REC should rain down on us like dollar bills on strippers!

[DarthMunkee]

Okay, so they make it rain. You find you really, really like the Sabre and rent it, and then earn a butt-tonne of REC with it. So you keep renting it. And then you just keep renting it. Where is the intensive to pledge for this ship? Where is the intensive to try (test) anything else?

The incentive would come when they take away the magical REC rain when the Alpha period ends and it goes to a more normal way of earning it. The only way something like this would work is if it is just limited to during the Alpha period. Then once Beta comes along and you aren't getting credits hand over fist you will know better what you would want to buy.

Edit: And as far as testing other ships goes, curiosity. Maybe?

 

[Thalstan]

Yes, you can do a lot of things to make it easier to test ships and weapons.

Logging in for REC, earning REC AND aUEC (or a unified currency) for just playing in game and a few other the of the suggestions Let people "buy" ships or even just weapons in game. Yes, you will lose them each major patch and even some minor patches, but it will allow you to test thing very easily..even the rigorous testing described above. Obviously though, this may reduce subscriptions...that's ok, make the subscribers benefit different...one that people will want...like maybe an "upgrade to LTI token" where you can upgrade one ship to LTI for a full year's subscription at the basic subscription and 2 at the higher pricepoint. Have multi-year awards for those that stay on like other games (like a hornet or Connie Taurus for 3 or 4 year subscribers)

Someone will say "you lose incentive to buy the ships" Actually no. This will help people figure out the ships they will want to buy prior to launch. It will also let people who bought something like...a Freelancer, Hornet, or a Connie as their pledge ship test out ships like the Aurora or Mustang. Another thing is people will be willing to test ALL variations of a particular ship. Look at the ships like the Aurora ES, LX, MR, CL, LN. Five different packages...why would someone test all of them if it takes so much effort to earn the REC to test them for the week? This would also allow you to easily test them back to back

You could also do testing weeks/days. One week a month, everyone gets to try out everything. Or maybe 2 weekends a month. Thing is, limiting access to major game components/features in an ALPHA just means your alpha doesn't get tested as thoroughly as it could be.

PS
For those that insist that this would drive down ship sales, make it so that you can only get access to ships that are the same cost or lower as the most costly ship you currently own (or the amount spent on your account)...so someone who owns a Sabre could fly everything that costs the same as a Sabre or lower, but nothing higher, but someone who owns a Javelin could test everything.