First impressions and suggestions from players that have played about 48h

  • Im probably the player type that is most important to any new game. Newbies. These days we newbies have experiences from many games and we have spend money in them. LOTS of it. jeez.. Dont even want to think about total sum over the years.. haha. Anyways I have few starting reactions I want to share and I hope there will be others over the years.


    Player age: 30
    Points made: 2100+
    How long have I played similar games: 10-13 years
    How would I rate this game? 6/10


    First things I do is to play tutorial, check rankings, payments, forums, message systems, community, overall look and then what I can make of the balance in game. With less than few hours of experience it hard to impossible to say how balanced this game is but I can say something about this game. Not to mention if I want to continue playing.


    Payment stuff:


    Turquoise, turquoise, turquoise... You can spend it on anything and everything. In all honesty there is way too many money spending opportunities in this game. It gets broken when units, stones, luck objects, storage capacity, fill resources (people and grain), change seasons, holiday modes, battle bonuses, raid permissions... are available to be bought with real money. Not to mention blessings that cost about 20 euros per month. There are even change alliance name and game interface stuff that really should be free to everyone. Just because those are features that makes it actually enjoyable to play. In any good game I would think devs would aim for simple and enjoyable gaming experience.


    In short cut significantly purchase options and bring new ones that do not break the gaming experience. No more instant boosts.



    Newbie protection:


    As far as I can say.. This is broken. It dosent need to be rocket scientist to see whats going on. Too little early on and too much later. This screams to me that game has serious balance issues as well. Although I cannot say anything for certain. Personally I think devs should work towards getting rid of this by working on balance and on reasons why larger player could prey on smaller.


    How about defeating 50%+ larger enemy could give you god bonus.. Luck objects/stones?


    Production:


    30min production option would be much needed


    Community:


    What little I have seen so far. I think this needs most work. Clans could be better, chat is somewhat primitive and my server dosent even have area in forums.


    What is the game?


    This is my biggest problem in this game. I havent figured out what is my goal. Is it just to grow? Almost out of protection and I still have no goal in mind.. I could ask tons of questions and tutorial seems to make no impact on me what so ever. I dont learn anything from that. Its just res source for me. Its that useless.


    PLEASE MAKE BETTER TUTORIAL...


    Now whats positive?


    Game looks pretty, theme is fun, production system is to my liking and I like concept of barbarians. What little I understand battle system. It seems to be pretty ok. Im sure I could learn to enjoy this if I would just continue. I also like pre made pictures and fact that there is lot that need to be bought in order to get them. Same with alliance icons. I could actually suggest that some new ones could also require point limits.. Like you need 100k points and 100 turquoise to buy this icon. What I really like that there is purchase items that dont impact the game but rather how I feel as player.


    If this game would not give first impression that my money is all devs want. Then this could be very promising game.


    Peace out..

  • In all honesty there is way too many money spending opportunities in this game.

    This is why things don't get fixed. It is easy to make a change in the game to lure you into buying into the game and fixing things don't show profits right away. There are small things players want Like being able to move the chat window or getting rid of the help windows, but the changes would not put profits into their pockets.

  • I think the trick to making money from the game is first, to make the game so enjoyable that people really want to play it and second, to then give perks that enhance the enjoyment but need to be bought. A lot of the things that can be bought with turquoise are really unbalanced or not worth it.
    For example, the blessings. Ik gives you increased production of 2 resources but not the 3rd, which is the scarcest to start with, decreases building time somewhat and adds 1 spot to your building queue. That additional spot is pointless when it takes days to build even 1 building. It's not a good bundle, except maybe very early. Similar points could be made for the others.
    The cost of feathers is ludicrous and what they do should be a part of the game that is free. That is part of making it enjoyable. Improvements to the tribe interface have been suggested so many times it is ridiculous, and yet nothing is done. This too is a basic part of any cooperative game.
    It's rather similar to producing a car that has basic features like wheels and a roof, but it only gets 5 mpg and can't go above 20 mph and the steering doesn't work too well. However you can purchase options to make it look pretty, such as special trim or hubcaps. No one would buy such a car.
    Frequently I get a message to click to upload the latest version, but never is there any hint of what has been changed. Is it just the barbarian reset, or are there real changes happening? In any other game I have played, the devs keep the players in the loop about the changes, naming the bug fixes or enhancements done.
    The overall impression is that the devs don't give a crap about what players want from the game, kind of a "take it or leave it" attitude. And frankly, I'm becoming inclined to leave it.
    I too have spent lots of money on games but I am particular how it spend it. The option purchased has to have value.

  • Rankings..


    I also noticed that highscore list is pretty.. well it only has highscore list. There is no lists on.. who is top attacker, defender, barbarian killer, robber... its kinda dumb that you can only best at one thing..

  • Thanks, believe it or not this is the kind of feedback we want to hear. Some remarks that I'd like to make:

    • We would love to trim down purchasing options to aesthetics/cosmetics only, but to be perfectly honest with you all, running Tentlan is costly. The sad reality is that Tentlan would simply not be around today if we had opted to go this route; the vast majority of the players still do not support development today (which is fine, offering Tentlan for free is a choice we made, and we'll continue to support players that do not make purchases, but it also doesn't allow us a lot of luxury)
    • We are not your usual megalomaniac money hungry games corporation; the people behind Tentlan is just a bunch of us who decided to get together, form a studio and pour our lifes into this. Our aspirations are not that of "hopefully we'll get rich", but rather "hopefully we can keep doing this". We are not buying ferraris or mansions running Tentlan, not by a long shot (not that I would if I could, but you get the point).
    • Development resources are sadly currently constrained for everything, not just the features that don't show profit right away. This is because again we are few, and there's a lot on going; we intend to fix that and get back on track, I know that there's a lot that we need to work on. I wish I could just wave a magic wand and have the tribe expanded, or the messages overhauled, or the interface improved, etc etc, but it doesn't work like that. But that's not to say that we don't want to work on what doesn't make money or that we have a bias for that matter: two of the last updates that we brought were the Tambo joint attacks/defense and the barbarians level 8 and 9, both of which were intentionally designed to not be "monetized" in any way. Most of the improvements/changes that we have planned have nothing to do with making money currently.

    I know this is going to be dismissed as bullshit, because when developers go on rants like these they are rarely taken seriously, but I thought I'd say it anyway. Mind you, I know that we have to get better regardless all of this, ranting is not the only thing we are doing.

  • Well thats an answer. Sure you are right on one thing there are some sentences that I might consider or dismiss as bullshit. Yet I understand very well what you mean when you say that you have to live too. Also Im not here to rant on how to run your business. Im only telling you how I feel and what I think as an new player. Its not often new faces come to tell what they see and how they feel.



    • We would love to trim down purchasing options to aesthetics/cosmetics only, but to be perfectly honest with you all, running Tentlan is costly.
    • We are not your usual megalomaniac money hungry games corporation; the people behind Tentlan is just a bunch of us who decided to get together, form a studio and pour our lifes into this


    To me these are second most important sentences. Now Im not asking you to cut that heavily. Im only asking you to cut most ridiculous ones. Merge some and simplify purchase features. They are just popping out too much right now. Consider that some features could be more profitable to you as free features than as expensive turquoise features. Just because that way you have more players staying to play.


    Right now players with deep wallets are saying to you that we very likely wont stay here to watch how things develop in future. Just because these are popping out too much. That seems to be fact in my case. Reason is that I really dont see game behind all the purchase options.


    Examples:


    If idea is to grow big and construct communities. Then there shouldn't be too many options to buy to be big. That defeats the work and effort player wants to invest. Both growing to be big and constructing communities should take time.


    This means I would cut:


    - Buy troops
    - Buy resources
    - Buy gems and collectibles
    - Wall boost
    - Warehouse boost
    - Power and stamina boosts
    - Instant permissions for barbarian raids
    - Full survivor bonus
    - Season Change
    - Change alliance name


    I would keep


    - Production bonuses, maybe add population and grain production bonuses
    - Change name for yourself
    - Moving town/empire
    - "Moon necklace" Instant builds.. Price should be tweaked a little. Maybe
    - Protect res
    - Short holiday modes. With ability to play. (not raid/support barbarians or players.)
    - 30-50% survivor bonuses


    Things I would change?


    Blessings would be ideal alliance gifts. If you would add them to alliance page then anyone inside an alliance could activate them for week. To make it even better. You could add levels between 1-20 to each blessing and they would improve after every level. Add little strategy element and make it in away that only 3 of them can be activated at the same time. Leaders could have option to disable blessing from alliance use if they dont want certain one to be activated or decide who all can activate these bonuses.


    Feathers I would merge inside the game as free feature. Replace blessing icons with feather icons.



    aesthetics/cosmetics.. yes more wouldnt hurt but try to keep free options open too and game enjoyable.


    So no.. Im not saying you need to stop giving bonuses.. Im saying they seem too good and ruining the game to the point there is no game to be played. In fact there is no game if everything in game can be achieved with money. Also because they are present everywhere. To new players this looks like money sucking scheme. Even more so when there dosent seem to be any point or goal in game.


    Ill add and edit later more.. Im in a hurry.

  • I was interested to hear that there are only a few people behind Tentlan. I kind of assumed it was a big corporation that hired programmers to write the code for any planned changes. Even so, I assume some if not most of you are writing or able to write code, and that therefore it's a matter of deciding where to make the changes. The level 8-9 barbs were a good and needed addition, as was the tambo implementation. I don't have a lot of knowledge about programming but surely some of the requested changes should be simple, if you decide to do them.
    For instance, as a stop-gap if you decide to make resource collection free, you could change the price to 0 turquoise, until such time as the inherent code can be changed.
    Why not take a general poll about what players like and hate about the game and go from there? And then somehow prioritize the changes that are to be made.
    Seriously, if you want to keep people playing the first thing to tackle is the ability to bully. It's ridiculous for 90% of the players to stop playing a month after a new server opens because there is no fun in playing due to the bullying. IMHO that is the #1 issue. So you had a few people spend money to advance quickly and then the server dies. How does that help your financial position long-term? It's like those payday loans that get you over a tight spot today bu then you're worse off tomorrow. Level the playing field.
    Second, give the defender a fighting chance. Simulate any battle where the troops on both sides are equal, and the defender always loses unless he has a high wall and has built his other military buildings (temazcal, stele and dwarf tower). And those buildings aren't available right at the start.
    Third, decrease the build and research times. It takes too long to get anything done. And again, the balance is off. For instance, researching architecture decreases build time by 1% per level. If a building's next level takes a week, that 1% is just slightly over 1.5 hrs taken off the build time. Is it worth the resources to research it? And the research will take more time than it will reduce construction.
    Personally I find it very annoying to need certain building levels in order to recruit troops, especially when those buildings don't have any real purpose. I speak particularly of the tribal council. You need level 1 to join a tribe, level 3 to start one, as I recall. Beyond that it has no earthly purpose, yet higher levels are required to build certain buildings and to recruit certain troops. The tambo functions could easily have been done here, rather than having a separate building. There should be a logical connection between troops and the buildings/research required to make them. I can see needing a temazcal for higher troops, for instance, but not a tribal council or market. And especially when the buildings have to be duplicated in every city.
    Lest you think there is nothing I do like about the game, that isn't so. I like that you can plan your city and what function you want it to serve. I like that resources need to be collected so even if you are raided you will have some in reserve. The complexity makes it challenging, and I like a challenge, as long as I have a chance of succeeding.