[Mack]

I´m asking that, because, i stronglly belive that, Hoplon sometimes shows that they does not know how to conduct those beta tests as they should.

And i also sometimes think that their forum does not have, or goes in the same path that most game developers usually takes. But it´s my opinion, i wish to know yours.

[Jump]

Well, the game has a lot of potential. However, I think a lot of mistakes have been made. Many of them irrevocable. It didn't seem so bad till I found out how long it had been in beta.

They keep adding tons of eye candy and new features without making the ones they have work. It would be better to have a few features that actually work and go from there.

The beta really felt like the old E&B beta. Developers don't listen, or if they do they don't acknowledge it. Or they give you a song and dance routine. The bad sign that a beta is in trouble is when the GM's tell you to go file a bug report every single time you mention something in the forums. This gives the appearance that they want it to die and not have community input on the problem. This in turn angers the community. A beta that doesn't have community discussions on bugs is not going to fix those bugs. User experience is key to bug fixing and many people remember things they should have added as other people post their comments. Bugs are like multi faceted gems and until you grind out each facet it's just a worthless rock. This is what open discussion does, it grinds out the facts. A bug report, on the other hand, is a blank wall that stares back at you. And it may never be answered and is easily dismissed. No thanks.

They shut down community chat in game. So it always feels like no one is playing the game. If it feels like no one is playing then no one will. It's a catch 22 that haunts many games. This is an obvious attempt to not have to deal with having GM's in game. Which isn't a positive sign of the commitment to the game from the developers.

As much as the Brazilian players base say they want it to be a successful game, it's not evident by many of their actions. While many, mostly DL, were kind and welcoming to the US players, many more were not. And when one corp changes their icon after a reset and deliberately takes the lame approach and grabs the only US player corps icon, it basically sends a message. It says Johnny go home. So with that and the other issues, we did.

We came there with a lot of players and the game retained none. That is a message clear and simple to TKD. While it had much potential it lacks so much that it was just too much to overcome. There are too many other games to play and so little time. This is a cut throat market and people loose interest quickly.

Will it do well? I have no idea. It may do well in Brazil and surrounding areas. I doubt it will succeed in the US or EU. I seriously doubt it could ever hope to compete with EVE or the coming Jumpgate Evolution.

Massive bug list aside. The reality is that the TKD Universe doesn't need my services as a pilot. And that's where I was lost. No matter what I did I had no effect on the persistence of the universe or the story line. I had to do the same missions and follow the same path as every single other player. I had no idea what side I was on or if there were sides at all. And in the end, if none of my friends were online it was rather boring. The formula is all wrong for a MMO. It plays like a single player game.

If it were my game, I would do things much differently. For one thing I would have races that control several star systems. Then I could choose to join that race at signup and build it's empire. Everyone currently starts in Terra or Titan. There is no clear government or cause. Very boring as it is now.

I could go on and on and on. But if I had to pick the number one issue it would be Lag. Not distance lag, but internal lag inherent in the coding of the game. Java was a bad choice. Flash would have been much much smoother.

I hope it does well but without serious changes I don't expect it to. I may or may not drop in again but right now it's off my radar.

[Eraser55]

I wish them all the luck. I tried, didnt get it and left. But theres always room for improvement and space games

[GrimGriz]

The developers had no sense of scale (felt like it was meant for about 30 players to me), single player storyline, magically spawning...everything including your storyline missions, which meant that other players could interfere in your single player game. If it ever makes it out of the womb, I suspect it will be stillborn.

[quillo]

I never really did missions unless it was out of necessity. Spent a hell of a lot of time trading to pad my bank account (mainly because PvP was pretty average and laggy as hell). Realised that there was no point to what I was doing and that I could essentially be doing the exact same thing for months with very little reward.

Also, I didn't really know anyone and very few spoke understandable English.

[Hurricane]

I've been experimenting with TKD in a sense. I've been checking the English forums every day for the past 2-3 weeks even though I don't actively log in and play the game. In the 2-3 weeks there are been absolutely no post of interest in those forums. No updates on bug fixes, no information at all that beta testers would need to be able to effectively test the game for the developers. Why should I log in and find bugs and help this game advance if the developers do not keep us informed of what is going on, and how bug fix progress is advancing?

At first in TKD I felt welcomed, Dev's were posting updates and working to integrating us English only speaking people into the beta process, then they turned of global chat, and stopped with the sharing of information. Kinda slammed the door which implied to us that we should stay outside in the cold. It makes absolutely no sense to me that beta testers all testing the same game can not easy communicate in that game and share there bug works a rounds and other game experiences between each other. Hoplon turned TKD into a single player game, and as all single player games, it couldn't hold my interest for more than a couple of weeks.

So now I spend all my time working on my boat, getting ready for warmer weather and lots of fishing!

[Mack]

Originally Posted by Jump

And when one corp changes their icon after a reset and deliberately takes the lame approach and grabs the only US player corps icon, it basically sends a message. It says Johnny go home. So with that and the other issues, we did.

I am very sad to read that. And really make me angry, because, they turn off the global chat because they didn´t want any expression of hate, or flame, or accusation against any player, but in other hand, they does nothing about those things that can make people leave their project.

I really can understand those ways of Hoplon manage the false peace they fight for. Sometimes i´m sure that they protect some people there.

I had doubts about the return of Shlonk to TKD, and reading your words, seems clear now that you wont be back, not as before.

I agree that TKD wont have a chance outside of south america. In Brazil would grow because most of people don't speak english, and there isn't many games in portuguese.

But aside that, i doubt that TKD will really grows as much as Hoplon thinks... From my personal opinion, i think they try to do something bigger they really could does. They never done a game before, and TKD project it's too big for Hoplon. That's my opinion of course.

Originally Posted by quillo

Also, I didn't really know anyone and very few spoke understandable English.

Well quillo, i really hope i can speak a understandable English!

And to say the true, some people there, don't even speak a understandable Portuguese!!

[Tritian]

I completely lost interest after the last whipe, and started playing Jumpgate Classic again.

I pretty much agree with everything Hurr and Jump mentioned. I also feel the PvP was a clumsy afterthought. The flight physics are horrible. I do not know if they have added Inertia yet, but it's desperately needed for ALL ships, not just fighter ships like they plan.

It was a fun distraction for awhile, but in the end, it does not hold a candle to Jumpgate Classic. Even in Jumpgate Classic's current state.

[Pyrophred]

People are worried that Jumpgate Evolution will be like WoW in space. I think this game beat it to the punch with its mission system. sad really, its a beautiful game but it turns into a grind fest real fast.

Maybe someone can link this thread over at their forums and wake em up?

[ZeroZ95]

Reasons I'm gone...

1. Lag
   • In station, it was unbearable.
   • In space, it was really unbearable.
   • Moving from station to space or sector to sector, it was OMG-I-want-those-minutes-of-my-life-back unbearable. For real, that was one of the the biggest deal breakers for me.
   • When launching or jumping, it took 30-90 seconds all the while being vulnerable to enemy fire.
   • When fighting even 1 or 2 PvE bots, things would hop around some even with nobody else in sector!
2. Scale
   • With cruise mode, you can get from any point A to any point B really fast (jump lag notwithstanding).
   • I only flew the fighter and scout, but they felt about the same when flying yet fighters had zip for cargo and scouts had tons of cargo, (and large ships had ridiculous amounts of cargo).
   • Targets seemed strangely large at gun range, making it difficult to miss.
   • It was not uncommon to see 2 sets of the same NPC drones spawned by 2 players on the same mission. Feels totally like 2 single player games overlapping.
3. Combat
   • PvP was laggy.
   • PvP was determined by missiles, not skill.
   • PvP was 100% meaningless for anyone not carrying cargo. And 100% devastating to anyone carrying costly cargo.
   • PvE was painfully repetitious (and this is coming from me, a one time flux count leader...so I don't mind some repetition)
   • Gun choices seemed like there was 50 different guns, but 1 obvious best for shields and 1 for armor.
   • You can only fire 1 type of gun at a time.
   • Seemed like you could hop into cruise speed to escape most fights if you were losing.
4. Interface
   • Clunky is too kind a word. Things were not intuitive, even a little. Some things were still not in English.
   • You couldn't have 3 windows up in a station even though there was room (cargo, storage, and market).
   • Java stinks.
   • Targeting/Radar never felt natural to me. I did like the big Targeting list.
   • I hate mouse based flight which always took over and altered course after I finished doing mouse based in-flight interface stuff. JS support and configuration should not be an afterthought in a flight game. It should be JOYSTICKREQUIRED dudes.
5. Spaceflight/engine
   • Needs mass and inertia!
   • Jumpgate Classic really got it right with DANCER's mix of realism and fun factor, though I might like it with a little less drag so you can really do some coasting turreting (Wing Commander Slide).
   • TDK's spaceships just weren't interesting to fly. There's like 40 different ships, but only 4 classes (if you separate fighter/bomber which fighters seemed to have no prayer to defeat bomber spam). And there seemed to be not that much difference between ships of the same class other than very minor stats and art. And what difference there was made 1 or 2 the obvious best in class.
   • The ability to bounce off other ships was odd. The ability to fly through solid objects like space stations was asinine.
   • The lack of any docking skill required was disappointing. Even having a specific point to go to so you can magically dock at the station would have been better.
6. Economy
   • With no webpage inventories, it was a real pain trying to figure out what to take where for profit. The fact that most places wouldn't buy stuff at all was a real pain when you had a cargo full of random loot you were just trying to unload even at base price (i.e. not trying to get top dollar).
   • Knowing where to go to get stuff seemed like it took a ton of work for 1-3 squadmate to do, then everyone just leeched knowledge off them. Again, webpage station inventory and buy/sell lists are needed.
   • Seemed like rich people could make tons of money pretty easy while noobs had it tough and really needed a sugar-daddy (same as Jumpgate Classic).
7. No support for Windows 2000
   • It just seems really odd that there's really something special enough in WinXP that would make TDK a better enough game to warrant alienating the Win2k holdhouts. Honestly, now that I've switched to XP, I can say with authority that NT5.1 isn't all that different than NT5.0. I switched over to XP just for TDK, and now I regret wasting the time that took me.
8. English
   • No one expects their devs/moderators/players/GMs to speak perfect English. No one expects their English translator to have fluent diction or a real command of our language. What they badly need is an English editor (who does not need to know Portuguese) to smooth out what the translator gives them. Even their main English webpage sounds like Portuguese translated to English (from the Weapons splash: "...and get to choose what goes best to each situation.")

[SingleShot]

TKD got me back into Jumpgate

Z's list is great.