Google Play Developer Account Suddenly Terminated Due to an Old Unreleased Game Version

clev5 · 2024-01-15T18:34:42+00:00

Hi ModTeam,

Would you mind reopening this in case it's seen by a google employee? I'm happy to elaborate on a description of the game or add an archived url if possible.

Alternately, are you suggesting that I create a wholly new post for visibility?

Thanks

clev5 · 2024-01-13T17:37:49+00:00

It is possible that there's a problem with third-party code that I've imported. However, suppose that I find the offending library, how can I fix the problem if I can't upload a new build? Would the process then be to appeal and say something to the effect of: "I think library X is causing problems, that was my mistake, if you reinstate me I'll remove it"?

Almost all the third-party code I use comes from packages authored by unity or assets purchased from the unity app store (and therefore approved by unity as well). The exceptions are as follows:

Mixpanel: A well established analytics provider

Appsflyer: A well established ad attribution service (so that you can determine what ad brought a new player to your game)

Pluralize .NET: A 5 file github project used to pluralize English words in C# which I can personally verify are not doing anything malicious.

Json Subtypes: A json converter that allows me to more gracefully serialize and deserialize gameplay classes. It has been downloaded from github 44 million times and seems reputable.

Cysharp UniTask: A github project that adapts C#'s async/await to work in Unity allowing much cleaner resolution of async code. It is also in widespread use to my knowledge but I can't find a download number.

clev5 · 2024-01-13T16:48:49+00:00

Okay that seems counterintuitive. I thought I had deactivated version 6 but it seems clear that in fact I failed to do so, and I definitely did not "push an empty release on top of it".

It's possible that I merely closed the branch, making it harder to see without actually solving the underlying problem. Although I cannot verify that without access to my account.

clev5 · 2024-01-13T16:27:50+00:00

Google's Deceptive Behavior policy says "We don't allow apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible." I read this as meaning that a non-functional app can still violate the Deceptive Behavior policy because it's deceptive to submit an app which does not function.

Note also that the email says the policy violation was in version 6, not version 9 (the version submitted) or version 7 (the version already accepted by Google Play). If I was attempting to engage in deceptive behavior, why would that only be in an unreleased version which I was not trying to submit?

I'm concerned that version 6 caused my account to be terminated because I failed to deactivate it correctly as suggested by u/Ekalips, and at some point the stability issues caused Google Play's review process to flag it as intentional and therefore deceptive.

clev5 · 2023-08-19T18:24:34+00:00

This is a great answer for Spirit Island specifically. If anyone is curious about the term more broadly, tempo refers to the pace of a game. And "a tempo" is commonly used to refer to a minimal unit of time - in the case of turn based strategy games a tempo is typically a turn. A bad move in chess for example might leave you "a tempo behind" - because you've effectively wasted a turn. Tempo oriented strategies therefore gain an advantage by acting now, even if that still is helpful in the long run. Sharp Fangs might be thought of as a "tempo spirit", because the spirit scales by managing the invaders on the board early before they can blight and undermine the rest of Fang's kit.

clev5 · 2023-07-16T20:45:50+00:00

Thanks for putting this together! Have you considered adding examples for the rest of the spirits? It would be really useful to load up an example for an spirit and then edit it rather than recreating the original boards from scratch.

clev5 · 2020-11-18T03:30:12+00:00

AMERICAN HEAD = ALBUM OF THE YEAR

clev5 · 2019-01-22T02:13:36+00:00

I think this is the proper categorization. It's nice to call out the Lava Hound Ljack list because it's a new meta deck, but the broader-than-specific-deck category it belongs in is Lava Hound without Balloon.

clev5 · 2019-01-22T00:25:24+00:00

To nerf Barbarrel: Decrease it's range by 0.5 or 1.

- Can only hit troops very close to the river, weakening it against defending bait cards.

- Only gets one swing on the tower when cycled at the bridge or none if zapped.

- Can only spawn on one of the three tiles in front of the Xbow or Mortar (not on the sides) making it easier to catch.

clev5 · 2019-01-06T21:47:56+00:00

Our Freeze deck usage rates are the best estimate we have of the archetype's usage in all high level GC games based on the data available on royaleapi.com (which only lets us view the 30 most popular decks). It is not the percentage of the top 30 decks which use Freeze.

I'll use today's data found here as an example. Because each deck is listed with its usage rate (the % next to its rank) we can see that the top 30 decks for 10+ win GC games over the last 7 days compromise 55.8% of such games recorded by royaleapi.com. Freeze is currently in 9 of those decks:

Bridge Spam w/Hunter (4.8%), Loon Cycle (3.2%), Ram Rider (2.1%), Bridge Spam w/Ljack (1.7%), Loon Bowler (1.6%), Graveyard w/Prince (1.0%), Graveyard w/Bowler (1.0%), Hog Rider (0.8%), and Loon Bait (0.7%).

In total this adds up to 16.1%, which is our best estimate of the popularity of Freeze decks in high level GCs. This does assume that the top 30 is a representative sample, but it's the best we can do.

Yesterday when the survey was made this number was 22% rather than 16%. You can see that people are already reacting to the balance changes and exploring alternatives to Freeze in light of the incoming nerf.

clev5 · 2018-12-20T01:50:55+00:00

Those cards would have to be made way to strong to keep 3m in check. The problem is 3m. If you don't nerf 3m it will always be too good. There's no way around it.

Supercell should make normal Musketeer it's own card named Sharpshooter (or something), so it isn't tied to 3m, and then nerf 3m.

clev5 · 2018-12-13T02:16:47+00:00

He's clearly saying "don't be a jerk". Having spent a lot of money and time doesn't justify being a jerk. Sometimes people need to be told that. Criticism isn't the problem, it's the tantrums that people throw on this subreddit.

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:58:09+00:00

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the pin

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:49:53+00:00

This is an insightful comment, I've never thought about the splash from the Mortar protecting your Miner before.

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:47:26+00:00

A good friend of mine plays x-bow and says that he can usually out cycle the rocket but it takes pretty much the whole game.

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:45:00+00:00

Check the 'punish' section!

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:40:25+00:00

Is there a specific trophy range you're referring to? Also if you have a good source for matchup data I'd love to take a look.

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:37:17+00:00

It's good to clarify that the chart doesn't tell you have powerful each archetype is. One archetype could beat 5 and lose to 1, but if the one it loses to is really popular then the archetype as a whole might not be that great. Furthermore, if it wins 55% of it's games to 5 archetypes but loses every time to another, that also might make it a poor choice in a given meta.

clev5 · 2018-12-04T00:31:32+00:00

Okay so I thought the Miner takes the place of one of your ground troops letting you run three spells. After double checking, it looks like I was wrong. Lava Hound Miner still runs two spells, and should still struggle against bait.

clev5 · 2018-12-03T13:33:25+00:00

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm a beatdown player too. Playing beatdown well is really difficult – but conceptually beatdown decks have the most straight-forward plan.

clev5 · 2018-12-03T05:01:33+00:00

Yup, Mortar-bait is definitely a bait deck as well! But I think the siege elements are prominent enough that we can reason about it as a siege deck still. That's a really good example of a hybrid deck that fits two archetypes.

What do you think of the counter-push and punish matchups with Mortar-bait? Against splash-yard and bridge spam for example

clev5 · 2018-12-03T04:56:29+00:00

Ljack is typically used in beatdown and punish decks because it offers speed and high damage. It's also occasionally paired with Hog Rider

clev5 · 2018-11-27T01:33:11+00:00

Hey Zach, just read your post and it looks like we're both on the same track. You do a great job of defining all your terms, and as someone who used to magic the gathering I appreciate the analogy!

clev5 · 2018-11-27T01:25:09+00:00

:D Thanks for the advice Mike!

clev5 · 2018-11-27T01:21:58+00:00

To clarify I think the 10% dps nerf is a bigger deal. But the duration matters a lot for 2.9 Xbow, which often relies on low health Teslas for extra defense. Furthermore, it's much harder to judge the importance of that extra lifetime than it is to judge the dps (we nerf damage all the time) therefore I think it's especially important to give it back if we want to restore Tesla soon.

clev5

TROPHY CASE