I'd imagine that it would take alot of management infrastructure to outsource development to India. Paying a few develpers, that love the product, a minimal salary will produce a far superior product than one sent out to some faceles programmers. I still say ditch the office if at all possible, and minimize any unnecessary overhead.

You know, alot of software companies pay money to their beta testers. It really says alot about this game that the beta testers are willing to pay to beta test.

Whatever you do Guild, don't sell out and abandon your Linux and Mac clients. I have a feeling that we comprise the majority of the zealots frothing at the bit for this game to continue.

I was talking to Incarnate the sunday night on IRC and he said that they have been running on a budget of about $3,000 or so a month. No, they do not have a hosting/bandwidth bill at this time. As far as ditching the offices go, that would probably kill Vendetta. It's not easy working from home. (As I can attest to!) (And I also suggested that and Incarnate responded with the above.)

If a monthly costing is avalible, how about we look at the immediate future, start a save vendetta fund, then put a page on the site with an accumulated so far and target ammount.

Not sure about paying for access to suggestions as people might get a bit pissed off if they have dontaed alot but none of their ideas are used (for whatever reasons). Just think it could cause some nasty situations...

I think we should have a "Donations" web page which displays who and how much people have donated (if they feel they want to).. Everyone likes to show-off there financial situation to others (especially if ya rich) so it might seed a donation war (sorry students, maybe in a few years you'll feel beter about this one!) ;-)

As for monthly fees, i'd be happy with grouping/guilds and some sort of ship colour customisation, nothing more....

Yeah. Ship colour custimisation wouldn't be too hard to implement, would it, devvies?

Hmm, primary i would pay to help keep the Vendetta project running.
I don't need any benefits for it, if just the work goes on.

But, ability to do an individual paintjob would be nice.
Very nice.

I still think the power of Slashdot could save Vendetta...someone with some writing skill make a story and post it.

If wikipedia can ask for money on Slashdot, then why can't Guild?
Guild Software *is* developing a **Linux** game...so it should be easy to get it on Slashdot (but I have no writing skill, otherwise I'd do it).

How hard is it to get this testbed version posted on say fileplanet...or some other distribution site....I hit this site a couple times a day, I see and try a ton of games out..and have the option to even rate my experience. Not sure if this would help or hinder, but just a thought.

/me is down with monthly payments and will participate in said venture for sure.

How about charging a one time fee of 9.95 to just create an account?

That would probably scare just about anybody away tilt...

STOP TALKING ABOUT SLASHDOT YOU INSENSITIVE CLODS
THINK OF CHILDREN

So how much is the developers is willing to charge players? $5.00? $10.00? $15.00?

I'm not really against pay to play because I'm already paying for 3 Jumpgate accounts. :P

Paypal would be one nice way to actually subscribe.

So far, it sounds as if paying for the priviledge of making suggestions is not popular.

Popular suggestions are:
-ability to have custom paint/skins
-ability to have special tags
-ability to see rankings
-ability to form guilds
-ability to use extra forums

It sounds like the way to go might not be to exclude those who can't/won't pay, but to provide paying members with "133t" eye-candy and perhaps a little extra access that would not signficantly impact game play.

I suggest that extra forums include an "Off-Off-Topic" area for unmitigated strangeness, and perhaps HTML abilities. I also like the idea of more "radio" channel options in-game.

-more later, gotta run-

Off-Off-Topic? HTML?

*drools*

hmmmmmmmmm....
I dont like the idea of a pay-only suggestion thing, but honestly, I dont know anything better...

The custom paint jobs etc. for the paying player is cool, but then again I wouldn't have those great things, because I am a broke high school kid making 6 bucks an hour with a 100 paycheck every two weeks that I spend on booze, and keeping my car running. Hopefully I'll be getting a new job too, but either way I will pay, wether its my parents or me :).

Why not just make it so people who dont pay can have acess to special ships :P

The other nice thing about raising funs from "eye candy", is that you can have sales now and then, like extra time or a few dollars off, and also, money can be raised now and then for contests... win a skin or a color or something. And it promotes more people seeing and wanting it :)

I considered and rejected the idea of only allowing paying players to have the special ships because I think people would feel that the paying players would then be too uber and would totally dominate the game, scare off noobs, damage the ozone, etc.

Perhaps only paying players would have access to the black market, so that non-paying players could have the specials associated only with their nation. This might or might not be in conjunction with a limit on the number of characters one could have as a non-paying player. We'll need to feel that out a bit so that paying players feel rewarded while non-paying players don't feel punished.

Paying customers should have access to a special "Sponsors" forum and a few sponsors sectors where they can do things like Deathmatch and dueling modes or a special frigate sector. Nothing important gameplay wise, just a little bonus. It would convince people who are on the fence about donating to go ahead and do it without making it unfair to players. The only problem though, may be that all the paying vets will idle their time away in their fancy paying sectors and not interact with the rest of the game. So put a time limit on the special sectors propotional to the amount donated. Bigger donations give you a longer time allowance there per day. Or something like that.

Or, make it so that everybody can acces these special sectors. But only the payers can dock, and do all the special stuff...