No. Please no. You should fix the game. Make ships unique instead of just progression. Actually take the time to change cockpits around in ships like the asp/diamondback/krait which have two models each that have the exact same cockpits. Fix power play so it’s actually engaging. Do something with the Thargoids.
I was going to make en entire post about this but this thread will work. Ask the community for help. It costs you nothing. Elite is a special game where the community is far different than most. Groups like the fuel rats prove this and make this game very unique. People actually try and help beach other vs other games.
You should ask the community for help with minor development stuff to offset the costs. Stuff like graphic design. Offer frontier points, free copies of the game, and free dlc expansions, name in credits, or whatever, in return for community members taking some of the work load off your plate. For example, gaseous planets look ugly as sin. I’ve heard other planets have gotten a graphical refresh, and gaseous are on the todo list. Offer community members with the skills to make good looking textures incentives to work as freelancers. I’m not a graphic artist or I would offer to do it for nothing more than a few frontier points. Coding is on you, but graphical stuff can be outsourced. Ship models can be outsourced. Hell even plot can be outsourced as there are plenty of talented fan fiction writers out there who I’m sure would be love to be a part in making the game better. No other game developers I know have reached out to the community for help, and it’s stupid NOT TO. The people who play your game do so because they want to, not because they are being forced. Elites players take that even further, and help each other, even when it’s due to ones own stupidity like running out of fuel.
You just need to keep control and lead (don’t let the community lead the effort, you lead and ask for suggestions, outsource minor work like graphic textures, etc). It shouldn’t become a community run game but you can offload a lot of the workload to the community which I’m sure would be glad to help.
Engagement. You need engagement. Put up polls to see what players want in the game. Ask for suggestions on content before you decide on a direction forward. Did players really want carriers? I don’t know. I would have liked more ground vehicles and more planet content. I see a lot of others asking for a fix for power play to make it worth their time.
Ask people instead of being arrogant enough to think that you always know best; people don’t have to be playing this game, there are others. Engage your player basis, get feedback, actually respond to that feed back, have discussions (not one sided “our way or the highway”) and plan a clear path forward, then follow through and don’t half bake stuff.
If you need money, having the paid cosmetic market works, but having a way to earn cosmetic credits is a must too. You can also outsource those cosmetics to the community, maybe offer a small portion of every paid sale to the content creator.
Push out your new player experience and then offer a free trial! Let people download the full version of the game, run the tutorials, and have fun in the starter system but not leave that system until they pay to upgrade to the full version. Trials don’t exist anymore and IMO it’s because most games suck so bad they know you won’t buy it after playing the trial. Elite is a good game, you just need to finish some half baked portions, update some ships, fix some textures, and you will have a good base game to build on moving forward. I promise if you offer a free trial (including PS/Xbox) AFTER getting the new player experience set up, you can get new people to play.
Please don’t go free to play. Christ that ruins every paid game. I’m a nobody, and just one person, but I’d stop playing.
If you have to go free to play (as in you are going bankrupt) than existing paid customers should get grandfathered into not having any free to play content paywalls. Ever.