Sonic Runners (iOS/Android) - Thread Version 2.0

[Hundjäger18]

^ yeah but they never leave 1 character only so one of the 3 is gonna get extra time, that or they have the other Amy (of the event) on the wheel as well (is a long shot).

Also, I forgot to ask, looks like not only the golden  enemies number are gone but the effect of the magic lamp as well, is this a part of the update we got? Or did the "delete cache" feature erased some other stuff?

[Lord-Dreamerz]

^ yeah but they never leave 1 character only so one of the 3 is gonna get extra time, that or they have the other Amy (of the event) on the wheel as well (is a long shot).

Also, I forgot to ask, looks like not only the golden  enemies number are gone but the effect of the magic lamp as well, is this a part of the update we got? Or did the "delete cache" feature erased some other stuff?

I don't really remember to well, but wasn't Puyo Puyo Amy alone on the wheel?

 

And my magic lamp works just fine.

[Hundjäger18]

I don't really remember to well, but wasn't Puyo Puyo Amy alone on the wheel?

 

And my magic lamp works just fine.

well I mean since WW release.

Is does? Does it do a sound and animation (I think) when a golden flicky gets out of an enemie?

[Lord-Dreamerz]

well I mean since WW release.

Is does? Does it do a sound and animation (I think) when a golden flicky gets out of an enemie?

I think so. At least it seemed like it did when I used it today.

[NoirSuede]

Huh? What's with you? You seem a little bit bitter.

I'm not bitter, it's just that even within the same category, there are buddies that are strictly better than the others (Shara/Mother Wisp/King Boo), and the unlockable characters are all better than the base characters (Sonic/Tails/Knuckles) which makes the game 99.99999% pay 2 win (if it wasn't for the Roulette it'll be 100%), so with the biggest leap in version number so far (1.4 to 2.0), I'm hoping for a sweeping balance patch that makes everyone (even Team Easy) and every buddy viable.

[DarkOverord]

I'm not bitter, it's just that even within the same category, there are buddies that are strictly better than the others (Shara/Mother Wisp/King Boo), and the unlockable characters are all better than the base characters (Sonic/Tails/Knuckles) which makes the game 99.99999% pay 2 win (if it wasn't for the Roulette it'll be 100%), so with the biggest leap in version number so far (1.4 to 2.0), I'm hoping for a sweeping balance patch that makes everyone (even Team Easy) and every buddy viable.

 

Yeah not to burst your bubble but the game is clearly meant to be pay2win and the red ring system like that makes it pretty obvious. It's a typical mobile tactic and I somehow doubt that SEGA/Sonic Team are gonna balance the game away from giving people who put money into the game (unless you get lucky on your earned free red rings).

Personally I'd rather they actually fix the game on Android, like you know, the crash the game button being the "Level Up" button to access the detailed characters screen!

Edited October 25, 2015 by DarkOverord

[NoirSuede]

Yeah not to burst your bubble but the game is clearly meant to be pay2win and the red ring system like that makes it pretty obvious. It's a typical mobile tactic and I somehow down that SEGA/Sonic Team are gonna balance the game away from giving people who put money into the game (unless you get lucky on your earned free red rings).

Personally I'd rather they actually fix the game on Android, like you know, the crash the game button being the "Level Up" button to access the detailed characters screen!

Yeah I guess, but why do you think Western mobile games (Dash 2) have less stupid microtransactions than Japanese mobile games (Runners) ?

[Lord-Dreamerz]

Far as what I'd like to see out of a bigger update. I'd be happy enough if they just made power types useful... Also in my opinion all standard version of characters should be RSR buyable.... only the special extra versions of characters should be put on the wheel, such as the Halloween versions of characters as a example.

[AshGreninJovan]

I'm not bitter, it's just that even within the same category, there are buddies that are strictly better than the others (Shara/Mother Wisp/King Boo), and the unlockable characters are all better than the base characters (Sonic/Tails/Knuckles) which makes the game 99.99999% pay 2 win (if it wasn't for the Roulette it'll be 100%), so with the biggest leap in version number so far (1.4 to 2.0), I'm hoping for a sweeping balance patch that makes everyone (even Team Easy) and every buddy viable.

 

You won't need buddies to be more viable to collect. They still need to be collected via roulettes, events and Runners' League(Shahra).

About playable characters, I don't think that we'll be getting any upcoming event which gives us a free character in Sonic Runners yet. I expect that all characters except special event ones and Tikal will be purchasable.

[Arcade Racer CC14]

Scored Halloween Omega from a spin this morning. Apparently, I'm just REALLY good at snagging the Power characters, since I have every one released so far barring Big. XD

[PurinxPop]

Am I the only one who cares about wanting them to fix the bugs plaguing this game? What's the point of having all this nice content if the game runs like it's a toaster?

I think people should be more worried about the overall stability of the game now; crashes on leaderboards, wrong companion images loading, characters getting changed when you swap team sets, loading screen showing incorrect buddies now, WRONG BUDDIES LOADING IN THE ACTUAL GAME, terrain lighting glitch still not fixed. All this for the sake of "shorter" loading times. I don't think it was worth it at all. I'd rather have the long loading times back than this crap. Seriously, people need to stop complaining about the loading times. Many japanese mobile games have MUCH longer loading times, and I didn't expect this one to be any different. I knew they would fuck something up if they tried to make it load faster.

Player experience>content at this point, so that the game can be enjoyable by anyone regardless of whether they have said content. Because the game is not fun to play at all for me; I only get enjoyment out of grinding RSR and spinning the wheel now. I don't see how people who can't do that can have fun with this huge pile of turd considering the state it's in. 

[Metal the Mario]

So, I log into Facebook today to find this:

The "Boob" mistake is trending. Oh, SEGA.

[LBPlombax7]

Wow, they left an extra "b" after the Boo and now everyone is talking about it, it's not like it's their first typo (or the last)

 

If this is that scandalous, they should have given rsr for it ;P

[big_smile]

I was so shocked when I saw the Boob spelling mistake, that I spent all my RSR on the roulette. I got all the cool buddies and characters. So I hope Sega gives me a refund for the RSR I spent (and still keep my buddies and characters even though I use them everyday), because if it wasn't for the shock of the spelling mistake, I wouldn't have wasted my RSR. 

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by big_smile

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Perhaps Goth Amy will be a one day roulette character on Halloween itself to encourage further spending

[PurinxPop]

Or Gothic Lolita Amy was never a halloween event character to begin with and everyone just jumped to conclusions because of the leak? Gothic Lolita =/= Halloween.
Or SEGA is spiting us for leaking the characters (japanese game developers reaaaallly don't like it when you hack their games or do any software modifications)

Edited October 25, 2015 by PurinxPop

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Since everyone else is doing it, here's my 2.0 wishlist.

-RSR rewards restored to the pre-worldwide release build. It's hard enough trying to get RSRs in this game, and it's a complete and total middle finger that the game only gives you 30 RSRs for completing the final 5 episodes, requiring 50 million to complete.

-More ways to earn special eggs.

-All characters purchasable with RSRs

-Sonic/Tails/Knuckles given significant buffs so they aren't as useless when compared to the extra characters.

-Free Revive glitch fixed

-Character Sale Rebalancing, Team Easy should be 100 RSRs due to their very limited use, other characters should be at 150 RSRs.

-Character Sale: Team Easy is placed at 50 RSRs for a limited time, while the other characters are placed at 100 RSRs

-A few rings sprinkled into the top speed sections

-You can use RSRs to buy more rings.

-Character Upgrade prices decreased.

-Buddy Trading

-Different Roulettes for each type of egg at different prices (Normal for 10 RSRs, Rare for 25 RSRs, Super Rare/Character Eggs for 40 RSRs) 

-Missions that you can do in game that when you complete them, you are rewarded with RSRs.  

[Jrodt333]

Since everyone else is doing it, here's my 2.0 wishlist.

-RSR rewards restored to the pre-worldwide release build. It's hard enough trying to get RSRs in this game, and it's a complete and total middle finger that the game only gives you 30 RSRs for completing the final 5 episodes, requiring 50 million to complete.

-More ways to earn special eggs.

-All characters purchasable with RSRs

-Sonic/Tails/Knuckles given significant buffs so they aren't as useless when compared to the extra characters.

-Free Revive glitch fixed

-Character Sale Rebalancing, Team Easy should be 100 RSRs due to their very limited use, other characters should be at 150 RSRs.

-Character Sale: Team Easy is placed at 50 RSRs for a limited time, while the other characters are placed at 100 RSRs

-A few rings sprinkled into the top speed sections

-You can use RSRs to buy more rings.

-Character Upgrade prices decreased.

-Buddy Trading

-Different Roulettes for each type of egg at different prices (Normal for 10 RSRs, Rare for 25 RSRs, Super Rare/Character Eggs for 40 RSRs) 

-Missions that you can do in game that when you complete them, you are rewarded with RSRs.  

And how many of these changes would you make if you were trying to make a profit selling RSR? (Besides bug fixes) All those changes would be nice, but not realistic at all. It's not like Sega's making much money on this game as it is, and making RSR easier to get for free wouldn't help. 

[big_smile]

And how many of these changes would you make if you were trying to make a profit selling RSR? (Besides bug fixes) All those changes would be nice, but not realistic at all. It's not like Sega's making much money on this game as it is, and making RSR easier to get for free wouldn't help. 

I don't have any figures or anything, but in my gut, I feel that if Sega made it possible to buy characters with money, then people would spend more money. The fact that you can easily spend $50 and not get what you want in the roulette is a big barrier for me to spend even a penny. 

I actually did spend a fiver during the classic event, but after not getting any of the items I wanted, I realised that spending money is a waste. (Although the fiver was free promotional credit, so luckily I didn't waste anything). 

 

[DarkOverord]

 

Am I the only one who cares about wanting them to fix the bugs plaguing this game? What's the point of having all this nice content if the game runs like it's a toaster?

I think people should be more worried about the overall stability of the game now; crashes on leaderboards, wrong companion images loading, characters getting changed when you swap team sets, loading screen showing incorrect buddies now, WRONG BUDDIES LOADING IN THE ACTUAL GAME, terrain lighting glitch still not fixed. All this for the sake of "shorter" loading times. I don't think it was worth it at all. I'd rather have the long loading times back than this crap. Seriously, people need to stop complaining about the loading times. Many japanese mobile games have MUCH longer loading times, and I didn't expect this one to be any different. I knew they would fuck something up if they tried to make it load faster.

Player experience>content at this point, so that the game can be enjoyable by anyone regardless of whether they have said content. Because the game is not fun to play at all for me; I only get enjoyment out of grinding RSR and spinning the wheel now. I don't see how people who can't do that can have fun with this huge pile of turd considering the state it's in. 

I would love fixes before more content. As I've said, the character screen outright is a crash-the-game button for me (on Android). So until then, I have all these rings piling up that I can't even spend to level up characters >_>

I'd also love them to fix "oh I lagged and forgot my physics" but this is a Sonic Team game here, that's part of the experience sometimes.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Since it's related to Runners, I recently did a full post on another one of my threads detailing my full opinion of Runners, and where I believe the downfall occurred. 

Alright, time for a....very long due update.

Well, after playing Sonic Runners' Halloween update and feeling inspired by @Hogfather's articles on Runners, I'm gonna give it a go, and discuss my thoughts on Runners. So without further ado...

SONIC RUNNERS: A TALE OF A TRIPPED UP HEDGEHOG

In the last eight or so months since Runners first went onto the Android and App Store, it's been altered time and time again by Sega and Sonic Team. Was it for the best? Let's find out.

During the launch of Runners, it had garnered a lot of positive feedback and criticism because it successfully brought the Sonic formula of high speed 2D gameplay into the touch device market, creating very simple, but still very fun gameplay, which was all about running as far as possible, and getting the highest score, much like Highlight's previous Sonic mobile game Sonic Jump Fever. With this being Sonic Team's first trip into the mobile market, you could say they managed to make a really good entry piece. It was well built without many major bugs, and performed well enough.

On top of that, it also didn't follow many of the various ways free to play games attempted to rip the player off. While a life system was in place, it was pitifully easy to restore your lives quickly enough that the life counter might as well not be there, and the premium currency was only used to unlock new buddies on the premium roulette, some of these buddies were better than others, but in general, it was all good. The game gave out a very helpful amount of Red Star Rings (10 per episode) and this allowed players to be able to play this game a lot more easily without having to pay for Red Star Rings. But then the first telltale sign of a downfall appeared.

The first set of additional characters arrived in March, the Chaotix, a set of exclusive characters that you had to unlock by spinning the premium roulette and getting a special character egg. The problem? You have 6% chance of getting the character egg on the premium roulette, and if there's multiple characters, you have even less of a chance getting the character you want. For example, if you wanted Espio, you would have a 2% chance of getting him. This brought up one of the most scummy moves in the free to play market to date. Instead of the game giving the player the option to pay to get the character you want to unlock, you instead have to pay, to get an extremely small chance of unlocking that character. 

And then the worldwide launch happened, and in spectacular Sega and Sonic Team fashion, they managed to make the entire game go completely downhill in a matter of one update. 

Somehow, Sega managed to make the game so completely and utterly broken that it would cause most devices to heat up alarmingly, freeze, the battery would end up draining extremely quickly, and it was more or less on the same par as 06 and Rise of Lyric, if not worse, because at least they didn't heat up their retrospective systems to an alarming rate. The game also became absolutely littered with pay to win bullshit. Ads and Video Revives? That's in there. Less RSRs that the player can earn: check. The amount of RSRs per episode was cut down to 5 per episode, and where you'd get 50 for completing the final episode, and an extra 40 on top of that due to completing the additional four sections of the final episode, that got cut down to 30 RSRs. 5 per section, 10 for the full episode. How many points are needed to complete that episode in total? 50 million.

But that isn't the best part. Sega screwed up further and somehow managed to include even more glitches that wasn't even present in the pre-worldwide launch release. The character freezing in place, jump arcs failing, leading to the character being killed off unfairly, the character being forced back in the middle of a game, power ups like the Indigo Asteroid sending the player into the sky, and then freezing, and many many more. They also manged to fuck up something as simple as proof reading. As the infamous Charmy The Echidna example shows. 

Even now, despite many more patches having been released since then, the game is still bug ridden, with even more bugs that have been introduced. Video Revives don't work half the time, there's still an unbelievably amount of typos, as shown with the currently trending Boob The Ghost typo from the Halloween event, and many many more. 

And then there's the always online bullshit that's present in Runners as well. You heard me right. A mobile 2D Time Waster game that would be perfectly for just pulling out and playing for about five or ten minutes, is only playable when you are connected to an internet connection. Even better? The game doesn't use ICloud or any of those methods to allow you to back up your save game. You have one account, and are able to transfer your account to other devices if you go into the app, and get your transfer details. But if your device breaks, or you are forced to reformat your device, you might as well kiss your Runners save data, along with everything you ever unlocked goodbye.

Going back to the extra characters, Sega have managed to so poorly balance the entire thing that what results is people having so many unfair advantages, that it might as well be near impossible to even hit the top of the leaderboards. Characters such as Rouge, Tikal, and the recently released halloween characters are so powerful because of the massive bonuses they give the player, but because of course, the issues with the premium roulette, it means only a select few are going to get that character, which either means they're going to have a completely massive advantage over you because of the luck of the draw, or you have to keep wasting RSRs in hopes you'll get that character. Likewise, limited time buddies also have the same event, because they're only aquirable during a certain amount of time, the biggest example being the Phantasy Star Online 2 event that occurred before the worldwide launch.

It also doesn't help that Sega seem absolutely determined to ensure that there is always at least two different characters on the roulette at once, with last month having the smallest amount of chance to get the character you want because last month had Tikal, Metal Sonic, Charmy, Vector, and Espio all on the roulette. Tikal got removed, but Metal Sonic, Charmy, Vector, and Espio remained, meaning you had a 1.5% chance of getting the character you wanted. It's the same story this month, with a Halloween Omega, Shadow, and Rouge, with rumors of a gothic Halloween Amy incoming as well. 

And so far, in the 9-10 months the game has been released, we already have Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Silver, Cream, Big, Tikal, Metal Sonic, Espio, Vector, Charmy, Shadow, Omega, and Rouge, and then on top of that, we had character variants, which then gave us Amite Amy, Classic Sonic, Halloween Omega, Halloween Shadow, Halloween Rouge, and soon enough, Halloween Amy. That's 21 characters in the span of 9 or so months. In comparison, Sonic Jump, Sonic Dash, and Sonic Jump Fever doesn't come anywhere near that number, and they've been out for years. And each character is around 6% chance, if not less than that. You can begin to see the problem. 

On top of the above character problems, Sega once again made favourite characters into more or less completely useless versions that's useless to everyone. Silver, Cream, and Big are part of Team Easy, and as you can see from the screenshot above a bit, they slow down your speed, in exchange for taking a massive portion of your score. What's the problems? You need score to actually progress in the game. To get through the episodes, you have to reach a certain score point, and if you have to keep playing until you reach that score point to complete the level. So while these characters decreases your normal speed a little bit, they're still taking away a massive portion of your progress, making them useless.

What's the point of progressing further into the level, and getting a massive amount of score, when that score will then be cut in half, resulting in you more or less having the same score you started with. A small 10% speed decrease is not a big enough positive for something as negative as cutting your score that much. If it was a 10% score decrease, it may have been better, because it isn't as much, but 50%? On top of that, if you use two Team Easy characters, the speed decreases by 19%, but the negative? IT TAKES AWAY 75% OF YOUR SCORE!

But how does it get worse? It's completely worthless to beginners as well. How do you acquire one Team Easy character? You need to spend 250 RSRs in order to buy one character. As a side note, the cost of 289 RSRs (The lowest amount you can buy in order to get 250 RSRs) is £18.99. They want £19 for a character who is more or less completely useless. By the time a beginner can acquire enough in game RSRs, they will have already been playing for a very long while, and will no longer even require a beginner mode, making these three characters completely and utterly worthless. A complete shame to fans of these characters, since I know how many Silver, Cream, and Big fans are on here. I would have loved to play as Silver and Cream personally, but thanks to Sega's idiotic practices, that isn't happening.

The only other character you can purchase is normal Amy, who costs even more RSRs! She costs a total of 300 RSRs, and what's the lowest amount you can pay to get 300 RSRs? £30. That's right. If you want to buy Amy, Sega expects you to pay £30 in order to get her. The only other method is using an extremely convoluted method of inviting Facebook friends, and then having them referral to you that you invited them in. You need 10 friends before you get Amy. 

Final Thoughts:  

Sonic Runners is a very sad reminder of how the free to play business model has been abused by developers, and used to ruin a great game, in order to simply try make some quick money off of Mobile fans who just want to simply play as their favourite characters in a fun Sonic time waster. It's a perfect example of how a solidly built game can quickly be broken time and time again by glitches that never existed in previous versions of a game. It's a perfect example of a disastrous game that was ruined Sega. 

The best thing I can say about Sonic Runners is that the core gameplay of the game is still present, and is still so simple and fun, but it's unfortunately been buried under the rubble of a bad business model, and Sega somehow managing to break an already working game. It's an amazing example of how always online games can screw up the game in huge ways. It's such a core example of how many bad things and practices in our current gaming industry can hit a game with good core gameplay and just drag it down massively. If this game was a paid app, for around £2 or £3, and they got rid of all the free to play nonsense, and ads, and got rid of the always online aspect, this could have been a crowning moment in how to handle 2D Sonic games. As is? It's a fun, but broken, buggy, and all around amazing example of how the free to play practice is horribly effecting good games.

 

[KHCast]

And how many of these changes would you make if you were trying to make a profit selling RSR? (Besides bug fixes) All those changes would be nice, but not realistic at all. It's not like Sega's making much money on this game as it is, and making RSR easier to get for free wouldn't help. 

really? Not making much money? Where are you getting those claims from? Cause it sure seems to be making quite enough to continue going the way it is. And really, if making things simpler for consumers is now considered a bad thing(which it really isn't, since consumers would be more willing to spend money if things were better constructed.) and people actually back SEGA got doing this....well fuck, quite the time we live in where we put corporations needs and desires over the consumer.

[SuperAj3]

Everyone complains about the roulette. 6% for the best option in the roulette (this game's Gacha) is MUCH better than most other Japanese free to plays, which will offer as much as 8 or more at once and it's a 1% chance of even getting one! (Love Live for example, Deresute has 1.5% chance). Plus we have a special roulette, which some hardcore players have shown once you max out all your Rare buddies it becomes a 66% chance for SR's and 33% chance for characters. That's amazing!

But I agree with your point on Team Easy. Their handicap is bogus and one of the dumbest things to do. Also RSR prices are different globally. I have a 250RSR pack for $10.40, so I think that's relatively cheaper? But yeah, the game is all about money, remember that 4chan leaker Hogfather posted about saying "Sonic Runners is making a killing". They're profiting from this, so why stop?

I also have some theories as to why this game is a buggy mess and why the team are slack in their fixes/testing.

1. As Sonic Team is making this, it's possible they're focusing more on the 25th Anniversary game, so there's not much time to update this game, they'll probably do it quickly and not give it much care because there's a more important project. This is what I hope is the reason, because it means they've learned that splitting the team to work on the lesser important title is bad (a la Sonic 06 and Secret Rings).

2. The staff working on the game are young and inexperienced, so they're still learning how to make stuff. The passion's there but their lack of proof-readings and lack of knowledge on how to balance a game and how to make purchasable things attractive are still not fine-tuned yet.

Edited October 25, 2015 by SuperAj3

[KHCast]

"6% is better than most games that do this"

 

"getting shat on by one guy is better than getting shat on by 2 guys and a monkey."

 

its is still a load of crap either way, and a dumbass business practice.

[SuperAj3]

"6% is better than most games that do this"

 

"getting shat on by one guy is better than getting shat on by 2 guys and a monkey."

 

its is still a load of crap either way, and a dumbass business practice.

When you enter into a free to play game, you can't complain knowing that the sole point is to make money, not your enjoyment. Once you understand that you'll know who's fairer and who isn't. Runner's doesn't feel much like a F2P because it's not really designed as one. If you're not willing to pay you need to be able to grind, and grind a ridiculous number of hours. (I never spent a cent on Love Live, but I was able to grind in events and still make it to top tier against people who pay and there are MANY more in that game than Runners. You just need the conviction.)