Which was why I suggested additional factors of restriction: tier and exploration.
Sure but I’d rather we have an entirely free-to-play game than a pay-to-win MMO, let’s not walk past the problem like that. If part of the weapon skins and other such cosmetics are purchasable with real money - full support, that’s how many games do it and it doesn’t affect the gameplay. Otherwise hell no.
3 Likes
Mh, keys don’t affect the competitive parts of gameplay, even if a crappy player gets the best ships and equipment to play a challenge, there is not much chance of him winning as the game discourages use of equipment and anyway a lot of the game is skill-dependent. Unless something changes and things do become dependent on keys, then I don’t mind them being purchaseable.
I do admit that a new player getting a bomber can be slightly unfair, but most things that buff damage like that usually have a level of skill to master.
Keys are not directly proportional to winning though. You can have tons of keys and still score atrociously because you are bad at the game, or vice-versa.
Unless we’re talking about Space Race.
3 Likes
I don’t know. Challenges allow the use of perishables and all that spicy stuff. One could easily get them with real money and annihilate everyone else, for example, on Space Races, and make it impossible for casual players to even reach the top 10.
Not to mention that simply buying everything right away completely destroys the fun and the sense of achievement.
4 Likes
Like skill, I believe that equipment should also be fixed for all players so that they’re on an even playing field.
Eh, it’s them spoiling the fun for themselves. Though we should do something about difficulty in CIU because it ranges from very hard to unfair, compared to previous games.
1 Like
We’re not asking you to do it, lol. If people want to ruin their progressions, what does it matter to you? It’s not a story driven game where they’ll be missing out on some amazing experience.
I agree that buying currency in any game does have that effect, and I also agree that it’s no fun and I wouldn’t want to do it, but I don’t really think that’s an argument against anyone doing it.
1 Like
Honestly. I just got a much better idea to make everyone happy.
MMO games that are FTP rely on players who make in-game purchases, and that’s not a good thing because it means such players would get an unfair advantage against everyone else.
However, I’ve seen many games use a different method that is accessible to everyone, of course if they have connection to the Internet - which is mandatory in CIU anyway.
In-game OPTIONAL ads
As in advertisements you can watch, for example, once per day, to get some keys. 50-100 would be more than enough, considering how easy and accessible it would be.
The purpose of microtransactions (for IA) is to be able to profit from the game although it’s free. Chicken Hunter Licenses would also help.
But if microtransactions are instead replaced with such ads (limit: 1 per day I guess), imagine the massive amount of players who would watch them for a small bonus and thus give tons of ad revenue to Interaction Studios.
In my opinion, this is much fairer and more feasible.
5 Likes
Maybe.
Probably not.
These things are not easy. If optional ads were a reliable source of income that didn’t require having to sell something, then everyone would be doing it and microtransactions wouldn’t exist.
Keep in mind that ads are already planned to appear (at least on mobile, not sure about PC) in place of the “Early Access” banner.
I do agree that a feature like this (that requires no payment on the part of the customer) might help iA to finally capitalize on that phantom, zero-revenue mega-audience the CI series apparently has in Vietnam, though.
4 Likes
Uh-huh, that’s the point. I don’t really want microtransactions in the game, and I believe other people agree with me.
Good. But I hope that banner becomes smaller otherwise it’d be way too hard to see the galaxy. I don’t want an ad covering the top of my screen.
I don’t think it’ll be hard to achieve at all if advertisements are already planned anyway. It’d literally just be a voluntary “Watch this 10-15-second ad to get a few keys”.
2 Likes
Micro Transactions for reskins is fine, but not ingame currency please.
Also, the license/reskin purchases should also remove any ads if that’s okay with iA. I mean, optional ads are still a thing. Perhaps this can be put in the gameplay settings as an option?
Option being:
In-game advertisements “Advertisements help us keep this game free. Please consider leaving them on if you can.”
3 Likes
I wasn’t keen on Personalized Names being a premium feature as well aka, you have to buy a CHL to get that feature. I really don’t wanna be known by a random identifier just because I don’t have a credit card to spend my money on, and this is true for many players, especially those from vietnam as Kylo Hen has stated:
2 Likes
Welcome to the 90% profit mobile driven gaming. It may be unacceptable, but it’s the most common thing in this place.
So how did you expect microtransactions to work here? It’s exactly what they are supposed to do.
But we already have a rarity system, you would either need to make them extremely better than normal or remove galactic market completely (or just leave 3 most needed items in case there’s someone extremely bad at the game and somehow runs out of fuel keys and luck - leave smallest pack of fuel, smallest pack of lives and normal missiles)
That was already suggested: Make the stores by default!
Yeah, because there’s only one regional shop that sells it.
Behold, rarity locations different to every player (IA said that it wouldn’t be easy to do, but not impossible):
Uncommon opinion about rarity of items
Oh, look. Another one that won’t be playing after release. Welcome. I guess you should get comfortable with it right now because this will totally be a thing.
Not speaking about the whole purchasable keys, but that’s a rather bad argument. I mean, fact that many games do it doesn’t change that it is bad. Stupid Bethesda and their horse armor DLC.
Missiles? Weapon upgrades? Special Weapons? Satellites? Better ships? The only thing you can possibly add to make it more affect the gameplay right now is “you died, pay 1000 keys to continue”.
but still I would like to see a new challenge where all helping things (satellites, superweapons etc.) are disabled. Everyone gets the same equipment and you are competing just with your skill.
When you die in a Space Race - #18 by kokokokos
So we agree on that. Good.
Because it ruins the fun and enjoyment for others?
Optional? But the ads will be there in the place of EA banner after release. Would it be good to add both of optional and forced ads? We’re talking about someone without CHL of course, because CHL should remove ads.
4 Likes
I mean, it (CHL) DOES cost 5 bucks. It’s already as good as watching about 50 - 70 ads. (assuming the ads are about 7 cents earned each. ad revenue is not that much if it’s just one person watching em)
Still, Optional Ads for CHL players should be okay. After all, they did already show support for the game with a license.
1 Like
If they don’t ruin the experience by being obnoxiously large and shoved in your face, I don’t think it’d be bad.
Key microtransactions = big no-no. Getting equipment for challenges would be more than easy. Maneuvering jets, eggular repulsors, missiles, bombs, damage amplifiers, dimensional phase-outs… And don’t even talk about disabling them on challenges, that would render them very hard to complete (I never play weeklies without 2-3 packs of damage amps). I’d disable them on Space Races only because they’re time-dependent.
So if ads replace them, I’m down.
1 Like
Oh, cool. That’d do it. But if it’s done like that, then they’d need to not reshuffle. Otherwise I think everyone would just give up. 
And again, you can have all those things and still absolutely fail like a wet firecracker, or you can fly a mission completely unarmed and still score extremely well (there’s even a medal for doing so!) Equipment aids, but it doesn’t unbalance, and it’s also worth noting that it’s all well within the range of reasonable price without having to spend microtransactions, either.
It’s their choice how to enjoy the game though. I think it’s an awful way to play, personally, but it’s not like they’re playing Journey or something where the experience is literally the game and you would be missing something amazing.
Cheat codes do exactly the same thing, and yet plenty of people love those in games, because they are free and optional. I’ve heard people tell each other not to use cheats and ruin the game, I’ve never heard someone say it’s the dev’s fault for including cheats.
From what I’ve heard, I’d actually guess it’s considerably less than that. But I could be wrong with that assumption.
2 Likes
Well, iirc it was 5 bucks. Do correct me if I’m wrong
(response to bottom post: Oh, okay. nevermind then)
Oh, I was referring to the average revenue the game dev gets for a single ad view, not the CHL. 
2 Likes
I meant rarity relative to other items. If between two similarly priced items, one is rarer, then obviously the rarer one is the more valuable. This way, things don’t have to get overpriced but still be harder to get.
The reason that I made this topic is that with more exotic items arriving in the game, it becomes simply inaccessible for some players, even paying players, for example, if some ship costs, say, 7000 keys and is available everywhere, it certainly would be less fun to grind 7000 keys, rather than pay 2000 keys when you finally do run across a ship that’s available only at, say, 20 stores of 115 at a given day, then you’re actually rewarded for experience, rather than not having a life/ blowing a hole in your wallet.
And I think things should reshuffle weekly. On top of that, I believe that shops should have limited pieces of a certain thing, for example, an Aftermarket can sell 150 packs of missiles before running out. For ships, and other things that are intended to be accessed by experienced players, 3-9 pieces before selling out would suffice. so there is a luck factor involved in it.
It’s all good until you get stuck in between star systems without any fuel and keys. Or simply having no Gus’ Gas nearby while being low on fuel. How would you replenish if you don’t have enough to reach the nearest station?