More news about FTB's Future. (Important announcement)

[Watchful11]

i will probably get quite a bit of flag for this, but i'd personally prefer that if they were to include a texture pack, that it shouldn't be sphax, or at least have more than sphax as an option. i have nothing against the person/team behind it, i just can't stand looking at it. i'm sorry for saying this, but that's really my version of spring green(most streamers know what i'm refering to)

I would recommend checking out the texturepack tab of the launcher.

We don't distribute spax because of it's license, not because we don't want to.

 

[hutchkc]

I suppose general concerns will be user base expectations about a branded, for profit entity.

Here lies the crux of the situation. I think I'm going to take a wait and see stance. Reading the responses it seems the majority like the idea atm. People judge companies and volunteers very differently on expectations/tolerance/communication so will be interesting.

 

[setesh]

I would recommend checking out the texturepack tab of the launcher.

We don't distribute spax because of it's license, not because we don't want to.

oh, i've already checked it out and i'm really enjoying the john smith texture pack

 

[Ashzification]

I'm divided on this.
I'd also like to see shirts at lower quality/cheaper. Collectors items are nice and all, but when I buy a shirt I intend to wear it. And I'm not too partial to purchasing something for ridiculous amounts of money.

 

[YasukiHumai]

I'm divided on this.
I'd also like to see shirts at lower quality/cheaper. Collectors items are nice and all, but when I buy a shirt I intend to wear it. And I'm not too partial to purchasing something for ridiculous amounts of money.

I can agree with this, at the same time, I absolutely love to purchase hoodies and the like that are embroidered as opposed to screened. quality makes a huge difference in this sort of thing.

 

[Ashzification]

I can agree with this, at the same time, I absolutely love to purchase hoodies and the like that are embroidered as opposed to screened. quality makes a huge difference in this sort of thing.

I should have specified. I don't like spending huge amounts of money on something I intend on wearing often, therefore would eventually wear down and get destroyed.

 

[YasukiHumai]

I should have specified. I don't like spending huge amounts of money on something I intend on wearing often, therefore would eventually wear down and get destroyed.

I understood and agreed with your statement. I want the same, I just also want higher quality as well.

I am apologize for not being clear in my statement. I want cheaper so I can show off, and higher quality that will last. A selection of each would be great.

 

[Ashzification]

I understood and agreed with your statement. I want the same, I just also want higher quality as well.

I am apologize for not being clear in my statement. I want cheaper so I can show off, and higher quality that will last. A selection of each would be great.

Exactly.

 

[slowpoke]

Your wish will be granted Ash, there is going to be cheaper options down the road. However even those cheaper options will be good quality. On day one there will be a selection of 5 designs in t-shirt, Sweatshirt and Hoodie. However there will be more added over the weeks beyond that including less expensive tshirts etc.

 

[Ashzification]

Your wish will be granted Ash, there is going to be cheaper options down the road. However even those cheaper options will be good quality. On day one there will be a selection of 5 designs in t-shirt, Sweatshirt and Hoodie. However there will be more added over the weeks beyond that including less expensive tshirts etc.

Yay So, does this mean you're a wizard or some s**t?

 

[slowpoke]

No it means that I have spent the last couple of weeks talking to printers and looking at samples etc

 

[Ashzification]

No it means that I have spent the last couple of weeks talking to printers and looking at samples etc

So what you're saying is, you're a wizard

 

[DaemosDaen]

Woot, I can get an unleashed tee-shirt?

Aside from that, If the mod authors are ok with it, so am I

 

[The Mobius Archives]

Hey what other collectibles are you considering? Posters, Pictures, 3D prints, models and mayhem?

 

[Enigmius1]

To clarify, mod developers aren't getting paid, we would simply (in future) be giving them a location to sell their products without the massive overhead, mod developing is still a hobby for these people and FTB is still a hobby for all of us at this point, we aren't going to be chasing people down for updates when we dont even pay them. That said we do want to create the best modpacks we can so if we do come across problem mods as we have done recently then they will be removed, as always.

Secondly, you're not gonna have a bug free experience, we've got minecraft doing updates, mods updating and then we've got to try and get all that working together, it's never going to be perfect. If you want perfect then I'm sorry to say you got the wrong game/place, any modding community is going to experience this issue and while we can do things to lessen the impact, automated backups, notices etc we cant ever remove all the bugs.

I appreciate what you're saying, but this isn't a great time to be pawning everything off as, "it's free, deal" or "circumstances beyond our control."

It doesn't matter whether this move winds up being worth $100 or $100mil to the FTB as a whole. When you spend a year cultivating a brand and then put that brand out for monetization, "it's a free product, stop complaining" is no longer an option. It doesn't cost anything to make a decision. If you've got an informal internal policy that says, "Whenever possible, we will support our development (mod/pack) partners," it doesn't cost you an extra $10000 to revise it to say, "We will support our development partners at every opportunity, provided that we are not sacrificing the player experience by doing so."

Sponsors and merchandising partners don't care about what mod devs you've got in your stable or how hard you had to fight to keep them there. They care about the size of your playerbase, how loyal that playerbase is, and whether it's growing/shrinking/stagnant. Giving the players the short end of the stick will hurt the bottom line whether the money is coming directly from them or not.

I think you are right in all senses upto a point, yes FTB packs should be clean, mods should only be in their if they are stable however at the end of the day its a "mod". A modification to the game, which means it edits the game in ways it was not originally intended, once in a while these bugs are bound to pop-up and cause problems, this risk is then increased heavily by the amount of mods. This at the end of the day means some "bugs" that would effect one pc wouldn't the other etc etc. There is no way even with 3-4 dedicated staff working over 60-70hrs a week you could find them all, it's impossible. That is the reason they release "beta" etc to find these bugs but even then some will inevitably slip through. At the end of the day we still have to remember these packs are based around hacky "mods" which edit the game, this isnt something that has months of 1000's privately beta testing, this is a small group (business) making it easy for most people to play mods. I respect your comment however still think we need to look at this realisticly, there is no-new staff working on this project, nor are most putting any-more time than they already do into it, they are just being rewarded for doing so.

I'm talking in a grey area...that large place between "never works" and "100% bug free." I'm talking about what a mod does for the overall experience from both sides, not just the potential good. <Nameless mod> adds extremely narrow functionality with limited appeal to the game but is known to cause spontaneous crashes that are extremely difficulty to troubleshoot. My response when I found it was, "Why is this even in the pack?" I don't want to go into crazy detail naming this mod or that, but suffice it to say it has been a regular occurrence of mods included without thought to the consequences they bring, and I would like to see that stop.

And that's why I'm in favor of the FTB team benefiting financially in some way from their efforts, and why I'm sure they'll understand where I'm coming from when I say, "You don't pay for it so <whatever dismissive statement here>" isn't going to cut it. It works on the kids, but it doesn't work on me. A dollar value is being attached to the FTB logo and that can mean great things for everyone involve. The cool part about it is the synnergy...happy players translate to happy sponsor and merchandise vendors.

 

[Pan Z Sniper]

You guys do whatever you need to help yourselves out. You work so hard on this out of the pure love of the project and for us. It is totally up to you. The fact that your letting us know, makes you that much more awesome.
Keep on keepin' on.

 

[chadlupkes]

I'm not happy. I'm not JUST happy. I'm THRILLED BEYOND IMAGINATION!

Go Slow, go!

 

[Enigmius1]

And the product is T-shirts and coffee mugs, not the mods themselves. Did you even read the OP?
People will never ever be asked to pay to use the FTB launcher, to download any mod pack or for any updates.

I read it. Do you think sponsors and merchandisers are interested in how many mods are in each pack,. or how many players are exposed to the ads? The players are at the end of the supply chain, which makes them the end user. The customer. I'm not talking about explicit cash changing hands. I'm talking about who needs to be happy in order for everything to work, and if someone should be unhappy, who is the last person that should be? No more, "buggy and high overhead but just there for the worldgen in a world you'll have to reset in 2 months anyway." No more, "LOLOLOL NYANCAT YOU HAVE TO PUT THAT IN!!" when it comes with CPU overhead that makes even robust PCs slow down.

Beyond that, I'm not going to get into typical forum cyclic endeavors here. I meant what I said, I stand behind what I said, and I fully understand what Slow is describing. The bottom line is that you can have all the modders and all the sponsors and all the shirts, and it means absolutely zero without players. Dumping crap on us because it's free has to stop.

 

[Ashzification]

What makes my opinion split is along the lines of what Enigmius is saying.
I've devoted thousands of hours to helping the support side of things for FTB. The minute it becomes a product, I will be expected to provide a level of support I'm not ok with. Volunteering my time to a not profit group is one thing. Volunteering my time to a for profit business is completely different, and I don't think I can do that.

 

[HeWhoGameZ]

I honestly would love to see a FTB Premium Membership. Kinda like Curse Premium. Your game saves & stuff would sync via FTB Launcher and other stuff like ad-free.