At this particular time, we're debating what we're going to do - if we're going to let them. It's most likely going to be a no because that's a certain gameplay hook needed ahead of time, but the struggle for us is we're a free-to-play game; we want as many people to play the new stuff as soon as possible, so if we release this awesome update that takes you twenty hours to get to, that's a problem. Luckily daytime is a solution but nighttime is in its own easy enticing, so we're trying to figure out exactly how to hook someone in to communicate this is what night is for if you're new. Which is something we struggle with a lot.
It's the hardest question to answer because there is no perfect solution and rely on our community being helpful in a coop game which can only get you so far. The design elements for returning players, figuring out what is going on is really making sure tutorials are accessible and actually interesting to engage with. We've added things to make the elements of the game more visible, we've simplified the UI in many ways to ensure you're only seeing what's relevant to you, but at the same time the systems are very hard to explain because you have access to them right away, so it's a constant struggle.
I think it's vital to our survival. We've only survived because we pivoted. You can only pivot so many ways before you go back to where your started. If you keep tearing down existing systems, you're never growing, so you have to add to make that move into content that is surprisingly shocking because I don't think [fans] think we have it in us (laughs). I think our players underestimate us at this particular time and I think it's too our advantage as I don't think they'll see this coming.
I thing the whole Warframe vs Mabinogi thing is really exciting! In the previous matchup, AirMech faced Warframe and we unfortunately lost. I noticed many of our players seemed torn between choosing AirMech or Warframe, plus as I know the devs at Digital Extremes (old friends and independent developers themselves) I felt like the most honorable thing to do would be to cheer them on in the next round. I'd never heard of the other game, and never saw it mentioned. I figure why not support some friends, as I heard the other game was offering rewards, and participation is great. I think that companies rewarding their players for voting is perfectly fine. Obviously you're going to support the game you play, so no harm there. If anyone resorts to botting votes, now that is a serious violation and I hope it hasn't happened. I didn't see anything official from Nexon about AirMech and that being the reason they tried so hard (though in the end failed) to win the vote. I'm flattered the players think that our admittedly small community had such a massive influence on the vote in order to justify involving all their games. AirMech is a team of 9 indie developers just building a game we love, and supporting a community we love. We even provided links showing how many potential votes AirMech contributed, but that apparently was ignored. The real winner here is MMOBomb of course. Brilliant move on their part to have this contest, as they have even tricked Nexon into driving them a massive amount of traffic! You can't buy that kind of interest, so really well done there. Warframe also wins, because now all those Nexon players know about Warframe missions|Https://warframebase.com/. Even AirMech wins–we've had a ton of signups originating from Nexon forums over the past few days. That wasn't intentional, but I'm happy they now know about AirMech and are playing our game. In fact all the games in this contest are winners, especially the smaller ones that could use some exposure. Large companies playing it smart like Riot were right to sit out, since any promotion of the event is just free advertising for other ga
We just did a huge revision pass for the new user experience with update 21, Chains of Harrow. We consulted with external companies and went through and really helped us simplify and enhance what was already there.
When Carter and the rest of the development staff looked at the ~$137 purchase history of a man who really, really wanted to find the perfect fur pattern for his in-game pet, they realized they had essentially created a slot machine that impulsive players would gamble away significant amounts of money on. While many studios would consider this a big win, Digital Extremes made the decision that this kind of activity wasn't healthy for the playerbase in the long run. As Carter explained, it wasn't long before the 'gambling fur randomizer' was removed from the game entir
However, each individual tile is always the same, and there are only a specific number of spots where a Cephalon Fragment can spawn on each individual tile. Once you’ve gotten familiar with each tile, it’s possible to search every possible spot where a Cephalon Fragment can spawn. This will also come in handy for finding Syndicate Medallions, which will also spawn in the same spots as Cephalon Fragme(Image: https://burst.shopifycdn.com/photos/vintage-blue-robot-portrait-in-front-of-black-background.jpg?width=746&format=pjpg&exif=0&iptc=0)
