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Epoch roadmap and timeline.


RimBlock

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Firstly,  great mod and by far the most enjoyable DayZ bases experience.  Kudos to all envolved.

 

Anyone who has been following the DayZ SA spectical will know that Dean has been metaphorically strung up numerious times for not producing a roadmap and timeline, and quite rightly IMO especially as it is a paid for product even in Alpha status.  One of the main concerns is transparency.

 

Whilst Epoch is not a paid for product, I strongly believe that it could benefit from a bit more transparency on what is being worked on to go in to the next release. 

 

I do appreciate that publishing a roadmap defines targets that the development team (who are using their own spare time) may not be able to meet for all sorts of reasons.  This will likely draw flack if these targets are missed but the transparency helps users and especially other mod builders understand the direction the project is going.

 

I mention modders here because, just as DayZ has enabled the Epoch team to develop this great mod, the Epoch mod is allowing independant developers, like myself, to develop addition, fixes and enhancements on top.  We are also choosing to put a lot of our own spare time to produce mods for the community.  The problem we have is parallel development of an addition or enhancement that is also being worked on by the Epoch team.  Without the transparency we could be plowing in 20/30/40+ hours in to a mod that will be pointless with the next release because we do not know what is planned by the Epoch team.

 

Even if the information was general it would be much better than nothing.

 

For example;

Planned additions / enhancements / fixes for Epoch 1.0.5 may be.

New buildings.

Trader GUI.

Additional building items.

Improved car key management.  

 

At least the modders on top of Epoch could then decide if they want to work on those items themselves for their own mods or concentrate on other areas.

 

The rolling patch update is great for items that have been put in to the next release but does not have any info on items being planned and worked on.

 

Can we get a bit more transparency on what the dev team is working on for 1.0.5 (on onwards) ?.

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No, Transparency isn't the issue...

The issue is players and their expectations. I have watched countless games go through the cycle of transparency and learn the hard way that telling players what you are working on simply backfires.

Tell them you are planning on adding some new skins hopefully in the new patch and you immediately get:
 

"Skins? WTH do we need skins for when some vehicles still glitch and don't take damage properly."
"Wasting time on more skins?"

"Are you just working on player skins or are you going to finally update some of the weapon skins?"

If they then don't make the date or if they do and there isn't anything the players like you get MORE complaints. 

Most of the companies then cycle back to not telling you much at all at which point they get crucified for not having transparency like they used to. It is a no win situation and I think the rolling changelog works better by far. 

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No, Transparency isn't the issue...

The issue is players and their expectations. I have watched countless games go through the cycle of transparency and learn the hard way that telling players what you are working on simply backfires.

Tell them you are planning on adding some new skins hopefully in the new patch and you immediately get:

 

"Skins? WTH do we need skins for when some vehicles still glitch and don't take damage properly."

"Wasting time on more skins?"

"Are you just working on player skins or are you going to finally update some of the weapon skins?"

If they then don't make the date or if they do and there isn't anything the players like you get MORE complaints. 

Most of the companies then cycle back to not telling you much at all at which point they get crucified for not having transparency like they used to. It is a no win situation and I think the rolling changelog works better by far. 

 

 

But there can be ways around this for community builds like having a set of options and letting the community choose what they would like to see in a poll.  Sure that gives more control to the community to voice out what they would like rather than the direction that the dev team would prefer but it is an option and it then includes the community rather than excludes them.  Anther way is to say that they are working on XXXX and if the players are not happy then they can try one of the other mods out there.  It is not like there is only one DayZ based mod althoug,h TBH, if the vehicles were glitching then maybe the dev team should work on that rather than skins if the options are skins or fixing glitches  ;)  .

 

I do appreciate your point with regards to players but what about other modders spending a large amount of their own personal time (like the devs) who have no idea if what they are working on will be worthless in the next release as they have no idea what is being worked on in the release.  Maybe a compromise could be a restricted mail list / sub-forum or something else for modders who have produced at least 1 mod and distributed it on this site.  Sure info could leak out but if the devs have made no public comment then they should not be held accountable for leaked info (yes I appreciate that is not always the way it goes).

 

This would keep modders in the know so they can better target their mods for items the dev team are not working on and the players would be in the same position they are in now.

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  I agree with Mercules.  Setting a timeline and roadmap will result in many, many more complaints than there will be players "appreciating" the sentiment.

 

  People gripe now that there aren't update release dates and they have never offered so much as a suggestion and certainly never tossed out any scripting or coding.

 

  This will just result in more forum clutter as we sift through the whining to see a worthwhile post.

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 Sure that gives more control to the community to voice out what they would like rather than the direction that the dev team would prefer but it is an option and it then includes the community rather than excludes them. 

 

Sadly the community doesn't know what it wants, thus the Epoch team should not be beholden to the community beyond people deciding to play or not play their mod as they wish. This is evidenced in the debate about plot poles and the monetary system you might have seen on these forums. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

The community is not one single entity with one single view and as they say "You can't please all the people all of the time."

 

I still strongly believe that the people developing mods for Epoch should have some sort of insight as to what is going in to Epoch releases as it prevents us spending so much of our own personal time for something that may be pointless.  A subforum for confirmed mod makers (people who have put out a mod that works for example).  The mods can then put up a post saying that they are looking at improving aaa, bbb & ccc whithout needing to give specifics.  Mod makers then know not to bother with those areas until the release is out.

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