Questions about your thoughts on the "free to play" model.

(Mustang) #21

This is a great marketing quote!

(DB Genome editor) #22

[QUOTE=EvoSteven;460233]The only game that did unlocking things ‘right’ for me was… surprisingly enough, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

You didn’t have to level to unlock weapons. You would earn money per match and with that money you can buy any gun in the store, no limits.
Not praising CoD or anything but that’s actually a good system.[/QUOTE]
I haven’t touched a CoD game since MW2 (and that was one too many already…), but if DB has to have unlocks, that’s the way I would like them to work: everything is equally available, pick what you want with the allocation you get.

A system like this assumes that some loadouts are superior to others, therefore require more money/XP/whatever to purchase. That’s not a good thing in my mind. I also makes comebacks in a game that much more difficult because it rewards the players that already dominate with the better gear (not exactly the same as kill streak bonuses, but similar). Also, in a game where you die and respawn multiple times during a round, would you have to “buy” a new loadout every time in the few seconds you have between respawns? That could get annoying pretty quickly…

(Falcon.PL) #23

[QUOTE=Djiesse;460223]So far there’s been no mention of any “stuff to buy” that influences gameplay, unless you consider different skins to be significant (the colors can be in some circumstances, but that can swing either way depending on the environment, so I don’t see that as a consistent advantage).

As for the “unlocking mercs” part, the trick would be to pace the unlocks so it doesn’t feel like grind, while at the same time giving you something to look forward to. And if these progressive unlucks are indeed the way you will obtain additional mercs, then I would suggest that you should get to pick which one to unlock each time. That would eliminate the impression that later unlocks are more powerful and allow the system to gradually slow down the pace of the unlocks to spread them further and further apart. So in your first few days of play time you might be able to unlock the 3 or 4 mercs you want most, but to eventually get the complete set could take quite some time. You get to have the mercs you feel are the most powerful or best suited to your play style up front and the others become more of an achievement / collection thing and a motivation to keep playing.[/QUOTE]

First shortly about colors visibility - it’s been settled, there will never be any way to get founder outfits without getting a pack, so it’s waste of time to discuss it further. Yet you are right, in certain situation it will matter, no one can possibly oppose that. There is also the shape problem mentioned before - different shape might change the moment when you see the very first pixel of the enemy and initiate your reaction procedure. SD might work on the minimizing both effects, yet the difference has to remain.

About the mercs extra in-game abilities: There in fact was some notion of that, on the forum, in my first post in this topic I had summarized all info I gather across the forum in this matter. It’s then confirmed, that you get merc instantly when you pick a pack, and the mercs introduce something extra to the gameplay, not just an outfit. You can unlock the very same merc - just without founder outfit - in-game, but that takes time. And now imagine a slider: it’s either bad for those who like to unlock, since it takes a mere moment to unlock all, or it’s a problem for ppl who like the pure game, who wants things simple to get(rules, mercs, gadgets) and hard to master(skill matters, not unlocked abilities). The plain, simple SD-specific character choice screen - Limbo menu - with all the goods at reach of your hand, so you - imagine you are a newcomer - can enjoy the same game as those who play for a long while. And we will enjoy that a newcomer is not in worse position, so if we fragged him - it was a pure and fair contest, unquestionable like in soccer, like in any serious competitive game… You are not unlocking a new shoes in the middle of a match :P. Good game doesn’t need such additions, when the base idea is good - simple rules leads to great playability without need of adding new attractions. Artificial difficulties like “bring me 10 wolf furs to unlock a new merc” - many people just feel it’s wrong… Destroy 1000 turrets? Repair for 1000 xp? Cmon, it makes people venture into nonsense activities while a whole rest of team is crying “where is the eng?” Where he’s answer is - “I’m unlocking a merc! I repetitively destroy and repair my turret to get milion points of experience and have a new pulse-rifle!”. Then the developer introduces(waste of time again) mechanics to make it less nonsense and it finally reduces to slight nonsense, yet still nonsense. Maybe enemy is needed to destroy the turret, now a few additional players are busy with a nonsense activity - let’s eve-drop TS communication:

A: “Hey bro! Join opposite team and we will unlock some mercs!”
B: “Awesome!”

Then often thing is another player comes in, and cryes “what the tapir are you doing here!”, and he’s off track too, busy whining.

I’ve seen it all already, no need for another chapter of the XP-digging nonsense. And a good part is, that it was all for making-no-sense rank in ETQW… Imagine the chaos of merc unlocking now!

In the matter of fact ideas tend to look better on paper than in real life.

And as I;ve said - if it’s easy and fast to unlock - it makes no sense either. It’s not fun to unlock easy thing, it;s just irritating for a newcomer.

Since some ppl want it unlockable and some want it not - why in hell shall it not be an option?

(Mustang) #24

Of your entire post this is the thing I most agree with.

BTW, people that enjoy unlocks whilst playing are not all stat-padders. :frowning:

(Falcon.PL) #25

[QUOTE=Mustang;460324]Of your entire post this is the thing I most agree with.

BTW, people that enjoy unlocks whilst playing are not all stat-padders. :([/QUOTE]

Glad to see you have accepted the compromise proposition. And a good one, too. I like discussing with intelligent fellows since such discussions often leads to something solid. :slight_smile:

a propos BTW: I know, I myself enjoy it a little, just not as much as I enjoy the most common norm of competitive sports - unquestionable balance. Most people believe in that, and that’s why it’s here all around us, from soccer to tenis and from pool to counter-strike. If e-sport is going to keep that rule firmly, it is likely to finally become “real sport” in the eyes of most people. I’d enjoy to hear about DB championship in the evening news one day :).

(LifeiNDanger) #26

F2P is the future. Just look at LoL.

(Seiniyta) #27

Look at all the other F2P games who have not even a fraction of LoL’s playerbase. LoL is huge but Lol is fortunate to be in a popular genre (even more so then FPS!) and also has the right art style and business model. LoL is the exception to the rule. Look at a game like Tribes: Ascend, only a small community left.

(murka) #28

Well TA is pretty much done due to devs themselves. Just look at some TA reddit threads, they even had a vote to ban all hirez employees from it.
LoL has a successful business model because it’s really not very difficult to start playing. You have a limited set of champs to choose from and being a newbie you still get kills and have a fun time(look at Husky’s first LoL play for example). Another important thing is keeping your playerbase. While DotA2 has everything free and unlocked from the start, LoL succeeds because you usually pay money for a few champs/runepages/skins and after a while you want to make your investment worthwhile so you don’t stop playing.

(Attackmack) #29

[QUOTE=murka;460910]Well TA is pretty much done due to devs themselves. Just look at some TA reddit threads, they even had a vote to ban all hirez employees from it.
LoL has a successful business model because it’s really not very difficult to start playing. You have a limited set of champs to choose from and being a newbie you still get kills and have a fun time(look at Husky’s first LoL play for example). Another important thing is keeping your playerbase. While DotA2 has everything free and unlocked from the start, LoL succeeds because you usually pay money for a few champs/runepages/skins and after a while you want to make your investment worthwhile so you don’t stop playing.[/QUOTE]

Yeah Hirez really dropped the ball on T:A.
A fun game, and ive enjoyed alot of hours in it. But it was VAST potential to become so much more, and to reinstate Tribes as a competetive name in e-sport, but HiRez ****ed that up and now the game is on a stead downward slope into the darkest abyss of gamehell.
And instead of trying to save it, which wouldnt even require a great deal of changes, they decide to pull the plug on it…Thanks alot, I had higher hopes. Well you got my money, GG.

Terminating their official forums earlier this week didnt help their public relations either.