Not sure but it seems to me that more and more of the free stuff on here is now having discontinued support, and is now being charged for via the Buddy Store. I can understand people wanting to be rewarded for their time in making these profiles, bots and routines ect, I'm guessing a thank you is not enough now a days and only cash satisfies. I just hope that what we once enjoyed for free and now we have to pay for is not going to be the rod that broke the HB back. By that I mean, we buy the bot, then buy the combat routine then buy the profile. We then change our char and have to do it all again apart from buying the bot. I roled a mage tonight hoping to raid with it later on, and there was no free combat routines for it. Can we please try to keep somethings free and updated?
There is this nifty CR called SINGULAR which is free and well supported for all classes and specs. There is also a free version of Portal which you can use as well. Extra bot bases aren't really necessary at all (though I own BGFarmer and it is a decent improvement) and profiles are EVERYWHERE + easy to make yourself.
you bought the bot. the bot. other people took their time to write support software/profiles for the bot. offered them for free for awhile. their choice. now they don't want to, so they offer it on the store. No one owes you anything other than the bot you purchased from HonorBuddy. They maintain the bot you purchased. What else did you expect?
To be clear, there's enough free addons to support you in most circumstances using HB. Questing is so integral to HB that it won't be detached from the base, and this is done for free by a developer as part of the HB "product". Singular, is also quite good at the job of playing characters, although it does get things wrong, leading to custom routines which is what's popular on the store. The next push will most likely be profiles, but the developer program is going slow so that there is a maintenance of quality, but that's just as curious. Once a developer has been added, they are obliged to support the product, although I don't know what standards of support are equal or approved, because it's a new system, and the developer arm isn't fully established either. Arguably, the focus on the store looks to be a cash grab for devs, because of the old demarcation and mild censorship between free and paid addons in the forums. Paid existed as a wall in quality, where the reality is more of a grey area between paid and free. And in some cases, it's been a reach for the pocket instead of a broad coverage of free products. Some of this could be redressed by reviews from buyers and dev feedback) on the item for sale, so that there's a less sterile "this is the best /highest price/newest routine" Store interface. And this feedback could be maintained by the forum, either by voting systems to rank all products, or tacitly approve or rank a product. But it won't be official unless it's restricted to buyers. Results may vary. Added to this is the mixed level of developer support for added features, the new addition of a contract for devs to continue development in the store, the streaming update system, and the slow adoption of devs into the system. In community design terms, this creates a division of paid vs free, that creates tension between "just pay for it" and "are you mad? Why is this a good idea?" ideology in a community that never had to decide between paid and free; paying was optional, not obligatory or necessary. This creates a mixed message in the visibility of product and support to customers vs users that only becomes larger as people start to use the system as it exists today. By moving slowly, there is a better standard being established (which is great), but there's a gap in the store for free or public versions vs the store and versus the forums. What that does is enforce a divided elitism, either that a product "isn't good enough" on the forums to be on the store, or the products on the store, are implicitly approved to be there, so they must be the approved option to use. In 6 months time, this won't be a big deal. but at the moment, there is a wall being built up in the demarcation between free and paid on the store. Probably due to the store not being set up to work well with free options being promoted or marketed in a different way to paid addons. By having the store partially integrated with the developer update /streaming system, which does cost some money to maintain, there is an obligation to charge money for items. However, that's going to be a problem for people to get used to the concept, because paid used to be opt-in. And if that has to change, prices will also have to acclimate to what people are going to accept for the time or utility for the product. Asking 45€ for a product still in development is a bit rough (sorry Inrego) and 60€ for a healing CR is roughly the price of the game (give or take discounts or subscription costs) So there will be friction for a while. It can be mitigated with feedback from buyers and sellers, and the interface between them. And should be.
presumably you're talking about the pokelevelthingy; he even explains why its priced that high. It's not meant to be used by "the average botter joe" apart from that your post has some valid points, no doubt.
Edited to be more clear about my issues with the current product. I recently started using Tuanha's routine with Enyo's raid base for my dungeons and raiding. The difference in quality is extremely noticeable and has shown me how bad the initial bot is. Enyo is free for now and Tuanha has a free version for now, but that won't last, and the premium version of Tuanha's is $89. That is a steep price to pay when combined with the bot price, the potential price of a good base, and the price of more than one profile. We are looking at several hundred dollars, near a thousand with professions and gathering, in addon software just to bring the bot up to playable standards. I think that is unreasonable to say the least. If private developers, if they are even private, are capable of making such huge improvements to the bot, why can't the honorbuddy team do the same? What exactly are they doing? Why is all this addon software even necessary? Shouldn't the honorbuddy be able to put out something just as good which is included with the bot? It feels a lot like a scam. I am wondering if the same developers who put out honorbuddy are the same developers putting out these addons and charging anywhere from $30-$90 dollars. Maybe that is just me being overly skeptical, but at any rate, they need to put some more effort into the product so that these addons aren't necessary. As it stands the base program will do little more than get you banned as most default profiles might as well spam chat that you are a bot. It really is that obvious due to the poor optimization.
i guess i must be lucky. just 3 healed mythic garrosh with HB and a 13usd CR. Didn't need thousands of dollars worth of addons. Thanks Mirabis.
I have a job, so I bought Portal, Insanity, Demonic and TuanHas big package. I don't regret it. The free ones of before mentioned are very good, but the premiums are amazing. Granted I wouldn't pay €45-60 for a single CR - but as others have stated, that's my choice.
Which is why I say its under development. Pokelevel seems poorly thought through, and is a great example of the immaturity of the store, which is why I brought it up. The principle is sound, the practicality is profoundly stupid. Rarity of digital goods is a horrible idea. Especially when it's not that rare IMHO. This should be common sense, which is why I'm just going to go through and cover what's wrong with the plan to capitalize profiles in the store this way, and how to solve it. Pokelevel has the potential to set up a precedent that cannot or will not be defined as bad, for the same reasons as the Diablo 3 store being around for over a year. Money is being made, and it's too late or too hard to police someone selling a legendary for $65. Or $350 for a 2h sword. Pricing, or in this case, overpriced items is something that the store managers will have to deal with. If they don't want to address a precedent early on, it's their issue. When this comes back into the spotlight, either for the 100€ Diablo 3 profile, or the 5€ fishing profile that ends up being the cause of a banwave, it will be another precedent they will have to weather and excuse. And yes, there is probably some liability waiver that is inherent in the packaging or sign up process, so nobody can really complain if or when it happens. Chinajade has mentioned "don't buy it" as a casual response, the problem with this commentary and reasoning is sort of obvious. Price indicates relative value. It also infers customer service. A 750€ coffee table or a 220€ sandwich are not in a useful bracket in this comparison, but from this PoV, a 45€ sandwich looks reasonable. It should be said, I have spent more on a steak (...) Still, the precedent is the cost for what is an incomplete offering, and a deficient response to possible outcomes if the area is crowded. what if you're a buyer in a month, and you're on the same CRZ as another buyer. And, when a 5th person shows up at the same spot, is that going to be handled too? There's also no obligation to change or improve the quality of the product as stated, or deal with conflicts or user problems. It is simply what it is, and no more. And it is purely theoretical wank, because there's no precedent yet. Just a lot of unanswerable questions. if someone pulls out a Garrison profile for $50 that only covers skinning and leatherwork, we'll revisit the idea of setting up a horrible precedent, I'm sure. Still, at the current price, every buyer could be given their own starting profile delivered to them. Or a subscription /feed to custom locations updated on a regular basis. If it's a question of mobs, each zone has a few strong farming spots. I have made my own profiles that essentially loop between gathering nodes and pet hotspot areas, there are at least 6 of these possible locations in 5 continents. More if you browse through other pet sites or use the creature ID spawn maps on wowhead. Doesn't even really need anything more than the questing bot. One area I know of, it's not in pandaria that the current bot would work with power leveling lvl 10-16 mobs, because I've used it before. Because It's also ridiculously well known. Regardless, any or all of these issues will be solved over time, or through sufficient complaints and competition from better services.
Why the hell do you bot is my question. The stupidity of this post. Thread needs to be locked/deleted IMO.
To some, criticism is valuable. To others it's stupid and irrational. The store is not perfect. If it were, this thread would never have been started in the first place, because the original problem is one of usability. It might seem stupid and unreasonable to you, but this is how things in the real world improve. With useful criticism.
Thank you Toliman for an extensive and precise explanation, I can see we do share the same concerns in places.
I hear ya. I feel the same way. If we are being honest, anything good in life costs. However with limited free options and the ones that are free usually being pretty limited it may be time for some folks to hit up owned core and use something with less polish for free. A lot of these guys have the skills and aren't working on the books. They deserve to be paid if they put out a quality product, but some of the prices are crazy. I mean HB probably has a half a million users. If even 20% of them buy a bot base priced at 50 bucks, that's like 5 million bucks. I don't care who you are but you didn't do even a million dollars worth of work. Do they take time and knowledge? You betcha! But if your one of those ignorant fools who actually believes these guys are putting in 40 hour work weeks for years on them your stuffing your nose in a bit far. Let's say they were, I've even seen ignorant forum posters suggest these guys make 500 an hour in the real world. HAHAHAHAHA. Try like 70k a year if you got in a good corporation and have been there some odd years. The over priced routines are nothing more than exploitation and a means for a easy quick buck. (Relative of course before the fanboys come in demanding I write one which anyone with a half a brain would know if one could do such they wouldn't be here discussing prices) Anyhow; it's similar to the iOS cydia store. It's not legit, and support can be pulled, stopped, or lackluster and your out of your cash. By the same token it's a free market and these guys do invest time and aren't obligated to just hand things out. It's messy and while I agree 50usd for anything on the store is atrocious (I expextrd the tippy high end to be about 20usd) they do need to charge if for nothing else but to keep out the riffraff. It's messy but hb protects as best they can and we don't have to like it, but we don't have to buy it then either. Personally, I would have purchased a few things that are staring me in the face but I just can't afford it. I'm a cancer survivor and have my first kid on the way which makes 50 dollars when Im middle class and have bills to pay, quite an investment for ONE routine. As anyone who isnt rich (someone seriously said 90usd was pocket change lawl) or isn't brown nosing has already said, it would help more than harm by making the prices a bit more in line with the market your servicing. Your not delivering coCaine to celebs. That all being said, when I can afford it - I'll probably buy the botbase I'm referring to. I have no doubt it's good, it's just an unaffordable price and I'm certain he has already made a years wages or more with a 1/4 years work.
first off Great bot all the supported profile are amazing super grateful for the hardwork of the free profiles.. having said that i understand paying for certain profiles and part of what you pay for are the future updates but i'd personally feel more comfortable knowing the history of the profile. IE how long its been around link to there website. i equate it to "early access games" like u put money into it but no garentee it will actually be there in the future. id be more comfortable if i knew it would always be there and be updated.
As for you !!! It's your lost I think we should be paying a yearly subscription for honor buddy you people are so god damn ungrateful and just pisses me off to the fullest extent they are a lot of other bots out there please go there.
