Content being sold with cosmetics in content creators pack it's wrong

[Kimlin1004]

So far we had content creators pack being cosmetics and game's content being sold as part of the chapters spread out within the year. Now this line it's about to be crossed which it's a dangerous and anti-consumer precedent.

If you're not aware, Monuments content pack will add more than cosmetics, it adds special buildings and their bonuses. Special buildings that are not part of the yearly chapter that will be announced/ be sold soon.

You can argue it's just 10 special buildings or so, not a huge problem. And I can argue back that if there is no push back there's nothing stopping them to sell the chapter and as many as they want content creator packs that actually have content.

With this line being crossed I guess we should expect more content being sold separately from the chapters and there's no limit for it until people complain. Some random ideas that are content and could be monetized as content creator pack which means they're on top of the yearly chapter until people push back:

New castle pack - it adds new 3d models for castles and let you upgrade your castles up to tier 5 and all buildings up to lvl 12.

New MaA outfit - it adds new 3d models that are used for armies walking around the map and 10 new unique MaA.

New duchy buildings - adds 4 new duchy buildings and their exclusive 3d models, including military university that it's 3x better than the military academies.

New economic buildings - adds 8 new type of economic buildings and their 3d models including lord houses that gives 3x more gold than manor houses. commercial ports, which are 3x better than trade ports.

New military buildings - adds 8 new types of military buildings including hot furnaces that are slightly better than wind furnaces but can be build anywhere. professional barracks that are 3x better than barracks.

Edit: to make really clear because some hyped by nomads fanboy will not understand.

special buildings should be part of the chapter that will be announced soon.

fancy 3d models for buildings or whatever else cosmetics related can be sold as content creator pack.

Edit 2:

TODAY TO HAVE ALL CONTENT IN THE GAME EXCEPT SOME COSMETICS YOU NEED ALL CHAPTERS.

SOON TO HAVE ALL CONTENT IN THE GAME YOU NEED ALL CHAPTERS PLUS MONUMENTS CREATOR PACK.

MAYBE IN THE FUTURE YOU NEED ALL CHAPTERS, PLUS MONUMENTS creator pack, MAA creator pack, ECONOMY creator pack, MILITARY creator pack, DUCHY BUILDINGS creator pack...

THEY'RE LITERALLY ADDING TO THE YEARLY COST OF THE CHAPTERS HOW MANY CREATORS PACK THEY WANT.

SO NOW TO HAVE ALL CONTENT YOU PAY $60, OR $65, MAYBE $70 YEARLY BECAUSE YOU NEED THE CHAPTER + WHATEVER CREATOR PACK BECAUSE THEY'RE MORE THAN COSMETICS.

Wait a minute, you mean the content creator packs aren’t just modders getting recognition from Paradox but it’s actually something the players have to pay for?

I never look at those promotions because I scour the workshop daily and figured it was just a promotion of a mod I already knew about.

That does seem shady. Video game developers selling content mods created by players.

 

[Sarsante]

Wait a minute, you mean the content creator packs aren’t just modders getting recognition from Paradox but it’s actually something the players have to pay for?

I never look at those promotions because I scour the workshop daily and figured it was just a promotion of a mod I already knew about.

That does seem shady. Video game developers selling content mods created by players.

That's not the issue in this discussion.

The issue here is all special buildings are part of the base game or dlcs included in chapters. So far if you own all chapters, you've all special buildings in the game.

This content creator pack changes that, it's selling special buildings and they're not part of the chapter. So from now on to have all content in the game you must buy the chapter plus how many creators pack they do. That's a huge problem in my opinion because they can start to sell more things that used to be part of the chapters in creator packs like economic buildings, military buildings, MaA units, etc.

To answer your question yes the content it's made by a modder that PDX hired to do the content and they get a cut of the sales, which if it was cosmetics only I'm completely fine with it.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

I don't know how hard it's to understand that, I really don't.

It's not hard to understand and you don't need to keep repeating yourself.

 

[Kimlin1004]

That's not the issue in this discussion.

The issue here is all special buildings are part of the base game or dlcs included in chapters. So far if you own all chapters, you've all special buildings in the game.

This content creator pack changes that, it's selling special buildings and they're not part of the chapter. So from now on to have all content in the game you must buy the chapter plus how many creators pack they do. That's a huge problem in my opinion because they can start to sell more things that used to be part of the chapters in creator packs like economic buildings, military buildings, MaA units, etc.

To answer your question yes the content it's made by a modder that PDX hired to do the content and they get a cut of the sales, which if it was cosmetics only I'm completely fine with it.

If the complaint is that the extra DLC packs that you have to purchase outside of the chapter contains content that you want like special buildings, then I don’t care about that. Nothing said that all content has to be contained in a chapter bundle.

 

[Sarsante]

If the complaint is that the extra DLC packs that you have to purchase outside of the chapter contains content that you want like special buildings, then I don’t care about that. Nothing said that all content has to be contained in a chapter bundle.

So you're sayting that it's absolutely fine to sell the chapter for the same price and sell things that were part of the pack separately?

Because for the last 4 years that's how the game worked, you bought the yearly bundle and got all the yearly content.

Stellaris work exactly like that, last chapter called season 8 had all 3 dlcs of the year. Not even cosmetics dlcs out of it, it was the whole package of content.

CK3 now wants to be different, they sell the yearly content as a bundle that dont have all the yearly content like it used to.

Instead of paying $50 + $5 +$5 to have all the content, I've rather pay $60 and know that I'm paying for all the content instead of hey actually on top of the $50 you also need to pay another $15 to have all MaA units, all special buildings and all economic buildings for $5 each.

 

[EasternTiger]

So you're sayting that it's absolutely fine to sell the chapter for the same price and sell things that were part of the pack separately?

Because for the last 4 years that's how the game worked, you bought the yearly bundle and got all the yearly content.

Stellaris work exactly like that, last chapter called season 8 had all 3 dlcs of the year. Not even cosmetics dlcs out of it, it was the whole package of content.

CK3 now wants to be different, they sell the yearly content as a bundle that dont have all the yearly content like it used to.

Instead of paying $50 + $5 +$5 to have all the content, I've rather pay $60 and know that I'm paying for all the content instead of hey actually on top of the $50 you also need to pay another $15 to have all MaA units, all special buildings and all economic buildings for $5 each.

They've sold DLC outside of chapter packs before. Friends & Foes was not a part of the Chapter 1 expansion pass or Chapter 2, but released in between. While I do disagree with content creator DLCs selling content that impacts gameplay and not just cosmetics, and I think it sets a bad precedent, there is nothing wrong with selling DLC outside chapter packs. Chapter 4 hasn't even been announced yet.

 

[The Shacks]

Its a tiny bit of money, they are company. They arent EA, chill. And you are also funding further projects whereby they hire modders to do official work. About the chapters thing eh, seems an arbitery logic you are trying to impose on their marketing model, its their model not yours.

 

[Kimlin1004]

So you're sayting that it's absolutely fine to sell the chapter for the same price and sell things that were part of the pack separately?

Because for the last 4 years that's how the game worked, you bought the yearly bundle and got all the yearly content.

Stellaris work exactly like that, last chapter called season 8 had all 3 dlcs of the year. Not even cosmetics dlcs out of it, it was the whole package of content.

CK3 now wants to be different, they sell the yearly content as a bundle that dont have all the yearly content like it used to.

Instead of paying $50 + $5 +$5 to have all the content, I've rather pay $60 and know that I'm paying for all the content instead of hey actually on top of the $50 you also need to pay another $15 to have all MaA units, all special buildings and all economic buildings for $5 each.

Yes, I am saying it’s fine. If they state what is in the bundle, and you get what it in the bundle, they can also sell other content on the side. I don’t really see how there is an argument against a business doing that.

 

[Cyhort]

Why are you acting like you have to buy all the DLC? If you're that much of an OCD completionist then that's a you problem. Most people are perfectly capable of choosing which DLCs to buy based on cost and content. Personally, I buy every chapter pass because they've been worth it so far in my opinion, but I skip the cosmetic packs because they've all been for regions I don't really play in. I really don't care if they start contracting more work to modders than just the cosmetic packs, though. As long as it's minor stuff like clothing and buildings it's fine. I come from the days when every new piece of PDX DLC would have a $5 music pack and a $5 troop pack you had to buy separately if you wanted the full DLC content, so I find it very hard to get pressed about stuff like modders making content that's always been meant to sell as a stand alone product.

 

[Metz]

If you are satisfied with the game as is then don’t buy any dlcs. If you want more content at a discount then buy the chapter pack. If you want something specific and think the price is worth it then pay it.

Other than that, no one is making players buy dlc just like the free market allows the developers to sell extra add ons whenever they want. With the chapter packs, they are always upfront about what is coming.

 

[yokyoka]

The moment I read the contents of the Content Creator Pack, I thought I was misreading something.

So far the cosmetic packs made by the content creators never affected the gameplay of the game. What this content pack could do was adding 3d city/temple/castle types for multiple regions and nobody would have bat an eye. But instead the content pack adds in-game buildings which feels they should already exist in the game.

This content pack should make players ask "What's next?". Will they add more landless adventurer camp types in Content Creator Packs? Will they add Special Men-At-Arms? Because they've just announced a pack with special buildings in it, which is expected to be a core part of the game.

This is not a matter of players demanding modders' work for free. The matter is, Paradox should have never made modders work on a core aspect of the game and then (paradox) sell it as a separate Content Pack. If this becomes normalized, "Buy this DLC for Special Council Position!"

 

[Knight of Lemonwood]

Imagine paying 4 quid for a 3D asset of the Church of St.Whateverthef and then realise its only available on the vanilla map and most of your playtime involves some kind of overhaul mod.

I already know that these two content packs are going to have mostly negative reviews for obvious reasons.

 

[Scyobi_Empire]

the majority of this post is just fearmongering for DLCs that don't even exist, let alone be implied to exist. if you want to complain about cosmetics, why not look at the £100 DLC that adds a crown. thats it. a crown

if you want to complain about features being locked behind DLC, look at the legitimacy system in a DLCless game, you have little ways to gain it and many ways to lose it


Paradox releasing a DLC that adds more special buildings, buildings that can only be constructed in certain baronies mind you, the balance of the game isn't in jeopardy, neither is the "pay to win aspect". in multiplayer, the DLCs the host has (or doesn't have) is applied to all people who joins, if you buy the DLC but your host doesn't, you don't have an innate advantage over everyone else as the DLC wouldn't be enabled for that save
You say this means paradox will release MaA DLCs that adds graphics and also more MaA, however MaA don't have graphics, all units from a culture are the same (getting more armour the higher quality it is) and Northern Lords has the best MaA in the game in it and also the Norse cultural graphics, so is NL a pay to win DLC? once again, no.

if paradox, for whatever reason, releases a DLC that only contains level 10 buildings, they'd only be gimping themselves for future DLC as they'd have to make versions of a DLC that works with both a hypothetical level 10 building pack, but also a version for people without that DLC.

 

[Scyobi_Empire]

Let's compare to Stellaris from same company that uses the same "chapter" model:

Stellaris adopted the chapter model last year, bad use of an example

 

[MarkFranz]

Chapter model is flawed in essense, or at very least it was at the begining, players is essentially buying cat in the box, without knowing what exactly will be given for they money. It's okey for those who is anyway would buy whatever paradox release regardless of quality or substance of DLC, but if that not the case it's risky and unwise investment, not much different from buying lootbox.