If I were redesigning Godus....

I wouldn't. Everything about Godus is bogged down with limitations dictated by mobile. The look and feel is quaint for an "indie" vibe but that ship sailed. Sculpting is entirely designed around touch screen interfaces and only frustrates on the pc. Raising and lowering land was possible back in '90, it's not exactly cutting edge. Resource gathering is a joke and not worth retaining. There isn't a story. There isn't any multiplayer.

Anything designed would essentially be a remake of Populous rather than a new version of Godus. Apart from a mobile game, it doesn't represent anything. Well, I might keep the name...

I brought up the whole term "gems" in the first Alpha build and was basically called an idiot for stating how closely related to F2p it was. Then I was lied to repeatedly for almost a year that the "gems" in Godus was in no way related to F2p and it never would be. Slowly the F2p truth reared it's ugly head and suddenly the term "gems" is now just supposed to be an assumed part of what Godus was always to be a F2p mobile game. The build the backers were given were to be a PC non F2p game but the base of it is still the same to the F2p mobile game that Godus is today. They created a way to try to cheat the system by allowing the PC players to obtain gems by sacrificing it's followers, ironic since PM sacrificed his backers to feed the F2p Dena monster. It is beyond a total fail and the whole idea of the word "gems" in any way being a part of Godus new "pc sprint" pisses me off beyond contemplation. 

I really hope there are no more such obvious spits in the faces of the backers by allowing anything close to a "gem" or anything close to that core mechanic. Long and short of it, give the game a reason to be played that has nothing to do with someone having an ability to obtain more cash by having a player play the game. Cosmetic extras are fine, but nothing else. I find it really hard to believe any game designer would not already know exactly what makes a game F2p versus non F2p , just take all that crap out and put in a story in it's place. 

The game should not run when I am not playing, that infers a F2p. The game should have no tedious daily chores that can be bought out of, that infers a F2p, so get rid of this belief collection and happiness clicking. I would actually like to use my brain of bit more and my wrist less when playing the game so the voyagers need serious help to be challenging and fun for someone with an average IQ or higher. 

I agree about the chests from the storms too, that is just another fail. Someone please remember this is supposed to be a GOD game and so perhaps some more godly aspects would help. Take a read about several different religions both recent and ancient and incorporate some of those beliefs and powers and story lines into it. If you take a look at the TV show Supernatural they do an awesome job at making their show about their TV show's canon and also by adding in realistic aspects about Gods and all the creatures to make their overall product more authentic in their lore. 

That is one of my favorite all time TV shows. They take something from every lore and turn it into gold. No matter your personal beliefs the show is never boring.   Another tip that 22cans could take from them is their love of their fans. They make amazing fan episodes for the fans and add in fun-to-catch Easter eggs from previous shows or movies of both their own acting careers and many others of their genre. The actors are amazing to their fans too and always give credit where credit is due for their amazing 10 season and going run.....their fans. I am pretty sure die hard fans will go out of their way to keep the show around just as die hard gamers will do for their beloved games. Godus needs to get back to it's roots of what it promised and make that game for those fans. If they don't because of ANY reason, the love will be lost forever from their fans. No excuses are acceptable, I don't care if they "really try", I care what they do. Their words mean less then a used car salesmen's would for me now. 

Learn by other game makers mistakes and please understand, I really don't care that you have to honor some connection to your f2p, you lied to me to be a able to make that. I don't want to hear excuse for the PC game being limited in any way due to that or you are breaching your KS promises due to fraud. Long and short, take out the crap and add in a ton of good. You should want to excel in your field and not hit bare minimums of your promises either, that is just sad. 

The problem is that the underlying mechanics are hosed.  Gems both sound f2p and operate f2p.  Their entire mechanic is to provide a means of monetizing game play for the mobile market.  They add nothing to the game's mechanics and provides no tactical choices to make.  Even the means of acquiring them is a hack.  Sacrificing followers doesn't do anything to you but redistributes the wait time to separate timers.  Rather than wait for a timer to expire naturally, you sacrifice followers to gain gems that you spend to complete the timer.  This doesn't reduce the wait time but spreads it out to multiple smaller timers.  Each follower's replacement timer sucks up a bit of the overall timer.

Your concept makes sense but it requires a number of mechanics that would already make a big difference in how the game plays.  If followers actually discovered/gathered resources, we'd have a completely different game than we have now.  Also, we'd have more control since we would be the ones placing gifts, which would mean we choose what resources the followers get.  What Godus lacks more than anything is a means of strategy to accomplish a goal.  We don't pick resources.  We don't choose building placement.  There isn't much planning since we're channeled into where we can and can't shape the world. 

We don't even have the ability to create.  Not having a raise land power is the first and biggest red flag this game has had since day 1.  Cards and stickers could be adjusted to make sense but a god game where the gods only destroy is not much of a god game.  I feel more like a strip-mining corporation than a god.  We have few powers and few have utility in anything but an intensely limited situation. 

To make this game anything near what it was initially billed as, the whole game would need to be stripped back down to sculpting.  A raise land power would need to be introduced.  Then, a resource generation mechanic would need to be constructed for followers.  This would lead to designing buildings to use and store those resources.  After that, powers could be implemented to augment these aspects.  Finally, a timeline of unlockable abilities could be implemented to modify and extend each of these basic features. 

The problem is that 22Cans is going to take the mess that Godus is right now and try to reshape some of the existing mechanics to make sense.  Slapping on new wheels isn't going to change the fact that it was designed as a "god game" without anything for a god to oversee.  There's little to control or direct.  Player input has been minimized to the point where doing nothing is a viable tactic for large chunks of time.  Shortening the timers only pointed out how little there is to this game.  Every aspect of interaction is designed to include a wait timer and it's written into the fabric of the mechanics this game is based on.

I really wish these posts weren't lost to the Great Purge.

I wasn't an alpha backer, and I wasn't able to get access to the official (beta) forums until much, much later (my request for access was ignored for a few months by the time I got around to it). I remember talk about these threads being brought up around then, but most of the really juicy ones were already gone at that point.

Staaahp! Or the magical pruning shears of doom will getcha! *rolls eyes at 22cans*

On a semi-related note... Who wants to make bets on whether a similar mod-driven purge accidental loss of forum data will occur after the holidays due to the huge amount of negative posts unexpected technical glitches 2015 will bring?

Deleting posts is so easy, a monkey could do it. If you accidentally do one, okay. Anymore is a lie or you are beyond a moron.


Take a look at the size of Gateworld, it must have genius's mods on it, they seem to be able to handle the spam and yet not accidentally remove posts or send and obliterate massive amounts to the archives.....just so amazing, just wow, if only 22cans, which is a fraction of their size, could have done that. 

I've personally overheard a particularly... interesting community team in the industry discuss doing just that, having happy little accidents that favour their narrative. I wonder if 22cans have partaken of the self same thing. I doubt they'd ever cop to it, but I can imagine it's tempting... you know, steering the narrative and all that.