Premium Exchange and Premium Tokens - Ideas to make VRs more useful in THE FINALS

[Riceroni Dish]

Hello again folks! In my previous post on the Helper System, I hinted at an idea for a new currency. In this post, I’ll share my ideas for such a currency and a way to use them.

Introduction

While I think this game has great quality cosmetics, a lot of them require Multibucks to get. The focus on only using Multibucks (either through the Premium Battle Pass or the Store) to provide high-quality cosmetics leaves out a lot of players who may not be willing to spend the money needed for Multibucks but who still continue to invest a lot of time in the game. In addition, VRs have little to no value for veteran players who have most if not all the gadgets/specializations.

Bottom Line Up Front: The Premium Exchange and Premium Tokens are suggestions to help 1) provide more players access to better quality cosmetics through time commitment and 2) make VRs more useful and valuable.

I'll unpack my general ideas while leaving open comments and questions for further discussion. Your thoughts on any and all ideas presented would be appreciated.

Premium Tokens

Premium Tokens are a new currency in THE FINALS that are used at the Premium Exchange. Tokens can be acquired through a variety of ways that might include:

• VRs
  
• Event Rewards
  
• Progression System Rewards (including the Battle Pass, Sponsor Tracks, Career Track, or even the Helper Progression System)
  
• Rewards for completing Special Contracts/Challenges
  
• Leaderboard Rewards
  
• Multibucks
  
• Log-in bonus reward for having a Special Item

Premium Exchange

The Premium Exchange is a marketplace where players go to acquire Tokens and exchange them for various items. Some ideas for such items might include:

Boosters: Boosters increase the rate of progression. Types of Boosters may only impact specific progression tracks like Career Level/Battle Pass (XP), Helper, Sponsorships (Fans) or Gadget/Spec progression (XP) or all of them. Boosters will immediately be active upon purchase for a set duration and can be extended through additional purchases. Prices will be influenced by duration, booster type, and boost amount.

(Limited) Previous Battle Pass Rewards: As the game progresses through the seasons, there will be more Battle Pass Rewards that future players won't have access to. The Premium Exchange can enable players to purchase items from previous Battle Passes. Since some the Battle Pass Rewards can only be acquired through the Premium Pass, players will only be able to purchase a limited set of the Battle Pass Rewards using Tokens. However, if a player has a certain Special Item or Multibucks along with Tokens, they can get access to previous Premium Battle Pass Rewards. Prices will be influenced by item rarity (e.g. Epic, Legendary, etc.) and item type (e.g. Head, Upper Body, Spray, etc.).

Unique Cosmetics: Ideally, these specific cosmetics can only be obtained through the Premium Exchange and are not tied to the store or any existing progression system. These could include sponsor outfits, skins, emotes, stickers, animations, charms, Player Card cosmetics, etc. These cosmetics can be updated on a regular (at least seasonal) basis. The cosmetics can be based around certain themes. Should there be rotating options? Prices will be influenced by item rarity and item type.

Patronage Rewards: For regular use of the Premium Exchange, players can earn (for example) Player Card badges to show off their level of patronage. No additional purchase needed to get these specific rewards; they are automatically and freely granted to the player after the total number of Tokens spent exceeds some clearly defined thresholds.

It might be helpful to provide some rough numbers on how this could work. Below I'll provide my thoughts on an exchange rate and some item price ranges.

Suggested Exchange Rate:

• 1000 VRs for 1 Token, 5000 VRs for 6 Tokens
  
• 10 Multibucks for 1 Token, maybe include sets of Token packages with bonus Tokens included if you spend at least 500 Multibucks

Suggested Cosmetic Price Ranges:

• Head Cosmetics: 10 to 60 Tokens
  
• Upper Body Cosmetics: 20 to 60 Tokens
  
• Lower Body Cosmetics: 10 to 35 Tokens
  
• Feet Cosmetics: 8 to 25 Tokens
  
• Emotes: 8 to 40 Tokens
  
• Sprays: 5 to 25 Tokens
  
• Pets: 40 to 80 Tokens

Questions/Comments for Discussion

As a heads up, the rest of this post either contains various topics for discussion or concluding thoughts. If you're not interested, you can skip this.

Premium Exchange Access: Do you think that access to the Exchange should be limited to players who have met some qualification (e.g player account level)?

Premium Exchange Item Prices: Do you think that the options listed would be worth grinding for at the suggested prices?

Premium Exchange Items: What item themes would you like to see in the Exchange? Should there be rotating options? If so, how often should options change?

Access to Premium Tokens: What are your thoughts on the ways players can get Tokens? Do you think it's too much? Too little? Would you like to see other ways to get Tokens?

Limited Previous Battle Pass Rewards: I think that for free access to the Premium Exchange, it would make sense to limit Battle Pass Reward items unless you have a...

Special Item: I’m working on ideas as to how this item would function. If you're interested, stay tuned!

VRs: One of the biggest issues about VRs is that there’s very little use for VRs especially if you have all the gadgets/specializations. My hope is that with the Tokens and Exchange that these ideas would address that. However, as it stands, beyond a certain career level you only gain VRs by completing matches which is why I think there needs to be a...

Progression System Update: Since VRs will have increased value, I think that some progression systems like the battle pass or sponsor tracks could really benefit from adding VRs as rewards. For example, for each page of the Battle Pass or Sponsor Track you complete, you get some bonus VRs. Another example, after you complete the BP and repeatedly gain some specified amount of XP, you get some extra VRs.

Leaderboards: While the extra leaderboards are a nice addition, beyond being listed at the top there's not much of a reward. I hope the Tokens help make rising up on the leaderboards more attractive for interested players.

Roll-out Gift or Event: I think it'd be nice that if such ideas were implemented that the rollout would include some initial gift of Tokens to players. At minimum, a flat value can be given to all players but also include an additional gift based on career level (or some other metric) to reward players for their level of time commitment. Would that be of interest to you? Or would you rather there be some form of Roll-out Event where VR gains are boosted? Or maybe something else?

Betting: This idea just popped into my head one day. I think the idea of betting could fit into the "game show" theme of THE FINALS. Do you? If so, do you see Tokens as being part of such a system or do you envision something else?

Conclusion

I have hopes that a well-implemented and integrated new currency could improve the progression systems and make for a better experience for all players. I hope the ideas explained here, if implemented, would take steps in that direction by addressing some issues that have been present for a while. Whether you feel the same or not, please provide your feedback!

Inspiration

The main inspiration was that I wanted to answer the question "How can there be more uses for VRs in THE FINALS?" which led to ideas around a second currency. Then there was the question of "What would a second currency look like in THE FINALS?" This led to a few engagements with ChatGPT where I asked the following questions and got the linked responses:

- What should a premium currency grant in a FPS live service game?[markdownpastebin.com]
- What is the difference between paid and premium currency in a live service game?[markdownpastebin.com]
- What are possible currency ideas for a live service game where you play as contestants of a game show?[markdownpastebin.com]
- What are ways for players to use excess in-game currencies?[markdownpastebin.com]

From these responses, I started to build my suggestions and ended up with this result!

Thanks again for your time and have a great rest of your day! :)

[FUDGE]

very nice

[Riceroni Dish]

Originally posted by FUDGE:

very nice

Appreciate it, Fudge! Thanks for commenting!

[|Sec9|B0nd3n[ucc]]

nope we dont want to turn this game into a mobile game where we have 100 diffrent tokens or currency

[Harshmelloz]

nah, two currencies is enough and the last thing we need is new players burning their (currently very slow to obtain) VRs on cosmetics before unlocking their equipment. This game is already hella generous with the cosmetics for F2P players.

[Riceroni Dish]

Originally posted by Harshmelloz:

two currencies is enough

I think that the only number of currencies that's enough is the number that the devs are willing to implement. Other live-service shooters like OW, Valorant, and Apex have more than two currencies. Even in this game, the devs chose to add a temporary event currency for the Halloween event.

Originally posted by Harshmelloz:

the last thing we need is new players burning their (currently very slow to obtain) VRs on cosmetics before unlocking their equipment

Hm...I think new players have bigger issues than spending VRs on cosmetics. If access to those cosmetics were restricted by career level, then this would be addressed. I would be fine with this.

Also on the note of VRs being slow, I agree with you and, as I brought up, I believe that implementing these ideas would require making VRs easier to obtain than only playing games or waiting for a single spin-the-wheel event over the entire year lol.

Originally posted by Harshmelloz:

This game is already hella generous with the cosmetics for F2P players.

I agree that the game is generous with cosmetics for F2P players, even though I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't a new player. However, aside from the quality of such cosmetics, F2P players will get the maximum benefit of those cosmetics through playtime which can be affected by a number of factors.

I think giving more options for players to access better quality cosmetics whether that's by playing or paying or even both will lead to those players exercising those options, especially if they're rewarded for more than just obtaining the item itself.

However, I recognize that these ideas aren't really helpful if many players, especially new ones, aren't enjoying their games and choose to spend their time elsewhere.