Opinion: Selling Cert Points

Hamma · 2013-02-11, 09:17 PM

So this was tossed around a bit and discussed quite a bit before beta. Certification points would they sell them for station cash or some other means other than in game time/EXP?

What is everyones thoughts on this sort of thing now that we are several months into the game?

AThreatToYou · 2013-02-11, 09:20 PM

I don't have anything against it, but I'm not exactly "for it", aside from many others will likely oppose. The issue stems from pay-2-win, even if it just won't make it so, it'll make for some bigger gaps but will also allow us to more clearly see the balance of the game, I believe.

I say that it will allow us to more clearly see balance because there will be more players with maxed out certifications. I imagine this will make some slight differences in balance between units that can make or break the devs decision to change things, like MAX unit armor, damage of MAX units, speed of vehicles, or ammo bins.

camycamera · 2013-02-11, 09:22 PM

interesting. that could be a good idea.

EDIT: maybe something on a smaller scale could work; a type of money that can be swapped from certs and buy cosmetic items etc? just sayin'

SGOniell · 2013-02-11, 09:24 PM

Hell no. You may be able to buy weapons, but you can't buy experience. It should always be that way. You have to earn your certs the hard way.

Maniya · 2013-02-11, 09:33 PM

More you make game into "Pay 2 Win" type of thing, harder to balance things out because people will rage over tiny tweak on things that they already purchased with real money. I think its fine as it is now.

J Baley · 2013-02-11, 09:37 PM

I want to be able to buy them. Pure and simple. Flame me if you will.

J Baley · 2013-02-11, 09:45 PM

Seriously, It doesn't matter how many certs I have, an excellent player will always kill me first. The game is meant to be this way.

Bunk · 2013-02-11, 09:47 PM

Hell naw boi. You want something you gotta earn it.

J Baley · 2013-02-11, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by Bunk

Hell naw boi. You want something you gotta earn it.

I earn it by playing and supporting the game. Right?

Zulthus · 2013-02-11, 09:50 PM

Absolutely not... buy your guns, fine, I can deal. Anything else? Work for it. They might as well just give you everything right off the bat if you can just purchase it right out of the gate.

J Baley · 2013-02-11, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

Absolutely not... buy your guns, fine, I can deal. Anything else? Work for it. They might as well just give you everything right off the bat if you can just purchase it right out of the gate.

They don't have to give it all to you FAST. But I'd buy certs. 1000 certs for 1 extra rocket....gimme a break.

Furber · 2013-02-11, 09:56 PM

Guild Wars 2 has a system where you can exchange in game currency (Gold) for the real money currency (Gems). The exchange rate is pretty steep (getting much steeper since launch), so you would have to really have an excess of gold for it to be worth it. I managed to save $25 on cash shop purchases by converting most of my gold, but that left me pretty dry on the in-game side.

I would think a similar system could be implemented in Planetside 2, but issues do come up. In GW2, most things in the cash shop (maybe all) can only be purchased with Gems (or subsequently with gold that you convert). Where as in Planetside 2 they're selling Infantry and Vehicle Weapons for either Certs or SC. I think they would basically have to put an imaginary cert price on cosmetics that measures how many certs you'd have to convert.

For clarification on the OP, you are talking about only converting from Certs to SC, and NOT vise versa, correct? I think some people are misinterpreting this as a way to buy cert points with station cash. I don't think that's what he's suggesting.

Edit:
If we are talking about SOE letting people buy certs with SC, I think it's a bad idea. One that SOE would not even consider.
But if it's US selling our cert points in exchange for SC, then it could be a decent idea. Still not something I would expect SOE to do, though

Helwyr · 2013-02-11, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

So this was tossed around a bit and discussed quite a bit before beta. Certification points would they sell them for station cash or some other means other than in game time/EXP?

What is everyones thoughts on this sort of thing now that we are several months into the game?

I thought I recall this idea being rejected by most of the community and universally by SOE. Why bring up it up again? Do you support this idea Hamma?

What about an idea that actually had a lot of support before and during beta, like a Cert Cap and a cert cost to access vehicle types. That's something I could get behind.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Furber

[...]
For clarification on the OP, you are talking about only converting from Certs to SC, and NOT vise versa, correct? I think some people are misinterpreting this as a way to buy cert points with station cash. I don't think that's what he's suggesting.

I thought Hamma meant money for certs, not SC for certs. Clarification Hamma?

Hamma · 2013-02-11, 10:11 PM

I am curious what the opinion on the matter is now a few months into the game.

If you had asked me pre-release I would have been 100% against it and wouldn't have changed my opinion. A bit after release now I don't think it's quite as huge of an issue since you have tons of people with lots of cert points anyway it gives new players a way to catch up.

NeoStratiC · 2013-02-11, 10:19 PM

It's an interesting idea, and I'm not completely against it. I would never personally buy them, but I could see the use of buying a pack of 50 certs or something like that to help boost a new character. Perhaps if it came with a "cooldown timer" on the amount purchased over time, I'd be for it.