Frontier Credits and Cosmetics [aka, Fredits.. lol]

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

One thing (of many) that bugs me about ED, is the store.

They've done a great job of advertising all the cosmetics in game, but, you still have to visit the flippin' webpage to buy something, log in, , choose your item(s), enter your details, then go back to the game, and hope it's been processed, then apply.

It's a bit of a faff.

What if!
Frontier did away with cosmetics in the store entirely, and just left Games, DLC, and proper physical goods there, and instead allowed you to buy set amounts of Frontier Credits (I'm adamant they should be called Fredits), which are just applied to your account Frontier account.

Then all in game cosmetics, cost Fredits, and when you want something, you click "buy" and "confirm" in game (with optional pin protection?), and done.
No repeated transactions. No leaving the game to buy cosmetics, which would probably increase impulse sales quite a bit.

Frontier credits could work across all Frontier games, so planet coaster and whatnot, and cosmetics can be available in game for those games too.

And regarding the pin idea, can we please have an option for one on save game deletion? (And buying things with my above idea?).

Thoughts?

 

[Bomba Luigi]

Not a fan of virtual currencys, never understand why consumers accept that. Just buying A for X amount of money is way better, all those virtual currencys are there for is consumer manipulation.

"Oh, you want to buy that thing for 15 silver... well, you can't buy 15 Silver but you can buy 20! And don't forgett buying 100 Silver is BEST VALUE!!!!!!"

 

[Tanall]

The only reason for the existence of virtual currency in a game is to force people to spend more than they actually need to. IE: Spending $10 for a credit package for an item that would only cost $9 directly.
People either end up spending more than they need to and leaving the rest to waste, or end up using the overage as an excuse to make a lot of purchases hoping that the overages add up to one more widget to buy.

Direct purchase is much less predatory.

 

[CMDR Nate Lee]

Edit: disregard. I read the 2nd post first. Its late and I'm an idiot.

 

[fsdraconis]

Also take into consideration that Frontier would then need to go into new licensing in many different countries with the addition of a virtual currency. Then they would need to figure out which currency gets what amount of "fredits" versus another.

Then! When person A from country A, posts in the forums their new ship skin and they got it for 300 "fredits". Then when person B, from country B goes to look at the price they will see a different "fredit" price. Thus complain because they stopped seeing British Pounds versus US dollars.

Their system already takes all of this into consideration with out mucking about.


But!!! You could I suppose request a digital wallet that you could deposit funds into?

 

[JohnRoberts]

I would prefer to keep things as they are. I agree going to the web based store is a little clunky, but its a relatively infrequent thing (and I say that as someone how buys quite a few things). The current system has a certain degree of honesty and transparency to it; even if you don't think its good value, its clear what things cost. Systems I've seen in F2P games like Warframe and World of Tanks use rather opaque exchange rates to try to obfuscate costs, and, as Bomba said, then have "value" deals to sell you more credits than you need. I'll take some very minor inconvenience to keep the current clear and simple pricing.

All that said, now that TenCent are a shareholder, cant help but think this might be coming one day.

 

[Terry Bruge-Hiplo]

Not a fan of virtual currencys, never understand why consumers accept that. Just buying A for X amount of money is way better, all those virtual currencys are there for is consumer manipulation.

"Oh, you want to buy that thing for 15 silver... well, you can't buy 15 Silver but you can buy 20! And don't forgett buying 100 Silver is BEST VALUE!!!!!!"

Don't forget the classic... oh, nothing costs an exact divisible of any of the denominations, so you have to buy even more currency to use up any surplus!

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Agree with the naysayers here, virtual currencies are terrible.

Also "why?" If Frontier wanted to embed a store within the game, they can still use money for it (barring any legal restrictions I might not be aware of, I guess).

 

[ScarletM!4]

The only thing that irritates me is I cant sneakily purchase things for my PS4 CMDR while Im at work and my other half cant see.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Preloading your account with real money is a good idea...

Not sure why I didn't think of that first!

Best of both words then really.

I also agree on the massive downsides to virtual currency. And how evil companies can be.

But yes. I'd like to be able to pre-load my account, so visiting the store page is cut out for impulse buying.

Not that I buy much. Lol

 

[GoldenSilver484]

This is already a thing on Xbox, they’re called “Frontier Points” but we still need to spend them on FD’s store.

(Is in CAD)
We can buy 300 ($4.99), 500 ($7.99), 1000 ($14.99), and 2500 ($36.99) packs.

A normal skin pack, such as vibrant or tactical, costs 300 points so the prices are similar. We do get more points out of our money if we buy the bigger packs, but not much.

 

[Hevak]

The only reason for the existence of virtual currency in a game is to force people to spend more than they actually need to. IE: Spending $10 for a credit package for an item that would only cost $9 directly.
People either end up spending more than they need to and leaving the rest to waste, or end up using the overage as an excuse to make a lot of purchases hoping that the overages add up to one more widget to buy.

Direct purchase is much less predatory.

While this is true, I believe the bigger reason is to actually disguise the costs of the items. Most virtual currency games charge you insane amounts for extras. And they get away with it because people don't equate the cost of the virtual currency to the cost of the item. No they just see 20 silver omg great deal. Except when you take a step back and realize 20 silver is $10 worth and you just paid $10 for some shiny paint or something. But most don't realize it cause I spent $1000 on silver and got a big number of silver, so now I'm just spending a small number of something that has a secondary value.

That is the true reason virtual currencies are used. The selling it in non matching amounts to what prices are in it is just a scummy tactic to get even more out of the already scummy transactions.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

I'm generally not a fan of cash shops but Elites is ok in my book (at least on PC). You want something, you see the price and you either buy it or you dont. It's transparent. The prices arent bad either, some games I've played would charge £15-£30 for what FDev price at £3-£8. I dont play those games anymore
The Elite cash shop never makes me feel ripped off, I'm actually happy to throw a few pounds a month at the store for the odd cosmetic.

 

[Hevak]

I'm generally not a fan of cash shops but Elites is ok in my book (at least on PC). You want something, you see the price and you either buy it or you dont. It's transparent. The prices arent bad either, some games I've played would charge £15-£30 for what FDev price at £3-£8. I dont play those games anymore
The Elite cash shop never makes me feel ripped off, I'm actually happy to throw a few pounds a month at the store for the odd cosmetic.

I have not yet bought any. But at some point I will be getting some paints and weap/eng colors. But I absolutely agree with this. A few of the special single paints are a bit pricey in my opinion, but overall the prices are good. But most of all I have great respect for the upfront nature of the frontier shop. You know what youre getting and exactly how much it costs. No converting between multiple in game currencies to figure out what you're actually paying.

And because of that I will for sure spend some money and support the game simply because they are somewhat of a bright spot, and good example of how you can have a cash shop and extras but still treat your customers well. In this day of loot boxes and crap it's very refreshing to see this approach. Imo.

As far as op, buying from in game would be nice, but if it results in having to have a secondary virtual currency then I would rather not.

 

[Valorin]

I also really like the shop exactly like it is. No fake currency, just a very honest "I spend this to get that". And a click on an item you want in the livery screen will take you to the shop anyway and should also log you in. So, can't be easier.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

I'm in favour of Fredits as my bank requires that I enter an OTP code for every online purchase I make; sometimes I'll make several store purchases in a night, sometimes Frontier's payment system rejects the payment entirely - I'd rather just buy 1,000Fr's and spend it on in-game items without having to leave the game at all.

I also really like the shop exactly like it is. No fake currency, just a very honest "I spend this to get that". And a click on an item you want in the livery screen will take you to the shop anyway and should also log you in. So, can't be easier.

"cant' be easier" ... Click on the item, click buy, it gets unlocked and your Fredits get spent, you don't need to leave the game or wait X minutes for the item to become available.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Bad. Idea.

Reason #1: smells like MTX
Reason #2: I doubt that FDEVs would avoid temptation of setting thresholds to milk a little bit of $ without providing anything in return. Ever wondered why something costs 1050 while you can buy perfectly round amounts (200, 500, 1000)? That's why - in the end you want to buy one item but you have to buy far more valuable token, use part of it and leave with some token leftovers. Too low to buy anything more + it feels like wasted money
Reason #3: knowing people's laziness those "Fredits" would be shortened to "freds". How much for a name plate? 150 freds. Paintjob? 350 freds..

Generally I'm against such "features". But there's ONE exception to that rule - analyze how MTXs are executed in F2P FPS called Warframe. Anything less from that is a solid NO. But Warframe is F2P, platinum (their premium currency) is the only way of making money. ED had it's retail price so another reason not to implement premium currency into the game.

 

[pippo]

What about loot crates instead?

Dish out some hard earned "Fredits", roll a dice and see if you get a Chrome Cutter paint or a Blue Laser...

Just kiddin'

 

[RamirezKurita]

I'd only be in favour of some kind of premium currency if it can also be earned/given out in special in-game events, like being in the top 1% of CGs or as Christmas presents and the like. Not something that's handed out often, but enough for dedicated players to pick up the odd decal or bobblehead or to encourage players to try new things.

 

[Oss133]

Why not have both?