Let's discuss what new features devs can add to motivate people to pay for the test as it is now. bonuses must be easy to implement, yet interesting.

1. special ship (alien fury thing)
2. different way of displaying name so you can tell paid tester
3. ability to /explode with cargo ;)
4. ability to jettison cargo one at the time
5. special S type rocket jammer
6. maybe new sectors for paid testers.

What do you think?

How about:
Pay to play.

huh? have nothing to say? say nothing

Maybe sell stuff like t-shirts, posters (who doesn`t want to have a 1 m x 0.7 m picture of an avalon exploding ;) and all that sort general stuff (coffee mugs etc..). Maybe open a http://www.cafepress.com/ like shop (or something like that).

Edit: PS, can I snail mail some money (in euros...) to the devs? I don't have a credit card and I can't write checks (don't have the right bank account)...

Yah.

Who doesn't want a hoody with a valkyrie on it?

I don't think there should be game play advantages to paying. However something cool like naming your ship, seeing what sector you are in b4 log on etc would be nice.

i agree with durgia. to further go into the matter: if you give gameplay advantages to the paying testers, you practically rule out those who can't pay to play.
but, as durgia said: customizable ship names and stuff: all for it.

w00t Toshiro lives !!!!

Minimus

Another thing could be that non-payers don't have their scores listed. Maybe they also get their stuff reset every 10 days. They'd still be able to "beta test" but they wouldn't be able to acuire wealth or roll-play very well.

I wouldn't mind being able to use HTML tags like <b> (or <strong>), <i>, <u>, <img>, and the like on the boards...

How about, instead of special ship, special weapon, we go with something a little, less dramatic. Like, a custom graphic. Perhaps make small square on the hull of every ship that can show your logo. Only paying customers get one. They can put what they want but the dev's have to approve it, then it gets stored on the server so it loads when you see their ship...

Or perhaps just a custom hull for existing ships. Aka, performance and weapons are for whatever ship you buy, but you can make it look like this other really cool ship or something like that.

Names are a good idea, but, not much of an incentive, you already have a player name so that's basically your ship too...

Heck, maybe just do up some custom graphics and addons that can be stuck on any ship, and say.. for $1 you get a target... 2$, US or Canadian or some other countries flag stuck out on the wing...
3$?, blue or pink or purple exhaust intead of plain old white...

4$, how bout one of those little stamp decals like they used to paint on planes, a picture of a ship with a / through it meaning you killed one... could put like, 10 of them on the hull?...

5$ Lets see, what havent we got yet. oh!.. That shark face thing they paint on airplains and missles.. with all the teeth, right across the front of your ship..

10$. Choice of one of 3 custom hulls. Goes on your ship no matter what ship you actually buy.

Then, you make all these things only good for a year, that way you have to renew.. And you offer a discount for buying multiple years of items..

Also, you give a package deal. ... such as..

Bronze Sponser, 5$ a month, Choice of 2 or 3 other custom items...

Silver Sponser, 10$ a month. Choice of 3 or 4 items...


Gold Sponser $15 a month. All items, choice of all 3 hulls, but can only use 1 hull at a time.

Platinum. $20 a month. All items, all hulls, can have ships with each all at the same time. Custom hud add on, name shows up different color or with badge to indicate sponsorship...


Lots of little things like that can keep a game going and attract those extra $ easily.

>i agree with durgia. to further go into the matter: if you give
>gameplay advantages to the paying testers, you practically rule
>out those who can't pay to play.

rule out? no
disadvantage? yes

Try before Buy? YES

>>i agree with durgia. to further go into the matter: if you give
>>gameplay advantages to the paying testers, you practically rule
>>out those who can't pay to play.

>rule out? no
>disadvantage? yes

Rule out. YES!
disadvatage SEVERLY!

Nobody wants to come in and start playing a game where they find at atmosphere that your only really welcome in the "BETA TEST" if you send a steady stream of money in.

And as for the stupid "Try Before Buy"..

All that does it force the people who cant afford to pay for a "BETA TEST!" to make a new account at the end of every trial period just so they can play a game that isnt even finished yet!

Yes, we should have bonuses for paid members. But, they can have absolutely no affect on ship performace, weapon damage, or any game play critical item, or it will drive people off who might have become a paying customer when the game advances a little or they turn 18 and get a credit card.

i was not talking about trial period. when you join you have access to most features of the test. paid members get a little extra. chill.

when you join you have access to most features of the test. paid members get a little extra.
————————————————————————————————————————

which is what i object to.

if you don't give something for people who are supporting game more than nonpaying members why would you pay?

you can object all you want, but fact is that people en masse will not be paying for NOTHING.

if you don't want to pay and want everything handed to you on silver plate for free, GGF!

situation is that without enough monetary support project will die and you objecting to giving vendetta enough support when it needs it.

no need to go overboard with bonuses, but that little extra will matter to people who are capable of paying.

toshiro, will you still object when Guild publish and Vendetta (or what it has become) is going to cost you $4.99 a month? Or will you stop playing then?

I personally have no problems with paying testers getting some kind of benefit, even if it is an the form of better or a wider selection of ships. This turns the test into a move 'shareware' type game. Just as with the later of the EV series, you couldn't advance past a certain point until you registered. It could work the same here. Capital ships, or even special nation ships 'could' be gained only by advancing to a point in the universe. This point would coincide with the free-paying boundary. And I don't mean straight away either, Im thinking slightly longer term here...

I think that initially, custom graphics or 'wing' badges, some kind of guild system etc, would almost be enough to justify the cost to many people. Ie: A paying tester can start 'official' guilds, with support built in game. The head of the guild could upload the guilds 'wing' or insignia, which is attached to all the guilds members ships and in the target area of the HUD... These official guild could have separate stats pages on this web site etc. Imagine Phoenix cruising round with a shark-mouthed Valk...

hm.
i admit, i neglected that point of view for a while.
i do know the EV series (being a mac player), and i always encountered the cutoffs (curse you, Cap'n Hector!). but those games were single player _only_. there is a reason why ASW _never_ made EV:Online.

as for the gameplay benefits: okay. but the devs must not make the paying user a demigod in the game, or you'll scare off new users who might possibly be coaxed into paying the monthly fee. ymmv.

how about restricting play time for non-paying beta testers?

ie max 5 hours/month

...and then paying beta testers could get the amount they've payed for beta testing drawn off the price of the final release.

that's a pretty good deal imo.