SC2 Player got questions about release.

Hey! I'm a top 200 Starcraft 2 Player (Grand Master) having a few questions about the game.

My ID for the ones asking: tinyurl dot com/Muukzor-Fluttershy - My last acc. My mainacc is not that highly ranked ATM. Been using my alt account a little bit too much.

Anyways, sorry if I missed this in some info threads, haven't been reading every single thread. Questions:

1: What will the cost for the game be once it is released?

2: Do I have to pay 60$ for a beta or would you be able to obtain a beta key without actually getting access to the full game once it is out?

3: Will there be any competitive scene? 1v1 Tournament style maps? Will there be a prize pool? What's the layout for ingame 1v1 matches right now? Can you win at 5 minutes with a strong cheese but if you fail you fall behind or do the games always have to be rather long just expanding until both of you gets tired and nukes the **** out of eachother? In other words, plans for the E-Sports scene?

4: Will there be leagues? Such as the SC2 GM,Master,Diamond,Platinum,Gold,Silver and Bronze. I need a purpose of playing. Not just meeting people high above or lower than my skill.



--- Thanks for reading. Sorry if I am too lazy to go around reading or if I missed something. I'll look for some kind of answers from what the community thinks. ---

My own purpose if I'd start play is to get good, get some money while still having fun. Pretty much the same as Starcraft but something different. Something big with different planets and a different playstyle. A change that is.


Edit: Got my answers. Thanks alot for contributing to the thread and the moderator replying on page 5.

As regards the first 2 points,

1: We don't really know yet, possibly around $50. Others may care to comment.
2: You buy a Beta key, it allows you to play Beta and full release. There is no way to buy a "Beta Only" key.

1: I'd rather like to see some kind of Free To Play mode with skins or ingame rewards for money. That makes the game viable for a much bigger audience and more people playing it. Just look at League of Legends and how fast it got big when Starcraft 2 stayed at low numbers. Being able to intsall it and play without paying is amazing. Then you can decide if you want to spend money or not. Some League of legends users have paid like 200-250$ for the game for additional rewards! That is 10 times more than a one time cost!

2: Thank you for the clarification.

Welcome to the forums muukzor!

1. A pre-order for the game is currently at $40https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4
   
   
2. Beta right now is a perk for those who bought the game.
   We're kinda like investors, so bringing us in to help shape with feedback makes a lot of sense.
   There may be an open beta closer to launch? But Uber hasn't made any mention of that.
   
   
3. There already is a competitive scene, the community has already started organizing tourneys.
   This podcast discusses it a bit.
   
   The game is not currently at the point of balance yet, only the core units are in the game, many more are coming.
   The ChronoCam system in this game is technical marvel. I too am hoping they continue to develop it and leverage it for eSports.
   
   
4. No official announcements about a ladder yet (I think?)
   But I'm pretty sure it'll exist.

This absolutely will not be happening and I am extremely glad of it. I'll write a second post to address questions in the OP in a second. EDIT: never mind, Culverin has beaten me to it.

there are already ladder systems. it uses the old chess system and it is supported through other beta testers. its uncertain if the ladder will ever be built in its pretty popular to keep it third party at the time.

WHile league might get a but ton of players it also gets a crap ton of trolls because of the FTP model.

Also Uber already said they have tryed free to play and it isn't for them... also this game is hosted on severs that do the majority of the calculations for us xD sooo if they did make it free to play they would basically have to use the micro transactions to pay for the severs... also idk about you but FTP on an rts just doesn't feel right...

Presently the games are nigh-on impossible to win in the first ten minutes due to having to actually find your opponent, and the relative ease of defence. I would hope that there are a few standardised 1v1 maps later on as I love this type of game. Certainly if Uber don't explicitly provide them, there will be some players that find and reuse excellent 1v1 maps (I've got a great one at the moment, if anyone sees me host a system called Small 1v1 then join, it's great for fast-paced, varied games).

As for financial rewards for playing, I think it is doubtful. If PA ever gets to the popularity of StarCraft then perhaps, but I think that is unlikely simply because it is a more niche game in many ways.

And free to play? Just no.

On very small maps you sure can win in less than 10 minutes, but it isnt very common to play those. http://nanodesu.info/pastats/stats shows the average time of 2400+ game so far: ~25minutes.

I am not quite sure about how the ladder will look like. I doubt we will see leagues. PA isnt as big as SC2, so you might just fight to increase your ladder position. Currently if you play seriously that will probably be guaranteed to be pretty high anyway.

Uber definitely has plans for a ladder and I think I know they even _want_ to get it out before release. So let's hope they find the time ;D

Hey there have been community tournaments with a bit of pricemoney. I already made 60$ with this

But I doubt PA will ever be as big as SC2. So probably not many money tournaments. On the upside even money tournames will only have like a few really good players so you're chance of winning will be higher.

There have been discussions about payment models for PA before and the short conclusion is: f2p is just not something that can support the kind of project that PA is.

Yep, the community has raised enough money for prize pools.
If the community is willing to do it, then sponsors could potentially follow.


I am really interested how many features and refinement Uber devotes to the Spectator/Replay/Observer mode...
I am currently doing a mock-up GUI of player requested features.
If those gameplay GUI elements make it over into the spectator mode, then we've got a serious esports contender here.

I've watched Zaphod and Gyle do a lot of FAF casts.
One thing that is really hard to do in these games is to catch every little piece of the action.
Having the ability to dual-cast, and swap "screens" for the viewer, for zoom-ins and pans would do tons!

And the multi-monitor support for this game would literally be native support for picture-in-picture mode....

I am really excited to see how far Uber is willing to leverage their wizard skils.

1] $40-50 is the best guess, the lowest pledge options for KS was 40, and it won't be any cheaper than that outside of sales, but it's not likely to be 60(maybe later if they do like a gold release that has some DLC maybe but even that is not too likely) so probably 50$.

2]The Beta Key will get you access to the full at release.

3] The will be things like Ranked ladders and tournaments, but not to the same level that Starcraft 2 has naturally. as already said the community has had quite a few tournaments already and Uber has commented they want to do what they can to help out for tournaments post release. The scene might take a bit to get rolling as right at release I'm sure they'll be focused on damage control and Bug fixing type stuff as a slew of new players gets in.

4] I don't think we know what system Uber plans to use yet so it's hard to say what kind of 'leagues' there will be.

Mike

OMG, did not know that I have played this much, this is crazy.
my games average the least at 16min per match. v interesting.

4-Will be better if Uber use an original Rank System, not like Leagues from SC2.

Not really a competitive gamer here, even less a tournament one, but just wanted to have my voice heard that though sometimes I like the competition aspect in games, it's not something I really like seeing a focus of the game. It's actually part of why I stopped playing starcraft and just never got any interest in Starcraft 2 either with how much of it became a centerpiece of the game.

I think a past concept artist I watch some of the art of once summed it best in my opinion when he said that in gaming there are two types of players: Wall builders who like to take their time crafting large detailed bases full of death traps and walls... and wall smashers who like nothing more than to find the quickest way to bring down these walls. Often, it feels like the competitive gaming industry, with a focus on (at least, perceived as such) extremely fast paced where the focus is on "command per minutes" and so on tend to focus purely on the "wall smasher" gameplay while what I enjoy a lot of Planetary Annihilation(and it's spiritual predecessors) was how the width of units and options actually allowed for both playstyles to play out very nicely so if something like competitive ladders is to happen and get a certain amount of focus on how the game is developped and balanced further I'd like to make sure this isn't forgotten.

Yeah I'll enjoy seeing the new Command & Conquer fail

You have no idea how big of a release it is for me as a customer to be able to get right into the game without paying. As it is right now I won't even buy the game because it is too high for an unknown game that is likely to fail. They could've launched it free and gotten more character models, much cooler ones out for 5$ each which would be TOTAL if you want all of them like 50-60$ also there should be a Theta commander for like 15-20$ then the Delta commander for perhaps 50$. This would give them MORE money if they just could start to try to understand the concept. This game is ALREADY FUNDED. So there is no loss. If you don't count more players as a loss. I know there's alot of people with the same thinking and I know alot of people won't even try it out when It's out there for 50$. For example several of my Sc2 friends that would rather just play Sc2 than pay 50$ for something that is OBVIOUSLY worse than starcraft but still an interesting concept. It would be fun to play time from time. But this is not making it a viable option for me. So this game right now cost MORE than Starcraft 2 does. That is not a great deal for me. If I was a RTS lover that is and not an old Total Annihilation fanboy.

Command & Conquer fails because every expansion since Tiberium Wars has been garbage. Especially that move ur base and create units style of game that was introduced in one of the last ones. The game dies because It's garbage. Not because It's f2p.

As I stated. Being able to install and try out a game for FREE is MUCH better for me as a customer. Then If I were interested I'd be like **** yeah I want a Theta commander for 15$ because that's badass and probably 2-3 of my favorite units. That's 30$. I'd do that. As I did with League of Legends. Then I'd spend more in the future if I still played to finally get all characters. The difference between this and one time payment is probably that Uber Entertainment think that people will think people won't spend money on models. But hey, perhaps there's more issues I don't know of.

I'd like to see a more serious answer than just: LOL F2P IS BAD. Give me a reason why you believe this is a horrible way to plan things out. More players. More money. Because those extra players will share it and they will share it. People ******* love skins. Especially if they are cooler than the previous ones. Because you want to be ''special''.




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To everyone else, thank you for replying and explaining how things work. +1

You are making a LOT of assumptions here, I don't think I'll touch on all of them because honestly I get the feeling you won't be that receptive to what I have to say.

One thing I will comment on, is that the idea that you can just blindly copy the Micro-Transaction system used in a completely different game in a completely different genre and expect it to work the same is exactly the kind of things that results in the situations where the Micro-Transactions ruin the game and general image of Micro-Transactions.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with a well implement Micro Transaction system, the problem is that trying to apply that to an RTS is already dodgy and many aspects of PA make it even more so.

Mike
Mike

I don't believe they are assumptions as we have seen in the past that this is true.

But I think they would earn alot of they would implement this. It is a valid system for games with bigger success BUT also with more kids and unmannared people. But that's the price you got to pay. They watch tournaments and bring sponsors.

Making it free then just have someone make custom models shouldn't in theory be very hard if you have THE WILL to do so. You're free to have your own opinion but I am saying that pay to play games don't earn as much and most games are LOSING players because of it. Such as Starcraft 2.

got to say i'm playing the Command & Conquer alpha right now and the gameplay is actually pretty good it reminds me a LOT of generals just faster paced and it definitely needs some balancing work but then again the game hasn't even released yet