The way forward for TSO?

[Jimmian]

Couldn't agree more! There should be a dedicated development section either on here or on the main site, split into 3 sections: Bugs, in test, in development. Each item should have an entry created date, description, current status, and expected live date, along with an area for additional comments e.g. why it has been delayed/withdrawn etc. There should be commitment from someone in the dev team to maintain this (or maybe community managers, as long as the dev team actually provide the updates weekly). Players should be able to prioritise the bug and development entries (perhaps some sort of voting system?) so BB know categorically what matters most to the players. We've been out of beta for a long time, there should not be players having to come on the forum to complain that their generals have been lost in the ether for 60+ days.

I'm also a fan of the concept of crisis quests though experience has taught me that the implementation is often seriously flawed (find x amount of y resource on very long search, early in a time-limited quest chain; balloons (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (and associated happy hour that favoured certain servers in a cross-server competition!!!!!); overall rewards not proportional to the effort and expense required to get them, that kind of thing). That said, the Halloween and Christmas events were actually pretty enjoyable from where I'm sitting so maybe there's some new blood in the BB development team and the next crisis quest will be more reflective of achievable, enjoyable gameplay.

I would also like to see alternative payment methods for halving geo/explorer search times and instant complete for build queue (coins, beans, star coins, granite, water, a.n.other in-game currency which doesn't exist yet - the possibilities are endless) - yes gem buying pays for development etc but as has already been said... new and old players leaving quickly due to stale gameplay without buying anything is more hurtful to the profit margins.

I haven't hit level 50 yet but should do in the next couple of months so I too am keen on seeing something significant and long-term appearing for top level players. Personally I'm not terribly interested in pvp but inter guild competition as suggested by jollyfog/Dust2Angel or setting off to find, populate and develop a new island with different resources, requirements and adventures seems like a reasonable evolution in the spirit of the game. So many people have suggested it... maybe level 50 and an 'unlock' cost of 100k beans or stalks or star coins or SOMETHING would seem reasonable expenditure to access a whole new world of content. There are loads of players who are enthusiastic and creative in suggesting meaningful improvements but all we're offered are granite pits.

[Singaboy]

Players have been suggesting so many things for a long time, but stuff that nobody really wants, gets implemented (like the Silo + or soon the granite mine, a new message window that nobody really needed etc).

I am pretty certain, that BB just does enough to keep the moolah flowing without seriously spending much on real development work. Too bad

[Viper9]

Wow wow wait a second. You are talking about implementing something interesting for level 50 players. I am level 35 and there is little interesting to me too. I am not going to level up ever. So when you are talking about interesting stuff, do not exclude low level players. Yes I played adventures a couple of times, but that's it, I am not going to play them any more, I just do the guild quests.

[Jimmian]

That's actually an interesting alternative to what most people have been talking about for a long time... maybe a better evolution would be to introduce specialisms around production and trade, rather than more lands and adventures. I know we have the geo and explorer skill trees but that's pretty limited in what it actually offers and doesn't actually increase any skills, just increase the yield of something or reduce the time of something.

Maybe introducing apprentice and master masons (you can all extrapolate the miners and smiths etc for yourselves) could work. Instead of just having smiths producing standard suitable weapons, they could start off with low-grade ones and the more they make, the better quality they produce. Having something like that generate xp rather than the same old stuck-in-a-rut adventures (lets face it, most people use established guides and even those who don't will in a short space of time develop their own preferred method which they'll then continue to use) would add a completely different dimension. Having the low level weapons fail or have limited impact would adjust the adventure dynamic too. Really interesting idea!

Singaboy - I can appreciate what you're saying and investment does seem to be limited where Settlers is concerned, but I can't believe BB is seriously using that as a business model. If I was involved in such things in BB HQ I would be recommending that enough resources are directed at Settlers as a f-t-p game (with optional extras) so players trust the brand to produce a quality product. That way, when they bring out a new paid product, players will have that level of trust established in the brand and will be more likely to go out and buy the new game. Still, what do I know...

[Singaboy]

@Jimmian, I have been following the development of TSO since early 2011. I had the feeling in the early days, the development was done with a great deal of enthusiasm and quite a number of good ideas popped up. Communication with the community was pretty good with a real good community manager in the German forum. Unfortunately, another business model must have been creeping in after that. What I can see since mid 2013 is the idea of quick buck making ideas such as buildings+, boxes for gamblers and other stuff that requires loads of gems. real development doesn't happen anymore. They have even stopped to bother about road maps for us.

Lots of players have learned their lesson I guess and won't touch another ftp product from BB.

[Gandofli]

I think it would be better if BB started coding the game from the ground up in something other than Flash since it looks to have reached its limits. Maybe HTML 5? For the game to be truly more interesting. e.g adding RPG or real-time strategy elements, I don' think it can be done in Flash. Perhaps, later the accounts can be transferred, although I wouldn't mind starting anew in a new The Settlers game.

[Jimmian]

What I can see since mid 2013 is the idea of quick buck making ideas such as buildings+, boxes for gamblers and other stuff that requires loads of gems. real development doesn't happen anymore. They have even stopped to bother about road maps for us.

Lots of players have learned their lesson I guess and won't touch another ftp product from BB.

And that just proves my point! I'm not a great gamer (TSO is actually the only game I play these days) but in a previous life I played Ultima Online. I LOVED that game... until EA bought it. Suddenly a great medieval knights and smiths and mages game had robots (!!!!!!) in it and it just wasn't the game Richard Garriott had created anymore, and that one I was paying £10 a month x 2 accounts to play!

Coming out of beta was the turning point. Everything these days is a gem sink but everything else discourages me from ever wanting to buy gems. Counterproductive.
Never mind another ftp game from BB... I would think twice about touching ANY other product from BB.

[Monkey_Man1123]

To add to all of this discussion (or at least hope it adds)..

I've been playing this game for what feels like forever, have bought more gems than I'd care to admit, and I can honestly say I just login now to send geo's out, make sure my mines/fields are OK, and that is it. I haven't done an adventure in a very long time. I used to run my guild, but passed that on to someone who was going to be active.

There just isn't anything "fun" for me to do, and I've seen so many great suggestions for content, fixes, changes, etc. in these forums that appear to fall on deaf ears, plus bug after bug continually ignorned. I want to hang around as I've been a Settlers fan since the very first game and want this to succeed, but I am quickly reaching the point where logging in has no value to me and will just let the game fade away.

I feel like I'm just whining and not offering solutions, but in reality, this thread and countless others like it over the past year or so have all had great suggestions, ideas, directions, etc., and nothing has really changed. It truly feels that there are no developers working on this game who have a clue as to what the experiences are like for those who have been playing this game for a while, for if they did, how in the heck could they have not fixed/changed things...just makes no sense.

I think better engagement from the dev teams would go a long way to helping out here. I'd suggest that the dev team here go visit the Path of Exile forums/webpage. Doesn't matter if you like or don't like that style of game, it is a great example of developer/game maker engagement. You could argue they communicate too much. They are always providing updates and information to their community, and have been extremely responsive.

So, I guess I have a little time left checking out this game to see if anything changes, but have pretty much decided it is about time to move on....

[SmurfAsH]

I haven't been playing TSO that long, but to me it seems like BB use their "Community Team/Manager" mostly to give some information to us than actually passing feedback to devs.
To me it seems like BB rather kick/burn out some "Community Team Members/Manager" than actually kick out "bad seeds" in "Dev.-"/"Tech.-team".

[Nihilista]

@Jimmian, I have been following the development of TSO since early 2011. I had the feeling in the early days, the development was done with a great deal of enthusiasm and quite a number of good ideas popped up. Communication with the community was pretty good with a real good community manager in the German forum. Unfortunately, another business model must have been creeping in after that. What I can see since mid 2013 is the idea of quick buck making ideas such as buildings+, boxes for gamblers and other stuff that requires loads of gems. real development doesn't happen anymore. They have even stopped to bother about road maps for us.

Lots of players have learned their lesson I guess and won't touch another ftp product from BB.

This is so spot on. I feel EXACTLY the same. Something happened with BB 6-8 months ago.

We are talking/whining to deaf ears.


EDIT: Fix the bugs, make it possible to make 250(?) units in the barracks, make the Bookbinder work as the Provision House, add the dynamite guys, come up with more stuff to buy for Magic Beans/Star Coins (add the Improved Silos here?), raise the max level, work on PvP/Guild Wars/New island(s) to conquer and build on...

This is suggestion people have made for over a year, still NOTHING happens!