Transcendence

The near stars are a place Id really like to get to visit, and George had talked about them being likely paid content for a long time. Plus, it feels kind of right to get this major part of the quarantine zone created before moving onto Part 2 (Which I agree with everyone else, should remain free as originally planned)

I would like to vote for "anything but part II or a battle arena stand alone." Part II was promised as free when the subject of paid content was originally broached and I would prefer it remain so. I do not believe a battle arena stand alone would have enough content to justify a paid expansion.

Both the Near Stars and Ares War have the potential to be very interesting. I'm particularly interested in the Digital Metropolis as an alternate non-Domina motivator for the main quest since fleshing out the pilgrim thing drove Betelgeuse away and will probably keep people with similar preferences away in the first place.

Other-universe content would also be interesting, especially if it uses the engine in ways the QZ setting doesn't.

Totally agree with what you said, but :

I do not believe a battle arena stand alone would have enough content to justify a paid expansion.

why not ?
Maybe playing as The Slicer and with a nice Black Market plot, Corporate corruption, (maybe a bet system for the arena?), opposing Kate Morgental (probably running away from her) and building a story with Katami ?
I would pay for that

Changing your vote V2:

supposing the near stars gets done. im curious to know how pluto will be shown, since its no longer a planet as such.. but its not just a ball of rocky spaccicles. maybe pluto could be the first alien gate that mankind encounters and the halo races put it way out there so far, far away. so that mankind wouldnt be able to discover it until the exact right time

oh and another thing i want to point out. the option in the poll says "THE BEGINNING of part two" that doesnt necessarily include the entirety of part 2. maybe it could be sort of a teaser bit. say some 7-8 systems wide that show a little bit about how the second part is going to take of. something like walking through the garage where they fix up the Ferrari before you actually get into one and test drive it

And who would buy a spoiler to a content they've waited for and imagined about for years? Not me, it'll just ruin the surprise.

Can I vote for "none - best if focusing on good part II as soon as it is possible?"

Not meaning to be a ruiner of fun, but waiting many years for adventure continuing will probably lead any not-blood-hardcore gamers to go away after a while.

Edit: Reading mr. Moromisatos post a bit up in the thread, I understand this is basically a financial matter connected to the start-up of the space-business, hence the need for paid extensions.

In this case I will vote for whatever extension taking the smallest amount of time to make so that work can resume on part II. This is not because of impatience, I have perfectly good fun with the current game, but because I am worried about lack of progress for potential new fans.

Bruno wrote:In this case I will vote for whatever extension taking the smallest amount of time to make so that work can resume on part II. This is not because of impatience, I have perfectly good fun with the current game, but because I am worried about lack of progress for potential new fans.

This is true, the current set of players are the people who have been playing it for years and continually modding it. I think a good goal for interim would be to get modders and other people to use the engine to make things. (much like crydev and udk)

Just a point for those who have been questioning Paid Extensions.

This is no different than a game on Steam that is "Free to play", but any DLC is paid.

I haven't looked at George's prices yet, so won't give an opinion on those till I do.

And, as George keeps reminding us, there will still be plenty of free mods and extensions to add to Transcendence, if a few dollars to support George is really that difficult for you to come up with. (As I understand it, the games will eventually be George's main source of income, and you can't repay what George has already done for the players and modders. Personally, I'd rather pay George and know he got the whole thing, than pay some company who gives him a pittance for his work.)

PK

Mind you, much as I'd like Part II (which was promised next, several times) sooner than later, and I'd like to see it offered free, I realize that George needs to eat and pay bills, just like the rest of us.

I have a game called Siege of Avalon, by Digital Tome. Originally, you went to their website and downloaded the first "Chapter" for free, then paid for the remaining "Chapters" as they came out (or you had the funds to do so). There were 6 chapters, total, so 5 you paid for.

This seems to me to be a good model, if the prices are reasonable.

If you would rather have a donation system, then I'd suggest George set a minimum donation to gain access to the added content, and if you want to contribute more because you appreciate George's work, then make a bigger donation. Once George gets enough of these extensions, he could even have sales on bundles.

Keep all this in mind as you vote (or change votes).

PK

Most of us don't have any problems paying George. The problem is with the business and marketing. Free games draws more customers, just because you don't have to go through the trouble to pay for it. You can just download it and play. (Troubles include getting the money and the permissions, for kids, and the complexity and unreliability of internet payments for older customers. And because paying to someone you don't know through the internet is just asking for being cheated.) Even if you say the first chapter's still free, there's still some people who will turn away when they know the full game isn't free.

Can you alternate between free and paid for extensions? (this might also be hard since you also have to alternate with Anacreon)

I think 3 free micro extensions per year (max; I know I'm asking for a lot >.<) would be nice. You could release them regularly and have stuff like:
-mission packs (you can add ~3-5 completely new mission types in this microextension)
-item packs (add 3 new alien weapons that can be found in the Outer Realm)
-ship packs (maybe 2 new enemy ships with different abilities?)
and then let the community curate and fix it with your approval BUT also release paid extensions that are totally under your creative control (so ~3 per year as well, but also in smaller, high quality bits that add to the story).

The micro extensions don't have to be part of the canon, but they can be playgrounds to test out new ideas. I, as a player, honestly don't care what you throw at us George. I just want to play with more stuff in the Transcendence universe and I know that if it has your name on it I'll have 300 hours of fun.

There are several advantages to this model:

You can test out new code concepts, story concepts, etc a lot easer.
The community will grow with each free update.
More debug logs! (and also an opportunity to fix Multiverse >.<)
You can also make the free micro extension a basis for a paid extension so you don't have to work too hard. (So a later paid mission pack can use the architecture of an earlier free mission pack but be integrated with canon)
Giving the community more toys to play with is always a good idea
You can also display the donate button prominently when people download the free microextension so technically you'll also be exposing more people to the possibility of donating for the free microextension *and* allowing players to buy the paid extensions when you release them.

RPC wrote:Can you alternate between free and paid for extensions? (this might also be hard since you also have to alternate with Anacreon)

I think this is a great idea. Think of it this way: two years ago I had a full time job and I worked on Transcendence in my spare time. Now, my full time job is creating paid extensions and I will work on free extensions in my spare time. Obviously, both benefit from each other (lots of the new features in the free core were done because Corporate Command needed them), so I should be more productive.

I particularly like the idea of micro-adventures.

I'm just going to +1 RPC's suggestion that sounds really awesome!