Producer's Letter 03/2014

Hello Mayors!

This is where you can leave feedback on this Official Announcement.

Please keep comments constructive and any new ideas for the game should still be posted in the Update and Idea Pool thread.

Any off topic posts may be deleted.


Thank you,

Your Rising Cities Team.

 

Good informative letter just vat I have been asking for, although a bit sooner would have saved a bit complains.
Permits: mainly good but some pricings seams strange to say the least.
Changes of bolder drops in events is excellent
Changes of natural drops (tree, drift wood ...) is good and bad.
Easier to pick up fine, drop rate down to about 10% really bad.
Will have to post more later.

 

Thank you for keeping as informed. Most of the changes done in 2014 are great and the plan for future looks interesting.
Just few words to the "trust" issues... First I did read you letter in my native language (Czech) and expecially this did not make sence to me. Then I read it in English and bingo... there is a mistake in translation (yours "A lot seems to be focused about building up trust" was translated as "a lot of you were confused about the trust building"). So I wrote a short notice to our forum, that there are some mistakes in translation (I found two more small mistakes).
But pointing out any mistake is here understood as declaration of war... I got a long answer how bad I understood to what you ment and that my comment is a spamm...
I do not want to make a case of this, just wanted to inform you, why is this "building up trust" so hard.

 

I am really looking forward to seeing what the third playing filed will be.I like it to be a theme park but somehow i don't think that is going to happen.

 

all i can say is that my heart is still racing after reading this letter. it's all i can think of wanting new in the game. i'm not 100% confident that everything will go smoothly and according to my personal hopes, but that's no reason to hope for the best.
Great post! hurray!

 

Whew, it's quiet...

Thanks Sephiroth for the general explanation and the outlook on things to come. Sounds promising to me! I wonder though, would it be possible to tickle any comment regarding production out of you? Is that (players struggling to produce enough materials/produce) an issue for the dev team at all?

 

I'm still wondering if I should take this letter as a good or as a bad news. And since I don't have much time to think about that, I just keep quiet. Especially becouse I'm inclined to take it as a bad news.

 

Thank you very much for communicating this information to us. I appreciate getting a general sense of where the game is going!

I have several things to comment on - starting with the changes already made.

1.) With the permissions rework... it's been stated that overall the permissions are "cheaper". However, that is very misleading. In most cases, if you have more than one or two premium buildings or decos, the MM price is more than before (or with the case of the solar panels, it's MUCH more!). Being able to just click and place is great, but "cheaper" is very relative when you're comparing building materials/CC to "real-world" Metro Money.

2.) The obstacle/boulder re-work was an excellent response to user requests as far as the way they are removed. The 10 second timer is also excellent! This makes event drops fun and easy, rather than a pain. However, it still leaves a bitter taste when the shrub/tree/barrel spawn is dramatically reduced. This was an excellent update except for this annoying and unnecessary change. Please change the spawn rate back to its original format as requested here:
https://board-en.risingcities.com/threads/restore-boulder-spawn-rate.16813/

3.) All the rest of the changes are all good ... the addition of the new "secret" building (Chateau) was very nice. New mystery buildings are all good I guess... I liked the look overall of the season 2 the best, but I commend you for taking out the extra needs fulfillment aspect, which could be a real frustration when you were never able to get the correct buildings.

With regard to the upcoming changes that were mentioned...

1.) Quest and Rent Collector both sound like modest, but positive developments. It's always good to hear the phrase "more levels".

2.) The workshop aspect sounds quite intriguing. I'm assuming this will have something to do with (or will relate to) the residential improvement system. Sounds nice as you explain it, just please don't take away features/capabilities already in place that we really enjoy (a little nervous it'll be two steps forward, two steps back kind of thing. Hope I'm very wrong!).

3.) Thanks so much for the work on the new playfield, and for basing its development upon input from the users! Most excellent -- can't wait to see it! Also, the further development of multiple playfields as a dev. priority is very exciting!

4.) Also, thanks for listening to the unified voice of the user community with regards to the MM confirmation issue. This is a long overdue, but very much appreciated change/repair.

5.) I am overall pleased with the direction of the Loot-a-Matic (except for the 1-star improvements ). Continuing changes to rewards keeps things interesting and fun.

6.) In regards to the social features, I'd just say ... walk before you run with this one, please. Ease into it and let the community give feedback/suggestions before we dive headlong into something that might get a little out of control. However, the "epic landmarks" comment has me very intrigued.

Sorry for the length... and thanks again for communicating, and for the continuing development efforts to the game. I look forward to playing for a long time to come!

 

thank you for your last update i am looking forward to seeing all these items implemented am sure this game will be far better after this,also when some of the issues were having at the moment
overall a nice report

 

Mr Sephiroth, I don't think we need any more asurance. Rather why don't you start doing it? There's continuously been issues which show clearly that opennes, honesty and responsiveness from the team is still a big issue. Let me spell out here the last case as an example for all other similar issues. It will be a bit detailed so bear with me:

Pickup/boulder rework brought simplification of picking, and major reduction of "nature" spawn rate. In my guess the trees, driftwood, underbrush and barrels spawn rate dropped to less then 10 % of original values. Interestingly you don't even mention this aspect in your letter although it has been a major issue on forums for the last week.

A day after this rework I posted a question in GQ, if this major reduction was intended result of rework, or just a mistake. For two days it was left without any answer, then moved to Technical. There I got usual answer - the issue has been reported to the dev team.

Also there is a thread in Ideas board showing players dissatisfaction with the new development.

A week later we still have no response from the team, no explanation for the drastic reduction, no acknowledgement as to if they will look into the issue, just nothing. Whenever something like that happens, the team just ignore us. Now judge for yourself if it is a show of opennes, honesty and respect, or rather the opposite.

Let me say clearly, that this is not a complaint against moderators, as I believe they give us all the info they can. It's rather the dev team and you yourself who ignore us and refrain from honest communication with us.

I'll skip all the other issues as the post is long enough already. I am posting in hope, that the described situation, which is by no means uncommon, will move you into re-thinking the whole communication system and prompt you to apply necessary changes, so that your words about opennes do not remain just empty promisses without any real substance.

Thanks for taking time to read.

 

Hey,

I, rather unfortunately, cannot read every section of the forum let alone every thread; that is a full-time job in itself. Also, you have to consider that we have to have the same information in all languages. So, why didn’t the letter talk about the issues in the last week? Because this was written over a week ago and has since been in translation so that all languages can have the information at the same time.

That being said, in regards to the complaints about spawn rate, there will be an announcement next week that has something to do with this, and once that is out in all of the communities we will be able to comment on it in more detail.

I’m not holding anything back; we just don’t want fragments of information in one forum following the “Chinese whisper” format to another. Instead we want to get all information we can, to all communities at once. You have to remember that I have to collect the feedback from all communities, collate it and reply to it. Needless to say, not all communities comment on the same topics, or have the same issues. This makes writing feedback and replies incredibly difficult.

Best,

 

Of course you cannot read everything and nobody is expecting you to do so. Don't you have other people working with you? If you are saying that you were not aware of these issues, that supports my point. The communication system itself needs some rework so that people get responses within a reasonable time frame. Otherwise why do we bother to post anything, if we hardly ever get any response? There should be tools to inform you or any other responsible person about major issues, and there should be some publicly available information for players as to in what way their comments in different forum sections are processed and will be answered. Otherwise we are in this constant circle of no response from the team and iritated players.

Are you also suggesting that you didn't know about drastically reduced spawn rate? Seems like you have some little invisible dwarfs in your team who are coding things without your knowledge. Don't the team know if they intended it this way or not? Does it have to be you responding to everything, or can somebody be delegated to deal with issues of this type to speed up responses?

Also, if as you say, different communities comment on different topic, all the more it is unnecessary to have a general response for everything two month later, but rather addressing given issue on the respective forum would be more propper. Or the general response may be issued based on just several comunities if the issue is clearly spelled out. I wouldn't be too worried about Chinese whisper. People are clever enough to sort out information published.

My point is that the way it works now is not very efficient and that it can sure be designed to work better. Thanks for taking time to respond anyway.

 

Wait and see...

I'm a French player and I decide to post on every forum the same message

If the next AO will announce a fix about the bug a tha soawn rate, la confidence between BP and the player will grow up.
If the next AO will only explain the reason of this change, there will be a bif confidence crisis, with a drastic reduction (full-stop) of purcahse of PTs

Our force, of us the players, it is that we finance BP, please to don't forget.

 

thanks seph for the reply it will be good to see these issues addressed, i also realise that this wont be done yesterday so your updates are very much appreciated and a little patience is needed for the time being by everyone

 

Sephiroth,

Thanks for replying -- if nothing else, it's good to know that you're keeping a tab on this thread.

I'm glad to hear that the issue of the spawn rate is getting some attention, and I'll reserve further comment until I hear about that.

I do understand that having this game spread across so many different languages is a challenge. Again, I appreciate your correspondence to us. This is a step forward from what we had in the past.

Things could always be "better", but overall I'm pleased with the development rate and trajectory of the game. The greatest thing about it I think is that the game is always changing and growing, so there are always new aspects or challenges to explore and undertake.

Have a great day!

 

I appreciate the fact that Sephiroth responded directly. This is the type of answer we as players appreciate.

We do not need the specific answer right away, but a quick acknowledgement of the issue and a promise of future information would eliminate days and weeks of feeling that nobody is listening.

Thanks again for the information and we do realize that you have an enormous dragon by the tail. Keep open the lines of communications. Thanks.

 

Mr. Sephiroth, by saying that you will make an announcement regarding the spawn rate next week, I really hope that you mean that the problem will be fixed and the previous rate restored. Most players' view on the issue, in all forums, is quite clear!
Regarding the long long overdue MM confirmation issue my only response is finally !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The rest sounds nice, but we will see it, in practice.
Thank you.

 

Where on earth does the 10% estimate come from?
I pick up my driftwood as same time as I pick up my trees/city hall/stadium rewards. I only have to pick it up once a day which is quite nice.
I had 6 driftwood this morning. There is no way I would ever have 60 driftwoods in a 24 hour period under the old rules.

The social features are probably long overdue. However, would prefer the dev team to take their team and get it right first time rather than having to make alterations left, right and center. "Do it once, do it right".
If done well, it could be a big boost to the game. If not, it could be a big turn-off.

The workshop also sounds quite exciting.

It's nice to hear about these things before they come out, which has not always been the case in the past.

New quests, new levels and new LAND get a big thumbs up from me.

Hopefully the new quests (and other additions) will have the higher-levels players in mind.

 

It comes from my personal observation and other players comments in Speakers corner and is really nothing more then wild guess. Since I never tried to count the spawn before the rework I couldn't give a precise calculation anyway. It's mainly barrels that gave me this idea. I used to have about 1 to 3 barrels daily, now I had about one or two in a week. It's possible that it's different for different types of spawn. It might also depend on free space available. You can make your own wild guess based on your personal observation and then we can get some middle value from both.

 

My estimate would be 0%, and it would be precise (though idiosyncratic). I had absolutely nothing popping up -- trees and shrubs included -- since the changes.