tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post5832814460959972383..comments2023-05-10T12:10:17.048+01:00Comments on Freebooted: Is EVE's New Rapid Release Strategy Working?Mat Westhorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08553980835026556794noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-8435060418968894472014-09-06T03:01:08.090+01:002014-09-06T03:01:08.090+01:00Chiana, I agree... we all know that CCP is working...Chiana, I agree... we all know that CCP is working us towards the Jezuz Feature of Player Built Star Gates, and the current smaller patches are fixes and changes to (1) improve the game overall and to (b) support the PBSGs...<br /><br />But they have been adverting this as a change from 2 big expansions to 6 smaller, easier patches without any word of <i>"...but we will also be bringing you some MAJOR new stuff in the future too..."</i>... They need to advert that they are still gonna come up with some Real Big Stuff (TM) say once a year... which they are not doing.<br /><br />Small changes fixes are nice, but they don't draw in the crowds like the 'Big Stuff' does and that is plain for anyone to see in the PCU count before and after every expansion...<br /><br />I too hope that CCP has more in the way of PBSGs in mind for the future... as you say, we'll have to wait and see.Turamarth Elrandirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08129383421613323047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-3345025304691789412014-09-05T09:04:29.663+01:002014-09-05T09:04:29.663+01:00“returning players coming back for the Jezuz Featu...“returning players coming back for the Jezuz Features... which we do not have now.“<br /><br />Well I would argue, that we just don't have those Jezuz Features, yet. If ccp was under the old cycle the industry update would have been that feature. Obviously we won't see every release to be a big one but I guess ccp has some Jezuz Features in the baking which will take another 2 or 3 new release cycles to be finished and will hit at the December release with good impact.<br /><br />Just because there are more regular release windows for all development doesn't mean there happens only development that fits into that window. To see whether ccp can deliver big features with this release plan needs us to wait at least until November when the first stuff is announced.Chaninanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-35671411962804180522014-09-05T06:53:29.097+01:002014-09-05T06:53:29.097+01:00^ This^ ThisDrackarnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13450640948811964177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-83581934831112985852014-09-04T20:05:05.458+01:002014-09-04T20:05:05.458+01:00I agree... I do not believe that we can have eithe...I agree... I do not believe that we can have either 2 big expansions or just 6 small ones... It should be balanced...<br /><br />Long term continuous patches, the small easy additions / improvements / fixes pushed out on a regular short cycle should IMHO be mixed with a once a year Big Jezuz Feature expansion.<br /><br />Yes, more difficult and makes for more work, but one hopes that would be offset by the increased new accounts / returning players coming back for the Jezuz Features... which we do not have now. Jezuz features are as important as Huge Nullsec Wars for publicity and to generate interest for new players as well as vets.Turamarth Elrandirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08129383421613323047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-60587669197065265052014-09-04T19:26:37.983+01:002014-09-04T19:26:37.983+01:00Matt, if I may... Once again you hammer my own poi...Matt, if I may... Once again you hammer my own point...<br /><br /><i>"I cannot be bothered with getting into endless calculations and hours of reading just to play a game.",</i><br /><br />I can... and I did and I still do... When I was but a nubbins I spent at least 2 to 3 hours reading and googling and researching about EVERYTHING I ran into ingame for every single hour of actual gameplay. And I loved it... every single minute of it.<br /><br />You can please some of the people some of the time...<br />but CCP can't please all of the playerbase ever.<br /><br /><i>"One man's rich, fascinating game play is another man's boring, needless complexity."</i><br />TurAmarth ElRandirTuramarth Elrandirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08129383421613323047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-84241955292153847182014-09-04T19:20:14.631+01:002014-09-04T19:20:14.631+01:00And here you hit one of my personal nails on the h...And here you hit one of my personal nails on the head as twere... <i>"...game experience..."</i> The ways in which we each experience the game are as wide and varied and the number of people playing... As I have said before over and over.. "One man's rich, fascinating game play is another man's boring, needless complexity."<br /><br />The INTERACTION in EVE is almost all player driven... the MECHANICS however are 'supposed' to be the same as the real world's 'Laws of Nature'... In the real all we mere mortals can do is kill a goat, genuflect and pray for rain... leaving whether or not we starve up to unseen, all-powerful, (and according to all the stories, often childish) deities...<br /><br />However the Gods of New Eden CAN be directly engaged via email, forums etc. and are no more 'perfect' and truly godlike than their ancient counterparts...<br /><br />Mebbe the gods of yore had the right of it ne? If you don't answer, when the peasants starve you have plausible dependability.Turamarth Elrandirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08129383421613323047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-13466157915137276552014-09-04T16:24:27.158+01:002014-09-04T16:24:27.158+01:00Wrote a few posts about this myself lately. Where ...Wrote a few posts about this myself lately. Where is the excitement? Where is the big feature for the gaming press to publicise the game? What will generate new subscribers? What will bring ex-players back? What is there to look forward to?<br /><br />I cannot see the mini-expansions generating the same level of interest as the old style twice yearly ones. I know half a dozen or more players who quit over the last six months. Are there new players to take their place? Not sure there are. <br /><br />Eve needs another Empyrean Age or Apocrypha soon. Those really shake up the ant farm. Currently CCP are hardly flicking the side.Drackarnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13450640948811964177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-62745946116611040072014-09-04T16:08:43.025+01:002014-09-04T16:08:43.025+01:00It would indeed be great to see further dynamic co...It would indeed be great to see further dynamic content (which isn't just the players). I'm hopeful that the trend of revisiting PvE content will continue - we've seen new exploration sites and random belt encounters, tweaked incursion sites and now even some movement on missions. Fingers crossed the evolution will continue.<br /><br />I totally agree that the industry interface delivers a far more pleasant experience. I've not had too much of a problem with it. I just have a degree of sympathy for players who feel short-changed by ongoing development.Mat Westhorpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08553980835026556794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-71506883446513787012014-09-04T16:03:37.770+01:002014-09-04T16:03:37.770+01:00I'm sorry to read that, but I can entirely und...I'm sorry to read that, but I can entirely understand. I cannot be bothered with getting into endless calculations and hours of reading just to play a game. That said, I'm attempting to participate in industry without having to start a degree in business studies and advanced mathematics, so I'm almost certain to be terrible. Wish me luck.Mat Westhorpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08553980835026556794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-52541762055432665132014-09-04T15:59:42.213+01:002014-09-04T15:59:42.213+01:00This is true. The game experience taken alone is s...This is true. The game experience taken alone is still as deep, complex and engaging as ever, but the irony is that it's endless pushed as a player-driven game and therefore the expectation is to engage other players and the community at large. The forums are the natural place to start for many and that's when it all starts to go downhill...Mat Westhorpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08553980835026556794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-46567549853803047662014-09-04T15:57:20.615+01:002014-09-04T15:57:20.615+01:00I agree, but I wonder if they've got the time ...I agree, but I wonder if they've got the time and resources to adequately communicate and act upon post-prelease feedback. I should imagine it's a bit of a pressure-pot working environment. I've certainly seen a number of incidents in which a poorly received or buggy feature has provoked a player response and the CCP communication policy tends toward belligerent silence. Once a feature is out, the plan is presumably for the dev team to move onto the next project. Any demands for post-release iteration and polish is unlikely to find much purchase as the schedule just wouldn't allow for it. We've seen this trend on a number of clunkily-delivered features, from the unified inventory to the tooltips and the tracking camera. Mat Westhorpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08553980835026556794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-34206851319551673972014-09-04T14:40:00.680+01:002014-09-04T14:40:00.680+01:00The new release cycle isn't in full swing yet....The new release cycle isn't in full swing yet. We have the vacation time of CCPers and two releases that had most of the stuff scheduled in the old system rolled out. But for now I'm quiet happy with the development and the faster pace of updates. Yes the bug killing your overview settings was bad as are any bugs. They happen and that won't change. I think we will have an advantage form this new schedule as the little fixes are done and shipped much faster. Tweaking existing stuff will never make everybody happy, I agree here with TurAmarth who I think is absolutely right about the mentality of players. The same players screaming for changes, start screaming once there part is made harder or even impossible. Why can't I get the Mining Ship that empties an entire belt just into my freighter alt, that isn't too hard to implement is it? No it isn't hard but it will break the game.<br />If you talk to gamers like us as a game designer they will always try to get the good stuff and leave the risk out of it. Many players claim that eve is a brutally hard game. Really? Incursions are totally secure with all spawns known perfectly. Wormhole mechanics are researched and documented only thing you can't predict seems to be where the next WH leads to.<br />Just like so many other games, the players have become very risk averse (and I count myself in) and it seems almost impossible that if Apocrypha would happen today the frontier spirit would be there. With the current mentality we don't deserve new dangerous content.<br />I sincerely hope that CCP uses this more frequent update path to add more random effects to all aspects of the game. There should happen a lot more random dangerous stuff. Eliminating the NPC in relic and data sites catered to that risk averse mentality. As does the totally predictable going of missions, anomalies, DED complexes and incursions. I don't think you should loose a ship at any occasion that appears at random, you don't need to be tackled and dead every time. But a nice “WTF what's that NPC dreadnought doing in my belt” effect would push the excitement.<br />It isn't bad content if I have to run off that mission because it developed unexpected. But I need an agent reacting on that development. A common sense of earning ISK seems to be “give me the ISK as easy as possible so I can do the fun stuff I want”. If you just need the money unsub your alts and sell plexes. Oh dear that one got long and looks more like a rant... so to the end.<br /><br />A final note to Industry. I have something about 600 bpos and I'm very sure I lost some hours of research to the new system and the opportunity to get high value BPO to 10 before the patch. But in general the new industry UI is good and a lot easier to handle. It stores the job data so I can just reinstall regular production with just one click. The size of the window is good for industries only view but could be a bit more modular for adjustment to different screen sizes.<br />It has become very easy to copy the materials needed out of the client and using it for calculations and the new system without waste is a lot easier to teach to new ones.<br /><br />TLDR: industries update headed in the right direction and I hope ccp makes use of the fast release cycle to add more frequent and random events to spice up day to day actions.Chaninanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-42254779197431220472014-09-03T20:24:46.399+01:002014-09-03T20:24:46.399+01:00I must admit I've ended my subscription since ...I must admit I've ended my subscription since Crius. The industry changes just seemed so baffling to me I couldn't be arsed with it any more. Nine years solid I've played it, but all good things come to an end.Cidhttp://www.cidlockie.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-1266802129628244972014-09-03T19:42:03.930+01:002014-09-03T19:42:03.930+01:00You can't please all the people all the time.....You can't please all the people all the time... and I doubt you could please the EVE playerbase with an expansion that came wrapped in real Bacon and gave them all a handjob...<br /><br />You just KNOW they'd forumwhine that "...the Bacon was too crisp!" or "the Bacon was too soggy!" and "FFS CCP used their LEFT hand????"... so mehTuramarth Elrandirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08129383421613323047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2174961188649730147.post-21230434640794278172014-09-03T19:28:31.289+01:002014-09-03T19:28:31.289+01:00Release strategy of many small ones is itself good...Release strategy of many small ones is itself good thing. They actually get stuff done and there's less of wasted time. However, this should be married with better communication with players in advance. I don't mean that everything should be broadcasted at planning stage, but if something is deemed by CSM as serious potential for bad reception (like the wormhole distance thingy), they should reserve a few extra weeks (one expansion?) worth of time for finetuning at SiSi. If it is found that the idea is really bad, there has to be the option of scrapping the idea at final stage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com