PC That Other Week Madmole Went Away

I would not say it lacks direction at all. If they are guilty of anything it is being too transparent about their design methods. What core gameplay goals have they not achieved several releases ago? The amount of content and variety of crafting is staggering for a team this size. You can call me white knight all you want, but instead how about showing me another game which does this much with so little?
Take the laughably painful and delayed releases for something like DayZ or even PUBG and justify your accusation about lack of focus.

Bottom line is that the game is old by game standards even for not having left Alpha. I don't know many games outside of Counter Strike that maintains an active playerbase for so many years. I certainly want to see a "finished" product but I do not see how it is going to differ so much that your friends are going to suddenly come flocking back to it?
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I by all means do not intend to attack devs, and say the game sucks just for the sake of it. I like this game, and I want it to be best it can. I have the same goal as devs do.

However, in some ways our visions of what constitutes good gameplay differs from person to person.

The lack of direction statement most likely refers to scale between arcade and simulation type of a game. As already stated before (I believ by Roland, but I might be mistaken), This game is now somewhere in the middle. It somehow tries to please everyone and find some compromise. However I am afraid, that this might be its undoing, because it might end up that no one will be really happy and this game ends up mediocre. This is what lack of vision means. This might be temporary, because game development have their ebb and flow.

Also you cannot take examples of extremely long development delays and use it as justification for long ones.

What core gameplay they did not achieve? Well that depends on what in your eyes is core gameplay. In my eyes its

-survival (diseases dont work, enviromental hazards, food and water are way easily coped with)

-zombie slaying (melee lacks proper weapon hit colision)

-looting (currently not enough reasons to go looting after day 21. Fixed in A 18 I believe. Changes sound pretty rad!)

-building (suffers from zombie AI, huge block damage and lack of incentives to build traps - lack of progression in base defenses)

-exploration (not much reason to explore big part of map, lack of unique rewards for that)

None of these is completely done. Its WiP. And thats fine, this is Alpha after all.

There are ♥♥♥♥load of games that keep active playerbase long after launch. Almost every Blizzard game for example. For more examples you only need to take a look in steam statistics. Youll find plenty.

What I mean is, that Devs are not omniscient gods that know best. They are people like you and me. They can ♥♥♥♥ up too and IMHO its better to call them out, voice your concerns, than stay quiet. That does not mean I do not respect them or that I dont value their hard work.

 
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I by all means do not intend to attack devs, and say the game sucks just for the sake of it. I like this game, and I want it to be best it can. I have the same goal as devs do.
However, in some ways our visions of what constitutes good gameplay differs from person to person.

The lack of direction statement most likely refers to scale between arcade and simulation type of a game. As already stated before (I believ by Roland, but I might be mistaken), This game is now somewhere in the middle. It somehow tries to please everyone and find some compromise. However I am afraid, that this might be its undoing, because it might end up that no one will be really happy and this game ends up mediocre. This is what lack of vision means. This might be temporary, because game development have their ebb and flow.

Also you cannot take examples of extremely long development delays and use it as justification for long ones.

What core gameplay they did not achieve? Well that depends on what in your eyes is core gameplay. In my eyes its

-survival (diseases dont work, enviromental hazards, food and water are way easily coped with)

-zombie slaying (melee lacks proper weapon hit colision)

-looting (currently not enough reasons to go looting after day 21. Fixed in A 18 I believe. Changes sound pretty rad!)

-building (suffers from zombie AI, huge block damage and lack of incentives to build traps - lack of progression in base defenses)

-exploration (not much reason to explore big part of map, lack of unique rewards for that)

None of these is completely done. Its WiP. And thats fine, this is Alpha after all.

There are sh*tload of games that keep active playerbase long after launch. Almost every Blizzard game for example. For more examples you only need to take a look in steam statistics. Youll find plenty.

What I mean is, that Devs are not omniscient gods that know best. They are people like you and me. They can ♥♥♥♥ up too and IMHO its better to call them out, voice your concerns, than stay quiet. That does not mean I do not respect them or that I dont value their hard work.
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I was never claiming you were disrespecting the devs and I fully get what you are saying even if I don't agree with it. All fair points.

Your concern about arcade vs. survival and getting swayed one direction or another is absolutely valid. Problem is like you said, I play this game 100% different as a strictly PvP player as opposed to the single player gamers. Who has the right ideas in game design? Hard to say until ideas are implemented and sales numbers are released.

All the gameplay issues you listed are nothing more than tweaks to the actual core gameplay from my point of view. RWG, zombie AI, crafting, looting, voxel gameworld, combat, vehicles. To me those are core, and yes they all need polish but to me the foundations are there which is why I think it is unfair to claim the devs are developing by dart board.

I cannot find Blizzard player stats, but not sure it is fair to compare a MMO to this type of game. I rarely play AAA studio releases but do people still play Diablo 3?

The devs are certainly not gods, but no they are not like you and me. MM is a gamer, but unlike most gamers who think they have a great idea he actually got off his ass and did it. And sold enough copies to keep doing it. This is not me replying with the "you design a game then" cliched response but we are not the same as them. They make a living at designing a game, and unless you are a successful game designer our opinion on what should happen with the game carry zero experience behind it. Not saying our ideas are incorrect, but there is zero evidence that you or I know what we are talking about.

 
I was never claiming you were disrespecting the devs and I fully get what you are saying even if I don't agree with it. All fair points.
Your concern about arcade vs. survival and getting swayed one direction or another is absolutely valid. Problem is like you said, I play this game 100% different as a strictly PvP player as opposed to the single player gamers. Who has the right ideas in game design? Hard to say until ideas are implemented and sales numbers are released.

All the gameplay issues you listed are nothing more than tweaks to the actual core gameplay from my point of view. RWG, zombie AI, crafting, looting, voxel gameworld, combat, vehicles. To me those are core, and yes they all need polish but to me the foundations are there which is why I think it is unfair to claim the devs are developing by dart board.

I cannot find Blizzard player stats, but not sure it is fair to compare a MMO to this type of game. I rarely play AAA studio releases but do people still play Diablo 3?

The devs are certainly not gods, but no they are not like you and me. MM is a gamer, but unlike most gamers who think they have a great idea he actually got off his ass and did it. And sold enough copies to keep doing it. This is not me replying with the "you design a game then" cliched response but we are not the same as them. They make a living at designing a game, and unless you are a successful game designer our opinion on what should happen with the game carry zero experience behind it. Not saying our ideas are incorrect, but there is zero evidence that you or I know what we are talking about.
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Actually, I do have some background related to this. I have masters degree in computer science and work as software analyst (essentialy I design information systems). There is overlap in my skills and skills of a game designer. Also I currently deveop a gamified mobile application for my PHD thesis.

 
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Actually, I do have some background related to this. I have masters degree in computer science and work as software analyst (essentialy I design information systems). There is overlap in my skills and skills of a game designer. Also I currently deveop a gamified mobile application for my PHD thesis.
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Want a cookie?

 
I wish someone would post a summary. I can't get twitch to play the damn thing.
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Terrible camera framing and audio that sounds like it was recorded in a public toilet. :-)

Something about occlusion culling, I'll try to watch rest later.

 
lolseriously though, a heads up would have been nice
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Forum rats are the lowest on the totem pole, it goes like this:

Top to bottom

1. Youtube

2. Steam

3. Twitter

4. Reddit

5. Facebook

6. Tumblr

7. Myspace

8. SoundCloud

9. Allrecipes

10. YahooNews

11. Rustforums

12. 7DaystoDie

 
Terrible camera framing and audio that sounds like it was recorded in a public toilet. :-)
Something about occlusion culling, I'll try to watch rest later.
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The problem with the audio was all the bare walls. There was nothing to absorb the sound waves.

 
Forum rats are the lowest on the totem pole, it goes like this:
Top to bottom

1. Youtube

2. Steam

3. Twitter

4. Reddit

5. Facebook

6. Tumblr

7. Myspace

8. SoundCloud

9. Allrecipes

10. YahooNews

11. Rustforums

12. 7DaystoDie
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Yeah nah.

Sorry but in a space where the devs come and interact on a daily basis on the 'official forum' then we should have a hint at least that this sort of event is coming up.

this is a fail for both the devs and the moderators in my opinion.

love you devs and trolland but this counts as a dismal fail

 
The cycle continues on the forums.

A lot of people need to learn what early access is and what they signed up for and what they are not entitled to.

Good job TFP keep up good work me and others are patiently waiting and understand how things work.

 
The problem with the audio was all the bare walls. There was nothing to absorb the sound waves.
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The simplest way to solve that is to hang a few blankets... as any teenage garage band will tell you.

The rule of thirds would go a long way to make the framing better although I'd be tempted to copy the framing from a good film and see if anyone notices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

The TV series "Spaced" copied a lot of framing from the favorite films of the director, it's quite fun trying to see if you can spot them all.

 
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