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RE: =ED= July 29th, 2016 - Make sure you can play EpicDuel

 
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8/21/2016 10:35:40   
  Digital X

Beep Beep! ArchKnight AQ / ED


Barely playable from a connection point of point or as a whole? As in the balance is bad, there is nothing fun to do etc non playable?
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 26
8/21/2016 10:41:45   
Silver Sky Magician
Member


^

It's pretty monotonous. You can't replay quests like AQ, DF or MQ and there's not much to farm for, unlike AQW.
Post #: 27
8/21/2016 15:17:57   
Lord Machaar
Member

@8x
If we are going to concentrate on words like "should/would", "will investigate", "could possibly" and etc.. then if devs should be alive tomorrow, or if devs could possibly live tomorrow, then we can ask them to fulfill such promises.
quote:

Ultimately, the option we liked the best for the short to midterm was to finish the key features remaining for BioBeasts: challenges, endless mode, leaderboards, and platform integration. Too many mobile projects get stranded after release, and we don�t want that to happen to BioBeasts. This finite list of tasks would take us about 40 days to complete (give or take).
...
When BioBeasts is �feature complete,� which should happen early in April, we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements...

NW said that the BB project should be feature complete in 40 days, NW also should be alive in 40 days (The rest of the devs ofcourse). We don't know if he is going to live tomorrow or not, that doesn't mean he should stop his life and not do anything, or not fulfill promises because well, he doesn't know if he is going to live or not.

"BB project is feature complete" to me means is when BB starts turning in some cash and supports itself (Not with the support of ED). And in a reply of yours somewhere, you said that BB is now supporting itself. The question that implies itself now is why devs do not come out with an announcement? Either confirming they will continue with ED or not. I'd have understood the reason behind that before BB was a thing, since telling players ED is dead, will mean no more free funding of BB by deluded players (Thanks to the 18th of february announcement), and therefore no BB. Now though, BB is almost feature complete, and supports itself, then why devs are still afraid from making another announcement? Are we looking here at BB 2 project that is much bigger and needs the support of ED and BB?

If it happens that BB is feature complete, then why I don't see devs starting with implementing their short/midterm promises. I'm not saying they are obliged, they aren't. But if they aren't going to do that and lost hope to fix/revive ED, then announce it, kill the game and reserve your reputation in the eyes of not just ED players, but also AE players. So when devs want to do another project, they will have full support of AE players. Now if devs are afraid to lose the cash coming in from ED, now that is pretty sad, and isn't better from what politicians say when they win the elections and forget about all their promises when they were sniffing butts of the people to elect them.

Now to talk about the promises I'm referring to, and also why I'm concentrating on this:
quote:

When BioBeasts is �feature complete,� which should happen early in April, we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements
and not
quote:

we will also investigate options such as a downloadable client to make EpicDuel future-proof. With all the traction AQ3D is getting on Steam, we could possibly find a home for EpicDuel there as well.

Because I'm not rushing things out. I'm talking about mid term and short term promises that are necessary to be implied which are the needed fixes and improvement, if ofcourse the devs like to revive or fix Ed in the future.
I'm not talking about the "steam" promise or Html5 promise or the web client promise, or any promise beside the first one that devs talked about after BB will be feature complete which is:
quote:

we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements

If devs do that, then I'm sure the game will survive with a constant playerbase so long term promises can be possible. Making a web client or converting ED to Html5 or taking ED to steam is like pouring water on sand without fixing the game before. It's like saying sorry to a dead man, after he dies...

< Message edited by Lord Machaar -- 8/21/2016 15:26:37 >
MQ Epic  Post #: 28
8/21/2016 16:09:28   
  Battle Elf
has ten 1v1 wins


@LordMachaar

quote:

If we are going to concentrate on words like "should/would", "will investigate", "could possibly" and etc.. then if devs should be alive tomorrow, or if devs could possibly live tomorrow, then we can ask them to fulfill such promises.

This whole analogy you go into of the devs creating games being paired with their lives is very confusing and a little creepy. With that being said, putting a deadline on any project in game development can be challenging. I understand that it's been more than 40 days, but sometimes thinks take longer than expected. While this can be frustrating. attacking the developers with pitchforks isn't going to help anything.


quote:

"BB project is feature complete" to me means is when BB starts turning in some cash and supports itself (Not with the support of ED).

This isn't what "feature complete" means. Unlike browser games, BioBeasts will not receive weekly updates. The game will be considered "feature complete" when the devs are satisfied with the game mechanics and features. This has no direct link to game profitability.

Finally, allow me to clarify the other point of the devs being "scared" to make an announcement. Every member of the ED team (most of whom are unpaid volunteers) are busy working on one project or another. Whether it's updating the Wiki, creating War prizes, or checking the game for bugs, we're all doing our best to improve the player experience. I'd prefer the Design Notes to be updated infrequently with important information rather than more regular updates with little substance.
AQW Epic  Post #: 29
8/21/2016 17:43:44   
Lord Machaar
Member

quote:

This whole analogy you go into of the devs creating games being paired with their lives is very confusing and a little creepy. With that being said, putting a deadline on any project in game development can be challenging. I understand that it's been more than 40 days, but sometimes thinks take longer than expected. While this can be frustrating. attacking the developers with pitchforks isn't going to help anything.

Life is creepy. So are the things you have to go through to be successful in life. It's a truth, you don't sense the creepiness of life until you go through creepy experiences. Death comes after life, we all gonna die, and that's also a fact, just because we know we are going to die at any given moment, doesn't mean we should make that an excuse to not have plans.
Ignoring promises just because somethings "should" happen not "will" happen isn't an excuse, to me at least. BB project should be feature complete, as well as devs should be alive when it's feature complete.
It has been more than 180 days now since that announcement, that's almost 5 times more than the period that was mentioned in the announcement. Yes, putting deadline on any project can be challenging, but you don't surpass that deadline 5 times over. Which will bring me to your next point of "satisfaction" about a feature complete BB.
quote:

This isn't what "feature complete" means. Unlike browser games, BioBeasts will not receive weekly updates. The game will be considered "feature complete" when the devs are satisfied with the game mechanics and features.

Devs will never be satisfied. 8 or 7 years working on ED and in one of Titan's "Q&A's" said he is still not satisfied. You can never be satisfied with any game because there are always more things to do. Therefore I believe in deadlines not feelings. Having a deadline means you will do said job in said period, not said job to fulfill said feeling that may or may not be fulfilled. 40 days was the initial period to make a feature complete BB to satisfy the devs. Almost 200 days later, are they satisfied yet?
quote:

Finally, allow me to clarify the other point of the devs being "scared" to make an announcement. Every member of the ED team (most of whom are unpaid volunteers) are busy working on one project or another. Whether it's updating the Wiki, creating War prizes, or checking the game for bugs, we're all doing our best to improve the player experience. I'd prefer the Design Notes to be updated infrequently with important information rather than more regular updates with little substance.

A broken repetitive war system shows nothing but the carelessness of devs. The war system does make a lot of players stick around, including me, but soon it will make them leave. Knowing that the devs are brining back wars and refuse to fix them, shows how much they don't care about the game. They know there are problems but refuse to fix them. It doesn't end here though, since there were promises to fix them, and some are still playing based on such promises.
Making a war prize each 4 - 5 wars (4 - 5 months), working on the daily, because yeah there are weekly updates and tons of items are being added, and searching for bugs that won't be fixed anyways (Legion/Exile wins and War system in general). I'm not talking about this though, and I'm not asking for "regular updates" with little substance. I'm asking for an announcement to either confirm or deny the promises made in february. Not even asking from the devs to announce if the game is dead or not, I'm asking for clarifications.

I'm not attacking the devs, if you felt offended by my words, then it's simply a bitter truth. If I was against the devs, I wouldn't have supported them with BB, by downloading the game and making reviews to hopefully make the game better (Including start up mutations and whatnot).
MQ Epic  Post #: 30
8/21/2016 17:45:50   
8x
Member

@Lord Machaar
You only seemed to be able to focus on the "will"s. I just pointed out the other modal verbs.
Epic  Post #: 31
8/21/2016 18:36:21   
Lord Machaar
Member

^ Already detailed in a previous reply. Give it a read.
quote:

If we are going to concentrate on words like "should/would", "will investigate", "could possibly" and etc.. then if devs should be alive tomorrow, or if devs could possibly live tomorrow, then we can
NW said that the BB project should be feature complete in 40 days, NW also should be alive in 40 days (The rest of the devs ofcourse). We don't know if he is going to live tomorrow or not, that doesn't mean he should stop his life and not do anything, or not fulfill promises because well, he doesn't know if he is going to live or not.

quote:

Now to talk about the promises I'm referring to, and also why I'm concentrating on this:
quote:

When BioBeasts is �feature complete,� which should* happen early in April, we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements

and not
quote:

we will also investigate** options such as a downloadable client to make EpicDuel future-proof. With all the traction AQ3D is getting on Steam, we could possibly*** find a home for EpicDuel there as well.

Because I'm not rushing things out. I'm talking about mid term and short term promises that are necessary to be implied which are the needed fixes and improvement, if ofcourse the devs like to revive or fix Ed in the future.
I'm not talking about the "steam" promise or Html5 promise or the web client promise, or any promise beside the first one that devs talked about after BB will be feature complete which is:
quote:

we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements

If devs do that, then I'm sure the game will survive with a constant playerbase so long term promises can be possible. Making a web client or converting ED to Html5 or taking ED to steam is like pouring water on sand without fixing the game before. It's like saying sorry to a dead man, after he dies...

You can't talk about ** and *** before talking about *. * is a promise and **/*** aren't. Once * is fulfilled then we can talk about ** and ***.
* is a short term/midterm promise. ** and *** are long term promises, no one can ask for them without asking for * to be applied.
MQ Epic  Post #: 32
8/21/2016 20:04:40   
  WhiteTiger

Majestic Feline of AQ3D & ED


quote:

Devs will never be satisfied. 8 or 7 years working on ED and in one of Titan's "Q&A's" said he is still not satisfied. You can never be satisfied with any game because there are always more things to do. Therefore I believe in deadlines not feelings. Having a deadline means you will do said job in said period, not said job to fulfill said feeling that may or may not be fulfilled. 40 days was the initial period to make a feature complete BB to satisfy the devs. Almost 200 days later, are they satisfied yet?

From a software development point of view, feature complete is when your software, in this case BioBeasts, is complete to a point where all the functionality required for the final release is finished and ready for release. What functionality is required for a software to be considered feature complete is up to the developers of the software, but it usually means when all the core game mechanics are implemented with minimal bugs. EpicDuel can be considered feature complete a long time ago, so satisfaction in this case doesn't mean for the game in its entirety, but just that the core game functionality is in a mostly finished state, but may need some fixes or improvements. The 40 days that was mentioned was not a deadline, it was an estimate based on the scope of the project at that time, which clearly ended up being much larger than initially expected. A senior developer at my last workplace said that developers are often extremely optimistic when it comes to how long they think it'll take to finish a project since most overestimate their ability and underestimate the difficulty of the task, so he always adds a few days time to every task in a project he's given, that way if he needs more time, he won't upset the project manager. The developers in this case were likely overly optimistic on their estimated timeline and that's why it's taken so long to make BioBeasts feature complete.

< Message edited by WhiteTiger -- 8/21/2016 20:07:47 >
AQW Epic  Post #: 33
8/22/2016 2:10:02   
One Winged Angel1357
Member


If you are looking for when BioBeasts is feature complete I would look for a marketing push. That means the developers have all the major features they wish to add and that most of the bugs have been ironed out. Any other timeline being added onto it is as WhiteTiger said subject to optimism.

In an interesting side note Version 1.4.0 was the original idea that was planned for feature complete when that post was made with the inclusion of cloud saves, leader boards, and survival mode. Since then the much needed economy overhaul update 1.5.0 was released to fix some grinding issues for unlocking the late game gear long after most people would have lost interest
AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 34
8/22/2016 11:26:30   
Lord Machaar
Member

@OWA
Devs aren't obliged to fulfill their promises, but they are obliged to enlighten the community, and say if they are still willing to fulfill them or not.
quote:

I'm going to have to agree with 8x and say BioBeasts is most likely holding its own despite the fact it is not pushing microtransactions as hard as previous mobile titles created by AE.

You said in a previous reply that BB is now supporting itself. Wonderful (Don't worry, I'm sure the crate system will make microtransactions push hard). The question is why devs are still worried about ED's free funding. This will raise many speculations if the devs refrain from giving an answer. Are devs planning for another project that needs biger funding? Or devs are waiting for the gifting event to push in some funding without actually re-spending it on ED?
quote:

A senior developer at my last workplace said that developers are often extremely optimistic when it comes to how long they think it'll take to finish a project since most overestimate their ability and underestimate the difficulty of the task, so he always adds a few days time to every task in a project he's given, that way if he needs more time, he won't upset the project manager.

Based on these wrods, we shouldn't really care about what devs say, because in most of the time, they are just hallucinating, and are just giving lies to satisfy their bosses.
If they meet the deadline, then the devs are skilled and know how to manage their time. If they don't meet the deadline, well then, bring on that list of excuses, whether it's the weather or toilets not working in the lab, you name it.
For me, it doesn't matter what is your field of expertise, you always can achieve anything you want as long as you are devoted to the matter. Rocket science or nursing, anything can be hard and anything can be easy, it's all in our minds. I'm no programmer or developper, but I know that these words are viable for any field of expertise out there.
Devs, especially Titan and NW aren't newbies. They have been doing this for the past decade. Ofcourse, no one has full knowledge of anything, but I'm sure 10 years is enough to at least make you aware how much time it'd take you to complete certain tasks, ofcourse you can't precisely predict it, error is always a possibility, but then surpassing the period given 5 times over, is a bit unprofessional.
MQ Epic  Post #: 35
8/22/2016 14:59:36   
8x
Member

So, basically, any announcement dev statement is a promise in your mind?

< Message edited by 8x -- 8/22/2016 15:10:04 >
Epic  Post #: 36
8/22/2016 16:40:08   
Lord Machaar
Member

It's not a regular "dev statement" as you would like to call it, or you feel like to call it, or devs feel like to consider it that way.
quote:

A few months ago, I made a huge post about the status of BioBeasts and the future of EpicDuel. I explained that BioBeasts would still need more attention for features and fixes, and the best course of action for EpicDuel would be investigating a downloadable client to future-proof the game against the dwindling support of the Flash plugin.

Source
NW considered it as a huge post, explaining the course they chose for ED and BB. Including the:
quote:

When BioBeasts is �feature complete,� which should* happen early in April, we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements.

To me, these are pretty much facts. If devs changed their mind now, there is no harm in making another "huge post". They aren't obliged to fulfill any promises. They are obliged to say if they will or not.
MQ Epic  Post #: 37
8/22/2016 16:41:04   
One Winged Angel1357
Member


Impending wall of text that mostly only applies to Lord Machaar. You have been warned.

quote:

Devs aren't obliged to fulfill their promises, but they are obliged to enlighten the community, and say if they are still willing to fulfill them or not.


They are not obligated to enlighten the community it is the best practice to do so though. However; if Titan came out and said, "Well EpicDuel is now dead and we have no news what is to come next stay tuned for more." That would end very poorly and everyone here can agree on that. If that same message of EpicDuel being dead was relayed with the news of a new game that would be replacing EpicDuel as well as a Q&A following said announcement the news would still be received poorly by some but others would accept the news for what it is, progress into a more modern age of gaming. It is also likely there won't be a Design Note hinting at the coming announcement due to how poorly that went over last time and instead the announcement will just be dropped once enough of the plan has been settled by the development team.

quote:

You said in a previous reply that BB is now supporting itself. Wonderful (Don't worry, I'm sure the crate system will make micro-transactions push hard).


I consider pushing micro-transactions locking things behind a pay wall or making your wallet the most efficient way to progress. So both the 2x bit multiplier and the Chemical Hazard skin I wouldn't consider pushing micro-transactions. Also given all the crates can be unlocked just by spending biobits, which is a by-product of collecting the batteries to get crates, it is more efficient to just play the game than it is to open your wallet again a sign of not pushing micro-transactions. You can also by-pass crates altogether and just buy mutations with the bits you get from your runs so there are many avenues open for free players to play the game which is also not something common in games pushing micro-transactions.

quote:

The question is why devs are still worried about ED's free funding. This will raise many speculations if the devs refrain from giving an answer. Are devs planning for another project that needs biger funding? Or devs are waiting for the gifting event to push in some funding without actually re-spending it on ED?


I wouldn't say the dev's are still worried about ED's free funding because the last promo was released on September 18,2015 and historically the best week for sales is the first week a new promo is released. That means the developers aren't trying to push sales in EpicDuel either due to the lack of promos that they know will sell and generate a very quick cash injection. I will admit I don't know the numbers behind bomb sales in the repeating war system but when I was part of the team it always seemed the sales of Promos was still above that of the war sales or that they overlapped with each other due to the war lining up with a saga promo pack making the numbers hard to separate. It is also important to note that all the money created from the EpicDuel teams games doesn't stay with just the EpicDuel team it goes into the rest of the company so when you point to gifting being a massive funding project for games that aren't EpicDuel you would be correct because it supports the entire company not just EpicDuel, BioBeasts, or whatever is to come.

quote:

Based on these wrods, we shouldn't really care about what devs say, because in most of the time, they are just hallucinating, and are just giving lies to satisfy their bosses.
If they meet the deadline, then the devs are skilled and know how to manage their time. If they don't meet the deadline, well then, bring on that list of excuses, whether it's the weather or toilets not working in the lab, you name it.
For me, it doesn't matter what is your field of expertise, you always can achieve anything you want as long as you are devoted to the matter. Rocket science or nursing, anything can be hard and anything can be easy, it's all in our minds. I'm no programmer or developper, but I know that these words are viable for any field of expertise out there.
Devs, especially Titan and NW aren't newbies. They have been doing this for the past decade. Ofcourse, no one has full knowledge of anything, but I'm sure 10 years is enough to at least make you aware how much time it'd take you to complete certain tasks, ofcourse you can't precisely predict it, error is always a possibility, but then surpassing the period given 5 times over, is a bit unprofessional.


I'm going to have to break this into two responses because there are so many levels of wrong here.

1)Just read this article about No Man's Sky it will give you some interesting insight into why your thought process on the developers lying is flawed. Promising the Earth: No Man's Sky

To refer back to a point made in the No Man's Sky article there was a bit in there about developers making statements they believe to be true at the time of making them but outside forces forcing them to change their plans and thus retroactively making the statements false. These statements are not lies as they reflect the true intentions of the developers who are then not able to fulfill these intentions. An example being the outside forces of the coming large scale abandonment of Flash thanks to browsers having it default to being disabled are pushing the developers to a much more logical path of stating a new project in Unity which does not show signs of large scale abandonment.

2)Time lines are a magical thing but only if you correctly reference them with defined start and end points which is something you have failed to do. Here is the official feature list for the April time line given by NW
quote:

Ultimately, the option we liked the best for the short to midterm was to finish the key features remaining for BioBeasts: challenges, endless mode, leaderboards, and platform integration.

  • Patch 1.1.25 was released on February 26, 2016 wth Challenges
  • Patch 1.2.27 was released on March 24, 2016 with Endless mode and Leaderboards
  • Finally Patch 1.4.0 was released on May 9, 2016 with cloud saves, which is platform integration, after many technical battles with Apple delaying it from it's April release date

    During that delay NW even posted a DN explaining the delay as well as offering the overall time line for BioBeasts and not just the feature complete time line.

    quote:

    What does this mean? BioBeasts development will continue until we are completely satisfied with the state of the game. At that point, we will conduct a large-scale marketing campaign to put it in front of as many eyeballs as possible.


    Sometime between May 9, possibly before this, and July 1 the team found that the old bit system for unlock mutations was too slow in pacing and that lead to drops in player retention. So that was when they came up with the economy overhaul update 1.5.0 which also served to decrease the difficulty of the game by providing an extra mutation of your choice per run. That release was on a separate time line that ran from the previous date range to August 10, 2016. Now we are on a third time line for game polish and hopefully marketing that would mark the end of the major pushes in BioBeast and a transition into the new project.

    Marketing the game after it is in the state they wanted to reach was always the goal meaning even after the 1.4.0 original end goal they still would have needed to do a major marketing push which would have taken resources from EpicDuel's development but it wasn't included in the original time line given because it is a separate entity, however; it was listed in the next time line given.
  • AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 38
    8/22/2016 17:02:05   
      Nightwraith
    Member

    It's difficult to give accurate projections of completion time in game development because even if you've been doing it 5, 10, or 20 years, you're often doing things you've never done before. It happens frequently in the game industry and it even happens on the teams of other AE games. You do pre-production work, you plan, you estimate based on past accomplishments, and you work. Sometimes you hit the mark. Often, you either push the deadlines back or cut features or both (usually both). Anyone who doesn't believe this has either never worked in a creative endeavor of significant scope or has been extremely lucky. Even products that are delivered full-featured and on time often pale in comparison to the grand vision of the original design documents.

    Yes, you are 100% correct that BioBeasts has taken way longer to be "feature complete" than we intended. It was also the first Unity project and first mobile project our team worked on. The extended timeline is unfortunate, but not unexpected. In this case, we feel it helped us make BioBeasts better than the game it could have been. It's doing well, but not self-sustaining yet, which is why we're still adding features and refining it.

    Game development is a process of discovery as much as it is an engineering feat. Often something you thought would be fun, isn't, or something you didn't think you needed becomes the most important feature to have. We experienced a lot of this as we tested, experimented, and built BioBeasts, just as we did at all stages of building EpicDuel. How many features did we add to EpicDuel, then remove or alter after they were deemed to be detrimental or superfluous to the game? Game development is never a straight line, a statement which is especially true at Artix Entertainment, where the need to constantly update and respond to player feedback and a rapidly evolving industry forces us to be more agile than many other developers who do their work in secret.

    We still believe that the best hope for EpicDuel is for BioBeasts to succeed. If BioBeasts fails, it closes off a path to expanding the ED universe. We believe this, and many of you have supported us in this endeavor with your patience and continued participation in EpicDuel events. We appreciate this support, and we are extremely humbled and delighted that ED still have such an enthusiastic following among the AE games.

    Some are skeptical that this approach will pay off, but Artix himself supports us on this path and has supported us since we proposed the new project. We're not sneaking around pulling one over on anyone -- we report on our progress and near-future milestones weekly to management. We could communicate this progress better with the community. Good posts take time to write, but I agree we can do better here.

    So when will we work on ED? Technically, we never stopped. With the help of the GA team, we've managed to keep up with war prizes, some seasonal content, and code items. These releases aren't grand, but they definitely help. We still have yet to promote BioBeasts outside the AE network so we can't say for certain if the game has reached sustainability. When will that happen? I can't say one month, two months, or more because I don't know and giving a timeline would be a pointless exercise. That said, we'll do a better job updating the community on what we're working on on a weekly basis.

    These are trying times for EpicDuel and all of Artix Entertainment. It's a constant endeavor to stay upbeat and hopeful, but we remain committed to the strategy the success of BioBeasts is the best chance EpicDuel has to endure the looming threat of Flash's extinction.
    Post #: 39
    8/22/2016 18:39:40   
    nowras
    Member

    So, what I can actually understand is that you're trying to give us a message to say bye to ED now? What if BB doesn't really succeed? Does that mean you would ditch ED forever? By the way, I just want to know if there's a way you could transfer ED to unity and make it available on all devices without removing our progress... Hmhm.. ED needs simple balance changes for now.. We aren't asking for a huge update.. We know you're busy with BB but ED does deserve something.. Like anything... Any good balance update.. Any new event.. New missions.... ANYTHING.

    Also, I have 2 suggestions for BB. The first one is to make the cloud saving save data automatically. I have lost my data several times now cuz of that... I had to escape insane on Bio Hazard 3 times now.. 2nd thing is you must make something like an online mode or something... Seeing other people having X things that they don't have would encourage them to pay real money for the game. Not to mention that online games are way more secured than non-online games. After you introduce an online mode, I'm sure BB will become feature complete. Like for example in online mode you can choose to be the beast or the robots. If you choose to be the beast, you have to pay BioBits to play but, winning would grant huge rewards such as huge crates. If you choose to be the robotic army, you don't have to pay for it. The reward for capturing beasts will be huge amounts of biobits and batteries.
    Also, you can now win different robots from crates and level them up or just unlock them from the shop. Robots have energy costs. The higher the cost, the better the robot. You may only choose 8 robots when you create your robotic army and there will be levels for these robots. The higher the level of the robot, the less energy cost it requires. The controller of the robotic army have an amount of 1000 energy. Each robot cost a different amount of energy. You should figure out the rest now. I said enough I guess... Have fun implementing this suggestion now.

    < Message edited by nowras -- 8/23/2016 19:37:28 >
    AQW Epic  Post #: 40
    8/22/2016 18:59:53   
    Cyber Dream
    Member

    Can the devs just come out with an straight forward statement with no "ifs, ands, buts, or maybe" addressing every issue concerning the well being of ED with.
    AQW Epic  Post #: 41
    8/22/2016 19:30:43   
    Lord Machaar
    Member

    @OWA
    quote:

    They are not obligated to enlighten the community it is the best practice to do so though. However; if Titan came out and said, "Well EpicDuel is now dead and we have no news what is to come next stay tuned for more." That would end very poorly and everyone here can agree on that. If that same message of EpicDuel being dead was relayed with the news of a new game that would be replacing EpicDuel as well as a Q&A following said announcement the news would still be received poorly by some but others would accept the news for what it is, progress into a more modern age of gaming. It is also likely there won't be a Design Note hinting at the coming announcement due to how poorly that went over last time and instead the announcement will just be dropped once enough of the plan has been settled by the development team.

    No one has asked the devs to announce ED "dead", at least not me. Saying with all honesty what devs are planning to do each 4 months isn't "Design notes with little substance" as Battle Elf likes to call them. Enlightening and keeping the community updated with what the devs are up to, is not the best practice, it's an obligation. I'm not saying that enlightening the community means the devs should make a "huge posts" each 3 days. The last "enlightening" of players was 4 months ago. That was in April, we are now in August. Excuse me if I played games or games associated with companies that they put their "community" before all, but I know that's how any successful developper works in a competitive field.
    quote:

    I consider pushing micro-transactions locking things behind a pay wall or making your wallet the most efficient way to progress. So both the 2x bit multiplier and the Chemical Hazard skin I wouldn't consider pushing micro-transactions. Also given all the crates can be unlocked just by spending biobits, which is a by-product of collecting the batteries to get crates, it is more efficient to just play the game than it is to open your wallet again a sign of not pushing micro-transactions. You can also by-pass crates altogether and just buy mutations with the bits you get from your runs so there are many avenues open for free players to play the game which is also not something common in games pushing micro-transactions.

    I'm not sure if you've played the 1.5.0 version yet, because I think you are talking about a different version. My thoughts on this matter were shared on the BB section of the forums, so we don't go off-topic or anything.
    http://forums2.battleon.com/f/fb.asp?m=22165302
    http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=22164448
    I'm not sure who told you that you can unlock all crates by spending Biobits. The only crates I got are the free crates, steel crates and re-inforced crates. All of these unlock common mutations only, sometimes some rare mutations. Radioactive, elite and quantum crates can only be bought. Such crates unlock epic and ultra mutations including skins. Once again, if you can get one of these in the mutation lab, then I'm sure I've missed this part in the dev blog.
    Skins cost 40k Biobits, and saying on the dev blog that BB is a game that you can play during your lunch time is a bit contradicting. If I can spend 30 minutes on the game each day, then I'm sure I won't be able to get more than 2k - 1k Biobits. Yes there are start up mutations, but waves are also now harder, so it doesn't mean you will get easier Biobits. It feels like version 1.5.0 has been made for hardcore players or for pay2win players. The game has been derailed from its purpose which is being an arcade game where you can spend time on your lunch. If upgrading a mutation now will take you 100k Biobits, then, to try everything in the mutation lab, it would probably take you hundreds of thousands of Biobits. Which will take months if not years for "regular" player. In a competitive field like the app stores, players aren't obliged to stick to a game where you see no progress whatsoever. They are free to choose the game that awards them the best, without feeling that they are either obliged to play hard or pay, in a game that wasn't meant to require both. But then, to not go off-topic, it's better to discuss this in its own place.
    quote:

    I wouldn't say the dev's are still worried about ED's free funding because the last promo was released on September 18,2015 and historically the best week for sales is the first week a new promo is released. That means the developers aren't trying to push sales in EpicDuel either due to the lack of promos that they know will sell and generate a very quick cash injection. I will admit I don't know the numbers behind bomb sales in the repeating war system but when I was part of the team it always seemed the sales of Promos was still above that of the war sales or that they overlapped with each other due to the war lining up with a saga promo pack making the numbers hard to separate. It is also important to note that all the money created from the EpicDuel teams games doesn't stay with just the EpicDuel team it goes into the rest of the company so when you point to gifting being a massive funding project for games that aren't EpicDuel you would be correct because it supports the entire company not just EpicDuel, BioBeasts, or whatever is to come.

    If you are confirming anything in this reply it would be two things:
    1- I wouldn't have called it free funding if devs actually made promo packs. Then they would've spent time and effort. What we see now is actually a free funding thanks to the repeated war cycle. I do play the game and in my wars, players decided the winning alignment. I wouldn't be saying this, if both of us didn't know that the war relies heavily on pay2win. You know that and I know that. I'm sure devs thought about launching wars automatically, and I see that they have succeeded with that, and that'd also be another reason why I'm calling this free funding, for almost a year now.
    2- The second and most important thing is, the impact ED players had into making many projects alive, AQ3D or BB, or any other project. ED players do spend a lot of cash on the game. On a dead game let me correct that, because spending cash on a feature that repeats itself each month, without updates, so let me tell you this, not any community out there do this. If "enlightening them" is not an obligation in this case, then I don't know what we should consider it.
    quote:

    I'm going to have to break this into two responses because there are so many levels of wrong here.

    1)Just read this article about No Man's Sky it will give you some interesting insight into why your thought process on the developers lying is flawed. Promising the Earth: No Man's Sky

    To refer back to a point made in the No Man's Sky article there was a bit in there about developers making statements they believe to be true at the time of making them but outside forces forcing them to change their plans and thus retroactively making the statements false. These statements are not lies as they reflect the true intentions of the developers who are then not able to fulfill these intentions. An example being the outside forces of the coming large scale abandonment of Flash thanks to browsers having it default to being disabled are pushing the developers to a much more logical path of stating a new project in Unity which does not show signs of large scale abandonment.

    2)Time lines are a magical thing but only if you correctly reference them with defined start and end points which is something you have failed to do. Here is the official feature list for the April time line given by NW

    The article cleary states: "Also, do not think for one second I am questioning the fact that developers should strive for accuracy and honesty when marketing their games. That is never in question and we should condemn any developer for genuinely deceitful behaviour."
    No Man's Sky is a great game that I enjoyed trying. The article though speaks about the "content" such as the game being MMO, not the deadlines. We aren't here talking about the content, or if devs haven't presented promised content in version 1.5.0. We are here talking about a deadline, which is a thing from the stone age for professional companies. Gaming companies no longer struggle with deadlines because they know it's a life or death matter. In 2014, the ESA (European Space Agency) landed a satellite (Rosetta) on a comet moving with hundreds of miles per second. In the day before the satellite landed, that was something impossible, the day it landed it became possible. To me, it's a matter of how hard you want that thing. I'm not saying that the devs do not want to achieve what they want really hard, but then there is a difference between sayings and actions. The difference between these two words is what makes some people great, and some stay as nobodies.
    quote:

    Sometime between May 9, possibly before this, and July 1 the team found that the old bit system for unlock mutations was too slow in pacing and that lead to drops in player retention. So that was when they came up with the economy overhaul update 1.5.0 which also served to decrease the difficulty of the game by providing an extra mutation of your choice per run. That release was on a separate time line that ran from the previous date range to August 10, 2016. Now we are on a third time line for game polish and hopefully marketing that would mark the end of the major pushes in BioBeast and a transition into the new project.

    I'm not sure if again, you have played the same version of the game as me. I can say that it is slower now to advance in the game than before. I'm not saying it was faster before 1.5.0, but not it is slower, and again to not go off-topic, I'll just state some points here:
    - The crate system as I mentioned in one of my posts in BB section of the forums, is obligatory, but also useless. For a regular player who plays the game during lunch breaks, not talking about pay2win or hardcore players, the crate system is obligatory, because the upgrade costs of mutations have been inflated. Taking an example, Stubborn Will, a mutation that used to cost what? 2k , 3k or 5k Biobits? Now costs 24k Biobits. That's one mutation, of many other mutations, that you may or may not use in your escapes. Spending 24k Biobits on a mutation, will probably take you 1 week, so with this rate, you won't be seeing any progress, unless ofcourse you pay, or play hardcore. The difficulty of the game hasn't been decreased, you have an extra mutation of your choice, but also numbers of bots per wave has been buffed, in the first wave of an escape in easy mode, you used to face 37 bots, now you have to face 40, sure small number, but we are also about relatively an easier wave. The 7th or 8th waves now in insane mode are a lot harder than they used to be.
    @NW
    I can say that it's my mistake now, I miscalculated the period it would take you to make a feature complete BB. It seems like 6 years playing your game, and 8 years playing AE games weren't enough to make me correctly speculate the exact periods that will take you to complete stuff.
    quote:

    Thank you first of all for saying that ED will be dead for 40 days - 2 months, and since this is approx, it's 3 - 4 months in reality. And even if you guys decide to come back to ED. You don't have a magical wand to fix everything in ED within hours, it will also take you around 1 - 2 months. So we are talking about a duration of at least 4 - 6 months where ED will be technically dead.
    Source: My reply to your 19th of February announcement.
    It was my mistake to only multiply the duration you gave us which is 40 days only 4 -3 times (6 months = 180 days, so 6 months from february, means august, which is now). You said BB will be feature complete in 40 days, but I know how ED devs function, so take any period given by the devs and multiply it 4 or 5 times, and that would be the real period. Sadly, after 6 years, it seems I didn't learn enough. I think we should start multiplying periods 10 times, making it 400 days. Well I guess, see you guys after 200 more days.

    < Message edited by Lord Machaar -- 8/23/2016 5:06:32 >
    MQ Epic  Post #: 42
    8/23/2016 13:36:24   
    8x
    Member

    quote:

    I'm not talking about the "steam" promise or Html5 promise or the web client promise, or any promise beside the first one that devs talked about after BB will be feature complete which is:

    See, this is what I'm talking about. Everything is a promise in your mind.

    I promise not to bother you anymore with talk of promises.
    Epic  Post #: 43
    8/23/2016 16:30:09   
    Cyber Dream
    Member

    @8x Don't get this thread locked lol.
    AQW Epic  Post #: 44
    8/24/2016 4:44:53   
    One Winged Angel1357
    Member


    @Machaar I am going to take a moment to clear up a few points about BioBeasts for you because you did ask for them.

    1) All crates can be warped in and there was even a bug during the testing phase that allowed a user to completely manipulate the RNG so he only warped in Quantum crates. It was an interesting bug and not at all easy to pull off dispute his claims of it being a simple trick. Here is a screenshot from a different tester after the exploit had been patched out with Quantum and Elite crates in his queue just so you don't have to take my words at face value

    2) I have been able to get Ultra level drops from free, steel, or re-enforced level crates so I highly doubt there is a system in place that makes the highest rarity items from dropping in only the rarest crates. Unfortunately I can't find the quote but I remember reading that the drop rate for higher rarity mutations increases until you get one and then it resets.

    3)I just deleted my save to test this and with the scientist spawning the highest combo I could manage was 38 and that was with a fair number of 37s thrown in. Without the scientist spawning the combo went up to 40. So if I was to guess the extra bots are to make up for the score lost by not having the scientist spawn and not because they made the game harder. Also basing the game difficulty off of late insane rounds is kinda silly because of how great the variance is on insane waves in general. Even the first wave of insane has an incredible amount of variance with some set-ups being K9's and Guards while others are Rocket Troopers and Reanimators.
    AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 45
    8/24/2016 13:36:25   
    Lord Machaar
    Member

    8x:
    You are now isolating quotes from their context, because you are either lazy to read or you are only reading to find quotes who sound wrong isolating them from their context.
    Steam, HTML5 or webclient, are promises, in 1 case which I talked about, if the game gets fixed.
    quote:

    If devs do that, then I'm sure the game will survive with a constant playerbase so long term promises can be possible. Making a web client or converting ED to Html5 or taking ED to steam is like pouring water on sand without fixing the game before. It's like saying sorry to a dead man, after he dies...

    If the devs do not fix the game, any other long term option won't work.
    When you isolate quotes from their overall context, they become wrong. The chronology of the initial quote is:
    quote:

    When BioBeasts is “feature complete,” which should happen early in April, we will return to EpicDuel to provide some much needed fixes and improvements. Keenly aware of the dwindling lifespan of Flash, we will also investigate options such as a downloadable client to make EpicDuel future-proof. With all the traction AQ3D is getting on Steam, we could possibly find a home for EpicDuel there as well.

    Implementing needed fixes and improvements, is the most important promise, if it's implemented, then the devs won't have any other excuse to not fulfill other promise, a web client, Steam, or HTML5 or any other option. Devs won't simply fix the game without further long term planning, that is also like pouring water on sand.
    Promising a community to build a school for them, without hiring staff is what you are telling me right now. "Devs promised to fix the game but then to make that count aka make the game survive, they aren't obliged to do it", that's what you are trying to say right now. If devs fix the game, then there is no reason for that beside making the game survive, and to make game survive, you need to move on to long term options.
    Anyways, that's what context is about. If you still want to understand it in your own way, you are free to do so. I'm fine with what NW has said, his reply cleared out many things. If a developper received my message, that's what I wanted. Not saying your opinion is useless or anything.
    @OWA:
    I asked for clarifications on the BB section of the forums, but I guess there is no harm in talking about this here, since devs like to link ED's future to BB's future a lot.
    1- I have been playing the latest version for quite some time now. I tried different methodes to try and get a crate beside the steel or reinforced one. Notihng worked. The method I used is getting batteries from playing in insane mode only, but it seems I got more reinforced crates from the easy mode.
    2- All I've been getting are upgrades of common mutations. Heck, I got rare mutation upgrades from the free crate that you get for no effort.
    3- It's not silly because I played the game in insane mode in both versions now. I could easily escape in insane mode with any beast, I did it around 9 times with Salamancer. Now, you will be lucky to reach the 7th or 8th wave with more than 2 health hearts. The variance is huge, but some bots are going to spawn in the 8th or 7th round making them harder including range robot or "Jetpack Drop-in Projectile".
    MQ Epic  Post #: 46
    8/24/2016 15:21:07   
    8x
    Member

    I want to keep my promise, so I'll fixate on something else. What is with the pouring water on the sand analogies? You need wet sand to build a sandcastle, don't you? Taking ED to Steam in it's current condition is like trying to make a sandcastle out of dry sand.

    @Cyber Dream
    I promise I might possibly stop posting in this thread.
    Epic  Post #: 47
    8/24/2016 21:51:51   
    One Winged Angel1357
    Member


    @Machaar it is understandable you've haven't had a rare crate drop in yet. I've only seen a single quantum crate myself but players like Sparhawk have had better luck and warped in a few of the elite crates.
    As for difficulty I do find it strange that you're saying the difficulty has increased when for a lot of the testers, not just myself, it has been the exact opposite. It might be that it is easier to get the mutations that really don't improve your run and if you get stuck with to many of those you can't properly deal with the late game rounds just due to you being underpowered
    AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 48
    8/25/2016 3:36:25   
    Lord Machaar
    Member

    @8x:
    Pouring water on sand without seeds or a tree/plant in there will be useless (Steam lunch or HTML5 transfer or a web client), you can pour water all you want and you won't be growing anything. It's an ancient Arabic idiom talking about fruitless efforts.
    Seeing the way you understood that idiom, why build a weak sand castle that can be wiped out easily, when you can build an iron or wood fortress.
    @OWA:
    I'm not sure if you've get better mutation upgrades than me, but the crate system has literally screwed any plans of mine. The crate system no longer allows you to unlock the mutations you want, and if you tell me that you still can unlock them with Biobits. Heck not when their price gets multiplied by 5 or 6 times. In my opinion, the crate system is still useless and obligatory in my opinion. The time that takes to unlock a crate is quite disproportionate, 10 minutes to get 10 batteries from easy mode and 4 - 8 hours to unlock a crate, that will probably contain common mutation upgrades them. At least in the 1.4.0 version, you could unlock and upgrade the mutations you want, therefore in any escape, you will be getting the mutations you want. The crate system now unlocks all mutations, either you want them or not, and you pretty much will have them as options in your escapes instead of the mutations you upgraded and you want to use.

    < Message edited by Lord Machaar -- 8/25/2016 3:40:16 >
    MQ Epic  Post #: 49
    8/25/2016 12:03:13   
    One Winged Angel1357
    Member


    Except in 1.4.0 you were forced to unlock every mutation anyway because to unlock the next tier you had to have everything of the lower tier. If you didn't want to upgrade it that is fine but you now have a useless level one mutation in the pool to be grabbed. At least with the crate system if you pull useless mutations it is most likely not going to be level one unless you got an ultra or higher from a low yield crate or it caps at level one.

    Useless is player defined by the way. For example I find all of the fly mutations to be useless because they make the boss fight much longer than it has to be.
    AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 50
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