I have a very serious question to all veteran players. Newbies can skip it.
We're thinking about finally adding premium accounts into the game. Those will definitely remove all ads and improve your CPU situation, but we're pondering additional bonuses.
The two we currently argue about are x2 ship repair speed and x2 skill gain. Ship repair is pretty tame, unless we're in planet warfare situation, where faster respawn will definitely provide an advantage to attackers (with premium).
Skill gain is a larger can of worms. So, here is the actual question:
- Assuming you're not interested in purchasing premium account, would you feel cheated as newbies (with premium) get to skill up faster?
We are very very fond of our veteran players (because they mastered the game, showed us lots of cool stuff, helped improving the game, gave us ideas, etc) so we really don't want to offend you guys. If the majority decides x2 skill gain is too much of a bonus, I'll fight very hard to stop it from happening.
I think permanent double skill gain is a bad idea. You will quickly have level 30 smelters in no time, people who can't get shot because their evade is so high, people who don't miss etc etc. Not fair to the people who worked their asses off to get where they got. You'll eventually have to raise the maximum and readjust a lot of what you've already balanced. I think if you want to offer additional perks, it's best offered as items. ie. create a novelty privateer or new ship type that has infinite durability for premium membership. Maybe include a premium equipment set in the ship that offers a small chance at instantly resetting the cooldown after use. Maybe a resource package like a turn-key planet package of resources to colonize a planet.