I think it would be really cool to allow CQC and multicrew to be a free demo for people. I think it would encourage those mechanics and give a lot of people a taste for the game. Also CQC is largely unused so I think it would be good from that standpoint as well.
Make CQC and multicrew a free demo
- Thread starter CMD Worbly Blorble
- Start date
They already gave away CQC free in 2016. If it was a great idea you'd think they'd have continued. They could do that because CQC was a stand-alone. MC would pretty much require the whole program, they might as well buy it. And considering the full base game is available for less than a micro trans today I dunno what's holding anyone back from trying it. 
Do you believe the game file is large enough to be a deterrent? I do not. However price, regardless of how small, rightfully is a consideration that makes people hesitate. People do not have infinite resources and like to test drive things. I specifically believe both Multicrew and CQC are pretty decent for learning the game and Multicrew specifically is how I personally learned how to mine, use the fss scanner, and space combat. Another player basically functioned as a mentor/tutor for me. One of the biggest complaints I hear about this game is the complexity. A lot of people really struggle with it, they crash into the station while trying to dock and get a bunch of fines then say f this and quit, or get interdicted and killed and face a rebuy screen. There are ample tutorials but most people don't want to spend 12 hours in menus watching videos or doing tutorials either just to understand the game. For me, I loved learning about all the different elements and love complexity in games but I recognize that it would be helpful for people to dabble prior to purchasing and since it would be quite the limited experience, but would allow them to see and interact with the game surface level and gather some basic resources/ranks for their commander it wouldn't feel completely pointless either as a demo.They already gave away CQC free in 2016. If it was a great idea you'd think they'd have continued. They could do that because CQC was a stand-alone. MC would pretty much require the whole program, they might as well buy it. And considering the full base game is available for less than a micro trans today I dunno what's holding anyone back from trying it.
The complexity is a different problem. We've been saying the new player experience is terrible for ages now, feedback Frontier does not hear. They hear other feedback though....
I used to have issues with multicrew all the time and apparently with connectivity all the time, I just wasn't aware of it failing. I ended up using a port forwarding guide and I see people constantly now as I explore. I think a lot of people are experiencing connectivity issues via p2p and don't even know it.
Honestly, I truly believe that prebuilt ships helped this a lot. For me the risk of losing everything almost made me quit the game just as I started, then after that, the engineering grind, and then after that powerplay. They have or are fixing my biggest complaints. My first experience was skip tutorial because I wanted to play, fail to leave the dock, crash into the station, get a bunch of fines respawn. Second experience go to a combat zone, realize all the ships are engineered and I cant' possibly fight back, die, look up engineering and realize it takes forever and then quit the game because I didn't want to put the time in. Third experience, play multicrew, mine for hours for LTD, get 600 mil doing that and make good friends, join a squadron, grind up federation rank, get into power play for double bounty rewards and stack wing massacre missions, realizing I'm not really playing what I want and instead just grinding powerplay, get tired of that and then quit the game. Fourth(current experience), leave the squadron, buy a few prebuilt ships, grind out guardian modules, grind out engineering, grind out rest of federation rank, do a ton of exploration, do some footfall, engineer my suit and weapons on foot, do high intensity combat zones and love it, do that for hours playing pvp with friends as part of it(no risk at all on foot), and I'm still on that high waiting for new powerplay to fix the last thing I had a problem with. Each time I've played it has been trending in the right direction, its just been very slow. When they made 3 player multicrew a thing it was huge for me. Turrets are really fun to play imo, having the kill warrant scanner, wake scanner, emp, etc are really cool and give you a lot of flexibility, plust the extra 3 power pips the host gets means that its impossible to even have 0 pips in something which is very powerful in practice. All of these things provide avenues to really get into the game.
I only suggest multicrew because I think it supports learning the game in an organic way flying with someone else. I learned all about mining and combat with a tutor essentially. They also explaining wing missions and all of that. It eventually made me engage with the game again in a long term way so admittedly I'm biased towards it.