Will Expansions Hurt Gameplay For Non-Expansion Players?

[Bluedrake42]

Hello, this is my first post to this community. I hope this is a simple question, and I don't mean to offend anyone.

Firstly... I recently purchased Elite: Dangerous, and am very impressed. I am particularly excited for the upcoming expansions and updates to the game. I understand these expansions are to be paid, which (assuming they live up to the hype) I will have no problem purchasing for myself. However, since a lot of the upcoming (presumably paid) features are thoroughly integrated into the game world (such as exploring stations, landing on planets, boarding ships, etc) as opposed to being completely separate content packs... I am rather fearful that the release of these expansion packs will greatly harm the gameplay experience for those who don't choose to purchase them. I understand that the developers need to find ways to fund the development of these obviously work intensive features... however forcing players to pay for integrated game mechanics seems to be an incredibly intrusive way of supporting this development, and I can see many ways that this could potentially be abused... or thoroughly compromise the game world (and player immersion.)

For example... imagine a player bounty hunter chasing a player criminal in a local system. The player bounty hunter has not purchased the expansion that allows him to land on planets, however the player criminal has. During the pursuit, the criminal simply flies to a planet to avoid the bounty hunter. Since the bounty hunter has not purchased the expansion that allows him to land on planets, he can not follow the criminal.

Another example... imagine a player multi-crew police cruiser patrolling an asteroid field. They find a player criminal ship disabled and floating through space. They decide to launch a boarding party to retrieve the player criminal pilot without destroying his expensive ship... however ALAS, the criminal pilot has not paid for the expansion that allows first person combat or moving throughout his ship. So instead... the player police cruiser is forced to destroy the ship with on-board weapons.

Yet another example... imagine a player docking at a station with his friend. His friend has purchased the expansion that allows him to leave the ship and explore the station... while the original player is forced to stay inside his ship, for no other reason than a lack of purchasing an integrated game mechanic.

To me... this would be similar to charging for using the hyperdrive, or charging for the ability to mount weapons on your ship. I feel that charging for game functions as opposed to content (such as items, ships, locations, etc.) can be incredibly detrimental to the overall experience. I am afraid that when these expansions release... the game will actually become WORSE for players who choose to not buy them, which would be a shame. If Frontier does plan on charging for these things... I can't for the life of me think of a way they could do it without severely harming gameplay.

Let me know what you all think, and if I have missed anything, or have misinterpreted their intentions... please let me know <3

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Other than the player escaping to the planet which is a good point but I guess it makes sense because (s)he will have equipment you do not have (atmospheric shielding) so it would just be like me jumping to hyperspace without you having the correct scanner. Everything else won't affect the person without the dlc as they still have the same experience as they had before. Depending on how FD implement it it MAY affect those with the dlc as it may lock down what they can do with the person without the dlc limiting everyone.... OTOH maybe FD will allow everyone in a squad to do certain things in a multicrew ship if even 1 person has the dlc, or maybe multicrew ships will be tied to the boarding dlc anyway which will make it moot.

In short not buying dlc IMO won't affect people without it but people without it may limit those with it depending how its implemented.

 

[Meutra]

If they tie in the matchmaking system with dlc's you may be only with those that have or dont have the same as you (outside of friends and groups)

 

[Auran]

IMO, them's the breaks.

It's the case with any MMO. Anybody who doesn't pay for the later addons gets left in the dark and is left with an "unfair disadvantage".

Anybody who cares about being *part* of an MMO community these days is expected to fork out additional funds for expansions, if they want to remain part of the MMO experience (again, this is nothing new and comes with MMO's). Those that don't care for the MMO-specific things always have the Solo play options.

EDIT: What Meutra said (above this post). This is the most sensible thing to do IMO.

 

[Chief Cargo]

In most other games, if you don't have the x-pac/DLC you just can't do that content, I would assume it'll be the same for ED as well.

 

[pwnieb0y]

Examples 1 and 2 are really not much different than switching to Solo mode to evade a threat, which we have right now. As far as example 3, I see where your coming from but I don't think it would be game breaking. Currently there is no reason to leave your ship in the station, other than to look around. If that is something that someone wants to do they can pay for it. Who knows they may add some expansion specific missions, once again if they look like something someone wants to do then they can buy them. I know I probably will.