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Dual Access Coupons - how will they work?


Muttley

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Hey folks,

 

Let's say you buy a Silver Founder Pack and therefore have 10 DACs. (I just bought one, btw). With this in mind, I have two questions:


1) Can you activate each DAC whenever you wish? For instance, maybe you use your first DAC in February and then you choose to take a break until July. Do you still have 9 DACs when you return to the game in July?

 

2) Once activated are DACs consumed on a monthly basis irrespective of your usage or is there a more subtle usage mechanism planned? For instance, if you activated your DAC on the first day of the month yet only play 1 minute does the DAC expire at the end of the month? Considering a DAC is going to work out at €18 a month I'd love to see some novel approach to how DACs are consumed.

I always swore that I'd never I'd never play a subscription based game but I guess the hype got the better of me. Still, I must say that I have major reservations about the concept of subscription based games especially because these days my life is pretty busy and I can easily imagine a scenario in which I can only grab a handful of hours to play per month. At €18 per month that would make those few hours very expensive indeed.

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Hi muttley welcome to the forums and thank you for your questions, I will do my best to answer them for you :)

 

1) Yes, based on how it has been described each DAC is a usable item, and as such will only be consumed when used by the player. meaning that if you took your brake you should indeed have 9 left.

 

2) Again yes, I am afraid so and this has been a concern of many players. To try and tackle this issue, NQ have done a few things.

Firstly they have introduced a free to play model into the game, also being referred to as a "trial version." This does a few things, firstly, players who use DAC's may accidentally miss their last day of subscriber status log in. To be clear on this NQ have stated that the free to play trail version, allows players limited access to the game and its features. Meaning you don't have to pay a sub to get in and activate your next DAC. It also means that players who want to test before subbing can, and may also have a way to gather resources to pay for DACs in game from players to get their full status.

 

As mentioned before they have made it so that DACs are tradable by players to players in game, meaning players on a tight budget may be able to play the game without paying the monthly sub, Because of their sell-able and transferable status DAC's are more expensive than subscribing each month.

 

which brings me to my final point, being that; NQ has stated that subscription is cheaper than buying a DAC from NQ .. they are 2 different things. You may also be able to save money by buying more than 1 month upfront. DAC's are not subscriptions but tockens players can sell to free to play or indedeed any player in DU for in game resources and that is why they are priced higher then the monthly subscription.

 

I do hope this helps clear things up for a bit :)

 

just to be clear I am not part of NQ and much of this may be subject to change over time .. I am only posting based on what I have read so far from being active in the community and social media

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Hello Muttley,

 

I'm pretty new to the forum and the community, but not new to gaming by any extent.

 

I also understood exactly what GrandMasterApex described in the post above, so I can only grant a "+1" for his extensive and (as far as I know) accurate answer.

 

I'm also a bit relunctant in paying a monthly subscription for various reasons. For example, I might want to check another game during the month and end up being completely sucked into it, thus "wasting" my monthly fee, or worse, end up forcing myself to connect and play the game just to get the feeling that my money didn't go to waste.

I kow it is possible to buy DAC with ingame money, but how much work this will require is still to be determined, especially with a "limited" access.

 

I backed the game nonetheless, because I think this is a pretty cool concept, and I end up having a whole bunch of DACs I will save for playing the game. If I'm really getting into it, Maybe I'll buy some more when I run out.

 

To be honest, most MMOs have a F2P option nowadays, even EVE online is getting a somewhat limited F2P access by november, so it kinda feel like Novaquark is taking a road fewer and fewer developper take. Guildwars had the best option in my opinion: one time buying for the game with unlimited access, a shop to earn extra cash for people willing to pimp their characters with cosmetics, or getting small (and balanced) boosters/perks, + paid DLCs along the way.

 

Novaquark being a small company, limited financial support and having no plan for DLCs (as the world will evolve 100% based on player actions), generating revenues in the long run might prove very difficult to keep the company afloat. 

Some sort of "premium shop" could also feel a little out of place in this universe, so really, susbscription looks like a decent compromise, especially if the fee is kept at reasonable levels.

 

So, while this is not *MY* prefferred method of gaming, I do believe paid susbcription is logical for a game that will be extensively demanding (and costly) on the server side while keeping the player experience at a good level.

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Thanks for all the responses folks (including the PMs). I really enjoy the early days in Kickstarter communities because there is a real sense of optimism and comradery.  I give it a year before it turns poisonous  :P

 

OK, so if I understand correctly it works like this -

  • DACs are one off monthly tokens
  • It will be possible to use cash earned in-game cash to purchase DACs which themselves can be traded
  • There is going an option to subscribe which is more economical than above 
  • Some limited F2P dynamic is planned in the game (what this entails no one knows at this point, NQ included)

Is that a fair assessment?

 

@le_troll, yeah I totally agree that a sub based game is going to be required to pay for everything. If they manage to pull off what they are claiming WRT a stable single shard server (I say that like I know what it means ^_^), continued game development and all the other bills they have to pay then it's going to cost a helluva lot. I suppose I'm just a little concerned that the subscription model might make the game prohibitively expensive especially if the game lives up to my expectations*.

 

 

*After being involved in a few early access games I've learned that I should try to manage my expectations when it comes to the end product lest I become yet another opinionated disgruntled customer who is absolutely convinced that if the game isn't perfect they have been personally affronted.

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OK, so if I understand correctly it works like this -

  • DACs are one off monthly tokens
  • It will be possible to use cash earned in-game cash to purchase DACs which themselves can be traded
  • There is going an option to subscribe which is more economical than above 
  • Some limited F2P dynamic is planned in the game (what this entails no one knows at this point, NQ included)

Is that a fair assessment?

 

@le_troll, yeah I totally agree that a sub based game is going to be required to pay for everything. If they manage to pull off what they are claiming WRT a stable single shard server (I say that like I know what it means ^_^), continued game development and all the other bills they have to pay then it's going to cost a helluva lot. I suppose I'm just a little concerned that the subscription model might make the game prohibitively expensive especially if the game lives up to my expectations*.

 

 

Sounds about right. 

I believe they suggested limited skills and currency in a video. I would expect them to do what Eve did and essentially give a extended trial peroid but in a way that anyone who wants to play seriously has to go P2P. 

 

As for it being prohibitivly expensive, they are expecting something like $10-13ish. So under $15, if you have a computer that can run the game and can afford the electricity this shouldnt be costly at all. Now a days its hard ti find a meal cheaper than that. 

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More info about Dual Universe monetization model!

Hi guys! Already 135,354€ and 27% covered! This is amazing! We can’t thank you enough guys, thank you for your support!

So, this is the first update, and we wanted to bring some light on one important point. There has been a lot of discussion recently about the monetization of Dual Universe, and the question of the subscription model. Let us clarify here what we have in mind, so that you can see all the options we will offer:

  • Free to Try “trial” access: there will be a free to try access to Dual Universe, with limitations on things like how much skill, money and/or space you can access to. The details of the limitations are not yet defined precisely, but it will be made such that you can enjoy the game and have a taste of its large scale potential.
  • Pay to Play “premium” access at a price at launch that we will keep in the range of comparable products on the market (typically around $10-$13/month or 10€-13€/month depending on the country), decreasing when bought in large bundles: this is the full scale game, with no limitation.
  • DAC access: Dual Access Coupons are items that you can buy on the in-game markets with the in-game money you make while playing, and that you can turn into one month of Premium play time. You can also buy a DAC from Novaquark to sell it on the in-game market in exchange of in-game currency. DACs will have a price of $18/€18 at official release (for reference, items similar to DACs used in other MMORPGs are priced around $20/€20).
  • Alpha/Beta access: no subscription involved.

As you can notice, the real money price of a DAC will be higher than the normal price of one month of subscription, which may have caused confusion as some people, quite understandingly, assumed that the monthly premium sub would cost as much as a DAC. This is not the case.

We hope this helps clarify our future business model. The reasoning behind the choice of a Pay to Play premium access has been discussed in detail in a devblog post about monetization that we made in April.

 

Sourced from Kick starter update directly from NQ

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  • 2 months later...

Sounds about right. 

I believe they suggested limited skills and currency in a video. I would expect them to do what Eve did and essentially give a extended trial peroid but in a way that anyone who wants to play seriously has to go P2P. 

 

As for it being prohibitivly expensive, they are expecting something like $10-13ish. So under $15, if you have a computer that can run the game and can afford the electricity this shouldnt be costly at all. Now a days its hard ti find a meal cheaper than that. 

One thing I don't get is what do you get per Premium subscription? What kind of benefits will it be to sub versus just buy2play?

 

When I look at the packs like Ruby, which gives you lifetime subscription, I wanna know what I get for it? And in addition you get 20 DACs, which I assume you'd want to sell for in-game cash, since you already have a lifetime subscription?

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