Universal Empires of Sand (by Digital Things)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by PeteOzzy, May 3, 2014.

  1. xtrgrvyplz

    xtrgrvyplz Well-Known Member

    Jul 15, 2012
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    I just can understand why there are timers on plunders? And timers are way too fast sometimes my troops are still in the middle of the battle and all of sudden i lost already even if i know i have a fighting chance to sneak my troops inside
     
  2. xtrgrvyplz

    xtrgrvyplz Well-Known Member

    Jul 15, 2012
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    Gamecenter works perfectly fine for me
     
  3. Atharne

    Atharne Member

    Oct 2, 2012
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    Blatant Kingdom Rush ripoff.
     
  4. Astrosnout

    Astrosnout Active Member

    May 18, 2014
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    Indie Game Developer
    Finland
    Seems so but if it's anywhere near as good as Kingdom Rush, I'll try it. As long as it's actually playable for free.
     
  5. vtamarit

    vtamarit Active Member

    Feb 3, 2014
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    Valencia (Spain)
    Thank you guys very much for the feedback!

    We are very pleased at Codigames with the feedback users are sending. It is helping us to find bugs and to decide which parts we should improve.

    That's an idea we worked with but we did not include in the final version. However, there is an internal debate about including some sort of resource generation in the campaign mode.

    The plunders have time because we want them to be fast. But it is true that some tactics just don't make sense in only two minutes. We take that into account for future versions.
     
  6. Andre

    Andre Well-Known Member

    Apr 11, 2012
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    Can we play the game offline?
     
  7. vtamarit

    vtamarit Active Member

    Feb 3, 2014
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    Valencia (Spain)
    Currently the game cannot be played offline.
     
  8. quebecotr

    quebecotr Well-Known Member

    Jun 5, 2010
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    Male
    Retired teacher
    Milwaukee, WI
    Deal killer for me. The timers don't help either. Would have gladly payed for a full premium game, but this is just sad. I'll pass...
     
  9. bigjack66

    bigjack66 Well-Known Member

    Aug 5, 2013
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    Haven't we seen this a thousand times already! The App Store is full of these so called stragety games!
     
  10. Morphzeus

    Morphzeus Active Member

    Aug 10, 2013
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    #30 Morphzeus, Aug 5, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2014
    I am not a beginner. But the game is too fast extremely difficult! IAP course help :( Not with me!!! Deinstall!

    The game "War of Tribes- Stone Age" is built almost on the same principle and because it is not so ripped off.
     
  11. RustPuppet

    RustPuppet Member

    Jun 6, 2011
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    @vtamarit

    I was really desperate to like Empires of Sand. It had me hooked from the first few minutes of gameplay, feeling like a cool hybrid of Kingdom Rush with city building and PvP elements. However, after spending a good amount of time really getting into it (and forking out for some IAP), I'm really disappointed. And quite pissed off, too.

    To put it simply, the IAP is bordering on useless. I'm actually so annoyed about this that I contemplated mailing Codigames to ask for a refund. Why? Because it essentially does absolutely sweet bugger-all.

    Wanting to unlock a few more units and get my resource production into full swing, I bought the $9.99 pack with a bunch of gems and full warehouses. I upgraded a number of my buildings and units, and got my stone and gold really flowing in. Unfortunately, it's made absolutely no difference to the gameplay, because:

    - Plundering is still bordering on impossible (and this from someone who finished both Kingdom Rush games on the hardest difficulty). Even when taking vengeance on friends over 20 levels lower than me using spells and a decent army, I can never crack the required 50% worth of loot. My friends, however, despite being at a lower level, often achieve similar plunder results.

    - Despite having a ton of resources, upgrading only three buildings at a time is ridiculous. I understand that you're trying to get some longevity from the game, but because there's such a long wait between any meaningful upgrades, you never feel like you're progressing much. This is particularly annoying when you've forked out ten bucks for IAP.

    - After using all of my gems to get more stuff, I'm still a heck of a way off from unlocking the sweet high-end units and building upgrades. Now, considering I can buy a few premium games on the App Store for ten bucks, I'm pretty pissed off that not only did I not get anything of value from my IAP here, but I wasted cash that could've bought me premium games with no timers or unreasonable restrictions.

    So thanks a lot for wasting my cash, Codigames :(
     
  12. vtamarit

    vtamarit Active Member

    Feb 3, 2014
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    Valencia (Spain)
    Well, I am really sorry to read that :(

    I cannot argue with you about how you feel after buying the IAP, because it is your personal experience and it doesn't matter what I could say. If you feel that way, it only means we could have done better.

    When we designed the game, we wanted it to be fun even without spending money, and we designed the IAP to be valuable for the players. We though we achieved our goal, but it seems we didn't.

    Your post will be discussed in the next team meeting and we will introduce the changes we consider necessary in the game to improve the player experience. We have planed this game to be a long-term project, so we are always tunning and balancing it.

    About plunders, we know that it could be difficult to achieve 50 % at the first levels, but it gets easier at high levels. We are testing some changes in the plunders to solve that and balance them.

    If you want to share any more thoughts about the game, don't hesitate to put them here. It is really helpful knowing what players think. And, of course, you can send us an email. You can find our contact email address at Codigames webpage.
     
  13. RustPuppet

    RustPuppet Member

    Jun 6, 2011
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    Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback, vtamarit.

    I don't want to be yet another whiny gamer bitching on the Internet, and I'm totally cool to fork out to speed up timers or get early access to better stuff, but I honestly feel like the IAP isn't good value. Rather than just complain though, perhaps I can offer a suggestion in some IAP-exclusive units or abilities? If reducing the prices isn't an option, something to differentiate from the freebie players would be cool.

    Thanks for taking a look at the plunder system. I'm all for a challenge, but surely the system is flawed when plundering is entirely impossible up until a certain level. Perhaps it only gets unlocked once a player levels up to have a decent chance of winning? Or the percentage to get a win gets scaled to the player's level?

    With regards to the construction limit, I get that you don't want players to unlock and upgrade everything too soon and then become bored with the game, but maybe some sort of increase for those that've paid real cash would give a better sense of progression. Perhaps a temporary raise of the limit from 3 to 4, or the option to skip the construction time on a chosen building?

    Last thing: the chat via the city screen doesn't work at all for me. I don't know if I'm just being slow and not using it correctly, but if not then I hope it gets added to your bug list :)
     
  14. J.O.B

    J.O.B New Member

    Aug 12, 2014
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    #34 J.O.B, Aug 12, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2014
    Hi vtamarit, I signed up because I saw you posting here.

    First, I love the game, nice job all around.

    However, I HIGHLY dislike the "sandstorm" feature. Every single part of the game is strategy-based except for this one action move. I can sit calmly at an airport and play the game until someone hits me with "sandstorm" and then I'm jerking around like a maniac trying to fast-tap my screen in 4 places disrupting those around me (and looking very very uncool, no one likes a spaz!!)

    That one out-of-place action move makes playing this game in any sort of public or close quarter settings quite disruptive!! The biggest improvement from Kingdom Rush 1 to Kingdom Rush 2 was that they removed this feature. PLEASE TAKE NOTE, they did this for a reason!! Those types of "how fast can you tap" action moves are entirely counter to the strategic nature of this game, kills a bit of the fun, and makes the game less playable in many settings.

    Thanks!

    J.O.B
     
  15. mrmoobz

    mrmoobz New Member

    Jan 17, 2014
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    #35 mrmoobz, Aug 13, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2014
    *edit*

    Game works normally again
    Like the overall look to this, the tiny pixel men are cute #
     
  16. vtamarit

    vtamarit Active Member

    Feb 3, 2014
    27
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    Valencia (Spain)
    Thanks for the feedback!

    Actually, there was an internal debate here at Codigames about that spell, but we finally included it in the game. We think it helps making epic battles more dynamic, but we understand your point.

    It is difficult to change that spell for another one in the short term, because a lot of players love it and the game is balanced with that spell in mind.

    However, what we can do is tweaking the sandstorm to be a little less aggressive.

    Chat uses a different server and we are still tweaking it. sometimes we deactivated it to do some changes, but it should work properly now.

    BTW, we are working on a new version of the game that will be soon online. This version includes new things you can buy with gems that we think can be very useful for players.

    Furthermore, the new version fix a bug that makes the game crash on some iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPad Mini devices.


    P.S.: mrmoobz, I sent you a PM ;)
     
  17. J.O.B

    J.O.B New Member

    Aug 12, 2014
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    Can it just be timed? Like "speed" you don't have to hit the screen as fast as you can to speed the troops up, its simply timed.

    This would make the game considerably more appropriate for a 30-something professional to play it on a plane, train, airport, etc. The "bang super fast on a screen" is much more young, doesn't seem to fit a good strategy game.
     
  18. vtamarit

    vtamarit Active Member

    Feb 3, 2014
    27
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    Valencia (Spain)
    The "sandstorm" spell is already timed. If you do not touch the towers, the storm will disappear in a few seconds (10 seconds if your opponent used the level 5 spell).

    Of course, it is always better to tap the screen in order to restore the towers as soon as posible.
     
  19. RustPuppet

    RustPuppet Member

    Jun 6, 2011
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    I'm enjoying the new update thus far. I haven't sacrificed anything to the gods yet but the benefits of having gems look like they'll be more tangible now. Gems are still feeling quite scarce to come by, but purchasing IAP is now a worthwhile option.

    One more "issue" that I've encountered: I see no people on my Facebook invite page. Does this feature only show me users who've already got the game? It would be sweet if I could send invites to people who've yet to give it a try.

    And thanks again for the responses and taking gamer feedback into consideration, vtamarit. Much appreciated :)
     
  20. ste86uk

    ste86uk Well-Known Member

    May 9, 2012
    6,566
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    So has this game changed much since it was soft launched? I tried back then on day 1 but could never get into it. I don't know if it was just my mood on that day but during all the tutorials and then on my first few goes I couldn't help but feel I can't be bothered learning all of this
     

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