115864-dev-cycle-change-is-actually-not-a-huge-content-loss

== Content ==
			So far i have found confirmation on the forums that Drop 3 is Drop 3&4 combined. And drop 4 is drop 5-6 combined.Also drop 4 is coming "a couple of months after drop 4". Maybe this was a typo, and i forget who said it.But that would mean we have not really had a slow down of content at all!...We waited for what... 3 months for a 2 month worth drop, and will wait another 2 months for 2 months worth of content.Seems pretty good to me, especially considering how much other stuff they have fixed and added for the players QOL requests.If they keep up this pace. We might simply see the same amount of content in less frequent drops, with more QA value.That's a net gain for the players, and if this indeed is the case, then i dont feel like the value of my sub has degraded at all.Thoughts?Original Source updated belowhttps://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/115775-j-tal/&do=findComment&comment=1205505Specific quote "Drop 4-acouple months after that (the stuff i want to talk about but shouldnt until youve had time to digest drop 3)" -Jtal	
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I think it depends on whether you think bug fixing and the additional QOL improvements are "content".
 
I do, so I think this is well worth my subscription.  Some people don't, and they're entitled to that opinion if that's what it is.  We'll see if they can keep up this pace when it's a pure content patch.	
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As a point of order, we have definitely lost content: at the very least two months worth of holiday content. The CMs have made it extremely clear that the holiday content was going to be very substantial, and it's... gone.
 
If we are to assume those events would have been a single month's content each, then after Drop 2 we'll have a 5-6 month period where we have, say, 4 months worth of content. A decrease of only 1/3. Whether that constitutes "a huge loss" is subjective, of course. It's likely we'll get at least 51% of the planned content... that's almost passing.	
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So far i have found confirmation on the forums that Drop 3 is Drop 3&4 combined. And drop 4 is drop 5-6 combined.
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Thoughts?
 
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			They changed from monthly to quarterly, they can spin it however they want and make it sound good. We were told monthly from the beginning..	
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They changed from monthly to quarterly, they can spin it however they want and make it sound good. We were told monthly from the beginning..
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I would have preferred they stuck to what they told us 6 months ago and succeeded. If they would have said quarterly from the beginning and that they were intending on having megaservers...I would likely be continuing my sub. I value honesty over pr and spin.
 
However, I feel rather duped.
 
Just my salty 2 cents.	
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They changed from monthly to quarterly, they can spin it however they want and make it sound good. We were told monthly from the beginning..
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I would have preferred they stuck to what they told us 6 months ago and succeeded. If they would have said quarterly from the beginning and that they were intending on having megaservers...I would likely be continuing my sub. I value honesty over pr and spin.
 
However, I feel rather duped.
 
Just my salty 2 cents.
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"We’re close to finalizing a goal we’ve always had for our servers, something that will bring long-term benefits for our players and their WildStar experience." -CRB
 
This is not admission of screwing up. This is either A. True and they intended to stomp on communities and get people's money for name/server transfers from the beginning or B. It's a lie
 
Their lack to be able to keep up with monthly content is not the customer's fault...it's more like hype and yes they likely knew it from the beginning, or at least they should have with all the beta players they had.	
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So far i have found confirmation on the forums that Drop 3 is Drop 3&4 combined. And drop 4 is drop 5-6 combined.
 
Also drop 4 is coming "a couple of months after drop 4". Maybe this was a typo, and i forget who said it.
 
But that would mean we have not really had a slow down of content at all!...
We waited for what... 3 months for a 2 month worth drop, and will wait another 2 months for 2 months worth of content.
 
Seems pretty good to me, especially considering how much other stuff they have fixed and added for the players QOL requests.
 
If they keep up this pace. We might simply see the same amount of content in less frequent drops, with more QA value.
 
That's a net gain for the players, and if this indeed is the case, then i dont feel like the value of my sub has degraded at all.
 
Thoughts?
 
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Regarding Holiday content ... you can't loose what you never had.  *throws hands in the air*
 
I am sure when all the kerfuffle winds down IF YOU CAN WAIT FOR IT ... Carbine will put that content back in the game.  Right now that content is not central to playing the game.  Carbine is kinda fighting for their existence right now ... don't push their collective heads under the water. <_<	
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The change from monthly to quarterly was sad... but necessary to avoid carbine release content as terribly unpolished as it has in the past.
However i do view this as a large loss of content... removal of two major holiday events and other content pushed out was not made in favor of other content.
It was pushed back for necessary fixes and amendments, while i think more important than holiday events, is hardly 'new' content.	
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Nothing can be a content loss if you didn't know what was coming! ;)
 
As long as the content isn't messed up and buggy when it comes I don't care if it's quarterly, people haven't been completing it all within a week or two so monthly isn't needed.	
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			I had forgotten about the holidays, so yes losing those is no fun. Am i a dreamer? Yes, and no. Becuase at the end of the day i trust what the devs say, they are not lying, the admit when they are wrong, and do their best to solve the issues.Monthly updates was a stuff up on their part, but at the time they where honestly trying to commit to that. So its not wishful thinking on my part that the content is coming, i know it is, and i know the  rough timeframe they have given will hold. They dont give dates until they can commit to them. Mega servers hit exactly in their promised time frame.As for the source, i found it.https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/115775-j-tal/&do=findComment&comment=1205505Specific quote "Drop 4-a couple months after that (the stuff i want to talk about but shouldnt until youve had time to digest drop 3)" -JtalSo im assuming he means "two months" but i could be wrong and it actually means "a small number of months". But honestly its being pedantic.We might see the drop in january, and we might not. All i know is Carbine will release the content early if they are on top of things, and lets hope they are, lol...	
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"We’re close to finalizing a goal we’ve always had for our servers, something that will bring long-term benefits for our players and their WildStar experience." -CRB
 
This is not admission of screwing up. This is either A. True and they intended to stomp on communities and get people's money for name/server transfers from the beginning or B. It's a lie
 
Their lack to be able to keep up with monthly content is not the customer's fault...it's more like hype and yes they likely new it from the beginning, or at least they should have with all the beta players they had.
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			Hindsights a wonderful thing...They were planning megaservers all along and then realised it simply wasn't possible for launch.  If they were, they may well have launched a mega PvE server only to find it's under populated.  They now have the facts and figures to judge exactly what is and isn't worth it so things have changed.	
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If they keep up this pace. We might simply see the same amount of content in less frequent drops, with more QA value.
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I do not consider being able to reroll rune (once) a significant content drop... something that should've been in at release, or patched in shortly after, but definatly not a major content patch.
 
Same with arena rating fix... when you win  15 rating against an equal-rated team, yet loose 40 to them... something's wrong with the formula. once again, something that should've been patched in quite quickly, not a quaterly content drop...
 
there's also some pretty big piece that were scheduled for drop 3 ( or atleast, the community expected it for drop 3) that get pushed back to drop 4 ( wich is 2015 at the earliest); itemisation update for GA and DS... a very large chunk of the raiding playerbase are waiting on these ( as our guildbank are full of unuseable stuff) and it's most likely the only thing that's gonna bring those raider back ( if it hit before WoW next expansion... raiders arn't comming back to wildstar if the progression race begun on WoD).
 
So ... yeah... Drop 3 isn't to my expectations.. and that's comming from an everquest 1 player ( the game  now runs with 5 devs...)	
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I don't know that release timing is an accurate way to gauge content. In any case, it remains to be seen whether the quarterly drops will keep people's attention
 
I have no doubt that Carbine realizes that quarterly drops will have to be pretty major to compensate for the longer wait between.
 
Once they streamline the core game and their QA process, I won't be surprised if the drop schedule reaches a compromise somewhere between 1 and 3 months.	
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Regarding Holiday content ... you can't loose what you never had.  *throws hands in the air*
 
I am sure when all the kerfuffle winds down IF YOU CAN WAIT FOR IT ... Carbine will put that content back in the game.  Right now that content is not central to playing the game.  Carbine is kinda fighting for their existence right now ... don't push their collective heads under the water. <_<
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			They switched to quarterly updates from monthly because the players were unsatisfied with Quality Assurance? Or was I reading the situation wrong?	
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They switched to quarterly updates from monthly because the players were unsatisfied with Quality Assurance? Or was I reading the situation wrong?
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Your maths is a little off. Drop 3&4 would have been for September and October so almost on track releasing in November. However, 5 & 6 should have then been released in November and December but it is unlikely we will get them until February meaning we will have missed drops 7&8. This only gets worse over time.
 
I do not have much issue with quarterly drops but trying to pretend they deliver the same amount of content is just not true.
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So far i have found confirmation on the forums that Drop 3 is Drop 3&4 combined. And drop 4 is drop 5-6 combined.
 
Also drop 4 is coming "a couple of months after drop 4". Maybe this was a typo, and i forget who said it.
 
But that would mean we have not really had a slow down of content at all!...
We waited for what... 3 months for a 2 month worth drop, and will wait another 2 months for 2 months worth of content.
 
Seems pretty good to me, especially considering how much other stuff they have fixed and added for the players QOL requests.
 
If they keep up this pace. We might simply see the same amount of content in less frequent drops, with more QA value.
 
That's a net gain for the players, and if this indeed is the case, then i dont feel like the value of my sub has degraded at all.
 
Thoughts?
 
Original Source updated below
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/115775-j-tal/&do=findComment&comment=1205505
 
Specific quote "Drop 4-acouple months after that (the stuff i want to talk about but shouldnt until youve had time to digest drop 3)" -Jtal
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If Carbine has come the conclusion that they are not capable of doing a drop a month with out it being full of bugs, good for them for being honest enough to admit it. Better yet to go back and fix a mess of bugs they have already introduced before moving forward with more drops....and bugs. Personally I would have liked to have seen what I was sold, but on the other hand I don't like broken things.
 
Plus once the core game is fixed up they way it needs to be, there can be more focus on the drops again...So, while we may miss some content now, we may have a game later.
 
just my thoughts	
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The problem is why should we keep subbing every month if content only comes every 3 months. People will go through new content within the first month or two, and have nothing left for the third month. If we got new content every month, people would stay subbed for every month. It's all about releasing smaller patches more often than large patches less often.
 
Also, bug fixes, item optimization, rune system changes, and class balance doesn't really count as new content. They're all just QoL improvements. 
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From a business perspective, having content every month will maintain subs much better, you are correct in that there will be lulls in which people unsub as a result of the quarterly change. This is why i applaud Carbine, becuase its taking a hit to its wallet to make a better game for the fans. Also ultimatley it signals that the quality of the content would have been so bad, being released monthly that it was better to move to a quarterly schedule despite the financial difficulties it would cause. We win at the end of the day, and its just a shame that monthly was not feesable.
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The reason the monthly drops were full of bugs in the first place is because Carbine was trying to build 10 houses at the same time instead of building one house at a time. They had a bunch of stuff all lined up for the next year, and spread their QA thin. What they should've done was just focus on the immediate drops instead of content coming out in 6 months.
 
There's no reason we can't have quality content in the form of small updates every month instead of quality content in the form of large updates every 3 months. For example, instead of releasing both Blighthaven and Northern Wastes at the same time, they could've focused QA on one, and then released the other the following month. Instead they spread their QA too thin and released a buggy mess. Or instead of releasing every class balance change every 3 months, release 2 class' balance changes every month. Stuff like this.
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