I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

rocmat1 · 2014-02-19 15:51:12

Android version please. sorry I know... but I want it so much.

mala · 2014-02-19 16:11:36

i've thought about a way to check/modify my house from mobile devices, ever since one of my houses survived the first night for the first time

thumb up^^

RevealingGekco · 2014-02-19 16:28:51

Would defiantly be cool to see...

If you wanted to get something going right away, you could always try a remote desktop app.

jasonrohrer · 2014-02-20 09:43:25

You want to go from

"worrying about your house obsessively while you're at the grocery store"

to

"checking your house obsessively while you're at the grocery store"

!

Leveller · 2014-02-20 12:41:22

jasonrohrer wrote:

You want to go from
"worrying about your house obsessively while you're at the grocery store"
to
"checking your house obsessively while you're at the grocery store"
!

Don't we all want that?

LiteS · 2014-02-20 13:04:37

I know it's not going to happen, but a notification system would help me. Something that tells me when my house value has increased beyond a value, that way I can get on with my life and not worry about my vault outgrowing its defenses. But I suppose that's not the point of the game.

MMaster · 2014-02-20 13:11:09

LiteS wrote:

I know it's not going to happen, but a notification system would help me. Something that tells me when my house value has increased beyond a value, that way I can get on with my life and not worry about my vault outgrowing its defenses. But I suppose that's not the point of the game.

Hm. That's a good idea. I like it. And it probably wouldn't even be that hard to implement. Anyone is up to the task? I would be able to implement it for Android, but I don't have iPhone so somebody else would have to do that for iPhone.

MasterPain · 2014-02-20 16:40:29

I don't know much about programming or IT, but how about a simple website that received your login info, made a query on the game server and printed out the house value? That way you wouldn't need Android or iPhone programs, just plain and simple HTML (making it easy to check on a library computer, for instance).
Jason, does the server currently allow a query like this? It could even be implemented on CastleDraft if the creator wants to.

RevealingGekco · 2014-02-20 16:52:54

^ Agreed. Although if you want a realtime alert just go with sending yourself and email/text/tweet/etc... there are plenty of APIs out there for any of these.

super_maçon · 2014-02-20 16:59:56

That's the kind of talk that push me away from a game.

I hate mmo for that ( forcing you to be online to enjoy what's the game offer ), i was hoping this one was more about cleverness than online presence.

MasterPain · 2014-02-21 08:40:59

super_maçon wrote:

That's the kind of talk that push me away from a game.
I hate mmo for that ( forcing you to be online to enjoy what's the game offer ), i was hoping this one was more about cleverness than online presence.

Agreed. I can't even play the game anymore lately, because I can't be online for too long (busy week).

I wish there was some form of "bank" option in the game that stored your new money for you automatically while charging heavy (and I mean HEAVY) taxes. This could stop the house from getting way too valuable overnight.
You'd have to gamble: Am I going to get enough money overnight to cover taxes or would it be better to just leave the house there and check from time to time?

Taxes could even scale with the house cost to prevent the super-rich from abusing it (and to prevent losing all your money too).

How about it?

Also, another suggestion: A "Cue Benny Hill" button that appears whenever you are playing security tapes on Fast speed. When pressed, this would start playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg
Just kidding

MMaster · 2014-02-21 08:47:56

MasterPain wrote:

I don't know much about programming or IT, but how about a simple website that received your login info, made a query on the game server and printed out the house value? That way you wouldn't need Android or iPhone programs, just plain and simple HTML (making it easy to check on a library computer, for instance).
Jason, does the server currently allow a query like this? It could even be implemented on CastleDraft if the creator wants to.

As far as I know the server code I think it's possible to do that, but that would not make a notification on your phone. I will try to look at it and do some testing. We will see how far I can get.

EDIT: I have looked at the server code and I believe there is currently no API specifically for that. Maybe Jason could add some call to get house value. There is the way to do it using start_edit_house API call and immediate end_edit_house call, but I don't think that is good solution. Those are the calls that your client does when you start working on your house and stop working on it. As far as I know when your house has been robbed and your wife is still alive as soon as you use start_edit_house the money will be split between your wife and your safe without you even touching anything in your house. And maybe that is also the reason why Jason will not provide such call, because you would know that your house has been robbed and intentionally not login using your game client to leave your house broken.

Last edited by MMaster (2014-02-21 09:13:37)

super_maçon · 2014-02-21 09:23:53

MasterPain wrote:

super_maçon wrote:
That's the kind of talk that push me away from a game.
I hate mmo for that ( forcing you to be online to enjoy what's the game offer ), i was hoping this one was more about cleverness than online presence.
Agreed. I can't even play the game anymore lately, because I can't be online for too long (busy week).
I wish there was some form of "bank" option in the game that stored your new money for you automatically while charging heavy (and I mean HEAVY) taxes. This could stop the house from getting way too valuable overnight.
You'd have to gamble: Am I going to get enough money overnight to cover taxes or would it be better to just leave the house there and check from time to time?
Taxes could even scale with the house cost to prevent the super-rich from abusing it (and to prevent losing all your money too).
How about it?
Also, another suggestion: A "Cue Benny Hill" button that appears whenever you are playing security tapes on Fast speed. When pressed, this would start playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg
Just kidding

It won't happen, here's a quote from Jason :

You ARE supposed to come back home and find that your house has been broken into. That is the core experience of the game. "How can I make a game where people come home and find that they have been violated by another player?" That is at the top of page ONE of my original design document.

If you want to overcome that, you need to take extreme, paranoid, and impractical measures.

So basically, if you want to get a good value house ( and by good value i mean 2000/3000, just to "play" ) to enjoy what the game can offer, then take some extreme, paranoid, and impractical measures. Like, not having a job or real wife and kids...

Sorry to bash here, but that's really how i feel. And it's a damn shame cause i think that game is a gem apart from that and i would like to play it without those "impractical measures"... You know like... A video game.

Last edited by super_maçon (2014-02-21 09:29:52)

MMaster · 2014-02-21 09:46:47

super_maçon wrote:

So basically, if you want to get a good value house, take some extreme, paranoid, and impractical measures. Like, not having a job or real wife and kids...
Sorry to bash here, but that's really how i feel. And it's a damn shame cause i think that game is a gem apart from that and i would like to play it without those "impractical measures"... You know like... A video game.

You can just play at the level that you find comforting. Nobody forces you to go to top 8 houses where it is hard to survive (almost impossible). But that's like in other games - how do you think you would compete in Counter Strike (or any other game) against the best players of the world? (actually in TCD it is much easier to get to the top).

Everybody will fall - this is not a game where you should be protected for months. You will lose your house very often, you will die and you will be angry about it because it took you so long to figure out this clever house that you had and now it's gone. But even though you died in game the life goes on and you can build another house - that's what this game is about: building houses, robbing houses and dying

Use your imagination to make this game fun for you if you are sad about not being able to get to the top: build houses that are fun to solve for robbers or fun to watch security tapes. Don't try to think that your house is supposed to survive - it's supposed to fall.

I have job and family and I'm still able to enjoy this game very much (without some "impractical measures"), because I have simply accepted the fact that my house is just temporary.

super_maçon · 2014-02-21 10:26:20

MMaster wrote:

super_maçon wrote:
So basically, if you want to get a good value house, take some extreme, paranoid, and impractical measures. Like, not having a job or real wife and kids...
Sorry to bash here, but that's really how i feel. And it's a damn shame cause i think that game is a gem apart from that and i would like to play it without those "impractical measures"... You know like... A video game.
You can just play at the level that you find comforting. Nobody forces you to go to top 8 houses where it is hard to survive (almost impossible). But that's like in other games - how do you think you would compete in Counter Strike (or any other game) against the best players of the world? (actually in TCD it is much easier to get to the top).
Everybody will fall - this is not a game where you should be protected for months. You will lose your house very often, you will die and you will be angry about it because it took you so long to figure out this clever house that you had and now it's gone. But even though you died in game the life goes on and you can build another house - that's what this game is about: building houses, robbing houses and dying
Use your imagination to make this game fun for you if you are sad about not being able to get to the top: build houses that are fun to solve for robbers or fun to watch security tapes. Don't try to think that your house is supposed to survive - it's supposed to fall.
I have job and family and I'm still able to enjoy this game very much (without some "impractical measures"), because I have simply accepted the fact that my house is just temporary.

Nobody talks about surviving for month and being top 8...

Don't tell me you can make a 2000$ design, try to scout, maybe get lucky and do a little rob with no tool. Get off line back 24 hours later and not start over. Your starting house is dead if you leave it for 24hrs.

At the beginning you have to get back very often if you want to upgrade your house. I'd say every 4/5 hours more or less depending on your timezone. Like this thread suggest, ideally you want an automatic email to avoid looking stupidly at you vault every hours...

This is not about being top 8, this is about doing more than just designing a starting house and watching the tapes.

MMaster · 2014-02-21 10:37:19

super_maçon wrote:

Don't tell me you can make a 2000$ design, try to scout, maybe get lucky and do a little rob with no tool. Get off line back 24 hours later and not start over. Your starting house is dead if you leave it for 24hrs.
At the beginning you have to get back very often if you want to upgrade your house. I'd say every 4/5 hours more or less depending on your timezone. Like this thread suggest, ideally you want an automatic email to avoid looking stupidly at you vault every hours...
This is not about being top 8, this is about doing more than just designing a starting house and watching the tapes.

I usually think of some ideas in my head, maybe draw something in castledraft and then copy it in my new house. I leave it like that for ~30 minutes and use the bounties to improve it a bit. When I'm planning to leave I will usually use all my money so the house has ~$0 value and there is low chance that anyone will come and destroy it. But otherwise yes - this is game like that - it's MMO so people play it even when you don't - you have visitors when you are not at home, when you are not at the computer and they will rob you. You have to take care of your house and upgrade it regularly if you want to survive. But I would not say it is something life-breaking.

colorfusion · 2014-02-21 10:42:18

super_maçon wrote:

Nobody talks about surviving for month and being top 8...
Don't tell me you can make a 2000$ design, try to scout, maybe get lucky and do a little rob with no tool. Get off line back 24 hours later and not start over. Your starting house is dead if you leave it for 24hrs.
At the beginning you have to get back very often if you want to upgrade your house. I'd say every 4/5 hours more or less depending on your timezone. Like this thread suggest, ideally you want an automatic email to avoid looking stupidly at you vault every hours...
This is not about being top 8, this is about doing more than just designing a starting house and watching the tapes.

You can make a 2000$ design, try to scout, maybe get lucky and do a little rob with no tool. Get off line back 24 hours later and not start over.

Being robbed doesn't mean it's game over, getting your first house to survive overnight isn't something that will happen straight away very often; but you can do some small robberies and rebuild. I think I was about a month into the game before I got mine to survive that long.

You can also change your house design to suit how much you're going to be playing. If you want loads of bounties have hidden commitment traps and lots of pitbulls. If you want to survive long times then focus on defending your vault and wife rather than killing people.

Playing the game often can speed up progression, but it's like that for almost every game.

Last edited by colorfusion (2014-02-21 10:47:02)

LiteS · 2014-02-21 19:54:12

super_maçon wrote:

It won't happen, here's a quote from Jason :
You ARE supposed to come back home and find that your house has been broken into. That is the core experience of the game. "How can I make a game where people come home and find that they have been violated by another player?" That is at the top of page ONE of my original design document.

If you want to overcome that, you need to take extreme, paranoid, and impractical measures.
So basically, if you want to get a good value house ( and by good value i mean 2000/3000, just to "play" ) to enjoy what the game can offer, then take some extreme, paranoid, and impractical measures. Like, not having a job or real wife and kids...
Sorry to bash here, but that's really how i feel. And it's a damn shame cause i think that game is a gem apart from that and i would like to play it without those "impractical measures"... You know like... A video game.

Being able to check on your house value outside the game doesn't change the fact that you will return to a destroyed house.

super_maçon · 2014-02-22 04:20:06

@ colorfusin & mmaster, i heard what you're both saying. But that doesn't change the fact that right now when you are starting a new game the only way to get some cash ( and so to be able to actually play the game ) is to get extremely lucky by finding a doable house without tool or to wait until you get enough bounties.

That's why people ask for such an app to send automatic email, cause obviously if you wait too long your house will get brute forced.

But waiting is not playing, i'm sorry to say. It's stupid to wait an unknown amount of time before being able to actually play the game.
Sure you can be ok by just doing some design and watching the tape, i did first. But the excitement comes when you can afford a little amount of tool and scout some houses, trying to figure them out, upgrading your house.

I understand how we got there concept & design wise, but the situation is just silly.
You not only have to wait before playing, you have to check your house regularly... This isn't playing, it's waiting the right moment when the game allow you to play.

Hippasus · 2014-02-22 06:21:56

super_maçon wrote:

It's stupid to wait an unknown amount of time before being able to actually play the game.

I'm not entirely sure why you say having lots of cash is the only way to 'actually play the game'.

I've been sitting on a house for quite a while now that costs only a little over starter cash and I'm having a great time checking in on it once or twice a day. Sure it often gets brute forced when I leave it, but since I keep my wife nice and safe I've always got the money to bounce back. My house is designed for my maximum viewing pleasure, the tapes are often hilarious. Sure it's not the most practical anti-brute-force mega fortress, but I'm really enjoying 'actually playing the game' with what little I have. It IS fun being at the top (I've been there) but it's a hard slog and I can't keep it up for long without having a mental breakdown. In the end I think I'm actually enjoying the game more since I've lowered my expectations about how well I 'ought' to be doing.

I agree with MMaster, role play a bit, experience the game as more of a sandbox and less of a competition. Engage with the dynamics of the game as they're actually given rather than assuming the game is in some way broken because it isn't fulfilling your expectations. Instead of being frustrated AT the game be frustrated IN the game. Suddenly Jason's design ideas might start to make sense.

Now I'm done with my obligatory rant I'd like to say that an Android app would be awesome! All I can say is stop complaining, take this into your own hands and start coding me an Android port. ;]

redxaxder · 2014-02-22 06:33:50

super_maçon wrote:

But that doesn't change the fact that right now when you are starting a new game the only way to get some cash ( and so to be able to actually play the game ) is to get extremely lucky by finding a doable house without tool or to wait until you get enough bounties.

Part of "playing the game" is trying to figure out where the cash comes from. You have noticed two possible sources of easy cash, but I guarantee you those aren't the only ones.

If you think the way you've been playing the game is stupid, then play a different way. You've gotten a "correct" approach in your head and you've noticed it isn't working, but instead of discarding the approach you're attacking the design of the game. -.-

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-02-19 15:51:12

I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#2 2014-02-19 16:11:36

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#3 2014-02-19 16:28:51

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#4 2014-02-20 09:43:25

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#5 2014-02-20 12:41:22

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#6 2014-02-20 13:04:37

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#7 2014-02-20 13:11:09

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#8 2014-02-20 16:40:29

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#9 2014-02-20 16:52:54

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#10 2014-02-20 16:59:56

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#11 2014-02-21 08:40:59

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#12 2014-02-21 08:47:56

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#13 2014-02-21 09:23:53

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#14 2014-02-21 09:46:47

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#15 2014-02-21 10:26:20

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#16 2014-02-21 10:37:19

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#17 2014-02-21 10:42:18

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#18 2014-02-21 19:54:12

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#19 2014-02-22 04:20:06

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#20 2014-02-22 06:21:56

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

#21 2014-02-22 06:33:50

Re: I know it's been said but I can't help my addiction

Board footer