The current DLC business model seems problematic
Apologies for the presumptuous title and post. I am just a player. I have no knowledge of the company's inner workings, I do not know your project priorities or how profitable is your current business model. What I can express, is how I feel about SE's DLC plan when it comes to the last couple of years.
Briefly put, I am not particularly happy with it. I do not presume to have data, but reddit, steam and twitter feedback indicates that a lot of people aren't particularly happy with it either.
The main reason seems to be the actual amount and nature of content that is being dished out per year. We understand that work hours aren't somehow unlimited, however your art department seems to be doing the majority of the work.
Many issues that involve networking problems, functional gameplay changes and mod support (which frankly are the game's lifeblood) seem to take a back seat. Same with exploration and progressive content - which some mods already partially alleviate the lack of structure and long-term gameplay just by changing a few config settings and barely adding any new assets.
Personally, I would be more than happy paying the game's full price, multiple times over, if the updates were more functionally meaningful. Whereas, I am rather tired of paying for updates containing just a couple of functional blocks/items, a planet of voxels which I will never be incentivized to visit, and a variety of cosmetics.
Long story short, I wish you would focus on the gameplay's actual longevity and polishing this diamond of a game instead of the longevity of a barely sustainable business plan that is slowly leaving ever more people disappointed.
I like this feedback
I have to agree. In my opinion, the game needs more content for discovery (caves ...), exploration .....
I have to agree. In my opinion, the game needs more content for discovery (caves ...), exploration .....
On yesterday's livestream, Xocliw said Keen is acutely aware of the need for more PvE content ... but that thought was based on their data indicating the majority of players operate offline in single-player worlds. He went on to say better PvE would only enhance multiplayer, so there's that.
If anything, more suggestions for what to put in PvE and how it should work would probably help the most.
On yesterday's livestream, Xocliw said Keen is acutely aware of the need for more PvE content ... but that thought was based on their data indicating the majority of players operate offline in single-player worlds. He went on to say better PvE would only enhance multiplayer, so there's that.
If anything, more suggestions for what to put in PvE and how it should work would probably help the most.
Im on this too i have SE since they released the Frostspark DLC and i have to say the lack of gamechanging elements is frustrating. I like SE alot i just wish we would have more to do in this game. Every DLC so far i wtinessed just brought us some cosmetics and blocks we alredy could use via mods. I wouldnt mind to pay for a 20€ DLC just for getting some fresh gameplay element into it. Im not actually good at anything in this game besides getting all the resources i need. It doesnt take long for me to get every material in the game so i can build everything within 1 or 2 days.
At this moment i just build a small or medium sized fighter and thats it. What i do with it, i have no clue after that i mostly quit the game and dont come back for a while to do the same thing again and that sucks.
What i think this game really needs is a complete Survivial overhaul to keep players at it like:
-working NPC´s
-more ores to collect and more complex recipes
-better economic systems with an impact on the whole Star System and their factions
-more weapons to build on your ships
-factions that expand their territories and build more stuff (maybe we can watch them build an outpost too) or not just let them do something to make a change in the System
-Scatter resources across the Star System so you need to travel to spezific points in your world
-maybe add some extrem aggresive Xeno factions that are in constant war with the whole System
-add some Planet spezific Biomes and caves to explore and in space we could have a nice looking Nebula that spawns random in the Star System where you can find special Asteroids or an Alien race/faction
-maybe more flora and maybe even a little bit fauna to make the planets more alive (to be honest planets for me are the most boring part of SE besides beeing in a dust storm or something what is actually kinda nice)
I could go on for hours like this would make this Reply more bloated then it alredy is. I really wish for a new fresh wind in this game cause there are no good games out there right now that are like SE besides Empyrion but this game doesnt look and feel good. Hope the Develepors are listening to the community but else there wont be much of a community left in a couple of years or until a game makes it better then SE.
Im on this too i have SE since they released the Frostspark DLC and i have to say the lack of gamechanging elements is frustrating. I like SE alot i just wish we would have more to do in this game. Every DLC so far i wtinessed just brought us some cosmetics and blocks we alredy could use via mods. I wouldnt mind to pay for a 20€ DLC just for getting some fresh gameplay element into it. Im not actually good at anything in this game besides getting all the resources i need. It doesnt take long for me to get every material in the game so i can build everything within 1 or 2 days.
At this moment i just build a small or medium sized fighter and thats it. What i do with it, i have no clue after that i mostly quit the game and dont come back for a while to do the same thing again and that sucks.
What i think this game really needs is a complete Survivial overhaul to keep players at it like:
-working NPC´s
-more ores to collect and more complex recipes
-better economic systems with an impact on the whole Star System and their factions
-more weapons to build on your ships
-factions that expand their territories and build more stuff (maybe we can watch them build an outpost too) or not just let them do something to make a change in the System
-Scatter resources across the Star System so you need to travel to spezific points in your world
-maybe add some extrem aggresive Xeno factions that are in constant war with the whole System
-add some Planet spezific Biomes and caves to explore and in space we could have a nice looking Nebula that spawns random in the Star System where you can find special Asteroids or an Alien race/faction
-maybe more flora and maybe even a little bit fauna to make the planets more alive (to be honest planets for me are the most boring part of SE besides beeing in a dust storm or something what is actually kinda nice)
I could go on for hours like this would make this Reply more bloated then it alredy is. I really wish for a new fresh wind in this game cause there are no good games out there right now that are like SE besides Empyrion but this game doesnt look and feel good. Hope the Develepors are listening to the community but else there wont be much of a community left in a couple of years or until a game makes it better then SE.
The people complaining the loudest and most frequently are an extremely vocal and small minority. Keen has stated on several occasions the vast majority of players are offline survival players in SP worlds. The people screaming the loudest on Steam (Twitter and Reddit) all tend to be online PvP players and to be honest, are the most toxic people I've ever encountered.
It is a gross mischaracterization to say that updates consist of "just a couple of functional blocks/items, a planet of voxels which I will never be incentivized to visit, and a variety of cosmetics." They generally include more than a few blocks/items (the Heavy Industry update added 45 blocks, Warfare 1 added 17 blocks, Scraprace added 44 blocks, Sparks of the Future added 27 blocks). Some of these are functional, most are decorative. Every update also includes other things like skins, planets, scenarios, etc. Each update also includes many improvements and bugfixes.
Granted, I would love to see a lot more added to the game, too, but don't misrepresent that actual content of the updates.
Fwiw, it also doesn't make sense to acknowledge that you don't know / understand the inner workings of their business model, and then turn around and make the assessment that their business plan is "unsustainable."
The people complaining the loudest and most frequently are an extremely vocal and small minority. Keen has stated on several occasions the vast majority of players are offline survival players in SP worlds. The people screaming the loudest on Steam (Twitter and Reddit) all tend to be online PvP players and to be honest, are the most toxic people I've ever encountered.
It is a gross mischaracterization to say that updates consist of "just a couple of functional blocks/items, a planet of voxels which I will never be incentivized to visit, and a variety of cosmetics." They generally include more than a few blocks/items (the Heavy Industry update added 45 blocks, Warfare 1 added 17 blocks, Scraprace added 44 blocks, Sparks of the Future added 27 blocks). Some of these are functional, most are decorative. Every update also includes other things like skins, planets, scenarios, etc. Each update also includes many improvements and bugfixes.
Granted, I would love to see a lot more added to the game, too, but don't misrepresent that actual content of the updates.
Fwiw, it also doesn't make sense to acknowledge that you don't know / understand the inner workings of their business model, and then turn around and make the assessment that their business plan is "unsustainable."
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