Universal Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower (by Perchang)

@RodeoBenjamin I don’t have a problem with IAP’s in game regardless of price, but only as long as it’s a quicker path for someone to get what they want and you’d still be able to get there playing for free as I puts me off if some games lock content behind expensive purchases.

Personally I often spend money in free games if I enjoy the game and feel like the model is fair but many I simply delete if I feel it unfair or that I’ll never be able to compete with a spender such as games with a VIP system. I hate passes which is the new trend yet I pay for the Brawl Stars one as it feels fair for how much I play the game, although I hope you don’t consider this option as my issue is who will pay for passes on multiple games it’ll be like a monthly bill and soon add up!

I’m going to give the game another shot post launch as often I can enjoy the f2p mechanics in games, but f2p does put off a lot of people I think mainly because of bad experiences with greedy games that have paywalls or lock content behind high prices giving paying players a large advantage.

The gameplay itself I didn’t get very far with is the main reason I stopped playing. Which is why I’ll give it another try now, at the time I remember my issues being LOS whenever I was using a ranged hero I would move them to a location that looked as if I could attack from there only to find out I couldn’t, nothing give me an indication which is important to have really. The other issue was the large maps at times or at least they felt large but with few enemies, few enemies and skills at my disposal made every map feel the same and more like a chore to get through hoping that eventually I may unlock more tactical options which could possibly increase the fun. But it at the time it all just felt pretty basic and didn’t give me a drive to hit the grind and go further.

Edit: also with the comment below if it has optional ads for extra rewards that’s a big no for me, as you feel like your missing out by not doing them but if I find myself watching ads more than I’m actually playing a game it gets deleted. Some games have averted this by offering a low priced IAP that removes ads, lets you click as if you were going to watch for the reward but then just giving you the reward without having to watch.

 

I've been playing for the last couple hours, and while production values are high (as expected from Rodeo!) I'm very, very, VERY worried about the monetisation and the repetitiveness. As Ringerill points out, chests have pretty much trash contents. I feel like I'm playing 2-3 minutes to open up a box of garbage, watch a 30 second ad and then open up another box of trash. Even rare and epic chests haven't had anything particularly interesting or different.

I'll keep playing for a bit, but before I would even consider spending as much as $5-10 to support the devs, I would very much like to know the following:
- Are summoning stones more or less only premium currency? I'm saving mine now to try and get a higher-tier champion, but looking at the rewards for leveling up, I don't see how it'll be possible to get more than 1-2 champs without grinding for months. If the intent is to hide champions behind paywalls (and gambling ones at that) I'm totally out. This rubs me the same wrong way as the card gambling mechanic you guys implemented in Deathwatch. AMAZING game, crappy predatory gambling rewards.

- Do missions/maps/enemies change at all, or is it going to only be variations on the same map with melee/ranged/magic enemies that just get higher statlines? I hope there's more to it, otherwise all the polish you put into the game will be wasted due to a lack of depth. WHQ1 was GREAT for the enemy and environment variety. I really hope there's more to this than meets the eye.

I want to like this. I really do. But so far it feels like another great indie developer has gone over to the dark side.

If you don't see the predatory nature of $100 IAPs that are used to open random lootboxes, then I think that says it all.

*EDIT*
Oh, and for the love of god, add a $5 IAP to remove ads and just give double chests all the time. I'm already SICK of watching these stupid 30 second ads.

 

If you don’t mind me piggybacking off your points, I’d like to add something else.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with a ftp model game, I’ll use Soul Knight as an example.

Soul Knight is ftp, ads and everything. However, the game is very generous with opportunities to earn the premium currency through optional adds and gameplay. Plus, the prices of in game currency are reasonable (under 9.99 for sure).

On top of that, there are are handful of characters that can only be unlocked with real money. In this case, you know exactly what you’re getting (Paladin, $1.00, boom).

I’m not a gambler, plain and simple, and that’s what the gacha system is.

 

Have to agree with the comments so far. I don’t mind F2P games where you pay for extra characters or pay to remove ads. But this sounds like exactly the type of game I hate. Watching ads to double rewards, etc.

I like paying upfront or paying for additional content in a fair way or even just to reward the devs for a great game. But the F2P loop of these types of games. Yuck.

Loved your other games (and would especially love Deathwatch updated for modern devices). But can’t help but feel disappointed with the change in direction.

 

$100 IAP and most of the other greedy F2P mechanics in use these days are the result of the no child left behind mentality that it seems many younger devs/publishers have been brought up with and/or bought into (in the cases of some older devs/pubs).

I.e. just because we fail, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be richly rewarded for our ‘efforts’.

it’s basically saying collectively we’re not good enough to make a game someone will pay 5 bucks for, but we don’t care, we demand what we want instead of what we’re worth, and we’ll make one where we can just con much more money out of as many sheep as possible.

 

I think you need another bucket @Talbs.
Or hotdog next?

 

@subgenius I wouldn’t pay £5 to remove ads as it wouldn’t suddenly make the game premium. I’d pay up to £2.99 to remove ads and even then only if I was enjoying the gameplay obviously.

 

Getting full after I had a choc top ice cream but I’m sure I’ll be hungry again soon

 

Definitely feel for devs trying to make a living these days in mobile gaming. I poured hours into Hunters/WHQ and would do so again at even higher price points, but realize, I’m an exception and there aren’t enough of gamers like me in the market to make that kind of model viable for devs. Was hoping Apple Arcade would be the savior for premium gaming but it really hasn’t seemed to deliver. Disappointed Perchang wasn’t able to stick with their content-based iap model but not at all surprised they felt the need to go this route.

 

I usually do not get involved in forum discussions, but this game has been such a huge disappointment that I just need to share my opinion.

I have been playing video games since 1989 and witnessed the whole development of mobile gaming. The FTP business model is still out there because it just works for the companies. You'd think in times of Apple Arcade etc. noone in his/her right mind would spend any money on FTP games, but the opposite is the case. Even in the worst designed games you usually have at least a couple people spending 1000s of bucks on the 'virtual slot machines' to be able to advance quickly.

The alternative per game-design is to spend countless hours of repetitive grinding (which could be better spent earning money to spend in FTP games in the first place )

I have played my share of FTP games in recent years (quite a different experience then playing Pirates from bootable floppy disks in 1989) and since I am financially settled could not resist the urge to "whale" in one or the other as well. So I understand the mechanics that drive people to spent huge amount of money on FTP games quite well.

So this is the opinion of someone who does spend (loads of) money on FTP games. That being said for a FTP game Warhammer Quest Silver Tower it is really poorly executed:

The gacha system that makes people spend money in the first place just feels thrown in without a concept. No "guaranteed 4-star for 10 rolls" etc. stuff thrown in, special banners, or other things that would motivate people to actually spend money. Out of curiosity I did buy enough IAP for 10 epic summons of which I got one 5-Star Chaos Sorcerer Lord and a couple of 3-stars. There are no explanations beforehand of what I could expect, what the actual pool is I draw the chars, no champion gallery or any summon rates. However what puzzled me (due to the lack of information beforehand) the most was that you could get several copies of the same character in different rarities and you cannot do anything with the "lower rated" ones. They just sit in your champion inventory and when you pick out champions for the next mission you have to make sure to pick the right copy. No filters, favorites etc. and you cannot sell off the ones you do not need (or use them to upgrade the star level of other heroes, which is a common mechanic in FTP games)

This whole game design feels very rushed and that Perchang needed to make a quick buck. So at this point I really cannot recommend to play it. Another example:

The in-game explanations of the "normal" game mechanics are very bad as well (if there are any at all). I had to find out most stuff by trial-and-error, resulting in fun stuff like me dropping quests I was currently on which are now gone (I guess until I get new ones tomorrow).

There are many better games out there for FTP addicts.

 

To the Dev. First, thank you for even visiting and wanting to see what the fans like / don’t like. I have no problem paying 5-25 or even a bit more dollars for a premium WHQ game. 1 and 2 probably have over ~200 played. I love the series.

My gripe was that many of the previous entries in the series were premium, ad free, loot chest free rpg/ strat games. Wasn’t expecting this be different. IAP for new characters, dlc/ expansion content Is perfectly fine.

If you look at the other entries in the WHQ series you traverse a world map. That is missing from this experience. Gacha summoning mechanic to obtain new characters? No thanks. Obtaining new characters through story progression, achievement unlocks, or even direct IAP is fine but gacha has no place here. Overall I just wish it was a legit WHQ experience.

 

Lol. Paraphrased:

“What’s your problem with a game that exploits the same human weaknesses as gambling? We’re just giving people (including children) the right to choose to drop $100 on tokens and have imbalanced the game to encourage this behavior!”

GTFOH with that garbage. Never going to play another Rodeo game, that’s for sure. Shame. Hunters 2 was pretty good back in the day.

 

I named my chaos hound Toast.
What’s yours called?

 

Gutted.. removed from list with a heavy heart.

 

I'm a big fan of the franchise so I'll give this a try. I have no problem with f2p. However, if it doesn't have the depth of the previous 2 I'm sure I won't enjoy it as much. To me the Quest series was always about depth in gameplay.

 

Its perchang not rodeo...But yes it's like the spirit of the 2 first is lost...this game is not for me, it's sad i was hoping for something different than that
...

 

I get you want to turn things around from an anti-F2P thread, but the sloppy, greedy implementation they went with straight up kills this game. I’ve played for a day, and now I’m pretty much at a hardcore paywall. The only way forward? Spend cash to buy gems that I can use for gambling in gacha fashion for random heroes.

I really don’t understand that appeal to rich players either. There’s no competitive element here, so no incentive at all to jump on their crazy pay wagon. It’s bad all around.

 

Perhaps I’m missing it but music and sound effect volumes are not controlled independently, it’s either listen to the jarring background music or no sound at all.