Update 91: Closing in on March 26th!

[Doppelschwert]

 

That is really dissappointing if it turns out this way. What's the point of having a poll about when to ship the game disks when it doesn't matter for a lot of people in the end? Paradox shouldn't treat europe like second class citizens, escpecially when we backed a good amount of the total money. They might as well ship the disk with the other stuff in that case.

Not only will i have to wait because there is no preload on gog compared to steam, I also don't get my stuff in a timely manner? It's certainly not adding to the hype I was enjoying the last couple days.

They mentioned in the update and thread regarding that poll that there would always be a distinct delay between US shipments and international shipments. This was option #2 in the update about the poll:

 

Alternatively, we delay shipping everything out to you once we have the final 1.0 version ready. For some parts of the world, this could mean a delay of some real significance. Not just a week or two, but multiple weeks after it’s released.

Now, I don't know the details, but it sounds like there are two things at play, here.

 

1) For reasons unknown (but probably actual reasons, since I don't see Obsidian being merely lazy/spiteful people who hate anyone but U.S. dwellers), getting everything together for a given person's reward and shipping it all the way to them internationally seems to take possibly 1-2 weeks longer than the exact same shipment within the U.S.

2) Finalizing the game disc for other language versions takes longer.

 

So, it seems as though international folk will still be getting their physical goods minus the game disc, itself, several weeks earlier than the game disc. But, overall, anything shipped outside the U.S. will be slower to arrive than the same thing shipped inside the U.S.

 

I get that that's crappy, but maybe we should learn the reasons before we imply Obsidian's efforts are lacking.

 

Maybe it's a Paradox/publishing thing? Maybe all the stuff's slightly different for various regions of the world? I dunno. I'd like to know, but I currently do not.

 

 

It's not true at all that they announced there would always be delays. They announced there would be an delay for the second option, but they've chosen the first option if you remember correctly. The whole point of the first option was to get the physical goods to people in time without having to worry about the game being leaked or sending an unfinished/unpatched version. As you see, this won't be the case, but at the same time, we won't get the benefits from the second option, which was a complete, sealed collectors edition. So the US gets the benefit of option 1 while europe gets nothing. And we paid extra for shipping, had to wait several hours for each release of the backer beta because it was released in the middle of the night for us.

 

The point is, I'm not really mad at obsidian because there are obvious reasons behind all of this for which I don't blame anyone, I totally understand them.

However, the feeling of being dissappointed stays nethertheless, because now every average joe from the US who's not even a backer is in a better situation compared to me following the project since the kickstarter campaign. The infuriating part is that you have to keep up with this stuff in europe all the time, like shifted release dates and other inconveniences, but if it's reversed once in a blue moon for something, I always feel like there is a ****storm of entitlement going off in the US, so they don't even appreciate their situation for the most part.

 

If I wanted to put the blame on anyone it would be paradox because they are supposed to handle the distribution. I'm sure there could've been a more riskless way to organize the shipping, especially since the game discs are not included. Like manufacturing stuff in europe and so on. I guess it boils down to being more cost effective by organizing everything in the US, but since I paid extra for shipping, that's really a let down.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Doppelschwert

[Night Stalker]

Since I had already expected the physical swag to be delayed, I am hardly disappointed. Truth be told I have not planned on playing the game for the first month or so, so that the worst bugs (mechanical, systemwide, as well as storyline) can be ironed out.

[MasterPrudent]

Is it possible to change dellivery platform from steam to gog?

You can choose to redeem a key on either steam or gog. If you're in the steam-only beta there's no need to worry; the beta is a completely different sku to the actual game. You'll be able to generate a new key for the game for either steam or gog.

[Shiroco]

As stated earlier all the reasons given for replacing the dvd and shipping the game discs seperately are now invalid for non us backers. I'm pretty sure obsidian knows that (to put it mildly) there is room for improvement in handling the physical stuff. If I were a collector that values the thing with the sealed box I would be seriously disappointed and I can understand all the people that feel that way.

 

I'm just a guy who collects boxed versions (ce versions) but actually opens them because they are just for me and don't lose value for me if they are opened. That's the reason why I'm not as disappointed as others but I'm unhappy how this thing was handled. I would back another Kickstarter of obsidian but would expect that those things won't happen again. In the end I backed this ks because of the game and obsidian and right now I think that I won't be disappointed in that regard.

[dragonwanderer]

As stated earlier all the reasons given for replacing the dvd and shipping the game discs seperately are now invalid for non us backers. I'm pretty sure obsidian knows that (to put it mildly) there is room for improvement in handling the physical stuff. If I were a collector that values the thing with the sealed box I would be seriously disappointed and I can understand all the people that feel that way.

Yeah, I agree the poll gave the impression that everyone will be getting physicall goods before or on the release date but now there seems to be no point in shipping disc separately if we will get the physical good weeks later anyway.

Btw, I wonder what kind of packaging they will be using for standard version. I almost always get cracked dvd cases when they are just lightly wrapped...

Edited March 14, 2015 by dragonwanderer

[BAdler]

Physical rewards are all shipping from California? I was thinking that the deal with Paradox would allow you to ship stuff from other locations. Europeans may end up paying customs.

 It is shipping from the U.S. to Paradox facilities in Europe. From there they will get shipped out to European folks.

[BAdler]

 

Update 91

Cool, glad to know that we'll get our keys before release day. Can you tell us if backers will get keys appropriate to their pledge tiers?

 

We are giving people Steam editions that we have matched to their tiers. On Monday I will make a post showing the different mappings. Also, everyone will be able to download their rewards from our backer portal, as well.

[BAdler]

 

 

WOW, COUPLE OF WEEKS after release for Europe?

 

Needless to say that this is highly disappointing and unsatisfying. If that was known a few weeks back I'd voted for joint shipping of the physical package and the DVD.

 

It's pretty sad that my expensive signed copy is kind of worthless in two ways now. I'm not able to enjoy my goodies at release or during the first "couple of weeks" after release (during the time in which I've planed to play and finish the game....) and the sealed (?) package doesn't even contain a DVD with the game files because we had to decide on that via public voting before we even knew that the stuff wouldn't arrive on release day...seems like we Europeans are ****ed again without compensation, thanks.

 

 

The goods would have to be shipped today (or earlier) for a lot of people around the world for them to receive the boxed goods by the 26th. It's why I voted for option 2 because I know I wouldn't be receiving the box by the 26th.

 

And also to receive the box with no dvd after the game is released and then the dvd even longer is not something I was looking forward too. If I'm going to have to wait, I'd much rather wait for the complete item with dvd and sealed for my collectors edition. Not a sealed collectors edition with no dvd and for the dvd to turn up later. But then I suppose there's a lot of naivety from people who voted in the poll. 

 

 

On tops, i think it's quite unfair to let people of various pledge levels vote on the same thing.

 

It's not a huge deal to get a regular physical game pack without DVD if you can get a digital code at release.

 

But a $500 signed collector's edition is a completely different league. People really buy that because they want to COLLECT it. Part of collecting is having an unbroken, unsealed box. A box that won't contain a game DVD now.

 

That way Obsidian really gave a big **** you to their biggest fans, to those who really paid a lot during the kickstarter. Sure, we're just a few, who cares about us. It's a majority poll so let's listen to all those $60 DVD box customers (or just anyone on the forum no matter which box they've pledged for or whether they've pledged for anthing at all...) how they decide how much the collector's edition will be worth in the end...

 

And now we don't even get the boxes on time. That's so ****ed up, I'm really kind of speechless. Huge disappointment for me and probably for most other high tier backers, additionally here in Europe...

 

 

There was always going to be a shipping lag for Europe. The decision to ship the goods sans disc was made to make sure that the lag wasn't extended by a few additional weeks.

 

The realities of shipping into Europe are that things take quite a bit longer to get where they are going and the packages have to go through more taxes and red tape. Hopefully, having Paradox ship from inside of Europe will reduce some of this time/cost, but there wasn't a lot we could do to get it to folks faster.

 

If we have lost your trust in this matter, I apologize, but we are doing everything we can to get European backers their items as fast as possible. Unfortunately, we are kind of at the mercy of shipping speeds at this point.

[BAdler]

 

 

@BAdler: is there a set date at which we won't be able to buy add-ons? Or is the add-on shop for backers gonna last forever?

 

We haven't talked about an exact cutoff, but for digital goods we could theoretically sell them to backers forever. I will have to ask Darren about it.

 

Sounds like a good idea to me

 

I know we are going to be putting together an Obsidian Store soon. This will be a place where folks can purchase Obsidian products. Not sure of the timeline on it, but it is something we are discussing.

[BAdler]

Is it possible to change dellivery platform from steam to gog?

When you redeem your key in a couple of weeks you will be able to choose a platform (GOG or Steam) then.

[Ark Evensong]

Any chance those few(?) poor souls who picked an option without a digital key will get preferential shipping treatment? There weren't any Kickstarter tiers that offered only a physical copy, but the $50 physical 'Slacker-Backer' tier does.

 

Not getting your shinies on time is one thing, not getting the game at all until a couple of weeks later is another. I'd hate to be stuck on that tier.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Ark Evensong

[BAdler]

As stated earlier all the reasons given for replacing the dvd and shipping the game discs seperately are now invalid for non us backers.

 

Just to be clear, this is not true. All of the goods are currently in transit. If we were putting a physical disc inside of the boxes, we wouldn't have been able to truly start the shipping process (from the warehouses) until March 26th. This would have added many additional weeks of shipping time to backers, particularly the European backers.

 

Because we started shipping the goods earlier than the launch day, you will receive the goods a week or two after launch instead of a month or two after launch.

[BAdler]

Any chance those few(?) poor souls who picked an option without a digital key will get preferential shipping treatment? There weren't any Kickstarter tiers that offered only a physical copy, but the $50 physical 'Slacker-Backer' tier does.

 

Not getting your goodies on time is one thing, not getting the game at all until a couple of weeks later is another.

Anyone who purchased a physical game will be given a digital key on our Backer Portal.

[Corlagon]

Can we (european backers) still expect a split delivery?

[Shiroco]

 

 

 

WOW, COUPLE OF WEEKS after release for Europe?

 

Needless to say that this is highly disappointing and unsatisfying. If that was known a few weeks back I'd voted for joint shipping of the physical package and the DVD.

 

It's pretty sad that my expensive signed copy is kind of worthless in two ways now. I'm not able to enjoy my goodies at release or during the first "couple of weeks" after release (during the time in which I've planed to play and finish the game....) and the sealed (?) package doesn't even contain a DVD with the game files because we had to decide on that via public voting before we even knew that the stuff wouldn't arrive on release day...seems like we Europeans are ****ed again without compensation, thanks.

 

 

The goods would have to be shipped today (or earlier) for a lot of people around the world for them to receive the boxed goods by the 26th. It's why I voted for option 2 because I know I wouldn't be receiving the box by the 26th.

 

And also to receive the box with no dvd after the game is released and then the dvd even longer is not something I was looking forward too. If I'm going to have to wait, I'd much rather wait for the complete item with dvd and sealed for my collectors edition. Not a sealed collectors edition with no dvd and for the dvd to turn up later. But then I suppose there's a lot of naivety from people who voted in the poll. 

 

 

On tops, i think it's quite unfair to let people of various pledge levels vote on the same thing.

 

It's not a huge deal to get a regular physical game pack without DVD if you can get a digital code at release.

 

But a $500 signed collector's edition is a completely different league. People really buy that because they want to COLLECT it. Part of collecting is having an unbroken, unsealed box. A box that won't contain a game DVD now.

 

That way Obsidian really gave a big **** you to their biggest fans, to those who really paid a lot during the kickstarter. Sure, we're just a few, who cares about us. It's a majority poll so let's listen to all those $60 DVD box customers (or just anyone on the forum no matter which box they've pledged for or whether they've pledged for anthing at all...) how they decide how much the collector's edition will be worth in the end...

 

And now we don't even get the boxes on time. That's so ****ed up, I'm really kind of speechless. Huge disappointment for me and probably for most other high tier backers, additionally here in Europe...

 

 

There was always going to be a shipping lag for Europe. The decision to ship the goods sans disc was made to make sure that the lag wasn't extended by a few additional weeks.

 

The realities of shipping into Europe are that things take quite a bit longer to get where they are going and the packages have to go through more taxes and red tape. Hopefully, having Paradox ship from inside of Europe will reduce some of this time/cost, but there wasn't a lot we could do to get it to folks faster.

 

If we have lost your trust in this matter, I apologize, but we are doing everything we can to get European backers their items as fast as possible. Unfortunately, we are kind of at the mercy of shipping speeds at this point.

 

 

If that was the case why didn't you say so in the update regarding the poll? Instead you made it sound like everyone would get their copies before launch day. I'm quite sure the poll would've turned out different. I like you guys and the games you did but even I'm a bit upset now...

 

EDIT:

 

I'm not sure if another 4 weeks (6 in total) after the release would've made a big difference for most backers who actually backed the physical stuff (including the dvd) but it is pointless to argue now. What's done is done and I can live with that but hopefully you can understand that there is a bit of disappointment involved in all this.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Shiroco

[Doppelschwert]

 

There was always going to be a shipping lag for Europe. The decision to ship the goods sans disc was made to make sure that the lag wasn't extended by a few additional weeks.

 

 

If that was the case why didn't you say so in the update regarding the poll? Instead you made it sound like everyone would get their copies before launch day. I'm quite sure the poll would've turned out different. I like you guys and the games you did but even I'm a bit upset now...

 

I have to say, that went over my head as well. Given this information, I would've voted for the second option in the poll as well - we can hardly make any informed choices when we are uninformed. Prior to this thread i was acting under the assumption that stuff would be manufactured in europe for the european backers instead of shipped to paradox.

 

Nevertheless, what is done is done. Judging from the latest backer beta I'm really happy with how the game turned out, which is ultimately way more important to me. Given that we can access the physical content digitally via the backer portal also alleviates a lot of the issues I had with this announcement.

 

Still, I hope it's valuable feedback for you guys in the future.

[Leferd]

On Monday I will make a post showing the different mappings. Also, everyone will be able to download their rewards from our backer portal, as well.

 

Wait, are you saying that we'll be able to download our digital goodies (sans game proper) like the Almanac, Tim's Cookbook, Collector's book, etc.,...  on Monday?

[ruzen]

When can we enjoy our digital goods? I wish to read much as I can before I start to play.

**monday you say eh?

Edited March 14, 2015 by ruzen

[Ark Evensong]

No, I don't think that's how you're supposed to interpret that sentence. Just that you can download your goodies from both Steam (or GOG?) and the Portal once they become available.

 

Would be nice, though!

[LuccA]

I don't get why people complain that they will be receiving a box two weeks later than launch date. Just... wait two weeks. It is not like your life depends on it, you'll still be able to play the game at launch date, and check all the digital manuals if you want.

 

It's still reasonable to complain if you're a collector of sealed boxes, and I feel bad for this people if there's no return from that consufing poll's decision.

[Lephys]

Understandable.

 

Just so everyone is aware, the physical rewards are all finished (and signed, for those items that required signatures). I realize you aren't looking for excuses, but we had some pretty serious issues shipping into the port of Los Angeles due to labor unions shutting down the docks. It was resolved, but it put a crimp into our shipping plans. We are trying our hardest to get those items shipped to you as quickly as possible.

See, you guys should've rowed out to the ship in rafts, and transported all the goods in yourselves. That, or jedi-mind-tricked the unioners. Rookie mistake!

 

(Anyone who isn't understanding of such problems is just living in a fantasy world where one person is in control of all things, instead of some things being out of your hands.)

 

I understand non-US folks being disappointed, and yeah, it sucks to not get your stuff on release day, when you think that you could've gotten it on day 1 if you bought it on Amazon or something. Disappointment in what ultimately is occurring is one thing. But, it's silly to harbor a bunch of resentment about it. "Damn those US backers! Obsidian planned this all from the start!"

 

No one maliciously decided they didn't care about Europe. They don't have the power to will everything to happen with their minds. They have to actually rely on material things, machines, and people of the world to get things done.

 

So, I'm not going to suggest people from Europe should just be happy and enjoy the fact that they'll be getting things a bit late. But, stop trying to attribute it to a lack of caring on Obsidian's part. If they didn't care, you'd be getting your stuff next year, or maybe even not-at-all.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Lephys

[Lord Wafflebum]

Lephys-

 

Didn't you know Obsidian runs the Port of LA? And that Feargus is the head of the LA Dock Worker's Union? And that Obsidian employs seers that who specifically look into the future so they know when labor disputes will occur? How naive of you...

[ddillon]

 

Cool, glad to know that we'll get our keys before release day. Can you tell us if backers will get keys appropriate to their pledge tiers?

 

We are giving people Steam editions that we have matched to their tiers. On Monday I will make a post showing the different mappings. Also, everyone will be able to download their rewards from our backer portal, as well.

Thanks for answering. That's great news for backers who use Steam. But since I don't use Steam, I have to ask: Will you be doing the same for GOG keys?

[Tamerlane]

Lephys-

 

Didn't you know Obsidian runs the Port of LA? And that Feargus is the head of the LA Dock Worker's Union? And that Obsidian employs seers that who specifically look into the future so they know when labor disputes will occur? How naive of you...

Season 6 of The Wire was going to in a really weird direction...

[Bryy]

See, Bryy, they want us to think that calendar is counting down to the release date, but y'know what really comes on the 26th?

 

Full communism, that's what.

Thank you, Obama.