The inevitable Bushwhacker price thread.

(Zenity) #41

What people often forget about F2P is that it isn’t just a different pricing model. It is also a different development model, where instead of making one release (plus a couple of DLCs), cash in, and then move on to the next project, you keep working and improving the game to the indefinite future.

This continuous development costs a lot of money, so you need a business model that is sustainable in the long run. In the past, this has meant subscription fees. Today, this means regular new content perks which you can pay for if you want it.

The game doesn’t just cost $200, but it may cost you something like $20 or so per month IF you want to have all the latest content without grinding. Considering that this is pretty much the maximum amount you even CAN spend on the game at this point, that’s absolutely reasonable.

If you don’t think the game is worth this much, and you don’t find it appealing without the extra content, then it may not be for you, yes. Ultimately, the developers have their own sales metrics and they have to find the methods which are most profitable. That isn’t greed, it’s a necessity to ensure the continuous development of the game.

(Amerika) #42

I honestly think $8 is a good spot for each new Merc. But, if they did $5 but kept it at 50k credits it might be a win for the devs in regards to money and for the community since $5 is reasonable and easy for almost anybody to come up with.

(Dwu) #43

For the sake of this game I hope there will be a “full purchase” option for something along the lines of 60 euros coming up, which unlocks every mercenary. Not thinking about myself here but the average joe that wants to jump in after the release when others already have everything unlocked / wants to have full access to core gameplay straight away. Unlocking 20 mercenaries with the current pricetag either hurts your wallet big time or asks you to play countless of hours before you have full access to all the mercenaries which very well could lead to “well f this, im gonna go play some other game”.

(dignifiedIncrease) #44

i mean i wouldn’t MIND the price if this was the full game, but its not. Its a beta give me the mercs so i can play them and test them out for you. The fucking starter pack was 20 bucks for the current mercs+ credits. 10 dollars for 1 merc when your testing??? Come on nexon/splashdamage… He’s not even that good and doesn’t change the meta all that much. The mg is lacking a little from the tiny bit i played and he doesn’t have much umph himself.

I’m guessing nexon isn’t seeing enough profit for this game atm so they want something in return. Short term gain long term you’re gonna ruin the fan base…

Please think in the long term not the short term you wan this to be half as successful as LoL or TF2? Make champs reasonable and cosmetics should be your ultimate goal for profit. Its called microtransactions for a reason. 10 dollars isn’t a small fee for 1 stupid merc…

(Nail) #45

buy/grind mercs or deal with full wipe before release, early access should be reward enough

(Harlot) #46

That’s a pretty shit mentality that leads to a game that has Hawken level population. So if you enjoy 10 half-full servers at any point, go ahead. But when this entire thread is nearly all people disagreeing with the current pricing model, it may be time to rethink how you’re doing things, and quick.

A lot of people are going to look to us to decide whether to try Dirty Bomb or not when the game goes live. And a lot of people are going to mention how incredibly grindy it is for such a small reward and the majority of players will say pass.

(ResourcefulXylophone) #47

Here are my given thoughts:
30k is a little to high for a merc, I think even lowering it down to 25k would make all the difference

I have an Obsidian card for Proxy, but I can’t use it now that she’s out of rotation, I feel that if we have a beta fighter card, we should be given the corresponding merc for that card

New mercs should be lowered down to 45k to stay in proportion with the 5k reduction

How there are currently equipment cases that drop at the end of games sometimes, Credit cases should also be awarded

Each merc should be available for a 3 day demo, to give players some time to play with them so they know if the even want to buy them.

The game, in its current state, feels too much like a grind. I just feel I work too much for a merc that I don’t even know if I’ll like.

(Szakalot) #48

As far as mercs being tested, I think the Devs think that mercs were already tested out pretty well in the last 2 years of alpha/beta tests; so now the focus on other elements of the game.

Individual merc balance will most likely never end.

(irishrOy) #49

[quote=“ResourcefulXylophone;13244”]
[b]Each merc should be available for a 3 day demo, to give players some time to play with them so they know if the even want to buy them.

The game, in its current state, feels too much like a grind. I just feel I work too much for a merc that I don’t even know if I’ll like. [/b][/quote]
God dammit, this is so right!

Right now, 10€ for 1 Merc?
http://cloud.directupload.net/plugins/imageviewer/site/direct.php?f=1&s=Ygd
Look around on Steam. For 10€, I can get Borderlands2, Assassin’s Creed 1 + 2 and Brotherhood, even BF3, if I wait for a sale.

Guys! Keep everything in relation!
A hobby-casual-gamer should be able to unlock a new Merc every 3 weeks/1 Month, IMO, if he plays like 1-1,5 hours a day (which results in like 3-4 Matches normally).

First, set your raw standard Credit-income/hour, and then price the Mercs accordingly.
More important Mercs can be a bit pricier (basic Medics, Engies and Assaults), others a bit cheaper (side-grade-Engies and Medics and Assaults like Arty, Bushwhacker, Phoenix, etc.)

Look at the LONG-Term, not the Short-Term revenue!
Do not do a Macro-transaction here, and a Macro-transaction there!
Set on true Micro-transactions, and plenty of them!
A skin here, a new hat there. A weapon-camo there and a cosmetic here.

Many low prices will equal to a few high-prices Items, and in the Longrun, cheaper prices will pay out!
If you continue to set prices so high, the average player will just say:

Nope, not gonna pay that.

NEVER ever think about short-term-efficiency! Take a close look at Ghost Recon Phantoms (maybe some of here know this game).
The DEVs there went full ret@rd, to be blatantly honest, and did ride the Pay2Win-horse for 1,5 years and still continue to do so! Constant Power-creep, new Overpowered weapon-packs every 2-3 weeks. ONE Pack costs 20-30€ for all 3 classes. For 30€ I could buy BF3, BF4, Assassins Creed 1+2+Brotherhood + CoD, etc.
THESE guys really try to ruin the game, and they almost manage to do so, from time to time, man.

The best advertising a game can have, if the players themselves advertise the games and motivate their friends to play it, too!
But when I show my friends such an unbalanced and blatantly open attempt to grab Ca$h, they’re not gonna play it for a long time, let alone drop a single dime into this game!

This is still a Testing-Beta to test MatchMaking, Merc-Merc-balancing, weapon-balancing, the game does NOt EVEN run SMOOTH yet!
There is so much to be fixed and tweak, and yet you’re already greedy as fu**!
Sorry, but that is not what a BETA is for!

I could be raging, but I’m trying not to :smile:
The DEVs need to turn around almost 180°.
I could write more, but I would just repeat what already has been said multiple times now:

All Merc-prices are too high for casual-and even hardcore-grinders. For us, it feels like this “Beta” is more a Cashgrab and Grindfest than a true Beta. Many Mercs are still to be released, and if every Merc is priced at 10€, the system is just a brain-fart and will more or less fail sooner or later.

(dirtyToad) #50

I also think that 30K/50K is too much with the current rate of earning credits in the game.

As for overall currency value, It think $4/$6 is a more sensitive pricing.

(twenty) #51

Is the bug reporting section even getting read by the devs?
Some bugs has been there for weeks, still not patched.

(EvoSteven) #52

If you think about it, it’s all digital items as well. Many people laugh in your face when you say you bought a merc for 10$ because you could easily grab a few beers for the same price.

But ofcourse, merc has more value to a gamer than… beer… in some cases.

Anyhow, 50k is too much of a grind so only the hardcore gamers can get that. 10$ is too much for a single merc in general. I don’t have a job, I’m still in school. I can’t pay that much… I think 6$ seems to be reasonable. Anything lower is appreciated, but you know, got to make money as a dev too eh.

Until they add more ways of spending money, such as cosmetics or whatever. I simply cannot see this game become very profitable for them, no matter what price they give to the mercs.

(delightfulIncident) #53

[left]I am not sure about the economic model.

They can’t create new merc every month to get cash. It is so difficult to balance merc, adding a new merc introduce risk of unbalanced, then all player will play the same, then the OP merc will be nerf, and finally players will groan about SD that nerf our merc that will pay with real money. Not fun.

I repeat here my point of view. All “based” merc (without augment) available for everybody without doing any purchase. Loadout cards (by random case or upgrade) only avalaible for purchased merc.
And some competitions could be only with based merc without augment.

And 50K ingame credit, it is about 2 weeks of “casual” play. 1h per day, you complete 2 or 3 daily objectives, and you win between 3 and 4k credit. By 2 weeks => between 42K and 56K.
It is not with 50K ingame credit that SD will get cash.

The best way could be to get some money for private/public server that clans or players could have. Propose some different rent offers for private server hosted on SD means. Or get a little cost for servers hosted on over means.[/left]

(irishrOy) #54

[quote=“delightfulIncident;13349”][left]
And 50K ingame credit, it is about 2 weeks of “casual” play. 1h per day, you complete 2 or 3 daily objectives, and you win between 3 and 4k credit. By 2 weeks => between 42K and 56K.
It is not with 50K ingame credit that SD will get cash.
[/left]
[/quote]

  1. I played like 2 hours today, and only won 1x. MatchMaking is SO broken and useless right now, also the stronger Team almost always spawncamps the other team, if it get’s the chance.
  2. HOW the F*CK am I supposed to complete the Daily Mission “Play 3 Matches with Proxy in your Squad”, when I don’t have her?! DafuQ!.

Most of the time, my Credit-rate is ~100 per game, rarely 200, sometimes also only 90.

(Nothing against you, but I am mad “at the game”, because it’s such a grindfest right now.)

(EvoSteven) #55

I don’t think all mercs should be available from the start. But that’s just me.
I do easily get over 200 per game though on average but that would be 250 games to even get a 50k merc.

There still are daily missions but eh. They should be bonuses, not your main income imo.

(Szakalot) #56

[quote=“irishroy;13350”][quote=“delightfulIncident;13349”][left]
And 50K ingame credit, it is about 2 weeks of “casual” play. 1h per day, you complete 2 or 3 daily objectives, and you win between 3 and 4k credit. By 2 weeks => between 42K and 56K.
It is not with 50K ingame credit that SD will get cash.
[/left]
[/quote]

  1. I played like 2 hours today, and only won 1x. MatchMaking is SO broken and useless right now, also the stronger Team almost always spawncamps the other team, if it get’s the chance.
  2. HOW the F*CK am I supposed to complete the Daily Mission “Play 3 Matches with Proxy in your Squad”, when I don’t have her?! DafuQ!.

Most of the time, my Credit-rate is ~100 per game, rarely 200, sometimes also only 90.

(Nothing against you, but I am mad “at the game”, because it’s such a grindfest right now.)
[/quote]

sounds like a bug. You got that mission while proxy was still in rotation (so you oculd have played here); and now she is out, so you can’t complete the mission. Definitely the option to cancel as many missions as you’d want would solve this

(Stitchre) #57

[left]When it comes to mercs, I have to agree with those who bring up the League Of Legends argument, but only to a partial extent. Many have already pointed out the blatant point that this is supposed to be a beta. You can’t collect data, and be prepared to make necessary changes regarding new content (in terms of balance, compatibility, bugs, etc.) if no one feels the desire to try out the new content since it’s guarded behind either grinding for days on end, or through a outrageously high pay-wall.

My suggestion, like many others, would be that you lower the the real price down to $5 now, and avoid ever raising that price for any future mercs; On top of that, it would be for the best that the in-game price should be lowered to 30k within maybe a week of this update.

A note to the developers: None of us testing your game can really know whether this choice in pricing is because of need, or want, but when your player-base is made up of a small, yet dedicated community, you shouldn’t risk losing any of them in order to make a quick buck.
[/left]

(EvoSteven) #58

Well… Nexon publishes the game… Not sure how much they get to say when it comes to pricing, but it’s pretty important.

(RyuKaiser) #59

Had the character been $5, I would have just bought the Merc. To be honest, were all Mercs JUST $5, I’d probably just outright buy all of them instead of grind for the cash. I don’t mind plopping down money on DLC and the like, it’s in my nature to do so if I like what I see. I love supporting good devs, and good pricing. What really draws my ire is when I think I’m being hit by a cash grab.

I honestly think it’d help if they’d sell pre-orders/packs of mercs coming out. It gives you a roadmap of what they’re intending to bring out, gives everyone time to think up counter strategies and what they may want to do with their loadout before it drops, and also, if you make it so every pack is 4 - 5 Mercs for $20, you end up getting the crowd that goes “OMG SALE!”.

Honestly, if they’d just offer all Mercs from the Closed Beta for $60, I’d jump for it in a heartbeat. Though, to be fair, I already paid for the starter pack. Were they to grandfather in people that bought the pack and make the pack $40 for them too, I’d buy that easily. I do indeed love this game… and have no problem supporting it as it goes through “Growing Pains”. I did the same for Heroes of the Storm and Marvel Heroes, afterall.

(Zenity) #60

I’m certain there will be sales and bundles, and you do need a fairly high base price to make sales even worthwhile. Also as more mercs are released, I expect that older mercs are either cheaper or bundled in a good deal, so new players are not hit with a huge pay wall.

I really like where Bushwhacker is sitting now. I feel no incentive to buy him right now, but I know that some will happily shell out the ten bucks. That’s good for the development budget, and I will pick him up whenever I feel like it or when a decent sale appears.

Also please don’t think of this as a “money grab”. I can assure you that the beta player population is not high enough for this to have a significant impact on the publisher’s bottom line. They will be testing pricing strategies to see what works best, with the goal of ultimately coming up with a scheme that allows the game to survive if not flourish in the long term. That’s NOT easy to do these days, and especially not for a hardcore game targeting what’s more or less a niche audience.

People who speak about money grabs often seem to have a rather optimistic view of the financial situation of most developers and even publishers…