[Megathread] Wildstar - Now F2P

[Edge-]

Alternately known as trying to save the game through additional revenue streams by selling services that don't impact player power/gameplay.

I'd rather have a bunch of idiots at 50 (as if there aren't already a bunch now) on freshly purchased characters and a game that survives than one that gets closed down.

[Kelimbror]

Yeah, boosts are something players want and completely fine. It gives no advantage or whatever. People who freak out about it are ridiculous.

[Tryuk]

I'm a bit surprised it wasn't there in the first place.

That said, I feel like I'd get less with a Wildstar boost than a WoW boost, due to how much faster it is to level up through W*'s 50 levels than WoW's 100 (outside of RAF)

[Ausr]

So Carbine is joining the list of game companies, by selling out their end game communities!

Coming to WildStar in the next update you’ll be able to rocket to max-level with a character boost! You’ll be able to boost a new character to level 50 with a purchase made directly from the character selection screen. Itching to try one of the upcoming new class/race combos? Boost a Chua Warrior to 50, and in no time you’ll be laughing manically as your space hamster cuts enemies down with a giant blade. Or maybe you’re looking to join your friends at max-level? Boost up a new character and get into high-end zones—like the frigid wastelands of Arcterra—and join them on one of the greatest challenges of all: getting that one person to actually show up for raid night. You know who you are.

Once at max-level you’ll be given a full character loadout of gear and consumables to help you set out on your grand adventure on Nexus. Along with a set of level 50 Assault and Support starting gear, a race-specific mount, and some Platinum spending money, you’ll also get your chosen Path rewards, some Elder Gems, immediate access to housing, and a lot more—everything you need to conquer the wilds of Nexus.

And it’s all just in time for our upcoming release of Redmoon Terror this August, as we challenge players to conquer the most expansive raiding experience ever created by humans, some of the most challenging boss encounters ever dreamt of by sadistic maniacs, and discover some of the most shocking revelations in the rich and ongoing WildStar story ever written by whoever those story-writing guys are.

You can get a first crack at testing the character boost functionality on the upcoming Heroes Evolved update PTR, so stay tuned for details on how you can help us get it ready for prime time.

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/ne...ro-hyper-jump/

So you don't want people to play fast?

[Eleccybubb]

Ehhh I'm not so keen on boosts. If anything make the leveling experience better imo. So of course I won't get one plus my slinger is 39 anyway not gonna be silly and pay for 11 levels .

[zito]

Instead of character boost they should of removed all levels and just scale all zones appropriately and to offer max level rewards so people who like questing can quest to their hearts content and people who raid can just raid.

alas that will never happen.

[Sheevah]

I would also be more in favor of removing levels all together. I'm the type that would explore all the zones simply because I enjoy solo content and world exploration.

My biggest gripe with paid boosts is that it removes any incentive to improve the leveling experience. It quickly becomes "If you don't like it, buy your ticket out of there". For this particular game... I'm not sure that's even a valid point. As such, I'll take anything that can bring in money without being personally handicapped if I choose to keep my wallet closed.

[Deleted]

Alternately known as trying to save the game through additional revenue streams by selling services that don't impact player power/gameplay.

I'd rather have a bunch of idiots at 50 (as if there aren't already a bunch now) on freshly purchased characters and a game that survives than one that gets closed down.

I've played enough games to know what comes next! The idiots ( your words ) after watching 100's of twitch streams, are not capable of doing the level 10 newbie training dungeon, so how will they find Wildstars end game without learning ? Impossible totality impossible! So they start leaving, to combat this Carbine will start nerfing all the content.......it always ends this way, no matter the company.

[Sheevah]

It doesn't take boosts to create an environment where people at max level have no clue how to play properly. :P

[Kelimbror]

It doesn't take boosts to create an environment where people at max level have no clue how to play properly. :P

People (most of them who actually aren't raiders ironically) think that leveling provides you the leet skills needed to do end game content. It's one of those oft repeated myths by people who defend archaic game design for MMOs, just like attunements. It's also naïve to think in any particular game that a given player is new to MMO's or gaming in general.

The percentage of people playing an MMO that have played other MMOs is very high. WoW already had so much exposure and turn over that it certainly covered those bases on its own, but to think that niche titles with sub 1M players ever is going to have a plethora of true 'noobs' is ridiculous.

Thus the idea of leveling boosts, to get people playing the content that matters, allowing them to play with their friends immediately, and generating more revenue. There's absolutely no downside other than made up player psychology.

[Acidbaron]

It doesn't take boosts to create an environment where people at max level have no clue how to play properly. :P

It does multiply the problem but mmo's do house the worst of the worst gamers regarding game knowledge and reaction time due to the low entry requirement on content for both of those.

Most people that were any decent at the game have long moved on with few remaining. However Wildstar instance system is build up so what is throw is you hits harder, becomes faster and so on. Could this create problems? Possibly, do people still really care doubt it.

[Deleted]

Hey all, Pappy here!

It’s been an awesome few weeks for WildStar. As you probably know, we released on Steam on June 9, welcoming a bunch of crazy new kids to the WildStar family. Then last week we updated the game with some new PvP quests, additional lighting improvements, and some brand-spankin’ new shinies at Madame Fay’s Fortunes. Throw in there ten super-fun days of Space Chase, the continuing Starfall anniversary festivities, a new DevConnect, and you’ve got a full slate of delicious WildStar goodness.

But guess what? We ain’t done. Our next content update—Heroes Evolved—has just been released on the PTR, and it’s jam packed with exciting new systems and features that give you more choices on what you play, how you play, and who you play with! With Redmoon Terror and other new content set to release over the next few months, many of these features are focused on getting you prepared for more epic adventures on Nexus (and making sure that you look good doing it). Here are some of the highlights:

Creating Level 50s: Players can purchase and create level-50 characters, allowing them to jump directly into max-level content. These characters will provide you with all of the necessary gear and system upgrades, along with some additional goodies to make sure you’re prepped for your big adventure on Nexus.
Multi-Queuing: This long-awaited feature will allow you to queue up for multiple instances, either solo or as a group. We’re excited to get this feature out there, but we’re going to need your help testing it and getting it ready to go. More info on that (and a special reward if you do) below.
New Race/Class Combinations: We’re adding two new race/class combinations to WildStar—Chua Warrior and Aurin Engineer. Sword-wielding space hamsters and gun-toting tree huggers are finally here!
Race and Gender Changes: You’ll be able to change your race and gender inside the Chop Shop in this update. Been wanting to change that battle-scarred Draken Male into a highborn Cassian female? Don’t let your dreams be dreams.
Path Master: You’ll also be able to learn and level up additional Paths, and switch between them any time you want. Become a super-smart explorer who likes to build stuff and blow it up at the same time!
More Account-Wide Offerings: We’re making Protostar Promissory Notes (reputation turn-in items) into an account-wide currency that can be used by all of your characters, along with making a number of AMP and Ability Tier Points account tradeable. Altaholics assemble!
Enhanced Arcterra Rewards: We are releasing some enhanced gear and other rewards to the Arcterra Soulfrost vendors, allowing players to get better prepared for veteran expeditions, dungeons and raids.
As I said above, the Heroes Evolved update is now live on the PTR (download the PTR client here), and ready for you to help us test it. And if you do, you could get a Battlesworn costume back in the live game. We need to put the new multi-queuing feature through its paces, and we’re going to need your help. We’ll be organizing community playtests of the multi-queuing feature on the PTR, and those who participate during the specified times will be rewarded (along with the personal satisfaction that you have contributed to the success of one of WildStar’s coolest new features). Head over here for the details.

Last but not least, don’t forget that the Redmoon Terror—WildStar’s next raid—is also coming in August, along with some other new and exciting content that we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

I want to end this update by giving a special shout out to the WildStar community for your passion and continued support. You have all really stepped up to help all of our new players, and have created a fun and welcoming environment where everyone can enjoy all the great things that the game has to offer. Team WildStar sends out a heartfelt “Thank You!” for your efforts.

See you all on Nexus!

Pappy

[Edge-]

Multi-queueing...finally. Now to hope people actually start using the automated LFG system.
Path master sounds great! I'm willing to bet it's a paid feature, but I dig being able to have all paths on a single character.

The rest of the stuff I think we've known about. Update looks solid, and honestly I wish it had launched alongside Steam. Would have put the game on much stronger footing to capitalize on the Steam launch.

Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/WildStar/co...nge_new_class/

Pricing. Looks like character recustomization is a bit over $10, not bad. New paths are under $5 which is solid...and the new class/race combinations need to be purchased for a bit over $10 and character boost is just shy of $50...

[Tryuk]

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/ne...update-on-ptr/ Source for better readability

Redmoon Terror in August? That's cool

Multiple paths? Everyone have fun leveling up scientist :P

Honestly though, the path system needs to be revisited eventually -- if Wildstar survives long enough (EDIT: I'm talking one or two years down the road). It is nice to know we'll get the new combos and multiqueuing in the next patch though, overall this is stuff the Wildstar really needs. Also, if I'm reading it right, the increased rewards from Arcterra likely means that gear you can get from it will be good enough to immediately get you in GA, interesting. I never really treated W* as that much of a gear grind, but changing that will smooth out the pre-raid gearing process quite a bit, which I find to be the worst gear grind (can't do much about the SD grind, that's why it's the gatekeeper of DS). That said, I'd rather dungeons give better gear than Arcterra. Right now they're the same, except for gadgets, but that change would make Arcterra more rewarding than dungeons.

[Deleted]

I'll hold my hand up and say I was wrong thinking the boost was aimed at new players! With the holding back of cross faction queues and the inclusion of 2 new classes, this is 95% aimed at existing players, in the hope they'd pay rather than level another char.

[Edge-]

I'll hold my hand up and say I was wrong thinking the boost was aimed at new players! With the holding back of cross faction queues and the inclusion of 2 new classes, this is 95% aimed at existing players, in the hope they'd pay rather than level another char.

Wow, I didn't notice that they'd committed any reference to the cross faction queues from the post. Hopefully they can get it added before the patch goes live.

[zito]

You have to pay to level up a new path.... why....?

$50 for a character boost? lolololol you might as well... oh wait buy a game or better yet don't skip the game you are currently playing lol

It's like they made leveling so bad they hope people cave in and buy it

[Edge-]

You have to pay to level up a new path.... why....?

It's not that expensive, and its adding new paths to an existing character. It's similar to SWTOR allowing you to purchase additional profession slots.

It's like they made leveling so bad they hope people cave in and buy it

Leveling has been kinda a mess from day one, long before selling lvl 50 boosts was likely even a glimmer in anyone's eye. They could have really benefited from reducing the amount of leveling content and putting more at end-game, and removing the time spent on tasks altogether.

[Deleted]

Wow, I didn't notice that they'd committed any reference to the cross faction queues from the post. Hopefully they can get it added before the patch goes live.

Just another typo blunder from Carbine I guess https://twitter.com/manuchaudemon/st...71033001189376

[Kelimbror]

Probably will not play until Shade's Eve at a minimum, because I am a sucker for cool holidays and I gotta say that it's one of the better Halloween ones. Though it has stiff competition as I always, always get back into LotRO to do their Harvestmath stuff and then geek out all through Christmas b/c it just feels right. Then there is GW2 who does a bang up Halloween/Christmas, though it hasn't changed much in years. October is when my MMO obsession goes into overdrive.

Maybe Carbine can get out a content patch with non raid end game before then, but I won't hold my breath.