Merry X'mas! X'mas Globes by Playfish!

A Merry X'mas to everyone! Thanks for visiting this blog.

Yupz, there are also presents by game developers for those playing online games. For example Playfish's Pet Society game is givign player a X'mas Globe!

The gift is available only during this X'mas, and thus those who want it, better get it fast!

Afternote: Restaurant City is giving the same globe to players too, except that the Globe is rendered in a slightly different angle.

FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 1

Simple Introduction & First Steps

Castle Age on Facebook is like a cross between Mafia Wars and Tiny Adventures D&D; it has a medieval setting and uses the same game mechanics as Mafia Wars, i.e. stats, energy, stamina etc. Similar to Tiny Adventure, the player needs to hire heroes who lead armies assembled by the players to complete quests and fight other players / monsters.

In my opinion Castle Age is more interesting than either Mafia Wars or Tiny Adventures because it offers better graphics and better named items compared to Mafia Wars, and more depth of play compared to Tiny Adventures.

As per any MMO RPG based games, the first few steps will be pretty standard.

After you start the game, try to complete as many quests as you can. At low levels, completing quests can get you up to level 5-6 easily within 10-15 minutes. Devout more stat points for Energy since that allows the player to do more quests, i.e. level faster.

One small tip is that at the early stage of the game, go to the Demi-Powers tab, and click Ambrosia to get the Sword of Lights. This should be amongst the 1^st items to get in the game because it gives the player a good headstart and it is free.

Since it is likely you join Castle Age because of an invitation by friends, do try to partner them in their fights against the monsters. Just a couple of clicks that consumed your stamina, but eventually when the monster is killed, the rewards can be huge for a beginning player. I fought a Sea Serpent the first night I joined Castle Age.

Before you logged off, get some land to generate gold, and keep the rest of gold safely away from other Players, in the Treasury under ‘Keep’ tab (yes, just pay the 10% ‘service charge’).

Castle Age – Heroes, Quests, & Battles

Heroes play a critical role in the game, since they commend armies to complete quests, battles against other players, and form perquisite to increase the ‘influence’ for many quests. Each hero has their own attributes, i.e. more attack power / defence power, or a balance of both. The list of heroes can be accessed via the Heroes tab, but the more powerful ones can only be obtained via use of favour points.

When the player reaches level 10, there will be opportunity to also level up the Heroes for better Hero stats. One point to note is that the rewards from the Land of Fire Boss quest (1^st starting area) include a powerful hero – Celeste. Celeste has 12 attack and 12 defence, and will be the main power Hero for many levels.

Quests - Quests are the main bulk of the activity other than battling other players or monsters. Completion of the quests is needed before new areas are unlocked. For example, the player needs to complete pre-requisite quests with 100% influence in the Land of Fire, before new lands are available. When x number of quests are completed in each Land, the boss quest option becomes available, e.g. Orc King.

Quests consume energy to complete. Higher level quests will consume more energy, and thus it is important to add stat points to Energy attribute. The plus side is that quests are give more gold and experience at a higher level in those unlocked Lands.

Quests also require certain number of troops before the player can engage in these specific quests, i.e. 5 units of paladin / Tree Ents before the player can complete the quest. It is also important to check your current Hero, in order to match the quest requirement. Using the wrong Hero for the quest means there is no increase in Influence (the standard coins and experience will still be given).

Battles - Castle Age's Battle tab has two options for player to fight against other players – Invade or Duel.

Invade means there will be a battle among the two armies. Choose this option only if you have a lot of friends playing Castle Age. The maximum number of army players you can involve is 501. It is simply a test between numbers. Of course, each army member can also use the player’s items to boost the attacking / defending power. Nonetheless, superior number will still win. Big army size also means that more of the player’s Heroes can be involved, thus boosting the chance of winning. I think the ratio is 5 army members to 1 Hero.

The other option, Duel, is a fight between the best of each other’s Heroes. Use this option once you have Celeste unlocked from the Land of Fire since she has better stats. The fighting Heroes will be equipped with the best equipment available.

Each time you battle another player, a stamina point will be deducted. Thus for players who enjoyed PvP, raise the Stamina stats. A bonus of battling is that battle points are earned when the player wins a battle. More points are awarded if the player fights against someone of higher rank. When certain ranks are achieved, rewards (e.g. stat points) are given. Each battle also gives points linked to the Demi-powers.

Monsters - Monsters are the fun part of the game when the players can co-operate with each other to fight monsters. A player can start a summoning of monster once certain requirements are met, e.g. the Orc King and Sorceress Queen become available once the majority of quests are completed in the respective Lands. The other monsters (e.g. the sea serpent and dragon) can be summoned once the player performs alchemy with all the necessary alchemy items.

The monsters don’t last forever, and have to be killed within a set timeframe. Beyond the time frame, the monster fight stops. Participate in all the monster fights started by your friends, since each monster kill can give pretty decent rewards. I got good rewards in one such monster fight when I first started the game, and the items were useful for the many subsequent levels.

See also:

- FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 2

- Castle Age: Battle of the Dark Legion

Finder is Not Keeper - Playfish games

It is somewhat irritating when I realised that as the finder of rare 'visitors', e.g. Hideeni, or the Gourmet King, I can not keep the items they professed to give. Instead, I have to make some announcements, and my friends will get the items. Hopefully in turn some kind soul will also find these avatars and I can get the items.

Here's the two pics from Restaurant City. Oh well, so that means I shouldn't spend time spotting these special avatars.

I will actually appreciate if upon the announcements, the players can also keep the items. Here's the pic about Pet Society, and that means I will not have the plushie.

You Can Now Cook in Pet Society

Seems like cooking is a big draw for Facebook gamers. We have Restaurant City, Cafe World, and now even the Pet Society has a cooking function. Pet Society now provides each pet with a toaster / microwave oven device that allows the pet to cook!

Cooking seems pretty simple, much like other functions (planting, stickers...etc), and the instructions are provided when you click on the microwave device.

Initially the number of recipes is limited, and the pet will have to cook more in order to level up and get new options. There is not much profit to be made from cooking though, since each dish will only provide a few coins more. The dish that takes one day to cook, i.e. King Burger, will give about 40 coins profit.

There is no need to 'buy' ingredients, because the ingredients will be provided automatically when you purchase the dish. The dishes take about 10 minutes to 1 day to cook. Once there is something cooking, there will be an alert to inform you about the time remaining.

Just click when the dish is done, and the dish will go straight into the storage. There are quite a number of dishes to learn but the pet has to level up the cooking skill before the recipes are available. Recipes include Snowman Sundae, Gingerbread house, Choc Fudge cake...etc.

You will get the congratulations note about the cooked dish, and yes you will also get the congratulations note when you level up the cooking skill for the pet. Well, give it a try and see if there is any other cooking functions for higher levels.

It is snowing in Restaurant City!

It is snowing in Restaurant City! Now that it is December, everyone is in X'mas mood, and Playfish has introduced four festive related dishes (one for each category) into the game.

New dishes is an old concept, but I was pleasantly surprise at the snow covered trees. Yes they also added an outdoor option for more diners. Based on the letter from Playfish, there is supposedly a Food King, but I am not sure how to identify him. There were forum posting that the Food King is a purple character who is likely to be dining at the outdoor space.

You will need the Food King in order to get some of the materials needed for the festive seasons, e.g. raisins. Guess I will need to build an outdoor dining area (5,000 coins) in order to get these special ingredients then.

Snake in Restaurant City!

Yes there is a snake in Restaurant City! Well, not exactly those snakes that bite, but the game 'Snake'.

It is somewhat surprising actually to see an 'arcade game' within the game itself. We've always seen games within games, but I didn't expect to see it within a Facebook game like Restaurant City.

The Snake game can be activated if you have an arcade game machine within Restaurant City. The control is pretty simple, i.e. movement of the snake with the 4 arrow keys. to eat up ingredients that looked like actual ingredients in RC. There is a score function at the end of the game. I couldn't see if other 'functional items' giving this additional feature. Now that Playfish has introduced Snake, wonder what else would they add? Tetris? Bejewelled?

Electronic Arts bought Playfish!

Yupz Electronic Arts has bought Playfish, and from this CNA article it is at a hefty price tag (in my opinion).

for 275 million dollars in cash and 25 million dollars in equity retention arrangements for employees.

In addition, EA said it will pay up to 100 million dollars if the privately held Playfish reaches certain performance milestones through December 31, 2011.

Yeah that is a max of US$400 millions!

I must admit that Playfish has been a very innovative games developer, who has been able to track what consumers want and provides new features to the games. For example it has added features to prompt players to visit others in Restaurant City (in addition to other features).

Oh well, after Playfish, who next to be considered for buyout? Zynga? Zynga has also been rolling out new games that parallel many of other similar successful models (e.g. Cafe World). So yes I think it is time some of the bigger games company start to look at the new developers for some measures of consolidation in the industry.