Game is missing major features - working on add ons instead? What is going on?

Ok, point taken, let me rephrase that, I would like to see the priority and focus be put on completing the features that were originally promised first, then the extras afterwards. I feel like all the add-ons keep adding on to the delay of bringing some of the things we were originally promised to fruition, with the random item placement being a good example. It is very hard to get excited about some things, when the things that originally excited us are now moved from intended features, to definite 'maybe's at some time in the future.

 

I am not sure how to phrase this because my point keeps getting lost. NO feature (code) is being delayed because of add-ons (content). It is DIFFERENT employees with DIFFERENT skill sets. Your perception that there is a cause and effect there is FALSE and only serves to get people riled up.

 

I'm not trying to 'rile' anyone up, so please tell me, how 'should' we voice our frustration over finding out that this feature will not be available? This is a big deal to lots of people. Or should we just shut up and go away?

 

No one told you to shut up. Sorry if you got that impression.

 

Can't the add in store have things that would put $ towards the development of core features and this separate team? I was under the assumption as well, and apparently wrongly so, that an 'add-on' store buy (I bought a plot, some houses, basement, cats, etc.) would go to the general slush fund of the project and help it reach fruition.

 

Your patience, sir, is amazing.

 

I don't understand your point. All pledges and add on dollars go to fund the project. Those funds pay the salaries of employees. There are no separate teams. We only have one very small team of about 25 people. Some of those people are artists and they can make content (like a house). Some of those people are programmers and they can make features (like item drop).

 

Yeah, all those are nice-to-have features that can be added after the first iteration. That's where player feedback comes into play. If we're not happy with the first iteration of fishing, I'm sure many of us will post about it. But I'm sure we'll get more iterations of fishing, enhancing its feature set, making it deeper / more fun. Whether they plan those enhancements during pre-Alpha or after Alpha, or if at all, remains to be seen.

 

Well Dang, Starr, combat is a mess, pvp is basically non-existent, we never got the pvp post Chris promised was coming last week, we don't have interactive item placement coming any time soon. I'm not trying to be a problem, but it is very, very hard to continue to 'have faith' sometimes when information like this is verified.

It's sorta like if we got nice tangible items for pledging and then 6 months later were told, 'well, we would 'like' to still honor that promise, but, you know, postage costs, logistics, etc., but we are still 'planning' on delivering them at some point, but in the meantime, thanks to backer's interests, we are adding some more great tangible items that you can get.

It's enough to make grownups cry.

 

That makes sense. The add-on store, by outward appearances, appears to be the case of the tail wagging dog. It's hard to tell if the sales from it drive the creation of additional add-on 'items' (thus appearing to divert internal resources for cash, from an outsider perspective who is unknowing of the programmer split you mentioned) or the add on items create additional funds to create features (the hope). The frustration of some of the earlier non-programming background backers, like my self, are experiencing is the seeing new huge add ons for sale but core features we crave get the dismissive and 'down the road' hand.

Crafting, a centerpiece, appears to us to be created first with the world built around it. Essentially making it a core feature that other aspects of the game have to navigate around, excellent. Some of the other equally important features (IMHO) that are at the same level of housing, like item drop, are looking to be implemented in an opposite fashion. Which with every release and it's lack of focus gets me (and I'm sure others) more and more afraid of it's eventual demise.

 

I'm sorry we have made you cry. We certainly did not intend to. I am very sorry if the features you feel are important have not been delivered and addressed in the timeliness you desire.

It is worth pointing out that we have consistently delivered new features and new content every single month for almost 2 years. The order of those features changes constantly. That is how development works, you guys are just getting to see it for the first time.

 

It's not about the features 'I' feel are important, it's about the features 'you' & 'Richard' indicated would be included. But that's fine Starr, i'm done beating my head against the wall trying to point out the obvious. I will 'accept' the demise of these features (like I have a choice) and move on.

 

DLMB

 

Welcome back Smitty and what a stir you are causing. Darkstarr did not say demise at all, Not you specifically but whoever, You and others are reading into it, just not now. I am for item placement, but I do understand why it cannot be implemented now.

If you check out R20 you will see the first item is a note. you can also place some food on tables. You can get a blank note and place it on your property or someone elses if you have permissions. It is very cool. If you see me in game I will give you some blank notes to have fun with.

Regarding add on store it has nothing to do with stopping the development of this game as mentioned, and only increases the likelyhood of development of this game . It also included in that it affords paying and hiring of more developers. I want more add-on items since I want more game. If you look at it like that perhaps you will say yaaay like I do each time an item is added. This is a 'crowdfunded' game and necessary.

We just got 3 new hires and one more at least coming next month per the latest hangout. Darkstar mentioned in the hangout that we should start seeing more things implemented due to this. Check out the R20 hangout around 4.00 ish where they are talking about all of this. Patience please and again this is a crowdfunded game so add on store things are necessary. The add on store will continue. I have never wanted this game to be a game that was skimped on or featureless, so hang in there. We are at the best time in the game so far, right on the edge of so much to come. It is not doom and gloom. My advive if you want is watch the next couple of releases and get blown away well or not, but I am looking forward to seeing all the hard work of the team and new team members as we go forward.
edited

 

For the record discussions about item drop were AFTER the kickstarter and what we said about items dropped anywhere is that Richard really wanted it but Chris and I felt it had a lot of issues connected. Richard is the dreamer where Chris and I are the guys who get the tough job on how to make practical implementations of those dreams. Despite our concerns we still wanted to experiment with it and we are STILL committed to that, just not now. We have NEVER said this was off the table.

 

Fair enough,

Any word on getting the pvp update from Chris?

Despite my obvious frustration, thank you, for taking the time to post in this thread. I know you have tough job, making Richard's vision come to life, just tell me that you haven't given up on combat and pvp.

 

Darkstarr, thanks for clarifying. That was the exact timetable.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for coming on here and answering our questions. We aren't trying to cause a fuss or piss anyone off, but for the majority of us this is the first game a lot of us have been really looking forward to in a long time. And this feature (among others) is what some of us feel sets it apart from (IMO) bad online games.

If there is a way we could be constructive ( say start a drive for a specific feature if the community wants it ), please let us know!

 

Can we talk specifically then about performance with multiple items in a scene at some point?

1. @Chris said there were optimizations that needed to be made on loading/unloading in the first place. For example, the game was unloading everything from the previous scene, even if some items were still needed for the next scene. Has this been fixed?
2. I've heard that part of the poor performance is that scenes have no LOD data. I get that scenes are still changing, but why not bake in some LOD data since most scenes don't change from release to release? Doesn't it only take hours to generate all this once? If it changes for one scene down the road, you update that LOD data then.
3. I've heard we're getting massive performance issues with tons of items because there is no collision data pre-baked and the game is figuring that out on the fly. Again, why is this not being determined ahead of time?
4. Unity 5 was supposed to bring massive optimizations with global illumination for games like SotA specifically where the lighting is not pre-baked, but rather you have a lot of dynamic lights. Are we not using GI yet? Are we already seeing the final optimizations we're going to see from GI? If it hasn't helped enough yet, do we need to consider removing some of the dynamic lights and trying to use more static lights in scenes?

 

My 2 cents. Being able to drop stuff on the grounds added a lot to UO and I would love to see it implemented in this game.

I used to love coming across a battle scene where the fallen warrior's gear was strewn all about.

 

Just say it is a great feature, an important feature, and explain why. Say you are frustrated and disappointed.

But please don't start spreading false rumors that have nothing to do with the issue.

I have experienced the lag that happens when a scene containing many decorations load. The first time I entered the keep basement in PaxLair to admire the decor, I was surprised because it was empty. After wandering around a bit, things started to slowly appear around me. This was a very poor experience. Until the performance issues improve, it really wouldn't make sense to let avatars drop even more items that would exacerbate the issue. Worse lag would worsen immersion, not improve it.

I hope the performance issues are solved soon. In the meantime it would be nice to have more discussions around this feature. I personally am very interested in learning more about how this feature would work. What are the advantages and disadvantages? What kind of things would players want to drop and in what circumstances? Would they only exist in the instance they are dropped in? Would they have a decay timer or last forever until removed and destroyed? I never played UO, so I don't know how it worked there.

Cheers!