Pay2Win made it to Elite

Hey frontier, adding early access for a in game ship that requires your premium currency is an incredibly scummy move. I have happily purchased a ton of cosmetics over the years but this decision instantly pushes me away from my favorite game of all time. Not only is this a terrible idea for player / developer relations, your going to create friction between players when inevitably make this purchase and are then scolded in game by the rest of the community. Elites development had been rocky, but personally have still enjoyed the game immensely... please don't go down this path. Was waiting for the new ship to go on a new exploration trip, was going to stream it and have a merry time... but now that idea is out the window
"Scolded by other players"? "Creating friction?" We are pretty much all adults here, and I fail to see why anybody should or would be "scolded" for doing what they want to do with their own money -- more so since it's neither a hack, nor an exploit.
 
I was under the impression that we unlock the Python2 as a pack, which means a ship kit and a skin.

How much do you normally pay for a ship kit? about 13,000 ARX
How much for a skin? (between 2000-4000 depending on the skin).

Seems to my I'm buying a ship kit + skin and happen to get access to that ship at the same time.
You are correct. I assume most of the people spreading their own theories as fact didn't actually bother to read the complete news article.

As per https://www.elitedangerous.com/news/python-mk-ii-updates-gamestore :

"The Python Mk II will also launch with a Pre-built Ship package, allowing you to kickstart your career in the latest ship, including a brand-new paintjob and ship kit."
 
I can't see it working. Realistic price for something like that is going to be around £10 million (seems to be roughly what a year of full development costs Frontier nowadays). They'd need 200,000 people willing to pay an average £50 "premium DLC" price comparable to the Odyssey pre-order to guarantee "no losses", or at least enough such pre-pre-pre-orders to make getting the rest on pre-orders and post-release seem realistic.

Even if it's really easy and only costs half that I can't see it happening.

Same applies to any other "what if the dedicated players had a whip-round and bake sale to stop Frontier needing to raise money by less savoury means" idea: there obviously aren't anywhere near enough dedicated players for it to make a difference on the scales being considered.

Well, they could sell spaceships for real world money....

Oh, wait....
 
You are correct. I assume most of the people spreading their own theories as fact didn't actually bother to read the complete news article.

As per https://www.elitedangerous.com/news/python-mk-ii-updates-gamestore :

"The Python Mk II will also launch with a Pre-built Ship package, allowing you to kickstart your career in the latest ship, including a brand-new paintjob and ship kit."
That's ambiguous, still, depending on whether the "also" refers more to the Python 2 or more to the Pre-Build.

It could mean: you unlock the Python II by buying the package, so for 16500 ARX you get the ship unlocked, plus a pre-built one, plus the paint and ship kit.
Or it could mean: there will be two separate things in the store - an early in-game unlock for 16500 ARX, and a pre-built ship (which probably does also include the general unlock, but doesn't have to) for an as-yet undisclosed price.

I think you're right that the first option is more likely, but I won't be surprised if it turns out to be the other way instead.
 
Blatant copy from a Reddit post earlier in the day (suggestions not mine):

  • Ship cockpit skins
  • Ability to rename systems discovered by the player (pay-per-system, probably FDEV reviewed)
  • Engine and weapon sounds
  • Different choice of landing music
  • Custom (voice acted) station landing greetings / chatter
  • Ship front lights with custom patterns / colors
  • Wall graffitis / emojis (Odyssey only)
  • The carrier layouts showcased for PP2.0 strongold carriers
  • NPC clothing from concourse (the red suit / the Star Trek uniform / the brown overalls etc.)
  • Carrier's captain quarters /w decorations
  • Player flag placeable on planet surface (my personal comment: if cloth physics are too complicated, how about a holographic device that looks like a flag)
  • Type-10 ship kit that removes the spoiler

Nice. Last one gave me a chuckle.
 
This move by Frontier is necessitated by many poor decisions that Frontier has made in respect to thus game in the past: rushed and insufficiently tested expansions and patches, poor balance decisions, permissive attitudes towards exploits, real-time timers on turning in missions, and a failure to update their tech to fully utilize next-gen (at the time) consoles. And that’s just off the top of my head.

Rather than taking the high road by making a great game, and reaping the rewards, they made a rather decent game, which is the best in its genre not by virtue of its success, but by the failure of its competitors.

Only one of those competitors has raked in ten times the revenue via predatory monetization. Frontier has long stood at the precipice of this strategy, and CIG, EA, Blizzard, and a host of other contemptuous companies are beckoning from the smokey depths below, whispering “Come join us. The money’s great! We’ve got money to burn!”

And it pains me to watch Frontier take tentative step forward.
Absolutely, if Odyssey had been a financial success we wouldn’t be in this position now, and I certainly don’t want to defend Frontier, I just struggle to find any better solution regarding raising extra income from Elite, where the main assets are still the ships.
 
The point is, FDev are a commercial company, they hardly generate any revenues from ED, having chosen for far too few paid seasons/DLC (should have been strictly annual - and while we are at it, successful in terms of game play desired by the community) and running the servers, doing bug fixing and possibly even a bit of development likely costs more money than they earn with it. And that is effectively a given, not to be expected to change substantially.

So tell me, which company trying to earn money and pay their bills can afford to continue investing in a product they released a decade ago, which can only be expected to produce losses year over year? If this was my company, I would be looking to change this course of action - one way or another. But I would not consider it acceptable management to just let it continue as is.

ED should have been a life service game, with subscription fees and a proper roadmap with meaningful additions paid from this revenue stream. This was the big flaw in the entire concept of ED, creating a life service game based on a one-time admission fee with very few occasional DLC's. This isn't viable.

I've never doubted that this course of action would benefit Frontier.

I am however, continually astonished that people think what is good for Frontier is automatically good for Elite: Dangerous. The best products are rarely make for good games.

The best case scenario for my Elite: Dangerous experience is not Frontier turning this into a financially successful product, as that product will, rather than being a severely degraded example of the game I originally bought into, one that bears almost no resemblance to it at all. The alternative where they have to shut down the game would likely be better for my continued or renewed enjoyment of Elite: Dangerous, because there is more of a chance at the game seeing either a willful offline/private server release, or, even better, a leak of the server software and development tools, if the game fails as a product. A successful product means less turn over of developers, less opportunity for leaks, and a more vigorous legal defense of a profitable IP.

I do need Frontier's servers for the MMO aspects of the game, which I enjoy (indeed I wouldn't have looked twice at the game if it wasn't an MMO), but Frontier has neglected or actively damaged these mechanisms to the point where I think I could probably have more fun hosting my own server for a few dozen like minded people and gaggle of bots (or the output of some ML software) to turn the BGS gears.

That's called gameplay. Opening a wallet isn't gameplay.

Had I a wallet, opening it to discover what's inside every time I wished for a new ship part would be at least as much fun, and barely less contextual, than this crap was:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoHsE7ewxCY


And the gameplay to get the materials for those rolls isn't exactly engrossing stuff either. Of course, as I've always said, one bad thing does not justify another.
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Either I was robbed by buying a bundle or this can't be right. I'm pretty sure engineers didn't take a full yeah after Horizons first lauched and I had both before that.
It was released and became available with Horizons for those who upgraded, on launch. If you upgraded within the first year you could get it, but if you upgraded to Horizons after that you couldn't.
 
You are still wrong. I did preorder Odyssey and didn't get tue CM4. I thought preordering Horizons gave you access to it. Preordering Odyssey definitely didn't, it gave you the Pioneer skin.
I'm not sure what you're saying I'm wrong about. I'm not mentioning Odyssey because so far as I know that had nothing to do with the CM4. That came out years after Horizons and would be well after the CM4 cutoff.

If there was ever some mention of the CM4 being available again with Odyssey, I missed that completely, but what I'm referring to is buying a bundle in April 2016 and not having access to the CM4.
 
It was released and became available with Horizons for those who upgraded, on launch. If you upgraded within the first year you could get it, but if you upgraded to Horizons after that you couldn't.

The launch of what? The base game, or Horizons? Because I bought the bundle less than a year into Horizons, but not less than a year from the initial game launch.
 
It was released and became available with Horizons for those who upgraded, on launch. If you upgraded within the first year you could get it, but if you upgraded to Horizons after that you couldn't.
Really? Does that mean I'm owed a CM4 because I bought the game + Horizons in Nov 2016? I am outraged I have been unwittingly denied access to this turd of a ship that I am entitled to have!
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Really? Does that mean I'm owed a CM4 because I bought the game + Horizons in Nov 2016? I am outraged I have been unwittingly denied access to this turd of a ship that I am entitled to have!
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You all love to hate but I certainly would have used it if it showed available for me at that time. Was the perfect for for a small pan hauler upgrade I was looking for. I was under the impression that it was Horizons preorder only and that's why I couldn't access it.
 
It would be better if they made DLC with landings on planets with an atmosphere and some new microquests with alien ruins or something like that.

I'm not particularly interested in new ships. I have everything, but I spend most of my time on Vulture and Dolphin.

This choice of the easy path to monetization is annoying. Selling pictures and chewed up old content.
 
You all love to hate but I certainly would have used it if it showed available for me at that time. Was the perfect for for a small pan hauler upgrade I was looking for. I was under the impression that it was Horizons preorder only and that's why I couldn't access it.
Lol, yeah I'm only half joking. I would have loved to use it when I was new too.

I had no idea that I should have been able to access it having bought Horizons in the first year.

I wonder what happened, and if I could actually get them to look at my account and unlock it... 🤔
 
I'm such a man (almost fit). This means I will never spend a cent to speed up process. I play to play, and those 2-3 hours per day of actual playing is what I want in fact. I don't need any artificial boost because I will lose all the fun.
And this is possible because....there is NO progress in Elite. And we don't need it added in fact.
Everything in your post has no relation to the Elite.
You want a galaxy without privilege for the wealthy, but many people who play this game want realism. Now the galaxy is more realistic. The ultra wealthy get to buy their ships, while the poor people have to spend weeks or minutes slogging their way through the gameplay.
 
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