Well, the store sells boosts, so "the full experience of the game" is always open to debate, as with any game that resorts to selling boosts.
Huh? Boosts? care to explain? the armor and weapons are not better only the designs/skins may look better, but that is not everybody's opinion. Ok, bigger lot deeds and homes maybe, but not needed to play the game, and what you get for free is more than good enough! Kind of lost what you mean by boosts.
Those can be purchased for gold from a players vendor, so still obtainable without spending money. But the $9 subscription adds to the power of those potions... That's the only thing I know of, that you must spend $ on to get.
The Obsidian potions. If you catch a top level player running around, you'll notice they are usually loaded with them. Increased carry weight to maximize how long they can grind, learning speed to substantially reduce how much material they need to grind crafting skill, etc. Add to that the prosperity tools for better harvesting and crafting in general. Basically, if you are willing to pay for the tools and set of potions each week, you can grind better and learn faster raising the question of whether or not a free player is receiving "the full experience of the game" or whether that is hidden behind a paywall.
Nah. You can tame a mount yourself and have an immense carrying capacity riding it. There is stuff like girdles of the ox or items you can craft yourself that have +STR like heavy iron belts or iron rings or armour with STR enchantment as one of many and the STR spell in the earth school and with more STR youre carrying capacity raises too. Not to speak of that you do not NEED to farm stuff as long and can unload once you reach your maximum carrying capacity. It is convenient but neither necessary nor decisive. Learning speed, there is the fountain of learning in Atos that lets you train there and spend the XP 100% faster, there are cookies and the Petit Four that lets you spend XP 25% faster, so neither is the obsidian potion necessary nor decisive for playing. Harvesting and Crafting - you can craft better equipment and tools yourself ingame than the artisan or prosperity tools - the real advantage is not the +% of them but that they are indestructible and even that is convenient but neither necessary nor decisive.
Yet you never see someone with the full stack of GMs running without multiples. "But you can get as good as the premium players if you just work hard enough" is a lie as old as selling boosts, but the dirty little secret is, the premium players can also use all the tricks free players can, in addition to their premium boosts.
Nothing dirty about encouraging people to help pay to keep the game running imo... All the "boosts" are time savers only
No - if you use artisan or prosperity tools then you enjoy their benefits but you can´t use self crafted tools with better stats at the same time. It would not even make sense because either you value the longevity of the storebought tools or the higher values of the self-crafted tools that have a limited durability. Noone is dual-wielding A fishing rod of prosperity and a gravured bronze fishing rod or such.
So with swift gathering, Meticulous gathering and fast learning potions, exactly how much quick are those premium players going to get those top level tools and how much longer are they going to last when they are willing to major repair them? If SotA wants to sell boosts, fine, moonlighting as a Korean MMO has only helped kill most of the MMOs that have tried it, exceptions exist. The point I was contesting is that you can get "the full experience" without paying, which I don't believe is the case, due boosts and other factors related to the cash shop.
You move the goalposts. First it was about not being able to win the game without paying, not being able to play the game and now it´s only left to "not being able to achieve the same as other players who buy potions in the COTO store in the same time"... Meticulous gathering and swift gathering are skills that anyone can train. There are several ingame items whose name elude me at the moment - Belt of the brutal butcher? Forrester Girdle? that add to meticulous chance or gathering speed. Skills are limited at 200 so regardless what combination of learned skills and equipment one uses they don´t do anthing beyond 200. So again - not necessary to play the game, not decisive to gameplay.
No, I always said the question was whether free players could get "the full game experience", go back and read my first comment.
If your definition of the word "the full experience" includes the various Obsidian Potions: Obsidian Potions are consumable items that can be purchased from Player Vendors with in game gold. They can also be purchased in the in game Crown Shop with Crowns of the Obsidians, which players can also sometimes find in game as well. You can also purchase Crowns of the Obsidians from Player Vendors with in game gold.
Yes, and considering a potion lasts 7 days, how much of those 7 days would you have to devote to grinding the gold needed to buy those potions, or the crowns needed to buy them, and does that time sink prevent you from getting "the full experience of the game" that premium players that don't have to go through that process get?
To expand on that, Obsidian potion rewards are currently selling for 8,250 gold in Novia Market right now. x4 = 33k gold. That's less than say 350 gold / silver or wood (take your pick) - my week old alt could gather that in an hour
What scenes are you going into to obtain in game gold? Where does in game gold come from? What scenes are you going into to obtain Crowns of the Obsidians? Where do Crowns of the Obsidians come from in game? That is entirely dependent on you and specifically your perception of time. You also seem to imply that one must use these Obsidian Potions? I only use them when Double XP is on! And mine like crazy! Does every single person playing Shroud of the Avatar require the purchase of various Obsidian Potions? The factual, accurate and actual answer to that questions is: No
