Red Steamed Dumplings

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

Yeah . . . this one make me wonder. And yes, it does seem to be a rare drop to boot. Hopefully, as time goes on, the price will drop.

[Zaxares.5419]

As Gop says, you don't have to feed Drooburt all 500 this year. As a fellow AP hunter, I'd love it if you could, of course, but if necessary, I'll just do what I did with Festive Imbiber and complete it over several years.

[Kreejaffa.3682]

> @"Vegeta.2563" said:

> > @"Kreejaffa.3682" said:

> > Only cost me about 200 gold.

> >

> > Sorry...I might have made the price go up faster by buying so many when the patch went live.

>

> How many did you buy?

 

I bought 500 like minutes after the patch went live. They were sitting around 20s each at that time.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

> @"Kreejaffa.3682" said:

>

> I bought 500 like minutes after the patch went live. They were sitting around 20s each at that time.

 

Typical. But I'm not shocked either. Again, best to wait until the market prices come down.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The first day of a festival, people overspend. They look at price on the TP and pay and pay and pay... instead of waiting it out. People come to the festival late and check their banks, g-banks, storage toons, and find, oh wow, 5 stacks of dumplings. Plus, 1000s of us are opening envelopes every day.

 

And it's a a one time achievement. You spend 500 dumplings and you're done. Forever. So the supply might be low/price high today, but as time goes on, the supply will increase why our demand diminishes.

 

There's a lot more pending supply than we think and there's no rush; the price will drop. (But maybe not this week.)

[Manasa Devi.7958]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> The first day of a festival, people overspend. They look at price on the TP and pay and pay and pay... instead of waiting it out. People come to the festival late and check their banks, g-banks, storage toons, and find, oh wow, 5 stacks of dumplings. Plus, 1000s of us are opening envelopes every day.

>

> And it's a a one time achievement. You spend 500 dumplings and you're done. Forever. So the supply might be low/price high today, but as time goes on, the supply will increase why our demand diminishes.

>

> There's a lot more pending supply than we think and there's no rush; the price will drop. (But maybe not this week.)

 

Anyone who has 5 stacks of dumplings bought well over 4 stacks of dumplings, excluding perhaps a lucky few who had them drop in incredible numbers. I've averaged about 12 per year of the festival, and I played a lot. They don't seem more common this year. So far, I got 1 from 32 big envelopes and about 160 small ones.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

> @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> Wait.. 25 ap for a 2 week achievement costing 400g?

> Thats a LOT.. normally they’d cut the achievement in 3 tiers each worth 1 AP.

 

You're behind the times. This is the third festival in a row that has multiple achievements that repeat for 5 AP at a time for a maximum of 25 AP.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Manasa Devi.7958" said:

> > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > The first day of a festival, people overspend. They look at price on the TP and pay and pay and pay... instead of waiting it out. People come to the festival late and check their banks, g-banks, storage toons, and find, oh wow, 5 stacks of dumplings. Plus, 1000s of us are opening envelopes every day.

> >

> > And it's a a one time achievement. You spend 500 dumplings and you're done. Forever. So the supply might be low/price high today, but as time goes on, the supply will increase why our demand diminishes.

> >

> > There's a lot more pending supply than we think and there's no rush; the price will drop. (But maybe not this week.)

>

> Anyone who has 5 stacks of dumplings bought well over 4 stacks of dumplings, excluding perhaps a lucky few who had them drop in incredible numbers. I've averaged about 12 per year of the festival, and I played a lot. They don't seem more common this year. So far, I got 1 from 32 big envelopes and about 160 small ones.

 

At one point I had 10 stacks of dumplings because they were cheap and I expected them to go up (and they did, although I sold them ages ago). Whenever we sell stuff that we think is 'junk', there's someone buying it who thinks it's useful in game or a potentially solid investment.

 

Sure, you've only seen 12/year, but there are thousands and thousands of us playing, plus tons of inventory that we don't see (and ANet can see). The supply on the TP only tells us part of the story.

 

Regardless, I'm not worried because if I'm still playing next year, they'll likely be way cheaper (and if I'm not playing, I won't care one way or the other).

[Ayakaru.6583]

> @"Manasa Devi.7958" said:

> > @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> > Wait.. 25 ap for a 2 week achievement costing 400g?

> > Thats a LOT.. normally they’d cut the achievement in 3 tiers each worth 1 AP.

>

> You're behind the times. This is the third festival in a row that has multiple achievements that repeat for 5 AP at a time for a maximum of 25 AP.

 

_its a joke_ ;)

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> > @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > You are not wrong, but the price for these will go down quite a bit once all the "I must have everything on patchday" people are done with it

> > it is not like legendary armors which will stay relatively stable in price over long time periods

> **There was enough of them on TP before today to let around 50 people finish that achievement. And that was probably a result of at least 2-3 years of lunar festival. At the current droprate it requires around 10-15 people opening all envelopes from dailies/merchants for the whole festival to let _one_ person complete _one_ tier of that achievement. I don't think the price will go down anytime soon.**

>

> Seems completely out of proportions compared to the other Drooburt's achieves (and in general, out of proportion to all of the other recent festival achieves as well).

>

> I have to agree with Ze Dos Cavalos here. It doesn't seem to be about fun anymore, but rather about gouging players more and more.

 

 

People said the same thing about the Mini Jackal Pups at this point in their release cycle: a day after they were released there weren't enough on the TP for even one person to complete the achievement, therefore anyone wanting to do it would be forced to buy 230 black lion keys. That weekend (3 days after that claim was made) the price had halved because so many more had entered the market. I waited another week, buying them last Sunday, and got all 230 for about 160g which is less than half what it originally cost. (And now of course the price has jumped back up because they're not dropping any more.)

 

I'm not saying it's a good system, it's certainly not fun. I'm just saying I've dealt with this kitten "limited time achievement/item needs an absurd number of limited time drops which you'll never get alone and have to buy from the TP" system enough times before to know how it works. Should they stop doing it? Probably. But most of the time the reward is something most people don't care about like a mini or a novelty skin so people who point out the bad design get told they're the problem and they should "suck it up" or stop playing if they want to get the festival rewards and aren't prepared to sell everything else on their account to do it and Anet actually get praised for adding a sink for the material whilst also "teaching a lesson" to people who have the audacity to want the prize (and thus provide that sink). So it's kind of hard for me to be sympathetic now the tables have turned, but I am trying to be helpful.

 

It's highly unlikely Anet are going to change this now. Best you can hope for is that next year they might slightly increase the drop rate of dumplings, or allow you to convert other foods. So we have to work with the system we've got. One option is to spread the achievement over several years like some people do with the Winters Presence collection (and hope they don't add equally expensive achievements you want in future years like they do with Halloween mini pets). Another is to try and work out when the price will be lowest in any given year and buy then, reducing the cost to yourself whilst still getting the achievement done in it's first year.

 

> @"Nightshade.5924" said:

> > @"Fleabite.7528" said:

> > Unless my RNG sucked tonight they've made the drop rate rare. I opened around 50 envelopes with not one red steamed dumpling.

> >

> > 500 are needed for the 25 AP. Present AH price? About 80 silver each. 400 gold total.

> >

> > So it would seem to be a deliberate and cynical gold sink. Lucky us.

>

> Can't call it a gold sink. Gold transfer is correct. You can't buy them from a vendor, after all... just other players.

 

Don't forget the TP fees. Every time you buy something from another player a bit of the gold is removed from the market. It's not a lot for each individual transaction, but it adds up - especially when you're looking at something hundreds of people will buy hundreds of copies of.

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> People said the same thing about the Mini Jackal Pups at this point in their release cycle: a day after they were released there weren't enough on the TP for even one person to complete the achievement

We're not talking about one day after introducing the item. We're talking about _years_. It's not the first (or even the second) Lunar New Year in which said item drops, and nothing i have seen so far suggests the droprates this year are any better than in the previous ones. And that suggests the situation is not going to change all that much later on, because only a handful of players will obtain enough of the items this year to make the achievement. It will almost certainly be much less players than have joined this game in the previous year (well, unless the game is doing even worse than i think it is).

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I really don't understand why they picked the rare dumplings for this. For Halloween and Wintersday, they picked a resource that dropped in huge numbers. Drooburt was a minor sink for those. It makes little sense to have a sink for the dumplings. It actually perverts the original purpose of the item: a food buff. No one is going to eat them unless they're unaware of the TP value.

[Ameepa.6793]

Does sound a bit unbalanced if people indeed get like 10 of these per year and everyone needs 500.

[Faaris.8013]

> @"Ameepa.6793" said:

> Does sound a bit unbalanced if people indeed get like 10 of these per year and everyone needs 500.

 

But not everyone needs 500. It's like Mystic Coins, there are few sources for them in the game. But not everyone needs 250 for legendary weapons per quarter. I spent way more Mystic Coins than the average player gets in the time I'm playing. It's only possible because there are lots of players who don't craft legendary weapons, or at least not at the point they are at on their journey.

 

I don't care at all about the achievement this thread is about, I would gladly sell any dumplings I get.

[Ameepa.6793]

> @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > @"Ameepa.6793" said:

> > Does sound a bit unbalanced if people indeed get like 10 of these per year and everyone needs 500.

>

> But not everyone needs 500. It's like Mystic Coins, there are few sources for them in the game. But not everyone needs 250 for legendary weapons per quarter. I spent way more Mystic Coins than the average player gets in the time I'm playing. It's only possible because there are lots of players who don't craft legendary weapons, or at least not at the point they are at on their journey.

>

> I don't care at all about the achievement this thread is about, I would gladly sell any dumplings I get.

 

Not everyone gets 10 of them per year either. Point was just to compare the amounts, 1 vs 1 person.

 

 

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Nightshade.5924" said:

> > @"Fleabite.7528" said:

> > Unless my RNG sucked tonight they've made the drop rate rare. I opened around 50 envelopes with not one red steamed dumpling.

> >

> > 500 are needed for the 25 AP. Present AH price? About 80 silver each. 400 gold total.

> >

> > So it would seem to be a deliberate and cynical gold sink. Lucky us.

>

> Can't call it a gold sink. Gold transfer is correct. You can't buy them from a vendor, after all... just other players.

>

 

Hence who are the real TP barons...

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > People said the same thing about the Mini Jackal Pups at this point in their release cycle: a day after they were released there weren't enough on the TP for even one person to complete the achievement

> We're not talking about one day after introducing the item. We're talking about _years_. It's not the first (or even the second) Lunar New Year in which said item drops, and nothing i have seen so far suggests the droprates this year are any better than in the previous ones. And that suggests the situation is not going to change all that much later on, because only a handful of players will obtain enough of the items this year to make the achievement. It will almost certainly be much less players than have joined this game in the previous year (well, unless the game is doing even worse than i think it is).

 

But as I said in my first post in previous years the dumplings had no use at all except as food, so there was no incentive for anyone to stockpile them to sell during the festival. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority from previous years had been used before this event started. There were some on the TP of course, because items almost never go away completely, but I don't think that's at all representative of what dropped in previous years or will drop this year.

 

Looking at GW2spidy, last year the supply jumped from 23,400 just before the festival started to 40,000 when it ended. Although the peak of 47,000 was actually in March, so maybe someone did stockpile them to sell off, but not for long. (Note: Those numbers are the total being sold _at any one time_. Any which had already sold or were not yet listed don't count, before anyone starts saying that means only 80 people could have completed it last year.)

 

I'm not saying by the end of the festival everyone will have gotten more than enough to complete the achievement - I suspect most people won't even bother trying. Just that if you want to get it you will save a lot of gold by waiting a week or two before buying them.

[Ze Dos Cavalos.6132]

So i open around 500 envelops (mix of rares and others) and only got 3 dumplings...

The event is only 2 weeks, with this drop rate is impossible for anyone to get enough dumplings from envelops. Everyone will buy from TP and the price will only go up.

If anet doesn't change the drop rate of the dumplings they wont get cheaper until next year

[Carighan.6758]

> @"Vavume.8065" said:

> 400g+ for 25 Ap, such a fun festival... who even thought this was a good idea? not even a recipe available for us to make them ourselves so we are forced to buy them from the TP and be fodder to the TP barons, thanks Anet...

 

Why are 25 AP worth 400g to you?

 

And well, watching the TP, apparently they **are** worth that money, so what is wrong with allowing me to make some cash selling those dumplings?

[lokh.2695]

Well, the gold sink is real, at least at the moment. We'll see where this goes when the ultra fast AP hunters are done.

 

I don't like the Droburt achis at all, no matter the season. It's nothing fun to do, going to an NPC and klicking a few dialogs. Also, it would give the NPC a better feel to him, if the quaggan would actually acomplish something or had an arc of some kind, like Job-O-Tron-->Hobo-Tron-->Hero-Tron-->HoHo-Tron. Droburt is just lazy. "Quaggan sooOOoOoOOOOo PoooOOoOOoOOooOoOor, you give quaggan things". Tron had some witty dialog to it and a story to tell also he did something(played music) insead of just begging for the shinies. The NPC upsets me more than the gold sink, it really does, and the fact that we even get a dialogue option like "Hey, didn't I give you tons of snowflakes" - "Yes. You so generoooOoOoOOOooOOUUuuuuUUuUuUuuuuUUUus. Pls giv mooOoOoOOoOOOoOoOoOooOr mooOoOooOONeeEEeeeEEeys" adds an insult to the goldsink.

[Faaris.8013]

> @"Ameepa.6793" said:

> > @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > > @"Ameepa.6793" said:

> > > Does sound a bit unbalanced if people indeed get like 10 of these per year and everyone needs 500.

> >

> > But not everyone needs 500. It's like Mystic Coins, there are few sources for them in the game. But not everyone needs 250 for legendary weapons per quarter. I spent way more Mystic Coins than the average player gets in the time I'm playing. It's only possible because there are lots of players who don't craft legendary weapons, or at least not at the point they are at on their journey.

> >

> > I don't care at all about the achievement this thread is about, I would gladly sell any dumplings I get.

>

> Not everyone gets 10 of them per year either. Point was just to compare the amounts, 1 vs 1 person.

>

>

 

I'm just saying that it's not important how much one person gets on average and how much one person who wants the achievement needs. If you want to craft a Minstrel's armor set, you don't wonder how many Freshwater Pearls an average player gets per month. What if it's 2 per month? Would you say it takes 15 months for a player to get enough pearls to craft a set? Of course not, because it doesn't matter. There are simply lots of players who never need those pearls and just sell them. You would also not go and farm mussels until you have 30 pearls. You buy them.

[khani.4786]

This really should have been an essence of luck sink. Droobert has been taking the festival currency for Halloween & Winterday. I had hoped that since he was taking a food this time that it would be one that drops pretty regularly, but nope. I'd happily give him a bunch of my excess luck since there is no real sink for that. My guild hall doens't need more lanterns, I'm MF capped without even trying to cap, it just happened naturally and now I have tons of luck just building up because I have no use for it. Give me a real sink or eater for my excess essences of luck. >.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

You're basically trying to buy it at the wrong moment. Try buying some in the past. ;)

 

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/68635

[MetalGirl.2370]

This needs to be changed...

It'd be ok if it was like maybe, 20x5 so it would be roughly 150g give or take, which is still way more than what candy corn and snowflakes where, but 150g is still more reasonable than 400g+ a stack

[RoseofGilead.8907]

After seeing that the price for the dumplings has doubled since I checked last night (and after noting that I've gotten exactly one steamed red dumpling from the envelopes I've opened so far), I have to agree that this seems . . . off-putting. Essences of luck would have been a better (and more reliably obtained by just playing, like snowflakes and candy corn are) thing for this particular festival.