Energy ( free to play player )

[Abdelkhalek]

first i’ve been playing PG for many years and it’s always been a game i genuinely enjoyed. i’d like to share some honest stuff that i believe could improve the experience for many players. the current energy system and membership model feel more frustrating than engaging. Having to constantly return to energy fields every few minutes especially with higher level ships that consume a lot breaks the flow of the game the same goes for drones, which drain energy very quickly instead of enjoying the gameplay it often turns into a repetitive routine of refilling energy and that takes away from the fun.

personally, when i log in and realize I’ll have to go through that same routine again, it sometimes makes me log off instead of playing i’d really love to see the energy system (and possibly membership as it is now) reconsidered or replaced with something more engaging like ship customization, or other features created by the devs that enhance gameplay without interrupting it.

i truly believe this system is one of the reasons the player base isn’t as active as it could be! that said, i want to make it clear this comes from a place of appreciation. i’ve loved this game since around 2010 and i still do especially because of the friends i’ve made here. thank you to the developers for all the hard work you’ve put into PG.

 

[Alinoe]

i truly believe this system is one of the reasons the player base isn’t as active

There was a event with 200% energy booster from all sources (Christmas event), it was really enjoyable as a F2P player.
But when it disapeared, well go back on the same boring routine again... so I stopped playing, can't currently afford membership anyways and there better game out there...

Having to constantly return to energy fields every few minutes especially with higher level ships that consume a lot breaks the flow of the game the same goes for drones

I still don't understand why energy from bubbles is not based on player level instead of the current planet. Always a pleasure when you're on a event mission in a lower system or helping someone.
Why in a PVP gamemode like conquest, modules and drones consume energy. Granting a P2W-PVP advantage to memberships players.
Why the hell Colossus is consuming drone energy?

Also, yes it's basically mandatory to finish the game.
There is some player big brain moment that don't help...
"You shouldn't be able to enlist for CQ if you don't have membership"

But the system on itself is intended to be frustrating to push you to buy membership.
It deliberately break the rythm, force you to wait before playing because you're on the wrong planet lol, it's boring to refill and unfairly P2W in a competitive activity (reactor, leaderboard, conquest and Colossus (drones)).
I doubt about change on it, because the game rely on memberships to gain money.

 

[sergi211]

MMOs are a business afterall and that means that someone that spends money is always going to have an advantage over who doesn't, that being said I do agree that the game would benefit from a wider economy and not everything in the store being a detriment for F2P users, like having cosmetics as almost all MMO's do, but with how arcaic and limited the game is I doubt that's an option.
Since someone mentioned 2010 the energy membership back then was an increase on your maximum energy storage and you had to still grab energy spheres and drones weren't a thing, that made the energy mechanic more fair for F2P but hey time passed and things evolved on ways that not everyone liked and here we are with the game in a limbo of barely new RDX's and repetitive events that most of us allrdy have grown bored of.
After all those years and my experience on the game i'm skeptical that nothing relevant will come out even surprised of seeing something good like This thread poping out.

 

[Abdelkhalek]

i had a friend who was helping me with membership all these years, but i can’t take that from them anymore. and it’s not just this point i tried to invite some friends from my country to the game, but they couldn’t accept that they need membership in the higher systems because of missions time... starmap flying...also when you pod as a f2p and this kind of stuff as all of you know, playing in the Sirius / Oort system Erebos like this is not fun for me or for them.

 

[sergi211]

You can get fairly easy without membership up to sirius and that's a lot of content to see if they like the game, though i highly recomend getting the pirate plus for the double xp/crio from quests.
Also getting into a fleet that guides/helps you learn the game is a must.
About poding is pretty much irrelevant unless you actively do pvp.
I don't know your country economics but basicaly for 10 bucks a month for e-membership isn't that much of a deal considering that netflix etc... are a bit more expensive, obviously buying bp/dmg/armor memberships get's stupidly expensive but you don't realy need that for a decent experience a side of how much time to play you might have

 

[Alinoe]

Also getting into a fleet that guides/helps you learn the game is a must.

Got a friend with membership to help me with TC mission to access Erebos. And yeah it's frustrating for them to carry other without membership,between waiting time for travel, break to refill energy, leading you to feel like a burden for them...

Sure, you can play without it. It don't change the fact that this system is frustrating and boring.
It's frustrating on purpose. They want you to be annoyed and pay for it...

I don't think it's the main reason why the game is losing player, it was already discussed here: #11 Golden Skull Level it's clearly part of it. Lack of new content, lack of QoL,... And there is just better games out there that don't rely at this point on frustration to survive.

I don't know your country economics but basicaly for 10 bucks a month for e-membership isn't that much of a deal considering that netflix etc... are a bit more expensive, obviously buying bp/dmg/armor memberships get's stupidly expensive but you don't realy need that for a decent experience a side of how much time to play you might have

We knew someone on Kalgan, who was really happy to pay 80$ of booster per month. And the final joke, he cheated and got permanently banned. And since he was leader of his clan, his clan member stopped playing or re-create a character on Askone.

 

[Abdelkhalek]

lol i play this game for long what is this advice bro ? all this info you said we all already know maybe ? i will vote for you to be a GM no worries ^^ we also know there is a better games we talking to make this game better for everyone ? i've already done on this game since people want to spend money to have fun this game is not for someone like me and that's it 10 bucks it take sometimes 10 hours of work to get it here and that's not our point of talk ^^

>>>> going to e fields every minutes taking out the fun
>>>> starmap flying taking out the fun
>>>> higher systems need time and gold which F2P still struggling
>>>> our point is to remove energy and that will apply to everyone replace it with something else that will people spend money on too ^^
>>>> i think this will be a small thing to be given to a F2P

 

[Abdelkhalek]

you can dislike this as much as you want brother, but this is exactly why pirate galaxy will never have many F2P players. i’ve helped many players in this game, and i always hear the same thing when i ask that’s a fact, and it’s something we’d like to see changed.

i want to spend my time actually having fun, not wasting it collecting energy just to play for a short time and then go collect again. it feels like playing a demo instead of a full game something like that