Forums » Suggestions
What makes this game fun is that the max cap for equipment power level is attainable with minimal grinding, and anything that increases that cap, even slightly, that can't be "turned on" 24/7 breaks the game in a way that makes it completely unfun, whether it is purchasable with credits or with cash.
I'd like to know how you think it breaks the game. I think the opposite -- in that in introduces a new variable of uncertainty in combat -- and thus enhances the game. We could even make it so any boost/buff would appear to an add-on scanner.
Along the lines of the buffs/boosts for ships: I think they should be also obtainable somehow by normal game play, but with great difficulty and capped at certain quantity. Otherwise it is too much "pay to win". Never should someone be given the option to pay for something that gives them an advantage unattainable via normal game play.
The boost/buff idea "feels" way outside what we'd normally see as something the devs would impliment, so I'm not holding my breath, honestly. But it IS definitely something that people would pay for!
I'd like to know how you think it breaks the game. I think the opposite -- in that in introduces a new variable of uncertainty in combat -- and thus enhances the game. We could even make it so any boost/buff would appear to an add-on scanner.
Along the lines of the buffs/boosts for ships: I think they should be also obtainable somehow by normal game play, but with great difficulty and capped at certain quantity. Otherwise it is too much "pay to win". Never should someone be given the option to pay for something that gives them an advantage unattainable via normal game play.
The boost/buff idea "feels" way outside what we'd normally see as something the devs would impliment, so I'm not holding my breath, honestly. But it IS definitely something that people would pay for!
I am strongly averse to anything resembling "pay to win", and the closer the money comes to the mechanics of the game the more problems it causes. For Vendetta, the closest I would be comfortable with would be paying for a "license" that lets you purchase certain ships, if it is permanent and not "pay per ship" or time-based (think purchasing champions in LoL, for example). I think it's a really bad idea to explore the area of boosts related to actual game mechanics for possible monetization options, especially when there are so many other options that should certainly be implemented first. Adding "pay to win" elements should be a last resort that is only taken if all else fails, if at all.
I understand that this is just my opinion, but think it is an opinion shared by a large portion of the gaming community. I know there are quite a few games that seemed interesting to me on a short trial, but once I found out that microtransactions were central in competitive play I was immediately turned off (Hearthstone et al, for reference).
I should also say that I am not implying that I don't want to pay for the game - I will happily pay for a subscription, and for things that have value to me in game. It's just that when I play, *I* want to win. I don't want my money to win for me.
I understand that this is just my opinion, but think it is an opinion shared by a large portion of the gaming community. I know there are quite a few games that seemed interesting to me on a short trial, but once I found out that microtransactions were central in competitive play I was immediately turned off (Hearthstone et al, for reference).
I should also say that I am not implying that I don't want to pay for the game - I will happily pay for a subscription, and for things that have value to me in game. It's just that when I play, *I* want to win. I don't want my money to win for me.
I also want to avoid Pay To Win, it's something I really don't like. But, there are degrees to this.. I mean, even subbing multiple accounts, currently, has some advantages.
So, for instance, if we just had a lot more "manufactured" content, and then various options to purchase them instead of manufacturing them, that might be reasonable. Then at least the "pay to win" part is limited to content acquisition and not to content usage.
To just put in some random numbers (and understand, this "pricing" is all randomly made up, at 4am), for manufacturing some kind of big endgame content (like a capship), and let's say it takes "10" components, there could be three possible paths to acquisition, like:
1) Generate the components and manufacture the items yourself, for free, gaining access to the capship and the ability to purchase it purely with credits. Probably takes a long time to do.
2) Purchase any of the components for $5/component, maybe just the ones you need, or maybe all 10 of them ($50, skipping to immediate capship acquisition).
3) Alternatively, pay $5 to immediately buy a single, consumable end-game capship, right-now only. When it explodes, you have nothing (no insurance, no replacement). Do this 10 times and it ceases to be economical compared to option #2.
So, basically there are three routes. One that is entirely free/time-driven. One that could be paid or a mix of paid and free. And one that is purely paid but totally consumable. Is that reasonable?
-----------
I'm all for charging for other things too, like changing faction, or changing character name (a big annoying pain for us, via support tickets), and obviously we're going to do skins; but finding a good time-vs-money model that's helpful for endgame content, without like.. completely pissing people off, would be a good thing to have.
Generally, I've had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this brave-new-world of F2P, micro-transactions and "cash shops".. I just want to Make Fun Games and charge a flat rate. But the latter doesn't really work anymore (a fact I reluctantly accept). So, if something like the above would be mitigated enough to not irritate people, or come across as too pay-to-win, that would be pretty helpful to us.
-----------
It could also be noted that in my original example of the wheel-of-fortune "buffing" process for addons and things.. these enhanced addons could potentially be droppable, or even trade-able? Which basically opens up a whole other avenue for players to create more "unique" content that has concrete advantages (weapon with a tiny damage buff, or with a small reduction in mass). The buffs could all be consumable (?) in that they revert back to the base item after awhile, but it could still be interesting in the interim. Maybe a weapon has 1000 shots of +2 damage, and you kill the guy who drops it at 458 shots.. you have the rest to use yourself, or trade elsewhere, etc.
Would that potentially mitigate the pay-to-win aspect of creating these items, enough to make it palatable? There's still a pay-to-win aspect that exists in those who can sit around "dice rolling" constantly to try to create buffed items; but it rolls the end result into the game environment, economy and community enough to potentially offset that factor?
So, for instance, if we just had a lot more "manufactured" content, and then various options to purchase them instead of manufacturing them, that might be reasonable. Then at least the "pay to win" part is limited to content acquisition and not to content usage.
To just put in some random numbers (and understand, this "pricing" is all randomly made up, at 4am), for manufacturing some kind of big endgame content (like a capship), and let's say it takes "10" components, there could be three possible paths to acquisition, like:
1) Generate the components and manufacture the items yourself, for free, gaining access to the capship and the ability to purchase it purely with credits. Probably takes a long time to do.
2) Purchase any of the components for $5/component, maybe just the ones you need, or maybe all 10 of them ($50, skipping to immediate capship acquisition).
3) Alternatively, pay $5 to immediately buy a single, consumable end-game capship, right-now only. When it explodes, you have nothing (no insurance, no replacement). Do this 10 times and it ceases to be economical compared to option #2.
So, basically there are three routes. One that is entirely free/time-driven. One that could be paid or a mix of paid and free. And one that is purely paid but totally consumable. Is that reasonable?
-----------
I'm all for charging for other things too, like changing faction, or changing character name (a big annoying pain for us, via support tickets), and obviously we're going to do skins; but finding a good time-vs-money model that's helpful for endgame content, without like.. completely pissing people off, would be a good thing to have.
Generally, I've had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this brave-new-world of F2P, micro-transactions and "cash shops".. I just want to Make Fun Games and charge a flat rate. But the latter doesn't really work anymore (a fact I reluctantly accept). So, if something like the above would be mitigated enough to not irritate people, or come across as too pay-to-win, that would be pretty helpful to us.
-----------
It could also be noted that in my original example of the wheel-of-fortune "buffing" process for addons and things.. these enhanced addons could potentially be droppable, or even trade-able? Which basically opens up a whole other avenue for players to create more "unique" content that has concrete advantages (weapon with a tiny damage buff, or with a small reduction in mass). The buffs could all be consumable (?) in that they revert back to the base item after awhile, but it could still be interesting in the interim. Maybe a weapon has 1000 shots of +2 damage, and you kill the guy who drops it at 458 shots.. you have the rest to use yourself, or trade elsewhere, etc.
Would that potentially mitigate the pay-to-win aspect of creating these items, enough to make it palatable? There's still a pay-to-win aspect that exists in those who can sit around "dice rolling" constantly to try to create buffed items; but it rolls the end result into the game environment, economy and community enough to potentially offset that factor?
If any of this provides a good revenue stream for GS, I'm not going to complain. I'd personally keep the trident components consistent with actually building a trident. So I think there should be far more than 10, perhaps at different price points based on difficulty of actually building or acquiring, like EHA's or an aggregator. For a $5 trident, I'd like to either see it without a shield or with less capacity. I think there should be a benefit to actually doing the work.
But again, find a product line and pricing points that sell consistently and puts funds in the bank so that the game can move forward. That really is all I care about in the end.
But again, find a product line and pricing points that sell consistently and puts funds in the bank so that the game can move forward. That really is all I care about in the end.
I'm fine with all of the examples listed Inc.
Taking into consideration that the numbers were mostly random, I also liked all of Inc's ideas. Every single price should be raised though. Here's why...
When I was building my trident, I offered many people a free two-year sub for a dent kit. I got no takers. But this means that, at the time, I would have paid roughly $200 bucks to have one built.
If I would have had someone take up my offer, it wouldn't have made me having a trident any more or less game-breaking. It may have made some people be like "hey I woulda paid for one too!", but if it were an actual in-game mechanic...you bet your ass you'd be selling trident kits to every spoiled 10 year-old playing VO you could think of.
Hell, I'd probably buy an entire kit for fun and to contribute.
--------------------------------
You guys seriously need to start monetizing the faction and name changes though. And build a system to where we can do it on our own, so it doesn't take time away from actual development.
I'd probably change my name all the time, just to contribute money to GS.
---------------------------------
Credits are so easy to get in-game and there are people flying around with billions anyways, adding the ability to buy them with real money wouldn't even be noticed, to be honest.
Do it, and you will see an instant daily revenue increase. $1 for a million credits seems reasonable.
---------------------------------
Adding boosts and other things like this would make many people quit the game.
When I was building my trident, I offered many people a free two-year sub for a dent kit. I got no takers. But this means that, at the time, I would have paid roughly $200 bucks to have one built.
If I would have had someone take up my offer, it wouldn't have made me having a trident any more or less game-breaking. It may have made some people be like "hey I woulda paid for one too!", but if it were an actual in-game mechanic...you bet your ass you'd be selling trident kits to every spoiled 10 year-old playing VO you could think of.
Hell, I'd probably buy an entire kit for fun and to contribute.
--------------------------------
You guys seriously need to start monetizing the faction and name changes though. And build a system to where we can do it on our own, so it doesn't take time away from actual development.
I'd probably change my name all the time, just to contribute money to GS.
---------------------------------
Credits are so easy to get in-game and there are people flying around with billions anyways, adding the ability to buy them with real money wouldn't even be noticed, to be honest.
Do it, and you will see an instant daily revenue increase. $1 for a million credits seems reasonable.
---------------------------------
Adding boosts and other things like this would make many people quit the game.
My suggestion in this thread for a trident specific mining beam....
https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/29481
https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/29481
And, while personally I don't want to buy this, I think nation changes should be buyable (and, honestly, only available through a purchase).
^ This has been suggested before and its still a good idea.
Monetize things like name changes, nation changes, character moves, etc. These are things that people have asked for repeatedly over the years and it always involves pulling one of you away from whatever you're working on to deal with it.
They're typically just cosmetic changes, and you already addressed the gameplay impact of nation changes (sell all your ships & stuff first), so pay-to-win isn't a problem here.
Other games have charged for this stuff in the past. I seem to recall GuildWars had a thing like this.
^ This has been suggested before and its still a good idea.
Monetize things like name changes, nation changes, character moves, etc. These are things that people have asked for repeatedly over the years and it always involves pulling one of you away from whatever you're working on to deal with it.
They're typically just cosmetic changes, and you already addressed the gameplay impact of nation changes (sell all your ships & stuff first), so pay-to-win isn't a problem here.
Other games have charged for this stuff in the past. I seem to recall GuildWars had a thing like this.
I mean, even subbing multiple accounts, currently, has some advantages.
^exactly. This is the current form of Pay to Win in VO and it sucks for those of us unwilling or unable to counter it. But it's unavoidable.
1) Generate the components and manufacture the items yourself, for free, gaining access to the capship and the ability to purchase it purely with credits. Probably takes a long time to do.
2) Purchase any of the components for $5/component, maybe just the ones you need, or maybe all 10 of them ($50, skipping to immediate capship acquisition).
3) Alternatively, pay $5 to immediately buy a single, consumable end-game capship, right-now only. When it explodes, you have nothing (no insurance, no replacement). Do this 10 times and it ceases to be economical compared to option #2.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression F2P people couldn't manufacture trident parts. Presumably you would change this if you introduced purchasing them?
Also, I agree with Darth that these prices are much too low. Better would be to introduce an intermediary currency (or use crystals), which we could buy and then spend on various purchasable content. This would also lessen players perceived monetary loss if their purchased trident gets killed.
I'd propose the following (and, if using an intermediary currency, this would be the suggested exchange value):
Trident Type M: $400 (yes, people will pay it)
EHA $65
EPA $52
DBHA $35
Reactor (not purchasable)
Engine $30
MMC $25
IBA $15
MOS $10
MCA $2
RB $4
FCP $2
FFSSA $2
Samoflange $5
Change Nation: $5 (increase by $5 for each successive change per character)
Change Name: $5 (increase by $5 for each successive change per character)
^I think those prices are a fair representation of what I'd be willing to fork out in moments of extreme frustration with the grind. Obviously they could be tweaked, but I'd be careful about setting the price too low.
It could also be noted that in my original example of the wheel-of-fortune "buffing" process for addons and things.. these enhanced addons could potentially be droppable, or even trade-able? Which basically opens up a whole other avenue for players to create more "unique" content that has concrete advantages (weapon with a tiny damage buff, or with a small reduction in mass). The buffs could all be consumable (?) in that they revert back to the base item after awhile, but it could still be interesting in the interim. Maybe a weapon has 1000 shots of +2 damage, and you kill the guy who drops it at 458 shots.. you have the rest to use yourself, or trade elsewhere, etc.
Would that potentially mitigate the pay-to-win aspect of creating these items, enough to make it palatable? There's still a pay-to-win aspect that exists in those who can sit around "dice rolling" constantly to try to create buffed items; but it rolls the end result into the game environment, economy and community enough to potentially offset that factor?
Personally I dislike the wheel-of-fortune idea because it screams "pay-to-win" too loudly, at least if you are talking about buffs that aren't attainable in game. Ultimately there will be less backlash against purchasable items if they are obtainable via normal gameplay. If you can make it so they are not exclusively available from the "wheel", then it's not a bad idea I guess. There's no doubt the "wheel" idea will generate lots of cash...
The prospect of shooting someone and snagging their buffed addon is nice, but people are more likely to hoard and rarely use or sell those addons if you implement it that way. I think buffs that apply universally to whatever ship you fly and are time-based are better than item-specific and counter-based buffs. They also should be limited in their usability (daily character limits AND weekly character limits).
Buffs/boosts would probably find their best market in newbs grinding and fighting bots, and less so in PVP situations. So another thought would be to make the buffs apply exclusively to NPCs initially (and not PCs).
And remember, if someone is paying real-world money for something they are highly unlikely to trade for in game credits.
^exactly. This is the current form of Pay to Win in VO and it sucks for those of us unwilling or unable to counter it. But it's unavoidable.
1) Generate the components and manufacture the items yourself, for free, gaining access to the capship and the ability to purchase it purely with credits. Probably takes a long time to do.
2) Purchase any of the components for $5/component, maybe just the ones you need, or maybe all 10 of them ($50, skipping to immediate capship acquisition).
3) Alternatively, pay $5 to immediately buy a single, consumable end-game capship, right-now only. When it explodes, you have nothing (no insurance, no replacement). Do this 10 times and it ceases to be economical compared to option #2.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression F2P people couldn't manufacture trident parts. Presumably you would change this if you introduced purchasing them?
Also, I agree with Darth that these prices are much too low. Better would be to introduce an intermediary currency (or use crystals), which we could buy and then spend on various purchasable content. This would also lessen players perceived monetary loss if their purchased trident gets killed.
I'd propose the following (and, if using an intermediary currency, this would be the suggested exchange value):
Trident Type M: $400 (yes, people will pay it)
EHA $65
EPA $52
DBHA $35
Reactor (not purchasable)
Engine $30
MMC $25
IBA $15
MOS $10
MCA $2
RB $4
FCP $2
FFSSA $2
Samoflange $5
Change Nation: $5 (increase by $5 for each successive change per character)
Change Name: $5 (increase by $5 for each successive change per character)
^I think those prices are a fair representation of what I'd be willing to fork out in moments of extreme frustration with the grind. Obviously they could be tweaked, but I'd be careful about setting the price too low.
It could also be noted that in my original example of the wheel-of-fortune "buffing" process for addons and things.. these enhanced addons could potentially be droppable, or even trade-able? Which basically opens up a whole other avenue for players to create more "unique" content that has concrete advantages (weapon with a tiny damage buff, or with a small reduction in mass). The buffs could all be consumable (?) in that they revert back to the base item after awhile, but it could still be interesting in the interim. Maybe a weapon has 1000 shots of +2 damage, and you kill the guy who drops it at 458 shots.. you have the rest to use yourself, or trade elsewhere, etc.
Would that potentially mitigate the pay-to-win aspect of creating these items, enough to make it palatable? There's still a pay-to-win aspect that exists in those who can sit around "dice rolling" constantly to try to create buffed items; but it rolls the end result into the game environment, economy and community enough to potentially offset that factor?
Personally I dislike the wheel-of-fortune idea because it screams "pay-to-win" too loudly, at least if you are talking about buffs that aren't attainable in game. Ultimately there will be less backlash against purchasable items if they are obtainable via normal gameplay. If you can make it so they are not exclusively available from the "wheel", then it's not a bad idea I guess. There's no doubt the "wheel" idea will generate lots of cash...
The prospect of shooting someone and snagging their buffed addon is nice, but people are more likely to hoard and rarely use or sell those addons if you implement it that way. I think buffs that apply universally to whatever ship you fly and are time-based are better than item-specific and counter-based buffs. They also should be limited in their usability (daily character limits AND weekly character limits).
Buffs/boosts would probably find their best market in newbs grinding and fighting bots, and less so in PVP situations. So another thought would be to make the buffs apply exclusively to NPCs initially (and not PCs).
And remember, if someone is paying real-world money for something they are highly unlikely to trade for in game credits.
-1 to institutionalized cheating. I don't care how many other games are doing it; they are shit. I play VO because VO doesn't feel like a scam.
Rin, are you opposed to consumable buffs, buying parts, or both?
The consumable buffs aren't really game breaking. Things like:
10% damage dealt increase
10% damage taken reduction
10% increased bot drop rate
10% increased reputation reward
10% increased license reward
For your average player, these things may offer a small help. When doing rogue queen, a player may want to reduce damage. When learning to deshield, they may need that little boost to help get the shields down. But none of these things are going to affect whether nooblet A kills Rin or Me in combat because of the skill variance.
I could see a scenario where sieger and estrian use one fighting each other because they are both min/max type of players and want every edge they can get, so to that I say just limit how often they can be applied, have some sort of visual indicator that they are active, and don't let them be used in a duel, and it shouldn't cause any great problems.
The consumable buffs aren't really game breaking. Things like:
10% damage dealt increase
10% damage taken reduction
10% increased bot drop rate
10% increased reputation reward
10% increased license reward
For your average player, these things may offer a small help. When doing rogue queen, a player may want to reduce damage. When learning to deshield, they may need that little boost to help get the shields down. But none of these things are going to affect whether nooblet A kills Rin or Me in combat because of the skill variance.
I could see a scenario where sieger and estrian use one fighting each other because they are both min/max type of players and want every edge they can get, so to that I say just limit how often they can be applied, have some sort of visual indicator that they are active, and don't let them be used in a duel, and it shouldn't cause any great problems.
Well the easy solution for that is a /duel prerequisite of no buffs. Seems simple enough for a mechanics change.
Yeah, it should be easy enough to require duels to have no-buff addons and ships. And, yes, I'm thinking pretty small buffs, like Savet says. Enough to have some perceptual value or slight improvement, but not enough to overcome a real skill disparity. A visual indicator could be on the selected-target area, listing off their buffs or whatever.
Additionally, when it comes to the "wheel of fortune" concept, it could still have a degree of time-vs-money mechanic. For instance, say we have a rare hive drop of "red gems" or something (or uber hive cores, call them whatever you want), and you need red gems to power the wheel-of-fortune buffing mechanic (maybe with 1 daily usage for free), and you can alternately purchase "red gems" by directly buying them.
That way, the system becomes effectively a secondary currency available to both F2P and subbed users, with an inherent time-vs-money construct associated, and beyond that, people can actually trade the "currency" between them (unlike Crystal), or win/lose them in combat/trade/piracy, etc.
That adds a little further mitigation to the strict pay-to-win aspect, while still allowing us a meaningful potential revenue stream, and also giving people another thing to trade. I know some people were unhappy that Crystal was not an actual player-tradeable commodity/currency.
It's easier for me to expose an additional secondary-currency to trade, as opposed to existing Crystal, because I'm completely dependent on the tuning of Crystal availability to determine how f2p people are fundamentally monetized (and player-trading of crystal would add so many variables that it becomes very difficult to tune); where something like "red gems" (or whatever) is an additional system that purely influences specific features and not like.. "everything" about the f2p experience.
Additionally, when it comes to the "wheel of fortune" concept, it could still have a degree of time-vs-money mechanic. For instance, say we have a rare hive drop of "red gems" or something (or uber hive cores, call them whatever you want), and you need red gems to power the wheel-of-fortune buffing mechanic (maybe with 1 daily usage for free), and you can alternately purchase "red gems" by directly buying them.
That way, the system becomes effectively a secondary currency available to both F2P and subbed users, with an inherent time-vs-money construct associated, and beyond that, people can actually trade the "currency" between them (unlike Crystal), or win/lose them in combat/trade/piracy, etc.
That adds a little further mitigation to the strict pay-to-win aspect, while still allowing us a meaningful potential revenue stream, and also giving people another thing to trade. I know some people were unhappy that Crystal was not an actual player-tradeable commodity/currency.
It's easier for me to expose an additional secondary-currency to trade, as opposed to existing Crystal, because I'm completely dependent on the tuning of Crystal availability to determine how f2p people are fundamentally monetized (and player-trading of crystal would add so many variables that it becomes very difficult to tune); where something like "red gems" (or whatever) is an additional system that purely influences specific features and not like.. "everything" about the f2p experience.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression F2P people couldn't manufacture trident parts. Presumably you would change this if you introduced purchasing them?
Actually, much of what we are discussing would apply to both F2P and subscriber-tiered users. So, basically, we would integrate our own "in-app-purchase" cash shop in all versions of the game, not just mobile. The type of billing methodology would depend on platform, but in theory we would be offering things like purchasable Trident parts to whomever had access. Right now, only subs have access, but that might change.
Changing F2P level caps and other things is another discussion, but right now this thread is more about what monetization mechanics and purchasable-items our subscriber-type PC veterans would be willing to buy/pay-for, and/or could learn to live with if we added.
Actually, much of what we are discussing would apply to both F2P and subscriber-tiered users. So, basically, we would integrate our own "in-app-purchase" cash shop in all versions of the game, not just mobile. The type of billing methodology would depend on platform, but in theory we would be offering things like purchasable Trident parts to whomever had access. Right now, only subs have access, but that might change.
Changing F2P level caps and other things is another discussion, but right now this thread is more about what monetization mechanics and purchasable-items our subscriber-type PC veterans would be willing to buy/pay-for, and/or could learn to live with if we added.
Reasonably happy for some stuff to be monetised but agree with Death Fluffy that people who have grafted to build a dent from it's component parts (people who haven't done it fail to understand how time consuming it is to do) should have a better model than one that has simply been bought.
What about an EVE-like subscription extension thing? New players or players that don't have as much time buy these things and put them on the market for sale of game credits and the buyer can use it to extend his/her subscription. Every month of subscription is still purchased, its just used by another person.
I do like the idea of a one time Trident purchase (meaning no insurance), however I agree it needs to be less powerful, like no shield or something, to be more reasonable, and yeah, I would pay $15 or $20 to buy a one time dent for hauling purposes. The alternative is a rental period of say a day, 2 days, a week, whatever, and not change the stats any, just have it expire after the rental period is over. Perhaps to avoid abuse it could have a 15 min self destruct timer if not docked at the time of expiration.
I do like the idea of a one time Trident purchase (meaning no insurance), however I agree it needs to be less powerful, like no shield or something, to be more reasonable, and yeah, I would pay $15 or $20 to buy a one time dent for hauling purposes. The alternative is a rental period of say a day, 2 days, a week, whatever, and not change the stats any, just have it expire after the rental period is over. Perhaps to avoid abuse it could have a 15 min self destruct timer if not docked at the time of expiration.
What about an EVE-like subscription extension thing? New players or players that don't have as much time buy these things and put them on the market for sale of game credits and the buyer can use it to extend his/her subscription. Every month of subscription is still purchased, its just used by another person.
Ah yeah. I was aware EVE was doing something like this, but never really dug into the details. So basically, people can buy subscription time, and then post it against some sort of desired value?
So, concurrently in my thinking on some of the above content, I've been considering ways we might be able to make good on the desired ability to do "consignment sales" in places like Latos N2. So, for instance, you might manufacture a weapon with +5% damage, and put it up for sale in exchange for.. credits, or particular goods, or rare drops, or whatever.
Similarly, someone could spend time manufacturing complex goods like Trident parts, and then maybe someone else could post subscription time blocks they're willing to exchange for said trident parts. To create kind of an effort-driven F2P tier.
There are some risks to that, for us. While all time is still "purchased" by someone, if people get hyper-efficient at generating whatever content is requested (and players can be very good at optimizing, especially working in groups and guilds), it might create a bit of a channel by which we're monetizing free players less than we would be otherwise. I wouldn't normally care about this, I'd be more inclined to let the "market" kind of figure things out.. but we're low enough in capital that if we saw a big dropoff in F2P monetization (even with a spike in Sub monetization, of people buying from the other side), that could be trouble for us, if things didn't balance out pretty closely. It gets into modeling player Lifetime Value and the transition points. In theory we could just bump the cost of purchasing "sub time" for this kind of usage, to cover prospective shortfall, but there would be some data-mining and math to build a decent model.
But, generally, I think the idea is good. We have some mechanics in place already along those lines, but it would probably take some time to build the exchange system for that to work.
Conversely, just "selling stuff" in a cash shop (skins, trident parts, whatever) is a bit of a lower hanging fruit right now.
Ah yeah. I was aware EVE was doing something like this, but never really dug into the details. So basically, people can buy subscription time, and then post it against some sort of desired value?
So, concurrently in my thinking on some of the above content, I've been considering ways we might be able to make good on the desired ability to do "consignment sales" in places like Latos N2. So, for instance, you might manufacture a weapon with +5% damage, and put it up for sale in exchange for.. credits, or particular goods, or rare drops, or whatever.
Similarly, someone could spend time manufacturing complex goods like Trident parts, and then maybe someone else could post subscription time blocks they're willing to exchange for said trident parts. To create kind of an effort-driven F2P tier.
There are some risks to that, for us. While all time is still "purchased" by someone, if people get hyper-efficient at generating whatever content is requested (and players can be very good at optimizing, especially working in groups and guilds), it might create a bit of a channel by which we're monetizing free players less than we would be otherwise. I wouldn't normally care about this, I'd be more inclined to let the "market" kind of figure things out.. but we're low enough in capital that if we saw a big dropoff in F2P monetization (even with a spike in Sub monetization, of people buying from the other side), that could be trouble for us, if things didn't balance out pretty closely. It gets into modeling player Lifetime Value and the transition points. In theory we could just bump the cost of purchasing "sub time" for this kind of usage, to cover prospective shortfall, but there would be some data-mining and math to build a decent model.
But, generally, I think the idea is good. We have some mechanics in place already along those lines, but it would probably take some time to build the exchange system for that to work.
Conversely, just "selling stuff" in a cash shop (skins, trident parts, whatever) is a bit of a lower hanging fruit right now.
In EVE PLEX as its called (pilot license extension) can be purchased on the website and sold on their ingame market for credits. In the end, the player demand will set the price and even everything out. But yeah, I'm all for the low hanging fruit thing, I'd have no problems paying $5 or $10 to unlock a cool new skin or change my nation or whatever. I would suggest using crystals/gems as an intermediary currency as people are much more likely to throw $20 worth of "game money" at something than throw $20 at the same thing. (I spent about $25 on a Taun taun mount in SWTOR one time without flinching)
Hell, if you make crystals exchangeable it could drive the game economy in new ways too.
Hell, if you make crystals exchangeable it could drive the game economy in new ways too.
I would suggest using crystals/gems as an intermediary currency as people are much more likely to throw $20 worth of "game money" at something than throw $20 at the same thing. (I spent about $25 on a Taun taun mount in SWTOR one time without flinching)
Hell, if you make crystals exchangeable it could drive the game economy in new ways too.
Yup, addressed that the last paragraph of this post, above. I can't use Crystal to do that, but we might roll something new, essentially.
Hell, if you make crystals exchangeable it could drive the game economy in new ways too.
Yup, addressed that the last paragraph of this post, above. I can't use Crystal to do that, but we might roll something new, essentially.