General / Off-Topic Time for a talk: Player compensation for failed implimentation of features and bugs

LuxAeterna · Jul 17, 2018

With the past few releases, Fdev has royally messed up! Some parts of the game features aren't even accessible (some totally taken out of the game) because of bugs and incomplete implementation of the said feature(s).

Note: As far as I'm concerned the 3.1 (more like 3.0.8.315 or something) update hasn't been fully released because some of it is still bugged but that's for another discussion. When all of the content listed in the 3.1 update is functional then we can call it 3.1 until then, no.

Should we get some kind of compensation each time Fdev releases new bugged and incomplete content that ends up wasting our time or keep us from doing the things we like to do when we play?

Many of us have experienced a long and exhausting day at work/school! And the one thing on our minds when we get off is: "let's do that thing I was planning on doing, over a few beers", only to find out that once you've queued the mission or headed out, the mission or whatever is broken.

The ONE thing we'd looked forward to doing, now nothing. It's bugged or has been removed from game!

At what point do we players (customers) get compensation for the downtime of the activities we CAN'T do because of Fdev's mistakes?

My question to you, colleagues:
1. What would be an adequate compensation for such future infractions in interrupted gameplay, at fault of the developer? (free credit allotment, skins, materials, etc.)

2. Do you think your compensation idea or compensation in general would prevent future screw-ups?

Your thoughts?

Our time is valuable to Fdev, right?! How valuable is it, really??

MottiKhan · Jul 17, 2018

LuxAeterna said:
With the past few releases, Fdev has royally messed up! Some parts of the game features aren't even accessible (some totally taken out of the game) because of bugs and incomplete implementation of the said feature(s).

Note: As far as I'm concerned the 3.1 (more like 3.0.8.315 or something) update hasn't been fully released because some of it is still bugged but that's for another discussion. When all of the content listed in the 3.1 update is functional then we can call it 3.1 until then, no.

Should we get some kind of compensation each time Fdev releases new bugged and incomplete content that ends up wasting our time or keep us from doing the things we like to do when we play?

Many of us have experienced a long and exhausting day at work/school! And the one thing on our minds when we get off is: "let's do that thing I was planning on doing, over a few beers", only to find out that once you've queued the mission or headed out, the mission or whatever is broken.

The ONE thing we'd looked forward to doing, now nothing. It's bugged or has been removed from game!

At what point do we players (customers) get compensation for the downtime of the activities we CAN'T do because of Fdev's mistakes?

My question to you, colleagues:
1. What would be an adequate compensation for such future infractions in interrupted gameplay, at fault of the developer? (free credit allotment, skins, materials, etc.)

2. Do you think your compensation idea or compensation in general would prevent future screw-ups?

Your thoughts?

Our time is valuable to Fdev, right?! How valuable is it, really??

1 - Fuzzy dice. I'll pay for them.

2 - If we get fuzzy dice, all will be forgiven.

(Maybe a hula girl bobblehead for those who prefer that to fuzzy dice. I can't imagine that, but I've heard it mentioned.)

LuxAeterna · Jul 17, 2018

MottiKhan said:
1 - Fuzzy dice. I'll pay for them.

2 - If we get fuzzy dice, all will be forgiven.

(Maybe a hula girl bobblehead for those who prefer that to fuzzy dice. I can't imagine that, but I've heard it mentioned.)

LMAO!! I'll never take you to the negotiation table if fuzzy dice will mend all wounds.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead · Jul 19, 2018

Lol

I don't need compensation. But fuzzy dice would be nice.

Shadowdancer · Jul 19, 2018

"Beyond" being free is that compensation.

Winterwalker · Jul 19, 2018

On (pretty rare occasion) my game has been affected by a bugged mission or something, I just put it down to the idea that NPC's in ED, can be as unreliable as people are in real life! I'm not saying bugs should be encouraged but how many times have you gone to meet someone and they're not there, somebody misunderstood you or you just didn't get paid?

Ghosts in the machine remind me anyway that ED isn't a scripted out universe, so the last thing on my mind is compensation (other than from the soon to be RIP - NPC who gave me the bad info in the first place. Scumbags!).

hairychris · Jul 19, 2018

LuxAeterna said:
Our time is valuable to Fdev, right?! How valuable is it, really??

It's an interesting question because the more players there are the more FDev have to spend on infrastructure costs and we don't pay a subscription fee!

Old Duck · Jul 19, 2018

I've been tempted to ask for a refund for my paint packs because of graphical downgrades and bugs that were introduced to the game after I purchased it - bugs that have yet to be fixed months later. I purchased those packs to make my ship look good for screenshots that I take (space photography is one of my favorite pastimes in the game). Unfortunately I no longer do as much space photography because of these graphical issues. Cosmetics are "cosmetic" after all, which graphical bugs negate.

However, I suspect I would be wasting my time trying to get these refunded, so I'm just writing off the cosmetics as lesson learned. Frontier can keep the money I gave them in the past, but they won't be getting any more from me in the future.

dannysquid · Jul 19, 2018

LuxAeterna said:
2. Do you think your compensation idea or compensation in general would prevent future screw-ups?

Your thoughts?

Our time is valuable to Fdev, right?! How valuable is it, really??

I suspect people trying to sue them every time they release new (free!) content would lead to them abandoning the game!

But I agree it's frustrating. I'd quite like to see a video about what goes into the mission system. We've been told even simple things are a lot more complicated than they look and maybe a bit of transparency about why this is the case might make people a bit more sympathetic.

Shadowdancer · Jul 19, 2018

dannysquid said:
But I agree it's frustrating. I'd quite like to see a video about what goes into the mission system. We've been told even simple things are a lot more complicated than they look and maybe a bit of transparency about why this is the case might make people a bit more sympathetic.

Ask Ed to drag Dom on Discovery Scanner

I doubt it'd create more sympathy though since the usual antagonists would just dissect every word that's (not) said and bend it to their liking.

Shadowdancer · Jul 19, 2018

dannysquid said:
But I agree it's frustrating. I'd quite like to see a video about what goes into the mission system. We've been told even simple things are a lot more complicated than they look and maybe a bit of transparency about why this is the case might make people a bit more sympathetic.

Ask Ed to drag Dom on Discovery Scanner

It sure would be interesting, especially if he gets permission to talk about stuff that failed or does not work (postmortems can be so fun), but I doubt it'd create more sympathy though since the usual antagonists would just dissect every word that's (not) said and bend it to their liking.

(sorry for the double post, but I'm currently suffering through DNS issues after the forum update and can't reset my resolver…)