So, I was looking at some particular "army builder tool" (with particular sigmarines in it), and I was astonished. This piece of software is plagued by bugs, have very limited usability and what on top requires you to pay a monthly subscription cost (not to mention additional cost of rules xD). I've looked at ArmyVI and realized how great in usability this tool is, and its completely free (not to mention it has desktop version with some cloud functionality). It got me thinking, should there be a "Premium" version of ArmyVI giving some additional features for a price ? What features would you see "worth paying for" ? (disclaimer: no I don't think ArmyVI should be paid in current form, though if it was it would still be a good money-investment) (personal note: I hope that any additional money would go into increasing the fluff/storytelling capabilities, and I mean "execution of ideas" as ideas themselves are already great, it's just the execution which is sometimes lacking)
No. But I would probably consider a patreon model for one maintained by a member of the community though.
That's was kinda of idea. Additional fetures were more to be a "patreon level gratification" for support.
I'd do it as a 'pay what you want' scheme, but not on a monthly basis: I'd do it as the 'payment for things' option ie 'update released, triggers payment'. The issue with that model is that people tend to abuse it (releasing lots of little updates rather than single more comprehensive ones). Most importantly however, Mayanet already exists and is AWESOME, and I love Toady's work there.
Dunno, I'm quite uncreative guy. Would rather say it should be more alongside "vanity" functions that an actual hard usability features. But something along: more slots to save lists would be a good start....
I have a couple of things to say about this from several points of view. As a player who has bought all the hard copies of all the books (including ITS 9) and thus someone who does pay extra for Corvus Belli's products; no, absolutely not. Providing and maintaining Army free is one of the things that Corvus Belli are doing absolutely right. I'm also a software developer and user interface specialist by trade, and someone who was always regarded by other members of his teams as caring far too much about good software and UI for his own good. I was also the author of one of the first army builder iPhone apps for Warhammer,* so I think it fair to say I have a professional opinion about whether it's any good. What I have to say is that it's really not the application I would've built myself, and I expect @toadchild would probably say much the same thing. It's quirky and doesn't really do what I want it to do the way I want to do it, and it does annoy me, but as I say, I have a bit of a reputation for wanting perfection and I'm honestly surprised that anyone else really notices. Plus, it look fantastic in most respects (in fact dazzling, if you think being dazzled is a good thing...); it's fast, it works offline, and it has a lot of really great features that we all use every day. So if you gave me a salary, a place to sit in CB Headquarters, free access to their resources and a couple of their staff part-time. Here's my top pick for things that really need fixing: the rulebook. Spoiler: Necron Codex for GW - mid 2011
For what reason? Current version does just about everything I need my army builder to do. The only additional function it could use would be exporting army list in jpg form for easier fb posting, and that is a vanity function :P
There is one thing I would like to see in army builder and that I would pay for: Inclusion of the lore. If there was an option to habilitate a permanent 'Would you like to know more?' button that opened a page with a short tale discussing the origins and uses of each unit of the army in the human sphere, I would shell out some 5-10 bucks for it with no problem. I say this because the Malifaux army builder has such function, and I think it's kinda cool as an extra source of knowledge.
NO. I think it is a terrible idea. Infinity is a Miniature game. CorvusBelli make their money by primarily selling miniatures. (I assume. There could be some weird nerd rage/data mining black market, but I don't think so.) Free rules, and free list building tools are marketing ideas to increase the exposure and accessibility and desirability of the miniatures. Personally I think that releasing their lore for free as well would only help their ability to make money. By gating content, even vanity content behind a paywall, all you do is reduce your exposure. Also you run the risk of the person designing the 'Pro' version, pushing to restrict vital information behind the paywall as a way to generate more income to justify their salary. If a list building app was their primary business, then yes by all means. I realize it takes time, talent, and effort to build these things. But as a miniature company, I feel the investment in these tools that are then given away for free are a huge part of CorvusBelli's success so far. The increased volume of sales should more than pay for the investment of the free tools. That being said, I have never tried to run my own business, so I have to (reluctantly) admit that I might not actually know what I am talking about.
Being able to organized saved army lists would be a really nice feature. I'd like to be able to save all my Acon lists under an Acon heading, JSA lists under JSA, etc. rather than having them all jumbled into the same list. Alternately, being able to create categories for my different lists would be nice. One category for "LGS Escalation League" could hold all those relevant lists, but if I'm traveling to Rumble on Route 66 2018, I could have a separate category for "Rumble on Route 66". Being able to specify what missions a list is designed for as part of the army list would also be nice, so I'm not continually trying to remember what scenarios I'm building for. Example: build a list titled "It Came from the Woods" for my Tikbalang Acon, selecting Frontline, Decapitation, Deadly Dance as the missions where the list would be used. For ITS players brainstorming lists to prep for an event, it would be nice to have all of that neatly organized. As it is right now my list names tend to be something like "RoR66 Frontline/Decap Tik/Nagas/Regulars" so that I can get all the information I need into a specific list file. That's a lot of contextual data to cram into a limited character count.
outside of some quality of life improvements I think Army does exactly what it's supposed to. A paid model wouldn't add enough to make it "worth it" unless they strip out features that we currently enjoy for free.
