Universal PIXEL PEOPLE Returning Soon - Beta Test

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by Lambdamu, Apr 8, 2019.

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  1. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Bug:

    When I try to build a road it says more land needed, even though roads don't take up land.

    Suggestion:

    Getting u from trees feels really bad. Because the little green stars are so fleeting, you have to keep the app open and stare at it if you want to harvest u. In 2013 I did this - for days - and it was fine. But in 2019 it feels awful. I have so many great games on my phone, several of which are idle games that I can check in every few hours and not miss anything, others of which are card games where I can take a turn and get something done around the house while my opponent plays. And it I want to stare at my phone for 15-20 minutes, I have ports of AAA games like Civilization.

    I suggest that you change the trees so that when a green star spawns it remains in place until tapped. At least while the game is open and maybe even when offline. Players could then harvest their trees all at once and then check back again later. If you feel that this makes it too easy to get u, you can make u drops from trees (even) rarer. But the system where you can only get u from trees by staring at the game screen for a prolonged period is not as much fun as I remember.
     
  2. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Couple more comments, also in the vein of complaining about u and the (potential) cost of the game.

    Did it always cost u to put clones in the hotel? I feel as if it did not, because I remember juggling Arrival Center slots while buildings were under construction. I think that making the hotel free would not only allow more play in short sessions before waiting for buildings to finish, it would also reward clever play. Example: I want to consolidate housing to save land. If I want to replace 3 Rocky Mansions with 1 Shiny Tower, I have to send 6 clones to the Hotel, total u cost = 12, or 6 u per space freed up. Just buying the legal loophole is only 4 u per space. So I have no incentive to be creative. If the hotel were free, the stunt described above would cost just 3 u per space, less than legal loophole.

    Let me also comment on the timers. Buildings that need to be tapped every 2, 3, or 5 minutes are brutal and are going to drive away today's more casual gamers. I'm thinking of people like my wife. In 2013 she didn't play iPhone games, she does now, and when I told her Pixel People was coming back she said "oh, I remember you liked that, once its released I'll play it." If it releases in this state I see her giving up in an hour or less. As with the green stars I mentioned in my earlier post, the timers basically require you to play constantly. One possibility would be to boost the lowest timer to be something like an hour. Another would be an IAP building that gives you a button you can hit to restart all buildings without having to pay any u (unlike the Business Center).
     
  3. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
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    Feb 22, 2013
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    I would also consider getting rid of the coin rewards for filling the heart meter. 5-8 thousand coins mean nothing, compared to a pet or u.
     
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  4. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
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    Feb 22, 2013
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    I understand that money is a limiting factor, but especially if you're rebuilding the game from scratch, I would strongly urge you to get as much content as possible into your initial release. I remember that in the original game my strategy shifted several times as content was added, and it would be neat to be able to plan for the end game from the start.

    It would also feel like there will be more longevity to the game. I'm at 109/150 jobs so far, and basically just farming u and refreshing buildings with the idea that I'll get one of everything and be done. If a little tutorial had made me aware of mutopium, pet splicing, etc, I would feel like I had a lot more to look forward to! And that would make me a lot more interested in some IAPs for more steady income, hint, hint. :)
     
  5. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    "Can't delete unique buildings" applies to decor and paths, which seems dumb.
     
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  6. tjb

    tjb Well-Known Member

    Aug 1, 2012
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    No idea what pets are for. Is there going to be some more helpful information in the final release than the few snippets you get in the town hall? So much of this game I’ve had to assume and guess at as I go.
     
  7. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Discovery is definitely part of the fun of this game, but I agree that a little more documentation could help. In this build, I *think* that pets do nothing and are just something to collect. But there might be something I don't remember and/or haven't discovered!

    Also, Devs, I can't remember the exact building but I noticed there's at least one building where the flavortext description didn't fit in the box and covered the buttons at the bottom of the building card. You probably should either have a scrollbar or shorten up those long descriptions.
     
  8. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    #48 Unstablefan, Apr 17, 2019
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2019
    I found the old wiki and it says/reminds me that the cost of the hotel is usually refunded. In that case there's really no reason for it to cost u to send them there - it just makes players trying to save up scared to use the hotel.

    The wiki also talks about golden hearts - are golden hearts implemented in the current build? This may give me something to do after discovering all the professions!

    And man, browsing the wiki really reminds me how great this game was and how much there was to do! I hope you can eventually restore the full Pixel People experience to the app store!
     
  9. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Inspired by the hotel I've been thinking more about the eternal need for more land....perhaps other land management features such as astroglass housing, decor, and trees should be prioritized over more complicated features? Unsure what makes sense from a design perspective - as I gamer I love to min/max and Pixel People was always great for that!!!
     
  10. Lambdamu

    Lambdamu Well-Known Member

    Apr 19, 2010
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    iPhone Application Developer
    Singapore
    Thank you mayor unstablefan, we'll be looking into some of the things here. Problems like unable to delete tiles and text overflow should be fixed in the next update. Thank you!
     
  11. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Glad to have helped!

    Also, tip for others: It seems that in this build the hotel does *not* refund u. (That or I'm incredibly unlucky.)
     
  12. Lambdamu

    Lambdamu Well-Known Member

    Apr 19, 2010
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    iPhone Application Developer
    Singapore
    Yup, it doesn't right now, we'll be trying to build that back in, and also sighing that our IRL vacations aren't refunding us like in Utopia. Wait that's why it's Utopia isn't it.
     
  13. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Here's a wierd one. I was watching a video to speed up a new Shiny Tower. The game crashed and when I restarted it one of my trees was just gone. You can see in this screenshot the gap where it was. But the land counter didn't go down, the tree is still being counted.

    I also looked at the number of trees by tapping on a tree and unlike the land counter the tree total is no longer counting the missing tree.
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    I took this opportunity to see what would happen if I hit "Restore from iCloud." The answer is nothing, it says no save file recorded. How do you upload to iCloud?
     
  15. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    It just ate another tree, this time without crashing (that I noticed). I have been making Andromeda Oaks, because I like them, and both times that it ate a tree I had 13 trees and 5 Andromeda Oaks. At the moment I (again) have 12 trees and 4 Andromeda Oaks. I'm going to make a 13th tree (for the third time) and make it my second Dimension Tree. I will report back - if it disappears it would suggest that no more than 12 trees are currently allowed; if it doesn't disappear it would suggest a bug with either 5 of one tree or with Andromeda Oaks.
     
  16. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Tree # 13 / Dimension Tree #2 seems to be staying put. Next thing will be to get up to 5 of another tree, but that will take me a few days as I want to finish filling my buildings first and will need more land for trees.
     
  17. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    Now up to 20 trees including 5 each of Mercurial Olives, Dimension Trees, and - for the third time - Andromeda Oaks. I'll let you know if any vanish!
     
  18. Lambdamu

    Lambdamu Well-Known Member

    Apr 19, 2010
    434
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    iPhone Application Developer
    Singapore
    Thank you, we've been getting a handful of reports about missing trees/ decor/ roads, and we're trying to fix it. Please keep letting us know about it.

    There's also an issue where sometimes clones would experience a secondary cloning process in the Hotel and come back with a doppelganger. That's also something we're looking into.
     
  19. Lambdamu

    Lambdamu Well-Known Member

    Apr 19, 2010
    434
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    iPhone Application Developer
    Singapore
    Hello Mayors,

    iCloud saving is now enabled!

    The first time you launch a game after an hour since your last session; or every hour in-game, the game will upload your save file. You'll see an icon on the bottom left of the screen when it is saving, and you can check your last saved data in Town Hall -> Settings.

    From the start screen:

    If you are playing locally, please choose CONTINUE.

    If you delete the app then reinstall it/decide to load a previous save file, you can choose LOAD FROM iCLOUD to download the save file - but it will override your current save file, if you have any.

    You can also use iTunes to extract your save files manually.
     
  20. Unstablefan

    Unstablefan Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Feb 22, 2013
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    No more trees have disappeared. Hooray!

    Also, for reference, it took me more or less exactly two weeks to "complete" the game (all professions and buildings are all built and fully staffed). Didn't do any IAPs but did a lot of watching ads.
     

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