Suggestion: a new Rainbow Ticket

[sterek]

Here's an idea re: Rainbow Tickets to simultaneously ensure more variety (fewer '03 recolors!) and offer an option that's both profitable and easy for artists: What about a recolor ticket that, instead of granting a recolor of up to 10 poses from a single item, granted up to 6 recolors of one pose from an item? This would be especially appealing for wigs, skins, eyes and SDPlus Doll extra poses, and it would make the Rainbow Ticket less likely to be used for one-pose items. This new ticket could easily be a very good deal, because it combines minimal effort (one single set of layer masks to recolor all the poses) with high reward (lots of CS purchases of Project RIGs--because everybody wants arm set recolors, new skins, every color combination of DJs ever, etc.). If this ticket was less common than the Rainbow ones, we'd probably see more interesting "regular" recolor releases from users, and they would regain their initial appeal.

[Zandy]

To me, that idea ensures less variety because it would be the same pose recoloured six different ways, and who's to say someone won't just recolour the DJ Studio headphones or Angelic Halo 6 times? That would, in turn, involve more work for an artist than the use of a regular rainbow ticket. Keep in mind that it tends to be the richer users who obtain multiple rainbow tickets, and 2003/2004 monthly collectible user recolours tend to be in high demand for vendors. I'm not a real fan of Gaia artists recolouring in the way you describe either because it often results in lesser quality recolours. Quality >> quantity, always. The artists shouldn't be bogged down with work as their job on Gaia is to make items and recolour, and if they are, it's a result of upper management and easier tickets to produce isn't really going to make much of a difference in terms of workload if Gaia pumps more tickets out as a result (e.g., how Gaia rarely releases golden tickets in comparison to the much easier to make rainbow tickets). Considering what rainbow tickets have been redeemed for, it doesn't really seem like many users are interested in recolouring items for their hairs or arms in particular either.

Even if this sort of idea came to be, it would definitely have to wait a few months as there is a huge back log on redeeming tickets with all of the custom SDPlus doll tickets released. One user mentioned they've waited over 80 days on their rainbow ticket. I'm not sure if that is an extraneous case or not though, but if Gaia can't keep up with their tickets in a reasonable manner, then they shouldn't be releasing more until the queue is cleared up.

[sterek]

Zandy

To me, that idea ensures less variety because it would be the same pose recoloured six different ways, and who's to say someone won't just recolour the DJ Studio headphones or Angelic Halo 6 times? That would, in turn, involve more work for an artist than the use of a regular rainbow ticket.

Hence the "make this ticket less common" addition, meaning that users who are looking to capitalize on '03 recolors are more likely to want to have the monopoly on a certain item's palette variations (it's more profitable that way) and, in return, ordinary Rainbow Tickets are more likely to become accessible to regular users who want multi-pose items (which, at this point, we rarely see anymore). As for the amount of work, I was specifically thinking about Halos and DJs; part of the delays in the custom item release process includes processing the requests, and arguably, recoloring a Halos in six colors for a single person is less time-consuming in the long run than recoloring, say, three Halos for four different people. In turn, if the possibility to "secure" all of the good color variations for a single item/pose is enticing enough (and it is, in terms of earnings at least) then more users will aim for this other ticket--and if it's rarer to begin with, well, that means fewer of those requests, and consequently more variety. Then again, I've reached a point where I'm just like "release all the DJ recolors at once, just get it over with" so I'm a little biased.

Quote:

Keep in mind that it tends to be the richer users who obtain multiple rainbow tickets, and 2003/2004 monthly collectible user recolours tend to be in high demand for vendors. I'm not a real fan of Gaia artists recolouring in the way you describe either because it often results in lesser quality recolours. Quality >> quantity, always. The artists shouldn't be bogged down with work as their job on Gaia is to make items and recolour, and if they are, it's a result of upper management and easier tickets to produce isn't really going to make much of a difference in terms of workload if Gaia pumps more tickets out as a result (e.g., how Gaia rarely releases golden tickets in comparison to the much easier to make rainbow tickets). Considering what rainbow tickets have been redeemed for, it doesn't really seem like many users are interested in recolouring items for their hairs or arms in particular either.

Maybe I wasn't clear with my description--I didn't mean using the entire item silhouette as a clipping mask for solid colors/adjustment layers. I mean the different shades of the original being on separate layers so the color spectrum can be used as a template for the different variations.

And re: What the tickets are currently used for, you have to keep in mind that they're not (necessarily) representative of what people want to see because, like you said, (recent) ticket owners are mostly the very rich users and they tend to think in terms of potential profit from other rich users. This isn't wrong, but it's why the recolor trend is almost only '03/04 MCs and Wings. I've seen SO MANY recolor ideas from people who have no mean of acquiring a Rainbow Ticket and the vast majority of them is a lot more creative. The only way to deflate the Rainbow Ticket price without giving the artists more work (based on the current average amount of recolor tickets redeemed per month) seems to be to exhaust all the popular possibilities the richer users go for.

Quote:

Even if this sort of idea came to be, it would definitely have to wait a few months as there is a huge back log on redeeming tickets with all of the custom SDPlus doll tickets released. One user mentioned they've waited over 80 days on their rainbow ticket. I'm not sure if that is an extraneous case or not though, but if Gaia can't keep up with their tickets in a reasonable manner, then they shouldn't be releasing more until the queue is cleared up.

That's another issue entirely, but I 100% agree with you and believe we would all benefit from fewer tickets being released before the artists can work on their current requests. That being said, there are still Rainbow Tickets to be found in recent (current?) RIGs, so if they don't want to alter the drop rates, they could split them (ex: instead of a 0.03% chance to get a Rainbow Ticket, maybe 0.02% Rainbow and 0.01% the other type, or vice-versa since there are still many Rainbow Tickets in circulation).

[Zandy]

sterek

Zandy

To me, that idea ensures less variety because it would be the same pose recoloured six different ways, and who's to say someone won't just recolour the DJ Studio headphones or Angelic Halo 6 times? That would, in turn, involve more work for an artist than the use of a regular rainbow ticket.

Hence the "make this ticket less common" addition, meaning that users who are looking to capitalize on '03 recolors are more likely to want to have the monopoly on a certain item's palette variations (it's more profitable that way) and, in return, ordinary Rainbow Tickets are more likely to become accessible to regular users who want multi-pose items (which, at this point, we rarely see anymore). As for the amount of work, I was specifically thinking about Halos and DJs; part of the delays in the custom item release process includes processing the requests, and arguably, recoloring a Halos in six colors for a single person is less time-consuming in the long run than recoloring, say, three Halos for four different people. In turn, if the possibility to "secure" all of the good color variations for a single item/pose is enticing enough (and it is, in terms of earnings at least) then more users will aim for this other ticket--and if it's rarer to begin with, well, that means fewer of those requests, and consequently more variety. Then again, I've reached a point where I'm just like "release all the DJ recolors at once, just get it over with" so I'm a little biased.

Quote:

Keep in mind that it tends to be the richer users who obtain multiple rainbow tickets, and 2003/2004 monthly collectible user recolours tend to be in high demand for vendors. I'm not a real fan of Gaia artists recolouring in the way you describe either because it often results in lesser quality recolours. Quality >> quantity, always. The artists shouldn't be bogged down with work as their job on Gaia is to make items and recolour, and if they are, it's a result of upper management and easier tickets to produce isn't really going to make much of a difference in terms of workload if Gaia pumps more tickets out as a result (e.g., how Gaia rarely releases golden tickets in comparison to the much easier to make rainbow tickets). Considering what rainbow tickets have been redeemed for, it doesn't really seem like many users are interested in recolouring items for their hairs or arms in particular either.

Maybe I wasn't clear with my description--I didn't mean using the entire item silhouette as a clipping mask for solid colors/adjustment layers. I mean the different shades of the original being on separate layers so the color spectrum can be used as a template for the different variations.

And re: What the tickets are currently used for, you have to keep in mind that they're not (necessarily) representative of what people want to see because, like you said, (recent) ticket owners are mostly the very rich users and they tend to think in terms of potential profit from other rich users. This isn't wrong, but it's why the recolor trend is almost only '03/04 MCs and Wings. I've seen SO MANY recolor ideas from people who have no mean of acquiring a Rainbow Ticket and the vast majority of them is a lot more creative. The only way to deflate the Rainbow Ticket price without giving the artists more work (based on the current average amount of recolor tickets redeemed per month) seems to be to exhaust all the popular possibilities the richer users go for.

Quote:

Even if this sort of idea came to be, it would definitely have to wait a few months as there is a huge back log on redeeming tickets with all of the custom SDPlus doll tickets released. One user mentioned they've waited over 80 days on their rainbow ticket. I'm not sure if that is an extraneous case or not though, but if Gaia can't keep up with their tickets in a reasonable manner, then they shouldn't be releasing more until the queue is cleared up.

That's another issue entirely, but I 100% agree with you and believe we would all benefit from fewer tickets being released before the artists can work on their current requests. That being said, there are still Rainbow Tickets to be found in recent (current?) RIGs, so if they don't want to alter the drop rates, they could split them (ex: instead of a 0.03% chance to get a Rainbow Ticket, maybe 0.02% Rainbow and 0.01% the other type, or vice-versa since there are still many Rainbow Tickets in circulation).

Regardless, I think that where profit is to be made, some wealthier users will exploit both tickets though, and there's a ton of 2003/2004 recolour opportunity left still.

You did bring up an important point to address though - that of monopolization. What happens if a user recolours a pose that is in extremely high demand and monopolizes their (20?, 25?) copies of it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but in general, user recolours tend to be the least common drops in recolour/rerelease CIs, at least as of recently. I've never been a fan of the prospect of users who redeem the rainbow tickets to obtain profit or monopolize an item's recolour, but it already happens. I know I wouldn't want to see a favourite pose of mine recoloured in some of my favourite colours only to know that I would either have to pay 1T+ for it on the marketplace. At least with the regular rainbow tickets, it's a bit more dispersed.

Don't get me wrong, I think that DJ and Halo recolours are a waste of a ticket personally, and I'm tired of seeing them too, though, I don't think that it would ensure much more variety than the regular rainbow ticket, and I think that the rainbow ticket is a better deal for users who want to make recolours of multiple posed items while the rainbow ticket you suggested would be more useable for vendors (not to say that some users wouldn't use it to recolour skins, arms, etc... like you mentioned).

[PrincessKitteh]

I actually do like the thought of this, I see it as something similar to the wigs. Same hair, different colors. Same item pose, different colors. I'd be down. Granted, as someone mentioned, there is the likelihood of someone using it to just recolor 03/04 items but it's the luck of the draw.
Then again, I just don't understand the demand for those items and recolors, they aren't my cup of tea.