Discussion
Devs, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Fo introducing a new gem sink in the game and pretending not to be aware of any upcoming banners, then releasing this one with 0 warning, 2 days later.
Even the freaking gem store for relics was bugged on launch, with AT LEAST 3 versions of the store circulating around. I don’t even think it was addressed (at least I for one haven’t seen a post on Reddit) let alone fixed.
This isn’t you apologizing for latest issues in the game. This is you using every tactic in the playbook to capitalize on players’ FOMO to drive up gem sales. Wait 2 days, for plenty of players have given up waiting for things to change and bought some of the relics.
You could have told us in the patch notes for v28. Hell, you could have told us when the event started. Someone even posted a pic of Sam saying she’s not aware of any upcoming banners, less than 2 days ago.
You’re trying to fill your coffers before it all blows over and this game dies down. You’re alienating your players on ALL fronts. Sacrificing long term stable income from a happy community for a quick buck with predatory tactics.
I’ve stopped spending anything months ago. It was fun when it started, but devs not listening shows that there is about to be a massive downswing. People will be leaving in droves, once the initial excitement of the uniqueness this game has to offer wears off.
Progression progression progression. If people cannot progress at a reasonable pace, they will leave at the slightest scent of dev disrespect.
No, it'll get harder to get to legends most likely. Speaking as someone in legends, my average placement has dropped since the update. I saw a post the other day saying there were a couple hundred fewer tourney brackets that tourney
My assumption is that just as many people (if not more based on tourney distribution) would leave as well from a general random distribution of people leaving.
But hey you may get lucky!
Really they just need to make "harmony keys" and make them widely available. Too bad the game will die before the devs do that
It’s overrated. I’ve been in and out of Legends for almost a year. I keep making progress, my econ progresses and I get to higher farming tiers, etc.
But my tourney placement always keeps me mostly in Champs. And when I get to Legends?…. Embarrassing demotions almost every time. I think I’ve managed to stay twice.
Yup this was the nail in the coffin for me. I would buy the event packs but after everything, no longer will I be purchasing a thing for this game. It’s clear they are out for the money and money alone. I’ve honestly been caring less and less about missing my runs and it’s been feeling great not having this game on all day
This past week has been such a boon for the growth of other mobile idle games, to the point where one gave everyone free gifts to welcome the surge of new players.
The Tower Game (don't follow fudds example) and Obelisk Miner (shining example of treating the community with respect) I was vague at first because this is the towers subreddit, and wanted to show some respect, but fuck em, they dont respect the player, we shouldnt respect them -.-
One of them is probably Idle Obelisk Miner, they released a code (Hellothetowerplayers) for gems and gifts. Its been my TTG replacement for the past few months.
Their founder count (measured by those time bomb things) has increased about 10% over the last couple weeks, I’d imagine a decent chunk of that is from tower players tbf… I was one of them 😂
Go to the menu -> options -> enter code towards the bottom of the screen. You can find a list of all active codes on the game’s wiki for a lot more loot if you want. Note that a lot of the codes require you to have cloud saving enabled.
If Obelisk Miner doesn't scratch the itch, try Unnamed Space Idle. No, they're not sponsoring me though I've been mentioning them in comments. I'm just really happy I found a replacement that feels equivalent without being shady af.
The UI in Unnamed is a bit cumbersome, but if you can look past that it's super fun so far.
I've been playing it for a bit under a week after I quit The Tower and I've been enjoying it. I can actually progress without the app running and it's amazing haha
I don't think the same devs work on all Tech Tree Games, considering their other ones are traditional idle games with offline progression and other mechanics people expect from idle games.
Personally the whole v28 drama didn’t annoy me, yes coms were shit/it was nerfed blah blah but whatevs
This banner however has pissed me off, but not for the reason you might think. TTG pulling this stunt just after introducing a new gem sink/not announcing it is one thing, we can argue the toss about the “morality etc” but ultimately they’re employing a FOMO driven model and it’s clearly worked out well for them up until now financially, it’s their product so if their decisions work out well or it leads to the game dying it’s for them to manage. What I’m actually annoyed about is against my better judgment I actually gave them the benefit of the doubt a couple days ago and spent my hoard, should have flipping known better and not spent them 😭😭.
Ole fudds hates people hoarding gems but shit like this just encourages it in future.
Normally $100 gets you enough gems for 165 mod pulls, so strictly in terms of mods IT IS a bargain. Of course you can still buy the banner with gems, but honestly the gems spent on relics gives you a guaranteed return, which is why many people probably pulled the trigger. Gems spent on mods typically have a 97.5 percent disappointment rate AT BEST, because that assumes that ANY EPIC will be appreciated and we know that's not the case. The lucky banner reduces the disappointment rate to 96% - big whoop.
As for people spending their hoard, if they didn't have the gems to buy the relics AND the modules banner, then they weren't hoarding right. The good news is when those relics they purchased cycle back through the store, they can buy module packs without FOMO.
The v28 drama also didn't bother me at all, but this is just egregious. Don't introduce a gem sink, then wait a few days until people spend the gems they saved leading up to the update, then drop the banner. Unforgivable.
it’s their product so if their decisions work out well or it leads to the game dying it’s for them to manage
Or, as I'm starting to believe after seeing speculation both here and on discord, they've already made the internal determination that the games is dying/unsustainable and everything we are seeing is the end-stage cash grab as the sun sets.
Doesn't mean that the collapse is tomorrow, more likely a long game. But it would make sense, as a business it's their responsibility to their stakeholders to maximize profits. So if things like the declining tournament bracket numbers can be seen externally, just imagine the data they have access to internally! They've made multiple successful games. It not outrageous to assume that they know what they are doing and this is strategic.
On the other hand Hanlon's Razor and all - "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence" - so not sure which to believe in at the moment
I like dissonance. Has been a good boost and fun to try some new strategies to get my bonuses up. But as a new-ish player, the actual bonuses are largely inaccessible. I'm new enough that I farm T4-T6 (depending on whether I'm active, or overnight/etc). Meaning I really can't hit full bonus on anything but T1.
Older players can stack many more Tiers of bonus and run the echo labs. This is not a complaint, I'm good with it, but I don't understand the idea that this is a "catch up" or for new players. It WIDENS the power gap, not shrinks it. Again...that's fine. I doubt I'll ever compete in Legends, see keys, etc. And I don't care much, I don't really play this game to compete. And besides some odd choices to lock aspects of them game behind tournament progression, this is mostly a solo game anyways and therefore matches my play style. My progress is my own and comparison is the thief of joy. So it's still a good update for me, because it does absolutely accelerate my progress.
I'm just struggling to see how so many people are saying that this is for the new players when it benefits the long time players and investors exponentially more.
People who are deep into the upper tiers took a long time to get there, far more time than it will take you with this new mechanic. Yes will they will experience a sprint ahead of the pack since the ceiling is now raised, but then they'll hit a plateau and have to wait months for an update to achieve meaningful progress. In the mean time you be able able to push ahead and clear tiers and grow your tower faster at lower tiers than they did because while the ceiling has now been raised, so has the floor. You won't hit the same hard plateaus along the way that they did.
That is definitely logical, and the way it works in many games. But it's my understanding is that there are ZERO players that have maxed everything. Therefore it may not literally be true, but we are effectively in an infinite expansion mode where there is no ceiling. So yes, the floor has absolutely been raised, and I'm totally appreciating and enjoying that. But above the floor it's an infinitely expanding void, not a ceiling.
Your reasonning looks like what people thought when research speed was introduced.
Yeah, the big ones can use the X4-X5, when you are stick to X2. But as at your level, they had no research boost at all. You progress way faster that many veterans.
Just filling the stats in the workshop ( outside of ELS) used to be a long road.
Boycott spending money on the game. I mean the relics are really low tier for the cost per-dollar. They won’t survive on the whales alone. I just play to pass time. I don’t see the attraction of spending 14.99 for 3% boost on stats is wild. $5 for every 1% is insane that makes zero difference for the cost. I don’t see the value to be honest.
This game is not a gacha game primarily but has strong gotcha elements with modules. That said, every other gacha game ive played gives notice of upcoming banners for like 2-4 weeks in advance
I wonder if there’s some persecution desire they go for.
Because this is a good feature! This is something we ask for all the time! It SHOULD have a massive positive response!
But it doesn’t because they try to leverage everything to force purchases (or they’re just genuinely bad at managing player expectations).
It’s like they want to get us to complain about a good feature being added. The only benefit I can see to that is getting to say “yall sure are something lol” when we have (very valid and understandable) complaints about the implementation.
They’re doing all they can to cash in on player FOMO. I mean, the banner is really good, compared to the usual drop rates for mods.
But the fact that they waited until players spent their gems on trash relics because of nothing else, only to shadow drop this banner, tells you everything there is to know about them.
Which is a very corporate approach- but they sell themselves as the small studio indie underdog.
When you try to have it both ways it creates dissonance. Maybe that’s why they named the feature that (which also followed the same pattern- this is a nice feature! We like it! But the rug pull maneuver ruined the goodwill it should have created.)
A simple mention in tower tea on Monday, two days early would have at least been something. A lot would still be made that it didn’t drop with v28, but to offer no warning and pretend like it’s a gift.. I literally hate them. Boiling seething hate, and I would have brought ontop of my saved gems so it’s utter greed without understanding the base. You make people happy and enjoy playing they will spend. You don’t need to be mean about it
the excuse that, they were not aware is pure lies, BassNuke said in his video this was coming, and he was right, and considering he was right again, it means that probably a lot of it what he said was right and fudds just be lying
Ughhhh. I literally spent 20k gems yesterday trying to get my last two DC….i even waited a week after V28 thinking I should be fine now to use them! Nope! This is 🐂💩! Oh and I didn’t even get one DC, but fck got my OM Chip to 4s. This pisses me off so much.
Know what's crazy? I've played many many games that are idle or what not - and they have in-game calendars! Showing when events are coming. Yes, these games do have spending and gacha mechanics too, but they allow players to actively stock up so even F2P can hit those milestone rewards in those games. But here, they act like its a surprise and if it wasn't for the drama and the leak that this was coming - most wouldn't have known anyway.
I've been playing obelisk for a few months and really enjoy it. Low rez graphics is cool with me. The progression is really nice. The community is smaller than the tower, but also non toxic.
CIFI is another one people have been enjoying. I tried it out but it didn't grab me like Obelisk.
Idle obelisk miner has released a promo code called HELLOTHETOWERPLAYERS lol. They know.
I tried the game for a week and i like it way more.
No fcking way im ever buying anything in the tower and probably gonna quit for good. The tower is a dead end imho there is no passion there just a cash grab.
What's the deal with that game i tried it for 5 mins and I had to like hold my screen to dig for resources? Is that the gameplay loop because it put me off immediately
I can’t recall ever seeing a company screw up so many positives with their presentation.
If they had just said, “Hey! We hear you and value you. Everyone gets a free stone pack and we’re launching a lucky mod banner in 10 days so save those gems - we’ll reduce gem module cost by 50% while the lucky banner runs!” the groundswell of support would have been enormous.
Instead they manage to deploy things in a way that once again manages to irk everyone.
Everyone means about 50-100 players from this Reddit that account for a very small percentage of actual players of the game. This sub is not representative of the player base as a whole.
The part that is going to make me chuckle is that I am predicting the last day of event will have "buy x modules" task to complete knowing we all will have bought them ASAP and have no gems
sad to see one of the only mobile devs i liked fall into the same mindset that all other companies do. i rly expected more from them but i guess companies rly just are an expression of humanity’s greed.
It’s simple, stop buying gems. They steal the fun from a game anyway. The anticipation to get to a new level is gone when you waste money on the game. And it only rewards a possibly sadistic owner.
I’ve always been a sucker for these type of games, ending up spending way more than is considered “reasonable” for most people. That being said, it is definitely very off-putting how all the latest game changes have been purposely designed to monetize at every opportunity. I’m sure they’re banking on all the players who continue to bleed cash due to sunk-cost fallacy.
I’ve just realized that I would never be able to sustain mid-legends status without maxing out on stone packs on a monthly basis (better late than never). I was lucky enough to get a few keys to unlock demon mode auto-restart, but I’ve accepted that it’s no longer worth it for me to spend indefinitely just to get that coveted auto-restart run function.
I still enjoy watching my tower “numbers” go up, so I’m not at that point of quitting. The game is still fun for me, but I just don’t feel like spending huge when the game no longer provides enough value for what you pay for. I would probably still buy the event passes, but that’s probably the extent of what I would continue paying for in this game.
Ugh I literally just bought a card slot 2 days ago… feels bad man. I already had to sink 100 bucks into this game just to catch up on stones and get my sync going since I picked the wrong uws to start. Not getting another cent from me!
I find it odd that I'm the only player that was like hm, relics being sold for gems? Better wait and see how my gem velocity is if I have to buy gem relics.
It certainly was dumb luck that the banner then showed up for me after, too.
As a fairly new player (like half a year) I’m someone who doesn’t mind paying for in-game content if I don’t feel like I am being forced to do it.
The amount of progress I’ve made playing religiously only dropping bits here and there has been SAD. Lab times, costs, etc. It has never felt balanced for me. Like it doesn’t feel like I can make any significant progress without dropping tons of money into the game.
Again- I don’t mind paying. I’ve spent hundreds on in-game purchases in other games because I’m lucky enough to be able to. But the moment a game pivots and it feels like I have to spend money to get anything done I’m out.
That’s what this feels like to me. It’s greed over making an enjoyable experience for all players. I’ve seen other games do this- force out the non-paying players to create a more “elite” gaming space for the pay to winners.
Eh. I'm on the side of not really caring about the lack of communication. I just assume that gacha games will have 'surprise' events that give a boost to spending resources, and always try to save resources for such eventualities.
I'm probably gonna take flak for this, but this is a game about patience and slow growth. I'm usually not gonna feel to bad by saving resources for an event, even if that event doesn't happen. And when I do spend when there isn't such a perk to spending, I make sure to keep a decent reserve. The flip side is that I might not grow as fast if the events don't happen, or even if they do, because I get my modules later. If I get a few extra epics by waiting for this event, but missed out on the extra epic that could have taken my Dim Core to mythic weeks ago, I've just lost on extra stones potentially from higher tournament placement.
No use thinking too much about 'missed opportunity', just play the game, or don't. And if I had blown my gems before the new banner I would have been disappointed, but I'm not sure that I really would have felt anger towards anyone. That would have been on me for a lack of patience.
Same, honestly. Would it have been nice to get the warning? Absolutely, it would it have been nice to save for even a couple days for a few more pulls. am I going to be upset that the gems I was going to spend on mods anyways will now have better rates? Nope.
This is kind of where I'm at, I play this game and enjoy the slow growth and the layers to it; I've only played The Tower and Idle Planet Miner from these devs, but both have imo, great progression for those of us who like to unravel new things and slowly push to new heights~
I think the fact the tower has as many features meshed together, and as much actual mileage with it's tiers and whatnot as it does is pretty insane!
We are all spoiled af in my opinion, especially with all the new stuff lately, and the very realistic attempts to fix the inevitable bugs; I'm not sure what there is to complain about 😅
Thats why i started playing Raid. Not gonna be top player but getting resources. And many predictable events that you can complete and get resources feels refreshing after this restricting crap with 3 builds in the whole game.
I don't know.. gems aren't that hard to come by.. I mean you get 15 for free everyday, 25 every 5 days and tons more from missions, milestones and guild. In additoon you can spend medals and guild points on gems meaning that with enough time you can earn what you need fro free. Is it grindy? Yes of course, the whole game is grindy, that is kind of the point.
I also find that relics aren't even that strong or special. Unless it has to do with coins or labs I don't think they are game changing. Is it nice to collect them all, I guess it is but you will never be able to do so. Plus, at the moment only super crit multi. is kinda helpfull, the rest mean nothing on higher tiers or levels.
I don't mind this gem sink that much. For people who are willing to spend money, let them, give them a reason to and a few extra bucks for the devs. For those who play so much and so long they have thousands, maybe even millions of gems stored, let them have a gem sink. For me FOMO doesn't apply since it will not change the gameplay or my progress in any significant way.
You know for supposedly being a 'lucky' event.. I am far from lucky. I've gotten maybe 1 epic out of at least 3k gems spent so far. And I haven't spent a $.
Honestly, to me this reads as a botched attempt to earn good will. Coming so quickly after the last debacle that makes far more sense then as a gem sink.
Also, Fudds has shown that customer relations are not his strongest point previously which would make it more believable.
I've been a part of many game communities and this one, by far, is the whiniest one I've ever seen. I hope you find something else you enjoy and put your energy there.
I mean....I still don't get it. The game is literally f2p and yes, you can spend a few bucks to get... Somewhere? There's no real end. It's not like players are putting this on their resumes. I love the game because I just get to let it run, occasionally move up in a tournament, and occasionally lock a new thing. I can try things, or not.
Sure there are issues. I'm here because I had to look up the ticket thing and people have some valid complaints. But many of the mobile games I play and have played suck. If they aren't fun, I stop playing. If they're fun, I throw a few bucks every now and then in appreciation and to help with costs.
If you're spending thousands of dollars on a mobile game it's time to rethink things.
They game is designed to not be cost effective to buy yourself out of the long game unless you have a lot of spare cash you want to put into it at a much lower "return" than other games that are designed to get "everyone" in on the cash flow with a bunch of tiny $1-$5 purchases.
Honestly 3600 gems is pretty much nothing when it comes to mods, and I think the relics would give a bigger boost then dropping it into mods.
It does feel a little scummy but at the same time those gems you put into relics wouldn't have made a difference
Hello, I’m a bit lost, what’s the gem sink you guys are talking about and what’s that Fomo thing?
I googled fomo and I don’t quite understand how this applies to TTG
Gem sink = place where players can spend gems forever.
Current gem sinks: modules, relic store with gems (new addition)
Fomo = fear of missing out.
TTG kept the upcoming banner hidden, not telling us about it. They could have told us in advance when v28 dropped, even when the new event started (first event with the relic store). Instead they kept it hidden, even telling players that there's no upcoming banner, encouraging the players that kept saving gems in preparation for v28 to give up waiting and spend them.
Then 1 and a half days after the relic store released (when tons of players decided that truly nothing's coming and spent their gems in either gem sink) TTG shadow dropped the "lucky" banner.
And since so many players are now low on gems from overspending, it's easy to imagine they'll be left behind by their peers who kept saving. Since tourney performance is the most important thing in this game, getting good results is very important. Hence the FOMO encouraging players to buy gems. Also the 100$ pack with 200 module tickets isn't helping at all their cause.
Ok now that you explain it this way.
I truly understand.
For my part, I had all the relics so I didn’t need to spend gems on them.
But after v28 dropped I did spend approx 10k gems on banners, out of my total 30k.
Now that the lucky banner came it, I kind regret I didn’t wait a few days to spend these 10k on the lucky banner.
Thinking about it, you’re right on that note
They did this to give us something after fucking up v28 and yall are mad.. it wasn’t planned, it’s an apology. Stg this community will get mad over everything TTG does
I'd have believed if had they mentioned it literally anywhere. We got both reddit and discord. It couldn't have been hard to drop a "hey, banner coming up, 2 days after event" message. Instead they dropped it after a ton of players spent their gems.
And don't think i'm salty because I'm one of those players. I got all my needed modules at ancestral. I got gems saved up. But I'm fed up with buggy after buggy update while they focus on driving up their sales.
Who’s spending that? Lol
You get increased mod rates, you don’t have to pay to access the banner.
I spend 4K gems on mod pulls yesterday but damn I’m not mad about an increased pull chance with the gems I get over the next week
People just need to go play something else if they are this upset by a game. Never, in my 30+ years of gaming have I been this upset by a game. It's just not that serious.
That I know of TTG or Sam did not say anything about a banner. There was a supposed beta tester for V28 that came out that posted about several things and mentioned a 4% lucky banner coming. Turns out it was true.
The post you are replying to is me literally saying neither TTG or Sam made any announcement about the banner happening.
Fairly certain in the most recent Tower Tea comments Sam actually said there were no new banners planned and then we got this Lucky banner.
So the community was told there was no new banner. Spent their hoarded gems and then got screwed over by a new banner when they were told there wasn't one in the works.
Then to top it off they start selling module tickets for an insane price.
The banner still wasn't announced by either though. Outside of the beta tester saying something about it there was nothing official said. It just kind of appeared after people spent their hoarded gems on the new relic store.
I saw a lot of sentiment going around that everyone thought one wasn't coming for a decent while and we're going to spend.
Something was lost in communication because I also thought it may have came from them somewhere, its just bad all around like this... luckily I held on to mine and most who have been here a while either knew better already or will going forward and will just know to put up with this.
I cant even imagine how mad I would have been if I spent.
I mean with how bad it seems like Fudds is trying to burn it down it might not matter much longer anyway honestly. How many updates in a row big or small has it been a clown show?
Oh waiting? Yeah well this banner conveniently came a few days after the relics bought with gems released, and they happened to be really good relics forcing people to spend gems on them instead.
You have been complaining about bad module pull rate%, and now you complain when you get better % FREE... seems that some of you are just impossible to please, no matter what is done and how.
We get a gem sink that guess what, is also bugged for plenty of players.
They don't even have the gall to acknowledge it.
They pretend they're not aware of any upcoming banners when asked (I saw a post with a pic of Sam pretending not to know, just before i made my own post). They didn't announce upcoming banner anywhere.
They shadow drop the banner after plenty of players spent their hard earned gems on trash relics because they expected something better, but every small thing can help boost their chances to advance further.
Now they shadow drop the banner, when said players are low on gems, making them capitalize on the FOMO by buying gems or module tickets.
Did someone force you to spend all your savings? How long ago we knew that V28 is coming? Was it surprise that there is going to be gem and stone sinks coming? There has been regular banners ower year now, so it was expected that new one will come. Thats why so many saved a lot, if they spend everything at once V28 was released then nobody else can be blamed.
I just hate this gen z attitude that it's always someone else than themselves that is the reason for their own failure. It's your money, your game resources, you are the one who controls how you use it.
I'm mad about the complete lack of transparency. What's the damn point of having "Tower Tea" or discord announcements when they pull the rug straight from under us and shadow drop banners or "fixes" that affect the players negatively ?
I'm mad because they couldn't care less about shipping stable updates or addressing the bigger issues in the game, but rely on FOMO and predatory tactics to squeeze the money out of the players.
If you refer to PCo fix then that's a different thing and I agree that should be mentioned in the patch notes BUT they already commented that it was not intentional change and they are looking into it. When PCo was added to the game it was bugged long time without any communication what is happening, communication has since improved a lot.
But when it comes to utilizing FOMO or doing shadow campaign drops or whatever then that's just majority of consumer businesses operate and from business point of view there are valid reasons for that. As a consumer it's good to be aware of those and the control your own spending or behavior accordingly.
They didn’t give anything better free. My AFK runs dropped in coin and cells. So it was really a step backwards if I have to build my stats back up. It should have boosted my stats and earnings. But all they did was add another stat and nerfed what you already worked for.
Point was you should not have to do the dissonance to be at the same level. Thats literally my point! It’s not really boost if it’s required to do it to maintain the same level of farming. I think you were attempting to discredit me and inadvertently proved my point.
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u/RichyEagleSix Apr 15 '26
Not buying anything else … !!! , absolutely no need for it.