You raise some very good points. But I would also argue that the sense of urgency and the constant fight for survival is a core part of KoDP's gameplay, and to dumb it down would take a lot away from the game.
As a compromise, I suggest introducing two new modes:
The "Beginner Mode", as the name suggests, makes the game a whole lot easier. The key differences may include:
- Extinction is almost impossible, basically some kind of auto-cheat that makes bad things only happens when it doesn't hurt that much.
- Simplified management: instead of setting actual numbers for things like cropland and population allocation, all sliders could instead be changed to "few - some - lots". Let the game adjust the optimum level automatically.
- Make the ring's advices both more vocal and more helpful. Ring members in KoDP give a lot of useless information. That's fine for experienced players, but it could be confusing for beginners. Maybe you could make the _actually helpful_ advice stand out much more. For example, by making them pop up automatically instead of having to ask for the advice.
- Better tooltipping -- maybe in the form of ring advices -- for all functions.
- And lastly, when anything bad happens, someone should explain the hell out of it! This would make the player think that the game isn't completely arbitrary... (which it is.)
In addition to the Beginner Mode, there may also be a "Story Mode". In this mode, the whole game is pretty much on autopilot. The player only makes decisions in events. They may also be able to set the clan's war/peace balance, and possibly initiate or veto wars. But otherwise, in this mode, it's just scene after scene after scene.
These modes should probably be limited to short games, in order to encourage players to learn and experiment with the long game.
ps. Oh, yes, as a long-time fan, I would be quite annoyed if any feature or deity was cut from the game! If anything, I want more! I wouldn't mind if they are disabled for Beginner Mode, though.
>
> Hi,
>
> David Dunham wrote:
> > Just wondering: has anyone gotten the Berserker Apocalypse or Telmori Apocalypse? I think these are both quite difficult to trigger.
> >
>
> Neither. I think the Troll, Beastman, and Horsespawn apocalypse are the
> three I've seen. Is there a Praxian one? May have encountered that too,
> though I might be confused on that one with the "Slayer" story line.
>
> Thinking back to your earlier queries regarding ways to streamline KODP,
> may I suggest that you consider toning down the difficulty of the game a
> bit? I suppose you are pretty much guaranteed good reviews from your
> long-time fans, but if iPhone users are anything like Android users, the
> difficulty level of the game even on easy could result in very many bad
> reviews.
>
> Speaking from my own experience (two games published in the Android
> Market - "A Brief History of Rome" which is a weird
> Risk-like/Empire-building game, and "Pirates and Traders" - a turn-based
> adventure/strategy/role-playing game not entirely uninspired by Sid
> Meier's famous game), the most common complaint - by a long shot - is
> that of difficulty. Unlike the PC, where you can expect a certain
> minimum investment from the users to try and understand the game, many
> users on a phone are usually looking for 5-10 minutes of quick fun
> (there is a reason why the top games on both iTunes and Android are
> simple casual/arcade/action games or the "slot machine"-like Facebook
> games). Such players are generally not very tolerant of tough challenges
> but are the more happy to slag the game with low ratings and inane comments.
>
> If you haven't already considered this, I would recommend looking into
> this. Even on the easiest level, KODP can be a pretty unforgiving game,
> and I would think that stuff like the Heroquests, for instance, would
> be like red cloth in front of a bull to many casual players.
>
> I would also recommend that you in the interface provide plenty of hints
> as to what the player should consider doing (if you are keeping the
> council, they would be an obvious avenue for friendly suggestions). KODP
> isn't really a very approachable game in that regard - you have so many
> options available to you when you start, but what is the smart thing to
> do? In this respect, you really should consider holding the new player's
> hand - because very many won't have the patience to figure this stuff
> out and they certainly won't read the manual (in my games I finally
> ended up implementing a button with a big question mark in every single
> screen linking to the relevant portions of the manual. I still get
> questions/comments on stuff which is clearly explained there).
>
> If you're looking to streamline the game a bit (and I apologize in
> advance if any long-time fans despair at this suggestion), I would
> recommend that you consider cutting some of the more obscure/marginal
> gods from the game. Perhaps scale down the map a bit as well and
> minimize the impact of some of the smaller factions. New players ho play
> the game in 10-20 minute snatches while commuting to and from work are
> not going to spend time researching the mythos (which is almost
> required) and are unlikely to be able to keep all the different
> factions, gods, and issues in mind from game session to game session.
> You want it to be easy to pick up and continue playing a game.
>
> I don't mean this to sound as if mobile gamers are less intelligent or
> capable than their compatriots on a desktop by any means. That's silly -
> after all, the demographics basically overlap. But if you want to make
> KODP a hit on mobile, I think it is important to keep in mind that when
> people whip out their iPhone/Droid, they are often looking for a
> different type of entertainment than when they sit down in front of
> their computer or console.
>
> Regards,
>
> Michael A.
>