Dungeons & Dragons so bad!!!!!!!!!

[ELLMOTZO]

It's sad how the format is implemented here in the game. Without love and without ideas or characters from the film. Every other game, e.g. Minecraft, implements the topic much better, with love and more content. Why do we always have the same daily quests when Idle, ah yes 2 skins and otherwise zero content. That would have been so mega to get new people to play but not like that. Good people cost money and you have to buy them, there are only fewer and fewer players here, but the shop content is becoming more and more expensive. Actually one would have to lose all rights here, I've already put so much money in here.. for what.. for rubbish. If you don't feel like it, just pass the game on to people who enjoy the game. And please no twitch gamers with pushed accounts either, nobody farmed gemstones that quickly. And then 1000 times the spam message ah there is someone live in twitch.. great.. and nothing happens in offline mode anymore... that doesn't help more..what for??so that it takes 10 years to be successful?? Frank

[wolfie0001]

Characters from films? D&D is not about movies, so who cares about those characters?
Good people cost money? No, you don't have to spend any money to get any of the champions.
Apparently we are playing very different games.

[Mobile Doll Cordelia]

So you spent a lot of money on a game you don't really like to begin with.

[Hrothgar]

Not only a lot of money, but a lot of time too. The profile page for @ELLMOTZO indicates 875 hours of in-game time for Idle Champions. I have to say that I would not have needed that many hours of gameplay to decide that I didn't like a game.

It is challenging to decipher the concerns of OP, but there are some legitimate nuggets buried in that text...

1. Yes, the near-constant promotion of twitch livestreams can become annoying. Especially when the same stream notification pops back back up two or three times in a row even after you have already dismissed it.

2. Background progression is inconsistent and buggy. True enough. However, the fact that you can have up to three additional parties progressing at all is still an improvement over some other idle games. I'm happy to take something over nothing, even if the something is often a hot mess.

3. There is definitely room for more frequent incorporation of core IP from the D&D franchise. As someone who is very familiar with D&D game settings, but not at all familiar with groups who livestream their D&D gameplay, I find myself in agreement with OP on this one. I would much rather get more champions drawn from the 40+ years of existing published campaign settings and fewer champions drawn from 'popular' livestreaming groups. (Diath Woodrow anyone?)

4. The valuation of DLC in the shop does stretch the concept of 'microtransaction' to the limit. I think the weekly "Wild Offers" are appropriately named, but probably not for the same reason that CNE has given them that name.

[Crunchy Spider]

1. You're complaining about co-operation between developers and community. A lot of characters in game are developed by the streamers linked in the minuscule pop-up messages. This game is older and daunting for people to join, so there's invites for developer Q&A, FAQ, and guide streams. You're complaining about free items being provided for clicks that other people seem to enjoy or it wouldn't be offered every day. You're complaining about something that's less than 3% of the UI space.

2. The game was developed in Unity. Unity is buggy. The game would not exist except for how easy it was to develop in Unity... but Unity is buggy. If it wasn't in Unity, you'd also be complaining about having to pay money for free-to-play style content.

3. It's easier to develop new content for characters that are currently 'adventuring' and having new stories. It's also less of an PITA dealing w/ people who start Internet Fights because they don't think a character they read about 20 years ago would have partied with X character during Y year because he was in Z location instead...

4. Look, if you have a free-to-play game that licenses something from somebody else, they're going to sell you something. If the bills don't get paid, the game ends... that's how things are. Has it gone up in cost? Actually, no. Chests still costs what they cost, Skins, Familiars, etc... I can look back and see they're all the same costs... and I really, REALLY know.

[Hrothgar]

1. I'm not actually complaining about the community notifications. I recognize the need of the game designers to keep the game connected to an active and engaged community of players, and I recognize that there may also be contractual requirements by the license holders of the intellectual property for CNE to do just that. In fact, I am occasionally thankful for the reminder and I click on the helpful link to take me to the livestream, allowing me to listen to it in the background while doing other things.

My complaint is about the persistent and repetitive nature of the notifications after they have been dismissed. Sometimes I would like to be respected enough to know that I only need to say "No thank you" to a request once.

2. I know that Unity is buggy. I groaned inwardly the first time I looked at my task manager in Windows and saw the Unity crash handler service sitting there.

I wasn't even complaining about the buggy nature of background parties. On the contrary, I was expressing gratitude that a background party play mechanic actually existed at all and that I am thankful for it, bugs and all.

3. I agree with you that people sometimes have irrational emotional responses regarding pre-existing fictional settings. However, there are equally as many people for whom the nostalgia factor is just as powerful. I never read any of the R.A Salvatore books, but when I first came to the Idle Champions I worked hard to put together a 'Companions of the Hall' formation so I could have my very own adventures with such a famous group. I can't say I experienced the same enthusiasm for collecting 'Acquisitions Incorporated' or 'Waffle Crew'.

4. At no point did I make a complaint about investing money into the game. I have regularly contributed real money towards the game. In fact, I was so grateful when a support person at CNE helped me to transition my account from Xbox to Steam that I went on a spending spree of gratitude.

My point was that the implied valuation given to free-to-obtain items when they are bundled together with DLC in order to justify the 'deal' that is being offered leads to a price point that is well above what would normally be considered a microtransaction.

[Thunderchief]

I do agree that they really dropped the ball in regards to the movie. A lot of cross promotion could have been done and a lot of hype built via Steam. Imagine if every month for the last few months there was a banner on Steam advertising a new (evergreen) character from the movie being given away for free to anyone who logs on during that month.

There would have been a lot of new players but even people who didn't play Idle Champions would have seen the advertising and hype for the movie would have built up.

[SuperTim]

Wait, there is a new D&D movie? I didn't heard of that at all?!!

[Hecate]

Apparently, and contrary to the old ones from 2000's (that were quite terrible by many ways), it has surprisingly good reviews so far. So, maybe it deserves to be seen...

[wolfie0001]

I would imagine that getting the rights to use those movie characters from whoever owns them would be a real hassle. Probably expensive too.
Some authors obviously don't have a problem with letting their characters be used, like Erin M Evans (Brimstone Angels) or RA Salvatore (Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall, plus several others). Others may have been asked and said no, or we might have seen Elminster of Shadowdale in the game already.

[kab_reg]

He is in the game, but only as an NPC.

[Hecate]

Elminster is quite too much an archetype character to become a Champion, it's not impossible (it's just an (pseudo-)idle game so lore doesn't really matter) but remains unprobable.

I think most players get wrong thinking as CNE as still at an independant developer. It's not a AAA like EQ or Activision, sure, but it as way more annual revenues that an idependant team has. Given the numbers you can easily find on the internet, if they want to pay the rights, they can without a trouble ; especially as they have a privilege partnership with WotC and such an action may end as an advertising for both parts (game & movie).

[Thunderchief]

I doubt they paid for the rights to use NERDS and in this arrangement no one would be paying anyone as it would be a win-win arrangement for everyone. This all should have been arranged by the WotC marketing department with no money changing hands.

[Hecate]

Most probably, I don't know enough of american commercial rights to figure how they handled that legally, but that was clearly a win-win arrangement.