First steps to make game better and fun as it used to be.

PR0DJ

@Teeceezy @Shadowkeeper @OldGoth @Carlo @Nekobasu @NG @all
Please read it all thoroughly. It is long just because it covers all aspects of gameplay, but every one aspect is short-written and important.

New features were implemented, thank you very much, but... new features brought new problems and issues.
As somebody said: you adding water to Kool-aid. So we don't need more "water", we need more cool aid!


Gear problems:
1. Chances (%) to get decent gear were decreased and some Bundles with gear started to appear for $$ to compensate lack of it.
2. Deadly missions were removed, so chances (%) to get decent gear were decreased.
3. More traits were implemented, so chances (%) to get what you desire were decreased.
Solutions:
1. Increase drop-rate (%) back so players can get more gear to upgrade. They will spend more $$ for gas and xp boosters to find it and level it up while feeling excited and hooked up, rather then just buy one and felt ripped-off overall. (You can still sell a lot of gear and with reasonable price people will buy it).
2. Replace deadlies with more challenging missions:
a. Either make it +2(+3) level of your survivors.
b. Or just reduce level of "dead" survivor by 1-3 so people will not annoyingly bother support to "revive" them, but will suffer consequences (Super long time in hospital not so punishing as lose of level IMO).
3. Implement similar system to survivors tokens, which is called: Scrapping gear for parts:

When you scrap piece of gear - you can either accept "general" parts which can be used to upgrade weapon higher than its limit (for example gun with level 13/16 can be upgraded to 17 using xp and "general" parts.), or you can choose "trait" parts for one of its traits (like "silencer parts" or range or wide arc or whatever) so you can put this trait to another weapon using X amount of this "trait" parts).
It will eliminate frustration of annoying low level gear in challenges. Sure: You will receive less parts for lower level and rarity gear, but still..
With this system make gear with maximum of 4 slots for traits, because of so many traits in the pool already - 3 is just not enough. (As you did with 5th trait for survivors - that was good move).

Token problems:
1. Too much different tokens (classes, heroes) total of 14.
2. Chances (%) of radio-drops were decreased.
3. 15 radio call can give you 2 or 8 hero tokens - should be fixed long time ago.
Post here everytime you get 2 or 8 tokens for 15 radio call.
4. No events to get more radios or better chances to get Epic and Legendary Survivors.
Solutions:
1. Simplify somehow. Maybe make it: Normal tokens and Hero tokens, so it will be 2 instead of 14.
2. Obviously - just increase it so everybody will be more obsessed to grind for it buying gas booster and gold to refill gas.
3. Fix it to not frustrate people, I consider it a bug.
4. Do it occasionally to make people 1.happy. 2.waiting for it. 3.obsessed with upgrading survivors.

Challenges/Guilds problems:
1. It is started to be boring just collect the stars with no actual reason or goal and rewards except tiny amount of TG.
Solution:
1. I'd love to see some system like New Guild Levels and Perks! but very well thought through because it will be whole new level of guild gameplay.

Story/exploration missions:
1. For those who finished story line it is very boring to play same exploration missions over and over again.
2. Exploration missions are same and became boring long time ago (like half way to max).
Solutions:
1. a) Unlock story missions to playable again in nightmare after you finish last episode.
b) Make new episodes more often, like one every month or so.
It's not very hard to draw a map and place some walkers and write 4 strings of story line, it will keep players going. I saw many games where they just kept making new missions and in spite of the fact that game bored you long time ago - new episodes are intriguing and you play again and again!
2. Randomize exploration missions! Why not? It's not hard to do. Just place the entrance, place the exit and probable places of walker spawn and probable places of obstacles. It's not hard, I was programming similar stuff in school.

@NG You can put as many IAPs as you want while implementing fun part and luring new and old players.
Everybody was happy about boosters. Nobody was complaining about gear you were selling until you nerfed it (just learn your lesson not to do that and you will sell MUCH more).
Even Tokens is good idea to start with, but economy of it - is ridiculous right now, and instead make it slightly better to keep your money flow and keep players happy simultaneously - you did the opposite. Not cool.

@all If somebody want to add something, please write like I did:
Section and number. Problem and solution. Like or dislike.
No offtopic so NG can see real ideas and respond to them accordingly.

SpacemanSpiff

I see they released you from purgatory, and you've had opportunity to contemplate game-reforms during your time in solitary-confinement. I like it.

Welcome back, sir

lmfgunnut

Funny, I can't tag you....I know I don't need to since it is your thread, but still interesting.

I don't think I've seen a better post from you.

Necroboogie

There should be 3 playable routes on each Episode, if the routes cross at a mission or 2, cool, and end at the same place or similar end mission to keep up playability. Give us some variety in story mode.

rgerkman

+1 very much like this post & some of its ideas!

I had recently just suggested to @Teeceezy to do something about Exploration Maps & Episodes in the Finnish Monday Finished Thread.

PROBLEM: I play Exploration Maps the most outside of Challenge.. I'm beyond bored with them & have been for quite some time...

Here is my post:

SOLUTION: Is there a way to maybe open up all previous played Episodes/Missions & then choose to play it Normal/Hard/Nightmare/Exploration?
& of course once you've completed them in N/H/N you only get option of playing in Exploration style?


Now that be awesome

PR0DJ

@SpacemanSpiff I was not in solitary-confinement, I could chat in PM, and "like" everybody's posts and even post my messages in any thread, but my posts in threads were invisible until I edited some of extreme ones. They call it shadow ban, so I was in the shadows.
@lmfgunnut Why not? Strange. Anybody?
@Necroboogie Good idea.

rgerkman

Another SOLUTION FOR TOKENS/RADIOS:

for my Token/Radio Suggestion:

• if not a 4th Radio Call.. . Something that guarantees a Hero Token would be nice.. Even if it's only 1 or 2 Tokens

•I would also like to see new Achievements & Goals that include Radios & Tokens for both Survivors & Heros!!
The possiblilities are Endless there! (With Achievements & Goals that is)

•Creating a New Building(s)

•Creating New Platinum Crate (that's very very Rare to get) in addition to our current Reward system at end of Missions

•Adding the Rare possibility of finding in The Cinema Crates

•using/converting XP and/or TG (even if it's an astronomical pricetag)

•Specialty Walker (maybe a fatty) that comes to the Wall once in a blue

•bringing back Deadly Missions but making them 10x harder.. but atleast the Reward would be worth it!

Invader

I´d like to add the point with the outposts...but I`m afraid my english won´t fit for it...

I had more fun in raiding before the "fix"...not been bothered by 0 TG searches, because there were after all also big fishes in the lake. Outposts were more predictable and the enemies were at last beatable.

Sorry about not been able to write it in the right structure...

AzBewbs

@PR0DJ Nicely said and tag you are it

GreenBalloon

You left out balancing the game's economy, for US, not themselves. Day One issue and that's a long time to ignore it.

The auto-centering nonsense....ditto

Lift the limit on farming. Really sick of hearing NG accusing players of cheating when they, themselves, are cheating players. "You're getting the same xp!" No, we wanted to earn MORE xp...see the first item. How much effort an individual player is willing to put into gaining that xp is up to, or should be up to, that individual player. Stop playing the game FOR the players. (The whole, "your weapon was too powerful" crap still has me tweaked. What gall.)

The "screw you" items from mission drops and in tg crates need to stop. Rare items have zero business being in gold crates and the overwhelming number of common/uncommon items for scrap just pisses people off.

Stop shoving bruiser items at us. You nerfed 'em, we don't want 'em.

DLich

I'd prefer the hero token section not be intertwined with the survivor token section. If i wanted hero tokens i'll seek out that type of call to get them. In addition this would put the "odds" of finding survivor tokens in line with that it was in 1.10.

The absolute worst thing they can do is create 2 types of tokens (survivor and hero) and give each a 50% drop rate within the same type of call. It would help increase the chances of finding hero tokens for heros which we already know the traits of while also decrease the chances of finding survivors with traits we might actually want to use.

DLich

I should add all of what i said above is dependant upon having radios which I currently do not have so I guess I would need those first in order to have the opportunity of finding these things people call "hero" tokens.

Invader

Addition to some ideas of PRODJ and DLich: Why not return with something like the former deadlies...a bit harder to play but with hero tokens to earn?

Harder gameplay, higher risk...but an effort to risk it?

PR0DJ

GreenBalloon said:

Rare items have zero business being in gold crates and the overwhelming number of common/uncommon items for scrap just pisses people off.

So you wanted to write:
Gear Problems:
4. Rare (green) gear in gold crates.
Solution:
4. Remove them for F**K sake!

GreenBalloon

@PR0DJ

Pretty much. I'd need a valium to clean it up as well as you did, though.

Sipher07

They keep inventing new scarity currencies like radios when old scarcity currencies like XP became more common due to player complaints. This will just go on and on and on because NextGame needs to make money off us because this is their only game of size. If they ever acquiesce they will have to invent a new currency. @SlickRick @Boruto @DarkFae @SpacemanSpiff

They use Windows AZURE to host the game which is a bridge solution which is why I think they cant service as well as other strategy games that offer real PVP and other functionalities that are actually worth paying for vs. stupid trinkets that grind grind grind. Grinding is the least demanding player activity on developer time because they dont have to engineer new content

DLich

I would love to see former deadlies turn into a guaranteed radio. reward for completing it is a radio, since we can complete (technically) one every hour it would net people minimum of 1 15 radio call a day. and if people buy unlimited boosters they can get more.

Necroboogie

@prodj use Bitch Nuts mmmm-Kay.... here's a helpful ditty

PR0DJ

GreenBalloon said:

@PR0DJ

Pretty much. I'd need a valium to clean it up as well as you did, though.

Yeah, Let's start a riot! time has passed, it had attracted attention already (at least I hope so).

Now we need to be constructive and laconic to be heard again.

If we will not - we will go back to Let's start a riot! style anytime.

General_Pain

Thanks for adding my guild idea

I wonder what we will get for this week's event I have a good feeling about this

Maybe next update will add some more ways to get tokens

Invader

painclasher said:

Maybe...

Exactly

Sipher07

NextGame is eating my gigantic wallet like Mr. Slave ate Paris Hilton. No amount of money can get the token system to work. Even burning it.

southpark.cc.com/clips/154692/the-whore-off

Sipher07

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V-Zb-QiGslo

Necroboogie

http://forums.nextgames.com/walkingdead/discussion/comment/3340#Comment_3340

Conan1976

Good work man @PR0DJ

GreenBalloon

@Necroboogie "Guild rewards have been changed. Closing thread." Well, that was short and sweet. Still never addressed any sort of improvement, changed or otherwise.

I seriously do not understand why the simple solutions are so difficult that in roughly 10 months into the game, things are still "being discussed". Is actual language being used or is it a form of charades?? Shadow puppets, maybe?

I refuse to believe that simply having two types of tokens is an elusive epiphany to the game developers. It can't be possible.

Necroboogie

It was more of a response to @painclasher and his guild idea. Tier rewards have been in other games for years, and I alluded to it on another players comment in Dec when they posted about it. NG has not made attempts to reward players like most other games have and must turn their deaf ear towards you when " hearing/listening"

[Deleted User]

My tech skills are very limited but you sound to be more in the know @Sipher07 than I , so I wouldn't be able to follow along in a convo about that stuff. But here is what I think will help.

Player Perspective:

From what little I know about running a game and keeping it healthy and your consumers happy I have gathered the conclusion that a "game economy" must be established and maintained or else everything will fall apart. I could be wrong because what I know about economics wouldn't fill a 128 nanobyte jump drive but it looks like (from a player perspective) things are getting added into the game without any regard for that process. Since cost should not exceed demand the supply part of the economic model needed seems to not be getting factored in properly thusly creating a product that has much too much cost (cost being in-game supplies, time and or RL money) for it's players that does not yield a high enough dividend to foster player content.


Company View:


From what I can see 3 things seem to be the driving factor as to why this keeps happening here:

1. ngo wants to provide a game that will provide a sense of challenge for it's customer base that also manages to stay provocative for the long term for their player base.
2. Exploits and Bugs are making it necessary for ngo to make "unanticipated" tweaks which are yielding "unanticipated" results.
3. ngo is a company and needs to make money.


Solution Don'ts:


Fix the game economy by balancing it and before new content is added, treat the game like a city or ecosystem and test to see how it will affected as a whole before release and not just throw in more and even harder to yield anything of benefit from grinding like activities for the player base to distract themselves with or a slew of new traits that make getting desirable traits a billion times harder. And for the love of all things reasonable and logical please do not start packing even greater numbers of spawn into the mission room in an effort to make the game more challenging. This combo combined with the plethora of new traits that are vague and too expensive to even try anytime soon for most of us will be disastrous!


Solution Do's:


- Fix the game economy from top to bottom. Don't just increase the chance for players to get what they want for certain things quicker to stop the whining but truly balance it so that it rewards both f2p and ptp players. (That would mean no more putting the majority of the gold boxes on the lower levels of a challenge event that all but disappear as soon as you get to the higher levels for starters)

- More community events like the one where you gave us the gold gun (why you didn't give us Morgan's staff instead still leaves me shaking my head)

- Maybe try throwing in some Easter Eggs. I see a lot of detailed artwork leading to tons of open doors and stairways that are little more than decoration. Why not tie in some hidden content that will yield awesome rewards for your player base to hunt down and enjoy and/or reopen all the lower level episodes in "Hell" mode where players have to deal with spawn coming out of the doors and down those stairs at random or out of those RV's....etc (I think you get the hint....unexpected places) Also please consider making the weapon/gear prizes for completing these super hard versions of the episodes legendary. Would be nice to be able to rescue a 5 star legendary survivor also from "hell" mode (just throwing the name out there lol).

Sorry thats a little more than a 1st step to making the game better but it is also how I feel.

GreenBalloon

@DarkFae

That was so calm, reasoned and well constructed. That's how I want to be when I grow up. Not sure when that will be, but it's a goal.

[Deleted User]

Thank You @GreenBalloon. I have my moments

JayZ

Very well thought out PRODJ. I might have more thoughts to add later, but for now, here's one:

Challenges/Guilds problems:
2. Very hard for players to get over 350 stars without buying gas (either through a booster or with gold).
Solution:
2. Lower the gas requirements by 1 across the board OR cap the gas requirements at 6 on higher level challenges.