Mundus Stones for home instances

Inoki

I've seen a couple of old topics discussing this, especially shortly after release. I was thinking of getting one myself for my home instance, but no way am I going to pay 4k per Mundus. That is overblown in terms of pricing.

Can ZOS reconsider this? 1k and these would definitely be a wanted commodity for home instance. 4k or anything close to it, anything above 1k does not sound reasonable considering you may want to use one once in............ a long while.



The pricing is crazy.

Knightpanther

All prices are crazy in the CS, welcome to the greedy world of ZOS where any sense of financial tactics (ie lower prices to sell more) is not attached to their bonus's.

I to would buy a lot of these things but not a chance at those prices, its the principle.

Be Safe

Gundug

Frankly, the pricing on everything in the crown store is crazy. Even if you were able to bring your dollar to crown ratio to $0.50 / 100 crowns, you still have to consider a 1000 crown furnishing as $5. I haven’t bought crowns outside of what comes with Plus in ages, but I assume they are still somewhere around $1.00 / 100 crowns at regular pricing.

I remember when people lost their minds after Bethesda tried to sell their $2.50 horse armor for Oblivion. Now we look at a 2500 crown mount and think, that’s not a bad price for a mount. Almost $25.00. For an imaginary object you are essentially renting in a game that will be some day shut down.

Acharnor

I agree - I would really love to have one or more of these but 4000 crowns is B-A-N-A-N-A-S! I am a miser with my crowns b/c every purchase seems so big that I rarely purchase anything as a result. I would spend like a wild man if things were a bit lower or a subber got a bigger discount.

Jeremy

Inoki wrote: »

I've seen a couple of old topics discussing this, especially shortly after release. I was thinking of getting one myself for my home instance, but no way am I going to pay 4k per Mundus. That is overblown in terms of pricing.

Can ZOS reconsider this? 1k and these would definitely be a wanted commodity for home instance. 4k or anything close to it, anything above 1k does not sound reasonable considering you may want to use one once in............ a long while.



The pricing is crazy.

They're too expensive.

They should make them available to purchase in-game with vouchers or something.

Urvoth

Just buy them with gold

Kiralyn2000

1) They don't want you to have too much game functionality in your home, it takes too many people out of the world if they don't have to go places for things (also why you'll never get writ boards or turn-in stations for your house), and

2) Convenience has always been more expensive, both in game cash shops, and IRL. Motifs that can be farmed in-game, but people can buy in the crown store to skip that grind? More expensive. Or a can of soda - in your hotel room mini-bar, it's $2-3; in the soda machine two floors away, it's $1; in the convenience store a block from the hotel, it's $0.50; and if you buy a case and have to carry it with you, it's $0.25. Mundus stones for your house, is the equivalent of that mini-bar soda. You're not supposed to be buying it, it's just for the stupidly rich & lazy.
(this is also why the banker & merchant are 5k crowns.)

driosketch

They sometimes go on sale. I picked up the more popular ones with sub crowns I wasn't spending on any thing else.

Hanokihs

Go join a guild that has them all already; or just use the free ones on the map. These are more convenient, sure, but the freebies are literally everywhere. Each faction has its own set, and they're in easy-to-reach places.

I mean, most people who care about those only use two or three across their characters anyway, so that's not entirely unreasonable in terms of price. Especially since I don't think anybody actually changes their mundus much once it's set.

DarkPicture

If its too expensive then dont buy it? 1k is horrible price and u suggest it without any calculation. In other hand u could say this should be for free because why not.

Olauron

That is just an overpriced furnishing with side effects. Realistically you will use this side effect once in 4 months (major update) or even rarely (more likely once in a few years).

Dagoth_Rac

They would need to quadruple sales to break even on a price reduction from 4000 to 1000. Would sales quadruple? Not sure, but that is asking for quite a boost in sales. Also, ZOS might want these to be expensive for reasons beyond profit. Limiting them to the overland and guild houses can help with the social aspects of the game and there are a lot of stats saying that social circles are a big part of what make people stick with a game. I don't think they want player housing to be too convenient, for fear of losing out on social attachments.

WhitePawPrints

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

They would need to quadruple sales to break even on a price reduction from 4000 to 1000. Would sales quadruple? Not sure, but that is asking for quite a boost in sales. Also, ZOS might want these to be expensive for reasons beyond profit. Limiting them to the overland and guild houses can help with the social aspects of the game and there are a lot of stats saying that social circles are a big part of what make people stick with a game. I don't think they want player housing to be too convenient, for fear of losing out on social attachments.

Break even?

Do have their expense report? Their P&L? How much does it cost ZoS to keep a few dozen lines of code in the game?

Seriously? Why would you assume they'd lose money? Virtual currency cost practically nothing! Profits on it are insanely high.

Just hate when someone tries to say "ZoS loses money with sales/fair pricing" on CrownStore items, as if these things are produced in a factory to stock up on inventory. It's a digital code!



... Anyway, I paid for all of mine with gold, and am the only one in a couple guilds with all of the Mundus stones. Cost me up toward around 15 million gold. Just wait till they go on a 40% off sale that they have a couple times, and get the most important ones first.

redspecter23

I bought all mine with gold, but I suppose someone spent money on them at some point in the process. It's a luxury so they will charge a premium on it. It's not necessary in any sort of way so the price seems reasonable.

If we want to talk about overpriced CS items, lets start with the WW/vamp cure they were highlighting yesterday. 800 crowns for something available in game for 600g is the biggest scam in the store currently.

Knightpanther

WhitePawPrints wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

They would need to quadruple sales to break even on a price reduction from 4000 to 1000. Would sales quadruple? Not sure, but that is asking for quite a boost in sales. Also, ZOS might want these to be expensive for reasons beyond profit. Limiting them to the overland and guild houses can help with the social aspects of the game and there are a lot of stats saying that social circles are a big part of what make people stick with a game. I don't think they want player housing to be too convenient, for fear of losing out on social attachments.

Break even?

Do have their expense report? Their P&L? How much does it cost ZoS to keep a few dozen lines of code in the game?

Seriously? Why would you assume they'd lose money? Virtual currency cost practically nothing! Profits on it are insanely high.

Just hate when someone tries to say "ZoS loses money with sales/fair pricing" on CrownStore items, as if these things are produced in a factory to stock up on inventory. It's a digital code!



... Anyway, I paid for all of mine with gold, and am the only one in a couple guilds with all of the Mundus stones. Cost me up toward around 15 million gold. Just wait till they go on a 40% off sale that they have a couple times, and get the most important ones first.

This, its not like ZOS employs a production line of low paid workers with hammer and chisels to turn out those things, its a line of code!

Be Safe

Olauron

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Also, ZOS might want these to be expensive for reasons beyond profit. Limiting them to the overland and guild houses can help with the social aspects of the game and there are a lot of stats saying that social circles are a big part of what make people stick with a game. I don't think they want player housing to be too convenient, for fear of losing out on social attachments.

That is not crafting daily writs, you know. I fail to see how riding once a few years to the mundus stone in the wilderness will increase my social activity. I have done so for my new characters and, well, I have seen zero other players in the process.

Kiralyn2000

WhitePawPrints wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

They would need to quadruple sales to break even on a price reduction from 4000 to 1000. Would sales quadruple? Not sure, but that is asking for quite a boost in sales. Also, ZOS might want these to be expensive for reasons beyond profit. Limiting them to the overland and guild houses can help with the social aspects of the game and there are a lot of stats saying that social circles are a big part of what make people stick with a game. I don't think they want player housing to be too convenient, for fear of losing out on social attachments.

Break even?

Do have their expense report? Their P&L? How much does it cost ZoS to keep a few dozen lines of code in the game?

"Break even" as in "make as much as they do at their current price."

If they sell X at 4k crowns, and dropping the price to 1k would give them 3X in sales? They haven't "broken even", they've had a decrease in income.

Valabrog

Hanokihs wrote: »

Go join a guild that has them all already; or just use the free ones on the map. These are more convenient, sure, but the freebies are literally everywhere. Each faction has its own set, and they're in easy-to-reach places.

I mean, most people who care about those only use two or three across their characters anyway, so that's not entirely unreasonable in terms of price. Especially since I don't think anybody actually changes their mundus much once it's set.

If you play pvp and group pve, you must change it every time you go into pvp or dung/trial. If its full gaming day and you play many hours, its more than one switching per day.

xXMeowMeowXx

They have been on sale at times. You need to check in the purchase furnishings to find sakes most of the time.

@Inoki Perhaps put a thread asking for such a sale in the crown store section of the forums.

I am sure they pay more attention there than here anyway....

FrancisCrawford

Hanokihs wrote: »

I don't think anybody actually changes their mundus much once it's set.

Each time I do a new builid for a character I consider popping into the guild house and changing the Mundus stone. A reasonable fraction of the time, I actually do that.

And by the way, I've used almost every Mundus stone at some time or another.

WhitePawPrints

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

WhitePawPrints wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

They would need to quadruple sales to break even on a price reduction from 4000 to 1000. Would sales quadruple? Not sure, but that is asking for quite a boost in sales. Also, ZOS might want these to be expensive for reasons beyond profit. Limiting them to the overland and guild houses can help with the social aspects of the game and there are a lot of stats saying that social circles are a big part of what make people stick with a game. I don't think they want player housing to be too convenient, for fear of losing out on social attachments.

Break even?

Do have their expense report? Their P&L? How much does it cost ZoS to keep a few dozen lines of code in the game?

"Break even" as in "make as much as they do at their current price."

If they sell X at 4k crowns, and dropping the price to 1k would give them 3X in sales? They haven't "broken even", they've had a decrease in income.

That is not at all what the common usage of "break even" means.

What you're suggesting it means is COMPLETELY subjective. If I put a can of dirt for sale online for $1,000,000. Then I must sale that can at that price to "break even" according to that logic.

The true usage of the works "break even" is not a good business practice because that means you're making as much money as you're putting in. 0 profit, 0 deficit. It's even.

I understand the point of trying to maximize sales by finding that balance of demand vs price. That's what you're confusing break even with: demand vs supply. In this case, supply is infinite, so it really comes down to price. Will enough people buy it at a lower price to keep sales at target goals? And that discussion would require a lot number crunching and practice.

kichwas

[snip] cause gaming developers to have to do cramming without overtime pay and burn out or suffer breakdowns after only a few years in the industry.

Ya'll want all your stuff for free or so low priced, and don't think anything about what it takes to turn out development of these features.

Things like this in the cash shop - represent an ability to generate revenue on an already developed asset that can go to helping keep staff wages reasonable and give those people freaking weekends off for a change...

[edited for bashing]

WhitePawPrints

kichwas wrote: »

[snip] cause gaming developers to have to do cramming without overtime pay and burn out or suffer breakdowns after only a few years in the industry.

Ya'll want all your stuff for free or so low priced, and don't think anything about what it takes to turn out development of these features.

Things like this in the cash shop - represent an ability to generate revenue on an already developed asset that can go to helping keep staff wages reasonable and give those people freaking weekends off for a change...

You really don't pay attention to the gaming news do you?

Blizzard/Activision laid off hundreds of employees while CEO's got huge bonuses.

Borderlands 3 developers got screwed out of their bonuses.

EA.... where to begin?

Bethesda's reputation has fallen faster than any company I've seen.

Big name game developers quitting publishers in masse across dozens and dozens of studios.

The game developers are NOT profiting from these things. All profits are going into the executive pockets.

EDIT: I actually feel bad for game developers and would love to see their work rewarded. The more their work rewarded, the better work they produce. And it'd improve the game. But that's not what's happening in reality.

Shadowshire

driosketch wrote: »

They sometimes go on sale. I picked up the more popular ones with sub crowns I wasn't spending on any thing else.

How do you know that Mundus Stones are on sale? FWIW, I found this discussion because I have been thinking about installing two Mundus Stones in a certain homestead that I have. However, I have never seen any Housing item(s) for sale in the Crown Store. So how can I buy a Mundus Stone? ....

bearbelly

Shadowshire wrote: »

driosketch wrote: »

They sometimes go on sale. I picked up the more popular ones with sub crowns I wasn't spending on any thing else.

How do you know that Mundus Stones are on sale? FWIW, I found this discussion because I have been thinking about installing two Mundus Stones in a certain homestead that I have. However, I have never seen any Housing item(s) for sale in the Crown Store. So how can I buy a Mundus Stone? ....

You can find a whole selection of items available for purchase (for Crowns) within the Housing Editor.

When you are in your house and open the Housing Editor (F5), you have those tabs at the top right. One of them (the one that looks like a Crown) is the Purchase tab.
Once you click on that, it gives you a big list on the left of available items to purchase. (It's organized the same way the list of your available furnishings is, when you click on the "Place" tab to place items in your house.)
Mundus Stones are in the "Services" category.

The items under the Purchase tab are always there, at a set crown-price (which varies by item, anywhere from 10-4000 Crowns), but occasionally they will be discounted. ZOS usually mentions those sales, when they have one scheduled, at the end of the monthly Crown Store Showcase articles.

idk

They have been in the CS for a long time now. It would seem they are selling well at the current price making it doubtful Zos will lower them.

Crowns go on sale at least twice a year which literally lowers the price of anything in the crown store. Also, Zos has put them on sale for 2400 crowns for a short time period. It happened in early 2019. I do not recall if they did the same this year or not.

BlueRaven

Yes, the stones are expensive but the price of them is high, I think, mainly to discourage people from buying too many of them.

They (zos’s devs) want people out in the world as much as they can. That is why other certain services cannot be done inside homes.

The high cost is actually there to keep sales of them low, basically only large guilds can afford them and that is by design.

Coppes

Just about $300 for all those Mundus Stones or you could just spent 2-5 minutes going to a zone and picking it up.

driosketch

Shadowshire wrote: »

driosketch wrote: »

They sometimes go on sale. I picked up the more popular ones with sub crowns I wasn't spending on any thing else.

How do you know that Mundus Stones are on sale? FWIW, I found this discussion because I have been thinking about installing two Mundus Stones in a certain homestead that I have. However, I have never seen any Housing item(s) for sale in the Crown Store. So how can I buy a Mundus Stone? ....

It was in the showcase announcements for March of last year, all the way near the bottom.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/55821

Also, it's not always clear when they have sales on furnishings. I would make a habit to check weekends, or during an event or when a DLC drops. Go into a house and check the housing editor to see if things are discounted.

xF1REFL1x

As much I would like to believe ZOS separates themselves from the other gaming companies... they do not.

Shadowshire

@bearbelly

bearbelly wrote: »

Shadowshire wrote: »

driosketch wrote: »

They sometimes go on sale. I picked up the more popular ones with sub crowns I wasn't spending on any thing else.

How do you know that Mundus Stones are on sale? FWIW, I found this discussion because I have been thinking about installing two Mundus Stones in a certain homestead that I have. However, I have never seen any Housing item(s) for sale in the Crown Store. So how can I buy a Mundus Stone? ....

You can find a whole selection of items available for purchase (for Crowns) within the Housing Editor.

When you are in your house and open the Housing Editor (F5), you have those tabs at the top right. One of them (the one that looks like a Crown) is the Purchase tab.

Once you click on that, it gives you a big list on the left of available items to purchase. (It's organized the same way the list of your available furnishings is, when you click on the "Place" tab to place items in your house.)
Mundus Stones are in the "Services" category.

The items under the Purchase tab are always there, at a set crown-price (which varies by item, anywhere from 10-4000 Crowns), but occasionally they will be discounted. ZOS usually mentions those sales, when they have one scheduled, at the end of the monthly Crown Store Showcase articles.

(images redacted from this quotation of this reply -- Shadowshire)

Thank-you for your gracious reply. It has been a long time since I used the Housing Editor for anything more than adjusting the placement of furnishings that I installed previously. So, I totally forgot about the feature for accessing the furnishings that ZOS wants to sell for Crowns.

Of course, I have assumed that guild masters and officers probably bought some furnishings that I have seen in "guild halls", the array of Mundus Stones among them. But I have never asked how or where they obtained them.

Almost all furnishings installed in the Homesteads which I have acquired were crafted by one of my characters. Although, not many furnishings installed (so far) and not many homesteads. A few furnishings were bought with Gold Pieces at Guild auctions, whether they are installed anywhere yet.

Of course, Crafting Workstations were bought from Rolis Hlaalu -- an Internet celebrity now (no, just kidding!) -- in exchange for vouchers earned by fulfilling Sealed Master Crafting Writs. Also, one time I won some Crowns as a guild raffle prize, which I spent mostly for structural items with which to build walls and such. On one other occasion, I won my choice of an unfurnished Medium Homestead (worth about 360,000 GP) as a raffle prize from another guild.

During the past 5+ years of playing TESO, I have bought Crowns "on sale" maybe twice, and not for many Dollars. However, since my characters craft gear and furnishings, I pay the monthly ESO Plus subscription in order to have the Crafting Bag. The Crowns that are included are so few, relative to prices of items in the Crown Store, that they have not been very significant to me. (Note: I never buy "Crown Crates", which is essentially a form of gambling.)

Ordinarily, I accumulate ESO+ Crowns until there are enough to buy the most recent DLC so that I will always have access to its features. ZOS has been known to mangle player accounts beyond all recognition in the past. They usually re-enable logging-in to play the game reasonably soon thereafter, but tend to take their time resolving problems with any benefits which are associated with the player's account.

@Urvoth

Several players have commented here that they have bought Crown furnishings "for gold" (for in-game Gold Pieces). So, I assume that they exchanged Gold Pieces for Crowns with someone who solicited them to do that via Chat, or some other means of contact such as Discord. Or maybe they advertised that they wanted to buy Crowns with Gold Pieces.

Suffice it to say, I am rather hesitant to exchange Gold Pieces for Crowns without a means of doing so which I can trust. I am aware of the Tamriel Crown Exchange website. Although, I have not visited it since shortly after I heard about it, so I don't know whether it still exists.

That said, the time and effort to acquire Gold Pieces via the Guild Store / Guild Trader system has not been insignificant. Although I have sold countless items, relatively few were acquired without time and effort to do so, whether with using Gold Pieces instead or as well. Since few items were not acquired without cost, selling an item is seldom "pure profit". "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." TANSTAFL applies to goods and services in Tamriel just as it does IRL.

Then again, I am neither a miser nor a spendthrift. Be that as it may, no doubt that I have spent -- and donated (mostly to guilds) -- probably as much as 80% - 90% of all of the profits of my in-game merchandising. Most Gold Pieces that were spent bought crafting Style Motifs, furnishing "recipes", food or beverage recipes, and crafting materials of all kinds.

Even in the human fiction known as "Tamriel", money doesn't grow on trees.

The reason that money doesn't grow on trees is because God did not create money. It is not a product or a feature of Nature. Money is a product of human imagination. It exists only because we believe that it exists.

Further, there is no human socioeconomic system which is without blemish, or without injustice somewhere within. "Tamriel" is no exception. Greed is not a virtue, rather, it is one of the worst vices of all. It motivates people to claim the exclusive use of land and sea and their resources, to initiate wars, and create institutions such as slavery. Never let anyone convince you differently. For they ignore essential facts and invent fictions. They refuse to recognize truth and prefer deceit. Their "worldly" wisdom is folly in the eyes of those who know otherwise.