Triple O Announces on 2-01-12:
The Supply Depot
The Supply Depot is a new feature that is connected to the mission interface. The Supply Depot is a place where players can purchase items associated with missions with energy. This includes accessories, weapons, gear, upgrades and even energy packs.
One of the things we’ve learned from player feedback and our data is that item availability is an issue for many new players. Finding what you need is important and the Supply Depot will allow you to never miss the item you need.
However, items in the Supply Depot must be earned. Items are added to your personal Supply Depot as you rank up.
Lastly, it's worth noting that the Supply Depot is built to exist in a world where crafting and unbinding is an important part of Spiral Knights. It is our expectation that the players that choose to use the Supply Depot will be active crafters, unbinders and Auction House patrons like our current players.
Actions:
Create a supply Depot that sales gear at every level cheaper than an actual player can EVEN UNBIND (not to even begin to consider mats and recipe costs).
Now, you'll notice they throw on this little beauty at the end " It is our expectation that the players that choose to use the Supply Depot will be active crafters, unbinders and Auction House patrons like our current players." REALLY? Come now, how could they possibly begin to believe that these players would engage in these activities? They say this so that they can then play stupid as players voice their displeasure at todays actions. So they believe that people will by 5* gear for 3500 ce, unbind it for 4000 ce and then engage in interpersonal trades and AH? uh...no they don't.
Furthermore, this is an intelligent and intentional design to cut out all player to player trading, more or less. Tell me, three rings, how can i possible create, unbind, and sell gear for less then, or even @ 3500 ce and not lose my @** on every transaction? The only pieces that will have any value now will be the token items, as they as of yet do not have a stupid cheap priced one in depot.
So triple O admits to understanding the importance of the player economy, admits to receiving the feedback of how important this is to us, and then they go off and completely undermine it.
Now, i realize a vast percentage of players won't be quite intelligent enough to connect the dots to how these is a willful and malicious destruction of the interactive player economy, and i already know which of those "below-the-line" players will come in with QQ and "I don't see the issue," posts. But to the reasoning, big-picture few who get it, this is unquestionably an underhanded move made from underhanded motives.
Please OOO explain to me how your announcement and your actions are not a direct contradiction to one another.
p.s. i guess on the brightside, i have all max UV'd weapons and armors, all i'd ever need or want. 85% of you don't understand this yet, but vh ctr weapons, max UV'd armors, these things are about to get 100x more rare, and cost 10x more going forward. Wait and watch, its coming. That is, of course, until OOO sees that some few are eeking out a profit on this, then they'll "fix" that too. And either let you buy UVs or Put them in AH for cheaper than players can realistically achieve themselves.
OOO whats a 3 part economy. They make and sell, you play, you use your credit card. A world where players barter and swap, and interact with one another is not something that entices them. They'll stock the shelves, you'll need your credit card to leave the store with goods.
I don't mind at all OOO trying to make profit and maximize profits, but to destroy the inter-player commerce is more or less unforgivable, as its 80% of the endgame content for anyone who has done FSC 5million times, and already tiring of Seerus.
And yes, there is a disappointing amount of complaints leveled with most new updates. I believe the vast vast majority comes due to the fact that three rings blatantly ignores the age old addage "if its not broke, don't fix it." There was not a thing broke with the currents system, yet, we just saw a wide-sweeping changes that need not have been made.
I understand that in their view, the system was broke for what they wanted when they made the waaaay back 5-17 changes. But the current system we had, and the economy that had sprung from it, was not broken in any way, at least, not in any real way. The only way that it didn't "work" was that too much ce, crowns, and items were exchanging hands, rather than disappearing completely. This change makes it harder for ce, items, and crowns to exchange hands between players. Now, insted of 5000 ce going from one player to another for a clean item, 3500 ce will go from one player to OOO and effectively be sucked from the world, lest someone charges a credit card to put it back into existance.
Whereas a new player used to come along, give OOO thier money for ce, then give another player CE to buy their way to end game, now they give OOO their money, and then they give that CE right back to OOO for endgame gear. (even in the previous example, OOO was swiping 4k ce for every unbind. but still, 2k ce was going through the player's hands. we cannot have that.)