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[Chattox]

For whatever reason I've seen some alpha buy-ins as high ast $100 with price decreasing as they go.

AFAIK it's to deter people who see alphas and betas as just "getting the game early" and who then whine and complain about the game being unfinished. Long, self-righteous tirades with buzzwords like "false advertising" and "scam" are often the result. Having the price high at first means that only people who genuinely want to test the game and have a hand in it's creation will end up playing.

[Firgof Umbra]

That's the opposite of what some studios are doing. For whatever reason I've seen some alpha buy-ins as high ast $100 with price decreasing as they go.

Mhm.  It feels more honest and though we're serious about making it a great game we want people to take a look and be drawn in by the price even if they don't buy in for the EA - we're not a big-tent title after all.

Some studios are using a high price to deincentivize people from buying their early access product.  This way they ensure that only their most dedicated and interested fans purchase the alpha (while there is likely some noise from folks who just plain have a lot of money to toss around) so as to limit potential sale losses and hopefully gain a community interested in helping them balance/fix problems before the game launches.

But as Chattox wrote, it's certainly a valid approach and our approach also has its problems.  We have to do our best to inform people before they buy to try and mitigate purchases which stem from folks believing that they're buying something close to the final game early when in reality we're still a while off.

[forsaken1111]

For whatever reason I've seen some alpha buy-ins as high ast $100 with price decreasing as they go.

AFAIK it's to deter people who see alphas and betas as just "getting the game early" and who then whine and complain about the game being unfinished. Long, self-righteous tirades with buzzwords like "false advertising" and "scam" are often the result. Having the price high at first means that only people who genuinely want to test the game and have a hand in it's creation will end up playing.

I understand the reasoning, but I think it has somewhat of the opposite result. You get a lot of kiddos who have mommy and daddy pay the price and lose a lot of the people who are really dedicated to your product but cannot afford to pay you $100 for the 'honor' of testing it for you.

I see the merits of both approaches, but personally I never touch the 'up-priced' alphas/betas.

[Firgof Umbra]

Yeah.  The best theoretical pie-in-the-sky approach I have would be to make the game super-high-priced (like $200) and then give out a $140~ discount to folks who played the game for 30 hours and a $180~ discount to folks who played the game for 150+ hours and maybe just straight gift it to folks who've put in more than 300 (with a snapshot of players' total playtime, that is - that way people can't just farm it by launching the game and waiting).

That's still not incredibly reliable and there's lots of issues with it, but I think that a scaled approach where the amount of time you invested into the former product is rewarded with an increasing loyalty discount gets you the most interested and active players into your EA.

[forsaken1111]

Yeah.  The best theoretical pie-in-the-sky approach I have would be to make the game super-high-priced (like $200) and then give out a $100 discount to folks who played the game for 30 hours and a $180 discount to folks who played the game for 150+ hours and maybe just straight gift it to folks who've put in more than 300.

That's still not incredibly reliable and there's lots of issues with it, but I think that a scaled approach where the amount of time you invested into the former product nets is rewarded with an increasing loyalty discount should get you the most interested and active players into your EA schema.

I guess you could tie it to legit bugs reported and event participation rather than hours played. Anyone can just leave the game running.

In any case, I'll be picking this up the second it goes to early access. Looks like it could be a good product in the end, so I hope I can help.

[Retropunch]

Sorry for this being my first post on this - I love star ruler and cannot wait for the second. It looks amazing, and I'm super, super excited.

However. I really, really hate the higher priced alpha/beta buy-in approach. When I see it, my view of the company itself drops to a similar level as adding lots of day-one/soon after dlc. I'm really happy the SR2 guys are doing it the more reasonable and honorable way of charging less when in development.

Asking people to pay more for to play something which is quantifiably worth less just seems bad, but more than that and I strongly believe that it harms the overall image of the game. With pretty much any game, you get bored of it after a few weeks/months. If you've exhausted that on an alpha/beta with less features/broken things and bad balance, you're going to have a slanted perspective on the game, no matter how good it becomes. Although this goes for beta/alpha sales in general, I think this is amplified if you've paid more.

[Firgof Umbra]

We're glad that our belief in launching with a lower price excites you and we can't wait to put it in your hands.

[BFEL]

We're discussing what we should talk about with the next dev diary and I thought I'd ask y'all's opinion.  What would you be most interested in hearing about:  Orbitals (Stations), Anomalies, or Energy Powers?

Since everyone else completely ignored you here, let me put in my two cents and say I want to hear about...well all of those are awesome choices, but I have to go with the Energy Powers because that's something that doesn't seem to be in every other space 4X ever

Not saying taking inspiration from others is bad, and I'm sure you put a nice twist on the other two, but Energy Powers sounds like a unique thing.

Also, did you ever see my question about the Galactic Senate, or did that get buried?

[forsaken1111]

I am still iffy on the 'energy powers' thing. Seems a bit too close to special 'hero abilities'. I'll reserve judgement until I see how you guys implement them though.

I would love to see an overview of your revamped diplomacy system. Or you guys could just do a sort of AAR where you play out a small game and screenshot some of the highlights.

[Xantalos]

I am still iffy on the 'energy powers' thing. Seems a bit too close to special 'hero abilities'. I'll reserve judgement until I see how you guys implement them though.

I would love to see an overview of your revamped diplomacy system. Or you guys could just do a sort of AAR where you play out a small game and screenshot some of the highlights.

This would be cool. It doesn't even have to be a full game, just a few interesting snippets will pique me.

[Oscuro1987]

PTW because I've really loved the first SR, and still playing it today. (with or without mods)

[Firgof Umbra]

(making an) AAR where you play out a small game and screenshot some of the highlights

I'll bring it up with Lucas and Andrew and see what they think.

I'll reserve judgement until I see how you guys implement them though.

We're still figuring how to specifically implement them ourselves but we're expecting it to encompass much more than just individual unit abilities.  I can't commit to that or Energy though, it's still in a great deal of flux.

[forsaken1111]

I'll bring it up with Lucas and Andrew and see what they think.

Excellent! Let me know if you need a fourth. I am open most weekends and evenings.

We're still figuring how to specifically implement them ourselves but we're expecting it to encompass much more than just individual unit abilities: for example, a power that steals other Empires' cards and influence.

The power system as I have seen it described seems a bit out of place. I'll be interested to see how you work it in. Right now, it seems like you just gave the ships 'mana' so they can use 'special moves' which makes me wary.

Obviously my only information is from what you discussed in the previous dev diaries so you've probably improved it somewhat since then.

As for the example you mention here though... how does that work? I can sort of see how pumping magical wireless energy into a ship could power a weapon or a shield, but how does this energy resource equate to stealing diplomatic power and influence? Things in science fiction often need a bit of internal logical consistency.

As an aside, if you guys need some free writing I'd be happy to help out a bit. I know how much writing can go into these games, having worked on a few myself now, and SR2 seems to be much larger in scope than SR1 so I imagine there is a lot left to do. Weapon descriptions, tech write-ups, etc. Just making the offer, feel free to ignore.

[Firgof Umbra]

As for the example you mention here though... how does that work? I can sort of see how pumping magical wireless energy into a ship could power a weapon or a shield, but how does this energy resource equate to stealing diplomatic power and influence? Things in science fiction often need a bit of internal logical consistency.

SR often gravitates between hard science and science fantasy and the original thought which spawned the system was that these were 'powers' which break the 'sufficiently advanced technology is magic' barrier.  So perhaps you install a computer virus in every diplomat's computer in the targeted empires and mind-blank the politicians who share those ideas, making their ideas your own - this accomplished by an ancient Remnant device which requires an absurd amount of power to operate at such vast distances with such finite precision?

In any case, I just wanted to illustrate a potential power that wouldn't be 'a ship doing a thing'.  However as I mentioned the system itself is in a great deal of flux so don't put much stock into the 'hows'.  Each power we put into the system will have some lore explanation that'll at the very least attempt to make sense.

[Firgof Umbra]

Got some fresh screenshots for y'all.  Updating the main post with links to 'em.
Disclaimer: Most art shown not final, especially the ship, diplomacy card, and race art which are all stand-in dev-art