"Current Dev Road Map" section of Development Forum

[Steampunkette]

Simple enough! I'd like a little "Developer Roadmap" section of the forum which everyone can view, but only the Devs and GMs can post or edit, where each of the Devs and GMs posts their own "This is what I'm working on" or "This is why I hope to put together" road map for the next few months.

 

Everything in the forum should obviously have the caveat "This is not final, some things may be voted down within the team, other things may be found impossible, and still others might just die on the vine because that's development for you" with little notes one way or the other on them. Especially as the dev team grows (IF the Dev Team Grows) so that we, the community, have some kind of insight as to what we might be able to look forward to.

 

Yeah. There are probably people who will scream and rant if their favorite Pet Project hits a Dev's Roadmap and then gets sidelined or brickwalled or whatever, but at least we'd have some idea of what to look forward to as a community. Maybe update it once every 6 months or once every Year or so...

 

But so long as none of it is promised and it's all couched in "We'd Like" or "I'm trying" we should be fairly okay.

[MetaVileTerror]

Absolutely.  

 

More transparency and more communication would be more than ideal.  

The whole industry is in dire need of it, and I think a not-for-profit fan-revival like this is the perfect place to start improving the industry with such positive trends.

[Rylas]

I'm both for and against this. 

 

For, because it's always cool to see what's being thought about. And I think it does a lot towards keeping the community excited for the game when they can be reminded that it's still actively being worked on. I would always enjoy seeing updates from the devs.

 

Against, because of the screamers and ranters you mentioned. But not because their complaints would be on the forums. I could see more incessant types PMing the devs and bothering them. Sure, they could send them to the ignore list, but that kind of stuff can really frustrate people in a way that slows or kills motivation. 

 

But hey, if they're willing to put up with the occasional entitled cry baby, then heck yeah, Road Map all the way!

[Moka]

A road map would be cool. Haters can shut it.

[MetaVileTerror]

Whether you tell people in advance, or tell them after the fact, I've generally found that the screaming and ranting is equally ineffective.  However, when you tell people in advance, then meaningful discussions and feedback can be a lot more effective.

[Vanden]

I don't think this is a good idea, because some players are going to take anything on such a road map as a promise, and then if things change or it takes a while for the items to be delivered, they'll then start calling Homecoming team liars. You see this all the time and it's the reason developers rarely talk candidly about upcoming features.

[Mansome]

I would say do the roadmap if the deal comes through. That way the devs credibility would be established at that point. We know they can't promise the world but if the deal goes through I think people would be more accepting if things did not happen as planned with a roadmap.

[Steampunkette]

Anything the Devs say can and will be taken as a promise by some people.

 

Anything the Devs say can and will be taken as a rumor or unsubstantiated claim by others.

 

Case in point: Leandro has said, repeatedly, that the base code entry slash command is going to go away. Now there's 3 threads about it one complaining that it's not gone, one offering an explicit replacement (By me no less) because that was commented on by a GM in the PvP thread, and a third "Brainstorming" thread on how to keep it. Meanwhile there are still people in the PvP thread (Or were last I checked) begging for the code to remain, to hell with PvP.

 

The Devs have stated that the Aggro Cap can't be increase on an AT by AT Basis, others have repeated that statement, linked that statement, and explained 'til they're blue in the face why it can't be done. And in the Tanker/Brute thread there's still a "Just raise the Aggro cap for Tankers!"  post every other page.

 

This is already happening and will not stop. But at the very least it could be directed to a somewhat useful end by giving people an idea of what's -actually- being worked on and -how- it is being worked on so they can weigh in on that, learn a bit about the process, and get hyped over what's in the pipeline.

 

There's a reason Blizzcon comes every year with big promises of what the "Next Expansion" holds. There's a reason they sell out the WoW and Overwatch Halls year after year after year. It's because generating hype is an important part of keeping people interested and -getting- people interested.

 

If we get the nod from NCSoft, I think this would be the best way to try and grow the servers/userbase. Particularly while CoXG is pumping out promo videos of their stuff. If we can get the legal clearance, I'd also love to see us start creating promotional materials. Powerset Previews, Story Arc previews, New Enemies, Whatever.

[Ibarra]

I definitely would like to see a road map. Regardless of how long it takes, it's good to see progress.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Ibarra

[justicebeliever]

As long as this is a hobby for the Dev’s, I think they are smart to keep their own counsel...It’s a passion project and whimsy can influence what you work on, why give the impression to your user base that you have timetable and deliverables you are working toward, if it’s really just about what you want to be working on.

 

That being said, if this deal goes thru, this becomes a more legitimate enterprise and they’ll need to embrace the user base’s expectation of knowing what’s coming to generate confidence and excitement, and they should have a roadmap, but one based on realistic timelines and resources...because you can only disappoint so many times before you lose your audience...

[MetaVileTerror]

Concrete timelines don't even really need to be established; just priority.  

ie:  We want to get X done before Y, but there's always someone working on Z in the background.

[golstat2003]

If the deal goes through, sure. Until then, no.

[WanderingAries]

Didn't Leandro explicitly say a solid "No" to this a long time ago? Until they get passed the "small (?) group of volunteers" stage of the game, then I'd expect to see such a thing (because there'll likely be solid goals) as it would have an actual team behind each effort that could be dedicated to the task (their day job).

[esmdev]

They could create a roadmap thread with the following first post:

 

We plan to do some stuff, at some point, with more plans to push stuff to the test server so that we can watch people do things with the stuff in hopes that everything works how we intended.  In the event that the stuff is deemed to be a worthwhile addition then we will consider putting the stuff on the live server, otherwise we will go back to the stuff planning stage.

 

Then they can sticky and lock the thread.  ;)

[Amatiste]

With ESMDEV. It would be nice to see what they are thinking about doing.  With the understanding that this is not a promise they are gonna get it done.

[Megajoule]

No and I mean no amount of disclaimers would prevent any such list from being taken as such.

[Murcielago]

This isn't a good idea for the exact reason you posted. I'd much rather get occasional hints and then have an Issue dropped on us and we all scream like school children in excitement. 

[Snakebit]

On 9/19/2019 at 4:31 PM, Megajoule said:

No and I mean no amount of disclaimers would prevent any such list from being taken as such.

You'd be able to hear the screaming on the other side of a brick wall.