Premium Servers

With F2P looming on May 10 and with the announcement of the exclusiveness of
the Telsai server, I think this is the perfect time to propose the idea of premium servers.
The demographics of iToS is certainly different from the demographics of kToS, that is
why it would just be proper to adapt to the global market. The CS:GO model an
example of a very successful monetization system. It uses a one-time pay-to-play model
and is further monetized in the form of skins. I believe this type of system would be
compatible with Tree of Savior; one-time payment to access and create a team on a
premium which would be backed up by the current cash shop. I am advocating for
premium servers alongside F2P servers, not premium only.
Implementation
DLC Method IMC already has the technology to restrict team creation of
players to specific servers as evidenced by the founders only Telsai server. What they
did with the tiered founders pack was smart. It allowed people a choice of supporting
ToS with the $50 and $30 packs or an option to just try it out early with the $10 pack. A
base $10 price point is a good choice for premium access but, IMC could always adjust
it however they would like. IMC could give us DLC packs that would allow us to create
teams on premium servers. Regional pricing could also be an option similar to how they
are going to do TP transactions. This could also be applied to making separate DLC
options for the different regions.
Transfers IMC has already done server transfers. I suggest giving current
players 1-time server transfers if ever this is implemented. This gives way players are

not stranded on their current server and be given a choice if they want to play on
premium servers or the F2P servers. With future transfers, I suggest putting in a TP fee
and certain restrictions to regulate transfers and only allow accounts with the
appropriate DLC to transfer.
Benefits
Better gameplay experience Premiums servers would provide a premium
experience to players. I believe that the current problems that we are facing are due to
overpopulation of the servers. I took a week-long break when the whole Bolento/refund
pandemic because of the rampant bots I was competing grinding spots with. The bots
were outnumbering actual human players in maps. After IMC solved the problem by
implementing restrictions I came back and I just have to tell you wow, its like a whole
new game. (I also bought new Founder Pack 1 because of this) I only see a bot once
every 5 minutes now instead of 5 every 1 minute before. (Its still horrible on low level
maps.) Also RMT spammers are now only spamming 1-3 channels of towns instead of
all 20 channels. Whatever you experience in the beginning of early access is what you
will experience on F2P release but only 10 times worse. Whatever youre experiencing
right now is what premium servers would be like. Do I believe IMC could eradicate
botters and gold sellers? No, I dont. But I do know that they can minimize it due to the
next 2 reasons.

Incentive to enforce rules This would add another secondary stream of

income for IMC: banning of bots and RMT spammers. If you would give me GM tools I

guarantee you that I can ban over 100 bots in less than an hour; if you were to price
premium DLC at $10 that would be $1000 in an hour. They could just hire people at a
low wage to patrol the server and answer bot reports and they would benefit both
themselves and the players. Its not hard to identify bots, RMT spammers more so.
Barrier to entry for malicious players One of the most effective ways to
combat malicious players is to make unprofitable for them both in terms of time and
money. In the F2P model if a bot gets banned then they can just make a new account.
In the premium model if a bot gets banned they have to shell out again for premium
access and theyre back to square one. Gold sellers will incur additional costs for paying
for their farming accounts and their spamming accounts. If its unprofitable for gold
sellers to operate then they will either stop operating or increase their price. This is
where the token system that is implemented goes to work. Why would people patronize
gold sellers if they can get it for cheaper and easier the legit way of just buying and
selling tokens?
Incentive to satisfy players This is what greets me every time I run dungeons
for the first 8 hours after reset. [instance pic] (I suspect this is what CommanderLoadFail
really is, except in fixed form) On top of that there is also constant server lag throughout
the day. I didnt intend this to be a rant thread. IMC would be incentivized to add more
servers for their customers. Since happy customers are paying customers.

Low Risk This is the perfect time to experiment with this because F2P hasnt
launched yet. IMC can always just merge the servers if it proves a failure or keep it if its

a success. Players would always have the choice of playing on the premium server or
the F2P server.

Concerns
Population and community fragmentation If you were to tell me that the
premium servers would be a ghost town, I will not believe you. This is a screenshot of
the mercenary post 3hours after reset taken on May 5. [merc pic] Notice how almost all
channels are red. Just imagine if you were to add in F2P players to the mix; you wont
be able to do missions, daily quests and party quests because you cant get in the
mercenary post. IMC could always just merge the servers if the population gets too low.
There have even been speculations about cross server PVP and such. (I honestly
wouldnt want to fight against bot haven servers)
No one would buy tokens on the premium servers There would always be a
demand for tokens. The laws of supply and demand would govern the marketplace for
this. A high supply of tokens would make buying tokens from the marketplace attractive
due to low prices and a low supply of tokens would make buying tokens to sell be
attractive.
No one would sell tokens on the F2P servers Tokens on the F2P server
would sell for a hefty penny. People would be more inclined to sell tokens because of
this. There would always be a high demand for tokens on the F2P servers.

IMC would let F2P servers rot Theres little incentive to fight a never-ending
battle. Just imagine policing the F2P server of endless waves of bots with nothing
stopping them from making new accounts and you gaining nothing from banning them.
Its a waste of time and resources on IMCs part unless they deploy a solid anti-cheat
and even then bot creators would be one step ahead.
Botted accounts would just transfer to premium servers when they hit max
level I think a review of transferring accounts is a must for this. A review of suspicious
activity of the account, a review of IP accesses to prevent selling of botted accounts and
other countermeasures are needed to ensure the legitimacy of accounts. Additional
restrictions such as untradeable items or limited silver transfer are also options.
I want to play with my friends but they dont want to pay for premium
access Nothing stops you from playing on the F2P servers. If you cant shell out a few
dollars to support a game that you would spend hundreds of hours on then I dont know
what to say.
Alternatives
Why not apply a subscription-based model? I do not think a subscriptionbased model would be successful because of the current monetization model right now.
We already have the token system in place for a constant stream of revenue. Adding
another recurring payment would just turn away current and potential customers. Also,
adding a subscription to an arguably pay-to-win cash shop is a very alienating
experience. Most people would be against it and would not even think of touching the
game.

Why not just add token-user only channels? The same problems would still
exist. Token users would just crowd in the limited token channels and bots would rule
the normal channels. The economy would still get ruined because of the influx of silver
into the economy. The price of arde dagger before was always above 1M due to the
bots buying them out. After the bans and restrictions the price came down to a steady
700k to 800k.
Conclusion
Having premium servers would solve plenty of the problems that F2P games
have. Having both options of premium servers and F2P servers would give players a
choice of a better experience and a way of players to experience the game. Premium
servers are the perfect middle ground of the subscription-based model and token-user
only channels.
Any comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome. Please send your insults and
racial slurs through PM instead.
tl;dr: giff premium servers
@STAFF_Ines @STAFF_John @STAFF_Ethan @STAFF_J rip:Staff_Julie