Ok, so there’s plenty of frustration being vented in the main testlive patch notes thread (and I’ve added my two cents on the issues being discussed), so I thought I’d make a separate comment about some of the good stuff.
First and foremost - thank you for the most thorough set of patch notes I have so far seen from Funcom. This is something that many of us have been requesting for a while - clearer communication - and provides a genuine chance for players to test and provide feedback on the specific changes made, rather than having to first try to figure out what has changed. A big improvement, and I hope something that you will continue with in future
Lots of bug-fixes and improvements - many of these are things that have been heavily requested (and are still being complained about on the live branch as I type), it’s great to see an attempt being made to fix many of these issues. (Obviously, I don’t know for sure that all changes/fixes are working as intended right now - that will require testing - but the thorough patch notes make that process much more plausible.)
A couple of specific highlights -
follower distance - great news I have noticed that Funcom has made frequent tweaks/improvements to follower distance since Followers II released, but this time specific mention has been made of the issue on slopes, which has been the primary complaint - I look forward to being able to harvest resources on slopes without receiving a sudden rhino horn in an uncomfortable location
archery perks - also great - I’ve wanted to give playing a specialist archer a go for a while (because it’s something different) - now it feels like that is practical as an option. This is great because it adds replay value to the game - the more different ways that the game can be played effectively, the better
But surely the ongoing PVP argument about horses is precisely a complaint that there is ‘only one effective way to play’? (Whether you agree or not, that seems to be the complaint.) Aren’t most of the requests/suggestions about wanting a greater variety of options than can work on the same level? (Obviously then there’s the issues of ‘balance vs equality’ and ‘effort/skill vs attainability’ etc - definitely a can of worms, no question there, but I’m not sure how extra options could be viewed as a negative?)
Have you tested any of these changes in Test live, I would suggest you do before you give glowing reviews as to be honest there is a lot broke in this test live patch. Also a lot of changes that make no sense but please do test it , the more testers the better.
Yeah but the problem with having such an extensive list that seems like open communication (which I applaud too) is that there’s an extensive SECRET list (e.g. all the stealth nerfs they seem to have snuck in under the radar with NO mention anywhere - goodbye Telith’s Sorrow for example) that carries on the tradition of “only tell the plebs what we think they need to know, we know best.” I’ll keep playing the new Testlive this weekend (me and my new Rocknose voice - what the?!), I don’t even have the main game installed anymore, but so far the things they’re not telling us are once again ruining the experience for me far more than any of the good changes can make up for.
Alternatively, I recall some consternation around how high the weapons damage could be if you created it with the new T4 blacksmith that adds weapon damage.
Thanks. So they didn’t bother with thorough patch notes after all. And they filled the update with unwanted changes. And, as heaventhere pointed out, many of the changes they did make are botched.
I do also recall the conversations around t4 blacksmiths. If they had been open with these changes I might be more supportive. But at this point I can only assume they are being deliberately dishonest in their patch notes in the hope no one notices the worst things until it’s ‘too late’.
Edit: As @ShinsaiX points out below - there has been official response to some of these issues - and my frustration with the patch notes may have been misplaced. I certainly hope that turns out to be the case.
Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of those posts since I typed ‘dishonest’ may be an over-reaction.
That said, I am still deeply frustrated by what Funcom is doing with this update - and I’m normally the one telling people to calm down and be patient, relying on faith that they’ll get it sorted out. (So I appreciate you doing the same for me )
I am losing faith right now. But I think I’ve come to a decision - I’m going to put in a bit more time on testlive - interact with ‘the process’ one more time - and if this patch goes live without significant fixes and without some sort of explanation as to WHY Funcom goes live with broken patches every time, despite knowing they are broken, then Funcom will have lost another supporter. But if they make a good faith effort to fix before pushing live, then I shall return to a more supportive attitude. For the moment I shall continue to hope (and maybe draft a post for monday - since the team won’t see it at the weekend - suggesting the need for Funcom to be clearer about how they view the testlive process).
Again what are you going on about? Since when did Telisths sorrow become an ancient weapon or the Dragon born maul and Spear or the Dragon born two handed sword nope none of these are or have become Ancient weapons, oh wait how about The Daggers of Dagon, nope not a Ancient weapon either, and nope either is the Black Ice Broad sword but just happened to get nerfed and not put in the patch notes.
You really need to either play the game or maybe use any of the weapons you are talking about so you know what you are talking about.
Just to reiterate what’s being posted in other threads. Changes that are not mentioned in the patchnotes are not intentional and are being looked into as of the time of this writing.
Please do report any issues via the usual channels instead of theory crafting, this way we can relay them to the team who can then confirm is there’s an issue that needs to be fixed or an oversight in producing the patchnotes.
So far, the so called stealth nerfs are confirmed issues to be patched in an upcoming hotfix for Testlive.
Thanks and please do keep the constructive feedback coming.
@Ignasi - thank you for confirming this, and for being here working on a Saturday. None of this is the responsibility of the Community Support Team, but you, as always, are the ones that have to face the players’ anger.
Can we take this as standard practice from this point forward? If Funcom is able to reliably produce patch notes in which all intended changes are listed, then the player base will be more sure that unintended changes are indeed unintended. This has not always been the case in the past, often patch notes did not include changes that turned out to have been intended - but these patch notes are far more thorough than previously. If this process can be continued, I have to believe that it can help rebuild some of the trust that has been eroded over these past few updates
No sorry do not agree at all, but I see Funcom has comment on it then can see it will be fixed. Nice to see they are listening and giving us info even on the weekend. Great job on that.
Not necessarily. Its been many years since I’ve done coding (and have no wish to go back), but if you use a mathematical formula to produce your damage output, one little tweak can affect lots of weapons that all use that same formula. One does not have to go through and tweak each weapon individually to achieve that desired result. The good news about using formulas is that balance is easier to achieve (one tweak to affect dozens or even hundreds). The bad news about using formulas is that imbalance is easier to achieve, too (one tweak in the wrong place to affect dozens or even hundreds).
So what happened here? Were these new balance numbers on specific weapons or did a formula get messed up? Without looking into the code, there’s no way to know for certain. But either way, Funcom has said they’re going to fix it, so that’s good enough for me.
Wake up, these aren’t bugs. They are code changes that resulted in at most “unexpected results”. It’s 2020 and there is a huge difference between a bug that results in a CTD, or T-pose, or floating asset, resulted from mistyped code. This was a deliberate change to the code. Hence at the very least a “coding error”. Most likely the Amatuer coder who worked on the thralls to ensure the Nem Helmet no longer repaired on thralls, ended up changing the code to “accidentally” force thralls to have durability. You know like put the helmet on the thrall, fix durability until it doesn’t show fixing. However they didn’t look to see what happened when the helmet wasn’t on. Mistakes are fair, but Funcom needs to admit to mistakes, instead of blaming the community for finding them and calling them stealth nerfs.
Go look at Steamcharts for Conan and tell us all again what a wonderful job they are doing? They need to start listening to us as players, because we are the only ones left. Stop blowing smoke up ■■■■■ that don’t need it, and start providing honest constructive feedback before we lose the game we love so much.
The damage change are intentional the only way to change damage of weapons is through the data table changes or by their new code for saving stat changes… if you see a base damage change then those are intentional @Ignasi. I know weapons and how they are added … dont lie to us that this wasn’t Intentional. There a lot that can change and developer may just forget because they are being rushed or just lazy.
