Create periodic free partner change on Earrings of Sinope

Silvarien

This has been suggested before, and I will say I've suggested it before -- but I don't think in this case the status quo should be allowed to remain.

IRE remains financially healthy through credit purchases, and it stands to reason that the more credits are bought, the better. Earrings of Sinope, while being one of the most powerful artefacts in Achaea, also have the most powerful handicap -- their useability almost invariably gets destroyed over time.

The fact is, people change allegiances, go dormant, retire, or rupture previously steady relationships. An Earring of Sinope, while being extremely useful, becomes literally useless through any one of these events. There are usually arrangements between parties to split the cost of the Earring, but there are flaws in this because one of the parties is the actual owner and there are all sorts of problems that can arise with getting a new earring partner, such as that partner not having the credits for a retune or problems in rectifying the Earring of Sinope split once the old partner is no longer interested in the Earring partnership. Much more alarming is the fact that buying tons of Earrings, while seeming extremely useful is in reality extremely useless. I have the maximum number of earrings wearable, 22. I used to stand in Rally Point as some sort of virtual O'Hare, with people using the Earring to come get out of danger. With time, most of them went dormant or left Targossas for another City. Some of my Earrings were tuned to Cyrenians, most if not all of those are dormant too.

It would cost me 2,200 credits just to retune these things. And should I spend these credits, there is the fact that later the same process will necessitate another 2,200 cr being spent then.

The only recourse I have is to make the new earring partners pay for the tuning change, at 100 cr per earring. Some people have that -- some don't. Earring owners, I think, would find it nice if they had some periodic ability to switch partners for free without racking up these enormous costs. I have no doubt that many people chose not to buy Earrings for this reason. I also have no doubt that many high-spending people chose not to have the maximum number of Earrings for this reason too. The only person I know who also has the max number is Jhui. This is telling, since the Earring is one of the most potent combat-related items. But given the retuning problems, I would never recommend buying a large number of them. A bizarre problem is left by which a very potent combat artefact has a powerful factor recommending against mass-buying, which I would think IRE would be interested in solving. If I could go back and do things again, this is one of the purchasing decisions I am quite certain I would not have made again.

The only way to solve this problem is to give Earring owners a periodic free retune of the Earring. This would seem to eat into IRE revenues because the 100 cr retunes would decrease, but it would actually drastically INCREASE IRE revenues because buying Earrings -- and also buying huge numbers of Earrings -- would start to make sense where currently it does not.

Klendathu

Seems like it would only benefit a very few. It is only 100 cr for a retune and, aside from yourself, who has 22 earings of Sinope?

Silvarien

Klendathu said:

Seems like it would only benefit a very few. It is only 100 cr for a retune and, aside from yourself, who has 22 earings of Sinope?

Well, there are many storied warriors in Achaea, past and present. I think more people would have 22 earrings with each one being forever useful instead of each being made useless periodically. And "only" 100 cr per retune may not be a problem for you or me, but it is a problem for some people, and that 100 cr thingie adds up if you consider that it's not a one-time cost and if you factor in how many people come and go between Cities, and between active playing and dormancy. Once you buy an artefact, you should have that artefact. 800 cr in the artie shop is already a high cost, it's very restrictive if you start piling that periodic 100 cr atop that initial 800.

Ahmet

I think if someone retires, then you should be able to retune it, otherwise that's just one of the risks of buying an artefact like that. *shrug*

Silvarien

Ahmet said:

I think if someone retires, then you should be able to retune it, otherwise that's just one of the risks of buying an artefact like that. *shrug*

Well, yeah, it's a risk, but that also means people aren't going to buy it as much and it's not contributing to the game or to IRE's profits. Paying 800 in the shop with the knowledge that's going to turn into a 1500 cr or something total cost will give people pause.

Kiskan

You could do some kind of scaling discount for people who own lots, but earrings aren't well-loved in any IRE game as it is, and 100 credits to change partner is already a pittance in terms of each set.  It is why earrings are as prevalent as they are already here, because people don't have to breach that 800 credit paywall each and every time (which some of the games do require).

Szanthax

I wish I had the rights to mine and estachs ring...could have sworn I bought it. 

I've maintained my earrings though... I quickly switched my @Lyr earring for @Tesha when he went dormant for a month.

I might pay 100credits for a ring at rally point or cuteness

Borran

You're right. Delete earrings.