Post by Bicky Desu! in Ideas and Suggestions

Viewing post in Ideas and Suggestions

I could side with you if there were sifferent difficulty options for the game, but otherwise, I must say I'm personally still finding the game to be a bit easy, even though it now takes a little more effort to stabilize your finances than it took 4+ patches ago. Of course it's no fun if you can't make your group thrive because of financial issues, but it's also no fun if within 3h of gameplay you manage to say "Alright, I'm rich, I've got no more debts, what now?".

Are you paying close attention to popular genres and styles? Are you catering to your fans' tastes?

Also, unless you're in love with one of your idols, let them starve to death. Let them throw a fit if they must, but keep their salaries down low until you're sitting comfortably on a pile of money. Idol salary money is better used if you invest it in the company by buying new rooms, hiring new staff. It's company progress over idol happiness if you don't wanna go bankrupt. At least in the beginning.

DerekL5 years ago(-1)

"I could side with you if there were sifferent difficulty options for the game, but otherwise, I must say I'm personally still finding the game to be a bit easy"

No offense, but I'm not you, and I am finding it difficult.

Bicky Desu!5 years ago (3 edits) (+1)

Sorry, I may have used the wrong wording to convey my thoughts. What I meant to say is that I understand that the game might be easier for some, and harder for others, but since Idol Manager doesn't have any kind of difficulty sliders, the developers can't just mess with the game's balance, make it easier or harder, without putting good thought into their actions. Things have to be carefully planned, keeping in mind not only the first hours of gameplay, but also the endgame. Right now, Idol Manager is still struggling to find its balance among the players, since there's people like you who are finding it too hard, and people like me who are finding it too easy. Maybe when the full game comes out, along with a tutorial mode, there will be less people struggling to get through the initial stages of the game, but no matter what they do, at least for now, not everyone will be happy.

Either they come up with different difficulties for the game, or they can simply allow modders to come up with 'Idol Manager Hardcore Mod' or something like that, with an even more challenging experience for the diehard players. The game's current state, balancewise, looks good to me. Sure I'd like an even more challenging grind, but I'm okay with what we've got at the moment. However, it's no use making the game harder, appealing to the hardcore players, if the casual players won't have fun playing the game, and the opposite is also true if the casual players will have a good time, but the hardcore players won't.

DerekL5 years ago(-1)

"Sorry, I may have used the wrong wording to convey my thoughts."

Yes, you did. And I was as polite as possible in my reply... But then you doubled down on the condescension in your second reply, so now the gloves are off.

I've been playing serious and complex games of various types (that is, more than Monopoly) since my senior year in high school nearly forty years ago. I've been beta testing games of various types off and on for twenty five odd years. I do not need you lecturing me on how the process works, as I'm quite well versed in it.

I am also quite aware of the stage of development of Idol Manager. And and important part of this stage is the developers hearing from users all across the spectrum - from those that find it easy as well as those that find it hard. Unless you have a private line to the developers, you have no idea of their intentions. Nor do you know if the difficulties some have encountered are intentional or unintentional. They could be a feature. They could be an unintentional consequence of the recent changes, or they could be a flat out bug.

And with that, I will end my part in this particular subthread. My apologies to others who had to wade through this.

Bicky Desu!5 years ago (2 edits) (+1)

This was not a lecture, nor was it a "condescending" message. I don't care if you're the master of videogames or some old lady who has never had a joystick in your hands. I'm not shaming you or anyone for having trouble getting through the initial stages of the game, if that's what you thought I was doing. Calling a player "casual" is not offensive either. Some players are, in fact, casual players - they just don't want or don't have the ability to put as much time and effort into a game as a hardcore player would and, therefore, do not wish to be greatly challenged when gaming.

We have different opinions regarding the difficulty balance in Idol Manager, and that's beautiful, vive la différence. I'm not here to say that I'm 100% correct (especially because there's no right and wrong regarding difficulty balance, it's a matter of preference), that you shouldn't be voicing your opinion, or that the developers should only listen to me. We both have the right to speak here, to voice our opinions, and this is what the forum is for, after all. If you disagree with me, that's okay, you don't have to side with me on this or any other matter regarding the game.

Now please, put your gloves back on. Your hands... kinda stink.

igorkeefe5 years ago(+1)

"Yes, you did. And I was as polite as possible in my reply... But then you doubled down on the condescension in your second reply, so now the gloves are off."

Lol, what is this. Keep them on, this reads like the start of the Navy Seals copypasta.

IMO the early game is quite challenging in a sense because it requires you to take a specific action to get through that is entirely optional in most other management / tycoon games: Taking a loan. I've had my problems with it because it's not intuitive but once you know it's not all that tough anymore.

It was quite fun and very rewarding (for me at least) to find out what works and what doesn't though. What can I do better next game, that sort of stuff, so I'm not really sure what to think about an easier early game. It's actually refreshing to see a management game that doesn't make you auto-succeed over time. Perhaps what is needed isn't "easier" but "more options"? I could see an alternative working where certain events or oppurtunities replace the need to take a loan but come with other trade-offs down the line. ("Remember when we sponsored you back then? Yeah, your famous idol belongs to us now" ... or something like that)

8thPrince5 years ago(+2)

Agreed that figuring out the optimal plays over multiple games was a lot of the fun for me. Also agreed that more options could be the solution rather than tweaking to make things easier. A lot of my beginning difficulty originally came from not wanting to ever be in the red, and only taking loans to get out of bankruptcy once I did go red. As I see it right now, with the pricing of rooms and the money you start with, it’s impossible to not be in the red for 30 days if you don’t use a loan. You start with 5M, 3.5M you need for singles necessities (marketing, dance, song, your office) leaves 1.5M, staffing+rent+idol salaries is probably around 100k a week if you hire only the minimum number of idols, 2 auditions are 200k. That gives you about 13 weeks/3 months before you hit 0. You have to take a loan and have to use it to make more money, such as with a new office worker or a break room so your idols can take on more jobs. The only major negative I see is that a minimum 1M loan is pretty much a necessity, not that it’s impossible to not go bankrupt. More financing options that players know they can employ could be a solution.

itch.io

Viewing post in Ideas and Suggestions