ANNOUNCEMENT Lavecon 2019 Content Reveal

[VR Golgot]

Devs need money if they're going to add new landable planets, procedurally generated life forms, new ships, new stations, space legs and player buildable stations!
I support this, just so long as they keep working on the game in a meaningful way--beefing up the revenue stream from cosmetics is a great idea.

Ay, the key bit for me is this:

As always with our optional additional purchases, Arx can only be used to buy cosmetic Game Extras and will not be used to introduce and acquire pay-to-win purchases.

There could easily be shenanigans involved (Arx bought in cumbersome bundles only etc), but at the end of the day, it's fricking cosmetics. So long as it doesn't slide into P2W it's like the most benign microtransaction out there ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[Incandescence]

I am with you fully on the game needing more content. I have been hugely dissapointed at the pace of new stuff in the game.... 5 year in early and only 1 premium dlc so far, and the game going in a direction FD gave us no clue about.
But that is a totally separate issue imo from FD allowing us to earn cosmetic stuff from actual gameplay

The community Is begging for information, and content, at least reworks to some of the games completely broken systems.

What do we get?
An in depth explanation on how their new Micro transaction store will work, as well as their Premium currency.

Actual gameplay effecting material? A Soddin' teaser trailer.
Seriously frontier?

So i know to expect some premium currency, being shoved in my face.
But i know 0 about how the game will shape up.

Again anyone saying this will benefit frontier, are delusional, their existing store already makes them enough money.
This exists only to encourage people to spend more money on that doesnt change anything about the gameplay.
And the more money theyll earn from this, the more they will focus on it making them money. Prove me wrong.

 

[StefanOS]

They should require us to equip paint limpets in order to take advantage of this feature.

Lol, you just gave them the idea how to add another limpet controller in the game... i dont have such masochistic feelings...
How about joining a new organisation... THE PAINTRATS?

 

[FlyingBrickyard]

I want to start by saying that overall I like the proposed changes to the livery system, and the ability to earn cosmetics through gameplay.

But I'm going to take a hard pass on the implementation of a scrip system.

In the best possible implementation, where I can purchase the precise amount of scrip needed, it only adds another layer of complexity and inconvenience to the purchase process.

As planned, where scrip will only be available in odd-sized blocks that will always leave the user with more or less than required for a specific purchase - it's customer hostile.

I'm all for "parity across platforms", but the way to do that isn't to drag all other platforms down to the least capable and worst experience of the lot.

On balance, this is unfortunately a significant step backward.

 

[Ebel]

Yes absolutely disgusting that Frontier are trying to unify the skin buying experience for all platforms that will increase the exposure the store gets and also one would imagine increase sales.

You and other dinosaurs do get that more money for Frontier means the game will live longer right?

Here's what I do know; I have spent plenty in the store, more than most I would guess and this is quite likely to keep me from doing so in the future. So take that for what is worth.

What an scold.

 

[Ebel]

Doesn't bother nor hurt me. The only ones being hurt will be FD cause from me they'll see significant less money in the future. This money machine only works with greedy people in mind. But then I guess they know their (bulk of) customers that I perceive as = people. Yes, that will do.

I agree, I will almost certainly spend far less (probably none) once this goes into effect.

 

[Sanya V. Juutilainen]

This disingenuous as well. What I DO think the LEP owners are entitled to is more than 1 expansion which cost around 30 quid in 5 years. FD chose to price the LEP the way they did and they chose to tease us with what we could expect our pass to give us AND they chose to strongly intimated that horizons would last about 1 year and be followed by another premium dlc.
That ain't on us.

So if you got two expansions, would that be okay? What about that other guy with LEP that thinks two is not enough and three should be the minimum? What about that trigger happy guy who expected ten of them by now? Does your opinion devaluate the opinions of those for whom one is enough by now?

It's tough to please everyone all the time. I'd say impossible even.

 

[sgurr]

Wow, some folk have properly emptied their prams, and seems they've been hoarding so they can do it properly.

So Frontier said they would be focusing on new players this year and we have another update that will do that. The learnng curve for ED isn't steep so much as vertical so anything that makes that easier is great.

Store stuff, not bothered by the change to a points thing personally, they're optional anyway and the fact there will be an in game way to earn them is great.
Also like to see what happens when they revisit some of the previous paint jobs (hint, some of the black Friday jobs could do with some attention )

Remote livery is good, although I'd love it if paint rats could be a thing.
'Darling, I just can't be at Beagle Point dressed like this. I simply must smarten up and break out the shiny. Emergency logged'

Carriers, unexpected and I may have to join a squadron just to do a mass take off!

Anyway, Frontier told us what they'd be doing this year and they seems they are.

I'm really looking forward to Dav's discovery scanner.


Edit: and kudos to the people in here being voices of reason, you've got far more patience than I, appreciate it.

 

[Riverside]

I see both the focus on newbie retention and the ability to earn points for cosmetics in game as positives as far as FDev's Marketing strategy towards existing players is concerned.

An argument could be made that FDev's most profitable path would be to get people to buy the game then not play it much, because servers are expensive.

Another argument could be made that free-to-play is the way to go with revenue coming from cosmetics.

These changes belie both of those arguments and suggest that they are looking to reward a stable & growing community, with the focus less on profit & more on providing an ongoing experience. Players will be motivated to earn points to get all the things without breaking the bank, but will also look at the stuff in the shop more & can make informed decisions on whether to work for a personal goal or just buy whatever new thing they want.

There are problems that are not addressed by these changes, but what has been announced is all good as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ebel]

But hey, maybe it's just a fake announcement to induce a form of 'panic sellout' in the hope of a giant rush to the still existing shop structures. After what you would call a golden streak on a slot machine, they'll 'listen' to their customers und backpaddle this idea. Just a possibility... <evil grin>

Well, perhaps but we don't see them reverse very often.

 

[sgurr]

I see both the focus on newbie retention and the ability to earn points for cosmetics in game as positives as far as FDev's Marketing strategy towards existing players is concerned.

An argument could be made that FDev's most profitable path would be to get people to buy the game then not play it much, because servers are expensive.

Another argument could be made that free-to-play is the way to go with revenue coming from cosmetics.

These changes belie both of those arguments and suggest that they are looking to reward a stable & growing community, with the focus less on profit & more on providing an ongoing experience. Players will be motivated to earn points to get all the things without breaking the bank, but will also look at the stuff in the shop more & can make informed decisions on whether to work for a personal goal or just buy whatever new thing they want.

There are problems that are not addressed by these changes, but what has been announced is all good as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not going to able to find the quote but from FD's financials it seems that the bulk of ED earnings comes from game sales, and that while cosmetics aren't to be dismissed they're not that big an earner in comparison.

 

[Flimley]

I have nothing to say about this update..... apart from that. \o/

Flimley

 

[Oztig]

You'll have to forgive some people here, they think the 130 quid LEP they bought 4 years ago should keep Elite running until the heat death of the universe.

I bought an LEP, and am thoroughly disgusted :-
Ive only had a whole year of free updates
The game is clearly in maintenance mode,
DB has not been round to my house to personally apologise for this
I've spent thousands of hours in the game, and have hated every minute of it
I only play this game so that I can complain about it

......

 

[Lightspeed]

O.M.G .. A "doomed" paintjob.. PLEASE Frontier! Just... black with red letters .. "Dooooooooooooooomed!"

Well with this coming update, you will be able to purchase your paint job and write Doooomed on your ship from anywhere in the Galaxy

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Well with this coming update, you will be able to purchase your paint job and write Doooomed on your ship from anywhere in the Galaxy

True. True.


Disclaimer: I don't like that feature. Only cos IMHUSHUN though. No other reason.

 

[Toxophilite]

A good idea. I imagine once the system is in, it might be quite simple to do, where just now there's no system to handle it.

They do occasionally give out decals from CG events (I've earned a couple), so I'm sure it is do-able!

 

[Northpin]

I Dont trust Fdev, or any company that does this crap.
My biggest praise for Fdev was that they Avoided this kind of crap, and had a Store, but far away from your eyes, and you wouldnt see it unless you wanted to.
Now? its gonna be in your face.

Ive been here since before the beginning, since the premium beta, im in it for the long haul aswell, or at least, i was, if they screw this up, im gone, as will many others.

We dont need a MTX shop, we need god damn game patches and content!!!
And they made more than enough from paint jobs, so reworking an already existing system for "Your convenience" is a bunch of disguised PR bull talk to make the already existing fanboys wet themselves.

Only thing im kind of looking for is to see what kind of a trainwreck the Fleet carriers will be.

Not sure what you're smoking, but it definitely is bad for your health.

They seem to want to give all platform the same experience.
Not sure how it's on PC, but for console i always had the link to the store in main menu and in the livery screen.
And i want it to be there and i want it to work from within the game. Simply because if i want a paint for my new ship, i dont want to log out of the game to buy some ingame extra.
Nonetheless, the entire store content is purely fluff and entirely optional. The game was and still is absolutely not pay-to-win.
And nothing changed in that - the only change is the fact that they're basically give you free store curency so you, once in a while, can get a free store item.
A free store item from a free to play game

Now, tell me again, how is this bad?

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

I like the livery update, I always wanted to be able to preview the end result before buying.

 

[Toxophilite]

Lol, you just gave them the idea how to add another limpet controller in the game... i dont have such masochistic feelings...
How about joining a new organisation... THE PAINTRATS?

I would totally join the paintrats!

 

[VR Golgot]

I'm not going to able to find the quote but from FD's financials it seems that the bulk of ED earnings comes from game sales, and that while cosmetics aren't to be dismissed they're not that big an earner in comparison.

Yeah last FY revenue was £22m, of which £4m was from cosmetics

River's point still kinda stands though. They're obviously trying to keep the player base engaged, not deliberately downing sticks completely for a bit or anything.

The noob-smoothing makes sense in the light of the above tho for sure