Look at all that player retention!
Something that really bothers me, because a lot of features arent even available if you havent played a certain amount of time to see if they are actually there/work.
Yes, steam has a generous refund policy, but in cases like this I really wished I hadnt played as much as I did to see for myself or played it in beta.
And this is just as bad and questionable in terms of purchasing a product and not getting a refund. that was advertisted as omplete on the official steam page, regardless of playtime.
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Well, itâs still criticised. I disagree with the criticisms, just like I donât regard the Athanor as the second coming. It was, however, bad at the beginning because the chance was too low, that was remedied reasonably quickly, and with time the FS added stuff like the red dust, faster rerolls, etc. that made it work a lot better.
I think that the negative review spike after the open letter might be intepreted like that by some, though I consider them mostly as a reflex reaction that is not only unfair but also unfounded.
Youâre right, but FS deserves that.
Reasons? I am glad that they say they will deliver what they promise to deliver for the end of the 2022 year and that they delay the portage to xbox butâŚ
What did they say us?
- I donât know what they plan to do⌠I donât know if they will implement same crafting system they described in november 2022 or if they will tweak it or if they will create an entirely new system
- When? I donât have a clue when they will release things. We donât know if it is in 1 month 2, 3, 4, next week, never?
- They did not point what they have taken in consideration and what they want to correct. Merkâs shop? Emperorâs gifts? RNG? Shop refresh? Diamantine/plasteel ratio? Perks blocked? Experience perk? And so on.
In other words, we donât know more after the open letter. I want to be kind but⌠They repeated for one month that they will deliver a community update, before they said they would communicate more, before they said that they were excited by what will come, before it was the crafting system that would be delivered in december⌠Full of promises.
During one month we have got the ânext weekâ for what? No information.
I can understand that people are upset and deliver a bad review following the open letter.
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when i give a review i donât give a damn about the total score, all i care about is, if âIâ would recomend the game, im not trying to steer any overall percentage.
if the total score is 99% for a game, that i find good but not brilliant,
im still gonna leave a positive review because i thought it was good and therefore worthy of playing,
im not trying to steer the 99% to something that i would find more fitting.
and that goes the other way around too, i looked at darktide and decided that currently i donât want to recommend it, does DT deserve mostly negative? probably not, but it also doesnât deserve a positive review if i genuinely donât think people should play it right now.
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Its not really about whether you personally enjoy it or like it, but whether youâd recommend it.
I like chilli so spicy the second mouthful makes my nose run. I do not recommend this for most people even if i enjoy it.
The negative reviews after the open letter i feel were probably negative reviews pending before the letter dropped , but players gave FS time to at least have their say. Once the letter dropped with no real info, the reviews went from pending to posted.
Does the game -taken as one individual run through a mission- deserve 30%? Possibly not. Does it deserve 30% as a live service with continuous crashing for some people and a complete failure to deliver on⌠anything the company has said with no clearly defined timescale for improvement? Probably does.
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I expected a lot of reactions like yours (and worse) no matter what they announce. My point, as I have stated on a number of occiasions, is that no matter what they do, some will be dissatisfied and explain it with âgive us moreâ.
And yet, it was a letter that was a communication (âwe need more communicationâ) with acknowledgment of the issues (âthey have to know they screwed upâ). So punishing FS and DT for that is both hypocritical and counterproductive.
I mean, if you felt the game had serious issues, but waited to see what would happen to post the ânot recommendedâ and then received acknowledgment about your concerns and promise they will try to deal with it and then went to post a negative reviewâŚ
You say no real info, but based on my experience I donât think any info would be enough, apart âwe are releasing the new version of the game with all the RNG thrown out, cosmetics are now free and you can run 60+ FPS ray-tracing on Intel integrated graphics (but only on resolution up to 2560x1440)â.
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To reply to my quote, youâre right in that some people would simply never be happy but at least a timeframe for crafting mightâve pleased a lot of people.
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There was almost as much negative reviews the day before the open letter as there was after the open letter. Probably a fair number of peopleâs patience ended after the last 2 weeks.
Yeah, itâs pretty disingenuous to act like people arenât warranted to finally be over it when the letter pretty much said nothing overall outside of âAh crap, the ship is sinking and weâre having to try to bail out the water, but at least weâre bailing!â Are we just going to ignore that crafting, a basic feature of the game that was also supposed to be in at launch, was delayed until the end of December, never came out with no real heads up or warning as to why or that it wasnât, had nothing said about it, and still has had nothing said about it? Thatâs not going over numerous other things that are directly impacting the game right now such as (As I keep harping on about because itâs personally one of my biggest problems) the servers being terrible?
While I personally havenât written a review either way, I certainly wouldnât recommend it right now, and I canât fault people who finally were over it and posted a negative review after that insanely disappointing letter.
Not to mention the sheer amount of pure BS they spouted in pretty much everything they said prior to release, such as this little excerpt taken from the crafting blog:
We have learned a lot from our previous choices and gameplay surrounding crafting offered within the Vermintide series. For Darktide we wanted to take those lessons to expand and improve in such a way that crafting would become a central pillar of player progression, while giving more impact and agency to you, the player in your preferred playstyle.
The nature of randomization and repetitive actions sometimes seen within crafting is something that we are steering to avoid in the crafting system within Darktide. Meaningful choices will be made with strategy and goals behind them, as you set your eyes upon that perfect combination of melee and ranged weapons for your class.
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Probably, but consider that the FS cannot provide it without making promises that they are likely to break.
a) they are doing design overhauls that almost certainly includes the equipment
b) the equipment (crafting subsystem included) is not a separate element that can be considered apart from the plans for other updates, excluding stuff like engine fixes etc.
Also, note that there are many groups of people that would be pleased by timeframes for other parts of the game. So, no pleasing everyone no matter what, but potential for pissing off others when you seem like you are concentrating on just one thing (remember âthey are working on Xbox so nothing until that is releasedâ implications)?
You say insanely disappointing letter, I say you had insanely unrealistic expectations regarding the letter.
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Wanting them to acknowledge literally anything directly, acknowledge that theyâve just completely dropped off the radar in terms of giving a heads up on anything (âHey weâre reworking crafting entirely so get stuffed in the meantime!â would be better than pure generic fluff.) If crafting was so far off from being complete that they couldnât at least put it in as a band aid fix in the interim, what were they doing? Like, no crap youâre working on crafting and performance. Saying youâre working on it is an easy way to go âWeâre doing things!â without actually saying anything.
Wanting them to say more than âWeâre sorry ;( But weâre working on the things we were already supposed to have done!â isnât insanely unrealistic expectations. The letter was pure damage control, especially after it was supposed to be our ânext weekâ news. Instead it was a big ole nothing burger.
Well, at least my expectations of your reply were met. But OK, letâs strongly disagree. I wish you donât find yourself in other similar situations.
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And my expectations of your own were met: Not actually addressing anything I said and going for cutesy condescension rather than actual discussion.
I guess the fact that essentially nothing they promised prior to release is actually in the game is fine? That they have yet to actually acknowledge that fact? Saying the game âfell short of meeting expectationsâ is beyond understatement and into essentially lying territory. In your other post you mention them not making promises they are likely to break: What about all of the ones they already did?
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We waited for a community update⌠Weâve got a simple letter with no information.
I donât think the expectations were too important. 3 weeks for a letter with no information when we were promised a community updateâŚ
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First of all i also dislike the heavy RNG mostly and bad to at best medicore weapon distribution at both shops and emperors gifts. Crafting beeing feature incomplete is also a justified criticism i mentioned in my but overall positive review/ recommendation.
I overall rate the game foremost regarding the core gameplay what is playing missions and not gear progression!
I weigh both aspects 75/25 with 75% for core gameplay / playing missions and 25% gear progression as a secondary mechanic that i for myself wouldnât need at all.
I would be happy if there would be zero item progression and even character progression or achievements/ penances i can do without.
I just have fun playing missions aka purging heretics and immerse into the WH40k universe and therefore can recommend it, albeit a lot of criticism is valid and needed.
I have very few performance issues and maybe 10 crashes in December in total. I understand if people dont recommend if they have, but for me that is no point i can make.
A good review would contain both, posiive and negative aspects and ends with a conclusion.
Although i really dislike how the itemization and item progression is done i would still recommend the game for people who like to purge heretic hordes in the WH40k universe and tell them what the flaws of the games are so that everyone can make a decision by themself.
If they have said that and released what they have released then itâs a proof of their marketing department working ruthlessly deceitfull like most Marketing Managers are.
In my motherlanguage the word for selling or barter products is the same root for to deceive!
Never trust someone selling something, they will lie most of the time!
I can accept that whats my personal issue (prgoression and RNG) might not be say, Zoralinks (I think heâs got issues with servers.)
People can overlook maybe 1 or 2 things that trigger their frustration, but there seems to be such a wide spread of issues both within the gameplay and the surrounding systems that its simply too much for many people to overlook or tolerate to enjoy the âgood bitsâ.
No comms is going to ever address everything, but having some thing that definitely gives a timescale suggest integrity of purpose, as people who commit to do something and deliver on it build trust and reduce resentment.
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Itâs my biggest, but you hit the nail on the head: Thereâs just a huge breadth of issues that having no concrete info on any of them is the worst of all worlds. I could deal with the servers if I could at least pick a map. I could deal with the map selection if crafting was in the game. I could deal with no crafting if the servers were stable. And the snake continues to eat itself.