The ARX conundrum (How it's rewarded)

Vasco Sapien

Vasco Sapien
There are already numerous threads where players are trying to work out what they did and didnt do in game in order to gain ARX rewards at maximum efficiency.
So i wonder...

Is ARX addiction already a thing?
obsessing, needing, bargaining.

Will players develop pigeon superstition over ARX rewards?
Are Frontier making us their Lab rats (with wings)


 

Chorda

Chorda
When you agree to play in someone else's game world you have to keep a critical eye on this sort of thing, as there's the potential for covert contracts everywhere. The reason I liked Elite for so long, despite its flaws, is precisely because they didn't engage in the kinds of psychological exploits that are the staple of MMOs. This ARX thing is a turn for the worse.
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
I have no idea, Arx for exploring, trading & pew-pewing so far (NPC pew-pew) in various quantities, explo data maxxed out my main so won't be able to try different until Thursday. My alt has been doing the other things and is already halfway (almost) to the cap by not doing much of anything.
Even got 5 Arx just for remote engineering my FSD today!
 

Vasco Sapien

Vasco Sapien
Ian Doncaster said:
It's another currency and it's got a non-obvious earning mechanism.

Credits and materials were just the same before people figured them out and widely publicised the answers.
Click to expand...

But this currency is designed to earn Frontier real currency in return... (the kind that buys real food and a roof above your head), I'm not so sure that frontier would design this new system in such a way that predictable patterns can be easily discerned. Sure Weekly 400 ARX is roughly 24p (UK sterling) but its still money which adds up across the player base month by month, year by year, ARX which players could be buying with real money. Man hours spent developing the cosmetics not being paid for. It's all a loss which could be mitigated with forethought and design.

I figure that Frontier know that some people here are bright sparks and that attempts would have been made to reverse engineer a pattern from the reward frequency.

We could guess that for example (X)/hours Exploring = (X) amount ARX, but what if a randomiser is applied to the algorithm at some level, or divercity in player activity factors into the final sum some how, so that repeat play loops gradually offers diminishing returns.

We as players could be flapping our wings hoping for seeds to be given, when in actuality its all just in our heads (reward centres firing on and off) the addiction worsens.
 

Wolf Starslayer

Wolf Starslayer
I sort of get where your coming from op. I couldn't care less about arx, it's saved me money coz I don't buy mickey mouse money.

Other than that I certainly don't understand the obsessing over earning rates and best methods. I get a free decal or paintjob every now and again and ignore it otherwise.
 

Speedcuffs

Speedcuffs
Wolf Starslayer said:
I sort of get where your coming from op. I couldn't care less about arx, it's saved me money coz I don't buy mickey mouse money.

Other than that I certainly don't understand the obsessing over earning rates and best methods. I get a free decal or paintjob every now and again and ignore it otherwise.
Click to expand...
Working out how game mechanisms work is a game itself.
Some people like it.

It's also making the forum very entertaining. Well for me anyway.
 
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Vasco Sapien

Vasco Sapien
Wolf Starslayer said:
I sort of get where your coming from op. I couldn't care less about arx, it's saved me money coz I don't buy mickey mouse money.

Other than that I certainly don't understand the obsessing over earning rates and best methods. I get a free decal or paintjob every now and again and ignore it otherwise.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I have Nectar and CO-OP dividend cards, which i use every time i shop simply because the cashiers alway remind me. I never obsess over how many reward points a loaf of bread has earned me or a full tank of Petrol, I just go about my life as usual and hand over those cards.

A few weeks ago, the cashier told me that i had £80 on my Nector card and would i like to use that to pay for my shopping. 'Yes!, i said', 4 bottles of Gin costing me nothing, i didn't even know i had that money on the card. Happy Days.

I figure i will treat ARX in exactly the same way. I will forget that its there by not obsessing over it and maybe one day i will look up and there's 3000 Arx sitting there.
 

LynxAwakening

LynxAwakening
paying no attention and letting them stack up to surprise you is prolly the healthiest mentality...

...but i’m gonna follow factabulous thread down the rabbit hole instead.
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
Its not confusing at all:
Take part in normal game activities like mining or missions = 0 Arx
Take part in anything grindy like HZ splating, material collection, honk/scooping = Weekly limit by the weekend
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Vasco Sapien said:
But this currency is designed to earn Frontier real currency in return... (the kind that buys real food and a roof above your head), I'm not so sure that frontier would design this new system in such a way that predictable patterns can be easily discerned. Sure Weekly 400 ARX is roughly 24p (UK sterling) but its still money which adds up across the player base month by month, year by year, ARX which players could be buying with real money. Man hours spent developing the cosmetics not being paid for.
Click to expand...
There's not that much point in them making the patterns opaque - the BGS has far less direct feedback between action and effect, and people have figured that out. Some of the early Thargoid puzzles were pretty complex, too.

Vasco Sapien said:
It's all a loss
Click to expand...
This isn't necessarily true, though. Yes, sure, I'll get somewhere between £2 and £10 of "free" cosmetics a year - depending on how much I can be bothered to max out the weekly limit in the weeks I wouldn't get there anyway - that I'd previously either have paid for or not obtained at all. On the other hand, if it encourages people to play the game more, that could end up making them more money overall in the long run. Even if the people playing more don't buy more cosmetics to top up the free Arx, the larger community is itself valuable.

Or put another way: semi-active player count is probably around 200k, and the proportion of those active enough to regularly max out free Arx is going to be much lower - maybe 10k or so. So it's maybe costing them £100k in "sales" ... not all of which would actually be realised in the first place because not every active player buys that many cosmetics. It doesn't take a lot of people
- buying alt accounts
- buying more cosmetics than they previously would have
- encouraging other people to start playing
...all possible consequences of people playing more than they previously did...
to clear that nominal £100k - and it's not a massive risk for them if it doesn't work out, either.
 
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