Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

What are we currently working on.
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Arrakis
 
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Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Arrakis » 25 May 2018, 18:30

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Hey, Feudalists!

This week we’ve been working on the First Major LiF:MMO update, doing our best to bring it to you as soon as possible. Since May is coming to an end, we are now working in turbo mode. We’re happy to say that it’s 80% ready as of today. Eager to bring the new content and without anything left behind, we will be working over the weekend as well. We are working to bring it to you as soon as possible, but there is of course always a chance that we may miss our deadline - since nothing runs smoothly in game development! We sincerely hope for your understanding and support.

Speaking of updates, as a lot of you figured by looking in your inbox, companies are updating their privacy policy according to GDPR, and we are no exception. However, we have decided not to add more spam to your inbox, but rather inform you here in our devblog.For the full information, you can review our fully updated End User License Agreement (EULA) (https://lifeisfeudal.com/End-User-Licen ... ement-EULA ) and Privacy Policy (https://lifeisfeudal.com/policy), which take effect on May 25th, 2018.

This weekend we have a lot of events going on, thanks to our awesome community members, and our Events Game Master, Paul. Join the events on Skjutland https://www.facebook.com/events/454359178347933/ and Buyan https://www.facebook.com/events/194357784714451/, and don’t forget to tell us what you think!

In this week’s devblog we continue our newest tradition, the team member segment, and are sharing a story from Stephanie (aka Stephaxil), our Community and PR Manager:

Hey guys, Steph here (AKA StephAxil)!

When I first discovered Life is Feudal I remember thinking, ‘wow, someone’s making my dream game,’ - I simply had to reach out to the (at the time) modest team, who were all working in a particularly dark, small (thinking of the nicest words here) apartment. Bobik told me about a less-than-ideal leak from upstairs coming from an even less-than-ideal room. I’ll let you use your imagination there. This was happening literally as they were releasing LiF:YO on Steam. They persevered through a quite literal shitstorm and I loved them for it!
In an attempt to keep this short and sweet, I just wanted to say that since coming aboard back when LiF:YO initially launched, I’ve had an awesome time, and absolutely love both the team and the players. Thank you so much for allowing us to create, provide and work in Life is Feudal.


Have a great weekend!
— The team


Dedillon86
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Dedillon86 » 25 May 2018, 18:47

CAN YOU GIVE US ANY DETAILS ? EVEN 80% DETAILS WOULD BE NICE!!


keep up the good work!

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Jpmarquesc25
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Jpmarquesc25 » 25 May 2018, 18:49

post some images, share with your customers something to have some expectations of future, this is a game of long time to use on it. how would you want to rise the number of users if you only said that you are working on something anyone knows what it is? people is leaving the game and you are like a black wall. share something, something, stupid images of the development of some placeholder, some building some rework on the moose or the courrier, something. its stupidly dificult to share your work with us like facepunch do with his community.
you are killing the game, you! and you don't do nothing to stop dat.
the comunity, the new players and the ones who leave cos is unplayeable and can come back if you do nothing about them. that people is the one who gona make your game good with his money. where you would make money if you lose that people? tell me? who will?
stop spliting the community, SHARE SOMETHING TO US TO HAVE HYPE AND CONTINUE PLAYING THE "ONLY" STUPID MEDIEAVL HARDCORE SURVIVAL BUILDING MMO GAME. the only way to make money is to have people. in this minute you have: 313 on epeland 411 on skjutland and 511 on Avalon. from the 3k of february only on avalon and more on the other servers (i thougt the game and the central server was build to handle 10k people. GJ guys im done with you...


N3r0is
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by N3r0is » 26 May 2018, 00:07

You guys really need to have more communication. I see it from your player base all day everyday, people aren't mad that we have to wait for the update, they are mad because you guys have told us NOTHING about it.

Literally we are blind, and that's not keeping people around, people would rather know bits and pieces of what we are getting rather then nothing.

Communication. Communication. Communication.

Updates on what you guys are working on more then once a week.

Teasers of upcoming stuff, stuff that we want too look forward too.

Your player base is dying, and you are saying the "May" patch will bring players back, well then damn it, give us information on what we are getting! You being all secretive is doing nothing but hurting yourselves, because your player base is quitting, and not even looking for updated news because they know you only give them a short segment once a week.

I've said it before and ill say it again, you guys need a Community Manager, and if you have one, that person isn't doing a very good job being part of the community.


Rant done, but for real, think about what I said, Think about what you want for the future of this game, and your jobs.


Tinuva
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Tinuva » 26 May 2018, 02:20

Going to be way too late at this point. Different games coming out and the player base has moved on unfortunately. There used to be 3000 people logged in during weekends on Buyan. Today, less than 600 at peak times/JH. Im afraid you have pushed most of us to our breaking point, by tuesday I doubt I ever log in again.

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Kattria1
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Kattria1 » 26 May 2018, 04:59

I know all the Wolves will hate me or should i say rather have me for lunch but Honestly the game would be better if there was a protection for the sheep of the game on all servers not just one maybe a way to have the pvp option turned off for them i mean playing around and love tapping ones guild mate is not pvp its just a love tap here and there but there would also have to be a way to keep the wolves from hitting and then turning off the pvp option i know that it is possible ive seen in in a older game way back when say around 1997 but it worked well would be great for us sheep of the world to be safe from wolves and play with our wolf guild buddies too a sheep shouldnt have to stay in a claim to be safe like a prisoner they should be able to roam free and use their skills just as freely as the next player


Jacktktam
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Jacktktam » 26 May 2018, 09:38

As someone who has reached 1000 Alignment, I would say I qualify as a dedicated player towards this game. And even I feel like giving this game a long break, and here are a couple of the reasons.

First, the game mechanics does not allow individuals to survive on their own - they are by necessity forced to live with a guild. Sure, you could make a shack and level up your own skills, but only up to a point before you must turn to other professions for help. This either force people to join a guild that might contain all kinds of unfamiliar individuals, or create multiple alts to support themselves.

The forced interdependence of the crafting skill systems aside, you cannot maintain your personal claims without being part of a guild. Part of the beauty of other survival games is that people can choose to survive on their own should they find their associates untrustworthy. Here, you are forced to tolerate the politics within guilds.

Second, as mentioned above, the crafting skill systems need to be broken up in a way that allow players to have options to go solo when pursuing their individual professions without needing to always rely on a guild. This may sounds counter intuitive, but people crave self autonomy. The guild I am in lost a huge amount of players because of the constant regulations from the management, which are further constrained with the huge loss of player base. Without such an option, people feel like they are lock in servitude, which... you get the idea.

Third, I feel like you guys missed a prime opportunity with the Alignment system to encourage roleplaying or even just interaction between players, especially those that are strangers. Forcing people to log in every in-game day to be the only way to raise Alignment is taking the play out of it (although I'd admit that I might be bias on that...).

Since Alignment is all about goodwill, why not make it so that you gain small amount of Alignment whenever you "assist" others in certain actions? I could imagine people, even strangers, are more compelled to help others if they could earn Alignment whenever they give an "assist" buff to players leveling skills. People would naturally form their own community via a trust system, which would be a lot healthier than the current ones.


Laurus
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Laurus » 26 May 2018, 10:53

My feeling was to just stay away from all this but I still could not resist to give my statement here.

I am just an early YO player with a total playtime of 1750 hours, I have never bothered to make further research of the development team and/or company/publisher. I grew up in a time where games I obtained were final. They were tested, they were only with minor bugs and if needed were provided with the few patches they needed.

Back then we were overwhelmed with the graphics and revolutianary designs, gameplay and possibilities. The expectations were low and success for developers easy to achieve. Even then Games separated themselves from others by gameplay and content alone.

Time went on, the internet boomed and everything changed. Games got massive, more buggy and constant patches were needed.
But then came another factor to be considered: Multiplayer games and their constant need of support due to the complexity and the players desire to receive new lore. This is where continuous payments were introduced and worked very well in certain segments (WoW for example, just because I experienced it myself, it's rise and fall).

A bit later unfinished games in alpha state were sold. I could not believe my eyes when I saw it for the first time, but it worked. The player's wish to participate in a game's development led to another possibility for new developers to profile theirselves and possibly create new sensations or failures.

And here we are now. What began as a sensation I now consider a massive failure.
You started with a great idea, turned it into a game one was proud to play but lacked the manpower, knowhow and funds to keep up.
I was told that a massive onlinegame was your goal from the beginning and that YO was just a testing ground. You did well in YO, but with time there were more and more bugs developed. Ideas and promises were not kept, there was little communication. Thus the community got bored, modders came and revived the game, at least for me.
Then I tested the MMO with the possibility of my YO character without spending a cent for this game. I felt a little guilty not supporting the developers, but due to my experiences of YO it did not bother me for long. It was nice at first but the slow skilling time was extremeley hard. I had to spend almost a month until I got my desired build (PvE and PvP) but ist was still ok. I never bought a power hour or other stuff. The skins were great, a good thing in customise your own character. In my opinion only viable in a good developed game with only minor bugs. I would certainly have bought a few skind if my expectations of the game would have been met.

Then came the launch of another world and I realised that this was the slow end to the game. My first thought was: Fuck, they cannot stabilise the big amount of players. My expectations of a populated world full of random people to meet, rivalries and possibilities crashed. My dreams lied shattered in ruins. But I still kept on playing in my guild, focusing more to my own small cabin in the woods - alone. Guilds all around shrinked down to the mean amount of a YO-Guild and here we are now. It's a weekend and there are only a little more than 100 players online on each one of the three worlds.

I believe you made massive mistakes. One of which was to ignore your incapabilities to make a stable game. You should have seen that coming. I know it is not easy to stop a project with a lot of effort in it, but if it is inevitable you should not keep up your community's hopes. You have a responsibility as a developer and should not betray your supporters.

If you cannot handle all the tasks then either quit painfully or if you want your idea thrive, then sell it to a company which is possible to fullfill the expectations of the community.

All I wrote is just my own opinion. Take it or ignore it. As a not native english speaker ignore the mistakes I made.

PS: I quit LiF after login failures 5 days in a row and will not bother to try again.


Federicogjm
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Federicogjm » 26 May 2018, 16:51

I think they have not considered a strong point on the entry to the claims with horse carts. When the flag between two guilds or no guild and guild is neutral you should be able to enter their claims.
If the claim members want to accuse him of trespasser so be it, but allow access because for my game it is very important to be able to cross them to transport regional materials and others. I need to move horse carts all over the world and I can not lose one every time I inadvertently entered a guild claim with a neutral flag towards my guild. My dealer's game would be over.


Federicogjm
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Federicogjm » 26 May 2018, 23:21

Friends, please, it is necessary that this change be reversed. In the photo below I can see how tedious can be trading, even access to a market post of an unknown guild. I'm at the red point moving north for days, collecting regional timber and minerals from the south. I stop once a day and under a camp claim, the next day I continue my way. It has become impossible for me to continue doing this and it is a true mistake from my point of view. Please, this has to be reversed urgently!

Thank you very much.

Image


Federicogjm
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Federicogjm » 27 May 2018, 02:26

I have read all the messages that have been published in this topic and I really do not think they speak for everyone.
We have one who has got angry because he has not been able to start a session, another who complains because he dies of curiosity, and unfortunately everyone says something true, people are leaving.
As a solo and guild player I think that being summer in Europe there are many people who are not playing, the big problem here is the impossibility of keeping your private or guild claim for a long time without connecting. When you return, you see that everything you have worked so long for is burning and being usurped. I do not think you really want to start over.
I am a player of 38 years, I have created characters for all professions and I only lack in crafts an ability that I have not been able to achieve since I never reach the points.

Here I would introduce some changes to get players to come and go.

1. Allow more time in the personal and guild claims, agradle god favors to extend it if you want, but do something about it.
If this claim is inactive a certain amount of time reduces the time more quickly.

2. Concentrate on increasing the skill points that you can have in a character in a balanced way so that you can at least form a whole branch with everything to 100 and not depend on having all your stats in intelligence making your character only serve for that profession . (This happens to me, that to have a soldier I have to make a character and if he is a craftsman with 100 in everything I need another because his stats will not be used for combat).

3. Reduce the penalties on skills, this is useless, if you die to kill another character seems consistent, but die on the way home with a newly created character or have a few days and lose a lot of skill points because your insurance only covered 5 points is a real shit.

4. It facilitates the players mobility, to move cars and horses quickly, the courier horse I think it was great. To me the truth is that it has fascinated me, but if I die at the other end of the world I'm screwed, it does not help me to be an explorer and that my horse dies, let me cure it or create a resistant mail horse. Or better remove this last update about the damage of the horses haha.

Horse carts and carts have to move faster, it is not viable to take three or four hours to cross a few maps through small hills.

5. The skills should be associated with what they do. If I am a horse tamer, I should be able to use all the horses that I can train and not depend on a combat skill like rider.
If I am a carpenter, give me a benefit for using some wood, or allow me to get more quality from a low quality tree, but make it worthwhile to have 100 skill points in something really good. And with this I mean that with the difficulty of achieving 100 points, I want a real difference between the player who reaches 90 to build the necessary and the one who has 100 and has reached the maximum with great effort.
Here I only mention crafts as an example because it is what I like to play. If you want, give the swordsman the possibility of using sharp work tools like swords and other things.
My blacksmith can harvest the same amount of vegetables as my farmer and my farmer has 100 points of agriculture. Yes, the farmer is faster to harvest, but he does not get any really good benefits, and with this I do not mean that you prevent the blacksmith from raising the harvest, we are doing well, but if I have 100 points of agriculture, I would do well something more than speed.
I have 100 in carpentry and I still do not know why, I can do things of very good quality since I was 90 with clothes and good tools, now that I have 100 points I can make a decorated chest and a closet, give me something else! please, benefits to reach 100 points! strong benefits, it is hard to reach 100 points I have finished the profession, give me something powerful.

5.a. And this I want to separate because I would not like to be misinterpreted, if you are bowcrafter, give me a bonus to raise archery or give me a bonus to hit with arrogadizos, but here I separate, do not make it necessary and dependent, give me something else to do it, I will my blacksmith to hit harder with the mallet and bowcrafter with archer, but let me choose whether or not I want to do it, do not force me placing a dependency.

6. Place enemies npcs, bosses and something that delivers items that only they deliver, but do not make those items prevent doing something, for example "from now on we put a boss that when he dies gives away gems, but now the gems can no longer obtained through mining "... This please do not do it because you screw up.

7. Do not force me to wait a month to plant trees and vegetables again, make it a bit longer in winter, lower the quality a bit, but do not give it to me for a whole month.

I will continue ...


Sunleader
 
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Re: Development News #105 — Rock(-Hard Work), Papers, Stories!

Post by Sunleader » 27 May 2018, 19:56

Just Asking.
But does anyone else get a very veeery bad feeling when reading this small statement that was tucked into the text as a side remark ?

""
We are working to bring it to you as soon as possible, but there is of course always a chance that we may miss our deadline - since nothing runs smoothly in game development! We sincerely hope for your understanding and support.
""

Anyone else got the Feeling that the May Update might not be coming in May ? ^^

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