Can't find/recruit Scout Officer

[Cory Trese]

If we're teaching Apple stuff, we need to teach them to put TBG products higher in the rankings. The SDK stuff isn't an issue anymore, once I get iST updated to match Android it will be a lot easier -- and like I said, the future is in code that runs everywhere.

Who knew C++ would eventually be "write once, run anywhere."

[ntsheep]

Oct 7, 2014 20:28:34 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

If we're teaching Apple stuff, we need to teach them to put TBG products higher in the rankings. The SDK stuff isn't an issue anymore, once I get iST updated to match Android it will be a lot easier -- and like I said, the future is in code that runs everywhere.

Who knew C++ would eventually be "write once, run anywhere."

The answer to that is the ones who wrote it when it was just C. I find it funny how many of the old programming languages are still in use.

[xdesperado]

Bloat ware...
As computers got more powerful many got lazy and the coding got sloppy.

Having serious hardware limitations forced early programmers to be both creative and very efficient in their coding.
Along the way those ideas got lost and people started getting lazy about things.

Luckily Cory Trese seems to be in the camp of those who believe in writing code to run on the minimum of system resources instead of only writing for the current top end devices/systems.

Very refreshing to see and another reason to support TB games...this type of programming means that I'll most likely be able to continue playing their games well into the future even as many other companies will be considering my hardware to be outdated antiquated junk.

[ntsheep]

I still love writing programs in QBasic and can get most to run without a problem.

[Kuznar]

Just wanted to add that I have the same problem with scouts and Templars. I'm an elite player and the recruit button is there and unresponsive when I click it. Considering I paid for the game and those officers are a major reason why, it's a bit frustrating. I am an IOS user as well. Is there anything we can do about this?

[fallen]

Oct 7, 2014 12:54:49 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Ticket #2733 iST - Bug - Can't find/recruit Scout Officer

Cory created #iST-2733 for this, and we expect that it will be covered in the next update.

[Kuznar]

Any idea when?

[fallen]

kuznar - sorry, as a two person indie company, we don't do ETAs.

[Scrawny]

So, basically you're telling IOS users "thank you for paying the money for our game. Well get around to fixing the problem that doesn't give you what you paid for when we feel like it"? You guys understand that you have an obligation to your customers? This is something that should be at the top of your list. Not when you get around to it.

[fallen]

@scrawny - thank you for the feedback, and we do understand that it is a very important issue.

However, all games have bugs. We try to fix them as fast as we can.

I wanted to be very clear that, as a company we have a "no ETAs" policy. So, I cannot tell you when we will fix the bug, only that it is important and on our list.

I am saying these things as it is important for us to be clear and honest about (1) we will fix that bug (2) I can't tell you the exact date.

[slayernz]

@scrawny and kuznar, please don't take offense as to what fallen has written about no ETAs ... I'm sure he was just trying to be light-hearted on the topic as I can guarantee that unlike a lot of developers out there, both Andrew and Cory put customer-first pretty much 100% of the time.

There are definitely a bunch of challenges with getting IOS version of ST up to the same level as Android version, but bear in mind that the IOS version came out a number of years after Android. With the Android version, things weren't perfect at the beginning - lots of things were being worked on in order to get it to the state it is today, and likewise IOS is going through that same process. The good news is that with the IOS version, the TB's get to leapfrog on the learning they gained from Android so they don't need to worry about all of the rules and balancing, and focus on the functionality itself. However, as you can understand, the game development is still in progress, with a roughly mapped out idea of what is in the queue for the next few sprints. Bugs, such as the one identified in this thread need to be investigated, scoped, and then worked on in addition to the other work they are doing, and there are only two of them.

If you look at most of the games released in the app stores, they are not complete, and continue to be worked on, even after they "take your money". However some game designers focus more on the taking your money part, and less on improving the game as much as they can with their resourcing constraints.

Analogy analogy - I have one for you. If you've ever played SimCity, you'll know that your end goal is a perfect city with great population density, good commercial and industrial planning, infrastructure, good income flows, and happy sims. You know what it needs to get from bare land to fully created city, but it all takes time, and you can't address everything at once. You're living within the constraints of the budget (unless you use cheat codes). Do you stop anyone from moving into the city until it is perfect? No, you invite people in, they provide feedback, and you tackle their concerns as and when you can. Your vision is the perfect city - and if that means you can't address the groundwater pollution right at this very moment, it doesn't mean you'll ignore it and hope it goes away on its own. No, you'll work to get yourself in the position where you can address the pollution issue.

There aren't any cheatcodes in real life, so the TB's are only able to work within their existing constraints. Cut them a bit of slack because I can guarantee, they'll work tirelessly to resolve the issues as best as they can.

[ntsheep]

To all our guest that visit,

There are lots of reasons that ETA's are avoided, many come down to the fact that certain things are beyond the TB's control. Their no ETA policy isn't an attempt to be rude or just take your money and run. When they say they have created a bug ticket, only in vary rare cases has it not been fixed within more than a few weeks. Most of the time a bug is fixed within just a few days. We members of the forum have even seen bugs killed within just a few hours. They pay attention to every detail no matter how small. Be patient with them, they really do work hard for your money and support. Just spend some more time here reading other posts and you'll see that the TB's are some of, if not, the best devs out there.

Another thing I have seen several times is that the latest version of Android has a bug that breaks a game\program yet the devs are the ones blamed for it when it was Google's fault. The recent 5.0 is a good example. Many other forum and web sites were\are reporting lots of apps that no longer work because of changes that Google made and warned people to not update. A friend of mine just updated his Nexus 7 and is already talking about resetting it to go back to 4.4 He says there are just too many problems with the OS and apps not working now that 5.0 isn't worth it.

[fallen]

Thanks to everyone posting on our behalf.

To be realistic, many tickets go weeks or months without fixing, but we do the very best we can. We have been unable to update Cyber Knights on Amazon for almost a month now due to a bug with a new version of a device and our game's music player. We just submitted the fix this afternoon, but it took a very long time to resolve and during that time both free and Elite customers were not receiving updates.

[ntsheep]

fallen, when you say a new version of a device, are you the one that made said device. This sounds like the example I gave about Google. How could you have known about a bug with a certain device if your not the one that made it. Why should you be the one to fix the problem if it was the device that caused it. Too many companies are more concerned with getting their devices to market than making sure they'll work and devs like you are the ones that get wrongly blamed for program problems. As for the time between bug fixes, yah your right that some take you a lot of time but I still feel that you have always been there for us quicker than most. With each new update, your games have only gotten better. ST is 4 years old! Most companies would be giving up on their programs by now, you haven't. You're not just three brothers on a mission, you're three brothers and an ever increasing forum ready to back you up. You have fans and friends from around the world that I know would drop whatever their doing if they could to come help you for whatever reason or no reason at all, which is in fact a reason,,,,,, oh shit, there's that paradox thing again

[Officer Genious]

Dec 1, 2014 17:51:22 GMT -5 Scrawny said:

So, basically you're telling IOS users "thank you for paying the money for our game. Well get around to fixing the problem that doesn't give you what you paid for when we feel like it"? You guys understand that you have an obligation to your customers? This is something that should be at the top of your list. Not when you get around to it.

Besides what the others have said, there is a delay between independent developer submissions (non-Rivio/small fry indie companies) and when those submissions are actually accepted and released publicly in the app store (Apple market).

In Google's case, the review process is minimal and most updates are live on the store within an hour or so after submission.

In Amazon's case, there is a review process that typically takes between 3-5 business days, but is rarely if ever consistent (the fastest was within 3 or 4 hours, and the slowest I believe was nearly a month). Of course, a good deal of the delay has to do with Amazon support either leaving apps in review limbo for long periods of time or unclear/late rejection notices, requiring constant emails just to figure out the issue (which may or may not pass through when fixed). A few Google results on Amazon and its independent developers confirmed that this is not solely a Trese Brothers issue-- in fact, Amazon doesn't seem to be getting along with indie companies well at all.

Apple is the most restrictive of markets with a much longer turn around of something like 2 weeks. On top of that, Star Traders was made originally for Android quite a few years ago, and to work on an iOS had to have a separate APK uploaded (basically, a separate game package with its own special bits of code). Not only does this code have its own specific bugs (in the code it doesn't share with Android), but with few testing devices its hard to even see certain bugs (and ergo, how to fix them). Add all that together and you can see why the Trese Brothers opted for big updates every month or two (typical time, may have deviation) instead of releasing the back catalogue of Android's updates-- its having a desert rain storm versus a more Chinese Water Torture drip of old small updates over a (very slightly) shorter length of time.

Ergo, they don't do ETAs. But on Apple you're likely to see an update every two months or so (though those updates merge two older Android updates together, ergo the "leapfrogging" slayernz mentioned).

(ntsheep, stop before you rip a hole in the fabric of spacetime with your paradox madness!!)