Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

cullman · 2014-09-10 16:27:24

We are calling our space themed reboot "Terminal Heist". As you are robbing Space Terminals and your heist might just end up being "terminal", a nod to the perma-death nature of the game. We will be launching a website at http://www.terminalheist.com in a few weeks to support the game. I have said most of this stuff before but the big changes will be :

- Tutorial mode which will be single player/work offline and not be permadeath
- Challenge houses will be single player/work offline and not be permadeath
- Multiplatform support (iOS and Android)
- Right now the plan is for the game will be free, but eventually we might have some in app purchases, not pay to win, but more convenience things like the ability to pause and walk away for a few hours while working on your house, or the ability to store a template of your 2k starter house and reload from a button
- We are going with a space theme to make the game a little more family friendly, so we can get a +4 age rating in the apple store. You will disable robots and droids rather than shooting wives and bricking cats.
- No more paintings, instead we will have special items, and challenge badges, and stats.
- We will have neighborhoods/systems to allow you to play as multiple people without dual accounting. That way you can build up your big house (station) and still go rob risk free in a different neighborhood/system
- New graphics, we are going to depart from the 8 bit look, and we are potentially looking at it having a more isometric view.

If you have an iOS device and are interested in messing around with it, send me a private message and I will hook you up with the Test Flight beta test version. We welcome your feedback. Right now the game is still Castle Doctrine in appearance with TCD graphics etc. If you skip the tutorial mode (which is a little crashy atm) and hit menu followed by exit you will be prompted to input your email address and your download code, and the game will log into the proper TCD server as you. Otherwise the game should work the same. It's still a little rough around the edges. We know about the crashing in tutorial mode (but we expect the actual game play to work pretty well.) We should allow Android beta testers shortly.

AMWhy · 2014-09-10 17:27:37

I'll be testing the game on my iPhone properly today (while out and about). I didn't say before, but it runs really smoothly on the main server and the demo (the one that works a little).

One thing I've noticed: In the PC game, you can hover the mouse over a visible wife to see how much money she has. This allows you to determine whether she's a viable target or if the safe is a better option. I couldn't do this on the iPhone.

cullman · 2014-09-10 18:31:10

Great point. We will probably need to be able to tap on a visible wife (or Sentry Robot) and get a message that shows her value.

mala · 2014-09-10 18:32:53

good news

how can i send you a pvt?

i have an iphone 4s, does it need a jailbreak to run the game?

Last edited by mala (2014-09-10 18:33:51)

cullman · 2014-09-10 18:53:26

Mala,

Just send me a message by clicking email under my name on the forum. I will send you an invite to our Test Flight https://www.testflightapp.com, which is a thing that allows people to Beta test apps before they are in the store without jailbreaking your iphone. The 4S should work fine.

Amatiel · 2014-09-11 06:02:50

plz dont put a pause mode in. That sounds so exploitable.

What does the new "safe" look like? I hope it carries the same "sight-value" as the existing one...

ie: "OMG ITS THE SAFE"

not: "omg its the computer terminal.... great"

AMWhy · 2014-09-11 08:22:18

@Amatiel, being the goal of each map, whatever it becomes it should still have the same impact. I'm just looking forward to seeing the new style.

cullman · 2014-09-11 08:53:45

Regarding what the safe looks like, I am waiting on the artist we've hired for that. I agree and I will mention that it should convey excitement.

As for pause, here is my thinking :

a) This game can be incredibly tough on people who have jobs or family. You build a starter house and someone comes and drops $10k in and you don't have time to upgrade right at that moment. Or you are working on upgrading your house and something comes up, you either lose all your changes or roll the dice on hurrying up and self-testing. Anyway, leveling the playing field for people who don't have all the time in the world to dedicate to the game, means more players, more players means a better game IMHO.

b) There are already people pausing the game using macros. LordOfHam used to use a program where he would keep his house in build mode and a macro would move him back and forth every 2 minutes for days at a time, to keep his house unrobbable. This is like the neighborhood/realm/system vs dual accounts scheme, I feel like if I provide a legal and reasonable in game solution for things people are working around with "cheats" then cheating will be less likely.

c) The pause functionality will be finite, ie you can only pause 6-12 hours out of every 3-4 days or something like that.

d) We will likely make this a paid feature. I like that model because it's not a true advantage people can buy, it's more paying for convenience. Also, it's these small in app purchases that will allow me to provide the game for free and hopefully cover some of my costs (which are already in the tens of thousands with a full-time coder and a part-time graphics person).

Amatiel · 2014-09-11 09:41:07

Sounds like each house needs to have a minimum exposure time of say 8 hours per day (whilst you are sleeping), else you will be kicked out of your house until that minimum is reached.

I could see that working then

Last edited by Amatiel (2014-09-11 09:41:27)

cullman · 2014-09-11 10:02:27

Amatiel wrote:

Sounds like each house needs to have a minimum exposure time of say 8 hours per day (whilst you are sleeping), else you will be kicked out of your house until that minimum is reached.
I could see that working then

Oh yeah, I am thinking you if you buy the pause feature you can bank like 3 hours of pause a day and be able to hold a maximum of 12 hours of pause total. That way even people with pause, there house will still be listed most of the time. I think that feature combined with the mobile app could solve one of my gripes : someone drops a 5k bounty in my $2k starter house while I'm at work. With these features you might get a push notify on your phone, then you can quickly log on at work from your phone and pause your house off the list until you can get home from work and improve your house.

Amatiel · 2014-09-11 10:05:16

the feature i suggested will also stop shenanigans like what lordofham did

cullman · 2014-09-11 10:55:48

Amatiel wrote:

the feature i suggested will also stop shenanigans like what lordofham did

Yeah in general I want to cut down on shenanigans. Frankly, if someone's house is off the list for hours at a time (macroing), I plan on detecting that and to be able to ban cheating accounts.

Amatiel · 2014-09-12 10:16:00

Banning accounts requires a lot of man-hours and resources, time better spent thinking up new features etc.

Automatic prevention is best. A distant second is automatic detection of suspicious accounts.

Also, what happens when you are on holiday? Or sick? or cbf? or have had enough for a while? or move your focus to a new project? Active enforcement does not instill confidence within the community for minor and common offences unless its for something very unusual or serious.

Do yourself a favour and asshole the active enforcement idea except for extremely unique cases.

Maybe you should starve to death if you dont meet the minimum 8 hrs exposure per day? Something along those lines anyway.

Last edited by Amatiel (2014-09-12 10:18:37)

mala · 2014-09-12 10:43:55

Hi cullmam, i've made the registration but it shows me no app to download. Is it already available?

AMWhy · 2014-09-12 10:59:36

@mala, you should receive a separate email with the download link. When you get it, open it on your phone and it will take care of itself.

cullman · 2014-09-12 11:23:11

@Amatiel - yes any anti-cheating measures should require no or little human interaction.

@mala - unfortunately, as I signed up new people and devices, I need to rebuild the iPhone build with your device ID and reload upload it. You should be able to install now.

mala · 2014-09-12 17:43:39

cullman wrote:

@mala - unfortunately, as I signed up new people and devices, I need to rebuild the iPhone build with your device ID and reload upload it. You should be able to install now.

omg dude it's fantastic. works like a charm on my 4s.

haven't had the time to finish the tutorial houses, but till now everything runs smooth and flawless.

AMWhy · 2014-09-13 02:22:52

It is good, isn't it?! I'm still not confident enough to edit my house with it, as I'm sure I'd clumsily click the wrong button (click confirmation is definitely needed!) but it runs so smoothly!

I think the tutorial levels could be renamed to puzzles, or solo-levels. While you can learn from them, they don't really guide you through the different parts of the game.

We can correct that though... Who's up for making some tutorial levels that guide new users through each tool / each house part?

I'd be happy to make a few levels.

mala · 2014-09-13 07:25:04

me too, actually some levels can be difficult to newcomers due to some mechanics (pets cannot walk on the shotgun trigger for example).

i remember an house with an internal "demo" of the pet trap, can we put up something like that?

to explain electronics we may even use an open-space house filled with simple circuits.

AMWhy · 2014-09-13 08:47:43

I should have time tomorrow to make a few maps. They can be added to the thread here:

http://thecastledoctrine.net/forums/vie … hp?id=2956

cullman · 2014-09-13 09:51:08

Thanks guys, your help is huge! As I've mentioned the current plan is to have the game free, with a few in app purchases to make the game more convenient (pausing, map template saving, maybe robbing map recording, etc). Those of you that are helping us now, I will gift all those premium features to you as a small thank you.

Yes, I agree the existing tutorial levels are not really a good slowly increasing in difficulty tutorial, it is more just demoing the tutorial functionality (notice in tutorial mode we can turn off visibility fog, provide a tip string, we also can make the room smaller to simplify, and we can specify a tool set for the tutorial levels as well). And we wanted to transcribe the maps that have been provided on the forums. I think the ones that are present now would really be the intermediate to advanced tutorials. The way I envision the finished product, there will be like a tutorial that demonstrates one item or tool per level. For example the first few tutorial levels might look like this :

1. Straight shot to the vault.

2. A vault behind a single door, with nothing else

3. 3 Doors with a pit bull behind 2 of them and the vault behind the 3rd. This will teach you about dogs and running out of the house.

4. 10 doors with pit bulls behind 9 of them and the vault behind 1 of them, with a default tool set start of 9 dog meats. This will teach you about dog meat.

.... and so on, until each building part and tool has been demonstrated both on it's own and being defeated by a tool. Once those levels are passed, you would go into the tutorial levels as they are now with fog of war both off and on. Keep the ideas coming...I am thinking if we can bring all this together we can get this gaming back to it's original glory with 100s of houses up and running...

AMWhy · 2014-09-13 10:51:44

The game is quality and runs smoothly on the smartphone. It just needs the right marketing and a smooth difficulty curve and you'll have a winner for sure!

AMWhy · 2014-09-23 04:14:33

@Cullman, a few things I've noticed about the ios version:

MAJOR PROBLEM
Options button during self-test: The only option is suicide and I couldn't find a way to close the option menu...

MINOR PROBLEM
If you attempt to enter your house, or someone else's house when it is occupied, the warning message doesn't fit the screen well and the button to cancel (if there is one) is not visible. Current solution: reset the app.

GENERAL
I am now a lot more confident with the app and used it to both change and self-test my $20k house today.

Amatiel · 2014-09-23 10:07:49

Will terminal heist have any new tiles or tools?

Id personally prefer not to have any new tiles added, but i like many of the other changes that appear to be happening

cullman · 2014-09-23 13:18:13

Amatiel wrote:

Will terminal heist have any new tiles or tools?
Id personally prefer not to have any new tiles added, but i like many of the other changes that appear to be happening

In the beginning there will be no new tiles or tools. Ultimately, we may have unique items to replace paintings as scare items like the purpose paintings serve today. These things have been discussed in other threads. Largely, the game play will be unchanged.

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-09-10 16:27:24

Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#2 2014-09-10 17:27:37

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#3 2014-09-10 18:31:10

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#4 2014-09-10 18:32:53

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#5 2014-09-10 18:53:26

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#6 2014-09-11 06:02:50

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#7 2014-09-11 08:22:18

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#8 2014-09-11 08:53:45

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#9 2014-09-11 09:41:07

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#10 2014-09-11 10:02:27

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#11 2014-09-11 10:05:16

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#12 2014-09-11 10:55:48

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#13 2014-09-12 10:16:00

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#14 2014-09-12 10:43:55

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#15 2014-09-12 10:59:36

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#16 2014-09-12 11:23:11

Re: Reboot News plus open call for iPhone Beta testers

#17 2014-09-12 17:43:39

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#18 2014-09-13 02:22:52

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#19 2014-09-13 07:25:04

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#20 2014-09-13 08:47:43

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#21 2014-09-13 09:51:08

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#22 2014-09-13 10:51:44

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#23 2014-09-23 04:14:33

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#24 2014-09-23 10:07:49

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#25 2014-09-23 13:18:13

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