Celtic Heroes

<rant description="Note that this isn't directed at anyone in particular. I've learned from that mistake.">

TL;DR version: You have no way of knowing OTM's business plan so stop acting like their development roadmap is based on your own personal use case.

Here's the thing about business plans: they generally stay secret, even when the business in question is a public company. Afaik, OTM is a privately held company and last time I checked, there was no requirement that private companies disclose critical business information to anyone. Any assumptions about their business plan are pure guesswork. Yes, CH is a game. It is also OTM's business.

The assumption that the OTM business revolves around us high level players is pretty egocentric. We, as high level players who have been been with the game for a long time, have no way of knowing whether the OTM business model for CH is to keep us as paying customers. Perhaps their data show that they get the best return from their investment of time and money from churning through lower level players in Lirs. Maybe high level players are a secondary client base, kept around to entice new players to spend money to buy plat/gold so they can get all the fancy gear that we have. Maybe we get so demanding that OTM would like us to just go away after we reach a certain threshold of grinding fatigue. Important note, coloured and bolded so you don't skim over it in nerd rage: I don't think this is the case, given the responsiveness to feedback on the forums.

Perhaps high level content is a priority at OTM. But obviously high level players are going to lobby for that. Just as mid level players are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be a mid level player. And noobs are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be noobs.

Really, we don't know if either of the following scenarios is closer to reality:

• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 100 users play up to level 50 before quitting after 3 months, but they spend $5 each on platinum while active. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, but need to refresh the player base quarterly as well
• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 10 users play up to level 120 and then start complaining on the forums, but they each spend $50 every 3 months and the average player stays in the game 9 months. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, less server load, smaller community, and the player base is more stable

My vote is that neither of these extreme examples is anywhere near accurate. But it should give you some food for thought the next time you see a post where the poster assumes that their own frame of reference is the exact target market for the game developers.

</rant>

I'm going to wait until more people respond to this post before i tell it how it is and give my reasons why we need each of those listed topics. and if people dont like my ideas ill be making separate posts so i can get a reaction on every topic individually. and thats like 20 topics so i really hope admin takes a look at this or the forums will be spammed for a little while with these posts.

<rant description="Note that this isn't directed at anyone in particular. I've learned from that mistake.">

TL;DR version: You have no way of knowing OTM's business plan so stop acting like their development roadmap is based on your own personal use case.

Here's the thing about business plans: they generally stay secret, even when the business in question is a public company. Afaik, OTM is a privately held company and last time I checked, there was no requirement that private companies disclose critical business information to anyone. Any assumptions about their business plan are pure guesswork. Yes, CH is a game. It is also OTM's business.

The assumption that the OTM business revolves around us high level players is pretty egocentric. We, as high level players who have been been with the game for a long time, have no way of knowing whether the OTM business model for CH is to keep us as paying customers. Perhaps their data show that they get the best return from their investment of time and money from churning through lower level players in Lirs. Maybe high level players are a secondary client base, kept around to entice new players to spend money to buy plat/gold so they can get all the fancy gear that we have. Maybe we get so demanding that OTM would like us to just go away after we reach a certain threshold of grinding fatigue. Important note, coloured and bolded so you don't skim over it in nerd rage: I don't think this is the case, given the responsiveness to feedback on the forums.

Perhaps high level content is a priority at OTM. But obviously high level players are going to lobby for that. Just as mid level players are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be a mid level player. And noobs are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be noobs.

Really, we don't know if either of the following scenarios is closer to reality:

• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 100 users play up to level 50 before quitting after 3 months, but they spend $5 each on platinum while active. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, but need to refresh the player base quarterly as well
• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 10 users play up to level 120 and then start complaining on the forums, but they each spend $50 every 3 months and the average player stays in the game 9 months. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, less server load, smaller community, and the player base is more stable

My vote is that neither of these extreme examples is anywhere near accurate. But it should give you some food for thought the next time you see a post where the poster assumes that their own frame of reference is the exact target market for the game developers.

</rant>

Lol this is an incredible post. Nice job. Stellar.

Thank you Teaweasel. Good to know that my use case for forum posts of "rant in someone else's thread in order to get kudos from Teaweasel" is working.

Ok fine... Here is your list. I have done a lot of project management, I will respond in that light. A lot of thought went in to your post, behind the emo tone.

- Wider camera view, zoomed out more
Nice, but not critical path.
- rez idols cooldown shortened to 15 seconds
Exact opposite should happen as OTM looks ahead to open and clan PVP. Penalty free idols will ruin that.
- mobs in otherworld give horrible gold it should be raised considerably
Doesnt match OTM current financial model. Some adjustment possible. Low priority.
- exp per mob is not enough to level steady without lixirs, bring the 3 star 100s to 5k exp, 3 star golems to 6k exp
This only kicks in post 100 or so. Requires redoing OTM financial model. Stat/skill/exp plateaus need to be looked in to.
- the new 4 star lvl 90 eye of noons fill up the green eye spawn area, pls remove them or make the spawn rate much much less
All areas fill with 4* mobs when cleared if they are not killed.
- make the eyes no longer able to see through your camo charm
No. Lol. You are told before you ever enter OW that the eyes can see through all such things. They are Eyes. It's what they do.
- transfer system, idk how many times i gotta say that for it to get through ur heads this game isnt efficient enough without one and has been promised to us for too long and no acheiving this goal
Yes, OTM has prioritized a mail system which will take care of this. High priority for a variety of reasons.
- when a player gets kicked from clan, have it say : "name" kicked "name"
Several improvements need to be made in clan management capability and OTM has said they are considering this. Clan banks are higher priority.
- here's simply a good idea im throwing in: make the interface of ur screen fully customizable, slide auto attack over to the left right or wherever a person feels like, etc
Personally, I would like this. Not sure it is feasible on mobile. Probably low probity, long term due to investment required.
- bring back colored text in chat
Better chat tools are needed. Medium priority.
- put leystone in tavern
Not needed.
- put leystone in arena
Not needed.
- make a form of camo charm available to buy at a high price, whether it be 40% or 80%
Was intentionally removed from the game. Redundant with existing skills that could be imrpoved. Low priority.
- fix targetting issues, put icons we can tap, rather than just tapping where u think the mob is and not being able to targe the right one, like have a pop up display for who u want to target if the target is blocked by other targets in a pile of people, just like runescape.... -.- how hard is it to figure that one out...
Makes parts of the game more or less unplayable. I would put this at high priority and it is the only one so far that OTM has not responded to, more or less./b]
- ingame forums, or actually notify players ingame about updates and all that rather than having to log on to a spam filled forums
Low priority. Limited added value for coding.
- give us a separate slot for amulets that dont regen or rejuv
Tweak. Low priority.
- make the snowman head capable of wearing as a fashion item
Useless. Low priority.
- take off the lvl 50 requirement on gloves etc fashion items, its pointless!
Bug. Should be patched.
- make the fashion items that have bonus stats able to wear as a fashion
Counter to intent and use of fashion. No.
- fix the slow reaction time after u cast a skill u sit there for like 3+ seconds afterwards even if u have auto attack on (usually a problem with physical attack classes, havent had this problem with my druid yet)
Animations are always a problem. OTM has more or less standardized animations as a strategy. They are working on new models apparently.
- while energy shield is up, SHOW DAMAGE
Would be nice, but not necessary.
- Some bosses dont even show the damage when u hit them
Bug, not just on bosses. Possible to lose damage scroll. Needs to be understood and patched.
- when u are in a group, make the list start from the bottom of screen rather than sitting right in the middle of the text so u dont see their health...
UI, chat overlap is messy and detracts from user exp. Create a plan to improve if not already in progress.
- make the damage appear in front of the mob, rather than on top where u cant even view the damage while attacking BECAUSE THE SCREEN IS TOO CLOSE UP ZOOM IT OUT ........
Related to missing damage scroll. Needs work. Medium priority.
- give us offers like all other applications that sell platinum, etc to get freen platinum, even if its 1 at a time and making us watch freakin 30 second videos
I believe these exist. Might not. Medium priority.
- stop focusing on an auction house thats only gonna make people go silent. most of the chat that goes on in this game is buying selling and trading requests so once thats gone, zones wont be saying much other than hate spam
Auction Houses are likely arlready investd in and are consistent with several long term plans, including crafting.
- when someone trades u, and it times out, it kicks u out of the menu or shop CHAT etc etc etc, FIX THAT ITS ANNOYING
Invite functionality needs improvement. Medium priority.

You have missed many of things about which have been most active in the forums. I am not saying OTM actually has any of these views. Just thinking about it from the point of view of a project.

Hey there, thanks for the post, I'll give some feedback on each point so you know where we're at in terms of development etc:

- Wider camera view, zoomed out more
This will most likely be possible in the next version of the engine due early next year.

- rez idols cooldown shortened to 15 seconds
This is definitely not planned to happen at any time in the future.

- mobs in otherworld give horrible gold it should be raised considerably
I've asked this to be looked into in the next few patches.

- exp per mob is not enough to level steady without lixirs, bring the 3 star 100s to 5k exp, 3 star golems to 6k exp
As levels increase so does the xp requirement slightly, this is part of the design, although personally I would like the higher stars to give more xp.

- the new 4 star lvl 90 eye of noons fill up the green eye spawn area, pls remove them or make the spawn rate much much less
I'll ask this to be looked into, it hasn't been mentioned before thanks.

- make the eyes no longer able to see through your camo charm
It is kinda part of the plot but I understand where you are coming from, we could look into making some eyes that can see through and some that can't.

- transfer system, idk how many times i gotta say that for it to get through ur heads this game isnt efficient enough without one and has been promised to us for too long and no acheiving this goal
This has been finished already and will go live in the next update.

- when a player gets kicked from clan, have it say : "name" kicked "name"
We can definitely do this if people want this?

- here's simply a good idea im throwing in: make the interface of ur screen fully customizable, slide auto attack over to the left right or wherever a person feels like, etc
This would be nice and can be looked into in the next engine iteration in 2013

- bring back colored text in chat
We had a lot of complaints about this from players which is why it was removed, would be interesting to hear what people think.

- put leystone in tavern
We could add this but it may look kinda silly having a big stone in the tavern

- put leystone in arena
The reason there's no stone just now is to stop people instantly moving away mid-fight, if we can think of a way around this we could add one

- make a form of camo charm available to buy at a high price, whether it be 40% or 80%
Unlikely because the issue with camo is it overwrites the ranger skill which makes the skill less useful - however we could look into this if there is demand

- fix targetting issues, put icons we can tap, rather than just tapping where u think the mob is and not being able to targe the right one, like have a pop up display for who u want to target if the target is blocked by other targets in a pile of people, just like runescape.... -.- how hard is it to figure that one out...
The targeting is improved for the next update, however we can definitely look at something like this for the next engine iteration in 2013

- ingame forums, or actually notify players ingame about updates and all that rather than having to log on to a spam filled forums
We can look to add a better 'news' feature in the next few updates.

- give us a separate slot for amulets that dont regen or rejuv
That's what the misc, 4 rings and 2 bracelets are for, previously there was just 1 jewellery slot which was used mainly by the amulet, now there are 8 jewellery slots and alternative regen items in the other slots.

- make the snowman head capable of wearing as a fashion item
We don't like to change current items where possible because many players don't like to have something they already have changed, but we can definitely make the snowman heads in any future winter event as fashion.

- take off the lvl 50 requirement on gloves etc fashion items, its pointless!
This was a bug and has been fixed in the forthcoming patch today.

- make the fashion items that have bonus stats able to wear as a fashion
Although there is nothing stopping this from working, this is not likely to happen because the whole idea of fashion is to allow players to choose their look independent of stats, , and that is the point of the fashion stuff.

- fix the slow reaction time after u cast a skill u sit there for like 3+ seconds afterwards even if u have auto attack on (usually a problem with physical attack classes, havent had this problem with my druid yet)
We can look into this in the next updates

- while energy shield is up, SHOW DAMAGE
Since the player isn't taking damage there is no damage taken to show which could be confusing, however we could look into some other way of showing reduction of the energy shield if there is a big demand for it

- Some bosses dont even show the damage when u hit them
I think it's cause some of them are very tall, I can ask for this to get looked into for the next updates.

- when u are in a group, make the list start from the bottom of screen rather than sitting right in the middle of the text so u dont see their health...
I think this has been implemented for the next update.

- make the damage appear in front of the mob, rather than on top where u cant even view the damage while attacking BECAUSE THE SCREEN IS TOO CLOSE UP ZOOM IT OUT
We could do this in a future update, I can ask for it to be looked into.

- give us offers like all other applications that sell platinum, etc to get freen platinum, even if its 1 at a time and making us watch freakin 30 second videos
We can look into this for future updates and also things like referral bonuses etc.

- stop focusing on an auction house thats only gonna make people go silent. most of the chat that goes on in this game is buying selling and trading requests so once thats gone, zones wont be saying much other than hate spam
This will definitely be coming in a future update as it has been requested by a lot of players, however on a personal level I am of the same opinion and like a bit of buy/sell chat, however the majority of players seem to prefer an auction house and it will help when crafting is out to buy ingredients from other players and sell your crafted items etc

- when someone trades u, and it times out, it kicks u out of the menu or shop CHAT etc etc etc, FIX THAT ITS ANNOYING
This should be fixed in the forthcoming update

+1 for everything except for the transfer system, I hate how everyone wants this. I think that you should first give people more default room in their banks in inventories and second just make it so you can have tabs in your bank to switch from 1 characters bank to the next as long as its on the same account, this will make more people want to purchase the character slots instead of making a brand new account every time and will also make things a hell of a lot easier.

edit: didnt read admins post above but still i think what i said about adding more bank and inventory space should be considered, 10 spaces isnt a lot at all and the fact that i would have to spend like 15 bucks to get a good amount of space is a bit much :/

<rant description="Note that this isn't directed at anyone in particular. I've learned from that mistake.">

TL;DR version: You have no way of knowing OTM's business plan so stop acting like their development roadmap is based on your own personal use case.

Here's the thing about business plans: they generally stay secret, even when the business in question is a public company. Afaik, OTM is a privately held company and last time I checked, there was no requirement that private companies disclose critical business information to anyone. Any assumptions about their business plan are pure guesswork. Yes, CH is a game. It is also OTM's business.

The assumption that the OTM business revolves around us high level players is pretty egocentric. We, as high level players who have been been with the game for a long time, have no way of knowing whether the OTM business model for CH is to keep us as paying customers. Perhaps their data show that they get the best return from their investment of time and money from churning through lower level players in Lirs. Maybe high level players are a secondary client base, kept around to entice new players to spend money to buy plat/gold so they can get all the fancy gear that we have. Maybe we get so demanding that OTM would like us to just go away after we reach a certain threshold of grinding fatigue. Important note, coloured and bolded so you don't skim over it in nerd rage: I don't think this is the case, given the responsiveness to feedback on the forums.

Perhaps high level content is a priority at OTM. But obviously high level players are going to lobby for that. Just as mid level players are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be a mid level player. And noobs are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be noobs.

Really, we don't know if either of the following scenarios is closer to reality:

• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 100 users play up to level 50 before quitting after 3 months, but they spend $5 each on platinum while active. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, but need to refresh the player base quarterly as well
• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 10 users play up to level 120 and then start complaining on the forums, but they each spend $50 every 3 months and the average player stays in the game 9 months. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, less server load, smaller community, and the player base is more stable

My vote is that neither of these extreme examples is anywhere near accurate. But it should give you some food for thought the next time you see a post where the poster assumes that their own frame of reference is the exact target market for the game developers.

</rant>

Hey I'm happy to post our business plan which is to make the game as good as possible, and if people like it they will buy things and we make enough money to grow the team and make the game better - that is about it we don't have much beyond that. Our focus is 100% on improving the game as much as possible over the next few years. Also we don't make design decisions based on making money, we are really totally focussed on making the game as good as we can.

<rant description="Note that this isn't directed at anyone in particular. I've learned from that mistake.">

TL;DR version: You have no way of knowing OTM's business plan so stop acting like their development roadmap is based on your own personal use case.

Here's the thing about business plans: they generally stay secret, even when the business in question is a public company. Afaik, OTM is a privately held company and last time I checked, there was no requirement that private companies disclose critical business information to anyone. Any assumptions about their business plan are pure guesswork. Yes, CH is a game. It is also OTM's business.

The assumption that the OTM business revolves around us high level players is pretty egocentric. We, as high level players who have been been with the game for a long time, have no way of knowing whether the OTM business model for CH is to keep us as paying customers. Perhaps their data show that they get the best return from their investment of time and money from churning through lower level players in Lirs. Maybe high level players are a secondary client base, kept around to entice new players to spend money to buy plat/gold so they can get all the fancy gear that we have. Maybe we get so demanding that OTM would like us to just go away after we reach a certain threshold of grinding fatigue. Important note, coloured and bolded so you don't skim over it in nerd rage: I don't think this is the case, given the responsiveness to feedback on the forums.

Perhaps high level content is a priority at OTM. But obviously high level players are going to lobby for that. Just as mid level players are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be a mid level player. And noobs are going to lobby for the things that make it easier to be noobs.

Really, we don't know if either of the following scenarios is closer to reality:

• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 100 users play up to level 50 before quitting after 3 months, but they spend $5 each on platinum while active. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, but need to refresh the player base quarterly as well
• For every 1000 downloads of the app, 10 users play up to level 120 and then start complaining on the forums, but they each spend $50 every 3 months and the average player stays in the game 9 months. Gross income of $0.50 per download per quarter, less server load, smaller community, and the player base is more stable

My vote is that neither of these extreme examples is anywhere near accurate. But it should give you some food for thought the next time you see a post where the poster assumes that their own frame of reference is the exact target market for the game developers.

</rant>

Hey I'm happy to post our business plan which is to make the game as good as possible, and if people like it they will buy things and we make enough money to grow the team and make the game better - that is about it we don't have much beyond that. Our focus is 100% on improving the game as much as possible over the next few years. Also we don't make design decisions based on making money, we are really totally focussed on making the game as good as we can.

It's good to here that admin! I'm glad you are out to make the game better, and not to just make more money. Here some things i think need to be different.
-When two groups are attacking a boss, the damage they do could show up as a color in the depleted health (instead of the dark red you usually see). So if group one were to kill a boss all to themselves, the depleted health bar would be completely their groups color. If two groups are fight for the kill and tie so to speak, you would see it half and half. You would know that the fight is close till the end. What i'm trying to describe is hard to explain. If you have any questions let me know.

Dubninja I'm kinda dissapointed. I like your passionate attitude but you yourself put a bunch of filler in your post. About 1/2 to 3/4 of your points are great. The rest are little things. Eyes of noon area is a little group area. Run 10 feet to tavern, deal with it.

But you do have some good points. I would like much more zoom distance possible too because this is a little screen you need it.

The problem is I don't think OTM can do a lot of the intensive programming type fixes. My advice is invest in a really good programmer who can basically work magic on this engine. It would be thier best investment possible.