All this angst over upkeep on Fleet Carriers - why?

[ShadowWolf Kell]

In WoW, I left during content droughts, when I came back my Base just had its coffers at the max, and the crops were not harvested, but no reversal of progression... imagine if WoW players logged in after months and the characters were naked and De-Leveled due to their inactivity

I actually find it quite amusing that Classic WoW is more popular than WoW Retail. Given I played vanilla on a launch server, I fully understand why people would find it more appealing. Blizzard has done quite a bit of stripping down characters in ways beyond gear and levels. The next expansion Shadowlands, you'll be dropped from level 120, to 50 so you're only partially correct.

ED's never really done anything like that. The closest was the engineering changes, which mirrored what we told FDev it should have been from the getgo for the most part.

 

[CMDR ColD_ZA]

I actually find it quite amusing that Classic WoW is more popular than WoW Retail. Given I played vanilla on a launch server, I fully understand why people would find it more appealing. Blizzard has done quite a bit of stripping down characters in ways beyond gear and levels. The next expansion Shadowlands, you'll be dropped from level 120, to 50 so you're only partially correct.

ED's never really done anything like that. The closest was the engineering changes, which mirrored what we told FDev it should have been from the getgo for the most part.

You're referring to a level squish? meaning they are reducing all numbers relative to the squish? like they did in WoD with Damage and health numbers? WoD's squish was just to reduce numbers appearing on screen, but not the relative power of your character,

or when I log into Shadowlands will and go to Pandaria will my level 50 character be facing level 90 mobs from 3 expansions ago oneshotting me?

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

You're referring to a level squish? meaning they are reducing all numbers relative to the squish? like they did in WoD with Damage and health numbers? WoD's squish was just to reduce numbers appearing on screen, but not the relative power of your character,

or when I log into Shadowlands will and go to Pandaria will my level 50 character be facing level 90 mobs from 3 expansions ago oneshotting me?

It's a level squish. Unknown on if things will one-shot you. With the BfA stat squish, mobs in older raids could indeed one shot you for a time until you significantly increased your ilevel within BfA. They have a lot of zones to take into account, so I'm expecting a lot of follow-up patches Currently you don't have to worry about world mobs, but raid mobs can be nasty if you're not leveled up and geared compared to the content you're facing. Fortunately it's pretty easy to do so, but if you're just coming back after awhile, you're going to be in for some surprises.

While this video covers alpha, it pretty much went live this way.

Spoiler

Can't really see Fdev ever doing anything like that at all, which is a good thing.

 

[CMDR ROGER]

FD announced that said carrier would require a nominal amount of regular "upkeep" in the form of more grindy credits or materials, then many of you have spat the dummy out. Why?

Thank me later for making your sentence actually readable.
You answer your own question in the first few words you say. How would you feel if you spent multiple hours grinding for something, then you go on holiday, then you come back to multiple hours down the drain because Fdev comes up with ideas like the stoner of the century. Oh, and no, 5,000,000 creds doesn't take just multiple hours to earn. It takes weeks when doing deep core mining, which gets boring after the first 2 cores. So, imagine 10 weeks of on and off play down the drain because Fdev's office is 1,000 monkeys at their typewriters trying to come up with the worst possible ideas imaginable.

 

[robbyp]

The gameplay is that your supposed to make money from your fleet carrier so as to pay all the little minions on the carrier to keep it running.

Which is a very valid thing to do game play wise.

If you can afford the 5 billion I'm betting you can afford the non disclosed upkeep.

To the OP, there is a cohort on the forums which would moan about anything fdev does. I would not worry about that, as hopefully fdev does not either.

 

[JetsonRING]

For me it is because of the sleazy way FDev continues to let information slip. They have been hyping FC for years and only now, just a few weeks (supposedly) until launch FDev says "Oh, by the way, it's really a rental ... a really, really, really expensive rental.

FDev never mentioned it previously because they knew if they did, they would spend the next couple of years defending their decision so here we are: FC are finally announced officially, it is a (10 million?) per week lease with a 5 billion down payment. This adds up to over a half-billion per year just in upkeep!

 

[Bigmaec]

For me it is because of the sleazy way FDev continues to let information slip. They have been hyping FC for years and only now, just a few weeks (supposedly) until launch FDev says "Oh, by the way, it's really a rental ... a really, really, really expensive rental.

FDev never mentioned it previously because they knew if they did, they would spend the next couple of years defending their decision so here we are: FC are finally announced officially, it is a (10 million?) per week lease with a 5 billion down payment. This adds up to over a half-billion per year just in upkeep!

Which is less then a Cutter load of LTDs.

People wanted a credit sink for the bloated economy, now they got one.

shrugs

 

[nafeasonto]

Because you spent five billion on it. Then you have to outfit it and refuel it, the upkeep is just another stupid grind that I don't feel like doing

 

[photomankc]

Which is less then a Cutter load of LTDs.

People wanted a credit sink for the bloated economy, now they got one.

shrugs

And it’s one they don’t even have to saddle themselves with if they don’t want to. And it can partially or fully relieved if you set it up with services in an area that gets used.

No repairs in a system with conflicts going? No problem. I’ll offer that service for a premium. No large dock in that system with good VO prices. Ok. Ill provide one. Is it worth 100K per ton to let me ferry the loads to the mediums?

 

[Screemonster]

Because you spent five billion on it. Then you have to outfit it and refuel it, the upkeep is just another stupid grind that I don't feel like doing

If it took you less than 10 years to buy it, then the upkeep won't be overwhelming. If you're at the stage of the game where you're even considering buying a carrier, then you should already have all the big ships you'd otherwise use as a credit sink - and if you don't have a fleet of ships, what on earth do you plan to do with a fleet carrier?

 

[Pat Healy]

If the 5Bcr wasn't already a non-starter, the upkeep would be. I'm an intermittent player, but it's nice to come back to the game after a couple years and find things more or less as I left them. Coming back to find my 5B carrier stripped and sold for parts? Nope.

 

[Screemonster]

If the 5Bcr wasn't already a non-starter, the upkeep would be. I'm an intermittent player, but it's nice to come back to the game after a couple years and find things more or less as I left them. Coming back to find my 5B carrier stripped and sold for parts? Nope.

If you're an intermittent player then what use do you even have for a carrier in the first place?

 

[Shaele]

If you're an intermittent player then what use do you even have for a carrier in the first place?

As carriers have been revealed to be of limited use, why bother the dev time spent making them?

 

[sgurr]

...
This adds up to over a half-billion per year just in upkeep!

Or 5 hours of mining VOs or LTDs spread over a year, is it really that big a deal?

I don't have the cash to buy a carrier but I could certainly afford the upkeep if I did.

 

[Pat Healy]

If you're an intermittent player then what use do you even have for a carrier in the first place?

Same use a frequent player would have, but more intermittently.

 

[photomankc]

Same use a frequent player would have, but more intermittently.

Then make sure you have some upkeep money squirreled away.

 

[Pat Healy]

Then make sure you have some upkeep money squirreled away.

I have plenty of bills. Don't need another one.

EDIT: why not have a mechanic in which your carrier goes into mothballs (ie long term storage) automatically after (for instance) 2 months of not logging in? You incur the upkeep cost for the 2 months, plus a fee to put it in storage, but then the bleeding stops. When you come back to the game, maybe it takes a few days for your ship to be re-mobilized from storage. I'd be fine with that, but I'd never sign up for a mechanic that forces me to play or have my assets eroded.

 

[Stealthie]

Which is less then a Cutter load of LTDs.

People wanted a credit sink for the bloated economy, now they got one.

shrugs

Dunno how anybody could really moan about the cost.

As you say, basically you just need to go Painite-mining in a big ship once every three months and you're covered.
And, let's face it, if you've got Cr5bn to spend on an FC then chances are raising Cr10m/week isn't going to be a big deal for you.

Having said that, I still think the primary motivation for it is a really, really, cheap way to inflate active-player statistics.

Still, at least we don't have to physically visit our FCs to maintain them.
That would have been total poopsville.

+EDIT+

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure my SLF jockey costs me about the same as what the maintenance of an FC will cost me.
FDev, you might want to think about that.

 

[Flimley]

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure my SLF jockey costs me about the same as what the maintenance of an FC will cost me.
FDev, you might want to think about that.

And in the stream tonight it was said that if you temporarily shut down a service the NPC operators of said service will take a big pay cut. But our NPC pilots do not (when left at the station twiddling thier thumbs). Another thing to look at.
Flimley

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

So you've spent multiple hours grinding 5,000,000,000 Cr to afford a fleet carrier and since FD announced that said carrier would require a nominal amount of regular "upkeep" in the form of more grindy credits or materials many of you have spat the dummy out?

Why?

Because people want their games to feel like games rather than jobs.

Signing on for "chores" that take away from the time you intended to be used in other ways (in the game or outside) is antithetical to the reason why a lot of us play games at all.

If it's going to come with a high price, I'd rather not have to worry about recurring costs. In fact, this is an aspect that is contributing to my disinterest in the feature at the moment. That can change. If these chores amount to no more than 15 minutes of my weekly time spent with the game, I'm okay with it. If I have to go out of my way and it takes more time than that, it is a 100% skip for me. I value my time more than that.

Dunno how anybody could really moan about the cost.

As you say, basically you just need to go Painite-mining in a big ship once every three months and you're covered.
And, let's face it, if you've got Cr5bn to spend on an FC then chances are raising Cr10m/week isn't going to be a big deal for you.

Having said that, I still think the primary motivation for it is a really, really, cheap way to inflate active-player statistics.

Still, at least we don't have to physically visit our FCs to maintain them.
That would have been total poopsville.

+EDIT+

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure my SLF jockey costs me about the same as what the maintenance of an FC will cost me.
FDev, you might want to think about that.

And if a player does not want to mine? If a player does not find raising 10m/week an enjoyable endeavor? If the player earned his money through combat over years of time? If a player would like to go exploring? If they don't want to or do not have the time available to play for months at a time? (you know, like a normal human living through the current GLOBAL financial crisis)?

It's ridiculous to apply how you value your own time and the aspects of the game you enjoy playing to everyone else. Imagine thinking it's okay to demand that a player spend $10 million CR worth of time and energy on playing a game in a way they do not enjoy, just for "upkeep". Damn that.