I started a thread a couple of weeks ago about the restriction of LTI to warbond-only purchases with the 100 series concept sale. At that time there were multiple threads that were also drawing attention to the same issue and the impact it would have on sales going forward. There were several important issues raised but the main problem was that CIG was disrespecting backers by further devaluing the use of store credit by removing LTI for non-warbond concept ship purchaes. The issues were not only that CIG had broken yet another promise to the community about what would be included with concept sales, it was also that they were restricting such an essential ability to freely use store credit that backers have been relying on for years when CIG significantly changes a concept ship or releases a new ship that is markedly better at certain roles. This week CIG has doubed-down on that approach of devaluing store credit by again restricting LTI to warbond-only for the Hercules concept sale and also adding additional "extras" such as a Cylone vehicle or Nova tank with the warbond-only ships. If you add those the difference between non-warbond and warbond is massive. It's not only a 10-20% price difference like we've seen with prior warbond sales where the warbond price gave you a modest discount. Now with the highest tier Hercules concept ship it's the difference between paying $700 using store credit or paying $600 using cash and gettting LTI plus a Nova tank worth around $100 (the Nova value varies from $90-$105 value depending on whether you use the warbond or credit price, so let's call it around $100). That essentially works out to a cost of only $500 instead of $700 for the ship itself. That is 40% more cost for the ship itself when using store credit plus the warbond version includes LTI. That is such a massive difference in price and LTI incentives that it's not a question of store credit being viable to use any longer. No one is going to put in 40% more store credit value and lose LTI on such a large purchase. What CIG doesn't seem to understand is that they're destroying their own funding model with these changes. What's worse is that CIG hasn't told us anything about the reasons for the changes, most likely becuase they're based on pure greed or short-sighted cashgrabs where they think that they can do whatever they want and still get large amounts of money out of the community. The loss of LTI for non-warbond ships was completely unannounced with the 100 series concept sale. At this point CIG still hasn't spoken about the restriction of LTI to warbond-only and have added further incentives that make the effective price difference absolutely masive if you don't use new cash. CIG doesn't seem to understand that their funding model which has worked so well for them for the past 4-5 years has limits and at this point CIG has pushed far past any reasonable limit with what they are doing. I've already discussed the issue of CIG disrespecting their backers in my previous thread so at this point I'll focus on everything that's wrong with the current concept sale. The first major issue here is that CIG's "whales" are tapped out in terms of making large cash purchases. CIG needs to accept this and either look for ways to incentivize smaller purchases that are accessible to newer players or look to further incentivize those larger purchases. The type of backer who is in the market for putting another $600-700 into the game at this point is most likely going to use at least some amount of store credit. For CIG to expect those backers to shell out another $600 of new cash, sorry, it's just not going to happen for many of those backers after 4-5 years of development where we don't even have a viable working flight model. CIG can't keep selling overpriced ships without showing meaningful gameplay to go with them at this stage. They are going in absolutely the wrong direction by trying to force backers who have already collectivley helped to get them to over $184 million USD of funding to put in another $600 of new cash at this point. Instead of getting, maybe, $200-300 new cash plus store credit use they're getting $0 new cash. They are making it a binary choice between $600 new cash or $0 new cash and for many backers this means CIG is getting $0. That is a major way that CIG is destroying their own funding model. Second, it looks very bad from a PR perspective. It makes CIG either look greedy or desperate and neither of those is a good option. If they're greedy, then they've completely lost sight of the type of game CR is trying to make and they don't deserve our further financial support. If they're desperate, then they've badly mismanaged the $184 million USD we've already given them and the game is not likely to be finished which means they again don't deserve our further finanical support. Either way they have to address the issue becuase no matter how you spin it they end up looking greedy or desperate and their silence is simply making it our choice how we view them. That is going to have a major impact on their funding model. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they are losing massive amounts of goodwill and respect among their older backers and that is going to massively hurt the game going forward. CIG is still at least 2-3 years, possibly more, from producing an actual playable beta much less a full launch for SC and they are quite simply not going to attract new players without community support. Anyone trying the game out right now is going to leave almost immediately due to abysmal alpha performance and stability issues. Without those older backers here to promote the game CIG is not going to attract and retain those potential players simply on the basis of what they have produced so far in terms of game content. The most amusing part about the Hercules is that they're selling a ship that is difficult to justify at a price of $500 (warbond value after subtracting Nova tank cost), much less $700 using store credit. They are charging massively inflated prices for a ship that offers a far more limited scope of gameplay compared to a $650 Hammerhead or $750 Polaris. If anything they need the commuinty to help them sell this ship. What they don't need is to destroy their funding model and disrespect their backers at the same time and they have manged to accompish both of these with the Hercules concept sale.