Future Features List

[lykins]

Dear Phoenix Age,

I, like hundreds of thousands of people love Castle Age and think it is one of the more fun and time consuming games that I play. I probably spend more time playing and reading forums than I do anything else now days. I’ve sent in a lot of bugs and suggestions but there is one thing that I and most of my CA friends would like to see. That is a sticky on the forums that you all post a listing of future enhancements.

I have worked on dozens of open-source and for profit applications in the past 24 years and the one thing that we have always given users is a future feature list. Most projects like CA generate a lot of suggestions / bug fixes and to rein in the thousands of e-mails and forum listings we implement this feature. This won’t completely stop the entire onslaught of messages but you can send a generic e-mail to people who do e-mail you, pointing them to the forum sticky.

The list doesn’t have to give specific details and I know as a developer, documentation isn’t something that we like to do, but modifying a quick page here and there doesn’t take long. The list can look something like the following. (Please note anyone outside of Phoenix Age: I do not know what features are coming and just put something here.)

iPhone Next Release:
Atlantis and Demi Quests
Gift limit changed from 9 to 99.

iPhone Future Release (no time table set):
Feats of Strength
Deletion of Private Messages
Exclusive Hero

Facebook Future Release (no time table set):
Alchemy levels

It doesn’t have to be fancy but if we know what to expect it will do several things for us. First it will show that the application is continuing to be enhanced. If I know that features I want are coming that I want, then I’ll be more incline to part with my hard earned money for Favor Points. It will also show that you the developers do listen and do care about your customers. I used to play a lot of games from a competitor of yours but they made it obvious that they didn’t care about their users so I and several of my friends will not use anything from their company. It may be a year or so before the future releases are released and even though we want what we want now, the vast majority of us can live with the fact.

My final thought is that I look at this as a business arrangement. I shell out a little money each month for the new hero and some stamina refills. I take it on faith that my money being spent is going to help you pay for the enhancements that I want to see. Because I cannot see these enhancements I’m hesitant to open my wallet farther than what I currently do. I started playing CA about 2 weeks before it came out of Beta and have a lot of time and now money invested into the game. I want to see it succeed and by helping us know where you are going, it will help us to continue to support you.

Thank you,
Patrick

[Gueridas]

That's the best post I've seen in a long while. It doesn't take much to renew the faith of users and to make sure that iOS users are not frustrated and leave the game.

Honestly if it was a few months years ago, I wouldn't mind waiting, but now there are so many games available at the app store that once I find one where the developers provide regular updates and a good community as Castle Age has, I would have no problem simply deleting the app,

I think that the issues that most players are facing have a very easy fix if the devs don't really want to develop any new thing for the iOS users. Provide the ability for iOS users to attach their accounts to facebook and from there they can use the features already developed. I am fairly certain that this is not a very difficult modification to make for a system and it would solve almost all the problems and frustrations that iOS users are having.

They could continue their regular iOS usage and then log onto facebook to take advantage of the extra features available there.

[flcowboy7]

Agreed. Now that I've been around a bit to see the extent of interaction between the devs (or the people in charge) and the players, I'm extremely saddened. I had high hopes for this game, but due to the lack of responsiveness from ANYONE, other than "it's coming, it's coming" - I will likely not be spending any money on the game for a very long while. Well posted lykins!

[CastleAgeBrock]

Your first post, lykins!! Welcome to the Forum! :)

I don't have much to compare this game to. I'm an aging gamer who liked playing console RPGs, so the social aspect of CA was a cheap way for me to play a game where I could interact with players from all over the world, as an MMO game would have allowed me to.

To me, as a daily player with both a FB and an iOS acct, and a regular spammer--err, visitor of the Forums, I personally don't think the interaction is all that terrible. But I've been playing the FB version for I-don't-even-know-how-long, 2+ years at least. For me this game is a marathon, not a sprint. If I'm told that "This next update will include this-this-and-this, stay tuned" I know from experience that at worst, we'll see something in a couple months.

I've spent enough money on this game on both platforms that I'm not going anywhere, but I do at times feel left out in the dark as well, and I think a simple planner like the one your describing would be awesome. Even something simpler, like TV networks do when they show the upcoming TV lineup:

Now: Improving UI on iOS
Next: Adding Demis/Atlantis to iOS
Later: Arena VI on FB

I don't need more than that, personally, even if there will be other updates rolled out at the same time. We've gotten used to being surprised when new content is rolled out (usually first in the form of game crashes/white screens on FB, which tells us something is very imminent). To a lot of players, the surprise is nice... word spreads of a new general/new quest land/new boss monster/new PvP format and we all come running to the Forum to chatter excitedly around the internet's version of the water cooler, and that is something that would be diminished a little with a too-detailed updates calendar.

There are a LOT of suggestions posted regarding this game. Some have been suggested for YEARS before the game finally adapted to meet it's player's needs, but if it doesn't, we shouldn't be up-in-arms about it. Frankly, this game is the Dev's baby. Even if they aren't telling us, you know they have a long-term plan in place and just because a number of players are demanding something, whether it be a change in game format or whatever, doesn't mean they're going to change their plans to accomodate us. Good companies adapt to their customers needs, but only bad companies cater to their every whim.


tl;dr I agree with the idea of some kind of heads-up, but disagree that the interaction is terrible. Bacon upon request.

[Padaxan]

There are games and game companies out there who never talk to anyone.

I am 100% available to PM for assistance with issues and do my best to get them resolved.

I too play other games and see their CS situations and to be honest we do a lot more than most. Myself and Tass, along with other Devs ACTIVELY read the forums daily and do consider all feedback. We obviously have our metric systems and make careful decisions based on community needs and the numbers.

We are actively expanding, and new roles will be filled. More updates more content, more community activity. Primarily, a new official community manager and such who I hope to introduce in a few weeks.

As I have stated before (these things just tend to get buried under more active complaints and such) Atlantis/Demiquest are about to launch with a tremendous amount of backend adjustments for speed.

We are always fixing bugs, like the backstab and alchemies getting fixed and pushed the other day. Many many things go unannounced, but progress is made in the app.

Feature list are usually false promises. We adapt and evolve to quick for them, it is only going to lead to disappointment on the player base behalf. Some items on CA FB just may not be practical for cross-release, we do a lot of experimentation. One of our goals is to arrive at tangent releases for both CA and iOS CA, and this requires bringing both up to speed on useful features.

[Gueridas]

Thank you for the reply. It's true a lot of the games out there don't even have forums, use players as moderators, have limited community involvement, and some even never care to post consequential updates.

I think the general pattern you see in the mobile section is the frustration that players who were not familiar with the facebook game (i never played a game on facebook before castle age), became addicted to the iOS game. I personally loved the UI, the graphics, the feel, and the community. A game with real live humans often tend to be more addictive and interesting.

The problem is that once these players started becoming interested in the game, they often spend some a lot of time, money, and energy to become competitive. And if it was only iOS users, I think there would be nothing but praise in this exceptions about the app overall (minus speed/stability of course). But the problem is that there is such a difference in the gameplay that iOS users can simply never compete with facebook users not only because of the time the game has been on facbeook but the availability of skill points and the easier bonuses within the facebook game.

I even did a test 3 weeks ago. I started a character on facebook and a character on my ipod, both playing at the same time and leveling using the same leveling strategy and doing the easiest skill point earning

My facebook account is now a level 34 with 202 attack while my iPhone account is now a level 26 with 114 attack. I think that's a considerable unsurmountable difference that makes iOS only users frustrated that they wasted money/time developing something inferior who competes in the same league as others who were smarter? more knowledgeable?

I guess my question from all this rambling ... is there any plans to stabilize or level the playing field for both platforms? Give bonus features to iOS users?

[Vanray]

Thanks Paxadan for the most exciting post I've seen in a while.

I guess my question from all this rambling ... is there any plans to stabilize or level the playing field for both platforms? Give bonus features to iOS users?

I think the devs have said that just about all of the features will eventually exist in CA iOS.

But as you demonstrated in your comparison test, an FB player is currently able to outpace an iOS player. Assuming that both log on daily, use the same leveling strategy, and have the same amount of refills, the iOS player won't ever catch up. I'm a lv152 with a lot of energy/stamina but I saw several FB players pass me early on and now they're above lv200!

I am willing to live with this and I still absolutely love playing CA but I do wish the Devs would do something that doesn't necessarily make up for lost time but makes FB accounts a tiny bit jealous of iOS accounts. (Like a limited-time exclusive general.) Also this should be something for iOS accounts only, not something FB players can get by logging in via CA HD.

[flcowboy7]

Thanks for being here for us Padaxan!

[lykins]

Thanks Padaxan,

I completely respect that. I have been monitoring the forums every few days for the past 2-3 months and the same stuff just keeps popping up. This was the first suggestion I had that I had not seen before and wanted to through it out there.

Now that I know which of you are CA devs it puts my mind at ease that it's not just a user throwing stuff out. I also completely understand the whole Facebook vs iPhone programming challenges as I have ran into them myself with apps that my organization wants.

I have been playing on FB since January 09 and I created an iPhone account by mistake when I hit the wrong button about a year ago when logging into my iPhone account and went ahead and started playing with it because of all of the gripes about that version. I have seen the growth and commitment and you all have made to your users on both sides and I am proud to be part of the game and to spend my money on FP.

Thanks again,
Patrick

[Padaxan]

Account transfers is currently in testing, it will definetly come out.

I am trying to solve the "FB locked to one login" issue, whether it's intended, or if the devs want multiple accounts per phone access.

[Awerththawre]

iOS account do have one advantage over fb accounts, the iOS add system works much better on iOS accounts than their fb rivals, and you don't have to add a load of people you don't know to your social site, I hope one day the whole game runs on player codes for army. Thanks to Paxadan for looking into the iOS switching problem, the work around is to download several different iOS web browsers, and set each one to a different fb account, but my kids still don't like the Facebook version as much as the simple to use iOS version, but at least they can still play together.

[markusmaximus]

Account transfers is currently in testing, it will definetly come out.

I am trying to solve the "FB locked to one login" issue, whether it's intended, or if the devs want multiple accounts per phone access.

Excellent! Great news, thank you. This would solve most of my major concerns that you have heard many times, such as being unable to purchase certain oracle generals (being limited to only one oracle general on the iphone). This hopefully will also help the fact that I cannot attack the monster I want, given that the list of public monsters is random and often does not contain what I am looking for (60% Skaar, 25% Azriel, 15% random other monsters usually). In the official help thread, most are facebook links, not monster codes, which are the only ones I can access on the iphone. Additionally, I will be glad when I can finally use my Iphone account on facebook in order to access other special quests not limited to demi quests and atlantis, like cave of wonders.

Thank you devs.

[Padaxan]

You will be able to shop all monthly/oracle generals. The UI was done, it's in codeing stages.

[Ajentis]

Well seeing as this post is getting the responses from the sources. If you guys do agree about some sort of forecast post.. Any chance of making this a sticky?

I can understand about not wanting to advertise the release of something only to have to pull back.. but certain things, like you've said, are certain. I guess we aren't asking for release dates.. just priority/current projects (such as demiquest/atlantis).
I would have thought the priority project is the transferance of characters between devices because the game has to keep up with technology and the speed devices are becoming outdated.. Some people are upgrading their phones as often as every 1-2 years.

[Padaxan]

Well seeing as this post is getting the responses from the sources. If you guys do agree about some sort of forecast post.. Any chance of making this a sticky?

I can understand about not wanting to advertise the release of something only to have to pull back.. but certain things, like you've said, are certain. I guess we aren't asking for release dates.. just priority/current projects (such as demiquest/atlantis).
I would have thought the priority project is the transferance of characters between devices because the game has to keep up with technology and the speed devices are becoming outdated.. Some people are upgrading their phones as often as every 1-2 years.


Phones transfers are in the testing phase.

[Telos]

Phones transfers are in the testing phase.

That is awesome - I can now consider upgrading my iPhone :)