I'll go ahead and mention that this topic is only a suggestion and NOT, in any way, supposed to be read as negativity. Simply put, I just wanted to see what other members who decide to take the time to read this has to say about Pre-Patch notes. I know this is a free shard and our staff has limited time to work on patching because of things that go on outside of the game. (RL) My interest in writing this up was just to get some insight on what is up and coming... Maybe a "Pre-Patch" thread a few days , weeks, months in advance on what is currently being worked on, implemented, improved or removed. (Even if some of the information on the Pre-Patch thread is subject to change) --I'm aware that some information cannot and will not be disclosed because of potential exploits from bugs or other relating issues-- I personally would feel more connected to the staff on a player base relationship if there was some communication listed in a thread that I could see simply by logging into the forums. Hearing "possible" changes from players on IRC can sometimes become frustrating because there is no way to confirm it's fact or fiction without having to PM Telamon or Ezekiel. It will at the very least give the community an idea of what they can expect or what will be delayed based off of coding and or in-game balance concerns. (not to mention the cut down on repeated questions staff has to answer) I do want to say that I enjoy my time on UOR and appreciate all the hard work and time the staff devotes to making this a better game for us as a community.
I like this idea. I'm currently working on rearranging some templates because of skill changes from a recent patch. The earlier I know what I've got to do to adjust the better. I would like to point out, though, that of all the patch notes I've read, those here on UOR are the clearest and most enjoyable to read I've come across. Also, I don't see how players could feel more connected to staff by reading pre-patch notes than by being able to actually talk to them in IRC on a daily basis. I imagine a few extra forum posts would be great for any players that don't use IRC, though.
Yeh I agree with sneaky. I like to know whats up and coming and when it will be released. Right now im sure they are busy with events, champ spawns, and bugs. Also when I do pm staff they responds but I try not to because the more questions we ask them the longer its going to take to get these things that players n staff want fixed. Alittle information few weeks before a patch would come in handy.
I agree that the clarity of information in IRC is a bit hazy at times. It would be cool just to see a table/bucket list with some round-about ideas of what things are being put into what patch and when. That could also lead to annoying conversations about how/why they are prioritizing things they way they choose to. In short, yeah, it sounds good but otherwise, I'm ok without it. Wanna know what's coming down the pipe? Ask if you can help test sometime. (I know a lot of us already do, just saying) Good idea Sneaky.
There hasnt been a lack of communication imo and I feel that info is being shared by the staff. Im actually impressed with the info feeds we get either thru irc or on the boards. Keep up the good work guys.
This is one thing that has come up a few times, and while I personally try to keep our playerbase informed there are a few pros and cons to the pre patch note mentality. Cons Potentially inflammatory items can result in the staff having to address player concerns with various fixes/changes before the players can try whatever the change is for themselves and realize, "oh thats not so bad" or "actually this is a nice improvement". It is always best for players to discuss a patch when they can actually try it out, than just guessing at the effect on the live server. The staff here feel that it is unprofessional to promise our players things before they are finished. While most free shards keep a running list of "Whats in store for patch XX", what you normally see is that patch never arises and they are just trying pacify the players for a lack of fixes/coding. We maintain an extremely high quality of coding, patch notes, and testing here on Renaissance and sometimes, even though we have worked on something for 50 hours, it just doesn't make the cut. Having lives/jobs and significant others we can't always meet the deadlines we set for ourselves. Better to have a pleasant surprise as a player when we get a patch ready and applied, than a letdown when it takes us a bit longer than we expect In certain situations, various bugs, critical server issues, or player conduct also can completely de-rail the patch process. This has happened in the past and I am sure will continue to happen. Complete patches have been pushed back to address some world changing exploit or to deal with a players conduct. Pros Renaissance will always need player testers to make sure that the patches we apply are properly tested and verified to work correctly. Renaissance prides itself that in 9 months of being live the server has only crashed due to a coding mistake 4-5 times (usually my fault). Having accessible patch notes for our testers to try out on test center never hurts. With Renaissance now accepting donations we have established a founders club for our monthly subscribers, these players are granted access to a development forum where issues are discussed in a completely constructive manner. As an example for several weeks now a detailed discussion on the platinum system has been under way. Our founders club members are free to discuss this information with our players as they see fit. Renaissance Shard Support To give you an example here is what our patch notes look like in the raw form before I spend an hour crafting our well organized and alphabetized patch notes. Chris's Patch 34 Notes Treasure Map Chests - Allowed T-Map chests to be choppable (Thanks Wudan) - Added a gump to allow the player to confirm the chop - Limited the chop to the chest owner - If the chest is empty anyone can chop it Anti AFK - Adjusted the first warning jail time to 5 minutes. - Fishing now will only trigger if you are fishing at 100 skill, regardless of location. Houses - Updated the house transfer gump to display relevant UOR info - Updated the house demo gump to display relvant UOR info - When houses are created or the locks are changed the house keys are now linked to the house serial - When dbl clicking a single key, and targeting a door in a house, if the house key is the master key for the house, it will create a new interior door key for that door - When re-keying an interior door, any keys related to the old door ID will be removed from your backpack - Added the ability to access the underlying house details from the props menu of the house sign - Removed the function that was creating deeds for house add-ons when a house is deeded. Neruns - Disabled the KPKorpe commands for TerMur monsters - disabled some lingering irc commands Vendors - Removed chessboard, backgammon from the tavernkeeper - Created a new vendor for easter (eastervendor) - Added a new custom command to the vendor at "vendor redeem" - This command will check you for eggs and display 1 of two messages based on if you have easter eggs on your person. - If you have no eggs it will show you your current score, and a link to the scoreboard - if you have eggs it will give you an option to turn them in. - A message is giving to the player when the eggs are turned in. AES Event Logging - Created a new class to hold events related to the easter and future events. - When a player turns in any eggs, the amount, datetime, x,y,z, event type and player serial are recorded in this log. - This log is exported to the website every 5 minutes. Potions - Enabled stacking of potions (requires client patch) - This does not include puprples/greens Mobiles - Trippled the HP for Bs/EV's (Per Ezekiel) BaseRares - Disabled the dbl click to web integration until the website is done Passive Wrestling - Adjusted the formula for the calculation of passive wrestling to cap at a max of 100 - Anat + Eval / 2 = Passive Wrestle Gate Travel - Removed the restriction for criminals to castle and target the gate travel spell (Per Ezekiel) Fishing - Changed the flagging of the Anti AFK System to 100 skill, up from 90 skill. - Adjusted the big fish prize to be spawned on deep sea serpents to allow for the increased afk checking - Adjusted the naming of the big fish to show the weight and who fished it up - Updated the taxidermy kit to allow for the name to translate to the mounted fish - MIB Chests are now named properly - Added a 10% chance to find a platinum coint in a level 3 MIB chest Cutting CLothing - You can now cut non player made clothing and collect up to 50% of the resources used to make the item - You cannot cut newbied items.
