Tired of having my time wasted as a player of this game

We have put up with missing content release after release, and whether intentional or not, been lied to about that content and its status. This is Extremely toxic to your player base, and the continuation of this for four releases in a row is, regardless of team size etc., inexcusable. Its past time for a new system to verify this content in game Before release, and if what is in the Release Notes is Not actually in game then it needs to be communicated as soon as possible, not this continued veil of doubt building to regret and annoyance going on to date.

Int food? @DarkStarr literally Just said on the livestream that's been added, but its not. Even the release notes detail the addition, buts its not been... Again, doubt its intentional, but lies.

 

It is frustrating release after release to log on excitedly and try to get the new content specified in the notes. After a few hours you start to wonder is your luck with the drops just that bad or is it broken? Are the bears really in and nobody has found them? The creepy dolls? The dungeon rooms twice now? First thing I did this release was log on and dig in my food bag for the baked salmon/trout/sautéed bass. No int. I made new ones. No int. I fished new fish and made FRESH ones, no int. I even ate one of each just in case it was just the tooltip that was broke.

I appreciate sometimes there's not time to get in all the planned features, but if it doesn't get in, don't put it in the notes!

The low drop rate stuff isn't something players can easily verify on QA. Its unlikely someone will spend 17 hours farming a rare drop (that's how long it took me to get a doll, once they were added for reals...wont even talk about how much time I spent when they weren't even in). I suggest bumping the drop rates considerably on QA if you want players to be able to verify this stuff or else someone who -can- verify it should do so. This is really deflating on release day.

*burns non-int-giving salmon into a crisp*

 

Last release I spent 20+ hours farming Hilt for the dungeon recipe drops until I finally raised it as a bug and was told it was working as intended because they were dropping. I then spent several days fighting with the API, asking on discord and on the forum who got those drops and if they were on the quest instance (they all were). I finally got it acknowledge as a bug, and told it would be fixed in next release (R59). I've now spent another 20+ hours since release went live farming hilt and got nothing. This is fine, I don't mind it being rare and hard to get. But to then be told that its currently bugged and not dropping at all?.

Same thing with the creepy dolls when they were added, then removed without telling the players. We spent hours looking for them and they were delayed until next release
Same with the bears.

What's worse is watching the live stream to find out that new dungeon rooms are being worked on which was immediately followed by all the bugs and problems with the loot tables so the ones that ARE ready people can't get.

Its getting to the point where I almost dread release days because half the stuff that is in the release notes is not actually available.

Can I suggest that you guys spend at least one release just on bug fixes rather than big sweeping changes that feel rushed and don't fully work?

 

I get that content is being added over some patches this release, and I guess I am ok with that because I understand resource constraints and priorities, but I will echo Scoffer's sentiment, I do not mind drops being rare, but I really would like to know if something is in the game before I spend hours farming a location.

The last release I have sunk pretty heavily into the hilt, and have already this release. I am fairly certain something is up there with the drops, or at least I am second guessing things...

The drops may have been working, but after a couple of patches since release maybe the drops aren't working anymore.... I have cleared that dungeon well over 25 times today, and yesterday before I heard the lich was dropping the dungeon parts, I had about 5+ hrs grinding kobolds..

So please forgive me if I am a tad frustrated.

That said, kudos, for potentially making something we want so bad to put that kind of time in, but we really need a way of actually knowing that getting a drop is possible.....

 

It really does feel they're trying to do too many things at the cost of quality. Every release livestream Darkstarr keeps saying how much stuff they did with such small team... and this is the result

Quality > Quantity

 

So, most of what they did this release was fix bugs. Are you saying that they shouldn't do so much of that?

 

A great many people have said this often, monthly content releases are a really bad idea, especially with such a small team and complex game. It dilutes and delays content, results in half finished systems and a lack of time to test creates tons of bugs that they just don't seem ever to get on top of.

Port may feel that they have to do monthly releases to justify and encourage viewings of the monthly livestream moneythons, but I think they underestimate their audience. A quarterly content release cycle would ensure robust, polished and completed content and they could tease, demo, discuss progress during the monthly shows. They could propose optional system enhancements and have a funding drive for those, to be released next quarter or quarter after that.

Better, more impressive and polished content releases may even increase the livestream viewing numbers and increase revenue from a hungry and excited player base anticipating next release.

In the off months, as well as working in the next content release, they can fix bugs and polish.

 

I agree a 100%, I would much more prefer quarterly releases with finished and polished work then the monthly half baked integrated features that have been programmed in a rush.
You can still do weekly telethons and update us about the features and fixes that are being worked on, we will still be interested in the work. Just give us the finished work nice/working and polished.

An example of the hitching "bug" we have stated about the QA not having it for months. Now they found out a debugging call in the release client that was not in the QA. Really? It took 5 months to find the missing key, we stated this for months...
Please double check the release client, and DISABLE any damn debugging calls.
If you want to DEBUG stuff put it in the QA. Everyone knows debugging slows down your binaries big time. It is ridiculous really.

If we would make such a bad mistake at work in our developer team, the person responsible for that would have been fired straight away. As we would lose a lot of money.
Dont get me wrong I am very happy you guys finally found it, but I face palmed my desk a few times when hearing that..

I am guessing the team just needs a bit of structure and work together a little more.

 

They may have the structure and comms, on paper and they are clearly a very talented team. But just from that example (5 months to find their own legacy debug call in live which caused all or most of the hitching!?) they are in Free fall, chasing their tails, meltdown, whatever you want to call it.

No amount of team restructurung, robust comms and project management will prevent this if the resources versus the workload and timescales are totally out of whack.

This is down to Starr to look into and I expect the monthly releases are baked into their revenue model, but sitting in my comfy chair this is an easy call, the current model is breaking the game, pissing off the customers and leading to a backlog of bugs, broken and unfinished content that is simply... Not... Sustainable.

And whilst I'm on a rant, I'll say what I've been thinking for years. There is a discomforting sense of anarchy and chaos around this team. You see it in the livestreams and in some of the unfathomable system and gameplay decisions they make on the fly, and so many last minute knee jerk changes that create further problems whereas a well thought out elegant solution would carry us forward. I'm sure these much storied veteran Devs are enjoying the sense of freedom as compared to other corporate development teams they have been in and think of it more as a bohemian, creative cooperative. But the proof is in the pudding, we get what we get and have discussed above and it's disrespectful to their customers. Frankly sometimes I feel I'm being chuckled at when a list of content is published, only to find some is not there or is broken and later to find 'oh, my bad, well add it or fix it over the next... whatever. You'll stick around for it anyway and keep reaching into your pockets.

 

I never start farming anything the first day. Anyone who has played this game more than 4 months should already know that waiting until the last patch of the release is the best time to start doing the content. Yeah it's a pain in the ass, but it's not like it's unexpected at this point.

 

I like the monthly Releases, I just don't immediately go chase after the new stuff as I know for the most parts adjustments will/have been made during each release and improvements to follow. I never put myself in a position to be frustrated by a game. I adapt, I adjust and enjoy it more when things come together. All IMO.

 

The issue with this though is that those improvements and patches just after release is when most of us find those bugs. If we all waited nothing would be found and fixed.

 

And in knowing that it usually works this way, folks still come on to rage. Stand by my statement.

 

This is why I generally don't bother with something that just got released, be it content in this game or a hot new (completely different) game. New content/game inevitably means lots of bugs, so I'll just wait for others to test it out before I try it. Quite a time saver.

 

Taming buffs on gear! NEEDED for 2+ years!

 

So since the frustration comes from info released before its playtested, and playtesting itself being the source of the frustration, it might be a good idea to pick a few volunteers willing to playtest the specific content on QA before the content is made public at all.

Or wildly amp up drop rates on QA to ensure things are on loot tables, if yhis has only been an issue with loot

 

Much storied veteran devs?

Let's see...

They do away with an extremely popular, time-tested inventory system (the "bag") because they "ran a metric" to show no one uses it, when the reason no one used it was because they screwed it up in the first place.

They hire someone to perform a "media blitz" that never happened correctly because the company they hired targeted a demographic that is about as diametrically opposed to the one that plays this game as can possibly be envisioned.

Release after release, they go live with features that aren't even really tested, leading them to insist that "everything is fine" when a slightly more in-depth investigation would eventually lead to the discovery that no, it isn't.

It took them 6 months (AFTER launch... this isn't including the time spent before) to find the hitching problem, most of the while citing the smooth functioning of the QA server as proof the "Everything is Fine(tm)" and saying it must be the system the players were using, when people had been bringing it up (most of whom are running SotA on systems that far outmatch even the recommended system configuration) as a problem for at least that long before "launch"

They have individuals on the team who seem to have no concept of what a team lead is responsible for... as evidenced by the constant claims of "I didn't do that"

A multitude of points during development where they not only went back on promises made, but blatantly re-wrote pledge descriptions to coincide with the new "direction" they were taking said promises.

These are but a tiny selection of the fairly large variety of blunders along the way.


Much-storied? Definitely.

Veteran? Well, in the barest definition of the word, yes. But keep in mind, one can have been involved in many, many encounters in any arena, and still be completely clueless on what it really takes to be successful in that endeavor.

Don't get me wrong here, I personally consider it a massive achievement for a team of 20-30 individuals to have built even the staggering skeleton of a MMO... and they deserve an incredible amount of recognition and praise for this achievement.

Unfortunately, they over-promised, under-delivered, and bit off way more than they could chew with 20-30 people, much less 10-15.

 

It’s a big problem when errors and bugs are allowed to exist in release after release.

However I don’t mind as much if new systems, quests etc have some issues when they are first introduced. We can choose if we want to experience new content right away, or wait a while for eventual fixes.

Those who want to be among the first are doing the game a service by testing, but if you are not interested in that then just leave it to others.

 

Spot on

 

This is a fact of software development. In any large system, trivial bugs can be very good at hiding, especially when source code formatting misleads you. Though I wish that when they have a nerf patch for something months old, at least don't release the patch on Friday or Saturday, on the chance it is broken and might mess up everyone's weekend.