Python Mk II & Updates To The Gamestore

[metatheurgist]

You can say it's a slippery slope, but a few months early access for ships and pre-built ships for ARX is fair imo. Those who prefer to wait will get the ship too. Those who prefer to upgrade ships by themselves can do that too.

Do you want more substantial updates? More ships? More DLC? More expansions? If so then early access for ARX is necessary to keep ED alive. Without such support nobody will be happy if the lights go out:

Crazy idea, make a game people want to play, enough that they will buy cosmetics. Also, make better cosmetics (or even fix up some of the pretty low attention to detail ones).

This plan is a sugar rush. It has no longevity. ED is an OK game, it's not living up to it's potential. This plan does not improve the game. This is not a plan to make the game better, it's just a plan to monetize what little game there is. All it will do is get a small rush of curious gamers who will realize as we the regulars do that it's not as good as it could be.

And that's without the fact that there is zero guarantee that any of the money made from this is going to end up developing ED anyway.

 

[SergMx]

I think I need to stop with the suggestions section.

• Asked for a Python with a fighter hangar - got a Krait Mk2,
• Asked for a Guardian engine (maneuvering) to give a lot of momentum in normal space - got a new FSD.
• At the release of FC asked to give the opportunity to change arxs for credits, still nowhere to do them (people put me down - they said so can not be so it is a change of gameplay) got ...
• etc.

Although maybe all this is not so bad

 

[Cosmo]

Crazy idea, make a game people want to play, enough that they will buy cosmetics. Also, make better cosmetics (or even fix up some of the pretty low attention to detail ones).

It costs a big investment (time, money, work) to develop and release a game. We received nearly a decade of updates; some were premium and a huge amount were for free. Horizons was eventually included for free with the base game.

ED might be nearing the end of its life cycle. Another big expansion like Odyssey appears unlikely without additional methods to monetize ED. Cosmetics shouldn't be the only thing in the ED game store.

This plan is a sugar rush. It has no longevity. ED is an OK game, it's not living up to it's potential. This plan does not improve the game.

ED still has a lot of potential (more planet types, ship interiors, base building etc). Fans don't want development to end. It costs money to maintain, update and make new content. The game is still being improved and updated, but if ED does not generate enough revenue we'll get less and less. Not properly monetizing ED means no longevity. These are fair monetization practices imo. If you don't like it then don't spend ARX, but if everybody thinks like this then development will cease.

This is not a plan to make the game better, it's just a plan to monetize what little game there is. All it will do is get a small rush of curious gamers who will realize as we the regulars do that it's not as good as it could be.

They are still improving and making the game better. If you don't like ED now that's your opinion. You want major improvements and new content, but that won't happen if ED is not sustainable.

And that's without the fact that there is zero guarantee that any of the money made from this is going to end up developing ED anyway.

They could turn off all the monetization and inevitably the servers would be turned off as well. That doesn't benefit anybody.

The price they charge for early access and pre-built ships is small, especially compared to other developers.

 

[SergMx]

I remember when people learned how to kill Thargoids with cold orbit the developers said that they had not thought about this option but accept it (sorry if I'm wrong).

I have a question on the topic, if there will be sold ready assemblies will there be instructions on how to use THIS ? Although it is interesting to see a ready recommendation too.

These ships will be designed, can I then change their modules or effects ?

 

[metatheurgist]

It costs a big investment (time, money, work) to develop and release a game. We received nearly a decade of updates; some were premium and a huge amount were for free. Horizons was eventually included for free with the base game.

ED might be nearing the end of its life cycle. Another big expansion like Odyssey appears unlikely without additional methods to monetize ED. Cosmetics shouldn't be the only thing in the ED game store.



ED still has a lot of potential (more planet types, ship interiors, base building etc). Fans don't want development to end. It costs money to maintain, update and make new content. The game is still being improved and updated, but if ED does not generate enough revenue we'll get less and less. Not properly monetizing ED means no longevity. These are fair monetization practices imo. If you don't like it then don't spend ARX, but if everybody thinks like this then development will cease.



They are still improving and making the game better. If you don't like ED now that's your opinion. You want major improvements and new content, but that won't happen if ED is not sustainable.



They could turn off all the monetization and inevitably the servers would be turned off as well. That doesn't benefit anybody.

The price they charge for early access and pre-built ships is small, especially compared to other developers.

There are ways they can improve the game that aren't major expansions. Some things are too late to fix, like the broken economy or the state of exploration unfortunately but there are still things that can be salvaged.

Again, there is zero guarantee that any income made from this is going to ED, in fact, it's more likely it's all going to their CMSs, this move is just ED justifying it's existence.

 

[midnight void]

oh, Fdev!
Yes, with no doubts, the Arx store needs a rework,
but there are so many more elegant and sophisticated ways to monetize a videogame,
why are you choosing to do it in such rough manner?

Please, sell me storage expansion for modules, sell me unlimited space for materials, sell me a slot for a new commander, so i don't have to keep multiple copies of the game on my pc (oh, and make cosmetics account wide - i will buy then two, or no, actually three - hell yeah!), sell me new DLCs, whatever else - plenty of possibilities!
But selling in-game equipment, weapon, modules for real money shouldn't exist in modern games. It ruins the whole idea of games, don't you know this?
Even kids know this!
Access to new ships exclusively for money, even for limited time, isn't better in any way, to be fair, it's just ridiculous. I would prefer to pay $3/month subscription instead.

And while personally for me and for many of us all this maybe "meh...but fine,"
eventually it will put p2w mark on the game, what in a result will do more harm, than profit for you.

 

[DemiserofD]

For me personally, I just have no real reason to spend ARX. Why bother? I barely even see my OWN ship, let alone anyone else's. And even if I do - so what? Who cares if I bought kit X vs kit Y? They don't actually MATTER.

Cosmetic sales misses the reason why people want cosmetics in the first place; because they show off your accomplishments. The reason Excalibur looks better than the Copper Shortsword isn't because looks matter for gameplay, but because we want our effort and hard work to LOOK like it took effort to get.

But if you can just buy that, then it loses all its value. Who cares?

If they really want people to spend more ARX, they should add achievements to unlock the ability to buy cosmetics. By making them more exclusive, people would value them more and be more likely to buy what they DO have access to.

 

[St0rmFury]

Frontier lead community manager Arthur Tolmie getting ready for work today.

The Emperor protects.

 

[Planewalker]

Now if FD were smart they'd spend some time tomorrow (after the PP V2 talk, not before) on the basic questions raised to put peoples minds at ease.

Indeed. I'm fairly certain they are also watching the reactions of players after the introduction.

Going by earlier livestreams i think they might take some time to answer questions.
_


And as long as prebuilts are not above a certain level of engineering while offering only things already available in the game they are somewhat above water imo.

_

broken economy or the state of exploration

If you mean credits are a bit on the meaningless side, i can see what you mean.
Conversely i think exploration is in a quite good place now.
And of course things can be added and changed.

_

 

[Aris Tarkus]

I realy don't see how this can be thought of as pay to win... What are you winning exactly? Early accesss to a ship? Big deal. If it generateds funds for ED I am all for it.

How do you win at ED anyway??? Give me one strong, solid, valid route to winning please, so I know what I need to do.

Does 500 or 1000 people buyintg a new ship in game ruin it for everyone else? I think not. Might get more of the player base involved in the day to day play of the game. How can that be a bad thing? It surely iusn't going to tip the scales in one direction. Sell a person the best ship in the game (if there could ever be a concensus on what that is) and it still doesn't make them a better player/fighter/explorer/trader. That comes with experience.

 

[gooddoc]

This is good news.
But fdev... let's have subs and not ships purchasing, even stealthily. I mean who has 16000+ arx off the bat banked!?
Q: how long to bank 16k arx via ingame only?

You'd be surprised Dragsham.....Iv never bought any ARX ever!
Yet my current ARX balance is 31000+
All gained by ingame play only........& my lack of finding something in the store that I actually want to 'purchase'.
My recent 'purchases' (going back months/years) using my 'free' ARX were a set of skull dangly light sets & two ship kits for my Carrier.

Added:- However, I can't say I'm tempted to spend 16k+ of my 'free' ARX on this Ship....reasons?
1. I'm out in the black Exploring & unlikly to be returning for weeks if not 3-4 months. So the ARXpurchase of a Ship, which would then need to be engineered to my liking, would require me being back in the 'bubble'.
2. Without having knowledge of the full Ship's specification, it's not possible to see if it will fit in as a useful Ship to be added to my collection, of which all bar 3 or 4 Ships (including a Python) just gather dust in my Carrier's hanger.....well until the next jump shakes it off.....

.....now if it was using my earned ARX for Base Building, that would probably tempt me!!!

 

[SergMx]

Please, sell me storage expansion for modules,

Yes !!! 1 arxs == 1 slot, I'm ready to spend all my 45k arxs there !

I have a question, before I did not know that there will be such an innovation and spent ARXs on paint, can I scrape off the paint and get back my ARXs to buy a ship with them ?

 

[Rebel Yell]

Do you want more substantial updates? More ships? More DLC? More expansions? If so then early access for ARX and pre-built ships for ARX are necessary to keep ED alive. Without such support nobody will be happy if the lights go out:

I'd also buy those fancy double engineered exclusive-CG modules I've missed

TAKE MY MONEY ARX!!!

 

[Rubbernuke]

I'd also buy those fancy double engineered exclusive-CG modules I've missed

TAKE MY MONEY ARX!!!

if those modules were released into the game via tech brokers I'd have no problem with it.

But, if we are going all in I want ATR reverb lasers on an exclusive Asp Scout with a triple boost engine.

Plus please theme the store better. With PP V2 coming we need leaders like Mahon leading the ship selling charge:

 

[Alien]

This is just the same as when you couldn’t buy Horizons ships in game if you didn’t own Horizons just the base game.

I was going to disagree with you, but you're right.
I guess my issue with locking the Python mkII behind ARX for non-Odyssey owners is that it's not an expansion. I guess I'm just not thinking of it in the right way.

I still don't like it. I still don't agree with Frontier doing it.
I expected better behaviour from Frontier, I expected better standards. It's like horrible tasting medicine you have to swallow, you know it's for your own good, but you hate doing it.

I keep comparing Frontier to Hello Games, and Elite Dangerous feels like No Man's Sky in reverse. NMS had a horrible launch, but HG rebuilt all that lack of trust and faith from their community and did it without needing to charge anything for any update/expansion/DLC. Frontier seem to have had a good launch with Elite Dangerous and have over the years constantly goofed things up over and over again, almost as if they are trying to ruin Elite on purpose.

But I guess I'm just not thinking of it in the right way.

 

[Taimaru]

Kumo Burgers available to buy on the store... when?

 

[Eymerich]

I am honestly baffled by the people who see this as "pay to win" and a "cash grab". They seem to want everything free, and NOW. The company needs to make money somehow. It isn't a charity.

It isn't a cash grab - just don't buy it! Just wait. Just like a Ryanair queue...

It isn't pay to win - you don't automatically own the entire galaxy if you buy one of these. You still need to be good, as evidenced by all the Sidewinder players battering players in much bigger ships.

And if you come across one of these ships and don't want to engage it, just do what you always do - fly away!

Some of these responses are quite frankly ludicrous and equate an OPTIONAL purchase with a MANDATORY activity. They are not the same.

They did a pact with their loyal customrr during kickstarter: now they are going to break it.
Elite dangerous cost was up 40 milions and revenues were 80 millions.
It s not customer fault if frontier choose to invest that money on other mediocre title and not on elite develepment
Also being lep don t see any reason why i should pay for early access.
As someone said thanks for noth8ng frontier

 

[Eymerich]

The last 2 years of financial troubles at the company went over your head?

That s none of consumer busness

 

[Alec Turner]

Sheesh ... I go on holiday for a few days and this happens!

I'm actually quite surprised there isn't more negativity surrounding this pay for early access thing. I guess I've just become a grumpy old git without realising it because BLEURGH ... I do not like that at all.

If fdev want to make more money then produce and sell cosmetics for fleet carriers, don't do this, it's totally got a whiff of pay to win about it and you can never wash that crap off.

Anyhoo, last day of holiday and there are some lovely clouds out today that I need to go and shout at.

 

[Rubbernuke]

If rebuy is 0 Cr, is this a potential (albeit limited) exploit?

If you can take out a module from a bought pre-engineered ship and the rebuy is indeed 0 Cr, does that become an engineered module printing machine? Buy new ship, take out module, blow up ship and get a new one (with identical modules) and do it again?