LIFETIME Expansion pass, and Python Mk2

[FraggleRock]

And could you pleasre in future not accuse FD of scamming their customer base.

It maybe not scammy but it sure is scummy. Us lifetime folks paid up early to support the initial development of the game, for us to be cut completely dry just shows a lack of class by Frontier.

We should be able to buy the ships with in game currency the day they are in the game.

Also ARX are scammy on their own, just let us use pounds or dollars to pay for exactly what we want.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

I'm also a lifetime pass holder, but I never expected to get free ships.

 

[JosiahD]

I'm also a lifetime pass holder, but I never expected to get free ships.

Nor did I (so long as I can later purchase them with in-game credits). Now, if we see another paid expansion down the line, I might seek that to be free, being an LEP holder......but to be perfectly honest I have gotten more than my money's worth already and would be quite happy to have to pay moving forward if it helps maintain FDEV's financial viability and ongoing support to the game. I already try to throw some funds their way through the occasional ARX purchase anyway.

 

[Darth Ender]

Nor did I (so long as I can later purchase them with in-game credits). Now, if we see another paid expansion down the line, I might seek that to be free, being an LEP holder......but to be perfectly honest I have gotten more than my money's worth already and would be quite happy to have to pay moving forward if it helps maintain FDEV's financial viability and ongoing support to the game. I already try to throw some funds their way through the occasional ARX purchase anyway.

I paid for lep so i didn't have to pay for any other expansions. I'm only going to feel inclined to give them more money if it's something i actually want. Coming up with expansions and addons that seem to be designed and fully built before anyone who actually plays the game gets to try it out has historically not led to enjoyment.

Give me a flyable, damageable, customizable and functional mini Dredger and a salvage mechanic that isn't just a damn rehash of the hauler, fish in a barrel shooter, or press button at inanimate object grind game loop, and they'll get my money. Something along those lines. More of stuff like colonization where i'm space trucking that boring repetition 40 times to get a npc controlled station named what i want (and effectively nothing else) is not going to cut it.

 

[VR Morgan Grimes]

Nor did I (so long as I can later purchase them with in-game credits). Now, if we see another paid expansion down the line, I might seek that to be free, being an LEP holder......but to be perfectly honest I have gotten more than my money's worth already and would be quite happy to have to pay moving forward if it helps maintain FDEV's financial viability and ongoing support to the game. I already try to throw some funds their way through the occasional ARX purchase anyway.

You might seek it to be free? The entire selling point of the LEP was that future expansions were included in the cost, any paid expansion must be included in the LEP, I'm pretty ambivalent on the ships, maybe FDEV could throw LEP owners a bone and simply make them available for in game credits a bit earlier but my main issue with them is the slide into pay to win territory and even then I'm not convinced it's an issue.

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

Nor did I (so long as I can later purchase them with in-game credits). Now, if we see another paid expansion down the line, I might seek that to be free, being an LEP holder......but to be perfectly honest I have gotten more than my money's worth already and would be quite happy to have to pay moving forward if it helps maintain FDEV's financial viability and ongoing support to the game. I already try to throw some funds their way through the occasional ARX purchase anyway.

If the next full on expansion (say ship Interiors) is not free for LEP owners, then the LEP will have legitimate reasons to be angry (and all the legal stuff about breaking a contract etc, etc). However, I don't see them as doing this; Firstly the bad PR will alone would damage the brand badly, and they'd have a population drop like Odyssey. Secondly, you don't want to hack off your most loyal and enthusiastic players, normally, they're the ones that spend the most ARX, create the you tube videos and do (ahem) podcasts.

Lets all be honest, we want Elite to keep running, and because Elite doesn't have the multiple platforms (anymore) that NMS has, Elite relies more on people buying ARX for its revenue that sales. So, it all depends on what you expect as an expansion. As long as those ships become available for in-game credits a few months later, then it's not excluding LEP players from the new ships. The 'Catch-Up' ship builds, if you're a LEP and haven't got ships which are light years ahead of them, then what have you been playing for last ten years?

 

[Sevenperry]

Not read most of the content here…..this rears its ugly head now and again. Let’s face it those who paid the price for the life time expansion pass were robbed. An expensive outdated cobra mark iv and how many free expansions that cost others so far……? Great game though.

 

[The Nude Wizard]

If the ships were free to LEP, I’d have bought a bunch of skins for them, they aren’t so I’ve bought nothing.

 

[lefty1117]

As a LEPer, I'm actually of the opinion that after the 10 years expected lifetime has passed (has it already?) the Lifetime of the game can be considered "reached" and future expansions would be paid. Maybe it would behoove FD to relaunch as Elite Dangerous 2.0 or something new, with a massive new expansion that denotes the start of a new game.

I say this because I think LEPs overall are a bad idea for the company (while good deal for the consumer in the short term) which cuts off future potential revenue from the most dedicated players.

 

[zimms]

If the next full on expansion (say ship Interiors) is not free for LEP owners, then the LEP will have legitimate reasons to be angry (and all the legal stuff about breaking a contract etc, etc). However, I don't see them as doing this; Firstly the bad PR will alone would damage the brand badly, and they'd have a population drop like Odyssey. Secondly, you don't want to hack off your most loyal and enthusiastic players, normally, they're the ones that spend the most ARX, create the you tube videos and do (ahem) podcasts.

Lets all be honest, we want Elite to keep running, and because Elite doesn't have the multiple platforms (anymore) that NMS has, Elite relies more on people buying ARX for its revenue that sales. So, it all depends on what you expect as an expansion. As long as those ships become available for in-game credits a few months later, then it's not excluding LEP players from the new ships. The 'Catch-Up' ship builds, if you're a LEP and haven't got ships which are light years ahead of them, then what have you been playing for last ten years?

Paid expansions splinter the player base and have created plenty of headache over the years (most prominently with Odyssey feeling almost completely separated from the rest of the game). Maybe it would be better and more future proof to offer any big updates for everyone for free - with a 2 year early access phase for 55k Arx.

Wasn't that kinda what also happened when Horizons got merged into the base game? Where would that put LEP owners?

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

As a LEPer, I'm actually of the opinion that after the 10 years expected lifetime has passed (has it already?) the Lifetime of the game can be considered "reached" and future expansions would be paid. Maybe it would behoove FD to relaunch as Elite Dangerous 2.0 or something new, with a massive new expansion that denotes the start of a new game.

I say this because I think LEPs overall are a bad idea for the company (while good deal for the consumer in the short term) which cuts off future potential revenue from the most dedicated players.

I don't think there needs to be an Elite: Dangerous 2 (Elite: Deadly?). The only time they would need to is if they need to rebuild the game from the base up, even then EVE has had several Client and server updates to bring the game up to date and they haven't created an EVE 2 (Although I shouldn't give them ideas).

Its Ironic that if you were a new player, at the moment, Elite + Odyssey in the Steam sale costs £11 (which is good value TBH), I paid 43,000 Arx for a Mandalay with chrome skin, which works out about £21. Hopefully, they'll mean they'll put more revenue back into the game for more free features for the rest of the game.

 

[metatheurgist]

Wasn't that kinda what also happened when Horizons got merged into the base game? Where would that put LEP owners?

That kinda makes expansions early access....

 

[Freyar]

FDEV owes me one more paid expansion to satisfy what the LEP deal was when I bought it.

Sure, the game has been running for ten years. Horizons was good with two years of not much. Odyssey was awful, and there were three years of nothing.

Could argue colonization is an expansion, but it isn't a paid expansion per the deal I paid for nor is it a significant departure from existing gameplay loops.

I have accepted that FDev is not going to satisfy this agreement. I can still enjoy Elite, but I won't pretend they satisfied the LEP buyers' value proposition.

 

[lefty1117]

lol where did you come up with the 3 paid expansions to satisfy LEP rule?

 

[Freyar]

lol where did you come up with the 3 paid expansions to satisfy LEP rule?

Based on price. I recall LEP sitting at roughly US$90, Horizons at $30, Odyssey at $30.

If LEP was $120 instead, then we'll, just furthers the value argument.

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

Based on price. I recall LEP sitting at roughly US$90, Horizons at $30, Odyssey at $30.

If LEP was $120 instead, then we'll, just furthers the value argument.

If you got the LEP, then you should have got about $15 worth of free ARX when Beyond came out. Not that we're all keeping count

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

If you got the LEP, then you should have got about $15 worth of free ARX when Beyond came out.

So? I paid 120GBP for game content worthy of the title 'expansion', not for 2 bobbleheads and some paintjobs.

 

[VR Morgan Grimes]

If you got the LEP, then you should have got about $15 worth of free ARX when Beyond came out. Not that we're all keeping count

I remember getting a selection of skins that I would never have bought and have never used, maybe the midnight black ones for a load of ships, again, few of which I'd ever have bought but I definitely do not recall ever getting any arx, could be my memory is failing me though.

 

[Freyar]

If you got the LEP, then you should have got about $15 worth of free ARX when Beyond came out. Not that we're all keeping count

That'd be good to help offset, though I remember them arguing hard that they couldn't do that.

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

So? I paid 120GBP for game content worthy of the title 'expansion', not for 2 bobbleheads and some paintjobs.

I do understand that, that means you got the Horizon's one? There would have to be 2 Odyssey level expansions break even (or at current levels, free ships for a year) . If you got your LEP as part of the Kickstarter, (Digital Download Pack for £80 I think it was) then effectively you're already saved money. Elite was originally £40, as was Horizons, then Odyssey (£30) on top of that + £10 or so of freebies. So It's the folks that got the LEP when at Horizons that are out of pocket.

Mind you, I "Jontyed Up" to the DDF, just in time for it to be closed down. There were supposed to be additional rewards that DDF members were supposed to get but those never materialised, so I'm a little bit more out of pocket than most. However, even then that commander account over 3000 hrs against him, that's 10p an hour, so it's still good value for money.