Any chance the playerbase could have a small list of the top 5 things that the dev team is currently working on? Maybe a high priority list so we as players understand what’s on your plate and in which order you intend on tackling them?
1. What to nerf to make the player base cry out in horror next patch cycle. 2. The down time of the patch to fix the next patch. 3. What flavor tea to serve the new people that are starting internships from the posts they make on Facebook saying they have Dev positions open but don't actually fill the spots. 4. How many times they can say they are working on balance. 5. Figuring out the mass of the sun.
1) The Next Expansion 2) The Next Expansion 3 Cleaning the Staff Fridge 4) 20th Anniversary 5 20th Anniversary
1. Lunch order 2. Who can I persuade to get it for me? 3. Whoa, not that guy, He got it wrong last time. 4. What! No straw! 5. Opps! Now how do I get the ketchup stain off my keyboard.
Devs say what they are working on and players about it. Devs no longer tell people what they are working on and we return to how things have been for a long time now. This is how this idea would end.
More accurately: What they are NOT working on... 1. Necro DoTs 2. Ranger Headshot 3. Old Man Mackinzie monster mission raid (Lord Nagy) 4. Eviction of player items from guild owned plots 5. Graphic bleeds/glitches throughout all of Norrath!
This would not work. However, and overall communication of the public part of the strategy, overall principles and intentions, that wouldbe nice. For example, they have been working on streamlining code and removing complexity and tech debt, at least for a couple of years; this is a good bullet point in such a story.
1. Fixing graphic on Veltar's Staff of Tranquility. 2. Fixing graphic on Veltar's Staff of Tranquility. 3. Fixing graphic on Veltar's Staff of Tranquility. 4. Fixing graphic on Veltar's Staff of Tranquility. 5. Fixing graphic on Veltar's Staff of Tranquility.
1. Restoring the autoinventory function lost by the removal of the potion belt. 2. Fixing auto-follow so it works like merc auto-follow. So you don't stop on a rock or ceiling 3. Timers on hotkeys so that you know when you press them and when they are done without trying to fit in the /timer on a key 4. Removing the /pause from hotkeys, so that it will wait for a step to complete before going to the next step. 5. In game parse (healing and dps) 6. Making sure no zone is ever like Xorb or Evantil, the Vile Oak ever again.
Planning a Whine and Cheese party for the player base. And yes I can admit it.. sometimes I enjoy a fine whine now and again.
Impossible to list. Priorities (can) change every day. If you want a general worklist, look at the last 5 years. Most of the work being done revolves around generating revenue through subs, DBC market, and expansion sales. Not sure what the point of your request is other than a peek into life at DBG.
Well, that would also be interesting in its own right! Personally I think their focus is on, "streamlining" the user-experience through improvements in the UI. and replacing the most "wonky" stuff in the client/server to make future development a bit less like a nightmare. Being a gamedev and using the excuse: "we don't dare fiddle with that part of the code, its scary and hard to understand", won't cut it forever... I wish they had the time to rework some of the fundamental flaws in the engine. Many of the bugs screams, that it is doing "too much in 2D", pathing and agro for example... at least thats my impression...
Maybe not, but it might just work long enough to shut the game down. If I owned DBG, or ran the game, I would focus on cash store and features that bring in money - and that's exactly what DBG is doing. True, they are fixing bugs and whatnot, but their focus is making money. As is every business in existence.
Back when I was a software project manager for a Major Software Company (tm) I was lucky if my prioritized task list remained the same for more than a few weeks...
So boxes use npc pathing and take random paths through mobs or to the other side of the zone? No thank you. I prefer just having to make exaggerated moves to compensate for it being client side and based on last location ping.
I second this. People either need to adjust their settings for the toons following, get a faster internet connection or both. Rarely do I have the issues people complain about because I have taken the time to research what settings to adjust and have fairly good speeds on my end. I will never be in favor of having autofollow function like mercs considering half of the time they just run off nilly willy into the distance and then return in some weird roundabout way.