[Ubi Official] New Shop Items

Hey All,

We have added two new premium buildings to The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. The first building is the Gem Pit, which produces up to 40,000 Gems. The second is an endless copper mine that will produce copper without ever depleting. Both of these buildings can be found in the architect section of the shop. Both cost 20,000 Gems.

I want to emphasize the fact that you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

See you in game,

Kate

It's still embarassing how much you're charging for the gem pit

Kate,

Can you please share with the community some insight on why the developers feel that an endless copper mine is worth 100 dollar value in gems? the cost seems reasonable for the gem pit, however it seems less than an "offer" and more of an extremely poor decision for the endless copper mine, which would sell extremely well for a more affordable price.

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Originally Posted by Oabol

It's still embarassing how much you're charging for the gem pit

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Forget the gem pit, it's reasonable seeing as how after one they grow exponentially, if you have the money it's totally worth it as you can turn 100 dollar value into 200, then 400 and so on.

but the endless copper mine for the same price? That's the point that needs to be focused on. There is no way they are more valuable then a 250 general in the game, the price for them just doesn't make sense from a business perspective and a player one.

Hiyas Kate, I think the gem mine is nice.........but I find the price a little intimidating as price is basically my entire budget for a month playing this game, but still nice :) as for the copper mine--no ty lol I will just keep replacing my 6 regular ones, I would have liked to see some new different adventures tho, all the current ones I have run repeatedly and am bored with them, thus making the game very, um, boring as all that is left beyond that is map upkeep takes 10 mins out of my life, nothing else to do, I log out and don't spend my gems, thus not needing to buy more. Saves me money :) but makes the game meh

Seriously? You're going to bring the never ending copper mine out for 20k gems? Seriously?

Now see, I take exception to this as 20k gems equals $100. Not only that, but I have 3 never ending coal producers that only cost 990 gems each.

There's no way in @#$%# I'm paying $100 for one building!! 'Free to play' or not, $100 for one building is beyond reprehensible.

While I understand the desire to make money off a game with extras that appeal to the players, there is no reason to be so blatantly greedy. Yes, it's a very pretty building, and it might save me a bit of time and tediousness a day, but 20k/$100? Come on, that's just outrageous. What are you trying to do, out do the Facebook games on ridiculous prices? Is there some kind of poll going on to see how many people are stupid enough to pay $100 for one building?

I'm not even going to touch the gem pit. If you think that's a good deal, hey, go for it. Again, it's a ridiculous price but at least you'll see your money back. Eventually. Maybe. If the game lasts that long. If you actually play that long.

I can't put into words how disgusted and disappointed I am with BlueByte and this game right now.

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Originally Posted by Jewel

What are you trying to do, out do the Facebook games on ridiculous prices? Is there some kind of poll going on to see how many people are stupid enough to pay $100 for one building?

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yes here:
http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/t...per-mines-cost.

if the gem mine was worth 2k gems and held 4k i have a feeling you would see much more profit from people spending coins to get them, for a free to pay game even 100 bucks is laughable...i wouldn't pay 100 bucks for any console game not to mention that you can't even gift them so the option of trying to save up coins and buy one from a gem seller isn't even there...this is nothing but a money grab and forces players to play your game for at least another 6 months...not to mention your loosely worded TOS...i have no desire at all to spend money on a game where you can ban me for whatever reason you deem valid...would be like buying a halo game for xbox and then having futureshop employees show up at my house and take my game because i was powerleveling or something...

Still no official reply towards the price of the endless copper mine? Bumping after the consolidation of the other threads, I'd really like to see a change here that pleases everyone..

All complaints silenced. All other threads closed.
Not a word of feedback.
The silence is deafening.
We will not be buying gems again unless BB responds.

Gotta agree with most here $100's worth of gems for one mine? A copper one to boot? That is kinda ridiculous considering you have been offering endless building items ie recyclers for 990 gems. 20k is well over 20 times the amount, I could justify maybe a 50 to 100% mark up for this, maybe. In a game with as slow a pace as this one, and with copper mines having little to no cost in materials good luck selling many of either one of those new items. I also play a couple of facebook games and refuse to pay their ridiculous prices, if this is a trend here I will stop buying gems here as well.

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Originally Posted by AetiusWMD

Why I am done with this game

This game has become a grinding daily chore, not a fun and entertaining activity. The worry of having to run my gold chain buffed 24/7 has become too much grind. We all know running a non-buffed gold chain is a losing business. Unless the devs come up with a 24 hr buff, to me this game has become unplayable. Some may say that I dont have to keep my gold production buffed 24/7, I could just turn it off when not buffed, but that is the same as having to logging to get it buffed, no change.
But the last patch with the 20k gems buildings was the last drop, this is such an insulting offer that I feel talked down to, and taken like a fool.
That’s what I had to say.
A

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AetiusWMD has brought up some excellent points (the above is quoted from a thread that was closed and is supposed to be consolidated over to this thread). Personally, I don't care about my gold running unbuffed as I take the game much more lightly these days than when we were all working hard in closed beta to help ensure a good game was rolled out. Those who know me, do know that I lost interest in adventures many months ago as (to me) they all began to feel the same -- I'd like to see other ways/routes for leveling incorporated into the game.

We started seeing a great deal of attrition in long time players (including well established guild leaders) several months ago, and now it appears as if we may begin seeing a new wave of experienced players begin to leave because of the constant grind, the predictability of adventures, and the continued bugginess of the game. Aetius has never been one to whine or complain. It is therefore not unreasonable to posit that if he is speaking up there are many more who feel the same and are simply silently dropping out of the game.

It may be that BlueByte has run the numbers and have determined that the attrition of high level, long term players has little economic impact and is more than made up for by the influx of new players who are willing to drop $$ in the gemshop (and high dollars as evidenced by the cost of the new gem and copper mines) in order to level up quickly. That would be a pity, since the long-term players have contributed so much to both the social and practical aspects of the game.

ShuttlePilot

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Originally Posted by ShuttlePilot

That would be a pity, since the long-term players have contributed so much to both the social and practical aspects of the game.

ShuttlePilot

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I completely agree.

Wondering if we'll ever hear something from BB about this atrocity.

What do you expect to hear? These games have a shelf life. This is the last ditch effort to make money off of it. All events are the same event with different graphics and 1 extra "shop" and have been since I started in September of last year. When you look at it for what it is the only NEW content introduced has been ...extra daily quests and some new adventures and what maybe 3 new buildings? I hardly count "decorations" as new content. Aside from that....we haven't gotten anything in almost a year's time and now they are going to nerf adventures by making generals take the obvious route of a straight line, because that is what a general would do in real life obviously with no strategy or strategic positioning or anything. He will just walk in a straight line and take out anything in his path. I've been playing this game for a very long time, not as long as a few of you but since the beta days...and I am about done. My next level is going to take me 385,000 xp to level (47) and I have no desire to do Victor the vicious 15 more times. This is most likely it for me. And the prices on the new items is just further reassurance that they are not interested in preserving the life of the game. Don't get me wrong I have no quams with the amount in the mine or the cost, its the fact that some dofus in development slept through marketing 101 and thought making a mine with 40k gems in it costing 100$ would be more profitable than making a mine with 2k gems that sold for 5$. Who knows, regardless the reason, it was nice knowing most of you :)

I can't say I'm surprised. It was a good run and the clan has been awesome and amazing. But as with all browser games I have played with in the past...this one seems to have runs it's course.

So I think everyone neglects to see that a single purchase of the gem pit can be used to buy the other 4 gems pits... so the 20000 gem purchase ends up making 200000 gems at the cost of 100000 gems in structure, basically... you get 100000 gems over a long period of time, im not sure if you can omni seed the gem pit... but if you can... well... you figure it out...

You can't buff them or add to them and what you fail to understand is that the majority of people cannot afford to dump so much in one instance. Cut the price/quantity by 10x and they would probably sell 50x more of them. Simple math. I can buy 3 games, 1 a month which is what I can afford (example). I can't afford to buy 3 games in 1 month. So if the pack is only offered as a 3 pack for 1 month I guess I just can't buy it. That is what everyone's problem is. Charging a 1 time 100$ fee for a virtual good is just obsurd. Break it up, let us buy 2k mines for 5$ or 4k mines for 10$ It's the same ratio, same deal, but 75% more of the gem buying public can afford to do that 10 times throughout the year than dumping 100$ in one instance. Freemium games run on the nickel and dime purchases that the thousands/millions of users purchase. Throw out a 100$ item and people just laugh at you. Sure some guy with more money than brains will buy it...but all they succeed in doing is upsetting 90% of their gaming population and pushing the dedicated players away.

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Originally Posted by Jigsaw

You can't buff them or add to them and what you fail to understand is that the majority of people cannot afford to dump so much in one instance. Cut the price/quantity by 10x and they would probably sell 50x more of them. Simple math. I can buy 3 games, 1 a month which is what I can afford (example). I can't afford to buy 3 games in 1 month. So if the pack is only offered as a 3 pack for 1 month I guess I just can't buy it. That is what everyone's problem is. Charging a 1 time 100$ fee for a virtual good is just obsurd. Break it up, let us buy 2k mines for 5$ or 4k mines for 10$ It's the same ratio, same deal, but 75% more of the gem buying public can afford to do that 10 times throughout the year than dumping 100$ in one instance. Freemium games run on the nickel and dime purchases that the thousands/millions of users purchase. Throw out a 100$ item and people just laugh at you. Sure some guy with more money than brains will buy it...but all they succeed in doing is upsetting 90% of their gaming population and pushing the dedicated players away.

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How come if you can afford to buy it at $100, you have "more money than brains," but if you can afford to buy it in increments, "... let us buy 2k mines for 5$ ..." it's a good deal? If it's a good deal at 2k for $5 ea, then it's the same deal at 40k for $100. I just don't think you have to slam anyone who can afford to spend it. If Donald Trump was playing this game, you think he'd give a rat's arse about $100? Obviously everyone's not in the same place with respect to discretionary income spending, but that doesn't mean you need to hate on people in a different place than you.

I do agree that they'd probably get more sales with a lower price, and ultimately, more revenue. Seems to be priced unwisely.

Hey All,

Just to follow up and reiterate, you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

That being said, I will most definitely be relaying your feedback and concerns.

I wish I could be more help,

Kate

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Originally Posted by BB_Katealyst

Hey All,

Just to follow up and reiterate, you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

That being said, I will most definitely be relaying your feedback and concerns.

I wish I could be more help,

Kate

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We all understand we aren't forced to buy the copper mines. The complaints you're seeing are symptomatic of a larger issue here. I think I speak for everybody when I say we could do without soccer events, gem mines, decorations and other frivolous crap. We wish the developers would instead spend their time on PVP and other real content. You are losing loyal players in droves and your response is a shameless money grab. This is a slap in the face to the people who have supported this "project" for a long time now. People like the game, and they like what it can become, but you can only disrespect your customers so long before they eventually abandon you.

What are the developers working on 8 hours a day, 5 days a week? Are you seriously going to tell me that games like Evony, Travian and the dozens of other Settlers competitors spent YEARS in development before they went live? That's a joke.

This controversy came at an unfortunate time. There are problems with log-ins, server crashes and chat not working.
Now you ask this kind of money for in game items? How long would I need to play to get my moneys worth out of the copper mine? I am willing to buy gems from time to time because I believe in supporting the developers and all their people. I prefer games that give a choice about about payment so I don't play those that have a monthly charge. Items should have a reasonable price tag and your argument that we do not have to buy these items is not persuasive. Everyone playing should have a chance to have any in game item, even if they have to save their gems for it or perhaps earn them thru adventures.
I hope this is not a sign of the way things will be in the future. This is a good game. please don't wreck it.

Pegomine

Your math is incorrect.
One gem pit will net you 20,000 gems over 6 months.
They cannot be buffed.

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Originally Posted by Maxwellius

So I think everyone neglects to see that a single purchase of the gem pit can be used to buy the other 4 gems pits... so the 20000 gem purchase ends up making 200000 gems at the cost of 100000 gems in structure, basically... you get 100000 gems over a long period of time, im not sure if you can omni seed the gem pit... but if you can... well... you figure it out...

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Originally Posted by BB_Katealyst

Hey All,

Just to follow up and reiterate, you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

That being said, I will most definitely be relaying your feedback and concerns.

I wish I could be more help,

Kate

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This is essentially saying that if we bought gems it was our own stupidity.
You never 'forced' us to buy gems.
You certainly do not 'need' gems to progress. Yet as anyone who has bought gems can tell you, it certainly helps speed things up.
As anyone playing without gems can tell you, it takes you forever to get anywhere.
So please do "pass along" our concerns, as if that's going to make a bit of difference.
I think Jigsaw called it above, this is the beginning of the end for this game. Now we know how empty the promises were and are.
BB has created a cash cow based on undelivered promises of PVP and cool new features that operates on the ignorance of new players.
You should be able to milk the unsuspecting noobs for quite a while to come.
For those of us who bought gems, and lots of them, oh well, we learned a valuable lesson about corporate greed.
Thanks for nothing much, BlueByte.
Now I see why this type of business model is called unethical.
It plays upon the weaknesses in human nature and peoples desire for instant gratification.
Of course, no one is 'forcing' anyone to play or buy gems.

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Originally Posted by BB_Katealyst

Hey All,

Just to follow up and reiterate, you do NOT and NEVER will need to purchase these items to progress in the game. We will NEVER force anyone to buy an item to move forward in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. We do, however, want to offer a variety of items in our in-game item shop to give our players a number of different ways to play and enjoy our game.

That being said, I will most definitely be relaying your feedback and concerns.

I wish I could be more help,

Kate

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That's the same as what you said above and addresses none of our complaints - so pathetic!

What bothers me the most about the new buildings is that when the announcement was made for the new buildings, it was kind of exciting. It made you feel excited that you could put up some cool new structures to improve your island. There was never a mention that they would be so costly. My actual thought was, I may have to dish out some gems to the tune of what other gem buildings cost and that anyone would be able to reasonably acquire these items.

I feel that if you are going to announce something like this you need to give us all the details, like who is this content really directed to? Obviously not 99% of the community. What is it going to cost? An arm and a leg and then maybe your family jewels. Is this virtual content really worth more than any other PC game/console game you can purchase for $50-60? Absolutely not.

I felt betrayed and let down. Not able to participate in new content that was advertised to all.

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Originally Posted by SirRoy

Your math is incorrect.
One gem pit will net you 20,000 gems over 6 months.
They cannot be buffed.

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The math was correct, SirRoy. Buy one gem pit, and in 6 months, it'll give you 20k gems. Use those to buy another gem pit, and in 6 months, you'll have 40k gems, (20k from the first pit and 20k from the 2nd). Use those to buy 2 more gem pits, and in 6 months, you'll have 60k gems. You can then use 20k of those to buy the 5th and final pit. So from the one purchase of $100, you'll get 200k gems, over 30 months.

As I mentioned in another post, if this deal was offered through a real-life investment opportunity, it'd be an amazing deal; much better than anything else available today. For a game, however, it probably doesn't translate quite so well.

Kind of like a Ponzi scheme?

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Originally Posted by Hobknocker

The math was correct, SirRoy. Buy one gem pit, and in 6 months, it'll give you 20k gems. Use those to buy another gem pit, and in 6 months, you'll have 40k gems, (20k from the first pit and 20k from the 2nd). Use those to buy 2 more gem pits, and in 6 months, you'll have 60k gems. You can then use 20k of those to buy the 5th and final pit. So from the one purchase of $100, you'll get 200k gems, over 30 months.

As I mentioned in another post, if this deal was offered through a real-life investment opportunity, it'd be an amazing deal; much better than anything else available today. For a game, however, it probably doesn't translate quite so well.

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Originally Posted by SirRoy

This is essentially saying that if we bought gems it was our own stupidity.
You never 'forced' us to buy gems.
You certainly do not 'need' gems to progress. Yet as anyone who has bought gems can tell you, it certainly helps speed things up.
As anyone playing without gems can tell you, it takes you forever to get anywhere.
So please do "pass along" our concerns, as if that's going to make a bit of difference.
I think Jigsaw called it above, this is the beginning of the end for this game. Now we know how empty the promises were and are.
BB has created a cash cow based on undelivered promises of PVP and cool new features that operates on the ignorance of new players.
You should be able to milk the unsuspecting noobs for quite a while to come.
For those of us who bought gems, and lots of them, oh well, we learned a valuable lesson about corporate greed.
Thanks for nothing much, BlueByte.
Now I see why this type of business model is called unethical.
It plays upon the weaknesses in human nature and peoples desire for instant gratification.
Of course, no one is 'forcing' anyone to play or buy gems.

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This is the best thing that has been said on this thread yet.

i just started playing this game and i can say im extremely disappointed with it... Extremely slow and modeled for u to pay.

I`ve have played and loved the real settlers games. But this shouldn`t even have the settlers name attached to, they put shame to the settlers series. The buildings are so missed up its not funny. You should be able to build hunters, farms, etc in basic buildings since those are BASIC BUILDINGS THAT YOU NEED TO START OFF WITH! But i dont see this game hanging around much longer.

Check it out !! Hot off the press !! Most assuredly NOT purchased by me, I could NEVER afford one. But I just thought you might like to see what all the controversy is about( See the little man down there, heeheehee ?? )

I honestly dont see what the big deal is guys. If you dont think its right, dont buy it, lol. However, that being said...it IS ridiculously overpriced and I definitely agree with the overall idea behind all the posts, just sans the aggression. Also, BB, you WOULD sell many many more if you did like it was posted earlier:

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Originally Posted by Jigsaw

.....Cut the price/quantity by 10x and they would probably sell 50x more of them......Break it up, let us buy 2k mines for 5$ or 4k mines for 10$ It's the same ratio, same deal, but 75% more of the gem buying public can afford to do that 10 times throughout the year than dumping 100$ in one instance. Freemium games run on the nickel and dime purchases that the thousands/millions of users purchase. Throw out a 100$ item and people just laugh at you. Sure some guy with more money than brains will buy it...but all they succeed in doing is upsetting 90% of their gaming population and pushing the dedicated players away.

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As usual, very well said Jigsaw.

The price is insane like everything else in the trader

First post. I think. I can't buy gems. The job market hasn't been my friend lately and I like my kids more than my island. Sorry island! Fortunately, I am a very patient player. I'm going to run an adventure here and there, and eventually get myself to a higher level. I would absolutely love to use the 2K gems I've saved (having never spent a single one earned from leveling or logging in every day!) to buy a 4K gem pit... make those the equivalent of a $10 donate instead of $100 and players would be all over it, even with the long payoff, because they could buy a couple now while the game is still pretty strong and see benefits over 6 months.

The other theme I'm seeing here is a need to get some randomness to adventures... but that's another thread. Now I need to find the thread.

Currently, I believe that the price of the gem pit and the endless copper mine are outrageous.

I would consider paying $100 for the gem pit ONLY if it was endless, upgradeable, and buffable. Other than that, I would never waste my money on that.

With the endless copper mine, there is no way i would spend $100 on it...I wouldn't mind paying 2,000 gems for the mine. If the developers later decided to create other endless mines...I would be willing to pay 3,000 gems for an endless iron mine and 5,000 gems for an endless coal mine. At those prices, I would even be willing to buy more than one of the endless mines.

Um, isn't the Recycling Manufactory technically an endless, upgradable, buffable coal mine???

And it only costs 990gem???

I was wanting to buy one but i can not find anyware that tells me how much the copper mine puts out and if it is upgradeable

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Originally Posted by immaduck

I was wanting to buy one but i can not find anyware that tells me how much the copper mine puts out and if it is upgradeable

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The copper mine is endless and upgradeable to lvl 5

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Originally Posted by ShuttlePilot

AetiusWMD has brought up some excellent points (the above is quoted from a thread that was closed and is supposed to be consolidated over to this thread). Personally, I don't care about my gold running unbuffed as I take the game much more lightly these days than when we were all working hard in closed beta to help ensure a good game was rolled out. Those who know me, do know that I lost interest in adventures many months ago as (to me) they all began to feel the same -- I'd like to see other ways/routes for leveling incorporated into the game.

We started seeing a great deal of attrition in long time players (including well established guild leaders) several months ago, and now it appears as if we may begin seeing a new wave of experienced players begin to leave because of the constant grind, the predictability of adventures, and the continued bugginess of the game. Aetius has never been one to whine or complain. It is therefore not unreasonable to posit that if he is speaking up there are many more who feel the same and are simply silently dropping out of the game.

It may be that BlueByte has run the numbers and have determined that the attrition of high level, long term players has little economic impact and is more than made up for by the influx of new players who are willing to drop $$ in the gemshop (and high dollars as evidenced by the cost of the new gem and copper mines) in order to level up quickly. That would be a pity, since the long-term players have contributed so much to both the social and practical aspects of the game.

ShuttlePilot

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i completely agree with you shuttlepilot i am quite discusted with the corps at BB this is a **** rotten of them

I tried it on the test server.
You can upgrade to 5 and it has the same output as the regular ones.
It is a bit more costly to upgrade.
See info Here: http://www.siedlertools.de/wiki/Endlose_Kupfermine

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Originally Posted by immaduck

I was wanting to buy one but i can not find anyware that tells me how much the copper mine puts out and if it is upgradeable

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