i hope that you are listening and will take the info we provide in surveys and find ways to help us not everyone can afford to coin heavily or hack the game as many players do. try to slow down the tech intro a bit so fleets will be relavent for at least 18 to 24 months, let us build more than one ship at a time in each shipyard if we have the resources or add a repair yard for ships damaged in battles. i have seena lot of players just leave because they can't keep up last raid less than 50 players in the sector i was in even bothered to try it. about ten of them gave up right away. This can't continue if you want the game to be viable. I have been playing since the game first came out and want to continue playing but it has got to be more fun rather than task oriented as it is now
THERE ARE LIES, DAMNED LIES AND THERE IS KIXEYE. PRIORITY 1 . . . . . FIX THE BUGS !!!! PRIORITY 2 . . . . . IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ADD SOMETHING THAT FORCES KIXEYE TO DEVELOP THE GAME IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CUSTOMERS TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE.
Sorry to say this has been said before. So only can just wait and see. i guess i can be considered a coiner? and currently just don't play as much as i used to do to the fact that automatic minimal damage and still too long repair times (refuse to coin ship repairs) leaves less time to actually play. If it wasn't for the friends i have met on the game (and there are less and less active every day) i would have left this game years ago.
@CJSII said:
lol did Venture cut off Harbins dope allowance?
Funny thing, they got 20 million more in venture capital in May 2018...Google it....something about using machine learning for retention, marketing and monetization
IF you're serious about improving communication with the peasants, then keep us informed about the move to some platform other than Flash.
We all know Flash is dead, and it's probably accurate to say that a lot of the bugs and programming compromises are due to limitations of that ancient tech.
We know deadlines slip and schedules change -- but if by now you haven't set a target for the new platform, you're farm more ***** **** **** then we had imagined.
The fact that you're making a big deal out of changes to the Flash platform is worrying. Why keep dumping development effort into a dead-end?
99.99% of us would be just fine with seeing Flash stabilized while you focused on getting the next platform ready to go.
No matter what you do, there will be a revenue drop as we approach cut-over, as no one is going to keep spending on stuff that might not be ported to the new environment.
So far, all we have to go on is a brief mention of the move to HTML5 in one of those pointless live streams. Stop treating
Content and features will continue to ship, because that’s how the game is supported,
IOW, your support model is supported by feeding the Whales. The average player can't afford to keep up, so they get discouraged and quit.
The majority of players would be ecstatic to see the torrent of new tech slowed to a trickle. The new tech does nothing to broaden player choices -- a key element in a build game -- all it does is rapidly obsolete the stuff we spent weeks and months building.
You do understand that is a big source of player rage or are you so busy counting Whale Coins you don't care?
New tech should broaden player choices, not take them away. If you introduce a new hull, it should give me choices!! As an example, give me three roughly equal hulls, for example, optimized for Missiles -- one of them offers more weapon slots, the other offers more special slots, the third has nice buffs to missile stats -- there would be advantages and disadvantages to each choice -- new stuff needs to broaden player choices, not take them away.
It's a basic gaming principle, I'm very sure you're aware of it (or at least there have to be someone on your staff who was, but you probably fired them for being player friendly) We're all sick of new content that makes old content obsolete.
It's hard to believe anything you say, if you're already said that you're not going to stop flooding us with new stuff -- and implying the rapid obsolescence will continue.
Are you so narrow-minded that you're unable to conceive of other revenue models beyond Whale feeding?
What about all these data-mining algorithms you boast about to potential investors? Have they failed already? If they're so good, why hasn't that opened up a revenue stream for you?
Over-dependence on revenue from new content means nothing significant will change. We're burned-out from constant change, none of which is fun.
Mr. Will Harbin, I think you've done a wonderful job entertaining me with Battle Pirates these past years but the game has gotten too expensive. What I don't understand is why the build time of hulls aren't coming down with several hulls being needed during a particular cycle.We were told by GD Rankin that Charged armors were going to be eliminated yet here we are with a new FM armor for the Dragon. The constant refits to hulls is setting the majority back, that needs to stop.The SSRBs are a joke. It's a forced Expedition chore. Think about it. Most of us didn't build the Chameleon because our post raid fleets are meant to do chores.With the SSRBs it's a forced Proto build. Now this is my point....if the hull to do the raid becomes obsolete post raid then what is the purpose of playing the raid or TLC because the Proto hulls will be viable in both.I have the Manti print, I even built one. I won't build the whole fleet when I should be able to refit my Phoenix fleet to do the 80s and/or 60s. I had my Phoenix fleet refitted to do the 80 set this month. I tried a 80 set on the day of the raid and I was like cool 24 coins for the set. I log back in Saturday and try the 80s again and the whole fleet died in a 85, now I'm like wtf just happend? That's just being greedy Mr.Harbin.Why is it so hard for you to compromise with the community on a set repair time. I bought the Cannoneers fleet during the Siege raid and they rocked. The target damage didn't fluctuate.If having to refit a raid hull 3 times a raid cycle, forcing chore builds, and upping the raid target damage is going to be your business model then I'm fookin outta here.
Content and features will continue to ship, because that’s how the game is supported,
IOW, your support model is supported by feeding the Whales. The average player can't afford to keep up, so they get discouraged and quit.
The majority of players would be ecstatic to see the torrent of new tech slowed to a trickle. The new tech does nothing to broaden player choices -- a key element in a build game -- all it does is rapidly obsolete the stuff we spent weeks and months building.
You do understand that is a big source of player rage or are you so busy counting Whale Coins you don't care?
New tech should broaden player choices, not take them away. If you introduce a new hull, it should give me choices!! As an example, give me three roughly equal hulls, for example, optimized for Missiles -- one of them offers more weapon slots, the other offers more special slots, the third has nice buffs to missile stats -- there would be advantages and disadvantages to each choice -- new stuff needs to broaden player choices, not take them away.
It's a basic gaming principle, I'm very sure you're aware of it (or at least there have to be someone on your staff who was, but you probably fired them for being player friendly) We're all sick of new content that makes old content obsolete.
It's hard to believe anything you say, if you're already said that you're not going to stop flooding us with new stuff -- and implying the rapid obsolescence will continue.
Are you so narrow-minded that you're unable to conceive of other revenue models beyond Whale feeding?
What about all these data-mining algorithms you boast about to potential investors? Have they failed already? If they're so good, why hasn't that opened up a revenue stream for you?
Over-dependence on revenue from new content means nothing significant will change. We're burned-out from constant change, none of which is fun.
why would you want more choices? even with limited choices most players still get it completely wrong with their builds.
more choices also gives you more potential builds. more tears from not enough build time.
Mr. Will Harbin, I think you've done a wonderful job entertaining me with Battle Pirates these past years but the game has gotten too expensive. What I don't understand is why the build time of hulls aren't coming down with several hulls being needed during a particular cycle.We were told by GD Rankin that Charged armors were going to be eliminated yet here we are with a new FM armor for the Dragon. The constant refits to hulls is setting the majority back, that needs to stop.The SSRBs are a joke. It's a forced Expedition chore. Think about it. Most of us didn't build the Chameleon because our post raid fleets are meant to do chores.With the SSRBs it's a forced Proto build. Now this is my point....if the hull to do the raid becomes obsolete post raid then what is the purpose of playing the raid or TLC because the Proto hulls will be viable in both.I have the Manti print, I even built one. I won't build the whole fleet when I should be able to refit my Phoenix fleet to do the 80s and/or 60s. I had my Phoenix fleet refitted to do the 80 set this month. I tried a 80 set on the day of the raid and I was like cool 24 coins for the set. I log back in Saturday and try the 80s again and the whole fleet died in a 85, now I'm like wtf just happend? That's just being greedy Mr.Harbin.Why is it so hard for you to compromise with the community on a set repair time. I bought the Cannoneers fleet during the Siege raid and they rocked. The target damage didn't fluctuate.If having to refit a raid hull 3 times a raid cycle, forcing chore builds, and upping the raid target damage is going to be your business model then I'm fookin outta here.
Just saying, new armor is not charged armor... No one is forcing you to do SSRB's because there are still normal map targets that you can do with your fleets.... Lastly, there has only been 1 refit needed this whole raid cycle on manticores and that was the darkwing cic that was only needed to be put on 3 of the 5 ships in the fleet.
"Are we friends? Or are we foes? That kind of thing you decide for yourselves! "
May 2nd marked the seven year anniversary of Battle Pirates - a game I'm incredibly proud of. Over the years we've seen exciting new factions, incredible player tributes, and tons of emergent gameplay. But if there's one thing I've learned in my tenure, it's this:
Complacency is death.
Unfortunately, Battle Pirates has become a bog of complacency. A lack of diligence has allowed balance-breaking bugs to escape and go unnoticed for months. A lack of community engagement has caused us to lose touch with the speed that players can realistically progress. A lack of planning has forced the team to wildly over-tune stats, targets, and events in order to shoehorn value into new content.
All because of complacency. Well, complacency isn’t going to cut it and it’s time for us to right this ship. So what are we doing to fix this?
First, I’ve put a new leadership team in place. Our issues don’t stem from the talented individuals working long, difficult hours to execute on the nuts-and-bolts of the game, it’s about how we’re deploying those resources. Heading up that leadership team is our new GM, Michael Rubinelli. A State of the Game post will go up in the next few weeks in which he will discuss the long-term look for Battle Pirates. Additionally, our new Lead Designer WrongThinker will be putting up a post on Wednesday introducing himself, as well as the second part of our correction strategy, which I will now spoil.
Battle Pirates has adopted a philosophy that dictates everything we do. It’s simple: “Players First.” Content and features will continue to ship, because that’s how the game is supported, but with every new feature, we will always ask: how does this enhance the player experience? How does this make a player’s life better? Easier? More fun? If the only answer to why we’re putting something in the game is money - I don’t want it in the game.
Finally, we’re tripling down on our community engagement efforts. Expect to see more developer presence, more AMAs, more live streams, more unadulterated proof that the Battle Pirates team is exactly as invested in the continued success and longevity of this game as you are.
The fact that we’re in this position is no one’s fault but our own. The time of complacency is over. You’ve shown us that you’re here for the long haul, and it’s time for us to show you that we’re here for it too.
Long live Battle Pirates!
Will Harbin
CEO
i would like this game to just slow down. i have been bp a long time. high level. just too much always happening and cant just enjoy each accomplishment because there is a new hurdle to conquor
Mr. Will Harbin, I think you've done a wonderful job entertaining me with Battle Pirates these past years but the game has gotten too expensive. What I don't understand is why the build time of hulls aren't coming down with several hulls being needed during a particular cycle.We were told by GD Rankin that Charged armors were going to be eliminated yet here we are with a new FM armor for the Dragon. The constant refits to hulls is setting the majority back, that needs to stop.The SSRBs are a joke. It's a forced Expedition chore. Think about it. Most of us didn't build the Chameleon because our post raid fleets are meant to do chores.With the SSRBs it's a forced Proto build. Now this is my point....if the hull to do the raid becomes obsolete post raid then what is the purpose of playing the raid or TLC because the Proto hulls will be viable in both.I have the Manti print, I even built one. I won't build the whole fleet when I should be able to refit my Phoenix fleet to do the 80s and/or 60s. I had my Phoenix fleet refitted to do the 80 set this month. I tried a 80 set on the day of the raid and I was like cool 24 coins for the set. I log back in Saturday and try the 80s again and the whole fleet died in a 85, now I'm like wtf just happend? That's just being greedy Mr.Harbin.Why is it so hard for you to compromise with the community on a set repair time. I bought the Cannoneers fleet during the Siege raid and they rocked. The target damage didn't fluctuate.If having to refit a raid hull 3 times a raid cycle, forcing chore builds, and upping the raid target damage is going to be your business model then I'm fookin outta here.
Just saying, new armor is not charged armor... No one is forcing you to do SSRB's because there are still normal map targets that you can do with your fleets.... Lastly, there has only been 1 refit needed this whole raid cycle on manticores and that was the darkwing cic that was only needed to be put on 3 of the 5 ships in the fleet.
Stop being such an apologist (Google it if you do not understand)
All we have seen are words, all we have felt is hot air and then they say they need time. We have heard this so many times over it is not funny. The game is dead. Time to move one. Both for the community and for Kixeye. Kixeye you are going to fail hard in recovery mode because nothing is changing. NOTHING!
Thanks a lot for the communication Will Harbin and I'm truly thankful for this post. Here are some of my thoughts about the post and it was definitely worth reading. Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander.
Firstly, this post can be seen as an indication that kixeye has messed up and that they want to repair the damage caused. It can't be a coincidence that the unicorn himself leaves the unicorn office and writes this post. His approach to repair the damage appears to be sorting out some of the bad apples from the game team and to value the player opinions higher than previously seen.
Secondly, it's interesting to see that WrongThinker will become design lead for Battle Pirates and his skills shouldn't be underestimated. He used to previously be a design lead for TOME and War Commander and he has also been a great advocate for communication between the game team and players. At this time, he has posted a total of 20 different WrongThinker Thinks posts which is inside communication posts about the future and he has also been a major contributor to communication on the WC and TOME forums. He has also been a major contributor to general developer to community interactions on the forums.
Thirdly, I'm also excited to see promised communication between the BP Game Team and the players as this has been a truly successful aspect with WC. My current theory stands that the communication efforts on the WC forums was either some form of pilot project or something accidental which ended up being successful.
For those who haven't been active on the War Commander forums, the communication between the WC Game Team and the players consists out of the following aspects.
Focus Group meetings
WC Game Team members asks discusses the game and future plans related to once specific subject to a community group of players.
The members on the Focus Group invited to the Focus Group meetings do usually change and the information published on the meetings aren't covered by a NDA.
At this time, 3 meetings has been made and the topic has been monthly events, PvP and Shadow Ops for the respective meetings.
The meetings are more or less done to get
Burny's Briefing Room podcast
A podcast were the WC Community Manger interviews a kixeye employee and asks some frequently asked questions. At this state, 5 episodes of the podcast has been published.
Developer communication on the public forums
Developers are active on the forum and discord server and answers community questions about the game. (Link to WC Discord: https://discord.gg/QNdcnxK)
This do also consist about state of official state of the game posts and other forms of pinned communication posts.
Community events
Community contests and events other community events. One of the most recent instances was a PvP event with kixeye employees as a high value target.
In conclusion, I'm truly excited about this post even if I cannot consider myself as a Battle Pirates player and don't forgot to not underestimate the power of WrongThinker. It could just be the case that he thinks right to the player standards.
Regards Axel L
How dare you step into this conversation and talk down the concerns of this community for your own advantage.
You have no understanding of how extremely frustrated we are. KIXEYE knows they are facing gameover in Battle Pirates and they have admitted it. We do not need a puppet and schill Forum Moderator from War Commander to come over here, suck up to Kixeye and try to gain brownie points from the CEO.
If it was your intention to inflame the situation then well done.
Thanks a lot for the communication Will Harbin and I'm truly thankful for this post. Here are some of my thoughts about the post and it was definitely worth reading. Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander.
Firstly, this post can be seen as an indication that kixeye has messed up and that they want to repair the damage caused. It can't be a coincidence that the unicorn himself leaves the unicorn office and writes this post. His approach to repair the damage appears to be sorting out some of the bad apples from the game team and to value the player opinions higher than previously seen.
Secondly, it's interesting to see that WrongThinker will become design lead for Battle Pirates and his skills shouldn't be underestimated. He used to previously be a design lead for TOME and War Commander and he has also been a great advocate for communication between the game team and players. At this time, he has posted a total of 20 different WrongThinker Thinks posts which is inside communication posts about the future and he has also been a major contributor to communication on the WC and TOME forums. He has also been a major contributor to general developer to community interactions on the forums.
Thirdly, I'm also excited to see promised communication between the BP Game Team and the players as this has been a truly successful aspect with WC. My current theory stands that the communication efforts on the WC forums was either some form of pilot project or something accidental which ended up being successful.
For those who haven't been active on the War Commander forums, the communication between the WC Game Team and the players consists out of the following aspects.
Focus Group meetings
WC Game Team members asks discusses the game and future plans related to once specific subject to a community group of players.
The members on the Focus Group invited to the Focus Group meetings do usually change and the information published on the meetings aren't covered by a NDA.
At this time, 3 meetings has been made and the topic has been monthly events, PvP and Shadow Ops for the respective meetings.
The meetings are more or less done to get
Burny's Briefing Room podcast
A podcast were the WC Community Manger interviews a kixeye employee and asks some frequently asked questions. At this state, 5 episodes of the podcast has been published.
Developer communication on the public forums
Developers are active on the forum and discord server and answers community questions about the game. (Link to WC Discord: https://discord.gg/QNdcnxK)
This do also consist about state of official state of the game posts and other forms of pinned communication posts.
Community events
Community contests and events other community events. One of the most recent instances was a PvP event with kixeye employees as a high value target.
In conclusion, I'm truly excited about this post even if I cannot consider myself as a Battle Pirates player and don't forgot to not underestimate the power of WrongThinker. It could just be the case that he thinks right to the player standards.
Regards Axel L
Its to early to praise Will Harbin or WrongThinker. The damage is done with the desicions from the last months and Battle Pirate is a very complex game, so i dont expect wonders from a new Dev lead.
We had excessive numbers of updates in the last months, so it is obvious, that there are a lot of problems with the programming. Then we have the problems with the balancing...in the PvP part and in the current raidtargets/maptargets and TLC´s. There is a lot of work to do, so it will not be a matter of few weeks. I am expecting the first significant improvements in the january raidformat.
The next months will be a mess, if we like it or not.
Like always, changes will not happen instantly and I would guess that the consequences will only truly be noticed after few months if a side by side comparison is made.
Nice platitudes. Over 50% of the player base are deserting year on year. How much time would you like?
... Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander....
Enough said Mr WAR COMMANDER MOD. If you don't understand the extreme frustration that this games community is experiencing then go back to play War Commander. You are not adding value to this conversation. You are not welcome here.
I contributed to this post as it's still relevant to me even if I'm not a direct BP player. The information provided by kixeye in this thread shouldn't be underestimated as it do show that the higher ups at kixeye has realized there mistakes and that they care about there games.
By belief why the BP team got changed recently was that it wasn't successful enough with delivering quality either due to some internal issues and that there existed members in that team that wasn't passionate enough to make the game as good as it could be.
You have to be fricking kidding. You have no idea how frustrated we are. Go back to be a fanboi forum Moderator in their other games and stop trying to blow smoke here where you have no clue what is going on. If I had a reason as a blue whale to finally quit then you sir are giving it.
Thanks a lot for the communication Will Harbin and I'm truly thankful for this post. Here are some of my thoughts about the post and it was definitely worth reading. Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander.
Firstly, this post can be seen as an indication that kixeye has messed up and that they want to repair the damage caused. It can't be a coincidence that the unicorn himself leaves the unicorn office and writes this post. His approach to repair the damage appears to be sorting out some of the bad apples from the game team and to value the player opinions higher than previously seen.
Secondly, it's interesting to see that WrongThinker will become design lead for Battle Pirates and his skills shouldn't be underestimated. He used to previously be a design lead for TOME and War Commander and he has also been a great advocate for communication between the game team and players. At this time, he has posted a total of 20 different WrongThinker Thinks posts which is inside communication posts about the future and he has also been a major contributor to communication on the WC and TOME forums. He has also been a major contributor to general developer to community interactions on the forums.
Thirdly, I'm also excited to see promised communication between the BP Game Team and the players as this has been a truly successful aspect with WC. My current theory stands that the communication efforts on the WC forums was either some form of pilot project or something accidental which ended up being successful.
For those who haven't been active on the War Commander forums, the communication between the WC Game Team and the players consists out of the following aspects.
Focus Group meetings
WC Game Team members asks discusses the game and future plans related to once specific subject to a community group of players.
The members on the Focus Group invited to the Focus Group meetings do usually change and the information published on the meetings aren't covered by a NDA.
At this time, 3 meetings has been made and the topic has been monthly events, PvP and Shadow Ops for the respective meetings.
The meetings are more or less done to get
Burny's Briefing Room podcast
A podcast were the WC Community Manger interviews a kixeye employee and asks some frequently asked questions. At this state, 5 episodes of the podcast has been published.
Developer communication on the public forums
Developers are active on the forum and discord server and answers community questions about the game. (Link to WC Discord: https://discord.gg/QNdcnxK)
This do also consist about state of official state of the game posts and other forms of pinned communication posts.
Community events
Community contests and events other community events. One of the most recent instances was a PvP event with kixeye employees as a high value target.
In conclusion, I'm truly excited about this post even if I cannot consider myself as a Battle Pirates player and don't forgot to not underestimate the power of WrongThinker. It could just be the case that he thinks right to the player standards.
Regards Axel L
How condescending can you be? You just doubled my anger towards Kixeye with this post. How dare you! Go back to sucking up in War Commander. you don't understand this game or our frustrations. Just **** ***
As a 6 mill id player I have seen a lot of changes over the years my suggestion would be go back to basics. When we could build a entire fleet between raids and do well we are more likely to coin for the next greatest thing. Even with tokens every week from the FM it can be a struggle. Before we were able to auto then FM and get done in a short time then kixeye nerfs the countermeasure in effort to stop that (I can not think of any other reason why they did that) that sends a negative statement to the players. Without the conquest yard you can not keep up with building what it needed for base defense, raid hulls, base attacking. What does a player do short of coining? That sends a negative message too. 30 day turret builds along with a base defense fleet (assuming you have the conquest yard) to try to keep a 400+ fleet from leveling your base on auto sends a negative message too. There are only so many tokens available from the FM. I bet any player would be willing to coin a base defense fleet or turrets to try to improve their base at the right price. Maybe they want to coin a base hitter or the raid fleet. Maybe they want to refit fleets with new tech. I am not against coiners we spend our money how we wish. Look what happened at Netscape and Yahoo Will do not do the same here. If you make $1 profit and sell 1 million widgets you are still a millionaire.
Thanks a lot for the communication Will Harbin and I'm truly thankful for this post. Here are some of my thoughts about the post and it was definitely worth reading. Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander.
Firstly, this post can be seen as an indication that kixeye has messed up and that they want to repair the damage caused. It can't be a coincidence that the unicorn himself leaves the unicorn office and writes this post. His approach to repair the damage appears to be sorting out some of the bad apples from the game team and to value the player opinions higher than previously seen.
Secondly, it's interesting to see that WrongThinker will become design lead for Battle Pirates and his skills shouldn't be underestimated. He used to previously be a design lead for TOME and War Commander and he has also been a great advocate for communication between the game team and players. At this time, he has posted a total of 20 different WrongThinker Thinks posts which is inside communication posts about the future and he has also been a major contributor to communication on the WC and TOME forums. He has also been a major contributor to general developer to community interactions on the forums.
Thirdly, I'm also excited to see promised communication between the BP Game Team and the players as this has been a truly successful aspect with WC. My current theory stands that the communication efforts on the WC forums was either some form of pilot project or something accidental which ended up being successful.
For those who haven't been active on the War Commander forums, the communication between the WC Game Team and the players consists out of the following aspects.
Focus Group meetings
WC Game Team members asks discusses the game and future plans related to once specific subject to a community group of players.
The members on the Focus Group invited to the Focus Group meetings do usually change and the information published on the meetings aren't covered by a NDA.
At this time, 3 meetings has been made and the topic has been monthly events, PvP and Shadow Ops for the respective meetings.
The meetings are more or less done to get
Burny's Briefing Room podcast
A podcast were the WC Community Manger interviews a kixeye employee and asks some frequently asked questions. At this state, 5 episodes of the podcast has been published.
Developer communication on the public forums
Developers are active on the forum and discord server and answers community questions about the game. (Link to WC Discord: https://discord.gg/QNdcnxK)
This do also consist about state of official state of the game posts and other forms of pinned communication posts.
Community events
Community contests and events other community events. One of the most recent instances was a PvP event with kixeye employees as a high value target.
In conclusion, I'm truly excited about this post even if I cannot consider myself as a Battle Pirates player and don't forgot to not underestimate the power of WrongThinker. It could just be the case that he thinks right to the player standards.
Regards Axel L
Its to early to praise Will Harbin or WrongThinker. The damage is done with the desicions from the last months and Battle Pirate is a very complex game, so i dont expect wonders from a new Dev lead.
We had excessive numbers of updates in the last months, so it is obvious, that there are a lot of problems with the programming. Then we have the problems with the balancing...in the PvP part and in the current raidtargets/maptargets and TLC´s. There is a lot of work to do, so it will not be a matter of few weeks. I am expecting the first significant improvements in the january raidformat.
The next months will be a mess, if we like it or not.
Like always, changes will not happen instantly and I would guess that the consequences will only truly be noticed after few months if a side by side comparison is made.
The patient has 60 second left to live and you are suggesting a tea break. GO AWAY. You make me angrier.
... Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander....
Enough said Mr WAR COMMANDER MOD. If you don't understand the extreme frustration that this games community is experiencing then go back to play War Commander. You are not adding value to this conversation. You are not welcome here.
I contributed to this post as it's still relevant to me even if I'm not a direct BP player. The information provided by kixeye in this thread shouldn't be underestimated as it do show that the higher ups at kixeye has realized there mistakes and that they care about there games.
By belief why the BP team got changed recently was that it wasn't successful enough with delivering quality either due to some internal issues and that there existed members in that team that wasn't passionate enough to make the game as good as it could be.
If it is your intention to make us more angry as a community then you are doing a great job.
@CJSII said:
lol did Venture cut off Harbins dope allowance?
Funny thing, they got 20 million more in venture capital in May 2018...Google it....something about using machine learning for retention, marketing and monetization
Battle Pirates is the sandbox for the development of the AI that optimizes marketing, monetization, and retention.
This is why we see such huge pendulum swings, they are gathering data on how far they can push the players (monetize) before we leave. This is also why Kix cannot let Battle Pirates die, because where would they then gather the data for the $20M AI?
So, we better all realize that Kix is no longer a company driven to make money through delivering a good gaming experience, it's a company developing algorithms for squeezing the most cash out of their players.
Thanks a lot for the communication Will Harbin and I'm truly thankful for this post. Here are some of my thoughts about the post and it was definitely worth reading. Please note that I'm not an active Battle Pirates player and my main kixeye game is instead War Commander.
Firstly, this post can be seen as an indication that kixeye has messed up and that they want to repair the damage caused. It can't be a coincidence that the unicorn himself leaves the unicorn office and writes this post. His approach to repair the damage appears to be sorting out some of the bad apples from the game team and to value the player opinions higher than previously seen.
Secondly, it's interesting to see that WrongThinker will become design lead for Battle Pirates and his skills shouldn't be underestimated. He used to previously be a design lead for TOME and War Commander and he has also been a great advocate for communication between the game team and players. At this time, he has posted a total of 20 different WrongThinker Thinks posts which is inside communication posts about the future and he has also been a major contributor to communication on the WC and TOME forums. He has also been a major contributor to general developer to community interactions on the forums.
Thirdly, I'm also excited to see promised communication between the BP Game Team and the players as this has been a truly successful aspect with WC. My current theory stands that the communication efforts on the WC forums was either some form of pilot project or something accidental which ended up being successful.
For those who haven't been active on the War Commander forums, the communication between the WC Game Team and the players consists out of the following aspects.
Focus Group meetings
WC Game Team members asks discusses the game and future plans related to once specific subject to a community group of players.
The members on the Focus Group invited to the Focus Group meetings do usually change and the information published on the meetings aren't covered by a NDA.
At this time, 3 meetings has been made and the topic has been monthly events, PvP and Shadow Ops for the respective meetings.
The meetings are more or less done to get
Burny's Briefing Room podcast
A podcast were the WC Community Manger interviews a kixeye employee and asks some frequently asked questions. At this state, 5 episodes of the podcast has been published.
Developer communication on the public forums
Developers are active on the forum and discord server and answers community questions about the game. (Link to WC Discord: https://discord.gg/QNdcnxK)
This do also consist about state of official state of the game posts and other forms of pinned communication posts.
Community events
Community contests and events other community events. One of the most recent instances was a PvP event with kixeye employees as a high value target.
In conclusion, I'm truly excited about this post even if I cannot consider myself as a Battle Pirates player and don't forgot to not underestimate the power of WrongThinker. It could just be the case that he thinks right to the player standards.
Regards Axel L
How dare you step into this conversation and talk down the concerns of this community for your own advantage.
You have no understanding of how extremely frustrated we are. KIXEYE knows they are facing gameover in Battle Pirates and they have admitted it. We do not need a puppet and schill Forum Moderator from War Commander to come over here, suck up to Kixeye and try to gain brownie points from the CEO.
If it was your intention to inflame the situation then well done.
Hello all, The marking of 7 years of Battle Pirates has come upon us. But what about the years of issues? Today marks yet again another day we the players will log on to play and find VXP weekend (this time) filled with game play issues. I as well as many others had intentions of ranking one fleet or another but found nothing but problems that made the game (to be nice) less than fun to play. So, what I did was; Send fleet in for repairs and log off an hour in to play time that is normally on a Saturday morning 3 hrs. and write this post.
Not really sure when all the issues started popping up left and right but it is at least 2 years now. Mr. Will H (Kixeye) . It seems you spend plenty of time creating all sorts of things like new phone apps (another way to pull out coin) but very little time spent on creating good issue free game play. Personally I really do think you, (Kixeye) are lax in this area due to the pile of coins people spend in the game. As long as they keep dumping in money, you could really care less about fixing game play issues in a timely manner. Why would you right ? Makes sense. Now about the "NOW and the FUTURE part of the letter with a little history of mine.
Game friends say they remember me in "black water" days, I can't remember that but, I have been playing a long time now. Started out like everyone (back then) having a lot of fun AND coining. Long story short, my last pile of coins were purchased sometime in 2014. I could look it up for the exact date but no point. The point is;.... THAT is when I had enough with the way the game was going. From that time frame on the game has been riddled with issues and game play ideas / events that pissed off players left and right.
The now... No coin since 2014 and none now. Low interest in all "the new" stuff. Still playing game but less. Missing raids.
The future.... NO COIN... Play less, much less. Days without logging on. less interest in game. Falling farther behind with tech.
For sure you can predict the future farther out. Many have gone down same path before me. 3 months ago or so I posted asking for money back I had in coins and I would just walk away. Never a response from Kixeye at all. Too bad. Weather or not Kixeye would give back coin isn't the point. The point is a player had enough and was so unhappy in game they wanted to bail but not loose coin in bank.
To date right now I have just short of 1600 coin/gold in the bank. Going forward even that coin means very little to me. Things need to change pretty fast for the better to keep from adding me to the list of those whom quit game. Many will not care if I personally play or quit but the numbers of online players are very low compared to a few years back.
Mr. Will Harbin, I think you've done a wonderful job entertaining me with Battle Pirates these past years but the game has gotten too expensive. What I don't understand is why the build time of hulls aren't coming down with several hulls being needed during a particular cycle.We were told by GD Rankin that Charged armors were going to be eliminated yet here we are with a new FM armor for the Dragon. The constant refits to hulls is setting the majority back, that needs to stop.The SSRBs are a joke. It's a forced Expedition chore. Think about it. Most of us didn't build the Chameleon because our post raid fleets are meant to do chores.With the SSRBs it's a forced Proto build. Now this is my point....if the hull to do the raid becomes obsolete post raid then what is the purpose of playing the raid or TLC because the Proto hulls will be viable in both.I have the Manti print, I even built one. I won't build the whole fleet when I should be able to refit my Phoenix fleet to do the 80s and/or 60s. I had my Phoenix fleet refitted to do the 80 set this month. I tried a 80 set on the day of the raid and I was like cool 24 coins for the set. I log back in Saturday and try the 80s again and the whole fleet died in a 85, now I'm like wtf just happend? That's just being greedy Mr.Harbin.Why is it so hard for you to compromise with the community on a set repair time. I bought the Cannoneers fleet during the Siege raid and they rocked. The target damage didn't fluctuate.If having to refit a raid hull 3 times a raid cycle, forcing chore builds, and upping the raid target damage is going to be your business model then I'm fookin outta here.
Just saying, new armor is not charged armor... No one is forcing you to do SSRB's because there are still normal map targets that you can do with your fleets.... Lastly, there has only been 1 refit needed this whole raid cycle on manticores and that was the darkwing cic that was only needed to be put on 3 of the 5 ships in the fleet.
Stop being such an apologist (Google it if you do not understand)
Whahaha lolol the things i do in battle pirates these days,,,,,,,,
i do a couple of 85 targets for titanium ,,,,,fabricate vxp tokens and dayly reavertarget for that useless box,,
After 3or if i;m luckey 4 85 nav relays my skyfires go in repair for "11and a half hour" this seems to be the standard ,,,,,i have a chat or not and i log out and start up World of warships
Things i can not do anymore,,,,Due to the fast changes forsaken mission,,,,,,no fleets and for the crab i can get its a waste of time raid,,,,,,,,, no fleets,, also impossible to get something bounty,,,,,,,,,,,,, also a waste of time because the hulls i got are only suitable for bounty targets and bases,,,,if i win a hull it must be suitable to attack ALL targets because for base attacks they are not good enough,,,,,if you can find life bases anyway,, most of them are dead,,,,,so this is also a waste of time. TLC's also impossible damage rate is so high i can not do it in time,,,,now we are at the point due to the fast changes i can not do them either Dracbases are recently changed so i can not do them anymore,,,,,,,no fleets ,,,no tech
state of the game is dead nobody attacks my base this is becoming a rare phenomenom. My only purpose in this game is that my base is a greasy stain on the map and i'm waiting for the plug beiing pulled and this game stops
What ever Kixeye telling the players its always a deception and a lie(youre not good at that so you better stop doing that)
You lost me as an active player who was spending moderate a couple of years ago but that got out of control on kixeyes side.
Many nice people i have met also crazy ones that was the good thing(the only one)
So Mr CEO when do you have the balls to put a statement on this forum with a closing date for this dead game?????? instead of another dumb story which no one believes???
Mr. Will Harbin, I think you've done a wonderful job entertaining me with Battle Pirates these past years but the game has gotten too expensive. What I don't understand is why the build time of hulls aren't coming down with several hulls being needed during a particular cycle.We were told by GD Rankin that Charged armors were going to be eliminated yet here we are with a new FM armor for the Dragon. The constant refits to hulls is setting the majority back, that needs to stop.The SSRBs are a joke. It's a forced Expedition chore. Think about it. Most of us didn't build the Chameleon because our post raid fleets are meant to do chores.With the SSRBs it's a forced Proto build. Now this is my point....if the hull to do the raid becomes obsolete post raid then what is the purpose of playing the raid or TLC because the Proto hulls will be viable in both.I have the Manti print, I even built one. I won't build the whole fleet when I should be able to refit my Phoenix fleet to do the 80s and/or 60s. I had my Phoenix fleet refitted to do the 80 set this month. I tried a 80 set on the day of the raid and I was like cool 24 coins for the set. I log back in Saturday and try the 80s again and the whole fleet died in a 85, now I'm like wtf just happend? That's just being greedy Mr.Harbin.Why is it so hard for you to compromise with the community on a set repair time. I bought the Cannoneers fleet during the Siege raid and they rocked. The target damage didn't fluctuate.If having to refit a raid hull 3 times a raid cycle, forcing chore builds, and upping the raid target damage is going to be your business model then I'm fookin outta here.
Just saying, new armor is not charged armor... No one is forcing you to do SSRB's because there are still normal map targets that you can do with your fleets.... Lastly, there has only been 1 refit needed this whole raid cycle on manticores and that was the darkwing cic that was only needed to be put on 3 of the 5 ships in the fleet.
Stop being such an apologist (Google it if you do not understand)
Just stating the facts... 540 million and 500 million in the last 2 raids with nothing spent.
"Are we friends? Or are we foes? That kind of thing you decide for yourselves! "
May 2nd marked the seven year anniversary of Battle Pirates - a game I'm incredibly proud of. Over the years we've seen exciting new factions, incredible player tributes, and tons of emergent gameplay. But if there's one thing I've learned in my tenure, it's this:
Complacency is death.
Unfortunately, Battle Pirates has become a bog of complacency. A lack of diligence has allowed balance-breaking bugs to escape and go unnoticed for months. A lack of community engagement has caused us to lose touch with the speed that players can realistically progress. A lack of planning has forced the team to wildly over-tune stats, targets, and events in order to shoehorn value into new content.
All because of complacency. Well, complacency isn’t going to cut it and it’s time for us to right this ship. So what are we doing to fix this?
First, I’ve put a new leadership team in place. Our issues don’t stem from the talented individuals working long, difficult hours to execute on the nuts-and-bolts of the game, it’s about how we’re deploying those resources. Heading up that leadership team is our new GM, Michael Rubinelli. A State of the Game post will go up in the next few weeks in which he will discuss the long-term look for Battle Pirates. Additionally, our new Lead Designer WrongThinker will be putting up a post on Wednesday introducing himself, as well as the second part of our correction strategy, which I will now spoil.
Battle Pirates has adopted a philosophy that dictates everything we do. It’s simple: “Players First.” Content and features will continue to ship, because that’s how the game is supported, but with every new feature, we will always ask: how does this enhance the player experience? How does this make a player’s life better? Easier? More fun? If the only answer to why we’re putting something in the game is money - I don’t want it in the game.
Finally, we’re tripling down on our community engagement efforts. Expect to see more developer presence, more AMAs, more live streams, more unadulterated proof that the Battle Pirates team is exactly as invested in the continued success and longevity of this game as you are.
The fact that we’re in this position is no one’s fault but our own. The time of complacency is over. You’ve shown us that you’re here for the long haul, and it’s time for us to show you that we’re here for it too.
Long live Battle Pirates!
Will Harbin
CEO
Famous last words Will? i remember when you wrote a letter to the community about this not being a free game anymore , and that you did'nt care what the player base felt about it, so now your saying you are gonna listen to the player base? too late you had your chance , i for 1 am tired of not playing this so called game , it used to be a blast , now it's stale To little and way to late for many player's , all i hear from gamer's is that let find another game thats not a chore, Remember it used to be fun ,and now chore i have at home to do , certainly not in a game, you took an epic game and trashed it , that's my opinion1
PRIORITY 1 . . . . . FIX THE BUGS !!!!
PRIORITY 2 . . . . . IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ADD SOMETHING THAT FORCES KIXEYE TO DEVELOP THE GAME IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CUSTOMERS TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE.
Funny thing, they got 20 million more in venture capital in May 2018...Google it....something about using machine learning for retention, marketing and monetization
We all know Flash is dead, and it's probably accurate to say that a lot of the bugs and programming compromises are due to limitations of that ancient tech.
We know deadlines slip and schedules change -- but if by now you haven't set a target for the new platform, you're farm more ***** **** **** then we had imagined.
The fact that you're making a big deal out of changes to the Flash platform is worrying. Why keep dumping development effort into a dead-end?
99.99% of us would be just fine with seeing Flash stabilized while you focused on getting the next platform ready to go.
No matter what you do, there will be a revenue drop as we approach cut-over, as no one is going to keep spending on stuff that might not be ported to the new environment.
So far, all we have to go on is a brief mention of the move to HTML5 in one of those pointless live streams. Stop treating
IOW, your support model is supported by feeding the Whales. The average player can't afford to keep up, so they get discouraged and quit.
The majority of players would be ecstatic to see the torrent of new tech slowed to a trickle. The new tech does nothing to broaden player choices -- a key element in a build game -- all it does is rapidly obsolete the stuff we spent weeks and months building.
You do understand that is a big source of player rage or are you so busy counting Whale Coins you don't care?
New tech should broaden player choices, not take them away. If you introduce a new hull, it should give me choices!! As an example, give me three roughly equal hulls, for example, optimized for Missiles -- one of them offers more weapon slots, the other offers more special slots, the third has nice buffs to missile stats -- there would be advantages and disadvantages to each choice -- new stuff needs to broaden player choices, not take them away.
It's a basic gaming principle, I'm very sure you're aware of it (or at least there have to be someone on your staff who was, but you probably fired them for being player friendly) We're all sick of new content that makes old content obsolete.
It's hard to believe anything you say, if you're already said that you're not going to stop flooding us with new stuff -- and implying the rapid obsolescence will continue.
Are you so narrow-minded that you're unable to conceive of other revenue models beyond Whale feeding?
What about all these data-mining algorithms you boast about to potential investors? Have they failed already? If they're so good, why hasn't that opened up a revenue stream for you?
Over-dependence on revenue from new content means nothing significant will change. We're burned-out from constant change, none of which is fun.
more choices also gives you more potential builds. more tears from not enough build time.
Will this apply to vega?
You have no understanding of how extremely frustrated we are. KIXEYE knows they are facing gameover in Battle Pirates and they have admitted it. We do not need a puppet and schill Forum Moderator from War Commander to come over here, suck up to Kixeye and try to gain brownie points from the CEO.
If it was your intention to inflame the situation then well done.
Go back to your corner!
Battle Pirates is the sandbox for the development of the AI that optimizes marketing, monetization, and retention.
This is why we see such huge pendulum swings, they are gathering data on how far they can push the players (monetize) before we leave.
This is also why Kix cannot let Battle Pirates die, because where would they then gather the data for the $20M AI?
So, we better all realize that Kix is no longer a company driven to make money through delivering a good gaming experience, it's a company developing algorithms for squeezing the most cash out of their players.
And we are the guinea pigs.
The marking of 7 years of Battle Pirates has come upon us.
But what about the years of issues?
Today marks yet again another day we the players will log on to play and find VXP weekend (this time) filled with game play issues.
I as well as many others had intentions of ranking one fleet or another but found nothing but problems that made the game (to be nice) less than fun to play.
So, what I did was; Send fleet in for repairs and log off an hour in to play time that is normally on a Saturday morning 3 hrs. and write this post.
Not really sure when all the issues started popping up left and right but it is at least 2 years now.
Mr. Will H (Kixeye) . It seems you spend plenty of time creating all sorts of things like new phone apps (another way to pull out coin)
but very little time spent on creating good issue free game play.
Personally I really do think you, (Kixeye) are lax in this area due to the pile of coins people spend in the game.
As long as they keep dumping in money, you could really care less about fixing game play issues in a timely manner.
Why would you right ? Makes sense.
Now about the "NOW and the FUTURE part of the letter with a little history of mine.
Game friends say they remember me in "black water" days, I can't remember that but, I have been playing a long time now.
Started out like everyone (back then) having a lot of fun AND coining.
Long story short, my last pile of coins were purchased sometime in 2014. I could look it up for the exact date but no point.
The point is;.... THAT is when I had enough with the way the game was going.
From that time frame on the game has been riddled with issues and game play ideas / events that pissed off players left and right.
The now... No coin since 2014 and none now. Low interest in all "the new" stuff. Still playing game but less. Missing raids.
The future.... NO COIN... Play less, much less. Days without logging on. less interest in game. Falling farther behind with tech.
For sure you can predict the future farther out. Many have gone down same path before me.
3 months ago or so I posted asking for money back I had in coins and I would just walk away. Never a response from Kixeye at all.
Too bad. Weather or not Kixeye would give back coin isn't the point. The point is a player had enough and was so unhappy in game
they wanted to bail but not loose coin in bank.
To date right now I have just short of 1600 coin/gold in the bank. Going forward even that coin means very little to me.
Things need to change pretty fast for the better to keep from adding me to the list of those whom quit game.
Many will not care if I personally play or quit but the numbers of online players are very low compared to a few years back.
LVL 110, <<< SAMBUCA REV >>>
Yet, Will Harbin is still alive and kicking.
i do a couple of 85 targets for titanium ,,,,,fabricate vxp tokens and dayly reavertarget for that useless box,,
After 3or if i;m luckey 4 85 nav relays my skyfires go in repair for "11and a half hour" this seems to be the standard ,,,,,i have a chat or not and i log out and start up World of warships
Things i can not do anymore,,,,Due to the fast changes
forsaken mission,,,,,,no fleets and for the crab i can get its a waste of time
raid,,,,,,,,, no fleets,, also impossible to get something
bounty,,,,,,,,,,,,, also a waste of time because the hulls i got are only suitable for bounty targets and bases,,,,if i win a hull it must be suitable to attack ALL targets because for base attacks they are not good enough,,,,,if you can find life bases anyway,, most of them are dead,,,,,so this is also a waste of time.
TLC's also impossible damage rate is so high i can not do it in time,,,,now we are at the point due to the fast changes i can not do them either
Dracbases are recently changed so i can not do them anymore,,,,,,,no fleets ,,,no tech
state of the game is dead nobody attacks my base this is becoming a rare phenomenom.
My only purpose in this game is that my base is a greasy stain on the map and i'm waiting for the plug beiing pulled and this game stops
What ever Kixeye telling the players its always a deception and a lie(youre not good at that so you better stop doing that)
You lost me as an active player who was spending moderate a couple of years ago but that got out of control on kixeyes side.
Many nice people i have met also crazy ones that was the good thing(the only one)
So Mr CEO when do you have the balls to put a statement on this forum with a closing date for this dead game?????? instead of another dumb story which no one believes???