Thanks a lot. As you can imagine, I don't get to hear too many uplifting words at the moment, so I cherish them all the more. This being said, I will of course stick around and explain our situation as good as I can; even if the overall tone is pretty rough. After all, this forum is the #1 community for hardcore mobile games on the web. And I despite all the backlash, I am still confident that GOF3 can win many critics over if they give it a chance. It is an amazing game. Different, sure. But amazing nontheless!
Of course, I'm all open for discussing the gameplay of GOF3 as well. In fact, I already did a little round-up earlier: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=3873015&postcount=63. And I still stand by the things I said back then. GOF3 misses some of the things that people loved about GOF2. But it also introduces a lot of new things that are really cool. And, as I said repeatedly, our journey has only just begun. Just because something is not in the game right now, does not mean that it has no chance of being introduced at a later point. As for Drifter, it looks like fun and introduces a lot of cool ideas. But it is a small indie game made by two people. And it will first and foremost not be released on mobile, but on Steam. So I'm sorry, but no. Drifter will not make me change my opinion that projects the size of GOF3 cannot be released on the App Store and Google Play as paid games anymore. Cause despite the fact that Drifter looks really cool, it is a much, much smaller project than GOF3. And it is neither mobile-first nor mobile-only.
As one of the local Foursaken historians around here I will say the last 3 are F2P, War Tortoise, All is Lost and Adventure Company with Color Bots just around the corner... all F2P. They are working on something big for Block Fortress, but typically there "premium" price tag is 1.99 with IAP to help speed up the game, like the crystals in H&C2 referenced earlier. Tobi, excited about this game. ypu said it yourself, its a new game, different game, etc. cant wait to see how you all balance and get it figured out during soft launch.
About the latest F2P games from Fourkaken-I am still playing to this moment War Turtle without having to wait once for a timer.There is one if you die but I have just reached lvl 60 and have never had to wait for it-because once you die you just need to start the next generation and get bonuses and continue playing-that is the point of the game,it is an endless fun grinder.Also they introduced bosses now which are really low lvl and give out great rewards,just from 3 boss kills so far-I have received some of my best perks.I am getting through the game rather quickly to be honest.Each generation also unlock you new stuff to use during battle but again-the game is a grinding game.This is how F2P has to be done-not to force you right after your first mission to spend like 50 bucks on nonexisiting currency but to welcome you to spend if you want to help the developers out. There were IAP in both HC1 and 2 but I never bought them cause all they did was speed the completion of the game?Why would anyone buy them?The games were fun as hell and are RPG,all RPGs have grinding and HC is not that much.Also it makes less sense to buy crystals now because they introduced a way to replay the old missions to get more crystals,you get an insane amount of crystals from the locations you control. Galaxy on Fire is like Clash of Clans,you play 10 minutes and wait 5 hours for nothing.
I still stand by what I've said that I listed in CONS In my review. You guys talk of content updates and fixes but are you guys actually going to fix the problems that everyone is complaining about or are you going to just ignore it and release other things that no one specifically asked for. I have seen other companies do this where he was complaining about something but they just ignore it and release it say well just ignore that the chick this new feature out and that sucks sometimes that ends up killing the game, not always but it gets roasted from reviews because of it.
Where exactly do you have to wait in GOF3? If your ship has taken damange in a mission, you can continue flying until your stamina bar is drained. And even then you can keep doing missions, albeit with reduced stats. If you upgrade a weapon or a part of your ship, you can also keep playing. While you're doing your mission, the timer runs down in the background. You can even still use the weapon or part of the ship that is being updated -- you just won't be able to get the bonus that the update brings. And if you finsih a blue print for a new ship, you can still fly missions with your other ship(s).
So you don't see where the wait is?Who would fly their ship on missions with reduced stats?!And at some point those weapon upgrades will reach things like 30 minutes,what if your current weapons can't do the mission you have to with their current stats? I don't even see a point in discussing this any further,it is more than clear where the wait it.Don't try to represent the waiting system like it doesn't stop you from playing the game at all,that is the worst thing a PR person can do. Sorry for your financial troubles over the years but there is a way to make the F2P more friendly and this isn't it.
I still think this game is not going to appease original GoF fans in its current state. So I'd just give up that conversation. I think most gamers who really got into it are the "hardcore" gamers who just don't fit the F2P mold. I don't dislike all F2P games because there are many that do it right. But when I look at my devices, the vast majority of games I keep buying are premium (Titan Quest, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Sproggiwood, Chaos Rings 3, Rogue Star). Many ports .... but I would bet the vast majority of iOS gamers hadn't even known of those games before they came to mobile. Galaxy on Fire, on the other hand, is known in the mobile community. Regardless, this game is still drastically different than Galaxy on Fire 2 in its current state. But if you do want to have any hope in attracting long time fans, consider some options like IAPs that eliminate timers. If the game evolves into something better, spending $10 to make a game more "premium" while still allowing others to play with the F2P model may be the best hope.
Who would fly their ship with reduced stats, you ask? Well, for starters someone who is good enough to beat his enemies anyway. This is a skill game, after all. Or how about someone who just needs to pass a couple of minutes before his next blueprint is finished and who prefers to kill this time by finishing a few easy missions with a damaged ship. There are actually a lot of scenarios where it is perfectly reasonable to keep flying, even when your stamina has run low. Of course, if you neither want to wait nor have a disadvantage at any point in the game, you have to buy an IAP at one point or another. But on the other hand, if you never want to spend a penny in GOF3, you can still finish the game and unlock all content solely by playing. Also, if your current weapons are not strong enough to finish a particular mission in "hard" difficulty, you can still do it in "medium" or "low" difficulty. And if you cannot challenge a certain boss with your current configuration, you can take on a wide array of side missions and challenges, all of which help you to make further progress. I really don't see what's unfair about this?
IAP to eliminate timers would be a good option.I wouldn't mind paying up to 15 euro for this if I can fully enjoy the game till the end without having to wait a second but they won't do it.It is certain at this point.All we can do now is wait and see what will happen with the game but I think we all know it won't do good and this will be the last GOF we see.
The problem is not only IAP, timers, multiple currencies etc. The problem is that while you have added all those things that ppl hate (yes that is the emotion) you have also not delivers on the core experience. GoF was about - space combat - exploration - trading GoF3 has 1 out of 3 elements. That is why ppl are harsh, not because we hate IAP. I still play RealRacing3, the core experience is still there. I buy occasional IAP and watch their adds. With GoF3 the experience is NOT there, plus there's a lot of things no one likes added in. I will wait for Soft Launch to run its course, try the official release and see if I enjoy it. For now, there's nothing but disappointment from what I have seen / read.
It's about the LIMITS. You are limiting are time playing quality ships, your limiting are health, your limiting our damage, your limiting are strive to want to keep playing, your limiting the maximum potential for yourself, the ship, and the upgrades. Your limiting the "want" to play more. WE DONT WANT TO PLAY WITH SHIPS WE DONT LIKE, WE DONT WANT TO OLAY WITH A BROKEN SHIP, WE DONT WANT TO PLAY A MISSION WITH DECREASED STATS, WE DONT WANT TO WAIT FOR UPGRADES AND BLUEPRINTD JUST SO OUR SHIP BECOMES USELSS IN HALF AN HOUR. WE DONT WANT TO BE LIMITED PLAYTIME, FUN, AND PROGRESS. We know we can play through the timers but no one wants to! We lose interest and can only stand to play for 15minutes. IT may not actually be holding us back, but it Darn right FEELS like we are. That's what everyone is complaining about. Every where you turn in another timer. ITS THE FEEL of restriction that people can't stand. And seriously? WHY SO MANY CURRENCIES???
I think we have given way too much attention to this game.It is obvious that it isn't a true GOF game.It is obvious it will be filled with IAP and the last thing that is obvious is that no one likes it at this point.If you need proof of that-read the last 16 pages. This should have been canceled long ago,now it will just upset us all and we will no longer want games from Fishlabs.
I can't help but shake my head at the recurring excuse of being a 90 people team so they can't make the great premium games that smaller teams of 5 can do. It's rather obvious that if having a such a huge team forces you into producing subpar games disguised behind the Galaxy on Fire title while not actually being Galaxy on Fire you shouldn't have such a large team. Being so ambitious monetarily to the point of hurting what you're actually producing is not the way to go forward, or it shouldn't be but I understand that it has become the norm in a time and society where money is the only thing that matters. That's one of the reasons why mobile gaming has become a threatened platform for gamers over the years, unlike computers and consoles that continue to thrive we see mobile platforms relegated to second class gaming options where the only viable products are silly freemium games based on timers, restrictions and frustrating gameplay. Just please don't repeat for the tenth time that you're such a large team as an excuse because then you shouldn't be such a large team when smaller teams of 5 or even 1 (Star Nomad 2) are the ones currently pushing mobile gaming forward, developing new ideas and reaching breakthroughs in terms of quality, mechanics and gameplay. It's embarrassing really but people are so blinded by ambition and profit that the very thing that inspired original game developers and gamers -- the freedom of it! -- is lost, neglected or completely abandoned. Fishlabs may insist that freemium is no longer possible or viable but thankfully other studios will continue to develop innovative premium games even if Fishlabs is dead, beaten by teams of 5 and 1 developers. Good luck.
This has to be the most logical comment I have read so far and it points out something I said earlier about being less ambitious with both the game and the team.I just figured out that Foursaken media,a development studio with 4 people can make something like Heroes and Castles but Fishlabs needs 90 people to finish Galaxy on Fire and this isn't even the same GOF game we saw years before because it is missing the exploration part,the trading part and more-this is a smaller game then the ones before it but it needs 90 people working to produce it?Lower your staff and work with less people and produce less ambitious stuff if you can't manage to make enough money to pay all these people. I don't have to feel sorry for a developer who doesn't know how to run his company.That is their problem not mine and on top of that trying to guilt us with the fact that they were going to be bankrupt is even worse.Enough of all of it,I say!
This game is a failure,that's enough punishment for Fishlabs,either they'll crumble OR get their stuff together and greatly change the core mechanics of the game. Making a NON-premium game is NOT a freaking excuse to make it barely playable due to energy timers and tons of currencies,that's suicidical.
I think they will crumble after this game.It will be such a huge failure they just won't be able to recover from it.
I've just resigned myself to the fact that this game isn't going to be what I hoped it would be. And sounds like it never will be. So I wish them luck with the casual F2P players as they abandon their original long lost fanbase. I'll just look forward to Everspace on Xbox One and pretend this doesn't even exist.
