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Boneyard Perk Pricing

Sneakypantz
in Beta Testing
In the hours I played, I found myself grinding Ad Watching for gold, than playing the game. I'm thinking a reduction in price, but not too much - maybe 15%? And perhaps progressively increase gold amount in piles per waves? Or increase pile frequency to keep us working the map to get them. My two cents. :)

Comments

  • Raptisoft
    edited October 2017
    The initial prices range from 10%-40% lower than the original boneyard (higher cost ones are reduced more).  Probably the best thing to do is save up for the "drop more gold" perk.

    Gold doesn't progressively increase, but the monsters all have the same chance of dropping gold-- so when you get 100+ skeletons after you, each one rolls his own chance of dropping gold, which increases the quantity. 
  • LoadedBakedPotato
    I also noticed the prices for perks stay red even if you have enough gold to purchase.  not sure if this is intended or not but it doesn't seem to auto-update after watching an ad.
  • Raptisoft
    The red indicates that you have never bought that perk before... if that's confusing I can change it over.
  • SomeRandomHEFan
    Yeah, I also found it a bit confusing. In video games, red is typically associated with unavailability.

    How about making the perks' prices red when unused and unaffordable, orange when used and unaffordable, yellow when unused and affordable, and green when used and affordable?
  • Raptisoft
    Ehn, I'll just make it red when unaffordable.  There IS that text that says "more expensive cuz you never used it."  If I had to distribute a color key pamplet with each game, I'm doing something wrong!
  • dgsantos256
    I don't know if it's on purpose, but if you are a beginner in the game, watching ads is FAR MORE rewarding than actually playing the game...

    I know that you made changes in prices so players will always have something to spend on and in sure it will make the game a more fun for "high score players", but if you are just "starting" in the game, these costs are somewhat high.
  • Raptisoft
    Well, the ORIGINAL "unlock" prices are higher than these-- i.e. in the original game, when it was buy once, use forever, a player had to face higher prices for a perk.  So with that being the "standard," things should be easier for a beginner player now, no?
  • dgsantos256
    I really can't remember  what were the prices in the original iOS version =/

    Played Boneyard so MANY years ago on my iPod...

    Maybe I'm just biased because of all the games I played in this time. I will wait to hear what others think about it too.




  • Sneakypantz
    Starting fresh, I found it easier and less time consuming to grind ad watching to unlock initial perks - love those random 7,350 gold rewards! Afterwards, playing the game with the unlocks made it enjoyable. Honestly, starting fresh is brutal without perks. You're stuck with trying to balance survival without being mana starved from increase spells to last longer. You cant really get a better gold output with gold perk being 1st perk, compared to ad watching. The gold perk works if you can survive past 500 or so kills. And from my experience, you hit a wall on DPS Mages w/no spliced spells and no perks. Long story short, ad watching shouldn't be the starting action for the game. Maybe have players start with some gold from the get go? Or balance mana costs on spells to allow players not to be mana starved, so as to last longer to see those gold piles stack up?
  • dgsantos256
    edited October 2017
    @Sneakypantz

    I feel the exactly same!

    I also avoided spending the gold from the 20k pack on perks "on purpose" to actually be able to see how a new player will go through the game.

    Seems like if you are under the ~1000 score, you will be better (and by better I mean A LOT BETTER) just "farming ads" than playing in terms of getting gold, even considering the bonus gold perk.

    It may be a bit boring to someone who doesn't know the game. This person will be progressing so slowly that he/she will be playing for hours just to pass this initial "noob wall".



  • Raptisoft
    Well, but remember this... you guys are coming from a perspective of people who already know the game pretty well.  A new player will be exploring, will also be getting the experience of new monsters showing up, and exploring the skill system.  That part of the game is old hat to you guys now, so the whole game is perk farming... the idea is you play the game for enjoyment... and right around when you're getting bored with shooting skeletons, you have all this gold around to buy perks and change it up a bit.

    But that said, I'm not against reducing the perk prices, since they are buy-every-time.  I wasn't so much worried about the initial cost, what I was more worried about was the recurring costs.
  • Raptisoft
    But really, anyone who wants to grind gold should be making a beeline for the "Drop More Gold" perk and play with that always on.
  • SomeRandomHEFan
    Personally, I agree that the initial start is a bit too harsh. It took me a few runs (and realizing how awesome ice magic is) until I bought the extra potion perk. That made things easier. I was initially planning to save my money for the extra gold perk, but eventually realized this would take too long with perkless runs.

    It might be best to give players just a little starting cash to buy their first perk. Though people unfamiliar with Keep might screw up by choosing a bad one. Maybe advise newcomers to go for the extra potions first?
  • Sneakypantz
    The gold drops were an improvement, as well as the perk pricing. I'm averaging about 850 gold per 30min game sessions. However, I believe it might still be too low. Even when grabbing Bargain Bag for farming perks, I about break even. This makes it rough to net gold at a decent rate to buy Perks and Fates. Almost requires farming 100%+ gold find rings .
  • Schliematt
    I am not in the beta so I have the soon to be 32 bit graveyard version.

    I remember originally playing the game, magic use was good. If I upgraded magic, the mana cost was increased but was manageable. I could eventually get some kind of mana regeneration skill or ring to help, but at some point I guess there was an update? (An I tripping did mana cost go up at some point? The .1 the skill increase mentioned never added up in my head how t could increase cost by like 12 mana, meanwhile upgrading mana recovery would give me a whopping 3 mana more than before.)

    Cause at that time it seemed like any upgrade in magic vastly increased the mana cost. Much more than any mana regening skill or ring did. I found it way more fun before this change. Now I feel like I can't get as far, or don't get to update as many skills as I have to focus on just being able to use the magic with magic regen skills more than upgrading them. So you spend more time starting over than playing the game. Or you spend ten minutes running around regenerating mana just to shoot magic for a second all the while trying not to die.

    Has any of that been altered in the new version of boneyard? I feel like the first few upgrades or buying the extra traits of the spell (like for ice magic the pushing back trait or the wider fan shape) should maybe not increase the mana cost as harshly.
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