Ship Customization - In Game Unlockables

[GotNoID]

Hello fellow commanders!

I'm new to the forums and this is my very first post, but I did actually pick up Elite during the beta and I've spent countless hours in it as it is one of my favorite games.

With that being said I'd like to discuss something I been thinking about.

Not having played since the release of 2.2 I logged in the other day and was happily surprised by all the new features. Something that especially caught my eye was the Holo-Me commander creator of course, but also the ability to change the appearance of your ship with ship kits and weapon/Engine colors . Customizing and personalizing the look of my character (and ship in this case) is one of my favorite things to do in video games and this has been something I have been looking forward to see in Elite since day one. Back during "1.0" I often felt that ship cosmetics would be something to motivate the somewhat "grindy" gameplay of Elite, which I, to be honest don't really mind, as long as there is something to grind towards.

And that brings me to the problem.

Ship kits, paintjobs, bobble heads, weapon and Engine colors can only be obtained through the frontier store, and while I do understand that this is to finance the future development and maintenance of Elite, it does make me a bit disappointed.
It's not really that you have to pay for the added features that bothers me, because I do also understand that it costs money to create new content, but rather that these are instantly unlocked and no work in-game is required to unlock them.

I've been thinking if there could be a way to make it so that cosmetic items could be unlocked through playing the game, while still allowing frontier to make some extra money though the store. Perhaps by having some basic items available in game for credits, and some, more exclusive, only obtainable through the frontier store.

What do you think about this, and does anyone else have any ideas on how "in game-unlockable cosmetics" could be implemented? I understand the chances of frontier actually seeing this is fairly small, but it would be nice to hear what you guys think!

Oh, and forgive me for my English. It’s not my native language!

 

[Requiem Mortis]

Welcome Your English is fine.

With regards to cosmetic unlockables.... I like what we have. I don't want to have to grind unlocks for cosmetics

 

[Vasco Sapien]

Wont happen.

...Because money.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

Generally: Yes!

There were indeed some in-game events that unlocked cosmetics.
- A decal for the participants of the "Distant Stars" expedition.
- A decal for participants of the Cannon mega ship CG.
- A chrome paint job for the Eagle for participants of the 2016 christmas CG (which was over way too soon and I still hope will repeated at some point in the future for everybody who had to visit relatives at this time of the year ... just saying! )
- Decals for participants of Beta CGs

Additionally, FDev gave away some free PP decals and pilot customizations already, which is nice.

What I personally would like to see implemented at some point is a selection of (hand-crafted?) special missions that lead to unique cosmetics. But also to "usable" equipment.
Sure, they might be only one-time events for each player and (I know, I know!) are not part of the general procedural generated philosophy of ED. They also won't be "save the universe quests" for obvious reasons.
Nevertheless, I think they might add to the overall experience of the game. (Additionally, if they would grant some special equipment, they could indeed show up multiple times. Players usually own multiple ships ...)

Other than that - you wrote it yourself.
Cosmetics are a major source of income for FDev (I spent more on cosmetics than on the main game(s), I am afraid ...) and hence won't show up in the game excessively.

 

[metatheurgist]

Already exists. Powerplay decals are free, free set of flightsuits, free decal in beta, free Cannon decal, free community goal decals, free skin in CG last year.

 

[Loskene]

This is an important factor the "it's just cosmetics, it doesn't affect gameplay" crowd tends to ignore when discussing paid cosmetic DLC. The opportunities for gameplay that are taken away when you decide to simply charge money for a cosmetic item, instead of making it a valuable part of the game, adding challenges and a sense of achievement to unlocking them beyond just opening your wallet. I'd get a lot more enjoyment out of a ship skin or decal if there was a story behind how I got it, like liberating a system from an oppressive dictatorship, finding a hidden stash on some distant world, or making friends with an engineer who makes body kits in their spare time. All these opportunities for rich, meaningful gameplay, however big or small, are lost when you decide to make it "pay 2 skin"

I'm not wholly against cosmetic DLC, I've opened my wallet a couple of times for things that look nice, but I know I'd get a lot more enjoyment out of that coriolis bobblehead if it was a commemorative trophy for helping to build an actual station in a community goal or something.

Frontier, rethink the moneygrubbing aspect of this game. Do half and half if you have to, but give these things some purpose beyond padding your coffers, you'll get more goodwill and the business that comes with it is something money can't buy.

 

[Watcher]

I agree with you and have expressed a similar opinion in the past.

I go a bit further though and would like things that change the look of your ship but also adjust its performance characteristics..
Having these as things you can unlock or are just there to pay for makes sense to me. Be a bit like Engineers with none of the randomness perhaps, perhaps scope for more complex things even like adding a new module slot for instance (possibly dedicated to specific module types).
All a bit unlikely though at this stage.

I guess my general view is that cosmetic changes should indicate performance differences and performance differences ought to be indicated cosmetically (no idea how we do that with engineers at this stage).

P.S. I should note that I wouldn't want to pay for things that adjust performance, down that road madness lies. Paid purely cosmetic things are fine by me but big cosmetic items probably shouldn't be paid for and they ought to do something.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

It does happen from time to time, that cosmetic items turn up as Global Awards for Community Goals.
That's how I wound up with a Chrome colored Eagle.

 

[veelckoo]

This has been discussed before and personally I would be verry happy if in-game unlockable skins/colors were available.

Probably this is not going to happen as financing model for elite seems to be relying on paid customization items. Providing in-game obtainable customization would probably negatively impact income so that's that.

 

[Drelthar]

There are a few, mostly decals.

But, yep, it would be nice to have perhaps some special paint jobs you can get for doing things in game. I mean, they don't even need to be special, maybe you know, just the ones that are literally changing the hue value on a ship.

You know, the ones that must have taken them a really really long time, for each one, spending thousands of pounds on artists to hone that single variable to the exact right number, to make it JUST the right red, green, blue, or even... gosh, yellow!


Yeah, maybe those might make more sense as in game unlocks, rather than costing money in a full priced game, with paid expansions.

Yeah.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

paying for something, and it not unlocking on payment would cause massive flaming here. not even EA is silly enough to do that, so while they only allow people to play half of fifa each year on the disc they shove in the console, they disguise the fact the whole game IS there just half is called release day dlc and locked behind a paywall.

or put it another way, would you pay extra for options on your car like aircon etc then accept being told you cant have it until you have driven 10000 miles, and had your first service, or crashed into and killed 7 pedestrians. (ok maybe not the pedestrians)