This is their first exclusively freemium release. It's a one time thing. Their next game (Block Fortress: War comes out on March 6th (2 weeks from now) and is a premium title. And you can sure as hell bet that the game after that will be premium. And then why don't you buy some scrolls because that will make the game easier?
Its a turret that's a lightbulb and functions like a "tesla coil" does in other games. If you can't find it, try scrolling the turret list (yes it's scrollable )
Hero requirements will be removed in the next update. I agree the progression to unlock characters is slower than I would like, but they have to make money somehow I guess.
I never buy scrolls because i'd rather use diamonds to unlock Heroes Do they affect the gameplay significantly enough to warrant a purchase ?
Wasn't Monster Adventures pretty much freemium as well? I'm looking at the first Block Fortress and I see minerals iAP there too. Will their future games be "premium" in that they will cost 99c? And I have put over 100 diamonds in scrolls, none of which give piercing damage, one of the most critical requirements in the game.
ugh. Worst. Mission. Ever. And i've only encountered the 3-star version of it. Defend for 4 rounds with 2 Lv3 Snail Turrets. Seriously? Getting one turret costing over 100 junk to lv3 takes forever to complete, and this mission requires two. Took me 36 minutes and 12 seconds for this mission alone, only for 3 stars and 8 gems. Pretty stupid spending that much time for just that much reward. On the bright side, im sure if Foursaken reads this, they will make the adjustments for the necessary balancing required. but for now... Worst. Mission. Ever.
Since it's clear that the majority of players are having problems with missions it makes me wonder what kind of feedback testers were giving and whether that feedback was being completely ignored.
This. It's all about skill and strategy. No special 10 dollar IAP weapon can help you during a game. Scrolls I find okay, I have one for stunning that's pretty useful. If you need characters go endless, have only made it to round 15 so far in hard but it works. 25-35 diamonds a round and bam, new hero.
Maybe they want us to play Endless mode more instead of Mission all the time A decent run will give some mastery and 7-12 diamonds. This way you can still unlock characters, level up mastery and buy scrolls
Yes, they can sell the game for 1 or 2 and I buy it ! Today, I play for Free a game that I usually buy. They lose 1 or 2 from me :/
It is slow, but for free, one cant complain. The fact is, you can unlock everything without spending. Even if you dont get to unlock everything, you still experience the game in full with what heroes you have unlocked from the beginning. The IAP implementation looks perfect to me, since the grind doesnt feel too much like a grind at all as im having genuine fun with each mission, endless modes and the multiplayer.
Haha xD Reminds me of the mission I described earlier in this thread. Defend for 4 rounds with 3(!) level 3 light bulb turrets where one costs 125 parts. That was my worst. mission. ever. Took me 41 mins...and then gran3de tells me yada yada 5 mins for each mission...lucky guy lol There isn't anything to speed up this kind of missions cause parts spawning randomly.
MA was 1.99... Never saw a need to buy anything extra. Did you play it? BF was 1.99 USD... IAP was for bots and yes, you could buy M to upgrade your turrets and blocks, plus the extra bots released months after the game came out, as they continually support their games and will with this one.. did you play this one as well? I never had the need to buy more. I will say, a common theme for me and this developer is... I got my original money's worth, wanted to try out the tons of unlockables sooner, and went ahead and paid another 2-5 dollars extra for the content. Piercing is important on certain armored guys... But if you play endless a few times, build up some diamonds and buy another character, which you can choose, you'll get it... Especially play on Hard and with random characters... Yep, you'll die.... But you will get diamonds quicker and build up your skills. They have already addressed that they are going to remove the hero-required missions... Otherwise, it's balanced.
He's #2 because he got early access to the game, along with a handful of others so he has a leg up on most of us at this point. I can remember that there were levels in H&C that seemed like I would never beat them. But once I did it was easy to do so again. I imagine its the same with BH2. Some levels will be extremely hard but once you figure them out it will be smooth sailing.
If buying more character is no guarantee that missions will become easier, what smurfberries would Foursaken be prodding you towards? Luckily, the game functions like you wish it did, at least in theory, and will eventually in practice: * Missions scale, based on player skill. These algoritms need work (probably lots of it), however, as they tend to offer up very difficult missions for players who do well in the 1-3 star range. * Legendary characters are NOT advantageous for missions. They exist for players who want to focus on a single character, not to make the game easier. In most situations, choosing one legendary over two regular heroes is a drawback. This is a stated intention of the developers, and definitively holds true for all my testing. (When I first unlocked Mantis, I felt like I had inadvertedly activated casual mode. It did not go many minutes before I realized that this sensation only held true for some very few situations, encounters where a single strong hero is a clear asset. In most contexts, however, two weaker heroes with good synergy is considerably more effective.) * Required non-purchased characters for missions will be removed. In addition, I've found that: The heroes are varied and balanced enough that purchasing additional bugs will not make a drastic difference in mission progress. But perhaps a minor one, which is a nice freemium trade-off between developer profit and player reward. Some particular types of heroes will be better for some missions, which I think is a very nice and rewarding mechanic (both when I apply it to succeed, or when I ignore it and succeed against the odds). But the focus on player skill is so dominant that owning every single hero in the game will not allow a player to succeed at 5-star missions where he previously could not manage 4-starred ones (and possibly not go from the 4 star tier to the 5th either, but I have not conducted enough testing in that regard to be certain). Scrolls, the only other thing you CAN spend real-life money on, work on an equivalent exchange principle. Your hero will not grow overall stronger, only obtain a different focus. This can be of aid in certain missions, a drawback in others, but will not allow you to succeed at a mission you could impossibly conquer without said scrolls. Much like the discussion in the Second Chance Heroes on the subject of freemium models and how being too generous can void all chances of decent profits (the Spell Quest developer showed up and offered some valuable feed, mainly that his praised freemium scheme has led to miniscule profits for a game that has become very popular) indicates, there is an ongoing process to balance f2p models, and find business structures that yield a combination of good profits for developers and acceptable progression and content access for players. I'd say that Bug Heroes 2 currently leans on the generous side of that spectrum (on days when I have time to play as much as I like, I unlock one character every day), but have struck a rather pleasant balance. We get a very polished, sophisticated, competitive and feature-filled title for free (and it truly can be enjoyed for free, infinitely and deeply, even for someone without patience for freemium titles, such as me. I even chose to spend money on other Foursaken titles as payment, since I did not want to ruin my own sense of progression in BH2). It remains to be seen if it works similarly well for Foursaken's profit margins. I'm not certain a handful of posts in a thread with 413+ impressions and feedback substantiates the conclusion that the majority of players are having problems with missions. However, if this is the case (which it might very well be, the lack of empirical evidence notwithstanding), I have little doubt Foursaken will take the feedback to heart, and implement much of it. So I think we will do more good focusing on the required changes to balance the difficulty of missions, instead of asking retroactively what testers could have done differently, or if their feedback was received. (Though I do have half an answer for you there: most tester I spoke to found missions structure and challenge suitable to their level of skill. In some few cases, some tweaking to the stars structure and challenge levels was applied as a result of feedback, so it seems Foursaken was at least partially receptive.) It will not be long before you start to earn 20 scrolls minimum off endless Gr3nad3 reported a profit of 50 diamonds in one of his early endless runs. Unlocking one character every day is not only possible, but viable. I am surprised at the notion that progress would be slow. It will take a dedicated player less than a month to unlock all content but legendary heroes (which is nice, so that there will be something left to work towards long-term). Compared to most games which I know of that apply an unlockable hero principle (LoL, BLC, Tribes, Smite, Solstice Arena, Heroes of Order & Chaos, Second Chance Heroes, etc), that is blazingly fast. And a regular hero a day is a kinda rewarding principle, as the resulting rate of new experiences and variety in mechanics means that players might rarely tire as long as there are new heroes to unlock. (And hopefully, the competitive nature of the game will extend its lifetime for months or years beyond that.) But yeah, regardless of my subjective definition of "slow", I do agree that the IAP implementation really is close to perfect. I hope it strikes a good balance and allows Foursaken good profit margins.
I'm not going to respond to the entire wall of text in kind because that just results in more wall of text back and forth, suffice it to say that freemium grinds are just not for me and it was a mistake on my part to expect a freemium game to not be a grindfest. I will however make a small response: * The prod to smurfberries is evident from the required hero missions, regardless of the dev's promise to remove them since the game launched with them after the exhaustive testing. Furthermore, some characters are clearly more suited to specific type of missions and when pitted against 5 star missions of those variety it's hard not to think, "oh, maybe I should spend money to buy the character that can deal with this mission" * If these are only a handful of posts complaining then surely no balances are needed and even the required hero missions should stay as the testers and the developers saw no problem with them. In any case, I am wholly in the wrong and have made amends by deleting the app. And on that note I sign off from this thread.
Wall of texts are not inherently a bad thing, and might be required for conductive discourse. And with this discussion not mired in personal attacks, insults or even complete disagreement, but instead based in civility and good cheer, I'd say those long walls might be a blessing. Again, there are some good news: required characters are removed in the already submitted update. And yes, I think you are supposed to, at least in a small way, think that buying another character would at least increase your chances of success slightly. That is the trade off between developer profit and player progression and content access of which I speak. In the current business climate, it might be one of the most viable business models for small developers. My hope is that we can shape it into a perfect balance with constructive feedback, and create a subset of the current climate, where hardcore and premium titles might be released as f2p, but with a balance that will offend no one. As for the handful of posts, your sentiments mirror mine (hence "However, if this is the case (which it might very well be, the lack of empirical evidence notwithstanding), I have little doubt Foursaken will take the feedback to heart, and implement much of it."). Currently, there does not seem to be an actual problem on a large scale. However, discussions such as this might open the floodgates for more valid complaints. Perhaps this is indeed an issue for many though only voiced by few, in which case discussion on how to improve the mechanics might be of benefit both to players and developers.
Dont forget, this is the iOS scene. To be dedicated in one game for a month isnt a luxury i can afford, and im sure im not the only one.
