[SC] Implications of Kuiper GG

(Warning! Long post incoming)

Alright so, the Kuiper GG arrived today and it seems like this gate could be a huge change in the way this game works.

To start out, today I have completed 6 Kuiper, getting the 200k uridium reward from all of them, which is roughly about 1,410,000 uridium from the GG altogether -- each Kuiper gives 235k~ with the bonus rewards + NPC.
Now I built those gates with EE, however with uridium I would still be making a profit since it costs much less than 235k U. to build.

So apparently as of now we have a GG that is very easy to make significant profits from. Assuming this doesn't change, what is the impact this will have on the game?

Server Merges
When the topic of server merges arises one of the biggest issues is "how will players obtain their uridium if they do not have access to solo cubes?".
This new GG completely removes that question -- solo cubes are now irrelevant for most players in terms of uridium making. They are still the best source of EP though.

So if DO were to do a 'soft merge' (merging the gamepages but keeping backpage separate, something that has been experimented with on Seafight), the effect this would have on the game and its economy would be unnoticeable for most players with a half decent ship and kamikaze.
This makes the option of server merges much more enticing.


Revenue
I've spoken to quite a few people since today's update and one thing that is always brought up is that this is a big mistake by DO to be allowing players to earn this much uridium and that their revenue will drop.

Initially yes, I think this is correct, their revenue from people buying uridium is indeed going to drop. However I think many people were like me in that they didn't buy uridium that often and they avoided buying rebate until there was discounts in the shop.
Now I am always going to have rebate renewing every 2 months since I will need to get the most of my Kuiper gates.

The DO team have also already stated that they want to emphasize more on vanity / cosmetic items, which have proved to be a good source of generating revenue in many other games. A lot of people who used disposable income on the game are pretty likely to use their money on cosmetic they liked the look of if they are not using that same money for buying uridium.

I think people are much more likely stay around and keep playing this game with this Kuiper GG too, so overall the player population will rise and then there are more people who are likely to buy cosmetic items and premium / rebate / doubler packages.


I would imagine rank chasing is also a big source of revenue for the game, I think Kuiper has hardly any effect.
When people are racing each other they will still be pressured by each other into buying uridium. Kuiper gives alright honour, but not amazing. If a person wanted to really beat another person they will have to buy uridium and use it on alpha, beta, gamma ... or kappa if they are really in a rush. All whilst buying the 50% boosters - which are a lot more common nowadays than they used to, so more are being bought overall.


Too much uridium?
This is the other concern I've seen, initially I was worried too that uridium would be too easy. However I then thought, I have been sat on 1.5mil for almost a month now, with nothing to really spend it on. That uridium might as well have no existed because I did not use it, my account is already UFE and I don't really want to go for more rankpoints.

So what is the point of lots of uridium that does not have any use? I have almost 3mil now after doing some Kuiper today. That 3mil is as good as 300mil, I'm not going to use it for rank chasing, the only thing I am going to use it for is ammo I guess.

What difference would 500k RSB be to 1mil RSB? At the end of the day it's still RSB, it all does the same job and I had RSB ammo before the Kuiper was out anyway, so has anything really changed that much?

Well yes of course it matter and I am being a bit dramatic by implying that 3mil uri is no more useful than 300mil ... but I'm hoping you see the point where once you are UFE, at a certain point the amount of uridium you have just doesn't matter beyond bragging rights such as a better rank.

​

Now a lot of this has been from my view point as a UFE player as well as how I think it could be effecting the game as a whole in the future. However I think a lot of the points are just as relevant to players who are capable of completing the Kuiper GG, hitting ~50k on x4 and having a lv3 kamikaze is all it takes for it be a fairly easy time.

This does leave out the newer and smaller players, however I really do think this gate is the "cube-replacer" and so was never really intended to have an impact on players who were never doing solo cubes in the first place.

I avoided posting this all in the Kuiper feedback since its more about the impact it has in the future and not feedback about the gate itself.



However this is just all my opinions on how I think this gate will change the game assuming it does not change. Sorry for the mini-essay, but I thought it was a pretty interesting change in DO.
I was wondering what other people thought of its impact in the long run ^^

 

I think this is a brilliant move by DarkOrbit in terms of revenue generation. People (like myself) who can hardly ever spend on the game, are now jumping at the chance to get the most out of their time playing.

In other words, a lot of people have purchased Boxing Doubler today to get the most out of their boxing. Then, next week, when they spend all those spins on Kupier, they're going to buy Rebate in order to get the most out of it.

Basically they've shifted away from having a few people spend $$$$s (on Uridium), to a lot of people spending $$s (to make the most of their Uri). A step in the right direction if you ask me.

</endbadpostbecauseitsreallylateandimtired>

 

I also believe what has been introduced in the form of the Kuiper Gate is not a mistake but part of an expanded plan by Dark Orbit. Dark Orbit over the years has produced many gates, and they have never produced a gate that would give out such a lucrative reward with such ease.

This actually got me thinking a bit, could this actually be a result of the new producer that Dark Orbit has? That being Shawn Lord who was hired earlier in the year.

What we have been seeing lately with the Tunnel of Terror, now with the Kuiper Gate, in the future with the crafting system, is completely unprecedented from Dark Orbit. Heck, we've struggled to get compensation in the past for major issues, and here we are not long after the Tunnel of Terror with a new gate that has potential game changing rewards. It is certainly not a coincidence.

To me the biggest outcome of the Kuiper Gate, is that it gives us a huge nod of the head to where the direction of the game might be going. We've seen glimpses of this over the past few months with how RickDekard has engaged in the forums, but the Kuiper gate could be a game changer especially with it being a permanent feature and the influence that will have on the game balance and economy.

That's my two pence worth without going into the nitty gritty of revenue, economy and game balance etc.

 

^^ as above+

More people are now spending on doubler/premium for the first time in a while if not the first time ever (in the current situation and other recent events I have even encouraged others to make small affordable purchases to support the game whereas before I would say go spend £/$ 50+ on a different game), this means they are now familiar with how to link paypal to DO or obtain game advantages with a cash expenditure, sooner or later maybe when servers are more populated (hopefully busy) I would expect the game economy to be adjusted to account for current uri/ammo rewards etc. I would then expect those players who have had a good time in the past with free ammo etc to be more inclined to spend and to continue spending on the odd occasion in order to enjoy the same gameplay they have become used to.

Think of the current situation as a free or low cost sampler of what you can enjoy in DO, as the game economy is adjusted I would expect more incentives to purchase doubler/rebate/premium in order to continue enjoying the game play they have become used to, for example raiding enemy maps and enjoying pvp etc. For those that cannot complete the gate there are little if any tangible rewards which may make them less inclined to spend cash or play in the future or possibly leave altogether though the Halloween event was good for low and high levels alike as was the pet event. Hopefully the current bonus box rewards will be enough to engage lower level players and encourage them to spend a little on the box doubler and maybe rebate later.

Far better in my opinion to have 10,000 players spending £/$ 10 a month than 100 players spending the same total sum collectively as 10k players will bring more players to the game via word of mouth.

Now you just have to deal with the cheats and bots etc in order to prevent players becoming as disillusioned and jaded as I am right now as I can clearly see there is some tampering with data happening as it is sent and received from the client machine and I know the dev's can do much better in this regard as they have proved in the past. Be certain I personally am a hairs width from moving on to other games where cheats are dealt with swiftly and in an appropriate manner as I would say DO be certain you DO enforce your terms and conditions verbatim.

Don't forget DO has to compete with other 'off the shelf retail' games that cost an average of £80+/- or so for early access and a season pass with lifetime DLC and maybe 0.5 to 5 yrs gameplay before things become stale/tedious/boring or the game is completed as a 1 player game or possibly updated or a newer version is retailed.

 

Hello,

As this thread originally had a different subject than the event changes, I've cleaned up the off-topic posts. If anyone wants to continue discussing the Kuiper launch event, or changes, please do so over here

For now I would like to leave this thread open for it's original topic. If it strays off again we'll go from there.

Regards,

 

This does stray off the main topic a little but I hope it will be taken at face value as an objective contribution given the recent changes. (I Personally did ok over the last few days but not to the ridiculous extent some have gained though this depends on perspective as I did 2-3 kuiper gates before the changes and gained 215k uri end reward every time as I have a real life to attend to hence just the 2-3 gates completed)

So things have changed a good bit but the horse has already bolted imo as in the top level players who had time (also some bots) made a shed load of uri or spins, said players etc no longer need to spend for a while and I would guess are one of the main revenue streams for BP so there is already a tangible impact on revenue and game economy looming although it has now been mitigated/limited.

I have also spoken to a lot of very frustrated players recently who had various reasons for feeling this way and most of them are lower ranks or non ufe, over the next several weeks lower ranks are in for a real hammering in game as those who did real well with this event load up on rsb, boosters etc, some of us are still sat on a pile of various ammo from the Halloween event too though it was hard earned at times. This will lead to more frustration imo and I would expect very few lower ranks to be around maps after next mega as when I was still progressing in 2011 after I first started I simply came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth logging in to be popped repeatedly by groups of double boosted FE accounts. When the majority of people ran out of double boosters I felt more inclined to play as I could get things done in the game without getting popped every few minutes. Some of the lower ranks I spoke to recently didn't get any designs at all or any 215k uri drops either, they have simply given up and are putting the spins into other more profitable/worthwhile gates and boxing like crazy if they have any sense. This is a major loss with regards to expanding Darkorbits user base as engaging lower ranks with events and encouraging them to spend a little is really the main benefit for game events overall imo, those who are ufe already will spend in order to pvp etc or gain rank.

So the gate kuiper itself, definitely needed adjustment before it completely destroyed BP's revenue streams/game economy for several months as did the boxes with similar implications looming, the gate is now however a total loss for most players and a white elephant in the games development history though a few are persevering with kuiper most tell me they are giving it a wide berth from what I can gather overall and I would urge the dev's to ensure non ufe who lack designs get at least one from this event though this may not be easy it may at least regain some respect from those who should be rewarded for persevering as these players are most definitely the future of this game as we all had to start somewhere and we are seeing a long term decline in user numbers. (do check server data here as it will be necessary in order to ascertain user participation, player levels and overall equipment etc)

It would in my opinion have been better to have this gate with neutral profitability give or take 10% or so as in cost to build 2-4 gates would either be 90% recouped or a design dropped which is absent from a players inventory, indeed I feel this would be the best way forwards in order to salvage at least some credibility on BP's part as the design drop would be the uri drain in this case with some ammo added to the overall reward say 15k x4. Designs could then be added or removed at a later date as they become redundant or less cutting edge so to speak as although this may have an impact on revenue most people who want a fresh new game changing design will purchase almost immediately within less than 12 weeks of release as am sure data analysis of the Surgeon and Pusat sales will likely confirm. Others will simply grind the uri, wait for trade or simply await other opportunities like the crafting element still in development.

I will try and summarise later as its late.

 

In a nutshell you aint happy with people getting loads of stuff? The irony is you made probably 10 times what I made and you moaning?

 

On the Contrary Zynaps as said I did ok and continue to do so with box doubler although to a lesser extent my boxing results are now similar to other more recent events. What does annoy is bots and the missed opportunity of the lower ranks who were most likely to progress most with this event bringing a potentially large increase of user numbers on GB1. Had I not had things to do in real life on Friday I would likely have boxed through most of the night and done even better so I wouldn't blame anyone but myself in some respects.

The reason I say this regards lower ranks is because before the adjustments my friends tab was more populated than I have seen in over 12 months at least, after the reductions this number was roughly halved which isn't doing anyone any favors including BP's bottom line and revenue as servers do cost money to run and servers need user payments to keep them running.

I also feel that any bot will really have made the most of this event which is imo at least one of the factors that forced BP's hand as a human is simply unable to box on a 24/7 basis, add in most people do have things to do in real life and when you multiply up what the average joe could have gained over the event in seven days playing an average of 3-6 hours a day and the impact would have been much less regards revenue loss, potential player gains and may have resulted in smaller reductions in rewards and potentially more users online or spending money.

As is user feedback has gone from awesome to plain frustration in some cases and the dev team does need to establish exactly, who, what, where, when and why in order to improve this and future events. Add in some conflicting information and these frustrations on behalf of some players have been multiplied which does show a need for a more unified and cohesive approach/control regards company statements across various sources in order to prevent future conflicts of information or official statements across various social or official media platforms. In the digital age a thing that is stated online simply cannot be undone, also note several players did not receive notification emails for this event via email (including myself) which may have once again reduced potential user participation though for myself I was online when this event went live.

Did you Zynaps receive an email note for this event?

As is I have done my best to be objective though any one persons opinion is just that and skewed by their own personal perspective and experiences, for this reason alone the dev's will, I am sure be collecting lots of data regards various aspects of this event and acting accordingly, bots however will undoubtedly skew this data set which may have denied players such as yourself Zynaps the opportunities to gain as others have which is a little unfair to say the least.

I will also state just one or two hours boxing across several maps on the test server with a box doubler may easily have shown the potential user gains collected over the duration of the event as it is a simple task to multiply the results on an hourly basis, this is something I personally do on any event in order to ascertain potential yields from event boxes before purchasing a box doubler should boxes contain items of interest or have increased uridium yields. This exercise is a simple task and may have have prevented the need for mitigation with regards to bonus box content reductions and I would suggest should be part of future event QA actions before events go live.

 

Okapi32 Is time to reveal the date of the Winter Event :3

 

'n forward DO'n this GG with my MAIN account...none of this rubbish = noobish firefight.

 

After doing the gate a few times and noting the ammo/time/spins its been nerfed by management into another LoW gate that no one will be interested in yet again. Has one of these designers noted the damage they did to the invasion gate? That was decimated also. No one goes in that anymore either.

I have done 3 and saw nothing from it. Talked with other clans and at the beginning there was such excitement. And then there was the word from Rick. Now mind you, we have had all kinds of issues before but this was an item that favored players quite a bit. It was promptly fixed.

Why cant we have positive gains for players where an actual event or sale makes sense? Can we have something that blows our minds and keeps our attention? This should not even be a gate but new maps. You get no ammo, ep or honor really from 100 spins.

Oh and before you defend them ask: Why are spins so light on parts now. What has been changing on the game to benefit players and not create more uri sinks.

 

Yh, one day ill wake up dead...No warning, just dead

 

Yeah, DO ruined the invasion gate by putting the hardest (3 fat kurbs) stage in 1st What happened to the gradual build-up Only if the players that get rid of the 3 kurbs 1st do other players join in , but the # of players to poof the kurbs are less than 3 at a time Takes forever and by the time the kurbs are gone the invasion gate event is almost over

Checkout the invasion gate stat line 5 people played ...looks like a race to team death match bottom line which is zero.

LoW gate is great, but got to get a team together and can't solo anymore Got a clock in there that mentions you better get another player in there or you are kicked out

You won't probably be aware in the first place.