Buyable Garden Keys

[Slayerphazon]

Just in case someone else thinks they could buy an inf key on a tl5, there is a lvl 201 lock on the item that spawns them that is mentioned nowhere. I just bought one on a tl5 I didn't plan on leveling so it was a nice waste of $30. Thanks for making that little detail clear FC.

[Liwa]

Yes ... all these item store garden keys, etc. should have any level locks posted on the item before you purchase them, especially if it is different from the regular quest key level lock. Not sure why quest inferno key is lvl 195 to equip and this item store one is lvl 201 to equip? Or was it level 201 to spawn the item?

Kinnik

[Slayerphazon]

It spawns a normal inf key but in order to spawn it you have to be 201+.

[Dagget]

The higher level locks are the only silver lining to the concept of putting buyable garden keys in the shop. Should have instead put stacks (say, 10) of passes that work like insignias.

Keep it up folks, and your playerbase will soon be exactly what the changing content encourages (and that doesn't mean more ppl who subscribe by the year).

[Gaveup]

I thought it had been mentioned maybe once on forums by an FC rep, I could have just dreamed this as well Definetly needs to be listed on the description in the item store, would be nice if they would also compensate anyone who might have done something similar.

[Duzytato]

They did mention it, but they were off on their levels. I just bought the Ado key. I was under the impression from the forum that the req was 131 or higher. When I spawned the key it was 145. :/

[Liwa]

I looked in the item store at the descriptions there ... no mention of any level locks being any different from the regular quest key.

It should say on the item in the item store before you buy it what any requirements are to spawn and/or use the item. It should not rely on whether or not all of us have read every forum post about these or other items sold in the item store.

Kinnik

edit: Adonis key has always been 145 to wear ... but you can do the quest and use it once you can get to Adonis. If these buyable ones require a certain level to spawn the item that produces the key, then it should say so ...

2nd edit: The information below from the 'small item shop update' thread should have been included in the descriptions of these garden key "boxes" before anyone purchases them. The description in the item store should also explain if the level locks below are for "spawning" and/or "using" the keys. For example you can wear a Quest-Inferno key at level 195, have it equiped for the treatment buff and to use your SL beacon to go the inferno garden ... but you have its level lock at 201 below.

It would also be nice to know in advance which garden a neutral toon will get if they purchase one of these garden key "boxes" ... do we get to choose?

I just want to clarify a few things about the garden keys:

1: The garden key boxes have level requirements already
Nascence: no level requirement
Elysium: level 61+
Scheol: level 101+
Adonis: level 131+
Penumbra: level 161+
Inferno: level 201+

[McKnuckleSamwich]

$30 bucks for a key?

Whaat?
for $30 I'd rather buy a 6 pack of high end beer and a friggin beautiful steak and pay my neighbors kid $1.50 to farm it for me.

Thats the most outrageous pricing I've ever heard.

Thats like a 1/3 of my grocery bill for the week.

LOL.

[Mastablasta]

You are surprised by prices in the item store being absurdly high? O.o

[drainbamage]

$30 bucks for a key?

Whaat?
for $30 I'd rather buy a 6 pack of high end beer and a friggin beautiful steak and pay my neighbors kid $1.50 to farm it for me.

Thats the most outrageous pricing I've ever heard.

Thats like a 1/3 of my grocery bill for the week.

LOL.

Hell for $30 you could buy a better game

[If6was9]

For 30 bucks I'll take an inferno key. It should have no level locks on it though. If you die as soon as you step out of the garden that's just the way it goes. Garden keys have always sucked hemorrhoids. Can you imagine if you'd had to quest to use every whompa outside your home city? How many of us would have kept playing? It's "impediment as content" and it sucked.

[drainbamage]

For 30 bucks I'll take an inferno key. It should have no level locks on it though. If you die as soon as you step out of the garden that's just the way it goes. Garden keys have always sucked hemorrhoids. Can you imagine if you'd had to quest to use every whompa outside your home city? How many of us would have kept playing? It's "impediment as content" and it sucked.

Yeah, and what they should have done was change the key system, not try to extort money out of the players to circumvent it.

[Duzytato]

edit: Adonis key has always been 145 to wear ... but you can do the quest and use it once you can get to Adonis. If these buyable ones require a certain level to spawn the item that produces the key, then it should say so ...

Oh okay. The char I bought it on was 131. So it spawned. In all my years playing AO, I've always played low level content. So I've never been to Adonis. 131 is my highest char ever. So I was hoping to finally get there.. Ah well. A couple months, and I'll be there.. LOL. Thanks for the info..

I agree level reqs should be in the item description.

[Hawksmore1]

If you are to lazy for a Quest what takes 20min (Ado) and max 2h (Pen) to pay 30$ for a Garden Key then i say FC should get your Money
Nobody has to buy the Keys its your own Choice if you do it,and skip a part of the Game for that you are paying lol
@Tifanyx
If you need a Ado Key its not that hard as i sayed ,if you get a little Help the Quest is done in max 30 min and you get XP too.

[Duzytato]

If you are to lazy for a Quest what takes 20min (Ado) and max 2h (Pen) to pay 30$ for a Garden Key then i say FC should get your Money
Nobody has to buy the Keys its your own Choice if you do it,and skip a part of the Game for that you are paying lol
@Tifanyx
If you need a Ado Key its not that hard as i sayed ,if you get a little Help the Quest is done in max 30 min and you get XP too.

I wouldn't call people who buy the garden keys lazy. You said yourself that I can do the Ado quest in 30 minutes if I had help. In the 10 years I've played this game on and off, 90% of my leveling has been solo. My play time is so fragmented I can't devote an hour or two that a good team usually requires. Sometimes I have to finish a play session at a moments notice.

So for guys like me, I'm not paying to win. I'm paying for convenience.

Well, not really paying. I had a collection of FC points stacked up over the years, so I bought the key on a character that was close with my bonus points.

[Traderjill]

I wouldn't call people who buy the garden keys lazy.

A lot of people would probably use the term lazy or moreso unmotivated. Even if your time is fragmented as you stated, it is tough to believe that you haven't played the game for 30min to 1 hour at a time in order to complete the key quest. Or that, if you really wanted the key, you couldn't do it over the course of multiple days within a 9 year period of time. Sounds to me that it isn't that you can't make the time but that you choose not to make the time to do the content. I think those are 2 different things. From the viewpoint of those that think that players shouldn't be able to buy quest rewards when they haven't completed the content even one time (I fall into that category) it is tough to not categorize you as lazy or unmotivated.

You said yourself that I can do the Ado quest in 30 minutes if I had help. In the 10 years I've played this game on and off, 90% of my leveling has been solo. My play time is so fragmented I can't devote an hour or two that a good team usually requires. Sometimes I have to finish a play session at a moments notice.

So for guys like me, I'm not paying to win. I'm paying for convenience.

You can do the quest without help at 130. I remember the first time I did the quest, I did it solo but my toon was slightly higher level (maybe 140-150ish). If I could do it in 2004 on a 140-150 solo with little knowledge/experience of the zone (and no guide btw).. I'm guessing someone with a toon today should be able to do it at 130 with no problem. I do remember dieing a few times when I did the quest for the first time but that is the nature of exploration and getting to know a new zone.

I also know, from orgmates, that newbie 130's can do the quest. I have no idea what outside buffs they had and can only assume they used the AO Universe guide as a reference. I've done it on 130 toons plenty of times BUT.. I can't use that as an example since I obviously know how to do it, almost blindfolded.

[Hawksmore1]

Ado is easy with help its faster but you dont need help for the Quest ,ok i have done the quest i think 30 times so i can do them asleep^^ but its not that Hard only Running for your live sometimes.
All Gardenkeys got a long timelimit so you can Pause them often if you need it.
And if you got the Key as Kinnik says you cant wear it but you should able to use it to get there ,have you tryed the Key on the Statue at 10-3 ?

[Kuyt]

If someone wants to pay the equivalent of 30€ to get a garden key, let them.. It's a convenience item with minor twinking usage and if they havent made the run to scheol, Who cares ? Is it really that annoying for you that you prefer FC not getting the cash from those select few that decides to buy it ?

Ok, ado is more like 20€ but still.

[Traderjill]

If someone wants to pay the equivalent of 30€ to get a garden key, let them.. It's a convenience item with minor twinking usage and if they havent made the run to scheol, Who cares ? Is it really that annoying for you that you prefer FC not getting the cash from those select few that decides to buy it ?

Ok, ado is more like 20€ but still.

I can only speak for myself in what I'm about to say, but I'm happy to answer your question.

What I always enjoyed most about Anarchy Online (aside from twinking) was team play. I loved teaming with other players to level, do dungeons, quests, raids.. whatever.

I find it pretty frustrating to team people in different SL zones that haven't a clue about much of anything regarding the game. One convenience item in the item store, by itself, might not seem like a big deal but when you start looking at the overall picture, players are leveling faster and bypassing more content in today's environment than ever before in the history of the game. The result, from my experience, is that you end up in teams with people in Inferno, Pande and end game raids that don't understand basic game mechanics, general tools of their profession, etc.

Maybe some of these encounters seem like a waste of time or things that can be bypassed BUT they are also experiences that helped many people over the years learn how to play their toons and utilize their toolset to survive. XP is usually associated with a bar on your GUI but there is the actual concept of "Experience" in the game and it is important for people to get this. When players stop gaining true game experience, you end up with a lot of high level noobs.

Personally, I never liked the exclusive mentality when raiding/teaming. I used to love being able to do pick-up groups with people I didn't know and *gasp* actually getting to know some new folks by playing with them. It was common to do this back in the day when the majority of players took pride in their toons. Now, you really have to be careful with who you team.. and just because someone has played 2-3 years doesn't mean they aren't a powerleveled noob (even with multiple 220's) that knows little to nothing about the game. So yeah, it does bug me when Funcom implements things that would compound an already annoying problem.

To any effect, I'm not sure what server you play on.. but I spent a lot of time on RK2 organizing public raids for newbies or just making them open to whoever wanted to come. I can be particular when raiding but I am the type of person that doesn't mind explaining things to people, answering questions and helping interested players figure raids out. BUT, there are already mechanisms in place to allow players to test their toons and learn to use their toolsets on their own and I feel that they should utilize those. The Adonis key quest, in my opinion, is one of those encounters.. actually most of the key quests (when done close to the zone level) fall into that category.

Note: The above doesn't apply directly to Tiffanyx since they stated that they only play solo (and guessing since they don't have 30 min to do a key quest that they won't be teaming pretty much ever).

[Aiken]

There was a time that time invested into your character meant something. Now, not so much when you can just bypass content & whip out a Visa. It stinks.

I agree with most all of your posts lately Jill & I think FC would be very wise to take alot of what you say on board. You manage to put into words almost exactly what i'm thinking about the same subjects, so thanks for that.