Once Human

As mentioned, resets in a primarily PvP game like Rust or Tarkov make sense because you keep a level PvP playing field

it makes less sense if the majority of players are pvers or casual. I’d be curious what the actual breakdown of player population is in terms of PvP vs PvE. When Fallout 76 came out, Bethesda assumed there would be a heavy PvP population. When they realized that wasn’t the case, they made a hard pivot to do more to support the pve side of things

If it ends up they have way more pve than PvP, then if the devs are smart they will do more to retain those players. I mostly play fallout 76 for the FOMO base items at this point - I have everything id want from a player power perspective, but I’m always down to get new stuff to put in my base

A "new map" will be easier than you think. Outside the areas surrounded some of the monoliths and the towns hubs, virtually all of the POI are repeated assets. There is also that large section of the map we haven't been able to visit (the ice area and the section with the giant tree). Season 2 they'll probably just move to that section, plop down most of the existing POI assets, add a handful of unique POI, add some more unvoiced simple quests, and voila you've got a new map.

This game is incredible for free to play and it has absolutely zero PTW. It's actually kind of crazy.

I almost feel bad I haven't given them a cent. Almost.

I bought the patio set thing with the fire pit and season pass - I've got like 90 hours in the game, tossing $25 their way is a bargain lol

I’ll give them some coin at some point. The only thing I’ve seen with any functionality is the camp upgrade that lets you disassemble. I’m not big on cosmetics.

I think the real test of the games longevity will be when it starts a new season. I'm not even sure if they know how they will truly implement it yet, and it's only a few weeks out if they keep the 6 week schedule.

Cohhcarnage recently had a talk with the devs, had to have a translator for it too, where the end conclusion was basically that they knew that the faster paced seasons would filter out some players and it seems like they are focusing on the more hardcore crowd so to speak, not the casuals who have limited amount of playtime.

So how that will translate to earnings for the game over time is .... questionable? You focus on hardcore. They consume content fast. Can you keep up with making "new" content every 6 weeks to satisfy a hardcore audience? The hardcore players hit the cap on the phases 1-2 days after they were released. What will a new season deliver? They're going to have 8 seasons per year?

And how will they be able to monetize it over time? As others have mentioned here, it's a very well done free to play system, not pay to win, but you can easily consume what is there without making any purchase. Take Path of Exile as an example, it's free to play, but how long did you play it without spending at least some money on the tabs? Once Human has none of that. Some here have spent money because they felt it was deserved of the game, not because it gave any real benefit at all in the game.

It's certainly not a bad game, but as a live service game that needs constant updates and servers up, I'm not sure if the monetization is there to keep up development costs. Especially if they purposefully plan to cater to non-casuals and limit their customers to such a degree.

That is a bad model then - casuals tend to focus more on building bases and things like that, which means they are more likely to spend money on base cosmetics. Hardcore players eventually burn themselves out, especially if there isn't sufficient content drip. I think part of the problem is they are applying the Chinese game market mentality to the western market and thinking the game population will be pvp centric, whale heavy, and shitloads of grinding.

You can look at the server listings and there is literally 3x as many PVE servers as PVP. If they think these players are all going to jump over to PVP start season 2, they are going to be in for a surprise. Clearly the majority of the playerbase is PVE - I see a game population that has more in common with Fallout 76 than Rust. On my server I see lots of cooperation and helping people out, heavy focus on base building, people killing world bosses, etc.

That being said, the devs did send out a survey to players a few days ago that was focused on the seasonal wipe. So to me that says they are trying to get a feel for what the responding game population tells them. I ranked Rust the worst of all the seasonal games when one question prompted it because that model only works for PVP and runs counter to most PVE play styles.

They slipped in a stealth nerf - reload speed is now capped at 100, which fucked a lot of fast gunner and shotty builds

What's this shit, you have to run through the tutorial again?

Kinda sucks the next PVE scenario wont be out until Oct (the "hard" servers they are using as a stop gap just make you eat/drink more and enemies are bullet sponges, meh). Doesnt sound like much reward either - the seasonal goals give 20% more starcrom, but thats it

Love the building in this game, though