The Good, the Bad, the Fugly [ issue 27 ]

[Taboo]

Lots of work probably went into Issue 27. Nows we gets to heap praise, poke holes and point out blunders.

 

Some things I'm keen on others not so much.

 

The Bad

making powersets the same

'revamp' to existing sets that kinda give what was asked for but mostly what many didn't want

Long Range Teleporter, Base Transporter P2W (10min?! so lame)

 

The Fugly

small groups pushing big changes

rushed release of some unfinished changes

 

The Good

new content (ardent support for this)

more power customization

powerset proliferation

teleportation (fingers crossed on this, could be some bad in it)

new arena maps

enhancement upgrade button

bug fixes

 

 

[Umagon 23]

I'm very interested in asymetrical shoulders, some minor power changes, and the upgrade enhancement button!

[Troo]

Energy Melee finally got some attention..

 

Base Teleport was the crack that'll put some folks into withdrawals.

 

I am excited for the new content. Purposely didn't test it instead waiting for it to hit Live HC.

[The_Warpact]

Personally, I would like to thank a group of volunteers that took the time to do this, as they are not a company or group of professionals who are getting paid.

 

I like the fact that they even took the time to expand on this alternate version of CoX for us.

 

I also like the fact that they got our input on various things and do quality of life upgrades when they don't have to. Instead of just giving people whatever they want like some of the other servers.

 

So thank you and I look forward to trying out all of the new content.

[macskull]

1 hour ago, Taboo said:

Long Range Teleporter, Base Transporter P2W (10min?! so lame)

Could be 25 or 30 minutes like it used to, jussayin.

[Glacier Peak]

2 hours ago, Taboo said:

Lots of work probably went into Issue 27. Nows we gets to heap praise, poke holes and point out blunders.

 

Some things I'm keen on others not so much.

 

The Bad

making powersets the same

'revamp' to existing sets that kinda give what was asked for but mostly what many didn't want

Long Range Teleporter, Base Transporter P2W (10min?! so lame)

 

The Fugly

small groups pushing big changes

rushed release of some unfinished changes

Did you do any testing whatsoever or provide any kind of substantive feedback to help address concerns with your "The Bad" and "The FUGLY"? 

 

You pay absolutely no money to play a game supported by volunteers. Yet you start a whole thread just to indicate your likes and dislikes. Issue 27 has literally been out for four hours...

[GM Kaiju]

Let’s keep the tone constructive please.

[PeregrineFalcon]

"This game is maintained by volunteers and you get to play for free."

 

Is this seriously going to be posted in response to EVERY SINGLE CRITICISM OF EVERYTHING BY ANYONE?

 

Yes, this game is run by volunteers. There do not exist words in the English language that enable me to express how grateful I am to those volunteers. Yes, I get to play this game for free. I'd pay for it but I keep missing the donation window. I'll hit it eventually.

 

Do you think we don't know this? Or does this mean that we're not ALLOWED to dislike or criticize anything?

[Glacier Peak]

1 minute ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

"This game is maintained by volunteers and you get to play for free."

 

Is this seriously going to be posted in response to EVERY SINGLE CRITICISM OF EVERYTHING BY ANYONE?

 

Yes, this game is run by volunteers. There do not exist words in the English language that enable me to express how grateful I am to those volunteers. Yes, I get to play this game for free. I'd pay for it but I keep missing the donation window. I'll hit it eventually.

 

Do you think we don't know this? Or does this mean that we're not ALLOWED to dislike or criticize anything?

That's fair @PeregrineFalcon. I dig your signature btw.

[Gobbledigook]

I have paid 😛

[Flask]

I didn't test anything. Now that it's live can I have an opinion?

[PeregrineFalcon]

8 minutes ago, Flask said:

I didn't test anything. Now that it's live can I have an opinion?

Only if you first acknowledge that this game is run by volunteers and that you get to play it for free.

[CrudeVileTerror]

Remember:   Criticism is usually offered from a stance of good faith and appreciation.  If people didn't care about the game, or didn't like it at all, they wouldn't be taking the time to express their disappointment and concerns.  When someone is upset by something, then we should be embracing their feedback and helping them to express it more clearly, so that everyone can benefit from their thoughts and views.

 

Flipside of that:  Please don't ever be insulting when providing critiques.   I mean, just don't ever be insulting ever?

(To be clear; not saying anyone as being insulting here.   Just saying it for completeness' sake.)

[Solarverse]

6 hours ago, Taboo said:

Nows we gets to heap praise, poke holes and point out blunders.

Not to be a jerk or anything, but you had soooo much time to add in your input before it went live. The time to heap praise, poke holes and point out blunders was ages ago.

 

6 hours ago, Taboo said:

making powersets the same

Please elaborate. I honestly have no idea what this implies and instead of making assumptions as to what this means, I would rather you explain further.

 

6 hours ago, Taboo said:

'revamp' to existing sets that kinda give what was asked for but mostly what many didn't want

You got to be careful saying, "but mostly what many didn't want" without having statistics to back it up. I have made statements similar to this and even though in my mind I speak truth when making such statements, it's a statement that requires evidence to back up. From my perspective, most people did want those changes and even welcomed them. However, this is just from my perspective and without running the statistics on my own, I won't make the statement as if it is truth, but rather as an opinion.

 

6 hours ago, Taboo said:

Long Range Teleporter, Base Transporter P2W (10min?! so lame)

Why is this lame?

 

6 hours ago, Taboo said:

 

The Fugly

small groups pushing big changes

Actually, there was a gigantic group who pushed for these changes across 2 (possibly 3) different platforms...all of which you have every right and means to contribute. Not only did you have these forums that had been advertised by the Developers for a very long time, but you also had Discord and (not positive on this one) Reddit. There were a lot of people who contributed ideas...some of which were used, some of which were not, others were combined in to one idea using multiple ideas.
 

 

6 hours ago, Taboo said:

rushed release of some unfinished changes

You think this is rushed? Might I suggest you try any of the other servers? These Devs has spent ten times the amount of time testing and getting things right than any of the other servers out there and I will even go out on a limb and say they have spent more time testing than all the other servers combined. I honestly feel like this right here quoted above is a very entitled statement that comes with very negative implications. This is a very entitled statement when you consider your other options available to you.

 

[Ruin Mage]

I am curious, Taboo, on some of the things you said.

• What was rushed and unfinished?
• What small groups? What big changes?
• Powersets the same? How so? Which ones?
• What statistics do you have for the "many didn't want"?

(Yes, Solar asked/prodded for the same things but I didn't want to go through your post as he did :P)

 

[Starforge]

7 hours ago, Taboo said:

small groups pushing big changes

That can entirely be fixed by more people testing things on the Beta server.

[Alchemystic]

🎻

[Greycat]

4 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

"This game is maintained by volunteers and you get to play for free."

 

Is this seriously going to be posted in response to EVERY SINGLE CRITICISM OF EVERYTHING BY ANYONE?

 

Yes, this game is run by volunteers. There do not exist words in the English language that enable me to express how grateful I am to those volunteers. Yes, I get to play this game for free. I'd pay for it but I keep missing the donation window. I'll hit it eventually.

 

Do you think we don't know this? Or does this mean that we're not ALLOWED to dislike or criticize anything?

There's one time I'll bring up "This game is staffed by a small group of volunteers." It's typically in response to complaints that content/changes aren't coming fast enough or that some giant change hasn't been done.  Basically it's a reminder this isn't live and there's not a dedicated team pushing out at least an issue, hopefully two, per year, going over bug fixes, handling the forums, subscriptions, etc. Or IOW, "be patient."

 

As a reaction to any criticism? No, it's neither fair nor valid.

 

As for the OP? It's mostly vague and ... questionable, honestly, for most of the criticisms. And this should really be in the issue's discussions thread. But Solar and Shadeknight pretty much covered what my reaction would be.

 

So - yes, we know it's staffed by volunteers, and I think we're all glad for what they're doing. But there are times that's a valid response, and times it isn't, and I'd have to say here it isn't, really.

[Solarverse]

20 minutes ago, Tyrannical said:

🎻

Hahaha, too funny! I had to enlarge it to see that it was the world's smallest violin! I thought it was a tiny red hot pepper, lol.

[PeregrineFalcon]

13 minutes ago, Greycat said:

There's one time I'll bring up "This game is staffed by a small group of volunteers." It's typically in response to complaints that content/changes aren't coming fast enough or that some giant change hasn't been done.

I agree that, in that specific instance, that phrase is appropriate.

 

I mentioned this, not to pick on Glacier specifically, but because I keep seeing this phrase, or words to this affect, posted over and over again by people who seek to protect the poor, defenseless developers from the horrible forum monsters (like me) who have the... *gasp* audacity to disagree with any change a dev makes or anything that a dev posts.

 

(This is not directed to you, Greycat, but to the forum in general.) Can we please stop attacking other forumites in order to defend the poor helpless devs? We're all aware that the developers are volunteers and that we play this game for free. That's no excuse to attack people who disagree or who post negative feedback, especially in a thread started by a dev specifically asking for feedback. 

[Solarverse]

This probably does not belong here, but the only issues I have with any of the new content were the character animations used for Sonic Manipulation. I think they really picked some very weak animation for a DPS Class. Most of those animations are more fitting for Controlling or Defender Classes and match soft control abilities. Even the Melee Attacks look extremely weak, the AoE Damage ability looks like he is casting an AoE Buff, not a Damage power...very very poor animations and it completely turns me off from the set.

 

I am also not a fan at all in how Dark Melee was handled for Melee characters or Blasters. I feel like Death Shroud should have been the +Regen +Recovery for Blasters and it should have been given a PBAoE +Recharge per NPC in Melee Range for Scrappers, Tanks and so forth. I think they should have went with the Teleport AoE for Dark Consumption like they originally talked about and then (because Stalkers could not get that option) give Stalkers a chance to proc an AoE version of Midnight Grasp if they so chose to! All of which I brought up on the Testing phase.

 

So, do I think the Devs were perfect in how the implemented things? No, I do not. However, I not only pointed out my specific issues with what has been released, but I also did not use words like, "most people" or words like, "rushed out content" to make my case. I provided what I took issue with and how I would personally have handled it to keep it constructive rather than taking stabs at the Devs. I provided feedback that they can actually look at and discuss for a possible future update rather than making the Devs my personal whipping boy.

So that would be my personal gripe about the patch that I did actually bring up during testing but I also kept it constructive. So when making a gripe about something it often helps to keep it constructive to show that you have actual reasons behind your gripe and possible solutions.

[Twisted Toon]

31 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I agree that, in that specific instance, that phrase is appropriate.

 

I mentioned this, not to pick on Glacier specifically, but because I keep seeing this phrase, or words to this affect, posted over and over again by people who seek to protect the poor, defenseless developers from the horrible forum monsters (like me) who have the... *gasp* audacity to disagree with any change a dev makes or anything that a dev posts.

 

(This is not directed to you, Greycat, but to the forum in general.) Can we please stop attacking other forumites in order to defend the poor helpless devs? We're all aware that the developers are volunteers and that we play this game for free. That's no excuse to attack people who disagree or who post negative feedback, especially in a thread started by a dev specifically asking for feedback. 

I tend to remind people that the devs that are running this game are woefully underpaid volunteers (Who have actual day jobs), when said people are almost demanding wide sweeping changes/additions to the game.

Then I, also, would suggest that maybe the said people should spend some time in the shoes of the woefully underpaid volunteers for a bit before making such almost demands.

Fortunately, I haven't had to do that very often.

 

[Jimmy]

4 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

I tend to remind people that the devs that are running this game are woefully underpaid volunteers (Who have actual day jobs), when said people are almost demanding wide sweeping changes/additions to the game.

And, to be fair, in the context of the travel changes, this is entirely relevant.

 

If we had proper resources, this would've been fixed up and replaced within weeks - or even days - of it being discovered last year. The only reason there's such an uproar about it now is because we chose to have it remain available until we fixed it because of the side benefits it provided. We could've simply removed it immediately with no replacement - and honestly, if something like this appears again, we will probably do exactly that.

[Six-Six]

I for one think this dev team and group of unpaid volunteers simply ROCK! I have no complaints with the game whatsoever. Do I wish some things be different? Maybe, possibly, but far too trivial compared to how wholeheartedly thankful I can even play the game.

[Abraxus]

Folks are entitled to their opinion on changes.  The trap to avoid is feeling that the way we ourselves view changes, is the way everyone views them.  That, because it negatively impacts one's own play style, that it must similarly impact everyone's.  That is almost never true.  So, before proclaiming something "bad" in whatever degree, or description you choose; let us check our egos at the door, and look at things from a more global perspective, before pronouncing judgement.