Neverwinter: Probation for buying ZEN through my steam wallet?

[Venomlaced]

I purchased ZEN in Neverwinter through the online menu system. The ZEN was delivered after payment but my Neverwinter account was put on probation. I can still play but I can not make ZEN transactions. I requested support through their online network and the reply I got back said your account has been placed on probation for buying ZEN through your steam wallet. Are we not supposed to use our steam wallets to purchase ZEN? Why is there a menu system in game that allows you to do this if it is a violation and will get your account placed on probation?

[Shadowblade001]

Origineel geplaatst door GrubbyHands:

it already has an army of bots hell bent on AD farming which is inflating the prices in AH. No amount of real cash could give you an advantage over these bots anyway.

Actually, Bot-Farmed items on the AH are CHEAPER, because they have banks of servers and arrays of PCs logged in farming 24/7/365, selling the enchants and refining stones at the AH and then selling the AD via their illegal, pirate sites for Cash Money.

You can get 99 Peridots, worth 49,500 Refining Points, for 11,000 Astral Diamonds. That is actually GOOD for the player-base.

Similarly, you can get stacks of Rank 5 enchants for a few hundred k. Where PLAYERS complain about Bots and the AH, it is because the Bots are undercutting the player's prices.

They are slow to act, as many AD Farmer Bots pay money for Zen to buy extra character slots.


The massive hyper-inflation was actually caused by:

An exploit where you could post something for -AD, withdraw the offer and you would be credited with +AD in your currency inventory. People spammed this all day long until it was fixed;

Caturday, where people farmed dozens and dozens of Cat Companions (worth well over 1 million AD) by dulicating them due to a Bank Vault Glitch, which they could sell on the AH;

The Astral Resonator Exploit, where crooked players could use a Macro to exploit a lag in destroying the Resonator in your inventory and the opening of the Rift and putting the Resonator on the AH at a huge price, so it would not sell and could not be destroyed, but the rift opened anyway and they stood by an Astral Diamond Fountain which spewed millions upon millions of AD into their currency inventory.

The Zen/AD Exchange had a backlog of 13 million Zen for months because of this, and PWE/Cryptic only fixed it because someone posted a YouTube link on their Forum, as repeated reports had been ignored. For months. The guy who posted the video link got banned permanently. People who exploited the AD Fountain got a 7 day ban, or nothing at all. They did not roll back, they did not delete accounts with logs showing 100 million AD coming out of nowhere in less than 24 hours. They shut the servers down and fixed the exploit, because they were starting to lose money because people stopped buying Zen.

People who reported the exploit and told Tech Support that they could confirm it as they did it once with a single Resonator got a 3 day ban for their trouble. This was going on for MONTHS before anything was done.

THAT is the quality of PWE's Mission Statement and Business Ethic.

[Ancymonek]

This problem is actually dead easy to fix. Someone else said that you have to be very firm. 100% agreed with that, though in my case I pushed it to be borderline rude.

Next thing I get is a reply from GM Navi that he permanently removed Probation Period from my account and gave me a 1000 ZEN of compensation for the inconveniences that I have experienced.

A couple of things that I think worked to my advantage:

#01 Giving numbers of the invoices confirming the legality of purchased ZEN via Steam Vallet (after every transaction, they are automatically sent to you on your email).
#02 Being very decisive and DEMANDING - not asking for anything.
#03 Throwing bits about what is legal and what is not here and there.
#04 Stating problem very clearly and in an official manner.

Mind you, order that I put this list in is not accidental. I think numbers of invoices topped everything else.

Have you ever read any of those articles in the links they provide in support? They say exactly what the Probation Period is for - to protect from fraud. And by giving the numbers of invoices you also deliver the ultimate proof that all the purchases were legal, therefore taking all the cards from up their sleeve.

I hope you will find it helpful, as I did.

[Decagon]

He may find it helpful, if the probation lasted over four years.

[Shadowblade001]

LOL!

[RattikusMaximus]

I was honestly going to check out this game, but I have zero interest in a game that has a dev team that treats players like this. Me and my steam wallet money will go elsewhere.

[Shadowblade001]

Never buy Zen from Steam. You do not get the bonus for bulk purchases and you also get this probation nonsense until Steam passes PWE's cut on to them, which I think is batched up monthly instead of daily as you pay Steam.

They are making more changes to screw players. Instead of refining 36k rough AD per day per character, so with multiple Alts to salvage gear and run dungeons some people could make 200 or 300k AD per day if they wanted to spam it, now it will be 100k rough AD per account per day.

And, you only get bonus AD for the first dungeon and skirmish run per account, instead of per character, so it's a Double Whammy.

Of course, they are selling this as a plus to players, like we have an IQ of 60. The limit on refining is increasing from 36k per day to 100k, but it is per ACCOUNT instead of per character. Also, some nonsense about the Zen exchange backlog, which is 18 million. But it's always been like this since the resonator exploit and taking Coalescent and Preservation Wards out of the Tarmalune Trade Bar market.

First, they made the Wards bind to account, so they could not be sold. Then, they reset the trade bar prices to be more equitable, but they FORGOT they had made them bound to account. So people were buying them and selling on the Auction House for AD and it got flooded at a price cheaper than the Zen market. So no one was spending Zen on them. So, instead of making them bound again, they took them out of the Trade Bar merchant store completely, which was a major selling point of VIP. They said they had made a mistake. YES. The mistake was forgetting to keep the Wards BtA!



Everyone is expecting another 50% Zen market sale in the Summer Festival, so are keeping their Zen and it takes about 24 hours per million backlog for Free players to trade their AD. They had two sales last Summer. And this is when I will extend my VIP and buy Wards. There will also be a Charge Promo, and the ZAX will go down again.

No one who spends money on Zen wants to trade it for AD at 500 per Zen, because they make enough AD and need Zen only for VIP and Wards to upgrade. But they also need AD for marks to upgrade gear. I only buy Zen during a +25% Charge Promo and I only spend it during Sales.

Of course, some players support this change. The Uber BIS who can run the hardest dungeons as soon as they go live and sell their loot on the AH for millions think it's fine for everyone else to be stuck with 100k per day rough AD

[analog_relic]

Tell it loud SB. Maybe they will actually listen for a change. And maybe pigs can fly after all. AR

[Shadowblade001]

Hi, AR!

I don't think we'll be hearing the sound from above of "FLAP! FLAP! OINK! OINK! SPLAT!" any time soon. Just repeated SPLATS! from the Devs.

And yet, when players told them over and over and over and over again that Random Queues being the only way to get AD from dungeons and skirmishes was a dumb idea, they responded:

"But you will be able to earn MORE AD! Us telling you what dungeons to run and how to play is a GOOD thing!"

"But what about AD inflation? And level 70s ruining the fun for new players at level 15?" we cried.

"Oh, we'll fix the power differential and prices on the AH will come down, because we made everything BoP or BtA!"

"What?"

They did not fix the power differential, of course. So i could not run easy dungeons solo anymore.

Anyway, they are introducing some new AD Sinks, but who wants to spend huge AD amounts on green mounts? GMoPs, SMoPs and UMops are the things my AD go on. The Ultimate Enchanting Stones needed have to come from Epic Dungeons, which no one can run unless hey have completed FBI and ToNG.

Imagine back in Mod 2 and 3, when we tried to enter Epic Cloak Tower solo, or just the two of us, if they had said:

"F.U.! You cannot run Epic Cloak Tower, because you have not yet completed Epic Castle Never!"

That's what they did with Random Queues. You can still form Private and Public Queues with friends or random PUGs and choose the dungeon or skirmish you run, but you get no AD from it. You just get garbage salvage from the chests, and some have a chest inside a chest, needing three keys, RNG upon RNG upon RNG.

Anyway, don't get me started! I promied no more rANTS!

[Shadowblade001]

Of course, the ZAX situation would not be so bad if it were not for every new player expecting to get VIP for nothing by trading AD for Zen. That's another reason why the backlog is nearly 20 million. They seem to be trying to limit AD in order to make more people buy Zen.

[analog_relic]

Morning SB (at least morning here),

1. The 'No more rANTS promise was broken on your very next post!! Well done you. You lasted exactly zero rANT free posts.

2. Surely you are not suggesting that they want players to spend real money to buy fake money (Zen) and then spend fake money to buy even more fake money (AD)?

That is a vile calumny against a fine and reputable company, which only has the players best interests at heart!! I will not stand for it Sir. I challenge you to a duel. As soon as my order for Zen on the ZAX clears, and I buy all the best possible gear and whine a bit about the plebs cluttering up the PUGs. AR

[Shadowblade001]

ROFLMAO!!

See you in Icewind Dale Open World PvP. I'll bring my weakest Alt! I'd like to farm some Scrimshaw!



That'll be about 3 weeks for the order to clear!