New Pledge Rewards, New Pledge Tiers, Player Owned Towns & Stretch Goal Store Megapost

The only thing that I think that really changed is that now the first level with house is much more cheap, and we will have much more houses availables in the game, counting a lot of new "free" houses lots.

 

Not really on the main page it states 115090 New Britanians which could be interpreted as backers, it's only if you click Extended Statistics that it takes you to a new page that shows Total Backers 35374.

 

Kinda like....P2W....like the gold miners are bypassed because it's being mined from backers through Portalarium. No need to spend hours toiling away to earn things in game. Just buy it and you have everything right off the bat. The rest of the game will be spent bank sitting and socializing.

 

What about just Marshal?

 

Seems silly. If everyone is getting the 10% during the promotional period, they should have just tacked it on at the time of purchase to save us from having to jump through hoops to leverage it.

Boy oh boy, though, if this is how we have to do it, the customer service types are in for a rough month.

 

No kidding they really should have just given us a 10% discount. I mean if I decide to upgrade I rather have a $45 dollar discount not $45 dollars extra added to my tier.

 

The title situation at the high tiers is kind of screwed up in general. Founder Lords are getting the High Baron title, while Founder Barons are getting Earl and Baron. They really should revisit titles with all the new tiers that have been added since KS. Just cut High Baron from Lord, and add High Lord to Lord Marshal for Founders.

Lord: Baron, [F] High Baron, Lord
Lord Marshal: Lord Marshal
Baron: Viscount, [F] Earl, Baron
Duke: Marquis, [F] Duke
LotM: Archduke, [F] Lord of the Manor

For Knight, the Founder title for Knight Marshal could be Knight Sovereign.

 

I did it too
Lord Marshal
Ye HAAAA

 

There will be plenty to do in game. For instance I have a Knight level pledge so I am going to have a lot of rewards when this game is finished. However does that mean I will log on collect my rewards place my house then say well guess that's it! no it does not. I plan on questing I am interesting in experiencing the story they are crafting. I plan on crafting so will be spending plenty of time harvesting materials and raising different crafting skills. I plan on exploring the world seeing the sights seeing what sorts of treasures and other neat things I can find. I am interested in pvp as well as pvm. My point is even though I am going to have a lot of rewards I still feel like I will have plenty to accomplish in game.

 

Shineys aren't going to bring new backers because the basic game development is lacking.

 

Lets not forget that even further back the game was sold to backers as being released in October 2014. Being also a single player offline game this can not possibly have meant beta. I can not help but wonder if all parties involved were acting in good faith here...

 

They've already grown from 22,000 to 35,000 backers since the Kickstarter ended, which isn't bad for a niche game aimed at a niche crowd. I'm curious what happens after E3.

The beta was planned for October 2014, with a December 2014. But when you add stretch goals and fans demand more from a game, releases tend to get pushed back. Pushing back is absolutely the right move rather than having a poor release when you're not ready.

 

13,000 more backer accounts in a full year is a drop in the bucket. Let's remember that a really good portion of those are people buying up multiple accounts, to sell at a premium at a later date. It's already in one person's signature line.

It's called personal investment, expecting a return. Digital real estate is what this game is entirely comprised of. That's why all the focus is still on housing and continuing to kick the release date further and further down the road. A game should never, ever be based on this. Savvy gamers know not to invest in those shenanigans. They lost out on what could've been a great player base.

 

$20 for a simple outfit? With no further explanation whether a similar item will still be available? Another house decoration item when it's looking more and more likely there'll be no in-game room for property upon release with so much being sold for real cash BEFORE release.

This is just becoming far too much exclusivity and materialisation to care for anymore... I thought PC gaming was finally returning to its senses but it now seems we're diving further into this mobile gaming cash shop cesspool...

 

Here are a few. Should you insist I can open my steam and look up the rest:
Faster than Light, Avadon: Black Fortress, Defenders Quest, Don't Starve, Dungeons of Dredmor, Rogue Legacy, Banished, Space Chem, Forced, Bastion, Braid, Trine, ...

A couple of the ~20 I mentioned might scratch on a million so don't beat me if there is one in here already.

 

VERY big difference though! Star Citizen ships are all available in-game. Players can still attain them. SOTA is selling most of its properly lots BEFORE release. So not everyone will have property. There is not enough physical room in the game! That effectively makes all my decorative item purchases useless! And I now regret buying all of them.

Star Citizen is selling stretch goals. Not exclusivity. SOTA is selling extreme exclusivity. Stretch goals come with items not available to all. It also comes with a secondary risk that the full potential of the item is never realised. They are also priced at a third of the value of a full game. For cosmetic items?!

 

How about the title "Oh Lordy".
They missed a chance to add in a noble title along the lines of the Edelmann tier
The title could be Freiherr ( holder of an allodial barony) this would have opened the door for a German style noble home. Something that looked different. Yet, with the fact that Edelmann already exists, would fit in with what already will exist in world.

 

My two gold coins...

I think the point at which Portalarium stops trying to raise funds is when we need to start being concerned. Look at it from the perspective of the company; without sustained funding the team will be hard pressed to stay the course. When companies sink, employees jump ship so they can continue to support their families. You may not like the business model, but we all bought into this, and I don't think much regarding the model has changed since the Kick Starter. Try to see it from their perspective. The game is clearly not at the point where they can cash out and call into work "hey, sorry I can't come into work, I'M RICH!" The team has a modest, but workable budget.

I agree with your sentiment regarding the stretch goals. All of the risk is put to the users. My speculation on this approach is due to legal reasons. The immediate item you get by contributing to the stretch goal is the sale. You're not explicitly paying for the goal itself, you're paying for the teapot. This wordage of the product and the transaction of receiving the item (the teapot) likely releases Portalarium of liability concerns related to legal damages backers might otherwise claim for failure to deliver on promises. In this case, nothing is promised except for the teapot. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I want Portalarium to be successful, and a few bucks is no sweat off my back. Also, if the game continues to get traction, there is no reason to fear they'll back out of their stretch goal proposal. However, as I mentioned in the Dev+ forum, it seems in bad taste to sell frivolous items under the guise of raising 10x of thousands of dollars for the purpose of developing a proposed stretch goal.

I think Portalarium could do a better job of promising incremental goals based on total contribution. This way not all of the risk sits on our shoulders. I've suggested this a few times now, but I think it's unlikely it will happen. I'm sure we all feel as if we're investors to some degree, but unfortunately on the individual level we are small potatoes which greatly limits our ability to stipulate how specifically our cash will be used... I don't mean for this post to sound entirely negative, if it does. I've 'invested' a pretty good chunk of change in SotA. It's what I think is an appropriate amount given my personal perspective on all of this. There is a good chance I will throw more money at this project too. All I can say is, 'invest' at your own risk, and keep your expectations aligned to the reality of the situation.

 

In the Housing Deep Dive, they said they plan to have 30-50% of housing lots still available when Episode 1 launches. So long as lots are obtainable for in game gold, then there is no difference. Furthermore, Episode 1 is only 10% of the overall world map. And now they added the ability for player towns to be created, and those are also available for in game gold. So you can buy a player town and create new lots in game, all without spending real world currency.

Star Citizen is giving exclusivity as well. Backing before certain dates gives you exclusive rewards not obtainable any other way.

 

Well, the ships with eternal insurance are exlusives, and is even a combat related characteristic...