The whole concept of motivating people to play is completely idiotic in my opinion. The motivation to play a game should be to have fun. If people need further motivation it's probably a bad idea, they should do something else with their time.
Dear FDEV, Can we re-balance how ARX are earned
- Thread starter Shaele
- Start date
But that goes back to my original point - what is the purpose of free Arx? No matter how you slice it, it's a motivation to play the game. Otherwise everyone would just be given 400 free Arx every week regardless of how, when, or why they played. Or we would not be given any Arx at all, keeping cosmetics completely separated from gameplay like Frontier Points used to be on PS4.
I really don't have a dog in this race, as I'm not a cosmetics chaser. My favorite paints tend to be the cheaper 620 Arx solid colors, and the decals and bobbleheads do nothing for me. I just hate seeing people beating up on posters who make good, valid, calmly-presented (unlike all the strawmen misrepresentations) points about flaws and imbalances in the game. One man's Arx is another man's universal limpet controller
We were given 3,300 Arx just for logging into the game over the 12 days of Arxmas, plus another potential 800 earned just for playing, I'm pleased to say that I was able to purchase my Irridescent Scorched PJ on explorer Phantom for nothing, free, am I complaining?...One man's Arx is another man's universal limpet controller
From a corporate view it might be beneficial to motivate people to spend as much time in game as possible. Some marketing monkeys probably calculated that 'time spend in game equals money wasted on cosmetics'. I don't even know if this is the case here though. Maybe they aren't clever enough or simply unwilling to add working addictive mechanisms like you can see them in candy crush etc.But that goes back to my original point - what is the purpose of free Arx? No matter how you slice it, it's a motivation to play the game. Otherwise everyone would just be given 400 free Arx every week regardless of how, when, or why they played. Or we would not be given any Arx at all, keeping cosmetics completely separated from gameplay like Frontier Points used to be on PS4.
I really don't have a dog in this race, as I'm not a cosmetics chaser. My favorite paints tend to be the cheaper 620 Arx solid colors, and the decals and bobbleheads do nothing for me. I just hate seeing people beating up on posters who make good, valid, calmly-presented (unlike all the strawmen misrepresentations) points about flaws and imbalances in the game. One man's Arx is another man's universal limpet controller
As a player however I just ignore these things and don't let them manipulate me, I might be an idiot, but I am not stupid.
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Incentive to log in and appreciate the lack of any new content.
Presumably this is why many opposed the idea of ARX.
To nit-pick, if there is an issue it is with buying ARX in lumps. The free stuff alone doesn't appear to be an issue and is welcomed by many as a way to 'earn' cosmetics by playing.
I was never against ARX but I figured there was some trick behind it.
Well yes, that's how sales work - by adding value. The new store & whole concept comes across as a bit pushy to me, but I wasn't buying cosmetics (much, any more) anyway so I just ignored it.
There are two main arguments against store vouchers - their lumpiness (ie you can't pay the exact amount, although the free stuff mitigates this, possibly intentionally), and the 'free sample to get you hooked' aspect, which imo is fair enough as long as it's not too pushy.
But once again this is a self-solving problem. Yes there are customers that want to get cosmetics but not at any (metaphorical) cost, and buying ARX packs is an extra hoop that some may not be willing to jump through. But others will not care, and presumably it was implemented to save overheads for FDev, not primarily for the benefit of customers.
The flip side of slightly more obscure pricing is that some, possibly most stuff seems to be a little cheaper, the main benefit (as I see it) is that it allows FDev to give something back to reward certain playstyles. Why not other playstyles so much I really couldn't say
It fails as a way to earn stuff, it has no meaning, Arx are just some nebulous out of game concept that has no bearing on anything I've done in game. I don't feel like I've "earned" any cosmetic at all.
And the worry is that Frontier now feel they've implemented a way to earn skins, just like people wanted so that can be checked off the TODO list. When in reality the system completely misses the mark. There is no notion of earn, and nothing you've earned has any meaning or value from a game perspective.
What you describe is close to the worst case any customer might feel. But still you are no worse off, you just have a bunch of freebies you don't want/need/use. You haven't lost anything. FDev might have lost some business (we don't know) but no customers are worse off, they just stop buying any more skins.
This is what I mean by a self-solving problem. If it is affecting sales overall, the onus isn't on customers to jump through the hoops, it's on FDev to persuade customers that jumping through those hoops is worth doing. Some (like Stigbob) wouldn't jump through them anyway, some (like M00ka & Old Duck) don't need to be persuaded.
Aye. But on nothing lost, no worse off. (putting aside that Frontier may now take "earning" cosmetics off the TODO list, so this is it)
This may be me slippery sloping but it's the path to monetization, we have threads currently saying Arx should be gifted just for logging on, and others saying it should be made obvious when Arx are earned in-game.
And I look at that and think, I just want to play a space game, I do not want monetization sewn into the fabric of Elite where actions I take result in "oh you earned n Arx, isn't that great, it's FREE (but go and buy items in our store)". Arx are nothing to do with the game, if they need to be there then fine but please keep it out of my face, I do not want my gameplay guided by monetization.
I agree that with the benefit of a few months of hindsight there does seem to have been little point in trying to integrate it into the game. But much like a lot of other stuff each player is looking for their own bits & just ignores the rest. I access the store and my point tally via the main menu, but I also browse skins via the livery section of outfitting. I don't need separate store and livery buttons but I don't mind them being there if others prefer that way to interact.
It is easy to get swept up in the hostile hype, but nothing has been removed but a way to more easily give Frontier money. If they are not that bothered, why should you be? They want the money, they can do the work to earn it.
Unless the customer has already paid they are no worse off than they might be anyway as far as quality is concerned imo.
It is easy to get swept up in the hostile hype, but nothing has been removed but a way to more easily give Frontier money. If they are not that bothered, why should you be? They want the money, they can do the work to earn it.
Unless the customer has already paid they are no worse off than they might be anyway as far as quality is concerned imo.
Has there been a behind-the-scenes balance pass made recently? I swear I'm making more Arx the last few days doing mundane things (like missions) than I was when this thread was posted. Maybe this is one of those things that can be tweaked on the server... It wouldn't be the first time FDev secretly turned the dials.
They do seem to be able to change that without an update and stuff has changed on occasion, like caps to certain activities.
Yes, the number one "creative gameplay" method could get you 400 Arx in about 5-10 minutes, but that got changed quickly. But outfitting is probably still pretty high on the Arx income.
I fully scanned about 400 systems and I'm at 93 ARX. Last week I scanned more than 1000 systems and didn't even reach 300 ARX.
One day I collected jumponium for about 2 hours and got more than 100 ARX.
Seems a bit strange to me.