On that note... I don't understand why you would want to buy the expensive ships with real cash. Buying the later ships seems to me like buying a fast pass to the end of the game... what's the point? Surely the fun is in trading/pirating/earning money and then upgrading your ship that way. That's what the fun is of most games - the journey. I don't mean to insult anyones choices here (and apologise if I do), and I also understand that people don't have the time to earn and upgrade ships - they just want fun. But we don't even know the progression rate of the game yet. What if it takes only a week or so to upgrade to a £70 ship? There will be some angry people feeling that what they bought should be more exclusive... when that won't be the case.
Expect to be spending most of the day in that week glued to SC, is what i'd expect. I think it'll take something like 50hrs to earn an something to the value of a base Aurora, at least with fairly modest starting point.
I'll throw out some basic numbers as an example: (excuse the mix of $ and £)
If you spent 20h/wk (2h/day, 5h wkend) and it got you 2 Auroras (ie £70 ship worth - almost 3) using something like a Freelancer $125 package (168 freight units or 'FU') then before long you'll be in a Constellation ($225 480FU), so likely to be able to earn more, and you can buy a £150 ship each week.
Within a month you'd be into Starfarers ($175 = 900FU, and estimated 3600FU of fuel), Caterpillars ($225 & 3200FU) or Merchantman ($250 & 6000FU).
Thats 1 week playing a handful of hours a day with a £100 Freelancer, trading to a Constellation for 3wk, and then into the heavy merchant ships at the 1mo mark able to earn serious money.
Yes you'll need escorts, you'll buy upgrades & pay bills, and yes you might want to buy Hornets for fighting and not merchant/economy ships for max earning, but what £70/wk means is you'd be into the highest tiers of non-capitol ships really soon, and from a £100 freelancer, rather than £250-500 worth of ships. While you might not focus on max income, preferring to simply explore and let things flow organically, it does go to show that it wouldnt be hard to earn large amounts of UEC from a modest starting point whenever you wanted.
Considering thats 20hr/wk, plenty will hammer it more, plenty less, but it has to feel like you've accomplished things when your buying them, it shouldnt be an utter grind, but there has to be longevity there too. These are going to be the equivalent of buying cars, starting with an Aurora (Focus) and moving to a Transit (Freelancer) or C-Class (325/Avenger) before moving on to something bigger still.
1mo will pass in 5 days real-time, so your looking at
5wk in 7 days.
So IMO, they shouldnt be too affordable, but it shouldnt exclude people who cant hammer SC 40h/wk, but it shouldnt make it shallow for those who do, those who'll play it for years.
As for buying ships, its partly about supporting the game, the more funding they raise, the more that can be put into the process of making it and supporting it post release. It *should* be a title that has a good 10yrs in it, and lots of content added along the way.
Its also partly about wanting to own those ships now, and walk around in them and get a good feel for them and childish things like imagining the things you'll do in them. They're gaming toys, even if they're virtual.
You can spend £25 and get the exact same feeling, experience everything the same, and thats fine, but for me personally, they're providing enough in the way of insight, community videos & access etc that i still feel like im getting value for money. I plan to have 3 ships once they're available, and ive put that money in for when they'll be in the store, but i dont *plan* to go beyond that, but i might. Im buying items for myself, for my Org who i play other stuff with already, and because i want this game to be awesome.
I don't have a Joystick/pedals yet, but do have an xbox 360 controller. What works best at this stage and feels most authentic in your opinion, controller or mouse and keyboard.
