johnagod

Hi everyone,

 

This matter is not up for discussion, as it is something that our Hunted Cow staff are handling.

 

Thank you all for your concern. I'll now be locking this thread.

 

~Zue

Ok, so I'm not a new player. Far from it. I played this game periodically between 2007 and 2011 and just got back a few weeks ago. I noticed the app that is in beta, and got intrigued that I'd be able to play the game on the toil.. on my mobile.

 

Here's some observations that I made coming back:

 

Levels

When I got my account back, I had gained a whooping ~150 levels. I jumped from around level 550 to level 703. While this is pretty damn cool, I also quickly realized the downside. All my gear was useless for my level. I didn't have enough gold to buy any meaningful equipment. My location on the world map (Some level 500-something map) did no longer make sense.

In the end I joined a guild, borrowed their gear, portalled back to Krul Island and found my way. But ironically it wasn't cool to level up 150 times. There's a lot of content that I'll never really get to play, and it took some effort to get back into it. I would not have minded one bit, if there had been a cap, maybe after a month, where I simply couldn't gain any more XP, no matter my XP gain per hour.

 

Getting started with the app

I absolutely LOVE the app. In many ways it's even better than the browser version. Getting started was not easy though. On my end I needed to recover my old account. That actually went smoothly. Then I helped my wife create an account. She never played before. So she downloaded the app, and was told you couldn't create an account there. OK, it is a beta after all. So we went to a computer and created an account for her. Done. But on the app, she kept being logged in with some kind of guest account. It took us a while to figure out how to actually link her app to her Hunted Cow account and set a player name for her. That experience can become smoother, and you likely know this already.

 

Finding help

Not having played the game for almost 10 years, I figured I should find some 'getting started' material. I was quite pleased to find the "Guides" section under "Resources". I was however immediately less impressed when many of these pages returned 404 or similar. But at least the essential help still exists: The wiki, which really could use some updates, levelling guides which are essential and the ultimate fallen sword guide which largely works as one could hope for. The "Guides" menu on Fallen Sword could really use a clean-up though.

 

Using the app

Fallen Sword is a big game. Not just the world, but also in terms of what you can do. I was impressed with how well this was fitted into the app. It's actually easy enough to navigate and works very well. Even in the details, it's a very nice UI. I was impressed that there was a specific layout just for Summon Shield Imp for example. There are also things that I would find natural to have, which doesn't exist, but again the app is in beta. Few examples:

• I'd love to get a notification to remind be to pray to a god, or to remind me that my stamina is maxed.
• I would love if log messages were more interactive. On a message like "Player <playername> sent you <amount> gold for the Buff Package '<packagename>'" I would like to be able to click playername to see the player, or packagename to see the package I'm selling.
• Oh and I miss the game stats. 300 is online. You're in rank 4.500 today. Overall though: I'm very impressed with the app. My wife thought it looked cool as well.

Using the browser

• It took me a while to figure out that the menu was broken, and that I didn't see everything the menu had to show. It might be because I'm using the new Edge (Chromium) browser. I reverted to the old theme for an easy fix. Later i found out that Fallen Sword Helper solved the display issue.

Getting my wife started

She finally managed to link her accounts and was all set up. I was thrilled to see she was put in a tutorial area. That didn't exist the last time I played. To my dismay, she didn't get to mountain path before she had a lot of questions.

• ​She got confused about movement in "Murky Goblin Depths" because the area looks unlike any other.
• She never realized that she received items that she could equip
• She wasn't sure how to proceed with the quests she was given (And to be fair, she's not one to just experiment away until she gets it)
• She didn't know what to do after finishing the last quest in Mountain Ravine (Go to Mountain Path, start exploring!)
• She had no idea where to put skill points and stats after reaching level 2

Later on I realized that she never realized the fundamentals. Namely that:

• You have a pool of stamina, it drains when you move or attack, and you get some back every hour
• When you attack something, you get to go first. Oh, and it's turn based.
• To kill something you at least need ATT > DEF and DMG > ARM
• Your gear breaks over time
• You lose XP and money if you die
• The main purpose of the game (at least at your level) is to level up and do quests
• You might not always have quests to complete, in which case you will need to grind

 

Why she might give up

One thing left me unimpressed. A thing that is not really specific to the app, nor the browser version. It'll likely be the reason my wife, god forbid, will go back to play some shitty match-3-game.

 

I'll use my wife as the example here.

After teaching her the fundamentals, she actually did pretty well for herself. We joined a guild together, she geared up, gained some levels, did a few quests, sold stuff in the auction house.

 

With regular intervals however, she would be stuck or have questions. I realized over time that there was a pattern to it. I realized this, because on every occasion, I would answer the same thing: Let me look that up for you. Let me find that for you. The issue is that the game is not self-contained. You need to look outside the game every so often.

 

If a quest is not self-explanatory, you will need to look it up on the ultimate fallen sword guide (Where do I get this Quest Item? A shop. OK. Where do I find this shop? Area X. OK. Where do I find area X? Realm Y. OK. How do I get to Realm Y? You need the guide for all of this. It should have been in the game, and my wife will keep asking me until she gets annoyed and drops the game.

 

In the same vein she will ask about gear. What gear can I get for my level? Is there anything that's better than what I'm wearing? Well, you can search the auction house, but that's half an answer. Instead I resort to leveling guides on the wiki to find what's good. The ultimate guide can serve as lookup as well. But both things are still external to the actual game, be it browser version or app.

I soon started levelling myself, and found that I couldn't really do this on my phone; I needed the extra tabs with external help. The wiki so that I could see where I was going, how to get from A to B. And the guide, mostly to look up quests and items. I don't have that on the phone, and thus I'm back to playing on my laptop, rather than on the t... On my phone.

 

Why I might keep playing for a while

I definitely still need a laptop to level up and kill mobs. I can't live without the wiki or UFSG in the current game. But I do find that I keep swapping between mobile and laptop. The app makes it incredibly easy to check in once in a while, update your auctions, check your log, chat, pray, monitor your stamina gain and so forth. I definitely want to see this app finished. See if it draws in new players, see if you will add anything that might pull me away from my laptop entirely. The game was always fun. But it did require a lot of open tabs and a computer. If one day it might only require a mobile phone with 1 app installed, then I'm here for a long time.

 

I hope all of this feedback is useful for something. I loved this game back in the day, and kind of still do. It's unique in so many ways and always was. I love the improvements you've made. The buff market blew me away. The app is a such a cool upgrade to a browser game that I thought would die, but which now again has a chance. I'm really looking forward to see what will happen after the beta. Happy developing!

Champs (missed one)(4,208 maybe?)

 

4,221 | 4,235 | 4,248 | 4,266 | 4,273 | 4,290 | 4,298 | 4,308 | 4,317 | 4,331 | 4,347 | 4,354 | 4,367 | 4,389 | 4,395

I've requested my LE be difficult to obtain drops from. The set is also difficult to create. Although the stats surely pay off for the investment. I'm not sure on the drop rate though could be normal idk.

That accomplished nothing and if your trying to say something could you just say it.

What I really want to know is:

 

Why was this an issue?

 

Aren't we concentrating hardcore on the app? 

 

Seems like that's not the case... so should we really start actually talking about things that really affect the game and player population?

 

Hmmm... nah, really what I want to know is how this became an "issue". Might be handy to actually getting things done. )o0

Yeah, I still have our old doc full of new skills and hope to be able to get these implemented sometime in the future. (Nebulous, I know.) I want enough for the skill trees as well as other places. Arena, Ladder, Inventing, loyalty.

Maybe just start with the skill trees? It you implement my suggested tiers (or whatever might be better than 4000+ , 4500+ and 5000+) that would both provide something new for the moment, but also something to look forward to for along period of time.

I get that many of the other aspects of the game also need some polishing, including new skills, but you gotta start somewhere - no need to pile up a ton of updates to launch at once.

Guest#655240 is my nomination. Without his or her tireless efforts today, we may never have known what it was like to experience the majesty of being guest#655240. Already in a guild and without a doubt the most game changing player we will have ever known since the time has closed its doors on guest#112567.

 

Or BigGrim, without whose tireless efforts working day and night on this game we wouldn't have what we do today. Not only is he responsible for guest#655240 being able to play this game but he can also join arenas knowing that the game has updated with the times and player base and that he will be able to hunt and slaughter quangos like his ancestors once did, in a land that time forgot. And certainly we can't forget that nobodys quest journal will be incomplete anymore with the quangos being out and the epic quest being finished. And with that I'm off to join, with complete confidence, all the arenas I can knowing there are no limits on them. Happy Good Friday everyone...spoiler alert though, he rises from the dead and marks the only time in history that evil defeated good.

This topic is pointless nothings going to change and it shouldn’t game has been running absolutely fine with inactives having extra BP space for there guild or not... Besides we have players like yourself who fill there backpacks with Junk gear anyways so all in all your doing your part already to try and stop it and still complaining.... not sure I see the point of this all

Dunno why I bother with the caves - I tell myself this every time, and yet, I still waste gold in there - 20M down the pan and very little to show for it ..

xxxxxx lost 42545531 gold of which Tehmelons stole 31909149 gold

 

 My first gold hit in over a year, and I get rewarded nicely 

I don't understand your logic as you have explained nothing other than a blanket statement. I don't think you understand arena very well now a days. It maybe made sense back in the day with the old mechanics and the value of entry : reward. I just wanna make my point clear BG. You think this stops arena collusion?

 

I can show you how much collusion i can cause within the rules of the game and the system. It has been like this for years since the start of the arena. The reason why it's not happening now is it's just simply NOT worth it. No one has done it the only collusion in arena now would be the daily quest where people join naked. What makes you think this "25% rule" is stopping. If it's not happening now it won't happen without the rule.

 

If i were to start paying people a premium to join the same thing will happen anyways i'll be up against josh, kaka, roby or any other good arena player and roll the dice. It won't be a sure win and it barely will effect my win chance. If you factor in the cost in the equation your "chances" are actually worse. It's better to play without paying people to join.

25% is to prevent collusion and abuse - as such, I, for one, think it should remain ..

That doesn't make any sense to me personally. I can easily go to my friends outside of my guild no problem. If i wanted to gold sink just for a better chance to maybe win the arena. I have a better chance to win arena "not colluding" and paying my dues once not 8-16 times. Also now arena is randomized so your join position isn't where your matched up. So you cannot sneak a friend to join last when you join 2nd last to get a free round. Although even if it was like stated i can easily go to a friend outside my guild . This is an old outdated rule that was implemented for god knows what reason. Waiting days for certain arenas to start needs to stop. This is one inhibitor that does not need to remain gimping game play for no reason. Absolutely nothing stopping me in the rules from mass messaging 24/7 saying paying an additional 10k to join arenas naked. That would be major collusion and WAY more effective.

bad choice  on the new dragon egg being extractor 300 we already have a extractor 300 pot

Not trying to complain cause I really like double xp and all the fun stuff that comes around Christmas with titans and then the dragons usually around new year if I’m not mistaken ...... but ..... but .... but.... wouldn’t it be better to start this event in a Wednesday or a Thursday and run it till Sunday or Monday instead of starting on a Tuesday and ending on a Saturday? Gives all the full weekend to participate... I don’t know about others I’m speaking for myself but I’m pretty darn busy the week of Christmas preparing for my family to visit ( but ohhhh do I love eating the cookies my wife makes before they get here ! )
Thanks for the event though changed or not!