Probably the bit where you implied that it was NimbleBit's fault that your hacking could have a negative impact on the game because they didn't take your advice on IAP/Premium. It doesn't matter how many lines you have in the "pros" column for making something a premium purchase game. If the one "con" is "game isn't profitable", then there's a problem. I get that you didn't do significant harm (you impacted dozens, not thousands/millions), and I get the "I had my fun and now I'm out" attitude. A million worse things happen in the world every day. But turning it around like it's some lesson in morals to the people who dedicate their time day in and day out to make a game you can play for free...That's just kinda low.
I have over 50 unopened crates but am low on bux. Is it generally better to use bux to open crates or expand the job capacity at cities?
Thanks mate. I've been on the TA forums for years and accusations like that aren't appreciated. I'm literally flinging trains all day and have played pocket planes since day one ... I happen to have a pretty decent strategy for games like this..Most of you know that. 4th all time in the pocket planes leaderboards.. But I digress. Hit me up if some of you feel like trading. I'm sacrificing the rare train parts from special crates for the standard and freighter trains.
Oh! You played the XCOM card... http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/06/xcom-ipad/ Yes, one successful franchise from a big studio with a successful port to iOS with premium model. We're not talking about big studios here. We're talking indies. Maybe you can't tell the difference? (I guess you can). You're trying to convince me that you're going to pay, let's say, $5 for a casual game from an unknown developer? You really want me to believe that? I've been reading a lot of postmortems, twits and blogs, and most devs barely make any money. Just look at the Top Grossing charts at the app store and tell me what's the freemium to premium ratio. Why do you think that happens? Why do you think even big studios are going the fremium way? Really, I've been studying the market for a couple of years now, and every indication points to free with iap as the only choice for indies right now (and even for big studios). You only have to balance your gameplay to avoid frustration. And pray there are sensible players who appreciate your work and are willing to buy iaps as a sign of appreciation. If only people hacking games and getting iaps for free kept it to themselves, it would be fine. But when you start messing with other players (potential customers), then clearly something needs to be done. Really, I dare you take several months of hard work from your life to make a game and try to earn money on the App store with a premium model. It's near to impossible. With free+iap you may have a chance (if the game is attractive and gameplay well balanced). People who make those kind of claims knows nothing about the market, and are probably used to console games (a very different world).
A lot of people are using a central hub strategy, so they only have to upgrade one station extensively. I'm using a lot of secondary hubs, but I have to spend 30-40 bux per station to get them viable. The general advise seems to be to hold onto your crates until you are higher level, as you get parts for better trains. But you pay an opportunity cost for doing this, you have less trains ( and less fun IMO) in the early game
Hey I'm looking for any help-advice as I am a little OCD and can't settle with my lines until I feel like they are right and I haven't done much in days because it doesn't look right to me still.
Xcom isn't the comparison you want to make. Xcom was game of the year 2012 by a number of big name sites, and developed by a prestigious strategy game developer run by the legendary Sid Meier, one of the few faces in a mostly faceless industry. As if that wasn't enough Xcom has a pedigree running nearly 20 years since the original. On top of that turn based strategy games are particularly well suited to mobile devices. That's how they can charge their 'premium' price and come out on top of the charts ( even though it's still a much lower price than pc or console versions) I love this mobile gaming boom for allowing bedroom devs, basement devs or small office devs to have their day in the limelight and show what they can do. In the over saturated App Store it would seem that free games with iap is the only way to even get downloaded. Nimblebit do IAP right! no paywalls and easy to earn 'premium' currency and I'm glad to pay them a couple of $ out of respect for a job well done
^ This is why nobody has any sympathy for you. You're coming across as incredibly arrogant and really are misinformed - liking or disliking business models based on whatever you know is nonsense. You hacked the game and will always be blacklisted. You've offered to pay almost $100 to Nimblebit, but then your very next post goes back justifying yourself once more? Either you're sorry, appreciate and understand why you've been blacklisted and upset some people, or not. If you decide you are sorry though, that's all that's needed. Not money and not excuses or business model justifications, just an apology and have it all be finished with that.
Your stations stay open and you still own the tracks. You do have to repay to open up the railroad again.
I used bux for both crates and stockyard upgrades early on. I wanted to get 3-4 trains going for some action, and I went with secondary hubs as well. It seemed to work out well for me. To the OP, what I would do was use bux to open crates until I was down to 20-50 bux (depending) so that if I ran into a situation where I needed to bulk up a yard I could do so. Obviously, focus on doing bux cars above all else.
Obviously I'm not everyone, but I know the sorry will probably be appreciated by others as well as I (and obviously the devs). Everyone plays games differently, but only a minority hack a game. You just have to accept that it's seen as a form of cheating, which generally doesn't sit well with people. It wouldn't have been as much of a problem, or even noticed at all if you hadn't advertised yourself so much! Anyway, live and let live
I wish everyone would move from this hacking stuff now and just talk about the game, strategies and ideas ect
A bit of both, and that's one of the micro decisions you'll have to make in this game. Personally, I used bux for layover upgrades earlier in the game, but now I try to avoid upgrading and work with what I had already set up. I am working on replacing my steamers with better trains, so that means opening crates for parts. But since you need 10/11 parts for each Standard, that takes a lot of crates... If you get parts you don't want (steamers), you can always build them and sell them for more coins. If you consider it cost 30 bux to open 3 crates and you get 3300-3600 coins for selling the steamer, that's 110-120 coins per bux, or about half the bank rate. That's reasonable.
Man getting steamer parts from steamer crates over and over seems wrong. No incentive it buy any special crates.
