New Feature: Soda Squad

Ditte

  I don't have the squad yet, but it seems like it's not worth much. I have BGH every day. I think it's dependant on how much you play. If you don't play it disappears or is only there a couple of days a week. No cheating or buying boosters here. Depending on how easy the levels are in BGH it's intirely possible to get the amount of hammers and gold monnikhof says. It was much better in the beginning though. Back then we got goldbars along with the 6 lollies for completing the five levels. I don't remember if it was 12 or 20 goldbars. And also a lot more gold for holding the throne. Maybe ten times more for the same amount of time. I  got 99 a couple of times, now getting more than 1-3 is rare. 

monnikhof

I have Bubblegum Hill about every week. It is possible to obtain the Throne fairly easy. As you obtain 6 lolly hammers at the end you can use a couple in the fifth (often the most difficult) level. However as I read the comments it appears bubblegum hill is not available, or possibly not as often, to every player. This I think is exactly the problem King created with the recent changes. It used to be that your progress in the game depended on your skill. Now it seems like it depends on random factors (or if King likes you enough to give you some reasonable events).  

Kathyrnn

Xarly said:

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for such insightful feedback. I'll make sure this gets passed on to the team. The thresholds and rewards are not yet final, as this is the early stage of the feature. The feedback you have been sending to us (and by all means, keep doing so) is of great value. Some of you mention screenshots with a threshold of 400. That was indeed the initial plan but it got moved based on some tests that were ran prior to releasing the feature. Now the feature will be revisited as well, to see how many teams achieved it, how it performed in general and so on.

Overall, we are very happy with the direction of this feature and with all of your feedback (as some of your points tie up with some of our own thoughts). The Soda Squad is looking very well so far both in terms of our data and in terms of your feedback. All it needs is adjustments here and there (especially around rewards and milestones for what I'm reading) and some optimisations that are on the way. As I mentioned, this is an ongoing project and the version of the Squad that you play is only the first.

Cheers,
Xarly

What new level of Hades have you inflicted on me now.  I play on an iPhone logged into Facebook.  Yesterday I made the rookie mistake of updating my app so I could check out Soda Squad.  Yet another team game with non-participating players. 

 Finally I noticed today what I lost by updating.  I no longer have the option of viewing ads to get free bonuses.  I also no longer have the ad option for extra moves at the end of a game.

Quests - Gone     (good way to earn rewards)
Mr. Toffee   Teamed with non-playing players.  Only 2 tasks/day.  Snails could deliver rewards faster.
Soda Squad  Another useless team game. Non active team players
Bubble Gum Hill    Have NEVER seen it on my phone.  (Don't often play on computer, so don't know.)
AD given rewards:  Gone for me now.  Bet the advertisers would LOVE knowing they are paying for ads that aren't being seen by all.

"Overall, we are very happy with the direction of this feature and with all of your feedback" 
 Players all over these boards have been telling King how much they hate these changes.  They have repeatedly asked to return to the original Quests.  It might actually be better that you not bother to post the above type of messages.  
All they say to players, despite the flowery thank yous........is we don't care one bit what players want!

disappointedbyking

@Xarly,
well, people were -maybe- not collecting the rewards with the quests, but they are not getting any with MTF or the squad... So, no problem now, there is nothing to collect.
My previous post was trunked. I said everyone should vote on Google store or the App store to say what they think of the squad or MTF. If some like it, vote for it, if, as I think, 99% dislike it, say it.
The 2 features are useless, no one uses them. Speak of underperforming!

Kathyrnn

Just went back this afternoon and did a second update,  Ads are back.  Whatever the team at King is drinking, please share

Kathyrnn

disappointedbyking said:

@Xarly,
well, people were -maybe- not collecting the rewards with the quests, but they are not getting any with MTF or the squad... So, no problem now, there is nothing to collect.
My previous post was trunked. I said everyone should vote on Google store or the App store to say what they think of the squad or MTF. If some like it, vote for it, if, as I think, 99% dislike it, say it.
The 2 features are useless, no one uses them. Speak of underperforming!

Thanks, I took your advice and went and wrote a review at the app store.  

candysodacrusher

One week in and my new Soda Squad has 3 players who have been contributing.  We’ve passed the goal for the second prize level, but I doubt we will make the third.  So much for being teamed with more active players...two haven’t even collected a point for logging on to the game.

Xarly

Kathy_Shattuck said:

I, almost on my own, completed the Soda Squad and was put on a team w/my same exact teammates as before. I earned over 600 points, no one else even broke 100 points, and one earned zero. But I'm stuck with them again.  But @Xarly I thought you said if we were active players that we would be  put on a new team with other active players??? Argh...so frustrating. 

Hey @Kathy_Shattuck ,

I'm sorry this happened to you. This is a mistake on our side, based on the fact that this is the first version of the event. The reason why this happened is because, if the team finished the event before the deadline, we considered that meant it was an active team, and therefore we rewarded that team with the ability of staying together. We did not realise that this could also mean scenarios like yours, where only some players have been carrying their teams to the final milestone and completing the event.

I will take this back to the studio to make sure that this is addressed for future iterations.

monnikhof said:

New here in the discussion but playing soda a long time. Now at level 1300. Been reading these discussions and let me try and give some extra input on a more positive note.
- In order to progress in the game at any acceptable rate special candies are needed.
- The new events prevent (unwillingly or by design) players from getting special candies.
- King is not prepared to listen to players and will not return or introduce better way of getting special candies.

So the question becomes: is there a way of progressing in the game under the current conditions?

The way I progress is as follows:
- I keep a strategic reserve of about 20 gold bars (=extra turns) and about 10 hammers. I do not play when I have less.
- I check the game every 2 days tot see if there is the event bubblegum hill. If so I play.
- Bubblegum hill is the only event left that gives reasonable a reward for my effort. It is doable when I use my strategic reserve.
- Completing bubblegum hill rewards 6 hammers and gold bars depending on time.
- I check to see if I can do bubble gum hill again. If this takes long I get more gold bars. If it takes only a few minutes I try to complet it again (and earn again 6 hammers).
- At the end of the bubblegum hill event (lasts a day or so?) I usually have obtained about 10-20 goldbars and 20-30 hammers.
I then use the excess over my strategic reserve to progress in the normal game. Usually using this much gold/hammers means I can kickstart a few levels in a row and get the benefits from the rainbow path. 

Using the technique above I can still progress through the game at a pace of several dozen levels every other week. I has been made more difficult by King, and less amusing sure, but it is still not impossible. First get your special candies through bubblegum hill, then progress levels, and do not get tempted to use all candy/gold.  

Welcome to the Community, @monnikhof!

Your feedback is really useful to us and you are always welcome to share how the game feels for you here. If you want to mention something that is not regarding the topic of that certain discussion, feel free to always create a new one, if needed.

JetKuil-Snaterse said:

Xarly said:

Overall, we are very happy with the direction of this feature and with all of your feedback (as some of your points tie up with some of our own thoughts). The Soda Squad is looking very well so far both in terms of our data and in terms of your feedback. All it needs is adjustments here and there (especially around rewards and milestones for what I'm reading) and some optimisations that are on the way. As I mentioned, this is an ongoing project and the version of the Squad that you play is only the first.

Cheers,
Xarly

I strongly disagree.. A lot.. A VERY LOT of people are NOT happy with it. I can read!
So you are happy we are not happy.. that is what I conclude out of if.
The playing in a team is a bummer.. you depend on other people.. so many say it is unfair and other people in the team are not playing. You just leave us with an ungoing project.. feature.. that nobody is happy about but yourselfs and keep ungoing on forcing it upon us. What is it that King wants.. drives us all away? Innovate for the innovation of innovating bullsh*t? Keep yourselfs buzzy? The arrogance...............sigh.. sigh.. and a zilliontimes sigh..

Hey @JetKuil-Snaterse,

Thanks for your honesty and for not cursing out loud. I appreciate both. I understand that your feeling for the feature is not positive, but in general, the perception of it is that it needs the option of opting out, and better rewards. I think those two points are definitely something we can work with. We have seen, in general (surveys, Community, Social Media, player events, etc) that the feature's core mechanics are positively perceived. Here you have access to a fraction of all the feedback we collect (and even here, you can find some players addressing a feedback that is similar to the two adaptations that I added above).

As mentioned multiple times, this is the first iteration of this event. Your feedback and the feature's performance will be key for future optimizations and improvements.

Cheers,
Xarly

Kathy_Shattuck

Thanks for the response @Xarly. I appreciate  that you actually  read these comments. I'm doing all the heavy lifting again with this same team.

Yosca

@Kathy_Shattuckmy situation is comparable. My team is now the same for the 3rd time. 2 players very active, 2 slightly less and 1 still never active! My team has finished 2 times within the deadline. Hopefully @Xarly in the future the studio will look better at the activity of the players and not at a team. And that is also included when someone is at the highest levels. As I posted earlier, I can only score higher if the new levels are there.