Essential Microtransaction Fixes

[systumseng]

This is not an endorsement of the MT system.
But if we're stuck with it, here are some things Overkill needs to do. FAST!

1) There should be TWO types of drills for each type of safe
a) The Random Drill-Cost 25 cents. Will open the safe and give random drop.
b) The I'm Paying for It Drill-Cost $2.50 (Personally I think it should be $1.00)
Will allow user to select skin of their chosing from choices in safe.
Safe must cleary detail the items in safe, as well as the stat boost for each, if any.
(Item condition is random.)

2) Curently 90% of the skins are just pretty patterns with no stat boost. If Overkill wants there to be any chance of people actually buying in (no pun intended,...well,...maybe there was) to this system, EVERY skin needs to have some sort of merit/stat boost, even if it's minimal.

With that in mind, Overkill should update the skins to all carry AT LEAST one of the following:
+1 Damage, Concealment, Stability, Accuracy, Ammo Capacity
+1% XP, Loot, Zoom, or Reload Speed
This will not unbalance the game,....given some of the garbage and overpowered trash they've introduced already, it doesn't even come close to the ways they've already damaged the game.

Overkill needs to recognize that in order to create a market for an item, it has to be something that somebody wants. A pretty skin is NOT going to be something that somebody will pay a lot for, if anything. Add a small stat boost as listed above, and it helps a shopper justify buying a skin, even if just for a small price.

3) Add gun skins to the card drops. This should have been there from Day 1.

4) Add gun skins as rewards for daily and weekly Side Jobs. Again, this should have already been integrated into the game, especially since the Side/Weekly job rewards are meaningless. What do I care if I get $20,000 when I have over $2 billion in spending cash and $10 billion off-shore? What do I care if I get a gun mod when I already have 100 of each possible mod from all the card drops I've had going through 20+ levels of Infamy?

For #'s 3 and 4, the drop rate would obviously be low, to protect Overkill's bottom line. But that's OK, as that would just give us all a reason to play more.

For those that point out that people will be card-farming like crazy, ECM rushing through Normal Jewelry Stores over and over just to get to card drops, Overkill could easily weight the formula for calculating a drop such that the higher the difficulty (or the longer the game time) the more chance of a skin (or safe, or drill) drop. Hey, wait.....that's a GREAT IDEA---why didn't they already DO that?? (Almir,...why didn't you???)

5) Give us some sort of idea as to how/when they will add more skins, and for which guns. Just some sort of basic schedule,....one that they'll keep to. Personally, I've got a couple guns I use a lot that do not yet have skins available. Tell me one's coming out in December, and the other in February, and I'll have something to look forward to.

6) Give us some sort of idea as to what/when new safes will be coming out,....and yes, new safes should mostly consist of new/different skins than what we've previously seen.

I realize that a lot of the PD2 community does not want to have ANY MTs in the game at all. I'm fine with that, and if they can convice Overkill to back out the MTs, I would not be upset.

BUT......they're here now, and this posting was to try to, in some way, make the system better (in the sense that we all don't think it stinks as much)....so PLEASE, if you hate the MT system, just put that in as your comment ("I hate it!"), or don't contribute to this thread at all. Let us try to keep this one on-point in the hopes that a mod will see this and pass it on to Almir and company. If you like any part of the above, please say so, or +1 the thread, or pass it on to somebody with the mod's ear. Some of the items above are needed NOW, the rest are simply needed ASAP.

Thank you.

[Rigolax]

As much as I do not like the micotransactions in this game, if they were implemented the way you described.I think people would not have have reacted as harshly as they did when it was introduced. For me this would give me more incentive to play the game I have only seen 1 or 2 drill drops since they added it to the card drops.

[drewbstar]

The whole point of the drill-safe system is the denial of content.
First, they deny you just about everything.
Second, if you do get the skin you want, there is a massive chance that it is going to be a lowered quality.
Third, it is 100% random, so people are willing to gamble and get something good. If they get something good, they can sell it or use it. Huzzah!

If they wanted to add skins to the game, they could have added a cosmetic-only DLC.
However, they wanted to add microtransactions to the game. They chose skins to do that.

-
or rather:
Overkill makes money on every step of the way. You buy a safe? They get money. You buy a drill? They get money. You buy a drill from the market? They get money. You open your safe and get something nice then sell it? They get money. You get something crap and sell it for $0.12? They get money. repeat x1,200 You want to skip the gamble and get the skin you want? You shell out $4, they get money. You don't really care about the quality, but want a skin? You shell out a few cents, they get money. repeat x10,000

You're taking the fundamental purpose of anti-consumer practices, and going "Make them pro-consumer"
if they wanted to do that, they would have done it in the first place.

[Lord Wayne]

Essential Microtransaction Fix:
Get rid of them.

Agree with drewstar's post above. This is the system OK wanted becuase it's a "feature" that benefits them the most, not players.

[Sir Duckyweather]

These are some pretty good ideas, and unfortunately I doubt any of them will see the light of day. If people got what skins they wanted, they would be far less likely to be interacting with the market. And the things people don't want likely won't sell too much, so we'll just have a market full of Bidoofs, so to speak. It's sad but the genius part of the skins market is it essentially allows Overkill to double-dip in the profits, to an extent.

[staryoshi06]

b) The I'm Paying for It Drill-Cost $2.50 (Personally I think it should be $1.00)
Will allow user to select skin of their chosing from choices in safe.
Safe must cleary detail the items in safe, as well as the stat boost for each, if any.
(Item condition is random.)

You don't know how skin rarity and the economy works do you?

A pretty skin is NOT going to be something that somebody will pay a lot for, if anything.

You haven't played csgo have you?

[puzzlefox]

Originally posted by drewbstar:

The whole point of the drill-safe system is the denial of content.
First, they deny you just about everything.

This is what irritates me the most about it. Overkill mistakingly thought that PD2 had 400k players at any given time like CS:GO and the market would balance itself out. Since no one buys drills, EVERYTHING is overpriced. Just look at the market for FWB and SH skins. They're all (aside from legendaries) reasonably-ish priced. Everything else is obnoxiously overpriced. You have this whole slew of content that unless someone is willing to pay $30+ for (for one skin) you can forget about it.

The market works with games like TF2, CS:GO and Dota because so many people play and use the market, even someone with a mega-frugal budget can get skins for all of their favorite things. Same cannot be said for PD2. I have no idea how on Earth Overkill couldn't even make this basic of an assessment to predict how dead this market would be.. and for what..? a few extra bucks and an outraged community.

[Peanits]

Or just remove them. Reducing the price will just upset the people who paid full price for it anyway, since they didn't get to choose. They basically paid $2.49 for a $0.25 value. And more importantly, legendary skins would loose their value if you could just pick them.

The best solution: Stop selling skins. You don't have to remove them, just stop selling them. That way nobody gets cheated out of their money, and skins are still there for those who want them. If necessary, find different ways to monetise it in the future. For example, toss two or three in a DLC. That way you can pay for actual content and get some skins as a bonus. They're still marketable, so it's still a secondary stream of revenue. They get a cut each time one is sold.

Aside from that, adjust the drill/safe drop rate. Items don't need to have a pay wall to hold value.

[Toyfan1]

I would've been fine if they did the CS:GO Sticker way;
1 Case and one $1 USD key.
Items have 2-3 raities. And always come in a perfect condition. When applied to a gun, you can make it more scratched if you desire.

[AkiraJkr]

The Ideas 1,2,3 are perfect to fix all negative reviews, but for the Idea 3...It would be obviously be more super frigging 360 MLG Timer Rare to get.

[Mutant1988]

How about just removing it entirely and instead selling quality content?

[AkiraJkr]

Originally posted by Mutant1988:

How about just removing it entirely and instead selling quality content?

They'll never do that.

[BridgetFisher]

no interest in some random system, its just a lottery meaning getting stuff never wanted. Like most normal people if want something we buy it, this weird lottery system honestly could care less about. If want more money just make PD3???

[Heroic Sheperd]

Originally posted by Peanits:

Or just remove them. Reducing the price will just upset the people who paid full price for it anyway, since they didn't get to choose. They basically paid $2.49 for a $0.25 value. And more importantly, legendary skins would loose their value if you could just pick them.

The best solution: Stop selling skins. You don't have to remove them, just stop selling them. That way nobody gets cheated out of their money, and skins are still there for those who want them. If necessary, find different ways to monetise it in the future. For example, toss two or three in a DLC. That way you can pay for actual content and get some skins as a bonus. They're still marketable, so it's still a secondary stream of revenue. They get a cut each time one is sold.

Aside from that, adjust the drill/safe drop rate. Items don't need to have a pay wall to hold value.

Problem with this is you now have extremely exclusive items which still grant an advantage to only the select players that originally took part in the weapon skins to begin with.

[Zero]

Originally posted by « TGH » Carlton Banks AP:

Originally posted by Peanits:

Or just remove them. Reducing the price will just upset the people who paid full price for it anyway, since they didn't get to choose. They basically paid $2.49 for a $0.25 value. And more importantly, legendary skins would loose their value if you could just pick them.

The best solution: Stop selling skins. You don't have to remove them, just stop selling them. That way nobody gets cheated out of their money, and skins are still there for those who want them. If necessary, find different ways to monetise it in the future. For example, toss two or three in a DLC. That way you can pay for actual content and get some skins as a bonus. They're still marketable, so it's still a secondary stream of revenue. They get a cut each time one is sold.

Aside from that, adjust the drill/safe drop rate. Items don't need to have a pay wall to hold value.

Problem with this is you now have extremely exclusive items which still grant an advantage to only the select players that originally took part in the weapon skins to begin with.

remove them, and then toss the weapon skins to every owner of Payday 2, making them not marketable or tradeable. everyone has skins, yes people get whiny that they paid for them. but thats like getting mad that a game came out, and other people got it on sale somewhere else.