:soapbox:
I'm not generally a whiner about things. I don't mind that paying players have an advantage over those who don't pay, or that big spenders get a heads up over those of us who spend less. It doesn't bother me that there are relatively poor drop rates as much as it does others, but the star system is very unfair in its current iteration.
I was at a 12set the other day when I won a 2700 cent commission quest. I decided to push to 13 on a piece of gear and it failed.
With a 45% chance it's no biggy, who expects to win every time?
It took me over 1k cents to return to 12 on that item. I failed 3x @ 9, a few times at 10 and 11 and numerous times at other levels.
The second item, same results, but it took me 1500 cents to get back to 12.
Now I don't just set auto and let it rip. I do it manually for several and choose certain numbers of gems at different levels, and then do auto in certain spots. So I actually do have a system that other players use and have helped me to develop to manage resources as I try to upgrade rather than just blindly spending.
The trouble is this: 2500 cents spent just to stay EXACTLY where I was.
I won 1k cents earlier on the server and ended up with a piece of gear 3 lower than when I started. For $100 or $250 worth of cents, I expect PROGRESS; and I don't think that's an unfair expectation.
I'm a huge fan of Age2 and run the #2 alliance on na23. I'm not a huge spender, nor am I the largest player on the server, but I'm a faithful player who is getting shafted by a system designed to be a major time and money sink. The players who have 15 sets at this point are players who have spent more than $3k on the server (and that might be a low estimate), and most of that has been for star upgrades.
Again, I'm not moaning about spenders spending, I'm upset about risk vs. reward and the fact that there's a poor return on our investments. The risk is too great because, due to a random chance, you are very likely to lose everything you've paid/worked/farmed for and have invested time/money/effort into getting.
Worse, I've heard several people say that their conversations with devs reveal that the reported chance of success isn't always the actual chance of success, meaning that we don't even have a reasonable gauge of what we're actually risking! (Granted, who knows what's true or not true?)
So I guess what it boils down to is this: I think that somehow our investment in stars needs to be protected as we progress. I don't mind failing, and wouldn't mind chances being lower...but to lose and risk going all the way to 0 from 12, 13 or 14 is an unreasonable risk, especially given that taking that risk causes one to be vulnerable when fails do occur.
I wish that there were an item for guaranteed upgrade or to "lock into" a level before trying a star. I'd be likely to spend for the protection against loss and be happy to do it.
Alright, end soapbox. Back to killin'.

