I've never played a game where it takes YEARS of waiting to build anything good. That's preposterous. It should take no longer than a month to build a fleet with the pace of new material being put out. People would coin much more if it were cost effective especially when what you coin never really works in a short period of time. An example is I have to wait 16 days to refit a couple of masts for a defense fleet, and this has been the third time. come on man,
Game healthy....lol....that's a laugh, as usual a mouth full of promises, a hand full of ty's....yeah, right, I'll believe it when I see it...what I do predict is, more coining and more nerfing....kix you're known to lie so way stop now..
Don't wait for the storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain
Hey Kixeye, put your money where your mouth is! Show your customer base that you are not just milking a dying cow. Don't make us continue to pay for your business model mistakes. 50% reduction in build and repair times UNTIL all of this smoke and mirrors crap actually materializes.
Unless you set the pricing so a non coined can build the last raid fleet within the month between raids, 6 weeks maximum. And you price yourselves competitively with other options out there ( IE and you won't want to hear this $50.00ish gets you 24/7 active gameplay). You are wasting your breath. Your marketing dept really needs to throw away the outdated models you are using and take a long hard look at what your competition really is in today's game market.
BP has always been boutique priced with less than satisfactory gameplay & security. You could get away with it when it was all the old forsaken tech, the 2.5 mill active players showed this. The power creep & other issues in the game, along with $2500.00 fleets max ranked, have somewhat been addressed. But your player numbers show it is not nearly enough. Don't get me wrong 10-30 coin base repairs are welcome, as are VXP weekends. But when your guard costs you another 40-50, the base reduction is still rendered pretty useless. Lets get real with 1-2 basers also in the equation, you are in the $15-$20 dollar range to coin all repairs & come back out swinging. BP is simply not worth it.
Maybe 2 layoffs, major restructuring, and a much lower income are finally the 2x4 that knocks some sense into your heads. The player base has been telling you this for 2-3 years now. There are few to no new players coming in, long term players quitting in droves or barely logging in.
The problem is that the same exodus that brought you the 2.5 million players is the same force that is now stripping you of them. Word of mouth and playing with friends. When a portion of a group has had enough, or gives up not being able to compete, and participates less or not at all. It affects the rest as well.
Transparency is all & well also, however your history of truthfulness and nerfing fleets & adjusting raid targets mid event with your players, means it will take a whole lot before most of us even start to lend any credibility to this post. And again you did this entirely to yourselves Kixeye.
Not to be negative here, but we have heard this all before. Your management & marketing depts require a real restructuring from the top down, and changes need to be made in a direction that is a whole lot less arrogant, and a whole lot more realistic. I'm not even sure a drastic cut across the board is enough, you let this go on far far too long.
Harbin once said there would never be a drydock......then again he also said he would resign if Tomb failed. Because if it did he had no idea what he was doing.
Maybe you folks should take these words to heart. Now excuse me I need to go check my backside...see if smoke is being blown into it again...I sincerely hope not. I would love to actually enjoy my time playing this game again.
Take too long making these changes, and 2016 may bring the unemployment line...most of us are completely fed up.
They're calling in Greenpeace...to save the vanishing whales. Greenpeace showed up, looked around, shook their heads sadly, and said it's hopeless....
As mentioned, here is a missive from our Lead Designer on the state of Battle Pirates and what direction we want to take moving into 2016.
Read and discuss belowWWW.
State of the Game
Sector Threat
One of our goals is to reduce the need to schedule your life around Battle Pirates and create more dynamic gameplay based around player activity and interest rather than creating “chores”. With Reavers leaving the sectors and a return of Draconian control, we’ve taken the opportunity to replace scheduled Dredge fleets with player trigger-able Draconian Armadas and the soon-to-be released Uranium Bases.
Sector threat will also be a gateway to new blueprints, including a new line of Draconian Mega-Hulls that players will be able to unlock and build.
............................
Your feedback is crucial to the design process and we always appreciate the feedback you provide. We’ll continue to update you on our progress towards a renewed, more exciting, and more fun Battle Pirates and keep you in the loop through the forums and previews moving forward.
Thanks for reading and good luck, Captains!
-Battle Pirates Team
When "Sector Threat" was first released it worked well. The sector actually controlled Uranium spawning with a generous amount of 60s and 75s. After the November event the spawning has drastically changed. Now there are very few 60 spawning and mostly 75s. WTF Kixeye? Players work hard to keep the "Sector Threat" level high then you change the spawning rate to only produce the armada that inflict the most damage (75). So now instead of losing one flt per armada you lose three. Yeah great way to think of your customers.
The Lost Art Of Prep Always rushing headlong not scouting testing probing 75 s can be done easily refer to the strategy Section
Some great ideas put forward, I do hope it's followed up with some great action by you - so that "fun" again enters use in the game instead of "chore" or "like a job". Please don't let us down again
In one part of your statement, you had said how important it was to eliminate cheaters and those that exploit "glitches" and "Hacks" and then you state elsewhere about introducing a new feature that would allow players to repair their fleets on the world map. Are you trying to make it easier for the cheaters to get away with cheating??? This would not be a welcome feature at all for many reasons!!!
Unless you set the pricing so a non coined can build the last raid fleet within the month between raids, 6 weeks maximum. And you price yourselves competitively with other options out there ( IE and you won't want to hear this $50.00ish gets you 24/7 active gameplay). You are wasting your breath. Your marketing dept really needs to throw away the outdated models you are using and take a long hard look at what your competition really is in today's game market.
BP has always been boutique priced with less than satisfactory gameplay & security. You could get away with it when it was all the old forsaken tech, the 2.5 mill active players showed this. The power creep & other issues in the game, along with $2500.00 fleets max ranked, have somewhat been addressed. But your player numbers show it is not nearly enough. Don't get me wrong 10-30 coin base repairs are welcome, as are VXP weekends. But when your guard costs you another 40-50, the base reduction is still rendered pretty useless. Lets get real with 1-2 basers also in the equation, you are in the $15-$20 dollar range to coin all repairs & come back out swinging. BP is simply not worth it.
Maybe 2 layoffs, major restructuring, and a much lower income are finally the 2x4 that knocks some sense into your heads. The player base has been telling you this for 2-3 years now. There are few to no new players coming in, long term players quitting in droves or barely logging in.
The problem is that the same exodus that brought you the 2.5 million players is the same force that is now stripping you of them. Word of mouth and playing with friends. When a portion of a group has had enough, or gives up not being able to compete, and participates less or not at all. It affects the rest as well.
Transparency is all & well also, however your history of truthfulness and nerfing fleets & adjusting raid targets mid event with your players, means it will take a whole lot before most of us even start to lend any credibility to this post. And again you did this entirely to yourselves Kixeye.
Not to be negative here, but we have heard this all before. Your management & marketing depts require a real restructuring from the top down, and changes need to be made in a direction that is a whole lot less arrogant, and a whole lot more realistic. I'm not even sure a drastic cut across the board is enough, you let this go on far far too long.
Harbin once said there would never be a drydock......then again he also said he would resign if Tomb failed. Because if it did he had no idea what he was doing.
Maybe you folks should take these words to heart. Now excuse me I need to go check my backside...see if smoke is being blown into it again...I sincerely hope not. I would love to actually enjoy my time playing this game again.
Take too long making these changes, and 2016 may bring the unemployment line...most of us are completely fed up.
I would also like to add wasn't there something out there about no items ever costing more and eventually they would decrease in value? How does this elite tier work into that as most of the tech in that was offered at least during one raid where it didn't cost even a quarter of what is being charged for it now?
Drop the points required for the elite FM to 25mill with corresponding drops for T1/T2/T3
This is the simplest of solutions to the problem at hand, but kixeye does not believe it would make them money so everything mentioned here gets moved to the wish list as this things all have been requested before. At 25 mill I might coin to do the FM once a week as I am a 72 and finally have a fleet that can do the 85's its not great but it well get better as it gets ranked up.
After reading the thread I am thrilled to hear these CHanges please, Please Make sure you pay attention to the smaller players that keep coming into the game and quitting because the game and all the features, missions, campaigns, raids, urnaium depots, whatever is to hard for them and costly and they quit right after I helped them get to level 60 and beyond because the game is to costly. Make sure that you allow CO-OP especially between us big players and smaller payers so they can achieve nice hulls. This is a must. I am so tired of friends I have helped leave the game because the cost of repair is to high.
Kixeye you were given three months to ADDRESS the issues of this game NOT three months to provide a complicated way of possibly addressing the issues in the game and then seeking our feedback. Kixeye FIX the ISSUES, you admitted your self you know what they are and there is universal agreement what they are.
BUILD TIMES - An across the board 50 - 70% cut REPAIR TIMES - An across the board 50% cut (not hard you do it during raids, so don't say it isn't practical or that it can't be done), then reduce that by 50% during raids.
Get your finger out of your **** and ACT!!!! we don't need debate, just DO IT!!!!
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this right here is the answer that most of us want but it will never happen.
instead they will continue to blow smoke up our **** and say it is to complicated to do,,,,, and more and more of us will continue to not coin or leave the game entirely the ball is in kixeyes court to either save the game or destroy it the rest of the way .
Promises Promises is all you give to me. Well Kix I have seen this at the beginning of each year that I have played this game. The first I remember was actually posted in the game. Who remembers attack Drac bases coming soon . Oh that only took 2 or 3 years!
The clock is ticking and you are at 2.5/3 months unless Harbin plans to work during the holiday! LMFAO!
Kix just said they are concerned over our costs to update and repair items....However, they have already violated that statement in the most recent update to the Retro-fit Lab....How?...They added several "Limited" items to the Lab, which some of us don't even have....and are charging 40K- 50K U points for a minor increase of 1.6% in damage...I don't call this to be very concerned.....sorry.
We all wish to see this on line, and at least the intention and plans sound good, will be must appretiated to watch it asap so new feedback will continue to improve and make it the awesome game it was or better.
In one part of your statement, you had said how important it was to eliminate cheaters and those that exploit "glitches" and "Hacks" and then you state elsewhere about introducing a new feature that would allow players to repair their fleets on the world map. Are you trying to make it easier for the cheaters to get away with cheating??? This would not be a welcome feature at all for many reasons!!!
So what are the many reasons, I would like this? Let Kixeye deal with the cheaters, those of us who play the game the right way can kick their --- up down to the side and make them cry for their mommas while the complainers cry about being hit. Truthfully I rarely see cheaters, but what I do see are a lot of players with nice hulls. And I will tell them when I see it.
I am firstly referring to the immediate issues of the Sector Threat being voiced by many, because they give us a good indication that your State of the Game that you hoped would appease us, is not lining up with your actions. Your State of the Game is a lie to us and to yourselves, especially if you think the game is in stable condition. Give this little rant a read.
Once the bar is yellow you have to hit Armada's to keep the bar yellow. Cargo/salvage only move the bar on Teal, which is before armada's spawn
That is the way it is supposed to work, but when you only get 1 to 2 of each type you are not going to move the bar very fast. Even then, if you can clear them fast enough you can stay ahead of the spawn rate of new Armadas and the bar will deteriorate before the next spawn.
It was not this way when it was first released, we could hit and move the bar from Teal to Yellow in a few hours. Then keep it in the yellow and maxed out for days. This was changed, no matter what they say, it was changed. I am not talking about a sector with a bunch of the millionaires in it that can hit all day every day. I am talking about my sector with about 75 active players moving it from teal to yellow in about 2 hours and then keeping it yellow for almost a solid week and full. To coming on one morning with the bar full the night before, to 0 and then struggling to get it back to yellow everyday after that.
We are never going t get it Orange with the current way it is setup. They need to go back to the first week it was released so that we can move the bar and keep the spawns coming. Not this hit for 4 hours get it to yellow and get 2 spawns of armadas and have it dip to teal again. Then take another hour or two to move it the last 10% back to yellow to get another 2 armada and so on so forth.
My time is worth more to me than spending it here 24/7
Now, you can say that we need to clear out cargoes. You can say that we need to clear the existing Armadas when they spawn so more will spawn. You can say that it wasn't changed. And you must think we're stupid. Maybe we are for following you for so long, and putting up with countless issues and horrendous customer service. I'm a non-coiner, so my voice has been stunted with respect to your Service Request lockdowns. And I'm fine with that. I rarely got any decent response from the 5 or 6 tickets I've placed over the past two years anyways. But that hasn't stopped me from calling you out on your crap.
The Sector Threat issue is only a small piece of the overarching, puzzling dilemma you constantly place yourself in. You give us a bone, whether it be intentional and you're just being nice, trying to get the player base to like you again, or a screw up and you roll with it (as I personally am suspicious that the recent VXP weekends handing out IMMENSE amount of experience was an accident but it turned out so well, and possibly profitable, that you kept the mess up in). But then you rip that bone away. And when we complain that something has changed, you tell us nothing ever changed, we're just playing the game wrong. It doesn't take someone with a PhD to see that something is wrong here.
My whole issue with the game right now is not so much with the State of the Game, but with the LIES that you feed us; that you think we're stupid and we'll just accept them as fact. NO! Enough is enough. You say you want to be more open and transparent. You know the first step? Start acting like a business that wants to be profitable because you make your customers happy with your product. You want profits? Work with us to get you there. No more of this working against us.
Look, maybe if the game were actually worth the cost, I'd even be willing to throw in a few bones here and there. Don't think I haven't been tempted to press that shiny "Buy Now!" button to help me along a little, because I have. But I realize that my TIME is worth more to me than my money, and if I can make it with only my time, I will. But again, as my friend above stated, it is worth more to me than spending it here 24/7. And I think you're starting to see that is true for not only the low to non coiners, but your bigger coiners as well. If you weren't looking at that bottom line, you wouldn't be making efforts to improve the game. But it's not just the pieces that fall into place. It's the way that you handle those pieces, and how you present those pieces to us. No more lies. A lot more transparency. You said you want it. Now start making your words line up with your actions. Because then, and only then, will we see that you mean business. And if you mean business, then you'll get our business.
~thedragonslay3r
"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." -Winston Churchill
“We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them.” - William Arthur Ward
"I get my tech. I do it for free. Kix ain't go no strings on me. Weeee!" -thedragonslay3r
If you don't have the item, the retro lab cost should not matter to you.
Not understanding the complaint.
If you don't want to retro the item, dont.
I will, because I think 60 armadas are very easy to find.
If I wouldn't get banned for it I might applaud the cheaters, just for the fact that they're kicking Kix. I don't like getting hit by them, but I understand where they're coming from.
TO address the actual issue: This is the same kind of bullshit that Kix has been spewing for quite some time. Face it: You have no credibility. Kix screws with us in the middle of an Event, spews out new tech so fast a hull can be obsolete by the next weekly, build times are insanely high (still), and so are repair times. I barely login to do anything anymore. Most of my fleets I managed to get refitted to auto the 85's in the FM, and they take almost a full week to repair.
Kix, You've finally noticed you have a problem but you're still not getting it through what you exactly need to do to fix things.
Be interesting to see whether this works in practise.
After taking a break, and desperately trying to rank my old 'has been' fleets, I'm penalised heavily for being lvl 76 (most points gained under the old system).
When my best fleets are MC-X and Dread-X, it's a tad demotivating to face impossible targets or take much lower targets with a huge points reduction.
Guessing Decembers event will be a washout for me again, as there'll be penalties again for level no doubt. Pointless when level hasn't meant much for ages.
The biggest pain for me though is the loss of Dredge fleets. This enabled some catchup through Uranium - Drac bases payout is far less, and the new proposed ones will doubtless be for uber fleets only.
No chance of getting anywhere now. Most friends have left the game thanks to changes, and given the crazy chores now I'll doubtless join them.
So..... Kixeye asked BV for 3 months, and it's taken them 3 months just to come up with a post outlining a bunch of stuff "coming soon" at some point next year.
The worst of it is, i've heard almost all of this before, and it just smells of more smoke and mirrors and delaying tactics to me.
I'll wait and see what these "Sweeping changes to weapons and armor" are that are meant to be coming this month but I have heard absolutely nothing in this post that convinces me this game is worth persevering with going into 2016.
Maybe read it a bit more, they stated a lot but not all of this will be coming in December.... I am actually happy with this post, as it shows a lot of thought has gone into this not just a whim of an ill thought out solution... and Some of this is massive change that can take up to 6 months to code... 3 mths to research redesign code and test was never going to happen, some changes are coming, good... and we have outlines of other linger term items in progress.... not there yet but this is a massive step inthe right direction
It does look promising....BUT Grumpy is correct, telling us to give them 3 months but then only coming out with a plan seems sketchy. If they can't even get the alliance improvements or the orange sector threat out on schedule how the hell will they get these new things out???? I really hope they are serious but Kix has ZERO benefit of the doubt and a lot of these changes seem likely to piss off the whales who coined the newest uber fleets. Until I see Kix resist the urge to exclusively cater to the whales I will take a wait and see approach. First opportunity they have is the next raid, if it still only really plays to rhino w/blades and gives mid/low level players massively overpowered C targets I doubt many will hang in much longer,
How about starting it first before you call it "ongoing" ?
BP has always been boutique priced with less than satisfactory gameplay & security. You could get away with it when it was all the old forsaken tech, the 2.5 mill active players showed this. The power creep & other issues in the game, along with $2500.00 fleets max ranked, have somewhat been addressed. But your player numbers show it is not nearly enough. Don't get me wrong 10-30 coin base repairs are welcome, as are VXP weekends. But when your guard costs you another 40-50, the base reduction is still rendered pretty useless. Lets get real with 1-2 basers also in the equation, you are in the $15-$20 dollar range to coin all repairs & come back out swinging. BP is simply not worth it.
Maybe 2 layoffs, major restructuring, and a much lower income are finally the 2x4 that knocks some sense into your heads. The player base has been telling you this for 2-3 years now. There are few to no new players coming in, long term players quitting in droves or barely logging in.
The problem is that the same exodus that brought you the 2.5 million players is the same force that is now stripping you of them. Word of mouth and playing with friends. When a portion of a group has had enough, or gives up not being able to compete, and participates less or not at all. It affects the rest as well.
Transparency is all & well also, however your history of truthfulness and nerfing fleets & adjusting raid targets mid event with your players, means it will take a whole lot before most of us even start to lend any credibility to this post. And again you did this entirely to yourselves Kixeye.
Not to be negative here, but we have heard this all before. Your management & marketing depts require a real restructuring from the top down, and changes need to be made in a direction that is a whole lot less arrogant, and a whole lot more realistic. I'm not even sure a drastic cut across the board is enough, you let this go on far far too long.
Harbin once said there would never be a drydock......then again he also said he would resign if Tomb failed. Because if it did he had no idea what he was doing.
Maybe you folks should take these words to heart. Now excuse me I need to go check my backside...see if smoke is being blown into it again...I sincerely hope not. I would love to actually enjoy my time playing this game again.
Take too long making these changes, and 2016 may bring the unemployment line...most of us are completely fed up.
Simple solutions =
Re-fit yard
Slash ship build times across the board
Slash ship repair times across the board
Release the VXP 85's bi weekly for 72 hours
Drop the points required for the elite FM to 25mill with corresponding drops for T1/T2/T3
Refit yard is of questionable value from a balance perspective and most certainly isn't needed if build time reduced.
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this right here is the answer that most of us want but it will never happen.
instead they will continue to blow smoke up our **** and say it is to complicated to do,,,,, and more and more of us will continue to not coin or leave the game entirely the ball is in kixeyes court to either save the game or destroy it the rest of the way .
The clock is ticking and you are at 2.5/3 months unless Harbin plans to work during the holiday! LMFAO!
Yours Truly
GASPAR
We all wish to see this on line, and at least the intention and plans sound good, will be must appretiated to watch it asap so new feedback will continue to improve and make it the awesome game it was or better.
Now, you can say that we need to clear out cargoes. You can say that we need to clear the existing Armadas when they spawn so more will spawn. You can say that it wasn't changed. And you must think we're stupid. Maybe we are for following you for so long, and putting up with countless issues and horrendous customer service. I'm a non-coiner, so my voice has been stunted with respect to your Service Request lockdowns. And I'm fine with that. I rarely got any decent response from the 5 or 6 tickets I've placed over the past two years anyways. But that hasn't stopped me from calling you out on your crap.
The Sector Threat issue is only a small piece of the overarching, puzzling dilemma you constantly place yourself in. You give us a bone, whether it be intentional and you're just being nice, trying to get the player base to like you again, or a screw up and you roll with it (as I personally am suspicious that the recent VXP weekends handing out IMMENSE amount of experience was an accident but it turned out so well, and possibly profitable, that you kept the mess up in). But then you rip that bone away. And when we complain that something has changed, you tell us nothing ever changed, we're just playing the game wrong. It doesn't take someone with a PhD to see that something is wrong here.
My whole issue with the game right now is not so much with the State of the Game, but with the LIES that you feed us; that you think we're stupid and we'll just accept them as fact. NO! Enough is enough. You say you want to be more open and transparent. You know the first step? Start acting like a business that wants to be profitable because you make your customers happy with your product. You want profits? Work with us to get you there. No more of this working against us.
Look, maybe if the game were actually worth the cost, I'd even be willing to throw in a few bones here and there. Don't think I haven't been tempted to press that shiny "Buy Now!" button to help me along a little, because I have. But I realize that my TIME is worth more to me than my money, and if I can make it with only my time, I will. But again, as my friend above stated, it is worth more to me than spending it here 24/7. And I think you're starting to see that is true for not only the low to non coiners, but your bigger coiners as well. If you weren't looking at that bottom line, you wouldn't be making efforts to improve the game. But it's not just the pieces that fall into place. It's the way that you handle those pieces, and how you present those pieces to us. No more lies. A lot more transparency. You said you want it. Now start making your words line up with your actions. Because then, and only then, will we see that you mean business. And if you mean business, then you'll get our business.
~thedragonslay3r
If you don't have the item, the retro lab cost should not matter to you.
Not understanding the complaint.
If you don't want to retro the item, dont.
I will, because I think 60 armadas are very easy to find.
TO address the actual issue: This is the same kind of bullshit that Kix has been spewing for quite some time. Face it: You have no credibility. Kix screws with us in the middle of an Event, spews out new tech so fast a hull can be obsolete by the next weekly, build times are insanely high (still), and so are repair times. I barely login to do anything anymore. Most of my fleets I managed to get refitted to auto the 85's in the FM, and they take almost a full week to repair.
Kix, You've finally noticed you have a problem but you're still not getting it through what you exactly need to do to fix things.
After taking a break, and desperately trying to rank my old 'has been' fleets, I'm penalised heavily for being lvl 76 (most points gained under the old system).
When my best fleets are MC-X and Dread-X, it's a tad demotivating to face impossible targets or take much lower targets with a huge points reduction.
Guessing Decembers event will be a washout for me again, as there'll be penalties again for level no doubt. Pointless when level hasn't meant much for ages.
The biggest pain for me though is the loss of Dredge fleets. This enabled some catchup through Uranium - Drac bases payout is far less, and the new proposed ones will doubtless be for uber fleets only.