I agree with Mod it did seem a bit hash on the guy, as of 12.20am UK its on the UK store be having a play of it and report later on what i think of it.
I think the convo is slowly getting a bit too far over the top here. Dan has always been very polite here and answered things in a helpful way. Sure he is convinced about the products Chillingo is publishing. More sure, he's trying to convince us to buy these games. As part of Chillingo, this is understandable somehow. And if it wasn't for his encouragement, I would have missed two great games in the last months.
I'll comment on it myself to clarify. I began a "gathering" session with 140 gold. When it finished I had 110. Now, I'd gathered resources, so I could have sold them to get some gold at a clearly unbalanced exchange rate. Except that those resources too are required for building/upgrading. In fact, the whole buying/selling/hiring infrastructure of the game seems strangely complicated and needlessly convoluted. While the process of purchasing coin IAP is strangely straight forward and offered as an alternative at every opportunity. Oh jeez, look, I just can't go on with this, it isn't worth it. Believe whomever you want. Spend a buck and make up your own mind. I really don't care.
Gabriel, did you have 30 coins less because you paid the farmers at the start? That is optional, I believe (I saw the dialogue in Sanuku's video). It wasn't clear what the benefit of paying them was (better efficiency, more turns, etc).
It's not optional; you do have to pay 30 gold to start farming. I think this is the bit that is gonna be a disturbing tick at the back of one's mind. I'm not sure if I'll run of coins and be forced to wait for coin income (at the moment one gets 30 coins every two hours -- I'm not sure if that will increase.) Every thing requires resources, the crafting of buildings, tools and hires. They play off each other, easing in some sense. But nonetheless, it's a match-3, it's gonna make you do a lot of that, I guess.
By taking on a worker in this case a farmer instead of taking 10 corn to make bread you now only need 9 to make bread so yeah better efficency
Thanks for the clarification. I had thought that they asked if you wanted to pay them extra but was mistaken. If anyone wants to see the dialogue, it is at the 2:00 mark of Sanuku's video.
The most recent SlideToPlay podcast had a couple of minutes on this game and the editor had extremely positive things to say after spending hours playing the game. He characterized the IAP as completely optional. I am going to risk my big dollar ;-)
I bought... not played long but noticed there's no cloud save - on a grindy/XP/progress type game, really?!
Just out of curiousity, why has no one released a version of these games at a few buck more in price with no Iap along with the norm and a free version?
So watching Sanuku's video (thanks) and worried about Gabrien's comment that he had $140 but had to spend $30 to farm and thus felt that eventually he would run out of money and have to either wait 2 hours for taxes to come in or use IAP, I recorded quickly and briefly Sanuku's playing session. 1 - $30 tax given (will replenish in 2 hours) = $30 total 2 - Went farming, cost was $30 = $0 total 3 - Gained some exp from farming and got to Level 2 and received $10 = $10 total 4 - Built a kitchen since that opened up once he hit Level 2, this triggered him to Level 3 with a $30 payout = $40 total 5 - Built a mine and went into the mine using resources he got from farming. 6 - Was able to build a Cottage which triggered Level 4 and $40 = $80 total 7 - Hired a worker for his farm 8 - Went farming at a cost of $30 = $50 total 9 - Gained experience and built a Workshop 10 - Went mining by using food and experience got him to Level 5 and $50 = $100 Total 11 - Built a Well and got $10 bonus = $110 total 12 - Went farming at a cost of $30 = $90 total. So my question is, hoping someone that has played longer can answer: - it looks like money is mostly received from taxes (every 2 hours) and leveling up - does the leveling up system keep coming quickly enough so that there is never any danger really to use IAP? Looks to me that, in the early beginning anyways, that it is: - get tax money - pay to farm for resources - use resources to build or mine to get experience - experience levels you up for more money - repeat So right now I am thinking that it does not require IAP, UNLESS the leveling up slows down and it takes longer to get to higher levels and money. Any "veteran" players perspective would be appreciated.
The charts are dominated by 99 cent apps, because chart position is determined by downloads. Therefore it makes sense to price your app as low as possible, and get additional revenue via IAP. That said, Dungeon Raid was very popular at 2.99 and has no IAP. Worth a look if you like similar games.
*Sigh* I did not say this. For the record: (and for the umpteenth time) I couldn't care less if IAP is "required." All that promotes is endless debate on the definition of the word and endless possibility for interested parties to twist it to suit their agenda. I care about whether a game is balanced with optimal player experience in mind alone, or with IAP factored into the equation. Period.
Apologies for incorrectly reading the intention of your post. Still if there are any players out there that do have an answer to my post, it would be appreciated.
I think, my concern is that I might be made to wait for availability of gold through the tax income (per 2 hours) if I should play this intensively and the level ups and availability of builds (that will produce some gold income when built) don't come soon enough. I'm not sure why this game has to have the feel of a social network game when it isn't. I like the idea of gathering resources for upgrades, I like how it plays off each other in this game. But the initial gold cost needed for what is the base of all resource farming needed -- the farming/harvest (resources gathered from farming is required for mining and other resources generation which is in turned used for crafting etc) is what bugs me. It feels like it could be a potential roadblock. But I gotta play a lot more before I know. Or someone who has been playing this for hours could provide some insight?
No worries at all, I think actually someone else might have extrapolated that from what I did say. It's just I have my hands full with the words that do come out of my mouth alone, without having to worry about ones others put there.
I'm so disappointed by this game... It could have been great but it's ruined by this greedy buisness model. I've hit a paywall in the first 20 minutes of gameplay, the only other option is to wait 2 hours... It's not a "social" kind of game, why the hell would i need to wait like that? Even the iap are unbalanced and you need to pay a lot to get barely enough. The ressources you have but don't actually need are seriously underpriced in the market making it really hard to progress. Maybe some people will have better luck than me, or more tolerance for this kind of game but I can't stand the sight of such potential destoyed by IAPs
Combining what you said with what Killercow just said I think this went from a must buy to a wait and see. Sad because I was quite looking forward to this one.
