New F2P Interview

[Bags]

http://www.shacknews.com/article/72872/planetside-2s-free-to-play-economy-explained?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[NewSith]

http://www.shacknews.com/article/72872/planetside-2s-free-to-play-economy-explained?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

New sumup.

[Bags]

Yeah, I just realized there wasn't anything more than the paragraphs there.

Well, it's publicity at least.

[Bags]

I already posted it

http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39706

[Stardouser]

I've seen people saying this and what I don't know is...are they saying that from a standpoint of hoping the game will make money, or do they want more things to be for sale so that they can buy more powerful weapons for an advantage?

[DaddyTickles]

Less spawn times is not selling power, bumping yourself in the front of the line in a vehicle que is not selling power, priority access to log in is not selling power, bigger platoon size is not selling power, priority missons isn't selling power.....



Ummmm... 50% read like selling power. Getting access priority to vehicles is a DPS boost of a sort, bigger platoon size is fo' sho' more powah.

The priority missions are probably ok, but sound kind of meh.

And the priority log-in sounds wtf, are we back on dial-up?

Personally I agree with your initial assessment that they are only going to sell so many tatoos and hood ornaments. Knowing SOE as we do, I give it 6 months from launch and we'll be buying enhanced sniper rifles and reactive body armor.

[Hamma]

Merged threads with Bags ;)

[Bags]

Less spawn times is not selling power, bumping yourself in the front of the line in a vehicle que is not selling power, priority access to log in is not selling power, bigger platoon size is not selling power, priority missons isn't selling power.....


Less spawn time is selling more empire power (you can have more effective soldiers). Bumping yourself to the vehicle queue could prevent freebies from ever getting a vehicle, unless you could only be bumped a few times as a freebie per queue. Bigger platoon size also sells empire power (easier communication).

Dunno about priority missions.

[RNFB]

Well, I've got 30,000 Station Cash saved up for all that delicious store stuff.

[Fenrys]

One of my posts got lost in the merge.

[Kriegson]

Selling only cosmetics doesn't work?
http://www.eteknix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/TF2Hat.jpg

Not to mention it seems all the shop items have two options (With exception of premium only items) in that they can be purchased with resources, OR you can skip the grind with station cash.
I think with these it'll do fine and you're not selling power when people can still acquire it in game.

[Xaine]

http://www.shacknews.com/article/72872/planetside-2s-free-to-play-economy-explained?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter



Less spawn times is not selling power, bumping yourself in the front of the line in a vehicle que is not selling power, priority access to log in is not selling power, bigger platoon size is not selling power, priority missons isn't selling power.....



Yes, it is.

Less spawn times = more uptime in the game, allowing you to shoot more people, complete more objectives and have more fun. That is power.

Same thing with vehicle queues. Buying things in the game should not give you preference or tangible status above people who don't buy things. That is power.

Thats walking a fucking tight line. One step over and suddenly you're at more ammo, faster reload speeds... we all know where that ends up.

I do however agree with the server log in/continent queues. Subs should get prio in that. That is not directly affecting the battle. A person will still get into the battle, some will just have prio.

Faster spawn times/vehicle queue bumps directly affects how fast you can get back into the battle after dieing, making you better than your average freebie.

[Fenrys]

Faster respawn is too much - it's power via attrition.

Queue jumping could be OK. Someone on your team was going to get a vehicle or a spot on the continent anyway. To prevent non-premium players from being totally locked out by a constant flow of paying players, make it a line based on how long you've waited. Paying players earn 2 seconds of Waiting Time per second. Whoever has been waiting the longest gets the next vehicle or spot on the locked cont.

Organizational tools are not OP, but I think they should be unrestricted for the sake of making the game as fun as possible for everyone.

[basti]

To both just no.

To put it simple, the cash shop should sell this, and ONLY this:

Vanity, like hats and whatever. Stuff that makes you look different.

Sidegrades. Those should be in the shop, but ALSO possible to obtain via ressources. Means instead of saving ressources, you would get a sidegrade right away.

XP boosts. Just make you level faster.


And thats it. Nothing else should be there.

[Coreldan]

I think you are being a bit narrowminded Basti.

1) Premiums/subscription/VIP/whatever most likely wont even be close to pay2win, yet wont fill into your list, really :D
2) character renames, server transfers, etc.
3) I dont even mind unique weapons being sold there, as long as they are not upgrades to what free players can have, just different, but this can fall in the sidegrade business

Could probably come up with few more, but still :D

[Kriegson]

I think you are being a bit narrowminded Basti.

1) Premiums/subscription/VIP/whatever most likely wont even be close to pay2win, yet wont fill into your list, really :D
2) character renames, server transfers, etc.
3) I dont even mind unique weapons being sold there, as long as they are not upgrades to what free players can have, just different, but this can fall in the sidegrade business

Could probably come up with few more, but still :D

The problem "Sidegrade" weapons though are that they can often have slightly different and although technically not more powerful elements, more useful ones. For instance, a shotgun with better range than other shotguns (With no real downsides). A sniper rifle that players can sprint with while others require you to jog (Without losing the power to 2 shot players)
Sound familiar? :P

That's not to say you cant actually work sidegrade weapons, TF2 is a great example of this with a number of sidegrades to classic weapons, while still maintaining the effectiveness of the basic ones.
It's just that you have to be careful how you do it.

[Coreldan]

The problem "Sidegrade" weapons though are that they can often have slightly different and although technically not more powerful elements, more useful ones. For instance, a shotgun with better range than other shotguns (With no real downsides). A sniper rifle that players can sprint with while others require you to jog (Without losing the power to 2 shot players)
Sound familiar? :P

That's not to say you cant actually work sidegrade weapons, TF2 is a great example of this with a number of sidegrades to classic weapons, while still maintaining the effectiveness of the basic ones.
It's just that you have to be careful how you do it.

Yes, sound familiar. While the CSG is on the brink of being on the pay2win side, but most top players in APB deny p2w exists and most of them favor 3 slot "free" weapons. Even with the CSG being on the brink of it, a lot of good players still rather use a JG with CJ3.

The HVRs true potential has nothing to do with 2 shot per se, but in the damage it deals with one shot. If you ask me, Scout trades away the most important thing of HVR for the ability to sprint. I find it overall a balanced trade off, cos it is a huge trade off. It makes it a fairly viable solo sniper, but a normal HVR is superior if theres any teamwork involved.

That said, if I can choose, I rather have stuff like new weapons available for all instead of cash shop only. It's an idea that can be done, but I wouldnt go that road unless it was really necessary.

[Vancha]

Wait, so was he saying there will be no cosmetic items available at all without station cash, or just that there are a selection of cosmetic items that are only available with station cash? That wasn't made clear.

They have to offer more than this in order to succeed. XP boosts and pretty armor are only gonna get so far. They need to get more indepth with it.
Prove it. League of Legends has been doing just dandy selling cosmetics as far as I know, plus Team Fortress 2, which has already been mentioned.

[Fenrys]

Wait, so was he saying there will be no cosmetic items available at all without station cash, or just that there are a selection of cosmetic items that are only available with station cash? That wasn't made clear.

You're right, it's not clear. It could be either.

The point is, the only things available exclusively for cash will be cosmetic.

That's not to say that some cosmetic stuff won't be available for in-game resources.

It's just saying that everything that effects gameplay is available for in-game resources.

So long as the price (in terms of how much time it takes to gather the needed amount of in-game resources) is reasonable, this seems like a fair solution. Reasonable means you can play all night without needing to spend cash to buy more bullets or grenades or tanks or whatever and level up at the same time, but if you want to level up faster then you need to spend cash.

[basti]

I think you are being a bit narrowminded Basti.

1) Premiums/subscription/VIP/whatever most likely wont even be close to pay2win, yet wont fill into your list, really :D
2) character renames, server transfers, etc.
3) I dont even mind unique weapons being sold there, as long as they are not upgrades to what free players can have, just different, but this can fall in the sidegrade business

Could probably come up with few more, but still :D

1. Has nothing to do with the in game cash shop at all. IN fact, they give you cash for the cash shop.
2. Has nothing to do with the in game cash shop. You may use Station cash for this stuff, but it still doesnt remotly affect the game.
3. No. Just no. All weapons should be obtainable ingame, and only ingame. Sidegrades for said weapons may be obtained faster via the shop, but should still be obtainable via ressources. Otherwise you sell power.

[Coreldan]

1. Has nothing to do with the in game cash shop at all. IN fact, they give you cash for the cash shop.
2. Has nothing to do with the in game cash shop. You may use Station cash for this stuff, but it still doesnt remotly affect the game.
3. No. Just no. All weapons should be obtainable ingame, and only ingame. Sidegrades for said weapons may be obtained faster via the shop, but should still be obtainable via ressources. Otherwise you sell power.

I guess it just comes down to a bit different views on the cash shop then. I havnt played SOE games with cash shop (well, DCUO shortly, but didnt pay anything for the few days I tried it), so I guess with SOE games it's handled differently.

In APB all the things I listed are exactly in game cash shop sales articles. I guess it's just a different way of doing the same thing.

[Vancha]

You're right, it's not clear. It could be either.

The point is, the only things available exclusively for cash will be cosmetic.

That's not to say that some cosmetic stuff won't be available for in-game resources.

It's just saying that everything that effects gameplay is available for in-game resources.
No. That's not the point. We already knew that. That's why I commented on something different, because it brought up a new issue that we might not already know about. :p

[Infektion]

I'll pay for a jackhammer that has twice the effective range with no damage drop off, unlimited ammo (meaning no reload) and 50% faster triple shot "cool down". Not to mention my bunny slippers and bib. Oh yea, I want my armor to have 50% less damage from enemy with a 25% bonus to damage has healing effect and 25% stamina refresh. ;););););)

[Hamma]

Made this comment thread for:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/news-matt-higby-on-f2p-and-realtime-data-2714.htm

[Bags]

I honestly don't understand how a faster respawn could be selling power, maybe if they spawned twice as fast sure, but 3 seconds off a spawn time is not going to make that much of a difference, especially if all empires have the access... They die at the same rate, just more often.
.

using that logic selling a gun to all three empires that one shots an entire continent is not selling power because everyone can buy it.

[NCLynx]

using that logic selling a gun to all three empires that one shots an entire continent is not selling power because everyone can buy it.

I'd buy that.

[NivexQ]

I think the data access throughout beta is good news. That means that the fan made stat tracking apps and websites will get most of the bugs out before launch.

[Hamma]

Yep and can work to perfect our systems with some cool features for launch.

[Korova]

This may have be covered before so pardon the ignorance but; will the core game be bought and then have no subscription, or say like League of Legends were the game itself is free along with no subscriptions?

[megamold]

This may have be covered before so pardon the ignorance but; will the core game be bought and then have no subscription, or say like League of Legends were the game itself is free along with no subscriptions?

the game is completly free, but you can buy a subscription to get benefits ( faster xp for ex )

[IceyCold]

Look at League of Legends. Honestly. Take a look.

Massively successful on selling specifically Vanity items. The characters you can buy with real money you can also aquire with ingame resources. The ONLY thing you can buy with only real money is vanity items and exp boosts.

And after playing it for a while I can tell you I have rarely ever played a match without at least 1, more commonly 3-5, custom skins on display.

Do not underestimate vanity, that shit sells.

[cellinaire]

With 1,000,000 fans / 1,000,000 criteria on this. Plz, let's try to reach a reasonable consensus. Shall we =)

(I know it'll be forever on-going effort, but)

[Hoodlum]

To both just no.

To put it simple, the cash shop should sell this, and ONLY this:

Vanity, like hats and whatever. Stuff that makes you look different.

Sidegrades. Those should be in the shop, but ALSO possible to obtain via ressources. Means instead of saving ressources, you would get a sidegrade right away.

XP boosts. Just make you level faster.


And thats it. Nothing else should be there.

Agreed!

[Hydra]

Do we have any information on CR upgrades? I mean the things that made you look different when you leveled up like backpacks and shoulderpads, I seriously hope we don't have to pay for that, it should be there to separate a low level solider from a commander like it did in the first one.

I don't know if this already been touched on.

[stordito]

cool
i already used JSON on my websites...neat stuff.
i've already an idea for a web based utility for my outfit.
we choose one or more footholds (hexes) and our web server will constantly check it 24/7 with a cronjob-called php script and send prompts via email/twitter etc when our foothold become occupied or spawn fights, so we can group for immediate response and secure it back.


I'm not sure if you will be able to get your soldier last position,life,inventary and with what accuracy.
If me or anyone else share their position and store it on a db we could track the battle progress, see the trends and making projection (will 50 NC be able to capture XXX VS biolab based on 3 months of data collection?).
we could also implement an auraxis on-the-field network with sharing of info between the community like if i need air cav i can send via "our" webserver a distress call to all logged users (sharing their status) wich happen to be on that cont and with air cav.

I'm not sure they will allow soldier data to be pulled down, else as you can see it's not too complex to develop such a web based services, wich would be cool but a real advantage...
Imagine everybody asking the web statistic app if "operation xxx [parameters] will be successful?"
I think data accuracy should be as narrow as possible regarding intel.

[dobs]

And i just grabbed planetside-live.com :D
Lets see what kind of data they will feed when the beta starts ^^