Don't go overboard with Workshop content!

I think a nice idea for a compromise would be a voting system similar to TF2 and CS, Imagine people were able to upload models for accessories they had made to the workshop, and maybe 3 times a year there was an event where players voted on what hats and such could be added into the game as official items. This reduces the work for Devs, making implementation maybe just tweaks, and it adds in a way for the community to have direct impact on the game. I like the idea of the item’s description having a credit to the original uploader to the workshop.

Just a small point but I don’t get the hate for the concept of full workshop condos (not like just save files). I know it’s not planned but I think it’d be a good addition if it ever became an option. If you could purchase Workshop Condo slots (as a way to balance it) it would greatly expand and improve what can be created within the system.

To be clear I know that isn’t planned and I’m absolutely not expecting it but I do think it’d be neat.

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That would be a good compromise, @Jackpot.

The thing I like about your idea here is that not just any item is added to the game for free. If only a select few items make the cut and on top of that are not free, then I wouldn’t see an issue with that.

I don’t have a problem with community created content in general. The problem I have is the fact that with it’s current implementation, it feels extremely unearned. What else is there to work towards for my character customization other than equipables and accessories? Player models, the core appearance of my character is already given to me for free with no effort. If an infinite amount of free customized equipables and accessories were introduced into the game, much like player models are, players would be extremely disincentivized to utilize one of the game’s only reward systems. This, in turn, would drive players away from game worlds, plaza events, and other plaza mini games.

Hi @Rekoza,

The only apprehension I have with this idea is that it would detract from Plaza players. If players had the ability to create a fully customized “plaza” with no limits, I fear that private rooms would take over and become the default destination for most players.

Now, the counter arguement here is that condos already exist and this can already happen. But, take a look at a game such as VR chat. When I first booted up that game, I took a stroll to the public lobbies to see what strangers I would run into. What did I find there? Not a soul. Every official room was empty. Why? Because every player was in their own customized world with their own clique.

With Tower Unite, and previously Gmod Tower, I always considered the allure of the game to be the Plaza/Tower itself. Being able to walk around this one location where everybody is playing and seeing what people are up to is amazing. With an already low number of players in servers, I feel that taking players away from the Plaza is the last thing this game needs. This is getting into a whole other issue and should probably be taken to another thread, but removing a few of the official Plaza servers, as mentioned by @Caboose700 in a dev update thread, is a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to this with future updates!

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funny thing is from my experience, workshop PMs are actually a lot more game friendly than workshop items, aleast in my case of usage in condos, this is most likely because with PMs you see them everywhere, while items are only seen in condos, thus usually when you run over them, you have to download it just for that condo, while for PMs you download a fuck ton of them while playing, plus it seems one is less used than the other

i usually tend to try and keep my condos cut down on workshop items unless its for lore or structure, e.g my latest condo only features 2 WSPMs and no WSIs, i get why others wouldn’t (mmmMM i love customization) but yea there is a thin line between too much and too little.
idk, im all netural for WS, i’d live if they removed it, i’d live if they added more WS. im not exactly the person to be caring about performance, i run 6 games at once LOL

I’m totally with you on that, I want to see the plazas continue to be populated and would hate to see any condo move that emptied them out. I feel like all the unique plaza activities should help keep them populated. They should still be the place to go for all the various plaza activities and events and condos should remain as primarily social and creative spots.

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@lottery248, I think you have some good ideas here.

I’d like to address some of your concerns about new players as well as monetary value of player models.

I believe the best way to implement paid Workshop player models is through the future appearance store that @balianthemighty mentioned above.

The way I see it is this:

  • The appearance store would offer numerous official player models, all varying in price from cheap to expensive

  • At the very bottom of the model list, at the most expensive, would be a Workshop model option (sort of how you would purchase a canvas at DIY)

  • Once the option is selected, a Workshop browser appears allowing you to choose ONE player model from the Workshop. The browser can look and function as it does now, but hopefully with a better preview system.

  • Once a player model is purchased, it is added to your inventory and you can apply it freely at any time. Perhaps a whole separate inventory just for player models?

This system would address your concerns of new players being unable to express themselves and compete with veteran players. With a whole shop of player models, and Workshop models being expensive, I feel that this would bring the balance that you rightfully point out is needed.

In terms of the Workshop content producers, I’m not sure I have a concrete stance on this. I think that compensating the creators with Units could get out of hand quickly (abusing a trading system?). I can’t speak for the creator community, but I feel like I would be happy just being able to contribute original content to the game (which is what currently is the case). Also, if each Workshop model is the same fixed price I guess there’s no room for creators to complain about unfairness.

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But the way it’s set up now already addresses this. Someone mentioned Roblox earlier but I remember having that issue with Battlefield Heroes, I spent money to make my guy look cool but almost everyone else I played with up until much higher ranks were all free-to-play and looked default.

I don’t think playermodels are the problem here. I’d be perfectly fine with every other workshop accessory being this way, and EXTREMELY expensive, since you’re basically buying into access to the entire selection. In fact, if you look on the item spreadsheet, I think that’s exactly the way all future Workshop items are going to be set up as. That makes sense to me. Taking away the ability to be a different playermodel from the start doesn’t. I don’t like it when everybody looks the same, and I doubt I’m alone on that.

Also just for the record, I would absolutely despise a voting system and it would probably kill my interest in the game entirely. Call me selfish, but I don’t wanna have to wait for Mac and the other devs to decide what would be cool to have in the game once or twice a year, I want to have what I think is cool in the game immediately. Looking in the TF2 workshop always just feels like a tease to me.

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For the record, I’d want the community voting, with devs approving. This could also be a monthly thing, I just put down 3 times as an example. It really depends on how many items get uploaded and how often.

Yes, but this ignores all of the issues I have previously mentioned. The way it’s set up now does not address the myriad of problems I’ve pointed out, such as the undermining of the core reward system and the detriment of plaza and game world participation as a result.

I’m with you, I don’t want everyone to look the same either! This is why I suggest a built out appearance shop with many official player models to purchase (with units, much like GMT) with Workshop models being the most expensive. This allows a solution to noobs having the ability to customize their character at a fair cost, having not all players look the same, and not having infinite Workshop player models be free!

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at least the creators of workshop models should be rewarded by any significant means like a title.


to set the workshop player models paid, the existing default models would need complete overhauls to enhance the look of, and accepted by the general. if this turned out unappealing, then people would simply save up for the workshop model rather than buying anything else, which would be just putting up a paywall in front of the workshop, and let alone a type of players dedicated to grinding.


right now i only see a solution is to give official accessories to have certain functionality. there are known examples, like remote controls.
workshop has its constraints like lacking native animated effects (?). something like programmable RGB lighting things could be added for custom animated stuff they want to show.

I don’t agree with the idea of vet players not being distinguished from new players simply because of workshop models. I’ve hit all milestones and participated heavily in almost every holiday and it shows on my character. Even with a regular character model I am loaded with effects and milestone rewards. I can take off my model (which again could be bought within an hour of minimal effort even with any unit cost added in), and still show off as someone who has spent hundreds of hours in this game more than a new person. I use a ton of workshop models in my condo, and they do not compare to the real furniture provided from the game itself. I cannot see accessories topping what is already/will be provided. Workshop features are great, but not flawless. My dry bones has his arms going thru his torso, I don’t count on most workshop accessories working right.

I do like the idea of workshop creators getting compensated, but we’re talking about going towards microtransactions, something the devs were pretty adamant about not doing.

Overall I don’t see the problem of workshop. I see what people are saying but this still seems like creating a problem out of what-ifs and personal preferences. As it’s been pointed out, there’s content to come to use units on, this game isn’t even officially released, And if people don’t have interest in different things like condos or fishing (and therefore have nothing to spend units on) I don’t see any actual fixes here, unless you’re assuming people are buying a steady stream of models and EVENTUALLY accessories every time they play, which even I wouldn’t do.

Also the scariest thing mentioned so far was a voting system. The current workshop is full of furries, dated memes, and 5,302,312 generic anime girls. I don’t care when people use this, but the idea that good things will be omitted because of popularity contests or people voting up trash “for the lolz” - i’ll be taking my exit now. If you want vr chat’s community, you’ll get it that way.

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In terms of the voting system, this has been shown to not be the case in many games with a similar system. This would be original content that the community would make, not models taken from other sources. These models would obviously also need to be approved by the devs.

Since there wouldn’t be any way to make money, we wouldn’t get the ‘free knives’ thing from CS, so the only content that would be updated would be things that the community actually wants.

Now the only issue is bots, one possible solution is to maybe have it tied to your profile, and everyone gets one vote per event.

Even voting within the community my point stands. What I mean by “you want vr chat community” is you will create it not bring them over specifically. And I think personal favourites is something to not entertain even within this community. Think of this way, how many polls are done that mini golf just wins everything by a lot. I think it was the last one people voted strongly for it to be the one with a new map. The game that has 9 maps already. But people vote for safe, easy, and reliable. Again I don’t want popularity contests in a game that has done variety and expression this well.

As I said before and will repeat, based on what is in workshop, junk/memes/jokes will be voted up, this has been proven true in other games with similar systems. Hell ask mountain dew about their flavour that won “Hitler was right”. Voting on models won’t do anything but just make the selections worse. I don’t want to lose good content because of niche fanbases that are internet strong yet dev approved (because there’s nothing wrong with them). I have nothing against them but I’m not playing this game if it’s just anime girls and furries. And making them cost money or be slimmed down won’t change it, it’ll just make the quieter ones feel left out.

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I don’t know why people want restrictions on the content they use freely.
No one likes being deprived of liberty.
If you think overuse is not good, why don’t you call out in the game?
should can free to agree or disagree with that opinion.

Once the producers allow this opinion, we will be forced.
Freedom should be protected.

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I don’t understand what you mean by call out in game. Do you mean calling out individuals?

Alright, let’s say you are totally, 100%, without a doubt right. What about an event where the devs pick out specific workshop submissions instead of the community voting, since you think the community has such terrible taste, and then the community vote on the selection?

I think the negativity is a bit much. I just think when you bring in polls you get the easiest answers instead of the real answers.

Hypothetically you have a poll against dev approved models. One is Pickle Rick. One is Pog Champ. One is random meme of the week and this is vs a well rendered model of a good character that isn’t as popular as these three. Do we have to pretend that this is a fair system is my point. I have no objection to people using this, as I’m pointing out for the 3rd time. But FFS this idea that the popular consensus wins is terrifying in a community that is not so limited.

My proposal is everything is fine. I refer to my original post. I don’t think the workshop culling is necessary. I can understand anxiety and fear but I think measures to prevent a decay in community are just as capable as creating that said community. idk if i’m making sense. I’m not trying to be rude either, sorry to come off that way. I just think we should all just enjoy the game without limiting others. It seems a bit gatekeeper-ish to say “i want to distinguish my prestige” when it’s such a fun chill game. But that’s just me and we’re all doing our opinions about this.

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This thread has seemed to devolve into argumentation a tad, but reading all of this I’ve had some time to think, and come to more solid conclusions myself, I’m not really here to partake in the debate, but here’s a quick rundown of the situation in my eyes:

  • I think free Workshop models are here to stay, mainly because making them paid now would upset a lot of people, and I assume they thought about making them paid before release, but they went with this, and it doesn’t seem likely they’ll go against that

Some reasoning for why Workshop models being free isn’t so bad:

  • The base models in the game are already free

  • A player model is a pretty fundamental thing, it’s not an extra accessory, it’s a basic avatar, so it makes sense they’d want that immediately available and customizable

  • Making it paid introduces a lot of complications, if it was a one time paid thing, and you can change the player model into whatever you like (Like Workshop furniture) the pay is pretty much pointless because it’s a one time fee for infinite models, and paying per model is just inconvenient, and feels really limiting, and unnecessary (And stuff like dev approved/integrated models also feels like it’s unneeded)

(All this debating has kind of proven it’s not something they can just simply fix, it’s controversial)

However, what I think is a more real issue, is Workshop accessories, which I don’t have a solid fix for.

A rundown on this situation:

  • Workshop models already eclipse default models, however, the addition of customizable default models should mostly fix this, giving them a significant advantage, and unique feature to set them apart

  • Workshop accessories, on the other hand, almost reverse the above fix in a way, obviously accessories aren’t the same thing as character customization, but it still makes detailed custom characters easily within reach, making the default options less appealing, even if they still have more customizability

  • Although Workshop accessories would be paid, and wouldn’t be the same as milestones and other TU rewards, they can still live up to that caliber pretty easily, even if the flying pet you have isn’t a milestone item, doesn’t make it any less of a desirable/cool looking thing (Also some of the issues with Workshop models, like how you’d pay for them, still apply here)

This isn’t a full solution, but here’s a little idea:

  • After customizable characters are implemented (To clarify, I mean things like custom clothing, hair styles, even face and body type, and for goofy models like skeletons and milk cartons, they’ll have their own more quirky options), add Workshop support for custom accessories/modifications of the default models

  • This obviously still comes with issues, but it seems like a fun way to have community sourced accessories, but instead have them flesh out the default models, this would be things like custom shirts (And for Milk I guess it would be labels), and maybe even hairstyles

It’s a little ambitious, and not without flaws, but I think it at the very least sidesteps the more controversial ideological issues.

(One last thing on customization, Workshop stuff simply shouldn’t be able to eclipse the base game, it just makes the game kind of worthless for items, that’s what I’m aiming to avoid here)

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