ED: Everything available for "Real Cash?

[Asmodi]

I got my premium Beta refunded as I was unable to get answers to some basic questions regarding the future of ED.

Im concerned it is going to turn into a "Give me your money and you can get the best of everything game".
It would be nice to know where FD intend going with the game (They will already know 100% where they are going) and be open and honest with the community about this.
At this moment in time I cannot see anything in the game MP wise that I would not get as much enjoyment out of SP wise.

My main concern is this.

Pay for best stuff with Cash - What do you do after that? I mean lets look at this.
You get your ship, equipment and eventually your Elite status and then its "Uhm yeh that was good for a few months"

Yes they could and probably will include things like Invasions etc where everyone has to get their backsides to a certain area to fight it off but those things have been done in every Freelancer Mod for years and offer nothing new to those who have played various FL Mods.

I played this game back in the 80's on a Zx Speccy and loved every minute of it.
I despised the follow ups to the game.

I got caught up in all the hype about this but when I actually sat down and thought objectively about it I was left wondering will FD just turn this into a Cash Cow and milk it for every penny it can or will they stay true to the Original Elite?
My heart hopes they will stay true to the original but my mind tells me that very very soon after the game is released it will "Who Pays Wins" like so many other games just now.

 

[warbaby2]

My main concern is this.

Pay for best stuff with Cash - What do you do after that?

Let me stop you right there: This will not be possible.

Even IF we will be able to buy ships and equipment via cash shop (which I highly doubt), we never will be able to buy everything, since you actually have to play the game... a lot... to get the faction ranks and standings to even be allowed to buy/use the best gear.

 

[Targas]

Really, I have no concern on it personally with Frontier. It as well depends on the audience and the decision and their approach to micro transactions.
Some Companies like Nintendo refuse to give you a half finished product and let you pay more for those 'extras' you mention.
It depends on how you will let this happen, too. You can play Solo, you can play as much as you want. You don't have to play those Zynga games on Facebook, which squeeze every penny out of your wallet, by just granting half of the content for free.

I like Frontiers approach to extend the game scope with further add ons and I don't have the fear that it will end in a micro transaction game.

Cheers..

 

[tooterfish]

If you want an example how much of a non-issue this is, just go to youtube and watch videos of all the alpha testers redecorating spacestations with bits of their shiny new ships after Frontier gave everyone 1.5m credits to spend.

Just because you can buy a ship, doesn't mean you can fly it. Most people apparently couldn't even undock without crashing and burning.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

As far as I know FD will "soon" give us their final verdict regarding MT. This is of course hot topic and lot of people strongly dislike MT for various reasons. I would like to see this topic clarified as soon as possible, so we would know what to expect, and FD would know our opinion about their decisions.

Said all that, it is worth to remember, that this is skill based game, and lot of ships and weapons and other hardware will be available only in specific stations, or having enough reputation locally, etc.

 

[JughedJones]

I'm with the above posters.

Frontier doesn't seem terribly concerned about making people 'work for it.'

Sure, they have made the possibility of buying some in game credits possible, but I don't think it will be that much of a boost in the long run.

They seem firmly committed to the idea that 'it's not the destination, but the journey.... and the journey is HARD."

 

[Asmodi]

If you want an example how much of a non-issue this is, just go to youtube and watch videos of all the alpha testers redecorating spacestations with bits of their shiny new ships after Frontier gave everyone 1.5m credits to spend.

Just because you can buy a ship, doesn't mean you can fly it. Most people apparently couldn't even undock without crashing and burning.

Until the community cries out for Auto Docking Computers.
Besides what you are seeing on you tube is just people that thought it would be fun to crash regardless of any commentary to the opposite.

You just have to look at Space Engineers for that. Spend hours building the most beautiful ship ever and then "Wheres the nearest Asteroid"

 

[M.E.A.T]

Well, FD has not decided on micro transaction yet. We don't know what will be for sale in MT, or will there even be MT in the first place.

However, if MT will be implemented then it will most likely be vanity items and in-game credits.

If anyone plays ED with "best ship + weapon + modules + etc" as ultimate goal, then i guess the game will get old pretty fast regardless of implementation of MT...and your shiny godly ship will get blown to bits eventually.

Those that try to "pay-to-win" will be investing a fortune and will hardly make any impact to other players.

I think you are safe here

 

[Sir.Tj]

(Mod hat off)

Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the game and I'm genuinely sorry you feel the game isn't turning out as you had hoped.

And yes, at a later date when expansions are released and if you haven't bought the expansion pass (which was included in the Premium Beta Level Kickstarte pledge.) You will have to pay to get new content.

FD have stated though that you don't have to buy the expansions to still enjoy the game, but this is of course subjective.

Apart from that I don't believe ED will ever be a pay to win game and aside from the expansions FD have again stated they will be injecting events to keep the universe evolving, I'm sure this will be more that invasions. From what I've see The FD guys are very creative and will make things interesting on a regular basis. They intend the game to run for many years and will continue to support it along the way.

They have given tons of info on the game direction in newsletters and dev diaries etc. I'm sure more info will be released when they decide that they want to update everyone.

Everything has been done in stages so far and I'm sure this will continue until the full game is released.

Again, I'm sorry you've decided that ED isn't the game for you, I hope as time goes on you might change your mind.

 

[Asmodi]

I'm with the above posters.

Frontier doesn't seem terribly concerned about making people 'work for it.'

Sure, they have made the possibility of buying some in game credits possible, but I don't think it will be that much of a boost in the long run.

They seem firmly committed to the idea that 'it's not the destination, but the journey.... and the journey is HARD."

The fact that you can buy in game credits for cash has pretty much shown the direction it will take.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

The fact that you can buy in game credits for cash has pretty much shown the direction it will take.

You can't buy game credits for cash at this point, and most likely you won't be able to. However, if that's your breaking point, it's understandable. Just check in for later news to see if FD have decided to actually do that.

 

[Stoo]

Pretty sure it was decided that there will be no "pay to win" in ED. There will most probably be micro-transactions for things like ship colours etc (visual mods) but there won't be a "pay real money for this mega-killer triple death beam" or "pay real money for 10 billion credits to buy a mega-killer triple death beam".

FD are very must aware that players don't want this kind of thing.

 

[Sir.Tj]

The fact that you can buy in game credits for cash has pretty much shown the direction it will take.

I'm surprised to hear that, Have you got a link to where you saw that?

 

[JughedJones]

Hold on.... I didn't read the OP very well before my first comment.

So. You decided to purchase the premium beta, read somewhere that it's 'pay to win,' then demanded a refund before authoring 6 posts on the discussion board?

That's pretty incredible, and not just a little wishy-washy. I would suggest waiting for full release, as you clearly can't be bothered to poke around for your own information. After the game is retail you can get reviews, watch even more videos, read about the game in magazines, etc.

 

[Targas]

I'm surprised to hear that, Have you got a link to where you saw that?

I suppose the OP reffers to he various Kickstarter pldges which give you different options on where you start, with which ship and with how much credits.

This has absolutely nothing to do with in game credit purchases, as this is a One Time Start option only, which barely makes a difference and is just variation.

 

[Alric]

This is something I'm very confident that the team will get right.

 

[Asmodi]

Ok some very good points there from people and I don't think we are all that different in that we want the game to remain as close to its roots as possible and not become a "play to win game".
Ultimately FD will know exactly where they see it going as companies don't work on month to month plans.
They will be 100% on where they see the game Year 1 through to Year 5.
They will also have any plans in place at this early stage for implementation of micro transactions.

The reason for my stating that I would rather see a small monthly subscription as opposed to Micro transactions is that the game cant really survive without either in the long term.

What has been raised so far is probably no where near what the game will finally cost and if you think 10k to 80k regular players etc will keep this game going in the future you are sadly mistaken.

Paying £35 for the game on release is not a lot of money. I personally judge entertainment on a £10 per hour basis (Hence the reason I don't go to football matches anymore lol) so if I get 4 or 5 hours enjoyment out of it then fair enough.

I would like to hear some solid info from FD on where they see the game going. How they plan to maintain their player base when Star Citizen hits (and it will hit like an earthquake).

 

[warbaby2]

I would like to hear some solid info from FD on where they see the game going. How they plan to maintain their player base when Star Citizen hits (and it will hit like an earthquake).

...an earthquake where you can already buy weapons and ships in the cash shop, even though the game isn't even rudimentary playable yet... hm.

 

[Asmodi]

Hold on.... I didn't read the OP very well before my first comment.

So. You decided to purchase the premium beta, read somewhere that it's 'pay to win,' then demanded a refund before authoring 6 posts on the discussion board?

That's pretty incredible, and not just a little wishy-washy. I would suggest waiting for full release, as you clearly can't be bothered to poke around for your own information. After the game is retail you can get reviews, watch even more videos, read about the game in magazines, etc.

No that is not accurate. Why would I ask those questions on a Discussion board?
You probably know around 0.00001% of where the devs see the game going so Im not sure why you feel I should ask you.
I am not going to base anything on what 10,000 wishful thinkers say.
I did poke around for my own information but to the people who would know. Not you (Im actually speechless that you feel people should come to the discussion boards for that type of info).

 

[Toumal]

I would like to hear some solid info from FD on where they see the game going. How they plan to maintain their player base when Star Citizen hits (and it will hit like an earthquake).

What puzzles me is this: You say you had your beta purchase refunded because you lacked information about ED (or more to the point, you think it will be pay to win), but at the same time you know Star Citizen is going to be awesome.

*sigh*

Please don't take this as me attacking you or anything, because I'm not but... really? I think you got a few things backwards there. Do yourself a favor and look at what's there, look at the youtube videos, look at what's in the Frontier store, and compare.

You'll notice a peculiar absence of expensive, hundred-dollar ship purchases here.

Where did you get that info about buying ingame credits with real money? I highly doubt that btw. for the simple reason that it would be an uncontrollable influence on the interstellar economy, something that ED actually has and that SC promises to do, maybe, sometime in the future.

I really doubt FD wants players to be able to dump prices of certain goods by pouring in real money.