Expansion Pack talk/debate/concerns

SecondRaven · 2003-08-11, 10:56 AM

Ok im starting this thread so we can talk about the expansion pack that is either Myth or reality. Im not sure either way, but im just going to say some concerns that i have. First of all a expansion pack is a somewhat good idea, it will give us more wepons/vech's and other stuff. But is everyone going to get the expansion pack? If not then what happens to the people that dont expand? Are there going to be 2x the servers? One for the expanded pack players and one for the non expanded pack players. If that happens then their will be a raise in the money we have to pay each month. Most likely it will be double what we are paying now sence it will be 2x the servers. This Thread may be all for nonthing and i may be getting worried over nothing but i just think it needs to be brought to light. Please voice what you think on this

Happy lil Elf · 2003-08-11, 11:37 AM

Originally posted by SecondRaven
Ok im starting this thread so we can talk about the expansion pack that is either Myth or reality.

Reality. As to when it will be released no idea but trust me, there's gonna be one eventually.

I'm not sure either way, but I'm just going to say some concerns that I have. First of all a expansion pack is a somewhat good idea, it will give us more weapons/vech's and other stuff.

You speak the truth, young grasshopper.

But is everyone going to get the expansion pack? If not then what happens to the people that dont expand? Are there going to be 2x the servers, one for the expanded pack players and one for the non expanded pack players? If that happens then will there be a raise in the money we have to pay each month? Most likely it will be double what we are paying now sence it will be 2x the servers. This Thread may be all for nonthing and i may be getting worried over nothing but i just think it needs to be brought to light. Please voice what you think on this.

Ok here we go. *Assumes kung-fu question-ass-kicking position*

No.
No new toys for them.
No.
No, Not true (see answer 4)
Not all for nothing, you just had some questions
Yes, you are getting worried over nothing.

ChewyLSB · 2003-08-11, 11:50 AM

I know this is a bit off topic, but in response to your signature Happy lil' elf, KoTOR is going to be coming to PC in November (I forget the exact date right now).

Happy lil Elf · 2003-08-11, 11:54 AM

Ok I need to update that, someone already told me that but as I said before until Lucasarts releases the game on PC I will continue to have to listen to friends who are filthy enough to own an X-Box and the game. Therefore until such time as I can play the game without soiling myself with direct contact with an X-Box Lucasarts will be one of the many targets of my undieing and unreasonable hatred. That and kittens are cute.

ChewyLSB · 2003-08-11, 12:09 PM

Well, I'm kind of happy it's not coming out at the same time, or else it'd be filled with bugs like the XBox version. And at least the XBox people won't be able to get their hands on Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike.

JetRaiden · 2003-08-11, 01:41 PM

I hope its like Everquest where they release expansions like every 7 or 8 months.

Madcow · 2003-08-11, 01:54 PM

My personal opinion on this matter (and it's all guessing at this point) is that the game as it currently stands is not viable financially. The player base didn't decrease, it dropped off the freaking table after the first month. The player base currently seems to have levelled off, but that's an illusion for the most part as 7 day trial players have masked the number of subscribers who have left the game. It's quite possible that this LLU design will make or break the game. If they alienate enough players with their new 'wrinkle' and lose them as subscribers, it could be the nail in the coffin.
So the developers are forced to try to inject life into the game, and assuming they are able to do that then yes we'll see expansion packs. Expansion packs are not going to come out in the near future. If an expansion pack came out now, they're choices would be:

Double the servers (and server fees) to host expansion/non-expansion people separately. I don't think this is a possibility because I believe they're already looking at halving their too empty servers right now (again, just guesses).

Allow expansion and non-expansion people to play together and watch all the non-expansion people cancel their subscriptions because a bunch of people are killing them with toys they can't have.

Currently, expansion packs are a pipe dream.

Everay · 2003-08-11, 01:58 PM

i think the bigest server right now is emerald, but im not sure, anyone have a clue as to how to tell?

Happy lil Elf · 2003-08-11, 02:00 PM

Allow expansion and non-expansion people to play together and watch all the non-expansion people cancel their subscriptions because a bunch of people are killing them with toys they can't have.

I'd sure like to know what you're basing that off of because it sure as hell hasn't happened in any other game I'm aware of.

Madcow · 2003-08-11, 02:11 PM

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
I'd sure like to know what you're basing that off of because it sure as hell hasn't happened in any other game I'm aware of.

And how many of those games were FPS and strictly PvP? Think about something like the Lasher bitching. The inevitable fallback is something like "get the HA cert and loot them". What if you couldn't? What if a buffed weapon was wiping the floor with everything and actually holding the weapon wasn't even a possibility? I guarantee I'd be out in a hurry, and I guarantee I wouldn't be alone.

Happy lil Elf · 2003-08-11, 03:09 PM

Instead of saying "Get the HA cert" there would be poeple saying "Buy the expansion". Some people have, inevitably, always thought it unfair in MMOs when an expansion came out and there were things for people with the expansion to do/get that those without the expansion can't. It would be balanced I can promise you that. Now how would it be balanced? No clue, I don't even know what they're planning for the expansion. My guess would be that there will be few new certs and that those will probably be vehicles and not weapons.

If they do add new weapons I'd think that they would be additions onto current certs like say a new rifle for MA, empire specific sniper rifles, or maybe a common pool HA etc. At that point you can easily loot the new weapons just not get them with loadouts which would be annoying as hell hence incentive to buy the expansion.

Why do I think they'd be additions to current certs and not completely new ones? Well, the way it's set up now even with BR 20 I can't have nearly all the certs I'd like to. If you start throwing fancy new certs on top of that with no increase in the max BR it'd be annoying to say the least. If they do increase the MAX BR it had better not be witht he current scaling of the exp needed. A month of solid playing to go from BR 22 to BR 23? No thanks. However say they do make it easier to level, say making it the same or just slightly more exp to go from BR one to the new maximum. Now you'll have BR 20 people complaining about how they had to work really hard to hit BR 20 and now all these people are going to have it easy. So do you now increase peoples BR appropriately according to the new scaling of exp or do you piss off some of the high end of the BR spectrum? I dunno, either way it doesn't really matter to me.

Now, then, continuing on the assumption that new weapons will be added I'm curious what makes you think they would add a weapon that would end up "wiping the floor with everything"? So ar the Devs have done a good job overall of balancing the power of vehicles and weapons. There are a few things left at the moment I'll grant you but they're being worked on as we speak.

As for PS being financially only thing I'd keep in mind is that say only 10k people are playing or rather paying the subscription which wouldn't suprise me in the least. At 12.95 per month that's $129,500.00 a month and $1,554,000.00 annually. Yay big number. Problem is we have no idea what PS costs to run. Without that information or even solid numbers on the number of people paying the subscription fee, we can't even make an educated guess at how the game is doing financially.

Intruder · 2003-08-11, 03:27 PM

Anyone come from EverQuest? Can someone explain how the expansion packes worked there (since I belive people without expansion packs could still play with people that had it..

Spider · 2003-08-11, 03:37 PM

You didnt have acess to the zones but you could see the animations and new items (you got the character anims in a patch for new races)

But you didnt get the worlds nor could you play the spiecies

Madcow · 2003-08-11, 04:22 PM

Yes, Elf, that is a big number. But the amount that we don't know to actually keep Planetside up is only part of the equation. SOE was not making any money for the years that PS was in development. Making enough cash to break even is not enough, they need to show that they can make enough to pay for years of dev salaries on a game that was not yet out. You can take a guess that the sales of the games themselves might have taken care of a chunk of that, but the less cash the game is making the fewer devs they can afford to have on the payroll and the slower any fixes/improvements will come. Again, this is all just semi-educated guesswork on my part. I've played a few weeks of SWG and as insanely buggy as that game is they continue to add servers because their current servers are taxed all the time. In the few weeks that I've played I've seen quite a bit of player base interaction and a (seeming) concerted effort to not only squash the existing bugs but to also advance the game significantly. Obviously they are different types of games, but there just don't seem to be enough players on PS during so many varying times that I log on. Admittedly I focus 99% of my time on Johari which is one of the less populated servers, but I think I've seen 3 dots once in the last month. That's just sad, and it's a rapidly deteriorating player base.

On a personal note, I've actually had to try to validate the monthly fee to myself for the last month and a half. I paid for the game, I've paid for the service since the beginning but I'm really having a hard time feeling like it's worth it lately as much as I want to. I guarantee you that an expansion would be the straw that breaks my back. Maybe I'm alone in that feeling, but if PS tried to milk any more funds from me at this point in the form of an expansion pack it had better be mighty earth-shattering for me to think about paying for it. Then if I was still paying a monthly fee for less of a game than other people were playing I just wouldn't bother any more.

Ignore Me · 2003-08-11, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by Madcow
Allow expansion and non-expansion people to play together and watch all the non-expansion people cancel their subscriptions because a bunch of people are killing them with toys they can't have.

Welllll, for that to happen the people who don't expand would still need to get the textures/animations/data for the new guns and vehicles that would be included into the expansion. People have said that the expansion will basically be a large patch that would take too long to download, so I question how the "non-expanders" would get all of the content.

ghost