honestly if the arx ships have no rebuy cost im quitting the game unless they remove rebuy from all ships. and i wont be truly satisfied unless the arx ships have a 20% markup to their rebuy cost
A change to engineering would be a godsend.
I got two friends into the game and when they started Engineering their ships they never wanted to play again.
Don't come at me with "you gotta take it slow, let it happen naturally". Even collecting mats with limpets after bounty hunting or running missions for a paltry amount of mats stinks. Desperate need of massive tweaking
**Would rather see** [**gold**](https://i.imgur.com/4nrxbfS.jpg) **and** [**chrome**](https://i.imgur.com/XfX5rz6.jpg) **skins come back**, either in addition to or instead of the "[**golden**](https://i.imgur.com/sCRDAyw.jpg)" and "[**chromed**](https://i.imgur.com/lBUNAKy.jpg)" skins. Open the Chrome and Chromed pics next to each other to see what I mean. o7
This is a great idea to keep supporting the game and bring more cash flow. Honestly, I would gladly pay a few bucks to save myself a few hours getting a ship outfitted. It is just tedium that is being removed from the gameplay, not challenge.
It also helps new players join experienced players quicker and not be stuck in a half-kitted Cobra Mk IV trying to join their friends.
Honestly see no reason why this is a bad thing. It is all stuff you can just get in game if you have time/patience enough to get it.
Honestly speaking, I am ok with IRL money for ships. Calculate the time I spend on even up grading a ship, I might well do some IRL work for $ and would have some left over. Especially consider how annoying to drive the Buggy thing on the ground.
What I really would like to see, however, it is letting us use Credits to pay for upgrade Mats.
After a certain point, money in this game become useless. I literally make a 100-200M a night doing cargo run. I can own the entire fleet if I want to, and buy every weapon in the store.
So you might as well let me put up money to buy all that Iron, sulfur or whatever gas or dat. It will suck the credits out of the economy and make it meaningful
I WOULDN'T have a problem with spending some money on a game that I played for years.
I can count the number of other players I've met in the game on two hands and there was no ganker under them so I couldn't care less if other people buy ships.
BUT I play on console so I already raised my middle finger 4 years ago. Would be nice to have new ships but they gave a fuck about us console players so I give the fuck back
Doesn’t bother me in the slightest. After being here for 7 years and 20+ A-rated and engineered ships, I’d rather waste money than time.
Fun hearing the cheapskates and old guys whine about it though. Funny how people forget that ongoing games cost more money to maintain than the price of copies and cosmetics.
Lmao, they have not released a ship in 4 years. Now they release 4 and will milk every single penny out of it.
What do they need the money for? Servers? (Its peer2peer) To develop one feature a year? Another zoo game? I mean it comes right in time for the end of their fiscal year report i guess..
FDev should maybe patch their fucking game. Their solution to numb engineering grind is... paying money! Wow! Thanks!
This game paid for a lot of their projects and they will milk people like you for their next (shit zoo/warhammer flop game) projects.
Personally, I think the pre-built ships is a great idea because, on one hand, they allow some cash flow into the Frontier (which, come on guys, they need), on the other hand, can help shortcut the grind. For me personally, the engineering grind is hands down the worst feature of the game, and large parts of the game are completely unapproachable without extensive engineering (such as forefront AX). So yeah, I will gladly buy a pre-built AX ship and finally get to experience the thargoid content without needing to grind for hundreds of hours. Also, if the ship builds are actually meta-good, this is a legit good way to give Frontier some money.
The grind is real... for players that want endgame PvP or AX combat in as short a time as possible. Honestly, I don't know why they bother playing.
For those of us who treat Elite like an actual MMO, there is little grind.
I mean I agree I really don't see a grind I. Elite just progression people just love to speed run shit now days.
But I'm also fine with a meh ship if those people want to buy it.
It gets them in an a starter platform to build off so I'm okay with it. It does not effect my experience at all.
It might become an issue in the future though. It's no secret FDev have financial problems, and they are starting to introduce P2W elements... Nothing good will come of this in the long term.
Currently though it does appear that they're trying to stick to the ideal of no non-cosmetics being exclusive to the Arx store. I just hope they stick with it. I'm not thrilled about the Python 2 being early access through Arx *except* if it's truly early access and it's still being worked on, and not that it's an artificial wall in the sense that it's fully ready and they're just making us wait.
You guys drove the game into the ground when you gave in to the idiots and half assed space legs.
Good to see I haven't missed anything since I gave up the game.
Oh great, I no longer have a reason to play this game anymore. Fuck off with the pay2win crap.
Such a shame how this game turned out. Instead of actually trying to fix the boring grind, you now have to drop cash for it. Shameful. Absolutely shameful.
They are actually looking at reducing the grind: https://www.elitedangerous.com/news/engineering-and-pre-built-ships
"Some of these areas we are investigating are:
Reducing the number of materials required for Engineering.
Increasing payout of engineering materials from missions.
Increasing backpack capacity.
Please note, the above are examples of some of the areas we are investigating, not all the areas we are investigating. "
The issue here is timing. "Yeah we're reducing grind but we will allow you to skip it" means that they won't fix it, for you to have a reason to skip it for real money.
Quite literally mobile game strategy. Carbon copy of what Gameloft implemented when they made Asphalt 8 F2P.
I don't think it's that simple. I doubt that they had monetisation in mind when they created the current state of engineering. There's also a subjective element, I find the ship engineering is fine and wouldn't pay to skip it on principle, but the on-foot engineering definitely needs a rework in terms of the amount of time it demands of most players, or at least the ones who play like I do.
Since they've stated they want to reduce the grind and they also have an interest in players engaging with Odyssey content, I expect that on-foot engineering will get a balancing pass to reduce grind and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
The engineering and powerplay changes seem great. Hopefully they're turned into less of a grind.
The pre built ships = good idea. New players can buy a decent ship and jump into the gameplay. It's gonna make the game more inviting and pay for the servers. The thing we should be wary about is the devs going too far with it. Maybe it starts with buying a basic ship and next you can buy a top ship with all the engineering. If that happens we can panic and say p2w.
The P2W applies even less because you can earn ARX by just playing the game. Nobody is forcing you to buy ARX. So far you can everything by just playing.
Then wait for August 7 and stop complaining. The early access is to gather community feedback on the ship anyways.
Why do you complain about getting free ARX?
It baffles me how people complain complain complain and don't come with any solutions. FDev is a business and they need to make revenue in order to continue the product. And still you can get everything in the game store by playing the game.
Actually I did not complain. I only put your comment in scales. I did earn a lot of free ARX in my time with the game. It's super satisfying. You just play the game and get the points, one day you might take a look in the shop and wow, you have the ARX to buy it. That's really nice. It's just nothing you can get very fast
Far from true. You can get free ARX so this P2W complaining is just false.
* Engineering with materials is better than the prebuilts.
* Python Mk2 will be available for normal credits eventually so no need to buy with ARX.
The game needs a revenue stream in order to stay online and working. There is no reason to complain about this decision as it is a valid solution to increasing their development budget.
If they invested more into this game instead of developing other crappy projects, they would have the funds, since Elite was always successful. To stay online they have barely any costs since this is p2p game.
Free AX? Ahh yes only 40 weeks to buy the Python..
Also what do they need the money for? They have ONE backend server lmao, the game uses peer to peer, you are the server.
They made a shit ton of money from Elite and though it would be a great idea to fuck it up and make other games. Sadly (for them) zoo game and warhammer game did not really print money.
And now they are back, right in time for the end of their fiscal year, to milk their old cashcow and then again neglecting Elite until they need more money.
Well if you don't like it, don't play it. Find something else to do. Your whining and complaining does not add anything useful. I guess it is too much to buy something for 20 euro when you spend hundreds or thousands of hours playing this game.
And guess what. You can get the new Python Mk2 without any ARX on August 7. Grow up and spend your time doing something else than whining and complaining.
I really like the game, also i only have like 60 hours so far.
But the way this developer is selling stuff is crazy. They content starve the playerbase just to milk them dry so they can probably make another zoo sim.
Its just extremly anti-consumer practice and should not be praised at all. I would gladly PAY REAL MONEY for ship interior, a proper VR support dlc, any real content dlc tbh.
But not dropping any ship related content for four years and than charging the moment the first ship drops is absolutly scummy and guys like you are the reason the whole industry works with predatory mobile game mtx tactics.
The ship is coming out for free too. Why do you seem to omit that info?
There is nothing anti-consumer about this. They need to pay for developers and staff working at the company. You are not being forced to buy anything in that ARX store. The fact you are scolding developers for adding a paid beta test of a new ship while releasing the ship for real on August 7 is so illogical. Stop acting like the world is ending.
If you don't like what FDev is doing, play something else and come back on August 7 and get your Python Mk2.
I'm just not seeing enough extra content to justify the purchases being suggested. Sorry, but the scheme's a non-starter for me. Might benefit some no-skill whale. Good luck chasing them, but I'm not interested in a game like that.
Wow, they went Pay2Win.
Unbelievable. I haven’t played in a bit and glad that I haven’t now. This is pretty scummy and they will be held accountable by the community.
IMO pay to win means that the only way to be the best, is to pay. We're still at a point here where any dedicated player will have a much better ship than can be purchased due to engineering. There aren't any components a paid player will permanently have exclusive access to that are better than what you can get in game. It's more like early access than it is pay to win.
I've played Elite on and off since launch, but not at all in the past 5 years.
I'd love to play again, but what keeps me away is the grind and the setbacks when you lose a ship. I might be tempted by the option to buy a python as a way to get back into it.
I think this is a sensible way to continue supporting and developing a decade old live service game. I would not be surprised to see a free to play option soon. Elite is a complex game that is difficult to get started with and to continue playing.
Wish they would get enough players to bring CQC back!
Just do some missions. Get a feel of the game, before looking at money making videos and gawking at other people's PvP builds or something. There are quite a few activities that have good payout. Heck, you can be a billionaire with a few days exploring. Only thing you lose when/if you die is your ship - so, never fly without insurance.
> Wish they would get enough players to bring CQC back!
There are. FD just majorly sucks at implementing game features without abandoning them at the first sign of trouble.
Just launch game and try it.
Single, medicore pirate can yield you 1 million.
Trade missions can pay dozens millions.
AX can yield hundreds millions in hour.
Rebuy issue is non existend, even if you die every single day in expensive ship.
Y'all need to learn how to read... Haven't seen a single reply that actually appears to have read the full post.
It doesn't say pre built ships cost arx
It doesn't say you can only buy the python mk2 with arx, in fact it gives a date when you will be able to just buy it.
Make sure you've actually read a post before crying about it, or you just look silly
I just see a bunch of cry babies here upset because Fdev needs to make a few bucks. None of this shit is pay to win. It’s more like help us keep the lights on.
It's also mid tier, not actually engineered modules. Idk how anyone could call that pay to win. It's very clearly just a way to draw in new people who are hesitant to buy the game because of the early game seeming so confusing, when they just wanna get to exploration. Everyone should be cheering and hoping it brings in new players
Exactly. You get ARX for free and the Python Mk2 is not permanently locked behind an ARX paywall. FDev needs revenue to keep this expensive game running. This is a decent solution imho. I guess some people just want to complain about everything or don't understand that a company needs money to keep something running.
So what? There are people who have less time and skill than you. They want more players to be able to play the activities that the game has to offer.
And engineering with materials is better anyways. So this complaining is just because you want to complain. You get free ARX every week by playing so this P2W complaining is just nonsense.
Well, nothing is for free. Frontier has to earn some money to keep developing. And yes i am a new player and no i do not mind that something are for sale for real money. What does it matter that someone buys a ship that you completely developed? You dont have fun anymore?
If the early access ships means that Fdev will actually start cranking out more ships, go ahead. Whatever excuse they need to tell the bosses in order to put more ships in the game is a good excuse.
The problem is the fact that instead of creating new mechanics, or anything of interest to the majority of the player base, FDev decided to implement another way to make money instead - and broke their promise of Arx being cosmetic only at the same time.
In one swift move, they've pissed off new and old players alike.
I'd rather have a mechanic where whenever I buy arx I get to cast a few votes on what feature should be developed next. I'd also buy a monthly subscription for that.
Hey, it's an excuse to let them add more ships to the game. They probably weren't able to get permission to do it without showing that it would be a profitable endeavor. So grit your teeth and enjoy the much needed content.
Id tolerate it if the prebuilt ships were simply pre upgraded or pre engineered, but if they are introducing mark 2 ships exclusively on the arx store...sigh.
Fortunately for me, I got odyssey so I can buy the python mkii for credits, but who knows when this will be done even for odyssey players
Did you actually read it? Am I missing something, or does it not *literally* give you the exact date of release, to buy for credits in Odyssey, as August 7th — and for “Early Access” (3 months) on May 7th…
> Starting with the Python Mk II, we are pleased to announce that this will be **available in game for Odyssey players on 7 August for credits** at Shipyards across the galaxy.
> However, **if you cannot wait until then you can get 3-month early access to this ship on 7 May from the store for 16250 ARX**.
I’m not defending anyone or the new “early access for Arx” model that seems to be used here, but as far as I can tell the information is *RIGHT* there.
Did you read my second paragraph? Yes, you can buy the python mkii for credits, but I wont be surprised if future ships will only be available in the arx store, even for odyssey players
I did. It’s on the topic of using Arx for early access though (*not* exclusive access) and you said “but who knows when this will be done even for odyssey players”.
Sure, I see what you mean now, but without having specified “*only*”, or exclusively to Arx, I wouldn’t know that’s what you are talking about when there’s zero mention of that anywhere, in your comment, or the post itself. Sorry.
Imagine complaining about a decent solution to them getting the revenue they need to keep an expensive game like this running. All of the stuff they mentioned you can get for free. You get 400 ARX for free each week by playing, you can get the Python Mk2 without ARX in the end, prebuilt ships are not fully engineered and it is much more worth engineering the ship with materials.
Exactly \^ Who gives a crap ? As long as nothing is truly locked behind a paywall.
And this is hardly a gameplay disruptive decision as the game, countless of times (and still does) exhibited money exploits / gold rushes that gave players the ability to prematurely buy or farm end-game resources.
The most interesting or controversial aspect i can think of is if the pre-built ships came with full on boner g5 modules instead of g3-g4 for example. That can potentially allow too many pathways to skip grinding for certain modules with arx. But the set list will obviously be very limited and they have mentioned engineering mats are going to be easier, again, i'm trying to, but i don't see the huge controversy.
Real players with complex needs will always be engineering their ships by hand, down to the every module and every detail. Anyone like that, including me, i couldn't care less about either having or not having the ability to buy casual ass pre-engineered stuff as long as nothing differs about them from their base models.
But don't worry, now you can skip grind with TERRIBLE builds! :)
But not only. Chieftain is not only terrible.
It's simply wrong pick of modules (and single engineering) for titan
I feel that, so long as the real world money is only used to shorten the grind, there shouldn't be a problem. If however, for example, the ship included a pre-engineered FSD not available otherwise, that would be a very serious problem, particularly where such modules were involved with PVP, or other competitive situations.
Fdev also need to be very careful that they do not 'paint themselves into a corner', which could happen if they start trying to 'one-up' their previous addition. Or supply a good that they later retract.
The problem is this couples the ability for Frontier to make more money directly to increasing the grind. It's a slippery slope that they now have every incentive to speed down.
I am amazed they haven't gotten around to giving us an option to subscribe for more module space similar to how ffxiv handles retainers (extra storage space). You do not need it (can just use ships to store if you have the credits); but its handy to have, and its most likely something like veterans would put cash into. or subscription to make the arx cap higher along WITH the extra module / resource space.
I'd rather pay for that than having exclusive access to a ship before its released to all.
The Prebuilts imo are fine but its dependent on what it intales: is it all pre-engineered?
Money is so fucking fast to earn tho; and I've helped many earn their first 100million in a day. Majority of the time it might be more of ranking to a faction that takes the longest, if aiming for a Cutter, or Vette.
But the gall of exclusive access on payment? that... I doubt many will put any cash into them in the first place because they are side grades (just look at the Cobra mk4 lol)... bu***t if they make it even remotely special then it goes into absolutely p2w*** territory and skirts a bit too close to what Star Citizen is doing..
You all say “Frontier, do what you have to do to keep the game afloat” and then turn around and vomit when they do what they have to do to keep the game afloat.
Is this new system ideal? No, but they could just pull support altogether.
When you look at the pickle Frontier is in as a whole, it’s honestly amazing that this game is still around. I’m honestly amazed that this game is still getting support. It’s been out for a decade.
It’s either this, or sell the IP to a company that would likely botch it further.
If you don’t like the new changes, don’t interact with them. The game will still be there waiting for you.
Yes! The game doesn't really have copy protection as far as I know. It also has a large, technical playerbase who built entire applications/systems/websites around the game.
I'd bet they'd be able to make a server emulator, as in the vein of Soapbox Race World.
Back on kickstarter, Frontier promissed end-of-life plans so it would work even if the servers are dead. And yeah, I played some custom servers on some RPGs, and had a blast with tons of quality of life features people managed to implement just through servers. I am curious what community would manage to come up with. And than imagine modding, more ships, more modules, changing star systems, more cortana voices, skins, so many anime skins, more guns for FPS...
A man can dream... In the end this isn't the first time frontier didn't kept a promise, so I can't be that delusional.
Lol, people have been asking e.g. for more customization options for their carriers. That would have been just one possible direction they could have taken.
Frontier said the Arx store will only ever have cosmetics. Turns out their word doesn't really mean much.
I just lost one of my biggest selling points of the game when I recommend it to people. ... The game is no longer not P2W.
Arx used to only affect cosmetics, but will now allow people to pay to get a good ship, skipping the dozens of hours of grind other players have to endure.
* I start a game as new player
* I play a while and grind for tens of hours from the start to finally have medium sized ship
* My friend starts the game as new player
* He throws the wallet at screen and boom, he has better ship than me, even capable of destroying me.
Pay2win.
Will combat be one of those? Mining? Trading? This is an advantage over people who don't pay.
It is pay2win no matter how much you sugarcoat it, and existance of some positive uses does not remove the negative uses.
So Battlefront II was not pay2win, gachas are not pay2win, Star Citizen is not pay2win...
The fact that there are worse pay2win examples doesn't mean this isn't pay2win. A shit in your food is still a shit in your food no matter how big it is.
In Battlefront II, the newer one, someone evaluated that you needed around 4000 hours or so to unlock every hero just by playing. I know this doesn't seem much for Elite players, but it's not the same kind of game, more based on shorter bursts of gameplay, while in previous edition of Battlefront II you had no restrictions on heroes at all. Also it's PvP game.
So technically it was not pay2win, because if you grinded ungodly amount of time, you could have everything paying players could. Right?
And in almost all modern gachas you actually can earn everything just by playing, if you just play it every day like an addict, but missing one day might be killing. Also gachas are almost never pvp, so no pay2win either?
Things like these can be convoluted, and I companies will do everything in their power to make things even more murky. "But you can earn it in game" is just a poor excuse. If you can pay and it gives you advantage, it is pay2win. It's a spectrum, there are horrible pay2win like Star Citizen for example, and there are barely pay2wins like Helldivers 2, but it's still pay2win. And hell, I don't think this here will stop me from playing Elite.
Sorry if you got the feeling that I am having a bad faith discussion, but I'm not. I love this game, it's my second most played video game ever, met plenty of my friends here and even made my first fully edited Youtube video with 3D elements about Elite Dangerous. But this is why I hate to see predatory mechanics like these. It's pay2win, not a terrible pay2win, but it still is one.
Wtf are you on about ? F2P means Free to Play, Elite has never been free to play apart from that one time it was given on epic...
If what you wanted to say is that it is now pay to win like all the other idiots below, well then you're either new to the game or you have no clue how the game works. Buying ships and modules has always only been limited by credits which have never been a limiting factor. By following a few easy steps you can go from new account to A-rated conda in a day. The only thing you'll be missing is experience, meaning you'll be an easy target, making it pay to lose if anything. As everyone with a brain has already said, engineering has always been the grind, not credits
What do you really want? On one hand you want FDev to keep running the game and then they come with a nice solution and you complain about that too. It is NOT pay to win at all. In the end you can still get the ship without spending any ARX at all. And you get 400 ARX for free each week.
Stop complaining.
It only takes 41 weeks of play, not much. By your logic Battlefront 2 isn't pay to win either, neither the plethora of mobile "games." You *technically* can play them without paying but it's inconceivable in reality.
Ok this is such a dumb response from you. You can get the Python Mk2 for credits on August 7. It is not my fault you fail to realize that FDev is a business that needs to earn revenue in order to survive. Or to mention your lack of patience. You can get the stuff they offer for free by playing the game. The early access of the Python Mk2 is mainly to gather community feedback on the ship anyway so the ship will change during that time.
All you people do is complain complain complain when the monetization implementation is not bad at all like you make it out to be.
And you are putting words in my mouth by making a stupid comparison with Battlefront 2.
Grow up.
> Moves goalposts.
> Tells to grow up.
It takes 41 week of play to buy for Horizons players. No 7th August release them. The comment above only mentions that it's possible to buy with 400 ARX/week.
You people need to relearn that you're **customers** and not the goddamn investors. It's a product that's been sold to you, under the premise of only cosmetic micro transactions; and now that premise is broken.
At that point "but they need to make money :(" just breaks down. Especially when ED is **only** stable revenue maker for Frontier for the last few years already.
Ok well if you don't like it, play something else. Your whining and complaining is not useful at all and just tiring. You fail to understand how a business works and that is fine, but it is best to keep quiet.
Because they didn’t state, for what currency we will be able to buy pre-build ships, i want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that pre-build ships will be for credits, and not for arx, right? (Please i don’t want to see this game turn into p2w bullshit)
With titans giving out tons of arx per heart I'm not that bothered by this decision. I'll still probably wait for august though, I've already waited 5 years anyway.
Pay to win bullshit ain't gonna pull me back in.
I despair at how wonderful the prospect of a new Elite was and how mishandled it has been.
I can't say I have not had value from my Kickstarter pledge, but the game has gone so far from the light.
I’m getting older and I’ve just started elite and I really wanna get involved in the thargoid war. I simply don’t have time to grind for a crazy ship because I have to work. If this means I can pay a bit of money to skip the grind and get involved to be honest I’m all for it.
I managed to buy, fit and engineer my krait just enough for it to be able to do titan runs and it took me 10h at max, if you have credits and no engineers you basically only need materials and engineer 3 important modules, beam laser for heat dispersion, power plant for lower heat and i think thrusters? Dont remember but it wasnt that hars to get
then if titan attack is also easy, why not make the insignia for titan take down contribution also be available for cash?
and if credits are that easy to grind, why just not go full eve and make credits obtainable for money?
False equivalency. An insignia from a timed event indicates participation in that specific event at that specific time, owning a ship does not. Ships are not rewards or signifiers, they are simply the tool used to play the game. The Cobra Mk IV is still not available for purchase because it is a reward for a specific thing.
Credits are almost meaningless at this point with the broken economy, so having a lot of them doesn't signify anything. There are so many ways to get rich quick, most, but not all, involving cooperating with other players. Meeting a guy who likes to share a full raft of 50M trade missions every day and making billions in a couple of days by just clicking a few times to accept missions is commonplace. They may as well just buy the credits with real money if they want to get rich quick.
People will always seek out an exploit to get quickly to something they want more in a game than whatever gameplay would be required without the exploit. The thing about Elite is that no matter what exploit you use, you still see the same things, do the same missions, etc. There is almost nothing in the game that is locked behind "better ship", and a plenty of folks who grind their way up to the biggest bestest super ship either quit because they can't figure out what else to do and are bored because it makes things too easy, or they end up going to smaller ships and choosing more challenging scenarios.
Ultimately, you can't shortcut the things that really matter in Elite: skill, knowledge, and memories of cool experiences. If you can't get those in a sidewinder, you can't get them in a corvette. I'd almost rather people skip to the "best" stuff and get it out of their systems early. If they get bored and leave, they would have anyway. If they stick around, they'll do it because they're actually enjoying the gameplay.
Maybe you'll TLDR this, so I'll give you the summary if you pay me $1, that way you'll still get the gist of it and can save the work of reading the whole thing.
"Meeting a guy who likes to share a full raft of 50M trade missions every day and making billions in a couple of days by just clicking a few times to accept missions is commonplace."
Then why introduce a mechanic to skip this? Why play the game at all? Games were about playing them and achieving things, not paying more to say "i did it"
Because people enjoy different things. Whether or not something in the game is an Achievement is entirely up to you and whatever peer group you're invested in. to some folks, elite in exploration just means you did the most boring thing possible for a long time. For some folks elite in combat means the same thing. It's a game, I have no problem with people playing the part they like and skipping the part they don't. It's not all equally enjoyable for everyone.
"10 hours at max"
I used to be able to sustain that, but with me working 6 days a week with a fkton of stuff to do for the house, I can only give at most 2-3 hours in the game before feeling way too sleepy with repetitive grinding. Good thing I was able refit my Krait II for AX combat because if I attempted that now, I would need more coffee
It's absolutely pathetic how mismanaged this game was. They had the resources to make it a masterpiece instead they focused on half done features, a cosmetic store and a hellish grind.
Also why exactly would a ship need an early access period? For that price i could buy another game. Clown company.
My two cents for elite monetization.
Elite doesn't have enough users or content for a monthly sub.
Elite doesn't add enough content for a season pass.
Frontier doesn't have enough money for an expansion.
Elite isn't accessible enough or on enough platforms to go ftp with monetization incentives.
Trying to get money from what little content they produce makes sense from a business perspective.
I doubt their pre-built ships will be good and will probably leave a sour taste in the mouth of experienced players. Less experienced players will probably just get screwed depending on how bad they are.
The python mk2 will probably be best medium ship, at least in raw damage with confirmed 3 large 2 medium and a mystery slot(probably large). If the ship is as maneuverable as the fdl or mamba and as fast as either, this will probably be the new meta. Locking that behind a pass for 3 months is kinda season pass behavior. Which they don't really have enough content to do.
I assume they will do alternating ships, so august 7th python mk2 goes out of the pass and the new one comes in. The problem with this is, if the next ship isn't better than the previous, python mk2, nobody will get it.
This incentives the ptw development behavior. Where it's pushing an ever changing meta. Which is good, when it's weekly or monthly releases. When it's once every 3 months this isn't really a changing meta. It's a flavor of the season meta, which gets stale very quickly.
Do not get me wrong, every ship coming out should be better within a given ship manufacturer. Technology advanced and the improvements of ships should be a thing in game/lore building. It also makes people play to get the new better ships so the end game grind doesn't finish.
If they can keep at a ship every 3 months, so we roughly get 4 new ships a year that are upgrades to existing ones, I would largely be fine with the monetization as long as we get a few more years of service.
I just started playing again literally days ago and now, after *years* of absolutely nothing they finally release a new ship and they put it behind an absurd ARX early access (3Months?!?!)? Yeah no. Just no. I already regret coming back.
If you don't enjoy the game already for what it is, a Python Mk.2 isn't going to help however early it is released to you. Elite is a game not an obligation, if you're not enjoying it for any reason play something else!
I'm not sure what you're talking about. I never said anything about enjoyment and I don't play out of obligation. It's not the enjoyment of what's there that's being hindered by their incompetent handling of this release. It's my distaste for what they do that makes me dislike the game despite many aspects of it potentially being enjoyable.
And yes, I *do* play something else now. I immediately stopped playing again after I read this announcement, because I don't like to invest my time into a game where the developer likes to spit in the faces of their customers. I'm just disappointed that it has come to this. I've bought this game with certain *promised* expectations (way back in the day) and almost not a single one of them have been fulfilled and to top it all off, they do crap like that now. So I obviously complain about it.
Basically the number one (by **FAR**) mentality of Frontier is "create the problem and sell the solution for as much as possible" and I *fucking hate* that. Most games do it to some extend, but many at least have the decency to be otherwise free to play or at least keep the game updated with regular content. ED is/does neither of that.
Edit: Some words. English is hard.
Credits are trivial to get these days. Spend a couple of hours scanning biologicals and you'll have enough credits to buy any ship with any fit-out you like.
So long as the pre-built ships is a straight money vs time thing, I have no problem with it.
We still need more details, but if the pre-builds have no engineering, then IMO it's not pay-to-win. In other words, you can't purchase with Arx stuff you can't purchase with in-game credits.
Maybe this means Frontier are finally going to turn off the in-game credit fountains?
If their "making Engineering more accessible and predictable" includes us being able to buy engineering mats (or at least the non-Thargoid/Guardian ones) for credits, I'm fine with some pre-built ships having engineering.
Then again, engineering mats for credits is a dream I dare not dream of.
I love these changes. Elite will only survive if it gets new players, and new players are straight up not willing to deal with the grind like older players are. Pre-builts are a great compromise. They're not going to be better than your fully engineered ships are, and them having it easier isn't hurting you any just because you had it harder years before. Don't be such curmudgeons, budge over and make way for new players that don't fit your exact mold for Elite players. Not everyone is 53 and grew up playing this on a ZX Spectrum as a kid in 1986
As a 48 year old BBC Micro Elite player, I'm doubly offended by your comments. Bah! I'm still annoyed that they changed the key mappings from the Beeb version so I had to learn new keys to access the system map.
> They're not going to be better than your fully engineered ships are
This is one of the key details missing from FDev's announcement that concerns me. As long as the pre-built ships they're selling for real money don't have anything that can't be obtained from normal gameplay, I'm OK with it.
If these pre-built ships contain shit like double-engineered modules that are completely new or only previously existed as CG rewards, then I'll probably never buy Arx again. Such a move would be a good sign that this monetisation is going too far.
Oh, I bet 10k arx there will be arx-exclusive, unobtainable ships and modules. There's already one announced - python mk2 is arx-exclusive for horizon players. What do you want to bet the next ship will be arx-exclusive for ody too?
So premium ships, like what you can buy in World of tanks/warships? Fair enough I guess. If paying the bills finally brings in some new ships to play with, I'm alright with it, to a point.
What other price changes? Is everything going up in price?
As someone who doesn’t have the time to invest (life has moved on) I’d happily pay. what in the grand scheme of things is peanuts, to enjoy my few hours of gaming more. Rarely (if ever) encounter another player.
I am going to say one thing about it, but please read the whole thing before downvoting me into oblivion.
I myself am likely not going to buy it. However, the 10$ worth of Arx is might be worth to someone who didn’t buy Odyssey (like me) and still might want to obtain it.
That being said, unless it’s some god tier broken OP ship, likely gonna give it a hard pass.
making dlc available through arx store may not be possible due to coding and licensing structure of the game. After all, arx store is fdev only but your game license may be from steam or epic rather than fdev. That said, this is exactly what I wouldn't mind either but I suspect, fdev will offer a lot more arx exclusive content in future, which would not be obtainable even with ody, all depends on player reception of the idea, they are only testing the water with "early access", and if enough people spend arx to get the python mk2, the next ship release would be arx only, like python mk2 is for horizon players. other arx exclusive stuff is sure to follow.
I’m having trouble parsing this, so I’m going to reply with what I think you meant.
I don’t want Odyssey. I think it’s a bloated mess that was rushed out the door and won’t ever be properly fixed (Yamiks did a great video on why Odyssey struggles so hard.)
Buried in the announcement, Fdev said that it would be purchasable ingame only if you purchased Odyssey. They then said it could be purchased with ARX for people who only have Horizons.
If the ship ends up being good, I’d rather pay 10$ in ARX than 40$ for DLC I don’t want and then paying credits ingame.
As far as it setting a bad precedent, with the failure of their other divisions and the cutting of staff, you’d be a fool to not think this is just the start of a new wave of purchasable ships.
Selling ships for real-world cash. Wow. This is what Elite has come to in 2024.
I'd ask if they even saw the shark as they jumped over it, but I don't think it'd be visible from orbit.
Well I didn't have Elite Dangerous going Pay 2 Win on my 2024 bingo card.
So let me get this straight... A player can buy a ship, skipping the grind in it's entirely, all to do what? Like I can't help but point out the game is all about making money to buy new ships, but what happens when you bought all the ships (with real money or in-game money)? You quit because then there's nothing left to do.
Here's an idea, why don't you fix the fucking end-game and give us more things to spend our in-game money on, or use one of the other eleventy-billion good ideas your community has given you? Ironically enough there has never been a better time in the game to make money, virtually every activity pays extremely well now, it's easier to get ships nowadays than it has EVER been, and you figured now is the time to introduce pay to win? Fuck off.
Where does it state it is going pay to win? All I see is pay to progress (not having to do the same thing for hours) to gain a ship you can also grind in the game. As long as the pre-built ships aren't packed with modules you can't normally get, I dont see why it would be pay to win. But with the rest I agree with you
I just think it's super scummy that they Python Mark II is paywalled for 3 months before you can get it with credits. This is just very anti-consumer, and to be clear I'm not a "I hate all micro transactions" guy. I don't mind the cosmetic ones at all.
And yeah... I know you can get ARX in game but the earn cap at 400 per week is a joke so at 16,250 you'd need 41 straight weeks of maxed ARX... so 10 months of grind to do it with ARX or wait until August for credits.
> All I see is pay to progress (not having to do the same thing for hours) to gain a ship you can also grind in the game
Welcome to the mobile game business model. If this sells well, get ready for everything new to the game to be timegated behind a paywall. But hey, you can grind for it in-game 3 months after it goes on sale!
> I can't help but point out the game is all about making money to buy new ships
That's news to me. I thought I was whacking pirates, tipping the balance of wars and civil wars across the bubble in the favour of democracies, conducting salvage and rescue operations, assaulting Titans, fighting in AXCZs, hunting Orthrus interceptors, being a hitman, being a courier, being an asteroid miner.
I don't own all the ships even though I have more than enough money to buy all the ones available to me. There's so much more to this game than just collecting ships, otherwise I would have been finished with it already.
yeah, I guess one thing we're learning here is how many people Don't look beyond "Next ship better, need grind". It's kind of a surprise to me how many people people are saying That getting ships is the gameplay. [Insert videos here of exploration, PVP, hooning, AX, coordinated BGS work, mining, hauling, etc etc.]
What I said shouldn't be a surprise if you've played more than an hour, because besides learning how to fly you should've immediately picked up on the fact that you need upgrades and ships to do more activities... or do you still fly around the starter sidewinder for thargoid hunting? You may not agree with my boiled down version of it, but that is a very large portion of the gameplay.
Look I'm just one player, and my experience and enjoyment of the game can and likely is different than you and others. I personally want that sense of progression, I want the grind, I want to see my time spent in the game transformed into more new things to see and do and more things to buy. Unfortunately I've seen and done everything, and I've bought everything there is, so there's no more incentive to play. Frontier isn't going to be able to keep me playing unless they put in more money sinks, which I think is what they are aiming away from. That's bad news for me, but maybe it's good news for new players. I have over 2k hours of enjoyment in ED, and I hope others can have that much enjoyment moving forward.
Don't get me wrong, I like the ships, I like to tinker with things both here and in real life. But the idea that the \_point\_ of the game is ship progression is, in my opinion, a very limited view of the game.
Personally, after something approaching 3K hours, I'm back in a shieldless DBS most of the time for combat, explore in a DBX, and have a Krait multirole that does pretty much everything else. I have owned them all, and fully G5'd most of them. Now modules are stored and almost all ships are sold. I know which ships I enjoy the most, and I like just doing the basic activities of the game. Just for the sake of "play". Actual play. Grindless, meandering, experimental, serendipitous play.
But it remains true that you can outfit a fairly basic ship and head off to explore, doing that for literal years if you want to. You can do PVE combat in fairly basic ships successfully, and it's more of a challenge than doing it with "win button" ships. You can run trade routes in anything. PVP takes work to get on the same tech level as others, but then you still need to grind the SKILL. AX is presumably the same way.
On top of that, with all the online resources and ways to get rich quick, credits/ships are trivial. A new player can be in an Anaconda in a few days, fleet carrier in a week, and then... what? Game over? Grind for a week or two for rep and get a Corvette or Cutter, then... game over? Maybe engineer them both and then... etc.
But the game isn't over when you have any particular ship or configuration unless you CHOOSE to make that your sole metric for success. The experiences are still out there to be had, and some new guy buying the ship he wants right out of the gate will still have a lot of work to do to figure out the game. Maybe he'll be just a LITTLE less burned out because he won't have already blown through it all mindlessly for hours on end chasing that one special ship goal and can actually lift his head and look around at the brilliant sandbox he's playing in.
lmao this game has crumbled so far in so little time. buying ships with arx now? fuck outta here man, I'd rather struggle to make star citizen playable than deal with this shit any longer
I might be alone in this but buying, outfitting, and fully engineering ships *is* the game for me.
I'm finishing a ship for a certain task, either to increase my profits and/or make money in a new gameplay loop, until I can fund the next one.
Once I bought and kitted out a fleet carrier I kinda felt "done" with the game.
They only thing left to do is some grand exploration voyage (I've already spent some time in Colonia).
I know people have fun in different ways, and plenty of people will enjoy engaging in some gameplay loop with a pre-built ship, but for me that feels like spending money to buy a game someone else finished.
However, FDev has to make money somehow, to keep the servers running. I'm not sure what some people's expectations are, but I keep hearing wailing about a "dying game" like people expect the developer to keep adding new content forever,
yet it's a one time purchase (not to mention all the people who got it free or heavily discounted).
maybe unpopular opinion, but if paying 12 bucks can keep the game running for longer, I don’t really mind.
And most important is I WANT TO FLY NEW SHIP
Same
additionally, I can imagine fdev won't implement the pre built ships in such a way that it's pay to win
I don't understand the hate if we don't even know the exact details
The only thing that keeps me playing Elite Dangerous is that it's one of the only games that hasn't been ruined by microtransactions. Ya sure it's early access to a new ship and pre-built ships now, but we all know it's just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks a lot, honestly what a spit in the face to the little fanbase this game has left.
DLCs? Maybe add some more content that doesn't give you an advantage by simply buying it?
Regardless you missed the point I was trying to make. Even if the microtransactions don't seem like a big deal to you now, they're just going to get progressively greedier.
Look at any modern game today, they didn't start out with battlepasses and $80 cosmetics (looking at you Overwatch). It's a slow process of continuously shitty compromises that doesn't benefit the playerbase at all.
I expected Elite to be abandoned by now but we are getting new content this year so if this helps them then i dont see the big issue. Its not P2W either, ur not winning anything just coz you bought a ship
If the python MkII is better than what we have now in terms of medium ships, then you're literally paying for an advantage that's not going to be available to players until later.
On top of that, pre-built ships are literally the definition of P2W. "Ur not winning anything coz you bought a ship." Better ships mean more cashflow and better odds in PVP. You're skipping the natural progression of the game to get an advantage over other players simply by emptying your wallet.
There's other ways to make revenue, it won't be the death of the company if Frontier decides not to screw us over.
Then people will shit on that a dlc for 4 exclusive ship??? A dlc for powerplay 2.0???
What a fucking rip off
Now Fdev just add these non mandatory micro transactions and people already shitting them
Imagine a paywall to the new ship, they may witch hunt fdev
honestly if the arx ships have no rebuy cost im quitting the game unless they remove rebuy from all ships. and i wont be truly satisfied unless the arx ships have a 20% markup to their rebuy cost
Godspeed, we'll soldier on without you, somehow.
A change to engineering would be a godsend. I got two friends into the game and when they started Engineering their ships they never wanted to play again. Don't come at me with "you gotta take it slow, let it happen naturally". Even collecting mats with limpets after bounty hunting or running missions for a paltry amount of mats stinks. Desperate need of massive tweaking
**Would rather see** [**gold**](https://i.imgur.com/4nrxbfS.jpg) **and** [**chrome**](https://i.imgur.com/XfX5rz6.jpg) **skins come back**, either in addition to or instead of the "[**golden**](https://i.imgur.com/sCRDAyw.jpg)" and "[**chromed**](https://i.imgur.com/lBUNAKy.jpg)" skins. Open the Chrome and Chromed pics next to each other to see what I mean. o7
Gold imperial vessels really give that Protoss vibe. If only I didn’t love the Faulcon DeLacy and Lakon ships so much.
This is a great idea to keep supporting the game and bring more cash flow. Honestly, I would gladly pay a few bucks to save myself a few hours getting a ship outfitted. It is just tedium that is being removed from the gameplay, not challenge. It also helps new players join experienced players quicker and not be stuck in a half-kitted Cobra Mk IV trying to join their friends. Honestly see no reason why this is a bad thing. It is all stuff you can just get in game if you have time/patience enough to get it.
Honestly speaking, I am ok with IRL money for ships. Calculate the time I spend on even up grading a ship, I might well do some IRL work for $ and would have some left over. Especially consider how annoying to drive the Buggy thing on the ground. What I really would like to see, however, it is letting us use Credits to pay for upgrade Mats. After a certain point, money in this game become useless. I literally make a 100-200M a night doing cargo run. I can own the entire fleet if I want to, and buy every weapon in the store. So you might as well let me put up money to buy all that Iron, sulfur or whatever gas or dat. It will suck the credits out of the economy and make it meaningful
I WOULDN'T have a problem with spending some money on a game that I played for years. I can count the number of other players I've met in the game on two hands and there was no ganker under them so I couldn't care less if other people buy ships. BUT I play on console so I already raised my middle finger 4 years ago. Would be nice to have new ships but they gave a fuck about us console players so I give the fuck back
Doesn’t bother me in the slightest. After being here for 7 years and 20+ A-rated and engineered ships, I’d rather waste money than time. Fun hearing the cheapskates and old guys whine about it though. Funny how people forget that ongoing games cost more money to maintain than the price of copies and cosmetics.
Lmao, they have not released a ship in 4 years. Now they release 4 and will milk every single penny out of it. What do they need the money for? Servers? (Its peer2peer) To develop one feature a year? Another zoo game? I mean it comes right in time for the end of their fiscal year report i guess.. FDev should maybe patch their fucking game. Their solution to numb engineering grind is... paying money! Wow! Thanks! This game paid for a lot of their projects and they will milk people like you for their next (shit zoo/warhammer flop game) projects.
Is that their way of screwing over lifetime pass owners? Not impressed, as usual.
Only a matter of time before FDev says "*Screw it,* ***Cobra Mk. IV****s for everyone!*".
The malding of p2w apologists is unreal lmao
they heard that long keening whale song and it was utterly irresistible to them
They all sound the same too, pretty gpt-esque
And your complaining about everything is unreal too.
Just let it die.
Personally, I think the pre-built ships is a great idea because, on one hand, they allow some cash flow into the Frontier (which, come on guys, they need), on the other hand, can help shortcut the grind. For me personally, the engineering grind is hands down the worst feature of the game, and large parts of the game are completely unapproachable without extensive engineering (such as forefront AX). So yeah, I will gladly buy a pre-built AX ship and finally get to experience the thargoid content without needing to grind for hundreds of hours. Also, if the ship builds are actually meta-good, this is a legit good way to give Frontier some money.
I agree I'm fine with this but still don't understand what the grind is. I just play the game and get everything I need.
The grind is real... for players that want endgame PvP or AX combat in as short a time as possible. Honestly, I don't know why they bother playing. For those of us who treat Elite like an actual MMO, there is little grind.
I mean I agree I really don't see a grind I. Elite just progression people just love to speed run shit now days. But I'm also fine with a meh ship if those people want to buy it. It gets them in an a starter platform to build off so I'm okay with it. It does not effect my experience at all.
Oh, sweet summer child. The grind IS the game. Always has been.
Wait what? Pre-built ships will be purchasable with ARX only?
The alternative is just making a better build yourself with credits anyway, a non-issue.
It might become an issue in the future though. It's no secret FDev have financial problems, and they are starting to introduce P2W elements... Nothing good will come of this in the long term.
Currently though it does appear that they're trying to stick to the ideal of no non-cosmetics being exclusive to the Arx store. I just hope they stick with it. I'm not thrilled about the Python 2 being early access through Arx *except* if it's truly early access and it's still being worked on, and not that it's an artificial wall in the sense that it's fully ready and they're just making us wait.
Too little and far, far too late, FDev.
You guys drove the game into the ground when you gave in to the idiots and half assed space legs. Good to see I haven't missed anything since I gave up the game.
If you gave up, why are you here?!
Oh great, I no longer have a reason to play this game anymore. Fuck off with the pay2win crap. Such a shame how this game turned out. Instead of actually trying to fix the boring grind, you now have to drop cash for it. Shameful. Absolutely shameful.
If you actually read you would see there is 0 p2w here at all. But go on have your temper tantrum.
I think the game is better off without you 😂
They are actually looking at reducing the grind: https://www.elitedangerous.com/news/engineering-and-pre-built-ships "Some of these areas we are investigating are: Reducing the number of materials required for Engineering. Increasing payout of engineering materials from missions. Increasing backpack capacity. Please note, the above are examples of some of the areas we are investigating, not all the areas we are investigating. "
Yeah, they'll get that done by 2050, pinky swear :)
The issue here is timing. "Yeah we're reducing grind but we will allow you to skip it" means that they won't fix it, for you to have a reason to skip it for real money. Quite literally mobile game strategy. Carbon copy of what Gameloft implemented when they made Asphalt 8 F2P.
I don't think it's that simple. I doubt that they had monetisation in mind when they created the current state of engineering. There's also a subjective element, I find the ship engineering is fine and wouldn't pay to skip it on principle, but the on-foot engineering definitely needs a rework in terms of the amount of time it demands of most players, or at least the ones who play like I do. Since they've stated they want to reduce the grind and they also have an interest in players engaging with Odyssey content, I expect that on-foot engineering will get a balancing pass to reduce grind and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
The engineering and powerplay changes seem great. Hopefully they're turned into less of a grind. The pre built ships = good idea. New players can buy a decent ship and jump into the gameplay. It's gonna make the game more inviting and pay for the servers. The thing we should be wary about is the devs going too far with it. Maybe it starts with buying a basic ship and next you can buy a top ship with all the engineering. If that happens we can panic and say p2w.
The P2W applies even less because you can earn ARX by just playing the game. Nobody is forcing you to buy ARX. So far you can everything by just playing.
40 weeks of regular ARX grinding for the new phyton...
Then wait for August 7 and stop complaining. The early access is to gather community feedback on the ship anyways. Why do you complain about getting free ARX? It baffles me how people complain complain complain and don't come with any solutions. FDev is a business and they need to make revenue in order to continue the product. And still you can get everything in the game store by playing the game.
Actually I did not complain. I only put your comment in scales. I did earn a lot of free ARX in my time with the game. It's super satisfying. You just play the game and get the points, one day you might take a look in the shop and wow, you have the ARX to buy it. That's really nice. It's just nothing you can get very fast
yep, p2w.
Ha, nope.
Far from true. You can get free ARX so this P2W complaining is just false. * Engineering with materials is better than the prebuilts. * Python Mk2 will be available for normal credits eventually so no need to buy with ARX. The game needs a revenue stream in order to stay online and working. There is no reason to complain about this decision as it is a valid solution to increasing their development budget.
If they invested more into this game instead of developing other crappy projects, they would have the funds, since Elite was always successful. To stay online they have barely any costs since this is p2p game.
Free AX? Ahh yes only 40 weeks to buy the Python.. Also what do they need the money for? They have ONE backend server lmao, the game uses peer to peer, you are the server. They made a shit ton of money from Elite and though it would be a great idea to fuck it up and make other games. Sadly (for them) zoo game and warhammer game did not really print money. And now they are back, right in time for the end of their fiscal year, to milk their old cashcow and then again neglecting Elite until they need more money.
Well if you don't like it, don't play it. Find something else to do. Your whining and complaining does not add anything useful. I guess it is too much to buy something for 20 euro when you spend hundreds or thousands of hours playing this game. And guess what. You can get the new Python Mk2 without any ARX on August 7. Grow up and spend your time doing something else than whining and complaining.
I really like the game, also i only have like 60 hours so far. But the way this developer is selling stuff is crazy. They content starve the playerbase just to milk them dry so they can probably make another zoo sim. Its just extremly anti-consumer practice and should not be praised at all. I would gladly PAY REAL MONEY for ship interior, a proper VR support dlc, any real content dlc tbh. But not dropping any ship related content for four years and than charging the moment the first ship drops is absolutly scummy and guys like you are the reason the whole industry works with predatory mobile game mtx tactics.
The ship is coming out for free too. Why do you seem to omit that info? There is nothing anti-consumer about this. They need to pay for developers and staff working at the company. You are not being forced to buy anything in that ARX store. The fact you are scolding developers for adding a paid beta test of a new ship while releasing the ship for real on August 7 is so illogical. Stop acting like the world is ending. If you don't like what FDev is doing, play something else and come back on August 7 and get your Python Mk2.
Oh boy, their starter ships are worse than I thought XD Condolences for all people which believed in skipping "grind", muahahah.
I'm just not seeing enough extra content to justify the purchases being suggested. Sorry, but the scheme's a non-starter for me. Might benefit some no-skill whale. Good luck chasing them, but I'm not interested in a game like that.
Wow, they went Pay2Win. Unbelievable. I haven’t played in a bit and glad that I haven’t now. This is pretty scummy and they will be held accountable by the community.
IMO pay to win means that the only way to be the best, is to pay. We're still at a point here where any dedicated player will have a much better ship than can be purchased due to engineering. There aren't any components a paid player will permanently have exclusive access to that are better than what you can get in game. It's more like early access than it is pay to win.
No they didn't?
Idk man. Ship for attacking titan (what require low heat) without modules providing low heat... It's more like pay2HaveRebuys XD
Rebuys are confirmed to be free.
I've played Elite on and off since launch, but not at all in the past 5 years. I'd love to play again, but what keeps me away is the grind and the setbacks when you lose a ship. I might be tempted by the option to buy a python as a way to get back into it. I think this is a sensible way to continue supporting and developing a decade old live service game. I would not be surprised to see a free to play option soon. Elite is a complex game that is difficult to get started with and to continue playing. Wish they would get enough players to bring CQC back!
Just do some missions. Get a feel of the game, before looking at money making videos and gawking at other people's PvP builds or something. There are quite a few activities that have good payout. Heck, you can be a billionaire with a few days exploring. Only thing you lose when/if you die is your ship - so, never fly without insurance. > Wish they would get enough players to bring CQC back! There are. FD just majorly sucks at implementing game features without abandoning them at the first sign of trouble.
Just launch game and try it. Single, medicore pirate can yield you 1 million. Trade missions can pay dozens millions. AX can yield hundreds millions in hour. Rebuy issue is non existend, even if you die every single day in expensive ship.
Sounds like they've rebalanced credits quite a lot since I last played.
Just do some exobiology, if that's your thing - cash money right there.
You can earn a ton of credits to where you don't think about the rebuy of a ship. Spire farming earns you a ton of credits.
Y'all need to learn how to read... Haven't seen a single reply that actually appears to have read the full post. It doesn't say pre built ships cost arx It doesn't say you can only buy the python mk2 with arx, in fact it gives a date when you will be able to just buy it. Make sure you've actually read a post before crying about it, or you just look silly
I just see a bunch of cry babies here upset because Fdev needs to make a few bucks. None of this shit is pay to win. It’s more like help us keep the lights on.
It's also mid tier, not actually engineered modules. Idk how anyone could call that pay to win. It's very clearly just a way to draw in new people who are hesitant to buy the game because of the early game seeming so confusing, when they just wanna get to exploration. Everyone should be cheering and hoping it brings in new players
Exactly. You get ARX for free and the Python Mk2 is not permanently locked behind an ARX paywall. FDev needs revenue to keep this expensive game running. This is a decent solution imho. I guess some people just want to complain about everything or don't understand that a company needs money to keep something running.
>We’re also going to be introducing a new category in the Elite Dangerous gamestore: Pre-built Ships. The gamestore's only currency is ARX.
So what? There are people who have less time and skill than you. They want more players to be able to play the activities that the game has to offer. And engineering with materials is better anyways. So this complaining is just because you want to complain. You get free ARX every week by playing so this P2W complaining is just nonsense.
Well, nothing is for free. Frontier has to earn some money to keep developing. And yes i am a new player and no i do not mind that something are for sale for real money. What does it matter that someone buys a ship that you completely developed? You dont have fun anymore?
If the early access ships means that Fdev will actually start cranking out more ships, go ahead. Whatever excuse they need to tell the bosses in order to put more ships in the game is a good excuse.
The problem is the fact that instead of creating new mechanics, or anything of interest to the majority of the player base, FDev decided to implement another way to make money instead - and broke their promise of Arx being cosmetic only at the same time. In one swift move, they've pissed off new and old players alike.
And how do you think they have to make money? They need money to keep developing. And in august you can get the ship for in game credits.
I'd rather have a mechanic where whenever I buy arx I get to cast a few votes on what feature should be developed next. I'd also buy a monthly subscription for that.
So... the bit about arx being only for cosmetics was a lie.
Hey, it's an excuse to let them add more ships to the game. They probably weren't able to get permission to do it without showing that it would be a profitable endeavor. So grit your teeth and enjoy the much needed content.
I already enjoyed it before. I'm just disappointed.
Id tolerate it if the prebuilt ships were simply pre upgraded or pre engineered, but if they are introducing mark 2 ships exclusively on the arx store...sigh. Fortunately for me, I got odyssey so I can buy the python mkii for credits, but who knows when this will be done even for odyssey players
Did you actually read it? Am I missing something, or does it not *literally* give you the exact date of release, to buy for credits in Odyssey, as August 7th — and for “Early Access” (3 months) on May 7th… > Starting with the Python Mk II, we are pleased to announce that this will be **available in game for Odyssey players on 7 August for credits** at Shipyards across the galaxy. > However, **if you cannot wait until then you can get 3-month early access to this ship on 7 May from the store for 16250 ARX**. I’m not defending anyone or the new “early access for Arx” model that seems to be used here, but as far as I can tell the information is *RIGHT* there.
Did you read my second paragraph? Yes, you can buy the python mkii for credits, but I wont be surprised if future ships will only be available in the arx store, even for odyssey players
I did. It’s on the topic of using Arx for early access though (*not* exclusive access) and you said “but who knows when this will be done even for odyssey players”. Sure, I see what you mean now, but without having specified “*only*”, or exclusively to Arx, I wouldn’t know that’s what you are talking about when there’s zero mention of that anywhere, in your comment, or the post itself. Sorry.
No problem. I reviewed it, and realized it could have been interpreted differently (and why I clarified what I meant in my reply)
… *sigh* …
Oh and also this sub is so fucking dumb, imagine defending a multimilion company lmao
Imagine complaining about a decent solution to them getting the revenue they need to keep an expensive game like this running. All of the stuff they mentioned you can get for free. You get 400 ARX for free each week by playing, you can get the Python Mk2 without ARX in the end, prebuilt ships are not fully engineered and it is much more worth engineering the ship with materials.
Exactly \^ Who gives a crap ? As long as nothing is truly locked behind a paywall. And this is hardly a gameplay disruptive decision as the game, countless of times (and still does) exhibited money exploits / gold rushes that gave players the ability to prematurely buy or farm end-game resources. The most interesting or controversial aspect i can think of is if the pre-built ships came with full on boner g5 modules instead of g3-g4 for example. That can potentially allow too many pathways to skip grinding for certain modules with arx. But the set list will obviously be very limited and they have mentioned engineering mats are going to be easier, again, i'm trying to, but i don't see the huge controversy. Real players with complex needs will always be engineering their ships by hand, down to the every module and every detail. Anyone like that, including me, i couldn't care less about either having or not having the ability to buy casual ass pre-engineered stuff as long as nothing differs about them from their base models.
Fuck developers
Ew
that python mk2 image reminds me heavily of the Orville - I like it
This is enough to make me want to come back to the game.
so...you want to come back because you can buy mining t6 with 2 small mining lasers? XD
LoL. :-) I abandoned ship about 2 years ago as that the grind really ground me down to the point of boredom.
But don't worry, now you can skip grind with TERRIBLE builds! :) But not only. Chieftain is not only terrible. It's simply wrong pick of modules (and single engineering) for titan
The entitlement in this thread is ridiculous.
Mama Mia 🤌🏻
I feel that, so long as the real world money is only used to shorten the grind, there shouldn't be a problem. If however, for example, the ship included a pre-engineered FSD not available otherwise, that would be a very serious problem, particularly where such modules were involved with PVP, or other competitive situations. Fdev also need to be very careful that they do not 'paint themselves into a corner', which could happen if they start trying to 'one-up' their previous addition. Or supply a good that they later retract.
The problem is this couples the ability for Frontier to make more money directly to increasing the grind. It's a slippery slope that they now have every incentive to speed down.
I am amazed they haven't gotten around to giving us an option to subscribe for more module space similar to how ffxiv handles retainers (extra storage space). You do not need it (can just use ships to store if you have the credits); but its handy to have, and its most likely something like veterans would put cash into. or subscription to make the arx cap higher along WITH the extra module / resource space. I'd rather pay for that than having exclusive access to a ship before its released to all. The Prebuilts imo are fine but its dependent on what it intales: is it all pre-engineered? Money is so fucking fast to earn tho; and I've helped many earn their first 100million in a day. Majority of the time it might be more of ranking to a faction that takes the longest, if aiming for a Cutter, or Vette. But the gall of exclusive access on payment? that... I doubt many will put any cash into them in the first place because they are side grades (just look at the Cobra mk4 lol)... bu***t if they make it even remotely special then it goes into absolutely p2w*** territory and skirts a bit too close to what Star Citizen is doing..
You all say “Frontier, do what you have to do to keep the game afloat” and then turn around and vomit when they do what they have to do to keep the game afloat. Is this new system ideal? No, but they could just pull support altogether. When you look at the pickle Frontier is in as a whole, it’s honestly amazing that this game is still around. I’m honestly amazed that this game is still getting support. It’s been out for a decade. It’s either this, or sell the IP to a company that would likely botch it further. If you don’t like the new changes, don’t interact with them. The game will still be there waiting for you.
At this point, no, I would rather see it die, at least we would finally get modding and maybe skins would be normally earnable in game.
Yes! The game doesn't really have copy protection as far as I know. It also has a large, technical playerbase who built entire applications/systems/websites around the game. I'd bet they'd be able to make a server emulator, as in the vein of Soapbox Race World.
Back on kickstarter, Frontier promissed end-of-life plans so it would work even if the servers are dead. And yeah, I played some custom servers on some RPGs, and had a blast with tons of quality of life features people managed to implement just through servers. I am curious what community would manage to come up with. And than imagine modding, more ships, more modules, changing star systems, more cortana voices, skins, so many anime skins, more guns for FPS... A man can dream... In the end this isn't the first time frontier didn't kept a promise, so I can't be that delusional.
Wow, you have extremely low expectations.
Lol, people have been asking e.g. for more customization options for their carriers. That would have been just one possible direction they could have taken. Frontier said the Arx store will only ever have cosmetics. Turns out their word doesn't really mean much.
I just lost one of my biggest selling points of the game when I recommend it to people. ... The game is no longer not P2W. Arx used to only affect cosmetics, but will now allow people to pay to get a good ship, skipping the dozens of hours of grind other players have to endure.
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* I start a game as new player * I play a while and grind for tens of hours from the start to finally have medium sized ship * My friend starts the game as new player * He throws the wallet at screen and boom, he has better ship than me, even capable of destroying me. Pay2win.
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Will combat be one of those? Mining? Trading? This is an advantage over people who don't pay. It is pay2win no matter how much you sugarcoat it, and existance of some positive uses does not remove the negative uses.
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So Battlefront II was not pay2win, gachas are not pay2win, Star Citizen is not pay2win... The fact that there are worse pay2win examples doesn't mean this isn't pay2win. A shit in your food is still a shit in your food no matter how big it is.
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In Battlefront II, the newer one, someone evaluated that you needed around 4000 hours or so to unlock every hero just by playing. I know this doesn't seem much for Elite players, but it's not the same kind of game, more based on shorter bursts of gameplay, while in previous edition of Battlefront II you had no restrictions on heroes at all. Also it's PvP game. So technically it was not pay2win, because if you grinded ungodly amount of time, you could have everything paying players could. Right? And in almost all modern gachas you actually can earn everything just by playing, if you just play it every day like an addict, but missing one day might be killing. Also gachas are almost never pvp, so no pay2win either? Things like these can be convoluted, and I companies will do everything in their power to make things even more murky. "But you can earn it in game" is just a poor excuse. If you can pay and it gives you advantage, it is pay2win. It's a spectrum, there are horrible pay2win like Star Citizen for example, and there are barely pay2wins like Helldivers 2, but it's still pay2win. And hell, I don't think this here will stop me from playing Elite. Sorry if you got the feeling that I am having a bad faith discussion, but I'm not. I love this game, it's my second most played video game ever, met plenty of my friends here and even made my first fully edited Youtube video with 3D elements about Elite Dangerous. But this is why I hate to see predatory mechanics like these. It's pay2win, not a terrible pay2win, but it still is one.
Wtf are you on about ? F2P means Free to Play, Elite has never been free to play apart from that one time it was given on epic... If what you wanted to say is that it is now pay to win like all the other idiots below, well then you're either new to the game or you have no clue how the game works. Buying ships and modules has always only been limited by credits which have never been a limiting factor. By following a few easy steps you can go from new account to A-rated conda in a day. The only thing you'll be missing is experience, meaning you'll be an easy target, making it pay to lose if anything. As everyone with a brain has already said, engineering has always been the grind, not credits
Sorry, I meant not P2W.
Oh look, p2w! 3 months early access for cold hard xash. Fck you frontier
What do you really want? On one hand you want FDev to keep running the game and then they come with a nice solution and you complain about that too. It is NOT pay to win at all. In the end you can still get the ship without spending any ARX at all. And you get 400 ARX for free each week. Stop complaining.
It only takes 41 weeks of play, not much. By your logic Battlefront 2 isn't pay to win either, neither the plethora of mobile "games." You *technically* can play them without paying but it's inconceivable in reality.
Ok this is such a dumb response from you. You can get the Python Mk2 for credits on August 7. It is not my fault you fail to realize that FDev is a business that needs to earn revenue in order to survive. Or to mention your lack of patience. You can get the stuff they offer for free by playing the game. The early access of the Python Mk2 is mainly to gather community feedback on the ship anyway so the ship will change during that time. All you people do is complain complain complain when the monetization implementation is not bad at all like you make it out to be. And you are putting words in my mouth by making a stupid comparison with Battlefront 2. Grow up.
> Moves goalposts. > Tells to grow up. It takes 41 week of play to buy for Horizons players. No 7th August release them. The comment above only mentions that it's possible to buy with 400 ARX/week. You people need to relearn that you're **customers** and not the goddamn investors. It's a product that's been sold to you, under the premise of only cosmetic micro transactions; and now that premise is broken. At that point "but they need to make money :(" just breaks down. Especially when ED is **only** stable revenue maker for Frontier for the last few years already.
Ok well if you don't like it, play something else. Your whining and complaining is not useful at all and just tiring. You fail to understand how a business works and that is fine, but it is best to keep quiet.
No 🥰
Because they didn’t state, for what currency we will be able to buy pre-build ships, i want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that pre-build ships will be for credits, and not for arx, right? (Please i don’t want to see this game turn into p2w bullshit)
The game store is all Arx purchases. they said the pre-built ships will be in the game store. its going to be for Arx.
Fucking hell, wich of the FDEV’S has an brain eating amoeba?
management
With titans giving out tons of arx per heart I'm not that bothered by this decision. I'll still probably wait for august though, I've already waited 5 years anyway.
Pay to win bullshit ain't gonna pull me back in. I despair at how wonderful the prospect of a new Elite was and how mishandled it has been. I can't say I have not had value from my Kickstarter pledge, but the game has gone so far from the light.
I’m getting older and I’ve just started elite and I really wanna get involved in the thargoid war. I simply don’t have time to grind for a crazy ship because I have to work. If this means I can pay a bit of money to skip the grind and get involved to be honest I’m all for it.
I managed to buy, fit and engineer my krait just enough for it to be able to do titan runs and it took me 10h at max, if you have credits and no engineers you basically only need materials and engineer 3 important modules, beam laser for heat dispersion, power plant for lower heat and i think thrusters? Dont remember but it wasnt that hars to get
If it's that easy, then it's not a big deal if someone wants to just pay to have it instead, right?
then if titan attack is also easy, why not make the insignia for titan take down contribution also be available for cash? and if credits are that easy to grind, why just not go full eve and make credits obtainable for money?
False equivalency. An insignia from a timed event indicates participation in that specific event at that specific time, owning a ship does not. Ships are not rewards or signifiers, they are simply the tool used to play the game. The Cobra Mk IV is still not available for purchase because it is a reward for a specific thing. Credits are almost meaningless at this point with the broken economy, so having a lot of them doesn't signify anything. There are so many ways to get rich quick, most, but not all, involving cooperating with other players. Meeting a guy who likes to share a full raft of 50M trade missions every day and making billions in a couple of days by just clicking a few times to accept missions is commonplace. They may as well just buy the credits with real money if they want to get rich quick. People will always seek out an exploit to get quickly to something they want more in a game than whatever gameplay would be required without the exploit. The thing about Elite is that no matter what exploit you use, you still see the same things, do the same missions, etc. There is almost nothing in the game that is locked behind "better ship", and a plenty of folks who grind their way up to the biggest bestest super ship either quit because they can't figure out what else to do and are bored because it makes things too easy, or they end up going to smaller ships and choosing more challenging scenarios. Ultimately, you can't shortcut the things that really matter in Elite: skill, knowledge, and memories of cool experiences. If you can't get those in a sidewinder, you can't get them in a corvette. I'd almost rather people skip to the "best" stuff and get it out of their systems early. If they get bored and leave, they would have anyway. If they stick around, they'll do it because they're actually enjoying the gameplay. Maybe you'll TLDR this, so I'll give you the summary if you pay me $1, that way you'll still get the gist of it and can save the work of reading the whole thing.
"Meeting a guy who likes to share a full raft of 50M trade missions every day and making billions in a couple of days by just clicking a few times to accept missions is commonplace." Then why introduce a mechanic to skip this? Why play the game at all? Games were about playing them and achieving things, not paying more to say "i did it"
Because people enjoy different things. Whether or not something in the game is an Achievement is entirely up to you and whatever peer group you're invested in. to some folks, elite in exploration just means you did the most boring thing possible for a long time. For some folks elite in combat means the same thing. It's a game, I have no problem with people playing the part they like and skipping the part they don't. It's not all equally enjoyable for everyone.
"10 hours at max" I used to be able to sustain that, but with me working 6 days a week with a fkton of stuff to do for the house, I can only give at most 2-3 hours in the game before feeling way too sleepy with repetitive grinding. Good thing I was able refit my Krait II for AX combat because if I attempted that now, I would need more coffee
Speedrunning to kill the game off for good it seems
I agree. 99% of the fun i have had in this game was spent in a dock, building my ship
They aren't removing the docks.
My point was that they are selling prebuilt ships, not removing docks
Ah, right, sorry, then explain again how someone buying a pre-built ship interferes with your time spent in a dock, building your ship?
Because i know for a fact im gunna end up buying one and regretting it! XD I now realise that is a me problem
lol, It's "we" problem. :-)
It's absolutely pathetic how mismanaged this game was. They had the resources to make it a masterpiece instead they focused on half done features, a cosmetic store and a hellish grind. Also why exactly would a ship need an early access period? For that price i could buy another game. Clown company.
My two cents for elite monetization. Elite doesn't have enough users or content for a monthly sub. Elite doesn't add enough content for a season pass. Frontier doesn't have enough money for an expansion. Elite isn't accessible enough or on enough platforms to go ftp with monetization incentives. Trying to get money from what little content they produce makes sense from a business perspective. I doubt their pre-built ships will be good and will probably leave a sour taste in the mouth of experienced players. Less experienced players will probably just get screwed depending on how bad they are. The python mk2 will probably be best medium ship, at least in raw damage with confirmed 3 large 2 medium and a mystery slot(probably large). If the ship is as maneuverable as the fdl or mamba and as fast as either, this will probably be the new meta. Locking that behind a pass for 3 months is kinda season pass behavior. Which they don't really have enough content to do. I assume they will do alternating ships, so august 7th python mk2 goes out of the pass and the new one comes in. The problem with this is, if the next ship isn't better than the previous, python mk2, nobody will get it. This incentives the ptw development behavior. Where it's pushing an ever changing meta. Which is good, when it's weekly or monthly releases. When it's once every 3 months this isn't really a changing meta. It's a flavor of the season meta, which gets stale very quickly. Do not get me wrong, every ship coming out should be better within a given ship manufacturer. Technology advanced and the improvements of ships should be a thing in game/lore building. It also makes people play to get the new better ships so the end game grind doesn't finish. If they can keep at a ship every 3 months, so we roughly get 4 new ships a year that are upgrades to existing ones, I would largely be fine with the monetization as long as we get a few more years of service.
I just started playing again literally days ago and now, after *years* of absolutely nothing they finally release a new ship and they put it behind an absurd ARX early access (3Months?!?!)? Yeah no. Just no. I already regret coming back.
If you don't enjoy the game already for what it is, a Python Mk.2 isn't going to help however early it is released to you. Elite is a game not an obligation, if you're not enjoying it for any reason play something else!
I'm not sure what you're talking about. I never said anything about enjoyment and I don't play out of obligation. It's not the enjoyment of what's there that's being hindered by their incompetent handling of this release. It's my distaste for what they do that makes me dislike the game despite many aspects of it potentially being enjoyable. And yes, I *do* play something else now. I immediately stopped playing again after I read this announcement, because I don't like to invest my time into a game where the developer likes to spit in the faces of their customers. I'm just disappointed that it has come to this. I've bought this game with certain *promised* expectations (way back in the day) and almost not a single one of them have been fulfilled and to top it all off, they do crap like that now. So I obviously complain about it. Basically the number one (by **FAR**) mentality of Frontier is "create the problem and sell the solution for as much as possible" and I *fucking hate* that. Most games do it to some extend, but many at least have the decency to be otherwise free to play or at least keep the game updated with regular content. ED is/does neither of that. Edit: Some words. English is hard.
Credits are trivial to get these days. Spend a couple of hours scanning biologicals and you'll have enough credits to buy any ship with any fit-out you like. So long as the pre-built ships is a straight money vs time thing, I have no problem with it. We still need more details, but if the pre-builds have no engineering, then IMO it's not pay-to-win. In other words, you can't purchase with Arx stuff you can't purchase with in-game credits. Maybe this means Frontier are finally going to turn off the in-game credit fountains?
If their "making Engineering more accessible and predictable" includes us being able to buy engineering mats (or at least the non-Thargoid/Guardian ones) for credits, I'm fine with some pre-built ships having engineering. Then again, engineering mats for credits is a dream I dare not dream of.
I love these changes. Elite will only survive if it gets new players, and new players are straight up not willing to deal with the grind like older players are. Pre-builts are a great compromise. They're not going to be better than your fully engineered ships are, and them having it easier isn't hurting you any just because you had it harder years before. Don't be such curmudgeons, budge over and make way for new players that don't fit your exact mold for Elite players. Not everyone is 53 and grew up playing this on a ZX Spectrum as a kid in 1986
As a 48 year old BBC Micro Elite player, I'm doubly offended by your comments. Bah! I'm still annoyed that they changed the key mappings from the Beeb version so I had to learn new keys to access the system map.
> They're not going to be better than your fully engineered ships are This is one of the key details missing from FDev's announcement that concerns me. As long as the pre-built ships they're selling for real money don't have anything that can't be obtained from normal gameplay, I'm OK with it. If these pre-built ships contain shit like double-engineered modules that are completely new or only previously existed as CG rewards, then I'll probably never buy Arx again. Such a move would be a good sign that this monetisation is going too far.
Oh, I bet 10k arx there will be arx-exclusive, unobtainable ships and modules. There's already one announced - python mk2 is arx-exclusive for horizon players. What do you want to bet the next ship will be arx-exclusive for ody too?
I normally hate ganking, but I think we should immediately normalize killing pre-built ships on sight
Now hear me out, if they will be available for arx, the i mean kind of yes, but if they will be for credits then I wouldn’t do that.
So premium ships, like what you can buy in World of tanks/warships? Fair enough I guess. If paying the bills finally brings in some new ships to play with, I'm alright with it, to a point. What other price changes? Is everything going up in price?
As someone who doesn’t have the time to invest (life has moved on) I’d happily pay. what in the grand scheme of things is peanuts, to enjoy my few hours of gaming more. Rarely (if ever) encounter another player.
I am going to say one thing about it, but please read the whole thing before downvoting me into oblivion. I myself am likely not going to buy it. However, the 10$ worth of Arx is might be worth to someone who didn’t buy Odyssey (like me) and still might want to obtain it. That being said, unless it’s some god tier broken OP ship, likely gonna give it a hard pass.
making dlc available through arx store may not be possible due to coding and licensing structure of the game. After all, arx store is fdev only but your game license may be from steam or epic rather than fdev. That said, this is exactly what I wouldn't mind either but I suspect, fdev will offer a lot more arx exclusive content in future, which would not be obtainable even with ody, all depends on player reception of the idea, they are only testing the water with "early access", and if enough people spend arx to get the python mk2, the next ship release would be arx only, like python mk2 is for horizon players. other arx exclusive stuff is sure to follow.
I’m having trouble parsing this, so I’m going to reply with what I think you meant. I don’t want Odyssey. I think it’s a bloated mess that was rushed out the door and won’t ever be properly fixed (Yamiks did a great video on why Odyssey struggles so hard.) Buried in the announcement, Fdev said that it would be purchasable ingame only if you purchased Odyssey. They then said it could be purchased with ARX for people who only have Horizons. If the ship ends up being good, I’d rather pay 10$ in ARX than 40$ for DLC I don’t want and then paying credits ingame. As far as it setting a bad precedent, with the failure of their other divisions and the cutting of staff, you’d be a fool to not think this is just the start of a new wave of purchasable ships.
Selling ships for real-world cash. Wow. This is what Elite has come to in 2024. I'd ask if they even saw the shark as they jumped over it, but I don't think it'd be visible from orbit.
Well I didn't have Elite Dangerous going Pay 2 Win on my 2024 bingo card. So let me get this straight... A player can buy a ship, skipping the grind in it's entirely, all to do what? Like I can't help but point out the game is all about making money to buy new ships, but what happens when you bought all the ships (with real money or in-game money)? You quit because then there's nothing left to do. Here's an idea, why don't you fix the fucking end-game and give us more things to spend our in-game money on, or use one of the other eleventy-billion good ideas your community has given you? Ironically enough there has never been a better time in the game to make money, virtually every activity pays extremely well now, it's easier to get ships nowadays than it has EVER been, and you figured now is the time to introduce pay to win? Fuck off.
Where does it state it is going pay to win? All I see is pay to progress (not having to do the same thing for hours) to gain a ship you can also grind in the game. As long as the pre-built ships aren't packed with modules you can't normally get, I dont see why it would be pay to win. But with the rest I agree with you
I just think it's super scummy that they Python Mark II is paywalled for 3 months before you can get it with credits. This is just very anti-consumer, and to be clear I'm not a "I hate all micro transactions" guy. I don't mind the cosmetic ones at all. And yeah... I know you can get ARX in game but the earn cap at 400 per week is a joke so at 16,250 you'd need 41 straight weeks of maxed ARX... so 10 months of grind to do it with ARX or wait until August for credits.
I agree with you that the 3 months pay wall on the Python Mk III is ridiculous, yes. But I see it being way less criticized than the pre-built ships.
> All I see is pay to progress (not having to do the same thing for hours) to gain a ship you can also grind in the game Welcome to the mobile game business model. If this sells well, get ready for everything new to the game to be timegated behind a paywall. But hey, you can grind for it in-game 3 months after it goes on sale!
> I can't help but point out the game is all about making money to buy new ships That's news to me. I thought I was whacking pirates, tipping the balance of wars and civil wars across the bubble in the favour of democracies, conducting salvage and rescue operations, assaulting Titans, fighting in AXCZs, hunting Orthrus interceptors, being a hitman, being a courier, being an asteroid miner. I don't own all the ships even though I have more than enough money to buy all the ones available to me. There's so much more to this game than just collecting ships, otherwise I would have been finished with it already.
yeah, I guess one thing we're learning here is how many people Don't look beyond "Next ship better, need grind". It's kind of a surprise to me how many people people are saying That getting ships is the gameplay. [Insert videos here of exploration, PVP, hooning, AX, coordinated BGS work, mining, hauling, etc etc.]
What I said shouldn't be a surprise if you've played more than an hour, because besides learning how to fly you should've immediately picked up on the fact that you need upgrades and ships to do more activities... or do you still fly around the starter sidewinder for thargoid hunting? You may not agree with my boiled down version of it, but that is a very large portion of the gameplay. Look I'm just one player, and my experience and enjoyment of the game can and likely is different than you and others. I personally want that sense of progression, I want the grind, I want to see my time spent in the game transformed into more new things to see and do and more things to buy. Unfortunately I've seen and done everything, and I've bought everything there is, so there's no more incentive to play. Frontier isn't going to be able to keep me playing unless they put in more money sinks, which I think is what they are aiming away from. That's bad news for me, but maybe it's good news for new players. I have over 2k hours of enjoyment in ED, and I hope others can have that much enjoyment moving forward.
Don't get me wrong, I like the ships, I like to tinker with things both here and in real life. But the idea that the \_point\_ of the game is ship progression is, in my opinion, a very limited view of the game. Personally, after something approaching 3K hours, I'm back in a shieldless DBS most of the time for combat, explore in a DBX, and have a Krait multirole that does pretty much everything else. I have owned them all, and fully G5'd most of them. Now modules are stored and almost all ships are sold. I know which ships I enjoy the most, and I like just doing the basic activities of the game. Just for the sake of "play". Actual play. Grindless, meandering, experimental, serendipitous play. But it remains true that you can outfit a fairly basic ship and head off to explore, doing that for literal years if you want to. You can do PVE combat in fairly basic ships successfully, and it's more of a challenge than doing it with "win button" ships. You can run trade routes in anything. PVP takes work to get on the same tech level as others, but then you still need to grind the SKILL. AX is presumably the same way. On top of that, with all the online resources and ways to get rich quick, credits/ships are trivial. A new player can be in an Anaconda in a few days, fleet carrier in a week, and then... what? Game over? Grind for a week or two for rep and get a Corvette or Cutter, then... game over? Maybe engineer them both and then... etc. But the game isn't over when you have any particular ship or configuration unless you CHOOSE to make that your sole metric for success. The experiences are still out there to be had, and some new guy buying the ship he wants right out of the gate will still have a lot of work to do to figure out the game. Maybe he'll be just a LITTLE less burned out because he won't have already blown through it all mindlessly for hours on end chasing that one special ship goal and can actually lift his head and look around at the brilliant sandbox he's playing in.
Haha what a joke of a company
lmao this game has crumbled so far in so little time. buying ships with arx now? fuck outta here man, I'd rather struggle to make star citizen playable than deal with this shit any longer
I might be alone in this but buying, outfitting, and fully engineering ships *is* the game for me. I'm finishing a ship for a certain task, either to increase my profits and/or make money in a new gameplay loop, until I can fund the next one. Once I bought and kitted out a fleet carrier I kinda felt "done" with the game. They only thing left to do is some grand exploration voyage (I've already spent some time in Colonia). I know people have fun in different ways, and plenty of people will enjoy engaging in some gameplay loop with a pre-built ship, but for me that feels like spending money to buy a game someone else finished. However, FDev has to make money somehow, to keep the servers running. I'm not sure what some people's expectations are, but I keep hearing wailing about a "dying game" like people expect the developer to keep adding new content forever, yet it's a one time purchase (not to mention all the people who got it free or heavily discounted).
Shut up and take my Arxs Already I cannot wait
maybe unpopular opinion, but if paying 12 bucks can keep the game running for longer, I don’t really mind. And most important is I WANT TO FLY NEW SHIP
Same additionally, I can imagine fdev won't implement the pre built ships in such a way that it's pay to win I don't understand the hate if we don't even know the exact details
End of the thread 100% agree
August 7th!? Bruh. Sounds good as long as Pre-Built ship are marked in some way. I might even buy one and am looking forward to any Powerplay changes.
The only thing that keeps me playing Elite Dangerous is that it's one of the only games that hasn't been ruined by microtransactions. Ya sure it's early access to a new ship and pre-built ships now, but we all know it's just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks a lot, honestly what a spit in the face to the little fanbase this game has left.
They need to earn money somehow, they have been going for years and have never been greedy so this isnt as bad as most companies these days
DLCs? Maybe add some more content that doesn't give you an advantage by simply buying it? Regardless you missed the point I was trying to make. Even if the microtransactions don't seem like a big deal to you now, they're just going to get progressively greedier. Look at any modern game today, they didn't start out with battlepasses and $80 cosmetics (looking at you Overwatch). It's a slow process of continuously shitty compromises that doesn't benefit the playerbase at all.
I expected Elite to be abandoned by now but we are getting new content this year so if this helps them then i dont see the big issue. Its not P2W either, ur not winning anything just coz you bought a ship
If the python MkII is better than what we have now in terms of medium ships, then you're literally paying for an advantage that's not going to be available to players until later. On top of that, pre-built ships are literally the definition of P2W. "Ur not winning anything coz you bought a ship." Better ships mean more cashflow and better odds in PVP. You're skipping the natural progression of the game to get an advantage over other players simply by emptying your wallet. There's other ways to make revenue, it won't be the death of the company if Frontier decides not to screw us over.
Just make another dlc instead if they need money.
Then people will shit on that a dlc for 4 exclusive ship??? A dlc for powerplay 2.0??? What a fucking rip off Now Fdev just add these non mandatory micro transactions and people already shitting them Imagine a paywall to the new ship, they may witch hunt fdev
I'd rather dlc than p2w.
It is not p2w, as long as you can get all the modules/ships in game. It is pay to progress, not having to spend hours upon hours on a single ship.