2 week early access to skills as they are added to the game

I agree. I upgraded my backing based on specific things being offered. My example is a second character slot. I would be annoyed if I never got this second character and the explanation is "things changed."

 

Not to really sound like an ass.. but
Why is *Things Changed * fine for some features but not this?

Theres.. literally pages of forum posts over the last few years of different things being dropped, changed or completly replaced.
What makes one promise more *unchangeable* then others?

Personally, 2nd char slot could get changed and i wouldnt care lol. Itd be another feature or promise that only some people care about.

 

LMAO. Don't hold your breath, I certainly am not. I'd love to see it happen but just look at the list of dev+ features. Wouldn't this create an "unfair advantage"? Seems prime for retraction as well. Time will tell.

 

Ok... I agree that the two week early access should be in game for those who PAID for the option.. For those who see this as an "Entitlement" your right.. we paid hard earned cash for the entitlement to be able to have the two week early access. Am I one of these, yes I am with one account but not on the other account.

Q&A Servers should not be a part of the "2 week early access" because it does not stay with us over the long run.

Overall the game mechanics support capitalism and not socialism so you will have some of us who are "Entitled" to certain items as a benefit of our pledge level, those people who keep asking for their pledge rewards are well within their rights to do so.

BDF... I agree with you asking for items we were promised and hopefully they will start to appear, on the negative side... skin needs to get a little thicker

 

That is my point. I think when a certain feature is listed as a pledge it becomes more than just a plan by the game makers it becomes an agreement. People relied on your claim and then spent their money to receive it. Thus, I feel any specific feature promised in pledges should be delivered.

 

How would you grant this?

Are we going to be hard assed enough about it to insist on non-pledge backers not having access to the server for two weeks?
Implementing tech that will allow them to turn on new skills only for pledge backers?

And, as a follow up, do you really want them to take the time and development effort to implement it?

 

Yes. Sounds like that should work.

 

Sounds like a great idea.

 

I don't think the tech is that hard.

They had pledge level based property claiming that was used once for the land rush, just change the "property claim" part to "train new skill added at trainer" and voiala

 

While I agree with the accuracy, intent and integrity of this thread. I can only say that nobody is getting everything that was expected, and I truly believe those claims were made with honest intent. I am not going to suggest anything other than to say that life is less than perfect, pick your wars.

Basically, I have nothing to say, carry on. Sorry for the waste of bits.

 

I support you having a reward greater or equal to what is stated on the pledge, thanks for supporting the game early! Chop chop Portalarium a promise is a promise <3

 

Yes, I do expect them to make it happen. Their integrity is at stake. However, I highly doubt the solution will be to lock everyone out of the server for two weeks. That seems a little absurd. It should be pretty simple to have a subset of players who qualify for this and unlock the skills early based on that list.

 

There's no need to take the servers down. They just need to make the "new" skills unusable for 2 weeks for those that didn't pay into that pledge tier.

 

As much as I think it was a silly promise due to what it would take to implement, I should point out that all new skills are strictly gated by skill trainers. They could simply make the trainers unable to teach the skill for two weeks except for early backers.

But I think an alternate reward would be more sensible.

 

I have been wondering about this pledge reward lately also. At the time I upgraded my pledges and got this benefit added to my accounts, it was one of the benefits I was really looking forward to.

When your play time is limited compared to hardcore, non-working players who always are ahead of you... this was one reward that made me feel I would get a chance to get a jump start on at least some of them (who didn't have this reward) and help me keep up with those that have more time to play.

The only issue that I see though is that the reward description was sort of vague.

I am still hoping that at some point I will end up getting that pledge reward. However, now that we are persistent and now that the QA server is going to be available to everyone... not sure how they will be able to deliver it.

@DarkStarr - Could you please tell us the original intent of how this reward was to be delivered to us? Was it meant to mean having QA access to test the skills before others can? Or was it meant to give us access to the live versions before others were able to train them?

 

This sounds like one of those things that is better asked as a telethon/post mortem question than debated among players. This since players cannot provide answers only opinions, and since opinions will differ it can only incite disagreement, thus the whole topic should get closed and such a question/discussion should be put in the comments on the upcoming post-mortem:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=75252
That way we can get a proper and thought out response from the devs.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
re: entitlement

The term doesn't necessarily have to have a negative connotation.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entitlement
English is weird in that the only proper term it has for benefits provided from a purchase is also one which most people think is a negative word when the opposite is more common, for instance in contracts.

If you bought something you are entitled to that which you bought.

Thus I am entitled to the listed entitlements given in the pledges / bundles that I purchased.

Thus if someone says that we probably need to wait on my entitlement then I'd agree with them.

 

Yet another promise that never should have been made. This was a very, very bad idea to even suggest publicly, let alone bring to fruition. The fact that it's not implemented yet is probably for the best - but that doesn't mean it's OK. Someone backed your game in exchange for [whatever their contribution tier offered].

Not delivering promises made to those that supported your project when you needed it is not OK.

 

That's a fair point.

And looking at it objectively, I agree that the reward was ill conceived, would be difficult to balance, and isn't the best thing for the short or longer term health of the game.

What I'd like to see you guys do is create a laundry list of all the things that you're not going to deliver on, and provide some kind of compensating reward that you can deliver on that won't unbalance or hurt the game. To me that's the best way to make hard decisions without ignoring that a decision has to be made. Otherwise, things like this will linger and people will always be asking "where is that reward I paid for?"

Starr compared his job recently to being King Solomon and having to cut babies in half. I think you guys actually have the power to make new babies.

I'd like to see some form of closure on Kickstarter pledge rewards.

 

I give you guys a hard time, often. But I'll give credit when it's due - this is 100% the right answer to this problem.

It doesn't make it any better for people that, in one way or another, contributed funds to something that they will never receive, but life's very far from fair. As we both pointed out to one extent or another, implementing this in any form would be a catastrophe.

Good job.