griefmyst

In response to post #23644599. #23646929, #23648494, #23650844, #23650964, #23651009, #23651369 are all replies on the same post. I never said ANYTHING about "endorsements being a good indicator". I simply used it for the sake of an example, ie: "let's pretend out of 160,000 downloads, up to 10% of people actually buy it". Those are the numbers on my current mod, used purely for example... not "people who endorse = people who would buy". It was directly in response to OP's comment about "piracy" being an issue. I replied: piracy isn't a deterrent to creatives, and that we understand full well what a realistic expectation of purchasing is. I am basing this on years of experience in industries that suffer greatly due to piracy. I have dealt with this very issue first hand. Everybody here is operating under some very strange misconceptions: 1. That all mods will stop being free forever and ever <-- not true at all, as another user has indicated many examples of how paid and free plugins/mods/etc co-exist perfectly well with each other 2. That modders want to roll around in money <-- also not true, as I illustrated, if I sold my mod for 99 cents, and only 10% of the total downloads purchased it, I'd make only enough to offset my costs and further develop it. This is why I have a day job. But I should no longer be expected to dump money out of my pocket while the site owners happily get to offset their own costs. 3. That mod authors exist purely for their entertainment and should continue to foot the bill as such <-- and it is precisely this mentality that results in me being VERY close to pulling my s#*&#33; and leaving the community, and I can 100% guarantee is pushing many other good authors to that limit. Look around you. We're not even allowed to offset our own costs, but we're obligated to put up as "professional level material as possible" and continue to do so.

In response to post #23644599. #23646929, #23648494, #23650844, #23650964 are all replies on the same post. It's not wrong at all, actually. The endorsement = a basic estimation of a conversion rate. 5% - 10% conversion rate is actually lowballing it based on the total downloads.

In response to post #23644599. #23646929, #23648494, #23650844 are all replies on the same post. Possibly because you don't have much experience dealing with it, as I have. I am a former musician, and piracy is something I was used to dealing with. So let me put it plainly: Modders don't suddenly flip a switch and change. For example, not every modder is putting it up "only for money no ifs ands or buts". I talked to another modder about how we would handle a situation like this if it came to it. His answer was different than mine: "I would do a 30 day paid, then make it free after that. Anyone who wants it early can buy it, or they can wait 30 days to get it for free" I operated on another notion: "pay what you want". If you can't buy it, you download it. Piracy happens when there are no easier alternatives. Most piracy doesn't happen because people "want free s#*&#33;", it happens because they don't have easy access to said thing -- paid or otherwise, or the access to pirated material is simply easier to access anywhere else than it is on the current platforms. Take a look at the music label Monstercat. All current labels operate "there is no money in sales", Monstercat changed that. Going Quantum is a good friend of mine, I even provided the voice drops for his podcast from the start. They pay a fair % (as much as possible) to their artists. They turn a blind eye to piracy, they provide a lot of free material, and in return allow people to easily access their material for a fair price. As a result: they are doing phenomenally well. The same thing happens with games. I'm not sure how old you are, but I remember the ridiculous restrictions on CD installed games. Sometimes I would spend my money on a game, only to find my key has been stolen and I can't even play it. This happened to me with Diablo 2, for e.g. In other words: piracy is caused by inconvenience, but it is also a given. People aren't deterred from creating things "because of piracy". In fact, as I illustrated above, out of 160K people who downloaded my mod, if it came to paying for it, we'd estimate ~10% would actually pay for it. So rather than being snarky, try to have a bit of respect for people who are trying to help inform you. Thanks.

In response to post #23644599. For fears of piracy, I'm going to use my own mod. If I sold Arissa for 99 cents, and assumed that out of those who downloaded it (160K people) the ones who bought are the ones who endorsed it (14K people) in one year, out of an imaginary split of, let's say, a 25% fee going to the Nexus -- I would make $10,500. After 1 year. Here's how that breakdown could look: $3600 towards a 1200 line dialogue update every month for a year $6900 towards supplementing staff for a complete, massive DLC size update for Oakshore. That's only if ~10% of the people pay 99 damned cents which is as close as you get to free without being free. The best thing about modders is that a lot of what we can do, we still do it for fun. We aren't looking for money to roll up to a club in a Maserati and order bottle service. We're thrifty. We get by on doing what we can for free and finding the best price for everything else. However, almost every single one of us that has had a big vision has added up all the numbers after securing monetary quotes from freelance artists... and it is depressing. So things get put on hold, until that one guy on Nexus who said he could do your 3D stuff ever signs back on again. Or that voice actress who promised she'd get a new mic soon ever gets that new mic. I mean, hell, here's another scenario: imagine finding the perfect voice for your work, only her recording area sucks. Without the opportunity of money you would either have to pass on her, or put poor quality recordings in to your mod. How cool would it be to ring up a studio close to her and book a session for her to get professional recordings? Or how cool would it be to be able to pay the original Skyrim voice overs to do some additional lines?

If the case is of something happening... why not simply choose to work with those who "mod for a career"? Allow them to career mod. Add a condition: "all assets must be original". Or, "must maintain a 1:1 ratio of paid:free mods". I know if I had the potential to release professional mods, I would still release free mods. Many people would, because out of every 1 professional release, there are 20 - 30 things on the cutting room floor that are of benefit. But the point is the demands from people increase more and more. People always want "better", and "more". I'm investing my money modding... why shouldn't I be allowed to profit, when you essentially profit enough to be able to hire a full time salaried community manager? And please don't begin to think of me as dumb enough to think nobody else is making money off of this site, either. Money is definitely being made. So if you're allowed to invest money and recoup costs, isn't it a tad shameful to try and attempt to shame people in to continuing to break their ass for free? I mean, why do you have to pay a community manager then? Shouldn't you hire someone willing to do it for free in this case? Why should those positions be paid, but modders should work for free in order to enable that salary? But of course, you want to attract quality employees. You want to pay someone because you expect them to take it seriously. You don't want someone who will "moderate when they have time". You are wanting to pay them to MAKE that time. Obviously. Just as modders have evolved to the point where I'm sure they'd love to finally be able to own legal copies of software. Or maybe that one guy really amazing with scripting would like to hire a stable and committed 3D artist that will take it seriously and not disappear. Maybe some of us are at the point where that 25 hrs per week we spend working our craft would actually like to feel like we're getting something out of it beyond a pat on the back and the obligation of investing more to improve for the community. I'm sure there are those who don't mind to do that, and that's fine. They can keep doing what they do. But to tell us you want to make this a site "away from money" and how we should all just "do it as a hobby" but only a week before make a post hiring a community manager for the website... well. I don't know what to say. It's pretty disappointing to say the least.

Awesome!! - Camera Path Creator: It'd be nice to have an easier way to create the camera pathing to trigger on command/hot key. It'd probably only be good for cinematic purposes, but still :) - Mod Merger: there are so many small mods out there, sometimes by the same author, that really could do with being merged. For example: rather than having 100 different "sword" mods, just combine them in to 1. - Spell particle effect randomizer/generator: different NPCs could cast a different colour lightning, or a black flame, etc

There has been progress :) I'm putting all my time towards the next Arissa update which is due out very soon. After that, I should be able to get something playable/testable for RM.

Just a quick update: Currently working on the Khajiit race. Current tests and experiments with small amounts of NPCs are working well :)

Yep yep :) I've got that covered... it's not too in depth at this point, but basically it would open up the ability for certain members of your own race/faction to "hold on" to certain items for you, provide some free items randomly, or items that are more relevant to helping you get by. They would also be a source of helping disguise you as you make your way around areas that you're supposed to be barred/banned from.

I have to say, this doesn't make much sense. "We're coming to Skyrim to peddle our wares! But we refuse to trade with the majority of its population!" Non-Nord merchants charging Nords more has the same issue. If we decide that Skyrim is indeed quite a chauvinist place, it would make sense that any non-Nord who would try to discriminate against the majority ethnicity would be identified and punished quite quickly (although I can see the Grey Quarter Dunmer doing this, since they already form a separate community anyway, but not people like Nurelion/Quintius or Bothela). Not to mention that most non-blacksmith merchants are not Nords, so this proposal would make the effect of making Nord players feel discriminated in their own land. I have no idea where you are getting this idea from. Maybe you're misunderstanding something.

Ruubix, you raise some good points! I'll see if I can integrate your first point in to it, actually.

Thanks for the feedback, all! To address some questions: 1. NPC demeanor, of course, will be a factor. I wouldn't expect someone like Ysolda who is sympathetic towards the Khajiit to turn around and suddenly begin to hate on Khajiit in the next sentence. 2. Each race will have varying degrees of difficulty, with some being easier than others. Naturally, in some regions the High Elves will have it harder than in other regions. Just because you are barred from an area, however, doesn't mean you can't find another way in. It just requires a bit of stealth and clever thinking. There will be assets available for you that would assist you in navigating these harder areas -- a cloak/hood that offers cover for a certain amount of time. 3. This is lore friendly. For those of you who cannot understand the reasoning behind some of this, please read up on the lore and talk to some of the NPCs. Argonians and Khajiit are universally thought of to be untrustworthy, thieves, etc with Argonians outright banned in Windhelm. 4. On top of drawing from lore, the actions also draw from how things were during similar points of our own history. For those who don't believe a Stormcloak member -- a member of a heavily nationalistic group -- would attack someone based on their race, please look up incidents of hate crimes in our history. It won't mean they would actively seek you out, it would operate more based on a % likelihood vs your visibility, lighting factor, and whether you're outside of the city and in range of other people or not. 5. Custom recorded dialogue is not on my radar. There are several unused conversations in the CK that can be appropriated and turned in to something interactive. I'd like to focus on the actual balance itself before getting in to more advanced customization.

I agree! :) There are some things that can't be done as a blanket. For example, Ambarys Rendar runs an inn in the Gray Quarter and hates Nords; an Altmer could be welcome there, despite it being in a Nord dominant city. However there's some unused conversations that could be easily re-appropriated for a conversation with the player. Or, for example, some NPCs are overwhelmingly supportive/welcoming and don't care what you are. Ysolda, for example. :)