6.27 Update

[Bigglesbaz]

Hi, I'm back.

There should've been a preview of this update prior to its launch but due to some misunderstanding between me and @Ur-quan there wasn't, so sorry about that, as well as a server issue (but at least we've extended the special event time).

Other than that:

• We did change the idea behind Weathervane, because it was acting strange with some combinations of planes/bonuses. This gameplay change should have been in the preview. So the way it works now is it reduces the current amount of time left for the flight whatever that is which means the best time to use it is immediately after you start a flight and it gradually becomes less helpful if you use bonus later;
• The altitute/attitude thing is probably one of those 'bug reports' that got 'fixed' by our localization team without telling anyone from the dev team, we'll fix it back;
• I'm well aware that if you're playing for several years, the idea of doing same special events year after year is a bit stale even with all new rewards, and we have a general idea of updating events more drastically later, but right now we're 100% focused to finish the big thing we've started last autumn before we venture into anything else; this means several more updates will be rather small;
• The big thing — at least in terms of development time — is coming this summer, that's our latest estimate based on what we have on hands now; I might be able to give you a preview in June with a beta coming sometime afterwards.

Cheers!

Hi Ivan, welcome back to you. Trust you are well.
Thank you for the clarifications.
Hopefully with this last Event something will be done in way of compensation for all those who wasted so much fuel and got so little in return when they were cut off by the reset. Three additional days does not a happy game make to a lot of loyal followers of AC, especially those who put cash into it/events as I do. I would have thought that loyalty is important to both the player and the game maker in order to keep a balance between continuing profit and the 'fun' element. A lot of players now feel that AC really doesn't care about fun but only about profit. It's a wonderfully addictive game with excellent graphics, but fair-play is paramount to any long-term gamer.
Surely it cannot hurt either party if there is a compensation gift with either 'fuel' or 'greenies' (ie: at Christmas you gave 19 greenies away) to all your players who feel abandoned or may be forced to tighten their purse strings in the future, especially if they fear that this might happen again just before they reach their event goals? It is a bitter moment indeed when a player only needs one more item to complete the event and it's all snatched away from them.
Cheers Baz

 

[DarekK]

Hi,

Hi, I'm back.

There should've been a preview of this update prior to its launch but due to some misunderstanding between me and @Ur-quan there wasn't, so sorry about that, as well as a server issue (but at least we've extended the special event time).

Other than that:

• We did change the idea behind Weathervane, because it was acting strange with some combinations of planes/bonuses. This gameplay change should have been in the preview. So the way it works now is it reduces the current amount of time left for the flight whatever that is which means the best time to use it is immediately after you start a flight and it gradually becomes less helpful if you use bonus later;
• The altitute/attitude thing is probably one of those 'bug reports' that got 'fixed' by our localization team without telling anyone from the dev team, we'll fix it back;
• I'm well aware that if you're playing for several years, the idea of doing same special events year after year is a bit stale even with all new rewards, and we have a general idea of updating events more drastically later, but right now we're 100% focused to finish the big thing we've started last autumn before we venture into anything else; this means several more updates will be rather small;
• The big thing — at least in terms of development time — is coming this summer, that's our latest estimate based on what we have on hands now; I might be able to give you a preview in June with a beta coming sometime afterwards.

Cheers!

Because of VW changes, there is no point for buying a gold subscription. I want my money back!!!
Now is cheaper use greens to speed up flights.

Are you going to do next? Will you close CBM because is to easy to play this game without paying you money?

You don't respect the players.
I'm serious.

Ivan,
Can you answer to the conversation I sent to you today morning?

 

[DarekK]

Hi, I'm back.

There should've been a preview of this update prior to its launch but due to some misunderstanding between me and @Ur-quan there wasn't, so sorry about that, as well as a server issue (but at least we've extended the special event time).

Other than that:

• We did change the idea behind Weathervane, because it was acting strange with some combinations of planes/bonuses. This gameplay change should have been in the preview. So the way it works now is it reduces the current amount of time left for the flight whatever that is which means the best time to use it is immediately after you start a flight and it gradually becomes less helpful if you use bonus later;
• The altitute/attitude thing is probably one of those 'bug reports' that got 'fixed' by our localization team without telling anyone from the dev team, we'll fix it back;
• I'm well aware that if you're playing for several years, the idea of doing same special events year after year is a bit stale even with all new rewards, and we have a general idea of updating events more drastically later, but right now we're 100% focused to finish the big thing we've started last autumn before we venture into anything else; this means several more updates will be rather small;
• The big thing — at least in terms of development time — is coming this summer, that's our latest estimate based on what we have on hands now; I might be able to give you a preview in June with a beta coming sometime afterwards.

Cheers!

Before 1h12m now 3h58m.
You did not make a balancing change.
You change rules by making flights 4 times longer!!!!
I want my money back!!!

 

[Navigata07]

Man....the tension just got a lot thicker in here....almost stifling

 

[Jgm85]

Ivan please do reconisde this weathervane "change", once again it seems the game is becoming more and more of a bore with the tweaks that hurt the game, things like gold subscription can still get useless bonus from mystery bonus crates which is a major bug bare for me. As I have said before, I only criticise to help make the game better but so many tweaks that are making the game worse for those of us who have been playing for years does hurt.

As for the replaying old events - keep them coming. If folk don't wanna do them then they can skip the even, but for someone like me who likes to collect stars then the constant yearly repitition is always welcome. But then again if the 100 limit comes in, then it will be impossible to do anything in regards to the bigger planes. E.g I have spent well about 100 greens to get enough Plasma to keep flying for stars but if that comes in my buying things will stop.

Please keep up the good work (and less of the bad stuff ;-) )

 

[DarekK]

Support team after contact with developers agree with me.
So can you correct the bug?

 

[LX Air - Teresa]

Support team after contact with developers agree with me.
So can you correct the bug?View attachment 20050

The numbers they give don’t match
Gold sub -108
S3 -288
Thus base time should be, according to the rule they mention, 720-108-288= 324
How they get the 367 time?

367 is computed based on the idea of compound interests, meaning
720 x (1-0.15) x (1 x 0.4) = 720 x 0.85 x 0.6 = 367.2 approx 367
And now I don’t understand how can they defend that flight time activating WV a priori will result in 72 min
At most, 367-720x.35=367-252=115 ...

Otherwise it won’t make sense (because the base time without WV is said to be 367, instead of the previously computed 324)

There’s something very wrong on that explanation

 

[Navigata07]

Support team after contact with developers agree with me.
So can you correct the bug?View attachment 20050

This is what Ivan stated. Activating the weathervane mid flight isn't as effective because it will affect the flight time that's left instead of the total flight time. The change in the weathervane makes sense, although it's a nuisance. The QLs for rocket launches operate in the same way; they affect whatever flight time is left. That's why it takes 4 QLs for an instant return. If the QLs were behaving as the old weathervanes, it would take only 2 QLs for an instant return, which of course would be far too easy.

 

[Pinokkio]

Support team after contact with developers agree with me.
So can you correct the bug?View attachment 20050

So if we activate the WV bonus first they say the time is 1.12 hrs
Why is the time on the game 3.58 hrs ???
So this is a bug and they have to fix this.

 

[Navigata07]

The numbers they give don’t match
Gold sub -108
S3 -288
Thus base time should be, according to the rule they mention, 720-108-288= 324
How they get the 367 time?

367 is computed based on the idea of compound interests, meaning
720 x (1-0.15) x (1 x 0.4) = 720 x 0.85 x 0.6 = 367.2 approx 367
And now I don’t understand how can they defend that flight time activating WV a priori will result in 72 min
At most, 367-720x.35=367-252=115 ...

Otherwise it won’t make sense (because the base time without WV is said to be 367, instead of the previously computed 324)

There’s something very wrong on that explanation

I think the error is that the bonus is applied after the aircraft is selected. The selected aircraft determines the "initial time" before the subtractions begin.

 

[Free2Play]

That's a good point, @DarekK (and others), and thanks for the screenshot — we're telling the support team right now what they need to fix in their message.
Now, permanent bonuses like the plane and subscription ones are applied first, and only then other bonuses kick in wherever they're activated and affect the time left.

I know it was convenient to make instant returns with a right setup, but that was never an intended way of how bonuses work, essentially it was a bug (although the one that wasn't obvious for a very long time).

 

[Bob69bob]

This is what Ivan stated. Activating the weathervane mid flight isn't as effective because it will affect the flight time that's left instead of the total flight time. The change in the weathervane makes sense, although it's a nuisance. The QLs for rocket launches operate in the same way; they affect whatever flight time is left. That's why it takes 4 QLs for an instant return. If the QLs were behaving as the old weathervanes, it would take only 2 QLs for an instant return, which of course would be far too easy.

I’m not sure that’s the case. The QLs are compounding...
Space flight = 1440 min
1QL= 0.1x1440=144 min (around 2hrs 20)
2QL= 0.1x144=14 min
3QL= 0.1x14= 1-2 min
4QL= instant return

 

[Navigata07]

What I think needs to happen is a clarification of whether the chicken or the egg comes first. If the bonus is applied before the aircraft is even selected, then the bigger flight time would experience a bigger reduction. However, if the aircraft sets the tone for the "initial time", then the final number will be different. So which is it?

 

[nick6901]

Can anyone tell me if flight duration to macau (condor) with Gold sub 10h12min is correct?
If normal flight is 648 min (10h48min) with gold sub it supposed to be 648x0.15=551min (9h11min) right?

 

[Navigata07]

I’m not sure that’s the case. The QLs are compounding...
Space flight = 1440 min
1QL= 0.1x1440=144 min (around 2hrs 20)
2QL= 0.1x144=14 min
3QL= 0.1x14= 1-2 min
4QL= instant return

Yes thats what I said. I was also stating that if the QLs were operating in the same way as the old weathervanes, you would have:
1QL = 1440 - (0.9*1440) = 144
2QL = 144 - (0.9*1440) = instant return
The number in bold being the original flight time instead of the remaining flight time.

 

[DarekK]

I think Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is easier to explain that the new rules of VW currently imposed on us.

Ivan,
I'm asking again, will you give us back length 1h12m flight for Condors S3 with VW for gold subscription?
If not how do you can give me back the money I lost on this game buying 6 months sub at the beginning of April?
Now it is useless. You can keep the money for one month and please me give back the rest.

 

[Navigata07]

Can anyone tell me if flight duration to macau (condor) with Gold sub 10h12min is correct?
If normal flight is 648 min (10h48min) with gold sub it supposed to be 648x0.15=551min (9h11min) right?

Original Macau flight is 12 hours with a normal condor. So a 15% reduction would be 612 mins, or 10 hours 12 mins

 

[VdW]

Isn't it supposed to be like this with Ivan's explanation?

"Now, permanent bonuses like the plane and subscription ones are applied first, and only then other bonuses kick in wherever they're activated and affect the time left."

Original flight time = 720 mins
Permanent bonus -> permanent should calculate from original flight time
With Gold sub = 720 - (0.15*720) = 612 mins
& With S3 Planes = 612 - (0.40*720) = 324 mins

Other Bonus -> calculate the bonus with the time left after applying permanent bonuses
With weathervane before flight start = 324 - (0.35*324) = 210.60 mins = 3 hours 30 mins

 

[Ddave1]

Hi, I'm back.

There should've been a preview of this update prior to its launch but due to some misunderstanding between me and @Ur-quan there wasn't, so sorry about that, as well as a server issue (but at least we've extended the special event time).

Other than that:

• We did change the idea behind Weathervane, because it was acting strange with some combinations of planes/bonuses. This gameplay change should have been in the preview. So the way it works now is it reduces the current amount of time left for the flight whatever that is which means the best time to use it is immediately after you start a flight and it gradually becomes less helpful if you use bonus later;
• The altitute/attitude thing is probably one of those 'bug reports' that got 'fixed' by our localization team without telling anyone from the dev team, we'll fix it back;
• I'm well aware that if you're playing for several years, the idea of doing same special events year after year is a bit stale even with all new rewards, and we have a general idea of updating events more drastically later, but right now we're 100% focused to finish the big thing we've started last autumn before we venture into anything else; this means several more updates will be rather small;
• The big thing — at least in terms of development time — is coming this summer, that's our latest estimate based on what we have on hands now; I might be able to give you a preview in June with a beta coming sometime afterwards.

Cheers!

Thanks for coming on and explaining.

We know that GI is a business and AC is their game so you can change what you want but changing gameplay is just something that most of us don’t understand.

The change in WV is a big difference as has been pointed out. I have absolutely no idea how many people pay for subs or greens and what GI make from profit, I also have no idea how much that changes each time something like this is done but I see plenty on here and other forums who say they won’t spend again.

It’s the same with the proposed 100 item limit, we know on here that’s it’s not your decision Ivan but it does make us wonder just why these decisions are made. I cannot be to make the gameplay better or even it out - because of changes in the last the gameplay is all messed up and uneven, there are people with 10 buildings, people with 100 limit yet we all play the same game.

It’s frustrating as the game has played the same way for years then all of a sudden it changes. I can understand what Ivan is saying no but all these changes are ruining a very good game. Going from 1hr 12 on a gold sub to over 3 hrs is a massive difference in game strategy

 

[Ddave1]

Hi, I'm back.

There should've been a preview of this update prior to its launch but due to some misunderstanding between me and @Ur-quan there wasn't, so sorry about that, as well as a server issue (but at least we've extended the special event time).

Other than that:

• We did change the idea behind Weathervane, because it was acting strange with some combinations of planes/bonuses. This gameplay change should have been in the preview. So the way it works now is it reduces the current amount of time left for the flight whatever that is which means the best time to use it is immediately after you start a flight and it gradually becomes less helpful if you use bonus later;
• The altitute/attitude thing is probably one of those 'bug reports' that got 'fixed' by our localization team without telling anyone from the dev team, we'll fix it back;
• I'm well aware that if you're playing for several years, the idea of doing same special events year after year is a bit stale even with all new rewards, and we have a general idea of updating events more drastically later, but right now we're 100% focused to finish the big thing we've started last autumn before we venture into anything else; this means several more updates will be rather small;
• The big thing — at least in terms of development time — is coming this summer, that's our latest estimate based on what we have on hands now; I might be able to give you a preview in June with a beta coming sometime afterwards.

Cheers!

Thanks for coming on and explaining.

We know that GI is a business and AC is their game so you can change what you want but changing gameplay is just something that most of us don’t understand.

The change in WV is a big difference as has been pointed out. I have absolutely no idea how many people pay for subs or greens and what GI make from profit, I also have no idea how much that changes each time something like this is done but I see plenty on here and other forums who say they won’t spend again.

It’s the same with the proposed 100 item limit, we know on here that’s it’s not your decision Ivan but it does make us wonder just why these decisions are made. I cannot be to make the gameplay better or even it out - because of changes in the last the gameplay is all messed up and uneven, there are people with 10 buildings, people with 100 limit yet we all play the same game.

It’s frustrating as the game has played the same way for years then all of a sudden it changes. I can understand what Ivan is saying no but all these changes are ruining a very good game. Going from 1hr 12 on a gold sub to over 3 hrs is a massive difference in game strategy