New mail system feedback

[Lethareth]

I do like most of the changes to the mail system. I really love that VIP can now send and receive mail from anywhere. However, I really think that being able to mail store items need to be re-thinked. This is going to be abused. A lot. I honestly think this is going to hurt the economy. I could be wrong. I can see some good things about it. Obviously some people are going to buy Turbine Points to buy items to give or sell to friends, but some people will just grind the deeds and then buy stuff to sell. I am really on the fence about this. Anyone else have feedback on it?

[Crell_1]

I do like most of the changes to the mail system. I really love that VIP can now send and receive mail from anywhere. However, I really think that being able to mail store items need to be re-thinked. This is going to be abused. A lot. I honestly think this is going to hurt the economy. I could be wrong. I can see some good things about it. Obviously some people are going to buy Turbine Points to buy items to give or sell to friends, but some people will just grind the deeds and then buy stuff to sell. I am really on the fence about this. Anyone else have feedback on it?

I think this should have been announced in the patch notes up front.

I don't see why the need to limit it to 'Purchased from Store' instead of simply 'Bind to Account'. It would get more use if players could sell things like Hytbold armor to upcoming players. Give people a reason to do old dailies again. Allow the creation of a new product for the economy by selling Lalia's cosmetics you cant get anymore. So many options.


I think that players should be able to sell things for Mithril Coin.; After all, you're charging Mithril coin to transfer the item in the first place. Perhaps Turbine gets to take a cut. Maybe turn it into a Mithril Coin AH like the Astral Shard AH on DDO.

I also think that perhaps it shouldnt charge you Mithril Coins for mailing the items to your own characters. Yes. I know this minimizes the need for Shared Storage, but I think people will still prefer shared storage. Especially as they get sick of alting around and juggling their stuff.

[Lunasa]

This really has to go to the patch notes. The change is big and if it works for F2P players it is just awesome. A high price of the shared storage and the lack of ability to mail account-bound or store items to your alts was irritating.

I also kinda like that now we can send store items to friends to help them, nice presents can be made. I doubt that selling store items for gold will affect the game economy much, gold has such low value for the past year.

I also think that perhaps it shouldnt charge you Mithril Coins for mailing the items to your own characters.

It does not charge for sending items to your alts.
I sent several keys to my alt for free, and sending even one key to a friend cost me 2 mithril coins. The new mail seems to distinguish well between alts and friends.

[Crell_1]

I sent several keys to my alt for free, and sending even one key to a friend cost me 2 mithril coins. The new mail seems to distinguish well between alts and friends.

Interesting. These were 'Purchased from the LotrO Store' keys?

[Ransroth]

I also think that perhaps it shouldnt charge you Mithril Coins for mailing the items to your own characters. Yes. I know this minimizes the need for Shared Storage, but I think people will still prefer shared storage. Especially as they get sick of alting around and juggling their stuff.

This is how we built the system. There are two new rules for the kinds of items you can mail that you couldn't before:
1. If you are mailing one of your alts, you can mail any bound-to-account item, whether purchased from the store or not. You will only be charged regular postage, not mithril.
2. If you are mailing someone else, you can mail a bound-to-account, purchased from the store item, for mithril coins

Let us know if something isn't working. Because the rules and amount of postage we charge now depend on the user you are sending to, there are some awkward UI cases where you are dragging items in that are valid but then become invalid because you change the user. We tried to make them all work reasonably well .

[Galuhad]

This is how we built the system. There are two new rules for the kinds of items you can mail that you couldn't before:
1. If you are mailing one of your alts, you can mail any bound-to-account item, whether purchased from the store or not. You will only be charged regular postage, not mithril.
2. If you are mailing someone else, you can mail a bound-to-account, purchased from the store item, for mithril coins

Let us know if something isn't working. Because the rules and amount of postage we charge now depend on the user you are sending to, there are some awkward UI cases where you are dragging items in that are valid but then become invalid because you change the user. We tried to make them all work reasonably well .

Would it be possible at some point for the store descriptions to be updated so we know what can/can't be mailed to other people please? Sounds trivial, but I don't want to buy something as a gift only to then find I can't actually post it. Or is there some list/way of knowing that I am not aware of?

Thanks.

Ps. I also would like to see this expanded to any bound items (that have not been equipped).

[Sapience]

I think this should have been announced in the patch notes up front.

It was. But I do see that it's missing. I may have grabbed the wrong set of intro notes. I had two working versions going as I was piecing them together. I've added it and double checked the rest of them so it should be ok now.

[Crell_1]

This is how we built the system. There are two new rules for the kinds of items you can mail that you couldn't before:

2. If you are mailing someone else, you can mail a bound-to-account, purchased from the store item, for mithril coins

To be clear, the intent is that we can only mail purchased from store items to other players for Mithril coins?
If that is accurate, why not any kind of Bind-to-account item? After all, Lalia's cosmetics for example are purchased with Mithril coins just because you dont want to put them all into the store. Most Mithril Coins come from TP I reckon.

[Sapience]

To be clear, the intent is that we can only mail purchased from store items to other players for Mithril coins?

That's correct.

[CM-Amenophis]

Example:
The Hytbold armour is Account-Bound (after rebuild i can trade for other classes), can i trade a setpiece and send it to a friend for mithril coins, so he can wear it?

[Crell_1]

Example:
The Hytbold armour is Account-Bound (after rebuild i can trade for other classes), can i trade a setpiece and send it to a friend for mithril coins, so he can wear it?

Not at this time. At this time, you can only mail 'Purchased from Store' items to other players by using your own mithril coins.

[Stephen1981]

i still think that mailing 10 items in the mail should be exclusive to VIP only give a reason for them to want to subcribe

[Lethareth]

i still think that mailing 10 items in the mail should be exclusive to VIP only give a reason for them to want to subcribe

I disagree. Being able to access mail from anywhere (both sending and receiving) is now going to be a major VIP perk. But looking at the system (and knowing very little about coding a game), I think that they had to either make it free for everyone or free for no-one for the 10 mail slots (I could be wrong). Look at how long it took them to build the tech to mail multiple items. Players have been asking for this for YEARS. But just knowing I will be able to send and receive mail from anywhere, was enough to get me to subscribe once again.

[Stephen1981]

I disagree. Being able to access mail from anywhere (both sending and receiving) is now going to be a major VIP perk. But looking at the system (and knowing very little about coding a game), I think that they had to either make it free for everyone or free for no-one for the 10 mail slots (I could be wrong). Look at how long it took them to build the tech to mail multiple items. Players have been asking for this for YEARS. But just knowing I will be able to send and receive mail from anywhere, was enough to get me to subscribe once again.

see that means your letting f2p think their entitle to everything which is why i prefer it to be VIP only to mail 10 items make them have to subcribe if they want it that bad

[pittcrew1]

I would appreciated if we could either:
1. Right click anything in the inventory when the UI was open for composing mail, and it will go directly into the mailbox (following the same rules as it does now about alts and whatnot), for ease of use. Everything would be locked, in a way that no consumables or gear or anything would be used, it would only be put into the mailbox, if it was allowed to, otherwise nothing would happen.
or
2. Lets us drag items from anywhere in the inventory to anywhere on the Compose Mail UI.
Currently you have to drag it from an inventory slot to the exact spot in the mail, and that gets tedious after a few items; either of these solutions, or both, should help solve this.

Also, if possible, can we get the Compose Mail (and also Mailbox) UI to remember where they are moved on the screen, so it doesnt always reset?)

Everything else about the system I love, thanks for working so hard to get it working!

[pittcrew1]

I don't see why the need to limit it to 'Purchased from Store' instead of simply 'Bind to Account'. It would get more use if players could sell things like Hytbold armor to upcoming players. Give people a reason to do old dailies again. Allow the creation of a new product for the economy by selling Lalia's cosmetics you cant get anymore. So many options.


I think that players should be able to sell things for Mithril Coin.; After all, you're charging Mithril coin to transfer the item in the first place. Perhaps Turbine gets to take a cut. Maybe turn it into a Mithril Coin AH like the Astral Shard AH on DDO.

My guess as to why it needs to be Purchased from Store is because you can get numerous items from Hobbit Presents, even Mithril Coins, which you would be able to send to a main account. All you'd need to do is grind 50 TP and send over that nice 100% Crit Scroll you got on an alt account (for example). Not sure if this is a big concern, but it does exist as a potential problem.

As for Hytbold stuff, and most items from the store, I would appreciate if they added a Tag to them, saying something like 'Tradeable', that let us know (in the Turbine Store before Purchase, and anytime thereafter) if we could mail it to another account. I would like to be able to send questpacks, expansions, (Red Painted Skeleton Steeds), etc. to alt accounts or friends, but they are 1-time purchases. [By the way, I agree Hytbold stuff could be a nice thing to add to this]. I would imagine any items from Lootboxes that automatically bind to account, as well as Store stuff should for the most part be 'Tradeable', but not necessarily Hobbit Present stuff.

This could extend the issue of having duplicate item stacks that are only different by 1 Tag or whatever, but that's another issue.

I would say that this could add a lot of potential for more money spending, and I think it could, but it also might cause a lot more gold farming if big things like x-packs were added. It's a tough decision, but it could reward Turbine a lot if they do it right.

[I say I would spend a lot of money on a lot of stuff when I suggest new things, and I mean it, but I think when a lot of people say that, they already have the TP's, and they don't actually have to spend anymore. I stocked up with the Triple points, and thus that may not bring in any new income directly, but it might bring in players who can/will pay.]

[Kabuto666]

I actually like all the changes,even the store items that u can gift to friends,i do believe ppl were asking if they could give tp to some of their friends in that way.

Currently its not working,but i tried to mail a steed and cosmetics to a friend,but coudnt,they all ended up to my toon :P

Tho i am not a fun of the store much,some ppl might like to make a horse gift,many ppl just want to catch em all,haha.

[Wooktastic]

Love the new mail system! Having the open-mail-anywhere is a decent perk for VIPs, and being able to send 10 items at once is going to save me SO much time moving junk around, not to mention cut down on the dreaded mailbox-is-full dealie. And the ability to mail store items is fine, and in keeping with what some other MMOs allow currently.

My only suggestion at this time at least, would be to just let us drag the item to anywhere in the mailbox instead of having to hit a specific spot.

[Thurallor]

Ps. I also would like to see this expanded to any bound items (that have not been equipped).

I think that would require a lot more work, because a lot of items in the game (quest rewards) don't have level requirements, because they are already bound when you get them from the quest, so a level requirement would be redundant. If you can unbind these items, someone has to go back through all of the quest reward items and assign level requirements to them.

Edit: I guess alternatively, the system could only allow mailing bound items to someone who is at least the same level as you, or a couple levels below.

[Easca]

see that means your letting f2p think their entitle to everything which is why i prefer it to be VIP only to mail 10 items make them have to subcribe if they want it that bad

How can they be entitled to everything if the major perk regarding the mail system is that VIPs don't have to go to a mailbox and can open it anywhere? Have the 10 items for everyone, especially since it was in such great demand from the entirety of the playerbase, including but not limited to f2p's as well as premiums.

If you really want to have a distinction between what kind of account is allowed to send items, at least put the bar at premium and then the open-it-everywhere feature at VIP. I believe that if you put all perks regarding the mail only at VIP-level, it is going to have the averse effect that people will consider it "another way of milking dollars from the playerbase" and that the discontentment will be too great.

[Lethareth]

How can they be entitled to everything if the major perk regarding the mail system is that VIPs don't have to go to a mailbox and can open it anywhere? Have the 10 items for everyone, especially since it was in such great demand from the entirety of the playerbase, including but not limited to f2p's as well as premiums.

If you really want to have a distinction between what kind of account is allowed to send items, at least put the bar at premium and then the open-it-everywhere feature at VIP. I believe that if you put all perks regarding the mail only at VIP-level, it is going to have the averse effect that people will consider it "another way of milking dollars from the playerbase" and that the discontentment will be too great.

I agree with you completely on this. Being able to check mail from ANYWHERE was enough to get me to re-subscribe to VIP. I still think it would be harder than people realize to make it so F2P can only mail one item but VIP can mail 10. Otherwise, they would probably start with a smaller number, and have F2P have to purchase additional mail slots on the store, and free for VIP.

My main question is this: If you are VIP when this goes live, and your account is downgraded to premium at some point after, is this going to be a permanent perk like swift-travel, or will it turn off when you are not VIP. I don't really have a way to test this on Bullroarer before it goes live, so if Sapience or someone could answer this question, I would most appreciate it (not that I intend to not be VIP for a long time, but finances are tight right now).

[Stephen1981]

How can they be entitled to everything if the major perk regarding the mail system is that VIPs don't have to go to a mailbox and can open it anywhere? Have the 10 items for everyone, especially since it was in such great demand from the entirety of the playerbase, including but not limited to f2p's as well as premiums.

If you really want to have a distinction between what kind of account is allowed to send items, at least put the bar at premium and then the open-it-everywhere feature at VIP. I believe that if you put all perks regarding the mail only at VIP-level, it is going to have the averse effect that people will consider it "another way of milking dollars from the playerbase" and that the discontentment will be too great.

nope i'm still holding my stance cause at is right now VIP doesn't mean anything at the moment if they really wanna mail that many items at once they will sub if not they have it one at a time

[Stephen1981]

I agree with you completely on this. Being able to check mail from ANYWHERE was enough to get me to re-subscribe to VIP. I still think it would be harder than people realize to make it so F2P can only mail one item but VIP can mail 10. Otherwise, they would probably start with a smaller number, and have F2P have to purchase additional mail slots on the store, and free for VIP.

My main question is this: If you are VIP when this goes live, and your account is downgraded to premium at some point after, is this going to be a permanent perk like swift-travel, or will it turn off when you are not VIP. I don't really have a way to test this on Bullroarer before it goes live, so if Sapience or someone could answer this question, I would most appreciate it (not that I intend to not be VIP for a long time, but finances are tight right now).

you do realize swtor does this preferred and f2p mail one item and subcribers can mail 8 items in the mail so yes it can be done and i don't think it be that hard either oh and i think f2p should not being unlocked it either just make VIP only cannot unlock it from the lotro store either

[chrisli]

Overall I do like the new mail system. In particular, I like being able to mail more items at once, because I'm another of those people who always has a full mailbox on half my characters. And I've decided I do like the open-anywhere thing as a VIP perk.

However, I don't like being able to mail store-bought items. I'm a little concerned that hacking attempts will increase, and if someone's account does get hacked, all their TP will be gone. Besides that, let's say that someone says "WTB sturdy steel key for 30g" and then someone else buys a key from the store and gets in-game gold for it...isn't that sort of like buying gold for real money, which is a big no-no? Although I can think of a few cases where it would be nice to mail store-bought items, I just think Turbine shouldn't have gone there and I hope they change it back.

[Ransroth]

My main question is this: If you are VIP when this goes live, and your account is downgraded to premium at some point after, is this going to be a permanent perk like swift-travel, or will it turn off when you are not VIP. I don't really have a way to test this on Bullroarer before it goes live, so if Sapience or someone could answer this question, I would most appreciate it (not that I intend to not be VIP for a long time, but finances are tight right now).

It is not a permanent perk. If you are no longer a VIP you can no longer access your mail away from the mailbox.