Make CQC ARENA FREE TO PLAY

[UFO Reality]

Why don't you guys just breathe some life into the arena part of ED and make it free to play even for a limited time.

It would make it an excellent intro to ED for people who wanna try ED especially those who already own a HOTAS or VR.

It seems such a waste just sitting there with no players most of the time and it would tempt someone to buy the full game.

 

[Iskariot]

Why don't you guys just breathe some life into the arena part of ED and make it free to play even for a limited time.

It would make it an excellent intro to ED for people who wanna try ED especially those who already own a HOTAS or VR.

It seems such a waste just sitting there with no players most of the time and it would tempt someone to buy the full game.

I think it would give a completely wrong impression of what Elite Dangerous is.

 

[Misty_Dark]

This idea sounds fine at first, new players get interested in CQC and then they buy the full game, and what are their expectations now?


I doubt they would realise that they need to know alot more buttons/functions, and that the main game isn't an instant combat, as you now have to earn credits and buy and outfit the ships and then also unlock engineers to be able to engineer your ships.


So if CQC is sort of an advertisement for the main game, then it would be a very poor one. So we might get alot of new players into CQC, and a few of those might even enjoy the main game, but I doubt the majority of the new players would. So now we have a free game that currently does not offer any way of monetization, or in plain text, FDev would be stuck with the costs of running the servers to offer a free game, that is usually a bad business decision, and this could work if enough players actually bought the main game, which is unlikely for most of those players.



However, letting CQC players play as multicrew could be a different story. they would still mostly jump in for "instant" combat, so flying SLF and be a gunner can be quite fun here too, but they could also experience parts of exploration and mining.

 

[Six6VI]

If they were going to consider that they'd be better off making the non-Horizons base game F2P. Access to the training missions and everything but Horizons season pass onward. They'd get a much better idea of the game to upgrade from.

Plus, with squadrons and system chat the players have better tools to recruit, train and support new players and promote the many benefits of upgrading. Seems like a win / win if FDev realise the best promotion of any product comes from a happy customer.

Maybe they new that, and decided to monetise us?

 

[Malkevin]

Well given they've not released a paid expansion for a couple of years I'm guessing elite's business model is now for cosmetic items, so making the base game free does make sense.

 

[Eliza]

CQC seems to be a nice Engine-Demo, what Elite looks like, but would give those interested a false idea of what Elite really is. Free to Play...why not? But as an example for Elite: Dangerous the Game? No!

As if we don't have enough forum-salt already. I literally can hear/read the future threads: "What the frak! I thought Elite is Battlefield / CounterStrike / (insert Shooter of your liking here) in Space!!!1eleven!

Making Elite: Dangerous Free to Play? I don't think so. Okay...there's that microcashing-cosmetic-thingy, but Frontier really deserves a few bucks more, purely because they delivered and still developing a great space-experience.

 

[Yodebe]

How many people would fly to a CQC system in-game, where various championships were held, with a variety of classes.
There could be an entry fee of in-game Cr, and winner takes all.
Classes could include:
small landing pad size ships
Medium landing pad size ships
fixed weapons only
un-engineered only
team (wing) battles
Anything goes
etc

 

[Deleted member 110222]

They did...

Frontier could not give it away, literally.

 

[Havvk]

Not even F2P would entice players to it. CQC involves PvP, even PvP'ers in this game don't even care about PvP all that much in Elite Dangerous. Please just let CQC die with what little(if any) dignity it has left

 

[UFO Reality]

This idea sounds fine at first, new players get interested in CQC and then they buy the full game, and what are their expectations now?


I doubt they would realise that they need to know alot more buttons/functions, and that the main game isn't an instant combat, as you now have to earn credits and buy and outfit the ships and then also unlock engineers to be able to engineer your ships.


So if CQC is sort of an advertisement for the main game, then it would be a very poor one. So we might get alot of new players into CQC, and a few of those might even enjoy the main game, but I doubt the majority of the new players would. So now we have a free game that currently does not offer any way of monetization, or in plain text, FDev would be stuck with the costs of running the servers to offer a free game, that is usually a bad business decision, and this could work if enough players actually bought the main game, which is unlikely for most of those players.



However, letting CQC players play as multicrew could be a different story. they would still mostly jump in for "instant" combat, so flying SLF and be a gunner can be quite fun here too, but they could also experience parts of exploration and mining.

If they buy the main game because they enjoyed the CQC then that is a good outcome for all parties involved.

They will realize that the main game is more complex and yet they still have the Arena game to enjoy.

I did not think much of ED when I first bought it but when I tried it again something got me hooked and now it keeps on improving.

They did...

Frontier could not give it away, literally.

Maybe if they fixed it up balancing more to make it fun for newbies and not make it a slaughter house for the helpless.

 

[UFO Reality]

Not even F2P would entice players to it. CQC involves PvP, even PvP'ers in this game don't even care about PvP all that much in Elite Dangerous. Please just let CQC die with what little(if any) dignity it has left

Damn, I think the Arena is awesome but needs some more thought and polish to balancing issues to make it fun for all levels.

It would be even better to see it used for getting BGS/PP points for the main game.

 

[Six6VI]

Damn, I think the Arena is awesome but needs some more thought and polish to balancing issues to make it fun for all levels.

Dunno, in 10,000 hours I've never even launched it.

It would be even better to see it used for getting BGS/PP points for the main game.

Yay, more grind for the PvP folk to complain about.

Edit: Actually, that's a lie.
I launched CQC once, by accident,
and left as soon as I saw [QUIT]...

 

[UFO Reality]

deleted

 

[UFO Reality]

Dunno, in 10,000 hours I've never even launched it.

Yay, more grind for the PvP folk to complain about.

Edit: Actually, that's a lie.
I launched CQC once, by accident,
and left as soon as I saw [QUIT]...

I don't get why pvp people would complain about "the grind" in the inclusion of arena as another method included for BGS manipulation.

Grinding is part of most games and as long as the grind is fun then most don't complain.

Granted, that ED overdoes a lot of it that it has become its trademark.

Arena is PvP so it would be a fun grind for such pilots but not for others.

Arena reputation could mean something in the main game and possibly reduce the griefer pilots to being just a cowardly nobody.

The more varieties of activities you can do that leads to some reward or outcomes can only be good for ED.

The BGS grind leading to a more meaningful reward would be something even better to see.

 

[Six6VI]

Competitive PvP gets expensive in ships, outfitting and rebuys.
Not being able to PvP because the early game is in your way...

The nature of any such activity is probably irrelevant

 

[UFO Reality]

Playing the arena on a weekend yielded better chances of a DM game with more pilots of all levels in a DM.

More players online for it has made the CQC seem more balanced and quite fun.

The CQC arena is competitive PvP without the penalty and very consensual PvP.

If only the Arena play was integrated into the main game with bonus rewards given such as free insurance or modules.

Possible scenario that devs could craft into the game:

eg. A faction contact will issue a mission that involves participating in the CQC to represent them in "The Games" and as a reward give you a choice of free insurance rebuy just for finishing.

That would possibly help new pilots with rebuy dilemas and while getting some combat practice as well.