Question about Retail Commanders.

I . . . I want the box.

I will pay for that Commander.

Perhaps at this point a better/wider solution would be to enable players to buy Commander skins directly from the Armory.

Thats exactly where this 1 way ticket is going. Its going to be the ''big rock'' they where talking about. Custom Commander skin shop for Uberdollars, not earnable currancy.

Yeah, I wouldn't sink £40 on a game I've already spent at least £75 on. Especially as the Commander is probably tied to the game key and not addable to my current account? Unless you can stack keys? Possibly?

Blargh.

A way to purchase Commanders would definitely be interesting. Heck, I could see Uber being able to develop their own kind of Store similar to the Steam Workshop -> Valve game approval process, whereby successful creators get their mod/model implemented into the game properly and players can buy it at a small premium (dependent on the complexity of the piece). That way people are paid for successfully creating high-quality, PA-themed content (as supposed to My Little Pony reskins ) and Uber also gets a small cut.

Everybody wins.

As long as the micro-transactions stay cosmetic, I can't see it being a problem. Could actually solve the silly disparity between versions of the same game.

Especially bullshit they say its ''exclusive to early acces'' They better say, only available for terribly late acces, early backers, lol, i hope you don't like this one cause you wont get it.

This kind of bullshit makes me lose faith in companys very rapidly, for very obvious reasons that should have been forseen and avoided, i am kind of dissappointed it happened to uber aswell altough it was kind of clear that they were always very interested in whats inside your wallet.

Early Access is the name of the Steam programme.

Please don't get your knickers in a twist, just because you don't know that.

Yeah, I agree that it sounds pretty inelegant. But, let's not rush in judgement and confuse the development of the game itself with how it is been promoted by the people in the marketing room.

I believe that the fundamental philosophy that inspired PA is solid still.

Gorbles, im not talking about steam. Look at what the box says, its 100% bullshit (because i am polite enough to not call it a lie). Just use a normal brain, turn it to logic, then think about that commander, think about what the box says, then look at the pricetag. This all is proof that uber only wants money, otherwise, they shared this commander for everyone and shared the steam early acces commander with the people that bought the retail. Why is this not the case? They want to sell this one.

Edit: sorry forgot link lol

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Planetary-A...062389&sr=1-2&keywords=planetary annihilation

LOL, what i see now, EARLY ACCES 20 june 2014. Since when is that early?

Uber are a company not a charity. They are a small team of developers who wanted to make this game which is why they came to Kickstarter because the concept doesn't involve enough money (or didn't initially) to interest a big developer. Now that the game is proving a success Nordic came on board. That said the no.1 goal for developing this was to create a saleable product- ergo they want to make money from it.

Creating different commanders takes time- I don't really think it's an issue that they want to get paid for it. Different commanders don't actually effect the game play- someone who purchased the bottom $20 on Kickstarter is now able to play the game to its full extent with the open access commanders no problem. I actually think Uber have been pretty nice to everyone (letting people in earlier than they technically had to and so on).

The Kickstarter backers get some exclusive commanders specific to their addition of the game. Early access backers + Kickstarter get Theta. They have now made a couple of different boxed editions that have special edition commanders tied to them as special commander models have proved a big selling point for this game. Those backers wont get any of the other exclusives though so what's the issue?

I would't mind the option to be able to buy a new commander or 2 if they were made available. They have also mentioned having a 'mods market place' where people can charge a fee for the more complicated mods (I'm assuming Uber will take a cut). The whole idea of PA is to create a platform- something scalable to build from to generate revenue for them for years to come. It's what the successful companies have been doing (Blizzard, Valve) as it generates a steady income allowing them to grow and work on new projects.

I think this is the way they need to work if they have any hope of surviving long term- just look at how many of the old brilliant studios no longer exist?! The old model of release game, get all the money in one lump- use it to develop next game is just too risky as if the 'next game' doesn't sell well that's it.

There is a line that imo they shouldn't cross- and that is making core features of the game non accessible (or even non competitive) without spending money on it. A standard retail customer, a special edition customer and a Kickstarter or early access customer should all be equally competitive from the game play perspective- which they are as things stand. The alternate commander skins are a nice touch but they don't actually change anything game play wise. Where things would get messy is if they had an option to buy a '+20% longer range Gil-E +' or something that gave a player an advantage, but there are no indications they are planning on doing this so I'm happy.

Unfortunately for you, both Amazon and I are talking about Steam.

You keep on moaning about how it's not even "early access", when it is Early Access because that's the name of the programme Valve has developed.

Personally not seeing it as king cobra commander, or necron commander.

Nope, thats just what you make out of it. Its imaginary because the word steam doesn't excist on the cover and also not on the entire page. Otherwise they would call it steam early acces. So, thats why you have to assume, it has nothing to do with steam. There are no steam logo's aswell. Also, steam sells on steam right?

Also i want to say to cdrfk that you don't have to use resources to make a store that sells microtransactions for skins and **** like that to be a company that makes money from making top down RTS games. I'd rather see all effort go into making for example an unitcannon, or gas giants. Galactic war, more units, the stuff that makes the game so good it will sell without ''exclusive edition A, B, C, D, E and beyond" and keep selling somuch you don't even want microtransactions anymore.

Ok to say my opninion in an entirely different way:

If you think of how cool the Humblebundle PA sale is, then turn the coolness into fucked upness. Then you know how i feel about this.

I'd like to agree with you...

I think Uber are very much working on all those features you mentioned though. I think the problem is that no matter how great the game is, it won't sell forever without something to keep it going.

Uber are planning on supporting PA long term as a growing platform, rather than just a game that gets played and that's it. Now by keeping adding features and pushing it they should hopefully keep interest in it and get new sales, however not necessarily enough to pay all the bills. Having a few choice micro transactions available allows them to get additional revenue from current customers as well as the new ones. So long as these transactions don't become mandatory to properly play the game I think it's fine.

MMO games like WOW and such charge a subscription to do this- I personally prefer Uber's approach. The reality of it is that game development is expensive and no matter how good the game 1 title isn't enough to secure the future of the studio. 1 good 'platform' on the other hand might, and what Uber are doing is more than about what's best for PA- they are also trying to do what's best for the studio as a company.

Yep, i agree with that but then still exclusive means exclusive, so if you happen to like that guy you have to buy that box and i like to see that it happened differently but it didn't so i just say what i think about it.

No I agree that it's a shame the commander system isn't more flexible. It would be nice to be able to collect them all if you want to, as they are all really good!

Let's not forget that Uber have already almost went bankrupt.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/3/19/4094472/uber-hail-mary-monday-night-combat

Really interesting (and engaging) article. Thanks for the link.