Indeed this is a bug. It happens when you delete a tile underneath an officer while she/he is performing a task in the station. You can unstuck them by landing them as crew in a planet. This will be fixed in 1.0.2. Version 1.0.1, which is now pending review, increases walk speed by 60%, it is quite noticeable! Version 1.0.2 will add a new skill for the Scientist, Teleport, which allows you jump to 30+ tiles away. Ads are disabled for now, but we are enabling them for 1.0.1. The credit doubler will also remove the ads, including purchases made before 1.0.1. There won't be a "remove ads" IAP, we would rather have you buy something that adds to the gameplay (we can't do the same with the currency packs unfortunately, since Apple does not persist the purchase receipt for consumables.) It means it's a boss enemy. It will have more health and hit you for more damage. It will also drop better quality loot! The more asterisks, the more danger and the better loot. I'm very sorry for that. Version 1.0.1 will autosave after you visit a planet, and version 1.0.2 will also autosave when the app goes into the background. This is how it should have been from day 0. There is a purposeful delay of 1-3 seconds between the moment an officer decides something and the moment he starts walking towards the task. It is done to make them feel less like robots. That said it it's happening for longer or if they are not using objects (with a valid path, mind you) that could be a bug. We will focus again on tasks mechanics very soon and we will check on this. Engineers usually get a lot of heat because they have area attacks, so yeah, if you grenade half a dozen pirates then you will have half a dozen pirates shooting at the guy (usually, pirates are not brightest either...) The line works like a "line of sight" system for strategists. The attack will hit the first the first enemy in the line and then stop, because it's a bullet. The only (player) beam weapon in the game is the engineer flamethrower, this one actually goes hits all the enemies in the line. Version 1.0.2 will have an improved target system. The game will draw the exact target circle for every enemy within the range of the weapon, and we will make the targets a bit off-center so you don't have to actually hide the enemy under your finger. This will make the strategist skills more usable and more fun, we hope. The colony shops are supposed to be something extraordinary, to be used maybe 2 or 3 times per game. Originally the shops were going to be just one aspect of the colonies, but we cut out other stuff and that's the only thing that remains. Extra crew being expensive it's a deliberate decision, that's why the game gives you a full set for free in the first 5 campaign missions. Hiring should not be an early game concern at all, but we understand it can be confusing with early game shops having officers for hire. You will also find there's not much need to hire beyond the first set of free officers, maybe 1-2 extras to keep production going while your A-team is out there blasting robots. This will change in the future! Unless you spend a lot of time in the station you shouldn't find yourself out of food. Right now the station/production balance is tuned to be very easy and forgiving since most of the focus is in the planet exploration and campaign missions. This will change in future updates when we start adding more things to do at the station. The story and specially the optional planets still need a lot of content. We wanted to first finish the basic station mechanics, basic combat and implement a full campaign in order to release the game, then focus on fleshing out the rest. Thanks a lot everybody for the support. Your comments are invaluable for us! Watch out for 1.0.1 and soon after 1.0.2, they should fix most of the bugs you found, and then we will start focusing on content updates and mechanics.
Thanks Carlos. I truly appretiate it when a developer is actively interested in the opinions of their users. It makes the decision to buy some IAP all the easier. So do I understand you correctly? No one at the base eats or builds while a team is away? That seems odd. One of the points of the game is keeping all the variables in balance. If I bought the "big" coin pack and filled my base with every crew member I came across I would expect that to eventually impact the operations at the base in a negative way. From a mechanics point of view it's placing a ton of pressure of the Morale score. And while I have your attention could you explain the hydroponics grid? What's the point of it; why is it set to INF at build time? Thanks again and here's hoping you have a vey successful opening weekend.
Wow, with that fantastic response this has definitely shot up my GotW nominations. It's flawed without a doubt but the base idea and execution underneath it is so genuinely exciting. Really impressed, with the game and the devs. Good luck to you guys, I'll definitely be in the group of people buying the IAPs in support.
Any officer in the station will eat or rest from time to time, and pick random jobs to do (if she's at top morale the motivation to pick a job increases a lot.) It doesn't matter if there's an away team currently exploring a planet. Both maps are simulated at the same time, independently from each other. As I mentioned officers eat less when they are at top morale, but if you have a big team, just by sheer numbers they will keep zeroing your resources. The sweet spot right now is the full team of 5 that the game gives you for free, plus 1-2 extras. The extras stay in the station all the time and work the farms and the kitchen, and since they are just two they will produce more than they consume (note that when the away team loots resources they are immediately available for use in the station). This way when your super(wo)men come back from battle they will find all the food they need and replenish their morale in a few minutes. For example when I play, by the time I finish sorting and comparing the skills I looted in the planets to upgrade my crew, they are all at full morale and ready for another landing. As you imply this all would be a lot more clearly exposed if the game used different variables for "station living", like hunger and fatigue. But for now we wanted to simplify it as much as possible to focus in the exploration systems. The "queue" grid in the growing/production buildings popup is to control how much you want your officers to produce (in that particular building, not globally). If for some reason you want to save some seeds you can go to your soy beds and set the queue to 0, this will stop the production. Right now it's quite pointless but it will be more important when we start adding more recipes and resources, some products may be more valuable than others. INF means to keep growing/cooking until all the ingredients have been exhausted, and to start again as soon as some become available. We want to flesh out the station segment a lot more. This aspect of the game was simplified for release but we will keep improving and adding significant content to it, to the point it becomes central to the gameplay, and to give the game longevity beyond the combat campaign. Thanks for the responses, the TA community rocks!
Hey Carlos, thanks for the great game! Perversely I'm finding the thin tutorial makes exploring more fun. Yes slow movement is slightly annoying, the rover idea sounds fun, and the ability to move base objects would be useful once the base starts getting larger, but my one big gripe is the fact that morale only recovers when the game is running. It's frustrating to boot up and find you have to wait ages to go on a mission. Also, what does the "crew member is looking for a free table" mean when I have no option to place a table? Griping over, back to exploring and expanding!
Carlos, I got a balance question: I wanna get the coin doubler so the ads'll go away in the next update, cause I like where y'all wanna take this project. Right now, I'm sitting on 2000+ coins, with absolutely no need for more (I'm at campaign lvl 11 or 12). Will getting even more coins destabilize the game difficulty in the later updates? I totally understand that more recipes are coming, and all that, so my question is framed with that in mind. Right now, I got a full away team, and can get so many skills from one mission that coins are becoming superfluous. Thanks, and good luck. PS: any plans to make the races diff? I dig the homage y'all are paying to a certain show, but currently there's no reason to pick one race over another.
No rover planed, for now, but you may like the walk speed boost in 1.0.1 and the Teleport skill in 1.0.2 We don't want to put any timer/hands-off mechanics in the game. If you build some beds and start producing food the downtime between landings should be only a few minutes. We really liked the idea of your crew coming to a comfy home after a bloody battle and just chilling for a bit with their pals in the hall, maybe take a nap or two. If you want to have absolutely zero downtime you can hire a "B" team. Basically hire another set of officers, one for each class and keep them equipped. When your A team comes home, the B team has been recharging and working in the station. They will be at full morale and ready to land anywhere. When they come back, unless your mission was very short, the A's will be at full morale and ready to go, repeat. If the officer is thinking about eating something it means the food production system has been unlocked (this happens when you beat the first mission and your unlocked systems go up to level 4). You then need to build the greenhouse, the kitchen, and the hall, and equip them with their objects. Having an officer thinking about eating at a table without the station left toolbar showing the options to build the rooms I mentioned would be a bug, which I cannot reproduce. Is your game in this exact situation? No balance or parameters are altered by how much credits you have. The credits drops and prices are 100% independent of that. Ruthless when you are broke, convenient if you are rich, but that is capitalism The drop rate for skill items in 1.0.0 was completely out of whack and we are toning it down starting in 1.0.1. For 1.0.x mob drops will still be the main source of items in the game and the colony shops will still be a premium, optional thing (look at the stats they carry!). But yeah, the current level of "oh shit I have to tab back to the station every 3 minutes to recycle stuff because my inventory is full" is just not right. We are thinking about something more interesting than the Super Collider for making new items, and maybe make the shops also sell non-premium stuff at reasonable prices. Not for now. We don't want to pre-define any stats/bonus in the officers, be it because race or anything else. It may be canon in other games/shows but it won't be in this one. I should go back to programming now, thanks for the feedback!
Yea lmao, that's exactly the feeling I'm getting. An inventory auto-sort button would be amazing if the drop rate is anywhere near as high as it is right now. I've got three rows of inventory space, and it' sa pain sorting the items. Dunno programming though, and if that's as simple as a few lines of code with some if/then parameters lol. Looking forward to seeing the project grow.
Carlos, you're the man! Like I said I hope,you are popping champagne this weekend. Regarding the "looking for table" thing: My lone explorer was looking for a table after I initially explored a level 1 local bounty planet. Interestingly his morale did not go down. I only got the kitchen/mess hall build option after I completed the level 2 campaign mission (! Mission). So I think that's how it happens.
Bug: Campaign : Level 26 On Planet Mofac, objectives are to destroy 5 robots factories. Bug= only 4 factories on map meaning you can't complete the mission IAP: Btw, at this stage, your business model seems not good for you: i got 60000 coins, without having done non campaign missions. I dont have any reasons to use all that money (crafting new items is without interest because you can get new items at a higher level planet for free, building new things is cheap...) So what is a player interest to buy your IAP ? Items and crew are too cheap and dont bring high added value. I fear you wont earn money unless you find something.
Yes, I finally found this bug. It can happen in a lot more than in the circumstances you mention, unfortunately. 1.0.2 will fix it. This is fixed in version 1.0.1, due in a few days. After you update just visit the planet again. Sorry! Indeed, I fully agree with your points. The monetization of the game is terrible. Version 1.0.1 will add a banner on top of the screen, more to serve as a reminder that you can remove with it IAP and support us in the process than because we think it's going to make us any money. But it won't be still enough. I go into more depth on the monetization subject, including some numbers, in this post in the developer forum: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=3223997
Have you considered cosmetic IAPs? (Unlockable paid-only races or alternate base rooms designs for example - I'm only around level 15, so there's a lot I haven't seen yet, but I'm quite impressed with the art so far)
I would go so far as to say level packs should be IAP especially if it includes improvements to the base infrastructure both cosmetic and utilitarian. Spatials may be rough around the edges but it's really well done. My favorite character, I have to say, is the Servo robot. Turn him on and he just starts blasting everything. He don't care. He's hardcore. Good thing he's on a timer.
We did consider optional content like cosmetic unlockables or pay-to-unlock galaxy sectors but discarded them for day 0 because we still had core content to make. The number one priority was to make a game from level 1 to 30 that could be completed without extras (apart from certain shameful bug...). Servo is also a little dumb. Spawn him near friendly pioneers. I've described how we are going to proceed with future development in the developers forum thread I linked earlier. We will keep trying new IAP ideas and making experiments around it for the iPad (1.0.2 rebalances drops and prices and expands the colony shops, for starters), and at the same time we will make PC/Mac development public with deeper changes and additional content. All in all it has been an interesting week. In a way I'm glad we didn't make a PR push because it's made clear we had to put more time on this on all levels. But at the same time it's awesome to see the reaction of people and how they like it.
I like the idea of this game but I can tell it needs tweaking. I haven't played much, but from my first few moments of play I built a small base. Interface took some getting used to but its fine for the most part (I'm used to clicking away to deselect the tool after a room is dragged, but not a major complaint. Also in combat I have a tendency to drag the radius in a direction, but out of the range). Combat is okay, though I might be doing something wrong or its so early in the game it's unbalanced. I have to collect 11 seeds. It seems 2 shots to kill the animals. I shoot it once, it runs off for 30 seconds, comes back, I finish it off. After killing a couple, my energy was depleted and it felt so mundane waiting around for them to run off and return I couldn't bear to finish the mission for 35c. Warp back to the bass, go to try a different mission. Couldn't do it. Morale is low. So I exit thinking morale might generate when the app is closed. It doesn't. So I have to watch my little toon stand around for 15-20 minutes doing nothing in a base that consists of just a bed and a warehouse to start mission #1. Not complaining, just constructive criticism. Just sharing my experience to help balance the game around the perspective of first impressions. I don't really know enough of the game to provide quality QA, but I would suggest considering a way to hand hold new players a bit more and get the ball going. Maybe locking missions until they build a starter base, a forced first mission or two to introduce combat in an exciting way, etc. less rope for new players to hang themselves with.
Obviously, I can't speak for anybody else, but I will always pay for the following things in good games: 1. Currency Doublers 2. Ad Removal 3. Persistent content (levels, upgrades, etc) Tweak it quick! You don't want it to catch on too fast until it's making money; which I hope it does.
@Wiarumas In the first mission you are not supposed to kill anything. Just find the yellow bouncing exclamation marks and the game will give you the seeds. Of course the game should be clearer about this. We also fixed the bug with the feeding need unlocking too early for version 1.0.2. This version is due in a week and will fix many of these little problems. The first player experience is not very good in some aspects as you mention and we are working on improving it. @Ubisububi We are actually OK with the game decreasing in popularity while we fix some things. 1.0.2 will have better balance for the IAP to make more sense. Unfortunately the review process with Apple is not very fast, so the big balancing changes will still take around a week or more to be released. We are ok with this, and we are gearing up for PC and Mac development at the same time.
