Refunds seem highly unlikely anyway and I wouldn't see why Three Rings would be obligated to do so if they did drop the cost. Regardless of the decision, players who forked over 1800 ce did so of their own volition.

I agree Nicoya, if they were to reduce the cost of SL keys, there should be no refunds. This would not be too popular but that’s how life is. It's like buying the latest games console on the day it came out or waiting a year and getting it at half the price – no refund given there. They should take the hit, reduce SL key prices and deal with the forum being overloaded with complaints. People have short memories and it would all blow over in a month or two.
EDIT: Wow, 3 comments made as I was typing.

Hmmm... you do have a point, nicoya. Oh well. I think in my opinion, price should not change but we should be able to do the Shadow Lair as many times as you like. 1800 ce to unlock 1 of 4 shadow lairs sounds good to me.

The Shadow Key systems sucks.

It was worse before when you had to gamble for it through the Lock Boxes where the drop rate was so super low it was like a scam. It's somewhat better now that you can buy it from the vendors, but the price is too high even when split between 4 people. Having done all the Shadow Lairs myself, it's not worth it. The amount of crowns you get, the ever devaluing SL material, the potential cost of revives you have to do, and the mediocre SL gear doesn't justify the cost. If you drop from the party you can't get back in without GM help. If somebody has to leave, nobody can then join to fill the empty spot.

They need to either lower the cost of the Shadow Keys, or make it a permanent unlock to the Shadow Lair.

This is going to be stupid if they make future missions asking you to go into the Shadow Lairs and still need to use a key for it.

Why did they move this thread to the suggestion section? Probably to hide this thread because most people probably don't browse the suggestion section.

One of the biggest problems I think is that the shadow lairs seem very difficult. For instance, i knew someone who was just doing rabid snarby and he apparently failed. That, is disconcerting, because I recall him being tier 3 and crap.

Thus, it's a huge investment, low rewards, and high risk of failure. Darkfire vanaduke is immune to shiver and is apparently much stronger. Kind of not worth it.

Shadow Lairs were designed for the end-game players. That is, the players who have ammassed a bunch of wealth in some form or another, have large collections of gear, etc... If you can't afford to split the cost of a Shadow Key (in my experience, most people charge 250-350CE per person), then you are not in the group they were designed for. Just like some people didn't like the accessories because they didn't want to play dress-up with their characters. They were not the group that update was designed for.

This thread can roughly be broken down into "I want to live in a mansion, those things look fun! But I only want to pay the price of a regular house! Make mansions cheaper." If you can't pay the price to live in a mansion, you are not the type of person they build mansions for.

And no, I'm not being elitist. I hope each and every one of you (who hasn't already) reaches the point of being able to run Shadow Lairs without much concern for the cost. The more the merrier. I just think you should earn it first. Grind FSC to earn money. Learn the market. Get really lucky with crafting and selling UV's. Break out the Credit/Debit card, buy some CE, and support the game you're playing. Earn the money somehow, it doesn't matter how. The barrier to entry is not that high, and you will realize that once you hop over it.

(Oh, and Snarbolax Armor is definitely worth crafting. Shadow Defense + Sword Damage Bonus makes those Fiend levels easier.)

I'd be fine with shadow keys if they reduced the cost a bit (maybe to 1000 ce or something), and made them reusable.
Ooh, or made them cost 25,000 crowns or something. A decent crown dump?

I agree with Rawrcakes, in that the current moderation format is uninformative and seems designed to hide moderation decisions from players. A moderator should be obligated to at least post a short description to the thread to explain why they've moved a thread, redacted a post, or otherwise used mod tools.

Also, would it be too much to ask that, when a thread is moved, its old spot in the "wrong" forum links to the new thread and stops bumping the dead link in the old forum? Just a thought. Not sure if your webtubes are set up for that, OOO.

Yes, but mansions have a lot of other costs associated with living in them. Taxes, increased upkeep cost, increased utility bills, cost of security to keep people from robbing it, and so on. One does not simply buy a mansion and then live in it. Regular houses have those costs too, but they're much less costly. Let me put it this way - if running the regular clockworks is living in a normal house, then running on Mist would be living on welfare, running on CE would be paying for your house yourself, and running the Shadow Lairs would be paying to live in a much nicer house, which is obviously going to be much more expensive.

Also, everyone is directly saying "lower the cost of Shadow Lairs, because they're too expensive," but the obvious implication is "lower the cost of Shadow Lairs, because I want to be able to run them." If they're not more fun/better in some way, why do people want to run them?

Also, @Sniperjoe, I completely agree. No need for it to be copied in both forum sections. Probably a failing of the forum software.

"...if running the regular clockworks is living in a normal house, then running on Mist would be living on welfare, running on CE would be paying for your house yourself, and running the Shadow Lairs would be paying to live in a much nicer house, which is obviously going to be much more expensive."

Sorry I still think your analogy is still flawed. The elevator costs for the regular clockworks and shadow lairs are the same....whether paying by ME or CE. If you going to say living in a mansion costs more than living in a house.....then the number of deaths and revive costs covers that. In general, people die less in the regular clockworks and they die more in the Shadow Lairs.

So with that covered, my earlier analogy stands. The Shadow Lairs are just the same houses that are crammed full of more furniture with an extra room (Unknown Passage) with a closet (Sanctuary) for the price of a Mansion that you can only use once.