Daily Certs for non-members vital for new players

When you were BR 12, the game was quite different. You get like 400 XP for just flipping a point with the recent change. The amount of ribbons in the game that keep throwing certs at you is huge. Run a medic and fly through the 5 bonus ribbons in five minutes. All the extra ways to get XP now has made those extra 12 certs rather pointless. They have also lowered the cost on many weapons and attachments. If it makes a couple of more players pay the subscription fee, then I feel it was worth it.

You want to see arrogance and entitlement?
Then I should be getting those passive certs I gain as a paying Member (because I currently am and have been for quite a while) credited to my characters without having to log in the game or not have a cap to the amount of passive certs I gain, since that would really add value to my membership.

As I said, the passive certs system for non-Members is the equivalent of the other "freebies mechanics" used in other F2P games since for every player that doesn't care about logging in every day to get them (like me, for instance) you get multiple that do, and if of those some decide to stay in the game and play for a while, it's a good thing in an exclusively PvP game like Planetside 2 is.
It may not look like much, but as I said it's one of various elements that help with player retention, something that is extremely important in a game that is advertized for having massive fights.
Other elements would be better advertizing stuff in general (like, say, through the launcher), but I have a feeling that SOE's PR department has issues in general.

Actually, giving away free stuff is not in any way a fundamental part of the F2P model. You get nothing for free in Hearthstone. Last time I played a LoL and DOTA, I received nothing for just logging in. There is often a daily bones of some sort. Most MOBA do it as an XP boost and Hearthstone has the daily quests that can earn you gold. Planetside has the 5 bonus ribbons each day that reward you with a total of 10 certs without any boosts. It actually makes more sense to use such a system to get players to keep coming back. You force to play a little each day. If you play medic or engineer, you'll get those bonus ribbons in a matter of minutes.

I guess they could increase the daily ribbon bonus to 10 for the first levels or something to get new players some extra XP a little bit faster.

I think the daily reward was a bit of a simple fix to the fact that certs were really hard to get at launch. They also lacked any other mechanic to get people to play each day. There wasn't really anything in the game that would work as a daily bonus except just giving players a flat sum of certs. Now they have ribbons that does the same thing.

I hadn't considered this.
The ribbons system is indeed a good way of having players login daily and play, if even for a small time, which would likely lead them to stay in, and could be actually more effective than just the passive certs gain.
Plus SOE could do further expand the ribbon system by granting ribbons just for playing and accomplishing things for a consecutive amount of days and things like that, which would further help with having players log in and play.

While I'm not happy with the justification that SOE gave for removing the passive certs to non-member, your post convinced me that the ribbon system could be a valid alternative.
It would only need to be properly advertized, which is an area where in my opinion SOE really needs to improve.

the 12 certs may not be much, but it does eventually add up. if you logged in just to get your 12 certs for 1 year you get 4380 certs. Play the game slightly get a couple of ribbons and you could chalk more. Hell, i'm sitting on 9500 certs on my tr character that i should splurrge but i save for a rainy day that will never come.

It would be nice if things were cheaper and maybe got more certs, but i take what i can.

I think they're an important psychological hook for low level characters. I'd keep (well, bring back, I suppose) passive certs for BR1-20.

That said, there are so many more ways to get XP than there used to be, I'm not sure it's a serious issue any more. You get 2 certs for flipping a control point now, you get ribbons for support class stuff (which is what newbies should probably be starting with) and objective play, you get assist XP, vehicle passenger and gunner share XP ... once someone starts playing they're going to be getting 12 certs really fast.

[quote="Nano(zip/zap), post: 2953426, member: 188236"And yes this game is pay to win SC = Certs and Certs = gear and gear = more ability to kill. You need certs to unlock C4 you have to upgrade just about everything, to get a scope or improve your gun to compete with SC only guns that often can kill you in 1 burst while your whole clip take about 1/2 their shield down at best. So don't give me that L2P **** this game has nothing to do with player skill and has everything to do with player stats. Hands down a player with fully spec gear on infantry or vehicles will blow an ungeared player out of the water while just sitting there not using any tactics at all no matter how smart the under equipped player acts.[/quote]
Gear can be important, mostly in vehicle combat (spend 200 certs on your heavy assault and you'll be pretty much on a level in an infantry battle), yes. That's important to provide some sense of progression.

There is no such thing as an SC only gun. The only SC-only items are special coloured versions of guns you can buy with certs, and cosmetics.

Yeah and some of those version you can't get with any number of certs just SC so they are SC only guns. Also since SC can be used in place of certs it still equal to giving members far more certs at any 1 time than a F2P could possibly get. So no longer letting the F2P have 12 free certs while member are getting that and even more XP seams more than a little bit of jerk thing to do. I'm not saying people who pay should only get the same benefits as free players I'm just saying don't use the fact that you no longer give something to free player as an attempt to make them switch to paying, it doesn't work it just pisses people off.

Upvoted OP. I am an araxium member too. This is really crazy, that SOE says they want to improve the new player experience, then they take away passive cert gain for non paying members. New members need some cert flow to enhance their game, and the small amount of free certs helps them get little things like level 1 upgrades and optics. For seasoned non members, the cert gain is negligible to their cert flow from playing the game, so taking it away is irrelevant.

I must admit now that i've jumped into the game when the cert gain is missing its a little depressing to find that there is nothing. Hell the only way you can get certs is getting into the thick of the action. except all those areas are being zerged or we can't start at those locations, so even longer to get into the action/fun.

This change does save me time by not bothering to log on every evening to get my 12 certs so i guess there's that. for newer players i'm not so sure how this is a good idea. those 12 certs are vital and do add up over time.

Yesteryear The Players
XX amount of certs for 1 hr play (Players need initial help so gift X certs just to log in).

Present day The Players
XXX amount of certs for 1 hr play (Players today without the cert gift get what players of yesteryear needed help to get ).


Yesteryear The Game
New game just need players of any make up of SC spending and/or Membership paying.

Present day The Game
Far more developed game so need more revenue via memberships (visible reoccurring) than SC exclusive spenders are accounting for.
Players can earn certs they need by playing now more than ever so no more gift won't hurt.
They play more for certs helps game and/or they member it for what they think they need or want and helps game.



Just hurts because something is perceived as being taken away when in fact it's just been replaced by another avenue for which to get.
That avenue involves playing the game though, and well, isn't that what the cert grants were initially suppose to be for, playing the game.

yeah imma member,
yeah i spend some on extra SC
and yeah i can afford it (at least atm cause ya never know) but
if i couldn't afford it, pretty awesome game to still be able to play for nuttin cert grant or not

P.S.
Have seen a couple of comments about XP for VR training and trials, think would be awesome to further help newbies (and vets).

Thank you for paying for the food of the developers so I, who am currently unemployed and thus cannot afford to spend money on this game, can keep enjoying it for free.

my initial thoughts on them being removed is meh, but im br71 now, and after thinking about it for a day or so those free certs for new accounts really were a big deal starting out. if your going to remove them you should do something like grant a few 100 certs to each new character.

the new player experience now will be utter garbage when they are running up against people who are kitted out from 3 years of play.
granting a bunch for completing the tutorial steps

Yes, apparently they need their hands held which makes me better

I am one that would probably stop playing due to this, i have alts that relied on those certs and they were the only thing what kept me coming and playing at least 5-15 mins every other day, and i actually bought stuff every now and then as well. Now that that's not there there's no incentive for me to even touch the game if i don't feel like playing, and i also agree with the new players not having incentive as well. If there's more people like me, together with new players who get owned and get squat cert points... that will just lower player population all around.

My little brother has definitely played significantly less since the removal of passive certs for non-members. He's not even really in "newb" territory anymore, either: BR 40, in an outfit, has a few cert lines finished that he enjoys/-ed. A lot of times he'd play for an hour or two after he saw me playing and was reminded to hop in and get his free certs. He's not done so since; 11 days and counting.

This isn't a response to anyone particular. This is just me thinking about my experience as a new player. I've only been playing since early January of this year. So while I am not a new player, I'm probably closer to that than I am to being an old player. I had the game sitting on my harddrive long before that but I never got around to making an account and playing. Then one day, I was in the mood to do a little sniping. I updated the game and gave it a whirl. I spent a few hours running around shooting things and probably dying a lot. I then logged back in the next day to shoot some more people. Then again the next day. You know what, though? I wasn't logging in for the 12 certs. That was a paltry sum and I realized it even back then. It would take me more than a week just to get an attachment for my sniper rifle. No, I logged in because I was having fun. Then, when I had my fill of shooting people and took a break, guess what? I stopped logging in. Those 12 certs weren't enough to motivate me to load up the game and go through all that hassle for such a piddly amount.

For me, personally, those 12 certs had no impact on my desire to play the game. On those days I did log in to get them, I just immediately logged out again. Even as a subscriber, getting 48 certs a day isn't enough to get me to log in day. If I don't want to play, I'm not going to play.

Hi guys...

im new here...and thought ill just say something from a newbie perspective.

I was earning cert points without even knowing what I was suppose to do with them. I havent spent a long time playing this game, maybe about a week + ..abt 2 hrs a day.

ive earned quite alot of certs and was able to unlock quite abit of attachments etc by the time I finally knew what it was for.

I think it feels fair. As a non member, I completely understand why only members should get it, they are actually contributing to the game.

I feel as a newbie its fair, and earning cert points is sort of my main motivation to login as a non paying member.

Its really an awesome and challenging game. I kept dying at the beginning but getting the hang of it.

I collected abt close to 1096 cert points with 29hrs gaming, I started 7oct. Thats abt 1hr 20mins average.

im just really grateful it is free to play..I plan to get some SC just to support the game abit.

Just my 2 cents as a newbie

Using 12 certs per day as a "come play" carrot is pointless, Make a GOOD game and the players will come back.

At this stage of the game's life they're better off resetting the new player experience. MAKE the new player go through a tutorial that goes into much more detail than press WASD, jump, fire bullets and a rocket. For completing the tutorial they get 1000 Certs to use as they wish.

That should give a player a better starting chance.

I had three or four friends that got me into the game in the first place - they don't play often anymore. Seeing my Steam pop up with PS2 reminded them to hop in game now and then for daily certs - now that this bonus is in place, they simply don't log in, not since this patch . This could be part of the point of the change, however - it certainly reduces stress on the login server / continent queues. (Although changing it to weekly certs, and upping it to 7x once a week would have done that too.)