Closed Beta Tasks

[Tapewormz]

Task Thirteen 9/1- 9/5: What level are you? What is your favorite part of the game?
Level 31. PVE (hopefully PVP)

Task Fourteen 9/6 - 9/9: have you participated in a Closed beta Event (aside from this one) What events would you like to see in the future?
Yes. Holiday events.

Task Fifteen 9/10 - 9/13: What level are you? How many Gold Coins do you have?
Level 31 with 131 gold coins.

Task Sixteen 9/15 - 9/19: What level are you? What is your biggest annoyance in the game? What do you like the most? What would you change?
Level 31. I find the small build queue irritating at times. Especially when I'm trying to set up a bunch of wheat fields and wells. I'd like to see a much larger build queue with a scroll bar.

[TweaktheReaper]

Task Sixteen 9/15 - 9/19: What level are you? What is your biggest annoyance in the game? What do you like the most? What would you change?

Level 22.

I have many annoyances with this game so far. My primary issue is the time investment to return ratio. I feel as though I spend a huge chunk of my time babysitting the game, making sure everything is working so none of my production chains slow down (or stop), and yet I receive very little in return. After spending two weeks building up my military to fight a boss, I essentially have to sacrifice all of them in order to actually defeat that boss, thus making all of my time investment yield very little. Especially now when it takes me a little more than one week just to fight a medium camp. Related to that, I get extremely frustrated when I have to wait for an hour, or four, for my Geologist to return empty handed. It would be SO much better if he told you right away that you have too many deposits of that type. That way your time is not wasted waiting around for something that you won't find anyway. I am also frustrated with how many resources certain things require when logically, they really shouldn't. Why does one cavalry man require 40 horses? Is he killing 39 of those horses in training?! And 30 beer? Maybe the one cavalry man should drink less beer, then he'd kill less horses and his production time would go down significantly!

As for suggestions on how to change my frustrations, that's easy. One extremely useful feature should be that your Geologist, Explorer, and General gain experience and can level up as they complete their assigned tasks. In order to keep interest in buying the nicer versions with gems, have the level cap be 5, or something low, so their skills increase and the player feels like they're accomplishing something while playing, but BB can still make money off gem sales. With that, it would also be nice to have troops that survive attacks gain experience and level. Obviously they won't be able to reach a very high level before being sacrificed, but I've had 30 bowmen consistently survive many raids just by the way I arrange my attacks. It would be nice if that meant they were more experienced or did more damage, something to reward smart planning.

As mentioned earlier, it would take a load off if the Geologist would say immediately that you have enough deposits of one type, and that he will come up empty handed. Wasting an hour, or four, or more in later levels, just to come up with nothing, is a huge disappointment and does not make me excited to play the game. At the very least tell us the maximum amount of mines we can have of one type.

Taking from Morwyn_y_Ser's post, new quests would add intrigue and fun to the game. Very few players really get in to the chat and social aspect, after all this isn't World of Warcraft. Give those of us who want to play on our own something to play for! Even easy quests like acquiring X amount of Y material, or upgrading a certain building to Z, would at least give a little variety and spice. I don't remember when the "Kill bandits" quests started, but they are getting old and fast.

Why does a traveling General move slower than the deer? Can't he step it up a notch? =)

And lastly, have the resources required/produced make just a little more sense. I mentioned earlier how silly it is that one cavalry unit takes up 40 horses, when logically he really shouldn't. It's also completely ridiculous that mines require marble. A mine is a hole in the ground, and a hole in the ground only takes planks and tools, and maybe some stone if you really have to reinforce it. Marble is absolutely an upgrade item, because it's beautiful and a relatively rare stone, but to have it required in order to dig a hole in a mountain is very silly.
While I understand that certain raw materials are silly initially in order to entice the player to upgrade, it could be just a little more reasonable. Why does one sawmill use an entire log to create one plank, when at least 4 planks would logically come from an entire tree. And why does a Bowmaker need 8 logs (which are the size of a whole tree, mind you) to create one bow? Not a long bow, just a normal bow. At least the things that require coal make sense, but when you start to think about it logically a lot of these are extremely silly.

Ultimately this game is fun, it's a good time passer, and the graphics are very good. I have no complaints there. But never underestimate the power of instant gratification for those of us not driven by the social aspects. I want to play this game with the same excitement I had when I started, but I'm finding it extremely difficult to even log in anymore, all due to the little things.

[Rhettbuttler]

Finally reached level 16, has been a long trip, finally had the chance to attack some bandet camps, lost most battles but hace one a few. Leviling up is hard only because it takes so long to gather most resources. Other than that the game is great.

[chiar]

Task Sixteen 9/15 - 9/19: What level are you? What is your biggest annoyance in the game? What do you like the most? What would you change?

Level 22.

I have many annoyances with this game so far. My primary issue is the time investment to return ratio. I feel as though I spend a huge chunk of my time babysitting the game, making sure everything is working so none of my production chains slow down (or stop), and yet I receive very little in return. After spending two weeks building up my military to fight a boss, I essentially have to sacrifice all of them in order to actually defeat that boss, thus making all of my time investment yield very little. Especially now when it takes me a little more than one week just to fight a medium camp. Related to that, I get extremely frustrated when I have to wait for an hour, or four, for my Geologist to return empty handed. It would be SO much better if he told you right away that you have too many deposits of that type. That way your time is not wasted waiting around for something that you won't find anyway. I am also frustrated with how many resources certain things require when logically, they really shouldn't. Why does one cavalry man require 40 horses? Is he killing 39 of those horses in training?! And 30 beer? Maybe the one cavalry man should drink less beer, then he'd kill less horses and his production time would go down significantly!

As for suggestions on how to change my frustrations, that's easy. One extremely useful feature should be that your Geologist, Explorer, and General gain experience and can level up as they complete their assigned tasks. In order to keep interest in buying the nicer versions with gems, have the level cap be 5, or something low, so their skills increase and the player feels like they're accomplishing something while playing, but BB can still make money off gem sales. With that, it would also be nice to have troops that survive attacks gain experience and level. Obviously they won't be able to reach a very high level before being sacrificed, but I've had 30 bowmen consistently survive many raids just by the way I arrange my attacks. It would be nice if that meant they were more experienced or did more damage, something to reward smart planning.

As mentioned earlier, it would take a load off if the Geologist would say immediately that you have enough deposits of one type, and that he will come up empty handed. Wasting an hour, or four, or more in later levels, just to come up with nothing, is a huge disappointment and does not make me excited to play the game. At the very least tell us the maximum amount of mines we can have of one type.

Taking from Morwyn_y_Ser's post, new quests would add intrigue and fun to the game. Very few players really get in to the chat and social aspect, after all this isn't World of Warcraft. Give those of us who want to play on our own something to play for! Even easy quests like acquiring X amount of Y material, or upgrading a certain building to Z, would at least give a little variety and spice. I don't remember when the "Kill bandits" quests started, but they are getting old and fast.

Why does a traveling General move slower than the deer? Can't he step it up a notch? =)

And lastly, have the resources required/produced make just a little more sense. I mentioned earlier how silly it is that one cavalry unit takes up 40 horses, when logically he really shouldn't. It's also completely ridiculous that mines require marble. A mine is a hole in the ground, and a hole in the ground only takes planks and tools, and maybe some stone if you really have to reinforce it. Marble is absolutely an upgrade item, because it's beautiful and a relatively rare stone, but to have it required in order to dig a hole in a mountain is very silly.
While I understand that certain raw materials are silly initially in order to entice the player to upgrade, it could be just a little more reasonable. Why does one sawmill use an entire log to create one plank, when at least 4 planks would logically come from an entire tree. And why does a Bowmaker need 8 logs (which are the size of a whole tree, mind you) to create one bow? Not a long bow, just a normal bow. At least the things that require coal make sense, but when you start to think about it logically a lot of these are extremely silly.

Ultimately this game is fun, it's a good time passer, and the graphics are very good. I have no complaints there. But never underestimate the power of instant gratification for those of us not driven by the social aspects. I want to play this game with the same excitement I had when I started, but I'm finding it extremely difficult to even log in anymore, all due to the little things.

Dude, +1.
These would be major upgrades to the game. It takes 16 hardwood logs to make a longbow XD
And I would add, even if I doubt this will ever be changed, put an (affordable) item in the gem shop which would do like the silo but for the mines i.e. replenish them.
When I can't log on, even for just 1 day, i come back to empty mines and 0 minerals, which sucks bad. Just to keep your things going with nothing exceptionnal, just the minimal effort for your town to run requires you to be an addict logging on 2 times a day minimum every single day, without ever taking a day off. This entices abusive play and awesome geekiness, which has got to be an option in a game but never a requirement.

Apart from that, thx for a great game.

BTW I'm level 32 now, 600 coins.