Ok,before anybody says anything about the search feature,I looked and I couldn’t find anything on the next update. So just a few simple questions…
1.When is the estimated time of the next update?
2.What will be in the next update?
3.What are you guys currently working on the hardness?( with most importance)
5.Is there any way to see a little preview (in-game) of what’s to come,more often?
That’s about it,I’m just a little bored with the game right now,and while I know it’s Pre-alpha,there’s only so much explosive essence and raw meet I can pillage. So @Ben and all other developers,please answer my questions.
No @Havok40k,I don’t NEED a update,I’m pretty sure most people would know this despite the title of the topic…(He says as it should be obvious) but like @Heurazio said,I think we’d all want one.
Well,yes Ik it was a joke, unfortunately I’m not looking for jokes right now, I want news about the game. And yes we all know it will be OK, it’s not like we think the game has stopped developing altogether, we’re just curious about the current progress of it. Is that so wrong?
If you are joking you should start use “emoticons” or at least give us a “hint” you don’t mean it like you said it
maybe i don’t get your point but you ALWAYS defend everything the @devs do and i need to ask you the question why ?
let’s face the bitter truth …
no updates for 4 months
slowing update cycles over the past year (update cycles should increase, not decrease over time)
total lack of communication
a lot of open/uncomplete QA questions in the question appeal started 3 1/2 months ago.
dying community (fewer posts / topics from week to week)
actually i wanted to wait till the update (that will released this week or at least till the end of the week) before i start questioning the @devs again (we all know i always was for a more transparent communication style) but because you open the “keep calm, it’s done when it’s done” jar again i need to say that IMO this game is on the best way to fall into oblivion (as i said … the bitter truth). i can’t recommend this game to anyone out there at the moment (although I defend it still regularly in the steam review section).
the lack of communication about fundamental game design decisions (i don’t talk about the artwork, i talk about the gameplay mechanics, end-game content and so on) is intolerable for an EA game that said “we want to include the players”. i don’t have the feeling the @devs care about our opinions, worries and fears.
let’s make a small example … we had 1st april a few days ago. an other EA game that i have (the universims) released a super funny april 1st update prank. i know this is little but that are signes that show me a game is still “vital and living”. releasing every 2 weeks some small concept arts (only art and nothing that really “works”) is not a sign of vitality. i like to see things moving and don’t like to hear promises and artworks from photoshop!!!
if you develop a piece of software in corporation with a use-base regular updates + test + acceptance test are a key criteria for success and that’s on of the things that is totally missing here. If you like i quote you the corresponding sections from my university lecturer in project management if you don’t believe in my words.
that’s a completely understandable point and i think (as i said before) it would be good decision for the @devs if they start to communicate ideas instead of hiding them. a lot of other EA games (some of the best) released informations, updates, screenshots on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and even if the community don’t liked everything they saw the @devs got a fast feedback to adjust their development plan and their sprint goals. TBH i’ve totally no idea what we get when this games reaches a final state … from the last “leaked” informations it’s far from what i bought 16 months ago.
How dare you!!
You come to me,tell me I can’t ask questions!!
I should just…
I should…
I’m…
Just kidding,sorry for the overreaction,I just really like this game,and I haven’t really seen anything new and exciting added to the game lately,and I just want some new news.
OK, because this has gotten way out of hand, I’ll compile all of the answers for those who couldn’t find them for themselves. Most of these questions have been answered in the last 3-7 days! If these aren’t in depth or “fresh” enough for you, that’s too bad. Maybe we get an update after this, maybe we don’t. Seriously, if your so hungry for information, eat a dictionary. Or… wait a little longer?
WHEN: [quote=“michaelb, post:31, topic:4109”]
most likely next week unless there is a hitch.
[/quote]
WHAT WILL IT INCLUDE:
WHAT IT MIGHT INCLUDE:
Some of you may be asking why I always defend the Devs on stuff like updates and “transparency”… Well, the answer is mostly because 1) the answer to “when” will always be “when it’s ready”. Why? because if you think lack of timely updates is bad for a community, you should see what happens when a producer puts out unfinished and game breaking updates. 2) all of the transparency you need can be found by reading these forums, following the twitter or just asking questions. If your question is not answered, then the implied answer is either “we don’t have a satisfactory answer yet” or “we’re not ready to reveal that yet”. But in the end, their priority is developing the game, not answering the public’s every whim. These things don’t happen without a considerable amount of time and effort put into it.
Furthermore, this game is entering new and unexplored frontiers of gaming, essentially developing the technology and mechanics on the fly. Doing that well is going to take a lot of trial, error, and time. When they drop a spoiler and then weeks later decide to not go that route, you guys with out fail get outraged. Then you wonder why the relative silence? I just don’t get it.
Put your pitchforks away, There are better things to riot over than this.
This is likely why they stopped leaking things… In development, the game evolves and changes. That’s game development. It’s a risk of early backing. If that risk is too great, you should greatly reconsider future early backing offers.
It’s not that I’m trying to rush the development of the game, or that I’m not OK with the very little information I’m fining,just that I can’t find it. I just figure that if I couldn’t find the information, why not bring the information to me with a new topic. But it hasn’t gotten out of hand, you’ve answered all my questions successfully, and that’s all I asked for. So I thank you.
Full rewrites are one of the exceptions to that rule; you go for a long time without anything that’s even remotely usable. So, the lack of game updates for the duration of this C++ rewrite does make sense.
However, it doesn’t mean that the update pace was great before that point; and I certainly hope they come more frequently after it.
That is one more reason to share informations (can’t you see that?). They develop a complete new game and they have totally no idea if the player-base will like it. If everything fails and if the concept won’t be accepted the complete work is lost. you don’t bring a new sausage on the market if you don’t know if the consumers like it or not (acceptance tests).
that’s non sufficient information … there need to be “timelines” or “roadmaps” internally. nearly every software company i know are working with agile project management techniques and therefore there need to be a backlog with defined work tasks and informations about the project progression.
if you think the actual strategy does not harm the game you should really read some of the negative reviews in steam.
never experienced an outrage if the concept was dropped because of good reasons. why should someone have problems with changes if there are reasons for changes ? i don’t know why you think everything is written in stone. even the drop of the tier system or the “unconventional” armor system the @devs released was accepted by the large part of the player-base.
both cases are equally bad at the current stage of development and if they like to release the game this year.
that’s the wrong direction for early-access. this is game development if you are Ubisoft or EA and don’t give a ■■■■ about your players.
i need to say that B< was promising in the beginning and if they had been acting like in the beginning I never said anything. but if i compare to other EA games i’ve played or i’m playing (Banished, Kerbal Space Program, The Universim) they are doing a better job with a lot more informations. The thing i liked to say with my statement is, that the things changed a lot and i’m not sure how things come out at the end because there are a lot of assumptions made by players but only few from statements from the @devs. i still like the direction it’s going but it has changed a lot and that is something noone can deny.
We (@Havok40k) are (again) on a dead point (as so many times before) … we both have totally different ways of thinking how software development in a modern, agile and user-centered way should be done. doubt should be expressed because people don’t tend to give a game a second chance when they think it’s dead.
you are totally right and that’s why i said i wanted to wait till the release before i start questening again.
i’m only question now because i’ve the feeling @Havok40k retried to lay a coat of silence about obvious problems (i hate furtiveness and sweep problems under the table [don’t know whether this metaphor is applicable to English or not]).
Like its already been said: The devs already dropped some concepts (tiered worlds, cosmetic wearables) and there was no outrage whatsoever (well maybe some outrage about the content of the change but definitely not about the change itself)
I also have to say that I think that the devs are doing rather poorly in making an ea game (not saying that they are doing poorly in making a game though) in comparison to other titles I’ve been following.
They share very little information and the shared information seems pretty vague.
And I know that the current lack of updates is caused by the c++ port, something like that happens frequently in ea games but usually the devs share a lot of concepts etc. During this time, while we only got some pretty artworks and some vague answers in the past 4(!) months (2+ years of development and no piece of information about combat & progression, something a lot of players will spend lot of time with)
I’m a bit late to the party - sorry I was sleeping!
For the question of what will be in the next update…
and…
So, hopefully we will see something this week - although I’m happy for it to be later if it means it’s more polished. It may also seem like it has taken a couple of steps back with content at the release (judging from the first quote from Michael), but that will only be so they can release a working version to the community more quickly.
With regards to minimal communication between the community and the devs lately, I think we need to remember - They’re not EA, they’re not a massive corporate machine with multiple development teams. They don’t have a separate team of people to handle marketing and communication channels.
I like many of you am always chomping at the proverbial bit for more information, and yes, more transparency would definitely be nice, but at what cost… take out possibly half a day per week for one person to collate information throughout the team and then communicate that information to the community, and you delay what that person should be working on. With a small team, it’s a fine line unfortunately, and at such a critical juncture of development, when they’re essentially rewriting the entire codebase, you need to ask yourself… Do I want to play it this week, or would I prefer to know details about what was worked on this week (which in all honesty may only be “I rewrote this bit and fixed a couple of bugs”) and play it in 2-3 weeks time?
I’m the same as everyone on here asking these same questions … I want to play the new C++ version already, and at the same time, I want as much information as I can possibly take on what will be in it… and what’s coming next (and when), but for me personally, I would prefer they kept their collective heads down and finished completing the port to C++ earlier so we can get back to playing, exploring, making youtube videos and shouting about how good we all know this game is!
there is no difference between “need” and “want” for me at the moment 
