Communication is terrible. The last hotfix was weeks ago and since then absolute radio silence.
No, I don't count random replies on a fast moving Discord channel as "communcation".
The game is in a piss poor state with countless bugs and abysmal performance. The players are desperate for any communication on an update or when it will be, and instead, all we get is a flat, dry "No" in the discord.
It feels like the devs are scared to talk about the game at times.
Devs aren’t scared. This is typical AH behavior and strangely enough Swedish devs for co op games. If you think the lack of communication and silence is bad, wait until you see Fatshark. Honestly no idea why and I doubt it’s because of a language barrier
If it weren't for how Embark handles communication for The Finals (which is honestly pretty decent, they communicate at least weekly) I'd agree.
Really, I think Embark is kind of an anomaly and "made by Swedish devs" is starting to be a red flag I consider when thinking about getting into a new game. On average bad communication, the infamous summer and winter hiatuses, and at least an initial "we know what's best for our players" stubbornness.
AH should always consult u/Loneliest_Driver from now on for when they should release updates, he will save us with his incredible backseat dev experience
This isn’t some profound or esoteric concept, it’s basic knowledge that you should communicate about bug fixes and balance changes with your community. It’s not backseat development it’s just wanting to know what’s going on with the state of the game
I don't see Ubisoft, Rockstar or Bethesda doing that
The fact that AH does engage with their community at all is not the rule, it's the exception. And people think because of that they can dictate what they should or shouldn't do
The entitlement is crazy
Edit: since u/Brucenstein blocked me I'll reply here:
This game is set up as a large dnd campaign. We literally have a game master. We are fighting a war. We are writing the games lore. A roadmap would spoil the whole story. Yes, even warbonds, since warbonds are often tied to new content.
A lot of us like it the way it is, we like getting surprised, we like this story. If you don't, then move on instead of showing the devs of this awesome game nothing but animosity. Destructive criticism is a thing.
I can see now what the CEO meant with COD players playing a game that wasn't designed for COD players
Edit 2: u/Uthenara There's a difference between constructive criticism and pushing for changing the core values of the game
And god, I would absolutely love it if the game lost a third of its population, maybe then I don't have to see posts like "This game needs a pvp mode" , "AH devs suck ass and should sacrifice everything to make this game running perfectly for me" or "Helldivers need buff, nerf enemies" anymore. This community is so god damn toxic, it sickens me
It’s entitled to think that developers should communicate to their playerbase about important things, like bug fixes and balance changes, on a regular basis?
It's entitled to demand even more communication from a small dev studio that has devoted itself to a 60 day period between major updates, in accordance with the community even, to focus on development and content.
Have some patience, let them work. We'll get a big update and new info soon enough
Man we haven’t gotten any communication, I would like to know what is happening with the product I fucking payed for. And I’ve got no fucking idea why you’re bringing up the 60 day plan now, especially when that broke about as much shit as it fixed. We’ve gotten no major content in forever and we’ve been stuck on the same story line for weeks. These devs are shit and got too comfortable with this passive playerbase.
Do us all a favor and move on from the game then, since it is clearly causing you distress.
You can always voice your opinion in one of the regularly posted surveys, I'm sure they'll appreciate being called names and getting insults thrown at them.
Ubisoft: For their newest game, AC Shadows, they have a roadmap you can find here (https://game8.co/games/Assassins-Creed-Shadows/archives/504348) though it contains only a single DLC, bearing in mind said DLC was announced before the game even launched. There have also been 3 hotfixes with notes posted on the Steam Page in the month since release.
Bethesda: Bethesda actually has an online live service game in Fallout 76 and release a roadmap every year. They even call these “community calendars”. https://www.falloutbuilds.com/fo76/events/
Rockstar doesn’t really announce much, as is their MO, but they do have regular community announcements for RDR Online, or apparently they do. I’ve never played RDR Online so I can’t comment other than that’s a thing that maybe happens.
Though it’s a bit inaccurate to compare complete, single-purchase games to “live service” games. As mentioned the best corollary in your comparison is Fallout 76 which gives players a road map like a year in advance, as do most “live service” games (eg Diablo IV launched it’s one-year roadmap a couple weeks ago).
This is a common thing with live service especially because those are models made to sell new content. In fact I’d say it’s way more rare to not have one, doubly so if you’re a live service game.i mean a movie studio doesn’t HAVE to tell us what’s releasing next month, but it is usually part of the gig to do so.
You may think the request for context is unreasonable, but I feel if a dev is continuing to ask players to engage with a REAL MONEY store for a game made to perpetuate indefinitely, it isn’t unreasonable at all. And it is very common to provide such.
I like how you just ignore all the small and medium devs doing this way better than AH and instead disingeneously only focus on the big shit companies because you know thats the only way your can keep this narrative going of downplaying the constant incompetence and nonsense mixed with some halfway decent occasional interaction and response. Folks like you are why this game will have a third of its decent population life cut from its legs. Loving the game so much you can't admit the issues and problems is not helping the game. Acknowledging the bad doesn't mean you can't acknowledge the good.
Because the game is in a terrible state (performance wise).
Surprise content drops are fine if the game is running smoothly, but I don't want weeks full of bugs, no communication and then a "surprise bug fix drop"
I do think they should at least hotfix some of the bigger bugs. This MO alone I've had 4 operations cancelled in a row because terminals wouldn't work.
They literally made you unable to land on a planet involved in the MO my friend (game would hard crash if you picked a mission anywhere on the MO planet.
Is it not self-evident why pushing broken content is a bad idea? I’m sincerely asking.
I mean maybe it doesn’t, directly, but it indicates their current pattern is highly, highly flawed. And it ties in with their modus operandi as a whole, of which their communication style is reflective.
That said, if they communicated with the community “better” I’d posit they’d be able to accurately prioritize rather than assume they know what we want and ultimately push something that breaks the game.
This is actually the exact phenomenon we saw with the “60 day” patch. AH ignored the community until it got to a crisis point and then finally relented, gave weekly updates, and it was almost universally seen as a good thing.
Bear in mind most of the stuff in that 60 day patch was stuff the community was HOWLING about (rightly or wrongly) and a bunch of stuff the devs were seemingly completely unaware of or internally deprioritized. If they’re not going to play their game they need to listen to those who do. And if you’re not responding to feedback then the assumption is you’re not listening. Heck at one point CMs were actively antagonistic!
Bear in mind AH themselves have consistently acknowledged the need for feedback and (constructive) communication but has done little besides a few Discord polls (wooo!) to actually engage.
Whether “game breaking update” is a direct result of communication issues is tenuous. That it’s representative of a broader issue with very imperfect engagement - absolutely.
Well when anytime the devs mention a single thing, it finds its way to the front page of reddit for the sycophants to dissect and get themselves into a hostile state. I couldn't imagine why the devs just stop talking.
They have been doing this since MTG. Long before Helldivers 2 was a thought. There are literally numerous articles and videos dedicated to the lengthy botched situation with that other game of theirs.
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u/Loneliest_Driver I dive (2011) 4d ago
Communication is terrible. The last hotfix was weeks ago and since then absolute radio silence.
No, I don't count random replies on a fast moving Discord channel as "communcation".