Potato Bps For 1Mil Credits.

[Phatose]

You can't really compare a B2P game to a F2P game, especially when the B2P game is part of a well established series published by one of the largest publishers in gaming. Business models have to be integrated into games, you can't just make a game and then arbitrarily decide whether or not you're going to charge a flat amount upfront or decide to sell in-game items, different business models will allow you to make different design choices.

 

I'm pretty sure despite the differences, you can compare the two.  And for specific details - like what amount of active player base is actually needed for a game where no more then 4 players are ever required - they're absolutely and directly comparable.

[Niennah]

No. Too easy, too boring, half-moot with formas. However I do agree there needs to be a way to acquire those other than alerts and daily rewards - just something more complicated, long and interesting. Clan research + crafting looks like a good model to base on, for example.

[JessicaMeanie]

 

QFT. I think a lot of the "DE needs to eat" crowd have three main issues with their opinion on the matter.

 

1. DE is doing fine. They are not hurting for money. The game is more successful than they ever expected. They say this all the time.

 

2. The F2P business model is dependent on most players being free players. Having a ton of these "freeloaders" are one of the most important aspects to making the game successful. If the huge free playerbase dies, the game dies.

 

3. Because of the importance of free players, DE needs accurate feedback of how the games systems are being perceived by the free players. This makes "Just pay money and support DE" posts actually more harmful to DE than helpful, as they are an attempt to inhibit free player feedback.

 

Back on topic; Personally, I support this idea. It makes potatos available for free, but at a rather prohibitive (but not completely prohibitive) cost. Or in other words, available but not convenient. Tier 3 void keys are not common enough to be able to just farm up 1mil credits easily.

2. this is where you are wrong. f2p business model is dependant of sales just like any other business model. the difference is that they rely on sales of the founders pack (which will go away when it's out of open beta) and microtransactions. if the players who play free were the only players left and never bought a thing the game won't go very far. and if the free players wanted to stick around in a fun game they would need people who pay to keep the game running longer.

 

on topic; potatoes are free, the difference is you can't get it as fast as you want. and 1 million credits is easy to reach in game like warframe, which to earn things you either farm or pay.

[Ergo_Voyager]

In League Of Legends the only thing you can only obtain with real money are skins....Now go tell them that they made a financial mistake

[Aspari]

2. this is where you are wrong. f2p business model is dependant of sales just like any other business model. the difference is that they rely on sales of the founders pack (which will go away when it's out of open beta) and microtransactions. if the players who play free were the only players left and never bought a thing the game won't go very far. and if the free players wanted to stick around in a fun game they would need people who pay to keep the game running longer.

 

on topic; potatoes are free, the difference is you can't get it as fast as you want. and 1 million credits is easy to reach in game like warframe, which to earn things you either farm or pay.

He's not really wrong so much as he is leaving out a bit of information.

 

What really happens is that the larger the playerbase the more likely people are going to continue to support the game. It has to appeal to a large crowd, and that large crowd is initially the free players. Those free players will eventually buy something if they stick around long enough and become a patron in the process.

 

Back to potatoes: I can't think of a single way to get 1 mil in credits if you're still progressing through the game. You're going to want to buy new stuff during the progression process and you're going to be spending credits and resources on BPs you get from missions and the market place, and if you're in a clan you'll be shooting money to that too. It's not easy to get 1 mil at all unless you're chalk full of T3 void keys and go through a whole afternoon doing nothing but playing T3 void. Even then, 10 keys are only going to yield you around 709000 credits. Getting a potato BP for 1 mil in credits is perfectly reasonable. Assuming you do all the alerts for about two weeks and played about 5 hours a day you'd only make about a quarter of a million credits.

[fatpig84]

5 million.

 

So keep on farming the void T3 like a boss.

[Aspari]

In League Of Legends the only thing you can only obtain with real money are skins....Now go tell them that they made a financial mistake

In League of Legends skins give you nothing but a new look. Potatoes give you more mod slots which is essentially giving you more potential power for your Warframe and your weapons. I don't see how LoL's skins are comparable to Warframe's potatoes.

[fatpig84]

In League Of Legends the only thing you can only obtain with real money are skins....Now go tell them that they made a financial mistake

 

Potatoes double the mod power of your weapon and frame which is pretty significant.

In LoL, nothing does that. 

[LordMidnightX]

instead of letting people buy potatoes just let them retrieve the potato when they sell the item. meaning if you get a new weapon or frame and don't want to spend any money on slots you can sell the old ones and get the potato back at the cost of the weapon. 

[fatpig84]

instead of letting people buy potatoes just let them retrieve the potato when they sell the item. meaning if you get a new weapon or frame and don't want to spend any money on slots you can sell the old ones and get the potato back at the cost of the weapon. 

 

 

Yes for potato removal.

[DaftPansy]

Yes for potato removal.

1mil for potato removal.

[Aspari]

instead of letting people buy potatoes just let them retrieve the potato when they sell the item. meaning if you get a new weapon or frame and don't want to spend any money on slots you can sell the old ones and get the potato back at the cost of the weapon. 

I have mixed feelings about this. Anybody who actively thinks about their decisions won't potato a gun they don't like. On the flip side, people who play this game 100% free have limited slot space.

 

Still, if you need potatoes you should have at least one reliable way to get it. Potato alerts are probably the rarest alerts in the game and log-in rewards are just pure luck.

[Reemer]

1mil for potato removal.

Or forma for potatoe removal because Forma is actually obtainable.

[FractalMind]

I think that all people discussing potatoes should consider the wise words of the father of potatoman:

 

[Godplank]

I'm pretty sure despite the differences, you can compare the two.  And for specific details - like what amount of active player base is actually needed for a game where no more then 4 players are ever required - they're absolutely and directly comparable.

 

The way they make money makes a world of difference.

[Aggh]

Did you by any chance happen to play any Mass Effect 3 multiplayer?  Very similar setup.  Third person shooter, heavy focus on grinding, never required more then 4 people.

 

Whole thing behind a $50 paywall, and it's doing fine.  The large population is not necessary.

That's because they've already made the bulk of their money up front, Bioware doesn't need to maintain a large player base or even long term players, they can just pump out another ME game and make millions.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Aggh

[WondahBoah]

How to split up that million

 

700k credits for BPs

 

300k for build

 

30 Orokin Cells

25 Morphics

20 Gallium

25 Control Modules

 

 

2 day build time.

 

Alert BPs remain as they are

 

Good plan?

[Godplank]

Sounds like a horrendous grind but it's better than waiting over a month for a potato.

[FractalMind]

How to split up that million

 

700k credits for BPs

 

300k for build

 

30 Orokin Cells

25 Morphics

20 Gallium

25 Control Modules

 

 

2 day build time.

 

Alert BPs remain as they are

 

Good plan?

Interesting... Dropped BPs would be much more efficient than the fiddly way of mashing together an orokin reactor/catalyst from scratch. Could fit well with lore.

 

Edit:

 

Orokin core blueprint

Orokin shell blueprint

Orokin processor blueprint

 

They could even drop from the void

Edited July 3, 2013 by FractalMind

[ZachGalifianakis]

Damn DE,can we buy potato with credits on next update maybe ?

[Takelon9]

With how many frames and weapons people are buying and leveling in the game alert bp drops wont be enough.  Especially for those people who need to "catch up", the people who have a bunch of weapons and/or frames that need potatos.  Plus, if you add to many potato bp's to alerts it limits the other items more.  With DE's big push to dojos, I think they should be something that could be researched and constructed in a dojo lab.  That way with some group hard work you and your friends could get as many as you need, while still creating a demand for potatos for plat, and still appeasing the free players.  Free players could get a few free from alerts, and have the opportunity to team up to build them whenever they need in a dojo.  All happy.

[theammostore]

Eh. It's 20 plat, that's 2 3/4 potatos for 5 bucks. If yo really need one that badly, it's not that hard.

 

Also, no, you don't NEED a potato to advance and play the game, you WANT one. It makes it easier to do the things you want, but it is far from NEEDed.

[Onbashira]

Eh. It's 20 plat, that's 2 3/4 potatos for 5 bucks. If yo really need one that badly, it's not that hard.

 

Also, no, you don't NEED a potato to advance and play the game, you WANT one. It makes it easier to do the things you want, but it is far from NEEDed.

There's a very real cap of how much an unpotatoed equipment can preform.  The difference becomes very noticeable against high level enemies.  If end game content is going to involve 70+ enemies than potatoes are much less a luxury

[theammostore]

There's a very real cap of how much an unpotatoed equipment can preform.  The difference becomes very noticeable against high level enemies.  If end game content is going to involve 70+ enemies than potatoes are much less a luxury

Not at all, it simply lowers the skill required of the weapon. If I put max multishot, a good level serration, and AP damage on my gun, it can still kill a lot of things, it would simply be harder than if I also put on crit chance, crit damage and the rest of the elementals. The more bonuses you give yourself, the less threat the enemy has, a potato simply lets you have more bonuses.

[Dr.KennethNoiswater]

I am going to jump back in here real quick like.

While I have put some cash into this game in the form of a founders pack, each one of my 9 catalyst and 5 reactors have been found through a free means. Whether they be alerts or login bonuses I find the means to be of little consequence, the point is I have used 1 of each. Period.

I don't use my one tatered weapon on my single tatered frame either.

I didn't use the taters because I was unable to do void runs or play above 30 in a defense. I used them because I found that frame and that weapon to be an immense amount of fun to use already and they are even more so afterwards.

Am I happy with my choice? Yes.

Is it harder to play sometimes without taters than it would be if I used all of them? Yes.

Is it impossible? No.

I enjoy the hell out of this game and while I believed that potatoes were partially a convenience in the first place, with the addition of forma that becomes more true than ever.

Have some numbers to emphasize my point.

A warframe has 10 mod slots.

Not accounting for polarization or tatoes in any way, lets say you fill your frame with the following maxed mods as they are THE most expensive: steel fiber(14), redirect(14), master thief(13), a tier 4 ability(13), vitality(12), rush(11), focus(11), a tier 3 ability(9), and two mods of your choice that also cost(9).

This would bring your total points used to 115.

If properly polarized the cost for each is reduced by 50% bringing your total to a whopping 61 points needed.

I would like to point out that this is a less than optimal mod load as steel fiber is completely worthless on most current frames and master thief is 100% utility. Therefore dropping them in favor of 2 additional mods which cost 9 (as there are no more mods exceeding that cost) will net you another 4 points wiggle room effectively dropping your total cost from 61 to 57.

I think we can all agree this would leave a 100% efficient frame with points to spare regardless of which mods you choose to use.

I think furthermore we can agree this hardly makes a potato a necessity for a high level or "endgame" frame as maxing out all of those mods, while fun and entertaining is hardly required at this point.

Which brings us back to pay for the convenience of not having to completely re-polarize your frame/ wait and pray to the RNG gods for a tater as a login or alert reward. I'll admit weapons may be a different story but then, I have twice as many catalysts than I do reactors so I would say they're more common regardless.

Personally paying 20 platinum seems like a moot point if you have gone through all the grinding to fully polarize for efficiency or are in deep enough to be killing enemies that tough.

edit: 2 minor typos fixed

Edited July 3, 2013 by Dr.KennethNoiswater