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[Chiefwaffles]

Huh?

But yeah. CTDs that frequent are actually pretty rare.

[Kot]

... I'm reasonably sure that there was a mac version years ago. It may not have worked particularly well, though.

There wasn't.  CG shaders prevented it from running on Mac.

Looks like hes trying to rush stuff to get Steam release asap now, either going to do his new ships soon or rush the game to Steam Greenlight without them.

Wait what.
Not so long ago Hazeron was "bad" and he had no intention of continuing it or even hosting it, but now, since people have to pay for it, he goes with it to Steam?
I smell bullshit.

[Corik]

The game is... "interesting". Not for paying though. I think it will be a massive disaster on Steam. I guess he thought he could get some profit even if it goes bad (wouldn't be the first time).

Funny I got an urge to play Shores of Hazeron a few days ago. Saw it was pay to play and leave the page inmediately.

[Chiefwaffles]

How the fuck would that be bullshit?
It's not exactly a secret that hosting the servers for Hazeron costs a ton of money, and as it happens, Haxus doesn't have infinite money.

But yeah. Hazeron wouldn't do well on steam, probably. It's a fun game, but I just don't think it's fit for mass consumption yet.

[Kot]

How the fuck would that be bullshit?
It's not exactly a secret that hosting the servers for Hazeron costs a ton of money, and as it happens, Haxus doesn't have infinite money.

But yeah. Hazeron wouldn't do well on steam, probably. It's a fun game, but I just don't think it's fit for mass consumption yet.

Suddenly having to pay for a game that was free longer than some people have internet (or is older than some people actually) doesn't meet with good reception.

[Kaje]

The only way I would pay for this game is if the following were met:

1) Offline support.

2) No bloody lag.

The chances of either happening are close to zero.

[KingofstarrySkies]

It's a little unreasonable to expect zero lag. Offline support? Yes, I want that quite bad.

[Kot]

It's a little unreasonable to expect zero lag. Offline support? Yes, I want that quite bad.

It would be reasonable to expect less lag. Last when I played SoH (just before Haxus shut it off, I even have screens of it dying somewhere) the horrible 1FPS lag was still there, and it there was at least one occasion (I think it was even recorded and is somewhere on Youtube) where the whole game ran smoothly.

[Chiefwaffles]

stuff

Suddenly having to pay for a game that was free longer than some people have internet (or is older than some people actually) doesn't meet with good reception.

As it happens, going bankrupt and suddenly being no longer able to pay for servers doesn't meet with good receptions.
MMOs cost money to host and things change.

[Kot]

stuff

Suddenly having to pay for a game that was free longer than some people have internet (or is older than some people actually) doesn't meet with good reception.

As it happens, going bankrupt and suddenly being no longer able to pay for servers doesn't meet with good receptions.
MMOs cost money to host and things change.

You know, there's this thing... when games start to bankrupt and people like them, they usually are going to throw money at someone by themselves. I know a good bunch of people who wanted to pay for servers back when Haxus decided to drop it, including myself. But when someone suddenly turns an free game into subscription one, people aren't exactly happy. Letting people give you money for free is good, forcing them to pay it for something that was free isin't.

It is almost like putting DF behind 20$ (was it the price for SoH? Or higher?) monthly, with the exception of it being single-player, so old versions would still be everywhere for free. People would be angry.

[Shadowlord]

Ehh, Haxus has the right to price it however he wants. It's not whether people are going to be angry, it's how he can get Hazeron to positive cash flow instead of negative.

The question is: Is going fully pay to play really the most effective way to raise profit? Personally, I doubt it.

While Hazeron was free, it maintained a minimum population through new players continually joining even while older players got fed up and quit. This is no longer the case. A F2P model (yes, with some kind of monetization) would have still allowed new players to wander in, and potentially allowed people to throw much more money at the game than the sub fee. (Or maybe nobody would buy anything because the player base was too small and the monetization would probably be poorly designed, knowing Haxus.)

There's also the problem of costs. According to statements Haxus has made, Hazeron uses obscene amounts of server resources, which makes it very expensive for the number of players it has, but afaik Haxus has refused to consider redesigning (simplifying) the core systems which (by their design) are likely a major cause, and has instead expended significant amounts of time in the past trying to optimize the code.

[Chiefwaffles]

more stuff

You know, there's this thing... when games start to bankrupt and people like them, they usually are going to throw money at someone by themselves. I know a good bunch of people who wanted to pay for servers back when Haxus decided to drop it, including myself. But when someone suddenly turns an free game into subscription one, people aren't exactly happy. Letting people give you money for free is good, forcing them to pay it for something that was free isin't.

It is almost like putting DF behind 20$ (was it the price for SoH? Or higher?) monthly, with the exception of it being single-player, so old versions would still be everywhere for free. People would be angry.

Yes. That's what happened. People wanted to pay Haxus to allow Hazeron to continue. So he made that possible.
DF, as it so happens, does not rely on massive amounts of server resources that cost money in order to run, so people can play. Hazeron does.

[Shooer]

Yes. That's what happened. People wanted to pay Haxus to allow Hazeron to continue. So he made that possible.
DF, as it so happens, does not rely on massive amounts of server resources that cost money in order to run, so people can play. Hazeron does.

Which lost the game the people not willing to pay, which lost a large amount of the playerbase, which makes the multiplayer game have less multiplayer.

Basically putting 100% of the game (the offline that is available is ignorable, it's a techdemo/benchmark for people so see if they can run the game) behind a paywall he lost large amount of the playerbase.  I don't want to play in a sandbox the size of a large city by my self, let alone only 10 other people.

[Aklyon]

This is sounding like the reasons things go f2p, except hazeron has too much server strain to do so again.

[Corik]

In any event, Haxus has my respect. He made a game. Might be an unpolished and poorly optimized game, but hey... he worked on it and delivered something interesting. I'm always here, trying to focus on something similar... but I never manage to really start anything. I suppose my spare time is so limited I can't really afford such a big project, but that's no excuse.