Decoration for Coins not EP

I do like the idea of supplementing some aspects of the EP items with coin variants. Things like vanity items that can be purchased with either EP or gold, and maybe some (expensive) coin 24 slot storehouses, or some new consumables. I do think there needs to be more EP and gold sinks through attractive vendorables in general, and more quests to earn both is always welcome lol

 

That is definetly worth concern Jeinx. EP shoudn't feel like it only exists for rotation items and reforging. However, I do feel like there is little need to spend gold at vendors as-is for most people once they have their crafting up and running. The team couldn't make every EP-purchase now also cost gold, but some, at relatively high (gold) prices I think would be nice. Or releasing the next handful of new cosmetics with either gold pricing or pricing for both.

I'd still support new avenues to spend and earn EP, I just feel as though gold is really only useful for exchanges between players to most (in my experience). Adding more goldpriced vendor items that are attractive to the playerbase would really help with gold sinks for sure, and changing a small amount of EP purchases to both or either (without going overboard and making EP redundant beyond the Celeste features we mentioned) might help in the interim.

 

As a player whose game focus is actually city decoration and design I think the current situation of quality deco items through vanity island costing EP is the right game balance. Just as a player saves and saves EP,[their choice and mine too] , to get assassin's gauntlets on the Celeste rotation, there is an equal sense of achievement in harvesting, saving and using EP judiciously to buy a number ,of say; Persian columns [ shiny gold] for city deco and the occasional big splash of EP to get a Wonder [yes 750 EP] . This said; the deco shops already allow massive options for endless design possibilities in their current state for city flair using only gold. The vanity island Egyptian Gods, Greek Gods, Wonder blueprints and civilisation units are as their source implies: 'Vanity items' and should remain EP only items.

 

I'll admit, I haven't really looked long at the cosmetic options between VI the deco shops, I just use them when I get them from chests lol

So there is quite a reasonable amount of gold cosmetics then? Would you think there is anything really missing that could be a gold-purchased recolour?

 

If I'm following the conversation correctly, I like the idea of being able to get decorations for gold instead of Empire Points. But it sounds like there is concern about what EP would then be used for, if anything.

What if there was a method similar to League of Legends, where everything is available for both the premium currency and the in-game currency? It's a little different here because no one is actually paying for Empire Points anymore, but what if there was an EP price for the item, and a separate coin price for the item that was pretty high, relatively speaking, and you could pay with either or? Spend those precious EP at the expense of less time invested but more value to the points, or coin, at the expense of more time invested by less value to coin? Or vice versa.

I haven't tested that thought critically yet. Just brainstorming openly and randomly inserting myself into the conversation.

 

I think what you have suggested is the likely compromise. Though where the option already exists to purchase deco items for gold versus EP, players including myself are always going to choose gold over EP because of the Celeste rotation. For example the statue of Athena can be purchased in an Athens store for 1000 coins versus paying 100 EP currently in the vanity island store for the same statue. Players who want it currently will always pick the gold option. A more prohibitive gold cost for a statue currently is 25,000 coins each for the statue of Winged Victory, available in the deco shop [ which can be purchased for one off EP] , Startling Statuary. As one of the most aesthetically pleasing deco items in AOEO , its vanity island cost is 425 EP each. As gold is procured faster and easier than EP, players are likely always going to use it for any purchases rather than valuable EP. Like I have around ten of these beautiful statues in my Greek city but would I spend 4000 plus EP for the same effect, not likely. However, again, as said in my first post, its important we are actually made to work for items we want in the game like Wonder blueprints at 750 EP each, because if everything is linked to a gold currency including all building and god blueprints on vanity island then Rome will be built in a day when it appears on the Celeste server and I don't think that is the spirit or intention of AOEO.

 

You are right about it not being the spirit of AoEO to get everything immediately in terms of the deco. That's why I was wondering if the gold cost could be significantly higher to offset this.... I haven't been in the in-game economy enough to know what is a high amount of coin, but for instance, what if the gold cost was 50k, 100k, higher? This offsets the ability of someone to immediately get all of the deco with gold; they could have the ability to use up their more precious EP, or the ability to spend all of their gold (or may not have enough gold due to the cost).

Again, I'm just brainstorming here. I, for one, love Capital City decorating, and would love more flexibility in being able to enjoy that aspect of the game.

 

Gold is extremely cheap/there is a huge abundance of it, so relative to EP the prices should be magnitudinally higher, on items that are to be purchaseable by either currency.

 

I was one of the people suggesting it reforging could've been a gold cost (in part/entirely), because of the lack of actual gold sinks for most folks (player to player exchange moves it round, but takes nothing beyond a possible AH fee out of the economy). Plus the EP cost is a lot to people that don't PvP or farm legendary quests round the clock, though to be fair they're the only players that "deserve" maxed out gear.