Signs of life from the devs?

I don’t think anyone is discouraging people from giving their feedback. Its just that we (I at least) think when the devs hold back until they have something solid to present, this cuts the headaches that both sides have to endure.

I briefly spoke to a dev a few days ago and a lot of there time is spent on the farming update right now.

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That has come up many times in conversations but was not relevant to my point so I didn’t bring it up.

I don’t see how anything of what I said is “true” or “not true.” It was an opinion and each of ours will be based on what we talked with them about and how the conversation went.

I know of plenty of cases where there was a consideration to post in the forum but the decision was not to because of the likely response it would get. I know of cases where that did not matter and they wanted that feedback so they posted. There are obviously a variety of reasons why they have the communication and post schedule they do.

Additionally, anyone that has been in this forum long enough should clearly see they type of response many Dev posts do get and it is not unrealistic to believe they might not always want to post on certain topics because of the responses it might get especially if they would get no value from it.

No I do not think people should stop providing feedback to the developers or posting viewpoints. This is true whether the developers talk to us or not. We need to share the viewpoint we have on what the game should be in our eyes. I know this is important because they do read these forums even if they don’t post often.

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I do want to clarify that I do not think the community response is the primarily or even main reason we hear infrequently from the developers. I just feel that it does affect things and can adjust how they might communicate and is one reason in a long list of reasons.

Overall, though, I feel it is likely time and resources that affect communication most. They probably want it better as well just can’t manage it right now, unless they just prefer a communication model like they currently have.

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I would agree. I think when they lost Steggs, they lost the person on the team with enough time to maintain a constant communication stream. To the best of my knowledge they have not hired a replacement. I think they are focused on development and not on communicating right now.

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I think people tend to forget this is an idie game with a small team. In what other MMO does the owner/founder/ceo/etc comment on the forums?

I think it’s awesome that they do comment sometimes, but I don’t think any of us should expect constant communication. They don’t seem to have a paid community manager yet - maybe that will happen after a big launch/promotion in the future. They gave us an idea of what’s coming up next & it seems they are working on it.

It would be awesome if they had the time to do a quick 20-30 minute stream once every friday or so to let everyone know how everything is going & what is still in the works, etc. If they’ve decided to keep the test servers private for now, they could show us on their stream what they are working on. If not, that’s cool.

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I feel the response is who would manage that work and be able to coordinate it and make it worth while for them and us. Time… time… time.

If we have developers that can’t find the 1 hr to fix a portal bug how are we going get them to find the time for these other luxuries…

You’re right - if they had time they probably would have already done it. I was just thinking maybe one of them could just grab a camera, spin around the studio, and tell us “Hi…here’s Jimmy…he’s hard at work on the purple spitter potatoes…yall have a good weekend!” I wouldn’t want nor expect a polished production or anything. I’m sure they don’t have time though…that’s okay :+1:

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Well, good thing. Im not alone in hoping for more communication @james any chance we could get more regular, if very brief updates.

The lack of communication prolly is cause lack of people… i mean who actually took Steggs role as community manager? I think theres none atm

That’s a problem, they should not worry about what people will give as a response. They need to pass over this and they won’t be able to please everyone so there will always have some “mads”. If the game is not in their line of sight, they should fix/blance it, w/e the community think about it.

IMO it’s always better to communicate if it’s bad or good news rather than letting people speculate about 9000 things

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The developers created and molded the community through what they’ve created (the game). So, to blame the community is to blame the developers.

Second, the developers are regular human beings. I’m sure the “constant abuse” has to get to them at times. I’m sorry though… they chose this life, these careers, this project… at some point they had to have thought that when they make negatively perceived changes, they wouldnt be showered with flowers and candy. I’d like to think they’ve got much thicker skin than that.

I would even go as far to say that if Xal’s opinion is correct…

…then we might as well all jump ship and leave right now. If the community actually did run the developers away, then that would not bode well for Boundless or any other project they work on in the future.

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Seriously people. Seriously? It’s been 11 days since the last update. Eleven. Days. 11. That’s it. What do you want them to do, give an update every week that says, “Yes, we’re still working on farming. We’re coding and doing art.”

Week 2. “Yes, we’re still coding, and making art for stuff.”

Week 3. “Yep, still doing the same thing.”

Plenty of other games goes months without any update from developers and it’s completely normal. Boundless has more communication than most games on Steam.

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I agree it is a problem and that communication is good. But, I’d argue that in some cases the communication takes second to just actually making the change in the game.

What good does it do to post a thing that will incite a yucky conversation in the forum if the decision was already made. No reason to ■■■■ everyone off before you release the content which pisses everyone off anyway. You are just creating more drama for all parties involved.

I think they change the things they can at the time they feel is right and communicate what they feel is right. They are human so at times they don’t communicate enough, or in the wrong manner, or too much.

Personally I would prefer some of the more divisive topics not be discussed here and the devs just make the change they want because I don’t think enough people in the forums can have a constructive conversation about it. That is why I posted what I did originally about the community needing to take some responsibility here. I feel that if we start to be more constructive and mature in our viewpoints and approach it would help when certain topics come up and maybe encourage the devs to post more because they see valuable information.

So many people forget that the devs need feedback in a way they can understand and execute on instead of just “complaints” or “claps of praise”.

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What you quoted had nothing to do with farming.
Otherwise, yes, we don’t need some useless info like “yes, we’re working”, obviously.

But what we know about farming is the bare minimum. There should already be an official thread with everything we need to know about it in the first message so we can prepare properly.

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cuz its 100% worse for them to say blindside us with a massive nerf then to just post it even if they lock the thread right after posting the suprise factor will always be worse then the news its self

The bare minimum is enough. Where is the excitment in learning the subtle intricacies if they already spell out the mechanics in depth?

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Well I can clearly state that the developers are not scared or not able to take the “abuse.” They are more than willing and wanting feedback that is aligned with negative views of the game. They are more than willing to take challenges to their view points. I know this for a fact because I have been on a call and challenged back VERY hard.

So even if my opinion is correct it is not in the context stated because I am not saying that we could run off the developers or that they are hiding because the community my jump on them. I’m just saying it might adjust how they chose to communicate to us because of the VALUE it gives back to them.

It is the nuance that maybe people are missing. Most people want the communication for THEM and their needs and few understand that communication can be two way. In my opinion I am talking more about the two way type of communication. That means that there have to be a return in information that provides value and sometimes I think it turns more into a toxic quagmire and the devs have better things to do. lol.

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Maybe you get excitement out of learning stuff like that. Not everybody does.

I respect the view but disagree in many cases. Many people will then take advantage of the information before the nerf hits. Many people will threaten to leave if the nerf hits, etc.

Nothing is added by communicating it because of the response or drama or whatever. Sure at times I would want to know but with how some things come down after we know, I’d prefer to not know and think it is better for us.

I get others disagree… it is just a matter of viewpoint and approach on how to handle certain topics.

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