I will have to have a look around for this indie version, because that is what I need.
I have a mod project - the Los Injurus city map project for BeamNG Drive - it's just a mod project. The mod costs me money via Maya, and my indie-license terrain tools, and graphics software I pay for (GNU Image manipulation tool doesn't do everything, but paint dot net helps some). It also costs me via assets such as models and textures I purchase.
Not being able to export my tunnel in one go will cause draw calls to raise and scene render to be much harder on the CPU because of it.
I am making a somewhat close to AA or AAA grade city in a game, a whole city, the size of GTA V's map or darn close to it. It's a LOT of work, however, with a modular road kit and other scene elements which go together in the in-game editor, it saves a lot of time putting them together like popular-brand kids plastic bricks, almost. However, I'd rather not break this up as much as currently need to. I don't want to make something as simple as a 10~15 year old game here, I want it to look REAL and be current generation fidelity.
I am disabled physically and sometimes can't even use the computer, on a fixed income, and otherwise can't really afford to plunk down the cost of three-digits worth of subscription to one program a month - especially not with the likes of Blender out there for free.
Big AAA companies shouldn't be using the LT or 'indie' version, it should be for folks who's income isn't over a certain amount or corporation doesn't have the worth that an AAA studio or other big-name studio has, which needs to be buying top-dollar Maya subscriptions.
Microsoft fought piracy in China by making Windows licenses available at a price they could afford. It worked, there's a lot less piracy out there; but at the same time barring absolutely free software (which isn't feasible) you're never going to convince the 12-year old illegal downloader kid living in mom's basement to pay for much of anything if he has no money and no bank cards, either.
Case in point:
Windows license cost 100$ or so here for the OEM 'tied to the motherboard' license, 200$ for the full retail package with support and freedom of hardware upgrades - but in China it's around 5$ or so in bulk packs, around 6~10$ for a single license. Why so cheap? This is what it needs to be or very few people will pay for it, due to the disparity in differences of incomes between United States (where I am), or places like Australia or Europe, VS places such as China, or India, or other places where the weekly pay average isn't quite what it is for 1st-world countries. This is how Microsoft has fought against piracy and it works - it's not perfect - surely there's still people who will pirate things or try and take 'the cheap way out' even if it doesn't apply to them - but they're already doing that anyways even if you sit and do nothing.
You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by seeing the customer's needs are met, no matter how rich or poor they may be.
If you're worried about support costs, put up a ton of YouTube videos (or some other video hosting service) and link them to the tutorials page, and make support 'extra' on the indie versions or limited to the first 90 days etc, or via forum post only.
I am a modder, I am not even an indie developer, I don't even clear 100$ profit a month, because all the money goes back into the project when and where possible. It's a donation-supported project, with a few dozen supporters paying average of 3$ a month. It's not much, but it's currently holding it's own. I don't bring in enough to pay for a full Maya license every month, but I do have enough time to make some cool stuff. I'd just rather not do it with Blender, as Maya for me is easier to use interface-wise, not due to special tools in Maya. In other words, I love Maya when it's not bugging out or acting up (which I generally hand in as bug reports if I have any sanity left at which point), but with free alternatives like Blender - and possibly no affordable avenue without an 'Indie version' of Maya, the only place I have to go is clean out the door and to cancel my subscription - costing Autodesk yet another customer.
Again, I repeat, I'd love to be able to afford the full version of Maya, but I can't. I don't pirate anything, period. If I cannot afford it, and no free alternative (open-source) exists, I do without until I can afford it.
World Machine has indie licensing.
Unreal and other similar places have indie price plans.
A lot of software has it, and Autodesk is only going to miss out if they don't implement something similar. You've already got the software made; make it available to folks, and they will come cash (or card) in hand. You might lose a few people but those will be outnumbered by new customers and the community goodwill improvement should more-than make up for it. This will not be instant success overnight, there will have to be some adjustments here or there as the world changes constantly, just like the game creation scene and Maya itself - but there is everything to lose and NOTHING to gain by failing to keep up with the times. Having artificial limits for hobbyists who don't have the income stream to support top-dog software prices just pushes them away - same goes for indie software groups who - because of limits - can't make a decently detailed game even if they have the ability. So in-stead of going for the full version of Maya, they use Blender.
Don't be the next Sears, please. They failed to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace, and went from sales leader where you could even mail-order a HOUSE, to not even having any profit or catalog at all.
Use of earnings caps, seat caps, and possibly max number of employees, is what works best. No one wants you all to butcher the cash cow and cook it for dinner. These are not customers you are possibly going to lose, they are customers you ARE currently losing, customers you are going to lose, or worse, have already lost!
Send this to Autodesk, if possible, and thank-you for your time and consideration.
--Just a disabled guy who mods games because he can't really do anything else. A disabled guy who won't get hired making low-detail game environments, that's for sure. Not getting hired means less money in the future for me, and for Autodesk.
