What’s happening? There hasn’t been a substantial patch in quite a while now, there’s nothing new to look forward to and no new announcements, while patches used to be super regular back in the previous year.
What gives?
They let us know when it ready they just ironing out the bugs.
Soon. They say it for two months.
Take a glance around the Forums. You’ll find plenty of information regarding the future update and why its delayed, as well as more than a few… shall we say irritated people who are getting impatient with all the wait.
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There is some kind of building bug that has cropped up just before they were going to release it. So they are working on trying to fix that bug.
As to when…well you can never put a firm time frame for a fix you have no clue how to fix. So its just a waiting game till someone works it out and can fix it.
I can only imagine they have their best minds on it, so hopefully won’t take too long to fix. But I would not expect anything for at least a week. I assume the fix when it comes, needs to be tested to ensure that hasn’t broken something else.
The joys of being a coder …eeek (much respect to any1 that can code properly… ;))
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I work as a developer and yeah, a simple bug can sometimes take extreme amount of time to fix.
though their PR department could use some work. don’t ever promise time frames, don’t ever promise(“start of next week you will know more”) when they don’t say anything.
i can understand why so many people are upset when they keep promising, and keep breaking those promises. it takes time to fix, just say when you know, they will let us know - DONE! its that easy 
I personally think its a mistake to give any real time line for fixes (or even patches), until the testing has been successful.
QA the hell out of it, make sure its working. Then schedule it in for 1-2 weeks. If it fails at last moment, don’t even try and give a new estimate.
But I do understand the frustration from people. I myself would have just quit the game if it didn’t work (or try for a refund). Luckily I choose to play PVE and with the ability to add mods, the game is very playable for me (and a ton of fun).
Unfortunate about the PVP aspect. I don’t play PVP anymore due to exploits, cheaters, and griefers. But I mean PVP in ALL games (not just CE). PVP is not like it once was. No offence to any1 that loves PVP, but to me I just see a bunch of kids having fun exploiting and griefing people because they have no PVP skill of their own. Its infantile to cheat, yet it seems so common now.
Again I only mean offence to cheaters and exploiters
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Agree on all accounts. in regards to timeframe, i don’t give my customers anything unless im 220% sure that i can meet that goal, timeframe or simular. if you do give, and blow it then it will look bad, customers will be angry, etc.
so yeah, keep quiet, QA it to death and then say :“TADA - we just fixed this”
and then suddenly the players would rejoice instead of bicker over missed deadlines etc
about PVP i agree. i do play it still but thats mainly because im stubborn as hell
ive been griefed, wiped by cheaters so many times i can’t count it. but yeah i hope they fix it all so its worth putting more time into 
and if any cheaters and exploiters are watching - you are 
!!!
People would complain no matter what, if they “keep quiet” people will complain about that, if they say “we’re working on this, it will be ready asap” they will complain that asap doesn’t mean today and if they say “we’re working on this, it will be ready by date X” and then they can’t meet that deadline (current situation), people will complain that they failed to meet the deadline.
So no matter what, they’d be trading one set of complaints for another. That’s all fine up to a point, but the idea that there’s a golden solution that will eliminate complaints - no, not gonna happen!
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i didn’t mean to cut all communication with players.
What i mean is don’t promise anything - other than: “we are working bug xxyz - Information will be given once there is a known fix”
then players couldn’t really complain. they aren’t promised anything, they are given information on whats being worked on and addressed.
all in all, exiles would be happy campers! 
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Hey in an ideal world, I agree with you.
In practice, it doesn’t work like that. I think much of the frustration comes not from unreasonable impatience (though there’s always some of that, too), but from some very serious bugs making the game nearly unplayable for some.
The bug that’s holding things up would be devastating if deployed to Live though, so they don’t really have a choice - it HAS to be fixed. Which makes for a bit of a lose/lose situation.
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Oh, they’d still complain that the patch isn’t ready yet and the game is unplayable as is.
And even when the patch is released, people will complain that the update doesn’t let them add Hello Kitty stickers to their stone swords.
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I would prefer smurf stickers.
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When I was in this line of work, for communications it was always handled in a certain manner. As an example for this situation…
- Communicate that they are working like crazy trying to fix things, if its not fixed by next Monday, they will post an update. That way hopefully people wait till that day b4 complaining too much.
- Update will be pretty much what work has been done (aka madly working on the fix), trying hard but no real progress yet. For now every Monday an update will be given till real progress is made. Hopefully more can be said than just “still trying to fix”. People like to hear a “progress update”.
- If possible a root cause analysis has been conducted and root cause has been identified. Even though its meaningless to others, still good to state a high level technical aspect, such as…we found what is causing the issue, so now they can work on mitigating the issue.
Not ideal, as issues are just that kind of beast. I think so long as people are informed and it “looks” like they are madly working on it, most will just wait. (or leave), but hopefully less anger.
Of course there will always be people that are angry and complain (and they have a right to be). But development is always like this. An expert bug coder is worth their weight in gold, but its rare for a company to keep this sort around when the finances are tough. They are expensive but vital. They can make or break a project. I am sure they have several so its just a matter of time.
i get mad when i read after 4 delays " It will be done when it will be done" Like we are some beggars like they deliver what they promise and we ask for more. And the attitude of forum managers is worst they act like army ready to slice and jail any one who dears to say something bad about this beautiful gem.
Worst support ever in the history of games.
- No online support
- No fast fix for critical errors (servers crush in the most busy period December Brake)
- G-Portal support is 0
- bug fix (well they are like the Armorer that comes in the purge who can repair legendary weapons, every one talks about them no one has see them)
- Selling Bug content
I think that is allot to get mad 
You have a right to be mad. Personally I would not expect this level of issues for a retail product. I was shocked to see DLC for a game that didn’t seem complete or even work properly without mods. I refused to buy the DLC’s when i first bought this when it went retail. I don’t understand how you can have DLC at the same time of retail release…lol (I guessed cause of money issues, so fair enough).
Unfortunately this is the state of affairs. End of the day, the game is fun to play, they are working hard to fix it, if they could do it quick they would. I feel they may be in over their heads and there is probably a sense of panic in the office. They needed another year b4 releasing this. But they also need to pay their employees.
Communications could be better, but end of day if they don’t fix it, people gonna be mad. I am pretty sure they understand how upset people are. I am gonna stick with them as I think they genuinely want to make this product great. (but also I only play PVE so game is fine in PVE).
I hope they get things working quickly. I feel for all those that are angry and upset. Its a cool game, just needs to work properly for PVP’ers.
@dakka you are a beater man then me.
I buy the DLC to support them. huge mistake witch allot of us will not do-it again.
Oh, if only that were true…
There was a time, back in the Dark Ages, where a game either worked, or it didn’t. If you didn’t, you could take it back to the store and try to get a refund. Of course, the shopkeeper suspected you had made a copy of the game at home and now just wanted your money back, so they sometimes refused the refund (especially if the game seemed to work on their computer).
And only a few years ago, when the main story quest of Spellforce 2’s protagonist was critically broken and could not be completed, the publisher just told us that “we’re aware of this bug, but all our tresources are now dedicated to making the next game so we won’t be fixing it. Here, have the quest’s dialogue in a .txt file.” Guess if I bought the next game?
No, “worst support ever” doesn’t describe Funcom. They, at least, are trying.
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Thy shod try on there on expense mate not on ours. You keep forgetting this, they make nice money out this, on our time on our hard working money.
Imma double-down on this with what might qualify as “cool story, grampa.” DOOM 2 was the ticket, I had Tori Amos and the Cranberries in my multi-disc, and our little Novell network was about to finally do away with much of the Arcnet still supporting our DOS clients. I had a Windows for Workgroups deployment ongoing in the main part of the office with 11 clients, several sidegrades to 95, many new Windows 95 boxes. And in this mixed environment we had a game that was a challenge to run on homebrew client machines, let alone Funkenstein’s Monster of a network. No support from iD Games or Novell or Microsoft on any of it. No cushy servers. No forum.
Gamemakers are not support specialists. They can and do hire them, as is evident here in Funcom’s case. That’s support “above and beyond,” and as a game guide-writer back in the day, that’s just how it goes.
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