Discuss the massively-multiplayer home defense game.
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I checked the game out again after about a month of not playing. I knew it was going to be dead.
One thing Jason has not tried is the separate starting cash vs robbing cash. He seems to be blinded by this need to have all cash the same.
What I really want to see is unlimited building cash and enough cash to buy a decent set of starting tools for people who want to rob. If you die robbing you have to wait 12 hours before you can try again. Basically making you spend your time building something. This crap $2000 starting cash is so lame.
Basically I got fed up with the game and the insane amount of time investment that I just had to quit.
The starting cash is so small that you have to check in every 20 minutes to help build the defenses. The dramatic game changes are making it impossible to even begin balancing this game. Personally I wish the starting money was really high so I could make a great starting house that I know I could leave to the wolves. i like watching people smash my creations but with starting cash so low I can only make small little rooms.
This is all to complicated for my liking. Here's what I see the root problem as:
Currently, it isn't possible to build any semblance of strong defenses with $2000. While $2000 used to be able to build a decent house, which could be expanded later, $2000 now builds barely a framework for a house, that must be fortified very quickly or else you'll be robbed. What I want to do is make a functioning trap with starting cash, that can be perhaps fortified later, not a cobbled together piece of once-robbable nonsense.
However, I think the tool price/starting cash ratio was good in v15, so I propose this:
Make starting cash $8000, with tools at 4x prices, but keep tiles at the same price. (Alternatively, use $6000 and 3x tool price.) This would allow real house building to take place at the start. Because, right now, I have no time to realize my ideas for a house before it's robbed.
This really needs to be implemented. The game is extremely complicated for a new player. There is absolutely no explanation of how parts work. Pet movement is confusing. The starting cash is extremely low. I think $6000 cash and 3x tool price is a good starting point. The game needs to be simplified but have more accessible cash so you can build your defenses deeper. I really like how the walls don't conduct anymore.
I can't stress it enough and I don't understand how you think you can balance a game with only 10 maximum players. It's not possible at the moment. It seems to end up with 2-3 guys on top tier everyone else left to the wolves. Can you make computer generated houses to help support the low level of players?
How do you download the new version? Seems like it should be obvious on how to do that.
You can't balance a game with only 3 players. With a maximum of 10 at the most.
It would be contrary to Jason's concept for the game and I do support the notion of being thrown into the deep end (which is even modeled on the real life experiences of moving into a tough town) but if it makes it easier for newbies, an unofficial server is a good solution and I don't think anybody would mind that.
This concept is a catch22. New players don't want to newb stomped within one hour of playing a game. I gave up playing because of this. It seems that is the consensus with only 3 house currently active. Its either cater to the newer players or have a dead game. Sad part is the latter seems to be the chosen path by the game designer. It's to easy for a veteran player to loose sight of how brutal the game can be and how that makes new players just walk away.
There needs to be a Hardcore mode and a Softcore mode. Problem Solved.
AGO wrote:I think you misunderstood what I meant. You can't keep a player base with how the game is currently being played.
I don't know about that, myself and plenty of other people on this forum seem to have stuck to this game with the rules as they are.
There is only like 9 people who are keeping up with the game. As they grow in experience they can enter a newbs house and say hey this will be easy. Come back with a hand full of tools and newb stomp them out of the game. You are thrown to the sharks from the beginning. Which is really bad for making and keeping new players. The lack of an in depth tutorial is a major factor. You are trying to balance a game with less then 10 players. Most of which have a lot of experience.
AGO, I'm sorry that you're having trouble as a new player.
It is a tough, harsh game, that's for sure.
Many of your suggestions (limited backpack slots that you don't lose in each robbery, etc.) were in place in previous versions of the game but changed for very good reasons.
The one suggestion that hasn't been tried is giving you starting money that's earmarked for building only. I think this would just make even more houses that are even harder, right? People having more money means that they will be able to build harder stuff.
On the one hand, you're saying, "Help me make my house harder to rob!"
On the other hand, you're saying, "Help me so that the other houses are easier to rob!"
But, we're all in that same boat. It's impossible to simultaneously make houses both easier to protect and easier to rob. We can only make home owners stronger by weakening robbers, and vice versa.
That balance can currently be tweaked by adjusting the ratio between tool prices and house tile prices. More expensive tools make robbery harder and houses more safe. Less expensive tools make robbery easier and houses less safe.
I probably will raise tool prices in the future at some point... to raise the threshold where brute-forcing a low-valued house (by cutting through walls) becomes worth it. But I haven't dug too deeply into that yet, because I'm busy fixing other issues.
I think you misunderstood what I meant. You can't keep a player base with how the game is currently being played. I can't sit by my comp and log in every hour to spend the money. In just a few hours it is worth the money to just brute force your way through a $2000 starter house. It has to be more starter friendly or new players will just write the game off as crap and move on. I could care less about getting into other people homes at them moment. I know I can just brute force my way in once I get a house established.
This is a pyramid scheme in a sense. The guys at the top are untouchable. All it takes to crack a starting house is a small stack of meat.... Which can be accomplished just by a starting players $2000. This is a huge flaw. Why isint the starting amount like $5000 that cant be spent on tools or stolen. This alleviates all the problems of people pumping and is enough cash to actually make a decent build that people will have to work to crack. I also think tools are too cheap and should not be stackable but you should be able to keep them if you leave.
Also noticed a huge flaw in the fact that I cracked a house and made it to the vault but it had already been cracked. I coudn't leave without dying. Totally resetting myself....
This game is designed to reward the top players and leave us starters to reset over and over. $2000 is just not enough to build anything viable that you don't have to attend to every hour. $5000 would at least give you enough experimental room to try things out. Do the top players feel good about cracking a house built on $2000?
The game just throws the new players to the wolves and will go nowhere if this problem is not addressed. The game designer may want it that way, but rest assured if it is not new player friendly then you wont have new players. I wouldn't recommend this game to a friend in the state that it is in.
I am building the most viable house I can on the $2000. Within a few hours the house is ravanged causing me to restart. There is no saving the house due to the fact the Wife is dead the money is all gone and I have to replace 3 pitbulls to make the vault not reachable.
Below are my ideas for making the game a little more new player friendly.
1. Explanation of what the stuff does or simple tutorial. (Took me to damn long to figure out how to make a simple trap.)
2. More starting cash that is only usable for building. (this prevents pumping and people making a new house just to troll newbs)
3. Items not stackable. (thought the game was about puzzle solving and not who has the most resources?)
4. Tools should be more expensive but keepable upon leaving. (loading up your bag and entering a house to find it already destroyed is lame)
There are not enough players to make this game even playable. With such low starting money it is impossible to make a house that someone can't simply brute there way into. This game is not new player friendly in any way. I spent $8 and I am sort of regretting it.
I got the basics down on how to start a house but if I leave it for more then a few hours is is simply ransacked and my wife is raped. $2000 is not enough to do crap with.
At most I have around 5-8 houses to try and rob. With most of them being impossible to rob. There is a few houses which have no possible way for the family to escape.
Seems this game is to easy to exploit which is shutting out the new players and is going to just make this game go belly up. The novelty has already worn off with being able to get past a starting house.
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