The game is designed to cheat during normal storyline gameplay.
I’ve been collecting statistics on encounters and have made the following conclusions:
The faster you collect gems to reach a powered up spell, the faster your computer opponent will unleash their max power attack.
I’ve slow played, taking 6 turns, then on the turn I fill me spells power bars, the opponent unleashes a MAX attack. I’ve been lucky and rapidly gained gem matches, and reached my full bar in 3 turns, then suddenly, the move that took 6-7 turns for the computer opponent to use, is available right then!
It didn’t matter which foe I’m against. It doesn’t matter which way I play… Power up fast or slow. I usually only survive if I make multiple matches that span the grid causing a stun.
I would love to break down the code to demonstrate that the game is Programmed to do this, but it is my postulation that, the game decides to take it’s time to beat you.
Why? To build your frustration!
If you ‘almost’ win then you’re more likely to use GEMS to continue bc you’re frustrated that your ‘just so close to winning every time’.
It’s a con to make you use GEMS, and then have to buy gems.
This is a very bad tactic.
Two bosses ago, I was barely winning.
I haven’t really upgraded anything because I wanted to keep my sorry build as a control. But, I am still able to keep winning by playing over and over until I get lucky. If the game were actually stats based, I’d definitely hit a wall. But, oddly I’m not. Do you want to use GEMS to continue?
That’s the trick here.
The game is already unnecessarily complex when each character (and heck, each individual armor set), requires specialized items to Evolve.
This is FAR too complex for a phone game.
When you add in the Programmed tactic of teasing you with ‘near victory’ I get more and more disappointed with the game each week.
{Please note, I’m not a cheapskate either… I’ve paid over $18k in the last 2 years for items and upgrades in other games, but there has to be lasting value in the purchase… Otherwise, you’re just scamming people. Or, if your not scamming people, you’re just making a bad game compared to other pay-to-win/pay-to-play games.}
Please feel free to begin a discussion with me and we can flesh out some strategies to make your game more valuable to the player while maintaining or even improving profitability.
This is intended. Generally the same amount of mana accumulation will commonly result in enemy getting same amount of mana accumulation each time. Colors gathered of the one they need gives 2x, the color they are weak against is 0.5, and the other three are 1x.
That’s kinda garbage.
This game has too many problems for the gameplay to be so extremely profit based.
I’m out
I’ll find another developer who does a better job.
My final feedback for you is that the story WAS just good enough… If you’d have made the level of detail for the story at the same level of detail you put into CRAFTING, then the story would be good enough to hook better
But, I have to pay WAY MORE attention to needed crafting items than how interesting the story is.
I don’t mind paying to play, but when you’ve created every level of gameplay in such a way that skill is needed, but LUCK is required, then paying to improve your character doesn’t matter… The only thing that matters is paying to move to the next level.
I’ll pay to gain permanent power, item upgrades, or abilities… But I won’t pay an admission price…(50 gems to REVIVE! And then, you could still die again!!! What the actual fuck?)
I’m disappointed and know you have no intention of fixing the game.
I’m uninstalling. I don’t even care that I have days left on the game pass I bought.
This, right here, is something that has been gnawing at me for several months, now.
There is always going to be some luck involved in a game like this. Unavoidable. But currently, virtually everything requires luck. This leads to people becoming frustrated with always landing on the wrong side of the coin flips.
That is intentional to build tension and make that offer of “50 gems to continue” that much more enticing.
It’s one thing to want us to SPEND money on gems, so we can upgrade things and buy resources… but, when a user spends GEMS to continue a level, that is a bad spend… there is no long term investment there because there is no guarantee that even if you do spend those 50 gems, that you will win the level.
I absolutely hate that the game doesn’t just BEAT you. It plays your loss SO closely that you feel like you could have won, when in reality, the game is teasing you like a BULLY would, and when you’re close to winning, THEN it beats you. This is emotional abuse from a damn VIDEO game, all for the sake of profit when you get so frustrated you spend those 50 gems for another shot.
Studies have shown that a player who loses 90% of games and wins 10% is more likely to become addicted than someone who wins 90% and loses 10%.
It’s much easier to program a game, that has infinite levels, by using RNG than trying to build logical rules. Easier = cheaper! However, the use of RNG still requires balanced rules.
This game is in open beta, which means it has loads of ‘issues’ that will, hopefully, be ironed out over time.
We only notice things that are important to us. So, if you are waiting for a yellow crystal to appear, you will notice that it doesn’t and believe that the game is doing it on purpose. However, you won’t notice if another colour isn’t appearing, because that isn’t important!
True, but not when that work is coupled with an unmanageably complicated crafting system.
It’s just a easy to program unbalanced rules that are to your advantage…
We can hope. But the issues I’ve chosen here are fundamental things that devs will not be willing to alter bc some aspects (like simplifying the crafting) would mean that all the work that went into creating that original complexity gets tossed. So, someone will proudly defend it, regardless of how unnecessary it is, bc “it has so much work in it already” instead of what would be REALLY good for longevity of gameplay… Remember the Skill Map from FF8? It killed the game. Good luck.
Ooooh, but I didn’t complain about that. However, I did collect data and DID notice track the balance of gems appearing.
ALL GEMS so your psychological factors can be damned.
When I used one color set of spells, say ALL PURPLE, suddenly and FACTUALLY because I counted, I get 30% LESS Purple Gems. But if I use an exclusively YELLOW set of spells, I start getting a completely different ratio.
This is also taking into account gems created as a result of play. My calculation and data is based solely on gem appearance as a result of destruction and not bc of side effects.
But thanks for pointing out the gem issue, too.
Your response also tells me quite clearly that I’m too read between the lines and “fuck right off, we’ll do what we want and the only purpose of this beta is free break-fix instead of hiring beta testers”
But, shouldn’t you actually reward your beta-testers with like free VIP or something?
Nah, they’re not trained and they’ll do it for free if they don’t know better, right?