Current Active Servers

[ChickenHawk07]

You both are correct. So let's just leave it at that. So far no one was been charged more than the initial $2 for the first month. The Devs have repeatedly said they will be waiving as many months as necessary until the game is up to snuff. I do agree with Cerberus that time is money. And it definitely sucks to lose it outright. Three servers being lost completely is not acceptable. However, as I have said in the past, this is basically an Open Beta right now. The beta they held before was more of a closed beta and not representative of the actual gaming experience. Both we, the players, and the Devs have learned that the hard way. We with our time, and them with their time AND money. $2 is nothing. Imagine not being paid for your job for 3 years. That's basically what they're going through right now. And they will continue to be put in that position until they get the kinks worked out. The more new players see THAT, the better.

And on the subject of unanswered threads, there are three people running this game and forum right now. Do you want answers for a win condition that 1 month from now will NE completely invalid? The game play and style are being changed as I type this. I personally want them working on getting the game
Right, rather than replying to multiple threads about the same thing.

[VanderLegion]

And on the subject of unanswered threads, there are three people running this game and forum right now. Do you want answers for a win condition that 1 month from now will NE completely invalid? The game play and style are being changed as I type this. I personally want them working on getting the game
Right, rather than replying to multiple threads about the same thing.

While I do understand and want the devs working on the game, answering questions is important too. Especially if you look at the current state of the game as an open beta. Beta testers need to know what's going on at LEAST as much as players in a live game do. And I know they're changing the combat system and it sounds like most likely pretty much the entire game for travel etc, but I haven't heard anything about the victory conditions themselves changing, which means it's still important to know how they work. And while not having to reply to multiple threads about the same thing, not replying to ANY of them is almost as unacceptable as losing servers. I haven't seen a single good answer on victory conditions (whether PK for sure is required to win as warlord as Tsagoth said in one thread when elsewhere they've said otherwise and a non-warlord got a warlord victory on aruru indication it's not the case, trader victory condition impossibility, collapsing stars not getting progress etc), still no firm answer I've seen on whether you should be able to make multiple trade routes with a single opponents planet, or any indication of whether it's even being looked at, pretty sure there's others as well...

[Cerberus]

You both are correct. So let's just leave it at that. So far no one was been charged more than the initial $2 for the first month. The Devs have repeatedly said they will be waiving as many months as necessary until the game is up to snuff. I do agree with Cerberus that time is money. And it definitely sucks to lose it outright. Three servers being lost completely is not acceptable. However, as I have said in the past, this is basically an Open Beta right now. The beta they held before was more of a closed beta and not representative of the actual gaming experience. Both we, the players, and the Devs have learned that the hard way. We with our time, and them with their time AND money. $2 is nothing. Imagine not being paid for your job for 3 years. That's basically what they're going through right now. And they will continue to be put in that position until they get the kinks worked out. The more new players see THAT, the better.

And on the subject of unanswered threads, there are three people running this game and forum right now. Do you want answers for a win condition that 1 month from now will NE completely invalid? The game play and style are being changed as I type this. I personally want them working on getting the game
Right, rather than replying to multiple threads about the same thing.

Thank you ChickenHawk for not flaming and offering a very constructive and well thought out response. I dont mind beta testing then as I can see the potential this game has down the road.

I completely agree with what VanderLegion said. We can all agree the losing of servers is bad. But it wouldnt be as bad if there was just a bit more communication on this forum. Let us know what we are getting ourselves into, people on here wouldnt be so frustrated if we openly knew we were basically paying to beta test and be the pioneers of this game in its early stages. Dev's, please take like 5 minutes and sticky a current and up to date post on win conditions please. If we are truly beta testing then let us help you, If we know more about the game mechanics we can properly play and test this game.

[ChickenHawk07]

Oh and yes Devs, PLEASE post a sticky on how the CURRENT game Victory conditions work. We might as well know how the current system works, before learning the new system.

[ChickenHawk07]

I stand corrected on that issue. You bring up very valid points.

[VanderLegion]

Hopefully they're just too busy fixing all of those things to get on here and answer and 1.0.8 will take care of said questions

[VanderLegion]

Another idea: It might be worth removing the subscription fee for new players for now so more people don't come in and pay 2 bucks then get pissed off if something else happens down the line before updates get pushed out with the various incoming fixes/changes? That way people could still get on and try the game out, but you might end up with less angry players in the short term. Maybe it could just be set up so new players get however much free time is already being applied to existing ones, but still have the option to buy subscriptions that'll add it on to the end?

[ChickenHawk07]

Another idea: It might be worth removing the subscription fee for new players for now so more people don't come in and pay 2 bucks then get pissed off if something else happens down the line before updates get pushed out with the various incoming fixes/changes? That way people could still get on and try the game out, but you might end up with less angry players in the short term. Maybe it could just be set up so new players get however much free time is already being applied to existing ones, but still have the option to buy subscriptions that'll add it on to the end?

I'm not sure that's even possible the way the game is set up. They already had to rewrite their code twice to get Apple to sign off on the release of this game. If it is possible, that would definitely help ease the worries of new players. I'm hoping this game does amazing, makes the Devs a lot of money and in turn makes Apple a lot of money. That way, Apple may be a little less stringent on future games of this scale and allow for proper beta tests.

[ChickenHawk07]

You really can't fault the Devs for the failure of the "closed" beta either. Apple only gives out 100 Keys and of those 100 Keys, only 20-30 people consistently played in the beta. This game is truely something that has never been attempted before on an apple mobile device, or any mobile device for that matter. So it's important to keep that in mind when filing complaints. And believe me Cerberus, I was one of the first people to freak out when Aruru was Coldstarted on accident. The Devs learned from that mistake and no Server since has been Coldstarted. Unfortunately now they are dealing with another loss of gameplay data (and time units per player). I'm hopeful the Devs will learn from this mistake (be it buying larger HDD platters, or never buying Seagate Enterprise HDDs) Whichever the case may be, I'm confident they'll make sure it never happens again.

Of course there will always be more unseen issues which arrives. Hopefully they have the player base and the income to get backups for their backup RAIDs.

[VanderLegion]

You really can't fault the Devs for the failure of the "closed" beta either. Apple only gives out 100 Keys and of those 100 Keys, only 20-30 people consistently played in the beta. This game is truely something that has never been attempted before on an apple mobile device, or any mobile device for that matter. So it's important to keep that in mind when filing complaints.

Oh, I understand that, and it makes sense for some things. For instance the trader win conditions - it'd be hard to test and balance correctly with only 20-30 players in a beta test. That's one of the things that's quite understandable and I'm sure will get fixed. Same for server issues from the influx of players when the game went live etc. Something like the object count limit not working...is something I'd think someone would have noticed, given that I found it probably 10 minutes into the game...

I'm not sure that's even possible the way the game is set up. They already had to rewrite their code twice to get Apple to sign off on the release of this game. If it is possible, that would definitely help ease the worries of new players. I'm hoping this game does amazing, makes the Devs a lot of money and in turn makes Apple a lot of money. That way, Apple may be a little less stringent on future games of this scale and allow for proper beta tests.

I believe IAP prices at least can be changed without republishing the app (I'm not sure about that, and not necessarily what I'm suggesting). I know they can add time to our existing subscriptions (as they have been), I'm basically just wondering if they could set it up server side so when a new character/account is created it's given 30 days free time or whatever (basically like the month free people wanted originally). I understand why they didn't do a month free trial in the first place (and I agree, 2 buck subscription vs 2 buck game with a month free, works out about the same), but it might be worth it until the next update comes out if it's possible.