Hi again,
I want to start off by saying that the transition to the free-to-play model has been done well (for the most part). Barely anything (other than cosmetics) is monetised and the few things that are monetised (XP boosts for example), are available every 12 hours or so. It’s nice to see you guys taking great care in regards towards your monetisation methods.
However, the fact that there is only one chance to obtain a weapon blueprint every 12 hours is rather strict I feel. Good news is that there are multiple solutions to this issue already suggested by a lot of the community members here (more-blueprint reward missions, perhaps a 6-hour reward cycle instead of a 12-hour one).
I do think however the gold needed to craft some of these weapons are very expensive and seem to become more expensive as your forge level increases, I would need the community to tell me if this is correct because this seems to be the case. (For example, my forge level is 11 and common and rare weapons cost 36000 and 90000 respectively). Some of these prices exceed a good number of raiders... who come equipped with weapons of their own, lol.
I would not call myself a veteran (with tonnes of gold) in this game nor would I call myself a newer player but I have a feeling that this is going to be an issue for (right now) newer players if left ignored. Here are a couple of ideas:
Simply revert the value of common and rare weapons to ~20000 and ~40000 respectively. I understand that the increase in value was in response to how much easier acquiring blueprints are but such a drastic increase in price almost makes me wish the old system made a return... almost.
Turn “weapon blueprints” into the weapon itself. Once a player acquires a blueprint drop, allow the player to use the base (Forge level 0) variant of the weapon until they can earn the ability to upgrade the weapon towards their actual forge level once they obtain enough gold. This will not only decrease the grind for newer players looking for a new weapon to try but also allow veterans to try out a the weapon in question without using up to 90000 gold (only to find out they don’t like it or it’s too weak for example).
Allow other players to trade weapon blueprints and/or Mercury Points with each other, I think some players will appreciate the option to pay for a weapon blueprint while helping out another player.
The “raider token” idea mentioned in my last thread could help alleviate the average amount of gold a player would spend acquiring characters and instead put more focus into the acquisition of gold towards building a weapon.
I want to say again that the game at the moment is open to change, with that said I’m looking forward to see where this goes from here.