18 replies to this topic

[macmutte]

I think HCS should have a certain amount of Beta slots open for buy in of say $20
and give those that donate a character gift that would transfer to the live game .
Creates revenue and guaratees a Beta spot for those that donate

[l3fty]

We're actually considering something along these lines. We'd need to give such early adopters something pretty cool as a reward for signing up (my personal preference would be a title or a limited edition companion pet). We are still thinking through the details of how to work it though. Definitely more information on this soon Feel free to suggest potential rewards .. though 'getting everything in the game free forever' probably won't fly

Ooh just thought of a cool one ... your avatar name on a gravestone somewhere in the game xD

[Kukica]

Anyone remembers when betas used to be for players to test the game and to report bugs to the developers?Now you have to pay money to join into beta and do the job to help the developers fix the bugs,how pathetic can you be.

[l3fty]

Hey it would just be for people who want to ensure themselves an early spot in the game, and would likely mean they will get access to a public beta before we would have otherwise allowed. We will be taking people from the pool of sign ups at the same time.
We're managing to do a mountain of testing and bug fixing internally too, as we want our beta to be a very solid experience. We're not doing that bad for such a small team

[macmutte]

HCS is a business and businesses need to make money to pay employees who bust their butts making games for our entertainment , paying a token amount for guaranteed access to a closed Beta is in no way any sort of $ gouging .
I for one am more than happy to donate what is basically the price of a couple of coffees for a first look and play .

[Othimos]

I wouldnt like to have to pay to get a Beta spot.... but i would donate if i likedwhat i saw once i was playing

[T1GER69]

HCS is a business and businesses need to make money to pay employees who bust their butts making games for our entertainment , paying a token amount for guaranteed access to a closed Beta is in no way any sort of $ gouging .
I for one am more than happy to donate what is basically the price of a couple of coffees for a first look and play .

+1 from me

[Kukica]

Sure,let them squeeze every bit of money from you in every way they can.Hey after all,developers have to eat too right?

[Zshmaendal]

Sure,let them squeeze every bit of money from you in every way they can.Hey after all,developers have to eat too right?

If you don't want it, don't buy it. I don't think it's a horrible thing. If they take people from a pool, and you can donate to get an extra cosmetic item and a guaranteed spot, what's the harm?

[Kukica]

I dont care what other peole do, its their choice what they will do with their money but this is realy pathetic. Pay to join the beta? And what would you get? Most likely nothing or as you said a cosmetic item and thats just trash. No motivation except of course to play the beta but come on.A recent game that just launched i think, they had something for a week, like you pay 20 euro and you get 50 euro in credits, now thats good not an ugly piece of cosmetic item. What games started to do now is play for everything. Oh you want to have that button on your shirt? Boom, pay 50 cents, you want to lvl up your skill? Well that would be 10 cents. You want to get into a new zone? Well good sir, thats 3 euro. You see what i mean? The game needs to have some kind of motivation. For example at lvl 20 you will get a great weapon so you cant wait to get there, at lvl 30 you will get few great skills, and thats what keeps you motivated. You wont play a game brain dead, right?

[l3fty]

Eldevin has plenty of motivation going on don't worry about that A good example is the group instances which become available every 5 to 10 levels, Hopefully players will be quite keen to get into each instance so they can get a shot at loot drops etc.

With regards to any reward being a cosmetic item, well that was just a suggestion from me We would need to give something that different types of players want in such an offer. Personally I like permanent things like pets and other vanity items but I can understand that people would want potions, currency or convenience items of some sort.

And again, we're hoping people come in the beta and can play and enjoy the game, as it will be ready to play by the time. Sure there will be problems, bugs and a few missing features, but hopefully not enough to detract from enjoying the experience.

I don't want every little thing to cost money in the game either (though that's not up to me, I'm just an artist!). However micro transaction based games seem to be out performing subscription based games at the moment .. with the exception of Warcraft of course. The whole MMO industry is undergoing this shift of transaction models and there have been some games which have got it horribly wrong. All we can aim to do is to get the balance right, and we are listening to everything you guys are saying on this front

[wizz]

If there's an option to buy-in to beta, when will that be announced?

Or have you decided to cancel that option or what's the thoughts here?

 

Thanks

[Xohn]

They'll probably release a buy-in beta when the game is developed much more, they're ready to allow more players in or if the popularity picks up. There are many games that were in closed beta with buy in betas(many are called "pre-orders" or "founders").

 

Hopefully when/if they do this program, they give something special to the supporters. Maybe something like a permanent exp boost(something little like 5 percent, 10 percent), cosmetics, mounts(though, not too much extra movement speed), in game currency(I'm assuming there will be a micro-transaction system), securing a name, having a list of the supporters to "show off", etc. Another game, Firefall, actually gives anyone who buys a high-priced "buy in beta" package actual physical items(posters, beanies).

[SDGR]

I will probably not pay for a "buy in beta", but I totally support such a system/feature, for the following reasons:

1. it generates funds that would allow the devs to work on future actual game content instead of focusing all their effort on cash shop (items).

2. it's a good loyalty/interest test for the game's staff but also put some pressure on them to deliver something good.

3. allows those players that weren't picked for the beta but have deep pockets & the will to join in.

 

But in order for this to work and not feel like lack of respect for the rest of the community, the free beta waves should happen and to a greater percentage as opposed to the paying customers.

The ones that pay to join should receive something good enough to make them feel it was worth doing it (maybe some cool perma vanity items like some special costumes/capes/titles...or maybe a cool monument with all their names on in the game's main city so everyone would know for eternity who were the first to finance the game), but not good enough to grant them an unfair advantage over the free riders - because then it would feel like "pay to win" (which is exactly the opposite of what the game overview says). 

[Seagull]

On the topic of supporting the game, I know that a cosmetic item shop was one thing presented.  I also recall it being said that Eldevin will not have a subscription fee.  Additionally it was stated that there will be no "pay-to-win" system in place. 

 

My question is, what ways will there be available for players to support the game aside from the cosmetic item shop?  Or will the only source of funding come from that system?

[l3fty]

The financial side is still being worked out and decided upon. I don't think we've (recently) ruled out subscriptions, it's still an option which is being considered. Aside from cosmetics there are likely to be convenience items for sale. But yeah nothing concrete, and we are trying to avoid the pay to win situation.

[SDGR]

How about converting the real cash ppl pay for beta access directly into cash shop money? It's like ppl charging in advance for cash shop and they will still have the liberty of deciding what specific items to get. You can add a free cosmetic item as a sign of gratitude for supporting the game early on and everyone will be happy (I think)   

[Whane The Whip]

Regarding beta buy in? Nothing wrong with that, but it might be better to view it as an early sneak peak because if someone is paying to begin during beta (and getting to keep their character) then chances are they just want an early start and might not be interested in providing feedback on bugs. I'm not sure how keeping your original character would work though since there are usually a couple of wipes during beta.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing some of the cosmetic options and their costs. Cosmetics is how Gaia Online turned a community forum of make-believe into a million-dollar-a-month empire, and that was with simple items like 50 cents for a pair sunglasses, $1 hair cuts, clothes, etc...

 

Concerning convenience items, I'm going to guess that extra pack space will be one option. This is based on a screenshot I saw showing additional slots with locks in them. I just hope it's not too extreme (assuming I'm right), in another game you needed tons of items to craft and if you didn't have the pack space to hold the items you needed then you couldn't craft so they were essentially charging players for the ability to be able to craft something.

 

 

Or maybe the extra slots are unlocked with quests, etc... 1 Fish = 2 blocks... I hope they stack.

[Savanc]

Concerning convenience items, I'm going to guess that extra pack space will be one option. This is based on a screenshot I saw showing additional slots with locks in them. I just hope it's not too extreme (assuming I'm right), in another game you needed tons of items to craft and if you didn't have the pack space to hold the items you needed then you couldn't craft so they were essentially charging players for the ability to be able to craft something.

 

 

Or maybe the extra slots are unlocked with quests, etc... 1 Fish = 2 blocks... I hope they stack.

 

I think I see 2 backpack icons in the bottom left of the Inventory so it seems PhurieDae has 2 backpacks here (probably 2 pages in total).

I have no idea how the extra backpack slots can be unlocked, but a requirement such as a certain level or quest would seem logical.

Though donating to gain extra backpack slots isn't that odd of an idea either. As long as all the game features are still playable with the normal size backpack, so donating isn't necessary but just to make the game more convenient.

 

 

A quote that might be helpful here about the backpack size:

Another thing I quite like about our items is the stacking system, its quite dynamic in that you can have an empty basket item and drop bananas in it and the item changes to a basket of bananas in the inventory from a simple drag and drop, but then empty it later and it'll turn back to an empty basket item again, and then you can say drop apples in it and so on. The advantage being that the basket of apples can hold say 200 apples, whereas the single stack of apples could only stack up to say 20. It provides a nice add-on to bag inventories having these kind of pseudo item containers which can improve the max stack of items, so you can cram more items in of varying types if you get hold of bigger item containers.