Very short development update

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by ChocsAway

It's good that you have a 'glass is half full' attitude. I wish I could share you're confidence and enthusiasm for the future of Clod.

I'm one of the ones here that finds Luthiers post at best 'flippant', and at the worst... well, somewhat insulting. I do have a sense of humour but I couldn't find anything within it to make me smile (the lad on the banjo is awesome though!).

On the other hand I've had some 48 hours with Clod and some of it was quite enjoyable. It's only in the last fortnight that I haven't touched it due to the many frustrations I'm experiencing with the sim and its being released in a half finished state. I think it's worth remembering that many on here who are being labelled whiners etc. are only cheesed off because not only does Clod not feature a significant amount of the features promised but many of the ones that are included are so broken that it will take months (if not years) to repair them. If Luthier is starting to get fed up with the forum content regarding Clod he needs to address the problem of communication (or lack of it) to the people who've forked out their hard earned cash on it. It's the least he can do to appease the feelings of the people who quite rightly IMO feel they have been shafted with the state of Clod even now a couple of months after release. To accept the shocking state that Clod was released in without complaint is madness and is just a signal to all devs out there that they can release what they want and Joe Public will accept it as a norm or a 'sign of the times'.

I've been gaming/simming since the Sinclair ZX81 came out (yeah, I'm that old!) and in all the years since then I don't remember there being such a hoo-haa over a game/sim release as there has been with Clod, and quite rightly so. The lack of pre-release info was enough for me to expect some problems but I certainly did not expect anyone to have the cojones to release something that was clearly still very broken and forced out of the door onto an unsuspecting community desperate for a new sim.

Had we been informed we were to be Alpha testers then that is a different matter, but we weren't! In the end for the devs and publishers it's about money and making as much as possible with as little outlay as possible and where Clod is concerned that is one of the worries. Is there enough money and commitment for Clod to be made into what it can and should be? Some seem to be convinced that the dev team aren't going anywhere...I hope that's true. I bought Silent Hunter 5 and I think I'm correct in saying that the 'plug was pulled' pretty quickly on that one, I'd hate to see Clod go the same way.

100% agree man. My conclusion is that some people just like being shafted really

I'm sure that the devs will keep on shelling out fantastic stuff (hell, they're already working on the next La UFO, one can only wait with excitement!), my real problem is that I'm not sure whether I'm a fanboi or a whiner (I've been called both so far), maybe we should invent a new term: "fanner", how about that?

[ChocsAway]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

100% agree man. My conclusion is that some people just like being shafted really

I'm sure that the devs will keep on shelling out fantastic stuff (hell, they're already working on the next La UFO, one can only wait with excitement!), my real problem is that I'm not sure whether I'm a fanboi or a whiner (I've been called both so far), maybe we should invent a new term: "fanner", how about that?

'Fanner', nice one! Lol

[retrojet]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

100% agree man. My conclusion is that some people just like being shafted really

I'm sure that the devs will keep on shelling out fantastic stuff (hell, they're already working on the next La UFO, one can only wait with excitement!), my real problem is that I'm not sure whether I'm a fanboi or a whiner (I've been called both so far), maybe we should invent a new term: "fanner", how about that?

... If your conclusion is correct, what about fannies?...

[Madfish]

I try to see luthiers post positive as well.

There is one thing some people seem to forget though: relations. Relationship management with customers and fans is so important and so extremely easy to do.

You don't need to go to the end of the world. Just take 10 minutes a day and prepare something. A small post or save these 10 minutes and give a more detailed post once a week etc.

How long does it take you to upload a screenshot? To say: "hey we're working on this and that - the problem was crazy but we're finally making progress folks! cheer for us "

Answer: it's not even taking you 5 minutes. If you think highly of your product and your loyal fans then this is not something crazy to do!


The problem I see with many russian developers is: You guys s**k (are bad) at communicating and marketing. You're friendly folks so please don't hide that from us. It's sets a very negative mood and that is not what the game or your work deserves.

Nothing is perfect - be open to admit flaws and try to push the limits forward.

At least that is my opinion

[SiThSpAwN]

+1

[David Hayward]

Originally Posted by Madfish

Answer: it's not even taking you 5 minutes. If you think highly of your product and your loyal fans then this is not something crazy to do!

The reason they're not doing it is because they probably assume their customers are not children who need to be told every 10 minutes that we're not there yet. Crazy, I know.

[Chivas]

Lmfao

[Timberwolf]

when is the banjo patch install coming?

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by David Hayward

We're not being kept in the dark. There have been regular updates.

The problem is that the regular update process goes something like this:

Luthier: Update!

Rabble: Luthier, you are the greatest!

2 hours later

Rabble: Luthier, why didn't you mention X.

4 hours later

Rabble: Luthier didn't mention X because they don't realize it's a problem.

6 hours later

Rabble: Luthier didn't mention X because they don't know how to fix it.

12 hours later

Rabble: Luthier didn't mention X because he doesn't respect us!!

16 hours later

Rabble: Luthier, you suck!!!!

24 hours later:

Rabble: Luther, when are you going to give us an update???

Well, the updates are not that regular, not that i mind however, if there's nothing new to say (eg, when something is complete) or there are changes to announce (say for example, the roadmap is revised because they decide to fix things in a different sequence) there is nothing to announce in an update apart from what we got today ("we're working on such and such, things are progressing this way, thanks").

However, the rest of the post is actually a pretty accurate take on things and i couldn't help but laugh a bit while reading it.

Despite the fact that i don't necessarily agree with a lot of what you usually say, mostly how you say it actually, on the forums in general, this post is the best and most accurate summary of 1st page posts during the past few months.

[Madfish]

Originally Posted by Madfish

I try to see luthiers post positive as well.

There is one thing some people seem to forget though: relations. Relationship management with customers and fans is so important and so extremely easy to do.

You don't need to go to the end of the world. Just take 10 minutes a day and prepare something. A small post or save these 10 minutes and give a more detailed post once a week etc.

How long does it take you to upload a screenshot? To say: "hey we're working on this and that - the problem was crazy but we're finally making progress folks! cheer for us "

Answer: it's not even taking you 5 minutes. If you think highly of your product and your loyal fans then this is not something crazy to do!


The problem I see with many russian developers is: You guys s**k (are bad) at communicating and marketing. You're friendly folks so please don't hide that from us. It's sets a very negative mood and that is not what the game or your work deserves.

Nothing is perfect - be open to admit flaws and try to push the limits forward.

At least that is my opinion

Originally Posted by David Hayward

The reason they're not doing it is because they probably assume their customers are not children who need to be told every 10 minutes that we're not there yet. Crazy, I know.

Oh how very kind of you to call me a child just because I ask for and advise a professional company with more than a dozen employees, engaged in making a game for an global audience, to actually do some customer relationship management.
What you just stated only leaves the explanation of a lack of real life experience. Because in my real life information management is a key quality of personal and business scenarios.

Let me tell you one thing. In the world of (especially working) adults communication is just a very, very important thing these days. And contrary to your, not well thought through, statement it is not that important with kids. It gets more and more important the higher you climb the "ladder". The more responsability you have.

Further, if you would really read my post (sadly you didn't, at least it appears that way) you'd understand that I didn't ask them for a status update every 5 minutes.

All I'm asking for is a little respect and professionalism.

Where I'm coming from there is a saying: Kunde ist König (customer is king) and I need to abide by it, and I do so willingly, to keep my clients happy and guess what: they are happy when I tell them specific dates, when I inform them of problems, when I tell them when these problems will be solved and that I'm working on it, when I give them status updates etc. - especially if they paid for the product already! Something that is now different from before, when CloD wasn't released yet.
In other words: it's professional and ethically correct to inform the community and your customers. Also it's very, very positive for your companies image. Who will really trust a company programming a game if they can't even use a simple internet forum or upload images? Right: no one. Because they appear lazy and, excuse me, stupid, if they can't even interact with a simple tool like a forum. Also there shouldn't be a language barrier either - you can't write code in russian so they must have guys who are able to speak english. And even if they posted in russian - I bet the community would find people willing to translate. But right now they ignore their clients and fans - a fatal mistake.

Also you don't sell an unfinished product and then save 5 or 10 minutes each day in a full development team of a dozen guys or way more. Their team has enough productive hours each day - if one of them would take only 10 minutes to inform the community it wouldn't affect their development at all.


So before you start calling people childish you might take that advice yourself and actually stop being one in the first place.