Unfortunately, the timed aspect is in the design of the event as this provides content over a long period of time. In a way, it mirrors the constructing of a ship which is not done overnight. While yes, a player could purchase all of the stages if they wanted to receive the Puerto Rico as fast as possible, the missions continue to be relevant as finishing purchased stages yields rare Steel rewards.
Expendable Camos are worth credits. Even if you have no interest in using them for aesthetics they still hold direct in-game usefulness through giving buying power for Ships, Upgrades, Commander XP (dismissing Commanders), and Signals purchased from the Armory (and more if getting specific). They sell for 45,000 Credits each so the 15 you can earn total to 675,000 credits if sold. As the Camos are all in the freely obtainable section of the dockyard, credits as a reward is not that strange.
As for "value" in a conceptual sense, everything holds as much value as a player gives it. Commemorative Flags and Patches give no gameplay benefits but they are fun to collect. Camos are undergoing a bit of an identity crisis right now as they had a solid concept that was in place for many years which has changed recently, but they still hold value aesthetically, collection-wise, and/or credits.
-
As for Monetization being a thing... it is a thing. We are a business that needs money to operate and opening new studios is a sizable investment into our company and long-term product availability. I am not on the monetization team, but all of our items and offerings are weighted in terms of value so that what we offer is believed to be appropriate for the effort. The earlier stages are easier, so one of the milestone rewards is 5 Expendable Camos. Later on, it's 10 Expendable Camos as the effort required to attain them is harder. We are aware of player concerns regarding Camos, but right now we continue to feel they have real and immediate value and do offer Expendable Camos in Events, Missions, and Containers.
It's hard to strike a balance when choosing Ease vs Effort. Evaluating that isn't my department, but Combat Missions are typically weighted on "Expected Number of Battles to complete". The missions for the Puerto Rico do get harder in the later stages, which is a norm for our Dockyard model.
You are correct that allowing the Missions to exist for a longer period of time would mean more content for those that haven't finished them, but we will have new events and content to complete that is slated for that timeframe. We work rather hard to make sure there are a variety of things to do through events, missions, ship releases, and more.
This is correct. It's an unfortunate reality of the business.
Each ship has a 2 year development cycle in terms of pipeline and labor, combat missions require planning and implementation with code support, and the various other factors that exist which make doing something well into a time and labor intensive task. Our model focuses very heavily on producing content for players to interact with instead of just assuming the base game is all that is required. Our game is excellent, but many players which enjoy Free-to-Play games prefer the additional motivation of a goal or external reason to assist in their engagement. The need for extra impetus is perfectly natural which is why it's part of what we do day in and day out.
You also mention "They don't want you to log in for a marathon at the start of the patch, then drop your active time a bunch until the next big thing hits. It causes huge spikes at the beginning of a patch and then an equally large drop in players for the rest of that patch's cycle." which is absolutely true in the case of hardcore players. Some players will be driven to complete things immediately, regardless of the task size, and it can fuel burnout from completionists.
The last week of the Dockyard should have 2 Weeks of availability for completion. The final week is the most significant grind, but it has an extra week in order to complete it. Are you requesting that the last week have a month for be completed instead?
Note: This Dockyard is being run in the same format as our other Dockyard events were before. If you have participated in one of those, then this should be familiar as it uses the same timeframe and methodology.
-
The Dockyard event has two aspects of it:
Free-to-Play Aspect
There are a lot of in-game items to obtain through in-game grind including a Tier 7 Premium Destroyer. There is no requirement that the event even be attempted, but a freely obtainable premium ship is there if a player would like to push for it.
Paid Aspects
Players need to pay a minimum of 7,500 Doubloons to get the final ship. They can spend less if they'd like access to some powerful rewards like Red Bonuses, but that would still require completing all the in-game grind stages in order to reach them.
Player can buy a different Starter Pack which is 12,000 Doubloons that gives an additional 6 stages (compared to the 7,500 version).
The extra 6 stages removes the need to grind Week 10 completely and reduces Week 9 to "20 Kills and either 8.3m Credits or 47.5k Base XP" which a player would have 3 weeks to achieve.
You are correct that the later weeks provide additional pressure in terms of grind. Part of Free-to-Play event modeling is based around grinding for free/reduced cost content while having a sale path which is easier. In the end, it's up to each player how they want to approach in-game events.
---
For me, I created a Free-to-Play account a little over a month ago because players were concerned about Free-to-Play viability with the new Econ/Camo separation. Currently, I have 1,675 Doubloons on the account from starting balance and some random rewards. I've already got a Tier 10 and can get Doubloons in Ranked... but I won't be able to reach the 7,500 needed to get the Puerto Rico, not even factoring that the early packages go away after you finish 4 stages so it'd be more later.
So, for me, this is a strictly Free-to-Play event. I'll get the rewards that I can, but I won't be able to get the Puerto Rico. I will be able to get the Huron, and I'm looking forward to that.
devtrackers.gg