2020-10-06 Shores of Hazeron Moving to Steam

[Zensras]

By the way Haxus, Can we have an open poll for everyone regarding the universe wipe? Some people have been slightly upset at the thought of finally starting up and losing it all. I would have voted to keep it but I am not a patreon and was honestly thinking about...until you pulled it... :(

[Deantwo]

The one change that might necessitate a restart would be changing which dimension some of the galaxies are in. It really just changes the intergalactic wormhole network and a few other minor things. The change could leave some buildings on the "other side", from where they are now.

I guess you could check which galaxies aren't populated, and move those around. I doubt anyone would mind you moving the galaxies around. I am sure a few of the galaxies are unpopulated.

too complex

Lol. That is the story of Shores of Hazeron.

Assuming that was directed at me talking about the building volume allocation. I guess "complex" isn't the right word for it.
Building volume allocation is needlessly confusing, allows for really stupid mistakes, and otherwise really bad blueprints.
But yeah I have talked about it many time, best to just read what I wrote already. Doesn't help for me to repeat myself over and over again.
See: Building Blueprint Simplification

One of the worst things about the complex building blueprints, is that only the person that made the blueprint will know how it should be used. The construction window just can't show all the needed information in a simple way that a complete new player will ever understand. Great example is the "Aircraft Factory by Haxus", everyone use it because it has the most workshops, but then they are confused when they notice all the space rockets they manufacture are moved to random buildings throughout their city.

Complexity isn't a bad thing in the game, but things can be too confusing to understand.

[danthemanisme95]

I'm gonna reiterate vooker's point to add to mine the steam release needs to be free to play until the game stable enough to stand on its own without constant tweaking, limboing, and client crashes. Maintain the patereon I know I'll keep contributing and I'm confident other will too even if I'm not actively playing. $5 a month with no strings attached so that you can get this 2 decade passion project into a full fledged reality is something I'm happy to throw money at

[Antares]

I have no idea if you are ever going to support this idea Haxus, but there might be a solution to turn the official multiplayer server into private servers that people can host. Hopefully this will really reduce the costs of your servers.

1) Build an authentication system for Shores of Hazeron. It might be a bit safer too if a username is connected with a 25 digit serial key.
2) Give people the freedom to host their own private servers, up to max. 100 solar systems so it can be hosted at a cheap VPS. (server owner can choose if it is a peace or war dimension)
2.a) If the server owner is hosting the dedicated server, the server asks for the 25 digit serial key and connects the server with the avatar and makes him automatically the owner.
2.b) Crash logs inside the private servers could automatically be collected and send back to the Hazeron database.
3) If it comes up to private servers, the admins should have five commands only; ban, kick, flying cam, teleport to player and refueling vehicles.
4) If people play a private server hosted by someone, they can see in a new window (just like the official empires page) how many empires exist and who owns them, with information about the in-game avatars.
5) It would still be fun if your official server will still be there. This will give a reliable feeling for people that are pushing a lot of energy into building their empire, so that they know that their empire wouldn't be gone within a week if the server owner just drops down his/her own private server.

[danthemanisme95]

Heck if going the private route uisng steam's server system might make a lot of sense

[Zensras]

Fucking hell, I'll gladly throw money at the Patreon as well if you keep it running Haxus PLUS buying a copy on steam.

[Rockinsince87]

The Shores of Hazeron app on Steam will not be free. There will be a one time fee, not a monthly subscription, somewhere around $25.

I can maintain the current Universe through the transition. When you launch the game from Steam, you will have a new account and a new list of avatars. I could then transfer your old avatars to your new Steam account.

Poll Question:

1. Keep the current Universe when Shores of Hazeron is published on Steam.
   
2. Reset the Universe when Shores of Hazeron is published on Steam.
   

I, like all the others want Hazeron to keep going. the $25 price tag to play the game is well worth it. Been a steam member for 10 years. I've never had an issue with them. 

Keeping the current Universe and transferring the avatars sounds good. Can you disable decay during that time?

[OnePercent]

film of a group of supersoldiers clearing a ship

The film was incredibly awesome.

I wish I had that kind of talent for visual artistry.

We all have a niche to fill. It's just a matter of finding it.

I'd like to fill the niche I have undertaken but I'm not convinced a niche is there.

Throwing away a pretty good start on patreon is not going to help convince you if you have found a niche IMO, also, is there any actual legal reason you must close the patreon? why not keep it open while you sell it on steam? I'm pretty sure there's a few game studios who sell on steam while owning their own patreon as these are two different entities and are unrelated.

[QuakeIV]

I'd pay 25 dollars, but I do think its probably better to release it for free on steam under early access and to then mention the patreon in passing. I think people would be really critical of the game if it was paid, but if it is free then it would be seen in a much more sympathetic light.

I think I'd be a patron if you had a subscribestar or something, I am not currently because I strongly dislike patreon as a company.

[Rockinsince87]

 I think people would be really critical of the game if it was paid, but if it is free then it would be seen in a much more sympathetic light.

Yeah I don't want to see other people jump all over Hazeron so I agree with you on that. Steam reviews can be rough for some early releases. However if you look at games that are, and I use this term lightly, "similar", they are doing well in terms of sales. Empyrion is one of those games that has a die hard fan base and community. They started out very rough when they hit early release. Hazeron has a ton of features that vastly out number Empyrion's current state, and they have somewhere around 500,000 downloads to 1,000,000. They had to expand their team due to the demand and cash flow. https://steamspy.com/app/383120 

Their early reviews were toxic at best. 

Look at the game "Objects in space". https://steamspy.com/app/824070 they have a similar price with around 50,000 downloads to 100,000 downloads. That game was fun but it's nothing like Hazeron. Heck the game is abandoned and they are still selling!

"Starship Evo" https://steamspy.com/app/711980, early access a few months ago, already about 20,000 downloads. 

The space/sandbox community is strong and they are fiercely loyal. Because there is not a game that meets what they are looking for, and when they find one that might just be able to satiate their hunger, they latch on.

I think if Hazeron is presented on steam correctly, it can do very very well. Very few games have a rich community like Hazeron with steady updates. When I look at my saved screenshots from U3 and U4 to now...it's amazing how much Haxus has improved Hazeron. How many games do you own that you can say you have played for years on end! There are not many.