Leaderboards?

[CdrPlatypus]

I realize this may be a ck2 thing, but I would love to see leaderboards in this game too. Outside of bragging rights I think they serve to really energize the community as well.

[fallen]

We've currently focused on adding services support (achievements and leaderboards) to our second generation games. We're hoping to eventually get back to our first generation games with some of the features, if the engineering work is not prohibitive and we can keep them running with new content.

[CdrPlatypus]

I totally understand that. Im just throwing in my 2cents

[mataeus]

I really want achievements to be implemented across all TB games. The Google Play achievements system has really come along, and hundreds of games have now implemented them (although it's still a little behind the iOS Game Centre).

As an Xbox Gamer with 130,900 gamerscore from over 6000 achievements, and having 584,000XP on Google Play Games, they make a huge difference to me in terms of longevity of a game.
Not because of the score (or XP), but because I'm a completionist, and I like to see everything a game has to offer.
Achievements for me add an extra layer of challenge, a metagame that I strive for along with normal gameplay.

I mention it here because it's a Play Games service, just like the leaderboards.

I'd love to see them put out across all your first-generation titles

[Cory Trese]

We would also love to see this. It will definitely be a challenge but I think we're up to it. =)

[mataeus]

Aug 23, 2014 17:58:42 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

We would also love to see this. It will definitely be a challenge but I think we're up to it. =)

This sounds really positive!
As an ultimate achievement wish, bearing in mind that:
Google rules say that a game can have a maximum of 1000 'points' worth of cheevs, with the minimum value being 5 points. (For the gamers: These points are assigned by the developers, and get multiplied by 100 to become your XP earned).
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but 1000÷5=200 maximum cheevs per game, unless there's a limit... Well, being sandbox games and all, I'd much rather see MORE achievements that are worth LESS XP, as that keeps the meta-gaming going for longer and you can come up with interesting goals beyond the usual 'blah, complete the story, blah kill 100 thugs' etc.

The most I've ever seen in a game is Kingdom Rush Frontiers, which has 85 achievements... Apart from coming up with the achievement art and testing they work, I'm sure you can come up with some really inventive ones!

Heck, I bet I could provide you with a rough list of 50 myself... As for Star Traders, the achievements could be the same as the 'unlock' challenges. Just tie the achievement itself to the actions required to unlock it, rather than having them check the status of the unlock challenge, or the people that buy the shortcut to obtain everything will unlock all the cheevs at once

[Cory Trese]

Star Traders has more than 50 already, and at least another 150 on the list.

I wish ... sigh

[Xmadblood]

I Don't really care for achievements....I meant it's just a fake virtual medal telling me I did something what's the point?

[Officer Genious]

Aug 24, 2014 19:20:58 GMT -5 Xmadblood said:

I Don't really care for achievements....I meant it's just a fake virtual medal telling me I did something what's the point?

In my case, I see them as a reward for trying something different or really learning certain game mechanics. Surviving to the Dark Century Turn in Star Traders made me learn a LOT about how stealth, sails, engines, hull and leveling worked (and gave me plenty of interesting stories). Aiming for a few interesting achievements in XCom: Enemy Unknown made me think more carefully about why one soldier should (or shouldn't) join veterans on a Terror Mission (oh God, rookie is mind-controlled-- BOOM, captain is killed).

I don't even think about going for all a game's achievements (only did once), but it helps to have that little goal to get me to try something radically different I never even knew was there.

[Cory Trese]

Achievements are a very, very popular feature on both mobile and PC games.

Only recently has Google made it reasonably easy to implement and hopefully we can add to the Google Play edition without loosing too many players and devices.

[Xmadblood]

I'm on google play for life...and I'm not a big fan of achievements but whatever. I'm not the average person so :S

[Cory Trese]

Aug 24, 2014 23:29:50 GMT -5 Xmadblood said:

I'm on google play for life...and I'm not a big fan of achievements but whatever. I'm not the average person so :S

I didn't mean to say you were average. According to Google you also probably don't spend a lot of money on games.

They showed some research at a conference recently that showed a significant correlation between Achievements earned and IAP spend on Google Play.

That may not may not be true for specific individuals, but it is important for us as game developers to try to stay in business so we can keep doing this awesome fun job of making games for you.

[Xmadblood]

I know man that's the business model for 50% of games crappy cheap achievements so people keep playing. (See Candy crush saga and similair games) mindless repetive games like that are what I hate rewards on. I'm not too crazy about rewards for games like CK bcuz I'd rather have your efforts put into better things but it's your time and money. -shrugs- just my opinion.

[Officer Genious]

I don't think it would take but so much time- I just mean some ST-like challenges made into achievements. Forum members are rightfully proud to have some of them done (surviving on Crazy difficulty, for example) and showing them off to other friends can be a way to pull people in without sitting them down and watching their eyes glaze over as you explain the mechanics.

But of course, I don't have the code so I dunno how hard achievements are to put in.

[Xmadblood]

I've coded a few times. In the crappy little games I did achievements were pretty hard.