New Executive Producer's Letter, Sep 21

[drizzeth]

i think that's exactly why they're opening the ATS to anyone, so they can test it without a paid account

The way i understood is the only people with access to ATS is when having an active account, for example if my account is over and i wont pay for a new year/half year/3 months/month i will not have access to ATS based on being an FBT in the past, the only way to test in this non-payed enviroment is by paying for the commercial enviroment.

I would hope im wrong though, but i dont think i can acess when my account is ran out and not continued.

Im pretty sure "opening to anyone that wants to test" means anyone subscribed to Ryzom, i think the 14 day trails dont have acess aswell, but that could also be wrong ofcourse.

[oscam]

The "announcing release times that we know we can' hold" policy should be changed to the Scotty Strategy:


Jim: How long do you need to repair the warp engine Scotty?
Scotty: At least 24 hours
Jim: That's too much, you have to do it in 8
Scotty: Ok Jim i'll do it in 4.


It's always better to correct an announced date back than forth. If they would have told us, Outpost will be Fininshed at the end of December and the release it in November everybody would have said "wow they are really working hard"
But doing it in a manner where they say a date of which they know "we can only hold it if nothing goes wrong at all" sounds a bit stupid to me. Don't get me wrong, i don't want to embarrass someone but when i have to do a Project i'll always try to calculate enough time if anything goes wrong.

[drizzeth]

The "announcing release times that we know we can' hold" policy should be changed to the Scotty Strategy:


Jim: How long do you need to repair the warp engine Scotty?
Scotty: At least 24 hours
Jim: That's too much, you have to do it in 8
Scotty: Ok Jim i'll do it in 4.


It's always better to correct an announced date back than forth. If they would have told us, Outpost will be Fininshed at the end of December and the release it in November everybody would have said "wow they are really working hard"
But doing it in a manner where they say a date of which they know "we can only hold it if nothing goes wrong at all" sounds a bit stupid to me. Don't get me wrong, i don't want to embarrass someone but when i have to do a Project i'll always try to calculate enough time if anything goes wrong.

I do think that wouldve helped a lot about the image about it all.

Like previous date what was it 29 oct? well didnt we all think it was strange at the very least that they would skip ATS testing for something with a large game impact as outposts? Come on we all expected the date to be pushed for at least the adition of larger scale testing/public opinion on ATS.

This contributes to my feeling that they are just stalling us.

I do think Nevrax works hard, really hard and also that they have the best intentions but i start to think they just cant get it all together no matter how hard the limited team works and how well intended they are.

I started out as a big fan and fan-boi at times even, i always defended nevrax patches and always thought what the excuses could be and used that as arguments on how things are going the right way, in time my view has shifted to be a sceptical one, but im like Fox Mulder, i do want to believe i just dont think i can anymore.

A lot of it is also due to the game it is now is is Ryzom without most of the features that originally made me exstatic about the game.After a year its basically still the same game as in last weeks of beta, give or take a few tweaks here and there. Basicaly its more the engine then the game i originally read about.

On the subject of outposts, when and what happened to the guildhall extensions? guild trainers? guild missions? additional guildhall rooms?

Oh my i sound so negative/disgruntled but i dont want to kick anyone in the face, im really just explaining how i feel and where it comes from.

It scares me that they have time till december, due to the chapter eleven case. December will be very important in seeing if Ryzom will be able to go on any longer, or did i understand wrong about chapt eleven and december?

[iphdrunk]

This contributes to my feeling that they are just stalling us.

I wouldn't go that far, but I tend to think they were a bit too optimistic

I started out as a big fan and fan-boi at times even, i always defended nevrax patches and always thought what the excuses could be and used that as arguments on how things are going the right way, in time my view has shifted to be a sceptical one, but im like Fox Mulder, i do want to believe. (...)

I have a similar feeling. Yet, I am still kind of addicted to the game. Oh well, I guess it's me. Sometimes I reread my posts and think 'uh oh, you are starting to sound like Raynes'

After a year its basically still the same game as in last weeks of beta, give or take a few tweaks here and there.

yes, it seems so. Although there have been several nice additions, I want to believe that internally the spring clean -- I don't know the extent of that clean there remain several annoying bugs in game -- has done a lot, and that the delivery of 'stuff' (I was about to mention that c* word, sorry J) will be more streamlined, and server stability has improved.

To be honest, sometimes I think it is not exactly the outposts what I personally am looking for, but to see that the devs throw some candy at us from time to time, see that the game evolves, that it is not stagnating. For me outposts has become the synonym of 'something new'.

In this sense, I have still hopes for Episode 2 (and Ryzom Ring, but R2 is still not in sight)

when and what happened to the guildhall extensions? guild trainers? guild missions? additional guildhall rooms?

I would dare to say that all other features may have been put on hold, and all development effort has been focused on outposts and PvP as the communication has hinted. For me, again it's the potential.... the potential of Guild Halls, Appartments and mounts (they are basically inventoires), the Kami domes that were added a long time ago, etc.

(...) im really just explaining how i feel and where it comes from.
It scares me that they have time till december, (...)

I understand fully, sometimes it is good to vent

Understanding,

[alyssah]

I just can't believe it. As usual we have our lineup of Nevrax posterior huggers feeling sorry for them. Get real. This addition was promised so long ago I can't remember. I think it was on the box (mine is in French so not positive).

And the format simplification? Where is the strategy in that. We can't bombard the outpost with grenade launchers (range up to 60m), forcing the defenders to become attackers and then mow them down with our machine guns (auto launchers). All we get is a few waves of guards, a calculation and a result. Wow! Exciting. And they can't put that simplified form together in a year.

I have loyalty to Ryzom in as much as I am still subscribing and I think it has the most potential of any MMO I have played. But, if there is no one to write the potentials then we won't get it. If R2 is that simple to use don't you think Nevrax would already be using it. And, as I commented a few threads ago - Character animations was only a cosmetic jobbie allowing them more time on other projects. They knew the animations were unfinished but used them as a distraction.

I think Nevrax it's time you brought in another experienced development company that can make our dream a reality. I think it's time you sold. You only have till Christmes you know. Coincidental?

[michielb]

I probably won't get this question answered but I'll ask anyway...


What happened to the original outpost concept and will we see any of it in the future or are we stuck with a poor copy of AO's notum wars?

[moulije]

Hi ,

I think your wasting precious time , in life thats the only thing we cant get back ever.

I would suggest you open them now to general public , have them opened from 13:00 pm to 10:00am , you then have a window of 3 hours each do to patch and upgrade live , then its testing again. You put the ATS live when most of your teams are asleep and close it when they are up and can patch it.

Your almost wasting a full month with the same team that as already suggested what they had to suggest and tested most of what they had to test.

Why dont you just setup an ATS #2 for everyone and keep the ATS closed so that you can do test too during the live experience.

This way if you got a problem on the live setup you just close it and can still work out the problem on the regular ATS.

1 full month of free beta tester your wasting because of your own made up schedule ... your losing money and free worker and our time there.

Please dont take it personally , its just a personnal observation.

[pr0ger]

Because of the major change that outpost are, they should make ATS like the animation poll : anyone can go on ATS, tryout, and then vote to let it go live on normal servers...

the Scotty strategy (marketing revision) : never make a low price with supplement, but make an high price with discount...

LET'S BELIEVE episode 2 and ryzom ring will keep us busy, busy enough to forget about outpost wrongness.

[wylkroe]

heh was advertised on the short lived retail box... Been waiting over a year now. No suprise its going to be late. Maybe they can pack some additional nerfs to gameplay we always seem to enjoy the pain from the hacks erm I mean devs.

[dakhound]

whats after outposts

they sound crap so am waiting for the next *big* thing....................please dont say ryzom ring is the end of it.

......waits for kincher mounts and vorax pets