Curse

lg5000 · Jun 08, 2006, 03:19 AM // 03:19

Easy, casual is anything between 2-20 hours a week

As someone who plays about 1-2 hours on average a night, I consider myself a casual player.

For the Cantha-born characters, I found that you'd normally have enough money for armor when you get to Keineng city. As for skills, that's why the quests there give money as rewards. Found with my ele, that by the time she was a lvl20, I had done most quests from that area, and while I don't have all skills yet, in prophecies, you couldnt' get all skills till you got to ember light camp, so the game was never designed to be played with all skills up front, but with the ability to add to your build/change build as the game goes on.

Yes, i could have used money from storage to buy all skills, but.. i'm trying to save up for 15k armor for this ele and 15k for my warrior, soo.. not that much money for skills atm

Do I, as a casual player farm? Yes, if it's absolutly necessary or I just feel like not dealing with people/henchies.

Wacky · Jun 08, 2006, 03:40 AM // 03:40

Well, let me put it this way: I have 60 unspent skill points over my three characters and only about 3k in cash. If I had made better choices in armor and not wasted money on unnecessary equipment I probably would have a bit more cash, but if you're looking at casual players, they probably don't make perfect decisions either.

Fyre Brand · Jun 08, 2006, 04:02 AM // 04:02

I really hate the "casual player" argument. It's really a bunch of rhetoric. People play the game as often or as little as they want to. There isn't a clean cut definition of what is casual or not. And there is an inference that "casual gamer" means the game should be watered down.

Only a very few people pointed out that because there is a cap we're not paying more for skills. Most of us, if we wanted to buy all the skills in the game would be paying a hell of a lot more than 1k per skill. The old system was only cheap in the short term and was drastically more expensive in the long run.

If some skill prices were lowered then I think it should be primary character skills. It should be less expensive and easier to learn your primary profession. On the same hand then I think secondary profession skills should remain on the same cost curve. The two cost curves should be separate with the primary profession capping out at a lower high end.

Lady Lozza · Jun 08, 2006, 04:07 AM // 04:07

I don't have a problem with the 1k cap, but then I remember what it was like BEFORE the cap when some of us were paying MORE than 1k for skills.

I do however like the idea that learning our primary should be cheaper (not that it matters for me anymore, since I have all the "normal" skills for my primaries) but I do think the idea would be great.

GloryFox · Jun 08, 2006, 05:26 AM // 05:26

I would like to see a smaller cost per Skill.

For example:
I had 100k to blow on my SIN. 100k sounds like a lot however after armor and collecting skills and selling everything I got from treasure I have yet to make back that investment. I beat Factions with my Sin and am still 78k in the hole from the 100k I started with. Granted I now have all SIN Skills and am missing 3 SIN Elites. This tells me the game was made to be played at a much slower pace. For someone who does not have that 100k 1k is a lot of money to spend on the BUILD OF THE WEEK. You know the BUILD you must have for a (INSERT CLASS HERE) to join a Group because you can't do certain missions with henchmen.

I don't know what the cost should be. BUT there should be a way to get skills without paying 1k for em.

Magda · Jun 08, 2006, 05:53 AM // 05:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by GloryFox

I would like to see a smaller cost per Skill.

For example:
I had 100k to blow on my SIN. 100k sounds like a lot however after armor and collecting skills and selling everything I got from treasure I have yet to make back that investment. I beat Factions with my Sin and am still 78k in the hole from the 100k I started with. Granted I now have all SIN Skills and am missing 3 SIN Elites. This tells me the game was made to be played at a much slower pace. For someone who does not have that 100k 1k is a lot of money to spend on the BUILD OF THE WEEK. You know the BUILD you must have for a (INSERT CLASS HERE) to join a Group because you can't do certain missions with henchmen.

I don't know what the cost should be. BUT there should be a way to get skills without paying 1k for em.

Conversely, I started out factions with a R/Rt, and all I twinked was some leather squares to craft level 20 armor. I've got all R/Rt skills(other than some prophecies skills that I don't use/need/want-otyugh's cry, eg) on that character. In addition, in playing that character, I've added about 30k to my stash.

This is just through playing the game normally and working towards grandmaster cartographer(at 96% currently) and Protector of Cantha(10 missions). I don't farm, and the only materials I've sold were the amber/jade that I got from the 10k faction I needed to complete the Befriending quests. I've more than made up the leather square expenditure that I twinked, and added 10x that in additional materials(my collections of silk and steel have doubled since factions came out).

Overall, I consider myself semi-casual, semi-hardcore. I play pretty much as often as I can, but working 40+ hours a week and having an hour commute each way means that I only get a couple hours to play most nights, and doing stuff around the house and going out with friends keeps me to maybe 10 hours over the weekends.

CorstedPirate · Jun 08, 2006, 06:02 AM // 06:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fyre Brand

If some skill prices were lowered then I think it should be primary character skills. It should be less expensive and easier to learn your primary profession. On the same hand then I think secondary profession skills should remain on the same cost curve. The two cost curves should be separate with the primary profession capping out at a lower high end.

That is a great idea! I am of the opinion that it should be expensive to have a whole bunch of skills, but for your primary profession it should be a little less.

Slainster · Jun 08, 2006, 08:25 AM // 08:25

When I was still trying to get money in the vault, 1K was alot, and i actively refused to buy skills for the sake of having them. I wanted armor.. and weapons 1st. Now I’ve got a bit of cash, I don’t mind forking out.. just find skill points more work to maintain.

Desbreko · Jun 08, 2006, 09:45 AM // 09:45

I doubt anyone would consider me a casual player, but from my experience playing my assassin through Factions I've come to the conclusion that the 1k cap is fine no matter how much you play. Because, from the time I started her to the time I beat the game with her I only dipped into my storage account once. For that time I borrowed 10k (which I later put back from money she earned) and some steel so that I could get her 1.5k armor and runes as soon as she got to Kaineng Center. Other than that, which I easily could've waited on or gotten collector armor instead, I never withdrew money from my other characters' savings. And by the end of the game I had bought almost every assassin skill and had also capped most of the assassin elites.

Now, I may play a lot, but the only farming I did with her during that time was for a few collector items and also a bit to try and get some green daggers from a boss. (Which never dropped for me, by the way.) Even the money I earned by selling some lucky drops I got while playing quests/missions I put into storage to go towards the 15k armor I knew I'd want for her, so that never got touched. I simply went around and did every mission and quest, IDing and merchanting all the white and blue crap that dropped for me along the way.

So, in order to buy the skills you want, all you have to do is play through the missions, do quests, and avoid wasting money. (Which isn't that hard. All it takes is a little thought, such as getting a collector weapon and salvaging materials for armor instead of crafting a weapon and buying materials.) I may have beaten the game in two weeks but a more casual player could spread that out across a longer period of time and still have just as many skills in the end. You don't get them all at once, sure, but it's still fast enough to try out various builds as you work your way through the game.

Thom · Jun 08, 2006, 10:35 AM // 10:35

If you play for 2 hours you should have enough money and experience to get a skill. A casual player can get a new skill every time they play. I'm hardly casual at this point, but I don't farm. I'll jump into fort aspenwood for 2 hours and come away with around 4k, probably more.

1k means you may have to spend a few hours creating a new build, but it is hardly it is a reasonable burden which keeps gold valuable.

Renegade ++RIP++ · Jun 08, 2006, 10:58 AM // 10:58

just wished capsigs would be far less in price (half, 0?).

That way i would just go and cap all my skills

. Now that would be fun

x-todd · Jun 08, 2006, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSecorsky

You can still get a handful of free skills, and the gold you get from quests is enough to pay for quite a few as well.

It's working fine as is.

Thats what i thought at first when I started my first Factions character, my Rit. Got all skills unlocked and some 1.5k armor. Then I started my Faction Ele. Then my Factions Monk. I had about 200k in storate. That was the most amount of money I had ever had. I figured, as long as I did all the quests, i will have plenty of cash for skills and what not.
So far I have taken all 3 characters through Factions, did all quests, even both kurzik and luxon side. I still need to unlock about 15 Ele skills and 20 Monk skills, and Im down to about 9 K right now. I wouldnt have thought I would run into this situation.

The handfull of skills you get for free on the "newb" island are so few that it really doesnt even matter.

...runs off to find more cash...

Ninna · Jun 08, 2006, 01:00 PM // 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom

I'll jump into fort aspenwood for 2 hours and come away with around 4k, probably more.

same here

Viruzzz · Jun 08, 2006, 01:24 PM // 13:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by morimoto

1K is way to much money.

i am a casual gamer and $$ is hard to come buy. i find that i dont have enuff $$ to buy all the things i need to have a decent playing experience.

lately i have been hitting up my brother for $$ and loot, i feel like such a dead beat!

i find that IF you are a casual gamer.. you don't need to unlock all the skills anyway.

mqstout · Jun 08, 2006, 01:24 PM // 13:24

1k is okay, except it ramps up there way too quickly. Any more than 1k and I might as well just stop trying to play the game with the little free time I get.

Neriandal Freit · Jun 08, 2006, 01:30 PM // 13:30

It wont surpass 1k. 1k is a perfect capping for skills.

it's easy to make that much and all that fun stuff.

dawnrain · Jun 08, 2006, 02:01 PM // 14:01

I think the 1k cap for skills is fine.

My definition of a casual player is based more on attitude and play style then number of hours played per week. The casual player knows FOW armor and "rare skin, max damage, req 8 weapons" are effectively out of reach. But the casual player also knows that because of the way Guild Wars was designed, the 1.5k armor and collectors weapon are equally effective and easily obtainable.

The casual player knows that they have choices to make. Do they currently forgo the higher priced armors in place of money to spend on skills? Or is the game more fun with the 15k armor sets in place of the ability to currently play more varied builds?

When I played through factions with an assassin, I started her with 10k "seed money" (which she has repaid twice over) and she has never had problems purchasing skills because of lack of gold.