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GM Luna View Drop Down
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Points: 2042 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 16:09
Originally posted by Salararius Salararius wrote:


Here is my concern, in one interview one of the devs (someone the company put forth to talk to the customers) was asked the question: "If you had unlimited funds, what would you do with the game and where would you take it?".  The answer (and I may be paraphrasing here) was that if he had unlimited funds he wouldn't be working on the game, he would retire to an island someplace.  Which then begs the question, are they working on the game or is the money flow sufficient?  There have been many companies that felt they had "enough success" and stopped innovating and stopped developing.  It would be very premature to think this is one of those companies, but if it becomes one then these questions from customers will be looked back on as initial indicators.

This is a great thread Creature, thanks for making it. I want to give a few more people time to respond before I hop in too much. 

But I want to swiftly and decidedly correct this because I think taken out of context, it sets up a really bad impression. The response you are mentioning was very much a joke and in no way whatsoever reflects that development on Illy has somehow stalled or stopped. That could not be further from the truth. 

As you were. :)

I'll be back later with a more detailed response. 

Luna
GM Luna | Illyriad Community Manager | community@illyriad.co.uk
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Salararius View Drop Down
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Points: 519 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 16:01
This game is a great start but for me it will not last as is.  It has missing elements that the developers have stated they will address.  I think we all like how they have begun but nobody would be asking for more if there were not something they felt was missing.  So the questions are:

1)  When will they address the missing elements?
2)  What are they doing today?

The answer to the first question is what everyone really wants to know but it's also the one that nobody has an answer to.  Developers can't tell you what sort of problems they may encounter (both with what they are trying to add and with the technology already "completed").  They are not building lego toys.  There is no instruction manual so it's impossible to say how long something may take.

The answer to the second question they can provide hour to hour, day to day, week to week, month to month at their whim.

Here is my concern, in one interview one of the devs (someone the company put forth to talk to the customers) was asked the question: "If you had unlimited funds, what would you do with the game and where would you take it?".  The answer (and I may be paraphrasing here) was that if he had unlimited funds he wouldn't be working on the game, he would retire to an island someplace.  Which then begs the question, are they working on the game or is the money flow sufficient?  There have been many companies that felt they had "enough success" and stopped innovating and stopped developing.  It would be very premature to think this is one of those companies, but if it becomes one then these questions from customers will be looked back on as initial indicators.

Communication is the key.

This would not be the first game I started/continued playing with the belief in "something better" (because something better was announced) just to find out that what I have is all I'll get.
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Createure View Drop Down
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Points: 1191 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 13:55

All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.


Aye it does seem like perhaps the Illy boat has struck the doldrums of the development ocean for the moment. A cool teaser wind to fill our empty sails of curiosity would certainly not go amiss.
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Points: 1483 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 13:44
*sigh* Miss-clicked the X and lost everything I typed...You're lucky I found this thread so interesting because normally I would have just walked away from the computer at this point. 

"Do you guys miss the days when Illy used to have significant additions to in game content couple weeks or month at least?"

Absolutely. I've noticed a decline in updates for quite some time now. Maybe I've been spoiled by larger MMO companies that put out updates once every week or something but I don't think it's too much to ask for an update every month. As you said, even small things like extra quests or the occasional new batches of NPCs (still waiting on those muskrats SC) would be nice.

"Do you guys anticipate that some real and substancial in-game content is coming our way soon... given the marked lack of notable changes throughout the year?"

I'd like to say that I think there will be something big coming soon but they have been so inconsistent with their updates for so long now I really can't say. It could be that the lack of game content hints that something big like AI factions is on the brink of it's release but it very well could be that Illyriad is understaffed and they're no where near it's release. Their refusal to give estimates on release dates make it hard to predict. 

"Although SC&TC have long-shunned any kind of temptation regarding release dates do we think we can pester them into giving some kind of vague teaser at least just to keep us all interested?"

I can understand why they don't, as it obviously ruins the surprise of waking up one morning and finding that AI factions are out. As well as the wave of disappointment shown when they don't make a release date. While I think they should just remind everyone that it's just an estimate and then ignore people who don't understand what that means, I can understand why they wouldn't want to deal with the "You promised! I'm quitting this game if you don't release it right NOW! Arrrg!" comments. That said, I kind of doubt we'll ever get anything more than a Soon TM and if we do, it'll probably be ruined by those who don't understand the definition of estimate. 

As an unrelated side note this is by far the most work I've put into a post in a while now. Especially considering I had to do this twice. -.- So thank you for putting in the work (or maybe just being bored) and posting this. I thought it was a really interesting post. =)
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Points: 14 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 13:22
I am wondering if the DEVS are experiencing growing pains and too many things going on at the same time.  They dug themselves a hole by saying they expected all type of content to be ready last year and it hasn't materialized, so now they won't give dates.  I feel they swung the pendulum too far in the other direction.  The community, in general, wants to know new stuff is coming, but they don't need to know all of it ... just something ... where "soon" would be 1-3 months.

They also did not "play up" enough the infrastructure changes made with the way the game content is served.  To the user it appears as nothing new except to fix performance issues, but by talking about it and making it visible shows concern for playability.

Also wonder if they are not leveraging the community enough to help to test.  There are some very talented people that may be willing to make the effort.

I truly enjoy this game and would like to see it evolve.
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Createure View Drop Down
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Points: 1191 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 12:40
Firstly I'd like to say that I'm not trying to imply our dev team has been idle in any way - the sheer volume of updates+tweaks speaks for itself - Illy needs regular attention like that in my opinion.

I'm not gonna lie - my biggest impression of the year so is a marked LACK of any new game content... I've highlighted in bold my "Top 4 Events of the Last 3 Months 12 Days":

So... what have we actually had in terms of new game content?

 - On the 17th Jan we had the end of the 5th tournament which brought us the final tier of undead units, the Dracolichs, as well as our first ever taste of mercenaries and an exciting end to an exciting tournament. Without a doubt some interesting New Content for the community - though at the moment just a one-off treat, not something any of us can really sink our teeth in to.

 - On the 23rd of Feb we had the 5th Tournament launch. Tournaments are great - but aside from a few different locations there was nothing essentially 'new' about this content.

 - On the 7th of March we had some changes to the combat algorithms - I'd call these changes content because they have caused small but still significant and lasting differences to the in-game player experience for everyone in terms of 'how you play the game'. At the same time though you could argue that these changes were just housekeeping (glitch patching).

So we have 1 genuine piece of new game content and 2 more questionable ones in 3 and a half months - and the genuine content we had only last for a few hours and was essentially a delayed feature of content released before 2012.

If I take a look at the "From the News" section I would say there is only 1 item there from 2012 which had me or anyone I know genuinely excited - of course the SC Live Chat - still not content but without a doubt something many members of the community that I know look forwards to and enjoy.

There are a few things I haven't addressed - such as the elemental giveaway, the prestige handout etc. - honestly I wouldn't say either of these were 'bad' (certainly nobody is complaining at free prestige - that is truly generous of the devs since you could argue it delays when people might next spend money and affects their own cash-flow) but honestly I do think stuff like that is just a filler - it has no real or lasting effect on anyone's in game experience.

So here's some questions:

 - "Do you guys miss the days when Illy used to have significant additions to in game content couple weeks or month at least?" [even just small ones like lores+histories? new NPCs? a new quest or two perhaps (even just some random new T1/T2 quests?) or EVEN new undecipherable strangeness in the Herald's "In Other News"?]

 - "Do you guys anticipate that some real and substancial in-game content is coming our way soon... given the marked lack of notable changes throughout the year?"

 - "Although SC&TC have long-shunned any kind of temptation regarding release dates do we think we can pester them into giving some kind of vague teaser at least just to keep us all interested?"

Let me know your thoughts.


Edited by Createure - 12 Apr 2012 at 12:45
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Createure View Drop Down
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Points: 1191 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2012 at 12:11
In a bored moment I decided to review all the updates/announcements we've had so far this year. I'll make 2 posts - the first for a list+categorization of what we've had and a second with a few thoughts of mine.

In a rather harsh and slap-dash manner I've thrown most of the updates into 1 or more of 4 categories.

Useability - stuff like login/browser/facebook issues etc. - improved in-game interfaces
Housekeeping - downtime notifications, clearing inactive accounts, patching small glitches
Cosmetic - patches/improvements to graphical/visual stuff only
Game Content - Additions to the game content

From The Announcements
09 Apr 2012 at 12:32 - useability
03 Apr 2012 at 22:38 - housekeeping
03 Apr 2012 at 14:30 - cosmetic
26 Mar 2012 at 00:53 - tourney results
22 Mar 2012 at 00:26 - tourney end/useability
07 Mar 2012 at 02:07 - combat algorithm tweaks <-----Game Content?
29 Feb 2012 at 23:08 - useability/housekeeping
27 Feb 2012 at 23:58 - cosmetic
26 Feb 2012 at 21:09 - housekeeping
26 Feb 2012 at 13:18 - housekeeping
25 Feb 2012 at 15:12 - housekeeping
24 Feb 2012 at 21:22 - housekeeping
23 Feb 2012 at 22:33 - housekeeping/tourney 5 launch <-----Game Content?
21 Feb 2012 at 10:53 - housekeeping/useability
18 Feb 2012 at 20:38 - cosmetic/useability/housekeeping
14 Feb 2012 at 09:50 - cosmetic/housekeeping
06 Feb 2012 at 19:10 - housekeeping
22 Jan 2012 at 07:45 - housekeeping
10 Jan 2012 at 01:49 - housekeeping

From The News
26 Mar 2012 at 16:27 - elemental giveaway
22 Feb 2012 at 02:38 - anniversary prestige handout
22 Feb 2012 at 16:01 - dev live chat
20 Feb 2012 at 15:52 - dev live chat
05 Feb 2012 at 15:38 - housekeeping

From The Herald
17 Jan 2012 at 19:29- last day of 4th tourney <-----Game Content

Edited by Createure - 12 Apr 2012 at 12:11
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