Marketplace Content - What would you like to see from the community?

[Divivor]

I'm honestly not used to having a near real time discussion on these forums, so thank you for your patience with my edits/replies haha, I usually edit something multiple times as you can see as I sometimes have mistakes in the initial post that I go over to correct.

I'm still trying to figure out the part though where you see the "Replicated Volume based gravity system" is a segway for your product if your product is not replicated? Even forgetting the oversight about using the default character.

Like I said in my first post, I only focused on the "volume based gravity system". You could count that as someone just saying something to say something. I just read through your post and was like "hmmmmmm". I never made replication an option on any of my assets. I neither have the time nor the experience to do it.

But, there is a more fundamental problem in theory of having this replicated. What exactly would be replicated?
The areas themselves don't do anything, they just exist as a volume. Check a box and make sure that the area is everywhere the same? There is nothing more to it I think.
The gravity direction comes from an finder actor component that just calculates from a given World Location a Gravity Direction. What even would be replicated here? The result value of the direction? That can be stored inside the actor itself and would probably be even cheaper than to replicate the finder. The finder component would only need to be available on the local character for instance.

But regardless of that, I personally don't get attracted by replication being available on an asset. I used some assets on the marketplace that, for whatever reason, needed me to learn all the multiplayer related stuff before I can use it in Singleplayer. It just consumes your time. So I am just focusing on the stuff that I can do the best, even if it gives me less sales. (But it also gives me less support requests to MAYBE answer correctly)

[UnrealEnterprise]

It's time for my Annual Marketplace Creator Guide for 2021, as it's been one year since my last post!:

That's some wall of text there (like reading silicon valley privacy t&c ). So I didn't get through it all. But hey here's my own wall. As I did pick up on some points like Plug and Play, that I'd like to support as well. So fwiw, here my wishlist of places I'd like to see the marketplace go.....

I would also like to see more packs directly related or tied to KITBASH, environments particularly...
One of things sellers assume is that end-users are going to seamlessly integrate an environment.
But the reality is, if they could do that they probably already have the chops to make similar packs.

Why???

It takes 'real skill' to integrate packs into existing work, and make them look like they belong there.
That's why the marketplace is a bore, there aren't enough hybrid packs that offer benefits like this.
Or content that has customization tools built-in to help you integrate packs, as it'd really add value.

Random Example:
Real-world cities often integrate Asian architecture or temples next to Western buildings next to Italian restaurants...
And guess what, it just works....
The human brain doesn't register its all wrong / can't happen. It just works. But how to replicate that in virtual cities?

TLDR:
There is a hands-off approach taken by MP creators such as: 'Well, here it is, my latest environment.... Now its your problem to try and integrate it into your own work'. Whereas, it'd be nice to have the option to pay more and have creators take a different approach like: 'its our job as creators to help you integrate this into your own work. So here's some tools to help'... Or 'here's our price list to help you with custom tweaking if you need it'.

But the marketplace never expanded to that sadly.... Sorry if this sounds harsh... But there's such a lack of ambition on the marketplace, its a crime... A lot of it stems from creators feeling trapped and thinking 'Well I have to price this @ 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 USD / EUR in order to sell anything. So I may as well just create another factory building or rundown zombie apartment, as that will definitely sell, right'??? Its kinda sad... Epic promised more..

Personally I had hoped the marketplace would become more and expand into other areas. But that seems like parallel universe / wishful thinking, when you compare the revenue Epic get from F'nite, as everything else just fades into irrelevancy. That's why Epic can simply afford to give away marketplace packs for free.

But if the marketplace ever becomes more, one-off sales would be interesting to see. And going beyond that... What if it was possible to just buy 'creator time'... ... Purchase 5 / 10 / 20 / 50 / 100 hours of consulting time from the very best devs (3D art / coding skills), all backed up by an Epic quality check, knowing you're not going to get screwed over like here.

In addition, what if Epic sold or offered one-off prizes related to MP purchases, such as 100 hours of consulting time to launch a game (free marketing on EGS or other Epic channels). (To avoid the usual pitfalls of launch-fail / non-discovery). It may happen as EGS evolves.

[LowEntry]

Plugin developer here, I would like to know:

- What blueprints would you like to see added to the engine?
- What is currently not possible with blueprint alone?

Also, I'm curious to know, for certain solutions such as facebook/twitter/etc integration, as well as MMO functionality, would you accept a plugin with a pay-per-month model (as in a monthly subscription) if you would need that functionality for your project or game?