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PRICING CHANGES, ONE-MONTH SUBS AND AUD OPTIONS - Discussion Thread


NQ-Deckard

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15 hours ago, NQ-Deckard said:

Hello Noveans!

 

As usual, we would like to hear your feedback on the pricing changes.

 

I like to buy game times from https://store.markeedragon.com/ will there be any pricing differences, or any exclusive in-game items such as skill injectors, fireworks, extra HQ tiles, pets, skins, etc for sale?

 

Second, when can we get some quality of life updates to the login. Switching accounts on stream for example, the login needs to have a blur option, or ideally a login menu for other accounts.

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On 11/15/2021 at 6:03 PM, joaocordeiro said:

 

It's common practice to have different prices for different regions.

For starters, there are legal differences. VAT rates, law obligations
And, there are other companies (like steam) that will have prices for region and region locks.

If you don't mind robbing your country from its rightful taxes, just "fly" (with the "VPN" air company) to the US and buy it there.

PS $9.99 USD is also not 9.99 Euro

Thanks for your input but my monthly tax bill is sufficient enough without kicking me in the balls and taxing my gaming too

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On 11/15/2021 at 5:04 PM, Raaziel said:

This statement of "Keeping a competitive price versus other MMOs whose monthly charge is in the vicinity of 15 EUR/USD per month" means nothing as other MMO's are finished, in a final state and have substantially more content than what DU has to offer for a similar fee.

 

True, had NQ come out with:

 

"From the beta launch we feel it was our mistake to set pricing as low as we did, while based on the stat eof the game currently asking the generally going price of around $15/months for MMO subscriptions woudl not be fair as we continure to develop the game. Thus we believe a monthly fee of $9.99, chich you can reduce by subscribing for more time in advance is fair and represents the correct value fo rthe game. As we woudl ike to keep our initial price promise during beta at least, existing subscribers wil keep paying the same price as long as they continue to subscribe at their current tier."

 

I would have said fair, correct and sensible. Would also keep the door open for a $15 subscriptions price at launch. For me there is no need to pay a cent for 4+ years or so after release and still, would like to know how NQ will compensate the now 30% devaluation of my backer packs. But it's a start. 

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In the original Kickstarter the fee was always going to be around $10.

But when they opened the beta (alpha) for subs even NQ had to admit they did not have a $10 game to offer, and lowered the price.

 

And you could make the argument that after 0.23 and demeter, there is even less of a game then it was then.

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Upping the price when the game hasn't even been released yet and there might be a wipe pending seems a little ambitious to me.  I know there's the 12 month option, but that isn't really an option for those of us who play multiple accounts because all the subs will come up for renewal at the same time.

 

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A subscription for a test phase is quite unusual, but what concerns me at this point is why one chooses an subscription as part of the game and at the same time links playing with taxes in the game for areas.
The explanation had been that NQ wanted to use the taxes to clean up areas from constructs and from ownership. Why did they not link this ownership to a subscription? If the subscription expires, there is a transition period of 4 weeks, after which the property becomes free to loot or ends up in the inventory as BP if the player returns at some point. But a subscription compulsion and taxes for the same situation feel like game compulsion to me.
Likewise, these taxes and the low ore from MiningUnits contradict the idea that you want to encourage PvP activity. So you're shorting all the resources so that even fewer players PvP? It will be a significant loss to play PvP at all, considering the enormous effort you will now have to make to get replacement ships.
How do the developers envision the game from a player's perspective? Log in, collect the daily reward of 150,000, then do the mini-mining unit games to keep those units working and then what? Log out and wait for the next day? Or do they really think you get on a ship with a mission box to fly afk through space for hours and watch a movie on the side? That's not playing! Every f2p browser game offers something like that.

 

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5 hours ago, Zarcata said:

A subscription for a test phase is quite unusual, but what concerns me at this point is why one chooses an subscription as part of the game and at the same time links playing with taxes in the game for areas.

 

This is a fair point to a level. There was always going to be upkeep and as it stands, NQ just choose the easiest way out for them and decided to do it now for some reason instead of working out a mechanic like power management and use that to solve this in a more gameplay focussed way later.
 

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2 hours ago, Jake Arver said:

 

This is a fair point to a level. There was always going to be upkeep and as it stands, NQ just choose the easiest way out for them and decided to do it now for some reason instead of working out a mechanic like power management and use that to solve this in a more gameplay focussed way later.
 

Reading between the lines it seems quite clear to me now that since the JC thing the game has been business driven, a proportion of funds may have possibly been released for further development of the game (Asteroids / Mining Units etc) and now its time to pay the piper and recover some of that investment for further development for the future game.

I see Demeter changes are a cost saving exercise despite it being said that they aren't and the price increase just tops this off and reduces the development cost to the underwriting business.

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18 minutes ago, Tictaq said:

Reading between the lines it seems quite clear to me now that since the JC thing the game has been business driven,

 

While mostly out of nessesity, I do not think that is an incorrect observation.

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Interesting that you guys (NQ) are adjusting the prices just as the mining units are coming in. Some think the MUs are too bad or too slow, others calculate infinite resources. We'll see when Demeter lands.

Those new to the game won't miss the good old ore mining and won't be able to compare the game quality with the new price. From that point of view, it's ok. All previous players have no new prices at all. So I don't understand why anyone is complaining.

 

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2 hours ago, Bobbie said:

You keep saying this but where did you get it?

 

I know it's been discussed forever by players during alpha, but I'm not aware of NQ ever making any such statement.

 

It was discussed when TU first cam into play and at several points in blogs and interviews with streamers shortly after beta launch.

 

besides that, this is a sandbox MMO and upkeep, which can come in many forms, is pretty the norm and makes sense.

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I never played the alpha because I had no interest in playing a game that was going to wipe.  But when the beta was opened up and I had to pay a subscription to play the game I was told they are no longer going to wipe the game. And I was ok with paying for the game.  But after watching last weeks vlog when you guys wishy washy over a full wipe.  Well it gets me nervous about playing the game. 

 

Basically I have no interest in paying to beta test your game. Dont get me wrong. I am ok with paying to play the game during beta. And I have summited bug reports and made suggestions. But if your doing a full wipe. thats not what I signed up for. Just send me a refund now. Maybe I will resub after you guys release fully.  Although chances are I will jsut walk away. 

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1 hour ago, Jake Arver said:

besides that, this is a sandbox MMO and upkeep, which can come in many forms, is pretty the norm and makes sense.

For many games, there is simply some kind of maintenance/control to control the f2p games. Otherwise it's mostly just a cheap compensation for lack of content. DualUniverse actually wanted to offer something fresh and new and not the same thing that can already be found everywhere by the dozen. Innovations are different!

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But it does, not many MMOs where you can claim a good sized area, it's generally you just put a claim inside a building with a relative small "build" area, pretty much like the cores do. In any situation where there is larger swats of land or space it is always owned by an organisation, not by a single person. ANd that organisation pays upkeep, generally in the form of currency or through power management.

Maintaining a station in EVE is not cheap, owning a system even less so. it's the same for other MMOs I know.. But feel free to let me know which specific MMO you'd refer to here.

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5 hours ago, RugesV said:

I never played the alpha because I had no interest in playing a game that was going to wipe.  But when the beta was opened up and I had to pay a subscription to play the game I was told they are no longer going to wipe the game. And I was ok with paying for the game.  But after watching last weeks vlog when you guys wishy washy over a full wipe.  Well it gets me nervous about playing the game. 

 

Basically I have no interest in paying to beta test your game. Dont get me wrong. I am ok with paying to play the game during beta. And I have summited bug reports and made suggestions. But if your doing a full wipe. thats not what I signed up for. Just send me a refund now. Maybe I will resub after you guys release fully.  Although chances are I will jsut walk away. 

I think I missed the part where they wishy washy a full wipe. That has been always excluded, some adjustments may happens instead like time ago the reset of the talents where they give points back (for some player even better reorganise them as game changes a bit) and now planets dirt where mining will not be anymore something even if I don't understand why they reset the mining talents saying are not needed anymore when the mining can still happen on Asteroids...

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9 hours ago, Aviator1280 said:

I think I missed the part where they wishy washy a full wipe. 

If you dont want to watch the video. He basically says they are not worried about wiping the scans because they are still debating if they are going to wipe the servers when they launch the game. 

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Hiking the price of a sub is adding more of a disincentive for those that have left the game to return.  IMO the primary function a sub increase serves is as a great big warning that NQ is hemorrhaging cash and the whole project is circling the drain.  Pity.

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Why does killing features and reducing server constrains count up to a higher monthly cost?

That would be the same as reducing cola in a bottle to 60% with a price gain of 30%.

Please give a more elaborate calculation of necessity of price gain, and please dont call cost reductions technical issues.

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To me, Demeter's price hike makes no sense because the game hasn't improved. 

 

As for NQ's server costs...? If they couldn't afford the technology, why did they make the game the way they did? What happened to all their claims of "cutting-edge" tech enabling "millions" to play together in a single shard environment...? 

 

This is why I dislike it when people talk about how "innovative" DU is -- no, it isn't innovative, it's just they had a naive plan that was detached from reality. 

 

It's only "novel" because the ideas presented are too good to be true, informed by inexperience rather than innovation. Innovation requires understanding the domain first, otherwise it's just idle dreaming. There's little difference between JC pitching DU and your stoner roommate having a "great idea for a game". They both have equal game dev experience, one just has a PhD in an unrelated field and VC money. 


No one forced NQ to claim that DU was cutting-edge. 

No one forced NQ to claim it would support millions of players. 

No one forced NQ to talk up how you could "build without limits". 

 

They did all this on their own based on inexperience and some naive vision......then realized it wouldn't work and raised prices while eliminating features...? 

 

The reason this community seems so negative is because of NQ's own hubris in wanting to push a dream instead of build a reality. Of course people aren't happy when they dream they crafted doesn't align with reality. 

 

Every single change with Demeter should have been done in closed alpha a long time ago. 

 

After over 7 years, they still haven't figured out which parts of DU are actually possible and which parts will remain idle dreams. 

 

Whatever you think DU ought to be based on everything they've said....forget it. It isn't possible and even if it were, NQ won't be able to build it. 

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Wait, let me get this straight.

You took a game loop out and replaced it with automining as well as preventing bases being made underground from what I understand and now you want to also increase the monthly subscription?

Seems mad to me considering you do not have a finished game. I was thinking about coming back but not at that price, not because I can't afford it but because there are other games out there with more features so I can't justify spending 9.99 on a game that isn't even 'guarenteed' to be around for the forseeable future nor is there any guarentee the time investment will be honoured because something could still go wrong necessitating a wipe.

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I think the price increase was business driven, and in poor timing with current condition of the game regarding updates.
It is like a teenager crashing their parents car, and then asking for their weekly allowance in the same conversation.

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