Star Citizen: CIG Mulls "Conveniences" & More for Future Monetization
How are we fueling this ship?
To continue our deeper dive into the future of Star Citizen I want to approach a topic many have been curious about: Monetization. Many are under the assumption that ships will one day no longer be sold to the general public. I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt… Ships will be sold post-launch.
(Obviously.)
Utilizing details from a variety of communications and documents on top of talking to a litany of sources, I will be doing my best to paint a picture of both:
How you will spend UEC in the future.
How CIG intends to earn money in the future.
It’s also important to note as always that obviously not everything is final, especially for something as core to the game as this as early as we are. Things can still, and likely will change.
Below are 6 of the reoccurring credit sinks in the game.
Insurance (Ships)
Insurance will be granted to all cash purchased ships to whatever length of time associated with the package, including LTI. Ships acquired through both credits and crafting will need to have insurance purchased on top. Your insurance will allow you to expedite wait times on lost ships, and you can sink more credits for a faster recovery on top. Ships lost in more hostile areas (Lawless systems) will have a higher “recovery” cost.
Insurance will only replace the base ship. Custom parts will be lost on destruction. You will need to return to them somehow, or they will be lost.
Insurance (Health)
Coverage for your player character. Will determine the quality and cost of care.
Inheritance Tax
A massive, infrequent credit sink whenever you bite the final bullet for your character.
Base Tax
”Base Tax” is the reoccurring upkeep cost applied to bases within monitored systems. It will scale based off the relative security of the area, as well as the value and size of a claim. For example; an Organization’s ship factory will cost more in upkeep than a player’s small house.
Equipment Repairs
“All items will degrade past the point of viable use.”
A core feature to the future of the game will be item degradation. This is due to the potential fact that on top of standard durability loss, permanent damage will slowly build as well, which will further necessitate constant item refreshes through, ideally, player-to-player trade.
Crafting
“A capital ship may take months to obtain resources and then crafting time.”
Crafting is the “End-Game” of the Star Citizen experience, and will be essential for late-game progression. It will be where everything comes together from the Base Building game loop, allowing players to craft blueprints of items of a variety of tiers. These blueprints will necessitate players to “research them” with dedicated science Ships (or science Base modules), and will allow the crafting of a simple P4-AR, to the mighty Idris carrier. Crafting is planned to be a time consuming process, as the previously mentioned Idris has been mentioned to take a period of “Months” per individual construction (including both accrual of materials and assembly).
Now that we’re up to date on the various UEC sinks of Star Citizen, let’s talk about how they intend to sink your real wallet. Four distinct monetization avenues are detailed as of this time:
Ships and modules.
Cosmetics.
Land (and possibly other related items)
Subscriptions.
Ships and modules are self-explanatory and will likely not depart too far away from our current standards. Cosmetics have already slowly been introduced more and more, but to clarify on one pitched future of their recovery - Players will receive blueprints for their purchased items to replace if lost. Land is something that I’ll cover more in-depth in the future, but it will likely be sold again. An estimate on the number of potential plots in the game has been placed by a developer at 15 million.
Speaking with those privy to internal discussions, a few mentioned upcoming changes to the currently available Subscription Program. According to documents, these new changes will offer “a wide range of benefits that offer convenience - not power - to the player”. Two pitched ideas included on the documentation provided include both insurance (ship and player health) and Base upkeep being reduced or even removed by the subscription cost.
“Subscription offering a wide range of benefits that offer convenience - not power - to the player such as insurance on ships or no base tax.”
Quote from Design Document, under “Monetization”
Speaking about Base Building more specifically, discussion has taken place in regards to the various gameplay items they may sell upon its arrival. According to a few sources familiar with these discussions, players would have the ability to purchase blueprints of “later tiers” of research progression, while only a “basic tier” is given by default. In addition to their potential purchase, these blueprints would be obtainable through either trade, theft (as blueprints are planned to exist physically), or mission reward. Discussions of monetization were (according to one developer) focused heavily on shrinking “gameplay timers” inherent to various planned processes in the final game.
I have sent the following three questions to a community manager involved in the project for public comment:
Is it true that CIG intends to sell ships and modules post-launch with few changes?
Is it true that CIG intends to bundle “gameplay bonuses” such as insurance with their subscription packages?
Is it true that CIG intends to shorten “gameplay timers” as incentives for their subscriptions and future monetization?
Is it true that CIG intends to sell additional gameplay-affecting items related to Base Building, such as material production modules?
Given several days to respond, I was met with silence. I will update this article with any comment that may come, or updates on the particular monetization practices such plans might bring.
We’ll have more coming as soon as possible. My apologies to those who want something more solid as “proof”, but at this point I’m going to opt for my record to speak for itself. Would hate to gain any reason for a C&D.
also space bases
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You touched on a point that I thoughts about recently with the introduction (and subsequent outrage from the community) of the Nursa. Very recently, it's been said that Death of a Spaceman is going to mean something and be something we are going to want to avoid if we can. The part of your article stating that health insurance will dictate the quality/level of care you receive can affect this.
The current "regen" system from what I understand is as follows:
-You "die"
-You "regen" (copy 1)
-repeat until "copy count > X"
where X is the number established based on some algorithm they use to determine your "copy limit." This algorithm would use the cause of death/what wounds you had/environment (space/planet/etc...)
-Permadeath
I'm wondering if there is also any other money sinks for "recovering" your genetic code for your current player. As in, you are 7 copies deep. To reset your copy-count, maybe you'll have to spend some UEC and a significant amount of time in the hospital to restore your player. This should be very expensive but maybe somewhere around 50% of what you would lose if your player perma-death'd.
I have no problem with normal pay2play subscriptions but giving subscription customers an advantage over game package customers is terrible. You could argue that current ship sales already do that, and to some extent they do, but some aren't solo-able and for the most part take skill to take out another player. Do you really think more of that is the answer? We don't know what it'll look like in the future but I'd rather them introduce a server/content cost if they need to pay the bills after development or stick to selling cosmetics like paints for armor, ships, weapons, and bases. If they are just going to sell everything then what's the point of playing? Fortnite has the best live service model for BR style games and the numbers show, they should take a page from their book and make it work for MMOs.