To the Developers - How to Attract More Players

[50723890]

Hello,

 

This is about making Star Conflict progression better for the player while increasing profit for the devs.  I wrote this originally to support, who told me to most it here.

 

So, let me break this down -
For $100 USD, you get 425 gs per dollar at the Non-discounted price.  The exchange rate for credits is 1gs per 8,750 credits.
Since credits sell for 10k lumps at the best deal, the only way to buy an even amount is to spend $400, which gives you 170,000gs.
10k required to buy 87,500,000 mil credits - the best deal.
$400 dollars = 170k gs  the amount 10k goes into evenly.
$400 = 1,487,500,000 credits
I heard the cap for credits is 400m currently, so a person who wanted to balance his GS out for the exchange rate for $400 couldn’t buy $400 worth of credits and have them not overflow the cap.
so, we need to find the credits per dollar.
1,487,500,000 / 400 = 3,718,750 credits per dollar, or 425gs per dollar.
so, since:
$1 USD = 3,718,750 credits
$1 USD = 425 galactic standards

why not give in game a way to exchange credits for galactic standards so you can attract people to play? people want to be rewarded for their time. Successful games have something that exchanges the in game items for in game currency. Look at black desert online, etc. people can buy pearl items then post them to in game market to sell for currency.

 

Time vs. Money

it takes about 8 runs in skirmish for a rank 15 player to get together 3,718,750 credits. That takes on average about 10-12 minutes, or longer. so, they’re going to spend at least two hours grinding for that amount. why not give them the exchange rate for gs so they can progress and enjoy the game more from trade items? and if they’re enjoying the game more, they’re more likely to spend money to support the devs and company.  Also giving the player options is key to generating more developer income.

 

 

As example, say a player wants a Salyut-ST ship. according to market right now, it’s 11,000 galactic standards for the parts necessary to craft the ship. less than $40. now, if you use the formula of exchanging 3,718,750 for 425 gs, that gives you 52 gameplay hours to get that ship. That gives the player a GOAL, something to WANT in game, and movement toward that goal. Then the player has the choice to think - "do I want to spend 52 gameplay hours to grind up the 11k galactic standards or do I want to give $40 and get 15k galactic standards?"

THAT is how you generate more revenue, AND build player retention.

 

Tiered Ship Packages

Tier suggestion ideas regarding the content for ship packs moving forward:

Tier 1 (standard) - $19.99 you get the ship only (upgradeable to tier 2 for $10 at any time in the future)

Tier 2 (enhanced) - $29,99 you get the ship and base mods and some tier 2 art stuff - decor, colouring, aerography, portrait (upgradeable to tier 3 for $20 at any time in the future)

Tier 3 (deluxe) - $49.99 you get all the things from previous tiers plus more art stuff, COOLer art stuff, decor, colouring, aerography, portrait, taunts, maybe small permanent bonus, and purple ship mods.

 

Please let me know if this is useful, or if you have questions about this. I’d love to see Gaijin attract more people to this game, but it won’t be from paywalling progression. The approach needs to move from “we’ll give you this, if you give us dollars” to “we’ll give you this, and if you want, you can get this other thing too, but you don’t have to, but we’d appreciate it. Thank you.”

 

Regards,
Richard miller
aka hellcat5

 

IN RUSSIAN:

Привет,

Речь идет об улучшении прогресса Star Conflict для игрока и увеличении прибыли для разработчиков. Изначально я написал это в поддержку, которые мне здесь больше всего рассказали.

Итак, позвольте мне сломать это -
За 100 долларов США вы получаете 425 gs за доллар по цене без скидки. Курс обмена для кредитов составляет 1 гринд за 8 750 кредитов.
Поскольку по лучшей цене кредиты продаются за 10 тысяч штук, единственный способ купить ровную сумму - это потратить 400 долларов, что дает вам 170 000 гористых монет.
10 тысяч, необходимых для покупки 87 500 000 миллионов кредитов - лучшая сделка.
400 долларов = 170 тысяч фунтов, из которых 10 тысяч уходит равномерно.
400 долларов США = 1 487 500 000 кредитов
Я слышал, что ограничение по кредитам в настоящее время составляет 400 миллионов долларов, поэтому человек, который хотел сбалансировать свой GS по обменному курсу на 400 долларов, не мог купить кредитов на сумму 400 долларов и не допустить, чтобы они превышали ограничение.
Итак, нам нужно найти кредиты на доллар.
1,487,500,000 / 400 = 3,718,750 кредитов за доллар, или 425g за доллар.
Итак, поскольку:
1 доллар США = 3 718 750 кредитов
1 доллар США = 425 галактических стандартов

почему бы не дать в игре возможность обменивать кредиты на галактические стандарты, чтобы привлекать людей к игре? люди хотят получать вознаграждение за свое время. В успешных играх есть что-то, что обменивает игровые предметы на игровую валюту. Посмотрите на Black Desert в Интернете и т. Д. Люди могут покупать жемчужные предметы, а затем выставлять их на игровом рынке, чтобы продать за валюту.

Время против денег

игроку 15 ранга требуется около 8 пробежек в схватке, чтобы набрать 3 718 750 кредитов. Это занимает в среднем 10–12 минут или больше. так что они собираются потратить как минимум два часа на измельчение этой суммы. почему бы не дать им обменный курс на gs, чтобы они могли прогрессировать и получать больше удовольствия от игры, продавая предметы? и если им больше нравится игра, они с большей вероятностью потратят деньги на поддержку разработчиков и компании. Кроме того, предоставление игроку возможностей является ключом к увеличению дохода разработчика.

Например, игроку нужен корабль «Салют-СТ». согласно рыночным данным сейчас, это 11 000 галактических стандартов на детали, необходимые для создания корабля. менее 40 долларов. Теперь, если вы воспользуетесь формулой обмена 3718750 на 425 g, это даст вам 52 игровых часа, чтобы получить этот корабль. Это дает игроку ЦЕЛЬ, то, что он ХОЧЕТ в игре, и движение к этой цели. Затем игрок может подумать: «хочу ли я потратить 52 часа игры, чтобы довести до 11 тысяч галактических стандартов, или я хочу отдать 40 долларов и получить 15 тысяч галактических стандартов?»

Вот как вы увеличиваете доход и увеличиваете удержание игроков.

Многоуровневые корабельные пакеты

Предлагаемые уровни содержания для продвигаемых наборов кораблей:

Уровень 1 (стандартный) - 19,99 долларов вы получаете только корабль (можно повысить до уровня 2 за 10 долларов в любое время в будущем)

Уровень 2 (улучшенный) - 29,99 долларов США вы получаете модификации корабля и базы, а также некоторые предметы искусства уровня 2 - декор, раскраску, аэрографию, портрет (можно обновить до уровня 3 за 20 долларов в любое время в будущем)

Уровень 3 (делюкс) - $ 49,99 вы получаете все вещи из предыдущих уровней, а также больше художественных материалов, более крутых предметов искусства, декора, раскраски, аэрографии, портрета, насмешек, возможно, небольшого постоянного бонуса и фиолетовых модификаций кораблей.

Пожалуйста, дайте мне знать, если это полезно или у вас есть вопросы по этому поводу. Я бы хотел, чтобы Гайдзин привлек больше людей в эту игру, но это будет не из-за развития платного доступа. Подход должен быть изменен с «мы дадим вам это, если вы дадите нам доллары» на «мы дадим вам это, и если вы хотите, вы можете получить и это другое, но вам не обязательно, но мы были бы признательны. Спасибо. "

С уважением,
Ричард Миллер
он же hellcat5

[ORCA1911]

Oh hi there, havent seen you in a long time 

[7237187]

Hmm, your idea touches the main problem why there are less and less new players, massive grind, it’s what puts players away. If you look at Steam reviews, the most notable things are:

• Calling game P2W because game gives a “choice” for spending absurd amount of time for these top level ships when you are inexperienced player or to pay $$$ to get it immediately.
• Grindy events
• Lack of proper balance in all gamemodes

And it’s just Steam which is a small portion of entire Star Conflict player base. There are probably countless people who quit the game without giving any public feedback at all.

 

17 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

As example, say a player wants a Salyut-ST ship. according to market right now, it’s 11,000 galactic standards for the parts necessary to craft the ship. less than $40. now, if you use the formula of exchanging 3,718,750 for 425 gs, that gives you 52 gameplay hours to get that ship. That gives the player a GOAL, something to WANT in game, and movement toward that goal. Then the player has the choice to think - "do I want to spend 52 gameplay hours to grind up the 11k galactic standards or do I want to give $40 and get 15k galactic standards?"

THAT is how you generate more revenue, AND build player retention.

If you tell to quite “fresh” player(<100h) “invest 52 hours or $40, which is 66% price of a brand new AAA game” in the end you will have no player at all. This completely destroys new player retention and you will end seeing the same old players over and over again and barely any new players.

The may question is: Why that ship costs 11000 GS in the first place?

 

52 hours is the play time of two good full games. You can’t expect to have a fresh player to do this. Even more, you can’t expect new player to pay much money at all. Maybe $5 at most. If fresh player realizes that game quickly demands money equal to a full paid game for single ship , that player will run away.

 

If you are an average player who just got his second r15 ship this is what you get:

• Go into PvP and get demolished because you are inexperienced and because you lack proper ships/equipment. 
• Go into vs AI and look how single chipped Hammerhead destroys entire AI team alone.
• Go into PvE and watch single 200+ attack level Tai’Kin beat entire mission alone while you have not enough damage to do anything and you die in one hit. Choose low level and you still can’t do anything because other players will one-hit all enemies before you can react.
• Go into OS and realize how quickly it becomes boring.

 

Instead of giving another reason for people to call this game P2W, it would be better idea to fix the game instead and finally make progression better for non paying players. Probably overhaul entire progression system from scratch. The trade also ruined GS value. I guess it’s the reason why new ships from the store cost over 10k GS just in the main parts usually and old players have tons of GS on their accounts. When they have everything, they can sell monos and xenos to further get richer. New player that needs monos and xenos, has zero GS and no license have no chance to get what he wants in reasonable time.

[50723890]

The issue I present is that there’s zero way to get Galactic Standards in game besides be good at pvp during the “happy hour,” or get lucky in open space to get items that you don’t need to sell on the trade, if you don’t get popped by some random pvp’er who wants to ruin your grind.  You can’t compare an online game like this to any single player triple A game.  The business models don’t match at all, nor the draw to play.  You can see from comparing other games in this genre that people ARE willing to pay more for online / mmo / teambased games than the standard old skool single player game.  I don’t class battlefield / call of duty / etc into this game’s genre.  Those are different business models and classes of games.  I went into this before, years ago, regarding how this game relates more to league of legends in the moba class and an RPG game instead of an first person shooter.  I’m sure the text I wrote is still around somewhere.

 

So, for this game to advance, they need to present how things are now, with how you can earn items that cost galactic standards, in comparison to how things will be if they go with my presentation.  Again, right now, the ONLY way is to grind and pray, or do well during “happy hour” pvp events.  The game doesn’t give exchange between galactic standards and credits, which is a mistake.  As long as Gaijin presents that they’re adding in the exchange, and talk about the two current ways to get galactic standards, and how adding in the exchange makes it easier, and it definitely does because exchanging for gs is far faster than trying to grind for items to MAYBE sell eventually to get enough galactic standards after tax to get what you need, then they’ll be in a better place.  To be clear, Gaijin needs to advertise that they’re adding in a way that makes the grind and pray obsolete.

The grind and pray method is a secondary method of getting Galactic Standards that has as part of it the potential for player griefing, and the time involved to pray that you get a drop that has value.  The credits to galactic standards method is a sure thing.  you grind, you get the reward you want.

 

The seed chip system rewards those who’ve played the game, as it should.  The more you play, the more chips you can get, as long as people play up high enough in battle tiers.  The real issue there is that many people CHOOSE tier 1 to easy mode grind credits, I guess, and you don’t get r17 seed chips at rank 1 battle.  But, I don’t intend to get into discussing the seed chip system or it’s potential problems here because that clouds the purpose of my post, which is how to clean up attaining standard parts for ships, not seed chips.

 

I want to briefly address something else you mentioned (and thank you for the well thought out reply!)  This game has about the same number of players through Steam as it has since I started playing.  Steam charts shows you the flow of player attention to the game - https://steamcharts.com/app/212070#All

 

This game has improved a TON since I started back in 2017 or so.  The addition of the seed chip system gives older players something to do, which was a HUGE missing piece before.  Progression when I started ended after you got your rank 15 purple ships, only mods changed the stats to the ships.  pve open space had a fuel system that very much limited people’s ability to stay in open space for long to grind anything.  There was NO trade system other than spamming your mods in trade chat for hours at a time hoping that maybe a new player would want something you have, and have given Gaijin enough money to get enough galactic standards to get that item from you.  I do think they went overboard with the tax system maxing out at 50% is too much.  it should be 20-30% at most.  I can mention more regarding positive changes to the game since I started playing, but I won’t here.

 

I’m going to talk about what some players called essentially “the great end of star conflict,” which was when Gaijin went to the system they have now where they moved to a credits based system for ship mods / parts which included a decrease in the cap for total amount of credits players could have.  The original system used to require time to RESEARCH mods to upgrade them or you paid galactic standards to upgrade immediately.  There was no using credits to upgrade instantly.  The previous credit cap for the amount of credits a player could have was around 2 billion credits, and some players had that amount.  They had a massive amount of credits, and they said star conflict was finished after the cap lowered.  The system implemented came with both positive and negative (to some) attributes.  And yet, Star Conflict continues to exist at around the same number of players as it did when I started.  Why is that?

The gameplay is fun.  Ship building is fun.  We love spaceships and the fast paced space battles.  We’re here because we love the gameplay Gaijin created.  There’s nothing out there like this game, which is why the core players keep coming back.  As example, EA’s Rebel Squadron gameplay is pretty weak in my opinion, and a triple AAA studio made it.
 

A new player shouldn’t be upset by not being able to walk through pve enemies at tier 20 with his brand new rank 20 ship.  That just doesn’t make sense.  I came back after years away from the game, I’m underpowered for most things over rank 17 pve battles because I don’t have my pve levels up yet from playing the game, and I don’t have good seed chips yet, again, just from NOT playing the game for so long.  It’s a great system they have. the more you play, the more rewarded you get because your progress earns you MORE credits per round.in pve mode.  So, while Skirmish (co op vs ai) might be the short term grinding solution for credits that new players do, the best overall approach to earning huge amounts of credits is to play more pve mode and raise pve level / seed chips.  I feel very rewarded for the time I’ve spent lately playing that mode from the reward from credits.

But, there’s still that gap between me being able to buy x item I need to upgrade my ship (or get a new one), which comes from not being able to exchange the credits into galactic standards.

[7237187]

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

A new player shouldn’t be upset by not being able to walk through pve enemies at tier 20 with his brand new rank 20 ship. 

The issue is that new player does not have a real choice. PvE is 4 player battle and there will be always with way higher attack level than you are. So what new player can do? Choose 1lvl mission, get yelled at because of it and see Tai’Kins finishing the mission in an instant, that new player can as well sit in spawn because he/she doesn’t know mission spawns anyway and other players are one-shotting everything… Or go with them and choose that 50lvl they want and then sit in spawn.

 

I have ~60lvl attack level and I can sometimes see the problem even by myself. If I choose level for my needs, it will be too easy for players with higher attack level. The difference i that I know the mission so I can try doing “something”. Every time I see that new guy in his r11 ship, that guy finishes missions with ~50 points or less.

 

To get to that ~150+ attack level you need insane amount of insignias. Either you are being carried by squad of Tai’Kins or other people, or if you want to do this alone, pay dozens of thousands of GS.

 

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

The issue I present is that there’s zero way to get Galactic Standards in game besides be good at pvp during the “happy hour,” or get lucky in open space to get items that you don’t need to sell on the trade, if you don’t get popped by some random pvp’er who wants to ruin your grind.  You can’t compare an online game like this to any single player triple A game.  The business models don’t match at all, nor the draw to play.  You can see from comparing other games in this genre that people ARE willing to pay more for online / mmo / teambased games than the standard old skool single player game.  I don’t class battlefield / call of duty / etc into this game’s genre.  Those are different business models and classes of games.  I went into this before, years ago, regarding how this game relates more to league of legends in the moba class and an RPG game instead of an first person shooter.  I’m sure the text I wrote is still around somewhere.

 

So, for this game to advance, they need to present how things are now, with how you can earn items that cost galactic standards, in comparison to how things will be if they go with my presentation.  Again, right now, the ONLY way is to grind and pray, or do well during “happy hour” pvp events.  The game doesn’t give exchange between galactic standards and credits, which is a mistake.  As long as Gaijin presents that they’re adding in the exchange, and talk about the two current ways to get galactic standards, and how adding in the exchange makes it easier, and it definitely does because exchanging for gs is far faster than trying to grind for items to MAYBE sell eventually to get enough galactic standards after tax to get what you need, then they’ll be in a better place.  To be clear, Gaijin needs to advertise that they’re adding in a way that makes the grind and pray obsolete.

The grind is not just GS.  It’s credits as well. If you introduce Credit -> GS exchange then  nothing  happens for new player because they needs tons of money to buy new ships and upgrade modules anyway.  Grind is still there. New player probably won’t exchange his credits to GS because he/she won’t have much credits anyway. And there are still vets and people with license/DLC credit bonues/Prem ships who will get tons of credits more than these new players. You will end up either with vets able to earn insane amount of GS from credit grind or exchange rates so bad that new player will not use them anyway. It’s impossible to balance and pointless.

 

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

 

I want to briefly address something else you mentioned (and thank you for the well thought out reply!)  This game has about the same number of players through Steam as it has since I started playing.  Steam charts shows you the flow of player attention to the game - https://steamcharts.com/app/212070#All

Unfortunately these numbers are extremely low. Even a dead games like Robocraft have higher numbers: https://steamcharts.com/app/301520 Also, I see slow drop from year to year.

 

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

The seed chip system rewards those who’ve played the game, as it should.  The more you play, the more chips you can get, as long as people play up high enough in battle tiers.  The real issue there is that many people CHOOSE tier 1 to easy mode grind credits, I guess, and you don’t get r17 seed chips at rank 1 battle.  But, I don’t intend to get into discussing the seed chip system or it’s potential problems here because that clouds the purpose of my post, which is how to clean up attaining standard parts for ships, not seed chips.

New player retention is a topic that spans entire game, not just one feature. That’s why I brought this up because giving credit -> GS exchanges does not change anything if your core game is rotten egg.

 

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

And yet, Star Conflict continues to exist at around the same number of players as it did when I started.  Why is that?

Looking from 2015, it’s a clear drop over time. Unless you started playing few months ago. There are only Steam data which is extremely small. Gaijin won’t tell us real numbers probably.

 

Other thing are many old players, they don’t easily quit. New ones however come and go and aren’t that attached to the game. If you play some T5 Conquest, you will see the same players over and over again.

 

And finally

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

The issue I present is that there’s zero way to get Galactic Standards in game besides be good at pvp during the “happy hour,” or get lucky in open space to get items that you don’t need to sell on the trade, if you don’t get popped by some random pvp’er who wants to ruin your grind.

Actually for some people who have even few T5 ships, conquests is the way to earn Xenos and Monos and to sell them for GS. You can get quite nice sum of GS from that. You don’t need to be good to do this, just good enough to be able to get some influence points. Yes, it leads to situations where people with quite low PvP skills “ruin” the battle but this is just how it’s created.

 

 

11 hours ago, he11cat5 said:

I feel very rewarded for the time I’ve spent lately playing that mode from the reward from credits.

Another problem I see is that you need to see more than that. What is good for you doesn’t have to be good for everyone. What you enjoy is a source of frustration for many newcomers and you can see that in Steam reviews easily. While I have fun, I doubt these chipless people with 5lvl attack PvE level have much fun when they year that they need dozens of hours for single ship. Times are changing an more and more young people despise online games which force players to spend hours for that one crappy item/ship/whatever. This is also the reason why Battle Royale became popular so much because people don’t care about spending countless hours to progress. They want to jump into game and have fun. Without needing “300 hours to get these few meta ships”.

I’m not saying that SC should become BR of course or that progression should be removed. What I mean is that new player shouldn’t feel that he/she is hundreds of hours away from that “beloved endgame”. Drastic progression changes would be needed for that. If the core of the game will be left as it is, there will be less and less new player. We old players will be the only one left. Of course there will be some new players coming, mostly because of friends, I can’t imagine however someone installing SC on his own and play the game alone from the start.

[ORCA1911]

As an old player, i can say you guys are half right. The thing is that this game started off as a pvp game, you get in, bash some heads, get out and that was all. There was no pve or free roam or trade iirc, but with adding all that a great deal of imbalance in economy came into play. When you truly look at it from a big perspective, only a restart/revamp/remaster can fix this. Other than that, if you’re not too invested into the game is still enjoyable to some extent. “some”