So for the first time, I’m actually tempted to spend real money to get a pirate ship. The only thing holding me back… is the pricetag and the content.
Prices jump from $5 to $50 and then to a whopping $80. Ouch. But there is another reason I hesitate. The content is somewhat randomly distributed.
Suggestion:
Organize the DLC content according to ship tier or type and charge the same amount for each pack.
For example, with the current pirate packs there could be an Interceptor Pack, a Fighter Pack, and a Frigate Pack, each with their own unique stickers and a stackable 10% bonus to credit reward. Charge a flat rate of $15 per pack and you make $45 for the entire package. Sure that isn’t as much as the $135 that the entire package currently costs, but you’ll have more players willing to pay, and hence, more income.
Or simply offer them for gold standards, too, and re-arrange the add-on DLCs to be still worth investing additional money, especially for the special cuts.
And after sales show which method is prefered, or even both, continue there in the future.
This does not however completely disagree with the OP’s suggestion. Making them like that would after all have the same effect in a way. It just arises as question why not simply buy them for gold ingame anyway, since most people want the ships, not the other stuff, while some might find a pack - especially if its in combination cheaper and has an extra perma bonus - still worth paying for - especially if they never bought a DLC before.
I think however an official statement would clear up a lot of things, why it was thought this way, and if changes are considered or possible.
I like this approach, and I like approaches like it. Personally, I would prefer to see it done more like this…
Option 1: Ability to buy any individual pirate ship for around £5 worth of Gold Standards, costing £ for the lot.
Option 2: Ability to buy all the Empire/Federation pirates for around £12 worth of Gold Standards.
Option 3: Ability to buy all the pirates for around £18 to £20 worth of Gold Standards.
The point of this is, of course, the up-sell. “Hey, I notice you really like two of those Empire ships. Why not buy the Imperial Reaver Pack [with Gold Standards by the way!] and get the third for less than half price? While you’re at it, did you know you can get all six ships for the price of four? I know it’s twice what you planned to spend, but you’re getting three times the content!”
The only thing I fear would happen, if you could buy the ships alone with GS, is that EVERYONE will fly them.
I mean really, the Bear, Desert Eagle, and probaly several more, are definitly worth it because they are quite good, and people buy the DLC for em, but the moment you can get em for GS alone, I think they they will be far more used, and ruin several other ships.
Then that is an indication that the ships have not been balanced properly and need to be changed… which is a good thing. This is a beta, or so we’re told, so this is the time to get stuff like that done!
The ships right now are DLC-only. And that is why they are slightly better than their rank’s counterparts. They are not much better mind you, just ever so slightly but they are a nice addition next to the GS from the DLC pack.
I vote for:
hell to the no
The 3 DLCs existing - especially with ships like the desert eagle - are fine as they are. The elite pack might be overpriced.
But if every new ship comes in DLCs, it’s gonna be a mess.
Especially with the Pirate DLCs.
Having a DLC exclusive ship, especially in the 3 base DLCs, is fine by me. Especially since some of them have no GS counterpart. That’s why my vote changed from “I don’t know” to a weak “Yes”.
But the problem, as I have mentioned, is that DLC devalues Gold Standards.
Case in point: all DLC gives Gold Standard. What can you spend that on?
- Licences - but some DLC comes with one already, so you don’t necessarily need to buy one.
- Ships - none of which are anywhere near as good as DLC ships, so aren’t worth buying.
- Stickers - most DLC comes with stickers already, so you already have cosmetic elements.
- Premium Equipment - literally the only “useful” thing that the DLC doesn’t already give or make obsolete, but you can get gear just as good from the store, or better from drops.
If you take the DLC ships out of the DLC and make them available for Gold Standards, Gold Standards have value again.
Again, Jasan, that has very much to do with the Pirate Packs, so when we are talking DLC here, which do we actually mean?
I feel confused.
I add one however, which affected me:
- Corp Spendings - You have to also spend a lot of Gold for your corporation, which only affects a CEO of course
Also Premium Equipment does have a use for a while, especially for higher tiers, but of course, diminishes as you rank up in all loyalities (which does take its time). For anyone not caring about money, it might seem practical if he likes to equip around, and why not have a good money sink for the company, it’s good to have more pilots to shoot at in any way. I did use a bit of the DLC share to buy two or three which I would level last on my fav ship, but mainly, because of your point, there is not much to buy.
And finally the gamble button, which on accidental click also makes use of your gold standards in a way 
I have like 4k GS left, with no purpose. So I spend it on looting, only experimental drops mind you, but i use em anyway.
The Steam DLCs… well, a chunk of my points still apply there. I really feel like the DLC system devalues Gold Standards in a pretty negative way. I would much rather they push Gold Standards as the way to acquire everything you can’t get with in-game cash - from stickers and custom titles to ships and xp/loot bonuses. DLC could be a way to get a slightly better value for money way to acquire stuff. If they’re going to do what they are now - a Gold Standard bundle with exclusive stuff tied up in it - I would much rather those exclusives be purely cosmetic; stickers, skins, titles and so on. Not ships. Never ships.
I guess the communty is pretty divided about this.
In my eyes(And others) the DLC packs are fine
In yours(And others) the DLC packs are not fine
I’m not that sure we will ever find a good middle ground…
All I can say for now is:
We agree that we disagree!
I guess the communty is pretty divided about this.
In my eyes(And others) the DLC packs are fine
In yours(And others) the DLC packs are not fine
I’m not that sure we will ever find a good middle ground…
All I can say for now is:
We agree that we disagree!
But is there a reason you can’t do both?
Why not sell the DLC side by side with the Gold Standard versions? That pleases everyone - if you want the DLC, buy it. If you just want the ships and don’t want / need the rest, buy the ships on their own.
I agree to the point that there should be a better system to purchase the DLC content. I have been playing for a bit now, and the only thing I have purchased is GS for purposes of the license. I often sit there drooling for the opportunity to invest more money on a DLC pack to support the game, but once they break past the $50 point, I cant seem to justify the purchase. I unfortunately cannot offer a solution myself and more than agree with most of you that the system in place needs to be adjusted. To sum it up Gaijin, if you want more of my money…change something.
But is there a reason you can’t do both?
Why not sell the DLC side by side with the Gold Standard versions? That pleases everyone - if you want the DLC, buy it. If you just want the ships and don’t want / need the rest, buy the ships on their own.
Because DLC ships right now are balanced to be slightly better than GS/normal ships, because after all you bought the DLC.
Make the ships available through GS and they become P2W, And then will have to get nerfed to get them in place with their ranks counterparts. One of the reasons I buy the DLC packs is the ships that are just ever so slightly better, and all the other stuff in there. And I think that is one of the selling points of the packs right now.
Well the simple fact is we shouldn’t have ships that are better - either DLC vs Premium or Premium vs Free or even Free vs Free. We see this issue crop up time and again - Engineers are meant to be the Federation’s main ship, yet Hydra 2 and Cerberus 2 dominate their respective tiers. Why? Because someone, somewhere, didn’t balance the ships properly.
If anything, the DLC exclusivity is pay to win - you just have to pay a lot more. At least if you only had to pay £8 instead of £60 to fly a Desert Eagle or similar then it would, in theory, be balanced by the fact that you’d see more of those ships on each team.