Work in progress

Well could you pretty please at least let the design team know of this request? They don't have to be bothered with taking any action on it right now but it would at least give the idea the opportunity to sink into their minds for later use when the time is right. Plus I think it would be nice for them to know that the spirit of the community has not been entirely broken yet.

To be fair devs generally have limited control over what they do in response to this kind of detail coming in. They might be able to squeeze into a backlog or something but if Peter and Jack et al are driving the bus, there may be a major air gap between Matthew/George feeding the info in and seeing anything as a result due to internal company dynamics, if nothing else.

By the way, I think it would take more than a couple of days to pull this off. You could see this a drawn out brainstorm session. Whereas normally those are supposed to be short, within the structure of a forum I think it should take at least one month.

Not all the backers are going to be present simultaneously. Some of them only check in about once a month. They have just as much a right to be able to participate in such an endeavor as people who check in on a daily basis. What if those people are exactly the people that are walking around with a brilliant idea?

People need time to collect their thoughts and post them and also to read other people's thoughts and then let those sink in. Perhaps a week later they will suddenly have a lightbulb appear over their head.

You have to consider that although you have received replies from people regarding the top 3 things they would like to see included in Godus, they have made those suggestions without being aware of what factors have to be taken into consideration. By that I mean in regards to the elements that have to be retained to keep Godus multi platform.

EDIT: The way you responded implies that your intention is actually to do exactly what you've been doing before which is to not actively discuss ideas with the backers but to gather some intel and then get to work. Which will result in the same situation of design decisions being made that might turn out to be horrible in the eyes of the backer community. The idea is for the design team to take in the information and then respond to us about how they think about our ideas. Then we have a chance to reiterate. Iteration is the key to how Godus is being developed isn't it? Well please iterate with us!

Looking forward to any developments on this matter.

quote, "...Progression in Hubworld is in addition to progression in Homeworld - one does not preclude the other, neither is single-player progression entirely dependent on multiplayer.
I didn't do a good enough job on highlighting the following two bullet points:

Refine PC User Interface – Take a second look at the GUI for PC and see where improvements can be made for mouse-and-keyboard driven gameplay.
Improve PC user experience – Refine existing design decisions and uniquely improve the PC version of Godus to create deeper and strategic gameplay.
..."


I understand "resist the urge to post messages in this thread that are not constructive" but hope all shall also respect that it is hard to do given that these constructive posts are almost exact repeats of those made to 22cans a ("lengthy expletive laden diatribe to emphasize" omitted as per your request.) year and a third ago. Additionally, the 22cans mods are either scared to address me ( fear that it shall be a meaningless negative trolling) or were instructed to ignore me as a result of my exchange with Peter.
I understand both options from a "corporate" POV. But I don't have that and my "code is Art" POV says, "either you can defend your decisions or they were made for the wrong reasons."
and if it is a "lost cause don't want to waste my time" justification, scared is scared ya' pansies. The folks who become the virulent critics do not do so 'cause trollin' is fun.

1: preclude one or the other does not change that the duplicitous pay to win infects and corrupts it beyond any remaining merit.
2: NP, neither did I on stopping 22cans from making a horrible decision to walk straight into the jaws of pay to win pointlessness.

PC user interface: touch screens suck for anything requiring precision. accommodation of huge meat stick means precision of pointy thing mouse is lost. This is why touch screens have huge playschool icons.

PC user experience: I was going to say, "this is really easy. release the base code as open source so folks that actually get it can make the game. 22cans is a lost cause as they have their future bound to pay to win." But that is not constructive. So here goes.
the game is bad because other than sculpting, literally every aspect was designed with pay to win store as only real concern. As a result it is a needlessly grindy slow slog to do anything and everything beyond sculpting is simply without real game play merit.

and the most constructive criticism I can give,
if 22cans wants to be more than a blot on the Zynga clones that died list, go for less hubris more listen to folks that already gave you money.

Love and best wishes, ... bitches
(hey! it is OK 'cause it rhymed!)

I agree that this might be a good middle ground to keep you guys up to speed on all that stuff. One concern that's cropped up around the forums here and there is that there can sometimes be a little bit that gets lost in translation from culling forum feedback, organizing it into a report, sending it to the team, having them digest it, then organizing actionable results. Chiming in with you guys in the midst of these processes would be a good way to keep everyone updated. A feedback loop, if you will. But the good kind!

Hi all, managed to grab a spare moment of Jack's time to get you some responses on essential parameters for your feedback and also on cross-platform compatibility.

Cross-platform compatibility

Firstly, Homeworld is likely to have bespoke rules and balancing that is differentiated between PC and mobile; Hubworld will remain consistent for both. Btw, I only say "likely" because we haven't commenced work on the PC oriented sprint yet, we're entirely focused on getting the mobile version ready for worldwide release (which includes the Settlements revamp). However, differentiation in some form is part of our current thinking.

As we approach the PC focused sprint, we’ll be making changes both small and significant to the existing feature set, so that playing Godus truly feels like the great PC game it should be. As for Hubworld, we’ll be assessing how we can have rules that apply to both versions simultaneously while co-existing in harmony, despite the platform differences.

Areas for useful community feedback

Consider balance improvements, for example:

• The cost of actions/activities
• The time it takes for actions/activities to happen or for you to progress

Feedback on usability, for example:

• Homeworld level design
• Discoverability of items
• Clarity of mechanics
• The flow from one Age to the next
  

Feedback for significant changes:
Consider that rather than following your first instincts to invent new features from scratch, please think about the inherent flaws in existing systems and how they could be improved or adapted so that they feel more like an enjoyable and rewarding PC game. For example, with Stickers, rather than completely discard the existing resource gathering mechanic, how would you improve the existing rules and metaphors?

These things would be helpful. I can then collate any suggestions and add them to the internal shared spreadsheet we use to track feedback, requests and suggestions from the community.

A sticker is a metaphor for collection and accumulation of research/tech advancements. An alternative would be a seal (as suggested on the Steam forum here). Equally, a Breeder is a metaphor for a population multiplier and Belief is a metaphor for currency in exchange for powers and abilities.

I'm not stating that you need to be constricted in your thinking, rather just providing some clear lines of thought to follow that would help us best.

The stickers are not a metaphor for the perseverance of the human spirit or some shit. They couldn't even possibly BE that, since YOU(god) are moving the earth to fish it out. Humans aren't doing anything in this equation.

The stickers are just an artificial limitation to keep me from getting the cards i EARNED through the actual purported purpose and activity of the game - making my civilization bigger and more civilized.

Don't you see that needing them makes the MAIN POINT of the game(or at least the early ages) superfluous? All we do is move land so they can build more houses and expand our population. Go forth and multiply. But getting enough population doesn't give you new abilities, it just gives you the privilege of LOOKING at the ability. Like, "Hi, i'm a cool new god power, you'd like to have me, wouldn't you? Well you can't because there aren't enough treasure chests in the WORLD for you to unlock me. Sad day for you."

That entire mechanic was stupid in the first place. Here, i'll give you a better idea, that makes everybody happy, but it would require rewriting EXTENSIVE amounts of code, and replanning part of your monetization scheme:

Naturally occurring and god power given resource deposits in the landscape. You use belief to "turn the land" to the type of resource which you want, and certain resources are better in certain altitudes(so the most valuable resource would be on the highest mountain top, requiring the most belief to turn the land or form a city near and around the resource due to the cost of sculpting a mountain to put a city on).

Before a city is built near the resource, the villagers in homes near the resource mine it or work it, and occasionally a "sticker" or what have you would pop out above the resource. When you build a city near a resource, the "sticker" pops out more often, and the city takes on the appearance of a city dedicated to the collection of that resource(i'll leave it up to you to figure out the logistics of how proximity to multiple player formed resources changes the trappings of the city).

Resources occasionally run dry, which necessitates reinvigorating the resource with god powers. Need lots of belief to keep drawing nutrients out of the same ground or mining the bottomless mine.

You can monetize it by buying a single dose "reinvigorate resource" power that is some kind of a bargain on belief. So if it takes 200k belief to reinvigorate a resource, and 200k belief is something like 2 dollars in the store, then sell the reinvigorate for 1 dollar. It's not a shortcut which makes buying belief itself superfluous because belief powers lots of other things like god powers.

Okay, and here's the catch. The player cannot remove the resource without hitting it with a destructive god power. The resource can go dry and become useless, but it cannot be removed, or its land pulled out from it, except by something like a meteor strike, an apocalyptic god power. That way, in the future ages when different kinds of resources are required, you as god need to hit them with something apocalyptic so that you can wipe the slate clean to build new cities with new resources.

This system gives players greater control over the world they will shape, and adds to the prototypical god narrative and gives meaning to the seemingly senseless acts of destruction that have been wrought upon the world over time, adds to the impression that it is the progress of civlization ITSELF which furthers the endeavors of mankind, where god provides a helping hand by adjusting mankind's environment, it makes players feel more powerful and in control, and it removes the STUPID treasure chest from no where mechanic, and allows you guys to make a buck.

There ya go.