EP Shop Remodel

EP Shop Restructure/Changes

Okay so let's face it...the EP shop has been stale since about the time we got the new black market update and got free crate tickets. It's been the same crates for a long time and not much EP has been given out each month in events. Instead it's been trickle in EP for weekend playtime but in order to get ALL of that EP you gotta play a loooonnnnnggggg time.

So I figured i'd toss my hand into the ideas for suggestions on how to change it and make it serve a purpose. Yes this is going to be a book.

EP Shop Content
So first off the purpose of the EP Shop was so that instead of rewarding us particular crates for event rewards they could reward us EP and WE could then choose what 'reward' we wanted out of what would be listed. That was a great idea and while some of the weapon crates pricing is a bit odd (looking at you AWM Magma) it served a good purpose. Obviously with the introduction of Free Crate Tickets into the in-game system that makes the out of game EP shop a little less awesome because it's essentially the same idea but more options and better ones than the randoms picked out for the EP Shop.

So that more or less means the EP shop needs a change of purpose. So instead of considering it a place where we can get any crates...I think we should consider it more of a Crate Graveyard. It, to a large extent, is already demonstrating this in that most of the weapons available in there have been 'discontinued' or rather are no longer available on the ingame black market to be purchased. So why not make the crates available in the EP Shop be ALL of that kind? Include any crate that has been given a 'goodbye/goodbuy/farewell' (note: Limited Time crates will not appear as they are not 'Goodbye/Farewells') and taken off and add it into the EP Shop. Now the EP Shop isn't just a rewards place it's a place where you can still manage to get weapons that have been discontinued. This makes EP serve a different function than what Free Crate Tickets could ever supply as FCTs only allow you to choose what exists on the BM currently.
The only drawback is that some people will be all "It was Farewell for a REASON! Those crates are suppose to be gone!" But yet....many of them still exist anyways on the EP shop as it is.....and a lot of them come back for events....and there's still quite a few people who would like to have some of those weapons.

Now, to further the EP shop inventory. I think the addition of the M4 Silver and AK Silver were great ideas however, perhaps it can be done on a monthly basis? Every month ONE weapon that was in the BP shop before it was discontinued and maybe even some of the weapons that were set as Permanent Coupon weapons in the past, can make an appearance for no less than 100k EP. This would give people a way to get old time, but fairly nice weapons but it'd require them to save their EPs up each month. As let's face it....EP isn't dished out often anymore.

Which brings us to the next point....

Acquiring EP
We need more events that give out EP. While the Monthly Weekend Event certainly CAN dish out a fair amount of EP if you play every weekend and all of the days for the full amount of time that'd give you the max EP....most people simply just can't. And many of the ones who do are the typical farmers that you see botting in HMX during weekends often even with room names saying it's for the weekend EP. So actual events for the EP would be better for MOST real players. I'd like to see 50k EP a month on average from actual events personally. 50k Would allow a player to save up for whatever might show up as a perm within a 2 month period and it's also a fair amount for dedicated CF play IMO.
This can be done though 1-4 events each month but it shouldn't include the EP given out by the monthly weekend events.

On top of this, I'd like to discuss the thought (which has been suggested a few times before and once recently already in suggestions) of getting a bit of EP for some ZP purchases kind of like how we used to get back some BP for ZP purchases when the BP shop was around. Personally I don't think it should be much, as many people already have access to the Razer pay option and there's often a razer rack going on that provides bonus crates as it is. But if they did something like 5% EP from your purchase on 20k ZP or more i'd be fine with that. It's not much per ZP purchase but it's something that gives back. OR bonus EP this way could be set up as a promotional for using a particular pay option or even just as an event.

But Wait there's more!

Purchase Changes/Checking Out
Right now in the EP shop when you buy something you buy packs. So if you have a lot of EP and you want to buy a lot of crates....it's nice when you see packs of 10 crates...but some of the current crate options don't have a 10 crate pack available. This makes buying them in bulk QUITE annoying and time consuming. At the very least we need bulk options for these, however, I'd like to suggest to the team to give us an option of having a Shopping Cart like we did for the Black Friday sale. It'd make things much simpler on the purchaser side.

Also
I'd also like to point another suggestion out as I thought it was interesting and could use more discussion and is related to changes that could be made to the EP shop:
http://forum.z8games.com/showthread.php?333499-A-Deal-With-Santa!-(-Limited-EP-Event-Offer-) <- suggestion by [GGamer]

More or less GGamer's suggestion was to create a 'credit line' of sorts for large* EP purchases. So say there's a permanent reward for 100k EP but you only have 60k EP....you'd be able to buy the 100k EP item BUT it'd leave you with -40k EP which means you won't be using the EP shop until your debt is payed off. Now we can expand the idea in that the older your game account or the more purchases you've done already....the higher your 'credit line' is. So for example...a brand new account might only get a credit line of 10k EP. But someone who's played for a long time and has a purchase history or perhaps has been known to play EP based events, could have a credit line of like 50k.
While I think it's an interesting suggestion, it does present a lot more coding for Z8's team that manages the website/shop and it's connectivity to the game servers. But certainly worth discussing more in my opinion.

*When I say large I mean for things as outlined in the content section about having a permanent weapon available for 100k or more EP. So the 'credit line' would not be usable on the crates or other small purchase items.

Comments

  • Ixith wrote: »
    Now, to further the EP shop inventory. I think the addition of the M4 Silver and AK Silver were great ideas however, perhaps it can be done on a monthly basis? Every month ONE weapon that was in the BP shop before it was discontinued and maybe even some of the weapons that were set as Permanent Coupon weapons in the past, can make an appearance for no less than 100k EP. This would give people a way to get old time, but fairly nice weapons but it'd require them to save their EPs up each month. As let's face it....EP isn't dished out often anymore.

    You got me with Permanent Weapon every month or two change +1
    Ixith wrote: »
    [ I'd like to see 50k EP a month on average from actual events personally.

    More EP instead of crates as long as EP shop changes at least every 6 months +1
    Ixith wrote: »
    [I'd like to discuss the thought (which has been suggested a few times before and once recently already in suggestions) of getting a bit of EP for some ZP purchases kind of like how we used to get back some BP for ZP purchases when the BP shop was around.
    [-1]

    I am sorry to say this but it defeats the Idea [Event Points] -1
    Ixith wrote: »
    [Purchase Changes/Checking Out

    I would like to see that too, Less clicking. +1
    Ixith wrote: »
    [ 'credit line']

    This is a grey area for me for many reasons, players could take advantage of it [Permanent or crates etc] Then dissappear even if they have time to repay back. Most cases, users will use them and will not be bothered if they are removed after time. -1
  • +1 i personally liked the suggestion as a whole EXCEPT the zp part. They are different currencies and they should have different ways to get each.
  • I am sorry to say this but it defeats the Idea [Event Points] -1

    I'm kind of agree with you. But that's also why I included the part about maybe only doing it as special sales events as well. As then the aspect of getting EP back from a ZP purchase is done as an event and makes sense with the name of Event Points. ;)

    This is a grey area for me for many reasons, players could take advantage of it [Permanent or crates etc] Then dissappear even if they have time to repay back. Most cases, users will use them and will not be bothered if they are removed after time. -1

    For this, it's why they would give more 'credit' to those who have played longer/have a purchase history as new accounts can't be trusted so they'd get a small credit amount that wouldn't allow them to get much and then disappear or never pay it back. And older accounts particularly ones that paid for stuff like VIPs and ZP BM weapons are probably going to continue sticking around for awhile so giving them a somewhat larger credit line isn't as risky a move. On top of this since it gives them negative EP total then any positive EP gain they get would go to paying it off so once they use it they can't gain any more EP until it's paid off anyways so if the players who use it stick around...EVENTUALLY...it'll get paid off be it a weekend play event (if those continue) or an event that dishes out EP otherwise for doing the event. And if the player disappears...then what's the problem? it's not like anyone is losing anything from EP sales and it's not like people redeeming the monthly/bimonthly weapons would cause a decrease in rarity to them considering that if they follow this suggestion idea they'd be using weapons from BP shop and old Coupon shop items for the perms anyways so lots of people already have those things even if you don't see them much anymore.
    Though I suppose it could be set up that if you don't work on paying of the 'debt' that you face consequences like having the item removed until you do pay it off. But i dont think that's needed as I think the majority of players who will be able to use their credit to buy these will stick around and pay it off either on purpose trying to do events or not even realizing it by doing events that give EP out for play time like the weekend event.
    Also it should be noted the 'credit' option would only be usable on the big perm item. It would not be allowed to be used on crates that are in the EP shop. Not sure if i made that clear in the OP.
  • +1 I definitely would like to see the implementation of all your ideas. This is what will make our current EP shop even better.
  • It was Farewell for a REASON! Those crates are suppose to be gone!

    I'm one of the people who really enforces this. The crates are gone because people didn't want to buy them - putting them in the EP Mall is still going to make people whine about the quality of the crates in there.

    Honestly, to get people back into playing CF again, I'd go as far to say the EP Mall needs good crates like the Noble crates, but who knows what kind of outrage that would cause...

    Sigh, you can never satisfy this community, huh?
  • +1 to all except for the ZP part, I'm not sure about this, like yea if its only an event now and then, I'm ok with it, other than that(having it as a permanent thing for zp purchases), I don't think it should be done cause it basically kills the idea of Event Points as mentioned. Some people wouldn't do events at all just cause they can get free EP when they purchase ZP.

    As for my suggestion, I agree with you, it shouldn't be for crates, it should be for permanents weapons that has a price only a few can afford. I think the best way is to allow us to buy the weapon and go in debt(-EP) BUT don't give us the weapon until we pay off. So, if I had for example 70k EP and I could buy an M4a1-Silver for 100k EP then I would have -30000 EP after the purchase and I WOULDN'T get anything until I go back to positive/zero by paying off the remaining 30k.
  • I see this very difficult, but hopefully and the GMs will pay attention to your proposals

    SMT.zen