So, just so everyone knows, we're not guaranteed the itemization update on the 25th

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
1

From the Fatshark PR complaint thread, emphasis mine:

I figured this needed to be spread very quickly before it got lost in the sea of the forum thread.

26 Likes
2

Good preservation effort.

9 Likes
3

I started The Book of Grudges for a similar reason. I’m petty af about this kinda thing.

11 Likes
4

As long as they’re taking their time and not half-assing it… I’m more than happy to wait a little while longer. Good things come to those who wait.

17 Likes
5

In this particular instance I wouldn’t call it petty. It’s a big difference on whether the game-changing update arrives at date X or not.

This is another good example of communication worthy of improvement. The original statement of @FatsharkStrawHat Strawhat and the Clarification from @Hank_jw read completely different.

How I, as an independent reader, read and interpreted these two statements in my head:
@FatsharkStrawHat: “Our big update will be released June 25, 2024. It will include New missions, new weapons along with the itemization part of the update. And we will also give you a blogpost if testing goes well about itemization in advance.”

@Hank_jw’s clarification: “Our big update will be released June 25, 2024. Only the New Mission and the New Weapon are assured and if itemization is coming is a big if, perhaps not.”

11 Likes
6

That’s the actual quote. The asterisks and “(but is not limited to)” make it pretty clear that itemization isn’t guaranteed.

3 Likes
7

Yeah like so many other elements of the game it’s finally launching after 17 months in development (in addition to the time pre-launch obviously). Amazingly people think we’re prickly for not being thrilled with these kinds of revelations. Like when I said last summer they’d be can-kicking for at least another year back when we knew only of the class and penance overhaul. I can’t wait for the mission board one so I can finally enjoy the game without 70+ mods.

6 Likes
8

Sorry, but not how it arrives at the average reader at all.
Especially the “(but not limited to)” reads to me like “Look, we got the mission and the weapon, but not to worry, there’s more”. And from my standpoint it looks like something you’d write to avoid backlash in advance, so people don’t say “oh, itemization isn’t in”.

@Hank_jw’s clarification made things a lot clearer.
A better way to communicate this from the outset would have been to write the following:

“This new update features: New Mission; New Weapons.
We are at this point not sure if our itemization changes will be ready to deploy by then. For more news on itemization we are currently working on a dev blog update.”

^ Much clearer and still in proper corporate English. Alternatively they could have left all talk about itemization out completely.

I’m usually with Fatshark on the things they do, but we have to give proper feedback here so misunderstandings between Community Managers and Community happen less frequently. We need clear clarifications or the absense of information when it is not relevant. But including it in a vague sentence will always confuse readers.

10 Likes
9

The bullet points are the guaranteed features. The “but not limited to” bit means there’s more (bug fixes are surely likely, maybe balance, etc.) but they’re not outright listing them.

But because itemization is THE item everyone wants, and the intention is to get it in with this update (but not before it’s fully-cooked) they do a balancing act: mention it, but be clear that it is a WIP.

Honestly, I read it purely in the “negative” sense and was quite shocked to hear Hank say itemization may be coming 6/25.

1 Like
10

But the part about the itemization is not exactly clear, is my point. The example I gave is a lot clearer and cannot be misunderstood.

I am an avid reader myself and I have no hostile intention towards Fatshark at all, you know this. And even I misread the statement at first, until clarification came. That’s why I just wrote what I wrote. The project and Fatshark deserve better, than to have their image tanked over a few words.

7 Likes
11

If they put into thought process the main questions on everyone’s minds then can easily formulate the answers and put in what is the expectation coming. Regardless if before or after summer.

“What” is being tested in itemisation. What does it really mean here.

  • UI change for inventory/crafting to reduce repetition of clicking/moving between armory and craft station such as all in one menu?
  • Reduction to RNG they mentioned in March?

Just few points to make it more “specific”

2 Likes
12

I feel confident this will be part of the dev blog they mentioned. They’re just not 100% sure on the system yet, because it’s currently being play tested, so we don’t have that dev blog quite yet.

2 Likes
13

And that is perfectly fine to communicate. You can even spin something positive out of this.

“There are so many possibilities on building this new itemization process we are considering, that we just don’t feel ready yet to deploy this new itemization. We are very excited about it and hope you will love it too, when it’s here!”

4 Likes
14

I feel the balancing act, mentioning the not-quite-ready big ticket item without over-hyping it, is precisely why we got the brief asterisk’d side note explaining its status (in testing) and next steps (dev blog).

3 Likes
15

My thoughts exactly.

I’m just happy they acknowledge and are changing crafting, moving away from RNG as they stated

Looking forward to it, so feet up, chill and relax.

5 Likes
16

Yeah i was afraid that’s what that meant and thought I was taking crazy pills.

I’m just going to link what i said in the other thread:

I don’t think it would have been a leap to go “We are pouring through feedback from the forms, discord, social media, and our internal play test to deliver the best update to itemization we can deliver. As a result we want to release on the 25th but in the interest of maintaining quality we may release it at a later date to release it in a state that the developers and the community are happy with”.

TBH everything from “More news in the skulls event livestream” to people asking how the in game event worked feels like, once again, communication is not being properly delivered from the devs to the CMs / PR people and then to the community.

I don’t know if it’s just a lost in translation problem or an issue with strict restrictions on what can and can’t be said but something just is not working.

2 Likes
17

I think it’s an executive going ‘if we tell them that we’ve delayed the thing they want most after promising more stuff in the Skulls livestream, they will eat us alive, word it so they’ll think it’s still on track but don’t commit’.

The grumbling was already bad enough as is, imagine if it’d come with a side of ‘next month’ memes from Darktide screwing up and delaying things again.

3 Likes
18

I mean we are already doing “Next month” as a meme.

That’s the thing a lot of people seem to be kind of blind to, we literally got nothing new from the skulls event but some return cosmetics and news that new stuff was coming next month.

Sure we got the penance update but if you have no interest in hunting for cosmetics and are waiting for new content you pretty much gotta wait till the 25th to get…well…anything.

We didn’t even get screenshots of the new weapons or much a description beyond "yeah it’s some weapons. ". It feels like this is the absolute BARE MINIMUM they had to deliver.

It’s just so dam weird.

4 Likes
19

Those with the ability to read and understand written language, know this.

I am just happy they have acknowledged they are working on the issue and will be addressed when ready.

So bring on the new level and gear and let the cleansing commence

20

What’s unfortunate is that there’s a summer vacation coming up. Including vacation recovery time, if the itemization doesn’t hit on the 25th I think we’re looking at an october release.

7 Likes