CCP denies it, and CCP fanboys deny it. But it is one of the elephants in the room, and a big one to boot.

It is Pay to Win

It is in DUST. It can not be denied.

Even Proto guns for tanks have been released with an AUR price tag, and not a very high one compared to infantry gear I might add.

The problem:

In short, the AUR items tend to use fewer resources, and from what I've seen have equal or better stats than their regular counterparts, and cost about half if not a third the SP to get.

AUR items can mean freeing up valuable resources, and being able to fit an extra damage mod, or other modules the player would never be able to field otherwise, making them far more durable, and potentially deadly. It is not the individual AUR item that puts them in the P2W category, it is what they enable when fitted.

A DUST Fitting Tool would be nice, but that is probably still a way off, but we need to sit down, and crunch all the math to see what AUR Items really mean to fittings and what the resources their use free up on the vehicle or dropsuit really mean for the overall stats of a fit.
If it turns out (as I suspect) that an AUR fitted player will have significant overall performance over their ISK only counterparts, things need to be changed.


I see only one solution really, and that is to add an ISK price on AUR items as well as an AUR price on ISK items, with a set AUR/ISK conversion rate for the NPC market. The Player market can then go in and undercut that NPC market, both ways.

Change the current terminology, and make the current AUR items into "Faction" items, like in EVE, where these actually ARE more expensive, and do free up resources as well as having superior stats. But they are available for ISK, NEVER for AUR.

Perhaps later, these Faction Items may be rewarded in storyline NPC missions, or for warpoints, as well as AUR if needed.

For CCP, this means that all items CAN be bought for ISK or AUR. Of course that also mean that rich kids will have it easier than not so rich kids, but that is no different that in EVE, where we can sell the PLEX'es and raise ISK that way, and doesn't get around the need to earn SP and skills before using it.

CCP screwed up with AUR in EVE and it blew up in their face. People were fired as a result. I doubt it will happen again.

Besides, I have a feeling that AUR was developed for DUST originally and along the way someone proposed moving it into EVE. This is where the mistake happened.

What people need to realize is that they have to make money on this game. League of Legends is thrown around as a champion of "how to do microtransactions well". DUST is following suit in many ways; skill boosters are a direct knockoff of LoL's skill boosting system. However, the main thing LoL profits on is is character skins and champions. Unfortunately, that won't translate well to a FPS because the reason LoL players buy those champions / skins is for the Loading screen. So that their team / enemy will go "Oh ****, he's running _____ in their crazy expensive skin. he must be a badass." DUST can't do this. So instead they are going to sell items for AUR that have lower fitting skills, less fitting requirements, or have slightly better stats so that people can get higher KDRs and show all of the world that they are a badass.

READ THIS
Luckily, AUR items aren't exclusive and only usable by the purchaser. They can, and will, be resold on the market for normal people to use. So that 15 AUR Proto Assault Rifle with slightly less fitting requirements will be resold on the market for 50,000 ISK. Allowing players who don't want to spend real money just pick it up on the market for ISK. The same weapons will be available for everyone. It just becomes a question of do I spend AUR to buy X item directly from CCP, or ISK to buy it from another player who is reselling it.

Now, if they begin selling items for AUR that provide an advantage and can't be resold on the market (IE: bound to your account) then I'll grab my pitchfork and join the rest of you.

Really helpful there. Are you even old enough to Play Dust, with it being PG16...

Nobut when I was 16 I was doing your mum