Suggestions and feedback on communicating changes to the game mechanics, a.k.a. "Patch notes"..

[DaRho]

Dear Devs.

Ojk has created a post about poor information available around the NPC Port Raids mechanics, which developed into a general discussion about patch notes, or rather - lack of thereof, or a poor quality of it. Unfortunately the topic was closed before the discussion could develop for good, hence I'm creating a new thread dedicated just for that.

Few people pointed out (I believe that Gregory was one of them) in that other thread, that this is no longer an Alpha or Beta release with us being community testers, and I fully agree with that, and based on comments from other players, I'm not the only one.

Today I logged on to the game and noticed:

1) some "seasoned" woods. I have no idea what that is.

2) Maracaibo was dropped and it has a PB timer. How come?

What is a seasoning shed? How do I get it? What is the difference in the seasoned woods? Why does a neutral port have a PB timer? Came to forums to look for details, and found none...

 

Since when this game was released, we have become customers that have bought a product and we need to be informed about every single change that You, developers, do to that product that we have paid for. 

Every player, regardless of how much time he/she has for the game, or how close he/she is with You, developers, should have a chance to get a full understanding of the current game mechanics without the need for extensive "testing" or investigation. Most of player vjust want to play now, not invest their time and resources into testing different scenarios, options, and general - trial and error.

This means, that EVERY SINGLE CHANGE to the game, should be clearly communicated as a patch note, regardless of how minor the change is. This will allow everyone to have equal chances in using the game mechanics. It will also add transparency and cut all suggestions that developers might be favoring some players by providing them with a "heads up" on the upcoming changes with details not available to others, which knowledge could then be abused, or at least used to gain advantage over other players. Knowledge is power, and I see no reason for a PvP game to allow for an inequality among player community in that field.

Therefore, to recap, my requests to You, devs, are as follows:

1) Create a separate thread in "Patch notes" section of this forums or, maybe even better - on steam update page, for every single Patch, Hot fix, minor fix, bug fix etc. that You apply to the Production Server. There should be new topic for every change applied (when we need to download an update after maintenance that is when there should be a new topic on the forums with the details of what was changed). Currently, WHEN there are patch notes or hot fix notes communicated, they are often hidden somewhere deep in the middle of the 20-page thread difficult to find even for those that have once already managed to stumble upon them.

2) Communicate the changes ASAP after they are applied, preferably before the maintenance windows ends, so that every player could familiarize themselves with the changes before he/she logs on to the game after maintenance

3) Be precise and thorough in the patch notes. Avoid general statements. You know precisely what changes were applied. List them exactly one after another to provide a precise and complete picture of the new game mechanics after the change. The same applies to the bug fixes. If there was a bug or an exploit reported or discovered and You fixed it - write exactly what was it and how the fix changed the game mechanics.

That is all just a good practice for any software that is sold to public. I can't see why this wouldn't be applied to Naval Action.

I hope You'll agree with me. If not, I would expect to hear some reasoning behind not applying my suggestions above. 

 

[Kubrat]

I agree in general with the OP.

Admin got the patch notes out a few hours after the fact, and they were good notes IMO, but for a few hours there everyone was floundering around, all at sea, three sheets to the wind etc.

It generated a lot of unnecessary toxic comment and allowed an opportunity for the whiners to make a lot of noise.

 

[Sir Texas Sir]

@DaRhoare you Dutch?  If you are than you would know why Maracabo was dropped.  Short story is clan left to go to Swede, so it and other ports where dropped so other clans can pick them up since we don't have an means to hand a port off in game to friendly clans.   Same with some other ports where dropped cause of clan leaving nation.   This has nothing to do with the patch, it's in game and prob should of asked there or in discord.   As for the rest of it yah better communication.

Oh and note the AI Neutral ports timers change every day so you can plan to attack it the next day and get folks online at that time, cause than after maintenance if can change to something else.

[DaRho]

@Sir Texas Sir - the case is, that neutral ports didn't used to have timers and that change was not communicated upfront, neither it was communicated immediately after the patch was applied.

So, just to clarify - my post had nothing to do with any specific nation or port. What I wanted to bring up for discussion is the lack of consistency, detail and information when it comes to patches, bug fixes or other changes to the game mechanics applied by the developers, which is relevant for all nations and players.

Despite the fact, that devs DID publish patch notes for that particular patch, with a delay though, my comments still stand and I'd like to hear from devs about what they have to say about the points I brought up. 

[DaRho]

@admin @Ink Could You comment on my suggestions in regards to patch notes communication? There was an update today again. I came to forums to see what was changed and could find nothing.

 

[Farrago]

8 hours ago, DaRho said:

@admin @Ink Could You comment on my suggestions in regards to patch notes communication? There was an update today again. I came to forums to see what was changed and could find nothing.

 

Not admin...

But if you have yet to read elsewhere, there is no longer the requirement to capture a county capital before going for its subordinate ports. Hostility can be raised on the 3 nearest ports. 

[DaRho]

Yes, Thanks for the note. I've been able to read about it by now.

Anyway, that topic is not about the specific "content" of individual patches, but about a general theme in communicating those changes to use - players. It has been a rule, that the changes are poorly communicated, with lack of detail, and often - delayed. Since from what I heard from discussions with other players, I'm not the only one concerned by that, I decided to bring this topic up for discussion...

But we are yet to hear from the devs. They seem to be unwilling to respond to this yet (they were quite quick to delete this topic the first time I brought it up though, which is... well,. concerning, although they explained that they did that as it had misleading tittle. More details in this post).

 

So, dear devs - what would be Your comments to what I wrote in the first post of the thread?