Genuine Concern: What's the point?

[Kosta]

Context: I am Kosta, a member of Orbis like everyone else, and have been playing this game since early 2018. I enjoy P&W, the alliance that I am in and the community. I for a long while I have been a staunch defender of Alex and his vision for the game. However recently (past year) I have weakened my stance on this. 

My Concern: What is the point of all of us making suggestions? There are 100s if not 1000s of suggestions on this subforum. Many of which are unsuitable for the game however there is a statistical guarantee that some of them are damn great and garner quite a bit of support.

I see quite a few regulars on this subforum, @BelgiumFury and @JadenStar10 to name a few. Although we do not always agree with each other I admire these individuals (and individuals like them) for having a genuine concern and care for the game and wishing to improve it. There is also a list made by @Adrienne (below) that has a ton of great suggestions for the game. 

However out of the many great suggestions how many have actually been implemented? More specifically, how many updates has this game actually had over time?

Now I wish to make clear, I do not wish to attack Alex, nor do I ever claim that developing a game like P&W is easy. I am unsure of his personal life nor do I wish to ask about it. I respect him quite a bit for what he has done so far and appreciative of him giving me, along with many others, the opportunity to play a game such as this.

However, I cannot help but feel disheartened by the pace of updates for this game and therefore the implementation of all the great suggestions. 

The solution?: I am not exactly sure. I haven't got exactly enough information about the logistics of P&W updates. Perhaps Alex should be more transparent about updates, why they are taking so long etc. What I do know is, the pace of these updates is unsustainable in my own opinion. 

I wish to approach the community on their solutions and thoughts on this? Do you think updates are coming in at a good pace? What should Alex do?

[Adrienne]

Just for additional context, my list is a compilation of the smaller suggestions from the Game Suggestions subforum rather than a list of my own ideas, if there was any confusion there. Just because a suggestion is made however, doesn't mean it will be implemented. My list also shows which changes have been implemented. It's a bit out of date but I've been working to update it this weekend and will continue that throughout the next week or so to get it back in date. You can also see what changes have been implemented through the Announcements subforum here: https://forum.politicsandwar.com/index.php?/forum/3-announcements-updates/.

I think updates are coming now more than ever though. I think there have been a lot of improvements made over the last year or two and while we've not had a monthly update from @Alex in a while, the work hasn't stopped. There are some things being tested on test server at the moment as well. He's also brought on additional staff this year, which he's never had before really. While I'm sure there are more things that can be done to improve the game, I'm a little confused at where this is coming from given the increased rate of updates over the last 1-2 years and the additional effort Alex has put in over that time frame. Is there an actual issue or is it the lack of transparency with regards to not having had an update since August, it looks? Perhaps we're overdue for that and that will let us know better where things stand?

[Deborah Kobayashi]

While I have to agree with Adrienne that the pace has definitely increased compared to 2018, I do think there should be more transparency when possible about projected timeframes & delays.
like why was the alliance roles update delayed so long after first being confirmed? was this ever explained and I just missed it?

Edited January 31, 2022 by Deborah Kobayashi

[Prefontaine]

8 hours ago, Deborah Kobayashi said:

While I have to agree with Adrienne that the pace has definitely increased compared to 2018, I do think there should be more transparency when possible about projected timeframes & delays.
like why was the alliance roles update delayed so long after first being confirmed? was this ever explained and I just missed it?

I can answer that. Simply put, priorities. Additional content often takes a back seat to fixes to problems, investigations in exploits and bugs, and moderation issues. Combine that with the holiday season recently and that this is not Alex's only job, some content takes a back seat. A large portion of Alex's time has been taken up by moderation issues, forums, game, and discord included which is why there are now paid moderators.

Specifically the alliance roles change has taken a lot of coding and add that in to the above information, that's why it's taken so long. Part of the reasoning behind increasing the Credit cap per month is an attempt to bring in more revenue to invest more into the game to keep content rolling. 

[Kosta]

16 hours ago, Adrienne said:

Just for additional context, my list is a compilation of the smaller suggestions from the Game Suggestions subforum rather than a list of my own ideas, if there was any confusion there. Just because a suggestion is made however, doesn't mean it will be implemented. My list also shows which changes have been implemented. It's a bit out of date but I've been working to update it this weekend and will continue that throughout the next week or so to get it back in date. You can also see what changes have been implemented through the Announcements subforum here: https://forum.politicsandwar.com/index.php?/forum/3-announcements-updates/.

Thanks for the clarification Adrienne. All I wanted to communicate by mentioning your post was that your list is an example of great suggestions for the game. The vast majority of which have not been implemented to the game. 

16 hours ago, Adrienne said:

I think updates are coming now more than ever though. I think there have been a lot of improvements made over the last year or two and while we've not had a monthly update from @Alex in a while, the work hasn't stopped. There are some things being tested on test server at the moment as well. He's also brought on additional staff this year, which he's never had before really.

Thanks for the information. Its great to hear that things are happening. Although, I don't believe the amount of content that has been coming out these past two years is completely satisfactory.

16 hours ago, Adrienne said:

While I'm sure there are more things that can be done to improve the game, I'm a little confused at where this is coming from given the increased rate of updates over the last 1-2 years and the additional effort Alex has put in over that time frame. Is there an actual issue or is it the lack of transparency with regards to not having had an update since August, it looks? Perhaps we're overdue for that and that will let us know better where things stand?

Honestly, this post comes from simply years of waiting for more content to drop. Discussions with fellow members and other leaders. I am stoked to hear that Alex is putting more effort in, however I hope that effort actually bears fruit. 

16 hours ago, Deborah Kobayashi said:

While I have to agree with Adrienne that the pace has definitely increased compared to 2018, I do think there should be more transparency when possible about projected timeframes & delays.

Seems like perfectly reasonable suggestion. 

7 hours ago, Prefontaine said:

I can answer that. Simply put, priorities. Additional content often takes a back seat to fixes to problems, investigations in exploits and bugs, and moderation issues. Combine that with the holiday season recently and that this is not Alex's only job, some content takes a back seat. A large portion of Alex's time has been taken up by moderation issues, forums, game, and discord included which is why there are now paid moderators.

Thanks Prefontaine. I hope these paid moderators are effective and we do see more content/improvements drop. 

7 hours ago, Prefontaine said:

pecifically the alliance roles change has taken a lot of coding and add that in to the above information, that's why it's taken so long. Part of the reasoning behind increasing the Credit cap per month is an attempt to bring in more revenue to invest more into the game to keep content rolling. 

I can see this simply being a money grab. However if it is to invest more into the game that's awesome. I wonder however how the extra cash would be invested? Would there be another developer hired? 

[katashimon13]

GG yall made Kosta be slightly negative about the game
das how u know they srs

transparency on how much goes in and server costs etc would be preferred but probably not going to be released

19 hours ago, Kosta said:

However recently (past year) I have weakened my stance on this.

:smug:

18 hours ago, Adrienne said:

It's a bit out of date

probably cause i gave up on @ ing u and alex forever ago >_<

rawr

[Dr Rush]

I'd like to observe that just cause you can't see them doesn't mean changes are not being made. Lately a lot of dev has been going into building out a moderation system for the mods to use. As for alliance permissions, there have been several exploits that have cropped and that causes the project to get pushed further back. 

Edited February 1, 2022 by Dr Rush

[Kosta]

23 hours ago, katashimon13 said:

transparency on how much goes in and server costs etc would be preferred but probably not going to be released

I'm not sure if that would be a reasonable thing to ask Alex for. 

 

6 hours ago, Dr Rush said:

I'd like to observe that just cause you can't see them doesn't mean changes are not being made. Lately a lot of dev has been going into building out a moderation system for the mods to use.

Do you believe this new moderation system will free up more dev time? 

[Dr Rush]

On 2/1/2022 at 7:40 PM, Kosta said:

Do you believe this new moderation system will free up more dev time? 

A great deal tbh, the entire point of alex hiring on people was to take over this process almost entirely. Also currently there are 4 places where stuff gets reported getting that condensed to 1 will greatly speed up things. 

[Aglet Guyn]

31 minutes ago, Dr Rush said:

A great deal tbh, the entire point of alex hiring on people was to take over this process almost entirely. Also currently there are 4 places where stuff gets reported getting that condensed to 1 will greatly speed up things. 

I had no idea there were new mods.

Wait so this o0z0o guy IS a new mod?

Wow if Alex counters me on his behalf boy will I be embarrassed!  I guess I'd better take that peace/truce offer before Admin Alliance counterattacks.

[Dr Rush]

2 hours ago, Aglet Guyn said:

I had no idea there were new mods.

Wait so this o0z0o guy IS a new mod?

Wow if Alex counters me on his behalf boy will I be embarrassed!  I guess I'd better take that peace/truce offer before Admin Alliance counterattacks.

Who?

Can confirm I know who the mods are and that is not one of them. Tbh, you should report that, mods would have a field day over their titles being used in vain.

[Aglet Guyn]

2 hours ago, Dr Rush said:

Who?

Can confirm I know who the mods are and that is not one of them. Tbh, you should report that, mods would have a field day over their titles being used in vain.

Check my post history here; I reported him yesterday as two people on the same network (or a multi) attacking each other.

[Kosta]

Just for the record.

The last "major" update for the game was on the 20th November, 2020. Giving us 4 projects. 

 

Since that update a few very minor updates were released.

 

Alex just announced on the 16th of March, 2022 of his next "major" update for upcoming changes.

 

Alex has stated that the update was ready to be released today however it will be released after the war. So technically we still haven't received the update. 

 

The time between the last "major" update and when this new update was ready is 1 year, 4 months and 2 days.

In my honest opinion, I don't think that is a reasonable speed for updates for this game at all. Especially considering that the vast majority of good suggestions for the game are minor quality of life improvements. Of course there are other more lengthy updates to be done, however that should not take 1 whole damn year.

From my experiences developers place a huge amount of energy into producing a complete game for little reward and then their product pays off after it is successful and popular (in Alex's case that would be plenty of donations). Instead what we are seeing is Alex expanding the credit system before he has proven to us that he is able to update the game in a timely manner and provide us content that we need.

Please note: As I have said before I wish no disrespect to Alex at all. This is simply my perspective from what I have seen playing P&W for the past 4 years.

I hope that I am not the only one with this sentiment. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Kosta
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