Any "builder" subscription or so to support game development?

Landorin

L
Hi,

I never really cared about that stuff. Yet this game keeps fascinating me, mostly since the Thagoid invasion started and now the Titans. Yet such development costs money and this game generates no money really except selling ARX. I do buy that occasionally ARX but I have not much use for it as I got plenty by now.

Is there some other form to support game development? Merchandising, some builder subscription membership as some other games have, something else?
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
You mean like Evocati in that other game?
Paid subs is a thorny subject on this forum group. I personally advocate it.
But many, and I suspect most, don't.
As for some elite paying group, yeah why not...
But AFAIK it don't exist.
Its a slippery slope. Next might be pay to play, pay for ships etc. This is why alot don't want subs or an elite group
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Buying ARX is the clearest message to fdev that the game has support. Though given they seem to have stopped regularly adding stuff to the ARX shop I don't know if they're getting that message.

(And I wish they'd remove the BUY ARX! banner across the shop - as bad as the blue shop button they added into the game a few years ago 🤢 )
 

Jack Winter

Jack Winter
Some also buy an alt. Gives something both to the player and Frontier. It's nice to start a new toon knowing what you already know. Also useful to have different commanders in different places of the galaxy, or even one out exploring while the main account can do titan bombing runs or participate in a CG or BGS war.
 

Landorin

L
Thanks all for the hints and the links. I experienced the early days of MMORPGs that were subscription based, hence it is not necessarily a bad thing to me. Anyways, ha, 2nd commander... too much effort on switching for me. ;) I doubt there is a mass sale of the game these days anymore. I will check out the merchandise store and probably buy more ARX then. ;)
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Ozric
Landorin said:
Thanks all for the hints and the links. I experienced the early days of MMORPGs that were subscription based, hence it is not necessarily a bad thing to me. Anyways, ha, 2nd commander... too much effort on switching for me. ;) I doubt there is a mass sale of the game these days anymore. I will check out the merchandise store and probably buy more ARX then. ;)
Click to expand...
I had been trying to convince Frontier for years to add more to the old merch store, because I wanted a replacement t-shirt, then to make a new one when the PZ one was unveiled. And so when they eventually did I brought a couple of things straight away to say thanks :D

There is a sort of double sale on at the moment. I would personally always advocate for buying the game directly through the Frontier store because that way Frontier get 100% of the money rather than Steam taking a cut on purchase, as well as digital goods purchases. But for whatever reason the Frontier store doesn't have the new Deluxe edition and rarely has sales.

But you can get Horizons and Odyssey for £25 on their website https://www.frontierstore.net/games/elite-dangerous-cat.html

Or you can follow the link on the other store, which takes you to the steam version of the new deluxe edition which is currently £15.39 until the 21st
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
Ozric said:
I had been trying to convince Frontier for years to add more to the old merch store, because I wanted a replacement t-shirt, then to make a new one when the PZ one was unveiled. And so when they eventually did I brought a couple of things straight away to say thanks :D

There is a sort of double sale on at the moment. I would personally always advocate for buying the game directly through the Frontier store because that way Frontier get 100% of the money rather than Steam taking a cut on purchase, as well as digital goods purchases. But for whatever reason the Frontier store doesn't have the new Deluxe edition and rarely has sales.

But you can get Horizons and Odyssey for £25 on their website https://www.frontierstore.net/games/elite-dangerous-cat.html

Or you can follow the link on the other store, which takes you to the steam version of the new deluxe edition which is currently £15.39 until the 21st
Click to expand...
I'd love to see the Delacey hat and t-shirt come back, missed that when we had the design-your-own. Now I have more disposable cash it's not there! 😱
 

HansAcker

HansAcker
Ozric said:
I would personally always advocate for buying the game directly through the Frontier store because that way Frontier get 100% of the money rather than Steam taking a cut on purchase, as well as digital goods purchases
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I'll gladly let Steam have their cut for the vastly better update service :)
The alt's FD installer takes ages to install a new patch.

I already have enough ARX but never considered merch before. Good tip
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Factabulous said:
(And I wish they'd remove the BUY ARX! banner across the shop - as bad as the blue shop button they added into the game a few years ago 🤢 )
Click to expand...
Oh wow, that is new and obnoxious.

My personal bugbear is when they switched to the new store they lost the ability to sort by latest. Why would you make me work to figure out what's new? Does anyone even have any idea how cosmetics are sorted by default?
 

Florenus

Florenus
Factabulous said:
(And I wish they'd remove the BUY ARX! banner across the shop - as bad as the blue shop button they added into the game a few years ago 🤢 )
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That infamous blue shop button in game was really bad idea, but I don't see anything wrong with a banner inside the shop web page (especially if it explains what ARX is, as I imagine new players might be confused). That's perfect place for that kind of link.
 

Nowski

Nowski
Landorin said:
Is there some other form to support game development?
Click to expand...

As well as other suggestions here, perhaps gifting copies to other potential players is worth considering? Steam makes this pretty easy for those on that platform. It sends money to FDev, but the potential to grow the playerbase is also a benefit.

Regards alt accounts and Steam, I believe this requires switching to a second steam account to run the second copy? (Rather than use the 3rd party launcher or log in to both CMDRs via a single launcher from the main steam account.) At least according to ED support site:

[Steam-purchased copies] must be run from the Steam account that made the purchase, via linking, and use of the 'Steam log in' button. They cannot be run from a different Steam account, nor a standalone or Epic installation of the game.
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ETA: The info I quoted seems misleading. I got a second copy (Deluxe Edition, 15.39!) by creating a second Steam account in my existing Steam. After putting my new alt through the tutorials, when I go back to the launcher and "Login with a different Frontier Account" I can use the primary CMDR's email/pw with no issues. No apparent issues, perhaps I should say?
 
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Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Rainbro said:
It also makes money from people buying the game.
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This is the big one - it still sells a few hundred thousand copies a year according to Frontier's latest figures, which will probably account for the majority of the income it gets, certainly aren't all established players' alts, and is enough to fund a war with the Thargoids, powerplay rewrite, etc.

Sure, there's a few super-fans who'll spend far more than the cost of the game itself on cosmetics, but "selling the game to new players" is far more sustainable - fifty normal players who pick the game up, enjoy it, play for a couple of hundred hours and then move on are considerably more valuable in direct financial terms to Frontier than one super-fan who plays for ten thousand hours (even if they do buy a lot of cosmetics) - even if in terms of in-game impact on the BGS, CGs, Powerplay, etc. the super-fan comes out ahead in the long run.
 
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