I saw a bunch of 1 stars for Squadron Tower Defense (One of my favorites). Their reasoning was you had to learn how to play by asking people, and since people are jerks, it's hard to learn how to play. So since people are jerks, it makes the game bad. :P Some people never seem to think before taking action.
I saw a bunch of 1 stars for Squadron Tower Defense (One of my favorites). Their reasoning was you had to learn how to play by asking people, and since people are jerks, it's hard to learn how to play. So since people are jerks, it makes the game bad. :P Some people never seem to think before taking action.
False. Don't hate on the players, hate on the game. Almost every game issue that players complain about can be solved through hard work or clever design changes.
I've played Squadron TD many times and I agree that it's too hard to learn (took me about 3 plays to fully grasp all the concepts). The loading screen is completely wasted - as most loading screens are. It's bloated with version and patch info that nobody cares about, where it could be used to instruct new players about the game's basic rules (I haven't played recently, maybe it's different now). The game could also have hints floating over buildings and units, which would disappear when you successfully complete a task or maybe not appear at all after you've won your first game. I have this hint feature in my map, and I've gotten tons of comments about how easy it is to learn. My point is that I think the STD authors are either lazy and/or uncreative and/or apathetic about teaching the game to new players. I don't the community should settle for less - STD could be a lot better than it is.
And to contribute to this thread, I found this review for my map:
"The best fucking shit that ever ate shit and then shit out the shit which continues the cycle once again. In short this shit is awesome."
False. Don't hate on the players, hate on the game. Almost every game issue that players complain about can be solved through hard work or clever design changes.
I've played Squadron TD many times and I agree that it's too hard to learn (took me about 3 plays to fully grasp all the concepts). The loading screen is completely wasted - as most loading screens are. It's bloated with version and patch info that nobody cares about, where it could be used to instruct new players about the game's basic rules (I haven't played recently, maybe it's different now). The game could also have hints floating over buildings and units, which would disappear when you successfully complete a task or maybe not appear at all after you've won your first game. I have this hint feature in my map, and I've gotten tons of comments about how easy it is to learn. My point is that I think the STD authors are either lazy and/or uncreative and/or apathetic about teaching the game to new players. I don't the community should settle for less - STD could be a lot better than it is.
And to contribute to this thread, I found this review for my map:
"The best fucking shit that ever ate shit and then shit out the shit which continues the cycle once again. In short this shit is awesome."
Ya a major challenge is helping the players to understand the game. My map is very simple and there is really only one basic thing to know for the most part. That is to upgrade your economy at the engineering bay. In the how to section of my map i the main picture tells you how to upgrade your econ with a caption below it, on the loading screen in bright text there is a short instruction that tells you how to upgrade your economy, and when the game loads there is text that pops up telling you to type -help for information on how to play the game and tips as well.
Despite the simplicity of the game and me giving players THREE opportunities to just read the instructions and id say in maybe 100 of my 1,600 reviews people are saying they didn't understand how to play the first time cause they didn't know how/where to upgrade econ, when i tell them THREE times. I even have a kick feature where the emperor can kick 1 insubordinate vassal a game which i was worried about people abusing, but in the year and a half the game has been around ive never once seen it used because no one knows about it because no one reads the directions/bright green text on the loading page. It also bugs me that people have the nerve to post stuff like i didnt understand how to play or it didnt make sense, if you didnt read the how to play in arcade before playing the first time its 100% your fault if you dont know how to play.
I cant imagine how bad it must be for games that are actually complex and take some time to learn. The only way i think you could get the 13 year old player base to read a few simple instructions is to make your loading screen a naked lady and write the game instructions on her boobs. For me personally and i hope for most people i don't play a game without looking at the games how to play section in arcade. Your solution of using a database (or bank w/e it is) to identify a new player and put abunch of tooltips and hints in is interesting but seemingly way to much work because the player cant take 30 seconds to read something.
Your solution of using a database (or bank w/e it is) to identify a new player and put abunch of tooltips and hints in is interesting but seemingly way to much work because the player cant take 30 seconds to read something.
Yeah, it's a ton of work. I put in dozens of hours into planning, designing, implementing, and testing the dynamic hint system that I use in my map. The results have really paid off, but I could have saved myself so much time if my map were being played by these fantasy make-believe players who actually read instructions. You have find ways to give players the bare minimum instructions of what they need to do, and only tell them when they need to do it. If you can get them started by looking at the right buildings at the right times, the rest of the learning is more intuitive.
For some reason "If you love your mouse.. your mouse loves you!" put a smile on my face, kind of an adorable photon cycles review.
I don't get why people get so upset over negative reviews, do you really expect everyone to make a conscious well thought reviews? If I were 11 there would be nothing preventing me from posting thoughtless infuriating review just because I can. I would not care about what I'm doing at all. Also, WaRadius just made my day =D
It could be far worse really. Why, Tofu has a lot of bad reviews waiting to be posted before it is even put out there! I hadn't really thought much about making my project easier to understand for newcomers, who will be pretty much everyone.... Which means yet more things in my project that aren't done/started yet, blah.
False. Don't hate on the players, hate on the game. Almost every game issue that players complain about can be solved through hard work or clever design changes.
I've played Squadron TD many times and I agree that it's too hard to learn (took me about 3 plays to fully grasp all the concepts). The loading screen is completely wasted - as most loading screens are. It's bloated with version and patch info that nobody cares about, where it could be used to instruct new players about the game's basic rules (I haven't played recently, maybe it's different now). The game could also have hints floating over buildings and units, which would disappear when you successfully complete a task or maybe not appear at all after you've won your first game. I have this hint feature in my map, and I've gotten tons of comments about how easy it is to learn. My point is that I think the STD authors are either lazy and/or uncreative and/or apathetic about teaching the game to new players. I don't the community should settle for less - STD could be a lot better than it is.
This is insulting to say that we are lazy or uncreative. Tsjnsn created it the summer before he started college when he was younger, and since then has never has time to devote to do anything major to it so it was mostly stagnant for a year; many mappers have stopped their map in favor of college. I've just recently taken over Squadron TD development a few months back but I've also been busy and can only really code at night, and I will be going to grad school in 20 days so I will also have to give up development then as well.
That said, I agree that there are some difficulties learning the game, but compared to most maps out there I think it is fairly intuitive and easy to pickup as is - just hard to master. My prioritizes since taking over have just been on addressing bugs, balance and other features that the game needed done for awhile. I have plans for some framework in place for a Builder Tutorial/Guide feature as well as tip system for new people yet there is much to be done.
Your map Tower Defense Tycoon, does have an amazing tutorial/tip system and all maps should strive for something like that, but it is something almost every mapper overlooks on their first creation and it does take dozens of hours to make a great system like that.
In my opinion, just becuase a map does not have a tutorial, and you have difficutly learning it, doesn't mean you should give it a bad rating. If you play a game twice, and don't get it, then either try to understand it before playing, play it some more, or don't play it. If you don't understand the game, then how are you supposed to rate it? Sure, you could say it's difficult to learn, but that gives you no reason to give it a low rating. Basically, when you give it a low rating becuase your confused, you're actually rating it out of rage.
"MY FAVORITE GAME! IT IS LIKE POKEMON"
Five stars. :)
DayNine (I dont believe it's the real DayNine though) rated my map 1 start because "the map was great but I lost so it didnt change my life".
Here's a weird one
Now I'm confused. What should I do? Nerf the protoss or the zerg race?
Obviously, buff terran.
Haha no amazing comments but my map is at the front page, up and coming... with mineralz. great new maps on the us server
wasn't this a positive adjective? didn't use any pink or shades of grey in my map tho
One bad.
And one good.
My favorites are the 1 stars with no reviews. Retards dont know that they can rate the map without reviewing.
@Hookah604:
someone on the na forum should sugest a minimum of 5-10 letters for a review
@Clord: Go
what map is this
Nothing beats the guy who rated 1 star for Word Wars because he was upset the map was a Starcraft Custom Map.
If people are rating 1 star because the map is a custom map, you can expect rage quitters in every single map.
I saw a bunch of 1 stars for Squadron Tower Defense (One of my favorites). Their reasoning was you had to learn how to play by asking people, and since people are jerks, it's hard to learn how to play. So since people are jerks, it makes the game bad. :P Some people never seem to think before taking action.
False. Don't hate on the players, hate on the game. Almost every game issue that players complain about can be solved through hard work or clever design changes.
I've played Squadron TD many times and I agree that it's too hard to learn (took me about 3 plays to fully grasp all the concepts). The loading screen is completely wasted - as most loading screens are. It's bloated with version and patch info that nobody cares about, where it could be used to instruct new players about the game's basic rules (I haven't played recently, maybe it's different now). The game could also have hints floating over buildings and units, which would disappear when you successfully complete a task or maybe not appear at all after you've won your first game. I have this hint feature in my map, and I've gotten tons of comments about how easy it is to learn. My point is that I think the STD authors are either lazy and/or uncreative and/or apathetic about teaching the game to new players. I don't the community should settle for less - STD could be a lot better than it is.
And to contribute to this thread, I found this review for my map:
"The best fucking shit that ever ate shit and then shit out the shit which continues the cycle once again. In short this shit is awesome."
Ya a major challenge is helping the players to understand the game. My map is very simple and there is really only one basic thing to know for the most part. That is to upgrade your economy at the engineering bay. In the how to section of my map i the main picture tells you how to upgrade your econ with a caption below it, on the loading screen in bright text there is a short instruction that tells you how to upgrade your economy, and when the game loads there is text that pops up telling you to type -help for information on how to play the game and tips as well.
Despite the simplicity of the game and me giving players THREE opportunities to just read the instructions and id say in maybe 100 of my 1,600 reviews people are saying they didn't understand how to play the first time cause they didn't know how/where to upgrade econ, when i tell them THREE times. I even have a kick feature where the emperor can kick 1 insubordinate vassal a game which i was worried about people abusing, but in the year and a half the game has been around ive never once seen it used because no one knows about it because no one reads the directions/bright green text on the loading page. It also bugs me that people have the nerve to post stuff like i didnt understand how to play or it didnt make sense, if you didnt read the how to play in arcade before playing the first time its 100% your fault if you dont know how to play.
I cant imagine how bad it must be for games that are actually complex and take some time to learn. The only way i think you could get the 13 year old player base to read a few simple instructions is to make your loading screen a naked lady and write the game instructions on her boobs. For me personally and i hope for most people i don't play a game without looking at the games how to play section in arcade. Your solution of using a database (or bank w/e it is) to identify a new player and put abunch of tooltips and hints in is interesting but seemingly way to much work because the player cant take 30 seconds to read something.
Yeah, it's a ton of work. I put in dozens of hours into planning, designing, implementing, and testing the dynamic hint system that I use in my map. The results have really paid off, but I could have saved myself so much time if my map were being played by these fantasy make-believe players who actually read instructions. You have find ways to give players the bare minimum instructions of what they need to do, and only tell them when they need to do it. If you can get them started by looking at the right buildings at the right times, the rest of the learning is more intuitive.
For some reason "If you love your mouse.. your mouse loves you!" put a smile on my face, kind of an adorable photon cycles review.
I don't get why people get so upset over negative reviews, do you really expect everyone to make a conscious well thought reviews? If I were 11 there would be nothing preventing me from posting thoughtless infuriating review just because I can. I would not care about what I'm doing at all. Also, WaRadius just made my day =D
It could be far worse really. Why, Tofu has a lot of bad reviews waiting to be posted before it is even put out there! I hadn't really thought much about making my project easier to understand for newcomers, who will be pretty much everyone.... Which means yet more things in my project that aren't done/started yet, blah.
This is insulting to say that we are lazy or uncreative. Tsjnsn created it the summer before he started college when he was younger, and since then has never has time to devote to do anything major to it so it was mostly stagnant for a year; many mappers have stopped their map in favor of college. I've just recently taken over Squadron TD development a few months back but I've also been busy and can only really code at night, and I will be going to grad school in 20 days so I will also have to give up development then as well.
That said, I agree that there are some difficulties learning the game, but compared to most maps out there I think it is fairly intuitive and easy to pickup as is - just hard to master. My prioritizes since taking over have just been on addressing bugs, balance and other features that the game needed done for awhile. I have plans for some framework in place for a Builder Tutorial/Guide feature as well as tip system for new people yet there is much to be done.
Your map Tower Defense Tycoon, does have an amazing tutorial/tip system and all maps should strive for something like that, but it is something almost every mapper overlooks on their first creation and it does take dozens of hours to make a great system like that.
In my opinion, just becuase a map does not have a tutorial, and you have difficutly learning it, doesn't mean you should give it a bad rating. If you play a game twice, and don't get it, then either try to understand it before playing, play it some more, or don't play it. If you don't understand the game, then how are you supposed to rate it? Sure, you could say it's difficult to learn, but that gives you no reason to give it a low rating. Basically, when you give it a low rating becuase your confused, you're actually rating it out of rage.
I win.