Kickstarter is live!

[mlwhitt]

Proud to support the Kickstarter.  Just wish I wasn't currently out on medical extended medical leave so money is tight or I would have went for a higher tier.  I am not worried about AI Wars 2 hitting the magic number.   These days more and more people wait until the last day to back. 

[Tridus]

I do find it a shame that arcen suffers for this. But that is business.

Not something I want to see - hence the proposal to pay here (on arcengames.com) under the assurance that I'm either funding the kickstarter (if it succeeds) or I'll get a legitimate copy of one of Arcen's other games.

-chronodekar

They can't give you that assurance. It's against kickstarters rules. The only money that counts for funding on KS is the money through KS. After its funded, it's common to open up a paypal option some other way. For example, the Arcen store, or Steam once it's early access.

You two options are to wait, or use anither payment method. Here in North America, we have options that let you use a debit card as a credit card, which pulls from your bank account instead and thus doesn't incur any debt, but systems like KS see it as a credit card.

[Tridus]

Paypal always has divided opinions. I am regularly paid by them. Not by choice. But because that is the only choice I have for my side jobs...

I will go against the grain in saying I can understand kick starter not wanting to deal with them. They are both financial companies fighting turf wars. Each jealously want their cut. Both cant have their way...

I do find it a shame that arcen suffers for this. But that is business.

It's more than that. PayPal is pretty loosey goosey with refund policies and had been known to screw over sellers well after any reasonable period, with terrible customer service when you want to try and resolve it. The credit card transaction processors are a global system with standardized policies and laws/regulations/contracts  to enforce them.

There's also fees if people use s credit card via PayPal.

They could work this stuff out, but haven't. I never touch PayPal for similar reasons: I don't want some unregulated foreign company with poor customer service anywhere near my bank account. My mortgage and food money is in there. :p

[Tridus]

We're currently #9 on the Kicktraq hot list, for those who are interested: https://www.kicktraq.com/hotlist/

[keith.lamothe]

On the paypal-right-now thing, the critical, deal-breaker point is that:


Kickstarter won't take your money if the project doesn't reach the goal, but Paypal will take it immediately.


We can't in good conscience take, say, 10% of the money (via paypal, or directly, or whatever) and then just not produce something. And we certainly can't produce the game for only 10% of the money.

So then we'd be stuck trying to do a ton of refunds through paypal and wind up in a worse position than simply not succeeding in funding.


But if we succeed and after we get the KS money, other options definitely make sense.

[TheVampire100]

I'm a little irritated about the tier that gives you the secret behind the Ai motivations of their actions. Does that mean we don't see this in the game? I really hoped you would finally put some lore int he game and not "behind the scenes" this time.
Or does it only mean you know it first while others know it only during the relase or when they find it in the game?

[Captain Jack]

I'm a little irritated about the tier that gives you the secret behind the Ai motivations of their actions. Does that mean we don't see this in the game? I really hoped you would finally put some lore int he game and not "behind the scenes" this time.
Or does it only mean you know it first while others know it only during the relase or when they find it in the game?

You mean what kicked off the firs AI War? That's earmarked for something later.

What's behind the current conflict? Working on working that into the game. Might have to wait for an expansion but it'll be there.

[chemical_art]

I'm a little irritated about the tier that gives you the secret behind the Ai motivations of their actions. Does that mean we don't see this in the game? I really hoped you would finally put some lore int he game and not "behind the scenes" this time.
Or does it only mean you know it first while others know it only during the relase or when they find it in the game?

I feel feel like that tier made it pretty explicit that while you would be the *first* to know, eventually that knowledge would become public.

[Tigris]

I'm a little irritated about the tier that gives you the secret behind the Ai motivations of their actions. Does that mean we don't see this in the game? I really hoped you would finally put some lore int he game and not "behind the scenes" this time.
Or does it only mean you know it first while others know it only during the relase or when they find it in the game?

I feel feel like that tier made it pretty explicit that while you would be the *first* to know, eventually that knowledge would become public.

How so? "Discover the AIs secret history and motivation (but no telling!)" is pretty vague and absolutely not the way you interpret it.
Especially since also in the chart it is named "Learn the AIs secret" and only these 2 tiers are checked, for me this means only this 2 tiers will get that, else they lied to the people pledging for that tier...

[Aklyon]

In my view, its literally 'You get to learn some secret lore first, but we aren't guaranteeing you're the only ones who ever get to know'.
If it was supposed to be '(but no telling, we won't either)', then that would line up with your interpretation Tigris.

Also, maybe stick the kicktraq minichart in the first post?

[Captain Jack]

I'm a little irritated about the tier that gives you the secret behind the Ai motivations of their actions. Does that mean we don't see this in the game? I really hoped you would finally put some lore int he game and not "behind the scenes" this time.
Or does it only mean you know it first while others know it only during the relase or when they find it in the game?

I feel feel like that tier made it pretty explicit that while you would be the *first* to know, eventually that knowledge would become public.

How so? "Discover the AIs secret history and motivation (but no telling!)" is pretty vague and absolutely not the way you interpret it.
Especially since also in the chart it is named "Learn the AIs secret" and only these 2 tiers are checked, for me this means only this 2 tiers will get that, else they lied to the people pledging for that tier...

Did you check the reward section in the campaign? I agree it's not as clear as it could be. Any suggestions?

[chemical_art]

I'm a little irritated about the tier that gives you the secret behind the Ai motivations of their actions. Does that mean we don't see this in the game? I really hoped you would finally put some lore int he game and not "behind the scenes" this time.
Or does it only mean you know it first while others know it only during the relase or when they find it in the game?

I feel feel like that tier made it pretty explicit that while you would be the *first* to know, eventually that knowledge would become public.

How so? "Discover the AIs secret history and motivation (but no telling!)" is pretty vague and absolutely not the way you interpret it.
Especially since also in the chart it is named "Learn the AIs secret" and only these 2 tiers are checked, for me this means only this 2 tiers will get that, else they lied to the people pledging for that tier...

Quoting from the kickstarter, emphasis mine:

Learn the AI's secret: Why did the AI turn on mankind? Why did it fail to destroy humanity when it had the chance? And why did the AI leave itself vulnerable during the First AI War? The time isn't right to share these answers, but we're prepared to do so early with the AI War superfans at the Spire tiers. If you want to know, then please keep it to yourself! If you’d prefer not to know, we’ll happily keep this secret a while longer. Still, one cool turn deserves another, and this is the coolest thing we could think to do.

It implies it will come out sooner or later.

[Tigris]

I wanted to ask:

Where do you get the "we do not guarantee..." from?
The chart clearly states only 3K and 5K learn the secret. No first, or anything similar there.

But after reading again further down it is stated differently (as stated above.)

 But in all honesty this is misleading. Most people will not read that part.
And the other 2 parts are far more prominent. (And this is by far the most boring part where you can find this...)
I mean just longer text about stuff you see on the right side in short form...

This kickstarter feels made mainly for superfans, reading everything and knowing what AI war is...
I am not sure if it can suceed this way....

[Captain Jack]

The sidebar is for stating rewards, not explaining them. Gets messy fast. If you have suggestions for how to reword the explanation in the pitch proper I'll happily take them. 

Also, we're about to reach 10% funding! *airhorn*

Release the update!

[chemical_art]

I guess as a native speaker when a company tells me: "But no telling..." It does not necessarily mean the company will or will not tell that secret one way or another, just that I should not be the one announcing it.

Using that same logic, if the company really didn't want anyone to know the secret, they will not tell it. The adage "“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” applies. You can't release this information if you really wanted it secret.