Should Ludeon release Alpha 17 as refinements, or wait for new content too?

Started by Tynan, February 08, 2017, 01:05:49 PM

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Should we release Alpha 17 as just a refinements-and-fixes update, or wait to have new content as well?

Release refinements, and then new content in two updates
497 (38.7%)
Wait until there is significant new content to release in one update
787 (61.3%)

Total Members Voted: 1282

jpinard

Quote from: Jorlem on February 08, 2017, 05:24:06 PM
I'll second the suggestion of releasing a "16.5" opt in version via Steam's beta patch system.  Then, modders and players who want to play with the changes can choose to do so, while everyone else can keep using the current release without needing to do anything on their end.  This way you get the best of both worlds.

This would be perfect I think.  I'm concerned with several forums where I've seen people saying "avoid Rimworld due to bugs and balance" - due to A16 and this can hurt the long term sales and outlook of the game.  I'm a newbie (but quickly racked up 80 hours), and If I wasn't intimately familiar with how amazing the game is supposed to be due to reading fantastic stories, I would have given up in anger because things had been so ridiculous in my Cassandra "some challenge" games.  I lost all sense of fun in some colonies because of bugs and balance.

kilgoar

Release, please. Let the modders sort out their own messes. They are an outspoken, over-represented minority who give themselves constant fan service with bells and whistles that very generally speaking distracts and takes away from the game, which is anything but simple to begin with. The polishing you're talking about doesn't sound sexy, but it does so much more for new gamers and the core experience than a giant buffet of ten thousand and one weapons, animals, quality of life tweaks, and so on. Although maybe if you value your sanity you should not release or come to some kind of half release compromise. Fans are fanatic.

Draegon


Ford_Prefect

It would be nice to have a release without many bugs...
Adding features would introduce new bugs/problems.

Goo Poni

As much as I like hot and raw patches like War Thunder, which seems to update at least once a day even for minor things, I think a feature complete release cycle would be easier on modders as the modding scene is fairly prominent. Constant 1.x.x updates is a nightmare for that.

FreyaMaluk

I prefer to wait.
So many people are putting a lot of effort trying to revive and create so many mods.. If you release now and break a lot of mods, this will end up biting you in the ___s... xD... I mean, seriously... You'll make modders feel their contributions are not appreciated...You can already see what updates like that can do to modder's motivation. Just scroll down through the amount of "abandoned" mods since the initial release.
I do agree with many here on what thing... you could release a beta branch for testers and modders and let the end users keep enjoying the modded experience with the current A16, until A17 is stable enough for the "official" release.
Finally, thank you for asking this to the community, even though you are not giving to much info on what precisely you have fixed now and what to expect... so... yeahh...
I mean.. Ik --- no spoilers policy is a thing, of course....
Anyway, I love your game and the mods that bring to the gamers what's missing and what could be interesting to experience in the game. :)
Danke sehr für Deine kontinuierliche Arbeit zur Rimworld's Verbesserung und Mod-Optimierung ;)

TheJaffaWolferine

I think that in the same way you can administer luciferium to injured colonists is a bit unfair for people, who would prefer to administer something like psychite (I usually use psychite as a painkiller for my colonists).

DraconicGaming

I'm going to be honest, but I'll say it anyways:

I don't think the "hundreds of bugfixes" would exactly make for a good A17, to be honest. However, I wouldn't mind if you just called it A16.5 or something like that, to relieve much of the confusion. Don't listen to my vote, and release A17 as a content patch, and reserve an A16.5 or A16.1 update for major bug patches.

For those interested, I have a thread that you guys can read up if you want to see some of the wacky things I've come up with since A15. And it's expandable, so have fun...
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=26155

milon

I voted to Release Sooner (yay better game!), but that was before I read your post. You make excellent points about the reason to wait. I'm pretty middle-of-the-road, but I'm leaning more to the side of Wait For Moar Content.

PS - I've been keeping the Want to see YOUR mod in RimWorld thread nice and clean for ya.

jjcm04

It makes the most sense to wait, since this will break mods less and we can have the refinements and save time and aggravation in the long run.

Szara

The bugs and balance have already been around for awhile, they really aren't a major issue, and slowing long-term development is ultimately more harmful. I hear more people saying they don't want to invest in Rimworld because there are too many small updates which is relatively disruptive, than I hear anyone claiming the balance and bugs render the game unplayable (which is not at all). All of my friends who would play Rimworld are avid modders, the less mod compatibility is broken the better as far as attracting new players.

Additionally mods are, especially in a game like this, a source of lifeblood. The more modders are burnt out by their mods constantly being broken by updates, the better, as mods help attract and maintain interest in a game. Hell, I still load up Morrowind and Oblivion for a modded game and those two are ancient, and there's no way I'd do that without mods.

And finally, more development time is always good, so include the refining with the new content, especially so that the game is being refined with the new content in mind. What's the point of fine-tuning everything when the very next update is going to upset it all once more? Do it all at once, and then there is less time wasted.
Yest' chelovék, yest' probléma. Net chelovéka, net problémy.
If there is a person, there is a problem. If there is no person, then there is no problem.

FreyaMaluk

Quote from: kilgoar on February 08, 2017, 05:47:24 PM
Release, please. Let the modders sort out their own messes. They are an outspoken, over-represented minority who give themselves constant fan service with bells and whistles that very generally speaking distracts and takes away from the game, which is anything but simple to begin with. The polishing you're talking about doesn't sound sexy, but it does so much more for new gamers and the core experience than a giant buffet of ten thousand and one weapons, animals, quality of life tweaks, and so on. Although maybe if you value your sanity you should not release or come to some kind of half release compromise. Fans are fanatic.
I thing that the majority of Rimworld gamers play with mods... calling that a "minority" is completely unrealistic.... and Rimmodders in general are not like you describe them.... well there are some dicks like in every game community, but those are the exception... many modders in these Forums seek a more in-depth game experience or just adding something that can make the experience feel near and complete... and those are the mods I have... so... you should try some cool mods that introduce new worlds in Medieval, Mars, Alien Races, a realistic ammo system (CR), etc and then see what Rimworld can look like :)
Besides, some "quality of life" mods are only the response to extremely annoying bugs and/or erratic AI behavior... so yeah... mods kinda contribute to look for the places the game needs improvement....

Cassiopea

How important is content creators coverage for RimWorld? It tends to spikes with the release of every alpha, building up a sort of acquired expectations that there's new content to try out. Thus I think it would be beneficial to have new content to keep up with the tradition so to speak.
And I'm not saying that it's rule that each update should have more content, I'm just arguing that doing so would ultimately give more coverage.

shentino

My personal opinion is to work on both as inspiration dictates...however I think that fixes and refinements should take priority over new features for inclusion.

Bullet25

Please for the love of god wait to release new content. New content always adds more bugs and you won't know if something that is broken is because a fix didn't work or the new content screwed it.