Repair prices and more

For awhile now there has been some talk regarding repair costs for legendary items and how they were too high. "Too high" is of course relative and based on the game design and data that I collect I know the cost to be fairly well balanced assuming one logs in most days and actively plays and engages with the many areas the game has to offer. What appears to be happening is managers who play every day and do many of the activities that yield gold don't have a problem. Managers who don't play frequently or only visit the arena have a tougher time. Armoury level of course helps this to some extent. The design question is do you reward players for NOT playing and being attentive to their stable, or put in the opposite, do you punish managers for not playing. Extenuating circumstances aside I think it would be great if managers logged in each day because that makes for a more active and fun community, but I understand this isn't always possible.

Over the past five years I've watched the gaming landscape transform a lot. Web based games were all rage three to five years ago and then mobile and tablets were on the rise (and still are and are king at the moment) and with it shorter attention spans. Our busy lives have created a want for short five or ten minutes of fun types of games, games that can be played for minutes per day but with high returns. Older players obviously don't have the time they once did and I understand this constraint.

When PoW was first created and launched there were just five tavern contracts and two fights per day. The idea was PoW would be a supplement to your regular gaming schedule. Some players loved this and it worked for awhile. Review sites dinged the game for it, an avalanche of complaints about not having enough to do rolled in and players quit or simply forgot about the game because there wasn't enough to do in order to get hooked when trying it out. Now there is enough to do where a manager could play all day if they wanted to but at the same time players who don't have time feel stressed and stretched. Perhaps the balance is off. I wish PoW could be all things to all people but it obviously can not, however, I have plans on the horizon that will hopefully alleviate some of this. The general idea is to allow players who just want arena combat to do that and players who want to play more and do other things will simply be rewarded for doing so instead of being punished for not. As we get closer to them being ready I'll talk more about it.

With that said, in the next update which will go live very soon I've changed the armoury upgrade to offer a 15%, 45%, and 75% discount on repair prices and in addition the repair price on legendary items is being reduced by an additional 33%. This will make it much easier for managers who can't play as much handle the finances of their stable with less in-game effort. For players who continue to play more they'll simply be rewarded for doing so. I hope this helps many of you out.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

As I just identified my very first legendary item, this update will be much appreciated, thanks for being so in-tune and truly listening to the fanbase, it's why PoW remains one of my favourite games!

Hallelujah! That means I don't have to do the pit fights anymore and maybe can even be picky about whether or not to do tavern runs. Even for a relative newcomer like me, that was getting tiresome fast. I think this is a good move, Nate. Brings more attention to the truly fun and unique aspects of this game.

Awesome :D

No longer needing to run gold mules makes me happy :)

Nice and welcomed change indeed.

I do understand the background though, there is always an early period in a game where everything is all da rage and players would sit at the game all day long. Now that the hectic days are past and most of the players are stable long-term players, the time demands are moderating, plus there is heaps more to do now if players want to.