Bad reviews due to lack of information.

[TheHaney]

My opinion would definitely go up if we had a player population.

 

The attached graph I thought was fairly interesting, for one important reason: Casual players.

Casual players usually log on during primetime...and that's about it. You can see from this graph how games that eschew casual play do:

 

ESO has a significant amount of casual content, which contributes to a higher playerbase and big peak numbers.

EVE has less casual gameplay, so you start to see a smoother line.

LiF:YO is suuuuuper hardcore (a lot of you would absolutely love it), so you see a much more niche population and a flatter line (because the hardcore players are always on).

Then you have Naval Action. Which is even flatter than EVE, which says something. As an MMO, this game is fairly time-intensive.

4 minutes ago, Fellvred said:

Check through the rest of the Early Access titles and see how many regularly have less than 1% of their owners on at peak times, might be surprised.

It's not surprising at all, most of them are nothing but broken promises and shattered dreams. That's my point; NA is giving me a lot of alarm bells.

Edited November 20, 2017 by TheHaney

[Archaos]

4 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

My opinion would definitely go up if we had a player population.

How would player population go up if people do not recommend it?

No one is asking you to lie, but at least if people said there was still fun to be had despite the games issues then the population might grow.

[TheHaney]

21 minutes ago, Archaos said:

No one is asking you to lie, but at least if people said there was still fun to be had despite the games issues then the population might grow.

The game costs 40 bucks. If a friend wanted a good age of sail game I'd tell them to spend $10 on Sid Meyer's Pirates or $20 on Blackwake. It's not my responsibility to build the population.

Edited November 20, 2017 by TheHaney

[Fargo]

12 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

EVE has less casual gameplay, so you start to see a smoother line.

EvE graph seems wrong. http://eve-offline.net/?server=tranquility

[TheHaney]

1 minute ago, Fargo said:

EvE graph seems wrong. http://eve-offline.net/?server=tranquility

Oh yes the actual pop numbers for ALL of those games will be off since this is purely Steam tracking and these games have non-Steam populations. The primetime spikes (which generally correlate to a game's general accessibility) should be fairly representative of the whole, however.

[jodgi]

1 hour ago, Jean Ribault said:

They don't communicate anywhere even close to enough.

I've never seen a developer that works as close to their community as these guys. 

 

1 hour ago, Jean Ribault said:

Entire subjects discussed on this forum, and participants, are completely ignored by dev team.  No response.

They can't hope to have time for every good or bad idea discussed wherever, whenever. I've yet to see a really good idea go "ignored" for long, tho.

 

1 hour ago, Jean Ribault said:

The responses on this forum are arrogant and defensive in many cases.

But nowhere near as arrogant, stupid and aggressive as the posts they react to. Would you rather have politicians' or press officer responses?

 

1 hour ago, Jean Ribault said:

flood this forum with English responses

I suspect you have unrealistic expectations.

 

1 hour ago, Jean Ribault said:

They wanted an Early Access game to get community input (I suppose)?  But then don't communicate properly with the participants.  Makes no sense.

I came here a year before you did. Some of the player/tester posters had already racked up to 3-4000 posts before I came along, that should give you an indication. 

 

1 hour ago, TheHaney said:

First off, if you're going to call me a liar make sure to tag me.

 

1 hour ago, TheHaney said:

The devs only have 2 programmers and 2 artists and they just developed an entirely separate version of the game for monetization just to stay afloat.

 

You sure play it fast and loose for someone who cares about the truth. Second quote is misinformation if I'm gonna be diplomatic about it.

 

1 hour ago, TheHaney said:

They've specifically stated in a thread of mine that they cannot afford additional programmers, as a justification for the pace of progress.

So you, a new guy, get to interact with admin and you turn that against him without possibly knowing the whole picture?

 

1 hour ago, TheHaney said:

Either way, they pulled off of Naval Action: The MMO to create Naval Action: Legends rather than monetize the MMO itself

misinformation again.

 

55 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

the developers had to make a decision, at some point, to take time away from the MMO to make an arena-style F2P version.

Their open and clear communiction was a new smaller team for the new game. If you don't read what admin writes you can't blame it on them.

 

45 minutes ago, George Washington said:

I give them time until 01/01/18, if there is nothing new by then I am out for good and my ratings with me.

<tired sigh> Thank you for your contribution.

[Jean Ribault]

2 minutes ago, jodgi said:

..... [ ( blah blah blah ) ] ....

I addressed the OP, not you.  You should do the same.  I'm not arguing with you, it's my opinion.  And it stands.

I also do not care how many hours you or others have or date of captain birth.  I only listed my own to say that I didn't play for 2 hours, quit, and give a bad review.

 

[Slim McSauce]

This is one of the few games where you can actually discuss mechanics with the developer directly outside a Q&A

[jodgi]

5 minutes ago, Jean Ribault said:

it's my opinion.  And it stands.

Whoa! ok, ok!

I just had opinions about your opinion. Forgive me.

5 minutes ago, Jean Ribault said:

I only listed my own

I was referring to your forum birthdate. Maybe you lurked the forum before you made an account? In that case you should remember how player testing worked back then.

+1 for the [blah blah blah] bit. Passive aggressive is underrated.

Edited November 20, 2017 by jodgi

[TheHaney]

4 minutes ago, jodgi said:

You sure play it fast and loose for someone who cares about the truth. Second quote is misinformation if I'm gonna be diplomatic about it.

2 programmers, 2 artists.

 

6 minutes ago, jodgi said:

So you, a new guy, get to interact with admin and you turn that against him without possibly knowing the whole picture?

Yes. That's kind of how a forum works. If an employee of the company makes a statement, people pick the statement apart. He said they have 2 programmers and 2 artists, and he said the majority of their time is spent on quality control (and apparently individual ship creation). I'm choosing to view that as a negative. You may disagree, and that's fine.

 

7 minutes ago, jodgi said:

[And so on]

I'm calling it like I see it. Again, I'm enjoying the game as it's already purchased. I think it has massive issues, what I HAVE read from the developer isn't giving me a huge amount of confidence, and I don't see enough to be able to reasonably recommend this game. If they're defending a lack of content with "all of our time is spent on making ships and quality control," while the company is also making an entirely separate version of the game, I am personally taking that as a really bad sign.

[Jean Ribault]

9 minutes ago, jodgi said:

Whoa! ok, ok!

I just had opinions about your opinion. Forgive me.

I was referring to your forum birthdate. Maybe you lurked the forum before you made an account? In that case you should remember how player testing worked back then.

+1 for the [blah blah blah] bit. Passive aggressive is underrated.

 

Lol I think you're trolling me now.  My forum birthdate is probably a couple months after game birthdate, not sure where I would see that anyway.  Game birth Feb 2016, not that it makes a difference in this conversation, but you brought it up and actually in response to something that had nothing to do with it.  I agree your opinion has as much value as mine, but your point by point response to me is argumentative in nature for no good reason, and it indicates you missed the entire point of my post, which is this: the sum total of communication flaws are [--->]my own[<---] opinion of the problem.  Arguing point by point is just playing words and unnecessary.  Incidentally, being around for a while you would've seen my same comment in different forms many times before from others, so it shouldn't shock or offend you so much.

[jodgi]

11 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

people pick the statement apart.

People who want a line of communication should avoid picking things apart especially when they don't know all the facts.

[jodgi]

20 minutes ago, Jean Ribault said:

Lol I think you're trolling me now. 

First, second and last sentence, sure. The little paragraph in the middle was face value.

20 minutes ago, Jean Ribault said:

not sure where I would see that anyway. 

Hover mouse over your avatar.

I argued your points to give some counterweight to opinions I think are poorly founded. Disregard it all you like.

Point by point can be abused, I know. That was not my intention and I find that "form" to increase readability. Your mileage may vary, it's fine.

I've changed my opinion on matters here on the forums after reading other people's input. 

[TheHaney]

29 minutes ago, jodgi said:

People who want a line of communication should avoid picking things apart especially when they don't know all the facts.

As far as I'm concerned a direct line of communication is specifically for picking things apart. At least, that's how it works over in the good 'ole USA. If the developers can't handle the abuse they can hire a PR person (although they seem to be doing just fine from what I can see). If they can't handle it AND can't hire a PR person, then honestly I couldn't care less if they retreated to just doing polls. Whatever gets shit done.

Edited November 20, 2017 by TheHaney

[jodgi]

2 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

I couldn't care less if they retreated

Well, I care.

[TheHaney]

Just now, jodgi said:

Well, I care.

That's great! We don't share the same opinions on developer interaction, and that's great. Strength from diversity and all that.

I really do want to see this game become successful, but I can't recommend it in it's current state. Hopefully this heartwarming and wonderful super open communication with the developers results in some quality additions and changes.

[Hethwill]

*shhhh*... funny how ESO graph is posted up there and I bought the game I played at most 3 hours, never to touch it again * giggles*

Says a lot about... not every game is for every player.

I'd say more than half the "miscommunication" some of keep nagging about is more of...

- lack of proper interpretation and try hard to read in between where there is nothing.

That's what...erm... desperate housewives do, they misinterpret on purpose and read things where they don't exist.

Message are clear and to the point. Trying to read too much due to expectations is... not so good.

[Quineloe]

4 hours ago, George Washington said:

I give them time until 01/01/18, if there is nothing new by then I am out for good and my ratings with me.

Will you also stop making daily threads about steam reviews? If so, I vote we just all take a 6 week break from the game, including the developers and get this in return.

Can you make a blog for us to not follow?

[Jarlath Morrow]

7 hours ago, TheHaney said:

I've got 70 hours in-game and am greatly enjoying myself. I'll be playing for quite a while.

That said, If I was to write a review, it would be pretty rough. I certainly don't know anyone I'd recommend the game to in it's current state.

I post a lot on the forums and I really love the game. So a lot of you might be surprised that I feel the exact same way.

I wouldn't recommend this game right now to my family and friends. This isn't because the game isn't fun (it is fun), or isn't functional (it runs pretty well), or looks bad (it looks amazing as long as we don't talk about the UI). Rather, this is because my family and friends don't have the time or dedication to properly test Naval Action.

I'm lucky enough to have the time and patience to test the game, no matter what the devs throw at us. It's not that I don't want to recommend Naval Action - quite the contrary. To prevent bad first impressions among players with less patience than myself, I will wait to recommend Naval Action when it is even more complete.