I love how unique the game (and cool) its gameplay is, there is just one annoyance, with I noticed very fast..
The fees for elevator transport.
I'm not into buying stuff with expiries anyway, I never was though.
I AM (and others probably are too :P) into spending money for a permanent, one-time fee so we can travel every elevator for free instead of having to pay 10 energy.
I don't speak about how much it should cost or so, that's something for the 'marketing team'.
The difference between CE and a subscription (whether one-time or recurring) is like the difference between an unlimited cell-phone plan and prepaid. Part of what you're paying for with the subscription is not having to worry about using up minutes every call or CE every elevator. It's psychologically more attractive in many ways, even if it costs more than prepaid would for the same usage.
It's more about knowing that you "can be" wasting your energy stuff. Sometimes I waste 10 energy joining a 'pitstop' level.
Having a subscription for free elevators is fine, as long as it's understood that you won't get free crafting.
Note that such a system will cause CE prices to rise, since subscribers will pump lots of crowns into the economy.
You are not "wasting" 10 energy when you join a pitstop level. It means you just skipped the first 4 of that tier (you know, the crappy ones!).
A subscription model would reduce demand for CE because the subscribers would only buy it for crafting. Reduced CE demand = lower CE prices.
There are also people that buy CE (with money) for elevators and to sell for crowns who would simply put more CE on the market if they didn't have to worry about elevator costs. Increased CE supply = lower CE prices.
No idea what the net effect would be, though; these forces may or may not be enough to counteract the higher crown supply.
Edit: @LoneKnight: Starting right after the pitstop gives the same benefit for 10 less energy, so it is a waste.
It's possible that such a feature is announced a month before launch so everyone can adapt to it.
I think the price of such a 'free-elevator' thing shouldn't be that cheap or so. I don't care if I 'lose' money using that feature, I just hate counters counting down to my stop-playing-now time.
Look, I'm playing for one day, so I don't know anything about the in-game economics ;).
I'd pay a subscription considering I can see myself buying energy at least once a month anyways. Games meant to be casual but it's a bit too casual for my taste atm, without buying energy I'm getting like 5mins to and hour of game play a day that's just not worth it for me when I really enjoy the game.
Hell I'd rather buy a one year sub and never have to worry about it again and if they want to charge still for crafting and slot upgrades that's fine.
The best value for CE is 20k for $50. That works out to 2,000 elevator rides, 250 Jelly King runs (if you do the whole tier). That works out to better than 8 runs per day over a month.
Based on that value, budgeting $15 per month for Spiral Knights is about 2.5 runs per night without using any ME for elevators.
How many elevator runs would you expect to do in a month, or per night? Does that value seem about right to you? I'm curious what players would expect to pay for a subscription, and how many elevator runs they'd estimate they'd do per month. Would the unlimited elevators per month be a better bargain than buying 3 months at a time with $50 in CE (which never expires)? Obviously this ignores any concerns about which method is preferable for aesthetic reasons.
My concern is that this would allow a subsection of the playerbase who would play way above 2.5 runs per night to dominate the market. If the price of CE doubles they can just do a second JK run to make up the difference, as time becomes the only limiting resource and they have way more of it. I'm worried that the price of pretty much everything will inflate because of players who are no longer restricted by CE for generating in-game wealth.
I like the idea of an "elevator pass" (like the bus pass that godofskype uses) that is somewhere between 2.99 - 4.99 a month, but make
it so it's used with a credit card.
I wholly would support a midstream change from 3r into a sub game with wholesale changes to energy.. game time is unlimited,
elevators are free, and it's 9.99 a month. Crafting still takes a seperate bar that is shared with rez costs, mats droprate are
dramatically lowered, and in game currency is still offered for micro transactions. The bar for crafting and rez would work like
the current energy bar, crowns into CE, pay if you need more energy for crafting or rezzing.
I'm not sure how this would work, it's just an idea that popped in my head while I was reading the thread. I woke up ten minutes
ago so my brain hasn't fully turned on yet lol.
I prefer a lifetime free-use thing though, not having to worry about it ever again. Monthly costs are fine too, or just a 'one-month' pass for elevators, bought separately. Then you do not use energy, if you're using a 'pass' then. I thought there also were things for an one-month extra weapon slot or so? This is like that I guess. That would work, and wouldn't require huge internal changes I guess.
This could work I guess, I could see this as a monthly fee. OR you could simply buy CE for real money and use it on the elevators, kinda seems like that is working and already in place.