Look, the reason games that have a FTP option still have subscribers (or whatever they call paying players) is because you have to grind to get the stuff for free. That goes for SWTOR, LOTRO, DDO or whatever game you like to play.
You either pay and play for free… or don’t pay and grind. That’s how MMO’s work today. Eve is currently no different.
I personally prefer to keep my isk. I make about double what I would need to plex each month playing in a manner I enjoy… but I could easily play for free and make less. Perhaps I’ll get there someday… but I’ll have a few hundred million isk in the bank when I do.
Except that of all of those games you mentioned - Only one requires large amounts of player time to gain premium status without having to use a credit card
I’m not sure how you can say the value I and others put on the time spent to plex an account as “silly”.
Seriously; A few hundred “million” isk? [That has to be a typo, or you don’t actually know what you’re talking about]. I spend a few hundred mil a day on JF fuel, thanks to the recent changes.
As for “play for free”, I don’t know anyone (except the most naive and a few dedicated carebears) who believes you can play Eve for free.
Everyone’s time has value, (my leisure time is possibly the most valuable time I set aside) after 10 years of Eve I don’t want to have to commit more time each week just to pay for my play time. I try to spend as little time as possible doing PVE activities and with the latest changes to the cost of playing the game due to changes made by Devs (doubling hauling costs, higher costs for T2 production, etc), plus the rising cost of plex (200 mil in the last few weeks) - The time I’d need to do PVE activities simply to keep all my accounts Omega, is just getting too high.
It was a typo… should have been billion rather than million. I make between 1 and 1.4 billion isk per month per account with PI. That gets me most of the way to plexing if I wanted to use that income that way… and that’s about an hour per month per account (I don’t have to haul as my corp has a buyback program, so it might take you longer if you need to ship to market yourself). My station trading alt (where I relist orders once per day for about 5 minutes) brings in another billion a month (give or take). With two accounts I basically start at about 3.5 billion per month with almost no playtime (maybe 3 hours per month).
As for the other games… I grinded up points in both LOTRO and DDO to unlock classes/quests/areas to basically be premium with no cost. I actually enjoyed the process to be honest… felt like a progression in the game… but it definitely was a grind. I don’t remember a free to play way of getting points for unlocking things in SWTOR… so that one simply had a nerfed FTP mode, a sub mode and a “pay a little for some stuff” mode. DCUO was the same if I remember correctly. Having an ABILITY to grind for full access is a step up from either of those models (for a player looking to play for free).
I understand you have to put a value on your time. Eve costs 10.95 a month for a yearly sub (less if you catch a sale). That requires no in-game work. I’d only plex if the activity you take part in to earn isk for plexing is enjoyable (or at least isn’t a chore). If not… just pay for the game. It’s cheaper in terms of hours spent to afford to do what you like to do in the game.
Not a good idea, if you allow alpha go big ships they will die and they will leave the game. If you still wanna give 20msp for free, use achivement system similar to the events, in a not annoying way to babysit them periodically.
The game has plenty content for solo, but has a long learning curve. Reward corporation/alliances to take care of alpha, best way to learn this game is player to player. When they are in corp and they learn and get motivated alwais to upgrade omega paying, we motivate them with small ship fleet in pvp, we create content for them, reward us.
Falcon you know the game is hardcore pvp, if you allow them use bigger ships they will die and leave. Same rule as anny mmorpg my dreadnought is same as lvl 80 fat wow dwarf, and they dont understant that simple concept. They think they can beat game using injector to sit in carrier or rorqual and they ending loosing all.
IMO best way is keep the big skill
develop cost, make it double time for use capital ships and batleships with T3 Cruiser mechanic
daily even that give reward
sell alpha premium ships on store ready to go
give that 20m true daily pve mission , like that you have go some drone ■■■■ place to kill some stuff or datacore something.
reward corp for take alpha (the most important)
Boost marauders - capital for better end game content with a very long skill plan T3 CRUISER MECHANIC (will fix economy and scare alpha to inject for capital ratting)
Fix citadel mechanic will fix factional warfare, and the main ingame mechanic wich are abandoned. ( more HP or bastion mechanic and remove shity invulnerability idea)
you will sell more injector and improve sells but not no more 1hr new player in capital.