My Suggested Tweaks

[Trasd]

I don't want anyone to confuse these suggestions for dissatisfaction! The items I've listed are negative because that's the nature of improvement suggestions. If I listed all the stuff that I like about the game, I would never get a chance to play.

Please think of these suggestions as tweaks, not as broken things. With that in mind, here are the first couple items I scribbled down:

The text in the opening sequence disappeared before I have a chance to read it. I'm not a fast reader (I like to take everything in), but I'm not a slow reader either. I felt like I'm in a race to finish the dialog before it's gone. I suggest a settings' option be added to either allow tap-to-dismiss or customization of the text "scroll" speed (for the entire game, where applicable).

The dialog speed problem continued on into the tutorial. I had to rerun the tutorial a couple times to both catch all the text and to figure out how to work the game mechanics. With the combination of the tutorial bubbles (which also disappeared before I could fully absorb the contents) and the tap-to-dismiss dialog, I was a little lost in a couple places (should I or shouldn't I tap-to-dismiss). Again, the same suggestion from the previous paragraph is valid here as well (the two settings' options mentioned).

The portraits, when in a dialog, do not have their name displayed (I could have sworn HoS had this, but when I looked, I saw that it doesn't, either, though I could have sworn that it did), so if you do not remember who they are, it gets a bit confusing. I suggest names be added to portraits when shown in a dialog (my memory is horrible for names and I have to learn the characters by their portrait) or at least that option be added in settings.

That's all I have so far. I haven't had a whole lot of time to play yet (I'm mostly just playing around right now), but I'm looking forward to it when I can get a few hours block of time.

[Cory Trese]

Thanks for the feedback. The Tutorial being "too slow" is one of our biggest complaints right now so we are working really hard to make it faster.

We'll try to retain the options to go very slowly, while balancing the common request for faster.

[Trasd]

Thanks. I don't think the tutorial is too fast (or too slow, for that matter), just the time given to read the text. Maybe slow it down or use tap-to-dismiss and, then add an option to completely dismiss it for those who don't want it. They will still play through of course, they just won't see the pop-up bubbles.

[Cory Trese]

Thanks for the feedback we'll do our best to improve.

[wascalwywabbit]

I'm a little bit in the same boat as trasd... If you could do so many words per second adjustable display rate for the text or the tap to dismiss as option that would be great.

[Cory Trese]

Nov 2, 2015 23:22:14 GMT -5 wascalwywabbit said:

I'm a little bit in the same boat as trasd... If you could do so many words per second adjustable display rate for the text or the tap to dismiss as option that would be great.

Thanks for the feedback. Until we can get a solid base of Reviews under our feet, we've got to really focus on the majority feedback which is that the text and displays in the game too slow, put text on the screen for too long and don't close quickly enough.

We're working to support all players and praying we get enough Reviews to start working on non-majority feedback items!!!

[wascalwywabbit]

Ok, I was ready to post my review on iOS anyway.

[Cory Trese]

Nov 2, 2015 23:55:10 GMT -5 wascalwywabbit said:

Ok, I was ready to post my review on iOS anyway.

Every 5 star review gets us closer to paying back the development debt for BF and will make us a lot more able to support improvements to the game.

[Trasd]

Nov 2, 2015 23:25:06 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Nov 2, 2015 23:22:14 GMT -5 wascalwywabbit said:

I'm a little bit in the same boat as trasd... If you could do so many words per second adjustable display rate for the text or the tap to dismiss as option that would be great.

Thanks for the feedback. Until we can get a solid base of Reviews under our feet, we've got to really focus on the majority feedback which is that the text and displays in the game too slow, put text on the screen for too long and don't close quickly enough.

We're working to support all players and praying we get enough Reviews to start working on non-majority feedback items!!!

I'm thinking text scroll speed and tutorial pace aren't necessarily related.

My guess is that the folks complaining about the pace of the tutorial aren't at all interested in the back story, but they articulate it in the form of the tutorial moving too slowly.

I think it is important to separate the two ideas.

It's the same with the balloon speed: they aren't interested in what the balloons say, so they just categorically blame it on the tutorial pace, because they can't dismiss them and have to wait for them to disappear on their own.

Hence, my suggestions.

Think of it as a divide by zero error!  On one hand, you have the folks who want to read, absorb, and enjoy all that the game has to offer; all of your hard work.

On the other hand, you have the folks who could care less about the tutorial or back story, they just want to get to the action, they'll figure it out when they get there....

Both are valid approaches.

You cannot average the two!  People from the first group may argue about the time it takes to really read and understand what's going on, but folks from the second category complain about the pace because they aren't getting to the action fast enough.

The first group is your time factor, the second is the 0 divisor.  You can't average them without a divide by zero error (for non-programmers, programming in C\C++ doesn't allow division by 0).

Your results will always be skewed.

I think the only way to meet everyone's needs is to divide the groups up into three, not two!

With the first two groups, you average the tutorial and text scroll speed, depending upon their feedback.

The third group shouldn't even be considered in the equation, they should just have the option to completely skip the tutorial part.

If not, instead of three happy groups, you have two dissatisfied groups.

My 2¢…

[wascalwywabbit]

Lemme preface this with: I think this particular feature, tap to dismiss or user adjustable text speed, is a MINOR want, but in general...

Largely perceiving things the same as Trasd - only extra thing to add is those players that are already familiar also want to by pass the dialog and story faster too, not just those interested only in the actionable parts.

Since no two players are exactally the same, the areas with the largest average differences are best served by togglable options - a beginner and a 5th time thru player are often very different in some features they want. Those with small average diffs can be set to the median of the majority as the only option without alienating very many, in that way the need to maintain a large option tree is mitigated to maintain approachable feature sets while still giving the options most broadly appropriate.

Speaking for myself as another armchair coder/game dsigner.

[fallen]

Thanks for the feedback! We'll keep working on improving, but as mentioned our focus is on the high priority features and updates at this time.

[Trasd]

Rinse and repeat....