[AMA] Ask The Developer Anything - December 4th

[Clementine]

Please join us Thursday, December 4th, at 4pm PST for our next Developer Ask Me Anything! Please join us in discussing and asking questions about upcoming features and updates, particularly those related to the forthcoming update 6.0.

Representatives from the Development Team:

Engram: General Manager
&dra: Developer

This time we are trying something new so as to allow those in other time zones to participate and this thread will be unlocked Wednesday at 5pm PST so that you may post your questions in advance. The Developers will arrive Thursday afternoon at 4pm sharp and will be answering questions here for one hour! The thread will then be locked at at the conclusion of the AMA. We'll answer as many questions as possible.

Remember any posts that violate the Forum Code of Conduct will be removed. Furthermore, any post that attacks, insults, implies insults, harasses the Development Team will result in an immediate and permanent ban. Please keep everything on topic and constructive.

[Engram]

Looking forward to all your questions!

[Clementine]

You may now begin posting your questions for the team to answer tomorrow at 4:00pm PST! Please remember to follow our Code of Conduct and Terms of Service, and please keep this thread limited to questions only, not discussion.

[-Batman-]

Wasnt answered last time but why is it a handicap to level up on CC.
Level 250 now get punished compared to level 249

[Dipstik]

How did you get such a cool job working at a big gaming company?

[aarondavidsdad]

Appreciate the effort to communicate with the CC gamers. Since Crime City and Modern War are essentially the same game, why has it been so difficult to implement some of the more interesting aspects of MW in CC? Specifically limited time bonuses, the collect all button, stronger purchase-able units, etc... Thank you

[The Solution]

Thanks for doing this!

I'm posting on behalf of several people in our syndicate. So that is why there is a lot.
Some may be good ideas/suggestions, others are trivial fixes.
I hope you can comment on most, if not all. Cheers!

MAJOR EVENTS TIMES
Can you please change the deployment times of major events. These really should not be back-to-back, offering no breather time or break. Syndicate Players deserve a 12-24 hour break between events like Battle for Empire City and Raid Boss. Heck, I'd even settle for a 2-4 hour break! Syndicates need time to sort out player issues after these events, including booting players for non-activity and getting their replacements in before the next event starts. If not for all, please do consider it between Battle and Raid Boss!

NEW SYNDICATE RANKS/ROLES
Could you possibly implement new titles/ranks in the game? Currently, the leader is the only one with full power. Most Syndicates have players from all over the world to keep things rolling 24/7. It would be great to have a Co-Leader option to share the same full duties. Another great option or alternative would be to have Senior Officers rank in addition to the current Officer rank. Senior Officers could have a little more access, such as buying Hideouts and removing players, but maybe not changing the Syndicate name. These promotions would be given out by Leader/Co-Leader at their discretion, just like regular Officer titles are.

ATTACK SCREEN
Why are the defense stats on the attack screen in Battles (and regular attacks) not scaled to fit, so the entire number is visible, across all device types? They are constantly cut off or shown with an ellipsis (...) and we are left to guess. A re-design on the attack screen would be wonderful!

RANKING TAB UPDATES/EVENTS STATS
Would it be possible to update the Ranking Tab under Syndicates to include the total IP from Battles, Points from Street Assault, etc. There must be some place that this type of information could be captured, as it is lost as soon as an event ends. We shouldn't have to rush to take screenshots of every player moments before it ends. We should be able to access it and have it at least until the end of a cycle or until the next "like" event overwrites/updates the column.

WALL HITS CAPTURED
Could you think about adding an additional column on the Battle for Empire City screen to capture Wall Hits (could call the column "WH"). It would be nice to capture each team members hits against the wall. Many say they hit, when they don't - so this would just be a nice feature from an Officer/Admin point of view...in addition to seeing their direct wins, offensive wins and losses.

BULK BUY UZIS
Will you add a "bulk buy" option for Uzis, as you have done with equipment? It takes so long to buy 120 Uzis, especially when you are constantly getting Raid Boss summoned and Raid Boss down popups in the way.

FLASH POPUPS
As said above, flash popups can be very annoying. Could you implement a way to turn them off after initial viewing, or create a NEWS tab in the player menu or under the Globe Icon where you can click to see them again? Being able to turn them off for Raid Boss would be great as well. Not everyone needs the reminder, so having that option would be great!

GLOBE ICON
Why do you remove Globe Icon for events like Street Assault? Can't you just add the Street Assault icon in addition to? You don't take it away for Raid Boss. Sometimes it's nice to see what's coming up after that event.

PURCHASE via BANK
Can you make the personal bank the main purchase source for buying items, buildings and upgrades? When you buy anything in the game and don't have the funds out in the open, it always prompts you to buy cash from GREE. I don't know anyone that would do this as the first option if they have money in the game bank. It just causes more back tracking. In my opinion, it should pull from your personal bank and it should only prompt to buy cash from GREE if you don't have enough funds in the personal bank at all.

XP REWARDS
Why is XP treated like a reward? We get XP for hitting targets in the game, but when we complete that round, we get even more XP along with our reward. It's not a reward, it's more like a penalty for participating in events. Many players don't even attempt LTQ's for this reason (for fear of leveling up too quickly). Please consider replacing the "XP award" with RP or a brick or two. Leave the XP on the targets alone. It may raise participation in some of the events and more gold purchases for you! ;)


TRIVIAL ITEMS:

COLLECT ALL
Are there any plans to add a "Collect from All Buildings" feature? I hear there is one in MW, so why not CC?

DAILY SCRATCH
Are there any plans to improve the Daily Scratch card? It would be nice if there was at least a quarterly update with new items/prizes.
Are there any plans to give us any additional options on our user profiles? It would be nice to be able to add Time Zone or Country and Language. This would be very helpful for recruiting and when we receive unsolicited join requests.

iOS vs. ANDROID
Do you plan on making features on iOS the same on Android and vice versa? There are some little things here and there that are not the same across both platforms. I know this because I use both types of devices to play.

FIX MY HAIR, YO!
Finally, I was asked to find out why female player avatars hair float off the side of their heads? LOL! It only seems to do it in thumbnails on attack screens, Battle for Empire City list where IP is presented and in the Syndicate Members list. Regular profiles seems fine.

[Evan1000]

I have a few questions I would like to ask-

1- Why do bank deposit fee reduction mods stack the way they do and do you mind changing it so they add up instead of each mod basically canceling each other out? I understand how it works, and it's smart lol but would it honestly hurt for a guy that takes the time and effort to collect 10 of these mods to have free banking? I have 8 of these and it calculates to -52% off the bank fee.. I understand you may not want everyone to have free banking but would it really hurt to have it? (The answer is no btw)

2- What is up with the LTQ's? I mean in all fairness.. you can't honestly think that these LTQ's are even remotely worth both the reqs and the prizes. The prize for normal sucks utterly and most cannot complete it for free anyway so why bother? I thought when you guys released the anniversary LTQ (where I actually spent gold to complete normal.. big surprise) you guys would fix up the LTQ's for good but they actually got WORSE. The triple threat LTQ was horrendous.. Even one of your top gold spenders posted a warning thread on the forums about it! He has how much energy regen and still needed gold to finish it! So please.. fix these dang LTQ's already. Also, here's the thread if you want to take a look for yourself http://forums.gree.net/showthread.php?101958-Avoid-the-LTQ-it-sucks!!

3- What's up with the individual prizes? I can get a better prize if I'm in a lower ranking tier? Don't even try saying the raw stats make it better.. 2k in raw stats over a 1% modifier I wonder which one actually makes a difference. A great solution for this would be to.. not change the prizes.. but add the ability to CHOOSE which prize you want (meaning the prize in your tier or anything before it). That way we don't have to watch the individual leaderboards about dropping or passing the rank we want and spend more gold in the process!

[Babytway]

*not sure if these was asked last AMA*

-with the addition to the inventory tab it was initially stated we could store buildings due to there is a tab in inventory for buildings. after the release of the inventory tab many players were dissapointed that the ability to store buildings an option currently available in "beyond the dead." it was explained that the buildings tab would be used for special event items(we havent seen yet). so the question is why can't we still store existing buildings in inventory to make space in our hood? this storing buildings option would be extremely helpful after a building upgrade to a desired lvl we could store it and then place it back out with our already sync'd buildings at that collection specific time. please clarify why the store buildings in inventory option is not really an option, also if this a future use for buildings as prizes will they be the only buildings that can be stored in inventory at a players convenience. building inventory is "useless"

-it was put out several months ago by a moderator that is no longer in the community, that there would be several stat changes coming to existing defense buildings that would aid in the offset of def building stats to weapons inflation. currently defense buildings in the game are "useless" and offer zero protection against a hood being robbed or protected against, since that announcement several months ago nothing has changed or said about it. what is the delay, this has been a serious defiency in this game for over a year and there seems to be no urgency or communication in addressing it. what is current plan on def buildings. simply coming out with new def buildings with new stats is a quick fix but not a solution due to players who invested a lot of time leveling existing buildings will simply be screwed over for the time invested into leveling up pre existing buildings.

-along the same lines as current "uselessness" is skill points system long term players who used skill points effectively and strategically in the start of crime city was told by original moderators that 1skill point was roughly 10 attack points now that 10 points is non effective no matter how many skill points u have in atk or def. it was useful back then but now with that stat inflation and influx of bonus mods on weapons the effectiveness of skill points in attack and defense are useless and many original longterm players have wasted skill points in this area, i have sent tickets to ask for skill point reset and support says they won't do it. This is another deficiency in the game that needs to be addressed, corrected and a fix implemented, either a one time script to allow all players a one time reset of skills or increase the effectiveness of atk n def skills to reflect the stat inflation. Is there anything in the works on this problem? or is it not even being discussed or considered?

* if wars, battles, and street assault individual prizes dont stack anymore when u get two of same prize why do you put the same prizes in back to back wars in the same tiers? a lot of players score in same tier range most battles so the same prize is again "useless" easy fix would be change name, change mod instead of it being atk this war make def next war. something like that.

* why do attack mod/bonus weapons vastly outnumber defense mod/bonus weapons?

[Chris Boa]

Any plans to repeat the +1 building mod reward (or variant there of so it doesn't get out of hand with simultaneous multiple upgrades) for those of us that waited patiently for years for it to become available only to be away when it was finally released and if that's affirmative any chance of letting us know roughly how soon?

Thanks

[RAMNUTS]

In a 3 day MW ltq event for those that can not finish each day and thus win the stackable unit + bonus% each of the 3 days can you not let leave it up so that at least they might finish one of them instead of restarting it. Only have the day 2 and 3 appear it the previous one is completed
Also, can you stagger the rewards in wd event (ie: 400-500 unit w/5% boost, 500-600 unit w/10% boost, 600-700 unit w/5% boost) put more strategy into it. Thx

[umka]

Hi, want ask about skill points, after last game update it doesn't work.. It's sad I was spent a lot of money for prizes with attack modifiers.. Can u made 1 skill points = 10% attack or defense) It will b clear and easy for all) sry for bad engl))

[SilentAssassin]

1.Why is it that when a team declares before the declare cutoffs ( in war and SA)that they sometimes don't get paired even though there are other teams in lingo that don't get paired either?

The teams followed the given rules of Declaring before the given cut off by the developers, so why do they get penalized?

2. When the PVP gets released will it be a team leaderboard event like before? With team and individual rankings that are similar to war?

3. Seeing crime city is now half purchased accounts, are you going to change your TOS to reflect the dynamics of the gaming world or will you continue to uphold TOS they way it has been?
Theoretically that could be a large portion of profit gone if all are caught and banned.
It basically seems impossible to actually "police" what's going on as a company.
You don't have to answer this one but I am sure the community would like some light on this.

Thanks in advance.

[montecore]

1.Why is it that when a team declares before the declare cutoffs ( in war and SA)that they sometimes don't get paired even though there are other teams in lingo that don't get paired either?

The teams followed the given rules of Declaring before the given cut off by the developers, so why do they get penalized?

2. When the PVP gets released will it be a team leaderboard event like before? With team and individual rankings that are similar to war?

3. Seeing crime city is now half purchased accounts, are you going to change your TOS to reflect the dynamics of the gaming world or will you continue to uphold TOS they way it has been?
Theoretically that could be a large portion of profit gone if all are caught and banned.
It basically seems impossible to actually "police" what's going on as a company.
You don't have to answer this one but I am sure the community would like some light on this.

Thanks in advance.

On the contrary, it would be incredibly easy for Gree to catch and deal with 90% of the transferred accounts. But to your point, with the number of FC/TAW transferred accounts out there, particularly those that have been taken over by other big spenders, I don't think Gree has the guts to do anything about it.

This does bring up a related question, though: Why isn't the TOS applied consistently?

"Other than as expressly authorized in the Service, you shall not sell, redeem or otherwise transfer Virtual Currency or Virtual Goods to any person or entity, including but not limited to GREE, another User or any third party."

Is there some reason that this doesn't cover transferring in game cash for bricks, which was stated as acceptable by mods of this forum? It seems to me that the TOS basically gives Gree the right to do anything they want, whenever they want, to whoever they want, but it is rarely enforced.

Regarding PVP, the last time the old format was brought up, a forum mod described it as "incredibly hacky" without any real specifics. Everyone I have talked to loved the old PVP format, with the exception of campers. What is the real reason it can't be used for PVP events anymore?

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

I'm sure you guys have discussed reusing old LTB's. Can you shed some light on what the outcome of those discussions may have been? And reasoning behind it? You guys have re-released other forms of limited time items, such as gold items and crate items. Seems like there'd be more outrage for those than actual LTB's. Plus, LTB's dont affect the bottom line. gold items do. perhaps releasing them as gold items.

Any chance of increasing max building level from 10 to perhaps 15 or 20? This could also be a way to make defense building relevant.

Can you tell us what was the tipping point for releasing the +1 building mod to everyone? and why it just wasnt added to all accounts. not just those who participated in the LTQ.

is it possible to have a standing leaderboard system for highest stats? attack and defense scores. perhaps iph. this seems like such a basic feature that most other games have in place. perhaps even a tournament style event for individuals. tiered of course.

Is it possible to implement a raw stat counter on your profile? not just your modified stats? and perhaps sorted by catergory..

How much money is currently in all Crime City banks, and how much is on hand rob-able?
How many total bars of gold are currently in Crime City?

Did SAS actually win a war? I don't see them on my District Map.

Why isn't there better variety in modifier prizes? its always a 10-20% attack or defense modifier. This has seriously made thing boring for many. I can think of at least 20 other modifiers that would spice things up.

Can you speak on the future of the game? specifically how long gree plans on keeping it alive. There are always people that dont know what theyre talking about, saying things like the game is on its last leg. You're clearly still developing for the game. But I get the feeling that crime city developers share duties across other gree titles. and that the only reason crime city is still around is because it doesn't have a dedicated staff. (that's more of that "not knowing what we're talking about" talk right there!)

Why not have AMA's more often? I understand that each question has to be studied, and answer carefully crafted. ok. but a little more attantion and interaction with the community would go a long way towards easing some of the regular frustrations with the game.


thank you

[Blaggard]

Getting full streaks is one of the most difficult things in war and requires a lot of effort and planning by all members. Very few teams manage this on a regular basis.

While the high raw stats of the final streak prize have always been appreciated, the final mod (usually a 3% att mod) has recently been laughable.

Would you consider rewarding the difficulty and rarity of such an achievement by altering the final war streak prize? It doesn't have to be stat-based...perhaps along the lines of building output/upgrade time/energy regen mods. A (semi)-rare mod prize would be appreciated.

Finally, are you planning to vary the prizes for events in general? The endless att/def (usually attack) for events do make a lot of events rather dull personally. Variation in prizes would lead to a renewed interest for many long-term players. Would love to get your opinion on this.

[willis3]

Could the developers add a "gift cash to friends" option?

[xRedfoxx]

1. Can you address stat inflation? It would be nice if a player that has been dedicated for months can step away for a month or two and still come back to a 'strong' character.

2. Is there a way void out inactive syndicates? Since names are unique, we should not keep syndicates around who have been inactive for say 6 months or more. I am mostly talking about all the syndicates created that have 1 or 2 members.

3. Can we have an individual ranking board for members that can be sorted three ways: attack stats, defense stats, IPH?

4. Can we have a method of deleting equipment that is not used by our mafia?

5. Can we have a way to sort our mafia equipment?

Thanks for your time!!

[Rickdee]

Please, Please, Please don't bring temp awards into Crime City.. You hurt all long time players that have supported this game over the years and that have built their stats as such. I know this isnt a question, but not sure how else to get through to you guys. No temp stats please!!! You Ruined Modern War with them, please dont ruin Crime City

[Rickdee]

Also can you discuss why the Rivals list was changed. Because of the rival list change you basically made stats irrelevant. Seeing i can be robbed by everybody on my rival list why should i build defensive stats? They don't come into play at all during the 3 week cycle,until war, but even then unless you are level 250 with crappy defensive stats they don't matter at all. Bring back the old rival list and that all changes.

[Green Drake]

I would like to know why the newer LTBs all require either 2 or 3 stamina to rob especially when the payout is considerably lower than existing buildings.

Also why are buildings that have been previously robbed twice still showing as available to be robbed and paying out the $1-$5. This issue has become exacerbated with the above issue of three stamina being used per hit.
I know this has been discussed on the forum in the past but I would like an actual response from the developers as to why it continues.

[xRedfoxx]

Any plans to add some unique prizes as awards? Something new to change it up a bit? Examples:
1. Faster recharge rate for RB
2. Free character edits
3. Custom character edits
4. % reduction to hood growth fee
5. % reduction to hood growth time
6. grow hood in both directions at once
7. A moving item for the hood (running fountain, hookers that walk around that you can collect from, etc)
8. Special Decorations for your hood
9. 1x Custom flag

[Rodimus]

Are there plans in the works for a Crime City 2?

[Jason_Bourne]

Hi

I will *try* to be brief and to the point so hopefully you guys will find the time to answer my questions below:

1) Can we please have the option of re-arranging our skill points? We all know att and def points are totally useless so why not be able to use them instead toward stamina and energy? I am sure many players will be happy to spend gold to have that option.

2) Can we please have a "gold purchase history" in our accounts - to show us when and how much gold was purchased?

3) Can you please add a flag, color code, or whatever to inventory items that are among top 500 attack or defensive items for each category (basically items that will be 'used' in fights)?

4) Can you please be clear with your plans re rivals list? I know many have commented on this, but while the new list offers some advantages, it has resulted in some horrible pitfalls as we all know (and no need to repeat)

5) Would you consider this idea:
"Energy Capsule": "empty" energy capsules can be purchased for 10 gold a piece. If you have empty capsules in your inventory, and your energy is full, whatever energy you would normally regen, will automatically go into the empty capsule, until it is full, and the next capsule (if you have any) will be filled up next. When you are out of energy, you will have the current option of refill for 20 gold, or using a full capsule if you have any. The difference between a normal refill and a capsule is that a capsule is 'your own' energy saved in a capsule.

Thanks!

[Nighteg]

Any plans to revisit the formula for the Limited Time Buildings?
1) IPH has evolved greatly in the last 2 years. There are people with over 150m, maybe close to 200 these days. You should be releasing 400-500m LTBs by now, not 50m like last one. There is no challenge in them whatsoever. It'll also increase PVP and robbing activity (something you presume to want).
2) LTB rewards are the worst of all events. It's the only event where the reward is worse than what we can obtain in the store. The prizes should be upgraded along with the price (see paragraph 1).

[chubbibee]

Question to the Developer!
When are you going to get rid of the game transfer rubbish! To me it's a pain in the arse! Why don't you go with log in and out features? Like DENA(Mobage) and others, So you can access your game profile on any Android/Apple devices by logging on and resume playing! Come on! if you got a new phone or tablet then you have to use the crappy game transfer method if you done it incorrectly and your profile is gone, That part becomes a biggest pain in the arse! then you have to do support ticket, it would take few days to get your profile back, another reason game transfer is crappy, if you lost or broke your phone/tablet and you got a new device again you have to wait few days to get your profile back! So Just use Log in and out feature if I want to go from phone to tablet and resume playing! One big note if you messed up using game transfer to another device and or if your device got broken or stolen, It will hurt your syndicate team, because you have to wait for few days to get your profile back, while there is a event going on. Just use log in feature on any device and BAM you can resume playing and help your syndicate team members during events!

[Clementine]

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening Everyone! The Developers are in the house and will begin answering questions starting now!

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY3OTQwMTg5Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjQ4NzAyOQ@@._ V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

Will they be going back through previous posts?

[Engram]

Appreciate the effort to communicate with the CC gamers. Since Crime City and Modern War are essentially the same game, why has it been so difficult to implement some of the more interesting aspects of MW in CC? Specifically limited time bonuses, the collect all button, stronger purchase-able units, etc... Thank you

No problem! Happy to communicate with you all! We’ll be rolling out some of the requested items (and more!) through our new 6.0 update (ETA next week - build notes coming soon!) and our content expansion pack (ETA week of 12/15). Specifically, the new 6.0 update will have the collect all button, and better units to purchase will be rolled out in the store in the content expansion pack.

[Clementine]

Will they be going back through previous posts?

Yesiree! Engram is working hard on it!

[Engram]

Thanks for doing this!

Sure thing! Thanks for playing Crime City and prepping these questions for your team!


MAJOR EVENTS TIMES
Can you please change the deployment times of major events. These really should not be back-to-back, offering no breather time or break. Syndicate Players deserve a 12-24 hour break between events like Battle for Empire City and Raid Boss. Heck, I'd even settle for a 2-4 hour break! Syndicates need time to sort out player issues after these events, including booting players for non-activity and getting their replacements in before the next event starts. If not for all, please do consider it between Battle and Raid Boss!

We’re definitely looking into streamlining and optimizing our live ops schedule. Hopefully the changes that brings will help alleviate some of the community’s concerns. The suggestion posted below may also be a part of that solution.



NEW SYNDICATE RANKS/ROLES
Could you possibly implement new titles/ranks in the game? Currently, the leader is the only one with full power. Most Syndicates have players from all over the world to keep things rolling 24/7. It would be great to have a Co-Leader option to share the same full duties. Another great option or alternative would be to have Senior Officers rank in addition to the current Officer rank. Senior Officers could have a little more access, such as buying Hideouts and removing players, but maybe not changing the Syndicate name. These promotions would be given out by Leader/Co-Leader at their discretion, just like regular Officer titles are.

We’ll add this to our list of improvements to consider as we’d like to keep international guild memberships a functional and thriving aspect of the game.



ATTACK SCREEN
Why are the defense stats on the attack screen in Battles (and regular attacks) not scaled to fit, so the entire number is visible, across all device types? They are constantly cut off or shown with an ellipsis (...) and we are left to guess. A re-design on the attack screen would be wonderful!

Agreed! This is something we’re currently looking at actually, it’s been an issue across several of our titles and are working toward implementing a solution.



RANKING TAB UPDATES/EVENTS STATS
Would it be possible to update the Ranking Tab under Syndicates to include the total IP from Battles, Points from Street Assault, etc. There must be some place that this type of information could be captured, as it is lost as soon as an event ends. We shouldn't have to rush to take screenshots of every player moments before it ends. We should be able to access it and have it at least until the end of a cycle or until the next "like" event overwrites/updates the column.

We have been discussing the merits of a battle log for the game. Right now it is on our list of improvements to consider.



WALL HITS CAPTURED
Could you think about adding an additional column on the Battle for Empire City screen to capture Wall Hits (could call the column "WH"). It would be nice to capture each team members hits against the wall. Many say they hit, when they don't - so this would just be a nice feature from an Officer/Admin point of view...in addition to seeing their direct wins, offensive wins and losses.

This could also be a part of the battle log feature presented above.



BULK BUY UZIS
Will you add a "bulk buy" option for Uzis, as you have done with equipment? It takes so long to buy 120 Uzis, especially when you are constantly getting Raid Boss summoned and Raid Boss down popups in the way.


Consider it added to our list of improvements.



FLASH POPUPS
As said above, flash popups can be very annoying. Could you implement a way to turn them off after initial viewing, or create a NEWS tab in the player menu or under the Globe Icon where you can click to see them again? Being able to turn them off for Raid Boss would be great as well. Not everyone needs the reminder, so having that option would be great!

We’re looking into it actually, as it's pretty annoying for us too! We do want to try and make better use of our News tab/screen in game to capture more info and interrupt gameplay less.



GLOBE ICON
Why do you remove Globe Icon for events like Street Assault? Can't you just add the Street Assault icon in addition to? You don't take it away for Raid Boss. Sometimes it's nice to see what's coming up after that event.


We’ll add that to the list of potential improvements, our UI/UX designers will have to weigh in since as we add new features, the UI has to get shuffled around and there’s only so much space to play with.



PURCHASE via BANK
Can you make the personal bank the main purchase source for buying items, buildings and upgrades? When you buy anything in the game and don't have the funds out in the open, it always prompts you to buy cash from GREE. I don't know anyone that would do this as the first option if they have money in the game bank. It just causes more back tracking. In my opinion, it should pull from your personal bank and it should only prompt to buy cash from GREE if you don't have enough funds in the personal bank at all.

We might be able to add an alternative flow that allows you to “borrow” against your current balance via the bank to buy items while you’re accessing the store. Consider it added to the list of improvements to consider.



XP REWARDS
Why is XP treated like a reward? We get XP for hitting targets in the game, but when we complete that round, we get even more XP along with our reward. It's not a reward, it's more like a penalty for participating in events. Many players don't even attempt LTQ's for this reason (for fear of leveling up too quickly). Please consider replacing the "XP award" with RP or a brick or two. Leave the XP on the targets alone. It may raise participation in some of the events and more gold purchases for you! ;)

We’re aware of the current fear of leveling up and how it affects big pvp events like World Domination. Currently we’re working on ways to actually make leveling up a desirable aspect of the game. Please look forward to future developments.



COLLECT ALL
Are there any plans to add a "Collect from All Buildings" feature? I hear there is one in MW, so why not CC?


Yes, many apologies for the delay, but we’re happy to deliver the feature to you in our 6.0 update!



DAILY SCRATCH
Are there any plans to improve the Daily Scratch card? It would be nice if there was at least a quarterly update with new items/prizes.
Are there any plans to give us any additional options on our user profiles? It would be nice to be able to add Time Zone or Country and Language. This would be very helpful for recruiting and when we receive unsolicited join requests.

Definitely! This is something in our list of upcoming updates (no ETA right now tho’, but in the New Year).



iOS vs. ANDROID
Do you plan on making features on iOS the same on Android and vice versa? There are some little things here and there that are not the same across both platforms. I know this because I use both types of devices to play.


Thank you for your feedback. We do our best to have feature parity between iOS and Android, but sometimes we are unable to make everything match 1:1 between the two OS’s. This is caused mainly by the fact that the client codebase is split between the two platforms - in a word, we have to create two versions of Crime City!



FIX MY HAIR, YO!
Finally, I was asked to find out why female player avatars hair float off the side of their heads? LOL! It only seems to do it in thumbnails on attack screens, Battle for Empire City list where IP is presented and in the Syndicate Members list. Regular profiles seems fine.

We’re very sorry. Totally our bad! That was an unfortunate bug which slipped through and will be fixed in our 6.0 update.

[M15]

It would be appreciated if you could shed some light on IP payout in battles. While the basic mechanism is pretty clear to the majority of the players, there are still some aspects that are rather vague.

- Does the number of players hitting the same player simultaneously have any effect on IP payout? Many believe IP will be lower than usual if 2 or more players attack one and the same player at the same time. Any truth to this?

- Does the defense of an attacked player matter as far as IP is concerned? Many believe IP payout tends to be higher if one attacks and wins against a player whose defense is close to one's own attack. Any truth to this?

- Is there a certain level difference that could be considered too high in order to score a maximum amount of IP?
For instance, a level 100 player trying to score maximum IP by attacking a level 250 player. Would the level 100 player be better off hitting a player whose level is not higher than, let's say, level 150-190?

Thanks in advance

[Engram]

How did you get such a cool job working at a big gaming company?

Our lead designer says: Lots of hard work, love of games and interest in what people find fun.
Me: Lots of hard work and luck. Started off as a game tester and moved up through the ranks. Made a bunch of console games with big name publishers, and now I'm here at GREE!

[Nighteg]

This is from previous Q&A:

http://i.imgur.com/kL3OjFp.png

There was no such this in the "next battle" ,which was 2 weeks ago (except for the top 2, but nobody was asking about the top teams). Why promise something if you're not gonna do it?

[Engram]

Thanks for your questions! I'll post quick answers for now. More later.



is it possible to have a standing leaderboard system for highest stats? attack and defense scores. perhaps iph. this seems like such a basic feature that most other games have in place. perhaps even a tournament style event for individuals. tiered of course.

Thanks for your awesome suggestions! We have plans for adding new leaderboard-based features and events in the coming year.



Is it possible to implement a raw stat counter on your profile? not just your modified stats? and perhaps sorted by catergory..


No promises, but we can look at your suggestion, as we are revamping parts of the UI.



Why isn't there better variety in modifier prizes? its always a 10-20% attack or defense modifier. This has seriously made thing boring for many. I can think of at least 20 other modifiers that would spice things up.

We are reviewing the types of bonuses we are giving out in prizes. However, we are trying to be conservative with what we give out, as certain bonuses will effectively break the balance of the game and exacerbate stat inflation.



Can you speak on the future of the game? specifically how long gree plans on keeping it alive. There are always people that dont know what theyre talking about, saying things like the game is on its last leg. You're clearly still developing for the game. But I get the feeling that crime city developers share duties across other gree titles. and that the only reason crime city is still around is because it doesn't have a dedicated staff. (that's more of that "not knowing what we're talking about" talk right there!)

We have a dedicated team of engineers, designers, artists, and testers working on Crime City full time and we’re hard at work to bring new features to the Crime City community!

Our 6.0 update will bring some exciting new features to the core gameplay in Crime City (more info coming soon!), and we’ll also be releasing a content expansion pack which will include 1) level cap increase to level 300, 2) 4 new areas, 3) new store items, 4) hood expansion and more!

We’ve got a pretty exciting roadmap ahead, and we want to keep Crime City going as long as possible!



Why not have AMA's more often? I understand that each question has to be studied, and answer carefully crafted. ok. but a little more attantion and interaction with the community would go a long way towards easing some of the regular frustrations with the game.

Absolutely! We’re planning to do AMAs on a regular basis. We’re happy to answer your questions and share information about what we have planned for the future.



thank you

Thanks for playing Crime City!

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

This thread is moving slower than a herd of turtles.

[Engram]

Could the developers add a "gift cash to friends" option?

Thanks for the suggestion! No concrete promises at the moment, but we would love to add some type of gifting system into Crime City.

[wayno]

How does ths funzio id and password work for transferring game from one device to another?
I tried this a while ago when I got a new device, and it didn't work. I ended up waiting for 3 weeks to get gree to sort it out via sending in a ticket.
This is not good as a leader, not being able to do anything for 3 weeks, and I would be worried when I have to do it again,

[Engram]

This thread is moving slower than a herd of turtles.

Didn't know turtles could type. ;)

[Engram]

How does ths funzio id and password work for transferring game from one device to another?
I tried this a while ago when I got a new device, and it didn't work. I ended up waiting for 3 weeks to get gree to sort it out via sending in a ticket.
This is not good as a leader, not being able to do anything for 3 weeks, and I would be worried when I have to do it again,


Question to the Developer!
When are you going to get rid of the game transfer rubbish!...[snip]

My apologies for making you suffer through this process, but we have some good news! We're releasing a new account transfer feature in version 6.0 (iOS/Android) which should make this process much less painful and allow players with multiple accounts to manage them from a single device!

[Jason_Bourne]

Didn't know turtles could type. ;)
Will you guys be answering the rest of the questions, since we are quickly approaching the end of our 'happy' hour??

[wayno]

Could something be added for leaders to view all members in a list with level, attack, defense, and iph in one place for admin purposes?

[Dipstik]

I've noticed that every suggestion so far has received a positive response... Even the really dumb ones like the "gift" system. Were you told to just nod your head at everything people ask you for?

My question: will you ever crack down on people selling their accounts? Is it permissible now or only for gold spenders?

[Clementine]

Thank you for joining the AMA. This thread is now locked for new questions. We know that not everyone's questions got answered, but our Developers will be popping back in over the next few days and trying to answer as many as they can get to! We look forward to doing this again with you in the very near future!

[Engram]

Hi, want ask about skill points, after last game update it doesn't work.. It's sad I was spent a lot of money for prizes with attack modifiers.. Can u made 1 skill points = 10% attack or defense) It will b clear and easy for all) sry for bad engl))

Sorry! Not sure if I understand your question very well. If you think your game is not functioning correctly, please file a CS ticket from the game and we'll do our best to help you.

[Engram]

Please, Please, Please don't bring temp awards into Crime City.. You hurt all long time players that have supported this game over the years and that have built their stats as such. I know this isnt a question, but not sure how else to get through to you guys. No temp stats please!!! You Ruined Modern War with them, please dont ruin Crime City

Thanks for your feedback. In general, we look at the features we add in terms of the overall health and longevity of the game. If we feel a new feature or award provides something of value to all players, we will consider putting it into the game.

In the case of temp awards, they might be valuable depending on how they are used. They may potentially enable us to provide more desirable mods, for example. That said, we don't have plans to implement into Crime City at the moment, but there maybe a gameplay or system balance reason for us to implement it in the future.

We do value long term players like you as well as newer players, so we'll do our best to introduce features that benefit everyone.

[Engram]

Any plans to repeat the +1 building mod reward (or variant there of so it doesn't get out of hand with simultaneous multiple upgrades) for those of us that waited patiently for years for it to become available only to be away when it was finally released and if that's affirmative any chance of letting us know roughly how soon?

Thanks

Hi Chris! Thanks for playing our game.

Sorry you missed out on the last reward during our 3rd Anniversary month!

Unfortunately, no plans at the moment for another one. :(

[Engram]

Are there plans in the works for a Crime City 2?

The Crime City team is hard at work improving the current game (our 6.0 update is scheduled for release next week!), so no news on a sequel.

[Engram]

-with the addition to the inventory tab it was initially stated we could store buildings due to there is a tab in inventory for buildings. after the release of the inventory tab many players were dissapointed that the ability to store buildings an option currently available in "beyond the dead." it was explained that the buildings tab would be used for special event items(we havent seen yet). so the question is why can't we still store existing buildings in inventory to make space in our hood? this storing buildings option would be extremely helpful after a building upgrade to a desired lvl we could store it and then place it back out with our already sync'd buildings at that collection specific time. please clarify why the store buildings in inventory option is not really an option, also if this a future use for buildings as prizes will they be the only buildings that can be stored in inventory at a players convenience. building inventory is "useless"

I agree it would be super-handy to have a feature to store buildings and the current feature as-is isn't very useful.

Unfortunately, it's not an option at the moment because the feature to store a player building in an inventory has never been supported in Crime City. We'll need to sort out some technical issues before we can offer the feature, but it should be technically feasible to do. As with the "Collect All" button requested by the community (and delivered in our 6.0 update), we can potentially implement this feature if the demand from the community is really high for it.

In the meantime, we have a backlog of features we maintain, and we can definitely put this on our list.



-along the same lines as current "uselessness" is skill points system long term players who used skill points effectively and strategically in the start of crime city was told by original moderators that 1skill point was roughly 10 attack points now that 10 points is non effective no matter how many skill points u have in atk or def. it was useful back then but now with that stat inflation and influx of bonus mods on weapons the effectiveness of skill points in attack and defense are useless and many original longterm players have wasted skill points in this area, i have sent tickets to ask for skill point reset and support says they won't do it. This is another deficiency in the game that needs to be addressed, corrected and a fix implemented, either a one time script to allow all players a one time reset of skills or increase the effectiveness of atk n def skills to reflect the stat inflation. Is there anything in the works on this problem? or is it not even being discussed or considered?

We acknowledge this to be an issue, and we'll be addressing it in the New Year.



* if wars, battles, and street assault individual prizes dont stack anymore when u get two of same prize why do you put the same prizes in back to back wars in the same tiers? a lot of players score in same tier range most battles so the same prize is again "useless" easy fix would be change name, change mod instead of it being atk this war make def next war. something like that.

We balance item stats based on the overall stat inflation of the game and periodically update prizes, but not necessarily per event.

Can't go too much into detail at the moment, but we are currently working on new features that will provide more interesting variety in our prizes. One part of this is our new Accomplices feature we're releasing in our v6.0 update.

For more details about v6.0 and Accomplices, please check out this post (http://forums.gree.net/showthread.php?102779-Build-Notes-Crime-City-v6-0&p=1432210#post1432210).

[Engram]

Any plans to revisit the formula for the Limited Time Buildings?
1) IPH has evolved greatly in the last 2 years. There are people with over 150m, maybe close to 200 these days. You should be releasing 400-500m LTBs by now, not 50m like last one. There is no challenge in them whatsoever. It'll also increase PVP and robbing activity (something you presume to want).
2) LTB rewards are the worst of all events. It's the only event where the reward is worse than what we can obtain in the store. The prizes should be upgraded along with the price (see paragraph 1).

Thank you for your suggestions. This issue is on our radar.

We recognize the need to make periodic adjustments to LTBs based on the game's overall economy. However, the difficult challenge for us is to provide something of value to loyal, dedicated players like you while controlling IPH inflation.

We hope some of the new features we have planned for the New Year will make your Cash more valuable, and in turn increase the value of LTBs for everyone.