Pocket Planes by NimbleBit - Join Flight Crew #TouchArcade

[smws]

Originally Posted by Merlion

Reason for not including the link is that I was too lazy to look it up. Trust Vic to call me out on it. You don't miss a beat, do you Vic?

It's the August article that was discussed a couple of days ago. Here goes:
http://mygamingmind.blogspot.com/201...es-part-1.html
Part 2:
http://mygamingmind.blogspot.com/sea...lay%20Analysis

Beg to disagree on the things that could/should be done to fresh up the game. Changing the learning curve, to make it easier in the beginning as you suggest, isn't one of them. I think that part is quite OK, as it attracts a certain type of player that will love the strategic depth of the later part of the game. And I do agree that the airport geography is fine as it is. Although my personal preference is to have a globe, as after all we've known that the Earth isn't flat for more than 2,000 years. But I guess that would require a major rewrite so let's leave that for now.

Other than that, here are my 2c:-

1. Decrease the flying (mileage) costs but introduce a stopover fee. i think that's a missed opportunity. Apart from being more realistic (after all, you always pay airport fees if you make a stop) you make flying easier for beginners since it costs less; and for later players you put a penalty on not extending the range of planes (as that requires more stops).

2. Introduce an extra upgrade step for airports, increasing the number of layovers and flights; and in conjunction:

3. Introduce some bigger planes, say 20-24 seaters for Class 3, 10-12 for Class 2, and 6-8 for Class 1. More variety plus it makes the earlier phases both more rewarding and more strategic.

4. Introduce hyperexpensive 'specials': planes that are scarcely (but not limited) available in the market, and can only be bought as parts. Say, 1,000 bux per part and upwards. I used to play Racing Live where the initial cars cost a couple of $1,000 but the ones that became available later went into the millions. It keeps the challenge a little longer. And I bet it makes for lively trading!

5. Scatter around some First Class passengers and cargo, that appear in the job list in another colour, say orange. Bux only, and they pay a lot more than the usual ones. But First Class is only available on Class 3 planes.

And so on. I bet the creative geniuses at NimbleBt can come up with a lot more than that, without having to rebuild the thing from the ground up!

Cheers,
M.

I like most of the ideas and I'll just a few comments of my own.
1. This might be a good idea but might make it a bit harder for starting players. To make longer trips the short range planes need more hops in different airports and therefore the fees go up. If they keep the stopover fee low then this won't affect the end-game people that much. It's a balancing act, really.
2 & 3 are great ideas and would add a lot more longevity.
4. Now this is a brilliant idea. Hunting these rare items would add a new sense of achievement to the game and would be just awesome.
5. I like this one too, but.. it might get a bit too confusing with all the colors - white, green, golden, blue..

Personally, I'd love for them to come up with more and more achievements. I'm almost done with them all (need 2 flights to Tiksi on my Seaknight and about 300 flights for the 10k one). Achievements should be rather easy to implement, too.

[pepitko]

I'm now a proud member of TA1, I've added myself to the spreadsheet. For some reason I haven't received any award from the New York event. I delivered around 500 jobs for TA crew. I switched to TA1 shortly after the event was over, which is probably the reason why. Will the award get to me eventually?

[vicsark]

Originally Posted by Merlion

Reason for not including the link is that I was too lazy to look it up. Trust Vic to call me out on it. You don't miss a beat, do you Vic?

It's the August article that was discussed a couple of days ago. Here goes:
http://mygamingmind.blogspot.com/201...es-part-1.html
Part 2:
http://mygamingmind.blogspot.com/sea...lay%20Analysis

Beg to disagree on the things that could/should be done to fresh up the game. Changing the learning curve, to make it easier in the beginning as you suggest, isn't one of them. I think that part is quite OK, as it attracts a certain type of player that will love the strategic depth of the later part of the game. And I do agree that the airport geography is fine as it is. Although my personal preference is to have a globe, as after all we've known that the Earth isn't flat for more than 2,000 years. But I guess that would require a major rewrite so let's leave that for now.

Other than that, here are my 2c:-

1. Decrease the flying (mileage) costs but introduce a stopover fee. i think that's a missed opportunity. Apart from being more realistic (after all, you always pay airport fees if you make a stop) you make flying easier for beginners since it costs less; and for later players you put a penalty on not extending the range of planes (as that requires more stops).

2. Introduce an extra upgrade step for airports, increasing the number of layovers and flights; and in conjunction:

3. Introduce some bigger planes, say 20-24 seaters for Class 3, 10-12 for Class 2, and 6-8 for Class 1. More variety plus it makes the earlier phases both more rewarding and more strategic.

4. Introduce hyperexpensive 'specials': planes that are scarcely (but not limited) available in the market, and can only be bought as parts. Say, 1,000 bux per part and upwards. I used to play Racing Live where the initial cars cost a couple of $1,000 but the ones that became available later went into the millions. It keeps the challenge a little longer. And I bet it makes for lively trading!

5. Scatter around some First Class passengers and cargo, that appear in the job list in another colour, say orange. Bux only, and they pay a lot more than the usual ones. But First Class is only available on Class 3 planes.

And so on. I bet the creative geniuses at NimbleBt can come up with a lot more than that, without having to rebuild the thing from the ground up!

Cheers,
M.

Ok, I thought it was a new article

Interesting ideas.
2 and 3 : I agree that they can do "bigger" (ie bigger planes, more layovers, etc...) whithout changing much, that would be the easy way to prolong the life of the game. But not that much whitout enhancing the UI at the same time! do you see yourself scrolling in a full 120 layovers airport
4: Many freemium titles do offer extra expensive and extra rare items, I'm pretty sure it's not the way NB wants to go though.
1 and 5: that would complicate the slick minimalist approach of the game, I don't see things like that happen.

Hopefully they'll surprise us, because outside of having bigger planes and enhanced UI, I still don't see what they could upgrade?!

[vicsark]

Originally Posted by smws

Finally a proud member of #TA1. Will add myself to the spreadsheet, too!

Originally Posted by pepitko

I'm now a proud member of TA1, I've added myself to the spreadsheet. For some reason I haven't received any award from the New York event. I delivered around 500 jobs for TA crew. I switched to TA1 shortly after the event was over, which is probably the reason why. Will the award get to me eventually?

Nope, sorry mate, always wait for your prize before changing teams!
Try emailing NimbleBit support, maybe they'll be generous

Welcome to TouchArcade1 guys

(reminder: "TouchArcade1" is the crew name, not "TA1")

[Merlion]

Originally Posted by vicsark

Ok, I thought it was a new article

Interesting ideas.
2 and 3 : I agree that they can do "bigger" (ie bigger planes, more layovers, etc...) whithout changing much, that would be the easy way to prolong the life of the game. But not that much whitout enhancing the UI at the same time! do you see yourself scrolling in a full 120 layovers airport
4: Many freemium titles do offer extra expensive and extra rare items, I'm pretty sure it's not the way NB wants to go though.
1 and 5: that would complicate the slick minimalist approach of the game, I don't see things like that happen.

Hopefully they'll surprise us, because outside of having bigger planes and enhanced UI, I still don't see what they could upgrade?!

My little wish list up there was not so much about UI, but about game structure. Btw I didn't mean paying real $$ for the 'extra expensive' items, I meant spending those 100,000s of bux many of us have by now

*Rant alert*

If you talk about UI, there's a big one on my wish list: getting some kind of dashboard that includes bux value. If you're on a bux strategy right now, you fly completely blind (no pun intended) as you're only able to look at the coin value of your activities. So here you are, making in excess of 2,000 bux a day (which you arrive at by vaguely remembering what your bux count was yesterday), and the game is telling you only that you're making some piffling amount of coins that has nothing to do with your real profitability.

*End of rant*

Cheers,
M.

[TheIcemany1980]

Can do that, which sequoia u need?

[Dsolender]

Originally Posted by BumActor

Concorde control for trade. Really just looking for a full sequoia m in return

Deal!

[BumActor]

Again already traded Thanks though. Guess I should've asked for more. No just kidding. Paying it forward. Lol. Well sorta

[CastlePage]

There are 3 things that I'm very thankful that Nimblebit didn't design into this game (as opposed to many games on the apps):

1. Energy consumption to play game. Many games on in the appstore and on Facebook have consume a certain amount of energy when you take an action. I suppose the game developers want the player to spend cash to buy items that replenishes these energy bars. I don't make in-game purchases, so i end up playing with the game for a very short while; I can't play more even if I want (without resorting to cash items).
1a. A follow-up on this is that the finished product (be it cooking, producing clothes, growing crops) will expire if you don't return to harvest/collect it. Another way to "force" players to come back.

A great design of PP and Tiny Tower is that it caters to both intensive AND casual gameplay. You can catch coins/bux or check airports for bux jobs (thanks to our bux strategies) non-stop for hours. Or you can stay away from PP for days. It's always there waiting for you whenever you pick up, without imposing penalties like expired products.

2. You are forced to make friends to expand the store (e.g. Restaurant Story). Sometimes, you have to befriend a crazy number of people in order to have higher damage (e.g. Castle Age).

I join TA (and now TA1) because I want to. I add friends to GC because I want to. Not because I'm forced to by the game. I have meaningful conversations with you all, not just visit somebody's site to drop some coins

3. Some achievements require parts that can be gifted only by friends, or require in-game purchase. And/or the market that sells the items replenishes once a day. For me, the daily gifting/receiving of items becomes a tedious chore (especially if there's no batch giving or receiving).

In conclusion, my success in PP is determined on my hardwork and not some other factors, like friends' gifting. As a bonus, Nimblebit is very generous in doling out bux,

[Dsolender]

Two words: WOOOOOT!!! CONCORDE!!! I would've posted a picture but im on my phone so later. Woooooo!!!!