Development Cycle Archive
Thread: 19 answers (6-10-04)
Message Edited by Kylania on 07-14-2004 05:08 PM
IGilligan wrote:
15-20 to answer 19 questions?
Something's fishy here.
Extremely fishy, especially because the answers are usually 1-liners. Explains thoughwhy all those really really old bugs, issues, and imbalances still haven't been fixed yet. I'd advise SOE to check if someone from the competition is sneaking 'round their building putting tranquilizers in their coffee or something 
.
Kylania wrote:
"I agreed that his time was better spent elsewhere."
I'm not entirely sure the fan base cares that his time is being taken up more and more byhigh level meetings where he's obviously not getting the information out of. You'd think with his new promotion and access to things 19 questions would be EASIER than harder.
The playerbase doesn't want to hear excuses about new office schedules and how many things are on a plate, they want answers to questions, especially questions that have been around for a year or more in some cases.
Many professions depend on these answers in order to scrape from the dirty floor of SWGwhat little crumbs they can gather in order to make their lives better or at least easier and when we're not even given that it's disheartening.
Message Edited by Kylania on 07-14-2004 05:08 PM
But my pointis that the entire exercise wasn't that useful to begin with. Half the time the answers to the questions sentthe respective communitiesinto a frenzy. I don't remember a single answer that made my life better at all. And since it apparently wasn't sanctioned as part of his job description, I am sure the answers were not as - thorough - as they might have been otherwise. On top of that, the messenger got shot quite a bit.
On this issue I am with TH. He said he did the whole thing on his own time. I guarantee you if I was flamed for doing somethingabove and beyondthe call of duty, the first time would be the last time.
I don't remember any revelations from those threads, myself. Heck, name the answered questionthat you depended on.
Message Edited by SinjenRandall on 07-14-2004 05:38 PM
Thunderheart wrote:
Actually, "19 answers" is something I do largelyon my own time. Its a big work item and usually takes 15-20 hours a week to compile the questions, get answers and verify them. With all of the transition work and other items going on, this is simply the lowest item on the totem pole right now. I hope to finish a couple more before the new Assistant comes on board and the feature will be that persons prerogative.
I know it is a feature the community likes and I will work to keep it on deck.
TH, you should have let us know up front that this was an undertaking of your own, and that it might get squashed by higher priorities. Realize when you come out and say you're going to do this thing(what ever it is) we assume it's part of your job, has the blessing and is going to be part of your normal work load. Not adding to it if you have time.
Yes we did like it. It was actually you doing what you're supposed to be, taking info to the players. It alos just proves that your job has become as a politician, if it takes 20 hour to come up with about 15 100 word answers. What I mean is, it should not take that much time, unless you are having to come up with just the amount of information in just the right way, to something with out saying anything. Just like a politcian. And considering half or more of your answers were "wait for the combat balance" how the hell did it take so much time?
Community Relations? Bah.
Thunderheart wrote:Its a big work item and usually takes 15-20 hours a week to compile the questions, get answers and verify them.
Then this clarifies that there is something seriously wrong behind the scenes there.
ASTEROIDS do not concern us, TH, we want our ANSWERS, not EXCUSES
Aokista wrote:
Hello,
In a previous state of the game letter by Gary Gattis, he mentioned that publish 10.1 was going to be "Top CS/QA/Correspondent's Issues".
I can see after reading the boards and being in the game that this is quite clearly the #1 priority of so many players -- just fixing the bugs and addressing some very simple issues with regards to professions or quests.
I haven't heard boo-diddly about what's going to happen after Publish 10 (well, vague suggestions about HAM bars, but nothing definite). We all know the Smuggler, SL, combat, GCW revamp has been pushed back after JtL.
Is Publish 10.1 still going to contain Correspondent issues? Will it still be on time -- that is, 2 weeks after Publish 10 (due in less than a week now)?
Will Publish 11 be the Combat revamp? Will that be after JtL? If so, how long after JtL? Will Publish 11 occur in November (3 months away!)
According to Gamespot, SWG was released on 07/09/2003 (mo/day/year). So it's been over a year, and many of the bugs that have existed in the game (e.g. the Dancer/Musician "direct attention to %TT" bug) has been around for a long, long time. It's an absolutely minimal amount of work to fix these and other bugs.
Additionally, statements such as "we want to make changes that will affect the population as a whole" are a little silly. The game is entirely about professions. They are the only way we can interact with the game. To leave them broken, bugged, useless, or unnecessary is simply astounding.
Can we please get a definite schedule of publishes and what each will contain? I am not willing to keep my subscription for months on end, each time *hoping* that the bugs/features/content/revamps that concern me *might* be addressed.
Can we get an answer on Publish 10.1 and Corr issues?
Aokista
I agree with you completely, that to fix the bugs, big and small alike, should have been done long ago and should be high on the priorities list after JTL now that we all know that it takes precedence. As another Ranger, knowing that any possible revamp we might get is WAY off in the distance, fixing the small, annoying things that were promised to be fixed 13 months ago will go a long way helping me and many of the other players to not feel like we are being ignored and pushed aside in favor of new content that is *hoped* to bring in more players.
Having said that, I would also like at least a generic timeline of when the various publishes are at least currently planning on being pushed out. There is no way they can give us a definite schedule because of the difficulties in forseeing how long it will take to program the current items, but some indication of what is planned would be very much appreciated. Yes, the devs run the risk of having things thrown back in their faces for getting things out later than planned, but that's already happened and always will. But those of us who realize that things aren't as black and white as all that would still like a bit of feedback.