I recently put out a call for players for the beta for the next version of Chom Isis and only got 4 registrations. That's well under the threshold needed to make best use of the new features. So I cancelled it. There are four disappointed people.
I need to work out why there are so few players this time. Is it bad timing? Did I not advertise broadly enough? Should I have cajoled a few people into playing? Is it too difficult to learn? Is it only fun when you're playing with all your friends? Or... as I fear... is there something systematically wrong with Chom Isis as a game (or premise) that is not fun to play?
If Chom can be fixed then I will need to estimate the time it would take and decide whether it is worth while to do so. If it means re-writing huge sections, I may decide not to. I don't get much free time and when I do, I'm exhausted and just about able to play Minecraft. Some of the questions I've raised aren't fix-able. My social circle is contracting both physically and digitally, so I don't see enough people to con them into playing. Prisym was a good place to get people playing but iGroup isn't.
All thoughts and opinions are welcome. I've not decided what to do with it but am pretty dispondent about it.
Comments
Speaking for the folks at Prisym, we're all a bit busy, which might be why only 3 of us registered instead of the 5 from last time. If you were to run it up again in a month or two you'd probably get the other two and JC as well ...
Personally, i really enjoy the game, i think it's got the right sort of pace to it in terms of required effort whilst also allowing to be a devious bastard. what's not to like?
Thanks Ash, that's really kind. However, you're playing in an office where you get to talk face to face with the other players. That's much more fun. When there was a large Yell contingent, the players always seemed to be having more fun. Now none of those players play.
Personally I didn't know that there was a call for players out....
I would prefer to see the time-frames contract (ie buying life-inputs/pawns have a shorter auction time, resources are gained faster) , although it may disadvantage people who couldn't login every day.
While you advertise it, I'm not sure that other people really advertise it, if pushed I could possibly get 3/4 people to signup. Maybe an email newsletter to those who have played before, which has the odd information about updates you are working on etc and then a call for players via it?
Would also be interesting if you could play more than one game at a time, (ie same code base, different database) with different possibly different people. Possibly with different rules/setting like having a random alliance setup for you.
I personally find the games just go on too long now. It was OK when I had less to do at work, but can't really get away with it anymore. If you miss the start especially, you're on the back-foot all the way through, and number of pawns is still the single biggest driver to who wins.
It would be good to see a game with the waits reduced (so shortened job times and income times), and perhaps swap the pawn auction for something faster (for example can always buy a pawn, but cost is based on a combination of;
1) Number of pawns you currently own, with discounts for 3)
2) Resources in the game
This would keep all players active for the period of the game, while allowing those who keep happy, alive pawns on a higher income.
The game-end timer is too slow...waiting for 100 pawns to die takes way too long, especially when you limit their entry into the game. I quite liked the old "buy a vote to end", where players could force the end.
Finally, I would make information more powerful, and easier to come by. Currently it is far more economical to randomly murder...especially in the end-game it does seem a bit of a crap-shoot.
I suppose what I'm getting at is a form of Speed-Chom...perhaps with a target game time of 2 weeks. If you can make it playable on a smartphone then that counters a lot of the issues with time, and steamlining the gameplay itself so that it comes down to small volume pawn management and information-gathering I can see it being a short, sharp blast of violence. The core idea is there and excellent already with the current game.
Speed Chom sounds good and not a silly amount of work.
3.3 has that sorted but needs some tuning. You can no sync nuggets with your alliance, making swapping information much more useful. Spy jobs are much quicker too and don't take up time in the op's calendar.
The only large change would be pawn buying.
I'd agree with the comments on timeframe there, the endgame in particular took a bit too long last time. I think you'd need to be careful not to make it too fast though, the biggest time change i think to make would be on murders taking 30 hours or whatever it is, maybe reduce that to 12, and i think you'd see a marked difference in game time.
To pick up on another one of Pete's points - I always wanted to make it mobile friendly but it is a lot of work.
I think a better way of looking at timing is how long you want the game to last, and then working out what actions would happen within that time...
Also, apart from locking jobs, what effect does having long murder jobs have?
Having a long murder jobs means you can't suddenly turn round and kill a load of pawns in passionate retaliation. That was the original rationale. Not saying it was right, but that's why.
I didn't receive "the call" otherwise i'd have joined!
The problem for me is, I don't really understand the game. What I do is collect resources then do loads of murders. I don't know how else to play it. Why is spying beneficial? it helps you determine who you want to murder next?
I'm a simple fellow i guess. :)
Just to add my thoughts to the pile:
I strongly agree with babychaos on the point:
If you miss the start especially, you're on the back-foot all the way through ...
This has been one of the most off putting points for me, even if the problem is only perception.
I would prefer to see a true level playing field at the start, with everyone starting off with a full set of pawns (3 for example) all of which are moderately happy and have life inputs which keep them steady at that point.
The game then progresses based on player choices without the effects of luck of the draw (i.e. good and bad pawns) resulting in the rich remaining rich and the poor remain poor (i.e. those who start with better pawns can afford more at the first auction, so have a far better chance of getting pawns).
Ah I forgot about the call for players otherwise I would have signed up, sorry been a very busy lots of business travel.
Speed chom might be interesting tho it might be difficult for me to participate due to time zones
I know I haven't been able to commit as much time to chom as I have in the past but it's still an enjoyable game.
CI Update! I have coded the new pawn buying mechanism and slammed some numbers in. I've also downtuned all the job times so that they run much quicker. The auction is still there for life inputs but pawns won't appear there.
Who's up for a nasty fast beta?
http://www.chomisis.net/register.php