S.H.I.E.L.D. Intercept Changes *Update (1/16/17)

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Comments

  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    Dragon_Nexus wrote:
    Brigby wrote:
    Hi Everyone. First and foremost, I want to apologize to Steam users for the unfortunate exclusion of Intercepts from their experience. As some have already mentioned, it is in fact due to the Steam platform that prevents us from being able to implement that feature.

    When it comes to the various other questions that have been asked, I have compiled a couple of the more frequently asked questions and sent them off to the developers. I will update this post when I receive an answer. Thanks!

    I hope one of the question is "Are there any plans to aid Steam users now that there's a clear and demonstrable reward imbalance between platforms?"

    I'm not a Steam user, but I agree if you can't implement this system (which I question) due to the platform then you should either:
    1. Not implement the system anywhere as you can't offer a fair balance.
    2. Offer some equivalent system or rewards to steam-only.
    3. Offer a migration plan off the deficient system for players that want the rewards.

    As far as "the Steam platform that prevents us from being able to implement that feature" I strongly question that. I've googled this quite a bit and I haven't found anything pointing to Steam actively blocking games from including advertising and even seen some steam forum posts about people talking about games that do include ads. What I suspect is the case is not that steam prevents the system but that steam doesn't provide apis to make it easy to implement the system. If that is the case, that's even more of a spit in the face to steam users because it says we could, but you aren't worth our time.
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2017
    broll wrote:

    I'm not a Steam user, but I agree if you can't implement this system (which I question) due to the platform then you should either:
    1. Not implement the system anywhere as you can't offer a fair balance.
    2. Offer some equivalent system or rewards to steam-only.
    3. Offer a migration plan off the deficient system for players that want the rewards.

    As far as "the Steam platform that prevents us from being able to implement that feature" I strongly question that. I've googled this quite a bit and I haven't found anything pointing to Steam actively blocking games from including advertising and even seen some steam forum posts about people talking about games that do include ads. What I suspect is the case is not that steam prevents the system but that steam doesn't provide apis to make it easy to implement the system. If that is the case, that's even more of a spit in the face to steam users because it says we could, but you aren't worth our time.

    That suggests that demi and d3 could, on their own, create the necessary apis to implement this system. What makes you think that either company has a workforce that would be able to do that. This is not a snarky comment about the talent of demi/d3 software engineers. But I think one can assume that the skills necessary to develop a game are not exactly the same skills necessary to build an integrated advertisement system.
  • JVReal
    JVReal Posts: 1,884 Chairperson of the Boards
    My Intercepts were working right up until the daily patch yesterday. After the daily patch push, I would get the intercept, but it wouldn't play, and it would close itself out not giving me the reward... sometimes it would crash the app and not give me the reward.

    I have not had a successful Intercept since the daily push last night. They trigger, I choose to watch it, then it closes the video only and gives no reward, or closes the entire app and gives no reward.
  • adamdivine
    adamdivine Posts: 136 Tile Toppler
    Second day of doing every available node for shield intercepts and I have received zero.
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
    I receive around the same amount of intercepts as before... probably a bit less. I have gotten some Elite tokens. Do the Elite tokens replace the 250 ISO reward?
  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    Vhailorx wrote:
    broll wrote:

    I'm not a Steam user, but I agree if you can't implement this system (which I question) due to the platform then you should either:
    1. Not implement the system anywhere as you can't offer a fair balance.
    2. Offer some equivalent system or rewards to steam-only.
    3. Offer a migration plan off the deficient system for players that want the rewards.

    As far as "the Steam platform that prevents us from being able to implement that feature" I strongly question that. I've googled this quite a bit and I haven't found anything pointing to Steam actively blocking games from including advertising and even seen some steam forum posts about people talking about games that do include ads. What I suspect is the case is not that steam prevents the system but that steam doesn't provide apis to make it easy to implement the system. If that is the case, that's even more of a spit in the face to steam users because it says we could, but you aren't worth our time.

    That suggests that demi and d3 could, on their own, create the necessary apis to implement this system. What makes you think that either company has a workforce that would be able to do that. This is not a snarky comment about the talent of demi/d3 software engineers. But I think one can assume that the skills necessary to develop a game are not exactly the same skills necessary to build an integrated advertisement system.

    Completely agree with this. However, if you don't have the ability to make a cross-platform competitive game fair across all platforms, then you shouldn't do it or you should only choose to do systems that work for all platforms. It's not fair for their customers to get **** because they grew in areas they can't support/can't support equally.
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,178 Chairperson of the Boards
    I played solely on my phone/Google Play version last night after receiving my Daily Resupply and seemed to get the normal amount of Intercepts I usually get. Also received an Elite token. I think what happened is that after R117 came down the pike, I started my Daily Resupply cycle on my Kindle/Amazon AppStore version, which is when I get the bulk of my Intercepts. By the time I switched to my phone, I think the Intercept cycle was in "few and far between" mode.

    I would urge caution for those playing on Kindles or using the Amazon AppStore version as it seems like Intercepts got borked on that particular platform with R117 for some reason. Of course, this is purely anecdotal evidence on my part, so take it with a grain of salt. Your mileage may vary. But if you can play on a different platform, give that a try and see if you can get the Intercepts again.
  • ChattyWhacker
    ChattyWhacker Posts: 39 Just Dropped In
    I'm a pretty avid player and from what I've experienced with this new change in intercept's has been that the amazon kindle version doesn't produce any intercepts and I've been playing over 40 pve nodes on it and they have not appeared there. When I switch to my android phone however, I see them coming in left and right. So, I am guessing that there is an issue with the intercepts on the amazon devices for some odd reason.
  • Histamiel
    Histamiel Posts: 166 Tile Toppler
    ChattyWhacker wrote:
    I'm a pretty avid player and from what I've experienced with this new change in intercept's has been that the amazon kindle version doesn't produce any intercepts and I've been playing over 40 pve nodes on it and they have not appeared there. When I switch to my android phone however, I see them coming in left and right. So, I am guessing that there is an issue with the intercepts on the amazon devices for some odd reason.

    I play on an Amazon Kindle also. I haven't seen an intercept since the introduction of R115 patch. And before that update, I used to have a fair amount of intercepts.
  • DrStrange-616
    DrStrange-616 Posts: 993 Critical Contributor
    Amazon App store user here and no intercepts since patch as well.
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,178 Chairperson of the Boards
    Histamiel wrote:
    ChattyWhacker wrote:
    I'm a pretty avid player and from what I've experienced with this new change in intercept's has been that the amazon kindle version doesn't produce any intercepts and I've been playing over 40 pve nodes on it and they have not appeared there. When I switch to my android phone however, I see them coming in left and right. So, I am guessing that there is an issue with the intercepts on the amazon devices for some odd reason.

    I play on an Amazon Kindle also. I haven't seen an intercept since the introduction of R115 patch. And before that update, I used to have a fair amount of intercepts.

    Interesting. Things were fine on my Kindle until R117. After R117, nothing. I'm just glad I recently decided to play on my phone as well.

    Have you ever been able to send messages to your Alliance using the in game chat feature while on your Kindle? I can count on one hand the number of times a message actually went through, despite countless tries. The game always freezes and I have to force quit and relaunch. But I've had no issue sending messages on my phone.

    As much as I prefer playing on my Kindle, that build seems less stable overall. Other issues cause the game to freeze on that platform that haven't seemed to crop up while playing on my phone.
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    *Added responses to frequently asked questions
  • Akari
    Akari Posts: 492 Mover and Shaker
    To add to my previous comment, I'm on an Android phone, installed game from Amazon app store. I received intercepts fine until the patch, and now I don't get any at all. What happened??
  • xdogg
    xdogg Posts: 334 Mover and Shaker
    Why am I not seeing Intercepts on my Amazon device?
    Much like Steam, Amazon device users unfortunately also do not receive Intercepts. We plan on discussing soon the exploration of different options to help remedy this disparity.

    Why? We were getting Intercepts just fine before this update?
  • zulux21
    zulux21 Posts: 249 Tile Toppler
    Brigby wrote:
    *Added responses to frequently asked questions
    What about Steam users?
    Steam users unfortunately do not receive Intercepts due to limitations in our partner technology. We plan on discussing soon the exploration of different options to help remedy this disparity.

    ooh, I am not getting my hopes up that this will lead to any actual changes, but I am at least very happy to read it.

    thanks.
  • lockvine
    lockvine Posts: 25 Just Dropped In
    Brigby wrote:
    Why am I not seeing Intercepts on my Amazon device?
    Much like Steam, Amazon device users unfortunately also do not receive Intercepts. We plan on discussing soon the exploration of different options to help remedy this disparity.

    Members of my alliance are reporting that they were not seeing Intercepts on their Android devices that the game was installed through Amazon as well. They had to uninstall and re-install through the play store. If this is correct the FAQ should probably be updated to reflect this. That it is not just Amazon "devices" but any install through Amazon.
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,178 Chairperson of the Boards
    Brigby wrote:
    Why am I not seeing Intercepts on my Amazon device?
    Much like Steam, Amazon device users unfortunately also do not receive Intercepts. We plan on discussing soon the exploration of different options to help remedy this disparity.

    Not to be impolite or accusatory, but that doesn't seem entirely accurate. I started playing the game on a Kindle Fire HDX and when Intercepts were first implemented, I had no issue receiving them.

    When they first started, I had recently purchased a Logan's Loonies, so got the support message and reward without having to watch a video. When that gratitude period ended, I went for a few weeks watching videos. Admittedly, the videos never played that well, and I think more often than not the video would close without playing and I wouldn't get a reward or the game would freeze and I would have to force quit and relaunch, receiving no reward. But they were offered.

    Since then, I've been on VIP, so I got the reward without having to watch a video and it was working on my Kindle fine until R117. It sounds like, by and large, the same thing is happening to other Amazon platform users; it worked at some point, now it doesn't (in most cases after R117).

    It just strikes me as inaccurate and misleading to say Amazon users don't get them when that hasn't been the case.

    Unless it was decided by the devs that going forward from R117 that Amazon users will no longer receive Intercepts. And IF that's the case, it sure would be nice to know why such a decision was made, and it would have been nice to communicate that they would no longer be offered on Amazon.

    To end on a positive note, I do look forward to the discussion of options to help remedy the disparity.
  • DrStrange-616
    DrStrange-616 Posts: 993 Critical Contributor
    Amazon user here. Intercepts were fine until R117.

    The reply in the FAQ feels disingenuous. We DID receive intercepts until YOU changed something.

    Will be watching closely and considering a refund of VIP.

    eta for clarity: I'm an Amazon App Store user on an Android device, not an Amazon device user.
  • firethorne
    firethorne Posts: 1,505 Chairperson of the Boards
    We plan on sometime in the future talking about exploring our options. Condolences to my Steam brothers and sisters. Doesn't sound like your problem will be fixed anytime soon. At least Amazon people can sideload the Google Play Store without too much hassle.
  • DapperChewie
    DapperChewie Posts: 399 Mover and Shaker
    Brigby wrote:
    What does it mean by "session"?
    A session is one continuous duration of play where you're playing a bunch of missions.


    So... if I play a bunch, then force quit the game, then come back 20 minutes later, is there a higher chance? Or is there a timer that counts down until the next intercept comes through? Are we going to have to play more times throughout the day in order to get the 20/day?

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I really liked hitting the daily reset and just getting like 8 of them in the first hour.

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