Universal Idle Realm (by Eat the Moon)

Thanks!

I agree, it shouldn't let you buy more than you can store. I pulled the build that I submitted to Apple and am uploading a new build that will do this right now.

To be honest, I don't like the way the Docks have been performing. I had a few concepts for the Docks and decided to go with the one that I felt was most cheat-like and has slight micro-management. While it does provide this little buy low, sell high game within the game, most players seem to dump their resources they don't need and convert them into gold. Then, when they need the harder to produce resources, they just buy them up, bypassing some of the tech tree requirements and building a lot more of certain buildings that they shouldn't be able to build a lot of at the stage of the game they are on. It was a good test, but the execution of it just doesn't feel good and I just don't like the feature.

I have two current ideas that I can use for the Docks feature and I will be planning out what each idea requires and what it would take to implement. I want the Docks to feel more rewarding, provide another part of the game that you check and interact with to get something out of it. I'll release more information about what I decide to do with Docks 2.0 in the coming weeks.

So for now, enjoy the Docks while you can!

 

Thanks

Sure, I can do that in the future. I just posted another post about my thoughts on Docks. Basic idea is: I don't like them. I will be redesigning the Docks in the future and when Docks 2.0 pops out, I'll probably have a new button on the side menu.

It's fine if you want to pursue the Research Facility and Libraries instead of the School. I can look into some balancing or tweaking of the tech tree to bring the Level 3 schools down a little bit, but in the end, Level 3 of any research building except for the Research Facility might feel like a waste anyway.

Oh, and wait until I add achievements and challenges to the game... those Level 3 Schools are going to appear in it because of you (just kidding... but only a little )

 

I like to listen to my players and the community! ... I also like to talk a lot, haha! Back in the day, when I used to make World of Warcraft addons, I remember having a pretty solid community of players built around my addons and interacting with them was always a joy.

Also, while I take everyone's suggestions and criticisms very seriously, just know that some ideas I will definitely pass on. I have certain goals for where I want to steer this game and the suggestions that help me in that regard will make it in. I'm really excited about the Fall/Halloween update for the game, but I can't talk about it yet

 

It involves quests or work orders ... and maybe a global community event, because I want people working together to do something. That's all I can say for now, because I still haven't finalized the design or the requirements to make it happen.

Secret! You got to wait!

 

I don't currently have plans for water in the near future. It isn't high on my list of things yet, but I do want to do something with water at some point.

Also, sadly, no plans for terraforming the land. The purpose of the land is to require you to plan out where to go and find places of interest. If I just let you terraform the land, then there would be no strategy in finding good locations for bases.

 

Houses provide citizens. Every house you build, you get a citizen. You can upgrade houses later on to provide more citizens per house. They do not regenerate, you simply get them when you build the house. By demolishing buildings that use citizens as a resource, they will leave their job and go back to their house. Likewise, demolishing a house will make you lose that citizen and, if your citizen count goes below zero, buildings that use citizens will be automatically demolished until your citizen count is non-negative.

You will need to build a lot of houses during your game

Visit the store (on the side menu, it's the purple coin icon). There is a freebies tab where you can watch an ad (as many times as you want) for 5 moon coins each, or the occasional rare 10 coins. You can also watch an ad for a random boost, once an hour. One of the boosts you can get from the ad method is the Research boost. Or, you could watch a couple of the moon coin ads and simply buy the boost in the store as well.

I recommend checking the FAQ and reading through the Getting Started section, which is great for new players or for people who are confused by some of the mechanics. The Getting Started guide, broken into 9 parts, will walk you through the start of the game and work you up all the way to the ability to build a new settlement elsewhere on the map.

You can build as many knowledge producing buildings that you want in order to speed up your research. At the start of the game, you have Campfires which only provide +10 knowledge a second. Later, you get Schools (+20), Libraries (+100) and Research Facilities (+1000). Each of these buildings, except for the Campfire, can be upgraded to boost the production higher.

I tried to balance the game where most upgrades in the early tiers shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to upgrade. Mid tier shouldn't take more than 60 minutes, and high tier shouldn't take more than 75 minutes. Of course, balancing the game is tough, since you could build your empire any way that you choose, so my benchmark has always been that you are building knowledge generating buildings as you play, and you keep building them. If you slack on the research, the time to research could be 2x, 3x, or 4x what I said, but even then, it shouldn't take more than a day to do.

There are a lot of players who just build one Campfire and then push through until they get Schools. Honestly, I usually have 5-6 Campfires at the start and then start demolishing some to make room for houses when my first base becomes full. When I expand to new settlements, I ramp up my knowledge production again.

I hope this information helps!

 

Thanks! I've been pretty happy that the majority of players who have talked with me have really enjoyed the game.

Nah, not dumb. Some concepts take time to click, that's expected. Sometimes just talking about it is enough to realize the answer Probably why I talk too much in my responses to feature requests or explanations: I am still figuring out what I want to do, haha!

I figured 5 coins was a good amount, watching 4-6 ads to get a specific boost you wanted, or 1 ad for a random boost seemed good. Plus, you get the occasional 10 coins randomly.

I love easter eggs and hidden secrets. But before anyone starts asking or trying to figure it out, no, there are no secrets or easter eggs ... yet.

I have a new version that is waiting for Apple approval that fixes an issue with the auto-save sometimes not handling crashes in some situations. But this might not have been the issue.

Research says "Forever" when you have no knowledge generation buildings. Did you accidentally demolish your campfires or other resource generating buildings (you might have schools now)? If you got rid of your campfires and replaced them with schools, schools require citizens and if you destroyed any houses, you might have caused the buildings that used those citizens to also be auto-destroyed.

 

The update that is awaiting Apple review (hopefully finished in 1-2 days!) will hopefully help with this. Right now, if your resources are maxed out, you might see a +0/s production for a resource, even though you could be making +50/s, for example. The update will show you your net production and your max, so if you aren't hitting your max, you can look at the resource requirements for that resource (also shown on the new inventory screen) and build more of those buildings.

Until the next update, the main thing is to remember that almost everything will use natural resources. Once you have an understanding of what your manufactured resources need in order to be made, you'll do fine. For example:

You have a blacksmith, which produces Tools. Opening up the blacksmith building will show you what resources it uses in order to make tools (wood and ore). So, you need to have at least one lumberjack and one ore mine in order for your blacksmith to be producing at max capacity. Then there is the sawmill, which takes wood and convert it into planks, so you need another lumberjack to be built to compliment the sawmill, otherwise the sawmill will cut into the wood consumption of the blacksmith.

It gets even more crazy when you have more advanced manufactured resources. For example, to make paper at the Paper Factory requires Hay and Lye. Lye is created with the Lye Factory with Hay, Wood, and Stone. So, you make 10 paper, you need:

Hay +20/s
Wood +10/s
Stone +10/s

So you need 1 paper factory, 1 lye factory, 2 hay fields, 1 lumberjack, and 1 quarry, just to make some paper.

I hope that helps a little!

 

The current update that is being reviewed by Apple right now doesn't have that shortcut in, but the next update will most likely have the new screen that lets you zip around to upgrade the buildings a little easier. Sorry that I couldn't get it in for this current update, but it is on my list!