Corp and/or alliance logos on ships of my choice.

Stop chirping about having everything included in your subscription fee because god know most of you neckbeards run missions all day and buy plex. We're talking about bad ass vanity customizations beyond what the core game offers. I'd support paying aurum for:

- my corp or alliance logo on a given ship

- the ability for skilled manufacturers to distinguish their line of ships. For example, after a ton of research and invention on hurricane bpos blah blah they get a new BPO that produces ships with a custom manufacturer logo. "huehue but it won't work with the market huehue" - just list it as "Hurricane [Corp Ticker]" or use contracts only.

Says the 2003 toon. Indeed, PLEX is a payment made by someone buying timecode. But not a real currency payment by the L4 farming neckbeards who tend to make the forum whine index skyrocket.

1: The loans CCP took out to fund development of all of its projects did not go away. When a company lays off 20% of it's employee's it is a pretty good indicator that it is in need of funds, both to pay off past obligations and to improve it's prospects of getting future funding.

2: Contrary to popular belief, WOD has not been canceled. WOD development has been put on hold for the moment. There is a very large difference between the two.

3: The economy of DUST is going to require certain economic elements to be in place to interact with EVE. AURUM is not going away, nor is the option for Micro Transactions.

Although your story gives the impression that financially EVE should be just fine now , it's pretty easy to see that CCP could use an additional revenue stream (and better leverage the one that it has). They DO have other projects to work on, they WILL need to secure additional development funds via loans or other means, they MUST show increases in revenue to achieve this.

We know that when things are running right with EVE subscription numbers rise slowly but steadily. This is an excellent foundation to build on. However, now they have to play catch up... as well as build financial momentum to get back on track with future development goals. Slow and steady growth may very well not cut it. I think it was a wise decision NOT to increase subscription fee's for everyone, as I have little doubt this option was considered at the time of the layoffs. I'd like to see it stay that way.

You can pay isk, just buy AUR with the PLEX you bought with isk.
How is this so hard for people to grasp?

What's next? Are all these little whiners going to expect CCP to include all their ships, modules, POS's etc etc etc with the monthly fee? I mean really, you save up and work towards buying any other item in game that you NEED to play, yet when you are asked to pay isk for some vanity items you get all
bent out of shape.

CCP's expenses have also increased dramatically over the years (along with it's payroll), and EVE is no longer the only project being financed by EVE subscriptions.

One look at their financial statement shows this quite clearly... so yes, my face is straight. So are my facts.

Edit: I'm pretty sure I also don't have to point out the current state of the world economy as well now do I?

I admit I haven't read all the posts, but I can suggest a different way for people to think about Aurum.
It's basically ISK, just with the added fact that you had to first buy an item (PLEX) and then hand that item over.
A slightly more complicated process than the usual ISK-method of buying stuff, but at the end of the day, it can be viewed as just ISK (it will make your head cool down).

And as it is, at the end of the day, ship logos are nothing more but vanity - although it would kinda suck if only some players of a corporation could afford it, perhaps make it so that you buy corp logos on a corporation level (if anything).

And as far as it's concerned, if you ever make it payable on a per ship basis, please make sure the ship paint gets destroyed and appears on kill mails (monocles should too btw).

Tempting though it is to take each point you made Jade and point out where your opinion doesn't jibe with the facts, I'm not going to get drawn into that this time.

If I wish to buy any NeX items all I have to do is buy it directly with ISK (PLEX purchased with ISK converted to AURUM ). No one has been "forced" to buy from the NeX store first. Now on the secondary market your statements flirts with truth, except that nobody was "forced" to buy anything to begin with.

IAgain assumptions based on your personal prejudices. Neither WOD nor DUST were "huge mistakes". Allocation of more assets than was prudent was a mistake, as was how the release of Incarna was handled. Not the same thing, especially when you consider that DUST is alive, well, and about to hit beta testing.

IAnd while the catch phrase "double charging the player base" is handy to throw around, it is also wildly inaccurate. I have several items from the Nex store, and I have not paid a penny beyond my normal subscription.

Except people buy PLEX for $ all the time, in order to gain ISK in EVE. They've already made their choice, and don't care how their PLEX is used as long as they get ISK out of it.
No one is buying AURUM. They're buying PLEX which has multiple uses.

EVE was and IS already rife with microtransactions. Microtransactions which can be used to get better ships, better implants and better modules.

This is the main point.

Lets say the NEX didnt exist. If someone told you you could buy a decal for your ship for 700m ISK, would you buy it? While I agree the NEX sometimes seems like an unnecessary middle step, it currently is what it is. If I could rat in fountain for a few days in order to buy a couple plex and trade them for a badass alliance decal, I would.

In this we are almost aligned. Items sold in the NeX need to be closely tied to player industry, either via BPC sale or requiring player created material assets as part of the purchase price.
Of course CCP has already stated that this is the goal for how the NeX store interface is going to be developed, so we are in good company.

Activating Tippia post mode.

See, you agree.


Except they are microtransactions.


Learn to post, please!

The plan was laid out pretty clearly in the interview done during the last alliance tournament. This discussion centered around the plan to bring in ship logo's and skins, which as we know is still going full steam ahead.

Now I will grant you this, it is possible that they will choose to go a completely different path with these items. There has been no recent announcement either way (although it stands to reason that they would let public opinion soften on the issue a bit before opening this can of worms again).

However, that would likely have to include some restructuring as to how the DUST and EVE economies were going to align, and I'm really not sure if they have the flexibility to make that major a change this late in DUST's development cycle.

I'd pay aurum for a forum ban for Jade Constantine