Game Discussion Thread:

[Sekishi]

Greetings everyone, Sordes here. Some of you probably remember me for huge essays as some call them in suggestions forums. And that suggestion forum is partly why im making this topic. I have a desire to help the game once more as it helped me. At a point where I was suicidal and not in a very good shape what keept me going was Bush, for that reason i stick around and threw suggestion after suggestion into the boards. While im currently not an active player I stil discuss once in a while with those that do play and have a decent understanding whats changed and not since i stoped playing. For that reason and for the reason of trying to help the game that helped me this topic is made. The Goal of this topic is simple:

Create the Base for Suggestions that would improve the game.


What does this mean ? Its quite simple. In this topic now for a while lets discuss the problems the game is having. Anything and everything, if we can agree its a problem we will add it to a list. Once that list holds 5 Problems, we will start a discussion on how these problems would be best solved. Once we have come up with some idea's someone in this topic who is not important creates a Topic in the Suggestions Board, and fellow posters in this topic helps keep the topic alive intil it gets more new feedback from community or perhaps Azzer. Its even egurraged if Azzer himself posts what he sees as problems, or his desired outcome for Bushtarion, and from there the community can aim to find solutions. The reason for sutch a topic as this is because most of the Suggestions in the Suggestion Forum are not very well done. Their not usualy constructive enough or more light idea's, while well and good its at current time to random. The game has problems that needs to be solved, and the community knows best what problems excist and if working together its more likly that the community can create a solid suggestions how to fix these problems. Im hoping that players are willing to take this topic seriusly and contribute, Flamers are encurraged to make a Gripe Topic in Gripes and start it there. As pointless flames and gripes in this topic is simply a way of proving that you do not care on how the game is devoloping. Constructive Cristisim however is always welcome. I will aim to keep this topic alive and updated. And act perhaps more of as a Guide then suggestors, as some will likly say. What does a person who hasent played activly for 2 years or is it 3 now actualy know about the game ? While i can challange that question I wont. Instead i'll try to just help those currently playing formulating, and not post my own suggestion on how to fix things. Bellow is the list of Problems posters in this topic has constributed to. I welcome all to this Discussion topic.


The List: (None yet.)




Links to Suggestions: (None yet)

 

[timtadams]

Yeah, I agree. Sometimes a few good suggestions get the thumbs up and are then forgotten about. Also, there is potential for better discussion, rather than hot-headed flaming

Makes me think about product design...
I will outline the concept:

Problem Statement: What is the problem?
Needs: What is required? Directly related to problem statement
Ideas: Generation of ideas which may comply with the aforementioned needs. Go wild, no ideas are left out. Include even the most ridiculous. Even these seemingly stupid ideas may have potential if implemented correctly.
Selection: The ideas are filtered and screened until only a few remain.
Manufacture: Well final decision here i guess. Supply missing information; so are there holes in the idea? Any shortcomings?

So bulk of discussion should be on Ideas and Selection. If you have a crazy idea, say it. Someone may be able to use that idea to produce a better one.

So for me:

Problem statement: Not enough people to attack
Needs: More players
Ideas:
Allow multi-ing. (simply more accounts)
Increased advertising (more people reached = more hits)
Better advertising (need to lure people in, use violence and/or hot babes)
Phone app
Facebook version in which players still play same people on proper version
Better incentives for current players to get their friends playing
Reduce requirements of game

This last point shows how an idea for one problem presents its own problems, for which more ideas will be generated.
So ideas for this may include:
Allow account sharing (players can share with overseas players to increase activity of accounts but reduce time requirement of both people)
Forcibly disallow players from being logged in for more than 16 hours a day.
Only allow people to log in during hours defined by the player

And so discussion continues.

Eventually (well hopefully) one great idea will be left which should hopefully solve the problem.

Btw, my entire post, while an example, is entirely serious, including all ideas!

 

[Dax]

Can I please add, any suggestion can get Azzer's attention if you simply make the effort to ask. He doesn't scour the forums looking for them, you have to speak with him; Especially seeing as he is very busy trying to create a new game that won't lose players over time like all text-based games do.
It's a simple fact; This game will eventually thin out totally and die. Which is why Azman needs to plow his time into this new game - To keep him paid, and employed.
Please also note, no game mechanic changes can be implemented at the current time - For obvious reasons stated above. Numerical changes (ie insurance levels, bounty rates, etc) can be changed, however.

 

[Alcibiades]

THIS

 

[Sekishi]

Alcibiades, that seams like a perfect place to start. Its a year old almost to the date, so could perhaps need a update to see what he see's might be fixed or not. And agreed, Azzer should prio the work on the new game, thats why suggestions made should be smal, easy to fix that would improve gameplay. I guess I'll throw up some topics but nothing grand, I want the current community to produce most of these and not a old timer that the game cant benefit from like me. So lets see.

Simplify The Un-Necessary:
Seams like a good place to start. What parts do people feel is in the way or not really needed anymore ? Something that used to bother me but Im not sure it does current people was that for the new people i used to bring i had to spend loads of time explaining the interface and how to plant land etc to get started. And they again would complain it would take to long time to get really started playing the game. Would you belive that more starting acres already planted, with enough gardeners and harvestors, and perhaps some Wheelies etc and spare troops to attack some Preprogramed Bot would be a improvement ? Azzer mentioned something about the low lvl bots in that post. Would speending up those first few houers of gameplay aswell as making the players feel they can get started right away help getting new people to stay longer ? and If so how would you do it ? With Azzer being limited on time the easier and smaler the better I would asume.

 

[Tim]

The problem for Bushtarion is that times have changed and so has the behaviour of people. The game is too complex and involved for most people who would play a game like Bushtarion.

It's one thing to focus on gameplay, but that doesn't bring and retain players. People now are playing games on their mobile devices, or on Facebook. Farmville has over 60 mil users who play on Facebook or using an iPhone App. It's simple, but effective.

I'd play Bushtarion again if it was simply a mobile phone app that I didn't have to spend loads of time on. An app which notifies users about events happening (iPhones do notifications very nicely). And an app which has community features built in. That would bring Bushtarion to a whole new market.

I used to believe that the way forward for Bushtarion was a mobile web version of it and I championed this for a long time... At the time, it probably was the right idea. But the whole App thing has moved faster than anyone expected and to be honest, it's probably what's required for Bushtarion to succeed.

All of the above, of course, is not what Bushtarion is about. But the thing is, any amount of modification to game mechanics or other things won't, in my opinion, make the game any better. As an outsider - a non-player - looking in, I see a game which is dying, a community which is not lively enough.

Azzer has done his best over the years to improve Bushtarion, to keep it fun. But the issue is behavioural on the part of potential players. Bushtarion is like a horse and cart, in the days of the petrol engine. It needs to adapt - and I believe it can do.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Tim is on the money here, imo - and its something I've been harping on about for some time now.

The gaming world is changing at an incredible rate - and Bush has failed to keep up the pace - resulting in a huge decline in numbers. The game is good, there's no disputing that - but accessibility is making it extremely difficult for players to play and enjoy Bushtarion.

In my opinion we need to look at reducing the amount of effort required to play the game itself. The massive need for contactability and activity is so off-putting in an age where some of the best games in the world are designed to be picked up and put down within a couple of hours.

Suggestion's such as Polo's are the way forward imo. Stuff like this, in conjunction with Tim's proposal that we take Bush to new platforms, will do absolute wonders for the game.

-

Polo's idea would have a massive impact on game-play and will immediately make the game more attractive to people who want to enjoy playing Bush but don't want that to impact on their work, education, relationships etc.

The latter - i.e a Facebook/Iphone/Android app is a much bigger challenge - The coding involved is a whole different ball game - The only way of tackling this is to either start a community development scheme to get this off the floor - Or pay for a bespoke app from a third-party company.

 

[Tim]

I agree with much of what you say DarkAngel, except for this...

The latter - i.e a Facebook/Iphone/Android app is a much bigger challenge - The coding involved is a whole different ball game - The only way of tackling this is to either start a community development scheme to get this off the floor - Or pay for a bespoke app from a third-party company.

As an iPhone Dev with little experience of other programming languages, I've found it to be a very easy environment and language to pick up. Assuming everything was done on the server, a bespoke app to interface with it wouldn't be too complex to make in terms of coding - you would probably find that planning it and designing the actual flow of the game on an App to be the most time-consuming time.

 

[Dark_Angel]

I've no exp at all with iphone app dev - If its fairly straightforward then that's good news - When I say completely different ballgame I mean for Azzer specifically. It'd involve him having to pick up a different coding language.

Can you give us any indication how much a bespoke iphone app would cost to make Tim? Or whether it'd be a better idea for Azzer to code it from the ground up himself so he can maintain it himself?

 

[Twigley]

The coding involved would be minimal imo, for an application for phones.

All you need to do is code some sort of gateway that logs you in and set it to a free downloadable game on iStore.

The gadget show did it with 2 games.
One of them got 40,000 downloads.
The other got over a million downloads and all you did was make a bike go over 1 ramp and see how far you could get it.

People jump at the chance for a "free game".

 

[Weeble]

There's no way Azzer would pay for someone else to create a mobile app, just FYI. He'd do it himself.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Just got my invitation to the Google App Inventor beta, really straight-forward piece of kit. Could well come in handy if he has a go at it.

 

[Tim]

I've no exp at all with iphone app dev - If its fairly straightforward then that's good news - When I say completely different ballgame I mean for Azzer specifically. It'd involve him having to pick up a different coding language.

Can you give us any indication how much a bespoke iphone app would cost to make Tim? Or whether it'd be a better idea for Azzer to code it from the ground up himself so he can maintain it himself?

Oh it would be easy enough for Azzer to make himself. It's not like the game would be needing 3D graphics or OpenGL or anything fancy like that. And as Weeble says, it's something he would do himself rather than pay for a third party to do an inferior job.

Anyway I sorted hijacked Sordes' thread with this & didn't expect to get many replies about the idea. Should it maybe be split and added to the Suggestions Forum so it can get the attention/criticism it may or may not deserve?!

 

[Dark_Angel]

I've no exp at all with iphone app dev - If its fairly straightforward then that's good news - When I say completely different ballgame I mean for Azzer specifically. It'd involve him having to pick up a different coding language.

Can you give us any indication how much a bespoke iphone app would cost to make Tim? Or whether it'd be a better idea for Azzer to code it from the ground up himself so he can maintain it himself?

Oh it would be easy enough for Azzer to make himself. It's not like the game would be needing 3D graphics or OpenGL or anything fancy like that. And as Weeble says, it's something he would do himself rather than pay for a third party to do an inferior job.

Anyway I sorted hijacked Sordes' thread with this & didn't expect to get many replies about the idea. Should it maybe be split and added to the Suggestions Forum so it can get the attention/criticism it may or may not deserve?!

We do have a number of threads re: iphone/android/facebook apps in Suggestions - most seem in favor of going for it.

I think this thread is more to do with collating the best ideas. This is definitely one imo.

 

[Dax]

I've no exp at all with iphone app dev - If its fairly straightforward then that's good news - When I say completely different ballgame I mean for Azzer specifically. It'd involve him having to pick up a different coding language.

Can you give us any indication how much a bespoke iphone app would cost to make Tim? Or whether it'd be a better idea for Azzer to code it from the ground up himself so he can maintain it himself?

Oh it would be easy enough for Azzer to make himself. It's not like the game would be needing 3D graphics or OpenGL or anything fancy like that. And as Weeble says, it's something he would do himself rather than pay for a third party to do an inferior job.

Anyway I sorted hijacked Sordes' thread with this & didn't expect to get many replies about the idea. Should it maybe be split and added to the Suggestions Forum so it can get the attention/criticism it may or may not deserve?!

We do have a number of threads re: iphone/android/facebook apps in Suggestions - most seem in favor of going for it.

I think this thread is more to do with collating the best ideas. This is definitely one imo.

It gets my support too - I'm going into specialist mobile application developing this year for my advanced IT programming speciality - I would happily assist Azzer for no charge if he ever needed the help.