Pro Bundles Passé?
RCDeschene
Posts: 2,801
in The Commons
I noticed that recent Genenis 8 Character bundles are starting to be released in themes and not in Starter or Pro packs. Curious, has the structure been done away with? If so, what caused the change?
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There hasn't been an official statement about it, and I don't expect there will be.
There were a lot of complaints about pro bundles, especially about the number of less-desirable items they included. Maybe that's why Daz are trying a different approach, or at least mixing things up.
I personally much prefer the themed bundles. If I want the base character I can get that and if I want the themed stuff I can get that at a reasonable discount and not wind up with a bunch of stuff I'll never use.
my big issui with the "new model" is which most of the times it is a "overpriced" stuff, you have "less stuffs than a pro bundle" and paying more it's feels sometimes which was just a excuse for then to "rise the bundle prices, and the prices are inconsistent like you have a bundle with like let's say 10 stuff then the price being let's say 200 then you have another with let's say 15 and it's 180 or 220, then you have one with 7 and it's cost 150, the ratio of stufs and price is totally disbalanced, making some bundles look a little overprice and others insane overpriceds, or you buy in the release day and get every "discount stack" possible or you are doomed if you want to buy it "later", because it gonna be a insane overpriced bundle.
Another problem is the "balance" of "mixed" bundles, for exemple the egyptian bundles were totally for "womans" you have only like 1 bundle with a "single male charater" and all the others or were womans o have monsters, the same goes for others bundles, basically mixed bundles are like 70% woman and 10% to 30% male, while they where supposed to be "balanced around the same amount of male and female, the "pharao bundle" which was supposed to be more "male" since the pharao tittle in the past was only bestowed for the males (the womans were aways called queens as far i remember) then it was a full woman bundle with a "lost guy as a addon".
now we are on a "viking" character, i do hope which after we get the battle maiden bundle for female we can get a "male viking" character with his "secondary battle warrior bundle aswell, or we gonna get "every type of female viking possible and forget about "males"???
Technically, there were a few female pharaohs, but some of them had to eschew their femininity in order to rule effectively-for example, Hatshepsut. In the images of her that survive, she's portrayed as a man with a false beard, etc.
FWIW, I was upset there was not a male pharaohs bundle as well (I buy mostly males). I would have liked some more egypt-centric clothing for the gents.
Overpriced? The value of an item depends on how useful it is. An item costing one dollar is overpriced if it's not useful.
interesting that is why i told, which normally is a "male tittle" the pharao, even the biggest exemple of egyptian leader which was cleopatra i'f i'm not wrong never could get the "pharao title" herself, even if she was "loved and in full command still never was able to take the tittle of pharao the ones which had to do that, had to act and dress like a male to be able to get, then we have the bundle were basically was a all woman without "any guy" and the only guy was a "poor loner" addon..
i was also after so "many woman centered bundles" waiting for at last "1 male" but the most close we get was the oasis with a single guy and the only "male outfti we get was the priest one, then everythging else was female with tons of female outfit even later we get a cleopatra outfit and again poor 2 loners boys "walking naked or as priests in the deserts
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There's good and bad with the themed over regular pro bundles. I have so many things I got over the past few years buying pro bundles that I have stuff for any situation really that I need, it was random enough a lot of the time and I liked that. There was a good variety generally and I could kitbash things so I bought nearly every pro bundle that was released. On the other hand, it is nice having a theme because you can look at it and plan something completely around it. I bought today's bundle, and I bought the last Egyptian woman one, her name started with a K, but I think those are the only two themes I've gotten. Otherwise I've just gotten the base characters and one or two things that struck me as something I need, but I do see how it is good for others out there. The main projects I do are generally so niche that catered themes don't really help me out unless the bundle price is practically the same as the items I wanted to pick up, which had been the case for today and the previous one and I can't see not getting free stuff if it's on the table.
I personally find the quality of clothing items in the male bundles increasingly of late has worsened. dForce should not take the place of properly styled and fitted male clothing. And the 'kitchen sink' approach to adding props an content hasn't thrilled me.
I think I prefer the original bundle method. It wasn't perfect, but at least I wasn't getting repurposed content lilke Horse 2.
...+1
yeah for me a perfect bundle would be 12 stuff, 3 characters, 3 hairs, 4 outfits and 2 "optional spaces or for props or for poses/expressions, or for animation like a pose/expression pack and a prop or a pose/expression and animation for a 150 price would be fine for me, not just go 'cutting stuffs, like reduce the number of outfits or hair just to add a animation or props and worst make it even more expensive.
if you are going to make some mixed bundle the perfect way would be the Centaur 8, for me still the best bundle combo mades ever, so far, we could get some middle bundle with 8 stuffs, being like 2 characters, 2 outfits, 2 hairs and 2 poses/expressions for 1 gender then the same for the other then the price being like 89,95 for each bundle thenyou get the pro bundle with all the 16 stuff for a good price for 159,95 or 169.95 or you throw 2 extra stuffs like 2 extra outfits (1 for each gender) or others 2 stuffs like animations and props and make everything for 179,95 or 189,95, it would look much more fair than the "current ultra expensive bundles with less stuffs and big price.
I think the "overpriced" comes from the bundle perspective and not from the product one. With individual producs i agree with you. But on bundles since last months is a different story.
(rounding numbers) Pro Bundles have a price of $135, if we calculate the base price of its individual producs we see they are around $270. That means pro bundles have a starting price discount of 50% over the raw value of its content.
Since last month you can see that be it smaller or even "same" size the base discount for the bundles is lower. Like 40% or even 31% with freja yesterday. On top of that they are giving less and less additional perks on the release. This time there is not even an special sale banner for the release week (and we did had of those in previous big sales).
It is harder to notice because the we are in big sale months and looks "kind of" similar, but that will be over.
In the first place, the "biggest" example of an Egyptian leader would have been either Akhenaten, Rameses II or Seti II.
In the second place, as a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter—the Macedonian Greek general who was appointed satrap of Egypt in the Partition of Babylon (BCE 323) following Alexander the Great's death, Cleopatra was Macedonian, not Egyptian. Furthermore, by the time Julius Caesar named Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as co-rulers in 48 BC, Pharonic Egypt had been dead and in the grave 300-some years and Egypt had been reduced to a client kingdom of Rome.
I'm sure there would have been folks complaining about the good old days.
not really a overpriced stuff is "overpriced don't matter "how usefull" it is, specially when you compare the stuffs inside the bundle and basically they have the same stuffs liek characters, poses, and outfits and the only diference is one come with less stuff but come with let's say 1 prop stuffs instead of outfit but still less stuff, just because they added a animation don't means which is not "overpriced".
just because the "animation can be usefull for some peoples" don't means which they are being "overpriced", because of the "rate of ammount of stuffs" and they prices is not "good" as it was in the past, being "usefull" don't means not being expensive, even "cheap stuffs can usefull for some peoples.
it's about "how much you are accepting to pay for something if you don't mind "pay more for less" then ok its your own desire but this don't make it less expensive.
Don't forget that the Greek rulers of Egypt integrated pretty tightly into the Egyptians they had conquered, adopting both their language and their religion. When I was in Egypt a month or so ago we visited a lot of Ancient Egyptian sites, and quite a few were referred to as Greco-Roman, as they were built in the era that the Greeks, and later the Romans ruled. Apart from the design of some of the column heads the temples built by the Greeks looked very much like those of the Egyptians, and they were dedicated to Egyptian gods, not Greek ones.
By the time Caesar and Anthony had turned up the original Greek conquerors would have inter-married with native Egyptians over countless generations, and I doubt Cleopatra had a lot of Greek DNA in her.
You are absolutely right, though I don't think many Egyptians of Akhenaten's time would have called him a great pharao...
The Ptolemaic dynasty, despite their Greek/Macedonian background, did take up the familial marriage tradition of prior Pharaohs (often with brothers and sisters marrying each other, and/or cousins from brother/sister marriages).
So, as for Cleopatra VII, she probably had quite a considerable (and uncomfortable, in a modern sense) amount of Greek/Macedonian lineage. (Look at the family tree!)
Edit: low on caffeine :-| ... but the whole thing is pretty alien to modern sensibilities (haha, Alien guy). Of course, if you play computer games like Imperator: Rome and Crusader Kings 3, it also is rather normal.
Interesting, it seems I was wrong, and the Greek line did indeed rarely (or maybe never) marry Egyptian wives, though I expect some of their generals/adminstrators etc did. Seems the last three Ptolemys married their neices rather than their sisters, I am not sure which is worse!
Not at all. Cleopatra spoke Greek, her native tongue, and Roman not demotic/Coptic or Aramaic (the languages that would have been spoken by the common people in Egypt). She ruled from Alexandria a wholly Hellenic city, the Jewish population likely exceeded its Egyptian populace for most of the Roman era. Cleopatra's entire geneology back to Alexander is not fully known but what is known is wholly Greek. Further there are a number of contemporary images of her that survive, busts, coins and paintings. All depict a fairly plain looking Greek woman with a prominent nose.
The Ptolomaics certainly erected a lot of statues to themelves with Egyptian stylings but that was certainly to keep the conquered population in check. They derived their considerable wealth and power from exporting all the food the Nile Valley produced and they couldn't do that if the Nile Valley was continuously revolting.
Also inbred royal lines was not at all unique to the Egyptians. It was standard practice pretty much everywhere. When you start claiming that your family is specifically blessed by the "gods" or "God" to rule then diluting your bloodline with outsiders or having lots of cadet lines makes for trouble.
I mostly could justify buying pro bundles due to the launch period pricing structure (this is actually how I could afford to build out a large part of my library). I knew I'd generally get two hair pieces, two addon characters, two pose sets, and some outfits I could find a use for; I could almost always find some stuff in the addon category I'd use, and then I usually got a decent chunk of free older content with it. I haven't bought any of the themed bundles because I haven't seen anything I liked enough to work out how good of a deal it is, and as far as I've been able to tell most of the launch sales are extra discounts off the price of the bundle and not extra items or anything? I may have missed stuff.
It seems like they're aiming more at game dev and other 3D programs recently, and so this probably makes sense for that. If you're buying stuff because you want it for a game you need a lot of cohesive assets, and pro bundles were pretty loosely themed. On that note, if there's a modern urban gritty-but-not-explicitly-cyberpunk bundle in the works I do need game assets. >.>
Actually, she probably had quite a bit of Greek DNA since the way pharaohs procreated was by incest. She was even married to her younger brother before Marc Anthony and Caesar came along ;).
Laurie