Odyssey is $14.99 USD on Steam right now and....

[DjVortex]

Remember this all started with Horse armor in 2006. Now we have a company selling a 250$ version of a game with a new feature after selling the same game for 150$ and saying the people that bought it would get all dlc but are using weasel words to now deny that claim. I wonder where this slippery slope is going to end.

Oh noes, the infamous slippery slope! The game is ruined for certain!

 

[Rainbro]

Remember this all started with Horse armor in 2006. Now we have a company selling a 250$ version of a game with a new feature after selling the same game for 150$ and saying the people that bought it would get all dlc but are using weasel words to now deny that claim. I wonder where this slippery slope is going to end.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The ship builds are lack-luster at best. With a google search, in-game credits, and a modest about of engineering materials, just about any player can build a better ship than the two examples very quickly for nothing more than time spent playing the game. Maybe I missed the CMDRs on this forum saying, "The example Type-6 & Cheiftain look great - can't wait for the roll out." They aren't there. So who are these ships for?

The only person I think might plausibly feel a pre-built ship is worth real-world money is a new player that hasn't wrapped his head around the game yet. And how is that same player going to feel about that purchase after he does wrap his head around the game?

Depending on exactly how they're priced, it might be that if you wanted that particular ship kit + paint combination anyway, it works out as "hey, free ship" or near enough even if you fully intend to strip 90% of the modules out once you get it, but we don't have enough information to say yet.

I find it a bit hilarious how people complain "the game has gone pay-to-win" and at the same time that the game hasn't gone pay-to-win enough, because what you can buy isn't the best of the best.

So, which is it? Can't be both.

I think it can be both, which is a problem for Frontier if they manage it.

Re-crossing [1] the line into "pay for advantage" has definite costs for Frontier no matter how useless the actual advantage (and these so far are pretty useless) - a number of players will hate it enough to stop playing / gradually drift away / stop or reduce their own spending on ARX / not pick up the game to start with. Exactly how large those costs are of course remains to be seen but they are certainly non-zero.

If the actual advantage you pay for is also terrible, there's a chance of not actually recovering those costs through people actually buying it. If it's both terrible and expensive, then it's basically a deliberate beginner trap, which will annoy further people who weren't that bothered about the "pay for advantage" principle.

[1] Nothing yet is as powerful as some of the Kickstarter rewards were. And that does also point out that they can still reverse course if it does all go wrong.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

In case anyone is interested, in the Frontier Store - Odyssey is £9.99 at the moment:





No need for Steam.

 

[Northpin]

Depending on exactly how they're priced, it might be that if you wanted that particular ship kit + paint combination anyway, it works out as "hey, free ship" or near enough even if you fully intend to strip 90% of the modules out once you get it, but we don't have enough information to say yet.


I think it can be both, which is a problem for Frontier if they manage it.

Re-crossing [1] the line into "pay for advantage" has definite costs for Frontier no matter how useless the actual advantage (and these so far are pretty useless) - a number of players will hate it enough to stop playing / gradually drift away / stop or reduce their own spending on ARX / not pick up the game to start with. Exactly how large those costs are of course remains to be seen but they are certainly non-zero.

If the actual advantage you pay for is also terrible, there's a chance of not actually recovering those costs through people actually buying it. If it's both terrible and expensive, then it's basically a deliberate beginner trap, which will annoy further people who weren't that bothered about the "pay for advantage" principle.

[1] Nothing yet is as powerful as some of the Kickstarter rewards were. And that does also point out that they can still reverse course if it does all go wrong.

Well, currently their proposals for pre-build ships seem to target rather new players that dont have enough time to spend in-game to progress their accounts to be able to buy the ships FDev are selling for ARX.
They even call them Mining Jumpstart and AX Combat Jumpstart

To me this is hardly P2W. It's really mild. It's sort of a preview

That doesnt mean that i'm 100% ok with it, but i do believe that people are making a lot of fuss out of nothing.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

In case anyone is interested, in the Frontier Store - Odyssey is £9.99 at the moment:


View attachment 391074


No need for Steam.

Just discovered that on Steam you can buy Deluxe Edition for £21.99 - includes ED and Odyssey. Looks like a bargain if you want another account.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Just discovered that on Steam you can buy Deluxe Edition for £21.99 - includes ED and Odyssey. Looks like a bargain if you want another account.

I had been considering getting an account for Abby Wong, an actress and aspiring racer who has appeared occasionally in my Buckyball fanfic shorts, just to canonize her existence in game.

I’ll probably simply rename my alt account of Beth, the perpetually down on her luck cousin of Inga, instead.

edit:
Speaking of Buckyball Racing, current race, the Sidewinder Trophy, just started today!

Community Event / Creation - The Sidewinder Trophy

Welcome to The Sidewinder Trophy This race is to celebrate the ship we all began with, the Sidewinder. A small cheap ship with limited ability? Not so! It can be a devastating little racer if flown with abandon and a few tweaks. Time to give it some love! Build Rules & Ships...

forums.frontier.co.uk