Way fo pay off costs?

[nxc1712]

Perhaps you could impliment a system like on runescape, where you can play free, but there are a few features that you can't get, and then you could subscribe to a paying premium account to get the full extras.

It'd give the paying guys an edge, but they'd be supporting the server as well...

Maybe give them a few bonus vore equipment bits, or something else to give incentive for helping out and taking up a paying account. Maybe exclusive quests, or a hidden skill, or something else of that nature.

[James]

*ATOMIC BITCH-SLAP* You are to NEVER suggest that again.

[TW]

*ATOMIC BITCH-SLAP* You are to NEVER suggest that again.

*wonders why the slap happened......*

[James]

There's nothing more evil than a game that lets players buy a competitive edge. >.<[/i]

[random_man]

well to even that out, they can only play on special servers, if they go to a normal server they have all there stuff taken away and when they get back on members server they get the stuff back.

[nxc1712]

Well, would you like to have the option of playing for free, or would you pay for a game?

I will never play a game that continually forces me to pay just to pay it, and this would be an abeit somewhat akward and annoying, yet still workable way of making it so that everyone pays, and the server remains capible of being free.

[Gamera]

well to even that out, they can only play on special servers, if they go to a normal server they have all there stuff taken away and when they get back on members server they get the stuff back.

Hmm.. multiple servers could get costly

But paying for extras wouldn't be so bad. Maybe getting into special areas where only premium paying players can get into, or be able to play as special sprites that wouldn't be available to the non-paying players.

[nxc1712]

exactly. Not too much of a one-up on non-payers, since it would be a buck or so, but little extras and bonuses all through the game, perhaps.

[Baz]

I will not write fluff for bits for paying customers that give them an edge.

Nuff said.

Baz.

[deleted188]

Your suggestion is much appreciated NXC, to the people reaction poorly to this post, please try to be civil and nice to the people taking time to make their suggestions, I do not want people to be discouraged by others who simply do not agree.

[Gamera]

Personally I thought it was a good idea.. he doesn't mean to give them special was to "cheat," but just perks in the game other's couldn't get as easily... maybe easter egg type stuff.

[xanatose]

No not give them special items for money. It just ruin the game. However you could Add special areas for paying customers. Like an island for non paying, and a continent for paying.

[Terastas]

There's nothing more evil than a game that lets players buy a competitive edge. >.<[/i]

Maybe not a competetive edge, but how about additional features? The creators of Furcadia, for example, allowed players to design their own characters with a default script, but also to purchase additional features like wings if they wanted to.

Something like that could work. A generic character editor for the free users, and an expanded editor for the subscribers.

[Baden]

I have an idea for the game that sounds alright but i wanted another opinion on it. For faction groups you could have Harpies in tight black leather - that always appeals. You can have Plant and Mermaid Tribes dressed in appropriate equipment. And also Amazonian Hunters. It would be best if you made these for both genders too. Just an idea

[blank]

what about what maple story does, you can buy special cloths, not armor or anything but like facy or cool outfits, maybe extra face parts or somthing, like extra eyes to choose from(exp. non paying get green, blue and brown eyes. while paying people get green, blue , brown, red, white, silver, and purple.)

i agree with james in the sense that youll get the people with awsome gear and theyll be able to kick more ass, thus inflating their egos. whae a new person askes a simple question he willl get stuff like"GO AWAY nOOB, I R PAWWNING HAXORS" or something stupid like that.

[Deioth]

Considerring the audience and the fact that they intend to keep this free, payment for an edge is a poor idea. I imagine there will be an in depth chracter creation similar to City of Heroes to allow people to create their characters as accurately as possible, but I also do not want to see certain options for creation restricted from free players unless it's merely for show (again, using CoH, the beta/collector's edition capes are an example as they are merely for show and bragging rights). They should have a shop, and I'd like to see something like this...

1. More characters: While I don't know what a sensible amount of characters per account would be (that's for them and their hardware to decide) I know a lot of people have very few, if more than one, yet others have dozens. After reaching the limit, you can make a one time payment of, say, $5 per each extra character slot and no limit to how many can be bought.

2. Play A Monster: People may purchase the ability to play as a monster/NPC. This time could be made hourly or monthly or any time they feel is best (though I think hours and month is best). Hourly time should be spent when actually playing a monster character, and players should have a sort of GM view/speed in the world (maybe a system like in Second Life) until they find a monster to control. They can leave the monster whenever they wish outside of combat or after eating/being eaten and go to another. Hourly time should be something like 50 cents an hour and monthly be, say, $10 a month.

3. NPC pets: Little pets meant for simply show and non-combat. With the consent of another player in a non-combat area, they could vore or be vored ]:89 Or even the consent of their player master. No one pet should cost more or less than any other and should be one time fees, at most, say, $50.

4. Model commissioning: Should the character creation options not be perfect, or a player wants to have a unique alteration to their character from what's choosable during creation, depending on how intensive it is it'll cost some money, from $5 to whatever ]:8P

As far as "premium accounts" go, I wouldn't want that to somehow prevent some players from entering an area of creatures they may enjoy voring around with, and while I don't know the extent of predator and prey that's planned to be added, there are a LOT of preferences, so using myself as an example, I don't want to find that the only areas with male bovine preds requires me to pay $5 a month or something yet there are dozens of areas of fairies, elves, plants, and other such stuff I personally dislike in vore. That also goes for things like macro/micro and other little choices in the game, as anything a character can do it should be possible to acquire the power in game. The only things I can think of that a premium account could allow would be:
1. Nudity, though it's at the developers discretion how much farther they take it. Free accounts should have some form of clothing or enough fur to cover naughty bits, so premium accounts would have a couple nudity options in character creation. If it's taken that far, only premium accounts would be able to yiff and then also only in private rooms or their houses. THe nudity thing though is mostly to keep the game clean enough so that even younger vores can play it and then premium accounts can choose to see adult content or not.
2. Premium accounts can use the testing server if there ever is one.
3. Premium accounts can create static rooms for private encounters, or perhaps Premium Accounts can have housing and free accounts have to settle on the static rooms.
4. Premium Accounts get a reduced fee, maybe 20% or so, when comissioning models or alterations.
5. Premium accounts get a larger in game profile for adding pictures and for more text. Free accounts should be capped at so many words and not allow uploading or out-of-game linking for pictures and such, but both accounts would get a preference list they could use.

All I can think of ]:8P

[Luigi2024]

A program called Maple Story (God, I haven't been on that in a long time...) used a system with similarities to Deioth's suggestion.

They allowed free accounts. However, they only allowed a small amount of avatars (three per server) for technical reasons. This can be expanded on, not unlike Second Life: Allow only one avatar per person, and force people to pay a small amount of in-game currency if they want additional avatars.

About the nudity bit that Deioth suggested: make sure that non-payers (or those opting out of nudity) do not see the nude person, meaning either:
a) nudity only happens in a restricted area, or
b) nudity is masked in the eyes of those who do not wish to (or not allowed to) see it

These are suggestions that would help cut down on servor time:

If it comes a time that the server is taking a full load, try something similar to a "rolling blackout," meaning that, after a certain amount of playtime, a person will be booted off temporarily (say, 30 minutes every two hours) to save server time. Paying members will not be subject to such a protocol.

Next, (and I know I'm going to get kicked in the face or eaten or something for this), but allow paying members the option of somewhat accellerated leveling up, perhaps an increase of 25%, or, at a stretch, 50%. While this may give a payer a temporary edge, its likely that, if a leveling system is used, it also has a cap, and that cap may be reached regardless of payer or not- its just that non-payers will have to play more.

Also, to cut back on server time, try this: pack all monster data (mesh, textures, and animation keyframes) into the client program, so that the server only has to figure out the position, rotation, size/scale, and animation frame that the monster is at (meaning that the server only says that a monster may be at its 25th frame at a certain position, and the client computer works out the the rest of the data from pre-loaded data). If you do this, make sure to also include landscape information as well.

Last, if you also plan to limit character selection to a large number of options (not unlike the default avatar in Second Life), and preload that data as well into the client-side software (similarly to the monsters mentioned above), this would allow for payers to access select options for their avatar, yet allow non-payers to see the end result (just not be able to control it). I know this would take away from commissions, but having as much data on the client side as possible would also drastically cut back on server time, and server costs.

[Mitch]

I'm an avid Mapler, and their system works somewhat like what's been mentioned.

Their Cash Shop is the only thing that costs real money, and it doesn't give too much of an extra edge. Most of it is avatar customization and stuff for your pets. The only edge givers are item and money pickup items for the pets, extra inventory space, and scrolls to reset your points you put into your skills or stats. There's no way currently to increase exp or money drops, so the only ones leveling faster are those who play more.

[Deioth]

What luigi said about nudity is what I was trying to get at. Only premium can see it and use it for their avatar. As for experience buffs and such, no. And to Maple Story, GUH I want my 4 hours of my life back.