Easter Eggs, Market System, Etc.

If I remember correctly(not sure from where), but Uber actually said that they aren't going to do DLC or make people pay money for extra little things because they are opening up the ENTIRE game system to modders.

That means anything that Uber makes can be remade in the game by modders. That would undercut the entire point of having microtransactions for cosmetics.

The fact that I may have to pay for extra little things cosmetic or units is a slap in the face after I put money into the game already. If you make a game and make people pay to get on it, unless it's some sort of MMO(which PA is not) there is absolutely no reason that you should be trying to get people to pay more money for more things that can be remade for free.

It would be a waste of their time and my money that was put in to MAKE THE GAME not "make skins to get more money".

But the central point is mods will turn any attempt to monetize anything into a waste of time. Therefore this won't work as long as the game is entirely open to modders. Which is something that they promised and can not go back on.

I feel like this whole pay to win/ market/trade stuff reminds me of older games that had secrets and unlockables.

If you played super smash brothers or time splitters. There was a ton of stuff you could unlock with consistent play time and goofing off. Eventually getting all the characters and being the coolest kid on the block.

This pay to unlock stuff doesn't make sense if really it is a developer dangling a carrot to Incentiveize you to buy these unlockables. Its pro developer trying to milk the consumer and give psycological urges to have everything in the game and not wait for the natural unlocks to happen. Markets also artificially inflate unlock time to incentivize the purchase even more.

I wouldn't enjoy a game I bought if at random intervals I get asked to buy stuff when I already paid a 60 dollar upfront fee. If anything, uber can quench your thirst for market & trading if they had legitimate secrets or cheat codes or custom skins for single player use against AI OR something potentially unlockable in the game.

Plus with markets and trading it brings other undesierables called msg board and game spam of products for sale . I didn't pay for a game to see advertisement.

At the end of the day, it will take money to make money. I think at the core of this, there is a reality-checkpoint that means if the cash stops coming in the official development will cease from Uber.

I wouldn't mind if 30% of the community are willing to pay to keep ongoing official development, while the other 70% that don't want to pay for it benefit in their own way. Sort of the same as Kickstart, Alpha, Beta, Etc.

I don't understand how it's okay for pre-development "thank you" gifts from the developers to their paying customers, but not okay for future development.

Where do you get this idea that a microtransaction purchase is a "gift"? It's a business model. And a particularly nasty one at that.

If you want to send an actual gift, Uber will certainly accept a check without an in-game microtransaction system, player market, and all attendant bullshit, just to support your whim.

Content on pay-to-play games isn't free. You pay $50 or whatever the price is, and you get the game. Simple as that. If the developer builds enough goodwill, with players thinking that game is fun and worth their money and time, they will be prepared to pay for an expansion and/or sequel.

Kickstarter slightly changes this dynamic by allowing players to finance a game before release, or even before major development. If PA succeeds and Uber wants to fundraise for a large expansion or sequel, I imagine they will choose to put that on Kickstarter as well.

I am hoping that a minority group (ex: someone that was part of Kickstart or Alpha) could shed some perspective on paying for ongoing official development post-release.

My proposal was a reasonable way to continue to fund the project that does not create unfair obstacles and opportunity to share the benefits through some kind of trade system.

Somehow the Easter Egg discussion just got left behind somewhere on page 1...

As a backer, I am quite pleased with how Uber has handled their Kickstarter and their game. There has been a lot of news about Kickstarted projects failing, and creators getting in all kinds of trouble for making promises they couldn't keep. At the time that PA was Kickstarted it was one of the largest and most ambitious Kickstarts ever, and Uber has shown that they are succeeding marvelously. Really a case study in how to run a very successful Kickstarter.

Granted, because of the experience of the team behind PA during the Kickstarter I was never really in any doubt about its success, but it's still good to be right about PA being on the road to being the next Total Annihilation.

And I really don't understand why you are even arguing that just giving everyone access to everything does not "share the benefits" in a vastly superior way to requiring each person to pay in microtransactions, or in a "market" or trade system. If you just want to trade things for its own sake, go pick up an online trading card game that has microtransactions. They are all the rage these days, I assure you.

Paid for DLC puts modding in a bit of a grey area because the modders could rip out the content and make it free or just undercut Uber by creating something similar. If Uber try to make this difficult to do then modding will probably become more difficult or constrained as a result.

I still have no idea why anyone wants mechanics affecting unlocks in their games. I can see reasons for cosmetic unlockables as a way to hold a banner and say "I gave this extra support to the developers" but it has to be minor enough to not interfere with readability.

@ledarsi I think we're starting to circle. I think I'll take a backseat to this at this point, hopefully the dialog can be productive with others input/suggestions.

I think it's in our best interest if Uber can find a way to leverage the work they have done for more or continued income.

They have mentioned Steam Workshop before I think?
How does that work?

I copied and pasted this out of the steam website for your convenience....

Here's how it works
The Steam Workshop is a central hub of player-created content and tools to publish, organize, and download that content into your games. Different games will utilize the Workshop in different ways. Some games, like Team Fortress 2, allow you to create and submit new items (such as hats, weapons, badges, boots, and more) for consideration to be incorporated into the actual game. Other games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim allow mod authors to publish their work directly to the Workshop, and let players subscribe to mods they want to use in their game.
The acceptable items, entry rules, and rewards may be different for each product, so please read the instructions carefully to see where your skills and interests can have the most impact.
By submitting an item to the Steam Workshop or accepting a revenue allocation for an item, you agree to the Legal Agreement

The Elder Scrolls model doesn't sound like what we were promised.

On the other hand.
If modders can give us more options, and have Uber "sanction" them and add directly to game.
That's more depth.
More game.
And more money for all.
That sounds ok.

But I don't want commander hats.