Fatshark's Silence is Deafening

I like silence because it’s the opposite of being loud. Some people also play this game because the gameplay is fun.

Oh no, they will at the very least get the Xbox version out first, so they can trick a whole new group of customers into buying Darktide. But pretty quickly after that I’m betting they’re taking their money and running.

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Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you, that a person saying “at the earliest, by this week” is not deceptive. Once. However, Fat Shark CMs haven’t just done that once. They’ve done it every time. The entire game’s history is Fat Shark giving us estimates of the earliest they could do things, and then failing to meet those estimates.

Saying we will give you an update, at the earliest by this week is a lie if you never intended to actually do the update by this week, or you knew that it would actually be impossible to deliver in the earlier time frame.

Given Fat Shark’s repeated history of offering either impossible or unrealistic estimates of “the earliest” they could do things, it is logical to conclude that Fat Shark CMs just use that phrase as a weasel phrase.

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Even the best planned actions can go wrong. Whether this has been such a plan is up to you, but we don’t know, just like we don’t know if the reason is the complexity of the decision or something that would make some of us unhappy, e.g. postponing the decision until certain tasks for the X-Box version are completed.

In any case, the postponement means that the expectations are rising. While I don’t expect any significant change to reach us for at least two months, I would like to hear what changes are expected. By the time I spend on this forum more time reading about DT than I had spent playing, I will probably lose any will to return to the game.

It’s very difficult to word a statement saying “We’ve dropped the PC version while our entire team moves across to launch this complete disaster on XBOX” without consumers getting even more infuriated.

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Yeah, they’ve basically managed to let us know without saying it outright, though. Following the same pattern as their previous games. The fact that even if they manage to push out a update and/or patch Next Week :copyright: :tm:, it’s only going to be hotfixes… is all the proof anyone could ever need that 2-3 people are currently working on Darktide, and the whole studio is focused only on hacking together a console build good enough to fleece a new group of customers.

I’d be super happy to be proved wrong, but from reading the CMs replies, reading between the lines, seeing how they’re not allowed to talk about anything, even though they wanted to release a statement today, etc etc. It’s all just tactics from management to make it seem like work is ongoing, when in reality they’ve completely and totally abandoned the PC release.

I fully expect next weeks announcement to be majorly focused on Xbox news, and all the stuff that will be in the Xbox release, and how that stuff may or may not at some point, possibly, depending on internal roadmaps, design intents, shifting timelines, paralell universes, eventually end up on PC.

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FWIW, I don’t think the console releases of prior Fatshark game’s ever got “ahead” of development of the PC version. If there are a bunch of changes planned that they want in the console release, I suspect they would be rolled out at the same time. At least IIRC that’s how it’s happened with VT2.

If they actually role out substantive DESIGN improvements to the game ONLY on the console, people are going to absolutely lose their minds (as if they haven’t mostly already).

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I know, I was just playing on how they keep posting non-substantive replies about how there could possibly be something, not sure what, slated to maybe arrive at some point.

Also, going on how they keep shooting themselves in the foot over and over, and how they struggled to maintain patch parity even on the two PC versions… Nothing at all would surprise me anymore.

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Yes. One also has to bear in mind the requirements and resource cost of console submissions, which are very high compared to PC. So making significant changes to console versions before the PC version doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless there are huge external factors.

Yep.

“Ofc we’re working on the console port, but it’s not our sole priority” is basically PR speak for “Yep, we’re still doing that, now stop asking questions”.

They could’ve gone ahead and said “Guys, we get that this isn’t what you were expecting, or what you were promised. We are committed to deliver on the vision that brought you here, and we will. The console port is of course something we are looking at, but it’s far from a priority - the priority is and will remain bringing the game to a point where both you as players as well as we as the creators can say we’re more than happy with it”, it would give the exact same amount of information, but would show some humility after the countless lies we’ve been served.

But nah, the game’s reception is something they’re happy with, so apparently, the deceitful tactics are something that they’ll continue.

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I genuinely don’t blame the CMs for lack of meaningful communication as It seems like the teams responsible for roadmaps and progress aren’t willing to sign off on communication for them which leaves very little other than placative tripe.

As a community we’re pretty upset, so non-information isn’t looked upon favorably, so they’re just basically smiling and nodding while we howl into the void.

I will say that as they have been hired to “manage” their community, they are having a poor go at it. The whole point of the position is to take situations like this and attempt to mitigate unrest among the customers, they’ve done nothing to allay our concerns.

Again: I understand they’re basically tasked with accomplishing this with their hands tied behind their backs, blindfolded, gagged and only given the option to tell us “someone’s working on something!” but more engagement on their OFFICIAL FORUM would be appreciated. Even if it’s just to stop the community from repeatedly making “COMMUNITY UPDATE WHEN” posts.

This is the official forum right? - #49 by Summer?

This kind of communication needs to be on the official forums. These kind of updates would assuage a number of concerns. There will always be a portion of the community that feels this isn’t enough (it’s impossible to please everyone), but this would be so much more meaningful on the FORUMS.

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How to get a topic locked, keep flagging stuff because you don’t like the message or stray so far off the intended purpose of the OP a CM has merit to come in and lock it themselves. The issue lies in the improper use of these forums for their communication on developing issues by having to use third party outlets instead of the Official DarkTide Forums. They have an entire tab dedicated to Announcements, everything they post elsewhere can simply be copy/pasted. They could disable comments or simply post links so folks don’t have to scour other social media platforms. Currently, we wait for someone to do the CM’s job by posting excerpts from Reddit/Discord in General Discussion. Starting to believe Fatshark’s management is sliding in on a shrimp sandwich.

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Cut out a bunch of derailing/off topic stuff, thread remains open.

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@Fatshark_Hedge can someone reply to my technical support post, or something, its been like a week and no one bothers to respond after i gave them what they wanted

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This is a pretty funny post, definitely doesn’t deserve to be flagged. Lol.

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That’s just plain evil.

This aged well :slight_smile:

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The only “theme” and narrative depth in Darktide occurs at a meta level, where Fatshark has taken to treating their customers as disposable reject fodder to feed their imperial coffers, ironically mirroring the trials of our in-game characters.

I used to laugh and chuckle at all the quotes on the loading screen. Now I just cry and whimper at the feet of their inexorable truth.

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Apparently Hedge didn’t find it that funny. It got hidden within about 1-2 mins after posting. I was trying to make light of the situation and trying to maybe make a few people (staff included) smile a little. :person_shrugging:

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Even funnier that I got suspended for “abusing the flagging system” (according to hedge).

How is the power trip going hedge? Having fun here where you can ban everyone that tells you you are doing a bad work?

You disappeared from reddit, guess you are not as funny when you can’t ban whoever you want.

@Fatshark_Hedge

Just keep suspending users that treat the company fair, that’s gonna work wonders for your reputation, the little that’s left.