Hello IOUtopians! IOTopians? Idleians? players! It is I, Listat, uncoverer of secrets, master of questions, threatener of spam, the all-seeing, etc etc etc...
Today I have met with Ray and Jay, the two developers for IOURPG, to answer your questions (at least the ones that bothered messaging me!) and suggestions. Here are the results!
Q: What happened to the monthly challenges?
Ray: We actually have assets for 1-2 challenges waiting. It's getting complicated with the new UI rehaul coming as those assets may too have to be redone, which is both a waste of investment and time potentially. However since we are rehashing old events, and that's a fair point, I'll work with Isael (the artist who works on events/challenges) on getting something going this month.
Q: What happened with monthly bingo?
Jay: Bingo has been side tracked a bit but should be being worked on very soon, and it will be weekly.
Other systems became a higher priority.
Listat: So this is definitely still in the works?
Jay: Yes
Ray: Yep, the intent is to host Bingo every sunday multiple times (to allow people who were not able to participate from different timezones)
Q: What's up with the random disconnects lately?
Ray: We have been discovering that the longer the servers are up, the more instability occurs.
With maintenance, we have an unusually complicated process for even restarting the server due to the sheer number of servers, and the requirement to build new images or create to auto-scaling configurations. This shouldn't be nearly as big of an issue in the next week as we designed a brand new system for pushing updated servers.
Beyond that, we are taking our time before jumping into the next major feature to fix and clean up a lot of lingering issues. One of those is the server stability and our inability to pin-point everyones specific issue when they get disconnected. We intend within the next week to prepare a better system for tracking these issues, therefore resolve them more globally and hopefully permanently instead of one party at a time.
Q: What are your plans on giving newer players more incentive to play, to combat the helplessness felt when seeing higher levels and feeling like they will never catch up?
Ray: Actually, we have a great new top-rank system that shows where you are at (even if you're in the 72,000th place) and those around you, which updates very quickly to allow you to progress.
We also, after monitoring how this new rank-system works out, are looking at expanding the system further with different cohorts.
Tracing 'yourself' in the new toplist system
![[Image: 71e9260ae48e45ae9697cf7992f8dbb1.png]](http://image.prntscr.com/image/71e9260ae48e45ae9697cf7992f8dbb1.png)
Q: What are the plans for expedition points, pvp expedition, etc?
Ray: I'm looking at us creating a full-fledged mini-game of its own using the expedition system, sending ships and improving far more multitudes of aspects. A tie in is expected with this, your ship, and PvP. This may even allow for expanding into crafting in the future by gathering materials via expeditions.
Q: Any plans for the new guild building?
Ray: No plans at the moment for a new building. As we are developing a multitude of other things we may jump into that, however I think the issue with guilds right now isn't there not being a new building, but the system not allowing for expansion once capped.
Q: Plans for trophies?
Ray: We have talked several times about trophies needing a major revamp. I think it could be a pretty fun/exciting change, but it's not in the works, nor in the early plans just yet
Q: Will minor bug abusers (even accidents) be punished more severely, or rolled back more often?
Jay: One thing we can consider doing is better tracking who has gained small advantages, and see if the same names are constantly showing up.
Ray: ah, small cases.....again depends on the amount of players affected. Small amounts have usually been ignored because of the lack of how much it affects the game and the effort required to deal with small cases, but we could probably be a little more consistent in that regard on our end.
SUGGESTIONS!
1: More frequent dev updates - YES!
2: Instant challenge start button - hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks!
3: Incentives to help people (carry ranks, etc) - Ray: No official plans for this at all, to be honest. I have contemplated a daily 'task' system, for extra rewards, which could include simple things like "Perform 3 group challenges", however, that is definitely 'after' the new UI, and not in the short-term.
4: Password change options - YES! High priority
5: Dual spec system (for asc upgrades and pet tree) - Ray: Ascension resets will not always be free, and at that point I don't think it makes sense. On top of that, saving full configurations on accounts on our database system isn't ideal, especially if we end up with multiple upgrade-map style systems.
6: Dynamite type item for tree? (chainsaw maybe?) - Ray: Not a terrible idea, it's a possibility down the road.
7: Sell tiny packs for diamonds or make it a % like the rest? - Ray: I'd like to allow merging of tiny packs into larger packs at some point. We're going to look at adding it in the next couple weeks as well.
Thank you Ray and Jay for your time and explaining your reasoning behind some of these issues. Thank you players who contributed to the list of questions and suggestions!
Listat, out!
Today I have met with Ray and Jay, the two developers for IOURPG, to answer your questions (at least the ones that bothered messaging me!) and suggestions. Here are the results!
Q: What happened to the monthly challenges?
Ray: We actually have assets for 1-2 challenges waiting. It's getting complicated with the new UI rehaul coming as those assets may too have to be redone, which is both a waste of investment and time potentially. However since we are rehashing old events, and that's a fair point, I'll work with Isael (the artist who works on events/challenges) on getting something going this month.
Q: What happened with monthly bingo?
Jay: Bingo has been side tracked a bit but should be being worked on very soon, and it will be weekly.
Other systems became a higher priority.
Listat: So this is definitely still in the works?
Jay: Yes
Ray: Yep, the intent is to host Bingo every sunday multiple times (to allow people who were not able to participate from different timezones)
Q: What's up with the random disconnects lately?
Ray: We have been discovering that the longer the servers are up, the more instability occurs.
With maintenance, we have an unusually complicated process for even restarting the server due to the sheer number of servers, and the requirement to build new images or create to auto-scaling configurations. This shouldn't be nearly as big of an issue in the next week as we designed a brand new system for pushing updated servers.
Beyond that, we are taking our time before jumping into the next major feature to fix and clean up a lot of lingering issues. One of those is the server stability and our inability to pin-point everyones specific issue when they get disconnected. We intend within the next week to prepare a better system for tracking these issues, therefore resolve them more globally and hopefully permanently instead of one party at a time.
Q: What are your plans on giving newer players more incentive to play, to combat the helplessness felt when seeing higher levels and feeling like they will never catch up?
Ray: Actually, we have a great new top-rank system that shows where you are at (even if you're in the 72,000th place) and those around you, which updates very quickly to allow you to progress.
We also, after monitoring how this new rank-system works out, are looking at expanding the system further with different cohorts.
Tracing 'yourself' in the new toplist system
Q: What are the plans for expedition points, pvp expedition, etc?
Ray: I'm looking at us creating a full-fledged mini-game of its own using the expedition system, sending ships and improving far more multitudes of aspects. A tie in is expected with this, your ship, and PvP. This may even allow for expanding into crafting in the future by gathering materials via expeditions.
Q: Any plans for the new guild building?
Ray: No plans at the moment for a new building. As we are developing a multitude of other things we may jump into that, however I think the issue with guilds right now isn't there not being a new building, but the system not allowing for expansion once capped.
Q: Plans for trophies?
Ray: We have talked several times about trophies needing a major revamp. I think it could be a pretty fun/exciting change, but it's not in the works, nor in the early plans just yet
Q: Will minor bug abusers (even accidents) be punished more severely, or rolled back more often?
Jay: One thing we can consider doing is better tracking who has gained small advantages, and see if the same names are constantly showing up.
Ray: ah, small cases.....again depends on the amount of players affected. Small amounts have usually been ignored because of the lack of how much it affects the game and the effort required to deal with small cases, but we could probably be a little more consistent in that regard on our end.
SUGGESTIONS!
1: More frequent dev updates - YES!
2: Instant challenge start button - hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks!
3: Incentives to help people (carry ranks, etc) - Ray: No official plans for this at all, to be honest. I have contemplated a daily 'task' system, for extra rewards, which could include simple things like "Perform 3 group challenges", however, that is definitely 'after' the new UI, and not in the short-term.
4: Password change options - YES! High priority
5: Dual spec system (for asc upgrades and pet tree) - Ray: Ascension resets will not always be free, and at that point I don't think it makes sense. On top of that, saving full configurations on accounts on our database system isn't ideal, especially if we end up with multiple upgrade-map style systems.
6: Dynamite type item for tree? (chainsaw maybe?) - Ray: Not a terrible idea, it's a possibility down the road.
7: Sell tiny packs for diamonds or make it a % like the rest? - Ray: I'd like to allow merging of tiny packs into larger packs at some point. We're going to look at adding it in the next couple weeks as well.
Thank you Ray and Jay for your time and explaining your reasoning behind some of these issues. Thank you players who contributed to the list of questions and suggestions!
Listat, out!