Honest feedback please - Is this pay to win?

[M4LX]

Also, is this one of those game where is you dont log in the people who do log in and pay to win crush your progress and feed off the people not dumping money into the game?

[MzEvilCanadian]

There is no PvP so the whole idea of Pay to Win in this game doesn't really exist. When you do buy the PRO it allows you more flexibility in the game. With a free license you are limited to 5(4?) bases, but it will take you 6 months or so of playing to reach that point. You are also limited to the two ships you start with, although you can upgrade them. My friend who got me into this game has been playing for free for 6 months, only recently have they gotten the pro license.

Also, there is no daily log-in bonus or anything like that so at the start it's entirely reasonable to log in once a week and do fine. It all depends on how you want to play the game as when you start you can be a trader and have your ships moving constantly between CXs buying and selling (you'd need to log in daily for maximum profits), or you can start your base and produce goods, or a bit of both.

I have found that the community is very helpful with in-game content and very accepting of new players. One thing to note, as a new player you will not be using your ships a lot so having a PRO licence will give you an advantage over someone who starts at the same time and doesn't, only in that you can accept shipping contracts which will allow you to maximise your profits.

I hope that answers more questions than it raises.

[MzEvilCanadian]

I forgot to ad, that if you get the pro licence for one moth and then not again you have access to the local markets and shpping contracts which will get you very far in regards to how long you can play before you hit some limits

[MassImpact]

yes

[[GKC]I_Die_Alot]

its subscription based with good free gameplay . no one can just pick up a credit card and buy ingame stuff .
just donations and the subscription.

[[TAG]Alblaka]

I'll respond anecdotically: Across most of January, and early February, a single older (in game terms) player essentially seized control of the universe-wide H2O trade (and it's about as critical to basic consumable production in-game as you could guess it to be) by using their excessive money to just buy up any and all H2O on any of the public market prices with a 2x inflated price. They now have the nickname 'Water King', and the impacts on market was.. pretty far-reaching.

That player has an 'Unrated' company, meaning they never once possessed a PRO license.

Now add in that the essential features of PRO (access to LM and private contracts) are shared with the BASIC license (aka, what your account permanently retains after even a single purchase of PRO), and PRO is really just a lot of really useful and fancy QoL features... which you can all compensate by putting in a little more clicks.
The few key features that you *will* need pro for, namely no cap on bases and ship count, are things that will only become relevant once you're several months into the game. And at that point you will either have learned to love the game, or long since bailed, in either case it will make any price for the game a great $-per-hour-spent-playing deal.

[LucasR]

Originally posted by M4LX WMD:

Also, is this one of those game where is you dont log in the people who do log in and pay to win crush your progress and feed off the people not dumping money into the game?

for me it was more like "uninstall to win". I won.

[g0815krieger]

I am fairly new to this game, and yes I bought 1 month subscription to have access to local markets.
I let pro licence run out past that first month, I will still have access to local markets, but will no longer be able to place my own adds. What I still can do is accepting others adds.

So I would say one month subscription is worth to consider although its definately not needed.

Considering the base and ship limits for basic accounts, yes only 5 bases and only 2 ships, but......

I have talked ingame to "older" players:
If you buy a 1 month subscription then build more bases above the limit, you can operate all bases when you drop back to non-premium
Same goes for ships, once you have them you will keep them.

To be honsest 8€ subscription after 1 year of playing to advance to more ships and more bases, I can´t consider that pay to win.

So to answer your queston: NO not pay to win!

[Subak]

P2W is not really accurate because you can't really pay more and win more.

However, though the game offers a totally free tier, it's kind of hard to make a case that you could actually play it *indefinitely* at that tier. There are players, right this very minute afaik, who are proving me wrong though.

It's just that at some point the sum of the QoL stuff the subscription gives becomes absolutely necessary in my opinion.

I'd put that mark at about 6 months but it's really based on your progression. I've paid for games I didn't play for 6 hrs, so... fair deal I suppose?

My personal demand for QoL-level would be totally shot and I just wouldn't play if I wasn't going to also pay at that point.

[Laserbees]

The slight paywall to access local market contracts and player to player contracts is needed because there is actual trust and accountability involved.
When you accept a shipping contract from the local market, you actually take possession of the shipment. While other players can't see WHAT the shipment is other than its weight and volume, they can still not follow through and deliver it. When items can take several days to produce and send to market, having another player bail on the game with your shipment can be devastating.
However, that accountability is one of the best parts of the game and worth buying at least one month's subscription.

[HeplMeh]

Most of the comments are looking at it all wrong IMO. While true there is no traditional "PvP," there is still an element of player vs player via competing in the markets to buy/sell goods. Having the ability to have more bases and production is an advantage as it gives you more leverage in the markets.