Why not 5/5/5/5? Quite the bargain for 1/10th the cost of the normal game.
What about other restrictions besides license limits? Perhaps Lite accounts shouldn't be included in the Duel ladder or race stats? It's tough to figure out where to draw the line.

if it gets more players, then do it

Splitting tiers according to device type is out of the question, as Inc argued very reasonably. That proposition would also mean that you would not be able to access the same account from different devices anymore. Sorry, but... bollocks.

I like the 4/4/4/4/4 caps, you get decent ships, but you *don't* get a moth, so grinding standing isn't really an "option"

I agree, I was thinking 4's as well

I revise my suggestion, 8/8/8/8/8 and a blanket 1+ or even 2+ increase to all existing items and ships. Because the 4/4/4/4/4 is not high enough for people to follow the progression dynamic, it's over before it really ever begins.

So, more grind for the rest of us? 4's are fine: they get around half the items that way.

how is it more grind for the rest of us? we all have accounts with levels at least 10 and it only takes a few hours to get an account up to 10/10/10 if you know what you're doing which we all do. VO is not built optimally to support a blanket restriction like this, it stands to reason that you might have to do a tweak to the existing items to get the desired effect.

Forget Lite, level limitations etc ...

If I can suggest a different tack, the way I see it the whole point of the Lite subscription is to take $ from those who don't want to commit to $10 a month. So, I suggest that after the 8 hour trial, dock them at the nearest logical station and restrict them to that sector until they pay $1.00 for a galactic travel pass (basically give them another X hours).

The logic is that once I invest 8 hours in my character I wont think much of paying only $1 for continuing to play. And once I invest even more time I will want to keep paying because I do not want to lose my investment ... leading to a monthly subscription cause it ends up cheaper.

The main issue is the psychological barrier people put up when you ask them to 'commit' to a monthly fee. This way you can siphon cash from them a $1 at a time - which in some cases might actually bring in more than the $10 per month.

It's the same mentality as pushing coins into pinball machines.

What do you mean, how is it more grind? License level 12 for a skyprom? Do you remember how long it took you to get 10? Killing thousands of bots is not a fun part of the game. New players complain about the license grind already. Making it worse is the wrong approach.

Why do you think players that pay $1 a month should get access to nearly all the game?

Because that's the market value of the product. Because they will have to grind at lower license levels anyway to get money or drops or battle experience and they won't want to do that if there's no ships or anything to aim for and they'll realise very quickly that there's no value at all in the $1 sub. That's the risk.

Skyproms and Valks are way too easy to get. You should have to do a tour of duty in Deneb before you're allowed to buy proms or valks to cruise around with in greyspace. They are high end ships it's completely reasonable that you should only get them after a while. As for everything else the license levels could use a tweak up anyway.

Time limit of play per day, week, AND month. Some people will buy in for $1, and play a little, and you should be happy to collect their dollar. But if they play 4 hours in the first sitting, go for the kill! If they play x hours per week or month, go for the kill! Once they are hooked, do not hesitate. Cut them off, make them jones a little, give them another taste, and then make them jones some more. Go for the kill!

Station free storage limits. Currently full price paying players pay in game credits for station storage over a specific amount. Lite payers could have less station free storage, and pay more in game credits for over limit storage.

Lite customers have to pay a %50 bounty tax on all bounties collected.
Higher cost to become a bounty hunter.
Ship color locked to native faction color.
Lite customers can not choose their own character name. They can only choose from randomly generated names. (And/or incrementally assigned Enumerations?)

Micro transactions:
20k xp for 19.95, distributed across any/all licenses.
%20 reduction of negative faction standing for 19.95 (i.e. -1000 to -600, 0 to 100, 900 to 910, or 990 to 991.
Double station free storage limit 19.95
Rename a character 9.95
Change a character's faction 9.95

Edited. Level and standing penalties removed.

Sounds good to me. Give them base-level posis, neuts, and ice flares as unlockable microtxns, too. If they want to dodge the pay-to-win thing, they can subscribe for real.

Not that pay-to-win matters when you're playing VO on a fucking phone, because Mystic's cat on a keyboard will beat you 99 times out of 100 even if you've bought a bunch of unlockables.

License restrictions: My spreadsheet tells me that (after I've drawn rather arbitrary lines of what newbies should and should not be able to get, make the game enjoyable while leaving enough incentive to fully sub) the ideal license restrictions are 5/4/3/3/4.
This is enough to buy Geminis, the Plasma Dev, heavycells, the Vult 4, Atlas 2 and the basic Rag but excludes flares, AGT, swarms, Taurs, the Atlas 3 and TPG-X, Moths, Hounds, Gauss 2 and FC powercells.
The Neutron Blaster MkII and Mk III should however have a seperate restriction.

Guilds: ARF's proposal of not allowing Lite subscribers to found guilds or hold council, lieutenant or commander positions in them seems reasonable. Completely excluding them seems harsh.

Chat: No way. Keep chat open.

Faction Standing: If possible, there should be a limit on faction standings (excluding the home nation of course). That would allow players to get acces to a "special" ship of their home nation (WTD, IBG, SVG at 5/4/3/3/4) while limiting access to Corvults, RevCs, AAPs etc. as well as for instance swarms and ships with a "Corvus discount".

Play Time: I don't think so. They pay, they are restricted to a limited gameplay experience. Let them play as long as they like, they will want to have Taurs, Moths, Tridents, Gauss and Neut2s.

Special Features: I like slime's suggestion of excluding them from the duel ladder and the race stats. DE's "minus-levels" and "minus-badges" are a bit too much. That would mean... what. After the trial you get licenses taken away? No.
And not being able to choose your own name is going to discourage you from keeping your character in a full sub.

Question to Inc: How do you envisage the process of "downgrading" from a full subscription to a SubLite? What happens, say, to your Proms, Valks, AGTs, guild council seat etc.?

Discuss!

+1 Andy

cutting them off from fast charge means they will never be great pirates without UC/HFC.

Cutting them off from N2 and better energy, while at the same time cutting them off from jacks/sunflares, means they will never compete against vets in pvp. 4/4/4/4/- makes a deadly pvp character in the right hands (you can live without sunflares if you can get jacks), and as long as they are locked out of moths, they will always be second class traders.

I kind of like Andy's layout so far. I think the idea of chat restriction though was to keep dozens of people from disturbing the full subscribers. Which makes sense to me, not sure if it makes the game less marketable though. How many people even chat from an android device? I hate texting my touch screen android phone as it is, I can't imagine wanting to chat and play vo at the same time.

DE: They are not supposed to be content with what they get. They want to compete with fully subbed players... well, they should become fully subbed players themselves. There needs to be an incentive to get the full deal.
Why should they be able to be kick-ass pirates but only half-decent traders? I suspect it's because you want to get the most out of this for yourself. Please prove me wrong.

Mecha: The Lite subscribers play the game like everyone else, might trade with players etc. They might be people like me, who suddenly can't afford the full sub for a month and "go Lite" until the next full sub - why should they "disturb" fully subbed players? Additionally, there's always "/ignore" and "/vote mute".

Interesting feedback. You guys are a lot more generous than I was thinking, in terms of available content for the tier, I was operating on a much lower threshold even down in the 3s, where people could really just get a taste of the basics and then see the value in upgrading to a full account (or perhaps purchase extras with microtransactions). I wasn't operating on the idea of putting them on remotely equal footing with the average subscriber character. But, that's what makes this kind of feedback interesting..

Question to Inc: How do you envisage the process of "downgrading" from a full subscription to a SubLite? What happens, say, to your Proms, Valks, AGTs, guild council seat etc.?

If the account state is downgraded, the items remain in inventory but become unusable. Cases like guild council seats and things haven't been specifically come up in development discussions, but one could assume we'd do something like revert them to a standard member.

In reviewing your OP, incarnate, you are correct. I was being far more generous, but then, I was going in another direction.

I have absolutely no problem with you selling the game piece meal, even if by nickle and dime, a fully playable characters ends up costing more than a full sub. In fact, this might be a good way to leverage the mobile market.

But I also see other possible scenarios.

One is, that the lite model introduces more trouble than it is worth. Discontented chat spamming brats that drive away the otherwise long term population.

Another is, a game that is sufficiently playable even at $1 a month, to the extent that it attracts a significant revenue in it's own right.

Let me suggest, that you begin conservatively, along the lines that you are suggesting, but that if a significant number of lites resub, you consider making the lite model itself part of the long term model.

I, myself, would really like to see a significant increase in (targets) player population, free, lite, heavy, w/e.