Level Redesign

candysodacrusher

When I went to my “go to” easy level to complete my Mr. Toffee tasks, SURPRISE!  The beginning levels have been redesigned again.  From what I can tell, this time the redesign is at least the first four episodes—I think more but I can’t say for sure.  Anyone else have those new levels?

Dirty_Nurse

I only checked level 6 to complete one of my daily quests and it was the same as it had been the past few months.  They changed them again!?

candysodacrusher

Dirty_Nurse said:

I only checked level 6 to complete one of my daily quests and it was the same as it had been the past few months.  They changed them again!?

Yup.  Level 6 was the one where you could make a coloring ball on the first move.  Here’s the new one:

Dirty_Nurse

candysodacrusher said:

Dirty_Nurse said:

I only checked level 6 to complete one of my daily quests and it was the same as it had been the past few months.  They changed them again!?

Yup.  Level 6 was the one where you could make a coloring ball on the first move.  Here’s the new one:

I had the “old” level six earlier tonight - and I updated the app within the last couple days - as I hastily completed my “super specials” daily quest that gave me one of each booster before they reset with a half hour to spare.

I look forward to @Xarly ‘s generic response about how they are “redesigning these levels to entice new players to play” as if they were actually hard to figure out for the millions of players that started in the past what, 5 years now? 😂

candysodacrusher

@Dirty_Nurse after I realized that level 28 had changed I went and replayed levels 1-40-something.  After that I just spot checked a few levels.  I’m not familiar enough with those levels to say for certain they had changed, but I was able to easily pick up 3 stars on some levels where I had previously only earned one or two, so I’m pretty sure they are new.  At least five—maybe more episodes are redesigned.  

What I can’t understand is why they would spend the time (and money) redesigning levels (first three episodes) that were just redone a few months ago.

Yeah, I know.  Testing.  Lab rats.

Xarly

Hi both,

It's not a generic response, I always aim at being as transparent as possible. The reasoning behind this is that the team realised that certain levels in the beginning where reasons for players to stop playing (some maybe think it's hard? Some find it repetitive?). What's happening based on that is that they're tweaking some of those levels to see if certain changes make more players progress and enjoy the game for longer.

It's that simple. And in order to see if these changes do have an impact, they keep the previous levels at the same time for another group, to verify whether or not those changes are having a positive impact in the players experience.

This is the current situation as it stands, and I'm being as transparent as possible (since this is literally the scenario you both are discussing above). Whether or not that's the ideal scenario to you all, as players, is a different story.

I am taking this feedback back to the studio every week, so please don't stop sharing your feelings and opinions, as they truly help me build a point and aim at having the best possible game for you all (both newcomers or veterans like yourselves).

Hope my answer was helpful.

Cheers,
Xarly

candysodacrusher

Thanks @Xarly for the insight.  
A couple of thoughts on the two new versions.  First, a confession of sorts.  I use the beginning levels to complete my Mr. Toffee tasks.  This allows me to complete the tasks without risking one of my lives, thus focusing on the task at hand rather than trying to pass a level.  Usually I can find some “go to” levels for specific tasks.  The “old” new levels were particularly good for this.  I have come to view Mr. Toffee as a game within the game. I do the tasks using the easy levels, and having accomplished that, then move on to working on making progress on the board.  Since I started doing this, I have found that I actually (GASP) appreciate Mr. Toffee’s Fair as a feature.  When I would try to “play” MTF as a part of the regular game, I found it to be a really annoying and frustrating distraction.  (I just have to add that I never felt that way about the Quests.  😉)

So, in comparing the two versions of the first three episodes, I can see how some players would find the “old” new versions too repetitive.  It seems to me that “new” new levels are more like the original levels in how different types of levels are introduced.  However, I think that the “old” new version was the most instructive in teaching players to combine certain types of candies which would benefit new players for the long term.  I also thought that the “old” new version was the easier than both the original and the “new” new version—for the first three episodes.  The new version of episode 4 is much easier—no chocolate.  😁

Dirty_Nurse

candysodacrusher said:

Thanks @Xarly for the insight.  
A couple of thoughts on the two new versions.  First, a confession of sorts.  I use the beginning levels to complete my Mr. Toffee tasks.  This allows me to complete the tasks without risking one of my lives, thus focusing on the task at hand rather than trying to pass a level.  Usually I can find some “go to” levels for specific tasks.  The “old” new levels were particularly good for this.  I have come to view Mr. Toffee as a game within the game. I do the tasks using the easy levels, and having accomplished that, then move on to working on making progress on the board.  Since I started doing this, I have found that I actually (GASP) appreciate Mr. Toffee’s Fair as a feature.  When I would try to “play” MTF as a part of the regular game, I found it to be a really annoying and frustrating distraction.  (I just have to add that I never felt that way about the Quests.  😉)

So, in comparing the two versions of the first three episodes, I can see how some players would find the “old” new versions too repetitive.  It seems to me that “new” new levels are more like the original levels in how different types of levels are introduced.  However, I think that the “old” new version was the most instructive in teaching players to combine certain types of candies which would benefit new players for the long term.  I also thought that the “old” new version was the easier than both the original and the “new” new version—for the first three episodes.  The new version of episode 4 is much easier—no chocolate.  😁

I’ve been following the major threads on this forum for most of the past year now, the main ones being massive negative feedback about the “team” features of the Farce and subpar squad.  The predominant response by @Xarly is “I’ll pass this along to the studio” and that “changes will take time”.

Apparently the studio is wasting all of their time redesigning already ez levels and clearly ignoring all of the established players’ concerns.  The early levels have always been tutorial levels that help to show players how to create and then use the special candies and also introduce players to the various level types. I don’t recall offhand the exact layout of these initial levels other than the few that I used to and still use to polish off my daily quests such as the original levels 5,8 and 17 and the “new” level 6 which basically replaced the original level 5 in regards to the coloring candy.

@Xarly, your excuses as to the early level redesigns are wearing thin at this point seeing as how they had remained untouched for what, at least 5 years?  I don’t recall the exact date that this CC variant was released but it’s been about that long I think.  If, as you say, player retention was a concern and those ridiculously ez levels were an issue, the studio would have done something about it years ago instead of making needless changes now, years later and only a few months apart.