I've been thinking about how a majority of the poor games make da moneh... and it seems to be fairly consistent. Ftp get spammed with adverts (In SS we could work on some kind of mini banner/whenever docked at a base) and players are encouraged to make micro-payments.

I'm strongly against any more micro-payment features (and I still think that things such as name-changes should ideally be free... simply allocate players an account number to prevent abuse). But shoving some adds in whenever someone docks and possibly a small banner near the top of the screen could help offset this effect and encourage people to remove that nuisance up the top of the screen.

Once again, things like item shops (and to an extent cool skins) vastly reduce the enjoyment that normal players derive from a game... don't go there.

I think advertising is really a non-starter. Especially considering the people you're talking about advertising to are the people who refuse to pay $10/mo for a game. Not exactly the ideal demographic. As an advertiser, I want to advertise to the people who *are* willing to pay for games! Also, I would only get maybe a penny per ad shown. The amount of revenue from ads would probably be far less than the amount of subs lost because SS comes off as a crappy game with ads in it.

I think a marketable "upgrade" system is a more viable route. Eventually an item shop that hosts various graphical upgrades for various ships, or if there was a way to add designs or features to a wide spectrum of ships, modularly, that would definitely be the route to go.

People LOVE to be different than everyone else, and are generally willing to pay small amounts for it. Even like just a dollar or so to add decals to your favorite ship that everyone can see.

More things we p2p have to pay extra for?? If i pay +- 27$ a month to play on my three accts, i expect to play the game to the fullest and not having to pay extra for shipforming and augresets. And especially not for different skins...

I hate item shops, I rather pay 10$ a month and never see that horrid thing in game.

Whether you hate them or not, they are an extremely lucrative business model. Also, they are completely optional; no one forces you to buy anything from an item shop.

You dont HAVE to pay for it, its merely a visible change to ships. And I for one know that this sort of thing does actually work, mainly because I've been subject to it before. Being unique is something I think everyone (at least almost everyone) desires. Finding out your absolutely the same as another person makes you annoyed and you find something else to do. My personal career path (pyrotechnics) is something I choose because I wanted to be unique.
Having an ad on another website that has something like "Customizable ships" would be very popular with people who have never seen or heard of star sonata before.
Or you could go with something like a zebucart picture in the advert and have the clickable image thing where it swaps 5 different textures (like the 3d animated chicks and clothes that I see in adverts for social games) And have it so that the first ship ppl start of with can be customizable with different skins (for free) so that people get addicted to it. Then when they get a new ship, the impulse is to make it unique.

I am aware that no one forces me to buy anything, that doesn't matter at all.
It's just that item shops leads to massive selling of item shop's good for ingame credits. Players that do those kinds of trades have massive influx of credits and rise prices for every item in game.

Just take a closer look on gPotato games, you can't buy any good gear unless
you were extremely lucky and camped for days and nights or simply took a trip to item shop, bought some fancy item that was made only for being unique feel and sell it on the market.
I don't want ss to be like that ;/

With a visual item shop, no one would be given a competitive edge over anyone else. No one could profit from visual upgrades, if there was a system that tied it to the account. It wouldn't be an item you buy, it would be basically just a reference in a database saying to use this texture on this ship type for this particular ship id.

And thats how LoL makes alot of cash on their F2P game

Except LoL also gives the option to indeed give a competitive edge over someone else.

I dont know if you noticed, but we're talking about a visual difference, aka SKINS in LoL (no competitive edge, unless you're talking about Monarch Kog'Maw, but that was changed).

Yes but I'm already paying for the game. Please reread everything then make a comment. Instead of telling me shit i already know and which im actually responding too.

They don't have to pay more for anything. It's completely optional.

It's the same scenario with name changes and aug resets, except there's no tactical advantage to a different texture for your ship. I don't see people complaining about being able to buy aug resets, yet that is a major advantage in-game.

The incentive lies in the ability to be unique, or at least a part of an elite group (The fewer people that buy skins the better, technically, since the appeal is still there for the people who want to be different. This is easily combated however by incrementally providing new textures).

Ever heard of DLC? Like it or not, it's everywhere, and plenty of people pay to access this kind of content. More and more games are beginning to offer extended DLC for an improved experience, for a small, nominal one-time fee. You can't argue with a successful optional business model that only improves the user experience.