Brief history of my playtime-

I've played off and on since Prodigy. Never made it beyond level 10. Always thought someone with a Lord title was way cool. I've also played Dragonrealms a little bit. I read both forums every few years regardless if I'm playing. I'm not very good at either game.

Questions-

Curious about Sorcerers and what they are locked out of regarding spells. Specifically, 714, 735, and 420. I've searched the forums, PC, and asked in game but can't find info. Can these be used? What are the limitations if any? And can the limitations be offset with a pass?

Simucoin Store-

Overall the store needs to be revamped. There's lots of spell resets - why not just roll them all into one? Why doesn't Gift of Lumnis include the experience passes? Why do many of the passes have such strange limitations (ex. casting pass 15 minutes, experience pass 3 hours)? Loresinging one Simucoin purchase at a time? The system feels like it was created to never be used. Some things need to be combined, some need to be increased in duration or charges, and some need to be adjusted in price.

General Comments-

The initial new player experience is great. That sprite quest is great. It really gives you all the info you need to get started. Kudos to the person who revamped all that. With that said, some of the limitations put on new players seem odd.

Foraging- My first task from the adventurer guild as my new sorcerer was to find some tree bark. Alright. Let's do it. I goto the place, figure everything out, dump lots of points into survival and first aid, and get to work. I roll a 99. Kneeling both hands empty. No tree bark. Why can't F2P players forage? Why is there such a massive penalty placed upon them? I understand not being able to take all of some herb out of a room (even though, is that really a huge issue?), but penalties upon penalties are just crazy. F2Ps should not be given foraging tasks ever.

Mass spell limitations- When I first read that you can't PvP I thought alright. Then I read that if your mass spell hit another person you're on a 5 minute cooldown. Alright. That makes sense. Then I read that mass spells are on 30s cooldown to prevent careless spamming. Huh? There's already a limitation in place if I'm carelessly spamming and it hits people. Why is there another limitation? Am I carelessly spamming the mobs I'm trying to kill? Why is there a 30s penalty here? Penalties upon penalties.

Overall, having played through Dragonrealms and GS4 F2P a little bit, Dragonrealms seems to have a better model. The Simucoin purchases are optional. They exist to speed you up, not as a method for you to actually experience the game. And by speed you up, I mean bring you to the base level of a subscriber. There's so many restrictions in GS4 F2P model that I feel overwhelmed as a newish player. And I'm not talking about societies or guilds because I've never done those before.

PS - Having read some of the other threads I was nervous posting this because of how angry some people can get. F2P and Simucoin purchases make money for this game. Even if it's a small amount, it's money that Simutronics probably would not have seen otherwise. Please remember that and don't get crazy in my thread.

PSPS - I just want my tree bark. :(

<<Foraging- My first task from the adventurer guild as my new sorcerer was to find some tree bark. Alright. Let's do it. I goto the place, figure everything out, dump lots of points into survival and first aid, and get to work. I roll a 99. Kneeling both hands empty. No tree bark. Why can't F2P players forage? Why is there such a massive penalty placed upon them? I understand not being able to take all of some herb out of a room (even though, is that really a huge issue?), but penalties upon penalties are just crazy. F2Ps should not be given foraging tasks ever.>>

My guess is you are not suffering from a huge penalty there. I have found the early foraging tasks nearly impossible even fully trained in survival/perception. That is as a ranger...I still needed the open rolls to get most of the original stuff assigned to me. Mostly I just return the foraging tasks until my stat bonuses, skills and magic make them feasible.

>>My first task from the adventurer guild as my new sorcerer was to find some tree bark. Alright. Let's do it. I goto the place, figure everything out, dump lots of points into survival and first aid, and get to work. I roll a 99. Kneeling both hands empty. No tree bark. Why can't F2P players forage?

>I'm pretty sure this one is a profession issue, not a F2P issue. Sorcerers are on the bottom of the pile when it comes to innate profession bonuses in foraging. For comparison, my level 54 empath (no survival, 20 ranks of perception, kneeling, both hands free) needs a roll somewhere in the 80s to find tree bark, and empaths supposedly have the second highest innate profession bonus to foraging. Some forageables are just harder than others, and you'll likely need some levels under your belt for the skills involved for it to not be a complete frustration-fest on a sorcerer.

Right. You can check the "profession bonuses"

https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Foraging

A level 56 sorcerer with fully 1x Perception and 1x Survival (so 58 ranks of each) is equal to a level 0 ranger.

Each 3 Survival Ranks is a +1 to foraging (or -1, depending on your view). Each 15 skill of Perception is +1.

(58/3)+(158/15)=29.87

Since the natural disparity between a level 0 ranger and a level 0 sorcerer is 30, that training is what offsets it.

I have complained about this for years. Rangers can have their bonus rolled into the 603 spell based on Ranger Base ranks (so it won't give additional bonuses beyond its present one to anyone with a scroll). Why there is a 20 point difference between a warrior and a sorcerer is totally confounding, particularly with the introduction of the Adv Guild and Alchemy, such that a majority of items foraged are not herbs (not that I think it makes any real sense for warriors to be so amazingly good at foraging herbs, either, I think it was just a pragmatic thing from two decades ago that has never left)

I don't know a ton about F2P, but you're likely worth getting a ranger to say, level 3 for the Foraging (603) spell, with full Perception and Survival, if it is okay for foraging in a limited time frame for your bounties. Some areas it might be too dangerous to be useful, but your sorcerer could always guard them with 706/708 etc.

Since any kind of foraging overhaul is evidently not forthcoming, "cheating it up" is my only recommendation. It wasn't until the mid 90s, and the recent release of the Elemental Confluence where I got my sorcerer's Survival up to 1x (and Perception has always been 1x) that I could forage in a way I would consider at all competently, and mostly for previous progression in alchemy, I just ask my wife, who has a ranger, to do it for me...including for a large percentage of all my bounties.

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>Daid: Pretty sure you have a whole big bucket as your penny jar. You never have only two cents. :p

<< All the foraging responses >>

Guess that explains my problem with foraging tasks! Thankfully, the guild hasn't given me another one.

My little Sorcerer is growing up, which is cool and frustrating at the same time. Just got 714 and some folks told me the Casting Spell Pass would let you use it. The description in the Simucoin store didn't say anything about unlocking permanent type spells (714, 420, 735, etc.), but I figured hey why not give it a try. It didn't work. Oh well, lets try something else!

Being sad about 714 being unusable, I decided to go try out 709/710 while I had this spell pass up. 709 was still locked out. 710 was still locked out for the non-aimed version. That's okay, because again the description in the store didn't mention anything about them. Oh hey. I still have time left on my pass. Lets try spamming 410. The pass actually states it removes all cooldowns associated with F2P spell casting. Nope. It must mean that it removes any existing cooldowns in place, not that it prevents future cooldowns. However, that's just a guess because I'm not buying that pass again.

For any GMs who might read this - are there any plans to revisit the F2P system? Specifically, I'm curious about revamping the store and having better options for overcoming F2P limitations.

>simu dura
Rhazin, your current SimuCoin upgrades/durations are as follows:

Treasure Boost Expired on Tue Sep 1 08:44:21 ET 2015
Adventure Boost Expired on Thu Sep 3 03:15:17 ET 2015
Society Pass Until Sun Sep 6 00:12:17 ET 2015
Inventory Boost Expired on Fri Sep 4 01:30:00 ET 2015
Bank Account Boost 100000 uses
Casting Spell Pass Until Fri Sep 4 03:46:57 ET 2015
Lesser Experience Pass Expired on Tue Sep 1 11:32:55 ET 2015
Treasure Day Until Sat Sep 5 02:19:04 ET 2015
>inc 410
You trace a simple rune while intoning the mystical phrase for Elemental Wave...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spotted lynx.
A wave of dark ethereal ripples moves outward from you.
A hobgoblin is buffeted by the dark ethereal waves and is knocked to the ground.
A spotted lynx is buffeted by the dark ethereal waves and is knocked to the ground.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>

A few packrats run into the area and hastily gather up some of the items left lying on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the packrats run out of sight with their haul.

>simu dura
Rhazin, your current SimuCoin upgrades/durations are as follows:

Treasure Boost Expired on Tue Sep 1 08:44:21 ET 2015
Adventure Boost Expired on Thu Sep 3 03:15:17 ET 2015
Society Pass Until Sun Sep 6 00:12:17 ET 2015
Inventory Boost Expired on Fri Sep 4 01:30:00 ET 2015
Bank Account Boost 100000 uses
Casting Spell Pass Until Fri Sep 4 03:46:57 ET 2015
Lesser Experience Pass Expired on Tue Sep 1 11:32:55 ET 2015
Treasure Day Until Sat Sep 5 02:19:04 ET 2015
>inc 410
You trace a simple rune while intoning the mystical phrase for Elemental Wave...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spotted lynx.
Nothing happens.
[Because your account is free, you cannot cast this spell until the cooldown has expired. To purchase access, please visit the SimuCoins Store.]