User talk:JoshCz

Changes to Malton

Just so you're aware, most of us aren't opposed to changes in the game. For my part, I think the game has a number of unbalanced aspects to it that could use better balancing. Off the top of my head:

• scouting safehouses is a waste of AP in nearly all cases (I posted the math up for it back when it first came out, and others' analyses came to the same conclusion)
• barricade interference over-favors disproportionately small groups of coordinated zombies in large-scale confrontations, making ongoing sieges virtually impossible
• speaking generally, barricade mechanics favor survivors at small numbers and zombies at large numbers, rather than favoring them equally at all sizes

I'd love to see some of those areas addressed. And I'd love to see the introduction of more variety in terms of mechanics and items. That said, most of us have also come to terms with the reality of the situation, which is that we have no ability to bring about change in the game. The stuff we post in the Suggestions pages are just that: suggestions. We can't act on them. We can only put them forward as suggestions for Kevan to implement into the game, since he's the game's creator and the only person with the ability to make changes to it. We already have hundreds of suggestions that have been peer reviewed by the community, so he has plenty of ideas that he can draw from if he wants to make changes, which is why we tend to be more particular about the suggestions these days, since there's no reason to put forward anything other than the best of the best ideas at this point.

That said, given that the game has been on the decline for a number of years and that most of us either paid him on a one-time basis or never at all, even keeping the game running is extremely generous of him. The game and wiki aren't free to keep online. He's getting a bill each month to keep them running, even though most of us are not paying him to do it. Likewise, it's perfectly reasonable for him to not bother putting any more time into the game, given that he's unlikely to get a return on his investment. After all, making software is his living, so if something isn't making him money, he needs to be spending that time on something else that will help him pay the bills. He's made a number of changes over the years, but most of his recent ones (e.g. scouting safehouses, bellow, etc.) have been met with hostility by the community, so it's no surprise that he's not making many changes at this point.

Most of us would like to see this game back at its prime again, and we'd love to see changes happening to the game, but changes don't seem to be paying the bills, so it's unlikely we'll see many or any further changes to the game at this point. We can hardly blame him for that, since he's got to be able to eat and have a roof over his head. —Aichon— 16:27, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for responding

I wonder if there's anything I can do to help bring the game back to life. I want to bring friends into UD but I've only managed to get one so far, if we could get the survivor groups working together to rather than recruit new players into existing groups get them to form their own groups we could rope in new players. Maybe we could have more community events if people just think them up, getting more people consistently playing. Something I recognized while playing UD is that the game really is sandbox when you have people playing with it not just playing it. My friend was just playing with a group of people in a siege and he was having fun. Its the events in UD that you take part in that make the experience. I wonder if you agree with this, and if there is anything specifically that I could do to help.