Lower the premium fees and change the premium tech advantage.
They are steep and offer unfair advantages to the paying player. This is more than likely to ward off players. Not to mention the greedy and dishonorable image this gives you.
It's a lowtech game and adding up what people pay over the course of the years seems unjustified compared to regular games (Civilization etc.) which come with support online matches.
If properly marketed, lower fees will reap a better influx of new players who might even stay and play when they have no money IF you could think of something different than capping their tech levels.
Check out www.artificialgaming.net - they provide hacks/cheats for online games. So-called aimbots and superradars give their paying customers a great edge over their online foes.
And it reminds of your ideas of premium features.
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Anonymous commented
I think the fees are very reasonable and help fund continued development. I am happy to pay the $30 per year.
Very affordable for a year of entertainment.
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Finn Wilcox commented
IMHO the current fees are too low and not enough to fund all the necessary bug fixes
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tom n commented
I find the fees reasonable and fair. Divide the hours of playing by amount paid & it's very fair. Fees also keep away the majority of 'players' who just want to spoil games as a hobby.
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Mycroft commented
30$ a year isn't bad i think either. Especially when you start comparing to any other subscription based game.
Eventually when the game addons become available I can see allowing tech 10 for all and making all addon upgrades premium only stuff. Or maybe making tech 8-10 equipment 10-25% more expensive, for non-premium players.
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Wayne commented
I disagree, i dont think $30 for a year is much considering the advantages this is over the old 3.5
Especially considering you get one month of premium features for free to try it all out. I would much prefer this than say banner advertising on the site.
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Sylk commented
This is the system from the original VGA Planets.
IMO I agree that a Free2Play system with limited advantages for the premium user should be more effective than the old system. For instance all current premium advantages except tech limitation, with an extra premium ship for the subscriber instead.