2 years and waiting

OK... I thought it time for my thoughts about my post. First thing is that I would like to say that everyone who has responded did so with good and open thoughts about the subject. I cannot judge what can be a good or bad thing said as it is your opinions. As for myself, I do feel that EP 1 should of been finished. I have looked at the Port Team and what they have done. They have accomplished one heck of a lot. The initial game path can become branched in many ways. The Kickstarter did its part. Money goal reached and is still growing. New items in the store keep the money flowing in. That is all good. I would think now would be the time to go back down the main path and resolve little detail items. Branching out into new things could be put on hold for in favor of completing area`s of work in progress that was started in the beginning.

 

Some might suggest that is a matter of perception.. of course in that regard it often means they could've done a better job of describing their vision. I never had any doubts that Shroud would include multiplayer and multiplayer means all the stuff we've been getting to make multiplayer work. Now an MMO seems to also be a matter of definition, such as multiple servers single instance world etc. A definition which Shroud does not meet. But people think MMO = Lots of players in the same world and that's good enough of a definition. Again with perception.

As far as I'm concerned.. we're getting every bit the game we were promised in KS.. we're just getting a lot more with it.

 

I predict we will go into post-pre-alpha real soon and then alpha next

 

A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.

- Shigeru Miyamoto

 

Well there's no arguing with Miyamoto-sensei.

 

Because there can be nothing between rushed and delayed.

 

Well this has been an entertaining thread.

I don't think there would be a single person following Shroud who hasn't said at least once "I really wish they would hurry up and release this damn game". I say it all the time...........similar to the way that I want everything that is good now rather than tomorrow.

I could kind of understand why some would vent in this thread if the development process was closed, no game to test and no real idea on what progress is being made..........in reality (for me anyway) this is the part where I get the most value for money.......the part that you don't normally get to see and as a group being able to influence certain elements of direction. Without this part we wouldn't have the cool world map (it would have stayed as the old version), we wouldn't have a skill based level system (it would have stayed as the global level system).

In truth I have no problem in the slightest that the game hasn't launched........it is us as a community who have asked for more and Portalarium have done exactly what they said they would do.......they listened to us in order to build the game that we wanted. To even suggest (like some have) that Portalarium haven't been professional because they missed their original target release date just comes across as a slap in the face.

It is very clear that the game is now being pushed towards launch and I would be surprised if we don't move to Alpha by the New Year.

As the saying goes 'patience is a virtue'............ Maybe some need to reflect on that.

 

Captain Jack cannot comment on this a lot because he wasn't around for the KS thing. However, could you point out some of these things for Captain Jack? What has the community asked for that Portalarium have put into the game for us. The key is, can you link the community's requests for content that was put in to actual KS goals for Captain Jack? Because if it wasn't on KS then it shouldn't go in until the next KS starts for E2, no?

 

Captain Jack I have given you two examples. There was always going to be a world map........as a community we didn't like the version that was created so it was re-done.......I expect the current version has had a lot more time spent on it than what the previous version would have. Likewise with the level system, it was changed because that was what was being asked for by many people in the forums.

Anything that has been built and us then changed/re-designed/re-built will always eat away at development time.

 

Captain Jack notes those changes and accepts them, but when you said "more" Captain Jack attributed that term to what others in this thread have alluded to and that is the addition of content requested by the community that does not fit into core system elements such as those.

 

I view kickstarter (certainly when it comes to a computer game) as stating a rough outline and not specifics. There are some who take it as absolute gospel and that 'rough outline' should be rigid. I'm sure if you sat down and did a compare and contrast of the kickstarter and the current game and direction you could probably argue a whole host of things that wernt 'technically' listed as specifics on the kickstarter.

It's all about interpretation and expectation.

 

POTs and Row lots, for example.

Stuff never meant to be in, but that players asked, and devs delivered, delaying the rest.

Remember, every time some freak wakes up and ask "I'd love to have dyeable hopping craftable flamingo pets", there's a (hopefully slim) chance that devs actually waste their time satisfying such requests, adding a $250 dyeable hopping flamingo pet (and a duller version craftable ingame) in the Add-On store, to be available ingame in the next release.

That's why I cringe so much every time someone, especially some "someones", keep asking absurd stuff that's completely out of the scope of this game - often coming from other totally unrelated games - and especially detrimental to the goal of releasing the title. Because, if they keep annoying the devs long enough, they will eventually cave in, and the flamingo will be released.

And then we will all have the release date pushed even further.

Remember this, when they next ask for a fancy dress, a game mechanic for them and their group of ten friends, or an entire new skill tree.

At times, I'd really wish that Richard and Chris and Starr ears were deafer to some particular sirens, and keep focusing on the very rich plate they still have to fill up... In another thread, I listed the towns/cities that I know are still missing, and reading it time and again, it makes me shiver.

 

Player Towns weren't always planned?

This does worry Captain Jack. One has to place the trust in the Devs in that they know which things are ok to add in out of the blue and which ones are not. But then Captain Jack concedes if they gave him 1,000 to rename his ship to the Ugly Boob... He just might have to get some paint...

 

No. They're a rather recent idea and addition.

And while I'm sure it added a lot of depth and excitement for a lot of people, the huge amount of work needed (and still ongoing) for them, inevitably delayed the rest.

So, if the focus of the thread is about time criticality and sensitiveness, this is one of the reasons. We may agree or disagree it was worth it, and my opinion on the matter is totally irrelevant, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_creep is indeed one HUGE risk for such an ambitious project as SotA is.

 

Truth, love, and courage are virtues in this game.
Can we not have love if we courageously speak the truth?
I have honestly said that I expected the estimated delivery date to be close to the actual delivery date.
I have honestly said that I am now just waiting.

 

Recent, they have only been going on about towns for a year now and everything else that goes with them... is a pretty broad brush! Captain Jack thought they were planned from the start, and he is now going to rig for silent running and hope to avoid any storm from discussing this further in here.

 

Here here! But Sir Frank, who said we could not?

 

Would not finger pointing be considered a personal attack, overly combative, and grounds for a ban, and possibly thread closure?

 

Ok, Captain Jack just rigged for silent maneuvers anyway... Forget he said anything.

 

Here is my take:

I skipped on KS because the pitch wasn't realistic. Not given that budget and that time frame. It was clear that they couldn't hold to either given the listed features etc.

Instead I followed the project on and off. For a year.
Then when they started with monthly (one weekend only) releases my interest peaked again. I checked out the time plan and funding again. Now it started to look more realistic.
So I made a minimum pledge, checked out the deliverables and said hmm they are on time every time and even if they delay some feature it's because they added some other feature. That message and the deliveries and stability of servers etc told me it was legit.
So I bought a POT to go with my adventurer tier pledge.

At the time I also looked on stretch goals and what they said about future episodes and surmised that it sounds like the game as planned seems to be aiming for E2 as when they get it where they want it to. While E1 sounds like a smaller/bare version of their vision. (Minimum viable product).


That was a year ago, releases continue to be on time every time.

And my initial prediction of game launch and scope seems about right.

So if you have been here since kickstarter buying in to the message back then I would have been frustrated to.

Although for me, since I joined late, I've not been disappointed with the production rate.

But had it been my project then I would have done so much differently. One of those being the communication part. Portalarium communicates a huge amount with us players, in so many forms and ways. But most of that communication that I see is on a person to person level and could be much better organized so as not to be as much of a repetitive waste of dev time.
Like they answer live questions in the hangout every month but they only update the FAQ sporadically about every 4-6 months and mostly that is when they "have to". What that means is that almost every hangout has about 10-20% old and already answered questions. Etc.

Then no clear message what they want us testers to focus on and what to skip. Making about a third of all reports either unresponded to or 'known issues'. (It's gotten much better though when they expanded the QA staff but still no direction). About another third of reports kinda irrelevant since it's a placeholder which will change. And only one third of reports with relevant info for them to adapt to.

So getting the community working for them more and making the expectations from the community more realistic would have made this even better.
But for deliveries and productivity levels I have no issues at all, rather the opposite, they get a huge amount of work done with the budget and number of people they are using. Much much more so than most projects of equal size.

Edit: just a small note on top. There is a big difference in the team after Starr Long joined. Much less feature creep.