The first time I played Flip Out, my lead car was on his third lap after his fourth shot. It's the fastest track in the game. The jump from just past the finish line to the final-stretch chevron is easy to make and if you make it it puts you right back to just past the finish line, fully charged up, one lap ahead, and ready to do it again.
While it is great to see that the devs are still supporting Disc Drivin' with such dedication, and while new tracks are always a welcome addition, the game has reached a point where, for me, there are additions I'd welcome even more than new map content, additions that would add some persistent aspects and competitive depth to a game that is now only random matches: Leaderboards: Possible entries would be stuff such as win/loss ratio, highest ELO/other suitable competitiv rating (see below), and shortest travel time around each track (I.E., only the actual moving time counts). Even less skill-related stats, such as highest number of sabotage operations (pushing opponents off the track) and longest airtime, would make for nice leaderboard entries, as they would still be fun to compare. ELO/other competitive rating system: While I'm not sure how ELO works for several players, there are plenty of other ranking systems that work for multiple players. A few iOS games use ELO already (UniWar, Carcassonne, Urban Rivals), and I cannot imagine an online game where such a ranking would not be an asset and contribute to the experience. Just add a friendly games option for those who feel bothered by rankings, and everyone wins. Considering that most of these rating systems are built around rather simple math, where only wins, losses and the relative ratings are important, they are very, very easy to add to a game. No, I haven't looked at Disc Drivin' code, but yes, I can still vouch for the relative ease of adding such a system, so we can spare each other the discussion that beings with "Are you one of the programmers who worked on this game? If not, how would you know?" Achievements: While I actually rarely care much for achievements, I've seen how much added incentive and fun they bring many players. And it is easy to come up with ideas for Disc Drivin'. Achievements for really long airtimes, really long travel distance in one move, using a low number of moves to finish a track, bypassing a high number of objects with the phaseshift power, jumping past a high number of opponents in one jump, overtaking a high number of opponents in one move, catching up after having fallen back a particularly large distance, pushing several opponents off the track in one move, leading for a whole race, etc, etc. (And then there are all the incremental achievements, which really only require playtime, not skill, but still somehow often turn up in games. Matches played, won, distance travelled, opponents tackled, opponents tackled off the track, boosts used, etc, etc.) GameCenter matchmaking: In addition to the GameCenter-reliant features mentioned above, it would be most convenient to find opponents via GameCenter. And this are just the bare essentials. Built-in tournaments and leagues and ladders, visual customization of the discs, and a (really far-fetched, as I let my imagination slide) separate RPG mode where points and cash are earned form matches and used to improve discs (traction/friction, tackle strength, speed, jump distance, etc) and buy boost abilities... Disc Drivin' has so much potential that I fear can only be realized if some focus is diverted from making new maps, at least for one patch or two. A good allegory for how much the improvements in the list above can sometimes add to a game would be Carcassonne and UniWar versus Words with Friends. Words with Friends is actually not far from most other asynchronous titles in strategic depth, but thanks to the lack of any kind of stats or other ways to track success, there is no sense of greater whole or persistence. UniWar and Carcassonne, on the other hands, feature ELO ratings, achievements and leaderboards (Carcassonne), and detailed stats and logs (UniWar). As a result, there is quite a competitive community built around these games, every victory feels just a little bit better, as it contributes to stats and rankings, and every loss is felt just a tad more keenly, in that motivational way As long as all these methods for measuring and tracking skill are optional (friendly and ranked games), they will not bother those who can do without them, and only make the game FAR more fun for those who can't. Just try to prematurely quit an asynchronous game, ragequitters...
I agree. Big time. What the heck have you guys been doing? Leaderboards? Gamecenter support...cmon, not to mention the lame 20 player max games. Half my games I have to wait for some a-hole to move or just wait a week for them to drop off automatically. Fix this resigning on your own turn business. Fix how the game refreshes it takes too long. It's easier to close the game and open it to see games refreshed when it's my turn. So many games have all these new perks and achievements I thought for sure you guys were cooking up something better than a flipper.
All good points. The new tracks are great, but I really thought some of the suggestions you made would have been addressed. Feel free to add me (LALeaf).....I'm no a-hole......you won't have to wait long for me to take my turn.
Hmm, none of my games were updating even though my opponents had made their moves so I deleted the game off my iPod and resynced it. I tried restarting my iPod and stuff before I did that, and nothing worked. I'm guessing games aren't saved online since it says I have no games now when I had 18 games going before I deleted it off my iPod.. Bleh, invite me to another game if you want to play then. Edit: Jk, it looks I still have the problem with my games not updating so my old games don't show up. Not sure if anyone else is having this problem. Going to see if it fixes itself by tomorrow. If not, I guess that's the end to my addiction..
I think the game server is down or something.....none of my games have updated in a couple of hours. Boo!
I'm getting sick and tired of people starting game and taking 1 or 2 turns then never playing again. I have 3 people that haven't takin a turn in 3-4 days. If theres any peeps that like to play alot look me up (ak47killa123)
Oh shit, really? So it's not just my game/account that's messed up then. What a relief! My account shows that I have no games in progress so it won't update, but I can't start a new game since it says I already have 20 games going, which I did. Hope this gets taken care of soon! Lol, everyone I play with go in a matter of minutes if they're not sleeping. 20 games going, and they're mostly all from TA. A few other friends play too.
I probably shouldn't have deleted the game :[. My list is still completely empty on the iPod but it tells me I'm at 20 games, which I had before deleting. Hoping for the best. Weird thing is, when I try to sign in to DD HD on the iPad 2 with my account, which my brother uses his account on, I still have access to his game list instead of mine. Not sure what's going on! Bleh. It was working perfectly fine this morning..
STILL no 1 player option vs computer?! WTF? See all the problems people are having with other people when playing online? I don't want to play other people! Just 1 player vs computer! Is that so much to ask for?! I know you can play against yourself with pass and play-blah, blah! I don't want to play that way! So, forget it! I'll watch to see if/when the devs add this option, and if it doesn't happen, I'll not get this!
I see your game against me....it shows it's your turn. None of my games are updating, but when I go to the "Their Turn" games, it is my turn. So it probably looks like they're waiting on me on their iDevice! Pass and play against yourself is better than a 1 player option vs the computer. Chances are, the computer will suck and be uncreative. At least when you play against yourself, you'll know that both players will be trying to win.....
I play all the time. Feel free to add me if you want: cthibault Most of the games I have going are people from TA and everyone plays their turn pretty quickly unless it gets too late at night.
That's exactly what happened to me. The turns aren't registering. I deleted the game off my iPod to try and fix this like I said, but now I can't even see my list of old games anymore, and I have 20 of them going on. So who wants to volunteer for emailing the devs!?
I wrote the dev....... I decided to try deleting the app and reinstalling. Big mistake. Huge. It doesn't show any of my games anymore, because none of them are registering as "My Turn". I would guess that they're all stuck on "Their Turn", and since they aren't showing up at all, I can't tap on them to see if it's really my turn or not. Awesome.
Wait, is that what you wrote the dev or what you actually did? If that's what you actually did, then you're kind of silly considering I posted that's what I did and now I'm stuck with an useless account, lol xP.
