|
marshmonkey posted:Thanks for the feedback. Don't get me wrong. The pixel graphics are great but not being able to build what and where you want and like others have said the transition into another city losing the progress of the current was the last straw for me.
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 03:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 4, 2024 11:33 |
|
|
Hello!! I'm big fan of Nimblebit games, especially Tiny Tower. If you were planning to stick to the 'new town' upgrades instead of expansions, I would recommend maybe adding more varied personality with each town... The simplest way I can think of is designate some sort of mayor/important person bit person to run the town/city. Or even a slight change of palette colour with the environment, as I feel that the only indication of change is the amount of places you can build a building... And as the environment looks to be about the same size ratio for each one, it's probably why most people are jumping into the "why not expansion?" boat because that huge mass of land just screams "I want to build !!!". Again, if you want to retain the mechanic of progression of jumping from town to town, either change the visuals to reflect that, or maybe even shrink the land into small island-like places, that way players could more understand the limitation and want to move to another island. Is there an option to revisit previous cities that you helped build somehow? Another reason that the game feels level-ish if that you can only concentrate on your progress, it feels more like a chore than intended because there is really no reason to want to switch to a bigger city at the beginning of the progression. No incentive is what I'm trying to get at, but if this game is meant to feel like Egg Inc, maybe it just conveys it a bit more poorly... Anyway, these are my 2 cents. I might write more later on after playing a day or so.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 04:32
|
|
|
HelloWinter posted:Hello!! I'm big fan of Nimblebit games, especially Tiny Tower. Mind blown. I think you're right about the land size vs build area giving a bad vibe. No plans to revisit cities. We were bug fans of Egg so we are shooting for that kind of feel. I can understand players get more invested in a city than a chicken farm.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 04:38
|
|
|
Being able to go back and see how a city is doing sounds like fun to me.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:01
|
|
|
I had a lot of time to kill today with just my phone and spent way too long playing this. It kept me hooked for awhile, but I already feel burned out on it. Some thoughts: -Having never played Egg Inc, I was immensely confused playing this starting out. I expect a city builder and eventually realized it was more cookie clicker. I accidentally reset twice after the first level because I wanted see what the button did because I didn't realize that yes/no prompt was asking me if I wanted to reset. It also took me awhile to figure out I was supposed to just spam the upgrade button. I figured out what historical checkbox does by playing around, but still no idea why it does that. I'm guessing a tutorial is coming later in development. -As mentioned, the stages combined with the prestige/reset system means I got burned out on the first and second tier of stuff really quick. I stopped playing because I beat a level and my two options were either starting a new level from scratch, or resetting to start from scratch with a minor bonus. Neither sounded fun. -I liked the cars/planes/boat system in general. It gave me a nice bonus for keeping focused rather than just idling. I also really like the icons changing size, that was very intuitive. But it eventually became a chore. Planes in particular meant zooming out to catch them, but then I couldn't see cars or my city. Boats were off on the side in boring water, again pulling me away from the other systems in the game. -Maybe it was just me, but there didn't seem to be any real reason to build lots of building. Building big buildings up to the number of upgrades you can do at once seemed the easiest strategy. But to end the level I had to click on each and every single one of those drat lots, which was just a chore. -I realized that I don't like anything about the building upgrade button. Early game it seems like you just mash it constantly. There also doesn't seem to be any way to control what you upgrade, meaning new buildings are done instantly while older buildings take forever. Late game its automated and feels meaningless, and the automated building can't even keep up with the buildings sometimes especially when you build a lot of new ones. Not being able to select what I upgrade meant sometimes it finished instantly and sometimes it took 30 seconds. -The complete lack of any control over the town combined with resetting left the game feeling really hollow. My buildings were constantly changing into random other buildings, layouts were just predetermined grids with dead end roads, and after I'm starting to get the hang of my little town, its time to reset it and move on to the next very similar but slightly bigger town. There was just nothing for me to get attached to except bigger numbers. -As noted by others, the quest for X buildings is directly in conflict with the auto-upgrade system and randomly hoping for certain buildings is not fun in general. -The city power system seems to be just a money sink without any benefit to the player. I'd remove or disable that until you guys can expand upon it. -I randomly got a bug a couple times where the flavor counter for my building had NaN for the number. Like a water tower with gallons: NaN. No idea how to reproduce unfortunately. -I slipped my finger more than once and ended up scrolling way off the map and was unable to find the map again so I just restarted. A center button or better yet a limit on scrolling would be nice. -I can't reproduce this consistently anymore, but at one point my phone had too much crap running so the game was running a bit slow. But what I could do was open the upgrade menu, click the close button, then mash really quickly on the upgrade button while the town was loading. The result was that I could upgrade more buildings than I had upgrades available. I'm guessing it was registering my button presses before the UI could load and update the button to disabled. I realize this is early development still and I had fun, so I'm excited to see what you guys can make of this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:03
|
|
|
Yea, I definitely think that we need to give players more of a reason to be *completing* each city. Right now it's just thrown out there as "this is just how it works". Not like a whole storyline or anything, but just some kind of feeling/presentation that you are the city planner and you have a new mission each time to build a city... Maybe like a mission screen at the start of each one giving some background about the location and what the goal is. I do think getting rid of the large empty surrounding terrain would help some, it would be more obvious, as in "there is literally no place left to put buildings".
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:11
|
|
|
Yeah, I think something like a line of flavor text whenever you click a car or plane would help to bring some of the usual Nimblebit charm into the game (maybe even having the bitizens move with you to new cities). Edit: also btw, marking a building as historical stops it from changing after an upgrade, but that's very unclear and a better tutorial system (like one that walks you through an entire prestige cycle, guided by quests), would be good. Colin Mockery fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jan 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:27
|
|
|
marshmonkey posted:Yea, I definitely think that we need to give players more of a reason to be *completing* each city. Right now it's just thrown out there as "this is just how it works". Make the island size you want fully visible but the roads would be hidden until you bought plots. So as you buy plots roads get built and more plots to buy are unlocked. The first level likely wouldn't change but the later levels parts of the island would be revealed as you purchased things making it feel more like you are progressing and going going well I'm going to buy all the blue tiles and buy the blue tile upgrades first!
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:43
|
|
|
Initial impressions are good. The game looks great and is colorful. There is plenty for the player to work on without mindlessly tapping non stop. As someone who can't explain why I love idle games so much, here are some suggestions. - Personally, I dislike idle games that require me to have it open all the time to feel like I'm progressing. Maybe have an upgrade that allows builder bots to work offline or watch an ad for x hours of offline builder bots? Something more than being able to buy a building or two when I return. - I understand having a town layout even if it would be better without, but perhaps allowing us to choose what type of building goes on a lot to allow a slight bit of planning. If you showed how many in total could be built it wouldn't change the balance at all while allowing some freedom in design. - In combination with the last suggestion it would be great if all these buildings had small bonuses attached to give a reason to make something historical beyond looks. They could be city wide or even affecting surrounding buildings. It would add a small sense of strategy to a game otherwise lacking it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:54
|
|
|
I'm in! I was a big fan of Egg Inc.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 05:56
|
|
|
Chiming in to also be confused as to why I had to abandon my first city to get a bigger one with plots. It made me sad that I left it behind before I knew what was happening/
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 06:28
|
|
|
This is my first Nimblebit game, and I was really looking forward to getting into it. But after all the hype in the forums about you guys I expected a bit more than an egg inc. reskin. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 09:38
|
|
|
My favorite part of this game is that its music is inspired by really good Sim City music. My not favorite part is that it's just an idle game. Bug report: I built a pond and it says Ducks fed: NaN. Quickstop has "windshields washed" which needs capitalization and also says NaN. Honestly I'd love this game if you just added RCI bars and made them matter. Like, balancing them gave you more profits. DaveKap fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Jan 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 09:46
|
|
|
Is cloud syncing switched on? Getting an error when clicking the link in the activation email. When manually entering the code ingame it says code error. Game looks good (iPad Air / iPhone 6), a tutorial wouldn't go amiss though as I didn't realise that the upgrade button was what I should be clicking the most.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 11:13
|
|
|
Great stuff, thanks guys. I think I'll definitely try out letting the player pick the zones and maybe just limit them to a certain percentage of total lots. Edit: I've been using the cloud stuff not sure what the issue is. I can get more details on Monday if it is still borked. One other thing I'd always wanted was a little ticker at the top that random news and reactions to the city growth. Would take a ton of writing though so it would definitely need to add a lot. eeenmachine fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jan 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 15:35
|
|
|
eeenmachine posted:Great stuff, thanks guys. I think I'll definitely try out letting the player pick the zones and maybe just limit them to a certain percentage of total lots. Specialization slots would be cool too, maybe the car dock and airport are a type but you could also build a casino a broadcasting tower , something to draw people in and it would change the optimal ratio of zones or at least give some at bonus. Similar to how later SIm City games had that. It would give you a reason to want to start over so you could try something else and it would feel a bit more like you are allowed to experiment more than more of the same. You could even have these things unlocked using keys and each level starts with one or two so you might go hey they have an airport what will go with that on the specialization tile? (likely some tourist trap or center of business) these synergies could even be hidden until you are running them for a bit and you get a notification "The casino and airport seem to be working really well together! They are producing 15% more income than expected!" The game feels like it's missing features which is fine it's early access. It has a good bit of potential.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 15:45
|
|
|
I haven't played the Egg game nor have I played Sim City since 4 ages ago, so hopefully I can provide some perspective from that point of view The other part of me hopes I'm a lovely beta user that doesn't get addicted to this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 16:26
|
|
|
Haven't been able to find a starbits shop for the fully caffeinated mission. Also you misspelled "caffeinated". Also just reiterating it would be really nice to be able to pick which buildings to upgrade if I wanted or at least upgrade lowest levels first. Oh yeah and if it's a mission building it should automatically become historical because the poo poo just made me mad 😁 lags fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jan 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 16:48
|
|
|
lags posted:Haven't been able to find a starbits shop for the fully caffeinated mission. Also you misspelled "caffeinated". We made the upgrades prioritize low buildings at one point but it didn't feel good at all. Every time you'd buy a new lot you'd spam the poo poo out of it (no other choice) and you would never see the low level buildings in the game. You might as well just start the building off at the level you want. Spamming build while a crane sits there for a minute or two wasn't great. Edit: It might be interesting to have an upgrade that raises a buildings start level though... eeenmachine fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Jan 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 17:01
|
|
|
eeenmachine posted:We made the upgrades prioritize low buildings at one point but it didn't feel good at all. Every time you'd buy a new lot you'd spam the poo poo out of it (no other choice) and you would never see the low level buildings in the game. You might as well just start the building off at the level you want. Spamming build while a crane sits there for a minute or two wasn't great. If you were going to add a building start level upgrade, I'd suggest attaching it to the existing construction time upgrades since those already make the first upgrades instant anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 17:29
|
|
|
So far the best strategy I have found in most cities is to ignore small plots while building large ones and buying upgrades. Unfortunately, this means completing the level means very drudgingly building on every small plot. With the lagging (I suspect a memory leak since the lag goes away for a few minutes after restart the app), I can't even build fast enough to keep pace with my income most of the time. Perhaps a button that auto builds open plots, or tying advancing to the next city to something other than just filling out the plots would help?
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:00
|
|
|
eeenmachine posted:Great stuff, thanks guys. I think I'll definitely try out letting the player pick the zones and maybe just limit them to a certain percentage of total lots. I also can't seem to get the cloud stuff working either. I started on my iPhone 4s at work (runs fine on that pile, I was surprised) and tried to move my save to my iPad later yesterday evening to no avail. I see my iPhones player code in my iPad but the save is still the first level with tutorial stuff on my iPad. Instead of city 4. So I reset via prestige to see if that would force a save, still nothing. I click anywhere in the cloud stuff and it comes up for a fraction of a second, just enough to see it say loading or something in a little window.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:05
|
|
|
I'm doing okay with the game so far. Not really loving it but can't put it down either. There needs to be a breakdown of how many of each residential, com, ind buildings you have and how much income you're making in each. There are zero real consequences in this game which is I guess how these idler games work? Is this supposed to be challenging at all? The only thing you could measure yourself against is the time it takes to reach the population goal but the actual time isn't kept! A par time or gold/silver /bronze goal time with rewards you could take to the next city would go a long, long way. Some questions /observations: In my first play, I upgraded property tax a time or two and sat there waiting for my population to go down. I thought as a person coming from a simcity perspective that the tax rate mattered which of course it doesn't. That isn't really clear at all until you play a while. When you move to the next town, available constructions isn't cleared properly and leaves you with a button you can't click until you develop enough plots to clear those out. What does unlocking buildings with keys do exactly? Just add more buildings the game will generate like all the rest? Do these buildings have special attributes? I've never played an idler, what is prestige and why do the keys matter to it?
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:09
|
|
|
Keys unlock buildings that provide a boost to income. So you reset to the first city, but this time your income is a little higher, so you get farther before you plateau. Rinse repeat. No clue if the buildings show up in game though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:15
|
|
|
So its a way to restart the game before you actually beat the last level. The hope is that you're doing it at the right time to make it so you're so upgraded at the beginning that you'll finish the last town before you would have without using prestige? Or am I over thinking it and it's just something people do to scratch the make numbers go fast itch? I completely maxed out city number 4 and continued playing it for another hour or so just to get that last Starbits Coffee. That is a real choice and actually sort of felt fun to do. The coins I gathered doing that are totally useless but the bux weren't so there is that.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:26
|
|
|
It makes numbers go up faster, so mostly that. I'm sure there's some optimal way to prestige, but it's not worth the mathematics phd it would take to figure that out. When I hit a slow patch in these types of games, I prestige. The only wrinkle in this game is that it's pointless to prestige unless there is something to buy with the keys. So try to make sure you have a use for the keys, as in, don't prestige with 10 keys if you already bought all the 10-key buildings.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:33
|
|
|
It's not bad so far, I've made it to city level 5 and I'm not super hooked but I'm not gonna put it away and forget about it either. All I can think to do for feedback is echo that the "have x buildings at once" quests are a real pain with the way the upgrades happen now and that buying all the plots is something of a chore once you have all the large buildings and most of the income off the current map. In addition, I was actually expecting the historic setting to prevent upgrades to a building entirely rather than just preserve the type of building; it makes sense to be able to upgrade it still but I was hoping I could force lower level buildings to get upgraded. It's also a bit bland, though I really like the music.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 18:38
|
|
|
You've got Champagne spelled wrong in the Private Jet listing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 19:37
|
|
|
And for Linguini Kitchen, it should say 'tomatoes', not tomatos.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 19:45
|
|
|
Wow learn to spell marshmonkey!
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 20:00
|
|
|
I restarted my phone and it totally wiped all progress.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 20:07
|
|
|
Enigma posted:I restarted my phone and it totally wiped all progress. Wow. Not even remotely sure how that could happen. No other real details to go off I guess right?
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 20:46
|
|
|
I signed up for iOS. I am still working on Egg, Inc. but that has dwindled to just check once or twice a day. So something slightly different sounds good.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 20:59
|
|
|
I had/have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing upon launching the game for the first time. No tutorial so I'm just hitting random buttons. That wasn't a great first impression but I suppose if I had played more of these kind of games before I would have a better idea?
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 21:06
|
|
|
What does the "historical" check box do on some of the buildings?
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 21:10
|
|
|
IllegallySober posted:What does the "historical" check box do on some of the buildings? The building will level up but stay as that building instead of being randomized. Also the missions I thought had a bit of tutorial, and I was guided to the city hall and garage in a tutorial like experience. Did that not happen for you?
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 21:20
|
|
|
IllegallySober posted:What does the "historical" check box do on some of the buildings? If keeps it from being upgraded into a different building though it will still get upgraded a Level and remain the same building.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 21:22
|
|
|
eeenmachine posted:Wow. Not even remotely sure how that could happen. No other real details to go off I guess right? I had been playing for awhile and was pretty far along. I gave the game a break and was doing some other things with my phone and was having wifi connection issues (unrelated to Bit City). I restarted, and after I launched Bit City I was back at the starting city, no bux, no coins, nada, except it saved my preferences (I had turned sound effects and shadows off). I had kind of set up cloud save in that I had entered my email but hadn't activated the code. After my progress was wiped, I figured I would try restoring through cloud save, so I opened the link in the email and was told the link had expired after 24 hours (it had only been maybe 12 hours). I resent the email and activated, but it did not help. Phone is a Nexus 6p running stock version of latest Android. I wish I could give you guys anything else to go on. Edit: Also when I go to "social" it still has the number of keys I had spent (340) for whatever that info is worth.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 21:46
|
|
|
Drowning Rabbit posted:The building will level up but stay as that building instead of being randomized. Also the missions I thought had a bit of tutorial, and I was guided to the city hall and garage in a tutorial like experience. Did that not happen for you? Thanks. No, I saw the Nimblebit logo and then was immediately dumped at the first city and had to figure out what everything did myself. No title screen or anything. Playing on an iPhone 6+ if it matters. Latest OS.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 21:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 4, 2024 11:33 |
|
|
At first I actually thought I'd lost my first keys since I didn't prestige with enough to unlock anything, and there's no indication of how many you have except on the unlock screen. Is there another place you could put it or a way to gently remind the player? Or maybe you could show the total of both current keys and those you receive from prestiging in the corner instead of just the prestige keys? Could be nice if, say, I'm sitting on an odd number like 27 and saving up for a 75-cost upgrade or something. It's not a mistake someone would make twice after they figured it out, but I didn't feel like I'd accomplished much that first time since it dropped to zero. Enjoying the game so far, though. I like how the upgrade building timers and car bonuses encourage you to play the drat thing instead of just staring at the upgrade screen -- nice balance there.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2017 22:13
|
|
