I don’t know how many players here have tried Hawken. I have, and personally the game gets dull rather quickly. But there is one thing they did that I found to be really interesting: their mech’s visual customization.
Rather than resorting to excessive grinding of reputation, loyalty, and credits to slow down player progress and add longevity to Star Conflict, why not expand the options available for players to spend their buckets of credits on?
I’m speaking of additional end-game content expansions and visual upgrades. Stuff that doesn’t affect actual gameplay, but is fun or pretty.
Right now Star Conflict has half the tiers of World of Tanks and even fewer ship choices. This can easilly be expanded by making ships modular, much like Hawken mechs. If a player doesn’t like the default wings of their Deimos 2, they can spend credits to swap them out for another wing design. Don’t like the red glow of your Jericho frigate’s engines? Pay some credits, and you can change them to Federation blue! Want a sleeker body for your Federation fighter? No problem!
Certain visual customizations could even be locked until the relevant achievement is unlocked on the player’s profile, thus letting players visually show off their achievements. I’m thinking special camoflage patterns or elite parts. Congratulation! You reached max loyalty for Raid? Here’s a special Jericho camo pattern with gold-accents!
Or for that matter, why not continue adding tiers of ships? World of Tanks goes up to 10, so why can’t we go up to 11! They don’t all have to be ready by the time the game is out of beta. Content updates are exciting! And they help you keep your player-base interested.
In conclusion, there are so many more possibilities for expanding the longevity of a game besides stretching the grind between levels to mind-numbing proportions. Please consider making credits and loyalty rewards less harsh and instead adding some more content to your game.
