Some takeaways from our 2022 player survey

[SirBerrial]

I wouldn't mind supporting Egosoft by buying some ships if they're reasonable priced actually flight ready and not some concept stuff^^

I would cease buying anything Egosoft if this happened. And I doubt that I am the only one. Microtransactions are a plague that should have never taken off.

[Fulgrymm]

MTX in X games sounds like a nightmare, to be sure.

[Falcrack]

I wouldn't mind supporting Egosoft by buying some ships if they're reasonable priced actually flight ready and not some concept stuff^^

I would cease buying anything Egosoft if this happened. And I doubt that I am the only one. Microtransactions are a plague that should have never taken off.

It's a single player game. If Egosoft wants to spend the time and resources to make a few more ships, and charge us for them, what's the big deal? I fail to see why there should be some sort of principled stand against stuff like this. If the alternative to paid ship dlc is no new ships, I would much prefer paying out a few bucks to get a few more ships in my game.

[SirBerrial]

It's a single player game. If Egosoft wants to spend the time and resources to make a few more ships, and charge us for them, what's the big deal? I fail to see why there should be some sort of principled stand against stuff like this. If the alternative to paid ship dlc is no new ships, I would much prefer paying out a few bucks to get a few more ships in my game.

Microtransactions in a single-player game are unacceptable. Microtransactions in a paid game are unacceptable.
Even if it is jUsT CoSmEtIcS bRo.
If a dev can make a proper addon and charge 40 bucks for it or make 4 hats and charge 10 per hat for a fraction of the effort, dev will have to choose between making a good experience and making money more effectively - there will be a direct financial incentive to make less of a/inferior product.

[GCU Grey Area]

Not particularly interested in buying individual ships myself. They're simply not the most important aspect of X4 DLC for me. New ships are fun of course, however also have a strong desire for new sectors added to the map, new factions to interact with & a new plot (preferably with a meaningful choice to make at the end of it which has lasting consequences), along with new music & station parts too. New ships on their own would be far less interesting, for me at least, than the entire package of features I've come to expect from an X4 DLC.

[magitsu]

Cosmetic dlc pack could be ok if it was done for whole categories like character models. Or rather even bigger personalization package (but things like shipsets is too much work and doesn't expand the mechanics).
That could fund some further development work and in return there would be initial payoff and new tool/exposed mechanism for modders to expand further.
One off mtx's with just superficial work aren't worth doing.

In any case the character models, their hair/clothes, ship paints and logos are frustratingly average / underutilized right now. Which is kind of weird compared to how many new rooms/cockpits have been painstakingly developed lately.

[Buzz2005]

how would all that be protected from modders

i myself would not buy any of those ships or cosmetics dlcs

[magitsu]

how would all that be protected from modders

Not protected, but I meant things that don't exist. Some extra development work could be justified with that kind of dlc. They won't start significant new mechanisms/code expansion without some idea of how it could pay off.

Smaller things like encyclopedia also need to be finalized. It just looks lazy at this point.

[Sao t'Lp]

how would all that be protected from modders

i myself would not buy any of those ships or cosmetics dlcs

It won't. But through the online feature players got a strong incentive not to use mods. So it would be possible to find an audience for these kind of DLC.

However I am strongly against cosmetic DLC or "buy a ship flight ready" DLC. I really liked the content DLC and DLC policy so far (with the exception of HOA) and found their price fair.

[Berni]

I would cease buying anything Egosoft if this happened. And I doubt that I am the only one. Microtransactions are a plague that should have never taken off.

Yes, you must be so awesome that Egosoft should be paying you $1 an hour if you play X4, right?

...how dare they ask for money for their work instead of giving everything away?

[adeine]

I would cease buying anything Egosoft if this happened. And I doubt that I am the only one. Microtransactions are a plague that should have never taken off.

Yes, you must be so awesome that Egosoft should be paying you $1 an hour if you play X4, right?

...how dare they ask for money for their work instead of giving everything away?

It's insane that we've arrived at a point where people literally defend this kind of thing.

[Falcrack]

I would cease buying anything Egosoft if this happened. And I doubt that I am the only one. Microtransactions are a plague that should have never taken off.

Yes, you must be so awesome that Egosoft should be paying you $1 an hour if you play X4, right?

...how dare they ask for money for their work instead of giving everything away?

It's insane that we've arrived at a point where people literally defend this kind of thing.

If a game maker is willing to make content and charge for it, and consumers are willing to pay for that content, I fail to see how this would be some sort of nefarious evil scheme.

[adeine]

If a game maker is willing to make content and charge for it, and consumers are willing to pay for that content, I fail to see how this would be some sort of nefarious evil scheme.

Because people are easily manipulated into unhealthy behaviour, and arguably that is what has happened on a larger scale with the microtransaction/subscription economy. If you think car manufacturers monetising heated seats as a subscription service is healthy and a-ok because consumers 'choose to pay for it', that's fine. The problem is it ceases to be fine when such practices are normalised to the point where you're unable to opt out unless you want to live off the grid deprived of goods and services (increasingly the case).

Anyway, I don't mean to derail this topic, so I'll leave it at that.

[LameFox]

I would not mind a ship-only DLC to add variety to existing factions without adding more overall entities to the universe that worsen performance. Maybe some new empty sectors for more variety in locations for the player to use. Not ships sold piecemeal though, like some kind of Paradox clothing DLC.

[Berni]

...this kind of thing.

I don't talk about some gacha or diablo-Immortal style shit.

I'm talking about a fair priced and useable dlc-ship. That's something total different.

And btw no one forces you to buy anything to make "progress" ingame.

[Raptor34]

I don't see why you are imagining a ship pack to be like cosmetics.
Like when I think ship pack, I think more like when they added aux ships rather than Oddy E. I.e. new ships which are actually distinct in use and performance compared to current ships rather than a reskin.
Like hell, I only even touched the SV plot way after ToA launched because I didn't really care much for it's plot anyway or it's starts for that matter, going by that I was already buying SV as a ship pack.
Thinking back I only really did the CoH plot because I wanted Yaki access anyway instead of actually wanting to do it, that and the sideplot for those terraforming goodies. Same for ToA plot which I rushed because I wanted the Astrid instead of anything else.