Can we talk about the BS that is the cases in the new starter packs?

[hawkeyeguy99]

Are you freaking kidding me SD? Like wow, I don’t think I’ve ever been this mad at a business decision you’ve made. Don’t get me wrong, crafting was a complete disaster and others are bad too, but most of the decisions didn’t involve people having to spend actual money for those things, it just made the F2P experience worse. But now we have this:

Guys, I couldn’t actually believe my eyes. They are actually charging for equipment cases with a, no joke, 1.9% greater chance at a gold… and that’s it. You don’t even get expert cases. How is this okay? You can buy pretty much the same exact thing in game with ONE match that you win. (first game of the day + first win)

SD have you lost your marbles? That’s just bad business. The only reason to buy one of those is to unlock mercs faster. I just cannot believe what I’m reading right now.

EDIT: I am NOT saying this is P2W or a scam. This has nothing to do with selling mercs because I’m 100% okay with that, it’s the shady business practice of selling for real money close to the worst cases in the game and making it seem to new players that they are getting some incredible deal with these cases. (cause let’s face it, they’re not)

[STARRYSOCK]

The packs contain mercs too…?
5, 10, or 15 different mercs. Sure the cases are pretty shit aside from the 4 elite cases, but considering what they charge in game for the mercs its not a very bad deal if you plan to invest in the game. The real draw to these packs is supposed to be the mercs, not the cases, but the advertisements don’t do a great job showing that.

Although the price is pretty daunting. I can imagine a lot of people seeing those prices and flipping out, calling the game pay to win or whatever.
Honestly with how many new players stay in this game past level 10, I think the best thing they could do would be to half the price of every merc and just roll with that. At least people might actually buy their starter packs when they’re not the price of a full game. I get they have to make money and all, but massively overvaluing a few characters isn’t a good way to do that.

Wish they’d hurry up and start selling weapon kits instead of this stuff. Seems silly to target new players with something so daunting in terms of price when you could instead target veteran players, who actually want to support the game, with something they’ve been requesting since forever. I know I’d gladly buy a few weapon kits if the price was reasonable.

[Mr-Penguin]

I was wondering what these new ones were. They looked kinda bad at a glance and in detail, they’re even worse… I wouldn’t buy one knowing what they contain.

But hey, the art associated with the packs look awesome! SD should put that in-game or something!

[K1X455]

It is targeted for the new players of the game (please bear that in mind).

[STARRYSOCK]

@K1X455 said:
It is targeted for the new players of the game (please bear that in mind).

This just makes it even worse. First of all being that only around 10% of players actually make it past level 10, and SD is trying to target overpriced DLC at them? It’s an open beta free to play game with a small playerbase, I’m suspicious of how many new players are actually that dedicated to buy one of these.
They should be targeting the veterans as I mentioned, people they know actually like the game enough to stick around.

Secondly, the price of this is insane. I know if I saw this as a new player I’d immediately want to call the game pay to win. All it does is reinforce the stereotype.
Not to mention, isn’t the entire point of having to earn mercs to force you to play the and get used to them? Sure, paying for one isn’t that bad, but 15? Can you imagine a new player instantly buying 15 mercs and just randomly switching between all of them with little motivation to learn them?
Plus they’d run out of things to progress a lot sooner. Look at where we are, players with hundreds of thousands of credits and nothing to spend them on. Is it really a good idea to take away even less progression?

[hawkeyeguy99]

It just seems that for the price point they are trying to sell at, they should at LEAST make those equipment cases to expert cases and maybe halve the amount you get. I 100% agree with @STARRYSOCK here, I don’t understand why they keep adding more monetization for new players. That’s just so backwards in how F2P games make their money. You wanna attract whales (players who spend a ton of $). But currently DB has no good place for such whales to spend money, there’s not a wealth of items to collect. This is why I’ve been pushing for more skins/earnable NOT limited edition trinkets for so long. It’ll keep players around longer and provide more cash flow at the same time. It astounds me that SD continues to release absolutely free skins/trinkets that are only earnable for a short time and then gone forever, like what are you thinking?

[Cletus_VanDamme]

Marketing guy / gal - Give yourself an uppercut.

Yeah it’s good value for the mercs - But that’s only targeting a very small amount of people who’ve just started the game - and it gives the impression of P2W.

The rest of the stuff is simply a joke. Golden equipment cases! lol

[AlbinMatt]

Alright SD, you guys need to either
A. Roll out Elite cases with these
B. Reduce the price

Then, make it CRYSTAL CLEAR to new players about the game’s inner workings rather than leaving yourself open to the “pay to win” stigma you’ve been fighting. Shove video links down their throats, show them the forums In-Game
I haven’t found the forums after three months of playing blindly, and if you leave the rest of the newbies alone, you’re going to possibly lose the player influx!

Third, you’ve heard the community:

Add Earnable/ purchasable cosmetics (more of them) so there’s more for both vets and newbs to work towards WITHOUT risking the P2W stigma.

You’re a bunch of smart and talented folks, and you have an amazing game here, please don’t squander it with shady business practices and unnecessary changes. The community here loves you, and we’d like you to listen.

Thank you Splash Damage.

Damn, that was the rantiest rant I’ve had in a while.

[GatoCommodore]

why?

these included mercs yknow

there are many people willing to pay with money to get mercs faster, even in paladin which getting gold is easier and prices are cheaper people still willing to buy the season pass to unlock all the heroes in it.

plus some cases to top it off and elite case for the last starter pack

i see no bad thing with this.

why did you guys rant tho?

seriously this is not BS, this is for people who dont want to grind credits

[AlbinMatt]

@GatoCommodore said:
why?

these included mercs yknow

there are many people willing to pay with money to get mercs faster, even in paladin which getting gold is easier and prices are cheaper people still willing to buy the season pass to unlock all the heroes in it.

plus some cases to top it off and elite case for the last starter pack

i see no bad thing with this.

why did you guys rant tho?

seriously this is not BS, this is for people who dont want to grind credits

Because it negates the progression of players (ignoring skill), and to those inexperienced, this reaffirms the pay to win stigma, no matter how untrue it is. That’s the biggest problem, it ruins DB’s reputation, while also providing less for those who paid, the progression, and ignores the vets.

[bushyg]

Also contains mercs with the packages, 5/10/15 respectively. It’s plenty for the price.

I just wish they’d make some new store content, but why make new shit to sell when you can just rehash the old stuff?

[Cletus_VanDamme]

@hawkeyeguy99 said:
It just seems that for the price point they are trying to sell at, they should at LEAST make those equipment cases to expert cases and maybe halve the amount you get. I 100% agree with @STARRYSOCK here, I don’t understand why they keep adding more monetization for new players. That’s just so backwards in how F2P games make their money. You wanna attract whales (players who spend a ton of $). But currently DB has no good place for such whales to spend money, there’s not a wealth of items to collect. This is why I’ve been pushing for more skins/earnable NOT limited edition trinkets for so long. It’ll keep players around longer and provide more cash flow at the same time. It astounds me that SD continues to release absolutely free skins/trinkets that are only earnable for a short time and then gone forever, like what are you thinking?

This, so much this.

It’s almost like they don’t want people hanging around forever, spending money.

Maybe with less high levels in the game the new players hang around longer?

@GatoCommodore said:
why?

these included mercs yknow

there are many people willing to pay with money to get mercs faster, even in paladin which getting gold is easier and prices are cheaper people still willing to buy the season pass to unlock all the heroes in it.

plus some cases to top it off and elite case for the last starter pack

i see no bad thing with this.

why did you guys rant tho?

seriously this is not BS, this is for people who dont want to grind credits

Someone posted without reading the other posts in the thread.

[GatoCommodore]

no really, you guys are calling this is bad because “muh gold equipment case”, “muh expensive stuff for new players” and “muh P2W impression”

nearly every game that has this kind of microtransaction arent actually pay 2 win.

does people call paladins pay 2 win? or Rainbow Six Siege?

this is not bad “AT ALL” and this business practice is done everywhere and people are okay with it.

P2W? because mercs? come on now…

This is making a non existent issue appear at the surface making SD look bad even tho all they do is just to make money but not affecting the rest of the players. Were playing the games for free yknow?

why are we even discussing this in the first place?

[Sorotia]

@GatoCommodore said:
no really, you guys are calling this is bad because “muh gold equipment case”, “muh expensive stuff for new players” and “muh P2W impression”

nearly every game that has this kind of microtransaction arent actually pay 2 win.

does people call paladins pay 2 win? or Rainbow Six Siege?

this is not bad “AT ALL” and this business practice is done everywhere and people are okay with it.

P2W? because mercs? come on now…

This is making a non existent issue appear at the surface making SD look bad even tho all they do is just to make money but not affecting the rest of the players. Were playing the games for free yknow?

why are we even discussing this in the first place?

Who called it P2W? The common complaints is it seems like they constantly release more and more and more new player stuff while not adding anything at all for the veteran players…and they’re 100% right.

If they’re so understaffed…maybe it would be wise for them to add some things that veterans would want to purchase? F2P games are all about bringing in revenue from their cash shop…basically the only thing in the DB cash shop that veterans would be interested in purchasing is a gamble box…a gamble you could spend hundreds of dollars on and not get anything you even remotely wanted.

They really need to get something to sell to vets…trinkets…new skins…since they aren’t affiliated with Nexon anymore maybe they could sell Nexon skin loadouts?

(I mean purchasing the actual loadout you’d want…not another gamble box)

[DrRageQuit]

I remember a time when if somebody didn’t agree with the price of something, they just didn’t buy it. Now its gotta be all forum threads and outrage.

What a time to be alive.

Its not p2w, not even close. Its pay for convenience, or pay for progress at worst. If you’re a new player who perhaps has one of those fancy ‘job’ things and doesn’t have hours and hours to spend grinding out a merc they might not even get on with, its not even close to a bad deal.

Yes it would be great to see more content for ‘veterans’ to get their hands on. But there are no systems in-game currently to accommodate that, unless you want to start chucking money about for trinkets or rng skin cases?

[JonBongNoJovi]

I paid £25 for the starter pack back in July 2015 , this game had managed to grab my attention from what was becoming a stale BF4 at the time . I liked what I was seeing and the way the game played ,the starter pack gave me more options to find my foot in the game and learn my place , I have paid more for worse AAA titles .

[AlbinMatt]

Right, this is the best way I can explain it:

Imagine you have a brother. He’s the best guy you’ve ever known, a real gentleman and a kind soul. Recently, he’s been trying to get this girl to like him, but he doesn’t want to get pushy or intrusive about it.

It’s been three years, and he’s been chatting with her in their workplace, and have had a great friendship so far. Now your brother has to go for the killing blow, and actually ask her out. What does he do? Does he drop subtle and polite hints, swoon her slowly? ** No. He gies to her place at midnight, rings the doorbell repeatedly and obnoxiously, which of course startles her and creeps her out**
It ain’t the best analogy, but this was the most laman one I can think of.

Splash Damage has been trying to get the P2W stigma off​ Dirty Bomb, but now they’ve done a 180 and did something that is very akin to P2W games. We might know that DB isn’t pay to win, and we love Splash Damage for making the game so, but who’s to say the newbies will se it as the same? I’ve already lost the interest of my friends because of this.

I’m in no place to talk about veteran’s rewards, because I still have a long way to go before I desaturate DB’s content.

[Pumpkiller]

I don’t want to be incredbly negative but practically any player will assume that a F2P is P2W at this point.

There is litterally no way to make a microtransaction look good to the eyes of new players,whenever it’s great or not, “crafting kits? ewww,crafting cobalts is p2w”, “weapon kits? did they smoke something?”, “Elite cases are OP!!!”, you get the idea.

It’s not a good business strategy to make starting kits in a F2P, but at the same time,it ain’t bad either,since pepole will look down on this game no matter what from the get-go. Especially since a handful of known critics already shot down this game hard enough because “P2W card system lolol subscribe”.

[DrRageQuit]

I think it all boils down to the current trend of people being offended that a company have the audacity to try to make money. I can understand the upset if you’ve paid $60 for a game and EA the developer has the cheek to turn and ask for more money for unlocks. But this is a free to play game. You didnt have to pay to participate, you dont have to buy the bundles.

[watsyurdeal]

To be honest I have to agree with the op, these should at least be Expert Cases with Bronze to Cobalt cards.

Not that I don’t understand the need to make money but, that’s a bad deal imo, lead and iron cards are worthless, so getting those at all in a starter pack is a dealbreaker.