HighBorn (iPhone/iPad)

Since there is some activity to get some multiplayer games going in the iPhone thread, I thought it would be easier if we had a dedicated thread. So, if you’re interested in multiplayer, please post your Facebook info. Here’s mine.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001175538962

It would also be helpful to discuss some strategy and game play so people can step right in and be competitive.

As a start for some tips, here is the official technical and gameplay FAQ from the developer.

http://jetsetgames.net/games/highborn/highborn-faq/

I picked it up last night to play on my iPad and it actually doesn’t scale too bad. I bet if they made an HD version it would look pretty sweet. I’m going to try and put some more time into it tonight.

I’m seriously considering dropping the bucks on this one (Bucks? Pounds? Pounds). Is it worth the cash, or something I’m going to stop playing after a short while? My last real strategy outing was Age of Empires.

Anyone having lock up issues on this game? Just had it happen several times in a row while playing the single player campaign.

I emailed the developers about it, here’s their response I got yesterday. I had mentioned my theory that it may have been related to me playing in an area of the house with spotty wifi/3G reception:

Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this problem and we apologize for the inconvenience. Right before we shipped the game Facebook made some changes to their site structure which was causing all sorts of issues. We actually turned off all the single-player Facebook postings because of it. I’m certainly not blaming Facebook, just trying to correlate the issues.

Facebook has addressed their bugs and we are turning the single player wall postings back on in today’s patch. If you can, please let me know if today’s patch fixes the problem you are seeing.

Also, if possible can you let me know if this problem persists if you are logged out of Facebook?

Thanks again for taking the time to help us improve Highborn, and our apologizes for the inconvenience

As of yesterday I hadn’t seen a patch in the iTunes store as of yet.

BTW- my lockups are different. The game just stops responding to me as I’m clicking around between units. It seems to be when I’m going to tap on “Hold Position” or a similar command.

No lockups here… just me losing to a crocwrangler and an actor.

So feel free to look me up on Facebook and challenge me for an easy win.
http://www.facebook.com/hanzii

I need some help. I’m on the third mission and, apparently, I quit the game while the computer was taking it’s turn. When I attempt to load the mission, it runs the computer’s turn and then hangs. I can’t access the pause menu (except during a battle, where I can only return to the game or the main menu) so I can’t access my checkpoint or restart the mission. Anyone have a suggestion? Anyone run into a similar issue?

Dammit. I was enjoying the game until this.

Aside from lockups (which are very annoying) and other bugs, how is the game? Fun? Easy to learn? etc.?

No problems here. I’ve played the first two maps, both of which were quite easy. I’d say that yes it’s fun if you like the off-beat humor. I wouldn’t call it hard to learn, no. They do a decent job explaining things as they go.

So for the four of you in games with me, I’m afraid I’m going to bail. :( For various reasons, this just isn’t working for me.

 -Tom

Bailing on games in progress because you’ve decided you don’t like the game? Are these marathon games or something? The decision to end the game should be made mutually. Otherwise gaming etiquette demands that you complete the games.

Or maybe I’m just out of touch.

The games are pretty short, but fair enough. For the two of you I’m playing against where the game’s aren’t effectively over already (Mike and Adam), let me know if you’re cool with me bailing.

-Tom

Ms. Meeples says no bailing :)

I’m with Tom. I really want to like this game, but the bugs and lack of documentation prevent it from shining. It’s a shame, because I really like the idea of the game and want to like it.

Facebook for multiplayer doesn’t help its cause.

Ouch. That just hurt my feelings.

I agree with Tom, I have issues with this game. I do not like the graphics. They look nice, but the isometric view and unit portraits make it difficult to tell what a unit is. And it makes it difficult to select a unit. A few times I moved the wrong unit, couple this with no undo button means you’re stuck with the move.

The system of moving and attacking is very cumbersome and unintuitive. A few times I would go to heal or attack something and my unit’s actions would be over. Again, no undo means I’m stuck.

I only played into the third mission, but it felt very limited and it seemed there was virtually no AI. I would march my bunch of units over to one or two enemies, destroy them and then move on to the next one or two units.

And I could not agree more that using Facebook for multiplayer was a huge mistake.

UniWar is the high water mark for TB strategy games on the iPhone, I’d even go as far to say on any platform, specifically for multiplayer. Any TBS game released on the iPhone will always be compared to it by the TBS crowd. I would hope that developers would take a close look at it to see how to develop a TBS game for the iPhone.

No lockups for me (perhaps it only happens when you’re winning…), but I do agree with everything else you guys say.
I’m on mission 5 in SP and there’s no AI to speak of. I lost a bunch of guys and am restarting the mission because winning would be a slog (but possible), not because I was outsmarted, but because I went the wrong way and like Krayz lost units because I moved the wrong dude instead of the guy standing next to him.

Not a very good game.
(hit me up in Carcasonne instead… or UW)

A patch was released yesterday. Most notable item is bug fixes. I have not tried it.