[DevDiscussion] degrading freebies

[mist]

currently, free accounts are quite poor, many suggest to the point where people will loose interest in the game before they really get going.

so, a modification to the limits on free planets. allow them to keep the current tech limits they have now, however also let them continue on to the higher ones. howver, make it so that any higher techs they've researched will degrade, and disapear after a set amount of time.

this would allow freebies to get a look at the stuff that's later in the game, however it would still mean that their planets can't compare to a paid planet, which will only have to do the techs once, so will get far more of the tech tree. in addition, currently if you're a freebie and reach the cap it's like 'oh well, boredom now', whereas under this suggestion you'd have stuff and see it disapearing, and therefore be encouraged to pay to stop loosing stuff - i feel this would be a stronger motivation than paying to gain stuff.

so, imo, freebies gain, pa gains, therefore a cunning plan

-mist

[Cochese]

Interesting.

How far along could they get, and what timeframe before stuff degrades, are the key points.

[mist]

obviously so, but this is why we have testing :P

the answer depends on whether the code checks that people have all prerequisit stuff before being able to start a research, or just the last prequisit. if the latter they'd be able to get all the way up, and then would have to start over, and therefore a short time would be required (say 24 hours). if the prior, then a longer time would seem reasonable, say possibly 72 hours

-mist

[Kal]

I like this idea but have a feeling its quite a big overhaul to the game so its unlikely for next round, keep discussing though

[A2]

This is an interesting idea, but some work would have to be done on getting the amount of time something took to degrade right, so that freebies with below average activity wouldn't login and find that they were back to square one. A sort of 2 steps forward 1 step back idea this. I guess this would also allow the highest tech limits on freebies to be raised / removed as it would take longer to get the entire tech tree, and then it would have to be maintained in order to keep it all.

Another thing to think about is what order techs would degrade in. If it was just the latest tech to be built then they could try to get all the useful ones as fast as possible, and then the less useful ones, which if the player was active enough, would be the only ones that would degrade.

[Linkie]

something needs to be done about freebies. I just started a free account and I can understand people quite quite fast.

[MAdnRisKy]

I wholeheartedly like this idea

[G.K Zhukov]

Ive played this round as a freebie.
Having eta 13 with my BS fleet is just laughable. And that is just the start of it

[Alessio]

I'd dont limit there roids..
but give them a 12% maxroid cap when they attack
or less money per roid
and 10% slower build time
10% research disadvantage

techtree limited to newsies..
and full eta research except 1.. so they can get fast fleets except that there 1 tick slower then normal fleets
thats gd.. but not gd enough to become leet
and they should be able to see the galstatus
and they have ads..

That would be kinda gd imo

(owyeah dont let em dissapear.. I would quite PA instantly if I was free)

[Pinkerton]

The idea is not to make freebies unplayable, but to make paid accounts more desirable.

Maybe improve freebies slightly.... limit freebies to one type of POD ship. You get the other pod ship when you pay.

Or other non-game things like a customized Avatar next to your planet. or somethng that makes the game more fun in general but does not effect the game. Just more personal customization of STUFF will get alot of peeps to cough up a couple of $.......Then plaster it everywhere... all the fun they are missing out on.

Th PA team needs to improve thier marketing skills.... offers some cheap coffee muggs or stickers

[Kal]

there will be a detailed development discussion on this.