Allods Online Forum

I've been missing from the game for the past couple of weeks, because I've been playing on RU with a friend I met here and we decided to move there. I made a bunch of worrying observations that have to be shared.

First of all - I have to show off - less than 4 days of /played time on a spanking new account and I have Tep's Pyramid cleared.

Now, on to the worrying observations. Currency exchange there is 300:1. This translates to around 100-120:1 here.

The problem is that currently, the price is kept lower because of upgrade costs and people who are too lazy to farm the gold for upgrades just buy it, but around the time 5.02 lands, and people start getting their mythic gear, the gold sunk in upgrades will be much lower, especially from the people who buy gold - they will be doing fewer upgrades and thus - sinking less gold, but making more gold through simply being more powerful. There will be huge inflation.

I've said it multiple times that gold is too available currently, and that upgrade costs that everyone is complaining about are what keeps the exchange at an acceptable level. What 5.01 did was to solve the problem of gold being only available to strong players - with the new Tka-Rik, KoE, the bonus from skirmishes. 5.0 did good by adding amalgam to WH and gold to AoD, but 5.01 really made gold too available, and this will backfire in the near future, when the main gold sink will start to shrink.

Population can help offset that - because in battlegrounds we have people of all gearscores queuing, which makes them fun even for me. But that is RU - there are constantly people leveling up there, getting to 60 with lvl 2 runes. Here population is an issue, and the devs have to think of something to make the game more attractive to new players, and to prevent the currency exchange ratio from going to 100+. With the current state of the game here, it will be impossible for new players to enjoy their lvl 60 experience.

However, not all is sad - My.com is getting a lot of attention for Skyforge, and if they put Allods somewhere proudly displayed on their site right now, the game will be getting attention and new players.

Every patch RU releases, there are gifts for old and new players. When I made my account, I had a bunch of replicators, potions, stabilizers and one... absolutely amazing item for new players. It's not in the itemshop, it is only a gift - double exp and rep for 7 days of /played time. It doesn't expire while offline and is not active if there is a lucky moment with double exp going on. This item was amazing. I remember the gifts from 5.01 - they were great for fresh lvl 60s, it helped them reach epic gear very fast. The 5.0 gifts were also great, but this time they did something for NEW players specifically. My.com can give away these gifts as well. Players love gifts, and they are something that is done every single patch in RU and has never been done in the western versions.

Anyway - prepare for inflation once the gearing slows down.

I played there when 5.0 came out for about a month, the currency exchange was between 130 and 150 for a while. Now it is 300:1. 5.01 did bring some inflation, but now it is... 1 cc is 75g.

It is not big deal if you have players to support it. I'm a fresh lvl 60 and I can find parties in Wellebell. I can go to battlegrounds and have people equal to me on the opposite team. RU gets a flow of new players all the time. Top guilds require full lvl 4s to recruit a player. It is very different, and quite accommodating to new players. The fear I have is that it won't be the same here, and the inflation will happen. The demand for amalgam will also drop significantly here, due to the lack of new players to use it up. RU does have much greater demand for amalgam concentrate because of the population.

I don't know if I can make it clearer, but I'll try. I have said before that currently, crystals are cheaper than they were in the 4x cycle - sure they cost more, but players make much more gold and that makes them more affordable. This will not be the case once the gear race starts reaching its end, and it will become much more expensive for new players.

It needs to be mentioned that when 5.0 was out in RU and I saw their exchange rate, I was alarmed initially, but I did some calculations and calmed down, knowing it will be reasonable. Now it is unreasonably high, and the redeeming factor is the population - that I can easily find people in the same rune range as me - very low, just starter runes. Top guilds require lvl 4s or 5s to recruit, not 7s like it is here.

And as far as I know, 5.02 did not make gold more available. Well, JC now rewards signs of victory, but the weekly cap is still 65.