Pacific Operations Assets Pack | Mission Save Development Progress | New Free Trials

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, ex81 said:

Even a monthly fee would be all right.

 

Sorry, I'm all in for supporting the developers, but the subscription marketing model is awful .. the moment your income situation changes (retiring, losing our job for a while, a serious disease) you lose access to your software, media entertainment, cloud storage, etc, etc ... I much rather purchase rather than subscribing.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

7 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

Sorry, I'm all in for supporting the developers, but the subscription marketing model is awful .. the moment your income situation changes (retiring, losing our job for a while, a serious disease) you lose access to your software, media entertainment, cloud storage, etc, etc ... I much rather purchase rather than subscribing.

Yeah, and besides: That ship has sailed. If there was to be a subscription, it needed to have happened in 2012-2013. Not 2025.

Edited 10 hours ago by MiG21bisFishbedL

[YoYo]

9 hours ago, ex81 said:

Even a monthly fee would be all right.

This isn't a solution. If you want to support, buy the module you don't have and that's it. A subscription model won't work here, and thankfully, ED is far from it. It would also have to cover all upcoming models for a fraction of the price, which wouldn't be entirely viable with the system we have now: basically, a third-party devs for two or three years for free, and then potentially a large profit upon release.

[draconus]

13 hours ago, virgo47 said:

Just a question about the asset packs - is it just models or also AI?

These are AI units with all DCS AI core rules.

[Yurgon]

14 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

Sorry, I'm all in for supporting the developers, but the subscription marketing model is awful

There are 2 perspectives here. One is: How will it work for me? In that regard, you're right, a subscription model might work badly for me in the future. Of course it also means I might get access to the entire product catalog at once for a comparatively tiny amount of money, and cost would only accumulate over time, so it might even be cheaper for me in the long run, if I was otherwise purchasing new modules every couple of months anyway.

The other perspective is: How does it work for ED? The way I see it, ED is forced to sell modules. Old modules don't sell well, so they need to kick out new modules and keep the crowd pleased. Modules are insanely complex, development times are long, and while necessary work is underway for new modules, old modules get moved back on the list of priorities. Take your pick, I'm sure you'll find more than enough examples right away. And the core? Well, we don't pay for the DCS core, we pay for shiny modules, and modules in turn pay for the core. I'd say this model doesn't look sustainable to me. Issues keep piling up, features like ATC revamp aren't even mentioned nowadays, we're stuck with a dozen weather presets, vertical clouds aren't a thing yet, the air pressure remains the same across an entire map, AI path finding can drive players and servers insane... You catch my drift.

A subscription model could work as an incentive to focus on the core of DCS rather than on new modules. And at that, it could pay for asset development like the PTO Assets pack that spawned this particular discussion - of course that's a ton of work, of course devs and artists need to be paid. Fragmenting the player base with payware asset packs is a legitimate concern, and a subscription model might work better than the current one. But I'll be the first to admit: I'm happy it's not my choice to make and my burden to carry if it goes wrong. And ED have kept the lights on in very demanding times, so they must be doing something right.

[julpeuz]

@Graphics what happened to the Iowa battleship stated on the 7th of February Newsletter ? Has it been removed from your plans ?

[BIGNEWY]

25 minutes ago, julpeuz said:

@Graphics what happened to the Iowa battleship stated on the 7th of February Newsletter ? Has it been removed from your plans ?

Hi, 

we still have plans, however some assets are taking longer than others, so its something for the future, once we have more news we will let you all know. 

thank you