March On Oz - iPad game from City State Entertainment

[CSE_MJ]

Originally Posted by Connector

What I meant was the speech bubble is semi transparent, so you can kind of see the background, and sometimes the text would kind of bleed into the background making it hard to read for me. The text content is confusing enough as it is, and I don't know if this whole weird anti aliasing issue affects this, but it maybe better if this is an ipad 3 specific problem, to make the speech bubble more white and less transparent, make the speech bubble white completely with no transparency, or make the text and speech bubbles bigger.

The issue isn't a game changer, but between the confusing words, and the text kind of hard to read, it compounded the problem for me understanding it. Does anti aliasing affect the text, and does the text look much better in the ipad 4 version?

Also, why the heck is there an anti aliasing option in the setting options menu? This whole ipad 3 not getting anti aliasing is totally confusing and the main reason why I didn't buy the game in the first place. It seems really odd and bad pr to say that ipad mini, 2 and 4 have it, but ipad 3 doesn't have it.

And to make the whole situation worse, we have an option to turn it on??? So this kind of leads me to the impression that if I can turn it on, the game will run poorly and have bad framerates and crash. Seemed like this whole anti aliasing issue had such a negative impact to this game. I too am totally confused by a lot of past posts, and to be quite honest since we are talking about ipad retina, would AA affect this game that much? Maybe I am naive cause I haven't seen it run on an ipad 4, but why is this such a big issue to this game? And why am I so baffled by it? Never has happened in over 6000 games that I own. I dunno, just kind of strange, it's almost troubling that the AA option can be turned on in the settings menu, so much so, that I am afraid to turn it on due to being disappointed or crashing.

Anyway, sorry to bring up so many concerns up, but some of these issues I have never seen before in a game, so it is a little baffling how to address them as a gamer. Thanks.

As to why we have an AA option on the iPad3, we did that simply because it is a no-win situation if we don't. If we don't have the option, some people will be unhappy. If we turn it on by default, others users won't be happy with the slowdowns during certain battles. By letting players have the option to turn it on and off whenever they wish, we give them the choice that the vast majority of them want.

As to the text issues, we're comparing all the iPads in the office right now with the same scene. I know that some people don't have any issues with it, some do. Thus, it's worth looking at and we'll decide what the best course of action is.

In terms of why AA might cause a game to crash, well, MoO is really pushing the iPad3 to the edge due to the combination of number of 3D models, shaders, effects, etc. that can be on the screen at any one time. We are continuing to improve its performance but if you look at everything that is going on during a pitched battle, Andrew and the team are doing some things under Unity that we were told couldn't be done.

Thanks for you feedback, we do appreciate it.
Mark

[CSE_MJ]

Originally Posted by september

Positives

Lovely graphics and animations
Formations are a nice mechanic
Massive amounts of work here of which you should all be proud of
Music isn't my thing and a bit sedate during battle, but top quality
You really have the potential for a really great game

Negatives

Story isn't paced well in context of game, needs more balance because you will lose people's interest
Conversation text comes up in speech bubbles, in top left hand info field and the story section. Find disjointing
Lack of SFX sounds, enemy hardly make a peep, trap box doesn't have accompanying sound and so on
Walking is really painful to wait through, I get the seamless idea but I'd much rather things a bit more immediate
Animation is good but characters slide, timing is a bit out
Need more fitting battle music
Pedantic but PLAY sign clips as it swings on main menu
Embedded font work in images is blurry on retina
Maybe the yellow brick road texture could be revised slightly, shader is nice but texture itself lets it down

If I could just select levels with short one screen brief between each I'd be happier, I feel like there's too much that's has been attempted but not refined enough in places, which actually gets in the way of a good game. There's tons of work that has gone into this and it does show, I just find the whole imbalance of pacing and some spartan basics like SFX a little discouraging. At the moment it is a good game that has the potential to be great with a little fine tuning.

Thanks for all the kinds words/positives, especially when you say it can be a really great game. Of course, we agree. As to your negatives:

In terms of sounds, we are continuing to add more sounds to the game. We made a conscious decision to have sounds tied to actions rather than reactions because we thought that they would be more interesting than just reactive sounds. We have also tried not to overwhelm the user with too many sounds because when we did that, it was just a cacophony of sounds and not enjoyable. That being said, we will continue to improve the overall experience for the player and sound is a significant part of that of course.

In terms of walking, we've obviously had a lot of feedback on speeding it up a bit whether through the use of a button or other movement system and giving players more options for that is a priority item for 1.2.

In terms of sliding, do you mean sliding when walking down the road or the occasional sliding during the individual levels? If the later, if you could point out specific levels where that happens it would be helpful. I thought we got rid of that in the levels themselves but I'm sure we could have missed some.

In terms of the story/text, I'll have a separate post on this.

Thanks for the feedback, criticism and support.

Mark

[CSE_MJ]

Originally Posted by gtcharlie

Only purchased the game yesterday but I am enjoying it quite a bit. I hear what people are saying about the pacing of the gameplay but I find the whole atmosphere of the game to be rather charming. I must say I am finding it much harder that Plants vs. Zombies. Have I lost my touch at this kind of game or has that been other players experience as well?

Thanks for the kind words. As far as the game being harder than PvZ/PvZ-like games, I think MoO is harder than most of them that I have played. We made a conscious decision to make the action in MoO faster and overall, more reactive. We also planned on adding units that had really interactive behaviors (move around the board, interactions with other units of the same faction, etc.). Right now only Captain Fyter can move around the board but in 1.2 we will introduce another unit that can interact with other same faction units.

FYI, we have also heard from a number of people that our normal mode is much harder than they expected so we're looking into that as well.

Thanks for the feedback and welcome to MoO!

[CSE_MJ]

Originally Posted by tabs

A skip button would also work well, for people who doesn't care about the story.

Whether it is skip, speed-up, etc. button, we will be addressing this issue over the next few weeks. Right now our plan is the "Enhanced Map Mode" I talked about that would really allow people to move through the story very quickly and focus only on the key points and the battles. As always though, we're open to suggestions and feedback.

[CSE_MJ]

Folks,

First, if I missed any questions, let me know, I'm trying to catch up on my sick day so I'm whipping through stuff as quickly as I can. Secondly, in terms of the whole "too much/too little/hard to understand/just right text" stuff, here's where we are at currently.

When we started out with MoO we wanted to really build up the IP/story behind the game. We made a conscious decision to stay away from the well-known characters and not only bring lesser known characters to life but also create our own unique characters and IP. As part of this we felt we needed to tell a story with our game not only to make it unique but also to separate it from PvZ and other TD games. We originally also had planned to have a lot more happening on the road than is currently happening. While we have gotten lots of feedback from all sides, I do agree that for some people, there simply is too much text standing in the way of the action and that is not a good thing for a game. So, here's what the current plan is:

1) Add a new "Enhanced Map Mode" that will be more interactive/informative but also allow the player to move quickly down the road only getting dialogue at certain key points.

2) Keep the story driven mode as an option and look at expanding/improving the story/dialogue for those that want more story in their story-driven game. We will also look at all the current dialogue and see if we can cut down on some of them without losing the story.

3) Look at revamping the tutorial to be more use rather than talk/use and put the additional talk into (2).

4) Look at player options for speeding up/skipping while walking down the road. This is a little trickier since you get additional units while walking down the road and not through a store like many TDs.

So, that's the current plan. How does that sound to everyone here?

Mark

[Drakeer Melkhor]

I missed the sale, damn!

[tabs]

Originally Posted by CSE_MJ

Folks,

First, if I missed any questions, let me know, I'm trying to catch up on my sick day so I'm whipping through stuff as quickly as I can. Secondly, in terms of the whole "too much/too little/hard to understand/just right text" stuff, here's where we are at currently.

When we started out with MoO we wanted to really build up the IP/story behind the game. We made a conscious decision to stay away from the well-known characters and not only bring lesser known characters to life but also create our own unique characters and IP. As part of this we felt we needed to tell a story with our game not only to make it unique but also to separate it from PvZ and other TD games. We originally also had planned to have a lot more happening on the road than is currently happening. While we have gotten lots of feedback from all sides, I do agree that for some people, there simply is too much text standing in the way of the action and that is not a good thing for a game. So, here's what the current plan is:

1) Add a new "Enhanced Map Mode" that will be more interactive/informative but also allow the player to move quickly down the road only getting dialogue at certain key points.

2) Keep the story driven mode as an option and look at expanding/improving the story/dialogue for those that want more story in their story-driven game. We will also look at all the current dialogue and see if we can cut down on some of them without losing the story.

3) Look at revamping the tutorial to be more use rather than talk/use and put the additional talk into (2).

4) Look at player options for speeding up/skipping while walking down the road. This is a little trickier since you get additional units while walking down the road and not through a store like many TDs.

So, that's the current plan. How does that sound to everyone here?

Mark

Sounds good! I'm interested with maximizing the world map, such as, each node showing number of stars (perfect), and other necessary info. That would make a really good alternative to the current level selection menu.

Other than that, still working my way thru hard mode, which is indeed hard. I agree that this game indeed requires you to be creative with the use of the towers, unlike PvZ in which your set up for stage 1 is most likely going to be used till the last/final stage.

[CSE_MJ]

Originally Posted by tabs

Sounds good! I'm interested with maximizing the world map, such as, each node showing number of stars (perfect), and other necessary info. That would make a really good alternative to the current level selection menu.

Other than that, still working my way thru hard mode, which is indeed hard. I agree that this game indeed requires you to be creative with the use of the towers, unlike PvZ in which your set up for stage 1 is most likely going to be used till the last/final stage.

That's the direction we are going with it. In terms of the difficulty, that was the plan. Glad you like it. The challenging levels are even harder of course. In designing the levels I tried to stay away from what a lot of TDs do by just throwing more and more units at the player or by removing the units you canuse. Both are valid approaches but I am trying to change things up in the different levels in multiple ways which could require players to rethink their play patterns.

[september]

Thanks for the reply, the sliding is on the walking during the in between stages as they're walking on the yellow brick road. I presume distance covered has been sped up at some stage while the walking animations haven't been (or at least havent been totally synced).

Been playing this a bit today and yesterday and a lot of the initial gripes dissolve, I think after the main introduction, time between action is lessened and those parts feel more balanced. Perhaps shorten the delivery of the introduction and tutorial phases? It would help in not putting people off on first impressions and show them what the game is about more.

I'm really impressed by the amount of effort and craft put into this, it's a very solid and rounded game.

[CSE_MJ]

Originally Posted by september

Thanks for the reply, the sliding is on the walking during the in between stages as they're walking on the yellow brick road. I presume distance covered has been sped up at some stage while the walking animations haven't been (or at least havent been totally synced).

Been playing this a bit today and yesterday and a lot of the initial gripes dissolve, I think after the main introduction, time between action is lessened and those parts feel more balanced. Perhaps shorten the delivery of the introduction and tutorial phases? It would help in not putting people off on first impressions and show them what the game is about more.

I'm really impressed by the amount of effort and craft put into this, it's a very solid and rounded game.

Thanks, we really appreciate both the feedback and kind words. As to the tutorial and the overall time between battles, we're making changes for 1.2 and 1.3. I want to retain the story/road mode to not only differentiate us from other games but also for the people who do enjoy it. However, I also recognize the needs of other people for more action and less talk so we will be working on the map mode that I've talked about and a new tutorial for the non-story section. When a player creates an adventurer they will be asked what mode they want to start in (all three modes will be fully explained) and they will make their choice. Of course, they can change their choice at any time. I think this will go a long way to accommodate the needs of a very diverse audience as is found on the tablets.

Again, thanks for the feedback, I hope you'll be even happier with V1.2 and some of the new things we're doing there.