The game was released on May 19th. Four months was enough to fulfill a promise made twice. There is no news, has been no news and I'd be shocked (but delighted) if there were any. If the developer wishes to contact me, I'm fine with that but I see no reason to pursue the conversation with him. Color me wrong if an update is published. I'll be the first to cheer. If not, I will never buy another game developed by iMoregames. Good grief, there is one bug that stands out over all others. The Blademaster loop is as serious a bug as one can possibly code, since it completely ends the game and places you back on the home screen. If only this one bug had been fixed in a subsequent update in a timely manner, I'd be okay waiting for more, but we didn't even get that?! Wow. That's serious avoidance of responsibility and shame on Chillingo for accepting such a situation. I'm now playing Kard Combat & Ascension a lot and enjoying both. When Battleline gets its next update, multiplayer should be awesome.
Hello sirs! I missed you guys. It's been a while! And yep, I called it. Hate to jump in here to say "told ya", but it's just the honest truth. I'll do you a post-mortem of Orions 2 right now. See, I say "post-mortem" but really, I said all of this before the game came out. Being a beta tester I could see the freaking trainwreck this was about to become and just decided to wash my hands of the mess (I still bought the game though, goes to show how much I like the franchise itself). Here we go: - High price point ($3 for a game coming from a dev that disappointed all their fans before is pretty high, sorry. This is the AppStore we're talking about. Those same $3 could buy you 3 actually playable games, that actually get updates from companies that actually do give a crap); (Keep in mind Orions wasn't the only game in town this time around, there are other TCG options (some of which are FREE. Even less reason to buy it now) - No special promo with the first game (say, make it free to create franchise awareness). They didn't even update it to fix the bugs. - No async multiplayer, which is the only proper way to play an online card battle game on a mobile device that follows you around where you go. What they didn't seem to understand is that an iPhone isn't like a PS3; it's not a device you sit in front of when you can give it your full attention for an hour or two. Most of the time you're pulling your phone out for 2 minutes for some Angry Birds and then your talking to your bank teller or buying your movie tickets or seeing your doctor or getting off at your bus stop. It's impossible to squeeze a synchronous match in a situation like that. 10-15 minutes a match might not seem like a lot of time, but trust me: in the real world, and concerning a device that became a powerhouse portable console due to its casual "I'll play for two minutes here and there" nature, it is. Here's a simple example: I can play async iOS games on my breaks at work. I can't play Orions 2 during my breaks at work. That makes a WORLD of difference. You shouldn't have to adapt your lifestyle to cater to the way a mobile game works, it should be the other way around. - Focus on a clunky, boring, unnecessary and rip-offish campaign mode NO ONE really cared about. You are not Heroes of Might and Magic, stop trying to be it. You're a card game. Focus on what you're good at, ditch what you're not good at. Of course, it made way too much sense, so Pavel disregarded it. - ABSOLUTELY NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER LIKE I EFFING SAID IT WOULDN'T HAVE. And what's worst, no support on a PORT that had already been delayed for what, 5 months? It really shouldn't have such game-breaking bugs. Pavel and co are so out of touch with the AppStore, they didn't understand any of the advice we gave them. They called their Lite version "MINI" for god sake. That alone speaks VOLUMES of how much they don't understand the AppStore. Orions "Mini". Jesus Christ, look at who we were trusting to make a decent game. These people don't understand the AppStore, don't understand how to code a game, don't understand their fans. I have to say, though: I'm delighted -- DELIGHTED -- to see that you have become that disillusioned with iMoreGames, AMN. To think you sent me an angry email once because I gave up on trying to help the devs... Hate to say I told you so, dude. They don't listen. They just don't listen. They had the code all ready to go. They already had all the gfx assets -- which, OF COURSE, they didn't bother to give the RetinaDisplay treatment, making it pretty much the only game launching at that point without RD graphics. There was actually pretty little that needed being done, it was essentially a port. It really shouldn't have have been that hard. I told them all along: scrap that goddamn Heroes of Might and Magic-"inspired" campaign mode. Give it async MP ("oh no you see Orions is like chess, moves don't take too long anyw..." SHUT UP. SHUT UP. JUST SHUT UP. Listen to the people who ACTUALLY PLAY iOS GAMES. A synchronous turn-based game on cellphone is just a moronic idea). Lower that price to entice people who've never heard of your game before; put it at that impulse-buy range that make people go "99 cents? The screens look decent enough. screw it, I'll buy it". If you're going to give it multiplayer, MAKE IT WORK AT LEAST. It takes 2-3 reboots of the game to actually connect with friends. That is just unnaceptable. And for Christ sake, GIVE IT SUPPORT. This thing is your baby, it's your job, it's your franchise. It could have been so much more if it hadn't been more mishandled than a Parkinson's sufferer trying to juggle knifes on a tightrope. I was so stoked that Orions2 was coming out, but at the same time I was thinking "yep they are going to phone this in just like they did with the first one, I bet you. It'll be a disaster, everyone will be pissed, it won't sell, they won't support it and the franchise will die". I knew it from day one. It was a slow-moving trainwreck. Oh well. At least I got a few matches in with my cousin. Maybe we'll go back to playing from time to time. Wow, that was a huge weight of my chest.
Hey dudes, you know what I just thought of? iMoreGames gives so little a shit about Orions that it wouldn't surprise if someone were to clone the game VERBATIM (while fixing the bugs, evidently) and released it in the AppStore without iMoreGames making much of a fuss (or caring about it/finding out about it at all).
Hahaha.. Really.. That could happen! Man, you are so pissed by them but you have completely right.. Thats why I deleted Orions 2 months ago.
It wasn't an angry email and I still have it in my sent file. I was disappointed that you were not as involved as Meneisyys and I were in the beta process. Not that it would have made a difference in the end because Pavel apparently had his own conception of how much time and effort he was willing to put into the product. I admit 100% being hoodwinked by the promises and being tremendously naive about how this would turn out. As I've said before, lesson learned. I will never buy an imoregames product again. Re asynch, at the time, the synch platform seemed viable but you were absolutely right in that asynch can only add value. I hope we're still buddies. See you online somewhere.
Oh, don't get me wrong: I'm positive you didn't mean it to sound angry per se. I don't think you're a bad guy. It's just how your email sounded to me. You were straight up accusatory: you implied that being part of the beta was some sort of duty and that if the game sucked it would have been partially my fault because I bailed. Come on, you even chastised me for changing my Orions signature that linked to a thread that the dev himself didn't care about. Your disappointment and frustration came across as anger to me, is all. And what's worse, I was just as disappointed and frustrated as you, so I understand where you were coming from. I just felt you were blaming the wrong person. It's a sad end to what was a great game. I just wish MP wasn't so broken I'll try getting back into Shadow Era I guess.
Maybe I overreacted a bit but at the time, I did indeed feel that you could and should have participated to a larger extent and that perhaps something might have changed for the better if you had, because you certainly had stronger criticisms than Meneissys and I did. However, I do understand now why you felt differently and can respect that. Imore's rep was clearly a factor for you while I pretty much ignored the allegations. Bad on me. You should definitely try Kard Combat. Good resemblance to O2 and has both Synch (3 minute timed turns) and Asynch. I typically have at least 10 Asynch matches going at once (pistachioko on OF - can't wait for the new GC). Look, there's no hatchet to bury. I admitted you were right.
If you have a dozen asynchs going, you'll be constantly checking anyway. I was getting them even before IOS5, no problem at all, both iPhone and iPad. If you've up dated, you need to shutdown and restart. I had orientation problems after updating and they went away with a reboot. 10/17/11 - edited typos
Actually usually most trash companies are quiet and lazy when it comes to things that the consumer wants, but they're spending all their time and resources looking for copyright violations. Easy money for them.
I wasn't as involved as any of you with this Orions 2. So my disappointment wasnt as big I suppose. I LOVE Kard Combat, even though it's broken (push and a few card strategies.) A shame really b/c I think Orion's 2 is WAY WAY better ( a personal opinion, please dont hate me). So yea it's sad to see that it has no support and no async. I actually think maybe async wouldnt be so bad to implement and was hoping that with iOS 5, that it might happen. But seeing as how there is absolutely 0 support, I don't see how that would happen. I still have orions 2 on my home screen. Just like Neuroshima hex...they're both fun every once in a while, lack of async multiplayer hurts both games but still fun to play here and there.
O2 was certainly the better game in terms of design, but without support, it's a moot point. The lack of support was unconscionable. At the very, very least, the Blademaster bugged loop that caused games to end should have been fixed. That is was not was unforgiveable.
It seems like MP is still alive I have played 3 games today. Go online! p.s. add me on iMessage (for those who installed iOS5): -[@]gmail.com write to me if you want to play and do not forget to tell that you are from TA
At some point I probably will message you. I'm amazed you're finding games! The same player or different players? A couple of days ago I received a GC friend invite specifilly for O2 but I haven't accepted it yet. Thinking about this but will probably be spending much more time with the Ascension expansion and Cabals, when they arrive.
Been out of the gaming scene for a while. Just got this game. WOW. Best game on iOS hands down. Well done Chillingo. Now please listen to your fans and do a few simple bug fixes and balance changes. For example... Blood Ritual gives you 5 extra mana, not 6. Fairy costs 5 and has 8 health, not 3 with 7 health. Giant Spiders spell ability costs 1 earth mana to use. There you go, game balanced. Fans happy.
