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Can you read your own words and see how negative the tone is? Be honest
The Altruist, Invulnerability/Super Strength Stalwart.
If you want to maintain a somewhat professional image. You take time to write official statements. Every word they write, weighs down on them and the product. If they want to write about 300 words (which isn't much) they could just rush it, probably emotional and with hints of a stressful day, and that wouldn't show their professionalism at all.
That wouldn't take 15min, because every company writes official announcements (unlike posts) after they discussed the content of the text internally, with PR-Managers and other PR-related people.
I know, I know, they are volunteers. However, even they need to have all that, at the end Missing Worlds Media is a name, a brand and so still in need of a clean, profane-free and objective image.
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Corporate announcements don't usually just go through the PR department, than may also have to reviewed by the Legal department as well. Where I work, all announcements are reviewed by a panel consisting of Upper Management, PR and Legal. heh, took over a month for an internal announcement to come out and by the time it did, it was already too late, everyone knew what is was. But NOW its official. sigh.
Thanks for your insight!
Well it just solidifies my statement. That it isn't just 15min writing.
Legal department as well, huh? Interesting and makes of course sense.
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No, I dont see any negative tone. There certainly wasnt any negativity in my intent. Can you point out where you see my negativity?
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
Where you work sounds extremely inefficient. This just comes back to the importance of communication. If you're telling me they could possibly launch Issue 0 before being able to throw together an official announcement...something is wrong, very, very wrong.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
Two things:
First - where I work is a multinational conglomerate and announcements that are international in scope can take a long time to get through the pipeline.
Second - I was talking ONLY about my company, not MWM. How they handle communications is their business and I'm sorry that it doesn't meet your expectations. ????
Just putting this out there, but here is my thought process:
- The AB is, for all intents and purposes, exclusive to those that backed the kickstarter.
- Recently, it has been mentione of the Kickstarter, then they need to ensure that the email that they used for Kickstarter is ready to receive emails from MWM, and to verify that the messages aren’t going to any sort of spam or junk folder. It is smart to post that here, for if they sent it in an email then those poor folks that don’t have their spam filter sorted out are a bit up a creek for communication.
- Communication... There has been a fair amount of information, and yes it has been across several areas / media forms / forum posts and threads / etc. however something common is that there is no formal announcement on the boards.
- I am by no means jumping onto this band wagon - in fact I offer a counter idea: what if the reason there hasn’t been a formal (as in forum based) announcement made, is because of how they are going about the wave selection? I may have missed it, or forgotten about it as this thread has been going on for a bit now, but I do not believe that I have seen a single account with the Kickstarter badge complain* about the lack of communication with regards to when the AB is going to be released. So the importance of that is, for whatever reason (like, say perhaps, legal?) the announcement wasn’t made here in the forums, but instead was sent in an email blast to backers via their Kickstarter email. *Since the previously mentioned post about checking email was made.
As far as the Second Chance bit goes, they could easily wait another 2 years without batting an eye about that. This is where the entirely volunteer part is important: they have several THOUSAND people that they have to allow in whatever format they can logically allow, in as many waves as they can logically allow. Why is volunteer status pertinent? Because last we heard, their server is running out of a dev’s basement. I’m no tech guru by any means, but I’m sure there is a lot that goes on with getting things to the point where they can handle a wave. So much testing is happening, that they have mentioned in the past is too boring / uninteresting for the masses, that they have to take baby steps to ensure the best possible result for everyone that is currently able to partisipate in the AB.
They can afford to wait because of these small steps to ensure quality. During this waiting period for the second chance is when we will most likely see the new website come up, along with increased marking / PR info.
While MWM has made it clear that they appreciate everyone, for their sake they only have obligations to those that donated to their cause. The rest of us are on the back burner, and understandably so. They do well by us with all of the images and information that they post.
Feel free to rip my thoughts to shreds, but keep in mind they are just that: thoughts.
This! [size=18]Is![/size] [size=20][b]TITAN CITY![/b][/size]
Thanks for the update!
Aaand since it's a been a minute:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/WHvAeo1.gif[/img]
Hehe, I've already a couple of tubs full. Need to find something different to munch on.
Grey Stone the announcements said the Avatar Builder would be out this year, nothing has changed. You even got a dev in the forums confirming that each minute, but you're still unsatisfied. Now you're asking that they make an announcement for each word they add in the forums compared to the official announcement.
The announcement is more than enough, if you get more details in the forum posts is because they're also present daily there, and of course any person that cannot stand to lose those details should follow the forum through this:
https://cityoftitans.com/forum/dev-comments
You don't really need to know each minute if they're on track or not, and even so you're still getting the confirmation each minute.
Of course if a dev is present DAILY in the forums is going to release some more details compared to a monthly or weekly announcement, the most important news are still publicly announced and still true. We should feel lucky to get some more details, not ask that those become announcements too because we're lazy to track down devs post, I'm sure you don't want to indirectly suggest the devs to stop posting and give out announcements only, right?
I can just suggest that:
MWM is always looking for volunteers to help.
If someone wants to help them and maybe take some heavy weight from them, you could apply for a position. Just write someone from MWM, say what you can do and maybe they will have a job for you.
Ask them, what you can expect to do exactly, how those things work and how you need to work.
I don't say "If you don't want to support them by helping you're not a true fan!" No, lol. I just want to give you a little push, if you already played with the thought, but didn't know if you are allowed to ask.
(I asked)
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Well, for better or worse, I do have expectations that only need to be met for me to donate. But they don't have to meet them, obviously. I'm only one donator, after all, and my lack of donation wont affect them at all.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
I apologize for miscommunicating! My intent was not to say I wanted more. I didn’t realize my words came across that way.
My intention was to put out the idea that they may not be allowed to disclose certain information (ie that the AB has actually been released) and that MWM is in fact communicating, but just to the people the information is pertinent to. In my head, the thought process was that they wouldn’t post that it’s live and then deal with the backlash of community complaints about not being included in that particular wave, or from non-backers blowing up every dev they can find about when the second chance will be.
I guess it was too implicit, but I’ll make it explicit: I am more than happy with the amount of information, and with the way in which said information is being communicated, to me as a member of this community.
So, again, my apologies for my words not making sense. I’ll politely bow out to save myself from unintentionally going further in the opposite direction than I intend.
This! [size=18]Is![/size] [size=20][b]TITAN CITY![/b][/size]
I understood what you were trying to getting at Grey Stone. And yes, if the beta had started, we the general populace, would not know about it.
NDA's are quite specific about what can be revealed by the testers, which usually is: Nothing. Not one word. Can't even reveal that you are in a beta.
So sometimes, Silence really is Golden. ????
Most of the people "defending the devs" are making valid arguments, but not this one. It's not us that should feel lucky.
$678,189 pledged of $320,000 goal.
The people that donated all that are well within their rights to ask questions; again, provided they do it without being rude or insulting. Now if you didn't donate, you're in no position to be making demands, but I think we can reasonably ignore anyone that does that.
[color=red]PR Team, Forum Moderator, Live Response Team[/color]
I suspect this beta isn't going to be under that tight of an NDA- we've got the second chance coming up, and I'm sure a lot of the testers are also going to double as marketing to get new people to donate.
[color=red]PR Team, Forum Moderator, Live Response Team[/color]
I really hope you're right about this, as I want to show off what I can make with the AB. When I can make anything with the AB,that is. ^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
We'll know when people will have their access... Those forums will be empty of people xD
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Suivez l'avancement du jeu City of Titans en Français sur https://titanscity.com
http://forum.titanscity.com | www.facebook.com/titanscity | http://twitter.com/TitansCity
[color=red]PR - Europe[/color]
"OH MY GOD, It's been a week since they said they were on track and there's only THREE WEEKS LEFT TO GO! It's OBVIOUSLY IN DANGER!"
Just.... chill....
They announced when they had a hardware failure, and when it was fixed still went "We think we can still hit the deadline." They could have said nothing, nothing about the hardware failure, nothing about it's affect on the deadline.
What kind of updates do you want? Do they need to post every day "Fixed some bugs, still on track". Exactly what information are people expecting to get? What announcement do you want? A specific date? Even MMOs who announce a patch is coming on a certain day often delay it.
We're at a stage where the dev team is playing an updating build. We've seen examples of the creator, we've had community members able to meet up and try it themselves. The devs take extra time out of working on it to make a collage of faces when people were crying to see faces. Whether by December 21st's 'fall' deadline or January there is a product we're seeing clear progress on.
You don't like that November/December are 'fall'? I shovel snow in April but it's still 'spring'. December is still Quarter 3 for the year on a business calendar. 12am is 'midnight' even when the sun sets at 9pm and raises at 5am with daylight savings, welcome to the fallible world of labels.
Want to know the worst case scenario if they don't release by Dec 21st? It comes out later. The sky doesn't fall, the world doesn't end, and the staff of MWM don't punch your kid and spit on your breakfast. It just comes out later.
I get everyone is passionate, but for some of these complaints about communication, I honestly don't know what could appease you.
+1
My thoughts exactly.
"If I am to die in battle, Remember me for who I was and not what I've become..."
Actually people on Beta can still post here. Just can't say anything about it is all.
I too hope that the DEVs will be willing to do "Controlled" (as in, they pick and choose) data releases.
I'm pretty sure Beta testers will be having impromptu Costume Contests. And I hope the Devs will post a Best Of The Best.
I'm with Jigg. Chill y'all
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
As of this moment I don't have any more info as a backer than anyone else here, but I will say in the defence of the people raising concerns that (1) I don't think they have been inappropriately negative and (2) their concerns are valid when it comes to the paucity of information regarding the plans for release and the effect that is having on some players' expectations. I have raised the issue of communication several times over the past couple years, though I hope it came across as helpful suggestions rather than complaining. As far as I'm concerned, it remains an area for improvement.
Spurn all ye kindle.
I think what TitansCity meant was that those who are in the beta would be too busy to post here. There is a flaw in his logic, however, as I would not be likely to use the AB while at work (unless I can get it working on my Kindle Fire or on my phone) but I would be able to post during breaks as I often do. That might become the only time I post here...
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
I was gonna let it lie, but then you had to go and post something like this....It's kind of ironic that I get accused of negativity and creating a toxic environment with sarcasm and cynicism, and then condescending and hyperbolic comments like this are lauded. Sorry, but people have a different understanding and expectation of the release of information from a game that is several years on in development. Pardon me for my skepticism and concern of progress, when we have yet to see a single shred of evidence that there is actually any combat or city zone material in place, at least not for quite some time. Pardon my skepticism when information has to be pried out from the devs, and is distributed more in various scattered locations, like the forums, YouTube comments, or Facebook, than it is on their official updates.
Wanna know what would appease me and others like me? Combat footage. City footage. Or at the very minimum, a simple list of what they have finished and what they don't. No they don't have to update it every second, but I've asked for this repeatedly, and they claim it's impossible. Why? Nearly every game I know that's in development has something like this available to the public. Why should they get a pass on this basic thing that helps the community know the progress of their development?
As I said, I'm happy with what's been said here, and will let them continue to work on what they are trying to get out without further criticism, but this whole situation could have been avoided by having something like what I mentioned above. If they are planning to become a professional development team, they would be wise to work on getting something like this together in the near future.
Communication =/= release date.
Why does everyone keep acting like this thread is angrily demanding a release date be met?
[color=red]PR Team, Forum Moderator, Live Response Team[/color]
I had (past tense) no intention of defending the devs, more so before actually having the chance to evaluate their work, because you know... I may yell at them afterwards (there is always a remote chance, even if my personal guess at the moment is that I will be satisfied).
But several users are forcing my hand here, because I feel compelled to do what's right. Now the right thing to do imho it's to begin counter/balance the exaggeration I see growing on some hotheads (I'm an hothead my self, so I should be good at understanding that).
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[b]1)[/b] When you receive for free something that's rare, you're objectively lucky for whatever standards.
Devs presence and communication to such levels as shown here (DAILY posts by devs) it's rare. You got it, you're lucky.
It's simple like that. I agree with you if you tell me that should be an expected behaviour by all devs, the normality, and that daily communication should be part of their paid duties, but it's not. Right now in this world, it's rare like a diamond, therefore right now you're lucky, more so because they're not even paid in all the hours they spend for you.
[b]POSITIVE CRITICISM[/b] > My suggestion is that you (plural) begin to recognize that, instead of acting against it.
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[b]2)[/b] Did you try to put in perspective the amount of money with what was shown till now? I speak about screens and animations for example?
Do I need to post you images of Project Gorgon and gifs of their animations? Do I need to post you the last indy-level (meh) screens and videos of another City of Heroes clone? Did you see all the other indy titles out there?
I think some of you think this game got a triple A budget, but it's not, it's an indy budget level. An indy budget level that's producing somehow a triple A level graphics.
I'm not even going to add the passion shown in the maths and story sides of the game, just the graphics should be enough already and easier to compare.
[b]POSITIVE CRITICISM[/b] > Put things in perspective, contextualize. Don't just think about "$678,189" with no context just to feel compelled and justified to rage out at will/randomly.
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[b]3)[/b] I'm sure deep down we all know all this drama some of you are putting out (in this particular moment, close release, what a coincidence) comes from the impatience to see their work. This is a childish behaviour at best, since the impatience it self is children peculiarity.
We all like to ACT as children when we joke about "I cant wait! Release it already!", it's perfectly fine to ACT like children to joke around or in game environments, but not when that behaviour becomes serious.
Is it that difficult to wait a couple of weeks more as anticipated by an official announcement and maybe rage when you have something to rage about?
I saw some of you comment that they're "preparing to rage at release" (some were joking, some were serious), what does that even mean for adults?
I'd really like to keep ignoring all of you with such behaviour and return to my calm waiting but your vocal raging (for no actual decent reason) is reaching the point where it's difficult to actual skip the drama-posts and read the rest of the forums.
[b]POSITIVE CRITICISM[/b] > For the users: Patience.
[b]POSITIVE CRITICISM[/b] > For the devs: Don't let the product of impatience eat at you and your passion, when it's based on nothing. The game will be mostly the product of your passion (since the money isn't much), we can't let it be damaged for nothing. Feedback must be always welcome but when it's reasonable and based on your decisions, work and behaviour, not random preemptive lashing out.
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[b]4)[/b] You know why I did put money instead of actually helping in development? My first excuse would be that my skills are not tripleA level (therefore I would have been refused), but the truth is that I'm sure I could have helped in some way and [u]I didn't even try[/u]... because it's easier to just wait that somebody else creates my dream, it's just easier to put the money and forget, than my personal time. I'm the lazy sheep, what right I have to harshly judge who's doing better than me and with such scarce resources or for free?
[b]POSITIVE CRITICISM[/b] > Don't lie to yourself, at any level, it's useless and counterproductive. Each of us knows what we deserve and what we don't deep down and the time for the real evaluation has not even come yet in this context.
Amen.
Hear Hear
Just WOW
[color=Red]Senior Gameplay Engineer.[/color]
My spiritual friend!
How is coding doing? (You can let some information slip, it's okay ;))
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I tip my CAP to you, sir/ma'am (pun intended). Well said.
Quite so.
"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle
I don't have time to respond to all of your points here, nor will I be baited into a pointless back and forth in regards to the insinuated personal attacks you inserted into your post.
What I will say is that we'll just have to agree to disagree. You and others clearly think the project is doing fine in it's approach to PR. Great. Good for you.
Myself and others disagree. However, the end result of my personal voicing of concern and curiousity on this matter has been responded to directly by the devs. Which I applaud. I wish they had done it in a more formal and consistently official way, but it is what it is. I got the information I have sought by creating this thread. Think what you will of my intention for creating it, and feel free to discourage threads like it in the future, but having seen how this team works, I know that sometimes you have to poke the bear to make sure it's still alive. I got what I was looking for here, and will let them do their thing now. Your response to my successful inquiry is completely unnecessary.
In terms of being unable to avoid posts like these, it's one post in one of many forums. Not sure how it's so hard to avoid posts like these. There are lots of other places you can click. If you don't like these kinds of threads, don't click on them. There are plenty of other threads here for you to enjoy, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with the subject of this one.
I'm really trying to keep it civil here, but when you chime in with this sort of unproductive and unhelpful stuff, especially in a way that calls into question our personal character, and basically telling us to sit down, shut up, and consider ourselves grateful that the devs even grace us with their presence, it's really hard. Maybe keep that in mind when you go accusing others of stirring drama.
As it stands, the people here on the forums are dialed in and waiting for the most part. There is a much larger group not watching or waiting for whatever happens. Some of my friends have turned skeptical and decided to come back next summer. Games like star citizen have turned people off to indefinite development. I want something as close to coh as I can get, so I will wait, but remember the people on this forum are as close to true believers as you will find, so lets keep it friendly and hold on to our horses.
Locking this thread might not be a terrible idea.....
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
Honestly, that would be fine with me.
I just quit playing WoW a couple weeks ago and I don't intend to pick it up again unless I get desperate.
"Just, well, update your kickstarter email addresses, okay? Make sure they're current?" - warcabbit
I am no longer active on the art team because my wife is battling brain cancer, but Dr. Tychie has kept me on as an honorary developer. I can tell you this, the team knows what they have promised and it upsets them when real life jumps up and something doesn't work out the way they want. I had hoped that NCSoft would release the City of Heroes code but they didn't. They dragging out the negotiations. In my opinion, they want City of Titans to disappear, lose it's support because the players creating the game NCSoft could not sustain makes them look bad. It has taken five years because they have built the game from scratch. The Kickstarter money goes to the necessary hardware and software to make this game. The developers will release this game they now call home. They have lived and sacrificed this dream and it will soon be a reality. As I said, I'm on the sidelines with you these last few years, I'm looking forward to this game too. Because, my wife wants her stone tank back, so Griffin and Tiger can return to the community we loved. I've had the pleasure of listening to the stories of the developers and the passion they have to make this game. Please be patient, they want to get this right the first time. NCSoft has failed this community MWM will not. The game is coming and it will get better with your help. Thank you all for your support in this mad, and frantic time. I look forward to seeing you all in Issue 0.
With all due respect, no one on this thread is asking them to hurry or move up deadlines or even release future deadlines. No one is asking them to sacrifice their personal time outside of their own commitment. Nor is anyone here, as far as I remember, debating the quality of their work. Nor is anyone on this thread complaining due to impatience with the project's timeline.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
Kid Raid's original post is a reminder that time is running out. I asked for patience. Your's is the developers communicating and giving details. I don't have the details you want, but I would again ask for patience. They have announced that a new web page is in the works and hopefully it will facilitate the information in one place with the details that they can give. If you have skills that can help facilitate this need you can always volunteer. But, in that, I would also ask for patience, it takes time to go through the process.
I'm not impatient with the game. They, MWM, set the Fall 2018 expectation. Asking for better communication is not being impatient. I want MWM to appear more professional to both get new fans excited for and trusting in their efforts. My argument is only that I think they could improve communication. I even voiced my opinion that they consider pushing back the release so they had that much less stress during the holidays and had more time for their families...that is extremely important. It is not impatience driving my fingers on the keyboard.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
"We need to communicate better" is one of those great key phrases that is rarely untrue, but it's one that I usually hear from executive leadership detached from any tangible direction, process, or investment necessary to make it meaningful, so I hate it. Good communication is incredibly valuable but isn't free. It requires resources and committments that critics seem unwilling to acknowledge. They feel validated by their (correct) statement but add little to the conversation on where the "better" process should be or how it balances against reality. With indie budgets and volunteer availability, striking the right balance can tend to be a bit of a work-in-progress.
Not saying you're wrong. You DID even acknowledge that communicating a delay to balance family and holidays would be beneficial. You're giving tangible solutions. Consider it an invitation to go into more depth and let's work to build consensus among the community in what we find reasonable.
I've found that at this stage, though, a dev's natural tendency is to go radio silent. When you're at a production deadline, something else always seems more critical... which, if addressed, would mean much better news in that communication, which in turn makes managing that messaging easier and less distracting from your primary work, which means you can hit project Y, too... which introduces yet another bug, so you hunker down and just *work*, hoping that the next set of tests will be clean and then tomorrow, you'll have great news for everyone, but then there's another one and another, and if they can wait another day, we can get this nailed down and... whaddaya mean nobody was on task Z, alphabetical order aside, that's a prerequisite for x and y delivery!... and next thing you know... October's gone and... wait... November too?
Sometimes they need someone to throw something at them to bring them back to reality.
You could always throw a bone at them. The question is, if they will understand the reason why you do that or going to misinterpret it.
There is always room for improvement. No one denies that. However, maybe we (me included) should try to write something more neutral instead of a easy to misinterpret kind of text.
I thought about some of the posts (not only on this thread, it's meant to be general statement) to be somewhat unfair and just negative. They weren't rude at all, but really had the frustration and impatience burned in them.
Maybe I am just overly sensitive and interpreting a lot of those posts wrong. Both sides are getting too much heated up at the moment.
Reminding them is not a bad thing per se, it's how you remind them and if it's like a daily or hourly persistent one, that can be disheartening to some people.
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In my opinion a proper response to this message starts with something like, "I'm sorry to hear about your wife's cancer because it's about to get its @#$ kicked. Please tell her to keep up the good fight, and that we are all rooting for her."
Then continue bitching about how you're not bitching and whatnot.
By the way Tiger, I am sorry to hear about your wife's cancer because it's about to get its @#$ kicked. Please tell her to keep up the good fight, and that we are all rooting for her.
"THE TITANS ARE COMING! THE TITANS ARE COMING!"
Oh my, sorry!
I didn't see that, it just jumps me always to the last post.
Tiger, I am sorry about your wife's cancer. My grandfather might have one as well, though it'd be lung cancer.
I wish you and your wife the best of luck and good health.
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Please Tiger, tell your wife to keep strong. Tell her to kick cancers butt!
Ty devs for your honesty. I will wait how ever long it takes for this game. :)
Sorry to hear! I hope you have the best medicine available, and from a place where you won't go bankrupt.
I know this team is passionate and wants a good product fast, and I'm willing to wait for it :)
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
Tiger, thank you so much for posting, you clearly have other stuff going on. I'm really sorry to hear about your wife. Best of luck to her, we're all rooting for her.
I think you're right about the team. They're doing the best they can with what they have. As hard as it may be to believe, our criticism comes from a place of support. I personally want nothing more than to see this project succeed, not just for myself, but for all people who lost the home they had in CoH. I believe they can do it. Hopefully the volunteer phase of the project is approaching its end in the near future. I know they are more than capable of doing what is necessary to make it happen, at which point they will hopefully be able to have some more dedicated efforts in the PR department and a better website and all that jazz. The only reason we know any of this info is because the devs communicated it to us. It may not have been in a condensed official place, but they have done what they can to respond to any inquiries that have been made. It's not ideal, but I get that they're doing what they can when they can.
I really appreciate your response, as well as the response of other devs in this thread. Thanks for responding to the community and keeping us informed. Again, we are rooting for all of you, and will understand if you need to take the holiday season off for personal time. Please don't sacrifice your family time for the sake of a game. Family is more important.
Thank you all for your kind words. My wife is tanking the cancer, holding the aggro, saying "I got this!" Also, I'm refreshing my email, and checking my Kickstarter account too. I know how you all feel. I'm right here with you.
Lol I can't be baited it's the reason I hardly ever post here. Coding is going fine btw thanks for asking.
[color=Red]Senior Gameplay Engineer.[/color]
Well that's okay then :)
Don't drink too much coffein, always be the better garbage collector and may the Stackoverflow post be answered correctly with working code!
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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9 days until winter. Hopefully this time next year we will be playing the christmas event.
Idk what time zone you're in but there're 10 days from winter solstice here in winnipeg ;)
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
9 days 21 hours 15 min
Round to the nearest day isssssssss......kden ;)
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
*looks at his compiler and groans*
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Please don't waste time groaning. You can do it! ^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Need an extra hamster for the power-wheel?
Don't be like an old co-worker of mine and think that if it compiles it's good to go. :-)
Spurn all ye kindle.
Well if it doesn't compile it's definitely not good to go :p
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[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
At least it compiles lol
Don't "syntax error" me, debugger! Don't tell me what to do!
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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This is a crosspost of something I said in the "Alpha/Beta testing" thread, but I felt it was relevant to this thread as well.
_________________________
If what the devs have communicated as their revenue generating ideas is still accurate, this is going to be a very interesting few months as the developers will [I]slowly transition[/I] from being "volunteers" into actual paid "video game developers."
When, and if, that happens, there will be less (note: definitely not none, but less) reasoning they can bank on by saying it's an all volunteer run operation. [B]There will still be bottlenecks[/b] with those of which do not transition first and need to remain with their current jobs, as game devo will still be the afterthought in their lives.
If they have changed their values on this and have now decided that once money comes in they [I]won't[/I] transition into paid staff until most of the team can, then I have my concerns and reasoning to believe the actual playable Superhero MMORPG will be delayed even further. And that's really disheartening to me.
But I'm just trying to be logical about this whole thing, and just point out what the devs have said in the past, and trying to communicate the patterns I've seen with their development so far.
This week just started and MWM is still technically in Fall/Autumn, so hopefully we do get something by end of week. We'll see.
Not gonna lie, there's a couple people in this thread that owe Kid Rad an apology.
[color=red]PR Team, Forum Moderator, Live Response Team[/color]
From the KS post,
Dear Titans
This is Chris 'Warcabbit' Hare, project lead of City of Titans.
First of all, I’d like to thank all of you. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning, or if you’ve recently found us, it’s your support and enthusiasm that keeps this keeps this project alive. It’s not exaggerating to say that without you, there is no City of Titans.
Unfortunately, I have the sad duty to tell you that we are not going to be able to launch in 2018.
We've made a lot of progress over the last year. The character creator is almost ready to hit alpha, and has been undergoing intense internal testing. The UI is innovative and incredibly practical.
The combat system is making huge progress - every major combat type of activity is functional and being tested- from buffing to healing to debuffing and knockback. No matter how you choose to play, we should have a style for you. ( new Videos up on the Youtube Channel as well )
And about our mission system, well... look for yourselves!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PpDcGrPtm0
This mission video was written by GeeksGoneBad, our best technical artist. It’s meant to show multiple choices and different mission ends - as well as instancing into new maps. Santa’s back from last year, but we’ve got no Baby New Year - you’ll have to deal with an elf instead. That’s acceptable, right? (And yes, that elf, like everyone else in the map, comes from the character creator. Look at those ears!)
And we’re very glad to present to you the first procedurally generated mission map. This is based on the ‘Office’ theme, and every element in it has been placed by rules, not by hand. If you look carefully in the cubicles, every desk is slightly different - even the post-its are in different locations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoURBmDFIdc
(What to ignore: The final animation setup is in a different project: the jump is missing essential infrastructure to smooth it, so it cycles in a loop. The dialogue boxes themselves are slated for replacement, but we’ve got a system capable of handling branching decisions now. Also, the foliage jumps into view far too close to the camera. Part of this is not having a megafast computer to record on - recording takes a lot of horsepower. The second video has a bit of lag. We’re working on it.)
We've improved auras over the last month, from the spinning globes you saw on Instagram to a much more holistic effect.
The character creator can make believable people from every continent, giving us the look of a realistic American city - and giving you the chance to make a character that looks like you.,
We continue to move steadily forwards. But we have had setbacks.
We've had a number of issues. We lost our primary data repository, repaired it, got it working for a whole three more days, at which point it then decided to stop working forever.
Luckily, the first thing we did when we got it back up was to pull all the data off it. We didn’t lose anything critical, but it still took a while to completely replace it with a new piece of hardware at a new location. Which, of course, required us to completely rebuild our internal network setup. It’s sort of like doing home repairs. You start off with needing to fix a cabinet, find dry rot behind it, and next thing you know, you’re doing the whole kitchen and the plumbing.
That alone set us back at least three months. On top of that were a lot of smaller, related issues. Things that had to be delayed because something else wasn’t working properly. Things that just weren’t coming together as expected, and even a few things that were redone because a better method had been found . We also had some non-development related issues - for example, on a personal level, someone ran a red light into my car. With a pickup truck. I was hurting pretty badly for a while.
We've had people lose their jobs, get ill from infections from hurricanes, have surgery for cancer, have deaths in the family - if it's not one thing, it's five others.
Despite all that, the work continued. The character creator advanced amazingly during those months, and we were able to take some of the lessons we learned from it, and apply those to other parts of the game design.
We're still here. We're still fighting.
And we're going to deliver on our promises.
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Sorry for Hogging the Forum just wanted to let everyone see this,
Read the original thread here : https://cityoftitans.com/content/end-year-summary-2018
Thanks to Captain Titan for the post to keep things rolling.
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
And one to Dark Cleric also, imo.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Hmmmmm, yeah, I'm gonna have to sort of disagree with you there. (voice of manager from Office Space movie)
I reviewed the thread a bit and early on one was a bit negative with comments about "sweet time" and whatnot. The other completely ignored things like cancer and just kept droning on about what they were saying.
Perhaps someone was less than polite to them, but IMO they got what they gave on that one.
That being said I do think MWM could have done a better job managing expectations. I read almost every thread and I don't recall ever seeing that the server blew up 3 days after replacing the mobo.
"THE TITANS ARE COMING! THE TITANS ARE COMING!"
Agreed. 99% of the post made were about everyone's expectations regarding the release date. Some were polite, some not so much. We just need to agree to disagree without rancor.
I don't think anyone owes me an apology, being vindicated is satisfying enough. I didn't see the dicussions here as hostile or in ill will from any perspective (at least not any of the discussions I took part in directly, I can't speak for other discussions that others engaged in). Disagreement is fine and healthy, and I think my final message in this thread was nothing more than civil. In the end, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they would be good to their word.
Unfortunately, it seems my faith was ill placed, and that in the end my skepticism was justified. I just wish they had been more transparent and realistic in how they set expectations. As soon as things started going south, they should have recognized it and made it known. As I said in the update thread, it's a simple matter of good management and good PR. They seem to be lacking in both those departments.
Going forward, they need to do a much better job of setting expectations. Under promise and over deliver, as the saying goes. I think they also need to better prioritize development and what they show to the public. I'm not sure why they showed a video of missions, and traveling a long distance, when clearly neither of those were ready for public display. Anyone can make a little choose your adventure text box, and run around in a world with a poorly made animation. Getting hundreds and thousands of people together in that world, with highly refined animations and an engaging storyline is a totally different story. They need to focus on only showing what is worth showing, and work on making ready the most worthwhile things. Their character creator is close to done, they could have given an up close and personal demo of that. Frankly, given the state that we've seen, I don't get why we can't have direct access to that yet. Allow us to make our characters and play around with what you have. Put that into alpha already. What's the delay there? Even if it is not online, we can post our creations on the forum and build excitement. If the other stuff is not done, that's fine, don't show us, but do let us know where things are at overall. It definitely seems the video was thrown together at the last minute, which is also not a good look. When you make a video, it should be something that you're proud to show. Can that really be said about what we saw? Again, don't you think a much more impressive video could have been made in the character creator? The mission creator was interesting, but it's also not really anything different from what we've seen before. Still, that was good to see. The lack of combat was certainly concerning though. As I've said previously, we have seen combat in the past, and yet mysteriously, it has disappeared from any and all updates. What happened? Did you lose that work somehow? What is the current state of combat? Without combat, there is no game.
I know that, as always, I probably come off as over critical, but I just want it to succeed. I don't see that being possible with poor communication, rushed out update videos, and blind faith. Something has to change. I hope that if anything, that lessons will be learned here, and the team will try better to communicate going forward. Time will tell.
+1
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
Long block of text.
Still I agree with the majority of the points. For me it's not blind faith, as I know how hard it is to create even simple games. (No not at the level of Pong, lol)
It's true their communication was lacking and they couldn't reach the target, again.
I also agree with you that MWM could already let the first wave of backers into the game, but only, if the networks working. They said that they needed to re-install the network and still are working on it, so maybe that's why they cannot do that.
The offline version isn't possible as it's not a standalone, at least that's how I understood it.
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I see I'm not alone in puzzlement over the combination of (seemingly) still hoping to make the scheduled release as recently as about a week ago, and (as of yet) no mention of a consolation prize livestream or video of the character creator being put through its paces... Last time I saw the state of the character creator was in a Twitch stream, at least 8 months back. Would be cool to get a preview and tutorial on its improved capabilities (sliders, body section costuming breakdown, materials, color-picker), until the team is ready to aim for a high-confidence release date with a healthy network and the other pieces* of Issue 0 are ready.
*doubt I could name them all without a lot of forum searching...a not-subtle, but gentle communication-boosting hint.
Hint taken. And all I'm allowed to say on that is... keep watching.
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
Well, let's [url=https://cityoftitans.com/content/end-year-summary-2018]see what they said[/url], shall we?
Yeah, that kind of thing never has any impact on anyone's schedule(s), does it?
Yeah, that kind of thing never has any impact on anyone's schedule(s), does it?
Yeah, those kinds of things never have any impact on anyone's schedule(s), do they?
... really ...? [img]http://66.media.tumblr.com/76b9c22907991047550d7e0e2031577d/tumblr_nxj9kjagn71ufl1nbo1_500.gif[/img]
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
To all who don't understand how something could be in place last week and not now.
Imagine the game locally is fully functional and all features are there. The only thing that needs to happen is get the local game integrated with the server so people can actually access it. The Hulk gets angry and smashes the server, no more meeting that timeline.
There are many situations like this that can cause the project from going to 100 to 0 very quickly. Of course I and all of us don't know the real story, but it isn't too hard to believe something could have happened to cause a hiccup and prolong the deadline.
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
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