Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

dieselfruit: Feb 21, 2013

Shocking how easy it is to fleece people when you make them think they're getting a sneaky deal. Just set up a convuluted laundry of transfers and tokens and buyers will think they're getting one over on "the system".

Of course the average citizen has no chill and a findom fetish, and since this process is infinitely more engaging than the actual game, there is now this weird class of dudes who brag about how they have spent thousands on IOUs for IOU ships. Like they've managed to spend more money for even less. And this gives you clout. Just incredible.

# ? May 16, 2021 13:33

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 11:03

skeletors_condom: Jul 21, 2017

drat, Store Citizer raised their JPEG prices.

# ? May 16, 2021 14:00

Sandweed: Sep 7, 2006; All your friends are me.

Popete posted:

CIG needs to crack down on this, it's devaluing my investment!

This is probably by design, people are more likely to spend if they think they are cheating the system.

EDIT: Dieselfruit put it even better than me.

# ? May 16, 2021 14:12

serious norman: Dec 13, 2007; im pickle rick!!!!

Is the game out yet?

# ? May 16, 2021 14:57

CeeJee: Dec 4, 2001; Oven Wrangler

Sandweed posted:

This is probably by design, people are more likely to spend if they think they are cheating the system.

It's the most basic EVE online sales scam. Not only to sell something for a million times what it's worth but put 10 times a million in the description to make people think you made a mistake and they should quickly grab it.

# ? May 16, 2021 15:57

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

dieselfruit posted:

Shocking how easy it is to fleece people when you make them think they're getting a sneaky deal. Just set up a convuluted laundry of transfers and tokens and buyers will think they're getting one over on "the system".

Of course the average citizen has no chill and a findom fetish, and since this process is infinitely more engaging than the actual game, there is now this weird class of dudes who brag about how they have spent thousands on IOUs for IOU ships. Like they've managed to spend more money for even less. And this gives you clout. Just incredible.

It makes me wonder about the many niche F2P mobile and browser games out there. It isn't the same as Star Citizen, of course, but the fundamentals are similar. Get people addicted enough and push them into a mental space where they feel compelled to keep spending, either to gain/maintain social status or because of a perceived game advantage.

Or all the literal online casinos.

# ? May 16, 2021 16:16

LASER BEAM DREAM: Nov 3, 2005; Oh, what? So now I suppose you're just going to sit there and pout?

ErrEff posted:

It makes me wonder about the many niche F2P mobile and browser games out there. It isn't the same as Star Citizen, of course, but the fundamentals are similar. Get people addicted enough and push them into a mental space where they feel compelled to keep spending, either to gain/maintain social status or because of a perceived game advantage.

Or all the literal online casinos.

I�ve dabbled in online poker(no limit hold �me with a max $5 buy in) and somewhat ironically my gaming instincts have prevented me from losing much. I�ve got 20 years of experience saying that when the number hits $0 the game ends, so as soon as I end up on bad streak I just quit. I�ve still got $50 on Ignition.

# ? May 16, 2021 16:30

trucutru: Jul 9, 2003; by Fluffdaddy

Feindfeuer posted:

When did the increase in value for jpgs happen? I know it's been going on for years. But I also clearly remember that when first introduced, they said you pay that large sum to help with development and you'll be able to also aquire all those space boats with regular gameplay in a reasonable amount of time. Was it a thing that emerged from the Cult itself and CIG just ran with it, or did CIG state at some point that this is an investment, not in the development of the game, but in actual ingame value?

From basically the start. The ships, game packages, etc. have always supposed to only go up, Up, UP in price, with a *huge* increase after launch for anything that will stay purchasable.

# ? May 16, 2021 16:46

trucutru: Jul 9, 2003; by Fluffdaddy

ErrEff posted:

It makes me wonder about the many niche F2P mobile and browser games out there. It isn't the same as Star Citizen, of course, but the fundamentals are similar. Get people addicted enough and push them into a mental space where they feel compelled to keep spending, either to gain/maintain social status or because of a perceived game advantage.

Or all the literal online casinos.

SC is pretty unique in that it breaks the holy rule of F2P games which is to use premium currency to obfuscate prices. Another big difference is that f2p games get their money after they launch and are, well, games and SC doesn't.

# ? May 16, 2021 16:54

Sanya Juutilainen: Jun 19, 2019; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

trucutru posted:

SC is pretty unique in that it breaks the holy rule of F2P games which is to use premium currency to obfuscate prices. Another big difference is that f2p games get their money after they launch and are, well, games and SC doesn't.

The former is not holy rule, it's a law in China and basically any game that wants to branch into China (or is created there) needs to adhere to that - simply put you cannot buy roll currency with money directly, which is why the companies have you buy some intermediary currency that offers two options - horrible deals nobody ever buys and exchanging for roll currency.

(EDIT: At least this goes for roll/lootbox F2P. For bought cosmetics the reason is often unifying various currencies of buyers so German buyer can compare their stuff with UK buyer without converting money courses, which can change in time. And selling currency packs which leave you with tiny extra that leads you into buying another pack, ofc.)

Guess SC's demography in China is tiny, which is why they don't take this path.

Sanya Juutilainen fucked around with this message at 17:03 on May 16, 2021

# ? May 16, 2021 17:00

chadbear: Jan 15, 2020

Spatial posted:

I made a thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1PgJ_ztFOM

# ? May 16, 2021 17:16

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

trucutru posted:

SC is pretty unique in that it breaks the holy rule of F2P games which is to use premium currency to obfuscate prices. Another big difference is that f2p games get their money after they launch and are, well, games and SC doesn't.

It turns out having an extra step for masking the true price of objects is unnecessary when you're dealing with superfans directly. There isn't any need to prime them into thinking something is a good deal - they already think everything you sell is!

As for the second one, the fans like to pretend it is a game, which means they (somehow) see great value in the ships and extras they're buying.

# ? May 16, 2021 17:18

Mirificus: Oct 29, 2004; Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

Does CIG even want players to use "categorized" Ships for their intended role ? posted:

I think that I am getting lost.....

I mean, we have Ships categorized in various roles and abilities.... we got Ships for Mining, for Hauling, Military Ships and then Fighters, Mid-Fighters, Heavy Fighters, Carriers Ships for Exploration etc. etc. etc.

Now, one would imagine that, with such a differentiation in Ships' Roles, players would want to use, for a given use, Ships that were actually Designed and intended for that categorized role.

What I see, instead, is players planning to use Military Ships for, aheam, Trading, if not for Smuggling, Ships meant for Exploration to be used for Piracy, Ships meant for Trading, for example the Caterpillar, used for Mining (loading ROCs into it) or as "Gunship" using Mts... and I could go on.

While it is a given that players would be free to use their Ships as they want, it was my understanding that CIG was planning for Ships to have costs "tailored" to them, their Size, their "categorization" and all that and, it also was my understanding, among all Ships, Military Ships would have been those Ships having the highest running costs.

Now, with this taken into account, how will it be beneficial or effective to use Ships which were not meant nor Designed for a give Role to use them for a Role which they were not Designed for ?

Will CIG make sure that Ships will always be performing the best and be most effective for the actual use that they were Designed and intended for, rather then other uses which players might want to use them for ?

For example, I have read someone intending to load ROCs on a Perseus and use it to go Mining....

Seriously ?

What I am trying to understand, is if, and how CIG is going to address any of this "mis-use" of Ships from their intended and Designed abilities.

Will CIG make it so that using a Ship outside of its intended Design and Characterization will result in a largely inefficient and anti-economical way to use such a Ship for something it was not meant to be used for ?

Or are the Ships' characterizations that we have, their specialized Designs and intended roles of no "real" use and totally empty in their meaning ?

We get given Ships indicated for some use, but then everyone can use everything for anything.... with the same effectiveness and results ?

Really ?

quote:

Players, if they want, can use Javelins for what I might be concerned about to go Mining with their ROCs....

My entire argument is totally another....

Which it is, that this should NOT be a wise thing to do.... players can STILL do it, only, they would be doing it at a loss, as compared to instead using that Ship for its Designed, intended use....

This is my argument.

I think that there should be mechanics implemented that would make a Ship be effective and economically viable, as long as players were going to be using for its Designed, intended role and scope.

As soon as players were to "divert " from such an intended use that was within its Designed Role, then that use for such a Ship would be still possible BUT, at a loss, become anti-economical, anti-efficient, "not worth it".......

Players would still want to use that Ship for a role and use that it was not Designed for ? Go for it, BUT, keep in mind that in doing so, that activity would become anti-economical, costs would surpass income, profits would become non-existant, times to get that non intended activity extraordinarily enlarge... it would take twice, three times, 10 times more to get the same task done as compared to using a Ship which was instead Designed and intended for that given activity....

That's the point I am trying to bring up.

# ? May 16, 2021 17:39

JugbandDude: Jul 19, 2016; Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun

Shine on you crazy diamond!

Feindfeuer posted:

When did the increase in value for jpgs happen? I know it's been going on for years. But I also clearly remember that when first introduced, they said you pay that large sum to help with development and you'll be able to also aquire all those space boats with regular gameplay in a reasonable amount of time. Was it a thing that emerged from the Cult itself and CIG just ran with it, or did CIG state at some point that this is an investment, not in the development of the game, but in actual ingame value?

I�ve been following this since 2012 and I believe it�s mostly something the backers invented.

- CIG said all ships would be accessible with in-game money
- CIG also said ships would only get more expensive as a reward for early supporters
- CIG has also created artificial scarcity by limiting the numbers of jpegs sold

Finally, enterprising citizens created the grey market which was never explicitly forbidden by CIG, creating a somewhat safe way of re-selling ships for real money.

So backers put everything together and assume they will be able to re-sell their jpegs in the future for a profit. It�s convoluted and stupid, because it�s Store Citizer, and I love it.

# ? May 16, 2021 17:47

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

https://i.imgur.com/V0Grev8.mp4

# ? May 16, 2021 17:54

Sarsapariller: Aug 14, 2015; Occasional vampire queen

Feindfeuer posted:

When did the increase in value for jpgs happen? I know it's been going on for years. But I also clearly remember that when first introduced, they said you pay that large sum to help with development and you'll be able to also aquire all those space boats with regular gameplay in a reasonable amount of time. Was it a thing that emerged from the Cult itself and CIG just ran with it, or did CIG state at some point that this is an investment, not in the development of the game, but in actual ingame value?

It was kind of organic but as far as I know it originally emerged from their terrible design process. They sold a lot of spaceships early on, and then when the time came to actually release those ships, they had badly underestimated the scale that they would need to be at to perform all their roles and have spacemen inside of them. So the ships got bigger and the prices went up (because ship size is tied inextricably to ship price, and they didn't want the newly-huge ship to be $100 less than the other options at that size). I think what they didn't expect was that this actually increased the demand for the spaceships, because "Canny" Citizens thought they could buy early and sell after the price increases for a nice grey market profit.

Of course it's CIG so the incompetence became codified as part of the process and now basically every big ship gets the "Whoopsie we had to make it bigger" treatment, with a corresponding huge price bump exactly at the point when it releases into the game.

# ? May 16, 2021 18:13

.random: May 7, 2007

Sanya Juutilainen posted:

Guess SC's demography in China is tiny, which is why they don't take this path.

Only a matter of time until the Xi�an are in the game

# ? May 16, 2021 18:15

Star: Jul 15, 2005; Guerilla war struggle is a new entertainment.; Fallen Rib

serious norman posted:

Is the game out yet?

You already know the answer.

# ? May 16, 2021 21:17

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

Deskeletonized posted:

I think we should rename space lot lizards hangar hyenas.

This is fine because female hyenas have huge dicks as well and if there's one thing a true Star Citizen doesn't want to miss out on, it's paying to get hosed up the rear end.

# ? May 16, 2021 22:58

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

Sarsapariller posted:

Yes, and Star Citizen also tried to do it years ago with the Power Triangle but somebody bungled the implementation and it turned into "This is where your engine power goes if there isn't enough for everything." CIG of course rewrote history so that this had always been the plan, stuck it in one of the 75 touch screens in every cockpit, and forgot about it. So did the players because if you get shot enough to take engine damage you've probably also lost your thrusters or you're just dead.

So the capacitor system is a reintroduction of a concept they already failed to implement, now going in place on top of the old system, because CIG is an absolute layer cake of bad decisions and failure.

In my brief one time foray into the game, trying to fiddle with the tiny MFD resulted in my clicking on the "eject" button which had no "are you sure" option and instead of adjusting power my girl took 15 seconds to open the canopy and slowly climb down the fidelity ladder while flying in atmosphere while I was trying to press every key to abort whatever was happening and then fell to her death.

Looking forward to people having to do this during action sequences and not accidentally mis-click on something that's like 10 pixels away from the mfd you need to toy with.

# ? May 16, 2021 23:13

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

Pixelate posted:

I tried tracking some of this down, but it's all lost in the mists of time. Would love to see some of that though.

As far as I can figure out floating-point stuff was added late 2015 some time. (Or at least they felt their 'Large World system' was close in May 2015)

Closest I could find on the evidence stuff was this glitch from 2017 though:

https://i.imgur.com/bupkmle.mp4

And the discussion here at the time

[/quote]

I like that even wot the footprint 4x the size of the character, you see no pixelization. Even the footprints are 4-8K textures.

# ? May 16, 2021 23:16

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

punishedkissinger posted:

Hmm... good analogy.

How about this:

SC is like a gangly, slobbering man who comes to your house drunk and cucks you on your wife with a limp dick that only goes up if you shove money into his crusty underwear and tug it aside to lick his slimy balls and beg for more. Meanwhile your wife is asleep because you can't tell her any of this is happening because you are so ashamed of yourself and how much this costs.

If you're lucky he'll knock your wife up and leave and you can make endless donations to him while he goes to other houses to do the same thing.

But it's a bargain because no other man in town will screw you over quite so well while patting you on the head and whisper-spitting in your ear Latin ranks that you earn through it.

# ? May 16, 2021 23:34

Sanya Juutilainen: Jun 19, 2019; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

The Titanic posted:

Hmm... good analogy.

How about this:

SC is like a gangly, slobbering man who comes to your house drunk and cucks you on your wife with a limp dick that only goes up if you shove money into his crusty underwear and tug it aside to lick his slimy balls and beg for more. Meanwhile your wife is asleep because you can't tell her any of this is happening because you are so ashamed of yourself and how much this costs.

If you're lucky he'll knock your wife up and leave and you can make endless donations to him while he goes to other houses to do the same thing.

But it's a bargain because no other man in town will screw you over quite so well while patting you on the head and whisper-spitting in your ear Latin ranks that you earn through it.

Hello, ship, you okay?

# ? May 17, 2021 00:02

Sarsapariller: Aug 14, 2015; Occasional vampire queen

Sanya Juutilainen posted:

Hello, ship, you okay?

# ? May 17, 2021 02:07

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

The Titanic posted:

Hmm... good analogy.

How about this:

SC is like a gangly, slobbering man who comes to your house drunk and cucks you on your wife with a limp dick that only goes up if you shove money into his crusty underwear and tug it aside to lick his slimy balls and beg for more. Meanwhile your wife is asleep because you can't tell her any of this is happening because you are so ashamed of yourself and how much this costs.

If you're lucky he'll knock your wife up and leave and you can make endless donations to him while he goes to other houses to do the same thing.

But it's a bargain because no other man in town will screw you over quite so well while patting you on the head and whisper-spitting in your ear Latin ranks that you earn through it.

r/suspeciouslyspecific

# ? May 17, 2021 03:12

Spatial: Nov 15, 2007

Glad you liked the video :tipshat:

These threads have given me many laughs over the years.

# ? May 17, 2021 04:22

DigitalPenny: Sep 3, 2018

Sanya Juutilainen posted:

Hello, ship, you okay?

Ships sink all the time, by not many are this funny or kinky. Enjoy the iceberg I guess.

# ? May 17, 2021 08:12

commando in tophat: Sep 5, 2019

Sarsapariller posted:

Good news! The tank got an update:

it's now $20 more expensive!

I love how they're charging over 100 money for tonk and whatever else, but they still cannot be arsed to change "ship value" to something more fitting for a tank (and also the fighter icon). :effort:

e. also

THE
NOVA

Did they ran out of space on the first line or something?

# ? May 17, 2021 09:14

L. Ron Hoover: Nov 9, 2009

Mirificus posted:

If you use a ship outside of its intended purpose it should teleport you to prison and force you to buy an Idris to leave.

# ? May 17, 2021 09:37

Pixelate: Jan 6, 2018; "You win by having fun"

"Buy now!"

https://i.imgur.com/Guz7RT8.mp4

# ? May 17, 2021 09:46

Flannelette: Jan 17, 2010

Why doesn't SC have much elon musk fan stuff infecting it even after all these years? Seems like there would be a big overlap in the backers and tesla fans.

Pixelate posted:

https://i.imgur.com/Guz7RT8.mp4

After careful consideration I've decided not to buy now.

Flannelette fucked around with this message at 09:55 on May 17, 2021

# ? May 17, 2021 09:53

chadbear: Jan 15, 2020

About the ship prices. If I understand it correctly, an increase in price leads to an increase in melt value so the commandos developed a speculation scheme. Buy a ship when it is announced, hope that it becomes more expensive during development (because it grows in size) and especially when it is "flight-ready". You spend x Dollars on a ship but after a few years you have 1.2 x Dollars in store money, which you can use to melt your ship and exchange it for a new one. Where else can you get such an interest rate nowadays it's a sound investment really

# ? May 17, 2021 09:56

skeletors_condom: Jul 21, 2017

Pixelate posted:

"Buy now!"

https://i.imgur.com/Guz7RT8.mp4

Is this some sort of sci-fi survival-horror game?

# ? May 17, 2021 09:59

Sankis: Mar 8, 2004; But I remember the fella who told me. Big lad. Arms as thick as oak trees, a stunning collection of scars, nice eye patch. A REAL therapist he was. Er wait. Maybe it was rapist?

i just want star citizen to fall apart already. its taking so loving long im getting bored

# ? May 17, 2021 10:15

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

skeletors_condom posted:

Is this some sort of sci-fi survival-horror game?

A bold choice to set that level inside a used ~~car~~ spaceship dealership that is falling apart.

# ? May 17, 2021 10:20

Pixelate: Jan 6, 2018; "You win by having fun"

Flannelette posted:

Why doesn't SC have much elon musk fan stuff infecting it even after all these years? Seems like there would be a big overlap in the backers and tesla fans.

https://twitter.com/robertsspaceind/status/1329633231117967363?lang=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olxI7X7eac8

# ? May 17, 2021 10:30

no_recall: Aug 17, 2015; Lipstick Apathy

Unlike bitcoin, Ship prices hold strong.

# ? May 17, 2021 10:33

Quavers: Feb 26, 2016; You clearly don't understand game development

Jorunn is weapons-grade cringe

# ? May 17, 2021 10:34

Dwesa: Jul 19, 2016; Maybe I'll go where I can see stars

Quavers posted:

Jorunn is weapons-grade cringe

https://twitter.com/Jorunn_SC/status/1170381584173867008

# ? May 17, 2021 10:39

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 11:03

Pixelate: Jan 6, 2018; "You win by having fun"

chadbear posted:

About the ship prices. If I understand it correctly, an increase in price leads to an increase in melt value so the commandos developed a speculation scheme. Buy a ship when it is announced, hope that it becomes more expensive during development (because it grows in size) and especially when it is "flight-ready". You spend x Dollars on a ship but after a few years you have 1.2 x Dollars in store money, which you can use to melt your ship and exchange it for a new one. Where else can you get such an interest rate nowadays it's a sound investment really

That is one of the many ways to get minor savings on your major spending, yes!

Although you must play the game. Here's an old reddit thread on melt price vs upgrade value for example:

quote:

Melt value is the price that was paid for that transaction ID and all the store credit you will get for that ship/package/etc., if melted. Upgrade value is the current value on the upgrade matrix for the ship. These may be different if the ship has gone up in price since it was purchased. Warbonds also typically have different melt values (the money paid / store credit obtainable) than the upgrade value of the ship.

Ex. If you bought an original Starfarer for $195 (or $240 for the Star G), it has since become worth $300 (and $340 for the Star G) on the upgrade list. If you were to upgrade from either to a Crucible (at $350), you'd be adding the $10-$50 upgrade cost to the melt value of the starfarer-now-Crucible, but the melt value never becomes the full amount when upgrading hulls which have "appreciated" since their concept.

Just think what you could get via some $0 CCUs and a bit more cash...

# ? May 17, 2021 10:43

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