Idle Submarine: Raft to Boat 4+

Devs are not to be trusted

I’ve been playing this game for 1 year. It has become full of ads, asked for more and more money so that it became now a pay-to-win. Clans are getting ruined by arbitrary devs’ decisions, the game is riddled with cheaters for which devs are doing close to nothing. We have even launched a petition to the devs to stop ruining the game for their loyal users: I’ve lost access to my account as a consequence.

The petition to Black Bear Games reads:

"In the past several months we have seen a number of anti-consumer updates in both Drilla and Flood that very negatively affected every player, essentially leading the playerbase to a significant decline. As players, both new and veteran, we see no future in these games if this is how they are going to be maintained. The following is a list of adjustments we require in order to stay in game. If these requirements are not met by June 1st (more than 3 months from this date) we would have to leave the game in favor of another developer that cares about their playerbase.

1) Forced ads shall be removed completely from both games. In Drilla, there are full 30 seconds unskippable ads that play in game every minute, discouraging people from playing the game. Several people have reported closing the game as soon as they pop up. As of right now 33% of drilla gameplay is watching ads, which is unseen in any other game. We are 100% fine with mechanics that give you reward for watching ads, however any popups and forced ads should be removed from both Drilla and Flood.

2) Subscriptions are currently too expensive compared to what they offer. As of right now, the whole subscription system is overly complicated in both games, with 3 levels, 2 of which are obsolete and low rewards compared to price we paying. Also interestingly enough, Drilla subscription costs more than Flood, even though it offers less privileges. Here are few ideas: make subscription give players a fixed amount of gems every day, which would be higher than buying a pack of same price; remove all obsolete subscription ranks; make one subscription for all games (that should encourage players check out other games if they already have subscription in one, since they will receive bonuses) and in general, as an idea we would like to see more crossplay with other games.

3) Cheaters have to be dealt with once and for all. Even though the problem is not nearly as bad as it was few months ago, it is still a problem. The main issue game has is that it stores all data, including progress, resources and gems locally on the device, which means that hackers can easily access these files and write whatever they want. This does not encourage anyone to support the game or buy gems. The fix would be to store these files on a server, which has already been partially implemented with backup systems. If that is too hard to implement, there need to be more anti cheating measures (however they must not false ban people that spend money, like what happened previously). Additionally, distribution war rewards could be delayed. to make sure none of the clans decided to cheat last minute.

4) Clans have to have more interactions. Even without described above problems, everyone is getting bored of having no challenge in these games. The gap between clans can be very high which means progress moves slowly, which results in players getting bored quickly. Wars in both games are often not a challenge since top 3 clans can often be placed against WAY out of the league opponents. Here is an idea: make wars ranked. That way strongest clans will compete with each other, and add a reward to top leagues so that people have motivation to progress. Add some in clan interactions, like building facilities in clan or attacking other clans.

5) We need a better communication with developers, as of right now some people have reported that it can take up to a week to receive a reply on urgent cases when people can no longer access their accounts. A lot of veterans quit both games because they have some issues with their accounts that are not resolved in time. We can provide you with our discord or we can help you create your own. We are aware that there is a group in VK that has a lot of announcements, but what about people that speak English? "

Răspunsul dezvoltatorului ,

Hello. Thank you for the feedback.
We try to keep our projects running and respond to players' requests and suggestions as much as possible.
Over the past few months we have seen positive changes in the game regarding some of the points you mentioned. We regret that these changes are not important enough for you not to include them in your application.
We are addressing the issue of clan development, but we have not yet found a better option.
With regard to monetization issues, we strive for a compromise in which the players would get quality gaming experience and we would have the resources to support the game. The current system of monetization is just such a compromise.