400 ARX per week max - How Come?

[Darkfyre99]

We are sophisticated consumers, if we’re tricked into buying stuff, we must have a house full of stuff and bank accounts filled with nothing because practically every business operates like this.

^^^
This. I want to retire early at retail wages, while still enjoying life, so I tend to scrutinize every dollar I spend. I also want to support this game, since it’s not a subscription service but it’s servers are hosted by Frontier, so I set myself a cosmetics budget. “Problem” is that about a year ago, I ran out of things I felt were worth buying. As far as I’m concerned, $4.00 for a six pack of paint jobs aren’t worth buying, if five of those aren’t ones I want.

OTOH, $20 will get me all the blue colored paint jobs I want to represent the livery of “Stevenson Whirlwind Adventures” on my ships, both current and future. Even better, it’ll actually cost me $18.99, leaving me with one dollar in my account, and 2000 ARX left over that, when combined with the ARX I’ll be getting from playing the game anyways, will get my a Bobblehead in about a week.

Truly, Frontier is the most evil video game company ever!

 

[Sunyavadin]

This whole thread seems to be a bunch of people who have the attitude "fdev are evil and will do evil things", and they're making stuff up that conforms to their worldview.

I do wonder, since they think fdev are evil and underhand and trying to get away with things, why they are hanging around here and not off supporting a 'less evil' company?

More it's people who remember when publishers like Bethesda first dipped their toes in the "Horse Armour" pool, and how quickly that business escalated.

 

[The Pilot]

Some paint/kits should be harder to get than others.

Some are more equal...

 

[Sylveria]

How come? By spaceship, of course.

But seriously... time-gating features like ARX by caps is sort of ridiculous, considering the nature of the currency and its use for cosmetic items.

Unless... they're planning on offering more than just "cosmetics" in the future- which would then mean the most time-invested players will have definitive advantage over others. I'm not going to bother with arguing why that could be a "good" or "bad" thing, just pointing out the obvious potential route of transition with this path.

It does mean some arguing "pay to win" will have less teeth in their arguments if ARX isn't able to be purchased for RL cash, however. Essentially the reason for establishing ARX as a new currency is that they're opening the door for "possibility/potential" of expansion.

Since we're donning tinfoil hats for thread speculation- I suppose "anything goes", after all.

 

[Factabulous]

But seriously... time-gating features like ARX by caps is sort of ridiculous, considering the nature of the currency and its use for cosmetic items.

But seriously... not time-gating features like ARX by caps would be sort of ridiculous, considering the nature of the currency and its use for cosmetic items.

 

[Sylveria]

But seriously... not time-gating features like ARX by caps would be sort of ridiculous, considering the nature of the currency and its use for cosmetic items.

And... someone acquiring said cosmetic items is negative for the game how, exactly?

 

[Chaparral]

Indeed, IIRC in the livestream Will earned 12 Arx from a session that, if you cut out all the chatter, amounted to about five minutes of actual gameplay. If that's accurate, players could be knocking out the weekly cap in a single night's session.

That feels more like a "thanks for playing" tip that they expect basically all regular players to usually get. Has the benefit of giving all players a reason to dive into the store now and then even if they weren't planning on buying any cosmetics, while ensuring that there's no viable return on gold farming.

This is what I find a bit odd, but I suppose it is my own silly achiever bias kicking in. Tell me I'm a loon, but I will set a personal goal like, OK this Saturday I'm ginding up enough rep to get a Cutter on alt #2. Then time budget a weekend time block to make that happen. With this model, I'm like - meh it's just happening and I cant really grind for a particular shop item so whatever. The time scale is so extended I'm not even going to check in as a daily activity to scoop up ARX.

 

[lenna]

This is what I find a bit odd, but I suppose it is my own silly achiever bias kicking in. Tell me I'm a loon, but I will set a personal goal like, OK this Saturday I'm ginding up enough rep to get a Cutter on alt #2. Then time budget a weekend time block to make that happen. With this model, I'm like - meh it's just happening and I cant really grind for a particular shop item so whatever. The time scale is so extended I'm not even going to check in as a daily activity to scoop up ARX.

I think that is the point - you have to keep in mind that ARX has a real world cost to FD - it is not an in-game currency, it is a replacement for cash in what is effectively a cash only store. The fact FD give away some ARX for free is effectively going to eat into their profit margins for that cash store, it's closest cousin in real world terms is probably loyalty points at a supermarket.

 

[Maolagin]

This is what I find a bit odd, but I suppose it is my own silly achiever bias kicking in. Tell me I'm a loon, but I will set a personal goal like, OK this Saturday I'm ginding up enough rep to get a Cutter on alt #2. Then time budget a weekend time block to make that happen. With this model, I'm like - meh it's just happening and I cant really grind for a particular shop item so whatever. The time scale is so extended I'm not even going to check in as a daily activity to scoop up ARX.

No, I think if that's how people wind up relating to it, it'll be working as intended. FDev wants you to grind for stuff that affects gameplay - rep, credits, discoveries, etc. They don't want you spending your time grinding out the one thing that actually makes them money from existing players. They do want you to notice from time to time, "oh hey I have 1600 arx in my bank" because then you might pop into the store when you otherwise might not have. Because in retail, 90% of the battle is just getting potential customers through the door.

 

[Soron Silin]

As far as I’m concerned, $4.00 for a six pack of paint jobs aren’t worth buying, if five of those aren’t ones I want.

OTOH, $20 will get me all the blue colored paint jobs I want to represent the livery of “Stevenson Whirlwind Adventures” on my ships, both current and future. Even better, it’ll actually cost me $18.99, leaving me with one dollar in my account, and 2000 ARX left over

Hang on... You've got fifty four ships?

 

[Demascus]

I think that is the point - you have to keep in mind that ARX has a real world cost to FD - it is not an in-game currency, it is a replacement for cash in what is effectively a cash only store. The fact FD give away some ARX for free is effectively going to eat into their profit margins for that cash store, it's closest cousin in real world terms is probably loyalty points at a supermarket.

No, not really. They will more then make back what little they "lose". More people purchasing more often because they have some earned Arx. Not to mention they gain money by selling $20 pack worth of points for an cosmetic worth only say $13. They keep the $7 "in cause you want to buy something later".

 

[Soron Silin]

No, not really. They will more then make back what little they "lose". More people purchasing more often because they have some earned Arx. Not to mention they gain money by selling $20 pack worth of points for an cosmetic worth only say $13. They keep the $7 "in cause you want to buy something later".

There is almost nothing in the store currently that requires you to spend more than $3.31 over the cost. The most expensive thing in there is only $10. The exception is COVAS, and you can get it for $6.99 and two hours of play without buying any Arx that you won't use.

And as for your specific example, you wouldn't have to buy $20 worth of Arx. There's a $12.99 pack and if that doesn't have quite enough, then you can add on a $3.99 pack. That's not the most cost effective way of doing it, but it will still be a saving over current prices.

 

[m0rl0ck]

Stops them being pulled into Parliament with other companies and being asked why they try to get children to play excessive hours on the game? Is the responsible thing to do when you know there are people with addiction issues in the community? That kind of thing. Being a responsible company.

Actually i think the engineers provide all the negative incentive anyone would need.

 

[Demascus]

There is almost nothing in the store currently that requires you to spend more than $3.31 over the cost. The most expensive thing in there is only $10. The exception is COVAS, and you can get it for $6.99 and two hours of play without buying any Arx that you won't use.

And as for your specific example, you wouldn't have to buy $20 worth of Arx. There's a $12.99 pack and if that doesn't have quite enough, then you can add on a $3.99 pack. That's not the most cost effective way of doing it, but it will still be a saving over current prices.

Sorry you were not ment to take those prices litterally. I was throwing numbers as a general example of "point packs" used in the gaming industry for consumer manipulation. I should have been more clear.

So far, this is just the ground work for what I imagine is going to be much more store content in the future. Make sense for a low effort high return buisness decision. We will see what comes.

 

[Eliza]

A slippery slope to what? 30p? And what is that about hiding the true value? You wrote that guide to exploration, people have reversed-engineered the equations for all ship loadouts but somehow Arx points are problematic for us? And why do you even need a spreadsheet? 5000AP is three quid. That puts one AP at 0.06c. So whatever the cost of the thingy is in AP, you multiply by 0.06 and you've got your real value in cents.

This is just looking for something to be upset about.



Its like getting a free bit of candy at the candy store as a kid, only to complain it will take half a year to get the full bag for free. With the exception we're grown men and could just buy the bag if we wanted to...

You got it straight to the point! +1 extra for saving me reply time

 

[Eliza]

My main concern is that it puts a framework in place that'll make it easier to implement less desirable features later on.

There's no sign of that happening now but it'd be short-sighted to not be concerned about what might happen in the future, perhaps with a change of management or company circumstances etc.

Yeah right...and perhaps an asteroid will hit earth. What happen with my hard grinded Arx? Do I get a refund then?

 

[Tikanderoga]

Yeah right...and perhaps an asteroid will hit earth. What happen with my hard grinded Arx? Do I get a refund then?

Yes, you get your playtime refunded.

 

[Eliza]

Cool

 

[Eliza]

Simple question... Why! Are they giving them for free?

If there is no motive, then why do it at all. If there is a motive, what is it?

As someone wrote earlier..."a tip for saying: Thanks for playing!

We are still talking about a 26p/week. Or did the rate gone up at wall street?

 

[Eliza]

See I remember season 3 being a "freebie" apology season because of seasons 1+2.

Game launched bare bones with promises of a year of updates. We got wings, cqc and power play. Lots of bugs and lots of placeholders.

Horizons launched bare bones with promises of updates, some good some bad some doa. In summary I spent the majority of the first few seasons waiting to get my money's worth. So no, I don't think they "deserve" more money. Make a finished product and sell it, stop selling promises.

EA. Bethesda and Hell-Company would have demanded money from you for "Beyond". I don't think beforementioned Companies would "apologize" in the slightest. They would have charged you the full 29,99 for "Beyond".

But as you said...Let's face it: Frontier is led by the Capitalistic Vampire-King himself called David Braben.