Not at a Guardian site so no crashes at all. However isn't there a CG running needing Guardian items, if so the usual game stability problems due to excessive numbers of players could be a factor.
Nice idea. I know from experience that customers are fickle creatures. What they think they want this week will change before implementation is done and we get complaints anyway.
Just last week we were told "we want ALL of the backlog in the next release". Well that's not practical. Besides the fact that in agile, you constantly have a backlog to draw from.
Is there? There is one for mining that takes place in a system that happens to have a guardian site but the CG has no relation to it. Unless they popped one up over the last few days. I did my minimal mining for the Taurus one, got bored and did something else.
I've been to a few guardian sites since 11 and had 0 crashes. So this is a case of many variables. Individual PCs can have near infinite combinations. Can't get them all right. That is the appeal of consoles to developers, they know the hardware they are developing for.
I was led to believe there was one by the new post in the Azimuth Story thread where someone said his carrier is buying Guardian stuff at insane prices to sabotage the CG.
I haven't looked at actual CG threads or ingame info while I have been fighting off the compulsion to do them at the expense of anything else in the game.
Hidden Salvation CG
Just received an in-game message from Salvation to deliver Guardian Ancient Relics to the Musashi Megaship... This might be the real CG for the week! Cheers!
It's a hidden CG, you got a mail from Salvation about it if you took part in his last one. Otherwise, it doesn't show up on the mission board at other stations.
Not getting any crashes at Guardian sites while doing it either.
Just logged in to saying that I am absolutely LOVING the Fleet Carrier interiors. At the moment there is not a thing I would change - well, apart from a working coffee machine in my carrier's office....
Great work FDev!
Great work FDev!
Nice fixes, performances seems to be better.
Although I am still hoping for the removal of fleet carrier upkeep. I get that you like to have players grind every day to keep it afloat; but other games allow VIP pass to not pay for upkeep for housing (the equivalent of a carrier basically); so for people that want that option and that paid ahead of time for your game, would be nice to offer that option
Although I am still hoping for the removal of fleet carrier upkeep. I get that you like to have players grind every day to keep it afloat; but other games allow VIP pass to not pay for upkeep for housing (the equivalent of a carrier basically); so for people that want that option and that paid ahead of time for your game, would be nice to offer that option
Yuck. Many players hate the idea of real-world money influencing gameplay.
This is not how it is. My carrier costs 10 million each week. In ten minutes I can run a trade mission (a few hundred silver for 50 million) and pay for multiple weeks of upkeep.
Edit: there are loads of grindy things in the game but this ain't one of them
You're not wrong, but I think your example undermines your point a little. Not everyone is in the right time, place, and rep position to take advantage of those big headline missions, but it doesn't matter. By the time you're in a position to buy a carrier, whatever it is you want to do in this game, the credits come easily enough that your balance will still go up even with a maintenance fee. It might not be in one big score, but a few trade CG runs (always seems to be at least once a month now) or Mining (easier with a carrier) a few bounties - human or AX and you're covered without even thinking about it.
And if you don't feel like playing, a lot of people always forget that you can just hand it back for a full refund minus a 150m admin fee. You even get the same carrier back when you rebuy (or lease) it later.
There is only one non cosmetic item in the game that was available to some people because they paid for the game ahead of time and the availability of that item has been a source of wasted ranting on this forum pretty much ever since. Fortunately it is not a significant advantage to be one of the few with it but we don’t need to fire it all off again with another one especially as for about a fifth more effort while getting the money for your carrier you will have well over a years upkeep money to put in its bank.
I disagree; You are paying for a benefit, like the benefit to have cosmetics. Having someone with more money in game is not ruining your experience, isn't it?
Other MMO give you benefits for paying a monthly subscription or for buying a pass; it is not different from the pass I bought when the game was in Beta; which allowed me to play the beta game and get all the expansions for free. Does that make your experience worst, only because I paid for something more? It is not like this game is based on PVP... In all these years I played 90% offline, and I have enjoyed the game that 10% of the time with others, without ever worry if someone else had more money than me and how did he/she got that sum of money.
As far as grind; your example works once you hit a certain point in the game; you have enough money to have not only a capital ship but also a large trade/miner ship, that allow you to collect large amount of resources and make a large profit.
So in your example, you are telling me that paying with real money to skip the grind is bad, but grinding to get to the point where you can make a ton of money is OK, because you "earned" it. so don't care about the upkeep? That sound a bit in contrast to me. Kinda like people with disposable income that does not care how much something cost, just because they can afford it because they are "successful" so they "earned it".
Upkeep, no matter if it is for a house, a guild/kinship or a large spaceship is still a pain; and it is an ancient way that game designers had to keep people playing and give them the sense of urgency to have to log in and pay for the upkeep. The success of a game is not based only on copies sold, but on number of returning and recurring players after all, and ED is not different. What do you think they show as data to investors, when they have the quarterly calls with them; so they can project if the company is profitable or not?
That is a good point; not everyone is in the same place in the game; and while some can get certain missions that net them a lot of money, others do not have that venue.
When I worked my way up to my conda, which was the pinnacle of the ships in ED; I knew that I would get there and then buy it and use it for as long as I want. Doesn't matter if I play daily or once a month or once a year; it would be there for me to enjoy it and the only concern was to have enough money to buy it back if I destroy it.
Sadly a capital ship is not like that; for reasons that have been posted for months when the news of the capital ship arrived, so I won't bore anyone to repeat them. Since Frontier is not willing to remove the upkeep; I simply expressed my desire to buy the free upkeep, exactly like I bought the early access to the game and the expansions ahead of time or the cosmetics for my ship. Honestly this is not a P2W game; there is nothing to win to be honest; so I don't really see the issue.
If people rant for such things, sorry to say but they may not have a clear motivation. The fundamental problem with that mentality (not only in ED, in every game), is that people don't like to se others skipping the line by paying money in real life; because they have this "concept of earning" things. And the worst part is that some people feel like their experience is undermined if others buy things that they need to grind for. You earned your Conda, you don't pay upkeep; you earned your capital ship, you should not pay upkeep.
I can afford a car because I have a job, others take the subway or the bus... Same apply for almost everything, including the game and expansions.
Some pay money for expansions, while others do not, so they don't get to play the expansion content. Some games allow you to get content while you play by grinding; so at that point it is up to the player to decide if he/she want to pay real money or grind tokens for months to then buy the new content expansion or mission pack or what else. People with time save the money, people with money and no time save time. What is wrong in that?
What advantage is a carrier ship giving you, if you play solo and do not affect other players? It is not even something you can use in combat... It is a moving base of operation/station, so what is the advantage? That you make more money? What are the money for, if you can afford a carrier? At that point you should already have all you want. Also the economy unbalance would be negligible; the galaxy is so large that you may never meet a real player while you play out the bubble, so I really fail to grasp what incredible advantage is to have this floating boat with shops in it.
Why do I want it? Because it is in the game and because I like the idea to go out there and explore; I don't care about making money with it or what else. I didn't need a Conda either, but it is in the game and I like the idea to get the larger ship the game has, even if I do not do trading for money or for PVP.
Bunch of separate points above, but concisely:
Paying real-world money to skip upkeep on a carrier isn't P2W per se, I would agree with that, but it's a step onto a very dangerous and slippery slope. P2W lies at the bottom of that slope. Honestly, as soon as you can pay cash for gameplay benefits, you will have a section of the community who are chilled about that and will use it to good effect and others who aren't OK with it and will lag behind. [edit: and this drives the developers in certain directions...] Bad.
As for grind, I'm honestly not sure what to say to your question. A carrier costs 5 billion. A high-end T9 with A-rated stuff (like the one in my fleet) is ballpark 150 million, i.e. pennies by comparison to the cost of the carrier, and maybe equivalent in cost to a couple of hours worth of reasonably profitable game activity if you really aren't pushing the limits. It's simply not possible to own a carrier and NOT be able to afford a large trade/miner ship. But yeah, grind is bad, and ED has too much of it. I just don't see that carrier upkeep is a high-priority thing to fix in that respect. There must be literally hundreds of things I'd personally prefer they looked at.
So if your point is that paying real money would steer Frontier toward a bad route, I totally agree. Other large companies tried to monetize everything, to the point where you play the game that is artificially gated behind levels, so you are forced to grind levels or pay to skip the grind. That is something I would not like in the game as principle, not because it affect myself.
If someone buy everything, that is up to them; it does not touch me nor it change my perception of the fun I have in game. So on that I have hard time to relate to others that are bothered by it, but as they say, to each their own.
As far as grind, yes; there are many other grindy mechanics, which is why I rarely play this game anymore. To me they killed it with engineers and powerplay: 2 things I never got into because I have 4-5 hours every few weeks to play ANY game; and picking ED when most of my game time is grind, is hard, so I play other games that gratify myself more. Even MSFS is more engaging and entertaining than mine for hours to make a profit to be honest; but mining is better for sure than grind for prep a system for powerplay or to grind materials to get to a higher engineer level... For that I blame Frontier for not being able to make a game where you can enjoy yourself without grind (I play X4 too, and I used to play EVE; so I can tell what grind and long term goals look like)
For other problems...The list is long; but those are things that I don't see changing ever; which is why I thought that it takes very little to remove the upkeep from the capital ship or to make it so you can buy a pass with real money to not pay upkeep. It is something that would make the game more enjoyable at least for me, since I don't mind to work towards those 5B to get the carrier, if that is all I need to pay.
So the whole concept of getting a carrier is to get it when you make enough to maintain it to start with?
I guess that works if the purpose of the game is to continue to make money; but for me that like to play as explorer to chart unknown systems and life forms; that would not be feasible. There is no way to make money instantly when you are out of the bubble, right? Even with a carrier I can't sell things I find while exploring on the carrier, since it is mine; and I can't ship what I find to the bubble, while I am out there exploring; so that game loop would be basically precluded to me.
Unless I grind so much money worth to pay the upkeep and then leave; which to me seems a chore to be honest. I would rather have to grind to find materials to FIX my carrier while out there exploring, which would be more engaging and more lore-relevant to be honest...