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7-Jan-2014 - Player-Owned Ports - The Next Journey


Saradomin_Mage

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Ive had exp lamps since... Or I must really be mistaken.

 

The prismatic lamp however was a prismatic fallen star, but the skill specifics were probably still lamps.

Today is Wednesday

 

 

Eeeh... right. Something had to be wrong there.

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Yeah, that's the reason no quests came our way the past few months.

Otherwise, if they'd release one, we would have asked "And what about Elves/Penguins/Pirates/Dragonkin/Gods/Elder Gods/Elemental Workshop/...?" and then they would have to release those quests too to deem the quest ready.

That would gazzilionupled the work needed. The boundaries are there to prevent quest creep.

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Yeah, that's the reason no quests came our way the past few months.

Otherwise, if they'd release one, we woudl have asked "And what about Elves/Penguins/Pirates/Dragonkin/Gods/Elder Gods/Elemental Workshop/...?" and then they would have to release those quests too to deem the quest ready. That would gazzilionupled the work needed. The boundaries are there to prevent quest creep.

I don't think you quite grasp how beautiful the trappers face looks like. It's a work of art!

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First to 99 Farming on 27. September, 2005.

First to 3766 Port Score on 20. March, 2014.

First to 4664 Port Score on 2. March, 2015.

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Personally I find them explanations rather weak.

 

"Oh we didn't do any buildings because if we did one then people we be like why not them all? and if we did them all they'd be like only 1 for each?"

 

Sure SOME people might be like that but most of us are quite reasonable, we only really asked why we didn't get new warehouses to give us the percent bonuses all other resources enjoy. The warehouse and its resource specific percent bonuses are just as 'required' when new resources exist as new totem are 'required' for new adventurers.

 

I mean that reasoning kinda shot itself in the foot 'oh we included the totems because every previous adventurer had one and it provides a game function so it was required, yet it is not at all the same thing that each warehouse offers percent bonus for each new tier of resources which is a core function of the ports'

 

Plus its typical they address the 'easy' points and generally ignore peoples concerns about the high costs of making death lotus darts particularly when they dont even offer a tradable form to make returns on, the failure to implement any of the fixes/rebalances discussed over a year ago (but then who are we kidding that birthright of dwarves post-quest stuff never materialised either), the needless nerfing of stats of some crew etc.

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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The update as a whole and their responses to feedback really are incredibly frustrating. The original was probably my favourite update of the last 2 or 3 years as this just seems to be half arsed job (and that’s being generous).

 

They seem to have done the same thing they did with Divination and several other updates recently: started hyping the update up many months before they even started work on it, and then rush it out with minimal work. This way of doing it means disappointment is the only possible outcome.

 

And to say they did it because of development and graphics restrains, this was arguably the only big update this month, or if you include the mole one of only 2 ‘proper updates’. I’ve stuck by and had faith in Jagex through the past 12 months of meagre update quantities but now not only every month are we down to only 1 or 2 big updates a month, those updates are getting smaller and smaller each time. Surely something has to be happening internally with the number of people working on the game, or is it a managerial issue? But something definitely seems to have changed in the past 12 months and its really disconcerting.

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The update as a whole and their responses to feedback really are incredibly frustrating. The original was probably my favourite update of the last 2 or 3 years as this just seems to be half arsed job (and that’s being generous).

 

They seem to have done the same thing they did with Divination and several other updates recently: started hyping the update up many months before they even started work on it, and then rush it out with minimal work. This way of doing it means disappointment is the only possible outcome.

 

And to say they did it because of development and graphics restrains, this was arguably the only big update this month, or if you include the mole one of only 2 ‘proper updates’. I’ve stuck by and had faith in Jagex through the past 12 months of meagre update quantities but now not only every month are we down to only 1 or 2 big updates a month, those updates are getting smaller and smaller each time. Surely something has to be happening internally with the number of people working on the game, or is it a managerial issue? But something definitely seems to have changed in the past 12 months and its really disconcerting.

 

Maybe they're spending all of their money on "hyping up" the update as opposed to developing it ;)

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Inb4 they can't build Prifddinas because if they add one set of buildings for one of the eight elf clans, the other seven will ask for their own and it will octuple the amount of work they need to do. :P

 

I just hope this information doesn't bode badly for Prifddinas.

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In real life MMO you don't get 99 smithing by making endless bronze daggers.

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I don't know why the trader isn't on the second floor of the shipyard. You can reach that by ladder, and it's fairly hidden away.

 

It sucks though that the guys were not allowed to fix the problems that broke Port's "room to grow". To me, that sounds like this will be the only Ports expansion we'll ever see as a result.

 

I wonder if voice-acting takes up a significant chunk of the budget and if it should be held to the wayside for a year or two. It seems like the choice of keeping these new and shiny features will be coming up soon to the chopping block as less and less people are satisfied to pay for the game. (If that happens.)

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I don't even get why 'we decided to not do this because of the dev budget' on something like ports is a thing.

 

This is a big ticket, highly anticipated update if you think there's more to be done to make it good you don't just skim on it you raise it with your superiors until they see that it needs move dev budget so that it can launch later.

 

I mean whats the point of bringing up how it's got all this framework in place for expansions if you are not gonna use any of it in the expansion to ports?

 

It just kinda feels like management have decided they need to get SOMETHING from runefest out and force it to be ready way before its really ready. That and the factor of seeming to give relatively noob jmods these big ticket projects; birthright of the dwarves was the guys first quest outting and I don't hugely recall mod doctor being a lead on anything to date. Please let these guys make the stand alone 'fun' quests like let them eat bacon or the self contained little ideas like the nexus and work their way up; don't just throw them on to big ticket items that much more experienced people developed and that is just asking for this kind of mess where you ruin something good with a subpar release.

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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I just hope this information doesn't bode badly for Prifddinas.

It seems like it will, and won't at the same time. This is already going to be an expensive set of resources put aside that they'll either choose to put on Inventor or Elf City. (I still don't think Elf City will win, either...) Ports on the other hand was more limited in that it had a tighter budget that allowed for very little to go wrong while working with this existing framework. In ports, fixing a problem could have been such an expensive endeavor that they wouldn't have any "time" alloted to do ALL the building upgrades and instead could only do the smallest one they had planned, for example. Building the city from the ground up though lowers the chance of those sorts of problems, but it doesn't mean they can't hit snaffoos either. Hence the will and won't.

 

I don't even get why 'we decided to not do this because of the dev budget' on something like ports is a thing.

 

This is a big ticket, highly anticipated update if you think there's more to be done to make it good you don't just skim on it you raise it with your superiors until they see that it needs move dev budget so that it can launch later.

They expected the ports thing to be an "easy" win because the framework for everything was already there. Likely the programming aspect of its budget was very small compared to voiceacting and modelling. That's how "it's a thing". Do you just sit and take a bath on a project you can't release for months while you pour money into a minigame that has a very small impact on the game? Or do you do a cheaper work-around and get it out now, so you can recoup your losses faster?

 

That's what the real "Year of the Player" voting system is about. More issues like this are bound to happen with the smaller voted on contents that make up the bulk of the update schedule. Call me fearmongerer, but customers should be very concerned.

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I just hope this information doesn't bode badly for Prifddinas.

It seems like it will, and won't at the same time. This is already going to be an expensive set of resources put aside that they'll either choose to put on Inventor or Elf City. (I still don't think Elf City will win, either...) Ports on the other hand was more limited in that it had a tighter budget that allowed for very little to go wrong while working with this existing framework. In ports, fixing a problem could have been such an expensive endeavor that they wouldn't have any "time" alloted to do ALL the building upgrades and instead could only do the smallest one they had planned, for example. Building the city from the ground up though lowers the chance of those sorts of problems, but it doesn't mean they can't hit snaffoos either. Hence the will and won't.

 

 

What I think doesnt bode well for the city (or the skill) is the very short dev time.

With the polls running til end of jan and etas of july/august thats a sixth month turn around.

 

Updates of that size have typically been in dev for 1 year+ before we actually see them; not to mention the city is being touted as including new crystal equipment and new stories so it's not like the budget is going to be all pumped in to the city itself. Plus of course they need to make a whole host of npcs to fill it on and they might decide they want more 'works of art' like the trappers face that leave other areas budget short.

 

In terms of the skill it's probably even worse since to make such a skill well probably needs more time to balance etc. I know they turned divination around fairly quick but gathering skills are rather simple as skills go. Plus they kinda cut the budget down nicely with the cut and paste job where all the wisps, springs, craters and animations are near identical and they all just get plonked into existing enviroments new creating new spaces like was needed for summ or dg or farm or hunt.

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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I don't even get why 'we decided to not do this because of the dev budget' on something like ports is a thing.

 

This is a big ticket, highly anticipated update if you think there's more to be done to make it good you don't just skim on it you raise it with your superiors until they see that it needs move dev budget so that it can launch later.

 

I mean whats the point of bringing up how it's got all this framework in place for expansions if you are not gonna use any of it in the expansion to ports?

 

It just kinda feels like management have decided they need to get SOMETHING from runefest out and force it to be ready way before its really ready. That and the factor of seeming to give relatively noob jmods these big ticket projects; birthright of the dwarves was the guys first quest outting and I don't hugely recall mod doctor being a lead on anything to date. Please let these guys make the stand alone 'fun' quests like let them eat bacon or the self contained little ideas like the nexus and work their way up; don't just throw them on to big ticket items that much more experienced people developed and that is just asking for this kind of mess where you ruin something good with a subpar release.

 

Errr, BotD was made by John A is I remember correctly, who made some other Dwarf quests and the Dorgeshuun Quests. :s

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Hmm I musta misremembered on that one.

Coulda sworn that was the one they talked about being as guys first big project.

 

 

 

 

I don't even get why 'we decided to not do this because of the dev budget' on something like ports is a thing.
 
This is a big ticket, highly anticipated update if you think there's more to be done to make it good you don't just skim on it you raise it with your superiors until they see that it needs move dev budget so that it can launch later.


They expected the ports thing to be an "easy" win because the framework for everything was already there. Likely the programming aspect of its budget was very small compared to voiceacting and modelling. That's how "it's a thing". Do you just sit and take a bath on a project you can't release for months while you pour money into a minigame that has a very small impact on the game? Or do you do a cheaper work-around and get it out now, so you can recoup your losses faster?

That's what the real "Year of the Player" voting system is about. More issues like this are bound to happen with the smaller voted on contents that make up the bulk of the update schedule. Call me fearmongerer, but customers should be very concerned.

 

 

Yes they hit issues and yes they expected it to be an easy win. But that does not change the fact it is a big ticket item and if they hit these issues they should have re-evaluated and expanded the budget to deal with it. This is ports one of the most successful items put in game in the past 2 or 3 years, its big enough to warrant being touted at runefest as a big item for 2014 it deserves to be done right even if that means delaying it and expanding the budget.

 

Its not like they discovered this issue yesterday it'd of cropped up fairly early on in the development process giving them months to re-evaluate and we didn't even have a timeframe for release beyond 2014 they could've bumped it from january and we wouldn't be any the wiser.

Plus the did do a work around to do the icons, so it's not like they are going in blind they've got an idea of how to get around it that would've sped up the later buildings being dealt with.

 

Even with the hiccup there it does not justify part of the reason being graphical budget not having space for more stuff either.

 

Besides claiming ports only has a small impact on the game is a bit silly - the rewards account for a good portion of the high end market for skillers. Many of the scrimshaws offer BIS and highly useful things to combat and skilling. The armour sets are the BIS tank items in-game and though niche do have a use. Even more so now with new t85 weapons that plug a whole between t80 and t90 for the poorer if they wanna invest. Ports is much more than a little minigame with little impact; it's probably one of the most used pieces of content we've seen in recent years and makes a big part of many peoples daily routine, income and combat potential.

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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the "cheaper" higher level armor isn't what i would refer to as a "niche" item especially when you can see how far it has propagated in this event

 

for folks who can't afford nyx gear, this is the closest they're ever gonna get to high level content because there are zero alternative options

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Wait a second , have they not actually started developing the inventor skill at all yet?!? Because they started talking about the second new skill over a year ago now, went on about it most of last year, and gave those pictures at Runefest. Is it really just still something theyve thought about a bit but still havent started programming properly yet. Because if so thats rediculous.

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Well, they said it was in development when they were still working on Divination. When Divination came out, it would 'only take a few months more'. Then it shifted to be released in December, quickly falling to beginning of 2014. On RuneFest they then promised it would be coming in 2014, somewhere. And now, with this poll, I seriously doubt they've started working at it already. :/

Not to forget that, even IF it gets voted to be developed before Elf city, then I seriously doubt we will have it on the announced delivery date.

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Missing, Presumed Death was the developer's first project I think

 

And I'm not really irked by budget issues. Yeah, they suck, but you need to be realistic. It wasn't possible to release a full platter of building upgrades, so they didn't release any. Everyone would complain if they released 2 or 3, or whatever was within their budget. In the end, it made no difference in their satisfaction rating and moved the release date up 3-4 weeks and saved a ton of money.

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Yeah, that's the reason no quests came our way the past few months.

Otherwise, if they'd release one, we would have asked "And what about Elves/Penguins/Pirates/Dragonkin/Gods/Elder Gods/Elemental Workshop/...?" and then they would have to release those quests too to deem the quest ready.

That would gazzilionupled the work needed. The boundaries are there to prevent quest creep.

Your comparison is bad and you should feel bad.
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Yes they hit issues and yes they expected it to be an easy win. But that does not change the fact it is a big ticket item and if they hit these issues they should have re-evaluated and expanded the budget to deal with it.

It might be a big ticket item to us, because of the previous importance the original Ports offered through tetsu/seasingers/death lotus, but in the grand scheme of things it's expansion really isn't a big ticket thing. It's a small area, no lore that impacts the main game's current storyline, no new songs, and just a few new characters introduced with some upgrades that were supposed to use existing code to build off of. It's not an entirely new piece of content, the bulk of the project is already in-game.

 

It's important to us as players and we wanted it to match the grandeur of the first Ports update. Even if they didn't run into problems, it wasn't going to match that same impact. The only reason it was mentioned at runefest was to build hype during the con.

 

Besides claiming ports only has a small impact on the game is a bit silly - the rewards account for a good portion of the high end market for skillers. Many of the scrimshaws offer BIS and highly useful things to combat and skilling. The armour sets are the BIS tank items in-game and though niche do have a use. Even more so now with new t85 weapons that plug a whole between t80 and t90 for the poorer if they wanna invest. Ports is much more than a little minigame with little impact; it's probably one of the most used pieces of content we've seen in recent years and makes a big part of many peoples daily routine, income and combat potential.

The REWARDS have a big impact. The MINIGAME ITSELF does not.

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Yeah, that's the reason no quests came our way the past few months.

Otherwise, if they'd release one, we would have asked "And what about Elves/Penguins/Pirates/Dragonkin/Gods/Elder Gods/Elemental Workshop/...?" and then they would have to release those quests too to deem the quest ready.

That would gazzilionupled the work needed. The boundaries are there to prevent quest creep.

Your comparison is bad and you should feel bad.

 

 

It was more a mockery. :)

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