Player Features and Ideas Discussion

As we all know a year ago CCP made some bad decisions on how they might Monetize the game, although there was a massive **** storm I didn't see many ideas being shared that the player base wouldn't mind or would actually use.

I think things like being able to buy remaps so you don't have to wait 6 months between remaps. You should still get free remaps but I don't think anyone would have any problems with that, Also it would make remapping a more option for speeding up your training queue; so it is both useful unlike shiny scorpions or $50 monocles, doesn't provide an unfair advantage and also gives CCP an extra income; WIN WIN WIN!

If CCP could come up with idea's like this which are useful, not OP and also provide them with a monitization method I think we would all be happier.

Oh and for any CCP employee's for a good guide to come up with good microtransactions I suggest you watch this: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions

Well if you had watched the video I linked how you would deal with idea's people would love is give it a price point people can easily accept "MARKET TESTING"

if nearly everyone and there mother is going to be using it they could easily charge a relatively low amount for it and still rake it in. A good price point for a queue extension would be like a plex for 6 months or x amount of ARUM for 1 month. for that kind of price if I could get say a 7 day skill queue I'd buy it, and I'm by no means rich.

Obviously they can't just pull the number out of there asses like I did but they need to market research it to see what most of there player base would be willing to pay without to much resentment or any at all or ideally being so happy with what they got that the price is a non issue.

If CCP had market researched there price points people wouldn't have been so god damn angry.

But from the video a point I particularly agree with and 99% of EVE players agree with is that you should NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER be able to buy power with real money. Like premium ammo or uba ships.

Also I think they should make ARUM tradable on the market in smaller amounts like 100/500/1000 ARUM and other increments so for people who are entering the ARUM market for the first time the entry level isn't too high because $19.99/500mill isk~ is a bit much for a first purchase.

Also If you can't already you should be able to convert ARUM back to PLEX

I would say a very poor sample of how MicroTransactions are being implimented, frankly all I have to do it look at my PlayStation 3 and boot up DUST 514.

Sure, I know the argument there is "oh but all the monetised weaponry has equivilant or better in-game counter-parts once you have the learnt skills to back it up" but frankly ... getting to that point is just frustrating and stupid.

As far as Micro-Transactions go for EVE, there is a sense of Irony that CCP actually implimented not only the industry first but still BEST blend between Free-to-Play and Subscription model to date. I am of-course reffering to the Pilot License EXtension (PLEX) system.

Now personally, I hate Free-to-Play games. The reason as to why is quite simple... Developers gouge customers horribly for absolutely everything. Even regardless of how "Fair" they try to make things, frankly it just ends up causing issues as no matter how "fair" you price something you can't aquire in-game via playing - generally causes problems, because it always has to be good enough to be worth paying for; thus better than anything naturally obtainable.

I would echo this with Skillpoint Boosts, as frankly the skillpoints you have should be a reflection of the loyalty to the game.
In my opinion the initial inception of how Skillpoints were passively allocated in DUST was PERFECT, the actively aquired Skillpoint w/Boosts however is BULL**** mechanics.

Something I would suggest happens to EVE is while you are Subscribed, you are earning "Base Skillpoints" as such when you are training a skill they automatically go in to that skill while providing the "extra" that implants provide. When you are not training a skill however they should go into the unallocated pool at their "default" level.

This said I also think the option should be available for pilots who have missed out on skillpoints, to be able to purchase them in monthly amounts for each month they were unsubscribed at the cost of a monthly subscription.

So let's say for example your character is 1 year old, but you were only subbed for 6months; then you should be allowed to purchase up to 6months worth of Skillpoint at the "base rate" ... I beileve under the current system design, that equals to about 2.5million / month.

I have no issues with retroactive allocation purcahse, but proactive I do.

It is just like I have no issues paying for Clothes in the NEX Store, sure they were originally ridiculously priced ... but there was absolutely no issue with it. Kinda wish they had a bit more use than walking around my CQ, but since the price drop and confirmation no "Pay to Win" would be in the NEX Store; I've used it a few times.

Something I would like to see happen now is better management (particularly store front) and adjustments to how the items are sold and used.

For example each Item Design itself, should have a relatively worthwhile pricetag (2,500 AUR) ... sure this is effectively a PLEX but (and hear me out) it should come with a handful of changable colour schemes (as opposed to being individual items of clothing). You could then purchase addtional pattern bases / colour schemes for a further (100 AUR) once you have the base Item Design.

This would actually end up working out perfectly, as the actual difficult and time consuming part of making these new clothing items is modeling, skinning, binding and rigging physics. It can be quite intesive work, and yes this should have a reasonable income back for CCP to maintain a team to focus entirely on this aspect of EVE. Where-as the patterns frankly can be thrown together by any of the artists within a few hours in photoshop (if that) ... so in that respect they are basically simple to do and push out very quickly (or should be).

Having worked with getting most of the EVE Characters in to UDK for Machinima means, might give me a little more of a unique perspective on the work involve, atleast from that side of things; but even if I didn't, it still seems (to me atleast) the most reasonable system for EVE Players.

This is not to say we can't have expensive / elaborate patterns that also cost considerable amounts or specialised items like the monocle; which sure the price was initially a bit steep, but I understand the thinking behind it. They're looking at it in terms of Rarity (as is the case with Officer Mods in-game) ... which is understandable, but it would make more sense if for example the Monocle itself was relatively cheap; with a specialised design (perhaps it could glow or something) that is dropped in-game with the same rarity as the Officer Mod.

In this way you could then reduce the Monocle price, those who already bought it would then have this very rare and unique item that in in-game ISK would be damn expensive (thus still technically worth the $70 they dropped for it) ... this said I do wonder how many people actually bought it with real money and how many simply converted ISK > PLEX > AUR.

Given most ppl I see with it are Incursion runners and Null-Sec people, would guess actually the later was more common.
Still you might get what I mean here, and to a degree we have already started to see CCP move towards this with the recent addition of the 4 Militia Uniforms.

While as a Faction Warfare (Caldari) member honestly I have to say I was grossly disappoint with the Uniforms as I was hoping they were going to be uniquely styled to each Race ... having them as items via the LP Store was a nice move on CCPs part.
I like the concept of them as "toy solider" uniforms we can provide to the public, while I still hope we see specalised Uniforms provided for each Militia with their own unique style, colours and most importantly the ability to display Rank & Name on them.
The clothes do support the same Decal system that ships do, so realistically it shouldn't be that difficult to impliment ^_^

I agree that the microtransaction scheme in DUST is exactly how it should NOT be done, and I would quit EVE in a heartbeat if they did the same thing here. Statistically, all AUR guns have equivalents available for ISK, but with one HUGE caveat that most people seem to ignore: The AUR guns have much lower fitting requirements than their ISK equivalents. Everyone seems to think this is no big deal, but I can't fathom how people believe that.

Imagine if you could buy a MWD in EVE that was only available for AUR, with the exact same stats, except it takes half of the powergrid. That's basically how the AUR guns are in DUST, yet people seem to think that's OK. The flat +50% skill point boosters are pretty bad too. Do not want.

That's basically what I meant, NO PAY TO WIN; Also you can get a PLEX for isk so, and I'm in a high class WH so I'm space rich so A PLEX for 500 mill isn't that much. But considering I did say 500~ mill for 6 months, thats like 83 mill a month which isn't even bad for a level 4 mission runner... Who actually runs those anymore?

But anyways a price somewhere along those lines for a convenience isn't a bad trade. And you can pay for it with in-game money soooo... I really don't see a problem with it, ESPECIALLY when you can pay for it with reasonably with in-game money.

Well actually you can reasonably expect the price of ARUM to become inflated as it gets split down into smaller increments, And I would assume the market for the smaller increments would not be large enough to effect PLEX prices as it will only be people who just want to buy 1 or 2 cheap things that would buy smaller increments. And even fewer people would be transforming it back because of the inflated prices of the smaller increments of ARUM.

But it would give the customer more peace of mind that if they change there mind they can get something back out, which would make people feel more comfortable. Although there may be an effect on PLEX prices it would be a drop in the pond.