Currently in the Pre-Order Beta Test there are 3 ways to obtain items.
- Completing missions and getting the Emperors Gift
- Buying items from the hourly shop
- Buying items from Sire Melk using his special currency
First I want to discuss the way the restocking of the shops make me enjoy the game less. For the people unaware, the regular shop refreshes on a 60 minute timer and will display a random assortment of equipment relative to the characters trust level. Sire Melk’s shop refreshes every 24 hours and will display a (smaller) random assortment of high level items relative to the characters trust level.
As a person that likes to dedicate a lot of time to one game in short bursts these refresh timers will punish me for not checking the shop at least every day. I understand that such a system could be beneficial for a free to play game or a game with a subscription model, requiring the player to check in every day to not miss their weekly rewards but for a game that will not have any P2W aspects I feel like it puts unnecessary pressure on the player to check every hour. If I really want a certain piece of equipment and I can only play a few days a week I will effectively gimp myself by not setting an hourly or daily timer to check the shop, this is not fun.
The second thing I want to talk about is the way Sire Melk’s currency is obtained and the way it punishes people for playing a single character. If I complete my weekly contracts early and I want to play that character more I will be effectively punished for doing so. I would much rather receive a new set of contracts after I finish my last one so I don’t feel like I have to switch because my other characters have weeklies and the one I want to play doesn’t.
Perhaps with the addition of the tech priest these issues will become less severe but in my humble opinion as it stands right now these two shops could be improved and be made friendlier to people that can’t or don’t want to check in every hour or day to see if their favorite piece of equipment is in stock