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Jun-17-2008 06:53

I know this has been discussed on some other thread but I can't find it so I'm posting here. I love playing Sleuth Noir but I find there are not enough cases per day. I don't know if the majority of you out there in Sleuthville think the same but 12 cases is not enough, especially when you lose some to travelling and of course those darn pirates. SOM has 30 cases per day. Is there a reason that players are allowed more cases there than in Noir?

Please Ben, make our day and give us more cases.

Jun-20-2008 08:10

I still don't get the problem of havng more cases . . . .

Is it soooooo bad that there are some people that want to play MORE AND MORE Sleuth?I think you should be happy to have people like those in Noir as , like previous people said , many people have left the Noir either for SoM or for other things.

Don't forget that those people are the best advertisment for any game and the fact that they support the game with 1 or more subscribed characters is more than enough proof.If they just want to play Sleuth , WHY do they have to find another hobby ? Or even worsse, WHY do you assume that they have plenty of money and so they have to create even more characters and then subscribe them???

Last, when it comes to THs and AVHs , THs won't be out of balance since all subscribed players will have the same amount of cases and AVHs could simply be quicker ; and if you don't like that idea , just put Cairo into play too.

Jun-20-2008 15:19

When all is said and done, whether or not people will get more cases is not up to any of us; it is up to Ben alone. Fighting about it is really not going to solve anything.

A good while back, our number of daily cases was raised from ten to twelve. Perhaps Ben will raise it again, perhaps he won't.

MystieBlue said: "I must be dense because I don't understand why having more cases would be a problem for those who can do only 12 cases or less per day. All they would have to do is not do them. The extra cases would not be an obligation, they would be there for those who want to do them."

To answer that: crossed wires in communication. A while ago, an idea was put out to let people pay for a sort of "supersubscription" where they would pay extra and receive extra cases for that detective. That would upset the balance as far as treasure hunts and AVH league races, and even the high scores. And the people who are talking about the imbalances are referring to the "supersubscription" scenario, not to everyone's case load being raised, which is what you were referring to (I believe).

I have to say, I agree with something that you said, Mitstux. Put Cairo into play!! Chasing Villains through Cairo would be cool, and why not have treasure hunts there? Wow, would add a lot of variety to the types of treasures we could look for! Add some egyptian-themed stuff. :)

Jun-20-2008 16:18

It's really nothing to mess about. There are some of us who wants more daily cases, and some who don't. But, as Anikka says, the final conclusion are solely in the hands of Sleuth Admin, or Ben as we use to call him.

I have no trouble with arranging myself so that I get the cases I want to play, but I can't deny that I would prefer to have more cases for each sleuth, even though other solutions has it's advantages as well.

If it's fair or unfair that some have more daily cases and others don't depend on what kind of common community we want to have. In real life I experience that some have the ability to drive a new car, while I don't.
(my car is a 84-model, about new from the factory...)
But, it have never occured to my mind that it's unfair that they have chosen to prioritize their money that way. I don't envy them having all this cool stuff, I won't get any better by doing so. I am happy that they have the possibility to rejoice in the results of their hard work.

I think that more than the number of daily cases, the amount of effort someone is willing to put into something makes a difference. If someone is willing to (able to are just a flavor of willing to) use much energy on Sleuth, it's just reasonable that it will pay off. If someone is not willing to put in that much energy, there is a big chance that they will not be so successful. This is the way it's on all other areas in life too. Why should it be any worse if it's like this here too?

I also notice that someone is complaining that to get the ability to solve more daily cases (if it's combined with some kind of price-raise) would make Sleuth soooo expensive. Excuse me, but are there really anyone, ANYONE? who think that a subscription to Sleuth are expensive?

Jun-20-2008 18:12

I think the fact that people wanting more is a good thing; however I don't think it should necessarily be given to them.

Like Ani stated, it was raised from 10 to 12, before that it was raised from 8 to 10 so the game continues to evolve. At what point will it be too many cases to where the people who have the time to play a ton will get bored and move on. I don't think those people are bored at all. What the case limit does is leaves them wanting more. I think thats a good thing, keeps them coming back! ;-)

Personally I have 3 detectives and sometimes its a struggle to get through just one of their cases let alone all 3 of them, thats where my agency memebers that want more cases benefit, I put them in the file and mark them as free.

Jun-21-2008 00:14

Ya know I keep thinking about this thread, some good discussion but there is one thing that I keep coming back to:

Now if your a stay at home mom or wife or even husband/dad, then you'd have a lot of time on your hands and would want more cases definately!!

I'm sorry Jas, but why does a stay at home Mom or Dad have all this time that they definatly want more cases? Or have a lot of time on their hand for that matter?

Jun-21-2008 09:01

Ctown, you did it too
"Now if your a stay at home mom or wife or even husband/dad, then you'd have a lot of time on your hands and would want more cases definately!!
"

I stay at home but I don't have much extra time. Sleuth is entertainment and gets my mind off the important stuff for a while but I only play when its convenient for me.

-Now, back to the issue. If you play all 12 cases plus the favors then you are playing 16 cases per day. Looking at Misties XP ; over the last several days I can determine she doesn't play AI. Also, she has no Cairo contacts. Perhaps Mistie is not as serious about this game as some of us are and that is why we are bickering back and forth. We can't compare apples to oranges.

No offense intended to any apples or oranges both are really good, I'm just stating my observation and opinion.

*We all began as apples ;)

Jun-21-2008 09:29

All this is leading me to wonder: how much time do people spend Sleuthing a day, on average?

Maybe I'm really slow (or maybe it's because I don't use this famous sleuth helper), but I find that doing 12 AI cases plus favours takes me about three hours. I don't have that much time to spare most days. Even racing through easy cases and favours can sometimes take more time than I have. So I'm curious!

Jun-21-2008 10:48

Far too much time I am afraid.
I am not using the famous sleuth helper,
but a program I developed myself to suit my needs...
Doing 12 AI cases plus favors take about half an hour on a good day, and more when the people clam up too much...
It used to take much more time to finish cases though ;-)

Jun-21-2008 18:14

Just wanted to add my two cents. Someone mentioned that you get 30 cases in Shades and how this may somehow be unfair. Well I want to share some info for those that do not play Shades.

It is way too much. Ben alluded to the fact that the reason why there are so many cases in SOM was to get rid of some of the age-old bickering about password sharing, multiple aliases of the same detective in an agency, the assembly line method of case solving, the validity of the high scorers, etc. From Ben's initial post on the subject, I interpreted that he overloaded each detective with almost an infinite number of cases (if you play, you know what I mean) so these things would not be an issue in the new game.

But, I want to warn people to be careful what you wish for. It is virtually impossible to solve 30 cases over there in one day (I tried one time and almost fell over from exhaustion and only finished 24 cases). At first I was excited about the 30 cases, but then I really started missing that 12 case limit. It gives you an achievable goal to reach. And when you have as many cases as you like, yes, you can play for as long as you like, but there is no feeling of finality to the day. You just keep solving and solving until you get too tired to go on anymore and there's no closure.

You also have to remember that the two games are very different, with different strategies. A big part of Noir is managing your daily cases for travel. Wouldn't it take a bit of excitement out of Noir if you could just flit around wherever you felt like and didn't have to worry about how many cases you were using? The 12 case limit forces you to strategize with what you will do with your detective each day. And I think that is a big part of the excitement of Noir.

Cont'd

Jun-21-2008 18:31

Also, at least when I was here in Noir, the High Scores list is a big deal. With only a limited number of cases a day, those lists show the players that are possibly the best at and most serious about the game, not necessarily who have the most free time on their hands. Noir is a lot more competitive on that front than Shades; it seems more important over there to post 30 messages on the boards a day, than to solve 30 cases. But for those that would like to see themselves on top of the high scores list, it can be a little discouraging because if you have any semblence of a real life, you cannot sit there and play Sleuth for 10 hours every day. And there are some that do. *pictures college kid who blows off homework and class to Sleuth nonstop all day every day*

Along the same lines, THs would become somewhat uncompetitive if the case limit was bumped up in Noir. In SOM you are actually capped at 3 favors a day. (But I would imagine this would take a significant re-write in Noir to code it that way, and then I'm sure people would be complaining about that as well). If the daily case number was increased significantly, it would really come down to which agencies were online and playing the most during a hunt, rather than working together over multiple days to manage the cases and corresponding favors as a team. It would change the whole strategy. You wouldn't have to hold favors because there would be a lot more coming to you. So again, the wins would come down to who has more time, not necessarily who was using the best strategy.

And think about the little heart-pounding feeling you get when doing an AVH when you only have 2 cases left for the day, and you need that last clue... I could go on and on...

I am officially rambling, but I guess my point is twofold. One, Shades and Noir are very different games and really cannot be compared. And two, more isn't necessarily better.

*done with deep thoughts for the day*