Lowering the Barrier to Entry

Suggestions Levelling and Economy
21

The question is why does that 20 dollar ship have normal synergy associated with it if its already fully synergized? I seriously think that if they made it so that those ships create “100% FS” They will see a huge boom in player activity and sales. There is no logical sense why a PAID for ship does not help me in progress in a big way. They are all slightly worst then there crdit counter parts and there is no pay to win, only pay to grind less. 

 

 

You cannot be serious. T3 is a prime example of premium ships being supreme (which is perfectly fine for me, it’s not because they have more stats, just more “lucky” slot distribution).

 

And giving them 100% FS? That would be a bit too much. You can play a ship you like to play to level another you hate? You can, with 5/20% efficiency. I think that’s fair.

22

The question is why does that 20 dollar ship have normal synergy associated with it if its already fully synergized? I seriously think that if they made it so that those ships create “100% FS” They will see a huge boom in player activity and sales. There is no logical sense why a PAID for ship does not help me in progress in a big way. They are all slightly worst then there crdit counter parts and there is no pay to win, only pay to grind less. 

 

Oh gawd…that would be “pay to grind no moar”.

5-20k FS per decent match, depending on fleet strength and if you’re premium or not, i think that’s more than enough. Well frack it, i sometimes get 70k normal synergy with a premium. You want all of that to be actually free? And no repair costs? There would be no point in flying any other ship, ever, specially when we’ll get the T5 premiums. Ain’t you greedy? 

 

And what player activity boom are you talking about? Everyone would feel forced to play premium ships because of how effective they are. Then they’d get bored. I’d get bored. Everyone would leave a bit after your boom, bored to tears.

 

And you’re not even thinking of the P2W protests, they’d boom as well. They xxxxx now, imagine what they’d do if they heard of golden geese like that. 

 

Holy bananas, JPhack, what were you thinking? 

23

 

Holy bananas, JPhack, what were you thinking? 

 

Its the weekend, I just had a 3 pack of rolls…so yeah. 

24

beginners should be given a different set of objectives to keep interest and sense of achievement alive

 

problem we had and still do is people ranking up too fast and getting beat down too hard because they weren’t prepared

 

the grind is fine if it didnt affect gaming performance so much

 

right now everyone’s long term goal is end game and grind for purple is keeping people from being competitive there

 

having just one goal is what’s making the grind a big issue

 

if game designer could put in incremental goals that can shield beginners as they progress people wouldn’t feel the grind so much and might enjoy their stay

 

right now this game is suffering like all the other progression based MMO’s where you have the majority of the server playing catch up to the top 10%

 

and not many enjoy that race. most will give up.

 

lag, waiting times etc compounds the shittty experience even further

25

The grind may be too long, but the dedicated players will finish it.  I have not yet done so, but I hope to someday…maybe it’ll be in 5 years, but some day :stuck_out_tongue:

26

So right now we all know the game’s population is low, really low; like fit everyone in the same room at a conference low.  I’ve been doing what I can to get people into the game, trying to bring over the SA forums community, bringing IRL friends in, guys from other games.  They all have the same complaint, the grind is too long and there is no reasonable way to skip it or lessen the blow somewhat.

 

Ships are the big thing in this game, people want the next ship and when they get it that is a big achievement for a lot of people.  As it stands getting to the rank for Sector Conquest is kind of ridiculous.  Now I’m not going to say we should increase synergy gain or anything like that but rather we should make the premium ships actually help people gain progress and not hinder it.

 

As it stands having to pay to get synergy off of a premium ship after paying for the ship turns me off to the whole idea; or rather I should say the amount I have to pay is what turns me off.  I have 2 premiums I got before I learned about this little “feature” and they’re sitting in my hangars gathering dust now since there is no way in hell I’m going to pay you to use the ship I already paid for.

 

Now here is where my idea comes into play here, increase the amount of free synergy gained by 20% up to 40%.  Considering that the premium ships give you double synergy this would allow you to level another ship at an 80% rate without paying anything.  This would at least be passable for a starter but the second part is to make the synergy transfer rate 50% more efficient so in other words 225 synergy per every 1 GS.

 

This way people could still use the premiums to level other ships at a slightly reduced rate and it they really wanted to they could pay to get a larger synergy boost from them.  It would make the ships have some meaning to them and not just seem like a massive cash grab.  To offset some of the cost increase the license cost by 30% to 4000 up from 3000 GS for a month.  This would keep it below the 15 a month mark most other MMOs are at but  could still generate a small increase in overall revenue gained for the company to replace some of the “loss” of the synergy transfer changes.

 

I am a manager at a major retail outlet so I understand that there are many costs associated with running a business not to mention the servers this game requires.  I understand that in order to make something “cheaper” over here you need to make something more “expensive” over here.  However I also know when a company is just trying to suck as much profit as it can out of its customer base and the current form of premium ships is just that.

 

Anyway I’ve said my piece and given by 2 cents.  Rip this apart as you deem fit.

I don’t agree with the grind as I don’t want to have n00bs with SR800 and a couple hundred PvP battles to be the captain in T5.

The game is supposed to rank you up at the same speed you are getting better. Beginner need to understand that getting to the end of the ship line doesn’t win you anything and just try naturally progress without spending much/any money. And yes it takes time like in any other game.

 

I do agree that the premium ships should provide more benefits like more free synergy without breaking the synergy system for standard ships.

 

The main issue, IMO, is the lack of information for new players. Many new players don’t have the knowledge required to make informed decisions, such as what they can do to reduce grind, what’s worth their money, what they should spend in-game money and resources on, etc. 

Here are a few guides: [http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/forum/234-guides/](< base_url >/index.php?/forum/234-guides/)

You are welcome to add more.

27

Here are a few guides: [http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/forum/234-guides/](< base_url >/index.php?/forum/234-guides/)

You are welcome to add more.

 

I’m concerned that new players don’t know that information is available here. 

 

For now I’m still mainly playing T3, so I’ll hold off posting guides till I reach higher tiers.

28

I’ll hold off posting guides till I reach higher tiers.

 

basics apply to all

29

basics apply to all

 

The nuances of upper tier play would be lost on me. But I guess I could write introductory handbooks.

30

The problem is mainly that as Jaxcis has stated previously stated, there is no help for any new players really. When I joined there was even less, but yet when I started again with this profile I saw the same state in the lower tiers. The new players were obsessed with killing each other and only a few actually took notice of the objective, hence leading to the problem of tier rushers (mostly evident in engineers). I personally believe that each class should have a tutorial for when you purchase a new ship from a new class for a player as tier rushers are becoming more common in higher tiers. The next problem is grinding as was stated in the main post. To gain a new ship from above rank 8, a player will have to grind T3-5 pve for abouts 2-3 hours and this is with constant success and it can take even longer after T5, I was personally hoping that the grind would be reduced but unfortunately it has not. The contract lock until rank 2 is almost pointless because vouchers are needed to upgrade equipment which as I discovered is now vital in tier 1 due to some higher tier players wanting to rejoin the simplicity of tier 1, although the implant lock till rank 2 is understandable. Now to adress the last issue… Sector Conquest. Currently to enter it requires 3 Rank 11 ships which are extremely hard to obtain. In a previous update the minimum to enter was at least 3 tier 3 ships which proved to be much more successful as when that was happening a match could take only up to 1 minute. However I have not seen the current seen on Sector Conquest due to the minimum ship limit, as I do not own 3 ships over rank 11…

 

That’s my 2 derpy cents…

31

The grind may be too long, but the dedicated players will finish it.  I have not yet done so, but I hope to someday…maybe it’ll be in 5 years, but some day :stuck_out_tongue:

 

The grind is not that big…

32

The grind is not that big…

 

There are two problems with it.

  1. Kills. Too much rewards for killing each other. If you kill a lot of people you will get a ton of synergy and credits, while simply winning for your team does not grant the same amount.

  2. The advancement is (almost) linear. If you put in double time, you will get double results, this is only mitigated a little by the first win bonus. This is impossible to balance, those who play a lot will get bored with nothing to unlock, those who play a couple matches every day will not reach T5 in a meaningful time.

33
  1. The advancement is (almost) linear. If you put in double time, you will get double results, this is only mitigated a little by the first win bonus. This is impossible to balance, those who play a lot will get bored with nothing to unlock, those who play a couple matches every day will not reach T5 in a meaningful time.

 

That “problem” (if you want to call it one) exists in any game with progression elements. Some games actually address it by limiting how far you can advance within a certain time frame (typically making you pay to lift the barrier), but what does that actually solve? I don’t even see the problem in the first place.

34

That “problem” (if you want to call it one) exists in any game with progression elements. Some games actually address it by limiting how far you can advance within a certain time frame (typically making you pay to lift the barrier), but what does that actually solve? I don’t even see the problem in the first place.

 

Some people say the grind is too hard. Some people have nothing to do with their resources. This shouldn’t be the case.

Theres a function that links effort to reward. If you squeeze the reward range smaller, these problems go away. To stay fair, you would need some logarithmic function.

35

The grind is not that big…

 

I was making an exaggeration for dramatic effect  ;)wt

36

Some people say the grind is too hard. Some people have nothing to do with their resources. This shouldn’t be the case.

Theres a function that links effort to reward. If you squeeze the reward range smaller, these problems go away. To stay fair, you would need some logarithmic function.

 

I don’t see what any of that has to do with fairness. Say someone has a free day and wants to spend it playing Star Conflict to unlock a couple of ships, while his friend has a working day and can put in 30 minutes of play in the evening. So if I understand you correctly you’d think it more fair if the guy playing all day could not get further ahead than the guy putting in 30 minutes?

37

I don’t see what any of that has to do with fairness. Say someone has a free day and wants to spend it playing Star Conflict to unlock a couple of ships, while his friend has a working day and can put in 30 minutes of play in the evening. So if I understand you correctly you’d think it more fair if the guy playing all day could not get further ahead than the guy putting in 30 minutes?

 

That’s not what i said. Right now, if guy X puts in double the effort, he will get double the rewards. That causes that some people with lots of free time will run out of things to strive for.

What i suggested was simply diminishing rewards. The more you play, the less you get from the play, but obviously you always get something.

38

So basically by forcing players to play less (if they want to progress) you think you’ll get better retention? Allow me to have my doubts … active players are an important asset that we need more of, not artificially limit them.

39

I’m staying due to the presence of the open world… as I am kind of an explorer and wish to see the world that lies behind the battlefield. Maybe I will find more people like me who won’t kill on sight.

40

So basically by forcing players to play less (if they want to progress) you think you’ll get better retention? Allow me to have my doubts … active players are an important asset that we need more of, not artificially limit them.

 

Where did you see this in my text? I just said that there is too much difference between the casual and the hardcore player. If you can’t hold both (too much grind vs too small content), you won’t be successful.