Question for the devs:everything purchasable with ingame Credits?

[Ervig]

Edited for clarity:

I asked my question in a ticket and was directed to the forums where I could receive information on the game from the design team themselves. So I hope one of the devs reads this post and would take the time to answer.

My question for the dev team is:

- Will cosmetic modifications (like paint-jobs, bobbleheads etc.) only be available in the cash-store, or will it be possible to earn some cosmetic modifications ingame.

UPDATE: Michael answered: Unknown at the moment.

Please note: I have no problems with some items being cash-store exclusive. But I am hoping that the "mechanic" to visually alter/ pimp your ship will also be present ingame.

Thanks for reading.

//feel free to give this topic a friendly nudge if you're also interested in an answer.


(The following question has been removed from the TS because this question has (sort of) been answered on page 2:
- The kickstarter states: "Everything in the game will be purchasable with ingame Credits". I was wondering if this statement is still accurate.)

 

[Jason S]

I feel FD were too fast/wrong to make the KS claim that everything would be available from in game credits.

If some cosmetic items like paint jobs will later on be available with ingame credits that would be interesting to know. But if i found out that was the case it would change what I would buy now and later with real cash.

Also i do not believe in any practical sense that FD are going to have important game changing items as cash only.

I would be surprised if a Dev does comment on this as it would have direct financial consequences letting all know what will happen as it changes how much people may spend now.

 

[Robert Maynard]

The part of the Kickstarter FAQ answer that you quoted is incomplete (my emphasis):

Everything in the game will be purchasable with in-game Credits, earned from trading, bounty-hunting, etc.

This suggests that "Everything in the game will be":
1) purchasable with in-game Credits; or
2) earned from trading; or
3) (earned from) bounty hunting; or
4) gained in other ways (etc.).

So, not necessarily purchasable but otherwise able to be gained in-game.

 

[Andromalius]

If some cosmetic items like paint jobs will later on be available with ingame credits that would be interesting to know. But if i found out that was the case it would change what I would buy now and later with real cash.

Depends. I play a lot of Hearthstone currently, you can have all the cards in the game for free, but people buy them to have them *now*. And that game isn't even a mind numbingly long farm contrary to, say, lots of Korean games.

I bought the expansion packs in advance to help fund the game as I wasn't aware of the kickstarter.
I'm feeling a bit cheated that Frontier, after the fact, comes up with "oh, but we're going to specifically exclude content from what you purchased to try to milk you".
That was pure bait and switch tactics, good job you got me once. Hint: it's the last time, and your rep got down the drain with it.

 

[Michael Brookes]

The original Kickstarter also said that you could buy credits for cash - which has been negatively received. Would you prefer that?

Michael

 

[Weps]

From what I have gathered since joining the forums, the initial plan was to have everything purchasable in-game, but to sell game credits for real money on the company's shop. Then a lot of the forum members expressed their dislike towards the purchase of game credits, so there was a shift towards "ethical" microtransactions which would not present an advantage in the game. Imho that's better than a cash shop, assuming the MTX remain cosmetic.

Edit: damn, beaten by the dev himself

Edit2: just feel the need to add that any preorders on the game will come with some ship paintjobs, so there is a minimal amount of customization available at no extra cost for those players. This shows that FD are not set out to rip of their playerbase. ED will hopefully stay online for a long time and they do need to monetize the service they will be providing somehow.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

The original Kickstarter also said that you could buy credits for cash - which has been negatively received. Would you prefer that?

Michael

Ultimately Frontier is a business - you guys have to make money. People will complain regardless. If you give them stuff for free they will still complain.

So in the end Frontier have to decide what they feel is best for the game, the community and the future of Elite. You clearly need ongoing funds to do this.

Your current approach seems good. If you are looking to sell cosmetic items instead of selling credits for cash, I'm all for that! Credits for Cash is almost always bad for a game. Cosmetic items on the other hand can sell for a lot of money and people are willing to pay for them.

Personally I think you guys have the right approach here. And I'm sure many other people will agree.

 

[Alric]

I don't like paying real money for in game stuff, but I think it's detrimental to the game if people get these cosmetic items primarily in game.

Because while that was a kickstarter pledge, making all those skins and bobble heads at all was not. So the result of nobody having to pay real money for cosmetics would be that it isn't worth FD's time to make them.

Without that source of income, we'd then be left with either a game that doesn't bring in regular money - bad in the long term, or a game that has to make it worthwhile for you to spend real money on things you can get in the game. Which is much worse.

People will very quickly have very large amounts of money, and any sort of cash related exploit would blow away earnings if you could buy skins for credits. So if I were them, I would make the skins very limited in game - you can get them but only as some sort of rare reward or trade, with a fixed number coming in to the universe in a given time. Not something you could be sure of getting.

 

[Ixnatifual]

They could make the cosmetic stuff purchasable for exceptionally high amounts of in-game credits as an alternative to real money. People wanting a shortcut can pay cash to get it quick as an alternative to spending weeks "farming."

 

[MajorEpeen]

FD need a revenue stream as I have mentioned many times before. I would rather them sell vanity items and have in game advertising as this excludes no one from the game.

The other option is a subscription that excludes those who cannot afford a subscription and those without the means to pay for it.

More money means a more awesome game for everyone. I would love to see vanity items that can only be bought in game with credits and reputation as well as the cash shop but the cash shop has to stay.

 

[Tinman]

Ultimately Frontier is a business - you guys have to make money. People will complain regardless. If you give them stuff for free they will still complain.

So in the end Frontier have to decide what they feel is best for the game, the community and the future of Elite. You clearly need ongoing funds to do this.

Your current approach seems good. If you are looking to sell cosmetic items instead of selling credits for cash, I'm all for that! Credits for Cash is almost always bad for a game. Cosmetic items on the other hand can sell for a lot of money and people are willing to pay for them.

Personally I think you guys have the right approach here. And I'm sure many other people will agree.

Agreed.

 

[lysan]

The original Kickstarter also said that you could buy credits for cash - which has been negatively received. Would you prefer that?

Michael

I don't believe that this would be a negative thing, or how will FD deal with the gold farmers?

 

[xaccers]

I asked my question in a ticket and was directed to the forums where I could receive information on the game from the design team themselves. So I hope one of the devs reads this post and would take the time to answer.

My question for the dev team is:

- The kickstarter states: "Everything in the game will be purchasable with ingame Credits". I was wondering if this statement is still accurate.

If this has changed, my follow-up question is:

- Will cosmetic modifications (like paint-jobs, bobbleheads etc.) only be available in the cash-store, or will it be possible to earn some cosmetic modifications ingame.

Please note: I have no problems with some items being cash-store exclusive. But I am hoping that the "mechanic" to visually alter/ pimp your ship will also be present ingame.

Thanks for reading.

//feel free to give this topic a friendly nudge if you're also interested in an answer.

You have to remember that the quote you've given is in the context of answering the question "Will the game be free to play after initial purchase?"
So it means that everything you need to PLAY is purchasable by in game credits. A millionare playing will have no in game advantage over a 13 year old with no income.
This does not preclude Frontier selling cosmetic modifications via their store for real money, or even within the game for in game credits if they wish, or even for giving them away for free if they so wish.
Unfortunately some members have deliberately taken that quote out of context, either for the purpose of having a moan, or as an attempt to try and pressure Frontier into giving them something for free.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I don't believe that this would be a negative thing, or how will FD deal with the gold farmers?

i think this proves the old adage about pleasing all people some of the time etc etc etc...

We are all different but I too think the "new" way of cash for paint jobs is way better than cash for credits.........***

Ideally however there will still be SOME stuff we can earn ingame too


*** of course the double whammy would be if we ultimately end up with both, however, so long as it stays the way it is at the moment, I can live with it.

gold farmers........ easy enough to shut down by not allowing money trading what so ever.

you want to allow sharing of bounties etc, that could be done automatically by software, either by it having to be that anyone in group squadron automatically gets any bounties split equally, or by software so each player gets a %age of any bounty based on the damage they do. (depending on mission type, some missions could be all or nothing)

getting paid for services rendered equally can be done without manually transdering credits..... where a fee is agreed before the mission (within certain set boundaries based on %age profit of that mission), and then gets paid automatically on completion of the mission.




just my 2p.

 

[MajorEpeen]

I don't believe that this would be a negative thing, or how will FD deal with the gold farmers?

This was very negatively received. I can see your point and how it has worked in other games such as PLEX in EVE but here I do not think selling credits will work. It will be regarded as a pay to win game if they do this giving themselves negative media attention.

PLEX in eve worked because it was also game time which paid your subscription. There were still gold farmers however. We have no subscription model so it would be simply credits sold for cash. I do not know how gold farmers will be dealt with but FD selling credits is not the way.

 

[NoirWolf]

How about fixed skins being available in-game and the ability to upload custom skins (which need to be vetted) is purchased on a per skin basis?

 

[xaccers]

The original Kickstarter also said that you probably will be allowed to buy credits for cash - which has been negatively received. Would you prefer that?

Michael

Fixed that for you, I've seen someone else state that the kickstarter said we can buy credits for cash, which we can't, and it didn't, so I'm sure you wouldn't want another false rumour to inadvertantly start by someone not getting the point you were making (about people picking and choosing what they believe to be true from that section of the kickstarter FAQ)

 

[Joe Spivey]

...Unfortunately some members have deliberately taken that quote out of context, either for the purpose of having a moan, or as an attempt to try and pressure Frontier into giving them something for free.

Or to be deliberately disruptive for whatever reason.

 

[Ervig]

The original Kickstarter also said that you could buy credits for cash - which has been negatively received. Would you prefer that?

Michael

Hello Michael, thanks for replying! Just to be crystal-clear: my question was not meant to be about my personal preference, and wasn't a 'subtle' way to get a discussion started: I just wanted to know if this statement was still accurate.

From your response I understand that after feedback from the players, there has been a change in design-philosophy. Thanks for clarifying.

In that case I would love to know if all cosmetic modifications (like paint-jobs, bobbleheads etc.) will ONLY be available in the cash-store, or will it be possible to earn SOME cosmetic modifications ingame (for example as rewards for completing missions/ gaining ranks/ participating in anniversary events)?

As I said, I'm just looking for some more information on the subject, and not about 'yet another' discussion. Thanks again!

 

[xaccers]

I don't believe that this would be a negative thing, or how will FD deal with the gold farmers?

FD control the supply of gold, ultimately. Likewise with the trade prices and missions. Currently the beta is awash with easily obtainable credits, in order to allow us to progress quickly and try the more expensive ships.
Once it goes live trades won't be nearly as lucrative, and gold won't be just floating in large quantities in space for you to scoop up every 5 minutes.