To add some context, this change might not be permanent, but they want to test some things in the economy. They noticed there was too much ISK floating around in the last build and are exploring options to get a nice economic balance. Again, this change might not necessarily be permanent. They have heard and acknowledged that many players have misgviings about this and CCP CmdrWang came on IRC to help address the concerns of players.

This is a test to gain numbers on the economy. It is not an indication of how things will be forever. As with everything in the beta, anything can change at any time. Player feedback is always encouraged, and they definitely want us to let them know how we find the market/economy with the changes active. If you don't like it, definitely tell them about your experience!


But let's not form a lynch mob until test is over :)

The isk must flow! Dust will have massive inflation if militia gear is free forever. Make it depletable, and let the strong survive through rewards. Don't peg all rewards on the current NPC games. Keep them low and make people group up and join corps.

My (current) issue with the discussion we had on IRC boils down to how Wang talked about this change. It felt like he wanted the starter fits to be where you go to make money, and that even militia fits should have the ability to bleed you dry (if you're bad enough). My problem with this is, the starter fits are starter fits. I should never have to go back to them once I've progressed beyond.

My stance is I believe what Grid was saying. Even if you go 0/10 in militia gear, you shouldn't go broke. That's how that needs to be priced. It should cut up the rewards you receive, but not drain your wallet. Standard gear should be priced such that you can have a few borderline ok games and some bad games thrown in and still not be hurting for cash. Higher stuff, I'm fine with being more expensive (it's probably way too expensive right now).

As it stands, though, the current prices of militia gear are absurd if we're expected to restock per death. My current setup uses a modified starter assault fit, and has purchased shield extender, armor repairer, SMG and nanite injector. That's 4 items that comes to 8840 ISK. At current payouts, that'd last me about 7 deaths per match to break even or barely turn a profit. While I can manage that, many others can't.

That is my problem with this idea, how negatively it will affect the lower-tier players. The people who aren't the top 10 leaderboard people, whose "bad" game isn't only 5 deaths, are going to have a very hard time making any progress gear-wise if it's not made incredibly cheap. Not only that, but those of us who will manage just fine with this change will just create a larger gap in the gear that's used between the top players and everyone else. While you're breaking even or barely turning a profit with a few militia mods, I'm going to be moving on to standard and advanced gear, and keeping you in a state of financial hell.

Solution 1: Make the militia items very cheap, on the order of a few hundred ISK maximum each (you have up to 7 slots to fit when customizing the current starter fits, that adds up); the drop uplinks (which NO starter fit uses) are 4960 (!!!) and weapons range from 960 to 3600 (that 3600 being the swarm launcher, which you WILL be the primary target if you shoot that thing at my tank, so expect to die if you ever bring that out against anybody). That is way too much for bottom tier gear. (the average game has been giving me a payout of about 60-80k for reference, and lately seems to be pushing up toward 100k as people upgrade or LAV spam)

Solution 2: Make a LOT of new starter fits. Sure, keep the 4 we have now, just let more be purchaseable, and have them actually be fits people might use. Let the community design some and pick your favorite 10-20 and let the BPOs be purchaseable for something like 10-50k ISK. The current starter fits look like they were fitted via the dartboard method, and there's not a single one I wouldn't customize.

Solution 3: Allow us to sell salvage to NPC markets. I feel this is more something that should exist to allow people the finances to go from militia to standard/advanced, though. Also, it's not a reliable source of income. I tend to always get garbage salvage, and while I've gotten a few dropship and LAV drops, I generally run 10-20 games in a row of no salvage or something like 2 basic armor repairers or nanohives, stuff that won't even be noticed if I was able to sell it.

I'll say it again: the starter fits should be starter fits, not what we have to rely on if we want to make money. A fully customized militia setup should fit that role, and in my opinion the standard gear should also be able to fit that role later down the line. Don't implement this in a way that only screws the little guy, because that's all it's going to do. It isn't fun to play a game where you access skills and then still don't have the money to use what those skills unlocked, and the people put in that position will leave.

You should speak for yourself, and not for all console gamers. Not all console gamers are casual gamers.

CCP games are not for everyone, and it sounds like DUST is not for you. I'm not sure why you're here, but it'd probably be better for everyone if you went back to CoD instead of arguing for dumbing down DUST.