"Cosmetic items" should be part of the game

[who?]

Personally, I've zero problem with micro-transactions for non-essential items. I've bought the game, the lifetime pass, and a hatfull of paintjobs and shipkits, and I'll still contribute more. Modelling a galaxy is a massive task, and I'm happy to keep contributing to help make that a reality.

BUT

I do think it's a shame that paintjobs & shipkits are the paid items, as it probably removes a lot of potential cool stuff from the game:

- Imagine if you could align with one faction and carry that faction's unique paintjob & decals? Unlikely to happen. FD aren't going to make paintjobs & decals for every player faction, nor are they going to release a paint-job editor if it cuts off potential revenue.

- Imagine if factions (or Engineers) could reward you with very cool rare or even unique shipkits or paintjobs or weapons mods for working for/with them. That'd be a hell of a lot more rewarding than just more and more money. Won't happen, for the same reasons.

Of course, the ideal thing would be that Frontier releases a paintjob (and/or a shipkit) editor which lets us build our own custom designs, which we then can make available via the game store. The creator gets the skin for free (obviously) and Frontier makes profit from the skin sales. (Ideally the creator would get a small cut per sale too, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if they didn't). That way, everyone wins. More variety in the game. More revenue for Frontier, for less work. Love & adulation (& possibly, spondulix) for the skin creators.

 

[NeilF]

Agreed.

Paid for TWO FULL GAMES. The LEAST they can do is offer some cosmetic stuff for credits in the game. Especially cockpit decorum.

That is an interesting notion? How about a mixture?

What if rather than £6 for a ship kit, you could pay say 300,000,000CR and £2? ie: Surely the shop can see your ingame balance and adjust it?

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

To be honest, basic block colours should be free.
All the awesome paintjobs should be in store, and PP/Major faction paint should be earnable in game.

Also, all NPCs should be able to use all paintjobs and ship kits.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Well said. I`d rep, but looks like I`ve already given you too much!

Likewise

- - - Updated - - -

I got nothing against selling some cosmetics, but the store looks like a sleezy cash shop for some F2P mobile game. Solid color changes should be part of the base game, at least have some standards for the store....

Even Warframe allows free customisation of your ship colors and that's a F2P game! LOL

FDev you're getting the warning signs now. You had better reel in your greed before you're tagged as one of "those" devs....

 

[Watcher]

I'm fine with paying for cosmetic items for the game, yes I think the prices are more than a little silly on occasion but I prefer that to going pay to win or a subscription model.

The only place I've really had a problem with that is with the ship kits - I'm really sad about that one. I don't object to the kits being paid for as they are but that's because they have no in game effect. I would have much preferred if they did have a game effect, possibly tied to engineer modifications, so there was visual distinction of ships and some idea of what those mods might be doing to ship performance. In fact having some standard mods available in stations would be a nice feature and then you could have engineered mods on top of that for people who want to play the RNG game and create more specialised builds. But we didn't get that, we got visually distinct ships that handle the same and no visual indication of non-standard modification - that's a boring disappointment.

 

[rucky]

There's been a healthy mix of cosmetic items given away for free and ones to be purchased in the stores since the game has been released. I don't think you should forget all of those, but you appear to have done in your post.

I don't think there's anything wrong with charging for cosmetic items, as long as they're only cosmetic.

What exactly were free to you given?
The Powerplay Decals. Yep. What more?
(No the black ones doesn't count, it was for pre-ordering, not free, even not free for LEP owners, as they are... LEP owners.)
Some CG ones? This eagle one? Yes I got it, with about <1000 others, not more, it was over after 2 days, there was a lot of moaning on the forum because of that)

 

[JesusOnEez]

It was preorder bonus, not part of the game.

Aaah, I did wonder where they came from!

 

[Volimar]

Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't a free bobblehead. Imagine all the people who don't have any idea how the bobbleheads even look in game. Giving people one free one might call people's attention to bobbleheads and make them more likely to buy them.

 

[who?]

I'm fine with paying for cosmetic items for the game, yes I think the prices are more than a little silly on occasion but I prefer that to going pay to win or a subscription model.

The only place I've really had a problem with that is with the ship kits - I'm really sad about that one. I don't object to the kits being paid for as they are but that's because they have no in game effect. I would have much preferred if they did have a game effect, possibly tied to engineer modifications, so there was visual distinction of ships and some idea of what those mods might be doing to ship performance. In fact having some standard mods available in stations would be a nice feature and then you could have engineered mods on top of that for people who want to play the RNG game and create more specialised builds. But we didn't get that, we got visually distinct ships that handle the same and no visual indication of non-standard modification - that's a boring disappointment.

This is another good example. I've no problem whatsoever with micro-transactions in general, but that's a good example of the things we miss out on when visual items are only available via the store.

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't a free bobblehead. Imagine all the people who don't have any idea how the bobbleheads even look in game. Giving people one free one might call people's attention to bobbleheads and make them more likely to buy them.

mwo regulary gives out cockpititems in events, maybe FD could link some CG to more proper rewards liek these instead of just a few million credits that you get faster elsewhere in the game.

 

[milligna]

whatever brings in more money for the game. Now that we have the camera suite, vanity items will presumably be in higher demand. Good.

 

[Cosmos]

That is an interesting notion? How about a mixture?

What if rather than £6 for a ship kit, you could pay say 300,000,000CR and £2? ie: Surely the shop can see your ingame balance and adjust it?

Well I think one thing would be certain in such a case, the credit exploits would be swatted in seconds..

 

[DefiledDragon]

And a decal is not exactly a small amount of work either

You're having a laugh. I wanted to support FD, so I bought a few paint jobs and my gold FDL "skin" cost me £10 for a palette swap. Not exactly a ton of work.

I have no issue with cosmetic stuff costing money in f2p games, or even small indie games, but ED was a full (AAA) price game and despite many peoples protestations to the contrary FD are not a small studio. They have around 300 full time employees. CD Projekt Red by comparison have around 250.

If the paint jobs/skins etc... were one or two quid it wouldn't be too bad, but they aren't. In fact, they are the most expensive "vanity" items I've ever seen in a game and I play a lot of f2p games. It's just greed, plain and simple really.

 

[CmdrChorusLindarr]

I agree with the OP. However, the fact that they've already charged some players for all cosmetic items already, they can't now go and give those same items away for free later on. There would be a poopstorm, and rightly so.

If they wanna provide access to some basic paint jobs in-game, they should produce a bunch of new packs for each ship in basic colours and add those to the game.

Imho, what they should do is have in-galaxy chop-shops, similar to the Engineers, but for vanity items; e.g. ship skins, pilot flight suits, decals, name plates etc.. They could even make them cost hundreds of thousands of in-game credits, or even millions for the larger ships. As Lord knows the game needs more credit sinks, and this would provide a nice bit of additional motivation for players to face the grind and keep them playing.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I've played more than a few games that have offered various vanity items for real microtransactions (less than $1), first available only through the microtransaction shop, then several months later would put these items into general circulation in-game, as either rewards, or simply from various in-game vendors. These items were replaced by new vanity items, which would follow the same cycle - first available only as microtransactions, then available to everyone.

And there were some Premium vanity items that were only available as microtransactions.

So this month, you can buy the Blue Version, or you can wait until next month, when the Blue Version is available from the Color Version Vendor.
But if you want the Gold Version, you're only getting that as a microtransaction.
Same with the Blue Version with Particle Emitters - it's a Premium and you can only have it if you buy it.
But the Basic Blue Version? Well, if you have to have it NOW, you can buy it. If you want to wait, and look Last Season, it's coming.

Another method I've seen, and one that could well work with ship Paint Jobs:

Here's our Newest Latest Greatest Paintjob. And it's completely free, go try it on at a Livery near you.
You just can't repair it, and when it's gone, it's gone. But if you really liked it, and want it back, pick up the permanent one in the item shop.

---

I worked a sales job, long long ago, and being Not A Sales Person, I found very quickly that sales was not for me. But one thing I did learn from it: If you put something in someone's hands - let them try it out, play around with it, use it - they'll very often find they they want to buy it after you take it away from them.

You can see this same technique alive and well with Software Demos and Feature-Limited versions.

 

[bitstorm]

For me I do think that there should be more cosmetics thrown in. Or even made earnable in game.

Think back to the Diamondback Explorer, when it first came out it had a cracking default yellow skin. They made the base ship, at default, genuinely look good. And later at some point the default turned to the dull skin we have now and the awesome yellow moved to the paid vibrant pack. That's pretty egregious really.

Sure the ships expansion came as part of the *base game* so not necessarily the best example. But when you've paid for an actual DLC update, for example CMDR creator, it should really come with a generous set of cosmetics/choice and should not immediately be going down the route of holding stuff back to be charged for. People have already paid money for the update fer God's sake!

To clarify, I *am* fine with paying for cosmetics generally....

But there needs to be a bit of a balance and a sense of fairness, and as I say Frontier should not be going down the route of, right out of the gate, pulling content back to be charged for, as seems to be the case with 2.3. It's flagrant and it's not good.

Ship name plates? Give us money. Cmdr suits? Give us money. Id plates? Give us money.

At this point this seems how it's going to be.

Out the door none of this should have to be paid for. On 2.3 release there should be a good range of choice for all of these elements, enough range so everyone's happy, so everyone can find something they like... and enough choice to tidy people over for a few months at least.

Then at 2.4 release, THEN you can start with the paid cosmetics for 2.3 features.

Dude's we KNOW cosmetics are a revenue stream, and that's fine, just do the right thing and don't be <censored> about it.

 

[Goose4291]

And a decal is not exactly a small amount of work either

 

[DefiledDragon]

Just needs to be a bit of a balance, and as I say should not be going down the route of right out of the door pulling content back to be charged for. Which seems to be the case with 2.3. Ship decals? Give us money. Cmdr suits? Give us money. Id plates? Give us money.

Yeah, that sucks tbh and it smacks of greed. Massively disappointed and won't be buying any more seasons or anything else from FD until they put the brakes on this sort of nonsense. I've played f2p games that haven't tried to nickel and dime me so hard.