Of course not, it isn't that fun to begin with and when you lose any progress you have why do it again, there are a lot of better games out there to amuse people.
Players losing it all and quitting - sure, their fault but not good for the game.
- Thread starter CrazyH0rse
- Start date
I'm not a hard core player of the game, I only just moved up from a Cobra to a real space truck, but I honestly don't understand the difficulty people have with the current system. I have knowingly flow without the rebuy cost when I thought the profit was worth the risk. I never read the "manual" nor did I do more then the space combat demo's. I have died two times in the game so far, once picking a fight I couldn't win and once to suicide after a glitch prevented me from completing a mission and I was stuck with the cargo unable to dump or sell it. I find that most games are following real life in letting people not take responsibility for their actions. If you want to risk it all to make a big profit, it is exactly that a risk. I don't think the loan should even be available outside the first incident to cove a learning mistake.
And it's a very short-sighted view anyway. Every person who quits is another person who is no longer available to recruit new players (and may actually dissuade others from playing), another person who is no longer a potential customer for expansions and shop items, and another person who is no longer active in the community.
Losing players is very rarely a good thing. I would argue that losing toxic players who actively drive others away from the game is a good thing, but that's a very controversial opinion.
Also
people who quit tell others the game is bad compared to good at a rate of 3:1 (or more cant remember the research)
1 person will tell 3 friends the game is good
1 quitter will tell 9 the game is bad.
Couldn't disagree more.
Every game developer wants players to play their game. If players quit the game, this affects every aspect of it, including, of course, game sells.
If players quit the game:
- They'll talk with other player, either with and without the game and might influence them to quit and potential buyers not to buy.
- Chances of selling new addons and/or game extras would be dramatically reduced.
- As an MMO, the game should lose appeal to others if such a big scenerio is empty of PvP players.
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Well, yes in general but maybe those that quit aren't the one's the game is aimed at anyway?, should the game be changed to fit the masses like so many other games have done?
You know what happened to those games when they gave in and tried to appease as many people as possible? with a few exceptions, they end up dying.
I believe that if Elite stays true to what it is, yes there will be some people that leave, but there are other players that will join, simply because others have quit because they want that challenge.
That while the sales might be less then if they appealed to as many as possible, the game lasts a lot longer, and is much more stable, the community is better and the game in general is much better.
Look at eve online to use a space sim example, it has never really been a mainstream game, steep learning curse, death penalty that can be significant, demands time spendt to learn skills.
Yet how old is it now? and it is going strong? it is actually getting more players since people are beginning to look at space sims and tougher games then they are used to from the enormous mass of instant gratification/no penalty games.
Personally I believe that the game stands much stronger because it isn't part of the enormous mass of generic games out there, and should remain like that.
You know what happened to those games when they gave in and tried to appease as many people as possible? with a few exceptions, they end up dying.
I believe that if Elite stays true to what it is, yes there will be some people that leave, but there are other players that will join, simply because others have quit because they want that challenge.
That while the sales might be less then if they appealed to as many as possible, the game lasts a lot longer, and is much more stable, the community is better and the game in general is much better.
Look at eve online to use a space sim example, it has never really been a mainstream game, steep learning curse, death penalty that can be significant, demands time spendt to learn skills.
Yet how old is it now? and it is going strong? it is actually getting more players since people are beginning to look at space sims and tougher games then they are used to from the enormous mass of instant gratification/no penalty games.
Personally I believe that the game stands much stronger because it isn't part of the enormous mass of generic games out there, and should remain like that.
Is this an "EVE is dying thread"?
It would be a simple mechanic for the game to warn a user that their insurance is higher than their balance - problem solved.
But please, no dumbing down. There seems to be a contingent on here that want no consequences to anything - which is un-realistic, and the result will be people end up with too easy ride to the top ships and equipment and ultimately will get bored and quit the game.
The game at the moment is how it should be if people were flying around in space in the future, gritty, raw, dangerous.
Lets be honest, the reality is no one would actuarially insure any of us, so if we die we should have to buy back everything ourselves, so the insurance mechanic is quite liberal
But please, no dumbing down. There seems to be a contingent on here that want no consequences to anything - which is un-realistic, and the result will be people end up with too easy ride to the top ships and equipment and ultimately will get bored and quit the game.
The game at the moment is how it should be if people were flying around in space in the future, gritty, raw, dangerous.
Lets be honest, the reality is no one would actuarially insure any of us, so if we die we should have to buy back everything ourselves, so the insurance mechanic is quite liberal
What I mean is it comes up on the main view screen when they launch - no one would have any complaint when they choose to ignor this and they die and they will just be angry at themselves, not the game.
Might be easiest to just add a warning whenever you purchase a new ship that you will need X% of that ship cost if anything happens, and explain the mechanics of that a bit better (my understanding, which may be wrong since I'm a newb too, is that the price is calculated post ship-loss, so any change or replacement of modules will factor into that price - it should explain that in the message too)
On the system screen it clearly tells you your re-buy cost under where it shows your combat, exploring and trading rank - so they don't need to work it out, but yes it would be good for something at the buying stage warn them too - maybe in red text.
Would there be something mechanically unsound with, in the case where someone can't afford the 5% rebuy cost of the ship, loan or not, that they receive the (literally worthless) starter ship, and credits to the value of what would have been 95% of the ship, less the cost of insurance? Base it off the 10% reduced resale price even, to make it hurt a little more, but not be a game ender. This would also eliminate the 200,000cr loan "safety net" for new players.
It would be inconvenient enough to have to fly around and get all the pieces of your ship again, and not only that, not be able to afford the ship you had before, but at least you could go on?
Coz my wording is a little obtuse,,, a worked example. I'll remove the idea of insurance to show what i mean with that too.
Ship cost = 1,000,000cr
My balance = 0cr
*boom* ship goes. Insurance is 50,000cr, but I can't afford that. So instead, I get:
- Sidewinder (remembering all components+ship is worthless, and can't be resold)
- 950,000cr (or 850,000, if you use the 10% resale value)
If I had 10,000cr at death, I'd get a sidewinder + 960,000cr.
I can't see anything immediately wrong with this,, but it seems to make a bit more sense to me, and there's no arbitrary loan figure for going into red.
It would be inconvenient enough to have to fly around and get all the pieces of your ship again, and not only that, not be able to afford the ship you had before, but at least you could go on?
Coz my wording is a little obtuse,,, a worked example. I'll remove the idea of insurance to show what i mean with that too.
Ship cost = 1,000,000cr
My balance = 0cr
*boom* ship goes. Insurance is 50,000cr, but I can't afford that. So instead, I get:
- Sidewinder (remembering all components+ship is worthless, and can't be resold)
- 950,000cr (or 850,000, if you use the 10% resale value)
If I had 10,000cr at death, I'd get a sidewinder + 960,000cr.
I can't see anything immediately wrong with this,, but it seems to make a bit more sense to me, and there's no arbitrary loan figure for going into red.
The game doesn't suffer if no one plays it, only if no one buys it, it is a device for a corporation to make money, if it sells, it worked, why care if no one plays?
I guess you missed the class on sarcasm, I also think their attitude sucks canal water through a paper straw. They need to focus on the players they have and not just the money they took from them.
I totally agree that Elite is way too punitive and leaves out some potential options to realistically compromise on this with players.
Long story short, I am aware of the rebuy cost and always keep enough. I played countless hours for a month, blowing up Anacondas/Dropships with my Viper, saving up for an ASP. I bought an ASP & got my thrusters knocked out and had to scuttle. Used my buy back $$. Right after, while building up my buy back $$, I was killing a missioned/wanted dropship and the feds/police ships joined the fight and got in the way of one of my shots just as they always do. I got a $200 bounty (nothing). After the fight, at the exact moment that I pulled into a station to pay my bounty/resupply, I was scanned and then immediately blown up by the station with no chance of survival. My problem: MY $8MM SHIP WAS BLOWN UP WITH NO WARNING BY A STATION FOR A $200 BOUNTY...............SERIOUSLY????? You have got to be kidding me. There is a difference between making a game realistic/challenging/fun & making a game insanely punitive and making people not want to continue because of that.
I did submit a general ticket a week or so ago to Frontier but have not heard back, i'm sure they are crazy busy, but I do feel like I should get my ship or $$ back.
Game suggestions to Fix/Compromise: 1) If a player cannot afford to rebuy their ship at the time of their death, make it so when that player goes into the ship buying screen that that ship is listed with their equipment, and only at the cost of the rebuy. This is a compromise. 2) if a player is immobilized in space, there is a 'distress beacon/get a tow' button they can hit which costs them some $$ (or puts them in the negative/loan) but loads them to the nearest station. This is more realistic than having no options and having to blow up your expensive ship.
Anyway, I sincerely hope that Frontier is listening to posts like this and makes the game less insanely-punitive, and also hope to get my ship back which I do feel I got stiffed on. I really like this game but got really turned off by this and i'm not sure if I will restart.
Thank you,
Jordan