mccrispy

I know that you really like to look on the positive side of things and defend OBS like a loyal fanboi, but really you're missing the point. We all know that **** takes time to do. We also know that there's a gazillion things that OBS might​ be doing that justifies the ridiculous delay. But nothing, nothing​ justifies the silence. Nothing justifies ignoring the "community". Nothing justifies ignoring the fans of the game and just treating them as an income resource pure and simple. We're now into a month beyond the original "commitment" for the next update and there's nothing coming from OBS. No blog posts (do they have any idea what a blog is for?), no updates in these forums, nothing substantive on social media. Nothing. It's rude and it's insulting. I don't want a commitment to a date (because we all know that in software dev generally it's hard to hit those dates and with OBS they are incapable of doing so). No, what I want to see is a firm commitment to the future of the game; some explanation of why it's taking them so long. Not having that information leaves me to fill in the blanks with the words ​product abandonment​. You see, if OBS want me to be a loyal fanboi like you Hannibal, they have to work harder at it. As it is, I would never pay for another OBS product in the future as I know that it will be of poor quality and that it will be the subject of an early product abandonment. I'm pleased that you can keep the faith, but I don't think that OBS can afford to base a business on blind adoration from a couple of hundred (or even a couple of thousand) enthusiasts. They need to do better.

Gosh, what a revelation! Things will now surely really get moving now OBS are "cooking something". We now have so much more information about the current situation and the future of the game, along with these commitments to specific timelines and a clear development roadmap, my faith is almost restored. OK, you guessed it, I'm joking with you, this changes nothing - not even the amount of information we have.

Yeah, I understand about software releases, I used to work for one of the biggest software publishers in the world. All the issues about announcing stuff and then falling short is absolutely standard stuff. But all OBS has to do is make an announcement like "sorry for the delay, we do care about you and haven't forgotten about you, it's just that we're very busy with ​something big and exciting​ that we can't talk about until (if) it gets done". There's an acknowledgement that they've missed a deadline, a recognition of the value that they put on the community and a teaser that'll drive speculation and hype through the roof. There is no downside to making an announcement like that. There are several downsides to not making one - especially when the community is so important for bug-bashing. Some companies know how to foster community and some don't.

No, I don't know the answer to my question - if you think what has been offered is an answer then you and I don't see eye to eye on what constitutes a meaningful answer. I had the information already published I was not satisfied with the detail or the schedule and wanted more to understand where this project is going - if it's going anywhere at all.

Yes, I know what the latest info we have is and I know how long ago we had it. That's the whole point of my post

There's the post I expected! I'm afraid that that adds nothing of value and takes more words to add it than we had from OBS

Not really, no. Empty platitudes do not constitute an answer. A response, yes. But not an answer.

Did you not notice who created that thread? I did! A developer posted a reply on that thread, so the forum isn't abandoned. Since you asked again, I assume you may have missed the reply. Well, as the post immediately after the one to which you refer is also from me, I think that it's safe to assume that I have indeed seen it.

Did you not notice who created that thread?

You mustn't have been around when we were waiting for AD4. Oh yes I was. But even during the huge delay before AD4 the forum was very active, now it's dead.

Not only are the forums practically dead, but we were told "To get your reward make sure to play Quest Mode at least once (even if you have a level 40) prior to the release of patch 1.1.6.5 which is coming out late February/early March." I'm not sure that I'd define March 27 as "early March". So what's going on here? (I know, OBS have never met an announced deadline in their history with this game, but this is silly). There used to be a very active community that OBS would occasionally contribute to but now? Dead. (Obviously there will be the usual predictable super-positive response from the usual OBS apologist) C'mon OBS: you have a blog, use it - at least do us the courtesy of an official update. "Community" is a two-way street, you can't expect us all (obvious exception notwithstanding) to blindly have faith that you'll do right by the community and that we'll all rally round when you only interact with us when you want something from us (i.e. unpaid bug bash effort and self-support). To me it looks as though you've met your contractual obligation to Paizo to deliver the game up to AP6 and now you're done, which is fine, just come clean and tell us so we can stop wasting our time too.

Well, it would be good to have some actual real content - not "chrome" or "alt", but real actual gameplay content. It's going to have to be good to compensate for the loss of Quest mode

I remember back in 1.1.4.x and 1.1.5.x where there were dozens of bugs and questions being posted every day. Now it's like tumbleweed city in here. Does that mean that all the bugs are fixed, or does it mean that people have abandoned the game now that AP6 is out and (presumably) completed?

Good question! I guess that the answer is "repeat the scenarios on Legendary grinding for gold" (not unlike Quest) and use the Gold on Alts, Dice and Adventure Packs, Chests, etc. Of course all the Treasure you get may well be redundant if you don't like to use Treasure in Story Mode (as I don't). As I have zero interest in any of those in-game purchases other than Adventure Packs (and I've got AP6) and I have no interest in Treasure in Story Mode, I have zero interest in an App without Quest Mode.

Well the official fix by OBS is to remove Quest Mode entirely! The whole bugged Ogrekin issue has been around since... well, forever really. It won't get fixed for QM because QM is going to be removed from the App. That Barl Breakbones bug is an old one too and it'll be handled in exactly the same manner. No Quest Mode = no Quest Mode bugs to fix.

All very commendable I'm sure, but what am I going to do with all that gold and those chests? I don't use Treasure in Story Mode and I have zero interest in character Alts. All very disappointing really.

While this works, it's hardly a substitue for OBS fixing the App to properly adjust for the removal of Quest Mode. I absolutely guarantee that if I have to remember to throw a switch every time that I play, I'll forget to do so exactly when it's most important that I don't forget. What I'd really like is to bring my current Quest Mode characters into Story Mode so that I can use all the treasure that they've collected and not have to start another bunch of "Alts" from scratch. But having said all that, I am pretty much done with the game as this has been the straw that broke the camel's back for me (I haven't even started on AP6, despite owning it). I only keep coming back here to see whether OBS are listening to the community and/or commenting (or even - heaven forfend - soliciting opinion from the users) on how this massive change should be handled. They are throwing away around 100 hours of my time investment in the game and "compensating" me with things that I'm unlikely to use 'cos they are things that I only use in the game mode that they're compensating me for removing, I guess I just hope they will recognise my situation (surely I'm not the only player that uses the "Treasure in Story Mode" switch?)

I know that there's slim to zero chance that OBS will ever bring back Quest Mode, but on the off-chance that it happens I want to backup my Quest Mode characters in case OBS take the decision to delete them for me when patch 1.1.6.5 comes out. What's the best way to do this? Anyone know?

I don't know how representative my play style is compared to others', but I don't use Treasure in Story Mode - I restrict it entirely to my Quest Mode characters. But now Quest Mode is going away! So I need to understand what the value of all the Treasure cards that I've collected is, 'cos it seems like it has none at all. All that money spent on Treasure Chests... wasted! To say that I feel that OBS have done something reprehensible here is to put it mildly! I believe that the only fair fix for this is to allow a mechanism to allow Treasure on a per party basis. There has​ to be a way to use the collected Treasure but also experience the "pure" Story Mode without completely Nerfing it by allowing Treasure.

Makes the "no Treasure in Story Mode" option somewhat moot, doesn't it? Personally, I now have no use for Treasure Chests, or repeat runs on Legendary in order to collect gold, I'll have enough gold to never need to pay for an expansion when it releases. Once the story is run through with every character on Legendary, I'm done. Actually I'm done anyway as for me QM was where it was at.

OK, I think that means that I'm finally done with the game. I play with no treasure in Story Mode, reserving my treasure for use during Quest Mode. Now with no QM to play I have no incentive to buy treasure with my gold so I have no incentive to play through on SM once I've done one run through at Legendary. I presume that OBS have done due diligence on the data and that I am in a very small minority in running without treasure in story mode. Very disappointing.

Once you are "done" there's very little to keep the interest in my opinion. My Quest characters are all capped at level 40 with little prospect of that changing in the near future. Once I've run through the Story on Legendary there's little incentive to do it again IMO. I know that there are two sorts of gamers: "completists", those who have to get every Achievment, own every item, play every character in every permutation (there's a reason why Alts were implemented recently!); and then there's the "once through and done" gamer, those for whom "reaching the end" is sufficient - hit the level cap, finish the story. I find myself in the latter camp. To keep the latter group interested and playing (and spending money), Obsidian will need to develop more content and extend Quest mode. But it may be that they aren't really interested in that group as the former group will keep the revenue coming.

In Story mode you get Gold the first time you successfully complete a scenario on Normal and Heroic difficulty. You get a Gold reward on Legendary every time you succeed. Character advancement in Story mode is only via Scenario Rewards In Quest mode, you get XP every time you finish a Scenario - you get a bonus if you succeed and you get more XP for Heroic and Legendary difficulties. Character advancement is by accumulated XP. You also get Gold for Quest mode but only as a bonus for success (though there are small rewards during the scenario for defeating Banes, you get this regardless of success or failure) Or this was the case up to AD5, I haven't played since around November, I guess something may have changed with a more recent patch.

Well, there's a happy camper! Good to see! Myself, my experience is completely the opposite. I've lost all motivation to play because my Quest characters are all level-capped and the bugs in Story mode just make playing on Legendary too frustrating to be worth the effort (for me). Add those two together and so now I've got no gold coming in, so I can't afford AD6 (probably a good thing seeing as how full of bugs it appears to be) and therefore I've abandoned playing altogether. Sad, but true. I ran B-1 on legendary a ton of times with little-to-no gamebreaking issues (healing broke once or twice and I may have had a card be discarded for no reason, but nothing serious for a scenario THAT easy). My pre-AD6 party would straight up succeed all combat checks just because of the +X added to every roll. AD6 (and all other scenarios) have a decent amount of bugs, yes. 5-1 is especially a pain because of the whole Hound issue. Nevertheless, I still beat every single damn scenario on Legendary. It was actually more fun, coming up with ways to avoid bugs like in 5-1 or simply having to bury my whole deck to defeat Karzoug with my very last card. Well, that was an unexpected response. I'm glad it was such an enjoyable cake-walk for you and that you have such a positive outlook. Unfortunately, it changes nothing for me. I've logged dozens of bugs up to AD6 and experienced many more that I just don't have the energy to bother with, I've reached the point where my return on investment has dropped too low.

Well, there's a happy camper! Good to see! Myself, my experience is completely the opposite. I've lost all motivation to play because my Quest characters are all level-capped and the bugs in Story mode just make playing on Legendary too frustrating to be worth the effort (for me). Add those two together and so now I've got no gold coming in, so I can't afford AD6 (probably a good thing seeing as how full of bugs it appears to be) and therefore I've abandoned playing altogether. Sad, but true.