So many issues with NeoMons - what do you think?

Neo Monsters Neo Monsters General Discussions
1

Hi guys,

I’m a long-time player of Dragon Island Blue and Hunter Island, and have spent the last ~80 days on Neo Monsters as well. Also spent a lot of time browsing the forums. I would love to know what you think of this analysis of the issues facing Neo Monsters, and if you feel the same way yourself.

There are plenty of issues that I see with Neo Monsters, and I simply don’t understand why the developers are ignoring them. Some are incredibly easy to solve. For example - 

- Invisible monster stats : Why can’t we see the opposing monsters’ stats and abilities? Since NeoMon is a strategy game, that makes it the only game I know of, in which you don’t know exactly what you’re playing against. Doesn’t sound like a good strategy for a strategy game.

- Invisible monster levels: Why can’t we see the opposing monsters’ levels? That would at least give us a reasonable expectation about their tolerance to attacks.

- Invisible effects: Why aren’t there animations / big letters for effects impacting the monsters? The sleep effect is almost invisible and sometimes I miss it; poison is much more noticeable, so why not make a similarly bright animation for stealthed monsters, or “death sentenced” monsters, or “protect teammates / focus” monsters, or even those who have reached the threshold of bloodthirst/bloodfury/bloodcrave? If it’s a strategy game, why not make it easier for the players to focus on the strategy, like Hearthstone does? If the devs have the funds to invest in drawing and animating new monsters, how difficult could it be to add a simple animation, or even a large-font text?

Other issues in the game simply don’t make any sense. These include - 

-  App costs money : Despite all its issues, NeoMon is a really good game. Why not reduce the app cost to zero, and so multiply the number of players X10 - and get a lot of money from those who purchase diamonds? Right now, we have to pay to buy the app AND to get a reasonable team in a reasonable amount of time. And yes, I know some of the players have played for months without a legendary in sight. And that’s great for you, but most players don’t have your kind of perseverance. 

- Monsters levels: I can’t help but feel that there’s something inherently wrong in a strategy game in which the digital opponent’s monsters can be incredibly boosted in their levels, to the degree it feels unfair. The devs have to do this because the AI is lousy, and so to increase difficulty they must toughen-up their monsters. This issue can easily be solved by allowing players to fight against each other… which could happen if there were more players… which could happen if the app didn’t cost money.

- Dependence on sporadic events: Because it’s not interestng to play the game once the story mode is over, the devs are depending on new events to keep involving players. Some players like certain events - like the Dungeon Challenge or the Island Challenge. Personally for me, it’s quite possible that if Island Challenge were open all the time, then I would spend a few dollars a week on it. I’m paying for drafts on other systems - so why not let me do it here? Why not open the events all the time, but make them cost diamonds / tickets / “golden tickets” to participate? Don’t the devs want my money?

I’m sorry about the long post, but I really love the game and its premise, and would love to see it expanding and growing like other online strategy games have. Would love to know what you think.

2

Regarding the first two points, I honestly don’t feel like it’s all that necessary. Once you’ve played for a long time and get a feel for every monster, you can learn what to expect from each one. The 1000+ monster thing might seem daunting, but 1) there are a ton of monsters below 4 stars that are basically useless, 2) almost every monster in the game has at least three forms, so you only really need to worry about the last form, and occasionally the second, and 3) there are certain monsters that are pretty much mirror versions of each other with identical movesets and almost identical stats, like onikage, willowyrm and sharknight have stun flash and survivor, and flarevern omegasdragon and tiamazus have auto poison and knock back. Once you know one, you know them all. The stats are fixed for each monster, so they don’t have unpredictable variations like they do in Pokémon. And you don’t have to know the exact number for every stat(except probably speed) on every single monster to be able to handle them properly, obviously you should be prioritizing the knowledge of their moves. You just really have to know whether a monster is super bulky or not super bulky. With a lot of these moves, that issue is surprisingly black and white.

3

I see what you mean, but that just means that people need to learn blindly, instead of simply knowing what the other ‘card’ does. I don’t see any reason for it.

4

1 - just remember what you see

2 - no levels in NM just buffed stats

3 - pay more attention as you said it´s a strategy game

4 - agree the 50 cent cost is a barrier that should have been removed long ago

5 - there is PvP, right now there´s a PvP live event might check it out

6 - agree, the game needs more permanent stuff

5

As a long time player I too don’t see need to make all stats and moves visible. Or making triggered sweep moves (like bloodthirst) visible. It just makes it pay you more attention and sometimes surprises you if you missed something. That’s what makes it able for a good tactical player to win against possibly better teams.

Aside that, you have some good points. As I said in the ‘need hype’ topic, make the game free download and pvp with invite friend would raise the fanbase drastically. I hope devs really consider this. I know they have been struggling to get the pvp working smooth, it’s seems like it’s almost ready now.

6

i think 50cents is a good price, if this game would be free more hackers would come also and that would mean that the devs would have more work to remove hackers

and also i think ppl that wont pay 50 cents for an app are most of the times the ppl that complain most

i think making permanent pvp, pvp invites would be good enough to raise the playerbase

7

That’s the ‘hard-core gamer’ approach. Yes, you can rememebr the monsters situation, and yes, you can fail again and again until you learn about each monster’s stats and abilities. But… why? Hearthstone shows beautifully that when monsters / cards have clear designations (taunt, divine shield, etc.) it just helps the players concentrate on what they should be doing - think creatively and analytically - instead of struggling to remember whether _this monster _or _that monster _received the latest buff. And when a game becomes easy to navigate, and makes it easier for people to concentrate on strategy rather than on memory games, it gets more players. I’d say that’s what we all want, in the end.

Hackers come with great success. If you don’t want hackers, don’t succeed greatly.

8

The other thing to note is that the development team for hearthstone is huge, while the dev team for neo is small. So the question is if you want more content, or icons that show things.

Personally, I think that you just learn by playing the game. All the monsters are present in the game, and you find out really fast what a monster does. So I think it isn’t necessary.

9

hearrthstone isn´t much bigger of a team, Tyler93 said they are 6-10 while HS has 20 ~ now but started with 10 ~ aswell.

10

I think not showing moves is good because you have to pay attention. But showing certain things like hp remaining, who is in stealth, etc would be good. Don’t think you need to show bloodthirst, etc because you should know that if you’re paying attention.

As I mentioned in the pinned suggestion thread, I’d like to see them add a numerical hero xp remaining that’s always accessible. I like to time my xp so I get it to low double digits and then go to a new level in the youth fruit area. You should haven’t to win a fight to find out how much xp you have remaining.

11

As pretty much one of the best strategical and analytical players this game has at the moment, I have to say that effects like protect focus, Death sentence/death mark being active. ‘Blood%’ skills being active etc. Should not be visible. There is really no need to make it easier for the player to show these effects.

If anything it makes it tougher for a player to think what to do next as he has to keep all effects in mind when he makes the next move as well as - what the opponent will do next - which monster is next in line to enter - if you kill two monsters simultaneously make an educated guess based on team formation what is the second monster that will come in - all the other things you can possibly think of.

If all effects were visible players choices would be very simple. Right now you have to think strategically keeping everything in mind as much as counting down the second that Soulstealer hit that DS all button or when lavaronix his 400 second bomb is ready.

if you are capable to remember all these things as well as think out your strategy alongside it you will easily be one of the best in this game given you have a proper monster base ( zero stars won’t cut it obviously). And I think this is a good aspect of the game because if you take that aspect away the luck factor to win a match will increase compared to what it is now.

One who can keep full overview is ussually two steps ahead of his opponent. It’s one of the reasons why I enjoy and excel at this game so much.

12

I agree with Hidan on this one

13

Well, this goes back to the dev’s vision for the game. It’s either a game that is user friendly to all players including newbies or a more niche game that is intended for more hard core players. I would say it’s the latter, especially since they removed the sleep & protector killer & timestrike target animations in pvp on purpose.

Why did they choose to do so, maybe because they feel going head to head with HS targeting the same market would be a waste of time… maybe…

14

I like the fact that you have to know, remember and pay attention too, but roey has a point that it may be too much for starting players to keep them on neo instead of moving on. It should never be in pvp, but maybe in the story it wouldn’t be bad.

15

I guess it really is an issue of whether the game is targeting the hard-core gamers, or the 99% of the public. I just don’t see much sense in specifically targeting the gamers, though, when the dividends are so much better when you reach for the public. Plus, gamers come from the public, too. If they think a game is not up to standards, people won’t stay long enough to become hard-core.

Also, some other issues I forgot in my original post: 

  • Being able to search for monsters with certain abilities. Makes it difficult to build a deck otherwirse.

  • Enabling more deck lists.

That’s just the thing: you’re talking about yourself and hard-core players. I have a suspicion that the rest of the public wants to focus on real strategy rather than on memory games. I think Hearthstone’s success provides a good reason to believe that, at least partly because everything is “on the table” there. 

Now the question is - can the game survive on hard-core gamers only? I don’t think so, and in any case, it would come at a price of alienating lots of casual players who want a good UX.