[Denied]Monthly Updates

[AngryPyro]

Hello everyone, it's me again. As a formerly avid MMORPG player, I always enjoyed the weekly or biweekly update schedule the games I played had. PokeMMO doesn't seem to have that (I understand it isn't developed my a major company like SOE or Valve), but it is encouraging to players to see a constant stream of updates. Here is my suggestion: Have a weekly or biweekly regular update for bug fixes, minor/easy improvements (change some messages that say TODO: Better message), and even lay down code for larger updates. And then every month there would be a major game update, something like how Valve updates Dota 2. Code is added every week, but no large piece of content (ie. a new hero) is released every week. I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult for the devs to implement a regular update schedule, and wonder what you guys think about it.

 

TL;DR: Weekly/biweekly small updates, monthly game changing updates.

[AzizFTW]

This is the best thing ever :3

 

However, the devs are lazy and don't want to give us more updates. So, yeah.

 

[spoiler] AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH [/spoiler]

[Chestbrah]

are you aware that there wasnt an update for 3 months before?

dont be too greedy, im sure the devs realize everyone wants updates as often as possible but as long as they're somewhat monthly i'll be happy

[AngryPyro]

are you aware that there wasnt an update for 3 months before?

dont be too greedy, im sure the devs realize everyone wants updates as often as possible but as long as they're somewhat monthly i'll be happy

 

Are you aware that's my I made the suggestion? I'm not being greedy, I'm simply asking the devs to give us a little progress report. The way I suggested it isn't really greedy at all, its their job to make updates anyway.

[GymLeaderGreen]

Are you aware that's my I made the suggestion? I'm not being greedy, I'm simply asking the devs to give us a little progress report. The way I suggested it isn't really greedy at all, its their job to make updates anyway.

It's not their job, they do this for free(hue). They've touched on this suggestion(rant) before when people were complaining about the lack of updates. They're not just going to half assed throw things together, they update when they feel what they work on is ready to be released. These threads are as pointless now as they were from March to June. It's only a matter of time before Kyu or DarkShade tells you the same thing and locks it.

[XelaKebert]

Are you aware that's my I made the suggestion? I'm not being greedy, I'm simply asking the devs to give us a little progress report. The way I suggested it isn't really greedy at all, its their job to make updates anyway.

They used to, but that became too much work on top of working on updates. Players and staff have tried Podcasts like Softboiled, but those ended up falling apart quickly.

 

Also, they do have jobs that they do to make a living. This is a personal project they do on the side. In other words, if their job has a major project going that they are a part of, they will be focusing more on that than they will on this. It's a fact of life and one that players should take into account before posting threads like this. It may be their "job" to provide update patches for this, but that's it. None of us are purchasing this software, and none of us are sponsors of it in any way, shape, or form so they aren't required to answer to us when we ask for updates. We aren't their bosses, we are their peers. How about we treat them as such?

[AngryPyro]

It's not their job, they do this for free(hue). They've touched on this suggestion(rant) before when people were complaining about the lack of updates. They're not just going to half assed throw things together, they update when they feel what they work on is ready to be released. These threads are as pointless now as they were from March to June. It's only a matter of time before Kyu or DarkShade tells you the same thing and locks it.

 

I'm not demanding half assed updates, I want them to only release stuff that is ready. And this is far from a rant, I merely think the community would be better receiving of a format for updates like this, I personally won't go off complaining if they don't like the idea.

 

 

They used to, but that became too much work on top of working on updates. Players and staff have tried Podcasts like Softboiled, but those ended up falling apart quickly.

 

Also, they do have jobs that they do to make a living. This is a personal project they do on the side. In other words, if their job has a major project going that they are a part of, they will be focusing more on that than they will on this. It's a fact of life and one that players should take into account before posting threads like this. It may be their "job" to provide update patches for this, but that's it. None of us are purchasing this software, and none of us are sponsors of it in any way, shape, or form so they aren't required to answer to us when we ask for updates. We aren't their bosses, we are their peers. How about we treat them as such?

 

I misused the word job, my bad. My point is that they decided to work on this project, either for themselves or the community. Again I'm not demanding anything, merely providing a suggestion.

[XelaKebert]

I'm not demanding half assed updates, I want them to only release stuff that is ready. And this is far from a rant, I merely think the community would be better receiving of a format for updates like this, I personally won't go off complaining if they don't like the idea.

 

 

 

I misused the word job, my bad. My point is that they decided to work on this project, either for themselves or the community. Again I'm not demanding anything, merely providing a suggestion.

And your suggestion has been tried and failed multiple times. I can't find the most recent Podcast that was tried because the thread was hidden, but from what I gather, there have been at least 3 attempts at doing a Podcast to discuss upcoming features and such, but those didn't last more than a few episodes. I've also gathered that they have tried to create a blog to discuss upcoming features and current progress, but that began to detract from the work so they closed it. For now you'll have to settle with this thread, even if it's Unofficial:

 

https://forums.pokemmo.eu/index.php?/topic/17742-unofficial-list-of-upcoming-features-updated-july-27th/

 

It's the best you're going to get for now.

[AngryPyro]

Thanks for that Xela

[ThinkNice]

If you think the devs aren't making money out of this you must be delusional. The devs don't see this as a serious enough project OR they are afraid to do so. Granted I don't know anything about their social lives, studies etc. this is just what I feel when I see their attitude regarding updates/ETA's.

[Kyu]

I've shut down many of these before, mainly because they were ignorant rants. I'll put it this way, though: We don't wave a wand and make code appear. This is a small development team consisting of 3-4 people at any given time. There are weeks where stuff doesn't happen, or there are weeks where we don't have anything public to show because the work isn't suitable for public release. Whether it be working on tools, GM stuff you don't care about/will never interact with, or features that aren't complete, there are some times where there is nothing to show you.

 

Not only is there a good chunk of time where there is nothing to show you, but updates are an extremely stressful time for us. Development stops for a week after the game has been updated to look for brand new issues / things we missed in QA / exploits caused by functionality. Then, once we have addressed the most critical issues with supplemental patches, we get back to our main development plans while we continue to squash issues we introduced during the last update.

 

I'll also point out that this game runs on a strict budget and that bandwidth is always a concern. We serve tens of thousands of active players while pushing towards a few million registered accounts, and every client update pushed to the public costs us money. We try to cram as much into a single update in order to make it cost-efficient for us, both in time and money.

 

I am not against making what we are working on public (and I believe a few GMs wanted to do so in the upcoming Podcast revival) as long as it does not have the potential to ruin the current game if people find out about it early, isn't anything confidential, and is confirmed to be working and would be suitable for deployment. The last part being the most important, in my opinion, which is why we go silent for a while after an update, regarding development plans. We don't want to set ourselves up for failure with promises to work on things which just don't happen in the next patch.

 

So, as a tl;dr: No. There are several reasons it is this way, namely because of: Bandwidth, stress, and a genuine lack of things to show you at some times. Weekly updates complicates the development cycle for us, and updates will be deployed when we believe that we have enough content created to justify it.