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Ldd Parts Packs


Chip Wiseman

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Recently, I had an idea. An idea that, I think, is better than the usual junk I come up with.How about, instead of LDD updates bringing new parts in and deleting old ones, users could download extension packs containing parts they want. That way, we could get more parts available but a smaller initial download file size. For example:Say Joe wanted to use LDD to combine Hero Factory with Technic. He does not have LDD yet, but his friends tell him it's great. So he goes to www.LEGO.com, and finds what he's looking for. He clicks download. He's surprised at how quickly it loaded. When he opens it, he is prompted to start building by getting parts packs. He sees two, marked Hero Factory 2010-12 and Technic 2012. A short download later, he's ready to let his imagination run like Black Bess.I'd put this on Cuusoo, but alas, I am not 18 yet.What do you think of this idea? (And please don't fill this topic with statements about how 'it's not profitable any more')EDIT: 101st post! Woo!

Edited by Gresh's Thornax...Ouchy!!!

-L- to the -K-


Sometimes, I look at my desk, and think, "What am I doing with my life?"


...


Then, I go back to my videogames.


I used to be known as 'Gresh's Thornax...Ouchy!!!', before I realised what a silly name it was.


Other previous names include Lihkan435 and Chip Biscuit.

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This sounds like a pretty cool idea. I'd surely support it if it were on CUUSOO. It might be difficult though, due to the way that LEGO Digital Designer is programmed, but I guess it wouldn't be too far-fetched. Also, it might be bad if they become hacked, or put on unreliable download sites where kids might get viruses or other things that they shouldn't.

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DISCLAIMER: All opinions and contributions made under this account are based solely on my own personal thoughts and opinions, and in no way represent any of the above groups/entities. If you have any concerns or inquiries about the contributions made under this account, please contact me individually and I will address them with you to the best of my ability.

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LDD updates almost never remove any significant parts. Pretty much every part that was on LDD Extended mode in the last version is on LDD Extended mode in this version. So really "extension packs" would be a bit pointless.

What I think he meant is that it could be an advantage to not have to have all kinds of parts installed if you didn't need them, and that you can install different "packs" separately.

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Meiko - @georgebarnick

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Administrator at BIONICLEsector01

 

DISCLAIMER: All opinions and contributions made under this account are based solely on my own personal thoughts and opinions, and in no way represent any of the above groups/entities. If you have any concerns or inquiries about the contributions made under this account, please contact me individually and I will address them with you to the best of my ability.

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It's a good idea. IF they ever do delete parts, and apparently they do, IMO they should all be made available in this way, if nothing else. I find the normal download to be reasonable, but then I now have a much faster computer than my old one so yeah.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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Plus they could make a BIONICLE pack, with all the original Mata pieces, and then I would never leave my computer again.

Yeah, I thought of that after posting, and I agree, that would be freakin' awesome. Want. Want. Want.:P

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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The ultimate ambition of the LDD programming team is to have all of the parts LEGO produces available for use on LDD, except for a few that for unstated reasons could not be made usable on the program. But I think one problem with changing LDD from a simple one-click download to a program with various downloadable "parts packs" is, as fishers64 mentioned, it might be hard to know which part pack you need for a particular part. I think the best course of action is having LDD remain a "one-size-fits-all" program where parts are not removed except by accident or as a result of flaws in the part itself.Plus, the work that would go into splitting the already-available parts up into convenient "parts packs" would be time and effort not spent on actually creating new parts for the program. The idea has as many downsides as it has advantages, and so given the difficulty of making it a reality I think it would overall be a waste of effort compared to the work that the LDD team is already doing to create real improvements in the program.

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The ultimate ambition of the LDD programming team is to have all of the parts LEGO produces available for use on LDD, except for a few that for unstated reasons could not be made usable on the program. But I think one problem with changing LDD from a simple one-click download to a program with various downloadable "parts packs" is, as fishers64 mentioned, it might be hard to know which part pack you need for a particular part. I think the best course of action is having LDD remain a "one-size-fits-all" program where parts are not removed except by accident or as a result of flaws in the part itself.Plus, the work that would go into splitting the already-available parts up into convenient "parts packs" would be time and effort not spent on actually creating new parts for the program. The idea has as many downsides as it has advantages, and so given the difficulty of making it a reality I think it would overall be a waste of effort compared to the work that the LDD team is already doing to create real improvements in the program.

They could do a better job of dividing it up into categories. I haven't been on LDD in a while, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there is only about two or three palettes (Mindstorms, HF, and System) and of course the Extended mode. They could do a better job dividing up said mode into categories so people could find stuff. And they do need more Bionicle parts.
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I can barely find what I'm looking for when I'm just looking through the tabs. I wouldn't want to have to download a bunch of packs just to look through them.Plus, I've found myself using pieces I'd never considered using before the situation presented itself (the sausages were spontaneous and I wouldn't have thought of them if they weren't there), so in that way I think it might hinder creativity.

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I can barely find what I'm looking for when I'm just looking through the tabs. I wouldn't want to have to download a bunch of packs just to look through them.Plus, I've found myself using pieces I'd never considered using before the situation presented itself (the sausages were spontaneous and I wouldn't have thought of them if they weren't there), so in that way I think it might hinder creativity.

Not if it means more pieces total, like getting all the old Bionicle pieces. Those of us who want all of them would simply download them all. :)It might be best just to have a single expansion pack, rather than multiple packs, though. It would get tedious if there were a lot more clicks to go through (but I would personally download them all even if there were a hundred :P).

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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I can barely find what I'm looking for when I'm just looking through the tabs. I wouldn't want to have to download a bunch of packs just to look through them.Plus, I've found myself using pieces I'd never considered using before the situation presented itself (the sausages were spontaneous and I wouldn't have thought of them if they weren't there), so in that way I think it might hinder creativity.

Not if it means more pieces total, like getting all the old Bionicle pieces. Those of us who want all of them would simply download them all. :)It might be best just to have a single expansion pack, rather than multiple packs, though. It would get tedious if there were a lot more clicks to go through (but I would personally download them all even if there were a hundred :P).
But how would it mean more pieces total? So far the LDD team hasn't seemed at all limited to a set capacity of parts in the regular download, and have pretty much made any parts they've finished programming and rendering available in LDD Extended mode. From my experience parts have also never been removed just to clear up space.Breaking the parts up into "expansions" in this way would probably mean less parts overall since the LDD team would have to spend time considering what parts people would want to use together, what parts people could go without, etc.-- time that would otherwise be spent creating new parts for the program.Plus, one reason they haven't made many Toa Mata parts (or similarly specialized parts) as of yet is that they prefer to spend their time and money programming parts that are widely-used and which LEGO fans will be familiar with (either once-widely-used "classic" LEGO parts like windscreens that predate the introduction of click hinges, or newer parts fans will recognize from store shelves). This is in part so that their time and effort improves the LDD experience for as many users as possible. So why would they create more parts than they are creating currently just to fill "expansion packs" that not all LDD users will end up downloading anyway? They have better ways to use their time as well as their budget, which may be limited now that Design byME and LEGO Universe, the two programs that funded a lot of their work, are no longer a source of revenue. Edited by Aanchir: Rachira of Time
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Plus, one reason they haven't made many Toa Mata parts (or similarly specialized parts) as of yet is that they prefer to spend their time and money programming parts that are widely-used

Well, that's the answer to what you asked just before it. :P An expansion pack would not have to be limited to this, so we could get more Bionicle parts, etc. ^_^ Really it seems to me that Bionicle pieces make up the majority of what is missing anyways; a lot of relatively obscure parts are already in there. I don't really care in what way those parts might come, but if this is the way I'm all for it, yanno? I just want 'em somehow or another. :PEdit: And BTW, they could possibly even make the expansion pack cost money. I'd spend money on it. Edited by bonesiii

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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Well they would likely have to do some research on it first. I can only speak for myself on that.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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Edit: And BTW, they could possibly even make the expansion pack cost money. I'd spend money on it.

That could work, but I don't think it would be a good idea for every parts pack, seeing as a lot of current parts would probably be divided into those packs, and people would feel ripped off if they began charging for parts they already had.

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Meiko - @georgebarnick

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DISCLAIMER: All opinions and contributions made under this account are based solely on my own personal thoughts and opinions, and in no way represent any of the above groups/entities. If you have any concerns or inquiries about the contributions made under this account, please contact me individually and I will address them with you to the best of my ability.

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Right, I'm talking about covering the cost of making new parts that (might, allegedly :P) not be commonly used. (Really though, there are a lot of Bionicle fans, and HF fans are even more numerous right now and thus might be into it.)

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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Plus, one reason they haven't made many Toa Mata parts (or similarly specialized parts) as of yet is that they prefer to spend their time and money programming parts that are widely-used

Well, that's the answer to what you asked just before it. :P An expansion pack would not have to be limited to this, so we could get more Bionicle parts, etc. ^_^ Really it seems to me that Bionicle pieces make up the majority of what is missing anyways; a lot of relatively obscure parts are already in there. I don't really care in what way those parts might come, but if this is the way I'm all for it, yanno? I just want 'em somehow or another. :PEdit: And BTW, they could possibly even make the expansion pack cost money. I'd spend money on it.
Yes, an expansion pack would work well for appealing to niche audiences. My point was that this is the exact reason they would not make an expansion pack. It would be more work than designing the same parts for the main program, and would impact only the niche users it was designed for rather than benefiting LEGO Digital Designer users as a whole. Add a cost to it and it's even more of a waste of time since it greatly cuts down on the number of people who will actually be downloading and using the parts, making it even more insignificant to the majority of LDD users (especially kids, whose parents might not be willing to pay for a handful of digital bricks any more than they were willing to pay for Design byME or LEGO Universe).The LDD team has expressed that they intend to add all parts possible to LDD. But the order they add them in is based partly on demand and partly on how many sets have actually used the parts in question. If they have any interest in adding Toa Mata parts to the program, they will do it, but it is not at the top of their priorities, and removing these parts from the main LDD download and putting them into an "expansion pack" would make them even less important to the LDD team's overall mission of adding all parts possible to the program.By the way, since this topic was created I have put in a request for Toa Mata parts on another forum on behalf of those BIONICLE fans who want them. The LDD moderator on this other forum maintains a friendly dialogue with the LDD team, and many of the parts requested on this forum have indeed been added to the program. So while there's no guarantee that they will be added anytime soon, the LDD team will now know there is a demand for them, though more versatile old-school System parts may still easily take priority.I would appreciate Toa Mata parts on LDD, but my point is that an "expansion pack" format would diminish-- even decimate-- the benefits these parts would offer towards the LDD team's overall mission of creating a 100% comprehensive LEGO building experience for as many users as possible. The options aren't "make the parts in an expansion pack" versus "don't make them at all". The options are "make the parts in an expansion pack" versus "make the parts for the regular program". And choosing the first of these options would just be putting in more work to provide an equal benefit to fewer users.
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would impact only the niche users it was designed for rather than benefiting LEGO Digital Designer users as a whole.

That's just an assumption and I don't agree. Re: the point about that MOCing and creativity is benefitted from having a wider range of parts available. Admittedly it would be less likely if we had to pay for it. But really I think we may be exaggerating how much it costs to model new pieces or how "niche" Bionicle pieces would be. As I said, they would expand HF stuff really well and that's a currently selling line, plus it had a huge fanbase before.For someone like me LDD would be perfect for Bionicle. I mostly moved on from buying the sets, ran out of room, etc. but I didn't move on from online stuff. That has shown to be the case for a lot of people.

I would appreciate Toa Mata parts on LDD, but my point is that an "expansion pack" format would diminish-- even decimate-- the benefits these parts would offer towards the LDD team's overall mission of creating a 100% comprehensive LEGO building experience for as many users as possible. The options aren't "make the parts in an expansion pack" versus "don't make them at all". The options are "make the parts in an expansion pack" versus "make the parts for the regular program". And choosing the first of these options would just be putting in more work to provide an equal benefit to fewer users.

Sorry Aanchir but I really think you're way overthinking this. You make it sound so dramatic. :P Calm down, yanno?The original point of the topic was that a fully comprehensive LDD would take longer to download, take up more space, and from that and what I'm saying, I think it would be best to offer many new less common pieces as an expansion pack. The reason? More people download at least some version of LDD that way. Any who think their system can handle it can download the expansion (or if LEGO feels that needs to cost, any who think it reasonable cost). Best of both worlds. :)There's no reason to be using words like "decimate" here -- it's just a LEGO program for fun, not a launching device for a nuclear bomb lol.Translation: Why so.... serious? :PAlso, I'm really not sure what you meant at the end there about fewer users. The fully equipped LDD we know they want to eventually make would take more space, thus less people would probably download it than if they had the option to get a smaller version or the whole thing. That's less users. Da maths. :P Edited by bonesiii

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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would impact only the niche users it was designed for rather than benefiting LEGO Digital Designer users as a whole.

That's just an assumption and I don't agree. Re: the point about that MOCing and creativity is benefitted from having a wider range of parts available. Admittedly it would be less likely if we had to pay for it. But really I think we may be exaggerating how much it costs to model new pieces or how "niche" Bionicle pieces would be. As I said, they would expand HF stuff really well and that's a currently selling line, plus it had a huge fanbase before.
I know a wider range of parts benefits all MOCists. That's why I think it would be pointless to create a "BIONICLE expansion pack" that non-BIONICLE fans are less likely to download instead of putting those same parts in the main LDD. The uses of BIONICLE parts aren't limited strictly to BIONICLE fans, but sequestering them off in an expansion pack seems like a good way to encourage non-BIONICLE fans not to bother getting them.Cost of modeling new pieces probably isn't that high, but that's secondary to the amount of time it takes to model new pieces. As it is, the LDD team is already churning out new pieces, and we have no reason to think they're not doing so as fast as they can. Meanwhile, there are still problems with LDD that need to be addressed, like the GUI working poorly for computers with extremely small screen resolutions. So telling the LDD team that instead of working on BIONICLE parts for LDD as a whole, they should devote their time to producing these parts for an "expansion pack" separate from the main LDD download seems ludicrous when it's just extra time and effort on top of the time and effort they are already devoting towards meeting LEGO fans' expectations.

For someone like me LDD would be perfect for Bionicle. I mostly moved on from buying the sets, ran out of room, etc. but I didn't move on from online stuff. That has shown to be the case for a lot of people.

I agree. I want BIONICLE parts on LDD for MOCing, although parts like Toa Mata parts are not a high priority for me personally since a lot of them are and have always been much more specialized than many later BIONICLE and Hero Factory parts. Didn't stop me from putting a request in for these parts on another site on behalf of BZPower, though. I recognize the "nostalgic value" of Toa Mata parts helps to compensate for their more specialized designs.

I would appreciate Toa Mata parts on LDD, but my point is that an "expansion pack" format would diminish-- even decimate-- the benefits these parts would offer towards the LDD team's overall mission of creating a 100% comprehensive LEGO building experience for as many users as possible. The options aren't "make the parts in an expansion pack" versus "don't make them at all". The options are "make the parts in an expansion pack" versus "make the parts for the regular program". And choosing the first of these options would just be putting in more work to provide an equal benefit to fewer users.

Sorry Aanchir but I really think you're way overthinking this. You make it sound so dramatic. :P Calm down, yanno?The original point of the topic was that a fully comprehensive LDD would take longer to download, take up more space, and from that and what I'm saying, I think it would be best to offer many new less common pieces as an expansion pack. The reason? More people download at least some version of LDD that way. Any who think their system can handle it can download the expansion (or if LEGO feels that needs to cost, any who think it reasonable cost). Best of both worlds. :)
The problem I have is that you're assuming download speeds and the like are a factor getting between us and the parts we want on LDD, when really the time it takes to model them is the primary reason why we don't have these parts yet. Back when LEGO Universe was around, the LDD team loved it because it gave them an incentive to model parts that were no longer appearing in current sets. Nowadays, they're still moving towards their goal of modelling every part possible on LDD, but it's slow work and sometimes has to take a backseat to improvements in LDD's actual functioning, like the GUI.Any parts that have been fully modeled (which involves more than a 3-D render, since connection points and collision zones also have to be programmed in) tend to get added to LDD in the very next update, with the exception of some parts that do not yet appear in officially-released sets, and even those occasionally sneak through. We have no reason to think parts are being "held back" to reduce the download size or increase the loading speeds of LEGO Digital Designer.But of course even some of the parts that do get added haven't yet been completely checked for bugs-- a recent example are the chain pieces from Toa Inika Hewkii and Vezon or the corresponding handcuff pieces from the latest Hero Factory sets, both of which have an extremely bizarre bug. Stick two of them together and try to hinge one around the other. Usually, this causes one or both of the parts to shrink. Bug testing, then, is another factory that can potentially slow down the release of new parts on LDD.

There's no reason to be using words like "decimate" here -- it's just a LEGO program for fun, not a launching device for a nuclear bomb lol.Translation: Why so.... serious? :PAlso, I'm really not sure what you meant at the end there about fewer users. The fully equipped LDD we know they want to eventually make would take more space, thus less people would probably download it than if they had the option to get a smaller version or the whole thing. That's less users. Da maths. :P

Regarding "fewer users", what I meant is that "expansion packs", instead of improving LDD for all users like ordinary LDD part updates, would improve LDD only for those who chose to download them. Instead of offering the best possible experience for all users, it offers two separate options, one of which (LDD without the expansion pack) is deliberately kept inferior to the other (LDD plus the expansion pack).Issues regarding the size of LDD are ones that the LDD team has never mentioned in interviews, and presumably issues that they intend to tackle once they reach that point. If the LDD team decided that one-size-fits-all part updates were slowing the product down to a point that caused more harm than good, then expansion packs would in fact be a viable option. It's just that nothing has given us the slightest indication that we have come close to this point.On the contrary, LDD part updates continue to be larger with every new version of the program and show no signs of slowing, suggesting that this eventual issue is far from being an immediate concern for the LDD design team. It's just a matter of which parts they finish modeling first, and the order they tackle them in is based on various factors, including number of sets that used the part, how recently the part was used, and what parts AFOLs have specifically put in requests for. This entire topic is based on the assumption that the LDD team is limiting the number of parts they add to the program, but as of yet the only thing limiting the number of parts is how many parts the LDD team has finished preparing for users, and so far this shows no immediate signs of changing.
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Look, Aanchir, nobody's assuming anything. It was just a suggestion, and there's really no point to you and me getting that in-depth about it; the decision isn't up to us and we don't really know the true costs and possibilities like they do.All I know for sure is that some people do indeed want faster downloads for the basic LDD, and the extended mode as it is is already massive, almost burdeningly so because it can take a while to search through it. Plus smaller versions might help some get past glitches. Go back to what you stated the mission was -- to provide maximum pieces for the most people. Well, just forcing everybody to buy the entire package is not necessarily the way to do that; that may be turning some people completely away from it who might otherwise get it. Giving them more choice as to size, with the freedom to get the expansion once they realize they like it, may tend to make the mission true for more people. :)And there really is no point in debating that as far as I can see; this is a successful business model used all the time.The only question is whether it would work for LDD, and nobody here knows the answer for sure. It's quite possible the only way to know would be to try it, as with many experimental moves LEGO has done (like Bionicle, or LEGO Universe... one worked, one didn't).Also, you made a lot about time to produce the new parts, and while that was brought up, I don't see that in the original post here. This is about consumer choice primarily, which is almost always a good thing, and thus getting LDD to more people.But you also assume budget allocation is static. That's part of why I suggested (at least trying out) a priced expansion pack. That might enable the to allocate more towards it. Main reason I say this is that LDD's old business model included a way to make money (DesignByMe), which is now gone. This might be a plausible replacement for that model. More budget would mean more ability to design pieces faster. Yes, this would deliberately make a smaller version, and we are pointing out that that has its benefits. :)In fact it's arguable that LDD itself is on shaky financial ground now, with the loss of LDD. As far as I know it's entirely supported by sales of sets, and you can make the argument that it might itself discourage the buying of sets, as now we have a better option for at least some MOCing. So it might even be necessary, in order to continue to offer it, to switch to a "free trial version, paid full version" format like thousands of other programs out there already use successfully.It wouldn't be difficult to give the link to the full version either as you seemed to assume. Just put it in that side panel they already put extras in, on the right, or build it into a button easily visible always. This is usually done by programs that offer free trial versions and it works.

Edited by bonesiii

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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Your points are understood, Bonesiii. I can see how expansion packs would have a benefit. But as I see it, it doesn't follow that by implementing expansion packs we would be more likely to get parts like Toa Mata parts sooner than we would otherwise. Plus, I think there would be far better ways to make the program more efficient than reducing the overall number of parts. Most of the complaints I've seen regarding LDD don't have to do with the initial download size, but rather with other factors like how efficiently it runs once installed. I have never heard of a person giving up on LDD just because it was taking too long to download. Rather, the criticisms I see of LDD often stem from it having a smaller parts selection than other LCAD programs or its inefficient memory usage.Of course, the fact that I grew up with painfully-slow computers with sluggish download speeds for everything might also give me a bit of bias in this regard. :PThe reason I don't believe in the value of a priced expansion pack is simply because LEGO Universe in its later years attempted that same business model: a "free-to-play" version that included some of the worlds, but the option of paying for access to other worlds. Granted, LEGO Universe did this with a subscription-based payment that I'm sure parents and kids found less economical than a one-time price to download the program. But it still seems to suggest that this sort of business model, while it works for some companies' programs, would be less economical for TLG, since fans would more likely just remain content with the free version's fewer options than cash in on expanded options.In the meantime, with a non-subscription-based payment model, continued revenue to pay for continued product updates would depend heavily on new fans continuing to download the expansion packs. Fans who already had them could no longer be counted on as a source of revenue unless new ones were released regularly, and there's no guarantee that these would all appeal equally to the fans inclined to make such purposes.There is also one other logistical roadblock in introducing expansion packs: one thing people already complain about on LDD is how the organization of parts doesn't always follow a logical pattern. Organizing them into expansion packs that compile parts that certain fans would find desirable could be an even greater challenge. But if the benefits of expansion packs were to become immediate and apparent, then I'm sure this is a roadblock that the LDD team could work past-- it might just take a bit longer than the typical LDD update.

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Well, IMO the lessons to be learned from LU don't teach that the trial/pay format doesn't work. They said that did help, but just not enough. I blame the demise of LU on other things, especially a simple lack of advertising in the right places. I never heard about LU from any place parents would typically watch like I occasionally do with LEGO sets, for example, nor did I see ads widely across the internet like you see for other MMOGs. Not enough of the kids who would have gone for it knew about it IMO. But anyways, that's not necessarily of much help here, since LDD would suffer just as much if not more so from this.Still, if they're okay already getting nothing from LDD and still continuing it, then a more quickly expanded paying version, judging by the LU results, should actually help, just not dramatically so.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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Well, IMO the lessons to be learned from LU don't teach that the trial/pay format doesn't work. They said that did help, but just not enough. I blame the demise of LU on other things, especially a simple lack of advertising in the right places. I never heard about LU from any place parents would typically watch like I occasionally do with LEGO sets, for example, nor did I see ads widely across the internet like you see for other MMOGs. Not enough of the kids who would have gone for it knew about it IMO. But anyways, that's not necessarily of much help here, since LDD would suffer just as much if not more so from this.Still, if they're okay already getting nothing from LDD and still continuing it, then a more quickly expanded paying version, judging by the LU results, should actually help, just not dramatically so.

I saw plenty of TV ads for LEGO Universe in its early days. I forget what channels they were on though. It definitely wasn't just on kids' channels or during cartoons-- they often played during the shows that my parents watched. There are definitely other factors that caused it to sell poorly, though. Gamers of all ages criticized the restrictive word filters that were in place to protect kids' privacy but had larger consequences (such as prohibiting numbers over a certain number of digits so that kids wouldn't share their phone numbers with strangers). The cost of creating new content on a regular basis also took its toll-- this would be less of an issue with LDD since the only new content would be the pieces themselves, not missions and locations that have to be made fun and challenging for users.A "more quickly expanded paying version" could potentially be better for the company than what they have now. But I see no reason to imagine that it would expand more quickly than it does now even if it were generating a small stream of revenue. Until this year, LEGO Universe and LEGO Design byME both acted as incentives for more frequent new part designs. Yet the January update where both of these services were cancelled was actually one of the largest part updates for as long as I've been using the program. If the speed wasn't reduced by a lack of funding, I see no reason it would speed up even beyond that level due to a renewed stream of funding.Plus, it has to be mentioned that while the cancellation of DbM and LU probably don't bode well for LEGO Digital Designer, from what we've heard on other sites through dialogue with the LDD team, they aren't expecting updates to shrink or slow down. It's possible that they already have a plan in place for a new source of income, or alternatively they might have decided that LDD promotes the companies physical products enough to pay for itself. This would not be unheard of-- there exist webcomics that pay for themselves through merchandising. On a larger scale Hasbro has not been strongly opposed to video sites hosting recordings of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic because to them it's essentially free advertising for the product line that brings them more profits than the show ever could.
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  • 2 weeks later...

While I don't know much about LDD, it sounds like a good idea, but why make them all separate packs, and not all included in one download?

The download size of that one download would be huge, and you would get a bunch a parts you probably didn't want. Packs would allow you to pick and choose and reduce download size.
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I saw plenty of TV ads for LEGO Universe in its early days.

Forgot about this topic, sorry for late reply lol.Basically, if that is so, that's cool, but from my experience in-game, the early days were practically nothing compared to how awesome it was near the end. Crux and Ninjago especially. There should have been a round of adverts in all the right places at that time, but there wasn't.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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  • 2 years later...

This sounds like a pretty cool idea. I'd surely support it if it were on CUUSOO. It might be difficult though, due to the way that LEGO Digital Designer is programmed, but I guess it wouldn't be too far-fetched. Also, it might be bad if they become hacked, or put on unreliable download sites where kids might get viruses or other things that they shouldn't.

Well, if they'd be offered via the program on startup, wouldn't there be some security the packs would have to go through before being available? Like, they'd probably have to be inspected and moderated before being publicly available.

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The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

My Bionicle Fanfiction  (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it)

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