My 1/2 an hour is worth WAY more than $3. USD. I'd be embarrassed to admit if I'd put up such a tantrum over three bucks.
I've been on and off this all day and have to say I am really enjoying. No timer has yet stopped me enjoying it. I keep hoping I stop getting assignments so I can build up a crew. I've certainly had more than £2 worth of fun and I think it looks absolutely beautiful. Not a fan of Star Trek or a fan of these sim/management games but I am properly enjoying it. Only at level 7 though and still on the first world.
On the subject of timers. I am sure the App Store market has put a bit of a bad light on them as in many cases they are abused to get people to pay. However, on the PC and especially in strategy games they are part of the game itself. Plenty of top rated PC games have timers and actually add to the strategy. For example: -Civilzation Series (Probably the highest rated TBS game of all time) has "timers". They have had timers since the 90's before "apps" even existed. Timers are used in Civ to decide whether you want to have your city work on a quick to build military unit or small city improvement or spend a ton of turns to build a wonder. The wonder has a bigger pay off but you lose out on small payoffs that may be worth more in the long run while waiting for the city to finish what its building. -XCom series - Another iconic TBS game from the 90's to today. It also has timers. You can only research one subject at a time. Do you research a new weapon or a new tech that will improve your base efficiency. In the latest iteration of XCom, you may go out on 3 or 4 missions before the research is done. A mission can take 30-60 minutes each. That's 4 real hours before the project is done. I have not played but from the sounds of it, some of the rooms you build may generate more resources once done, and therefore should take longer to build than one that doesn't. It would take away from the strategy if you could build an advanced biology research lab in the same time it takes to build a broom closet. From what most people playing are saying there is plenty to do while waiting for the timers to count down and it doesn't sound like there are any pay walls either. It makes sense from a development point of view to give the people with more money than time the option to speed their game up and if they want to spend their money that way, then so be it.
Actually, no. There isn't plenty to do while you wait for the timers. The game is very slow. Its 30 seconds of management followed by 5+ minutes of waiting to build resources. I keep playing hoping I can get ahead of the curve but they keep throwing new variables out there. I'm about ready to delete the thing.
I have to agree with this post. I wait for stuff to go free all the time, but if an app is awesome and I know I won't be roped into buying more after buying initially, then I'm fine with paying money. I've bought tons of games when they drop, and a week later they're cheaper. Big deal. I've spent nearly $600 over the last 3 years on my iPad and iPhone and it's all good.
If people don't express their displeasure about crap gaming experiences, then the situation will get worse, not better. Sadly, this could be a really good game. But the lengthy timers (which they want you to bypass via IAP) kill it. At the very least they should look at adjusting the gameplay or/and be honest with people about planning to get your money via IAP. And give the game away. Which I suspect is coming. This micro transaction business is for the birds.
The entire time you're waiting for the new tech in Civ you are engaging in diplomacy, moving units around, fighting wars and... well, playing the game. And in Civ you can actually cause a technology to be researched faster by investing in the right buildings. This is all part of a very tightly designed game loop of risk vs reward. In Star Trek, you are sitting there with nothing to do waiting for a 30 minute timer to expire so you can continue to play. There is nothing you can do in the game proper to accelerate this process... the only way is to pay money to abolish the timer and continue the game. This is nothing like Civilization. It has absolutely nothing to do with making the game a more compelling experience, and only exists as a barrier to piss the player off to the point where they are forced to spend money.
I don't mind the timers, I don't really find them that annoying. They are not an insane amount of time so I think it's just right where you can play a few minutes set it and forget it and come back several minutes to a half hour later. If done right, that type of game can be a lot of fun. Just do some stuff in the game leave the game and do some other stuff for a while and come back and check on it again later. This game finds that right balance, and also it being Star Trek is a hell of a lot of fun.
Gotcha. A few people had posted saying there are timers but there is plenty to do in the mean time. Sounds like differing expectations. Seeing as how I don't own it yet, I won't comment any further one way or another on that topic.
OMG you best start running people don't say they don't mind timers around here they'll be after you with pitchforks and fiery sticks soon. I agree though I'm still enjoying the game and I'm picking it up and having a play quite often through the day, sure it's kind of like a paid tiny tower but there's a lot of polish and detail here and still IMO it's worth the measly £2 asking tag (until it goes free next week probably ) but that's the App Store for you.
Yep - me too. I dip in and out here and there and get excited when there's a fight or an epidemic. Perhaps I'm just easy pleased.
Interestingly, it seems it's already been free... twice! According to AppZapp and App Annie, this game was released in September at $0.99, dropped to free in October for a few days, then went up to $2.99 until early November when it dropped to free for a week and a half, then it went back to $2.99 where it is now. It must have been a soft launch but I have no idea where. I tried checking rank history in various countries on App Annie but none of the major ones show any activity before a couple days ago, and I'm not checking every country in the world
Yep I've got a 6hour timer to build my fifth crew quarters, although I'm thinking it would take quite a while to probe a new planet for details Maybe it's the Christmas festive mood, maybe I just don't care anymore? But the timers aren't bothering me in this. I'm enjoying turning it in playing a bit then coming back and playing some more. It's not a kairosoft game where you always have something to be pressing (other than playing the mini game to collect resources or collecting the room resources) There's something about it being space exploration that feels ok when I'm sending them off on a mission and it says come back in 15mins or whatever to see how they've done.
15 minutes I don't mind. 6 hours for crews quarters? When I'm being told to build 4 more? That's a pita.
Appshopper pulls data from the US AppStore only afaik. AppZapp and App Annie collect and display data from all international AppStores.
this game is an incredible surprise... i don't understand... every planet has its own mission, but also having completed all the story spots, i can go on with more stuff to do related to the main mission... so... where's the end of the exploration in every single planet??? THIS IS HUGE! there are six zones with a lot of planets
