An Observation

[ab357]

Although this section is for wish lists posts, anytime someone dares mention not liking permadeath or that because the majority do, we suffer from lack of unlock opportunities regardless of how high we get in the game someone will knock down your karma rating.


If the thought of us not wanting to play on a level without permadeath is so anti ST, we shouldn't be charged the same price for the Elite version.

In other words, let us know we are not considered real players BEFORE we upgrade to Elite.

I don't come to the forum anymore because of the bias and the insinuation that the many that have grown up playing RPGs where your character isn't permanently dead, just required to restart at the last level completed aren't dedicated players.

We must not be a small group of insane wimps since RPG games you spend $50 for to play on $300 consoles are racking in millions.

If the customers' aren't valued, don't expect us to continue to support you. I have only purchased the Elite version of ST and if I knew then what I know now and the snobbery of someone on this board I never would have purchased the Elite version or post here.

I don't attack posters and only offer requests in the appropriate thread. So why do I keep getting dinged? This is ... crap.

Hold on to the purity of your view until someone else comes up with a similar game without the permadeath and watch him rake in all the cash.

You want people to buy your work, make it with popular features. Then maybe you wouldn't have to also work a day job.

[Cory Trese]

I really regret the coding design that locked the difficulty scale into the game engine in such a way it couldn't be adjusted to support your request.

On our future games -- like CK and TA -- we have adjusted the design and code so that permadeath isn't tied directly to the difficulty scale.

A few notes:

- I personally enjoy talking to and working with players on all difficulty levels.
- Any member of the forum (hundreds of them) can click the Karma buttons.

I am not sure what we (Trese Brothers) did recently to make you so unhappy with us, but I apologize.

We're sorry you feel this way and if there is anything we can do to help, let me know either via additional posts or private e-mails.

PS: I clicked Exalt to +1 your Karma. Thanks for your feedback.

[phantombudgie]

You bought the game, and dislike one of the core mechanics of it. If you don't like it, well, it's just like you bought any other of your PC games for $30 and didn't like them after you played the first 20 minutes. That's unfortunate, but it's life. Except here the game is far cheaper, and the author listens to your requests even if he can't please everyone.

Quit whining about the fact that other forum members that are beyond Cory's control are upsetting you. Respond with an appropriate comment in the relevant thread if you feel people are being unreasonable in response to your opinions. Then the moderators can get involved to help you.

But you decided to be immature and respond directly to Cory with your "others will make more" rant and followed up with the day job comment. I'm not sure from now on that everyone will really respect all your opinions and listen to what you have to say. I think that your final comments were out of line.

[BlastGT1]

As noted, ANYONE here can click Exalt or Smite, and I'd bet my day job it's not Cory clicking yours, other than his very gracious +1 in spite of your wrongful comment against him and his brothers.

People have different opinions about things, simple fact. I don't think the Smite button should be used to punctuate an opposing opinion, but it happens. In this case though, you may deserve any you get for errantly assuming Cory is the person smiting you or instigating the smiting.

Fired from Ice Cream Tube #1 of my CM9 Droid Incredible

[ab357]

Wait a minute. I'm not accusing Cory of smiting me! I was communicating with him at first and he advised me to join the forum. My problem isn't with disagreements. It's what happens when anyone posts about permadeath. Considering I don't make personal attacks, have not even participated here much because someone does have a bug up their butt regarding me posting.

I know it's not just me because of the personal messages I receive and the fact most of the market place complaints I've read is regarding permadeath. We aren't weird! We are accustomed to playing RPGs that penalize you by requiring you to start back at the last completed level, perhaps loosing some of your arsenal etc. But there are plenty that openly complain in the market about spending hours, days, weeks, only to loose it all with what may have merely been pushing the wrong button.

Someone should be able to express the views of the other class of players without being treated as a traitor to the game. And pointing out the fact more people would buy the game if they could do more on levels without permadeath is nothing more than acting as part of the focus group this board should be viewed as.

I mean, by the time someone plays up to the level of going to a negative balance, sticking with a ghost captain that can't replenish equipment etc, sticking with him 2 billion credits later until he is back on a positive balance and fully functional again. And he can't earn special ships, encounter aliens, nothing more than he could when he began?!

There is no incentive to playing if you know you can only advance by starting a new Captain on a level with permadeath.

And I acknowledged that I know the possibility would only be in ST2.

I just think that as the developers, you would want as much feedback as possible in order to attract the largest customer base. However it doesn't help your cause when board members acting as gatekeepers when you ultimately pay the price with lower sales. Just because those willing to tell you what they are willing to pay for are drowned out.

And as you (Cory) know, I have said I wouldn't mind paying more if ST2 will be more in line with standard RPG/shooter games instead of just having permadeath as the only option.

[ab357]

Jul 21, 2012 13:34:51 GMT -5 phantombudgie said:

You bought the game, and dislike one of the core mechanics of it. If you don't like it, well, it's just like you bought any other of your PC games for $30 and didn't like them after you played the first 20 minutes. That's unfortunate, but it's life. Except here the game is far cheaper, and the author listens to your requests even if he can't please everyone.

Quit whining about the fact that other forum members that are beyond Cory's control are upsetting you. Respond with an appropriate comment in the relevant thread if you feel people are being unreasonable in response to your opinions. Then the moderators can get involved to help you.

But you decided to be immature and respond directly to Cory with your "others will make more" rant and followed up with the day job comment. I'm not sure from now on that everyone will really respect all your opinions and listen to what you have to say. I think that your final comments were out of line.

I could care less what you think. It's people like you that actually cause Cory to loose money. How long have you even been playing? Developers make money by listening to the comments of their client base. You don't help their cause. You don't loose sales because of posts like yours in response.

So sit behind your phone acting like a warrior. I'm sure the actual people who make money from the game don't feel you are helping. I'm willing to put my money where my interests are. Are you?

Negative posts are read by many who not only choose not to post, but keep playing the free game because they see their concerns aren't addressed in the Elite version. Keep up your good work. I wonder how many people willing to buy Elite chose not to after reading posts like yours.

If you don't have any money on the line, you should keep your negativity to yourself. It hurts not helps those that DO have financial incentives to keep as many happy as possible.


And Cory knows I have never posted a negative review on the market place.

[chromeada]

It is a rare thing in this forum for a concern to go unaddressed. Even yours has been addressed at least a couple of times by the developers. Cory and Andrew are one here constantly discussing ideas for improvement in their games. The fact is that they (like any developer of any product) have certain ideas, philosophies, and goals for the direction of there product. While they are obviously open to changing certain aspects, there are also aspects that they would be less willong to compromise on. In fact it would be unfair to expect anything otherwise.

Plus permadeath raises the stakes and actually makes the game more fun in my opinion. And I have about 20 or more dead captains, some of which I invested a good deal of time on.

[BlastGT1]

You may not have said outright that Cory dinged your forum rep, but you did personally attack him. Go back and re-read your first post where you told him to watch for the dev who makes the changes he doesn't, to rake in all the cash, implying that he neither listens nor cares. You also insulted him by saying he might not have to have his day job if he listened, cared, and made the changes you (and others) want. That was a pretty low blow, and you might as well have posted it as a 1 star review.

I paid for Elite specifically because I read this forum a lot, saw how much he listens and implements changes, and how much he wants to please even ST Free players. He doesn't even have ads in Free, FFS!

Bottom line is you're just as welcome to your opinion as anyone, and I personally see nothing wrong with NOT wanting permadeath, as it's made me move up in difficulty more slowly, and it would be nice to have the choice. But come on, don't slander the man with personally hateful comments when it's other people who put your forum rep in the red. That's just wrong, through and through. You'll have your adjustable death in ST2, but you should accept the limitations currently in place with some grace, instead of taking a cheap shot at one of the most attentive devs most of us have ever seen, in all our years of PC, Console, and other-platform gaming. You're not the only one who grew up a gamer, and you're not the only one to post your current opinion either. Cory deserves better for all his hard work than for you to trash him personally, the way you did, and it would be nice if you also recognized this.

Fired from Ice Cream Tube #1 of my CM9 Droid Incredible

[ab357]

Cory also knows I work in an intense profession with insane hours and responsiblities that will only magnify between now and Nov.

I re-read my post as see where it was more directed at Cory than intended. For that I most humbly apologize. My negatively wasn'tq intended for him but those that jump to attack anytime a negative view is posted. And also seeing although I hadn't posted for months, and then the threads I participated in weren't controversial, I saw someone still had dinged me. The only reason logically is my views on permadeath.

I knew it wasn't Cory or a Mod. I work in an intense environment, ST is meant as a destresser. However coming to the boards I see there are still at least one person playing games.

[Deleted]

ab357 there is an exalt and smite button for people to either like or dislike you when you commnt. What one chooses is beyond your control.
Also, about permadeath. If there was simply a save point and you couldn't die the game would last forever. Id be on lv50000 and the game would get incredibly boring. The fact that you can die is the fun part, as it makes you want to see how far you can get before dieing. I'm sorry that people ding you when you menton permadeath. Prehaps cory can make the option of each forum member choosing whether or not to make it available for players to smite/exalt them. This way, people who make controversal threads need not worry.
Like someone mentioned before, Coy is very open to requests. There are certain requests he will follow, and certain that he won't feel its best to follow. Permadeath, at least for ST1, is something Cory is inflexable about (which is fine by me as the permadeath makes ST). If there are other things you'd like changed in the game, I'm sure some people will agree with you and cory will consider it. Again, permadeath is part of ST, and I'm sorry if that's a feature you don't like.

[phantombudgie]

Yes, I have bought the game.

There are 700,000 people playing Day Z with permadeath...

[ab357]

Most people that exalt/smite will come and go in a month. That wasn't the point. The point was an attempt to point out what happens when someone brings it. Any veteran of forums or elists know as new members join, certain questioned will always come up.

If you browse this thread you'll see I've made plenty of additional requests. AND I have ST 2 in mind primarily when it comes to this wish list thread.

I was the first player to break the code and go negative value. Which I refer to as Ghost captains as they can't buy fuel, make replacements, etc. so you have to build a stash of ships before getting to 2 billion whatever it is:)

I decided to continue my latest Ghost captain to see what happens if he gets back to zero. He is reborn with full functionality again. My frustration is he doesn't get any special ability or rewards for sticking with him.

I've already expressed my "wish" that the levels were progressive. As you get to a certain point, you move up to the next level of difficulty more like traditional RPG Shooters and Cory has already stated he'w contemplating that for ST2.

However when my first captain became a ghost, Cory stated even he wasn't sure what would happen if his credits were reset to zero. So I thought some would like to know so I came back and posted yes doew get all his ability back so those like me would know it's not over when your Captain goes ghost. BUT.... he doesn't get any additional reward such as maybe being able to take on a fourth Officer or build his ship from spec.

The only way Cory will know what players are doing and thinking is via communication. Re-reading my post that started this thread I do see I addressed the negativity towards Cory specifically although my intent was to address those that take on a holier than thou stance because some of us don't like permadeath. I also had just read comments on the market where all the negative responses were regarding permadeath.

Playing almost a year I feel a sense of community here but got tired of the fly by flamers. So what began as an informational piece, became I rant about someone dinging me again because of mention of the unspeakable here.

My post was interrupted like this one is being my real world stuff that makes me come back and finish which leans longer;)

I responded to what I knew would be comments made afterwards, then instead of waiting. I didn't anticipate having time to return here right now because of work stuff.

MY INTENT WAS TO INFORM MANY WHO HAVE ONLY PLAYED THE GAME WEEKS THAT THEY DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD FOR CORY AND THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM THAT MAKE MONEY WITH THIS.

Someone has to represent the other type of players so the programmers know more demographic background when they create ST2. And anyone should not feel intimidated because they come here and see someone like me make aget post, get negative karma.

So I again APOLOGIZE to Cory for taking my frustrations out on him.

And yes the game does get boring. Not because I don't have to worry about dying but because the missions, battles etc doesn't change as you progress to the megalevels. Just the amount you make. So I play less often. But I still come back when I need a destressor;)

[Cory Trese]

I also have the advantage of receiving all of the e-mail to [e-mail] .... just by the numbers there is a 10::1 ratio between forum members and e-mail users.

We keep careful track of all the demographic data we receive -- both the e-mails and the 10,750 reviews posted on Star Traders RPG and Star Traders RPG Elite.

There is definitly something about Star Traders that gets lots of feedback. Also, we believe that the use of "Cory Trese" as the publisher (instead of "Trese Brothers Games LLC") gets people to send in e-mails. Not sure which is a bigger part of the picture.

There are approximately 1500 members (active or inactive) on the forum and I have recieved about 16,000 e-mails since the release of the game.

Andrew and I spent a huge amount of time worrying about conversion performance and overall game popularity. Somehow ST RPG outperforms our other games by more than a 3::1 ratio and we're still not sure why.

Everyone who posts, e-mails, reviews or comments matters. The five star reviews are given no more weight than the one stars.

We're trying to be successful, after all -- and taking criticism is a big part of that.

[ab357]

You know I have only two speeds. You also know I've privately and publicly said I'd still be happy if the game cost much more.

I also know how seriously you address even the private emails because we communicated back channel months before I joined the forum. And finally you know I "shouldn't" make posts at the end of long work days. LOL

Again my PUBLIC apologies for dumping on you for no reason.

[fallen]

If you'd like to pay more for the game, you can here:
www.tresebrothers.com/blog/support-us/

Thanks again for all your support.