10% Discount Already?

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Wow, that was fast. I understand it's only a 10% discount, but I didn't expect to see anything until the Christmas Sale given that the game apparently sold well. I was originally intending to wait for a steeper discount, because I haven't actually finished a run of Frostpunk yet despite loving the themes; every time I screw up or misunderstand a mechanic, I smash that Quickload key or even restart a run entirely; in pursuit of the perfect run.

It's a habit of mine, and I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad one; it regularly comes into effect playing immersive sims, survival horror, grand strategy, and any other game where making wrong decisions early (wasting resources, etc.) will cause hardship later. While it's fun to unpick the perfect way to play, it also results in a lot of games I love going unfinished. Not helping is that I also tend to restart singleplayer games when I come back after a long break, since I know I'd make different decisions.

With that all in mind, I presume I should keep waiting for a steeper discount? I could certainly afford the game at its current price, but I'd rather buy a half-dozen games at 75% off. Also, do you have any tips to actually stick with a Frostpunk run rather than restart at the first mistake?

[adrien_perleflamme]

Depending on games, it could be a bad one. I wouldn't recommend it for games where loss is part of the fun of the game (Disco Elysium, Life is Strange or any narrative-heavy game where the character losing is just another way of reaching more content).

It could be the case for Frostpunk, given it's also a narrative game on top of being a resource management game. And frankly, for Frostpunk 1 and 2, I'd recommend going for winning, but with barely enough (which is incredibly hard for a blind run, sadly). Otherwise, you lose the sense of challenge and hardship that is supposed to be narrated and the accomplishment fall flat.

For instance, I really ruined my first game of Frostpunk 1 Winterhome scenario by playing just too good for what was intended (the first couple of days being absolutely critical in building placement and resource gathering). Everything in the narration felt disconnected to the actual gameplay state, to the point I didn't need the generator at all to survive, leaving it completely off, yet it somehow decided to "malfunction?" and threaten to "explode?" and kill everyone... now how can a turned off generator malfunction and explode is beyond me, but whatever.

[Hammer]

Got about 15 hours out of it. (Would be 10ish if not for the save file wiping dx12 crashes) Once you figure out the optimal play style there's not much point in re-playing. All the nodes are in the same spots each time so each city looks identical once you understand the best placement for each district and complimentary hubs.

Am I going to play stupid and place buildings differently for a change?

I understand now the lifelessness of it compared to FP1. There are some grim policy and tech choices to make but it doesn't matter because the 'people' are just numbers and don't actually exist.

[idiot2]

Originally posted by Stump:

Got about 15 hours out of it. (Would be 10ish if not for the save file wiping dx12 crashes) Once you figure out the optimal play style there's not much point in re-playing. All the nodes are in the same spots each time so each city looks identical once you understand the best placement for each district and complimentary hubs.

Am I going to play stupid and place buildings differently for a change?

I understand now the lifelessness of it compared to FP1. There are some grim policy and tech choices to make but it doesn't matter because the 'people' are just numbers and don't actually exist.

This sounds like you have not played Utopia mode? (arguably the main mode of the game...)

[adrien_perleflamme]

Originally posted by Stump:

Got about 15 hours out of it. (Would be 10ish if not for the save file wiping dx12 crashes) Once you figure out the optimal play style there's not much point in re-playing. All the nodes are in the same spots each time so each city looks identical once you understand the best placement for each district and complimentary hubs.

Am I going to play stupid and place buildings differently for a change?

I understand now the lifelessness of it compared to FP1. There are some grim policy and tech choices to make but it doesn't matter because the 'people' are just numbers and don't actually exist.

It's a criticism FP 1 got upon release, actually. And it was even worse, back then, since endless mode wasn't even at the point it is now in FP 2.

[Lieutenant Double Yefreitor]

Originally posted by adrien_perleflamme:

Depending on games, it could be a bad one. I wouldn't recommend it for games where loss is part of the fun of the game (Disco Elysium, Life is Strange or any narrative-heavy game where the character losing is just another way of reaching more content).

It could be the case for Frostpunk, given it's also a narrative game on top of being a resource management game. And frankly, for Frostpunk 1 and 2, I'd recommend going for winning, but with barely enough (which is incredibly hard for a blind run, sadly). Otherwise, you lose the sense of challenge and hardship that is supposed to be narrated and the accomplishment fall flat.

For instance, I really ruined my first game of Frostpunk 1 Winterhome scenario by playing just too good for what was intended (the first couple of days being absolutely critical in building placement and resource gathering). Everything in the narration felt disconnected to the actual gameplay state, to the point I didn't need the generator at all to survive, leaving it completely off, yet it somehow decided to "malfunction?" and threaten to "explode?" and kill everyone... now how can a turned off generator malfunction and explode is beyond me, but whatever.

I suppose they don't turn off the generator entirely, merely lower the heat enough for it to not require coal. In the last autumn DLC we find out that Generators are built on top of some kind of heat/flammable gas deposits, that run deep underground. The Generator is built to maximise the heat production from these sources, and likely has an intricate mechanism inside to balance pressure and whatnot, even in an inert state.

If that mechanism goes tits up, the caverns below can explode from the building pressure, and the city's ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

But that's my justification.

[adrien_perleflamme]

I agree it can be justified, but it was way before Last Autumn DLC release and there wasn't even a glimpse of an explanation or handwaving about it.

[SoloQ]

It's actually pretty common now-a-days to see games launch or pre-sell at a 10% discount to boost early sales numbers.

[Hugh Kantseeme]

For at least the past month, you buy Steam keys from various resellers, which are still at least 20% cheaper than can the current sale price in the Steam store.

It has lost all of the sales momentum from its launch window, on Steam it is selling significantly less than 2 old year games like the full price base version of Elden Ring and even Cyber Punk which isn't exactly setting sales charts on fire at the moment.

[adrien_perleflamme]

Originally posted by Hugh Kantseeme:

For at least the past month, you buy Steam keys from various resellers, which are still at least 20% cheaper than can the current sale price in the Steam store.

It has lost all of the sales momentum from its launch window, on Steam it is selling significantly less than 2 old year games like the full price base version of Elden Ring and even Cyber Punk which isn't exactly setting sales charts on fire at the moment.

Wait, are you comparing Elden Ring and Cyber Punk to Frostpunk 2? I mean, do you realize the gap in investment? It's not even the same studio size at all.

[Čmaroljub Grozni]

People will doomsay and talk ♥♥♥♥ but facts are facts: https://vginsights.com/game/frostpunk-2
Forstpunk 2 already earned close to 50% of what FP1 did (in 6 years), in a single month. At that point, early 10% discount is like...whatever, so much money has been made already anyway.

[Hugh Kantseeme]

Originally posted by adrien_perleflamme:

Wait, are you comparing Elden Ring and Cyber Punk to Frostpunk 2? I mean, do you realize the gap in investment? It's not even the same studio size at all.

Why not? They are considered old games, if you look at your local shop games like Cyber Punk and Elden Ring, would be selling 1-5 physical copies per month nowadays, and that's in a busy month.

Frostpunk 2 has been out for just over 2 months..so it should be making a lot of money at this stage. It's actually absymal on the Steam charts as it was making less money than a Dark Souls (Remastered) a 6 year old console port. https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topsellers/US/2024-10-1

[adrien_perleflamme]

Originally posted by Hugh Kantseeme:

Originally posted by adrien_perleflamme:

Wait, are you comparing Elden Ring and Cyber Punk to Frostpunk 2? I mean, do you realize the gap in investment? It's not even the same studio size at all.

Why not? They are considered old games, if you look at your local shop games like Cyber Punk and Elden Ring, would be selling 1-5 physical copies per month nowadays, and that's in a busy month.

Frostpunk 2 has been out for just over 2 months..so it should be making a lot of money at this stage. It's actually absymal on the Steam charts as it was making less money than a Dark Souls (Remastered) a 6 year old console port. https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topsellers/US/2024-10-1

Yes, exactly: they are old games and have really big investments compared to FP 2, which is newer and with way less investments in it. I don't think you can accurately compare them, unless you can have some way to figure out how long you need to wait for a big investment to matter less than a lesser one, which I figure you don't.

Just like you can't really compare big industry books sales to newer but smaller industry books, like Lovecraft can't really compare to some more obscure literature sold more recently.

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Originally posted by adrien_perleflamme:

Originally posted by Hugh Kantseeme:

Why not? They are considered old games, if you look at your local shop games like Cyber Punk and Elden Ring, would be selling 1-5 physical copies per month nowadays, and that's in a busy month.

Frostpunk 2 has been out for just over 2 months..so it should be making a lot of money at this stage. It's actually absymal on the Steam charts as it was making less money than a Dark Souls (Remastered) a 6 year old console port. https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topsellers/US/2024-10-1

Yes, exactly: they are old games and have really big investments compared to FP 2, which is newer and with way less investments in it. I don't think you can accurately compare them, unless you can have some way to figure out how long you need to wait for a big investment to matter less than a lesser one, which I figure you don't.

Just like you can't really compare big industry books sales to newer but smaller industry books, like Lovecraft can't really compare to some more obscure literature sold more recently.

Do Lovecraft books actually sell that many copies? I was under the impression that the majority of Lovecraft fans just enjoy games based on it like Warhammer and Call of Cthulhu; Lovecraft's writing style is rather archaic and was notoriously reactionary even in his own time. And they're presumably public-domain, so anyone who wants to read it can just look it up online.

[adrien_perleflamme]

Originally posted by Crossbreed Priscilla:

Originally posted by adrien_perleflamme:

Yes, exactly: they are old games and have really big investments compared to FP 2, which is newer and with way less investments in it. I don't think you can accurately compare them, unless you can have some way to figure out how long you need to wait for a big investment to matter less than a lesser one, which I figure you don't.

Just like you can't really compare big industry books sales to newer but smaller industry books, like Lovecraft can't really compare to some more obscure literature sold more recently.

Do Lovecraft books actually sell that many copies? I was under the impression that the majority of Lovecraft fans just enjoy games based on it like Warhammer and Call of Cthulhu; Lovecraft's writing style is rather archaic and was notoriously reactionary even in his own time. And they're presumably public-domain, so anyone who wants to read it can just look it up online.

The majority of Lovecraft fans are not gamers but readers. And readers are notoriously adept of owning rather than only reading (preferably in beautiful books), to the point many readers were the first ones being part of movements going against digitization of books. It sells so well you can see lots of editions, with some of them being regularly sold out. Like here: https://darkrosebooks.com/collections/h-p-lovecraft-books

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Originally posted by adrien_perleflamme:

Originally posted by Crossbreed Priscilla:

Do Lovecraft books actually sell that many copies? I was under the impression that the majority of Lovecraft fans just enjoy games based on it like Warhammer and Call of Cthulhu; Lovecraft's writing style is rather archaic and was notoriously reactionary even in his own time. And they're presumably public-domain, so anyone who wants to read it can just look it up online.

The majority of Lovecraft fans are not gamers but readers. And readers are notoriously adept of owning rather than only reading (preferably in beautiful books), to the point many readers were the first ones being part of movements going against digitization of books. It sells so well you can see lots of editions, with some of them being regularly sold out. Like here: https://darkrosebooks.com/collections/h-p-lovecraft-books

Huh; I'm pretty much an online-only reader these days, so I'll have to take your word for it. Outside of textbooks, the only physical books me and my sister have purchased lately are the occasional Light Novel when we want to reward the creator of the anime.

This was my source for my claim that most Lovecraft fans don't read the books; while discussing the concept of franchises that exist mostly in fanworks, it cites Lovecraft as an example (Touhou Project, a doujin bullet hell shooter, is another famous one):

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FanworkOnlyFans