Universal Dark Meadow (by Phosphor Games Studio)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by D3adly, Oct 5, 2011.

  1. tenyilun

    tenyilun Well-Known Member

    Dec 23, 2010
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    #661 tenyilun, Apr 2, 2012
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2012
    What is this? I downloaded the Free version of Dark Meadow and the resolution looks very very low on my iPhone 4. I played the paid version off my friend's phone and did a comparison. Look below:

    The paid version (not yet updated):
    [​IMG]

    The free version:
    [​IMG]

    So, is the paid updated version have the same resolution?
     
  2. Red1

    Red1 Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze

    Nov 26, 2010
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    You're welcome to discuss your views on the update and IAP, but please avoid resorting to personal insults.

    Just deleted several posts for being off topic or just containing insults.

    Thanks.
     
  3. Phosphor_chip

    Phosphor_chip Well-Known Member

    Oct 6, 2011
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    Hey all- quick update:

    We are realizing more stuff needs to be addressed than we thought (as every system touches everything) BUT we should still be able to to submit tomorrow.

    Again we'll post what the changes are once we confirm they work and don't break other stuff.

    And yes ALL mobile devices have broken low screen res (Touch 4, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S) . That is in the fix.

    We to again apologize for bugs / gameplay balance this update caused- there is no excuse. Thanks again to forum members providing constructive feedback- you guys are catching stuff faster than our playtesting did and it is expediting fixes.
     
  4. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    #664 drelbs, Apr 2, 2012
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2012
    Thanks for keeping us in the loop - I'm waiting patiently since it ends up I bought the game on our daughter's iPad, had only started playing with it, and had not synced it to a PC before deleting it to make room for more stuff for her (she's got 34 GB of video on that thing! :))

    ...that is to say I'm hoping the paid version reverts back to (mostly?) what it was before before I start playing it again.

    A little late, but here's a brief summary of how I see this update:

    - Option to turn off adds in the paid version is unacceptable. They should never have been in there at all. 100 Rogues tried this (banner add on high-score screen only) and promptly removed it.

    - Health kits no longer dropped, IAP only, small consolation prize? Also seems terribly broken for the paid app.

    - IAP "Uber" weapons/items? Personally, I don't mind these as much. If I could get through the game without them before, I can now as well.

    - In game store cash/sun coins items should probably be on separate tabs so you can ignore the sun coin items, but I don't think it's a huge issue.

    Final note: And this isn't directed solely at Dark Meadow, but - if someone is willing to drop $19.99 on IAP for a $5.99 app, you should be giving them access to pretty much everything (which 2500 sun coins might do, you'll have to pardon my ignorance if everything can be purchased with sun coins) and maybe an infinite health cheat or whatever.

    Sorry to be so verbose, must be the caffeine talking. ;)

    I think, like many others here, I'd like to see this game not ruined because the 20 minutes or so I spent with the game were enjoyable and I would like to be able to enjoy more of it.
     
  5. Boobi

    Boobi Well-Known Member

    Oct 18, 2011
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    Mistake was King of Fighters patch that was supposed to update to iOS5 but broke the game. This was a very much calculated effect, they had a meeting someone sat down and said we can't sell health kits with sun coins if they drop as they do because they are balanced. A player will not buy them, ergo change.
    Same goes for gold drops have to reduce it make it harder for players to gain item upgrades, make they best items sun coin only. Then there is there sun coin drop ration get a 50 kill streak get 5 coins, then you have to restart. Assuming you can do all this in 30 min it would take 120 hrs to get 1 health kit at 1200 sun coins(kudos to the earlier poster who worked it out and called phospor out on it). Again a very carefull calculation making sure you hit a paywall. You can also sign up for a discover card or a dating site, if you have kids you know how much those options thrill you.
    So what does this all mean, a very profit focused developer! Still they could have left the paid version and only do it to freemium, but no, why? Profit which again show its not a mistake but a forced design.
     
  6. Johnny101

    Johnny101 Well-Known Member

    Jun 29, 2011
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    #666 Johnny101, Apr 2, 2012
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2012
    Here is some constructive feedback.

    If you guys really want to rectify this situation for all of the original paid players/ fans of the Dark Meadow.

    - Put the premium version back to the original format, by paying for weapons in Gold.

    -The new level and boss should be added to the premium version without any added paywalls, in other words, should be available without grinding. ( Being able to purchase newer weapons by Gold)

    - Bring back more available health kits.

    This would be greatly appreciated by all the Original paid owners. Thanks
     
  7. Creamer2010

    Creamer2010 Well-Known Member

    Aug 25, 2010
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    Hey i have question.I download The Dark Meadow from App Store(Free version).And here is my 2 questions/sugestions:
    1)What are the differences between the free version and paid version

    2)Please added large map and bigger names locations
     
  8. Drexiel

    Drexiel Well-Known Member

    Oct 27, 2011
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    as of now... only difference is

    -No Ads
    -You get some free stuff(very minor)


    That's it
     
  9. tenyilun

    tenyilun Well-Known Member

    Dec 23, 2010
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    Now that you'd mention, I would hope the updated map will has a zoom in capability. It is really small.
     
  10. Creamer2010

    Creamer2010 Well-Known Member

    Aug 25, 2010
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    Thanks for answer:)
     
  11. Delusionaltool

    Delusionaltool Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
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    So phosphor can we get a update of all the changes your making to the premium version of the game to fix this update
     
  12. WCFields

    WCFields Well-Known Member

    Dec 6, 2009
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    #672 WCFields, Apr 3, 2012
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2012
    post deleted
     
  13. Creamer2010

    Creamer2010 Well-Known Member

    Aug 25, 2010
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    I have another suggestion.It would be great if added as option,which could have been sold previously purchased items
     
  14. Phosphor_chip

    Phosphor_chip Well-Known Member

    Oct 6, 2011
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    Hey all- it is submitted to Apple (waiting for them to approve it) but here are the official update notes:


    -Fixed Retina support issues so graphics on mobile devices now render as they should
    -Fixed a bug where health packs were not spawning in world as they should
    -Adjusted enemy loot drops to be more generous
    - Increased sun coin reward from killstreaks
    -Premium Game and upgrade now convert all costs of swords, crossbows, and amulets permanently into gold from sun coins (note: these will NO LONGER be available for sun coins after purchasing the premium upgrade or the premium version of the game)


    ---

    Long answer:


    So what this all means is you don’t need sun coins to buy any swords, crossbows and amulets. All that gear is purchasable w/ gold for premium players.

    We did keep sun coins for health kits and bombs. I know some people are going to think we did this to "force IAP, however, this is not the case.

    Health kits and bombs are infinitely scaling items. They either instantly kill an enemy (no matter how hard) or fully heal you (no matter how high your HP). As the game goes on, these items get exponentially more useful, so it would be impossible for us to give them a set price that would be fair throughout the whole game. For example, if we made health kits cost $1000, (a good number for a starting character) , by end of game, it would be more efficient to buy 99 health kits and forgo all gear. You would be unkillable, so no matter how long it took you to kill an enemy, you would know that you could do it. Battles would become these long, drawn out fights of attrition. It sounds interesting but feels very broken. The other thing we could have done is just allow health kits to do a fixed amount of healing to you (so at the end, 99 kits would be needed to heal you from a boss attack), but that would just be annoying to have to press heal so many time in combat. We also could have made the price of a health kit cost more as you level up- so it costs more the better you are. That might be a good way to do it long term, but would require a lot of balance testing to get it right (too cheap or too expensive for some players), and will still annoy a lot of people that a health kit costs so much at the end of game.

    So we left them as suncoins, but we:

    - Fixed the bug where health packs they weren’t showing up in the world.
    - Increased health pack % drop from some creatures.
    - Increased the earning of sun coins so it is now possible to earn them.

    You now get sun coins every 5 kills, and it starts to multiply each time. 5kills= 2, 10kills= 3, 15= 4, 20= 5, 25= 6, etc.

    So before at 10 kills you only had 1 sun coin, now you will have 5. At 28 kills you used to get 3 total, now you’d have 20. The earning power on kill streaks is much higher, so now you can actually buy items with kill streaks. This was always the intent, but the payouts before were just too low to be useful.

    The reason the health pack system broke in our initial release is that we changed the way they work. Before they were overly plentiful, because you
    - You could only hold 5
    - You couldn’t use them in battle

    Two of the biggest requests we got from the original version of Dark Meadow were “can I use them in combat?” and “can I just buy them?”. Once we allowed you to buy them, it didn’t make sense to cap how many you could hold.

    With the old spawn system combined with new way they work, it was too easy to acquire like 30 from walking around the world, and just beat every creature- it was like playing in God Mode took any challenge out of the game. It also took out a lot of the tension and fun as a result.

    We do know that the numbers on the last version were broken though and we think it is at a better balance now. However, our system for spawning health packs is truly random- in playtests some people found 4 on one floor in a playthrough, other people found none. If this persists as an issue, we can look into a “smarter random” system. But for now you should be able to earn more regardless.

    The patch is submitted to Apple- we’ll send the heads up when it is cleared. We really like a lot of the other suggestions, everything takes dev time though and we really wanted to get this fixed as quickly as we could. We will look into the other suggestions. Once it gets in everyone’s hands we’d love to hear the feedback. Thanks again everyone for helping us refine and make a better game!
     
  15. Johnny101

    Johnny101 Well-Known Member

    Jun 29, 2011
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    Thank you Devs for making this game right again !! and listening to your fans.

    Looking forward to playing this game as it was intended to be !!
     
  16. dinoeggs777

    dinoeggs777 Well-Known Member

    Jan 24, 2011
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    I applaud you.
     
  17. Delusionaltool

    Delusionaltool Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
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    Bravo guys on the fix, all this is how it should of been in the first place, thanks for listening to your customers/fans cant wait for the update to play it in this state...i support the iap for bombs and health kits its fine and now you can get health kits in the world and get more sun coins too bravo guys bravo...

    for the people who were just straight mean about their update some of you took it a little far and personal just saying....
     
  18. Drexiel

    Drexiel Well-Known Member

    Oct 27, 2011
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    #678 Drexiel, Apr 4, 2012
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2012
    AWESOME :D


    Also.... As for medkits... you could scale the price up based on the amount of Med Packs you have...

    let's say:

    Med 1 - $1000
    Med 2 - $2000
    Med 3 - $3000

    and so on...

    or maybe apply a 1.5x multiplier per buy and after a specific number, apply a 2x or maybe 3x multiplier (or more, if you figure out a better number)

    Med 1 - $1000
    Med 2 - $1500
    Med 3 - $2250
    Med 4 - $3375
    Med 5 - $5060(rounded down from 5062.5)

    Med 6 (2x) - $10120
    Med 6 (3x) - $15180

    Med 7 (2x) - $20240
    Med 7 (3x) - $45540


    This way, you'll have to think twice about overbuying med packs and you'll start to value them more... And if the meds packs will be drops again and you're poor(or saving up), you'll most likely want to find them instead of buying them, specially when buying a 10th medpack will probably cost over $100k


    apart from that, tnx for listening to those that paid for this game and for the patience you guys have(or i guess you have since you must deal with people who will just insult you guys)
     
  19. VaroFN

    VaroFN Well-Known Member

    Sep 28, 2011
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    Or how the Infinity Blade's potions work. Their price grows up as you progress.

    Can't wait to the update, but first I will finish (again) the main story!
     
  20. WeisseEngel

    WeisseEngel Member

    Feb 16, 2011
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    At last a little bit of love for Phosphor. These guys have taken a pounding over the last week or so, however I never bothered to update following the early warning about the premium / freemium plans so can't really comment on the problems myself.

    Hats off to the devs for listening to the 'loyal fans' and here's hoping the game is even better than it was before..... which was one of the most atmospheric and well presented games on iOS with amazing voice acting.

    Kudos dudes
     

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