UC Pets Coming to NC Mall In Near Future!

[hrtbrk]

The latest Developer update reveals that the site revamp is getting back on track after the Altador Cup, including a complete Customization App overhaul as well as an all new NC Mall which will feature the release of UC pets. Prices and dates are currently unknown. 

[berriganify]

yeah im glad i didnt get my hopes up when they first announced that they were releasing UCs. i have a few GBCs that i could potentially trade for whatever this item ends up being, but given that they specifically mentioned that they want to keep the value of UCs, i'm guessing the price is probably going to be pretty steep.

it's a pity, there's been few interesting suggestions for how they could be introduced through a hybrid np/nc system, either through a plot or map reward, or through a quest system, usually combining one free yearly zap with nc mall tokens to reset that cooldown. but i guess they want to recoup as much lost revenue from the inevitable decline in wearable purchases?

 

[Secre]

Well, that's me saving my remaining NC then isn't it!?

I was half expecting they'd do it as an NC item but it sucks to be right. I was really hoping they'd do it as a plot or reward that didn't require actual money.

I expect it's going to be easily over 5000NC to get the convert item in honesty. Which just moves the game further into 'pay to win' categories. I am hoping that they will allow us to convert our current pets. I have a Plushie Shoyru and have plans to get either a Mara Draik or Krawk through a FFQ or Premium Perk and I think both of those are potential UC's.

I'm more salty about pet slots being an NC item. Just give us more pets!! The more pets we have, the more NC custom items we will buy for them so surely it's a win win even free.

I think TNT are really suffering after the loss of the Brazilian NC card value - a lot of people, myself included, haven't bought NC since. Admittedly, I spent a small fortune just before they crashed the values so had something like 60,000NC in November. I'm down to 20,000NC now as I traded a ton of the MME's for big wishlist items!

[berriganify]

8 hours ago, Secre said:

I'm more salty about pet slots being an NC item.

Is this about the premium slot or are the next pet slots released (slots 7+) going to be nc unlocks?

Also, what happened with the Brazilian NC cards? Google isn't bringing up much that I can find.

[Secre]

11 hours ago, berriganify said:

Is this about the premium slot or are the next pet slots released (slots 7+) going to be nc unlocks?

Also, what happened with the Brazilian NC cards? Google isn't bringing up much that I can find.

It sounded like they are going to be releasing 7+ slots as NC items... which makes me a tad bit salty. It's in their best interests if we have more pets after all!!

So since 2010 ish apparently, the exchange rate on the Brazilian cards has been mega favourable. So you could buy 2000NC from a Brazilian Shoppy seller for between $7-10 dollars dependent on sales and you got 4 boxes with each card. I think I got them as low as $5.50 a pop at one point. And the sellers were still making money on it because of the exchange rate. TNT decided in their eternal wisdom to nix this and so now a single Brazilian NC card (still around $7) gives you 750NC and two boxes instead of 2000NC and four boxes.

It is still a slightly better rate than buying it on site - you get 2250NC for essentially $21. Which when onsite NC is 2000NC for $20 with no boxes, is a slight saving. I think you essentially get 150NC free plus the boxes (three cards equals six boxes) that you otherwise have to hope for Trudy or open GBC's for. 

I think a lot of people did what I did - and spent a fortune bulk buying NC cards before the value was nixed, so I haven't had to spend any new money on the site in about eight months in honesty. Others have simply stopped buying Neocash because there isn't a cost effective way to purchase it anymore and frankly, the actual exchange rate makes a single GBC $2.50 and it's simply not worth the cost. 

Essentially, I think in an effort to pull more money out of the users they shot themselves in the foot and are now desperately looking for ways to get people to purchase more NC.

[berriganify]

9 hours ago, Secre said:

It sounded like they are going to be releasing 7+ slots as NC items... which makes me a tad bit salty. It's in their best interests if we have more pets after all!!

So since 2010 ish apparently, the exchange rate on the Brazilian cards has been mega favourable. So you could buy 2000NC from a Brazilian Shoppy seller for between $7-10 dollars dependent on sales and you got 4 boxes with each card. I think I got them as low as $5.50 a pop at one point. And the sellers were still making money on it because of the exchange rate. TNT decided in their eternal wisdom to nix this and so now a single Brazilian NC card (still around $7) gives you 750NC and two boxes instead of 2000NC and four boxes.

It is still a slightly better rate than buying it on site - you get 2250NC for essentially $21. Which when onsite NC is 2000NC for $20 with no boxes, is a slight saving. I think you essentially get 150NC free plus the boxes (three cards equals six boxes) that you otherwise have to hope for Trudy or open GBC's for. 

I think a lot of people did what I did - and spent a fortune bulk buying NC cards before the value was nixed, so I haven't had to spend any new money on the site in about eight months in honesty. Others have simply stopped buying Neocash because there isn't a cost effective way to purchase it anymore and frankly, the actual exchange rate makes a single GBC $2.50 and it's simply not worth the cost. 

Essentially, I think in an effort to pull more money out of the users they shot themselves in the foot and are now desperately looking for ways to get people to purchase more NC.

Oof, wow, what a mess. I bet the people selling the cards weren't too happy about that either, if they were making a profit on it. I'm not surprised that people aren't buying as much NC, that's a huge change. I hope that it was only the newly issued cards that were changed, and they didn't retroactively change the value of the cards that they'd already printed and distributed?

Also i went and watched the video again, and you're right! I totally missed that the first time because the auto captioning doesn't pick up the end of her sentence, but as best as I can hear it, she says, "And on that note as well, we'll have pet slots as well, in the NC Mall." That's...not great. Not surprising, I guess, but not great. I totally get that they need some form of monetization to keep the site running, but it is always a balancing act to keep the site from being pay-to-win. I mean I guess you could argue that there's some precedent for it, since premium members have always had an extra pet slot... but between the release of that 1 premium slot and now, both of the new pet slots have been free, so the precedent has been set that new base slots would be available to everyone.

And that's what's really awful about the UCs being in the NC mall: Up until now, painted pets, or rather that specific "UC" artwork, could be earned through NPs. And there hasn't ever been a change to the base artwork of the pet released through the mall before. They've taken something that was previously available to all players and retroactively put a price tag on it. I'm calling it now, they're going to start releasing new paint colours in the mall as well.

I imagine that the lack of NC sales isn't the only issue. I know that not everyone that claimed to quit or cancel their premium back in December actually followed through, but some definitely did, and I guess that number was substantial enough that jumpstart and their investors are getting desperate for more money. And of course, that's something that can easy spiral out of control. Lost revenue -> TNT makes radical changes to get more revenue -> people get mad and leave/cancel premium/buy less NC -> leading to more lost revenue -> TNT has to make more changes, etc, etc.