(If you wanna post a comment, go ahead. For those who would rather be toxic and criticize a new player, don’t bother posting a comment. I’m over being literally insulted and thrown racial slurs in this thread - thankfully some of those comment were taken down. So no, I’m not in a good mood)
I see that there are pretty much 4 Tiers:
Basic, II, III and I’d would consider the Titan ships to be Tier 4.
At this point, you only have Alpha and Omega. I can’t justify paying 20$ USD a month for a service like that. And yes, even though someone could pay 11$ USD/month for 24 months, most people can’t justify paying 48$, 84$, 144$, or 264$ USD (possibly plus taxes) at once.
What would make way more sense for players AND be beneficial for CCP would be this:
Alpha (same as now)
Beta (Above +Tier 2)
Lambda (Above +Tier 3)
Omega (Above +Tier 4) and other perks only available to Omega members. Perhaps a monthly stipend of CCP’s choosing as well. And Discord titles of the player’s choosing among half a dozen.
A single month:
Alpha (free)
Beta (10$)
Lambda (15$)
Omega (20$)
3 months:
Alpha (free)
Beta (8$/month)
Lambda (12$/month)
Omega (16$/month)
6 months:
Alpha (free)
Beta (7$/month)
Lambda (10$/month)
Omega (14$/month)
12 months:
Alpha (free)
Beta (6$/month)
Lambda (9$/month)
Omega (12$/month)
24 months:
Alpha (free)
Beta (5$/month)
Lambda (8$/month)
Omega (11$/month)
Ship Tiers (I-III (Excluding IV = Titan, which is Omega only) would need to be re-arranged into 3 distinct and equal Tiers. As such, players can select the Tier they can afford, allowing them to have access to an appropriate amount of ships.
Incentives would include:
Omega:
Access to close betas for future games
Access to a monthly dev Q&A
Discount on EVE merchandise
Player can choose 5 skins to use per month (unlimited)
4 week grace period in case a player has to be absent
Ships goes with capsuleer when using the Jump Clone feature
+500,000 Alpha Injector monthly
Lambda:
Access to a monthly dev Q&A
Discount on EVE merchandise
Player can choose 3 skins to use per month (unlimited)
3 week grace period in case a player has to be absent
Ships goes with capsuleer when using the Jump Clone feature (home base only)
+300,000 Alpha Injector monthly
Beta:
Access to a monthly dev Q&A
Discount on EVE merchandise
Player can choose 1 skins to use per month (unlimited)
2 week grace period in case a player has to be absent
+100,000 Alpha Injector monthly
I am hoping this could become a reality, because I can’t imagine ever wanting to sub for 20$ to a single gaming service. If you consider Microsoft, they have a monthly sub of 12$ USD for multiple games, and that makes way more sense. But… 20$ for a SINGLE game? Absolutely not.
Used to be $15 a month before covid and sometime after covid it jumped to 20
Before there were alphas, there was a 2 week trial period, and if you didnt sub you didnt play. And that sub is essentially what Omega is.
So let me ask you this. What would you restrict from betas? Lambdas?
We know the big differences between alpha and Omega so what would be restricted to beta and lambda?
Everybody can scream we want more (alphas) but when these ideas are brought up, cant decide what youd give beta that alpha doesn’t have. Or lambda would have more than beta and alpha but still less than omega
Omega (Above +Tier 4) and other perks only available to Omega members. Perhaps a monthly stipend of CCP’s choosing as well. And Discord titles of the player’s choosing among half a dozen.
It’s all about ship access. Since this is what they implemented as their model. They would obviously make more money this way; I don’t understand how they never implemented what I am currently proposing (seems so obvious to me). The idea that most ships are blocked by default only makes players not want to give them money - especially not at a 20$/month price point. At least with the plan I am proposing, it would help other players (especially newer players) to feel like they are part of a community, instead of being presented with what is clear price gouging.
Just take a look at Star Trek Online. There is a reason why most people don’t mind spending money in that game. It’s because they never feel they are being price gouged.
its not just ship access, its skills and mods too… so alphas are limited to 20 mil sp? how many more SP and what skills would Betas have access to? Lambdas?
Tier I –> Alpha, Beta, Lambda, Omega
Tier II –> Beta, Lambda, Omega
Tier III –> Lambda, Omega
Tier IV –> Omega
Why would you need more skills? There are almost 2,500 distinct skills to my knowledge. As for Alpha, what do you mean limited by 20 mil SP? That is factually wrong, it’s 3 million at once in the queue (not sure why people are saying 5 wherever I look, or in your case 20). Unless you mean something different?
Are for mods, it’s either Alpha or Omega. Those who are Omega only, remain Omega only. Simple as that, imo.
That says it right there that you have zero clue what you are talking about. Alphas have a soft limit of 5 mil SP. Using injectors they get up to 20 mil SP total.
Ships are not labeled as T1-4. There are tech 1 ships, tech 2 ships which are beefy versions of tech 1. Tech 3 are more specialized ships. Then there’s faction/pirate.
Alphas can skill up to Tech 1 battleships and use pirate/faction ships, but use only a venture to mine. No skills for market/accounting or any for corporation use, limited missiles, some T2 mods. This isn’t an exhaustive list
Now beta. What can you add to a beta to still be less than an omega, but better than an alpha??
To be honest I only pay CCP with a purchase of Plex and I don’t sub omega or VIP to any online games. When I feel any game has shown improvements, I open my wallet and pay them. I don’t need or desire the Plex, so I give it away. @Malazan_Commander I seriously do hope they listen to your advice, it has been a while since I have donated.
However it has has always been my opinion, all game subscriptions are mismanaged. To boost sales you simply post a monthly goal as such; “Our current subscription last month was 50,000 VIP accounts, please subscribe this month to lower the subscription cost.”. Let us assume, following month you get additional 15,000 subs. Then they would post; “Our current subscription dropped from $20 last month to $15.50 due to an increase of 15,000 VIP accounts, please subscribe this month to lower the subscription cost.”. At this rate a million subscriptions would make the fee $1. This is all hypothetical and a generic example, as I think CCP monthly revenues are closer to 4 million per month.
You are still making the same amount of revenue from subs, but have more subscribers, and no additional effort or cost, than lowering your cost of a service. Now with more subscriptions, your virtual currency (Plex) increase in sales and there is the real profit.
I am glad at least there is one person who isn’t toxic here. I don’t know what it is about the gaming communities, where it’s rare to find a good person, like yourself. This is why I stopped posting in the STO forum years ago when they still had a forum.
I think the best example honestly, is STO. They have a one time fee for a lifetime sub. The perks aren’t that wild, but enough to make sense for the subscription. And you can purchase Zen outright (the premium currency), or even convert Dilithium into Zen. Basically, there are 3 main currencies: Energy Credits, Dilithium and Zen. I don’t think 3 currencies would make sense in this case, but the way STO handles everything is actually impressive.
I do hope they listen. I just feel that often people don’t even bother suggesting stuff. Probably because they fear backlash from people (like in this thread who resort to racial slurs). That said, they could make more money out of this scheme compared to their current scheme. And, I think their current scheme is actually having a negative effect on new player retention (i.e. they stop playing, or they don’t even bother playing in the first place after watching YouTube videos, realizing that the current scheme is such a massive disadvantage to players).
To me, the idea that a game is Pay-to-Win in this manner is beyond insane. Technically, even though STO could be considered Pay-to-Win in PvP, STO’s formula makes it so that you can still be on the same footing if you were that determined to do so.
And let me guess, the cheap ‘Beta’ subscription includes all the Omega ships you want to fly, while the rest of the Omega ships can be part of the Omega subscription?
If you don’t want to play for free as Alpha pilot, what kind of restrictions are you thinking about for ‘Beta’ pilots? T2 ships is ridiculous, then Beta pilots can fly pretty much any ship in the game but a few T3 destroyers and cruisers.
CCP would have to raise Beta prices to the current Omega prices to stay afloat.
CCP asks for suggestions, they have yet to take good advice.
This is why few offer any sage advice here. Most users treat this like a PvP thread, shooting down anything that moves. I might not agree with everything said, but my opinion should never discourage people to offer their opinions. I don’t know, if comments, pro or con, carry any bias with the CCP developers. Frankly, I don’t even know for sure they read this thread.
Fly safe o7
OT: BTW I did play STO for about 2 years off and on. I didn’t like the 2D feel of the space sim. I did like the Foundry they pulled it out in 2019 and that’s why I left. Eve Online has a better space sim, but planet exploration is somewhat of a disappointment. Planetary Industry is still done in space and not planet side. Even my old DOS favorite Starflight has you land and mine planets from a tank-like rover. I kept running out of fuel or getting destroyed by the environment.
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I just want OP to clearly state, which they have not, what they think should be included with beta subs and lambda subs. They’ve yet to explain. Tier 1-4 ships doesn’t tell me nothing as that is not how they are labeled. Much less OP has no clue about skills or mods. I wouldn’t doubt if this post was chatgpt derived
This is why I stopped posting in the STO forum years ago when they still had a forum.
