[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.ph...e-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