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[VisceralBowl]

AC4 had microtransactions!? This is news to me. I 100% Synced that game and didn't see them once.

 

[LiK]

AC4 had microtransactions!? This is news to me. I 100%ed that game and didn't see them once.

it's in the main menu but none of it was needed. just cargo, ship upgrade materials crap etc.

 

[SteamyPunk]

Does the game industry not see the inherent danger in trying to sell games for $60 and then charging extra to people who don't want to have to play that game...?

 

[Owwari]

Wanna prove it? Post proof that you played the final game and it affected your game. ACIV had microtransactions and I 100%'d the game just fine without spending any money besides for the copy of my game.

AC4 had microtransactions!? This is news to me. I 100% Synced that game and didn't see them once.

See, Hah! You guys didn't know that the game had an unlockable 110% completion option?
You should be mad about this after all, poor souls!

 

[Mass Effect]

I don't mind these kinds of "shortcut kits" much.
If anyone wants to buy their way to less playtime, that's fine by me.

I agree with you in theory, but...

Super slow unlock system confirmed.

this is a potential issue, which I wouldn't be surprised to see happen. It happened with Battlefield.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I agree with you in theory, but...



this is a potential issue, which I wouldn't be surprised to see happen. It happened with Battlefield.

Yes it happened with battlefield. But here's a few examples of games where they had very natural progression.
-DS3
-AC3
-AC4
-Child of Light
-Ryse
^ Three of these are Ubisoft games. So we have three different instances from the company people are complaining about in which the microtransactions didn't hinder the game in anyway shape or form.

 

[Gaz_RB]

AC4 had microtransactions!? This is news to me. I 100% Synced that game and didn't see them once.

Yeah I didn't know that either. At least we can applaud ubi for not shoving it in our faces.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Super slow unlock system confirmed.

This...


There's no way they haven't min-max'd this in order to "encourage" people to buy as opposed to grind.

 

[Crossing Eden]

This...


There's no way they haven't min-max'd this in order to "encourage" people to buy as opposed to grind.

Despite three instances where we've seen that it doesn't affect the game in anyway? Did you play AC4?

 

[Nuke Soda]

Should have a microtransaction that beats the game for you so you don't have to play it at all. Pay a bunch of money on a game then pay a little more for it to be beat for you and never touch.

 

[BFIB]

"AC: Unity will bring an unparalleled level of realism. Throw your real money as a microtransaction in the game to distract the guards."

F off Ubi.

 

[KinoTheMystic]

I'll buy a "skip credits" option if that's at all possible.

yes please, Ubisoft credits are like 30 minutes long because they list all the damn languages

 

[Crossing Eden]

"AC: Unity will bring an unparalleled level of realism. Throw your real money as a microtransaction in the game to distract the guards."

F off Ubi.

You're completely exaggerating how much microtransactions affect AC games.

 

[BFIB]

You're completely exaggerating how much microtransactions affect AC games.

Or I'm predicting the future!

 

[Josman]

Developers competing to find innovative ways to add microtransactions, I wonder what the future holds for us.

I blame every customer who falls for them.

 

[JinjoUnchained]

What restrictive review embargoes are you talking about? And also, did you play AC4? If so, where were the microtransactions?

Nope, I haven't played AC4 yet, no one has time to play everything and I don't care for the series. Most people in this thread seem to think that the AC4 microtransactions didn't break game balance, so that would be fine if true. OTOH you have the GT 6 and Forza microtransaction fiascoes from the same year as AC4. So it goes both ways.

My point was that we shouldn't pre-order any game with microtransactions unless the publisher demonstrates how they work ahead of time. Unless they do that, you don't know if the microtransactions are harmless or if they're going to screw you over. I only bring up review embargoes because early reviews, in theory, could give you a head's up about how the microtransactions work. IIRC, Mario Kart 8 reviews were released 3 weeks before launch. Hence, I had no problem pre-ordering that game.

 

[mclem]

The reason this IS an issue, apart from being an obnoxious business practice in of itself, is that the game will naturally be balanced in such a way as to make spending money more desirable than progressing naturally, thereby leading to a worse game.

Unless this is markedly worse than the implementations in the previous games, I don't feel it has got to that stage yet

 

[Crossing Eden]

Or I'm predicting the future!

By assuming the worst based off of spreading misinformation?

Nope, I haven't played AC4 yet, no one has time to play everything and I don't care for the series. Most people in this thread seem to think that the AC4 microtransactions didn't break game balance, so that would be fine if true. OTOH you have the GT 6 and Forza microtransaction fiascoes from the same year as AC4. So it goes both ways.

My point was that we shouldn't pre-order any game with microtransactions unless the publisher demonstrates how they work ahead of time. Unless they do that, you don't know if the microtransactions are harmless or if they're going to screw you over. I only bring up review embargoes because early reviews, in theory, could give you a head's up about how the microtransactions work. IIRC, Mario Kart 8 reviews were released 3 weeks before launch. Hence, I had no problem pre-ordering that game.

They didn't demonstrate how microtransaction work in AC3 or AC4. Because gamers are fickle and just the concept will lead to misinformation/knee-jerk reactions. We shouldn't get angry at every instance of microtransactions in the face of compelling evidence that they won't affect an installment in a series that has had them for three years. I don't think we'll get live demonstrations of how microtransactions will work in SP games. In multiplayer centric games like Garden Warfare, Forza, GT, B4 there is reason to worry. Not in SP centric games like AC3, AC4, Child of Light, and finally Unity.

 

[SamuelSupreme]

That says to me the journey to unlock shit is an obstacle and not a natural progression of playing the game. Is a chore and isn't a fun process.

Watch as no big time publication acknowledge this in their reviews but all the user reviews will point it out clear as day

 

[Nipo]

So is the new industry model going to be make a game with 10-15 hours of really dull grinds so you spend $5-10 to skip it?

 

[Crossing Eden]

That says to me the journey to unlock shit is an obstacle and not a natural progression of playing the game. Is a chore and isn't a fun process.

Watch as no big time publication acknowledge this in their reviews but all the user reviews will point it out clear as day

So is the new industry model going to be make a game with 10-15 hours of really dull grinds so you spend $5-10 to skip it?

Quite tired of having to repeat myself to people who evidently haven't played the last AC game.

 

[@Wreck]

AC4 had microtransactions!? This is news to me. I 100% Synced that game and didn't see them once.

yah me too in progress

lots of fun

 

[matrixman92]

I got the plat in ac4 in like a week. I didn't buy anything

 

[Tagg9]

They had the same thing in AC4 and it wasn't obtrusive at all. I don't see a problem with this as an option.

 

[mclem]

My point was that we shouldn't pre-order any game with microtransactions unless the publisher demonstrates how they work ahead of time. Unless they do that, you don't know if the microtransactions are harmless or if they're going to screw you over.

I seem to have a somewhat different philosophy than some.

I don't think 'demonstrating how they work' is what's needed - I think the pertinent information is kind of the exact opposite - how the game is paced if you never touch microtransactions.

That is, I ignore microtransactions completely. If a game is poorly-paced, it is a poorly-paced game, and should be criticised for that. I don't think the reasons for the game being poorly-paced are particularly important.

I'll consider microtransactions on top of a vanilla product, but any appraisal or criticism of it would concern the vanilla product alone.

The fact that some people who have *finished* AC4 were not even aware that there were microtransactions suggests that the vanilla product did meet their needs.

 

[NullPointer]

Quite tired of having to repeat myself to people who evidently haven't played the last AC game.

I did play AC4, as I've posted above, and absolutely loved it until it devolved into a grind. Never finished it.

Why should I think Unity will be any better since there is a direct monetary incentive to keeping it grindy?

 

[LiK]

I did play AC4, as I've posted above, and absolutely loved it until it devolved into a grind. Never finished it.

Why should I think Unity will be any better?

i beat ACIV without a lot of upgrades. Uplay wasnt working for me during launch cuz of the friend list bug. you can do it. well worth it.

 

[PrimaNocta]

Cool by me, I never buy it. If someone wants to spend less time on the game and speed things up a bit, go right ahead. I do miss actual cheat codes though.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I did play AC4, as I've posted above, and absolutely loved it until it devolved into a grind. Never finished it.

Why should I think Unity will be any better since there is a direct monetary incentive to keeping it grindy?

You're one guy compared to multiple people saying that it was not grindy and quite easy to platinum/100%. Define devolving into a grind. It's certainly not grindy to the point that you need microtransactions to actually complete the game.

 

[NullPointer]

i beat ACIV without a lot of upgrades. Uplay wasnt working for me during launch cuz of the friend list bug. you can do it. well worth it.

I stopped playing after hitting the second story mission that I personally couldn't start without further upgrading my ship. Its a mission shortly after you get the diving bell.

By that point I had easily put in a ton of hours into the game and must have sank and plundered countless ships. But again, I didn't have enough upgrades so I had to ignore the story and assassin missions that I wanted to do in order to grind ship battles.

That wore me down and I ended up quitting the game because of a lack of ship resources needed for that mandatory upgrade.

So yeah, I don't look to these microtransaction schemes favorably - and in this case very specifically because of my experience with AC4.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I stopped playing after hitting the second story mission that I personally couldn't start without further upgrading my ship. Its a mission shortly after you get the diving bell.

By that point I had easily put in a ton of hours into the game and must have sank and plundered countless ships. But again, I didn't have enough upgrades so I had to ignore the story and assassin missions that I wanted to do in order to grind ship battles.

That wore me down and I ended up quitting the game because of a lack of ship resources needed for that mandatory upgrade.

So yeah, I don't look to these microtransaction schemes favorably - and in this case very specifically because of my experience with AC4.

Yea this is basically the complete opposite of what happened to me. You get that notification if you don't upgrade your ship. It doesn't mean that you can't complete the mission. It means that you will have a hard time completing the mission. What were you spending all the in-game money on if not upgrading your ship? To the point of getting that notification about increased mission difficulty twice?

 

[NullPointer]

Yea this is basically the complete opposite of what happened to me. You get that notification if you don't upgrade your ship. It doesn't mean that you can't complete the mission. What were you spending all the in-game money on if not upgrading your ship? To the point of getting that notification about increased mission difficulty twice?

I used money on some swords and guns, and yeah, even ship upgrades - just not to the extent the game wanted me to I guess. The message doesn't state the exact upgrades you need, nor does it tell you that you should dedicate so much time and money to upgrade it (as opposed to your own personal gear and upgrades to shops or your home) - until you hit a wall with a mission.

Now, could the game have been made grindy in order to push a certain percentage of players towards microtransactions like the resource pack add-on? Sure. In fact I'd think it naive to assume otherwise.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I used money on some swords and guns, and yeah, even ship upgrades - just not to the extent the game wanted me to I guess. The message doesn't state the exact upgrades you need, nor does it tell you that you should dedicate so much time and money to upgrade it (as opposed to your own personal gear and upgrades to shops or your home) - until you hit a wall with a mission.

Now, could the game have been made grindy in order to push a certain percentage of players towards microtransactions like the resource pack add-on? Sure. In fact I'd think it naive to assume otherwise.

The ship is the definite priority when it comes to money spending compared to edward and especially his home base. So you spent tons of money on things other than the ship so you assume that the game is grindy. The game is not grindy, you just kinda screwed yourself over when it comes to resource allocation and had a weaker ship than the game would've liked. You can still complete missions with a weaker ship you're just gonna have a harder time doing so. Like I and others have said, the game has an extremely natural progression system. I guess in your case we should add "unless you spend your money on tons of things other than the ship, especially the base." You can almost fully upgrade the ship before getting your home base. The only things that you can't unlock extremely early in the game would be the things that you can only get through story missions, like the diving bell. And I think you're massively overestimating how useful the resources pack is.

 

[NullPointer]

The ship is the definite priority when it comes to money spending compared to edward and especially his home base. So you spent tons of money on things other than the ship so you assume that the game is grindy.

Money wasn't my ultimate limit - as I said in my earlier post, it was a lack of wood and steel - which you need for the big ship upgrades.

And this is the only AC game where I "screwed myself over on resource allocation". Funny how that works.

 

[Shock_Wave]

Sigh... the first AC game that hyped me a lot since a long time and then this bullshit.
I hate supporting games with this "thing".

 

[Crossing Eden]

Money wasn't my ultimate limit - as I said in my earlier post, it was a lack of wood and steel - which you need for the big ship upgrades.

And this is the only AC game where I "screwed myself over on resource allocation". Funny how that works.

And funny how your specific situation is evidently an extremely rare case compared to multiple accounts saying otherwise. It would probably be much more common, especially from reviews if the game was made to be grindy and specifically for monetary gain, like PvZ or BF4. Wood and steel are both things that are extremely easy to get. There are specific areas where you can get easy wood and metal. And ways to substantially increase the wood and metal you get, like boarding ships instead of outright sinking them. Plus the cargo storage upgrade which leads to way easier resource allocation. Not to mention increasing your wanted level and completely wrecking pirate hunter ships.

 

[NullPointer]

And funny how your specific situation is evidently an extremely rare case compared to multiple accounts saying otherwise.

I never said I was the average case - just speaking up for my personal experience, and bringing it up with you in particular since you really seemed tired of talking to people who hadn't played AC4.

And really, all grinds are easy if you dedicate the time. I didn't quit playing because the game was too difficult, I quit playing because I felt the game was needlessly wasting my time and putting up barriers to play in order to push resource gathering or that Kenway Fleet mini-meta-game.

 

[Exploratory]

Boooooooooooooooooooooo Ubisoft BOOOOOOOOO

Why do people keep putting microtransactions like this in my $60 dollar game?

Because cash rules everything around me.

 

[Creaking]

So long as it doesn't take a ridiculous amount of time to unlock them normally, this is fine.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I never said I was the average case - just speaking up for my personal experience, and bringing it up with you in particular since you really seemed tired of talking to people who hadn't played AC4.

And really, all grinds are easy if you dedicate the time. I didn't quit playing because the game was too difficult, I quit playing because I felt the game was needlessly wasting my time and putting up barriers to play in order to push resource gathering or that Kenway Fleet mini-meta-game.

But that's the thing, you're confusing natural game progression with actual grinding. The "grinding" isn't a huge time waster or a large effort. It's natural, fluid, and unobtrusive. Plus, you seem to have actively avoided aspects that make the game way easier. Like the kenway's fleet minigame, which is quite fun btw. And they're not barriers. The game requires you to level up, like in an rpg, if you don't level up in an rpg you will have trouble completing the game.

 

[DOWN]

Pay to play less of the game you paid for?

 

[VibratingDonkey]

Microtransactions can't help, only potentially hurt. Hence they should go to hell and die.

What's been done by Ubisoft in the past can be an indicator, but ultimately you never know until the game's been out a while. If you're concerned, wait for user impressions. You'll need to do this with all future Ubisoft games, I expect.

 

[licktheenvelope]

AC4 had microtransactions!? This is news to me. I 100% Synced that game and didn't see them once.

Yup they actually put them out of the way a bit.

I don't mind the microtransactions for things like this. People are semi-right in saying it's paying to cheat... but we used to buy things like Game Shark/Game Genie etc. Paying to cheat.

I wouldn't use but what ever if someone wants to skip parts by paying I don't care just so long as the game isn't gimped to make it hard, but AC games are easy... so...

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

But that's the thing, you're confusing natural game progression with actual grinding. The "grinding" isn't a huge time waster or a large effort. It's natural, fluid, and unobtrusive. Plus, you seem to have actively avoided aspects that make the game way easier. Like the kenway's fleet minigame, which is quite fun btw. And they're not barriers. The game requires you to level up, like in an rpg, if you don't level up in an rpg you will have trouble completing the game.

The multiplayer in Assassin's Creed is really, really grindy though. What concerns me is Unity is supposed to neatly integrate multiplayer experience to the single player. And thus the MP customization-microtransaction system could bleed through.

 

[block tower]

it really boggles my mind as to who would buy a $60 game and then choose to spend more money to beat it "faster". like why buy the game if you don't have enough time to play it, or why buy the game only to spend your way through level progression. i really don't understand who these people are who game and spend money on microstransactions. i would call myself a casual gamer and have never considered wasting money on this type of shit.

 

[Gaz_RB]

Because cash rules everything around me.

dollar dollar bill y'all

 

[NullPointer]

But that's the thing, you're confusing natural game progression with actual grinding.

I really don't think so, and the balance of that progression will vary for different players, and depend upon whether you prefer more land action missions to open sea missions. I've been gaming for more than 30 years now, and have played countless titles and all of the AC games, even though my enjoyment started to crater around AC3. I know my way around progression systems and grinds just fine.

AC4 isn't the worst with its grinds or microtransactions by any stretch of the imagination, but it was grindy enough to get me to drop a game I was otherwise really enjoying. More microtransactions just means we should expect more grinds from this series.

 

[Crossing Eden]

The multiplayer in Assassin's Creed is really, really grindy though. What concerns me is Unity is supposed to neatly integrate multiplayer experience to the single player. And thus the MP customization-microtransaction system could bleed through.

It get grindy once you get passed level 50. And the multiplayer in Unity is just the SP. There's no difference between the progression of either.

I really don't think so, and the balance of that progression will vary for different players, and depend upon whether you prefer more land action missions to open sea missions. I've been gaming for more than 30 years now, and have played countless titles and all of the AC games, even though my enjoyment started to crater around AC3. I know my way around progression systems and grinds just fine.

AC4 isn't the worst with its grinds or microtransactions by any stretch of the imagination, but it was grindy enough to get me to drop a game I was otherwise really enjoying. More microtransactions just means we should expect more grinds from this series.

It's not grindy though. It's super natural progression. There would be major complaints among the fanbase if the "grinding" was so bad that it's rage inducing.

 

[NullPointer]

It's not grindy though. It's super natural progression. There would be major complaints among the fanbase if the "grinding" was so bad that it's rage inducing.

I didn't rage from AC4, I got bored of doing the same ship combat and boarding again and again and again and again and again. As for super natural progression:

Upgrading the Jackdaw in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is a long and sometimes arduous process. Not only do you need a lot of money, but in many cases you need a large amount of metal, something that is considered rare in the game world of Black Flag. Not only that, but to get some of the final upgrades, you need to find various items throughout the game. With all of this between you and a full-power Jackdaw, it's important to know what takes priority, and what will give you the best bang for your buck.

(link)

Maximizing weapon upgrades costs 274,000 cash, 2,500 wood, and 4,905 metal. Getting the most storage costs 32,100 cash and 400 cloth. Finally, harpoon upgrades cost 9,400 cash and 250 wood. In total, it costs 315,500 cash, 2,750 wood, 4,905 metal, and 400 cloth.

Whatever you do, you will have to board a lot of ships to get Jackdaw maxed out. Even if you board a Man-Of-War, it will have 105 of a single item at most, and those have the most cargo of all ships. It would take 50 Man-Of-Wars to get enough metal alone.

(link)

I don't doubt that there are plenty of players who felt no grind because attacking and boarding ships didn't get old for them. It started to get old for me after a dozen or so, which was long enough to go through the same motions and cut-scenes several times over, and by the second dozen I wondered how much more of this I was going to *need* to do. Turns out I needed a whole hell of a lot more.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I didn't rage from AC4, I got bored of doing the same ship combat and boarding again and again and again and again and again. As for super natural progression:


(link)


(link)

I don't doubt that there are plenty of players who felt no grind because attacking and boarding ships didn't get old for them. It started to get old for me after a dozen or so, which was long enough to go through the same motions and cut-scenes several times over, and by the second dozen I wondered how much more of this I was going to *need* to do. Turns out I needed a whole hell of a lot more.

The game is 40 hours long. There is a ton of content that rewards you and makes things easier for you. However that doesn't you getting bored=the game is a grind and requires microtransactions to complete or else it's a long boring game. Not to mention this tidbit from the first link.
With all of this between you and a full-power Jackdaw, it's important to know what takes priority, and what will give you the best bang for your buck.