@iPadisGreat - we just released the 3.1.1.0 update with a ton of new goodies in it. We hope you enjoy this new release and we are working on the next one already which has a boatload of stuff scheduled to get added. If you like the game, we'd love you to rate it and comment! Also, we watch these boards pretty closely, so if you have any comments or feedback, please share!
Sorry if the thread gets a little muddy in the middle -- this thread has just been merged with the iPad thread, as Star Traders RPG is a universal app. Thanks for the admins for the help!
@actionrpg - I just made new game icons last night and Cory is doing the final testing. Hopefully by the start of February, but it all depends on how fast the App Store review team is moving. Recently, their average day count is pretty good. Another update for the free / IAP version is also just coming out of final testing! It's going to be a big one.
It should be the exact same game with updates hitting at the same time if coded right. I'm looking forward to the paid version.
@undeadcow - we are making sure that there is no difference between the two versions. Both will receive updates at the exact same time, and the Elite version will cost the same as the IAP and have the exact same Elite unlocked features. We are just adding this because there seems to be a heavy preference to paid games on the App Store, but we aren't going to allow it to cheat the early adopter IAP team! Cory says the next update will include 50 new ships! Can't wait!
Brilliant stuff.. I can't add much more to what's already been said but just wanted to thank the dev's for bringing this type of deep game to iOS and for staying so involved in the community. I hope you can keep momentum up and attract a full review from TA.
@FRS - thanks for the complements! As we are still porting major feature / functions from the Android, the next couple of months are going to be packed full of jumbo releases. Lots more to come, without a doubt. I am trying to be patient until the game is more "fully featured" to put in a tip for TA and see if we can get a proper review. @Xexist / @FRS - I hope you will both share with your friends and network and leave us a review on the App Store. If you have any feedback about how we can make the game better, we'd love to have you share it. We are always excited to enhance the game from customer suggestions--especially things about how it plays on your Apple devices, as we are more at home in Android and don't see all the out-of-the-box expectations from the App Store community as clearly.
Odd thing, after unlocking the "Elite" version of the game there are Elite-only upgrades that show up with a Buy button in Stardock ship upgrades, but I can't seem to actually purchase them from the next screen... It just says "Elite-Only" even though I've used the IAP to upgrade? Am I missing something or is this just growing pains with the different versions you're releasing? I've noticed a couple reviews on the appstore that apparently have experienced the same thing, so I'm guessing it may be a bug or at best just needs better documentation if it's a feature. I've also noticed some odd behavior, like if you tap in certain text content areas (the text under planetary descriptions for example) it brings up the keyboard and allows you to edit the text? That seems strange and probably should be locked. Also, for the life of me I can't figure out how to create a Stash on a wilderness world? Do only specific character classes have this ability? And the last gripe I have was I took a spying mission and though I can spy on most planets I enter orbit with the planet I'm supposed to spy doesn't have the option? Again, it may just be my lack of experience with the game yet it seems a little unintuitive to have options go missing, especially when contracts require it. All that said I'm really enjoying it so far!
@FRS - thanks for the feedback and the bug reports! I have checked with Cory and: 1. With the Elite IAP, there is a bug in the current release that the Elite-only upgrades are not enabled. Yep -- we've got tons of reports on this one and are working on releasing a new fixed version.2 2. Stash on wilderness worlds is still in development and will be released in a future update. 3. We believe there may be some bugs with Spy missions to Independent worlds. We are trying to test and isolate this one so it can be resolved, but have had some other similar reports. 4. The "tap and brings up keyboard" is a weird iOS issue that we are trying to sort out. We are aware, but its lower on the priority list right now. Thanks for reporting! Thanks for all the help and feedback. Can't wait to release another update that will help close up some bugs for you. Glad you are enjoying the Quadrant, captain.
One quirk that slightly bothers me is that amongst Star Ttaders various difficulty settings you can chose an option were enemy captains have 85% of your captain level and the next setting away jumps to 125%; what about an even 1 on 1 setting of 100% matching? I don't want to feel over powered or under powered relative to foes. Yes, I know captains are just one of the stats at play (also crew soze, ship specs, etc) but it feels slightly off. The game is still a lot of fun.
@FSR - we just submitted an new big update to the App Store that fixes the Elite upgrade issue, possibly fixes your spy contact issue (fixes the issue to Indepedent worlds), and adds a ton of new content. Sorry that we have to wait on average 7 days before it arrives!
@undeadcow - an interesting one. As you have mentioned, the actual enemy captain level is highly dependent on the zone, the faction, the rumors, your current cargo, what operation you're doing. We have used a game play simulator in the Android space to generate an average captain level based on average operations that our simulator player will do. There are so many factors at play, that we are trying to give a rough average. We did not land an option with 100% in our testing and are just reporting what the simulator spits out. Most players will find that while the average is accurate in some play-styles, you're unlikely to be doing "average" operations like the simulator most of the time. For example, try carrying a bunch of Artifacts into orbit of a military planet (Cadar Prime) and you're asking for trouble Thanks for the feedback, but based on the long-standing way that the difficulty scale has been built and balanced, I don't think there is anything we can do to resolve this one.
That's brilliant, thank you for the update and for keeping everyone in the loop. Like I said, I haven't run into anything showstopping yet, just minor niggles here and there, but will keep my eye out for anything that's distinctly un-iOS-like that might trip reviewers up. One thought I had was some indication on the map of which faction each planet belongs to... Seems silly to have to tap on the planet to see that information. Are there any plans in the future to have a more dynamic system where planets can actually change hands or battles can include more than one ship at a time? (I'm only assuming that this doesn't happen because I haven't experienced it yet, but excuse me if I just haven't gotten that far yet!)
@FRS - we do have both of those ideas in the plans, ... but for a game called Star Traders 2! Thanks for helping us look at Star Traders through an iOS user's eyeballs. We have received the request to see "faction space" markers many times in both Android and the App Store and are still looking at how we can provide it without really messing up the UI or over-cluttering. Thanks for keeping it up on the list!
Well, I hope you can find a satisfactory way... As it is, the two different views of the map (zoomed in for navigation and zoomed out for information) seems unnecessary as a simple pinch-to-zoom, tap to show a bubbled bit of info plus the nav button would keep you from having three different screens and user interface to maintain. One other thing that I found really odd is having to go to the "Cargo" button under Status to get access to the Rumors and Conflict information. That info seems far too important to bury under the Cargo option and definitely not an intuitive place to find it. Again, please don't take these thoughts as negative criticism, just impressions as I move trough the game.
@FRS - we love feedback!! We are actually in talks right now on our own forum about re-organizing the buttons so that there is a clearer distinction (Captain, Ship, Quadrant) at the top level, because its a bit muddied right now! Stay tuned and thanks for the suggestion.
Also mentioned this myself on the star trader forums, I feel it's a very important feature. Even just colour coded to indicate how that faction feels towards the player would be useful.
