[Suggestion] Monetizing PS2

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Icehole1999, Nov 5, 2017.

  1. Icehole1999

    I keep reading posts from salty old vets how the game is dying.

    So can we finally be able to buy certs in the cash shop? Or at least put a BC price on everything? I don't have a lot of time to play, but am more than willing to accept my share of financing the game so others don't have to.

    Also, a cash shop item that refunds all my certs would be sweet. I'd gladly pay 10 or even 15$ to do it. Maybe lock it to once every 30 days or whatever.

    I imagine a lot of you are going to vapor lock over this suggestion.

    Please bear in mind I'm TR, so unless they start letting us buy tactical nukes for real dollars, this still won't give us an unfair advantage.
    • Up x 2
  2. Demigan

    Get some certs and buy one or two weapons,
    Aurax a few of those weapons,
    Refund all certs for a mere 15 dollars,
    Buy 10x the weapons and gear you could have with DBC with the refunded certs,
    DBG loses potential income from weapons sold.

    I dont get how simple things like that go over peoples heads when suggesting things like this.

    Also the premise of PS2 is that most items and weapons are side-grades and that you can earn general certs for anything. Want to deck out your Lib? You dont have to play Lib or aircraft, you can play Medic, tank, engi, HA... anything to get the certs. So theres little need for cert refunding. In fact one of PS2's lures is the grind to a new weapon to play with, so it would be doubly detrimental to the game.

    As for tactical nukes, the TR anchored Prowler is the closest thing in the game to one, perhaps excluding a Lib.
    • Up x 1
  3. adamts01

    This is exactly why a proposal such as his could work. If weapons were truly side-grades which opened up different play styles, instead of just re-skins many of the times, then people would be less likely to ditch them and lose the ability to go back to that play style. You wouldn't araxium your LOLpods and then sell them when you're done, would you? And of course you could scale the cost of the re-cert according to how many certs we're talking about. Anyway, the primary point of his post was opening up everything for real money, which doesn't really have a downside for Daybreak. Think about how many people would buy max stealth on their ESF or max cloak on their Infil. If the price was right I would have happily spent that when I first started playing. I don't think it's fair to completely write this off as you did.
    • Up x 2
  4. Campagne

    The last thing PS2 needs to be is Pay2Win, in my opinion. Already gives a handful of advantages to splash some cash around.

    Also, salty vet here:
    [IMG]
    • Up x 1
  5. adamts01

    Everything he proposed sounded like paying to lessen the grind, which I think is reasonable except for implants, nothing wrong with that.
  6. FateJH

    Let's talk extreme monetization schemes.

    2[IMG]/1[IMG] per magazine upon reload.
  7. DarkStarAnubis

    +1 on this. If weapons were good, nobody would ask for a refund in the first place.

    I have purchased many weapons since I am allAccess (you get DBG cash every month) but I discovered they all behave more or less the same, so compared to the default ones they are not certainly worth the price (especially in certs, 1000 certs is an insane amount of grinding).

    The only really "unique" weapon is the Phoenix launcher, but it is more something to annoy/scare other players and have fun, not for racking kills.
  8. Liewec123

    i actually really agree with this, its a win win,
    with decent prices it would be a pretty noticable boost for the income of the game (all i'm really buying now are dokus cosmetics.)
    and for the players it would give you access to things that you know you cba grinding for, (like NW 5 on all of your alts...)

    it isn't P2W, its Pay For Convenience.
    my main already has most things fully certed out and i didn't pay money to get it,
    all this new system will do is allow more recent players to cert up their stuff without having to go through a grind.
    (and it also helps support the game!)
    • Up x 2
  9. Icehole1999

    I hadn't thought about the negatives to a cert reskill. Ok that won't work. No refunds.

    Allowing players to buy items previously locked to certs is still a good idea on its own.

    I would do it like this:

    1 BC to 1 CP on everything. So yes, a new player would get stuffs faster, but **** would cost a bunch of money. I don't pay all that close attention to what the point values of everything is, but a slot item with 5 levels that starts at 100 for the first upgrade would end up costing something like 25$ using the system I envision.
    DBG is a huge fan of bundles, some cost 36.99. The pro ones for your class are usually on sale for like 20$. Stick some suit slot stuff or whatever in there too. Maximum med kits for heavies and dual c4 for LAs would be money makers. Aegis shield and lockdown and whatever alien thingy the VS have all maxxed out would be too.
    I'd buy this stuff. I'm already buying weapons and helmets and camo for real money. Nobody bats an eye that you can buy a gun and all attachments for 9$. This would be better. It could only get more lifespan out of the game.
    • Up x 1
  10. Droid15.24.3

    1. But...then it would be P2W. I like that you have to earn your upgrades through play. (I get 1-3 hours a day if I'm lucky, the grind doesn't really feel that bad.) Granted people pay for implants already.

    2. That's cosmetic. (FashionSide doesn't give a gameplay advantage)

    3. You can get enough certs for a gun in 2-3 days, not enough time to even aurax a weapon (unless you play all day). The attachments, you unlock what you need in an hour or two.
  11. adamts01

    Anything could work if you charge the right price for it.

    Look at a MBT for example. Buying and maxing a single main gun, single top gun, and a single stack in defense utility and chassis ends up costing 15,962 certs. Buying the most cost effective amount of Daybreak Cash would put that at around $140. Or if you played 2 hours every single day and made 1 cert/hour, that's over a year. And we're talking guns that could be nerfed to uselessness next patch, like the current Walker or obsoleted like AP, which is where I wasted real money. Maxing out a MBT with every weapon upgraded would end up costing over $600, or 4 1/2 years of grinding 2 hours every single day. And keep in mind this is a single vehicle. We don't have the technology to keep a human alive long enough to max out everything in this game. When people say that the current grind is reasonable or the cost of things is fair..... it just boggles my mind. Anyway, you're a BC to 1 CP falls pretty short of the mark.
  12. Icehole1999

    So what kind of price point would you suggest?
  13. adamts01

    Free everything!!!!
    I don't know, this kind of goes against their subscription model, which I also don't think is worth it. If it were double XP all the time, then maybe.

    Maybe a maxed out tank for $50, or a maxed main/top gun with a single maxed utility, defence and chassis all for $25. If you've already spent some certs getting a feel for the vehicle you could have those refunded if you bought a package. I'd spend that on some vehicles and I'm not even too happy with the game. You could do a similar thing for infantry.

    Edit: This would actually perfectly mesh with their subscription model. Max out a few things you love and dabble in to everything else with the lessened subscription grind.
    • Up x 1
  14. Moz

    Ok so, i guess you would call me a salty vet. I actually payed good money for this game and hence part of the Alpha Squad.

    I in no way think PS2 is "dying".

    On your point about certs for cash.... that's already a thing. You can buy any weapon for certs or cash meaning certs already have a direct cash value.

    I do however agree that Planetside 2 could certainly do more things to make extra money. Heres three things i have been shouting about for a very long time now:

    1. Gifting - This is a no brainier. We have and some excuses form the powers that be before around legals. Time to get round them and get this in game.

    2. Secondary Decals - They should allow the equipping of two separate decals, one for each shoulder. I see many people running outfit decals now. I feel a secondary decal would allow for some more toon customization and allow some personal flare with your outfit loyalty.

    3. Secondary Camo - This was in the works, no idea what happened.

    These for me are the "low hanging fruit" in terms of making some money for the game.
  15. adamts01

    Of course you can buy things, but the guns are the cheap part. Upgrading vehicles, weapons suits and abilities is the pricey part, and there's really no reason to make people grind for those things if they're willing to pay.
  16. Icehole1999

    I'm on PS4 so I can't say anything about implants. They have their own currency so I can't imagine you could include those.

    With the items only available thru certs having a $ amount put to them, I don't see how it's P2W. There would still be nothing you could buy that you can't get now by grinding.
    • Up x 1
  17. adamts01

    The only catch is that the grind has to be reasonable. If every gun took 20 years to grind out, then the system would be P2W. Assuming 1 cert/minute, 1000 for the gun, 30 optic, 100 grip, 100 muzzle, 100 ammo, that's 1330 certs, roughly 22 hours for a completely tricked out firearm. That's a while, but not crazy. To buy every option and upgrade for the MBT, and assuming you play heavily (14 hours a week), we're talking over 4 years.... So in the big scheme of things, I think this game has too much grind, but since you can't buy those upgrades for real money, you can't really say it's pay to win. If certs could be bought with real money, there would be a solid P2W argument, as you wouldn't live long enough to grind everything out. How competitive a real money edge would be, that's debatable, but it would be pay to win.
  18. Moz

    Well i guess there was a conscious decision made at some point to separate these items out for none P2W reasons.

    However, i think these would be no more or less pay to win than the weapons really...?

    Maybe they could add some class specific starter packs?

    Like:

    Heavy Assault Pack:-

    NMG Rank 5
    NWA Rank 5
    Concussion Nades
    Med kits
    Annihilator

    For XXXX DBG
  19. adamts01

    Of course they'd be pay to win, how much so is debatable. They'd really have to lessen the grind if they were to start charging for upgrades. I'm on the fence about buying another 10k Daybreak Cash, I'm definitely not buying another subscription, but I'd absolutely spend $25 to get my NC Lib completely tricked out as I earlier proposed, even if the grind were halved. I think they should look in to it.
  20. Lamat

    I think it would be good for the game too

    If some rich guy buys his way from BR1 to BR120, that's a lot more money for development and it's an inexperienced BR120 to kill.
    • Up x 2