As THRONE AND LIBERTY prepares for early access and full release, we'd like to provide some additional information and clarity to a few areas from our original Business Model article. If you haven't had a chance to read through that article, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the content, as this article is a follow-up to many of the concepts and ideas discussed throughout that piece. To quickly recap the core of the previous article, we identified three tenets that embody our values, guide our decision-making, and serve as the business model’s foundation:
- Player self-expression is paramount
- Combat and power upgrades must be accessible to all players
- Purchasing items from our in-game shop must feel rewarding, but never necessary
So, with those in-mind, let’s cover some answers to top questions we’ve seen arise from the THRONE AND LIBERTY community.
Auction House
We believe the auction house is fundamentally important to allow free-to-play players a method to earn premium currency in game. The Auction House is the hub for the player-driven economy within THRONE AND LIBERTY, where players can trade items and gear with each other. Since premium currency is not required to list items, all players can sell items on the Auction House to acquire premium currency without spending real world money.
As we were designing the auction house we wanted to place limits on the types of items directly purchasable. Only base level gear can be listed on the Auction House. Any gear that has been advanced or upgraded in any way— if traits are unlocked or upgraded— it is not eligible to be listed for sale. Gear obtained from instanced content such as Co-op Dungeons and Guild Raids are also not eligible to be listed in the Auction House.
One of the main goals is to provide a consistent system for free-to-play players to earn currency in-game and use the Lucent earned to acquire content normally locked exclusively behind paywalls. If you choose not to spend a dime, you can earn premium currency in-game through various activities, from collecting rare drops to sell to other players on the auction house, and PvP rewards. With this earned currency, you'll have the freedom to unlock cosmetics, leveling passes, battle passes, and more—a ton of items that would typically be locked behind a paywall in other games. Our goal is to make THRONE AND LIBERTY accessible to all, across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Lucent
We’ve seen some some player questions about how Lucent will function. Lucent will be shared across all characters on your account. Players may earn or purchase Lucent on any server. Players may also spend Lucent on any server they choose. For example, players with a character on an server ‘A’ may sell items on the auction house to earn Lucent, then, on another character, may choose to spend that Lucent on server ‘B’.
Cosmetics
Account-Wide Cosmetics
Items of the following type will be shared with all characters. Those items include:
- Any cosmetics acquired through packs purchased with real-world money or Lucent.
- Any cosmetics acquired through Early Access Packs. The outfit is account wide but style, dye, and patterns are character specific. Customization options are not account wide.
- Any cosmetics acquired through Twitch Drops.
Please note, cosmetic items that are earned through game-play or events will be character specific. Battle passes and leveling passes are also character specific. The rewards in each can be useful and we want to allow you to purchase up to one per character. The purchase and rewards of the Battle Pass and Leveling Pass are applied and earned on a per-character basis, but the cosmetics obtained from them are account-wide. The first time you receive the cosmetics, they will be saved to your account, and if you receive them multiple times, they will remain in your inventory as an item and can be sold to a vendor. Cosmetics purchased from the in-game store will also be account-wide, meaning they can only be purchased once per account instead of per character.
Early Access Packs Clarifications
Early Access Packs, including the Lucent they contain, are granted to your account upon first login.
We’ve also seen a common question from the community asking if the colors of the costumes showcased in the Early Access Packs were the only option. Absolutely not! By using the Mirror Boutique you can dye your costume and customize your appearance in a multitude of ways. Helmet and accessories are optional. A few configuration options are shown below. Please note that to change colors and patterns, Dyes and Sewing Threads are required.
Find the full cosmetics available in the Early Access Packs in our showcase article.
We’re excited for you to set foot in Solisium and begin your adventure on September 26 for early access and October 1 for the full release. Stay tuned to our website and social channels for more information as we head toward launch. We’ll see you in Solisium soon!