Since the other topic was closed and thus there was no way to reply to @Fatshark_Hedge 's replies, I will simply have to make a new thread.
Now, I don’t want to argue semantics, but it would be fair to say that the game was advertised as launching with cosmetics, which while technically true, there were only one per career, and the droprate for them was approx 0%. That 0% number is not hyperbole, by the way. The current cosmetics that launched with 1.1 are by and large the same ones showed in marketing matieral for VT2, and many largerly imported wholesale from VT1.
It doesn’t take a lot of mental gymnastics to realize that the cosmetics in 1.1 were intended to be in the game for launch, but didn’t make it due to time constraints. Especially since they were shown off in pre-release marketing material. (The same goes for mod support, dedi servers and more, that simply didn’t make it for launch and are still missing in functional form from the game.)
Now, here comes the larger issue. The change in droprate for cosmetics was obviously needed, as it was functionally zero. However, the cosmetics dropped into the game with the changed droprate, are cosmetics that should have been in the game since launch, and were advertised. Current droprate seems to be one cosmetic per 30-60 chests on average, which is still a lot of hours per cosmetic drop.
It is not simply the change in droprate that makes it fair to compensate players for previous hours grinded, it’s the fact that the content was simply missing previously, and was supposed to already be in the game. I would find it very difficult to believe that @Fatshark_Hedge would be able look me straight in the eyes and tell me the 1.1 cosemtics were never, at any point, intended to be included on release/straight after release.
All of the above is issue one.
Issue two is the fact that the release of the game has been a technical nightmare, with bugs upon bugs upon bugs, missing features, non-working talents and so much more. Many of us have distinctly had the feeling of playing an early-access game, and our feedback has indeed been invaluable to FS. It was a player who discovered the enormous blunder that led to the 1.05 patch, just to name one of many, many bugs and issues reported by players. It is clear that QA at FS is severely limited, and for better or worse they have to rely on their customers to catch and report bugs, both of a technical nature and of game features not working as intended.
You put all of this together, and you have a significant portion of players that have put hundreds of hours into the game, that are starting to feel like they are getting the short end of the stick, and being shafted. The previous quotes from @Fatshark_Hedge is the first time anyone from FS has aknowledged the rocky release even a little bit. I understand he is very busy, but if he doesn’t have the time, they need to employ a pure community manager that does.
Me personally put around 480 hours into this game before 1.1 dropped with more cosmetics and increased droprates. Now, obviously I’m not saying those 480 hours are wasted because I had fun with the game and played what was available. From a grinding standpoint however, those hours are wasted, especially as even the new droprate demands many, many hours of grind per cosmetic.
Essentially the cosmetic grind before 1.1 introduced cosmetics that ought to have been there from launch, was a wasted effort, and if anyone from FS had told us, no one would have opened a single chest before 1.1 dropped. They must have known they were introducing cosmetics later than planned, and they must have known droprates would have to change.
Combined with the very, very rocky early-access like launch of the game, it is not whiny or entitled or anything even remotely outlandish or absurd about expecting FS to wish to compensate or create some goodwill among their customers, customers they even rely upon to bugfix and improve their game.
They have sold more units than they could have expected, and the compenstion they would give their customers would cost them nothing more than a few manhours. It’s an almost unheard of situation for a company, to be able to restore goodwill among discontented customers without giving away product, without doing discounts, but merely by using a few manhours to dole out a little digital content that already exists.
To have had such a rocky launch with huge techincal issues, big problems with the game and gameplay, and the very late arrival of advertised content, @Fatshark_Hedge reply that they simply don’t want to do anything at all to restore goodwill among the customers that have used their product the most, is like reading the ABC of how to destroy all future goodwill and purchases from your customers.