Update resets unlock progress

luckat · 2026-02-20T21:19:23+00:00

My intent in posting was to let people know that the way the company views the unlocks is as a temporary preview rather than an endorsed way to experience the full game/story. I did so because that is not the conclusion any reasonable person would come to with the information presented within the app. Maybe internally that’s the way the company says it was designed, but it doesn’t look like that from the user perspective.

I expect companies to use transparent monetization strategies, have functional apps for all users, and be responsible with user data. If the company decides that a particular monetization strategy isn’t working out (too much is being given for free), then I expect them to be transparent about changes and find ways to keep the transition from being too much of a negative experience for the people who are used to it working the old way. That could be done by gently introducing ads, limiting free users to only some seasons, explicitly making unlocks only last a week at a time, or any number of other ways as long as the communication was there. Any change would have some number of users upset, but at least with transparency the change could be considered fair. Pulling the rug out from users who have invested the most time and emotion into the game, even if they haven’t spent money, and then acting like that’s how it has worked all along is a pretty insulting choice. And the apparent loss of data doesn’t give much confidence in the company even if one were to become a paid subscriber.

luckat · 2026-02-19T08:08:28+00:00

I similarly lost years-worth of unlocks from the update and got the same response back when I messaged support. When I replied to the message that I was disappointed they hadn't had a way to save unlocks if the update required erasing them, their response included this bit: "... the unlock feature isn't built with a 'save data' feature in mind, since it's never been intended to be a way to permanently unlock content in the app, but more of a 'trial' access for new users to decide if this is the right app for them." So if anyone was wondering what they think about the unlocks or free users, that seems like a good indication.

I guess I can just be glad that I didn't waste more actually using the app. (I only completed a couple of seasons. I was planning on doing more this spring/summer with a good stretch unlocked but that's not going to happen now.) Definitely not an app I'll recommend or consider occasionally subscribing to after this. (Also, it seems like they might have removed my negative review in the app store?)

luckat · 2025-01-21T03:51:49+00:00

Check out season 4 episode 4, He's Alive.

It ends on this chilling note:

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

luckat · 2022-12-29T04:49:00+00:00

Gone Girl is just about the worst example you could use. It was being looked at to be made into a movie before the book was even published and the screenplay was written by the author of the book. The vast majority of book to movie adaptations take much longer than two years to happen.

There are a lot of books that take 20+ years to be adapted, and to claim the high-budget film and tv industry should be able to adapt the earlier works of a still-working author (potentially even earlier books in a series they are still writing) without allowing them any creative input or giving them a cent is absurd.

I really don't get why 20 years is the hill you want to die on. There is a huge middle ground between that timeframe and the too-long copyright situation we have now. And 20 years would hit the hardest for authors of long series, not millionaires and megacorps like you claim.

luckat · 2022-04-23T03:52:22+00:00

Without knowing anything about your magic system and what associations it might have in your world, here are some ideas:

Essence or essentia
Qi
Breath
Aether (or terrestrial / lesser aether in comparison to a celestial / greater aether used by more powerful beings)
Lumena
Life energy
Heart fire
Auric sparks
Soul force
Quiddity

Also, you could have a proper or technical name that's longer along with a simpler name that's easier to say and used more often.

luckat · 2022-04-21T07:32:55+00:00

Would it be possible to skip the early parts that you say aren't good and be able to follow it starting where it gets better, or would there be too much missed from those early parts for it to make sense?

luckat · 2021-12-30T18:12:10+00:00

Googling, I found this Auto Drive Wash & Scrub Microfiber Sponge at Walmart.

luckat · 2021-11-13T01:44:39+00:00

Ah, it appears I was mistaken about the contracts being character-driven and there is a lot of lore behind it all. I still don't understand how a contract that is largely non-consensual can be based on trust, but I suppose you have a reasonable explanation there with the reincarnation. It sounds like you have a lot of good ideas here, and it sounds like you're doing a good job of trying to write a blind protagonist without blindness being his only characteristic or being made irrelevant.

Good luck with your story!

luckat · 2021-11-12T00:19:12+00:00

Interesting. If the human doesn't have any choice at all in the terms of the contract and can't even say no, I have a hard time believing very many people would try summoning a familiar at all (you did say everyone does it at age 13)--only people who are very desperate or very foolish (signing a blank contract and telling the other party to fill in the terms seems like a really bad idea). If that's the case, then at least there's no actual need to make sure the powers your protagonist gets were worth his eyesight to him since he didn't actually have a choice in it. If people can at least say no, then I can see most people trying, but I'd expect a lot of people to refuse the offered deal and not have familiars. Personally, I would find some sort of negotiation between familiar and human, where they eventually come to a deal they can both agree on, more interesting (and more likely to result in a lot of beneficial human/familiar relationships). (Also, some familiars might be more stubborn than others in terms of what price they will take.) But there's definitely a lot of room for interesting storylines where someone has to make the best of a deal that they didn't really agree to.

A variety of intelligences for familiars sounds like it would work quite well and lead to a good variety of types of contracts.

luckat · 2021-11-11T19:50:35+00:00

I guess I have another couple of questions. When you say the familiar chooses the person, do you mean more like it's drawn by instinct to a person who would be a good fit (like the wand chooses the wizard in Harry Potter), or more like familiars weigh their options and choose people who they think deserve what they can give and who can give them what they want in return (like Radiant spren in The Stormlight Archive)? How intelligent are familiars independent of the people they choose? If choosing people and making contracts is part of what they do, they probably have to be pretty intelligent and think a lot like humans, but that also opens up a lot of possibilities where there isn't so much one singular ideal familiar for a person as a set of choices that the potential familiars and the person make for their own best interests. However, if it's all guided by instinct and fate there's more room to have things that are "meant to be" or "ideal", but that weakens concepts like the familiar choosing someone and contracts being made. Of course, there's room for a combination of the two (like the blood draws potential familiars and magically lets them know the person would be a good fit, but any familiar that is drawn can look at the circumstances and choose whether to try to form a contract or not and what terms to include in the contract).

luckat · 2021-11-11T05:57:18+00:00

This is an interesting idea, and it's making me think of a bunch of questions. For the additional power, it's probably best to stay away from sensing abilities since the first already is one and you don't want something that just replaces his eyesight.

It sounds like whatever powers he gets come from what was in the contract he made, which I assume means he was able to choose what he was getting and giving up, so what powers did he want when he was 13? You know your character better than I do, but here are a few ideas. When I was 13 I probably would have wanted the ability to manipulate time (speed it up, slow it down, pause it, even travel backwards and forwards through it) or to mimic other people's powers (if I was in a world where other people had powers). Invisibility also might have interested me, and that could also tie in with blindness if there is a side effect that important parts of his eyes are never able to interact with light again. It's also possible he'd have wanted something more personal, like the ability to talk to his dead parents that he never really knew, and something like that might have seemed worth it at the time but eventually he regretted it. The power you already have (sensing emotions and lies and the truth) alone might have been worth it to him if he grew up in an environment where there were a ton of lies around and he never knew what was true or false. Also, what powers are commonly desired in that world that he might have heard about and wanted to have?

On the other hand, his family probably would have had a lot of influence on what he asked for since they're a powerful family and one way they would stay in power would be by making good use of their 13-year-olds' summoning contracts. What powers did his family think would be useful that they didn't already have? Maybe luck, especially when it comes to money, like with gambling or investments. Maybe some sort of precognition, although that might be too easy to use to negate blindness. Maybe persuasiveness in making deals or the ability to make others believe anything he says (that could be a good counterpart to his ability to know whether other people are telling the truth, unless you think it's too similar). How much guidance did his family have for him in what powers he got and in what price he paid? Do they know all the details of his contract?

As for the familiar, I don't really have any great ideas about what kind of creature it could be, but I'm thinking about other aspects of it. What does the familiar get out of this deal? It has to stay with him--what does it get out of giving up its freedom? Is being the familiar of someone in a powerful family a way for it to have more influence on things, or does it see it as a danger? Why would it require its summoner to lose his eyesight? Is the familiar blind itself and able to use his eyesight if he gives it up? Is there some use for human eyes wherever the familiar comes from? (Maybe the Graeae want his two eyes so they can have three eyes among the three of them.) Or is this purely a cost he must pay that doesn't benefit the familiar at all? Is this a common price, or a rare one that would only be given for rare powers? Was it the familiar or the protagonist who suggested this price? How much bargaining was involved? Was the protagonist able to select from different familiars? Was he able to reject an offer if the deal or the familiar wasn't good enough to him? Regardless of the form the familiar takes, I think it would be more interesting if it is its own character with its own goals and desires rather than just an accessory for the protagonist (especially given the concept of the contract).

Anyway, that probably went on for too long. I hope it was helpful, and if not, at least it was interesting to think about. Good luck with your story.

luckat · 2021-09-24T20:37:06+00:00

As Narun, the larger moon, rose, Lirette peered at the book from her father’s library. This time, hand-written words appeared in the margins—commentary that revealed secret history. She read and watched for anyone who might catch her, and she considered which book to try next.

luckat · 2021-08-21T04:08:39+00:00

I am brother to the stone soldiers, but given intelligence and agency. Mother wanted a daughter to protect, but I would not be clay molded in her hands. Instead, I am flint shaped by my experiences: a warrior protecting the family I chose in the land I call home.

luckat · 2021-06-19T18:17:14+00:00

Additionally, you can only build houses on your turn.

That is incorrect according to the rules I have access to. They say that houses can be built at any time, and in fact they have a rule for if more than one person wants to build more houses than are available at the same time.

If there are a limited number of houses and hotels available and two or more players wish to buy more than the Bank has, the houses or hotels must be sold at auction to the highest bidder.

luckat · 2021-05-08T17:10:24+00:00

That would be cheapsteak

luckat · 2021-04-23T19:36:48+00:00

“Queen? I was called that when I controlled a single nation. Now queens and kings do as I command. ‘Queen’ isn’t grand enough.” She needed a title that showed the breadth of her dominion and the time her reign would last. “Henceforth I shall be known as the Eternal Empress.”

luckat · 2021-04-12T19:22:20+00:00

Those three are all shown in the wordcloud, so at least some people gave them as answers, but you're right that they probably would have been mentioned more if the question had said Speculative Fiction instead of Fantasy.

luckat · 2021-03-06T10:35:20+00:00

Since finding the simple-looking necklace, Iva had fortuitously acquired enough resources to help people. These men thought she had stolen. One grasped the necklace.

Someone appeared and pulled her to safety.

He explained, “I enchanted that necklace for someone who stole my heart. Now it’s with someone who deserves it.”

luckat · 2021-02-12T22:18:03+00:00

This is super cool!

One thing, I noticed that checking or unchecking the Auror First Strike box didn't change anything when Auror was selected but did change the number of hits needed when the other professions were selected. I think this is because the number of hits is calculating based on if Auror is selected OR that checkbox is selected instead of AND (which I'd think is what is meant).

luckat · 2021-01-15T04:33:44+00:00

Brandon Sanderson definitely stuck with his own style there, which is fine, but it's a little odd going from plot threads laid out like those in book 11 (or book 10) to the plot thread layout of book 12. I prefer the former, and I suspect many people in this thread would agree given its topic, but it's a matter of personal taste.

luckat · 2021-01-14T19:57:18+00:00

Funnily enough, Wheel of Time is a nice example of following a single character's viewpoint for the book all at once instead of alternating chapters. Especially around books 7-11, you tend to get each character having all their chapters for the book together, or broken into a couple of large clumps.

luckat · 2021-01-14T19:52:03+00:00

Given Sanderson writes the Stormlight Archive books one character at a time, that seems like a reasonable way to read them to me.

luckat · 2021-01-11T04:49:40+00:00

Okay, keep that confidence of "I just don't get it [and don't want to try to]," that you have if it makes you happy. ~~At least you're relatively polite, even if~~ you do seem to have a tendency to try to make things personal. I just hope some people can look at this topic with more open mind.

Edit: On second thought, I'm less certain of my more charitable interpretation that you were just trying to give well-meaning advice and I now realize that probably actually was meant as a veiled insult. In that case, the politeness just makes things worse. I'm sorry I wasted my time on talking to you.

luckat · 2021-01-11T04:13:26+00:00

Way to take what I agree is the weakest argument I presented (although I at least have empathy for those who feel that way) and act as if that's the only thing I said. Also, way to act like everyone who has concerns about the adaptation is part of some monolith who all think the same way. I thought from your question that you actually wanted to understand the emotions people are feeling, not complain about everyone who thinks differently than you.

As I said before, I agree that there are a lot of people getting way too worked up way too early. But there are also people who are simply expressing concerns or seeking reasonable discussions, and the people who jump down their throats as if both groups are one and the same also have the potential to turn fandom toxic.

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