BB ALEX listen to us

[Thejollyone]

Yes you heard right...

This dev refuses to listen on the test server, and has now resulted on many players leaving in droves on the live server

ALEX LISTEN TO US - read the LIVE forums

EDIT:

I am going to say what I think you as DEVS are after - BALANCE.

You cannot expect balance of resources by your means in a few months after we have had 6 years of hoarding them.

COMPROMISE

Take away the star storage, but do it over 6 months - allow us to trade all we have in there

BALANCE

We then need to build more storage, which takes up space

This is surely a more feasible means of balance than the complicated methods you are undertaking at the moment?

You are assuming any player over a certain level has unlimited resources to complete certain tasks - this is totally untrue

As it stands you are alienating your most loyal of players each day, which is a shame.

Please review your thoughts ASAP

I realise my suggestion will go down like a lead balloon with the players, but at least I am giving a rational compromise. Anyone else has a better suggestion?

[Mannerheim]

I don't think it helps to post here as he probably has time to only follow to the test server forum and possibly the German one (but never seen him there). BTW he has listened the feedback in many many features and he is not the only dev there :)

About weekly challenges there is already thread about them and some kind of improvements or aids are most likely coming in the future but since the update and hotfix busted plenty of things in the game they may be busy and the changes never happen fast anyways.

[Larili]

I have to be clear that i have not used my test account for years, long before Alex seemed to take over, so all I have is `chat info' and forum info and whats come to live server to go on and I am acutely aware that limits my perspective.
However, whilst in the early days of BB Alex reign, things were very much improving in the game and all told the response from players was very positive, this has not been the case recently, and this last upgrade and event has shown a definite return to the old ways of BB devs ignoring test players concerns and bug reports not being acted upon till its gone live and inevitably gone wrong requiring a hotfix or unscheduled maintenance.
It has become a long standing joke that when it comes to that lovely word BALANCE, the devs have such a poor grasp of productions, and therefore in game values of things, that anything new put into the game which has `balance' at its core they will always get it wrong. Primarily because they still think as developers of the game they know better than the players....Well sorry guys and girls at BB, time and time again you've proved this not to be the case, and this last update is once again underlining the issue.
As it seems you did not listen to players concerns, your now alienating players as can be seen on other threads, all of this could so easily have been avoided and those good ideas and elements of the game upgrade could have been welcomed rather than ridiculed, with just a little more thought and consultation.
Everytime we have had incidents like this players always return to the same thought that you can not possibly be playing the same game as the rest of us when you constantly get the values of things so drastically wrong. I said the same when I finally gave up testing , as whilst I got use to being ignored, having to constantly say `I told you so', when it all went blue birds up after being released on live, did not give me any satisfaction and was getting rather depressing. The only way you will truly understand why players like doing certain things over and over again, and never do other things is by playing and designing on the back of that playing from the ground up WITHOUT instants. Yes you probably do not have the time as developers to do this, I totally understand, but then you should also recognise this as a weakness in terms of development and consult those that do have the knowledge and experience.....your players, and take due note of what they have to say and be less dismissive to their input.
We already have stacks of adventures which we don't do because you will not redress the loot or losses, there are quests and guild quests, where progress was made a while back but still players push their mouse to the delete button more often than not. And now are these weekly quests going to go the same way, ignored and just an added irritant to many of your players? Or are you going to man up and admit you got it wrong and do something about it?
The game is old, I'm sure the new settlers game is getting all the attention, but remember we are your most likely customers for that game if you treat us right. Let your hair down, throw the serious cap out the window and make the next few months a real hoot for the TSO community....look at it as an investment ;)
p.s. Keeping your head down, hoping this will blow over, and not communicating back on this issue is no longer an option giving the feelings being expressed here and on chat. You need to do something quickly to restore a little faith. Please don't make me say `I told you so' again :)

[SmurfAsH]

There are several changes, I personally would like to see in the game, which would improve the economy building part of the game in my opinion. All of them might have a negative impact on the community.

Let me show an example. It is just an example and not a planed change:

Resources from adventures, quest and trade are always going into the storage even if they would exceed the capacity. The overflow will not be transfered to the star menu and will stay in the storage. This overflow will be halved every day as sort of an upkeep for exceeding the storage capacity.
Only resources from the merchant will go to the star menu.
This would require improvements telling you, if you would exceed your storage when buying a certain amount in the trade. Of course this would only work with the cooldown on loot mails, you mentioned. The goal would be to get rid of all stuff allowing you to use the star and the mails as a storage with an infinite capacity.

Can you imagine the impact?


Have fun
BB_Alex

https://forum.tsotesting.com/threads/22607-Game-improvement?p=46524&viewfull=1#post46524

[Ozzymandeus]

Quoted because it bears repeating:


p.s. Keeping your head down, hoping this will blow over, and not communicating back on this issue is no longer an option giving the feelings being expressed here and on chat. You need to do something quickly to restore a little faith. Please don't make me say `I told you so' again :)

I have to echo Larili's reasons for deserting the test server because I, too, got fed up of seeing so much feedback left that was completely ignored, especially the feedback left about bug after bug after bug that the developers utterly failed to address before implementation on live servers. It did not take long to reach the stage where it seemed like a futile waste of time and effort to do anything other than check out the test server forum occasionally to see what was about to come our way and figure out how best to prepare for the inevitable.

After the introduction of new content like XXL and the venture campaigns, I got a bit more hopeful, but still I see the vast majority of updates requiring extended downtime and/or hotfixes in order to be implemented and it certainly looks like the development team are not learning from their long history of mistakes and, therefore, seem doomed to continue repeating them.

[Urd123]

I think many of the things above are very well said.
But also do disagree on something.
What made me like this game and keep playing was that this is a relaxed game. No competition between players. No rush if you did not want to. People helping each other and sharing. I see that falling apart. I am pushed into adding 25%-50% to production capacity - not to fill a need to more resources - I have what I need to do what I like in the game. Do adventure and chat with my friends. It feels very silly to set up production just to be able to make the needs for the exaggerated production quests.
I do like to have extra and that people are villing to share. If the possibility of saving to star is removed some of the laid back quality of this game is gone. Even if some of the most dramatic zink quests are removed.
I do agree that the devs seems to have no clue about what goes on in game and what it is that makes the players want to keep playing the game. If the game is changed too much - then new players are needed. If it is no longer what made us like the game in the first place - then we stay way longer than we would because of our friends - but at some point it is no longer enough and we leave.

It has started - this game like my last game is moving towards more pay less play. I do find it ok to pay. if we don't there is no game. But if the pay is overshadowing the game - then it is time to leave. With too hard challenges - too little resources around and more competition it would start to be appealing just to pay. I see more an more opportunity to gem stuff popping up in game. It is appealing the first few times. I know that from my last browser game. Then it just become boring and pointless and people find something else to do.

If too hard challenges and more competition it would also no longer be my game. That is not what made me like the game to begin with.

So make some fun weakly challenges dear Alex. It does not have to be a walk in the park - but dont make us all travel to Mars and back. Dont mess with the star, -and don't make a fool of people who trust you. They use a lot of hard earned pumps on a gen that has no other quality than having a nice tent. People feel cheated and then they dont really trust BB any longer.

[trumpeteer]

I think many of the things above are very well said.
But also do disagree on something.
What made me like this game and keep playing was that this is a relaxed game. No competition between players. No rush if you did not want to. People helping each other and sharing. I see that falling apart. I am pushed into adding 25%-50% to production capacity - not to fill a need to more resources - I have what I need to do what I like in the game. Do adventure and chat with my friends. It feels very silly to set up production just to be able to make the needs for the exaggerated production quests.
I do like to have extra and that people are villing to share. If the possibility of saving to star is removed some of the laid back quality of this game is gone. Even if some of the most dramatic zink quests are removed.
I do agree that the devs seems to have no clue about what goes on in game and what it is that makes the players want to keep playing the game. If the game is changed too much - then new players are needed. If it is no longer what made us like the game in the first place - then we stay way longer than we would because of our friends - but at some point it is no longer enough and we leave.

It has started - this game like my last game is moving towards more pay less play. I do find it ok to pay. if we don't there is no game. But if the pay is overshadowing the game - then it is time to leave. With too hard challenges - too little resources around and more competition it would start to be appealing just to pay. I see more an more opportunity to gem stuff popping up in game. It is appealing the first few times. I know that from my last browser game. Then it just become boring and pointless and people find something else to do.

If too hard challenges and more competition it would also no longer be my game. That is not what made me like the game to begin with.

So make some fun weakly challenges dear Alex. It does not have to be a walk in the park - but dont make us all travel to Mars and back. Dont mess with the star, -and don't make a fool of people who trust you. They use a lot of hard earned pumps on a gen that has no other quality than having a nice tent. People feel cheated and then they dont really trust BB any longer.

this ^^ our guild is so disheartened after the weekly quests came into the event, that it is not something they can complete on a regular basis. To even suggest that any storage from mail or star would be removed is just stupid.

Do any of the developers of the game actually play and understand the dynamics?

Having played this game for a few years and spent a lot of real money, am totally disillusioned with the way things are going?

BB ask for feedback to things but dont really interact with what is being said?

We have moderators in game that are so ready to moderate, I am not dissing them, but they are unpaid players that give up their time. Why can we not have developers spending more time in forum letting the players of the game know what is going on?

A dedicated spokesperson, who can reply to posts so we dont have to second guess like on this thread???

[topgearfan]

You mean like a community manager?

[Mannerheim]

Yeah that's what community managers do, communicate between dev team and the community. The development team wont jump to regional forums to post stuff and most likely not even read other than possibly randomly as there are hundreds or thousands of posts done daily. We are also just one region while there are 10+ others with their own forums.

The test server is the international and centralized place to give feedback upfront about upcoming features and the only place to have a chance to receive dev team replies.

We get feedback threads locally too and in I think our community managers collect key points from them and forward the info to the devs.

[Kotugo]

I suspect he's the wrong person for the job.

If most of the players are sticking around because they enjoy a laid back game they can make slow progress in then it's really not going to work to have a designer come on-board and decide the game needs to be fast paced, high difficulty and random progress. He's going to end up with a dead game that no one else but him wants to play.

[lordloocan]

Maybe we ought to be appealing to the next layer of management at the company rather than to a level which appears not to be interested. I am confident that the senior management would be appalled at the outrage on the forums.

[Xibor]

I've never seen the customer treated in such ways by any company that survives.

[luckydiddy]

probably my biggest issue ... if you have decided to give it a go ..... one section of weekly "challenge" .. you pay hundreds of elite expensive troops .. only to find once you have done it you then get shafted by complete 3 TOW or other adventure you either don't have .. don't have the time for .. nor can find in trade nor have the troops for as you had just used up all your stocks on making hundreds of elite troops to give away for the previous part.. so that bit was not only ridiculously expensive but now a total waste of time. ... end result .. now start of new week .. new pathfinder tasks (I love pathfinder .. my favorite part of the game) .. and cant be bothered... as mentioned on other threads .. this has broken all enthusiasm i had for the game nor can I see ... it getting its mojo back again now.

[Peajay]

I agree with most points here, the adventures from the weekly quests need to go. The high resource demands need to be lowered. People feel encouraged to complete all the quests in their quest book and those are almost impossible since many adventures are not played or traded or even affordable when they are.

Can the weekly quests be moved to the ship? Then its easy to ignore them if you don't want to do them.

[OleGit]

What BB should really do is have a completely unannounced hotfix that will take up five of the final few hours allowed to complete the first instance of a tremendously unpopular new feature.

[Ozzymandeus]

I've never seen the customer treated in such ways by any company that survives.

There is an old saying which states that, "The customer is always right."

If that is the case, then it seems very much like BB_Alex is in the wrong here.

[Steve1077]

What BB should really do is have a completely unannounced hotfix that will take up five of the final few hours allowed to complete the first instance of a tremendously unpopular new feature.

LOL, I tell you I'm close to leaving the game again, yet another completely unannounced hotfix, BB, you suck!

What makes it worse is the hotfix is only for players over lvl65, at this rate I'll never reach that, what's the rush? Yet again I'll be losing the log in bonus and running things with no buff for hours, why do you keep doing this???

[PELIAS]

There is an old saying which states that, "The customer is always right."

If that is the case, then it seems very much like BB_Alex is in the wrong here.

That saying was just made up by a guy called Harry Gordon Selfridge. To ensure good customer service from his employees. I have working in the retail sector for many years and it still surprises me that some customers think that saying was an actual law passed by government for trading standards or some other such nonsense.

But I do know where you are coming from. The way we have been treated by a certain dev (no names mentioned) I can honestly say that it is very bad customer service.

[Urd123]

There are at least treads about the same issue. Mostly the new weekly challenges. I have peeped in on another forum and saw the same thing there. Weeks after week the same topic is discussed in help and global, maybe I missed the response from BB as I gave up also lost any interst in reading anything on forum.

Now I am just tired. I have been called negative because I say what I think about stuff. If I was negative I would not bother. The reason I have written anything at all in the past is because I care about the game.
Now I am beyond care, as it is clear to me that BB no longer cares. With this massive response from players I would have expected some sign of interest from BB.

The total lack of feedback confirms my suspicion that they game is just here for a year or 2 now - then they will close it down. The fact that new things are made does not really change that- as I guess they can use new elements in the new settles game.

I will continue playing, but started my search for a new game to replace this one. It has been fun, found lots of friends in here, and have been enjoyed playing the game.

My forum times is over, cant see the point in giving feedback when BB dont care. Devs prefer to think that we play on real servers like on test and do adventures by sending random troops to camps - without caring what the cost is.

[lordloocan]

That saying was just made up by a guy called Harry Gordon Selfridge.

He died a pauper, following ''poor decisions'' hmm, maybe BB need to learn that lesson?

[Urd123]

He died a pauper, following ''poor decisions'' hmm, maybe BB need to learn that lesson?

Yes - the customers are free to find another shop. That is what some us old players are in the process of doing now. Been a few weeks since I last looked in. I can see that nothing has changed - BB really does not care what we think.

[Betty_chook]

i been thinking about this for a while.
i currently dont do the adventure parts coz i dont have the adventures
BUT
we can get slt blt etc for 1500 star coins
maybe bb need to add 1001 adventure chain for star coins as well even if they charged say 2-2.5k star coins we all got the lab that can make them even tho we need to do adventures to get the plat ore to do it and wait for them to be made
but i think this would be a kinda compromise add them adventures like the fairytale ones for star coins also.
then maybe more people would do the weekly quests as have a way to get the adventures at a cost of which BB deem right in their opinion as the luck based drops on getting the adventures needed are a joke.

[Areop-Enap]

maybe bb need to add 1001 adventure chain for star coins as well even if they charged say 2-2.5k star coins we all got the lab that can make them even tho we need to do adventures to get the plat ore to do it and wait for them to be made
but i think this would be a kinda compromise add them adventures like the fairytale ones for star coins also.
then maybe more people would do the weekly quests as have a way to get the adventures at a cost of which BB deem right in their opinion as the luck based drops on getting the adventures needed are a joke.

Second this.
I asked BB last year to add the ali adventures from weeklies to the adventure merchant, but whether it's for map frags or star coins as long as it gets rid of the luck element for getting them I don't care where they are added.

It's the least BB can do since they did make the promise weeklies wouldn't involve luck to begin with...

[cliff60]

I think TSO is in wind down mode. They seem to be refusing to accept flash will be gone in about a year or 2 at the most. They have repeatdly said they will not move away from flash. Now we r gettong more and more new stuff added to the game that needs gems. And unpopular new things.

So i think they r just putting stuff in to get more money from us and driving players away just so they have an excuse to close the game down due to not enough players left.
Ive seen it in other games that have done the same then after milking players for money and driving players away closed the game down with no warning.

I dont think its the devs decision its the upper management that make the descisions.

1 game i quit playing a few years ago did the same thing. Their owner did a press interview and said he doesnt give a stuff about the players only how much money he can get out of their wallets. The devs and staff for that company quit over it.

I think the devs here r under orders from the company owner to get ppl to quit and at the same time increase the money they r getting from the players before retiring the game when flash is gone.

Ive been playing this game for 2 years now and spent a lot of money on the game. But now im not buying anymore gems as i know this game is getting ready to close down.

Not bothering with the weeklies as they r not cost effective. only bit i do is the ships to get the XP but i dont bother with the other parts.
Weeklies r way to expensive to do. all the res u have to produce then pay double. then that res is needed to make the troops to do the next part which u have to then pay then u need those troops do do addy u cant get. so total waste of time and effort.

[Mannerheim]

I think TSO is in wind down mode. They seem to be refusing to accept flash will be gone in about a year or 2 at the most. They have repeatdly said they will not move away from flash. Now we r gettong more and more new stuff added to the game that needs gems. And unpopular new things.


They are not really refusing to accept it because they don't "have" to and they have already posted about it at German forums few times. Latest posts are from December where the both scenarios are mentioned, the flash removal from browsers and from Windows. (Google translate)

https://forum.diesiedleronline.de/threads/136418-Wie-geht-es-mit-DSO-ohne-flash-weiter?p=1658950&viewfull=1#post1658950

https://forum.diesiedleronline.de/threads/136418-Wie-geht-es-mit-DSO-ohne-flash-weiter?p=1659159&viewfull=1#post1659159

[WildWizard]

So as of next year the game is dead.

So no more spending money on this game then.

I do hope someone from BB reads this post and understands why, "we the users can not support you if you do not provide a supported product."

[lordloocan]

They are not really refusing to accept it because they don't "have" to and they have already posted about it at German forums few times. Latest posts are from December where the both scenarios are mentioned, the flash removal from browsers and from Windows. (Google translate)

https://forum.diesiedleronline.de/threads/136418-Wie-geht-es-mit-DSO-ohne-flash-weiter?p=1658950&viewfull=1#post1658950

https://forum.diesiedleronline.de/threads/136418-Wie-geht-es-mit-DSO-ohne-flash-weiter?p=1659159&viewfull=1#post1659159

Thanks for these Mannerheim. Says a lot that we have to gather this information from a different server. Here's hoping the new BB will be somewhat more active

[Soupssss]

nothing change...
It's the way thesettlersonline works for years...
Buy Gems and you can talk in forum, but no one care...

[Urd123]

nothing change...
It's the way thesettlersonline works for years...
Buy Gems and you can talk in forum, but no one care...

Well it has not been like this all the time, there was a period when they seemed to listen. Now they seems to only want to make us put in new year wishes, and start doing like lots of other games going downwards- planning endless event with chances to spent gems.