I’ll place here my list and thoughts.
First of all I would like to say that the game currency should be allowed for user trading with game items, completely negating the effect of RMT spammers.
The amount of trades between users involving cash shop currency should be daily limited, increasing the limit from very low to a reasonable amount (from 1 to around 10 to 15) after reaching certain milestones with the characters in your account. It should only be allowed for certain items like rare materials, rare companions, and top tier equipment recipes.
What I would like to see in the cash shop:
[The basic idea on what I want to see is that only time saving mechanics should be allowed]
- Exp Boosters
- Drop Boosters (Extra amount and loot chance)
- Silver Boosters (Extra amount and loot chance)
- Premium status that ONLY grants 50% increased XP, Silver and Loot Chance (3-day, 7-day, 30-day packages)
- Companion skins (Same stat values as the ones in game, different design)
- Costumes (Alternate looks and colors for already unlocked jobs)
- Cosmetic accesories (no stats)
- Weapon costumes (no stats)
- Finished products from weapon and armor recipes (the basic recipe for the same item should also be available from beating monsters in the game or bought with silver from NPCs, top tier recipes for the best items should never be allowed, only step ins)
- Rare Materials (should also be available from beating monsters in the game)
- Monster Gems (should also be available from beating monsters in the game)
- Already roasted stat gems with some levels already gained (unranked gems should be available from game sources)
- Trading cash shop money for silver (reasonable and fixed amounts, not too much, only if trading cash currency between users iis allowed, should be a cash currency sink)
- Bank expansions (only for weapon and armor slots, please be reasonable, don’t make it so we have to pay too much to be at ease with our bank slots and allow everyone unlimited resource and recipe slots, limit only what is really important, weapon and armor slots)
Things that I would hate in the cash shop and should never be allowed:
[The idea is anything that could not be obtained investing time in the game or job locked]
- Character inventory expansions (unless you can get the maximum amount too from in game mechanics)
- Exclusive and improved items (Potions, Armors, Weapons, Companions)
- Alchemist products, Pardoner scrolls, Squire improvements (Anything that already has a job dedicated to it)
- Skill and Stat resets (They break the game in many ways, and might be a detrimental feature for a lot of people, they should only be granted after major updates and gameplay changes for people to adapt to the renewed mechanics)
- Insurance items
- Potential resets (if this is ever allowed and the item can be acquired in game without limit like materials, recipes or monster gems, then it would be fine)
- Closed content available only for premium users
And I think this pretty much covers all my concerns.
Some words about Pay to Win, from my personal point of view.
Pay to Win only takes place when the goods you acquire are completely locked out for free users. This point of view completely excludes time saving options, since a free user would still be able to get everything a paying user does, just he would require more time invested actually playing the game. Plus, if users trading with cash shop currency is allowed, limited to some extent, many “Pay to Win” mechanics would be much less detrimental to a free user experience.