Yes, because it's not the full game yet.
How can you expect an Alpha to be balanced, feature-full and optimized? Cuz that's what you do from the sound of it.
I don't, nor did I ever say anything along those lines.
What I'm trying to get at, is they are
arbitrarily limiting ship usage depending on what you pledged for (which is for the PU).
Being an Alpha, they want to encourage people to play to bug test etc.
With the current distribution of ships and very clear tiering, you can get a significant advantage in one or more of the gamemodes by owning a particular ship. And the only way to own a ship ingame is through RL payment.
This is what I dislike.
This isn't saying I expect a fully fledged, fully balanced game out of an alpha.
I don't expect each ship to be balanced to fight the other ships in AC; they are balanced to their roles in the PU, which is fine.
I'm just expressing my dislike for the current state and choices that led to it. Especially considering they could just give access to all the ships in AC to everyone until the PU or unlocking ability is implemented, which they have demonstrated the ability to do. (which has been suggested on the SC forums many times)
The thing is, it's not even an alpha of a game. It's an alpha of one narrow part of the game.
The entire point of the modular system is that one can approach completion (as a standalone) long before the combination does.
Just because you can't understand the justifications I offered doesn't mean I didn't have any.
It's an alpha. It's not supposed to be balanced right now, or fair. Calling an alpha game module P2W is a bit ridiculous. They don't expect you to play it, or "win" it. You just have an option to play it while they develop it and help test features, flying the ship you've pledged for. It's an alpha version of a tiny part of the real game.
This is designed to be a competitive module with racing and dogfighting, if you aren't expected to play or attempt to win in it, how are they going to play test it?
Saying 'alpha' and all it implies doesn't justify the arbitrary choice to limit you to your pledged for ship. Yes it means the game is in an early state of production, there will be bugs, balance issues etc, but it doesn't mean a paywall is justified.
Because it's being sold. For the (I suppose moronic) people not ready to wait it out, it's a legitimate reason not to buy the game now.
The modular system means there will be playable parts long before the games release.
Each module can be approximated to a small game.
The AC module is already very fun to play and more polished than many other games in my steam list.
So many insults being thrown around in this thread, is it really necessary?