Steam Support

I would much prefer Planet Coaster to set up a workshop, where users can upload their files so that they can then be added and installed to the correct file folders within the game. Of course they would have to be bug free, which could be scanned before files are accepted. This would make things so much simpler and enable them to be verified as user safe before installation. No more searching for any new content either. It has been mentioned that Steam also have this method of storing UGC, but whatever decision is taken by Frontier, it will be a step in the right direction.

I misread this post at first, but I agree. The way CS is shared in the RCT3 community is via a plethora of fanmade sites (of which, granted, the customscenery is the most complete and functional one), but it requires every set to be seperately installed, which for some sets can take a lot of time and effort - and many end up working terribly, too. The example of the Steam Workshop as a way to share UGC and install it automatically is far from perfect, but a similar system would be a major step forward. How UGC is currently shared is a good example of how UGC should not be tackled by a developer if it wants to incorporate UGC as a selling point of a game, which I think many long-time members of the RCT3 community would agree on.
 
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Well whatever is decided, it's not going to be implemented until after the game has been released. Frontiers main concern at the moment is to make a successful game that everyone will enjoy.
 
Well whatever is decided, it's not going to be implemented until after the game has been released. Frontiers main concern at the moment is to make a successful game that everyone will enjoy.
Huh ? [weird]

I hope you are wrong.

This "tool" (or "platform", or "service", or "worshop", or whatever his name), that you say they need to implement after the release, is exactly why the game can be a great game that everyone will enjoy, and why many people wait this game, and why it would be the real successor of RCT3.

It's clearly not a thing to "see later" ... This need to be as important as any other part of the game because it needs to be cleverly integrated into the mechanisms of the game. And if they are not working on this tool, with more than 250 people, well ... something is wrong. So I really hope you are wrong and that they have a team assigned to this work already.
 
Huh ? [weird]

I hope you are wrong.

This "tool" (or "platform", or "service", or "worshop", or whatever his name), that you say they need to implement after the release, is exactly why the game can be a great game that everyone will enjoy, and why many people wait this game, and why it would be the real successor of RCT3.

It's clearly not a thing to "see later" ... This need to be as important as any other part of the game because it needs to be cleverly integrated into the mechanisms of the game. And if they are not working on this tool, with more than 250 people, well ... something is wrong. So I really hope you are wrong and that they have a team assigned to this work already.

I totally agree Angelis. I am a bit out of touch with all these modern games, regarding how these workshops operate and how they tick. As an older member of this forum, I am not used to all this fast track technology as you younger people are, so maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. If it needs integrating into the game from the start is something I didn't understand. I thought it would be introduced after game launch, not to be included in the game before release. Please accept my ignorance on this.

Meanwhile, I'll get back to playing Tiddley Winks and Snakes and Ladders
 
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I totally agree Angelis. I am a bit out of touch with all these modern games, regarding how these workshops operate and how they tick. As an older member of this forum, I am not used to all this fast track technology as you younger people are, so maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. It is something I thought would be introduced after game launch, not to be included in the game before release. Please accept my ignorance on this.
It's not ignorance at all, what you described is quite possible.

I just HOPE you are wrong, I'm not saying that is the case. [yesnod]
 
i hope the game comes in steam, exactly i hope that the alpha is also in steam.

Its the easiest way, all the games i play are on steam, except the EA Games and i hate origin.
Steam Workshop is great for games like this, its the easiest way for everyone and it will have much more input with it.
 
RYBbLYz.png


This is a quite weird wording in the customer support FAQ... I don't want them to "hope" to offer this option, I want to have a guarantee that if the game is available on steam, I will receive a steam key.. It's the only thing keeping me from pre-ordering right now, and I hope they will communicate about this before the alpha...
 
I wouldn't exactly say Steam workshop is secure for file storage. Who's to say in a decades time, Steam decides to discontinue the SteamCommunity site - taking along most of the user generated content with it? That would be a bad thing to see happen.

Theoretically speaking.... What if we created something inside the game client to pull in, sync, upload user generated content?
I don't think Brett would have said this, if Frontier were going to go with Steam. It looks to me that they are going to set up their own UGC workshop. Which could be just as good at the end of the day and if Steam did go under at any time, Frontier would not end up with egg on its face.
 
I would not be upset if the game is / isn't on steam as the retailer.

I would be very upset if:
1) I cannot play on one machine from another machine on my network (which steam allows)
2) I cannot install on multiple machines with one licence. I have a gaming machine, a laptop and a general usage machine which I use when my son is hogging the game machine. Which steam allows.
3) play offline. Which steam allows.

Steam isn't just a retailer, with these (and other) features they have fixed these (and other) major pains for serious gamers. To discard them as adding no value is niaive, and I think Planet Coaster would be foolish to underestimate the value of these things to the general audience.

If a non steam version has these items, with the same flexibility as steam, I'll probably be happy.

User generated content system. Probably prefer Frontier handle it, mild preference. The key is that it gets some form of vetting or voting system, I like the reassurance that '5,628 people are already using this dlc' and a way for comments to be visible to the community. If a dlc is rubbish, I want to know before I waste time on it.
 
http://i.imgur.com/RYBbLYz.png

This is a quite weird wording in the customer support FAQ... I don't want them to "hope" to offer this option, I want to have a guarantee that if the game is available on steam, I will receive a steam key.. It's the only thing keeping me from pre-ordering right now, and I hope they will communicate about this before the alpha...

Players who bought Elite: Dangerous have got a Steam key after a few months. I hope it will be the same with Planet Coaster.
 
I no longer buy pc games at stores anymore due to the fact that I no longer have a rom drive in my computer, I replaced it to make room for more HDD's. Let's just say I have plenty of HDD space. So I too hope it's on steam, maybe even on Origin too.

I wouldn't exactly say Steam workshop is secure for file storage. Who's to say in a decades time, Steam decides to discontinue the SteamCommunity site - taking along most of the user generated content with it? That would be a bad thing to see happen.

Theoretically speaking.... What if we created something inside the game client to pull in, sync, upload user generated content?

I think the Sims 3 done something like this, I remember playing sims 3 and I add some content from this sims mod site and when I clicked on the mod, the game installed the mod for me without hassle.
 
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Someone said he doesn't want to buy this game if it's not on Steam. Then he really doesn't deserve this game.

I don't like Steam that much. I like it more when games have it's own platform to share creations and maybe mods of course.
In my opinion steam destroy good games very quick. With the steam workshop you are able to make your game unplayable with a sh*tload of mods and things that shouldn't belong to the game.

If frontier have its own "workshop", maybe they are able to check released things and decide if its something that belongs to "unstable" or "cheating".
For example BLIZZARD Entertainment. Till now they didn't use steam and are one of the biggest company for games. WarCraft 3 worked very good with tools like the map-creator from them.

You're basically saying "I don't want it on Steam because I don't like it"
Honestly a terrible argument.

Why should it not be on Steam. I see no real reason for it to not be on there, ED is. People like having their games in one place, achievement tracking, hours played etc etc
 
You're basically saying "I don't want it on Steam because I don't like it"
Honestly a terrible argument.

Why should it not be on Steam. I see no real reason for it to not be on there, ED is. People like having their games in one place, achievement tracking, hours played etc etc

Steam takes 30% (I believe) of the sale... I could imagine they don't want to have to deal with that. Plenty of games are not on Steam and end up fine.
 
Steam takes 30% (I believe) of the sale... I could imagine they don't want to have to deal with that. Plenty of games are not on Steam and end up fine.
Still less than the traditional production method (DVD in real stores). Steam is just a store like any other (a digital one, but still)
The commission to propose a product on its shelves is not new.

And by the way, 30% is the "public %", as always in business, everything can be negotiated [yesnod]
 
I did not like how sims 3 did things, it made such a mess in the folders. The files were illegible (just gibberish) and in different file format. But that's sims 3 where you would have 1000's of custom made items. So I wanted to have folder system with legible names. Where I can put the files myself and have full control.

But as for Cities skylines.. I leave it all to steam. I just subscribe.... and then if I dislike it, I go to the ingame list and delete from there. Wish I could put things in categories, but well. It is a mess. Long list of assets.
 

Harbinger

Volunteer Moderator
Still less than the traditional production method (DVD in real stores). Steam is just a store like any other (a digital one, but still)
The commission to propose a product on its shelves is not new.

Which is why only the major publishers do physical releases in stores these days, the margin is very slim because the retailer needs to make money to keep their lights on. Also with the long lead time required to produce the disks whatever you ship is invariably out of date by the time it hits the store shelves.

Anyway back to digital distribution:

Steam is well known to take 30% after VAT/Sales Tax and whilst this can probably be negotiated with Valve if you have significant leverage* lets take it as a given. In Frontier's store the fees are closer to 4% before VAT/Sales Tax and although they will also have costs associated with running a store I'm pretty sure it won't affect the numbers that much.

The order in which the fees are deducted in does make a difference as the tax man only cares about receiving a set percentage of the retail price, the fees are not their concern. As such Frontier receive around 21% more per unit by selling on their own store than they would on Steam.

Steam may have a bigger reach but Frontier successfully sold ~419,000 copies of Elite: Dangerous via their own store before listing the game there so it's not insurmountable to do it on your own.

I do believe Frontier will launch Planet Coaster on Steam but they won't do so until the game releases outright at the very earliest. If we took the 419,000 figure for pre-Steam sales of Elite: Dangerous as an example they would be losing £1.76m ($2.57m) to Steam fees (at £19.99 pre-order price) and that's a lot of money that could be better utilized in paying developers to make the best theme park simulation game ever. [yesnod][up]

* I have long suspected Frontier cut a special deal on the fees for Elite: Dangerous due to the timing of it's surprise addition being just days after Valve announced they were sending Vive Dev Kits out to select developers. [alien]
 
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Which is why only the major publishers do physical releases in stores these days, the margin is very slim because the retailer needs to make money to keep their lights on. Also with the long lead time required to produce the disks whatever you ship is invariably out of date by the time it hits the store shelves.

Anyway back to digital distribution:

Steam is well known to take 30% after VAT/Sales Tax and whilst this can probably be negotiated with Valve if you have significant leverage* lets take it as a given. In Frontier's store the fees are closer to 4% before VAT/Sales Tax and although they will also have costs associated with running a store I'm pretty sure it won't affect the numbers that much.

The order in which the fees are deducted in does make a difference as the tax man only cares about receiving a set percentage of the retail price, the fees are not their concern. As such Frontier receive around 21% more per unit by selling on their own store than they would on Steam.

Steam may have a bigger reach but Frontier successfully sold ~419,000 copies of Elite: Dangerous via their own store before listing the game there so it's not insurmountable to do it on your own.

I do believe Frontier will launch Planet Coaster on Steam but they won't do so until the game releases outright at the very earliest. If we took the 419,000 figure for pre-Steam sales of Elite: Dangerous as an example they would be losing £1.76m ($2.57m) to Steam fees (at £19.99 pre-order price) and that's a lot of money that could be better utilized in paying developers to make the best theme park simulation game ever. [yesnod][up]

* I have long suspected Frontier cut a special deal on the fees for Elite: Dangerous due to the timing of it's surprise addition being just days after Valve announced they were sending Vive Dev Kits out to select developers. [alien]
Hmm ... This is not exactly how it works ...

I'm agree with you that 30% is pretty huge, but the thing to understand is that they have 50,000,000 registered members on the plaform and to be placed in a store with such striking force has a cost, it's what you pay in the 30% (that, I repeat, can be negociated, and truly. Not a single big studio pay this percentage, or they should dismiss their salesman lol)

So, until now, they generated 690,000 sales on Steam, sold at an average price of $44.82 (excluding discount sales period, so it's less than that, so let's say an average price of $35), that mean more than $24,000,000. Even if you subtract 30%, it's approx $16,000,000 earn by using SteamStore so far. And to use your own sentence "that's a lot of money that could be better utilized in paying developers to make the best theme park simulation game ever"

So one questions : Do they have gained as much using only their own sales platform (Frontierstore) ?

And these are the only ones able to answer, because it's clearly impossible to make predictions close to reality because the frontierstore stats are private, but for me, it's much more interesting to sell your game on your own platform AND SteamStore, including with 30% commission, AND 2 or 3 others online stores (to diversify a bit its distribution channel)

For me, they are still negotiating with Valve. [rolleyes]
Just my opinion.
 
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