, then I'd agree. But you don't need it. it's a premium feature with a premium price tag.
Sir... you have made your point. Repeating it 3 times does not help, particularly when you are completely ignoring the points being made back to you.
We all knew we could simply not buy the mine right from the start. The point I and others have been making is that the pricing is completely out of proportion to other items of similar value within the game.
I know you want to think this is just kids whining, but it wasn't from the start and still isn't. So, unless you have something more useful to contribute than "don't buy one", I think you'll find your value to this thread is less than the value most of us are currently placing on the endless copper mine. :)
Knight_of_Ni
28.06.12, 22:46
Just wondering..is this a Barclays gem mine??
Ah, it is so re-freshening, Tierarzt and his newly invented "premium thingy, premium price". Which one of those "premium" can be translated with "insane"?
That said, from other posts, we know that this Tierarzt bot is playing without gems. This is why it is not really interesting when he speculates about premiumness of price tags. While he is in one third of his posts actually helpful for the great knowledge he has about this game, the rest of his posts serves the purpose to keep everything as it is. The game is the game is the game, thou shall not question the game. I can easily imaging, that he enjoys the game as it is. You just need to throw real-life time against the maintenance problem and, voilà, game plays just nice! If anybody could throw a decent amount of gems against maintenance, Tierarzt competitive advantage would be gone. Daily struggle with copper looks more reasonable when the other option is paying 20k gems.
So it is rather "insane amount of daily maintenance or insane price tag, your choice".
So it is rather "insane amount of daily maintenance or insane price tag, your choice".
That seems to sum it up quite nicely. :)
I think BB have created themselves a problem - The essence of The Settlers is to find resources, gather them and make them into other things. By even introducing the 'endless' material producers they compromise the fundamental basis of the game. Maybe they can resolve this, but I fear they have made a rod for their own back. Maybe they can balance the 'daily maintenance' players with the 'price tag' players, but my experience of other online games suggests that is unlikely - you end up favouring one or the other, even if unintentionally.
And I'll repeat myself. You don't need to buy one.
If you NEEDED the item to play the game properly, then I'd agree. But you don't need it. it's a premium feature with a premium price tag.
Nobody is talking about need or want and it's totally irrelevant to this discussion.
i have played in numerous 'Free to Play' games and this is unfortunately the way things go. Micro cash items normally start cosmetic or just give a little boost as a fair price even or those with restricted disposable income. Then as the game gets more popular prices of new items start to go up and their value in giving an advantage becomes more apparent.
I can only put it down to greed on the part of the game producers, they see cash and they want more. Soon items start to appear that while they may not be 'essential' to the game give such an advantage to the cash rich players that it makes it almost impossible for the grinder and farmer to compete
Watch and see what happens once they start to introduce PvP
WodzWielkiBuc
29.06.12, 06:43
It's sad but it's true...
NellaCocci
29.06.12, 12:55
Hi Tierarzt! I think you are out of place! I usually read posts to know last news and in discussions like this (about gems' prices and similar) you say always the same think " You don't need to buy it ". Here in the forum everyone can give his/her opinion about the topic and like everyone else, you should accept it. I think that repeating hundred of times the same thing annoyes all, not only me. Please, relax!!! It seems money earned by gems go into your pockets. And read also something about Netiquette (if you don't know what it is, please find it in Google), it would be a good start for a better 'living' with all of us.
Best wishes! NellaCocci
PS: I excuse for mistakes but i'm not a mothertongue! ;)
i dont see much of an advantage gained with endless copper mine tbh not in game play nor in future pvp. If some people want to sink it into the game, good luck to em i'd say
copper mines are easy to find and build and cheap to upgrade and buff- you buy off some tedium so goo dluck to the buyers and good for all to boot as it finances the game some more to keep running.
If you look at the price compared to watermills and silos etc , then it seems hugely out of whack- but if you look at it from a different perspective it is completely balanced really.
To run a mostly maintenance free copper production chains at th ehigher level you would probably need around 2 or 3 coppermines: i.e. 40-60k gems
to run a mostly maintenance free waterflow you would need around 40 watermills - give or take a few-@ 895 gems- say around 35k gems- but much higher upgrade cost
to run a mostly free maintenance wheat production you would need around 45 silo's @ 750 once again close to that 35k mark - and once again hugely higher upgrade cost
All in all- gem for gem and convenience for convenience it makes sense, cash outlay wise it doesnt however- a few 100 for a browster game
When you put it like this I understand more why BB have put the price of the copper mines up to such levels. As you say though it’s a little irrelevant still when it’s such a large one lump sum.
They need to think about how to achieve the same price but allow us to gradually build up to spending the 20k, like we do for the watermills and silo.
Something like:
To buy the endless copper mine costs 2000gems. It then produces 1 copper every 10 mins. We can upgrade it like normal so the max result then would be 5 copper every 10 mins. But the twist would then be if we wanted to decrease the time to a normal copper mine of 3 mins then we need to buy a jolly geologist for 300gems. Once we have him in our star menu if we click on him one of his options is a button called ‘Copper mine worker’ or something like that. When we click it he becomes like a buff and our endless copper mines get highlighted. We click on one and he disappears into it never to be seen again. When we then look at the copper mine its now down to 9 mins for 1 copper or 5 if upgraded. Obviously the times would need to be worked out better so buying X geos and buying the mine in the first place = 20k gems to make it take 3 mins but I hope you see my point. If it works out the time or amount of geos would be impractical then make a new gem buying unit like ‘Copper mine worker’ that costs 900gems or something. This way we can build up to having the endless copper mine we have now but in easier more manageable payments.
This however is really only addressing the complaint of why is this 20x more expensive then the other endless things. I still think everything is still too expensive in the first place. Particularly the endless copper mine since there is still a bit of a gap between 3 endless copper mines and the 40+ mills or silos. And a number of other items provide a terrible mechanic that could be better for the cost.
Any person involved in any sort of business would know that, when selling to a limited range of customers, you will make way more profit by selling it at a lower price aslong as that price covers your expenses.
And I highly doubt BlueByte's expenses of providing a player with a virtual item in a virtual game would exceed 1/100£. Thus, if we assume the expense of such an item is 1/100£, BlueByte would make a profit worth 75000% the investment for each item sold.
And to think about all those people who are enraged about Apple who has a profit margin of close to 400% per iPhone sold to a retailer. And that only considers the cost of the material, thus doesn't include shipping, manufacturing, taxes, tolls etc.
Sinister-King
06.07.12, 10:53
They're crazy prices. However I have someone on my friends list who has 5 gem pits, since people have starting buying them I cannot imagine they'll lower the prices.
Never mind.. we survived without them before.
i have played in numerous 'Free to Play' games and this is unfortunately the way things go. Micro cash items normally start cosmetic or just give a little boost as a fair price even or those with restricted disposable income. Then as the game gets more popular prices of new items start to go up and their value in giving an advantage becomes more apparent.
I can only put it down to greed on the part of the game producers, they see cash and they want more. Soon items start to appear that while they may not be 'essential' to the game give such an advantage to the cash rich players that it makes it almost impossible for the grinder and farmer to compete
Watch and see what happens once they start to introduce PvP
Its not so much greed on the dev's part (tho does have its role to play) its how do you put it, the mugs that pay it.. Any1 in the world with an item can price it highly, even to an extent that when sum1 else see's that price they just laugh and say "have you gone mad",, but then sum1 pays it... its like said in the post above about Apple making 400% margin on the its products... You don't have to be a genius to work out Apples products are hugely overpriced.. but its the mugs again paying it..
I myself never bring to attention the cost of something.. I know if I'm being ripped off.
Trying to separate out what makes sense and what doesn't is the hard part. Paying for a game is an OK thing to do - no problem there, we've all bought games before at whatever price (£10, £25, £50, etc). With online games it has become standard that you can pay for elements within the game too - the micro-payment model working well for online games like this - again, nothing unusual in it. So, it comes down to identifying (as others have said) whether the individual item is worth the cost. For me, paying £75 of real money for something like a copper mine, is insane. I wonder whether anyone ever gets the money together in notes and then looks at the item on-screen to starkly realise that they are about to pay that real money for something as insignificant as a copper mine in a game. I guess someone must be prepared to pay it, but I can't imagine there are many people who have that much money to basically throw away. I hope it's not the way everything is going to go in Settlers, but like others I fear it is - seen it too many times before already. Ah well. :)
Firstly I agree with Tierarzt in that you dont have to buy them and they dont give you an in-game advantage other than saving you time in rebuild activities.
Secondly I dont have any yet - but I may do at some point......
My rational for this is that for certain things there needs to be a barrier to everyone being able to find, build or trade everything - otherwise the game and its trade system wont work as everyone will have a fully self sufficient island which defeats the need to trade which is ingrained in the game culture and the need to spend hours every day with the game....
Also the gem buyer needs to feel he has an advantage or otherwise there wont be the gem sales needed to maintain the game - as has been said BB is a commercial organisation. Obviously the advantage isn't real - its about buying time or buying a shortcut to what would happen naturally given sufficient amount of time spent waiting.
Now for the detail;
According to BB
the endless copper mine is just that - it never expires unlike the gem pit.
Also BB believe it to return its investment cost after 600 days at L1 (based on what I don't know but lets assume the logic is correct for a moment) - as we all know, no-one keeps any high value item at L1 its not cost effective so at L5 it returns its cost in 600 / 5 = 120 days.
Many people have a buff buddy who they swap baskets with twice a day so assuming 75% of the time buffed this reduces it time to return cost to 80 days.
If you bought the gems with a 50% free offer then this becomes 54 days as 54 days + 50% free = 81 days.
Rather than buy the gems to buy the mine the better deal would be to buy the gem pit and use the proceeds from the pit to buy the mine - the pit returns twice its cost so therefore paying for the mine with pit gems halves the cost further so we get to 27 days.
So given the logic above it can make sense to buy the endless copper mines - especially if you buy it via gem pit proceeds that you obtained through discounted gems.
And of course all of the above only applies if you are one of the many people that support this game either by paying for gems with real life money or by paying gem goods from other players that have spent their money.
fishslice
(proud to support the game through the purchase of gems)
This is one of the main reasons why me and 4 of my friends that i invited have quit the game... all level 40+
Settler game play pales in comparison to something like world of warcraft yet the pricing on it is absolutely farcical, you can easily spend 3x / 4x the cost of a full years subscription to other mmorpgs on this game and get nothing more out of it than having to put fields down quicker or not at all.
adventure loot is all bind on use so its cheaper to buy it from the AH than to actually do the adventure - the game is flawed.
now they bring out items that cost £75 per item and all it does is allow you to play the game LESS - who makes up these ideas.... the point would be to play MORE not less from these items.
no business plan and slow, sloppy updates, crazy economy breaking bugs - football event was a joke and gave everyone free xp for little resource's doing a boring rectangular map, items costing way more than a sensible man would put into something like this - greedy and bad planning.
here is hoping they read this and get their act into gear, ill be watching the game changes on forums but as for playing, its just not interactive enough (bar farmville style fields and well replacing) and doing adventures that give nothing more special than what you can buy from the auction house.
/rant over
Fishslice, your a cool guy and on my friends list - but honestly, how much money have you invested in this game now? got to be over £1000???
your farms are matched with silo's and water with watermills, i last saw 4 gems pits and no doubt you have an extra 250 general (and must have bought the 'faster' 200 general when it came out?) so you can't be interested in the meager 200 gems from leveling up either
but all these items just allow you to play the game less, i dont understand the logic in it - apart from not having to replace annoying fields or wells but like i say it allows you to play less which against the general game theory if people are paying for it.
the gold top ups on your mines are at the 10k level so allow you to upgrade things, but this just allows you to do adventures quicker for xp, but you have the gem pits so don't need the gems nor the loot from the adventures your getting (besides rare houses) and its near cheaper to buy these from the trade tab - i just don't understand what we get from this game apart from a chatroom and social place.
Balgra, you forgot that this game can be played without spending a single penny. That's something you can't do in a game like World of Warcraft.
tierarzt, we know this, especially from the 3 times previous you posted - but your missing the point on the costing vs time vs reward
spend money = play less
save gold coin = more effcient to buy loot from trade tab
upgrade buildings = play more
its a bizzare game plan that breaks after a certain level. either your stuck at level 2 /3 and not replacing 70+ wells / fields over a 4 day cycle in a simple browser game OR have nothing else to do in spare time so can sit here 24/7... if the latter is the case then cool for you, but what do you get out of this intensive well and field game?
loot is not bound on pickup, so buying from auction house is generally cheaper, offers no advantage over other people.... all explained in my post.
once again, we get the fact you can play without paying, we have seen you say it 3x already :) no need to repeat cheers if your not able to address other statements.
Balgra, no other statement needs to be addressed. TSO is advertised as a free-to-play game. It's your choice whether you put money into it or not.
Balgra - I agree with everything you said mate - well except it allows me to play the game less. Life makes me stay away at times. I cant be here 24/7 like some seem to be because I work away a lot - what the gems allow me to do is basically play very little during the week but have the island sustain itself - I do log in but often on a 3g modem so I basically just maintain friends buffs and chat. Also everyone talks about the mines being £75 for me they cost £40 with 5,000 gems extra (see below).
I don't disagree that gems may be over-priced in terms of real-life money cost but I do think the goods that can be purchased reflect a reasonable gem price - its already been mentioned that you cant maintain a self sustaining weapons economy with only 3 unlimited recyclers but you can with say 3 unlimited copper mines. AND remember BB is interested in creating a 2-Tier community to keep the bigger gem players content to stay and invest.
What I was trying to show is that if BB made the copper mine even a 5k gem purchase it would be very cheap and maybe lots of people would snap it up. This could destroy the trade culture that requires many people to 'hang around' the game which creates the chat community which keeps people interested and returning.
Many that are now buying gems do so with starter packs - they can be good value (never bought one) but they don't allow you to pick up the 50% bonus sometimes on offer which has been a huge boost.
Re my island (and its cost) - sure its been an expensive journey but one that I have enjoyed tremendously. I am fortunate in that I have been able to buy the goods but I also appreciate that not everyone has the same ability or desire for that matter. The point is, I doubt BB have a business plan that says lots of people will buy all the high value items. They probably have a plan that says 5% will pay on average £10 a month for gems, 1.5% will pay £25 - £50 per month and less than 0.001% will buy all available items.
I used to be a big gem player (many may remember my cheap pricing) - but I stopped buying gems many months ago as there was no value in it for me as like you say - I have the silos and watermills.
Its because I have previously spent a lot that I bought a £200 pack at the football event (50% bonus gave me 105k gems) which I immediately invested in 5 gem pits (you missed one mate :p). I did this because the pits (at 100K gems) will give me 200K gems over 12 months.
This is equivalent to 16.6k per month. In the shop £50 will give you 13k gems so in effect I have bought 4 months gems up front (at £50 per month) but instead of receiving 52k gems over 4 months, I receive 205k gems over 12 months so I am getting 153k gems free.
On the gold mines - they have been static for months - I have 3 in s2 around the 10k mark and 5 in s9 around 1k - I haven't used them as they was providing very little gold coin - again to slow for me and I had a large coin stack from the previous gem selling.
My coin stack has dwindled from sending out my scouts and so I kicked the gold coinage into play again - this was mainly driven by the football event - Me and a friend must have bought thousands of footballs and bought as many hotdog snacks as we could. Friend buffed these are a X4 buff for 36 hours meaning a Level 5 coinage can produce 1,800 gold coin in 36 hours - a bargain when the hotdog may have cost between 500 and 750 gold coin - thats over 1,000 coin profit in 1.5 days with no real effort required ;)
Thanks for listening
fishslice
P.S.
I do object to the buy gems by SMS feature.
It shouldn't be encouraged that young children with a mobile can pay for goods without the consent knowledge of their parents. This is a PEGI 7 game after all.
Sinister-King
15.07.12, 01:33
100% agree with Balgra and as always, Tierarzt bores me.
I look forward to seeing how none-paying members make it through PvP without their Veterans.
Additionally, I believe the clever people at Blue Byte take advantage of the fact that most people playing are working class adults. The prices reflect that since it doesn't take a sociologist to recognize not many kids can afford to put £7 per Silo or just over £30 per Veteran into their coffers.
Bottom line is to enjoy the game and make it actually worth playing requires you to spend money, despite the advert 'free to play'. The price to get any kind of enjoyment all adds up, especially if you got more than 1 kid nagging you for a Veteran.
Anyway with the amount of money they must be raking in, you'd think they would employ more staff members to complete the game... then maybe they could justify the extortionate prices.
P.S Fishslice, I am convinced you are Bob Diamond since you've spent wayy over £200 on this game.
Balgra, no other statement needs to be addressed. TSO is advertised as a free-to-play game. It's your choice whether you put money into it or not.
I Agree that Endless Copper Mine is WAY OP
@ 20,000 Gems I Will never buy one
@ 2000 Gems I'd buy the max
@ 1000 Gems I'd be REALLY Sorry they didn't Allow us to buy more
If 100 are bought @ 20,000 Gems BUT
5000 would be bought @ 2000 Gems
Wouldn't one argue simply that Supply demand is not functioning as the High price for a line of coding is instead of encouraging people to spend or spend more to not spend at All?
A Balance has to be found.... Especially on the " PREMIUM Items " As All that is doing is actively turning people away from spending... Yes Yes I get you do not have to buy well done well done
BUT That being said if people stop buying ANYTHING because they give up or have spent enough or no longer need the minor items then this game will go belly up. You won't have a game to play for FREE..... I think those who are Upset people can buy things and use the " You don't have to buy " Speech are those who would call it rain even if it was yellow and smelled..... It is a FREE game... But server space, Hyper / firewalls / salaries / utilities etc etc etc must be paid for... And if those willing to spend stop spending or the amount gets massively reduced what is going to happen?
It is not about whinging.... It about the way it is set out so items that would Sell quickly are so over priced they will almost never sell.....
In Simple terms
Items that although Would be great ingame are so over priced that not many will buy which means less income for BB.... If that continues Lag will increase do to not being able to upgrade servers.... If that Happens People Especially FREE Players will complain endlessly about how lag cost them that or glitched this and it's going to take them weeks to recover..... If this happens many walk away including MANY Who do spend to Keep the Game FREE... When that happens something will have to be done as the cost of keeping the servers open outweigh the income they get from Gems.... Meaning they loose money... Meaning no wages, No Bonuses, No updates, NO GAME.
And Please. If on a Topic you have NOTHING Of interest or value to offer PLEASE DO NOT Troll... As it is against forum rules.... You have stated your OP in 550 Posts... Yet you don't comprehend anything of that post. Please take your jealousy elsewhere if you can not contribute anything of use to a topic
Thanks
P.S Fishslice, I am convinced you are Bob Diamond since you've spent wayy over £200 on this game.
Cheers Sinister-King - if BB knew Bob was playing I am sure the prices would be higher ;)
And GamesEnd - I am sure BB understand exactly what they are doing. If the price was more in line with your expectations then everyone would have them and that will erode and finally destroy the game.
BB have a relatively small dev team on this game and so aren't looking to make huge amounts short-term. The (likely) 5% of so that spend £10 a month is probably enough to keep the team and infrastructure in place with the high cost items bringing in profit.
If everything became more affordable everyone would play like me and therefore not need to hang around all day / all week and therefore they will wean themselves off their 'must have Settlers fix'. This would mean more people leaving, less revenue and overall less profit. The game couldn't sustain itself at that point and we all lose :(
fishslice
Thread locked before it deteriorates into a troll fest
Powered by vBulletin™ Version 4.0.4 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.