New feature #3: Inventory System - to be released soon

Arcorian

newly acquired unit cards,

I assume this acquisition will consist of money changing hands with a good helping of gambling mechanics involved?

Also, this is a little petty I know, but I don't see how this is a "new feature", when it's the basic neccessity that's required to use these cards, which are, in fact, apparently the only actual new feature aside from a new unit that nobody asked for?

So you basicly Introduce a new Option to Spend Money for the Sake of Snowballing

Watching the "Help Chat" (Sry English isnt my Native Tongue) its not hard to figure out that a great Portion of the Comunity cant even fully Explain how Soldier recruitment works

The Possibility that so "Builded" Units can instantly Defend a Province while normaly builded Units get Conquered is very Critical

Watching the Youtube Video and pausing on 0:10 shows 1002x12500 resources...

even the possibility for 1/10 of this is really concerning with a worth of 400k gold...

this is no "feature", its a must have or lose

i know that the comunity is asking for maps without any gold, and most would pay as entry fee without hesistation 20k-50k for it, and now you introduce a mechanik which made normal playing obsolete

"for balancing reasons just 1 in each province at the same time"

alone the possibility to "just double" the normal soldier production in early is already bonkers

giving a freshly conquered province 70+% morale cost just 2.5k Gold, and gives you the opertunity to summon a heavytank in 10 hours which can defend himself on day 12, before a normal produced arty comes out?

ooh dear xD

i really hope that this mechanik/feature is just a new price for winning maps, with quality/quantity equal to mapsize

otherwise it will for sure destroying alot of fun and "fairplay" in the comunity

i spoke my concerns and hope deeply im completly wrong about it

have a nice day fellas

Sinahji

"for balancing reasons just 1 in each province at the same time"

alone the possibility to "just double" the normal soldier production in early is already bonkers

Gotta agree. This is a change moving the game away from itself towards it becoming a totally different game.

If you want a different game, why not make a different game? Did Supremacy really have to take the fall for this?

LostRealist

I assume this acquisition will consist of money changing hands with a good helping of gambling mechanics involved?

Also, this is a little petty I know, but I don't see how this is a "new feature", when it's the basic neccessity that's required to use these cards, which are, in fact, apparently the only actual new feature aside from a new unit that nobody asked for?

I am not sure what gives the idea that is a possibility, but there won't be gambling involved.

I understand that an inventory system might not look like a big thing, but it is a crucial feature for the new Operations and rewards in general. It opens a lot of opportunities for the future as well.

Sinahji

So you basicly Introduce a new Option to Spend Money for the Sake of Snowballing

Watching the "Help Chat" (Sry English isnt my Native Tongue) its not hard to figure out that a great Portion of the Comunity cant even fully Explain how Soldier recruitment works

The Possibility that so "Builded" Units can instantly Defend a Province while normaly builded Units get Conquered is very Critical

Watching the Youtube Video and pausing on 0:10 shows 1002x12500 resources...

even the possibility for 1/10 of this is really concerning with a worth of 400k gold...

this is no "feature", its a must have or lose

i know that the comunity is asking for maps without any gold, and most would pay as entry fee without hesistation 20k-50k for it, and now you introduce a mechanik which made normal playing obsolete

"for balancing reasons just 1 in each province at the same time"

alone the possibility to "just double" the normal soldier production in early is already bonkers

giving a freshly conquered province 70+% morale cost just 2.5k Gold, and gives you the opertunity to summon a heavytank in 10 hours which can defend himself on day 12, before a normal produced arty comes out?

ooh dear xD

i really hope that this mechanik/feature is just a new price for winning maps, with quality/quantity equal to mapsize

otherwise it will for sure destroying alot of fun and "fairplay" in the comunity

i spoke my concerns and hope deeply im completly wrong about it

have a nice day fellas

The inventory system is needed for the Operations to work. Rewards you get from the Operations which you unlock by playing the game are stored there.

Regarding the paused section in the video. The video was taken with a dev account. These accounts are used to QA the game and take screenshots or videos like this, and always have gold and resources for these purposes.

I understand the concerns you raise, and you bring up valid points. I can tell you that the team spent a lot of time on these features, and keeping the game balanced was and always is a high priority. We are keeping a close eye on game data in the weeks after the release tomorrow, and we are keeping an eye on everyones feedback on their experience, suggestions, and concerns.

I, therefore, encourage you to share your experience with the feature with us, once it is live, as it would help us a lot.

Arcorian

I am not sure what gives the idea that is a possibility, but there won't be gambling involved.

I shall be glad to stand corrected, because this does give off the "FIFA" kind of "booster cards" vibe.

Arcorian

I understand that an inventory system might not look like a big thing, but it is a crucial feature for the new Operations and rewards in general.

Yeah that was kind of my point - it seems like the broomstick to the broom, so sort of weird to call it a seperate feature. Again, that's neither here nor there, just an odd observation.

Sinahji

and gives you the opertunity to summon a heavytank in 10 hours which can defend himself on day 12, before a normal produced arty comes out?

Just to clarify, the values in the videos were taken from a speed map. The real mobilization time for the Heavy tank card is 64h in the current version. Same as for all the card amounts as Arcorian already said, they are greatly exaggerated in the video because QA people had to use lots of cards to test the feature, therefore had to add alot of cards to their inventory. It is not representative of the amount you will see in the operations.

Going out on a limb here, mostly hoping to be told that my hunch is wrong but, this new unit you've created with its unprecedented mobilization method is not at the heart of the recent bug where enemy units walk right through your units as if they are not there to strike at a unit behind them, is it??

Cheers

So we have a new " PAY TO RUIN THE GAME FOR EVERYONE AND ENJOY IT! " that Supremacy will lost every player who played it as a balanced game. But now you can pay to summon Stormfronters (if I said it's name wrong sorry) instead of having any skill and strategy to win the game. Honestly, I am the kind of player who doesn't use any gold despite I have it, but it would be a Dead game as soon as days going on!

R.I.P

Basically with this update they are trying to bring this game even more into micro transactions, which is not a bad thing in and of itself. The way its being implemented however is horrendous and very self-serving... I mean the way they described this new system pre-release it actually sounded good and I quote:

“Operations are designed to bring new dynamics into your gameplay, offering a variety of long-term objectives to accomplish. It could be simple tasks that require a couple of clicks or something more challenging, leading you to rethink your usual strategy.”

From the sound of this, one could hope that it would offer proper guidance to newer and intermediate players, as to how to set up their economy properly, which buildings to construct and on which provinces so that we can finally stop seeing barracks being constructed on every one of their home provinces which runs their grain production into the ground making them rage quit after their initial supply runs out and they run out cash buying it off the stock exchange.

I guess the “long term objectives” mentioned by Bytro its all about conquering provinces granting 20 points a pop and doing it quickly enough before the operational timer runs out. The abhorrent results of what I am seeing in game is players making suicidal attacks to beat the clock and get the puny rewards, but ultimately getting mauled by the AI let alone what happens against knowledgeable players that I would describe as baby seal clubbing.

Once again Bytro is trying to make a quick buck by focusing on quick purchases instead on focusing on the real money maker called player retention which is granted a lot much harder to achieve. So we have empty maps of 3-5 human players past day 10 or so, ruining the experience for all players newbies and veterans alike.

Yet another short sighted attempt by Bytro to drum up quick cash for the last quarter of the year. At least they are consistent with their short sighted strategy over the last decade, I will grant them that.

Cheers

Torananga

the real money maker called player retention

I have certainly not held back with criticism towards the choices Bytro has made over the years but even I almost feel bad when I point out that you're wrong here, at least when applying this to the current business model that this game is being run on. Feels like throwing needless dirt on them when that's actually not what I want to do.

What I, without being cynical, do believe has happened, is that the game entering the mobile gaming market initially a few years ago has been a learning experience for Bytro. They learned that with enough exposure on that market, microtransactions are a literal money printer. Audiences on that market tend to be very young and not very picky - if the game is shoved in their faces, they will play it, and if the developers are crafty enough (and Bytro having over a decade of experience with this, are), they are easy to "guide" into microtransactions. It's not really about the game itself, it's about how many opportunities and incentives the game provides to click a "buy" button - there are many enormously crude examples of this, but Bytro also ate this lesson up.

Ever since then, the game has become less involved and "dumbed down" to keep these extremely casual audiences with very fleeting attention spans interested for the few weeks tops they'll play this game before they move on. It's not about providing a deep, complex experience to players who are looking for a serious strategy game anymore.

They are well aware that they're attracting audiences that aren't looking for the kind of commitment to a game that you'd need to even complete a single match here and they will tell you this with pride when they point out how well the company's numbers are doing like they're completely unaware of or uninterested in the fact that any public match sees >80% of players drop inactive within the first week. If they left a couple of bucks here along the way, Bytro will read that as a flaming endorsement of its product.

Player retention has become entirely superfluous to Bytro because it isn't their real money maker anymore. Quick-hitting microtransactions on a new player pay much, much better. For what it's worth, I'm sure it's a really good racket - external financial estimates on Bytro certainly suggest so. Yeah, player retention is hard to achieve, but Bytro freaking had it before. I played this game for eleven years for example. They abandoned this pursuit consciously, which is why you're seeing the sort of changes that you very aptly describe in your post. The business model is no longer a long-term strategy game that generates income because it's better than the competition at being a long-term strategy game. It is now quantity of quality.

Greetings,

I am not sure I follow, where exactly you are going with this. I feel like you are making my point for me... According to my service record I have been playing this game since April 2012 so over a decade. I believe I have a good idea of how this game developed over the years and what direction Bytro has been pushing it towards. Let’s not forget that Bytro has several games under its banner and albeit them being similar in genre they play differently as most are faster paced, with different styled economies and different methods to simulate R&D; which in my humble opinion are better suited for micro-transactions.

I bring this up to point out that my previous post is about S1914 specifically. Like it or not this game is very slow paced compared to its “siblings” This is one of the factors that makes it very niche and like it or not this CANNOT be changed no matter how many flashy things you try to implement, no matter how many micro transactions you try to embed. All you are doing is ruining the gaming experience for your hardcore loyal clientele. No matter how much you want them to the Fortnite/COD kiddies will not play this game long term and this is a battle you CANNOT win.

That does not mean this game cannot be made profitable with the right marketing strategy. This has been proven amply by other niche games like EVE online that has a very small but fiercely loyal player base and has also been around for over a decade and they had no problem generating revenue without having to rape the essence of their game. Bytro on the other hand refuses to learn from past mistakes, (look at what they did to Call of War and how they came full circle after that abject failure) they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. I fear with this latest update S1914 will go down the same unfortunate path becoming in my opinion unplayable like CoW was made unplayable. There are many, many other examples I can give as to how S1914 has been missing out on capitalizing on what the community wants over the years just look at how Bytro is completely ignoring its player base that has been begging for years to gladly pay GM for GM free rounds…

Nuff said…

Cheers

Torananga

Bytro on the other hand refuses to learn from past mistakes,

This is where I think you're wrong; as far as they're concerned, no mistakes were ever made, because the revenue still flows well. That is the only metric they measure this game by, not what you and I think of the direction it's headed.

I mean, jeez, second that thing about the GM free rounds, very good example. We've begged them. But we're not their accountants, so our opinion's just no good.

Came back to check maybe game has changed to better, but naah seems like its goes full re**rded.

Good luck with you strategies, lil Blily with 1 moms credit card swipe will be top strategist

Sad what game has become...