Monetizer analyst

I appreciate BB_Endesmor's work a lot. Reason why I posted this thread on here and not on EU/UK forum. Endesmor is the most awesome CM I have seen. (okay - not seen that many. He-he...)

Somehow he finds the time to read all on forum. And he passes on the players thoughts. With that many servers world wide, BB cannot possible handle all wishes and concerns, but US players can be sure that when they do take the time to write on forum, someone in the chain of command actually reads it. And in most cases respond to it. I was concerned at someone that seems to have lost the overview - not at BB_Endesmor.

I agree with Pinkleet on the test server. Players/testers - has been let down on test-server. Rather amazed to see a BB show up when the new scenario got it's beatings. It was a natural response from the testers - and that would have kept everyone from doing the new scenario. Dead scenario even before it would go live.

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You guys need to give Endesmor a break. She only passes on the info to Devs and back to us. She knows what the Devs tell her and it is not her fault Devs don't do what they say "will" do, or do something without informing her. It is like a buffer absorbing all the shocks from both sides of the game - players and developers.

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Well, from what I read in the initial post, that, uh, "anger" wasn't directed at Endesmor per se, but being in that shock absorber position...that's where the rant needs to be directed, that's what your CM is there for...communication, because you've seen how ignoring the devs are in this game. Not to mention Endesmor being an employee and getting paid for that...so your "break" is invalid right of the get go, it's part of the job.

Matter of fact (based on being here for 3 years, reading the forum and seeing what all gets implemented and added and ignored etc), some of the most desired features (Barracks slider being one of the big ones) took some 4 years to be added. It sure doesn't seem all that important when you are a noob, but the more advanced you get, the bigger the toll on your army, I still remember the grief of dropping 2k units @25 units per each stack...forever and ever and ever. Most of the time I only loaded a couple hundred at a time throughout the day because I got so demotivated with all that clicking

And that's just one of so many things.

Well whatever, I for one consider this to be a time sink on the side and not a "main game" that I can have fun with hours on end, it's simply lacking in so many areas for that...and just for that alone I'll just "rant out" when I see stuffs that need to be fixed (like tons in the Expedition area), but I'm not actively keep whining over the same thing over and over again.

With that said, it's indeed true that Endemor has been the best we've had in terms of CM, at least from what I've seen in the past 3 years. We could argue about needing these helpless 0815 standard responses like "I'll forward it" or as it was posted on this topic "We use the test server to collect feedback and improve these new features." which is among the biggest lies you can respond with to veterans here, but the follow up post also still suggests a good portion of humor, which is a pretty good trait to (still) have.

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Originally Posted by Pinkleet

You guys need to give Endesmor a break. She only passes on the info to Devs and back to us. She knows what the Devs tell her and it is not her fault Devs don't do what they say "will" do, or do something without informing her. It is like a buffer absorbing all the shocks from both sides of the game - players and developers. [...] Lack of acknowledgments, or any open discussions on test results with some pretty crappy design blunts coming to life servers. O well, that is a topic of another story .

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Agreed, this is what I was saying in my previous post. Oh, and I am pretty sure that Endesmor is male.

lol Wardog. I would like to add better guild quests to your list, but let's try to not get loose with personal attacks. :)

I used to read test forums often just to see how well the new features are analyzed and mechanics are broken down so it was easier to understand. Lately test forums are pretty quiet thou. Even by reading people who still post there (intelligently giving feedback) you can sense a very poor sentiment. Testers many times asked for some kind of dev interactions there or a response to their concerns. I guess most just gave up. You can't blame them.

Going through hoops to test, write a feedback, analyzing and calculating for hrs just to see things getting pushed into life servers again and again just as no feedback was ever given? Even the most hardcore will eventually get tired... The biggest blow to the testing community was the "new combat balance". The idea was a nuclear explosion and did really bad damage to the game. It exposed many issues openly few of which were really upsetting the players. Test forums posts are still plentiful to read about how devs not only play the game but even don't understand clearly its mechanics. The follow up changes in proposed troop attacks raised the eyebrows of all testers: there was no logic or a coherent idea to be found.

The fiasko of the "combat balance" was a devastating blow to the game community. People who spend countless hours analyzing and calculating, writing guides felt the hard core imprint of the dev shoes on their butts. Additional to this, a lot of testers just lost confidence in the devs themselves, realizing their own knowledge of the game mechanics is more in depth than people who actually design it. I wasn't the only one commenting on forums about how the BB "interns" are designing the game now and "o god what are they doing now..."

It seemed for a moment (few months really) the game design team kinda felt apart. Not sure what was going on at BB office but I wasn't the only one feeling the lack of firm direction where the game was going. "Combat balance" was largely abandoned - only FT adventures were changed (thanks god) and we had to adjust our game to new loot tables (weapons removed).

Recent changes and developments seems to point to some clear ideas of the design team for the game. Lots of new features were lately introduced that has been asked by players for years. "Pvp" still needs hell lot of ironing out, fixing bugs and glitches and improving, but is here to stay even if not liked by many - accepted as a feature of the game. It seems someone at BB office is paying a bit more attention to players ideas, feedback, info. That is great.

Unfortunately, it might be a bit too late. Players who were corner stones of community are not interested anymore in being such, largely because of last year commotions. EvilJ openly said he is not interested in making any more guides, same sentiment was expressed by Corona and Killste...Posts on test forums are more of a simple notices now "here is a bug fix it, thanks". Last year the forum was brimming with discussions, analysis and ideas, now is more like a clean up crew after a party...Too bad, I really enjoyed that forum, the discussions there and the perspectives. The immense knowledge presented by testers and some really cool ideas on how to implement changes. Guess this is history now...As perhaps is this post :)