An unlock code, so I can play the game casually

[domush]

I know this has been requested and flatly rejected numerous times for a host of silly, nonsensical reasons. I'm requesting it anyway.

I have no ambition to put the work into achieving all of the unlocks (or any of them). It is a game on a phone. I want to play it when I have a few minutes to kill. I don't care about back-story or a perfect record over 1000 turns. I just want to have fun, play the game and be challenged in short spurts. The achievements are cute and all, but I see no need to tie them to unlocks. Especially considering if someone was to get all of these hardcore mode achievements, they are already good at the game, so why give them better stuff in normal mode and not the new players who play it casually, like me?

[rant]
The whole "do such and such for 4 hours on hardcore" system feels more like "do my laundry and clean my toilet and I'll let you play the full game, instead of a crippled version". I'd rather pay $4 for the full version without these silly crippled unlockables than $2 and having to waste hours and hours unlocking feature upon feature. My time is money, too, and wasting many hours of it just to play the game with all features enabled seems far too costly to me. it turns a $2 game into a $300 game in lost productivity. A trade off not worth making for me.

To boot, I don't even care to play it on challenging modes. I like normal, never-die mode just fine. So why force me to play in modes I hate in order to get full functionality in the normal game? If you really insist on being a feature dictator, make the unlocks per game mode, not global.

I don't understand the refusal to add an option to unlock all features for us casual gamers. It has been requested plenty of times and can't be much more than changing a 0 to a 1 in the game settings.

For those people who are getting ready to respond with reason such as "It ruins the point of the game" and like it the way it is, don't use the option! It's very basic logic.

The same argument could be made for perma-death. If you like perma-death, then restart your game when you die! To argue "there are too many games with save" is tantamount to saying "I hate games with additional features". It simply isn't rational at all.

The whole dictating how a game *should* be played is ridiculous from the beginning. A game *should* be played the way the person playing it wants to. The point of games is enjoyment, after all. This is the reason every single-player game out there has either a trainer or cheat codes. Not everyone wants this obnoxious, time-sucking challenge. Some people just like the premise of the game and want to kill a bit of time without stressing over perma-death and "look what you could have if you wasted days of your life" unlocks.
[/rant]

[Cory Trese]

Not sure I agree with the game design philosophy and there are lots of cool blogs about this debate -- this forum is just about ST RPG and isn't really the best place to read about game design.

-- - - - -

Awards and Permadeath are the result of me (Cory Trese) making a game that I like to play in a style that I enjoy. Awards and Unlocks are a function of the way I like to play, earning awards and being able to apply them to the next character.

Perma-death was coded into the game's central logic from the very beginning and it took some creative short-cutting to enable "non permadeath" difficulty levels.

And as you see when I get to go back to the beginning and fix things, like in Cyber Knights and Templar Assault, I do follow some of your advice making Permadeath more or less optional.

I really appreciate your feedback, even in the form of a hostile rant. It is always good to read this type of input.

After having supported ST RPG for a full year and received over 12,000 e-mails about the game I can safely say I understand what you are saying and if there were cost effective, realistic solutions to the questions raised in your rant I would take steps to engage them.

You take the stance that I created this game with the express purpose built intent to annoy you or somehow force you to play it.

As you can see, there are no ads. You do not NEED the unlockable content. Play without it -- none of it is required and some of it isn't even very good for your play style (this is almost 100% certain because of the variety of play styles, I assume you'll hate some of the content.)

Also, I love this "feature dictator" quote, that's particularly hateful. Realllllly makes me want to take you seriously

[domush]

"I can safely say I understand what you are saying and if there were cost effective, realistic solutions to the questions raised in your rant I would take steps to engage them."

That's cool. I can accept "It's too much time because the game code is spaghetti and making what is essentially a minor change would be hell" type of answers. It is a $2 game which has some awesome potential. Hopefully one day you get around to making a 2.0 version of it, taking into account many of the great ideas in the idea forum. By all means charge more for that one.

The rant comes from the fact I had yet to see that response to this request in other threads. I saw "It isn't fun that way" or "It wasn't made for that" or "I don't like it, so neither should you" type answers, all of which are not exactly satisfying answers and more lean towards "If I wanted your opinion, I'd give it to you" kind of snippy replies. It doesn't help the hardcore people pig-pile on anything they don't consider "true" game play.

Obviously the [rant] tags were placed there for a reason. If I really was truly unhappy with the game experience as a whole, I wouldn't bother posting at all and would have simply not bothered to add some input. I got my $2 (and more) out of the game, and although I find it annoying enough to stop playing even though I love the premise, it is a great concept with decent execution, especially for your first android game.

Semi-open ended games like this are difficult to design and I can't imagine how you implemented it as one person. You deserve kudos for your work, which you get by means of sales (and downloads), but you also deserve a bit of ire for being a bit dismissive of those who aren't the hardcore "don't change a thing" fans. We bought it, played it, and came here to share how it can be improved for us. To see so many requests dismissed with a "then play something else" type response defeats the purpose of sharing ideas and devalues the time people took to share their ideas on how to make the game more appealing to more people.

As an example, "somehow force you to play it." hints at exactly that same response. Of course we're going to play something else. We came here in the hopes we wouldn't have to come to that end, and in doing so are trying to prevent future people from experiencing the same annoyances we have.

90% of this thread is caused by customer service, not game design. If I saw a single post which said "Sorry, but this being my first game, the code is awful and I can't think of a way to implement that function in any reasonable timeframe." I would have never posted at all. I don't expect you to rewrite the game, but I was expecting to read some thoughtful answers to the previous people who made the same requests, and I didn't see any.

Anyhow, I enjoyed your game for the little I played it. I hope you don't abandon the premise and plot, as you made a great game concept. One I hope to see a sequel (really, a version 2.0) of at some future date.

"Also, I love this "feature dictator" quote, that's particularly hateful."

I wondered if anyone would get the humor in that. A bit of homage to the venerable Soup Nazi.

[Cory Trese]

Thanks!

[Unbeliever]

Cory:

Ummmm... at one point I thought you'd said you WERE considering cheat codes to enable awards (possibly with some sort of label attached to the character, so it was clear who "cheated").

Does this thread imply that's back off the table?

I'd been quietly hoping for this addition ever since, checking the updates as they steadily rolled in...

Snideness of the original topic author aside, it would make a real difference for those of us who just "play for fun".

Oh well. Thanks for your consideration...

[Cory Trese]

Sorry, but this being my first game, the code is awful and I can't think of a way to implement that function in any reasonable timeframe.

[BlastGT1]

It always irks me to see people slag off a developer for comments that OTHER people make. I have seen Cory post numerous times about how it isn't feasible to change this or that because of how the game was built, so why people ignore this and act as if a game this deep is so easy to make is beyond me. If it's so damned easy, why aren't THEY making games themselves?

I'm not sucking up by any means, but it's the simple fact that everywhere I look in this forum, I see a lot of time, energy, and concern put into these games and these gamers. I have many years of customer service experience, and I know good service when I see it. That, above all else, is what persuaded me to buy this game.

Cory, Andrew, et al, keep doing things exactly the way you've been doing them all along. The ratings and the forums don't lie. You have a great system, don't ever abandon it.

I'm tired of customizing sigs every time I flash a ROM. This time it's plain old Torp City!

[Deleted]

Personally, I hate games where they give you the choice of buying everything with real money rather than earing it. Makes the creators seem like money grabbers. And if thre were unlock codes, everyone would just look up the code and not bother unlocking it. Its like buying a video game and paying an extra 30 to have everything unlocked. It would kinda ruin the game.

EDIT: Just read the other peoples comments which is what I should've done in the first place. It would be okay if there was a giant label so it was clear who cheated. Like when you go to roster, on the faction picture of the captain thered by CHEAT in giant letters. I wouldn't use the cheats, but I wouldn't mind it if there are othrs who'd wan that function.

[vindroid]

What's in ST awards that isn't 'optional' that isnt Spy and Zealot unlock anyway? Especially in low difficulties? I'd think that the game has enough upgrades and ships for you to steamroll with, without the award unlocks?

ST is actually the longest I've spent on a space trading game time wise. I was never into the buy and sell thing since I thought keeping track of that many items types on that many places are a hassle. Obviously I started on normal. I treated the game like a roguelike (another genre I dont try to play because I dont like dying and then losing everything). The awards allowed me to feel like I at least got something permanent after I got crushed by my own hull. It's something that CK lacks (yet?) imo, so it doesnt really motivate me to push harder in CK. Each new game I play, I look at the awards and see what I want to get and set it to that difficulty and gun for it. If I die, I try again. Eventually I'll be able to 'live' in that difficulty. Once I get all the demanding awards, I'll move it up a notch. It's actually not demanding at all anymore.

Also, ST made me rethink my stance on these type of games. I bought the X superbox during the steam 2012 summer sale. Havent 'unpacked' it yet since it seems like a huge undertaking and I dont have the time to play long hours yet (it's how i started playing my neglected phone and found ST)

Though I'm still not sure about the award transfer thing. Lets say I have two saves. 1st save has awards A,B,C and 2nd has awards D,E,F. If I tranfer phones and only the 2nd save makes it there, will I still have awards A,B,C achieved? I probably have like 30 saves of captains that screwed around and got killed fast and I deleted without a second thought. Pretty sure some did get awards.

[Cory Trese]

Jul 30, 2012 21:23:11 GMT -5 @starfixer said:

Personally, I hate games where they give you the choice of buying everything with real money rather than earing it. Makes the creators seem like money grabbers. And if thre were unlock codes, everyone would just look up the code and not bother unlocking it. Its like buying a video game and paying an extra 30 to have everything unlocked. It would kinda ruin the game.

Andrew and I have debated this with ourselves. with others, with Google people at IO Developer Conference.

Ultimately we disagree with everyone else I guess -- In-App Purchases are taking over, and consumable / unlocks for money are the new normal.

I don't like it and neither does Andrew. It probably is one of the main things that hold us back from being able to go full time -- revenue from 1 time purchase games is much lower -- but we feel that it is still the right thing to do.

[Deleted]

Well if you guys want you can make it so you can pay to unlock, if it'll bring you morereveue and help you with the game. As long as there's a label saying they bought something so they can't say how far they got and say the didn't buy anythng. It also has to be a way for it to be unlocked without buy as well. Then its fine with me. I mean I don't like it either but I don want you guys to lose making money because of my oppinion.
Also, even with this new feature id still rate this game 6/5 no question, but some might give less favorable reviews because of it. I've seen it happen.

[chromeada]

Haha! Well played, Corey! Indomitable troll defense!
Corey I love your game but I hate playing it. Could you please come to my house and push the buttons for me? That way it can be played and I can be all productive in life at the same time!

[TomL]

Maybe the game can offer a "cheat" button on the captain creation page. When pressed, this will pop up:

"Dear You: Congrats, you win! Love, Cory"

But more seriously, maybe there could be an option in preferences to hide any upgrades that the player hasn't earned yet. This way, a player just starting out won't see all the upgrades that they cannot get yet.

Tom

[contributor]

I have to say that I like this perspective (http://robotinvader.com/blog/?p=133) on in-app purchases. I'm not totally opposed to them and having played through Wind-Up Knight I can say that they do a good job of not trying to wear you down to make a purchase. You don't feel obligated at all and it's not invasive. So I could see a place for an in-app purchase to unlock all the upgrades (thinking of future games here) assuming that it is ultimately unnecessary to play the game. It wouldn't really change anything about how I play, because I prefer the challenge of unlocking things, assuming they are reasonable. But, if somebody wants to take the short-cut and pay to unlock them, why not take their money?

domush, in response to the original post and your reply, I would agree with others that this game is very playable for a casual player at the easier difficulty levels and there is nothing necessary about the unlocks. Also I think a lot of us are finding that this game has great, exceptional even, customer support if we approach that support with the right attitude. I have to say the most "dictatorial" thing I see in this whole thread is your original post about how this game "must" be.

[slayernz]

First up, I'm a little shocked that domush has been smited 5 times, presumably for this thread. I know that the topic has been broached a number of times, and has always caused passionate responses both for and against, but it's unfortunate that domush's first experience in the forum has been to be shot down, so in that respect, domush, if you are still reading the forum, apologies. I don't agree that you should be able to turn off the unlocks, but you don't need to be shot for your opinion.

As a number of people have mentioned, at the lower levels, you don't need any of the unlocks to be overwhelmingly successful. With Basic and Normal, with the right skills, you are able to fly a shuttle from one end of the map to the other, annihilating anything in your way. The only exception is the Cadar shuttle, because you don't get any #!@% guns with a Cadar shuttle ... but I digress.

You don't need the W-F tank, because you're pretty much 0 W-F cost traveling on green sectors, and only a fraction on red sectors. You don't need any ship upgrades at all because with Pilot, Stealth and Tactic, skills, nothing can actually hit you, and you can take down a carrier with a couple of small pebbles. Nonetheless, as a casual user, part of the fun may be that you get to try the things other people are talking about, just to say that you've tried them. They honestly won't really enhance your gameplay unless you move up in levels, but it would be something to spend the millions of credits you've built up over the time you've played.

So the question is ... would you be willing to pay more for a fully unlocked version of ST RPG? Something like this:

ST RPG FREE = Free
ST RPG Elite = $2.99 (remaining $1.99 for a limited time)
ST RPG Casual = $9.99 (Same as Elite but everything unlocked, and permadeath disabled).


Benefits. You get what you want. Others who like the long-term challenge of unlocking things also get what they want. Cory - Cory gets a way to allow truly casual players an option without compromising his own style of play. Free and Elite still keep the same restrictions as today, but now you have a third product in the family for almost zero development cost.

So domush can then fly at Impossible difficulty and try out the cool upgrades that make the difference between survival and a grisly death, and Cory can maintain his developer ethics, and avoid having to allow in-game purchases and the like.

... just a thought.