Make the free 30 day subscription after a steam purchase start once the first spawn was placed



  • As it is right now, the free 30 day subscription players get once they've purchased the game on steam starts right at the moment when they connect to the server - which is, in my opinion, rather unfair.

    The tutorial takes about 1 hour and afterwards, most people don't want to spawn directly on the server and would rather spend some time in sim, whilst trying to understand and learn the API or wait for some new novice area to appear.

    This makes people waste their subscription time and causes a lot of confusion, as there is no warning that your subscription will start when you hit that fat, juicy connect button in the client and the clock just starts ticking all of a sudden. The option that sim can be accessed for free in the browser is also nowhere mentioned (neither on the steam store page nor in the client).

    So, how about letting the subscription time instead start once a player places his or her spawn on any of the official shards for the first time? And maybe also display a warning if they are sure if they want to really do it.

    👍


  • I absolutly agree. Same happend to me, if i knew it would start i had bought it later, so i wasted most of it (cause that 10 CPU too would have been enough for the first time...)



  • Yeah, another option would be to allow the player to manually activate that free subscription, just as one would do with subscription tokens, as most people don't need more than 10 CPU for the first few days or even weeks.

    👍

  • Dev Team

    We are currently revamping the login screen so that the Tutorial can be accessed without signing into the game.



  • Honestly we should just be able to turn our subscription on or off as desired, even while time is remaining. This way I could take a break and come back with subscription still active.

    🙌


  • Yeah I bought the game and lost my full 30 day subscription since I first played the game on a private server to get familiar with the basics. It is pretty annoying as nothing told me that the subscription start. My assumption was that when I upload code or place something on the server that my subscription starts.

    This is extremely annoying especially since that subscription is advertised as part of your payment!



  • @artch said in Make the free 30 day subscription after a steam purchase start once the first spawn was placed:

    We are currently revamping the login screen so that the Tutorial can be accessed without signing into the game.

    That will definitely help, but as long as players aren't able to look at the world view without starting their subscription (and without it being mentioned anywhere) it won't be enough to stop misunderstandings (just as with @fkrauthan) to happen.

    another option would be to allow the player to manually activate that free subscription, just as one would do with subscription tokens, as most people don't need more than 10 CPU for the first few days or even weeks.

    Any opinions on that idea?


  • Dev Team

    @jacudibu

    That will definitely help, but as long as players aren't able to look at the world view without starting their subscription (and without it being mentioned anywhere) it won't be enough to stop misunderstandings (just as with @fkrauthan) to happen.

    In the new design it will be explicilty mentioned in the registration form.

    another option would be to allow the player to manually activate that free subscription, just as one would do with subscription tokens, as most people don't need more than 10 CPU for the first few days or even weeks.

    There are business reasons not to allow that. If we do, the free period then would become something like 10 days, not 30. Everything has its price.

    Honestly we should just be able to turn our subscription on or off as desired, even while time is remaining. This way I could take a break and come back with subscription still active.

    Unfortunately, this is technically not possible.

    👍


  • What if the steam purchase cost was lowered, but did not include a subscription?



  • @artch I agree with the other people here that just looking at the worldmap should not start my CPU subscription (regardless of trail or bought in addition). Especially not without warning me.

    Like I said before I bought this game and lost my full trail subscription because I wasn't even aware that my subscription started until I got the warning that my subscription is about to end!