Post by Flonner on Jan 5, 2017 1:22:21 GMT -6
Question: Previously, /u/LoneEmperor123 asked: "Will we ever have taskforce vs. taskforce battles?"
Answer:
This is one of the most commonly asked questions out there!
Of course, the answer is "maybe.” We love the idea of Task Force vs Task Force battles/wars, and talk about it very often. In order to make a feature like this, we need two things.
First, we need the idea/design. If we’re devoting large amounts of time to a big feature, we want to be sure that it’s perfect. That means we want to be really confident that players will love it. Second, we need the time. The time we would take to develop it is also time taken away from other features like new troops, new operations, new cycle of evil events, and things like the Mega Crab. We have to be really confident that the idea is amazing enough to be worth it.
We have experimented with lots of ideas for some kind of Task Force vs Task Force event. We’ve also combed through all of your ideas on reddit, on the forums, and elsewhere. We've made prototypes, experimented with different ideas, and collaborated with other game teams. However, so far we haven’t found anything that fits just right, and is good enough to implement. I don’t want to say “never,” but right now it’s not our focus. We may revisit this again down the road, but this feature is not on the horizon for now.
-Rlight
Added:
Also, what we have figured out is a good idea for a major new feature we're currently working on. We think you're going to love it.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Hey guys thank you very much for creating Boom Beach. As a max level 65 player, I have absolutely nothing to look forward to besides hitting operations. I'm done upgrading everything. We used to be able to hop to different task forces to try hitting different ops which was a blast and kept me interested in playing. I myself and others often would diamond zookas so that we could hit multiple ops in other task forces. After the last update you took it away, can we please have it back? If not what was the rationale for taking it away from us?
Answer:
We made some changes to TF Hopping in order to prevent a reward exploit. These changes unintentionally had a couple bad side effects for Hoppers. Technically speaking, these changes were very complicated.
We'll take another look at the technical side of the changes, and see if we can make some improvements for Hoppers.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Will HQ23 come out in 2017?
Answer:
We're not planning on adding HQ 23 at the moment. We would like to add something new to a potential new HQ lvl instead of just increasing numbers on existing buildings. And we're working on a new feature right now so HQ 23 is currently not in our pipeline.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Intel is problematic, particularly on War Factory days. Would you consider adding intel as part of the rewards for War Factory?
Answer:
Yes, adding intel to the War Factory is certainly possible. We'll need to take a closer look at the balance implications but it should otherwise be fine.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: The inclusion of magma drops in an event, namely Imitation Game, was great. However, would you consider making it more equivalent to the drops from Dr. T?
Answer:
The Imitation Game rewards are actually already equivalent (albeit larger) to the better Dr T rewards.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Is there anything coming to help with Recruiting?
Answer:
We've been thinking about various ways to help with recruiting. We'll probably move forward with those once we're done with what we're currently working on.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Do you guys plan on adding more HQ levels in the near future?
Answer:
In the near future? No. A new HQ level takes a surprising amount of work! Right now we'd like to focus on other things that we think will have a greater effect.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: As it is right now, most PvE bases are very similar, while this is not technically bad, it can make the game quite repetitive! Are there plans for adding new kinds of bases?
Answer:
We totally agree. Right now, we have to design them manually. That's not sustainable for making them interesting and new over the long term. Rather than continuing to manually make them, we want to create something that will do this in a better way. Keep an eye out!
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Are there plans to make intel gain or requirements for end game players easier in the future?
Answer:
This shouldn't be that difficult of a grind, we agree. Still looking for the right solution, but we don't want the end-game to feel like that.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Are there plans for other big events, like Mega Crab, in the future?
Answer:
Could anything ever beat the Mega Crab!? I think Cl. Gearheart and Lt. Hammerman need to step their game up.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: What is the favorite part of your job?
Answer:
This is the toughest question here! Working at Supercell is absolutely incredible. Gaming, and specifically Boom Beach, were my passions for many years. Now, I get to be a part of my passion at work every single day. There's never a dull moment, and even on the worst days I'm still happier than ever.
-Rlight
Added:
I really like the team spirit and openness we have here in the Boom team. We joke and laugh a lot, make fun at each others' expense without anybody getting offended or hurt and everybody trusts each other to do their jobs well and in time. It feels great to be part of such a team.
-Brushie
Added 2:
You're still making fun of the team description in that job advert and then you go and basically say the same things! You hypocrite!
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Do you guys plan to improve in-game TF search functionality?. So it would help us recruit players (easily) or look for TF.
Answer:
We know that the TF search is a pain point. We've been making improvements to it, but it's still not where we'd like it to be. It's a very complex beast. What kind of improvements do you have in mind?
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Or if you guys can at least release some sort of API, we will try to build some third party tool which would help the community.
Answer:
We've discussed the possibility of an API. I'm a huge fan of those in fact. In an earlier AMA we gathered some feedback about what people would like to see in the API and then implemented those stats in the game.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: I think you guys are definitely not understanding how difficult it is to keep up and run the TF and improving this will definitely bring some joy.
Answer:
You have my thanks I'm really happy that our game can create the real life connections through Task Forces and I appreciate especially the well managed Task Forces that make those happen. We can give you tools, but it's your use of the tools that makes the game special for a lot of people.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Boom Beach team, how big are you exactly ? How much has the team changed since its early days?
Answer:
We're 2 people in a corner.
. . .
But in all seriousness, we have a dozen members in the BB team right now. 2 artists, 2 programmers, 2 server guys, an analytics guy, QA, community manager, player support champion, designer and Rauta (he's standing behind me with a whip, proofreading my messages, please send help).
The team has changed quite a bit over the years but we still have 4 of the original guys (people who were here when we went live) working in the team.
-Brushie
User replied:
It's really a great accomplishment what you guys are able to complete with such a small team!
I don't mean this to be rude, but with how successful Supercell games are, how come the team isn't expanded? As it is now, it sometimes feels like new implementations aren't properly tested (not a big enough QA team) so many bugs or new interactions are unintentionally (and unannounced) added!
I understand Boom isn't as big (or as profitable as Clash or Royale) but you can be sure that plenty of players would be happy to help!
BBT replied back:
Just as /u/darkosamone wrote, one of our core philosophies is to keep our teams as small as possible. You can read Our Story for more info on Supercell's culture. By keeping our team small and the bureaucracy at a minimum, we can move much faster.
From my own personal experience - The entire Boom Beach Team sits together almost every day. If we have a question, an idea, a problem, or anything else we can just swivel our chair around and find the solution. It makes our work environment incredibly streamlined and efficient.
-Rlight
Added:
We're constantly looking for new employees to our teams but it's surprisingly difficult to find a person who is really good at what he does and a good fit to the team and Supercell culture. We hire new employees at a steady pace but we have some new game teams that need extra team members even more than we do.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: There is a bug in Imitation Game whereby when you use more than one attack on the final level, then you receive almost zero reward when it is completed. Do you have a fix in place for this?
Answer:
Unfortunately this fix requires a full update. We can't fix it with a maintenance.
-Unknown SC member
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Hi guys, thank you for your great work and the awesome game!
Would you or have you guys ever considered doing another game with the Boom Beach universe similar to Clash of Clans' Clash Royale?
Thanks!
Answer:
This is actually a decision for the teams working on new games at Supercell. These teams are free to pick the theme and the art style they want for the new game.
I'm pretty sure that if the new game teams want to use Boom universe, we'd be supportive of the idea.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Will there ever be a village edit mode like in Clash? It is very difficult to move bases around and since I switch between a hammerman base and a regular base with different layouts for different prototype weapons it gets very frustrating moving things around.
Answer:
Ever is a long time, but we don't have plans for this at the moment.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Would it be possible to add a task force message feature? It'd be nice to have a way to alert people about the ending OP and get their attacks in.
Answer:
Pinning messages send out a push notification, like /u/TriGzuH mentioned. There is also an automated push notification that is being send 2 hours before an OP ends and you haven't attacked yet.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Do you think it's feasible that you'd add a new sculptor level to HQ22, as the previous sculptor levels were unlocked at HQ 20, 18, 16 etc? I feel HQ 22 feels much less important gameplay-wise as many others (eg HQ20 where one unlocks a new landing craft, new sculptor level, etc, and is a much bigger power jump).
Also, would you EVER consider adding a ninth landing craft, in a future HQ level?
Answer:
I don't think we're going to add new sculptor levels or landing crafts to the game. A ninth landing craft and an extra sculptor level would mean a drastic increase in the attack power and would really mess up the game balance which was created with 8 LC's and 10 statues in mind.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Hi, When can we expect next Mega Crab? Anything planned for its 1st anniversary? Anything for offensive players to look forward to in future? Such as a new troop, a new gunboat ability etc.
Answer:
We haven't planned anything bigger than usual to the MC's 1st birthday. But there's certainly something for the offensive players to look forward to in the near future.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question:Hey BB Team! Thanks for doing the AMA. I'm glad to see you answering some questions about hopping. I won't keep beating that drum.
I am curious about the Dr. T events. Was it your intention for them to repeat every week like they have been or will there be an update making new each time again?
Thanks!
Answer:
No, that was definitely a bug. We attempted a fix last week, and that caused an 'out of sync' issue which required an emergency maintenance to fix. At that point, we reverted it to the previous (bugged) version.
Since the fix is complicated and the bug isn't a major issue. We're not planning on rushing it. We're still investigating the problem, but we fear it might have to wait until the next forced update to be fixed.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: do you have anything planned for the near future?
Answer:
Yes
-Rauta
Answer:
This is one of the most commonly asked questions out there!
Of course, the answer is "maybe.” We love the idea of Task Force vs Task Force battles/wars, and talk about it very often. In order to make a feature like this, we need two things.
First, we need the idea/design. If we’re devoting large amounts of time to a big feature, we want to be sure that it’s perfect. That means we want to be really confident that players will love it. Second, we need the time. The time we would take to develop it is also time taken away from other features like new troops, new operations, new cycle of evil events, and things like the Mega Crab. We have to be really confident that the idea is amazing enough to be worth it.
We have experimented with lots of ideas for some kind of Task Force vs Task Force event. We’ve also combed through all of your ideas on reddit, on the forums, and elsewhere. We've made prototypes, experimented with different ideas, and collaborated with other game teams. However, so far we haven’t found anything that fits just right, and is good enough to implement. I don’t want to say “never,” but right now it’s not our focus. We may revisit this again down the road, but this feature is not on the horizon for now.
-Rlight
Added:
Also, what we have figured out is a good idea for a major new feature we're currently working on. We think you're going to love it.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Hey guys thank you very much for creating Boom Beach. As a max level 65 player, I have absolutely nothing to look forward to besides hitting operations. I'm done upgrading everything. We used to be able to hop to different task forces to try hitting different ops which was a blast and kept me interested in playing. I myself and others often would diamond zookas so that we could hit multiple ops in other task forces. After the last update you took it away, can we please have it back? If not what was the rationale for taking it away from us?
Answer:
We made some changes to TF Hopping in order to prevent a reward exploit. These changes unintentionally had a couple bad side effects for Hoppers. Technically speaking, these changes were very complicated.
We'll take another look at the technical side of the changes, and see if we can make some improvements for Hoppers.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Will HQ23 come out in 2017?
Answer:
We're not planning on adding HQ 23 at the moment. We would like to add something new to a potential new HQ lvl instead of just increasing numbers on existing buildings. And we're working on a new feature right now so HQ 23 is currently not in our pipeline.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Intel is problematic, particularly on War Factory days. Would you consider adding intel as part of the rewards for War Factory?
Answer:
Yes, adding intel to the War Factory is certainly possible. We'll need to take a closer look at the balance implications but it should otherwise be fine.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: The inclusion of magma drops in an event, namely Imitation Game, was great. However, would you consider making it more equivalent to the drops from Dr. T?
Answer:
The Imitation Game rewards are actually already equivalent (albeit larger) to the better Dr T rewards.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Is there anything coming to help with Recruiting?
Answer:
We've been thinking about various ways to help with recruiting. We'll probably move forward with those once we're done with what we're currently working on.
-Belzsch
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Do you guys plan on adding more HQ levels in the near future?
Answer:
In the near future? No. A new HQ level takes a surprising amount of work! Right now we'd like to focus on other things that we think will have a greater effect.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: As it is right now, most PvE bases are very similar, while this is not technically bad, it can make the game quite repetitive! Are there plans for adding new kinds of bases?
Answer:
We totally agree. Right now, we have to design them manually. That's not sustainable for making them interesting and new over the long term. Rather than continuing to manually make them, we want to create something that will do this in a better way. Keep an eye out!
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Are there plans to make intel gain or requirements for end game players easier in the future?
Answer:
This shouldn't be that difficult of a grind, we agree. Still looking for the right solution, but we don't want the end-game to feel like that.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Are there plans for other big events, like Mega Crab, in the future?
Answer:
Could anything ever beat the Mega Crab!? I think Cl. Gearheart and Lt. Hammerman need to step their game up.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: What is the favorite part of your job?
Answer:
This is the toughest question here! Working at Supercell is absolutely incredible. Gaming, and specifically Boom Beach, were my passions for many years. Now, I get to be a part of my passion at work every single day. There's never a dull moment, and even on the worst days I'm still happier than ever.
-Rlight
Added:
I really like the team spirit and openness we have here in the Boom team. We joke and laugh a lot, make fun at each others' expense without anybody getting offended or hurt and everybody trusts each other to do their jobs well and in time. It feels great to be part of such a team.
-Brushie
Added 2:
You're still making fun of the team description in that job advert and then you go and basically say the same things! You hypocrite!
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Do you guys plan to improve in-game TF search functionality?. So it would help us recruit players (easily) or look for TF.
Answer:
We know that the TF search is a pain point. We've been making improvements to it, but it's still not where we'd like it to be. It's a very complex beast. What kind of improvements do you have in mind?
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Or if you guys can at least release some sort of API, we will try to build some third party tool which would help the community.
Answer:
We've discussed the possibility of an API. I'm a huge fan of those in fact. In an earlier AMA we gathered some feedback about what people would like to see in the API and then implemented those stats in the game.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: I think you guys are definitely not understanding how difficult it is to keep up and run the TF and improving this will definitely bring some joy.
Answer:
You have my thanks I'm really happy that our game can create the real life connections through Task Forces and I appreciate especially the well managed Task Forces that make those happen. We can give you tools, but it's your use of the tools that makes the game special for a lot of people.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Boom Beach team, how big are you exactly ? How much has the team changed since its early days?
Answer:
We're 2 people in a corner.
. . .
But in all seriousness, we have a dozen members in the BB team right now. 2 artists, 2 programmers, 2 server guys, an analytics guy, QA, community manager, player support champion, designer and Rauta (he's standing behind me with a whip, proofreading my messages, please send help).
The team has changed quite a bit over the years but we still have 4 of the original guys (people who were here when we went live) working in the team.
-Brushie
User replied:
It's really a great accomplishment what you guys are able to complete with such a small team!
I don't mean this to be rude, but with how successful Supercell games are, how come the team isn't expanded? As it is now, it sometimes feels like new implementations aren't properly tested (not a big enough QA team) so many bugs or new interactions are unintentionally (and unannounced) added!
I understand Boom isn't as big (or as profitable as Clash or Royale) but you can be sure that plenty of players would be happy to help!
BBT replied back:
Just as /u/darkosamone wrote, one of our core philosophies is to keep our teams as small as possible. You can read Our Story for more info on Supercell's culture. By keeping our team small and the bureaucracy at a minimum, we can move much faster.
From my own personal experience - The entire Boom Beach Team sits together almost every day. If we have a question, an idea, a problem, or anything else we can just swivel our chair around and find the solution. It makes our work environment incredibly streamlined and efficient.
-Rlight
Added:
We're constantly looking for new employees to our teams but it's surprisingly difficult to find a person who is really good at what he does and a good fit to the team and Supercell culture. We hire new employees at a steady pace but we have some new game teams that need extra team members even more than we do.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: There is a bug in Imitation Game whereby when you use more than one attack on the final level, then you receive almost zero reward when it is completed. Do you have a fix in place for this?
Answer:
Unfortunately this fix requires a full update. We can't fix it with a maintenance.
-Unknown SC member
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Hi guys, thank you for your great work and the awesome game!
Would you or have you guys ever considered doing another game with the Boom Beach universe similar to Clash of Clans' Clash Royale?
Thanks!
Answer:
This is actually a decision for the teams working on new games at Supercell. These teams are free to pick the theme and the art style they want for the new game.
I'm pretty sure that if the new game teams want to use Boom universe, we'd be supportive of the idea.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Will there ever be a village edit mode like in Clash? It is very difficult to move bases around and since I switch between a hammerman base and a regular base with different layouts for different prototype weapons it gets very frustrating moving things around.
Answer:
Ever is a long time, but we don't have plans for this at the moment.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Would it be possible to add a task force message feature? It'd be nice to have a way to alert people about the ending OP and get their attacks in.
Answer:
Pinning messages send out a push notification, like /u/TriGzuH mentioned. There is also an automated push notification that is being send 2 hours before an OP ends and you haven't attacked yet.
-Rauta
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Do you think it's feasible that you'd add a new sculptor level to HQ22, as the previous sculptor levels were unlocked at HQ 20, 18, 16 etc? I feel HQ 22 feels much less important gameplay-wise as many others (eg HQ20 where one unlocks a new landing craft, new sculptor level, etc, and is a much bigger power jump).
Also, would you EVER consider adding a ninth landing craft, in a future HQ level?
Answer:
I don't think we're going to add new sculptor levels or landing crafts to the game. A ninth landing craft and an extra sculptor level would mean a drastic increase in the attack power and would really mess up the game balance which was created with 8 LC's and 10 statues in mind.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: Hi, When can we expect next Mega Crab? Anything planned for its 1st anniversary? Anything for offensive players to look forward to in future? Such as a new troop, a new gunboat ability etc.
Answer:
We haven't planned anything bigger than usual to the MC's 1st birthday. But there's certainly something for the offensive players to look forward to in the near future.
-Brushie
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question:Hey BB Team! Thanks for doing the AMA. I'm glad to see you answering some questions about hopping. I won't keep beating that drum.
I am curious about the Dr. T events. Was it your intention for them to repeat every week like they have been or will there be an update making new each time again?
Thanks!
Answer:
No, that was definitely a bug. We attempted a fix last week, and that caused an 'out of sync' issue which required an emergency maintenance to fix. At that point, we reverted it to the previous (bugged) version.
Since the fix is complicated and the bug isn't a major issue. We're not planning on rushing it. We're still investigating the problem, but we fear it might have to wait until the next forced update to be fixed.
-Rlight
__________________________________________________ ________________________
Question: do you have anything planned for the near future?
Answer:
Yes
-Rauta