No Mod Packs For Credits? The Currency System Too Restrictive...

[AdultPuppyAndFrog]

I'm confused at what the point of credits are in the game right now. There really isn't anything in the game you can buy with them, and the few things you can cost practically nothing in credits after you've played for a week or so.

I know that the goal is to make money on the game, but there is WAY TOO MUCH in this game gated by a paywall. You NEED to give people ways to advance with in-game currency.

The implementation of random packs of mods reminds me of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer... with one exception: you can ONLY buy them with real world money.

An inefficient mod pack for credits is better than none at all. Something to do with all these in-game credits players are getting.

Buying blueprints and having to farm for weapons/warframes is fine, the system is a little grindy but most free to play games are.

Can't we get SOMETHING to do without spending real money?

A game with this big of a paywall is NOT going to foster long-term success. I don't have access to your stats, but I'm sure in open beta you're going to see a lot more players who fiddle around for a day or two, realize they HAVE to drop money for almost anything (especially with it not being common knowledge that orokin reactor/catalyst prints can drop on missions or daily login) and then just go back to other games.

The more gameplay-affecting content that is locked exclusively, the less likely you are to have a game that's going to last more than a few months. You can say it's just opinion, but look at any free-to-play game in the last 6 years. The only ones that go strong (League of Legends, anyone?) keep MOST, if not ALL, of the gameplay content available for free.

I'm not suggesting a vastly different model is in need... but there's practically NOTHING worth buying with the in-game credits. It's an obtuse system that discourages players. I mean, certain items are locked behind so many different systems... first you have to level up, then you have to buy an item/blueprint, then you need to farm crafting mats, then you need to wait a day or multiple days to get what you're crafting.

A game this restrictive is going to do two things: it's going to find itself with a small, dedicated community. Every game has one. There's still a community for the UT2k4 online demo that plays that game religiously. You will not have a completely dead game. That group will likely have some of your biggest monetary contributors.

But the second thing it's gonna do is drive away EVERYONE ELSE. I really enjoy this game. It's a simple game where I can log in, click a map, and start shooting stuff and rank/level/loot up. It's got nicely made core mechanics... weapon/player feedback and feel are spot on. Enemies are unique and interesting, teamwork is inherant in the system.

Despite all that, despite all the really solid design... the obtuse and excessive nickle-and-diming makes me not want to play. In the previous system, I would rank a weapon up to 15 and go "well, now all the rest of these ranks are useless until a random mission or login lets me get an orokin blueprint."

Does that encourage me to spend money? Not really. I've dropped a couple hundred dollars in free-to-play games to date. TF2, DotA2, LoL, Path of Exile... games that don't punish me for the times I DON'T want to spend money.

This post got a lot bigger than I originally intended, and a little off track... but the bottom line is I really think this game has the potential to be great, but it looks like it's on target to be a little quick spurt of money before it dies on you entirely. And I don't want that to happen.

People need encouragement to play... and THEN encouragement to buy. NOT encouragement to buy SO THAT they can play.

Edited March 18, 2013 by AdultPuppyAndFrog

[Shrugger]

IMHO, Warframe seems to become a good game in terms of gameplay. And a horribly overpriced one.

I miss the days when you'd just pick up a game in a box at a discounted sale, take it home, unpack the CD, and have the whole, full game at the ready without needing to shell out more money for DLCs and pay2win content.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Shrugger

[AdultPuppyAndFrog]

IMHO, Warframe seems to become a good game in terms of gameplay. And a horribly overpriced one.

I miss the days when you'd just pick up a game in a box at a discounted sale, take it home, unpack the CD, and have the whole, full game at the ready without needing to shell out more money for DLCs and pay2win content.

The problem isn't that there is stuff behind a paywall, it's that there's too much EXCLUSIVELY behind a paywall. For people who don't want to spend upwards of 50+ dollars, you're limited to only getting a small fraction of the available content, and the rest of it has to be bought or can only be gotten through random luck.

[MJ12]

You'd think that SOME sort of credit cost for booster packs would be warranted, considering how good of a credit sink they should be.

Really credits being basically useless kind of sucks.

[bptamblyn]

You'd think that SOME sort of credit cost for booster packs would be warranted, considering how good of a credit sink they should be.

Really credits being basically useless kind of sucks.

fusing mods (basically how you level them up) cost quite a bit of credits

[DalaiLlama]

I'd also like to add that under the new system, even getting in-game credits feels more difficult. Any and all mod cards I get I scramble and claw on to just to survive the later levels of Venus. The fusion cores, though I only clicked on a few and I acknowledge that there are multiple rarity levels, sell for... a much lower price than the mods of the past. With the low mission reward money, the mods were likely my main source of income as I cleared missions and sold the mods I didn't need for quite a handsome sum. Now with the onset of new weapons (relatively expensive), Sentinels (expensive), and the new mod system (freaking expensive), I've gone from holding about 200k at a time to 4k with a very slow regeneration rate. I recently got enough money to boost my Rhino's Charge and Radial Blast each to level 3. By selling my Trinity.

But onto Platinum, I feel the same feeling when a weapon hits level 15, that "well... This is pretty much as far as it practically goes." feeling. I fully accept the fact that Digital Extremes needs to make money. That much is unspeakably obvious. But... I can say that without Platinum, advancing in the game is no longer a "If you dont pay, you'll have to work harder." Indirectly, yes. But it's more a matter of chance with the Orokin Alert Blueprint Drops. Not only that, but the constant nagging of weapon slots and warframe slots... It may not be this way, of course, but it feels as if platinum is required to reap the game in its entirety compared to credits.

If I were to compare the two, I need only say that credits are good for... well buying mission gear and basic weaponry. Blueprints for the advanced weapons if you're like the rest of us. Warframes (as the name itself is called), more advanced weapons, revives, warehouse slots, mods, more, more, more are bought with platinum. Taking the price ratio into account... it's no wonder that my playtime has been steadily decreasing. Not to mention the entirety of Update 7 was kind of a let down for me in many aspects.