I think slowing the pace down for Fishing Bay and separating the docks would be a good idea to make it easier. Having the docks farther apart would make it a lot easier to navigate the ships off the map. With that being said, Fishing Bay is easily the hardest map for me. As far a Sturgeon Creek goes, I think you should keep the pace the same since having two types of cargo makes it hard enough.
Fishing Bay: Spreading out the docks would certainly make the map easier (docks closer to screen edge let boats leave play faster, plus not having to worry about navigating around each other when docking 2 boats), but it isn't like the game is frustratingly hard to begin with. You get the idea of what you need to do right away, and the rest is dexterity and practice to get a better score. I'm really happy with it as is. Sturgeon: Rather than change the pace, I would rather see some slow ships in the mix earlier on. In that limited space, the big, slow-moving ships make a big difference in how you manage the play field.
Hey Keith I forgot to tell you guys. I just noticed on Cyclone Island, the cyclones go over the docks and land.................that's not too realistic.
Cool - looks like people mostly like Sturgeon Creek as is, and agree that separating the docks on Fishing Bay would make it a more accessible first level. Any other ideas on this? @dannys95 I think we're going to keep the cyclones as they are. Since it's a tiny island, it's feasible that they would just keep going over the land. Keith originally had them bounce off the land, but that didn't make as much sense. @MetroGnome217 You can either post here or email - anything works. If you post here, people can weigh in on the discussion.
I didn't get to read all 18 pages, but is the icon gonna be different? Right now, it just kinda looks like a blue square, gotta look kinda close to see the waves
Yes, absolutely. That icon is just a placeholder. One of our artists will be working on the icon this week.
If points are gained at unloading for the incoming ships, how or when do you gain points from the outgoing ships?
Phew! Just jumped into this thread (forum? Psh, idk) and must say this looks great! I hope it takes flight control down and on it's knees >:-D definetly will buy this one. I wouldn't hesitate at 1 or 2 dollars, nor will others IMO. Can't wait for this! I'd love to see an Imangi Studios game get into the top 25
Yes! just beat my record on Sturgeon's last night with a 124, or something like that And as for the pricing discussion, I feel like you should probably release at $.99. You would be surprised how many people would be turned off by an extra dollar. Also, you don't want people saying that its just an overpriced copy of flight control (which it obviously isn't, but you might get that criticism) I also thought I might transfer some of my gameplay ideas from my email into this thread, so other people can "weigh in on the discussion." -Multi-stop boats - they could carry say one orange cargo, and one purple cargo. You would have to drop off both items at their respective ports before sending the ship home -A "frenzy" mode of sorts, in which the game would start at the complexity equivalent to having dropped off 50 pieces of cargo or so. After a while, the slow build up gets to become too much of a chore, and I just want to get to the challenging and fun part. -I'm not sure if this would be another game mode, or just a port of its own, but here's the general idea - As you go along, instead of just counting the amount of cargo received, keep track of how much money you have made (proportional to cargo received, or maybe some colors of cargo would be worth more than others). Then, with this money, you could purchase various improvements and structures to make your harbor town more efficient. Some examples - more dock workers for faster cargo unload time, a lighthouse to guide ships towards/away from where they are placed, buoys that you can temporarily dock boats at while they wait to go to port, etc. It might take some time to implement, but I think it would be pretty awesome
I agree with brewstermax... it might also be a good idea to think about a lite version of some sort... possibly one that offers the most popular map but will stop you after a certain number of SHIPS have been docked. This way the player will have more time to play than if the cutoff was based on cargo
Heeey, it's Hobbes! Thanks for the support, that is so nice to hear! Flight Control is an amazing game, and the folks at Firemint are so nice, we don't want to bring them down at all. But if people decide to get Harbor Master as a nice complement to Flight Control, that would be great. And yes, Imangi Studios in the top 25 would be just amazing - hope you're right about that! Yes, it sure would. That's what I yelled at Keith yesterday when he told me to "just pause" when I had almost beaten my record Don't worry though - he's working on the game save feature as we speak, and I think he'll be able to figure it out. I saw that new score! That's amazing! I still can't beat Keith on Sturgeon. I think you're close though - take him down a notch Yup, that's the biggest consideration here, and a perfectly valid one. We're leaning towards doing what you suggest, but nothing official yet. Oooh - neat idea! We'll need to experiment with that at some point. Very cool. This is something we're thinking of for the more difficult levels. Probably won't change it for the 1.0 release, but maybe in an update? Now THIS. This I love. This is what we originally dreamed up the game to be, but the scope grew so much that we decided to limit it for the first release. But if the first version is successful, we definitely want to add the empire-building aspect. We had toyed around with the idea of earning money towards stuff you can buy for the level you build with the level editor. I really hope the game does well, because I so want to add those features
I think that spacing them out and adding ONE more dock would make this a much better starting port. I would say have the bigger boats come sooner on because that will cause things to be harder agreed I agree with point. As I have previously stated, it would help to have an lite version to promote the full copy. This would also help to make Sturgeon Creek harder... I like the idea a lot! This is a nice idea. Not only does it add another aspect to the game and make it more valuable but it also sets it that much more apart from Flight Control. This reminds me of something Natty had originally posted about how the more cargo the more your "village" would grow. This aspect seems to have disappeared from the game and I would have liked to have seen that. What you could do is have a free play mode whit these three maps and they a "Career" mode where you have one map that you can add different features to and watch your village grow. These features could be docks of different colors and unloading speed, buoys like Fletch said, and many other objects that could both increase the replayability and separate it from Flight Control.
If they had gameplay affecting aspects it might be cool but I personally dislike meaningless fluff (oh wow, exact same game but NOW with a different background!).
Will..........not...........play until next build is out. Yeah, it happened again. And to make it worse then the pop-up said "Almost your record!". Not funny!!
i agree with you on the meaningless fluff part but i was saying that they should have game play affecting aspects that you can buy like more docks or a light house that can prevent collisions within a certain radius (you would only be able to have one of these)
