Consolidated Heroes of Stalingrad thread

[Grim.Reaper]

If that's the case  (length of develop time), I'm figuring a $1000. price tag!!!!!! 

Serious question-What year did this game "start" or at least when was it announced? 2006 ish?

First post in the game's forum was in 2005....not sure if that was the actual start but looks to be around there....

[GibbyG]

I think the difference here is that the person who did WiF was a solo act working hours a day for years.  HoS took a long time, but it seems like it was always a secondary product to the board games that LnL put out.

[Bison]

I'd think the pricing would in line with Conflict of Heroes.

[Grim.Reaper]

I'd think the pricing would in line with Conflict of Heroes.

That was my original thinking too....seems like a very good comparison.

[JudgeDredd]

Looking forward to it, but I must ask.....normal or premium pricing?

..and does it have an AI?  :P

Yes it has an AI that will give you a good challenge.

As to price I have no idea... but would be very surprised if it's more than $40. There's a ton of gaming in it but it's not Command Ops or WIF....

It will be interesting to see what price they come up with....wasn't one of the reasons for the higher price of WIF based on the length the actual development took?  So if that is the case, I wonder if that logic will be applied to this and the price will be higher than we would expect.  I guess we will find out in a couple of weeks.

That's a totally flawed argument for pricing a game anyway. Length of development means nothing to a purchaser - why should gamers have to pay for the ineptitude of a developer? And I don't mean that nasty - just that I am in development - and the development cycle is a complex thing - fraught with pit falls. Why would the purchaser be punished for a developer not doing something correctly, not knowing his language as well as he should, not doing a proper analysis of the game mechanics to make sure it is all going to fit.

Just wrong to charge people for time it took to develop as the people are not privy to the development process and whether wrong directions were taken at key points

[Barthheart]

I'm very confident that the price will be in line with CoH. I agree that you shouldn't charge for the "length of development" and I'm pretty sure that WiF was not priced that way... just on shear volume of content... even without the AI....  :P

[JudgeDredd]

Nevertheless it was mentioned as such iirc.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this out and hearing opinions other than price (I can make my own mind up to buy or not). The board and counters look superb.

[Barthheart]

It is a very fun adaptation of the game. There are even some subtle changes added because of what the PC can do.

Units that are not in LoS of any of your units are completely hidden from view, ie vanish from the board, not just "not spotted".
If you can fire at a unit through at least 2 different hex sides in the same turn, you get a +1 FP bonus.

Stuff like this that would be just too fiddly in the board game.

[undercovergeek]

It is a very fun adaptation of the game. There are even some subtle changes added because of what the PC can do.

Units that are not in LoS of any of your units are completely hidden from view, ie vanish from the board, not just "not spotted".
If you can fire at a unit through at least 2 different hex sides in the same turn, you get a +1 FP bonus.

Stuff like this that would be just too fiddly in the board game.

ill wait for some lets plays and AARs but i do like the look of it

[Barthheart]

It is a very fun adaptation of the game. There are even some subtle changes added because of what the PC can do.

Units that are not in LoS of any of your units are completely hidden from view, ie vanish from the board, not just "not spotted".
If you can fire at a unit through at least 2 different hex sides in the same turn, you get a +1 FP bonus.

Stuff like this that would be just too fiddly in the board game.

ill wait for some lets plays and AARs but i do like the look of it

What do you want to see? Anything in particular? Maybe I can whip something up....

[undercovergeek]

having never played the boardgame, just maybe one or two opening turns with some exchanges, just to get a feel for the mechanics and representation on screen

that would be awesome if you have time

[Barthheart]

having never played the boardgame, just maybe one or two opening turns with some exchanges, just to get a feel for the mechanics and representation on screen

that would be awesome if you have time

Might not be until after the release but I'll see what I can do..... anyone know how to turn a Fraps vid capture into a youtube... never done youtube before...

[Mad Russian]

Just wrong to charge people for time it took to develop as the people are not privy to the development process and whether wrong directions were taken at key points

Now, consider that I'm in development when you read these comments.

What you, as a consumer, pay for when a product first comes out is the time it took the company to research and develop the product including a profit margin added in.

That's why TV's, microwaves, etc. go down in price after a set time. The manufacturer has a set time they attach to a product for you, as the consumer, to pay for their efforts. Once that time limit is reached the cost goes down to reflect that they are now into pure profits. What they normally do is bring the next model out, which will be similarly priced, with more gadgets/bells/whistles to keep the price as high as possible.

Having said that, it doesn't apply to wargames. In our case, for FPC:RS, there were 4 of us working on the game. We each worked on it roughly 30 hours a week for more than a year, as we have full daytime jobs. In a single  year our man hours alone would be 6,240 hours for just a year.  Consider we were paid just $7 an hour for that labor. (On average we make far more than $7 an hour at our day jobs. ) That would mean that the game would have make $43,680 just to pay for wages for that time; at below minimum wage.

What happens in this business is we get paid for the end result. Like a painter. A painter creates a painting and puts it up for sale. He knows about what his other paintings have brought him and he knows what his customers like. So, he prices his painting accordingly. That's how the wargame market is.

We know going into this that we won't get paid equal to the manhours put into it. Wargames are created for you by people that love the hobby. They are sold to you by a business of some sort. Each of them would like to make enough money to make it worth their while.

So, normally, for most products, you as the consumer usually do pay for research and development time. In wargames you normally don't.

Hope that helps.

Good Hunting.

MR

[JudgeDredd]

Ok - those are some very good points  :)

[bayonetbrant]

LB and I were talking through some back-of-the-napkin math over a recent release ("recent" in this case was 2011, at the time we were talking) and after the cut from the publisher, the software/hardware overhead, and business costs (incorporation, taxes, etc), each member of the dev team cleared about $3k, for a pretty major release through S&M.  18 months of pretty hard work, for, essentially, a really nice coffee table from Pottery Barn.