State of the Game: December 2013

I'm learning a new word for 2014 and it relates to the state of the game:

Hyp-o-crite (noun)

: a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in way that disagrees with those beliefs

Example:  A company that states that it will not reduce the value of your mercs but then does everything to do so including changing stats, re-releasing Lethals, and producing weaker mercs; all in an effort to make as much money as possible.

Si if i'm notre mistaken now that PvP powershot reward are genebound there are on other way than buying tout cet ressources.
Not saying it's necessarily bad but ressources are getting so scarce that only a very small minority of merc are worth ONE ressource which is a problem on the market.

souperbean wrote:

mamoncrief wrote:

I guess the important thing to distinguish is that they are no more thieves than any other mobile game maker. Have you checked out some of the other games? It makes the return on money spent in FF look like a bargain. The fact of the matter is that we have another 5 years before governments even figure out that micro transaction games are in sore need of regulation and some of these companies that are downright usurious get a slap on the wrists (or the pocketbook).

Until then if you want to play these games, you need to come into it with realistic expectations. The devs aren't your friends, they are guys dangling a golden carrot in front of you and charging you a fortune for the opportunity to reach out and touch it.

Mamo- Already happened.  Japan has put in regulations for  virtual card games that you pay for pulls for cards.  They consider it gambling which falls under some 1977 law.  

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/05/16/digital/japans-social-gaming-industry-hindered-by-governments-anti-gambling-move/#.UsBWF_RDtKs

If it walks like a duck & talks like a duck ... it's a kangaroo! That will be $364.00 please ... or better yet, what's the 3 digit code on the back of your credit card?

HA !

Do you tech have to be 18 to buy mobage coin? And even if not they are breaking about 30 different laws as far as gambling goes when it comes to the pacts under US law. Ive said it before you can quote me on this. These mini transaction games will die the second their regulated and tbh I think it has already begun.

Yeah and I can't effing wait. I just want game developers to have a reason to put out a game that isn't a farmville/clash of clans/slot machine carbon copy.

But then again the money is so lucrative, just like casinos, that I can only imagine that now that game companies have gotten a taste of the big money that they will pour all of the research and development into a way to stay one step ahead of regulation, seeing as they certainly won't need it to work on any game content.

I got a great idea, the puppy bowl mobile app!

3.00 gives you a pull of a card, which features an adorable puppy on it, you can have 5 puppies on the screen, and once there they just run around aimlessly and do nothing, just like the real puppy bowl!

Link up with your friends to see whose cute puppies are cuter and who can randomly push more balls into the goal lines of the opponents.

With 6 degrees of rarity most puppies will look beat and mangy, but if you spent $400 you can guarentee pulling a hyper omega rare ******* that will be guarenteed to be the cutest puppy ever. Be the envy of all your friends. Available next month for android and Iphone.

Lol, Moncrief, sounds fun actually. ^_^

I'd make a million, I have no doubt what so ever. Especially with the super bowl coming up.

Time to start slinging code. Or maybe you can outsource it to the Dakota developers?

(since it doesn't appear that they are doing anything to fix FF)

So long as you could seamlessly update FB/twitter/myspace with your uber puppy, it would be a smash hit.

Just like the pet rock. The guy made a million dollars.

Hey Arth, if you want to be an angel investor, Puppy Bowl Mobile will be ready to ship by Feb.

M: need some beta testers?

mamoncrief wrote:

Hey Arth, if you want to be an angel investor, Puppy Bowl Mobile will be ready to ship by Feb.

Heres a list of my requirements and need 3 solid guys with listed credentials. Then ill give it a thought.

Responsibilities:

Lead moderate-sized game design initiatives, such as new features, or major system overhauls. Regularly act as “lead designer” for small and medium projects for said possible company.
Work closely with designers, engineers, artists and producers to design, tune and implement various aspects of said game and/or unannounced projects
Write proposals for new game systems and other design initiatives
Lead and/or mentor other designers
Additional design and implementation responsibilities depending on assigned role within the team
Gather, acknowledge, and respond to internal feedback, adjusting design as necessary
Ensure all content produced can be easily updated by other designers
As an experienced game design professional you require no oversight in performing most tasks

Requirements:

*4+ years of professional game development experience as a game designer OR you are a recognized leader in a major design sub-discipline in a launched AAA-quality title
*Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience. I'll further value candidates with graduate degrees and/or top tier university pedigree
*Must have demonstrated mastery in one major area of game design, or expertise across multiple sub-disciplines (systems, content, creative, eSports)
Widely played, especially with online games, with the ability to articulate what is strong/weak about the design of existing games
An analytical mind, strong problem solving & critical thinking skills. An ideal candidate will be of high intelligence while still possessing an intensely pragmatic streak
High value but don’t require a strong technical / programming /engineering background. We also value experience with scripting languages and designer tools
Must have excellent organization and communication (verbal & written) skills
A positive attitude
*Must pass a background check

Your Specific Responsibilities are

*Optimize complex systems, eliminate inefficiencies, and build the tools that fuel creative game development
*Collaborate extensively with designers, artists and QA to help revamp workflows and alleviate bottlenecks
Methodically reduce the time it takes for engineers to find and fix errors by improving automated testing
Stay current with modern development methodologies (test-driven, behavioral, continuous delivery) to incorporate new, more efficient solutions into teams’ workflows




So who's in? BTW we will be based out of Missouri due to our super low cost of living.... at least its not Pakistan....

I'll do the art!

That seems way over the top just to create puppy bowl....

You have your lead artist ^^^

I have lots of experience with games development if you can class HR systems as games (which I totally do). I know nothing about mobile development but I have great google skills and am great at stealing reappropriating other people's code...

@Arthainius: If you are serious, I will write something up and PM it to you.

New peak of laziness/bad translation from foreign developers who speak english as a fifth language....

The 'MX Sentinal' ... epic reward merc, major event reward, on banners and event info notices.... and they misspelled 'Sentinel'

Need a star trek facepalm meme here.

OK.

Daed: so is this the new "What do you see in this picture" picture?

Too funny.

I'll take some of that angel investment. Don't know how I'd feel about moving to Missouri, though.



----
Before anyone asks, yes this is the real Marcus. Before anyone else asks, it's because my old name is attached to my old work-email and I have no idea what my old password was, so I can't reset it. Before anyone else asks, I have no comments on the state of the game... well, actually, that's not true, but I'm not drunk like CXB.

I just had 2 shots of good ole Jägermeister and I'm on warming up on my third! Your avatar looks slightly different. By the way, you have too much much time on your hands or you must have used the warp tool.

lmao i have that predatory instinct that just naturally take advantage of a drunk person hahah jk... i wasn't trying to pouch info weve just all been so confused as to what all is happening/happened... the banning of some of the top legit players that got banned for letting people borrow mercs was nutzzzz. I know its about that cheddar and he built a team that didn't need savages but to ban him for letting someone borrow an L just to see how it worked with their team blew my mind. And only way they could have known that was a borrow not a trade was by looking at this forum (which the new devs have put a target on our backs for some reason.) Even making in game announcements about how we aren't their official forum and that people need to stop claiming we are. Yet we cant find a single post declaring us as the official forum for fatal frontier.

And then there is the NERF (re-balancing) wtf..... how can a company take our hours and money then change the digital products including Lethals that we worked for. It just seems like false advertisement. Mercs went from being worth 1000 res to 3-400 over night with no warning.

If i were to develop a company it wouldn't just be for one game it would be multiple projects. Also there would be a Strategic Development Manager with the sole duty of running simulations on multiple environments to make sure the game can progress. I even for see blood brothers losing alot of customers in the next year or so. The fams are getting old. There not much left to do without introducing new game modes your fams can play in.

Marcus the merc is still a bad ass in game and poor cxb got nerf bombed

Moba-man wrote:

Dakota finally replied to my report of Totemic Warrior's kill proc being broken by calling me stupid. I am frustrated beyond words at this point. I will be taking a break from FF and will only return when some real fixes happen. Hopefully I can return one day but that completely relies on Dakota, so I will most likely not be seeing anyone in FF again. Best of luck to anyone who decides to continue to let Dakota bend them over. Personally I can't take it anymore. I'm too "butt-hurt" from all the crap Dakota has put us through.

didnt you know ... all the infidels are stupid haha....
i love my outsourcing references haha .... but seriously 100k a year in MO cost of living would be better then 90 % of rest of US at 250k a year

Welcome back Marcus. Certainly there are many that are pissed about the nerfing and some of the other bad behavior your former employer has chosen to permit / embrace / enforce.

If you have ideas that could improve game play, experience, strategy & tactics, please chime in.

Carpe Diem !

Hah welcome back Marcus indeed. Would love to see more people come and reminisce about the good times around here.

Game has a new direction, many aren't 100% sold on it, but this game has more struggled from a severe lack of direction than heading in a bad one. So we will see where this one takes us.

I should get a referral fee for reminding Marcus the FF forum with this community still lives.

Hehe. How about Nasty Mr. Grutze, is he still around ?

Were hemorrhaging is the problem. Losing frank was a huge moral killer and then they did the bans/nerfs... all the tension created by that environment and the dropping to top 15 has caused a big divide in the forum and in game.

Yeah Frank's passing and the nerf in the same week were killer for this game. They should have been rallying around there community at that moment, not alienating their mourning fans.

mamoncrief wrote:

Hah welcome back Marcus indeed. Would love to see more people come and reminisce about the good times around here.

Game has a new direction, many aren't 100% sold on it, but this game has more struggled from a severe lack of direction than heading in a bad one. So we will see where this one takes us.

Alright, I'll belly up to the bar and reminisce for a bit if CXB is buying.

For me, the good old days were February 2013 (when I first started playing) to around June of 2013 (when the Thaibots landed on Vel IV). Up until June, I was lovin' it. I had just acquired my 3rd Mista Fista, I had a good arsenal of OPE Blue and Black CXB's and had just learned the beauty of the Tigrey/Blue bot chainbuff (later to become the Tigrey/Telepath/Blue chainbuff). The only thing I really had to compete against was the proc manipulation (which I loved to bitch about here on the forum; it was all part of the fun) and trying to surpass Strap in the damage ranking during raid events (something I could never do). The forum community was just starting to expand, become active and solidify, and I was winning 2 lethals each PVP and Raid event and spending $0 doing it. Sadly, the good times would not last long.

For me, the beginning of the end was the moment many of us realized the botting from the Thai players was going on but nothing was being done about it. It's just sad because it was so painfully obvious. I guess I can say this now since he isn't playing anymore and for all I know this may be public knowledge by now, but Strap had actually found most of the botted accounts that loveff was using and actually guessed the passwords to them because they were all ones like "aaa123" because when you have over a thousand botted accounts, you need easy passwords to remember.

I don't know if you recall, but it was sometime around August of 2013 during a Tower event, Strap was robin hooding resources out to EVERYONE, which was hilarious because it was all res that had been botted by loveff. Strap didn't want to risk being banned for violating the TOS for "hacking" another players account, so he didn't say anything about it, except to me, which was the hard part because we had undeniable proof that whole time that loveff was botting but I couldn't say anything because I didn't want to see my ally get the banhammer dropped on him). Anyway, that one moment was great. Strap was gifting res out of those accounts faster than loveff could go and change the passwords as soon as he realized all his ill-gotten gains were mysteriously disappearing. It was definitely a simultaneous highlight and low point for FF. That and Frank coming into all of our lives. Frank is a legend.

Anyway, it was a fun season of my life that I enjoyed, but I'm actually grateful that the game no longer has the stranglehold on me that it once did as I don't think I could put up with a full year's worth of proc manipulation. I do miss the camaraderie of the forum and running with my L Hunter allies though, but thankfully Dakota doesn't own the forum and can't ban me from that, lol.

Well, first off, I left in early May 2013. I joined Dakota after Gameview was closed, and left a week afterwards for a number of reasons. In hindsight, you could probably blame a lot of the (mis?)direction on me, because I abandoned the project, and the company, entirely.

I haven't played the game since I left, so I have no idea what most of you are talking about. I don't know who Frank is, or the nerfs, or whatnot. I can say that I know who is at Dakota, and they are passionate game developers who try to do the best for the community. I know some of you may not agree with that, but it's pretty tough to run a free-to-play Android/iPhone company. The constant weight of community vs. monetization is a difficult task indeed.

I created FF because I was tasked to do so. It was a directive from my executives to create a BB clone as quickly as possible. The world that I imagined FF to be was an amalgamation of all thing that I love in Sci-Fi. This includes such properties as Mad Max, Star Wars, DOOM, Mass Effect, Star Craft, Dune, Firefly, etc. and etc. I feel that we accomplished this goal - hell, the very first Raid Boss was a mixture between a Rancor (Star Wars) and a Cyber Demon (DOOM).

FF was a unique opportunity for me to be creative. Prior to May 2013, I wrote nearly all the story & dialog, and designed nearly all of the characters and environment concepts. With the help of great artists like CXB and AtomicHermit, we were able to accomplish this game in what I consider to be a 'record setting' time-frame, of which I am still very proud.

I hope that this game continues to be successful, and wish my former colleagues all the best at Dakota. I know that they keep an eye on these forums - so don't ever feel that you are being left out of the loop. But also remember that it's very hard for a small company to address every issue in a 1-on-1 basis in a timely manner.

And of course, Marcus the Merc is still a badass in game, and CXB is a nub. That's how it is IRL too.
-Marcus

HAHA! Don't make me call Cardinal Cops on your ass for domestic disputes! If anything, CXB bots were too powerful and the CXB Archangel is the true rare and powerful badass. IRL too
CXB

Marcus the Jerk wrote:

Well, first off, I left in early May 2013. I joined Dakota after Gameview was closed, and left a week afterwards for a number of reasons. In hindsight, you could probably blame a lot of the (mis?)direction on me, because I abandoned the project, and the company, entirely.

I haven't played the game since I left, so I have no idea what most of you are talking about. I don't know who Frank is, or the nerfs, or whatnot. I can say that I know who is at Dakota, and they are passionate game developers who try to do the best for the community. I know some of you may not agree with that, but it's pretty tough to run a free-to-play Android/iPhone company. The constant weight of community vs. monetization is a difficult task indeed.

I hope that this game continues to be successful, and wish my former colleagues all the best at Dakota. I know that they keep an eye on these forums - so don't ever feel that you are being left out of the loop. But also remember that it's very hard for a small company to address every issue in a 1-on-1 basis in a timely manner.


-Marcus

there thats all we needed to read.......

you know you didn't seem like near as big of an asshole in wiki chat when you were still around.

And Frank is and will be the best thing that ever happened to this game.

Thanks marcus for giving it to us straight up. I have been playing since october 2012 and have enjoyed this game up to now. What character was the first event? I think my very first event was with betty so there must of been one or several before that.

Arthainius wrote:

you know you didn't seem like near as big of an asshole in wiki chat when you were still around.

lol. It's always easier to be candid when your words are not a permanent fixture on a forum.

True, but being candid does not give liberties to be an ass, regardless of how you might feel.

This is surprise !
Hey Marcus and Hey CXB.

Aww its like a dev reunion

@ Marcus, you say it's hard to answer every issue in a 1-on-1 matter even though they have the time to check this forum daily. They're using the tactics we discuss on the forum against us so we'd be forced to buy Savages ( etc. ). If they can't ( or don't want to fix ) mercs like Niobe, Bulletstinger, Lilith, etc. they either completely change the merc or just leave it bugged forever. Funny thing is, they even deny that the mercs are bugged. I appreciate your comment, but it's full of crap.

I dont know much about this, but seriously, this game is all about the money, the more you pay the more you feel assfucked. I understand very well that you need money to devolop and keep a game like this running, but if you rip off the players you wont get paid in the end.
As a devoloper you should be taking care of your players and not the money.
The sad part is that the game is to fun to quit.

heptathlete wrote:

True, but being candid does not give liberties to be an ass, regardless of how you might feel.

Its like talking to George Lucas. Its my ff I do what I want ...

^^ very true Art. If they had any clue they would create an incentive structure within the company to make improvements rather than excuses.

Do what you know until you know better ... then do better!

I'll be quitting this game soon, I hope Dakota goes broke. They've fucked us over too many times, the bucket is nearly full.