Game Cost Balance

[dogdrool]

I dont think it costs much.I have never payed a cent to this game and I am a sol pilot.
I know collecting e is very boring and it runs out in less than 5 mins with no membership but im doing fine even without membership/boosters.As others said e cap needs to be increased because its very small.For me my max e is 5300 which is very small and I need to reload every 5 mins in sol.

Regards
DarkLordADP

I have to agree with DarkLord,I have been playing the free game since September last year and have never had the inclination to buy gold to enhance my game and give me the edge over other players.

The reason for this is quite simple the free game is harder to do, it takes longer and is more fun. In the end I have a few ships from all systems with nearly all rares installed. I have only ever used the free gold given by SS and that went on E and speed boosters.

I have heard players claim (maybe a little exagerated) they have spent up to £600 per month on this game which to me is a little excessive but its their money to do with as they wish.

I prefer the free game as I'm not in any rush to be the first to finish and consequently be one of the first to start whining they "are bored" and want the next system out before its even on paper, let alone on a server.

 

[Delloda]

Many good, well constructed points here. Congratz to everyone for this proper and intelligent discussion. I like the E cap increase idea. I will forward these ideas to our game designer for debate.

 

[noj]

As previously posted you do not have to spend a dime on this game ...and that is more of a challange.I looked at it but unlike the likes of Ogame,where you can buy help for 3 months at a time,here you get a few hours.....
This game has cost money to develop and run,so the developers are not in this for nothing and of course....why not we all need real money to live...not e or bp's.

Maybe...
It would be fair to cap the amount of money you can spend a month,so as to stop people getting into bother over a game.
I know this should be the individuals responsibility,but maybe there is a moral obligation.

Thanks for this game ....it can be infuriating,but it is fun.

 

[defacto]

When PG was in beta stage, there was no gold, no buying e.
Who complained? Noobs that left the game later. Many others continued the game.

I find e being a way to calm down between the attacks, and gives me some other to do than generic shooting. But the e-cap should be inceased.

 

[CapnSanta]

Without players buying gold .. there is NO GAME! To say in here that you can play without paying sort of defeats the purpose of the thread. It is about those who PAY for the little extras. Just remember, without us you have to find another fun game to play! You ought to support all those who pay for fair cost balances in the game for it keeps you having fun!!

Remember this!

 

[sbatten]

I'll put my 2 cents worth in since I have a slightly different angle from everyone else. In my real life, I am relatively busy, work, school, family, etc. I have a set amount of time I can play PG. During the week, maybe 3-5 hours per day, and usually little on the weekend. I decide how I split up my game time, e collecting versus actually doing something like missions or killing or BP hunting. I have standard membership and I also buy some e. I probably spend about $50 USD per month. This is worth it to me so that I can increase my playtime/e collecting time ratio in my allotted time each week for playing PG. Some ppl might have much more time per week to play and that would give them more time for e collecting, whereas others may have much less time to play each week and thus will be more inclined to buy more e and better memberships. This is what works for me, and I think each players situation is unique. With my standard membership, I can hold something like 11K e and is more than enough to do all SM up to Earth. As I have not done any Earth missions yet, I cannot say if this will be enough as mentioned about Lord Fam Doom (who, BTW, we already killed on Technatoria????) above. Also, for me, the e collecting times are good times for chatting and general camraderie with fellow pilots. How many times have you been podded in a mission trying to type out a quick reply to a friend??? And be honest! I have several times. Anyways, thats my take on the whole subject. The only issue I have is that for the same amount of gold, a low level pilot is getting a different quantity of e than a higher level pilot. This seems to me like it is akin to discrimination of sorts. Just because I am lower level means I get 1/10 amount of e for my 5100 gold??? That is not right SS!!! From the store, it should be something like 100K e for 5100 gold no matter who buys it and what level they are. That would be like going to the store and saying to the old guy, you can have 10 tomatoes for $5, but a younger person comes in and they say, you can have 2 tomatoes for $5. NOT RIGHT PPL!!

Chas88

 

[CapnSanta]

Chass88 has a point really. The E purchase really ought to be the same no matter what level the player is. 100k per 5100 gold is really not enough either! What buying E does, in truth, is saves the player TIME! This game is really a mega time waster and has been set up to "encourage" players to buy boosts to save time.

Fair price is really all anyone really wants AND as I am 100% sure SScreen would have seen a remarkable INCREASE in E boost purchases since the special is on! This proves my point: if the price/value is right then people buy more! Surely you devs can see this!

 

[sbatten]

Thanks Santa, and I would like to expand a little. People's time is a commodity that can be measured in dollar or euro amounts. If people with little spare time try to play PG now, they will most likely be done with it before getting out of the Vega system. If they can get e at a good value, thus saving their very valuable time for actually playing the game, they will most likely stay in much longer, at the same time buying gold and putting money in SS pockets. This would be especially important in the early stages of the game like Vega and Antares since by then you get people hooked and are less likely to give it up and stop playing. This is how many many business models work. In this way you will open up your market to more people by including people that have much less free time to play. Truthfully, if I only had an hour a day to play, I would want to PLAY, not collect e. I would probably not be playing very long since most of my time would be collecting e by time I got to Antares or Gemini.

Chas88

 

[datajam]

The solution is simple . . . Make paid accounts much better than free accounts. Seriously! Instead of dragging the paid accounts down to the level of free accounts, make it so paid accounts get the perks of not having to collect e one ball at a time, each level of membership gets a couple of the boosters, the top membership gets it all, etc.

Seriously, give some incentive for people to buy a membership. I don't want to be the pain in the anatomy on this subject but the game has been slowed down enough to make progression almost tedious, but definitely boring. If SS wants to make money with this gig, do something to attract paying players.

SS will make a lot more money with a bunch of paying players paying reasonable amounts, than they will with a handful of paying players that are dis-satisfied and a whole bunch of free accounts. But, I got jailed for that opinion previously so . . .

datajam