Blueprints- Event upgrades-currency

[SoggyShorts]

Summary:
Gain blueprints from selling event buildings, and use blueprints to buy upgraded event buildings.

Description:
While we know very little about what (if anything) the upcoming "Blueprints" feature will be used for other than upgrading Magical Residences/Workshops, I have an idea that might make them appealing to everyone.

What if selling an event building gave you some blueprints? Let's say 2 per chapter level. So a Father Tree that you got in chapter 4 would give you 8 blueprints. Then, since you have "unlocked" the Father tree, you could buy it/build it at any time and it would scale to your current chapter-- BUT at a cost of 4 blueprints per chapter level.
To sum up:

• Gain an event building in chapter 4,
• Sell event building for 8 blueprints, and "unlock" that building
• Reach chapter 5
• Buy event building that you previously "unlocked" for 20 blueprints

Motivation:
Buildings serve 2 purposes in Elvenar;

• Making your city look good/unique
• Enhancing your city's efficiency by giving you goods/pop/supplies/culture.

Ideally a building should do both, and most event buildings do...for a while. As you progress you will "outgrow" these buildings, and have to choose whether to replace them with more efficient ones, or keep them. Also some event buildings might be seen as "seasonal", and not everyone wants a snowman year round.

Possible Downsides:
Obviously the number of blueprints needed for upgrading Magic buildings, and the number you can win from tournaments would need to reflect this balance, that's why I'm making a suggestion before they come out and it's possibly too late.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

An interesting idea. Definitely worth thinking about, since the event-buildings get outdated, but one doesn't get anything in return when selling them, so it's a hard thing to do for many players. All the more so because they invested a lot of effort in getting them.

But with the amount of blueprints you suggest there should be some other way of getting them, or at least some of them, since otherwise one will very likely run into a gap between the amount of blueprintes needed and those available.
On the other hand, I have a lot of buildings from past events that I never placed. Either because lack of space or because they just didn't look right to me, or because I felt I had other buildings performing better. But I have been 'lucky' in getting a lot of these buildings, other players may not have been.
However, if one could place them and sell them for blueprints it suddenly would be interesting to place them if only to sell them right away.

Not to mention that this way such buildings can be upgraded, which makes them a lot more fun.

 

[SoggyShorts]

But with the amount of blueprints you suggest there should be some other way of getting them, or at least some of them, since otherwise one will very likely run into a gap between the amount of blueprintes needed and those available.

Right, my thinking on this was that it has to cost more blueprints to get an event building back than you get from selling it, otherwise it's just free storage.
Likewise I felt that selling a few old buildings in exchange for an upgraded one was a fair trade.
Then there is the new tournament system which can hopefully reward blueprints to fill that "gap"
Finally, there's always the possibility that INNO will make blueprints available for diamonds, which is fine by me, and another source of revenue for them.

 

[WolfSinger]

I like this idea - would LOVE it if it was also applied to diamond culture. That way when diamond culture has become obsolete - you get a little something back for it as well.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I like this idea - would LOVE it if it was also applied to diamond culture. That way when diamond culture has become obsolete - you get a little something back for it as well.

That could work too, as long as premium culture is better than event culture.
If you could sell premium culture and use the blueprints to buy better event culture that would remove the incentive to buy more premium culture, which I'm sure doesn't work from Inno's perspective.

 

[WolfSinger]

Unless you want two different types of blueprints - they would have cross usage. Many premium culture items are tie to a specific chapter so sell-back would be based on that chapter - the same as event items and purchasing new would again be based on chapter.

I do like the idea that you have to sell back the lower level item as far as event culture to unlock all variations.

Maybe premium culture items could be set up with a scale for increasing culture based on chapter and blueprints could be used for those upgrades. That way if you really love the look of a lower level premium culture item you have a way to increase it's usefulness as you advance in the game.

 

[SoggyShorts]

@WolfSinger
While I like your idea, I can't see them allowing you to buy/upgrade premium culture buildings with blueprints simply because of the revenue loss.
They might be Ok with giving blueprints from selling them though, that's at least something.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

Why not make the premium-culture also upgradable?
Add one more tech to research in the tree in each chapter above chapter 3. Optional, so not required to research it of course, specifically meant to upgrade certain premium-buildings. That can be done either by blueprints or by investing more diamonds, like with the magical workshops and residences.
Of course, there should be a difference between some of the different blueprints.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

Upgradeable premium culture has my vote for sure.
GOOD IDEA Dhurrin

 

[SoggyShorts]

@WolfSinger @Dhurrin @jps54

Why not make the premium-culture also upgradable?

The difference between upgrading premium culture and Magic res/ws is that the "next level" of premium culture is an entirely different building.
Event buildings and Magic res/ws already have a built in upgrade in that they have higher level versions that already exist.

While I personally agree that upgrading premium culture might work, I didn't want it added to this idea simply because I think it's a much harder sell.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

Though I agree the regular cultural buildings can be replaced by better ones that become available in the higher chapters, I personally feel the premium-cultural buildings should have an option of being upgraded. Even if only because there is no refund at all for selling them, while they have been paid for by real money. (There is a post about that topic, where I made the case of at the very least refunding an amount of supplies for selling them).
It's a shame these buildings become obsolete and then have to be scrapped, getting noting in return. Giving them an option to be upgraded (like 3 chapters after getting them, and then once more 3 chapters further ahead) will not only be an additional way of gaining income for Innogames, it also will give players an option to keep the buildings useful.

 

[DeletedUser3640]

Gain blueprints from selling event buildings, and use blueprints to buy upgraded event buildings.

Event buildings are technically "free" and really easy to obtain. Blueprints cost diamonds and most likely won't be an easiest things to get.

Optimistic suggestion.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Event buildings are technically "free" and really easy to obtain. Blueprints cost diamonds and most likely won't be an easiest things to get. Optimistic suggestion.

Blueprints cost diamonds? That makes no sense. If the only thing that blueprints can do is upgrade a magic workshop, and you can already do that for diamonds, why would you buy blueprints for diamonds?

If, as per the earlier announcement, Blueprints are the big prize for reaching a certain checkpoint in FS tournaments, without this suggestion(or something similar) what is the point of BPs for non-paying players?

 

[DeletedUser3640]

Blueprints cost diamonds? That makes no sense. If the only thing that blueprints can do is upgrade a magic workshop, and you can already do that for diamonds, why would you buy blueprints for diamonds?

It's a common sense. The ONLY equivalent of blueprints as of now are diamonds. You can remove that pathetic blueprint symbol from the magic workshop/magic residence upgrade tab and nothing is going to change.

Each upgrade on those buildings costs 320 diamonds, or 1 blueprint. Draw a parallel, it's not that hard.

If, as per the earlier announcement, Blueprints are the big prize for reaching a certain checkpoint in FS tournaments, without this suggestion(or something similar) what is the point of BPs for non-paying players?

There's no point of BPs for non-paying players.

 

[DeletedUser5251]

There's no point of BPs for non-paying players

In the announcement for fellowship based tournaments they discussed how Blue Prints would be earned during the tournaments.

You may have the option to purchase them with diamonds, but that would be unnecessary because they were only created to give players that bought magical residences and workshops a way to upgrade them without buying more diamonds.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Each upgrade on those buildings costs 320 diamonds, or 1 blueprint. Draw a parallel, it's not that hard.

Obviously if Blueprints only upgrade Magic buildings they will have a diamond "value", that is not the same as "costing" diamonds. In fact there's a huge difference because players will be getting BPs without spending RL$$. You could say that KPs are "worth 45 diamonds each" since that is what they cost, but because you can obtain them in other ways, and cannot trade them for other diamond items it's a false equivalency.

Just because you can save 320 diamonds on an upgrade with a BP does not make a BP worth 320 diamonds. You are assuming that A) The player has something to upgrade, and B) that there is nothing better to spend diamonds on. If a blueprint gave you 10 KP, would you say it is equal to 450 diamonds? It's not a simple parallel.

There's no point of BPs for non-paying players.

That's kinda the whole point of this thread. The announcement on FS tournaments implied that BP would be the top prize, and having the top prize be useless for the vast majority of players isn't going to go over well.

 

[DeletedUser3640]

Obviously if Blueprints only upgrade Magic buildings they will have a diamond "value", that is not the same as "costing" diamonds. In fact there's a huge difference because players will be getting BPs without spending RL$$. You could say that KPs are "worth 45 diamonds each" since that is what they cost, but because you can obtain them in other ways, and cannot trade them for other diamond items it's a false equivalency.

I highly doubt that blueprints will be as easy to get as extra KPs, just because, you know, they will require an effort of whole FS to get them. But hey, maybe that's just me, and we will get tons of them from tournaments! Your optimism is so inspiring.

That's kinda the whole point of this thread.

Whole point if this thread is for players and devs to agree or disagree with your suggestion. You didn't ask players for their thoughts and their ideas, you made your own.

In fact, I really, really like your suggestion. I'd sell all my event buildings asap, just to upgrade all my magic residences and workshops, because that would save me a lot of time and....ehem, money. But that will never happen.

The announcement on FS tournaments implied that BP would be the top prize, and having the top prize be useless for the vast majority of players isn't going to go over well.

It's the same thing when people were whining about Summer Solstice event, because they couldn't get the top grand prize without paying diamonds. Did devs do anything about that? No, they did not. That prize was just for paying playerbase who opened their wallets.

"Useless" blueprints will incentivize players to spend some money and then build magic residences/workshops to put their "useless" blueprints into some kind of use.

Nothing is going to change in tournaments area though, people will do tournaments for the same reasons they do them now: KPs; relics; rune shards and ranking points.
_________________________________________________________________

I absolutely love the idea about upgradeable event buildings, just without all this selling event buildings for blueprints nonsense.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Whole point if this thread is for players and devs to agree or disagree with your suggestion.

I made a suggestion for how we could make blueprints useful for the entire playerbase, that's why I found your comment that blueprints are not useful for everyone....not helpful.
If I had suggested that we should be allowed to cancel scouts, and you said "we can't cancel scouts" that would be equally helpful.

I'd sell all my event buildings asap, just to upgrade all my magic residences and workshops, because that would save me a lot of time and....ehem, money. But that will never happen.

This is a valid issue, but could be avoided by adjusting how many BP are gained/needed. For example if you wanted to sell 10 Winter stars so you could upgrade 1 workshop, go ahead. I am by no means suggesting a 1:1 trade off at all.

Summer Solstice event, because they couldn't get the top grand prize without paying diamonds. Did devs do anything about that? No, they did not.

Actually they made the second prize a 100% guarantee instead of a 1 in 1,000 chance, so.... progress?

"Useless" blueprints will incentivize players to spend some money and then build magic residences/workshops to put their "useless" blueprints into some kind of use.

From all of the articles I've read on "FTP" games there is a huge portion of the playerbase that will never change their spending habits. So while a few may be enticed to buy a Magic building instead of something else, I doubt the bottom line will be greatly impacted.

Nothing is going to change in tournaments area though, people will do tournaments for the same reasons they do them now: KPs; relics; rune shards and ranking points.

Maybe in your FS, but if the group rewards have a great benefit for everyone then some teams will focus much more on tourneys and perhaps push harder for the greater good of the FS and the new rewards.

 

[Crystal01]

I like your idea soggy! In no rush to sell mine but that would certainly help!

 

[DeletedUser3507]

Too many in my FS are maxed and don't want to keep a size able army necessary for tourneys.
Oh well this may or may not change, but I doubt it.

Out of 25 players at least 20 are in wood elves.