I think Steam may be wrong market for the game in its current state. It plays like a mobile game except it's a PC game and not mobile. It'd probably be a lot more successful in a market where the type of gameplay War of Conquest provides is expected.
The pay to win nature of the game is probably what has hurt the the game more than anything else. Any game, especially on PC getting labeled as pay to win is a death stamp. It was largely un-noticed in beta because there was a lack of competition compelling players to dump credits on stacking temporary techs and refilling manpower so it seemed like the game wasn't pay to win. The game has a 41% score on steam and nearly every review mentions it. Seeing "Mixed" then seeing how many reviews call the game P2W is enough to turn off nearly any potential player. I know you've been making changes to address pay to win concerns which is great. It's also good that you've been proactive about replying to reviews to let people know you are working on it.
Fundamentally, the game is somewhat bare bones compared to other "similar" games. Simplistic gameplay isn't a bad thing but I'm talking more about content. Players are the main source of content and the player count is low. You can see most of what the game offers within a week. Eve There's also nothing permanent for players to work toward long or short term.
The only "permanent" gains are credits. Players have a home island but everything you do there is tied to the mainland because your stats come from what you have on the mainland. There's not really any progression there either because re-birthing causes all of your technologies and stats from resources to disappear and the lack of any sort of permanent unlockables. You can 1 tile yourself on the mainland to avoid rebirth but because you aren't getting resource stats from the mainland you'll be very weak when raiding and defending.
Raiding could be improved upon too. Personally, I just press next until I find a nation that didn't bother to build defenses and then raid them. I get the same reward regardless of who I choose to attack. Doing easier raids means less manpower spent which means more raids.
What if your level and technologies in raiding were separate from the mainland? You could make the reward, at least exp, much greater for the homeland than the mainland. You also wouldn't need to have a rebirth mechanic in place for home islands which would allow more for players to do and compete for on their own island since everything won't be linked to the mainland. Having levels, stats and technologies seperate would mean you could have special technologies and unlockables for the home island only since it won't be designed to be reset.
About the servers, can you make something in game at the login screen that explains what the difference between the two servers are?
At the very least label them casual and hardcore please. Unless you dig through the patch notes there's no way you'll know what the differences are. This is important so new players can make a decision. Can you also make it clear that Algaroth is a fresh start server and maybe make it the default server instead of Terra Bellum?
Attitude
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To be honest Mike I didn't give much thought on what improvements can be made. I will though. I was talking to my cousin who started playing this on the new server. Just to get his feedback from a beginner. He didn't completely understand geo eff at the start and why did he start at 25%, tech paths are complicated, graphics are subpar, he sees no incentive to play the game. He read the forums too and said the community seems unfriendly lolol. I know it is a war game and so does he. Also said game was quiet. He didn;t see a live nation the whole time he played which was to lvl 7ish and community chat was very little to nonactive.
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Yeah, the tech tree could use improvements. It's really clunky to use and just looks like a mess. There are also no clear progression paths. Each tree has like 5 different branches toward defenses that each do something completely different and many are just straight up better/worse than others. Tech tree has void dams which are VASTLY superior to all the other tech walls but none of the tech walls build toward it. The only thing useful about them is the others is the much lower level requirement but his means you'll end up with wasted techs later because Void Dam makes them obsolete. So you either have a crappy build later, you spend credits to reset(which increases the cost everytime you do it) or just not bother researching the low level defenses at all.hang1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:05 pmTo be honest Mike I didn't give much thought on what improvements can be made. I will though. I was talking to my cousin who started playing this on the new server. Just to get his feedback from a beginner. He didn't completely understand geo eff at the start and why did he start at 25%, tech paths are complicated, graphics are subpar, he sees no incentive to play the game. He read the forums too and said the community seems unfriendly lolol. I know it is a war game and so does he. Also said game was quiet. He didn't see a live nation the whole time he played which was to lvl 7ish and community chat was very little to nonactive.
Mike should probably lock a lot of the inactive forum threads and move them to an archived area. Many of them are pretty toxic in nature and no longer have any relevance.
Thanks for the great feedback!
Also, s it stands now, whatever manpower is not spent in a raid goes back to the home island, to be available for the next raid. Maybe there should be a minimum loss of manpower for a raid... say, if you engage in a raid, you lose at least half the manpower you brought into it, for example.
Good point.ArcticPrism wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:29 pmI think Steam may be wrong market for the game in its current state. It plays like a mobile game except it's a PC game and not mobile. It'd probably be a lot more successful in a market where the type of gameplay War of Conquest provides is expected.
Presently the only permanent bonus nations get is that for each rebirth, they gain +1 free level for their next cycle. Those add up, and can make nations much more powerful after many rebirths. But that's maybe not enough, and maybe not obvious enough to players. Any further ideas for permanent gains, that don't give nations a permanent overwhelming advantage, would be welcome.ArcticPrism wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:29 pmFundamentally, the game is somewhat bare bones compared to other "similar" games. Simplistic gameplay isn't a bad thing but I'm talking more about content. Players are the main source of content and the player count is low. You can see most of what the game offers within a week. Eve There's also nothing permanent for players to work toward long or short term.
You say you get the same reward regardless of who you choose to attack. The reward is based on which league you're in, and you'll only get up to higher leagues by attacking more difficult defenders. But yes, within a given league, the reward is the same no matter who you attack. Maybe it should factor in how many medals the defender has, as well a the attacker's league.ArcticPrism wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:29 pmRaiding could be improved upon too. Personally, I just press next until I find a nation that didn't bother to build defenses and then raid them. I get the same reward regardless of who I choose to attack. Doing easier raids means less manpower spent which means more raids.
Also, s it stands now, whatever manpower is not spent in a raid goes back to the home island, to be available for the next raid. Maybe there should be a minimum loss of manpower for a raid... say, if you engage in a raid, you lose at least half the manpower you brought into it, for example.
There is an (i) next to the server drop-down on both the login and new account creation panels. Clicking that brings up info about the selected server. But, maybe more info should be in the name, such as "Algaroth (new/solo players)". Also, Algaroth is the default server choice for new players.ArcticPrism wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:29 pmAbout the servers, can you make something in game at the login screen that explains what the difference between the two servers are?
At the very least label them casual and hardcore please. Unless you dig through the patch notes there's no way you'll know what the differences are. This is important so new players can make a decision. Can you also make it clear that Algaroth is a fresh start server and maybe make it the default server instead of Terra Bellum?
Thanks for all that. A big problem is how quiet the game is, it needs more players to be fun. It also needs more fun to attract players.hang1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:05 pmTo be honest Mike I didn't give much thought on what improvements can be made. I will though. I was talking to my cousin who started playing this on the new server. Just to get his feedback from a beginner. He didn't completely understand geo eff at the start and why did he start at 25%, tech paths are complicated, graphics are subpar, he sees no incentive to play the game. He read the forums too and said the community seems unfriendly lolol. I know it is a war game and so does he. Also said game was quiet. He didn;t see a live nation the whole time he played which was to lvl 7ish and community chat was very little to nonactive.
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif)
You say that he saw no incentive to play the game. That's interesting. Part of that I think is the lack of players... there's no reward in competing with others when there's no one to compete with. But besides that there are orbs to be captured, land to be explored, many ways to become a more powerful nation. What kinds of incentives feel missing?
Good point. Void dams probably should have the previous tech walls as prerequisites. Keep the feedback about defense imbalances coming... these are easy changes to make and can have a big impact on how the game feels.ArcticPrism wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:54 amTech tree has void dams which are VASTLY superior to all the other tech walls but none of the tech walls build toward it. The only thing useful about them is the others is the much lower level requirement but his means you'll end up with wasted techs later because Void Dam makes them obsolete. So you either have a crappy build later, you spend credits to reset(which increases the cost everytime you do it) or just not bother researching the low level defenses at all.
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Mike,
Don’t you think you are missing out on a ton of players because the game isn’t available on iPhone? People play games on their phones these days. Almost everyone I know uses an iPhone. I’m really surprised that the game isn’t available on one of the most commonly used platforms for games in 2018.
Don’t you think you are missing out on a ton of players because the game isn’t available on iPhone? People play games on their phones these days. Almost everyone I know uses an iPhone. I’m really surprised that the game isn’t available on one of the most commonly used platforms for games in 2018.
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In the long run, I'm not sure the level up bonus matters that much in terms of power gains. You can only get +30 for a minimum starting level of 60. Getting the full bonus takes a minimum of 7.5 months of gameplay if you consider the 1 week cooldown on rebirthing. If you focused on getting exp it couldn't take more than a few hours to get from 30 to 60 if you have some gameplay experience(which you would if you played long enough to rebirth unforced). Probably a lot less than that if you really know what you're doing. On Terra Bellum in particular some players have alternate nations designed to feed large amounts of EXP easily.Mike wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:40 pm
Presently the only permanent bonus nations get is that for each rebirth, they gain +1 free level for their next cycle. Those add up, and can make nations much more powerful after many rebirths. But that's maybe not enough, and maybe not obvious enough to players. Any further ideas for permanent gains, that don't give nations a permanent overwhelming advantage, would be welcome.
As far as ideas for new permanent gains, I don't have any right now but If I think of any I'll post them.
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Ok so my experience is I got to level 60 twice,, once with my nation and the other with my cousins. The tech path is extremely confusing in the beginning...even for somebody who has played in the past. I am with the Void Dam tech.. that was mentioned earlier.
Some defenses are almost impossible to get through at early stages even if out powered. I do know about hit points per square but how does the calculation go. I mean is it better to tech hit points, attack per hit or go for other techs. There really should be a better explanation then tech beats bio .. bio beats psi .. etc.. Auto walk is a blessing a frigging curse as it always leaves squares so really have to pay attention to where you are walking.
Map freezes up quite often. Frustrating in the middle of a battle.
Make alliances a little better so that new players can work together and benefit or in some way help each other. I remember first playing years ago and had fun teaming up to help each other lvl up when we had no idea of Inno allies and lvlers. Will hopefully entice teamwork and possibly long term players.
Have a true Noobland and Midland if that is even possible. I would also have a special tech tree that is not as advanced (maybe 1/2) the techs and rebirth starts at 70. Even have a fire orb in location that pays like 1 Voids and those Voids in there pay like a Shad. That is of course if that can be just for beginners. Max sit on fire is 72 hours.. Or have orbs pay shitty with the reward being rebirth and then they start at lvl 1 noob vetland with the full tech tree. Will help them in vetland and close the gap a bit.
I was even pondering the idea of having something like 2 sides.. at the start of the game you are given a choice of 2 sides and cant change sides for the rest of the season and basically have side vrs side. Have it reset every month or 2.. Almost like Axis and Allies.. Each nation is given a certain amount of credits and get a set amt more with levels for techs and such so nobody gets more then the others..Making choosing your techs critical.. Let each side decide what nation is going to tech what.. Each nation on the winning side split the winnings and the nations that do more of the work .. (exp, sitting on orbs, forts, etc) get more and you have to at least get to lvl 40 to get any winnings. I mean the steam server is just sitting there basically. Max lvl per nation is 100
Winning nations all get a free unite and exp equal to lvl 30 to any nation of their choice and of course the war winnings. Losers get fee unite of lvl 15 exp and any winnings.. i am just throwing that out there but something along those lines where it makes be on the winner side worth it but not over powering
Some defenses are almost impossible to get through at early stages even if out powered. I do know about hit points per square but how does the calculation go. I mean is it better to tech hit points, attack per hit or go for other techs. There really should be a better explanation then tech beats bio .. bio beats psi .. etc.. Auto walk is a blessing a frigging curse as it always leaves squares so really have to pay attention to where you are walking.
Map freezes up quite often. Frustrating in the middle of a battle.
Make alliances a little better so that new players can work together and benefit or in some way help each other. I remember first playing years ago and had fun teaming up to help each other lvl up when we had no idea of Inno allies and lvlers. Will hopefully entice teamwork and possibly long term players.
Have a true Noobland and Midland if that is even possible. I would also have a special tech tree that is not as advanced (maybe 1/2) the techs and rebirth starts at 70. Even have a fire orb in location that pays like 1 Voids and those Voids in there pay like a Shad. That is of course if that can be just for beginners. Max sit on fire is 72 hours.. Or have orbs pay shitty with the reward being rebirth and then they start at lvl 1 noob vetland with the full tech tree. Will help them in vetland and close the gap a bit.
I was even pondering the idea of having something like 2 sides.. at the start of the game you are given a choice of 2 sides and cant change sides for the rest of the season and basically have side vrs side. Have it reset every month or 2.. Almost like Axis and Allies.. Each nation is given a certain amount of credits and get a set amt more with levels for techs and such so nobody gets more then the others..Making choosing your techs critical.. Let each side decide what nation is going to tech what.. Each nation on the winning side split the winnings and the nations that do more of the work .. (exp, sitting on orbs, forts, etc) get more and you have to at least get to lvl 40 to get any winnings. I mean the steam server is just sitting there basically. Max lvl per nation is 100
Winning nations all get a free unite and exp equal to lvl 30 to any nation of their choice and of course the war winnings. Losers get fee unite of lvl 15 exp and any winnings.. i am just throwing that out there but something along those lines where it makes be on the winner side worth it but not over powering
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Yeah. The advances tree in general needs a redesign. It's really confusing in general. I think a good start would be having the option to view the trees in separate viewing tabs. This would at least allow people to view each tree on its own without all the clutter of the other trees.
The best reason to form an alliance right now is probably to avoid friendly fire from towers and splash attacks. That would be useful in a multi-nation war over orbs or mains but unfortunately there aren't any of those now because of the small player count. There are those buildings that give energy and manpower but they're not really worth it. The best use for those buildings now is probably the passive EXP.hang1 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:38 amMake alliances a little better so that new players can work together and benefit or in some way help each other. I remember first playing years ago and had fun teaming up to help each other lvl up when we had no idea of Inno allies and lvlers. Will hopefully entice teamwork and possibly long term players.
There is a noobland now. There's a veteran boundary that is supposed to stop players who have played for a month or rebirthed at least once from going in it.hang1 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:38 amHave a true Noobland and Midland if that is even possible. I would also have a special tech tree that is not as advanced (maybe 1/2) the techs and rebirth starts at 70. Even have a fire orb in location that pays like 1 Voids and those Voids in there pay like a Shad. That is of course if that can be just for beginners. Max sit on fire is 72 hours.. Or have orbs pay shitty with the reward being rebirth and then they start at lvl 1 noob vetland with the full tech tree. Will help them in vetland and close the gap a bit.
This is a neat concept overall and could make for a great game event. I think that nations should be free to tech however they want though because of the rock paper scissors nature of the combat and to reduce potential trolling. If one nation goes Tech and the other goes Psi the Tech nation auto loses. However, it would be cool if there were faction wide technologies that could be selected. Give players the ability to vote for the nation they want to be the leader and the leader nation is able to select special technologies that gives their whole faction a bonus.hang1 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:38 amI was even pondering the idea of having something like 2 sides.. at the start of the game you are given a choice of 2 sides and cant change sides for the rest of the season and basically have side vrs side. Have it reset every month or 2.. Almost like Axis and Allies.. Each nation is given a certain amount of credits and get a set amt more with levels for techs and such so nobody gets more then the others..Making choosing your techs critical.. Let each side decide what nation is going to tech what.. Each nation on the winning side split the winnings and the nations that do more of the work .. (exp, sitting on orbs, forts, etc) get more and you have to at least get to lvl 40 to get any winnings. I mean the steam server is just sitting there basically. Max lvl per nation is 100
The event could be run on a special continent that is accessed like raids. Click the event button and it takes you to the event area and lets you see the event details and sign up. Then it gives you a nation with whatever the event specifications are. It would be important to have something that balances the numbers of each faction so that once one faction has too much more than the other players can't join it until the opposite faction has more players. It may be a good idea to have a level requirement to join to reduce the potential of people artificially inflating faction size with trash nations and help ensure people participating at least have a basic grasp of how to play. Also, something else to consider would be putting you on a random side so all the best players can't stack in one faction.
I think it would be ideal to have 3 factions to spread players around and make it harder for one side to snowball into victory but we don't have many players yet so we'd have to only do 2 for now. The event would have a special map with the size built to be ideal for how many people are playing at the time the event is run.
Last edited by ArcticPrism on Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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