Honestly it is kinda annoying that they turned FW into an ISK sink more than anything, the lack of ISK rewards in it make no sense. EVE missions rewarded you with LP for the corp/faction you did it for as well as ISK, why can't we do that.

Honestly it is kinda annoying that they turned FW into an ISK sink more than anything, the lack of ISK rewards in it make no sense. EVE missions rewarded you with LP for the corp/faction you did it for as well as ISK, why can't we do that.

If they added ISK rewards in addition to LP, then the problem would be fixed. Only the winners should get ISK though, or else no one would do public battles. Another alternative is to have FW ISK rewards half that of a regular public battle.

U are correct LP rewards per match is less isk value than public matches,to buy items such as basic shield extender and G38 rifles yields very poor return,however some the items u buy with LP are not available for isk.
One would assume that FW is not intended to be a mercs sole occupation and that FW play should be augmented with public and PC games.
This leads into a diverse play experience as u may find yourself playing a couple of dom, couple of cal FW an ammar FW, then turning up to defend or attack a PC district (and hopefully a few rounds of PVE soon). You could be using a mix of isk and LP to create all manner of fits, some items u don't have skills for, weapons that have less fitting, equipment with better attributes (State Wyrkomi injector, 100% armour upon revival!!).

In conclusion a small increase in LP payout may occur, but i don't believe it is necessary, but what may be interesting and fun to have is LP store discount sales, or FW events with increased payout/standing increase.

Surely their uniqueness and exclusivity raises their value enough, i myself play FW for the interest of helping to organise bigger groups of players alongside eve orbital support, the LP on both games is just a pleasant side effect.

Any more thoughts?

+1! An excellent analysis.

I've been gathering data to put together a similar analysis and what I have gathered matches up with your analysis perfectly.

IMHO, FW matches should be more profitable than public matches, as they represent the most critical battles being waged in empire space (in terms of lore). Maybe if they were more profitable we would see more pub-stompers move to FW, thus creating a viable new-player experience in public matches, and a better sense of progression for all DUST players.

The thing is that the FW items only allow less skilled players to use them. You dont earn enough lp to use those items consistently enough in any case. Once the player market is in you might be able to sell high enough to newbies, even though they technically would be smarter running the frontline fit or a full basic suit which would cost less than one proto faction item.

Faction items should have 1 or 2 percent, or only very marginally, better stats to get all players interested in purchasing them.

I play only FW and I will definitely agree that the reward is pretty bad if you win and complete crap if you lose.

On very rare matches I'll get some decent salvage which makes it worthwhile but FW will probably end up only being played by rich players who can afford to lose fittings and get nothing for it if they don't fix the reward system.

Also, it is a little weird that the losers really get the shaft in FW... we are mercs right? Since when do mercenaries earn less when they lose? You pay them before you go to battle and you typically don't expect much loyalty. It's weird that dust mercs earn their payout after a match and that the payout is way better if you win.

No wonder people come up with all kinds of scams to win.

Lastly, a lot of the FW stuff is the same as the what you can buy with AUR. If any of you have done the math you know that you can buy stuff that takes 20 minutes of gameplay to win for a few pennies. I highly doubt that the FW stuff will be worth that much because why would I grind for ISK in pub matches when I can buy $20 worth of AUR and have literally hundreds of the same item? My time is worth more than that and I think most people will feel the same way. They will either play with free stuff or play with cheap fittings or buy AUR. Only a handful will play the game "as intended" or perhaps buying AUR is "as intended" gameplay

People buying aurum and 'game packs' is the only way CCP makes money off of dust, so if people could get LP items at a high/fast enough rate, which are exactly the same as AUR items, then CCP would lose money. Unless they decide to come up with more AUR items which do not have LP counterparts.

The LP you earn as rewards might need to be raised, but not by much. You're basically playing a match to earn almost-but-not-quite-Aurum.

When your standing is level 10, players have to value faction store gear to be worth at least 6x the value of regular gear just to make a ISK comparable to a public contract skirmish's ISK rewards.