CO Word of the Week #8

[tom_mai78101]

so those fixes mostly also will affect PC version, too?

PC and Consoles, according to the CO of the Weeks.

 

[brandtr]

Hi all,

just want to say that I enjoy playing the game! Yes, there are bugs and what all. It just seems in the current times, many people have no patience and respect anymore.

Of course, I also would like to have everything now, but it's just not always that straight forward or easy. Being in software development myself I understand that.

To the entire team, all devs: keep up the good work! Communication is key here and I'm sure we will get there!

Kind regards,
Ralph - NL

 

[Therearenogoodnames]

I have been experiencing a major tax bug that hits between levels 9 - 11, or as soon as I add some form of cargo terminal. It results in the massive tax penalty, or income, of roughly $500 mil + / - for one industry. I know you mentioned in this posting the fixing of bugs, and I wanted to tack that one on the list as a bug that I find game breaking, personally.

Thank you for the continued hard work, and I have all the faith in the world that in a years time this game will be as amazing as CS1.

 

[MohawkWolfo98]

Colossal Order already gave us the roadmap. They are going to fix the issues in the game, while simultaneously develop and getting ready to release the Editor and Modding updates. They are going to fix the problems by continuing to monitor the game, read the bug reports, and address them. And they are focusing the remaining of this year to fixing the issues until the game is stable enough to start preparing to launch paid DLCs.

I disagree that it is though: it’s all in the vein of “it will be produced”, when we were promised it would be a matter of days after release.

How about partial refunds, with Total War Pharoah has done, have they even looked into it rather than a garble of words?

 

[tom_mai78101]

I have been experiencing a major tax bug that hits between levels 9 - 11, or as soon as I add some form of cargo terminal. It results in the massive tax penalty, or income, of roughly $500 mil + / - for one industry. I know you mentioned in this posting the fixing of bugs, and I wanted to tack that one on the list as a bug that I find game breaking, personally.

Thank you for the continued hard work, and I have all the faith in the world that in a years time this game will be as amazing as CS1.

Have you reported this as a Bugs report? They keep track of these issues there.

 

[tom_mai78101]

How about partial refunds, with Total War Pharoah has done, have they even looked into it rather than a garble of words?

I think that's for Paradox Interactive to answer.

 

[pedro_pujols]

Should we add more moderation or is the only option to pull back our engagement on our end?

The time for you to pull back was right before releasing an unfinished videogame, not now, it'd be another huge irresponsibility.

I appreciate your work and I hope you and your team always find the encouragement to keep imrpoving and adding new features to the game (in a reasonable time).

Thank you again and welcome back.

 

[123Bigmam]

Pls keep your focus up on performance. The rendering of the game is still taking a lot of Cpu time sometimes 80% when the simulation is paused(dense populated areas when scrolling over). The simulation runs pretty good unless the rendering destroys my Cpu. Gpu performance still needs some work would be great to see another 20 to 25% better on the Gpu.
To be honest my 8600k at 5.1Ghz is a entry Level Cpu nowadays. But Single core speed can hold up with a 5600x-5800x. My Rx 6800 still struggles with 30 fps on 1440p.
Framegen would be awesome to see in the future for a super smooth 50 fps.
Some Bugs still remain to be fixed for a good and smooth gameplay experience.

 

[BoraBora]

The game was released nearly 3 months ago unfinished and in an infuriating state. The last patch was released 1 month ago and the game is still incomplete, bug-ridden, unoptimized and without modding support. This week, instead of a well-deserved roadmap, we get a couple guesses for the upcoming months and that's it. Oh and instead of a well-deserved late apology we get another long patronizing sermon about the "community". How's that for toxicity towards your customers?

I'm way too old for this. I won't read another word of the week or anything coming from CO except factual patch notes. I'm so sick of this situation I'd like to say I'm done with CS II but sadly its only competitor is CS 1 which I already played to death since 2015. So i'll keep updated from time to time, hoping my already spent 50 € will get me a complete and satisfying game someday. And that's it.

 

[Boonatix]

Ah yes, only approve the 'positive' ones; delete the criticism.

Wrong - there is a difference between toxicity and criticism, but it seems many people are unable to differentiate. Why is that so hard to understand? Or is it that one does not want to understand?

We are all human beings, living on the same blue planet - why is it so damn hard to treat each other with a bit of respect? Why is it such a challenge to voice criticism and personal opinions in a humble, more constructive way?

 

[co_martsu]

I am very disappointed that your priority has shifted to MOD. I still encounter many bugs, and I cannot play game correctlly.
I hope that resources from MOD development can be allocated to bug fixes, and resolving bugs becomes the top priority among you.

Not all devs are on modding support, we also have people working on the console versions as well as fixing bugs. So modding support being the top priority doesn't prevent other work to be done simultaneously.

In my honest opinion that part of the community is - on a certain level - just frustrated with some aspects of the game. Sure, taking it out on other people isn't going to solve it, but that's the internet for you and no amount of moderation and banning is going to completely shield the dev team from people like that. I completely understand that being on the receiving end of unreasonably angry people is definitely not something anyone would want for their forum, so I hope it works itself out.

What little advice I could give is probably this: The last patch was about a month ago and given the state of the game a lot of people might have already expected a new one, especially when the last one introduced a very widespread economy bug. But since the patch isn't ready, I believe it might have been better to outline in more detail what is going to get fixed. Yes, I know - no one wants to make a promise and then back out, but I don't think that uncertainty is going to calm people as much as certainty (for example, the last couple of WoWs provided more insight into what was being worked on). Plus some people might feel like time discussing toxicity (which is not really an issue directly related to the game itself) might be better spent discussing the game/patches/modding/plans/...

I would not want to underestimate human intelligence, as the internet doesn't have to be a toxic and hostile place. Not at least this forum. It's you and me who are engaging in the conversations and we make an active choice every time we write a response. Why not choose to be polite, kind and/or constructive?

Thanks for the feedback on the content of the update. We've only been back to work for one week so no miracles have happened while we were on holiday unfortunately. We chose to bring up the toxicity now as there's no point to wait. Soon we'll have official modding support available and the modders shouldn't have to fear for reactions from the community. Exactly like our devs don't have to accept abuse when engaging in the forums. We can only have a discussion if the discussion is civil.

Thus, your CEO's comment, "maybe this isn't the game for you," was received by many as insensitive and tone deaf. My personal reaction to that statement was, "well I AM immensely enjoying this game, but good grief I dropped over $100 for the package deal (of which I've seen nil) and that's how you say, 'thank you?'"... maybe this game isn't for me? You've taken my money and not delivered the lion's share of your promises. Pardon me if I feel a teensy bit slighted. In some quarters we call that theft.

I apologize again for that badly formulated response. We have been reading the feedback and reproducing bugs reported, and even gotten some fixed. We will continue to fix bugs and issues and improve the game. This is something I truly wish we can do together with the community by discussing and understanding the grievances better. The community is at its best a place of great conversations and inspiration for us but at its worst it makes us want to move to the neighbour's bunker.

We're looking forward to the conversations, and I shall be writing a new update next week with more details on the upcoming patch!

 

[Kedryn]

Toxicity does not equal criticism. They love criticism and so do I, it helps find and resolve issues. But when it becomes unpleasant and scary for others, that's the issue.

That's how I see toxicity.

Saying something sucks: Not toxic
Saying something sucks and offering solutions: Anti-toxic
Saying something sucks, and then insinuating nefarious motives for it sucking: Toxic.
Saying CO is a monster and trying to foment a proletariat revolution to claim the forums: lol toxic

When I start thinking everyone is posting in bad faith, I stop coming so I don't become part of the problem.

But still, here is better than most places. Steam, so far, is the worst, with posts like: "My 80 years existing account on Paradox forums was banned for criticism", and then when you go look at the 'criticism' it's nothing but insinuations of a grand corporate conspiracy to milk the players and install a capitalist dictatorship over PC gaming or whatever.

 

[TripleAgent]

Wish we'd gotten something a bit more concrete. This basically tells me exactly what I knew before the break.

Out of curiosity, can we get some information on the asset import bug that's apparently responsible for throwing everything out of whack?

 

[FredLyonFR]

Happy New Year 2024.
Any news about pre-paid DLC (Ultimate customers)

Any plan for sand, snow textures and news asset for decoration, etc ?
We love the game, but we need/want more

 

[homerCCCP]

Welcome back and happy new year.



The only time I've felt "unsafe" posting on these forums is specifically because of the moderation I've seen. I've even seen people call for outright censorship and only "approved" responses which is a very dangerous game.

More moderation and less freedom to voice our opinions isn't the answer, getting rid of biased and salty moderators who only stir the pot further is a good step in the right direction.

I strongly disagree. I can tell you why.

You might consider it freedom of speech when people permanently violate the rules, spread lies and make whatever wild accuses against people they have not a little bit if knowledge about. Anonymously of course.

I don't mind if people say whatever. They might insult me, spread conspiracy theories, or whatever they want to do. I couldn't care less, I will just not spend my time with it and leave.

HOWEVER: This is is not a public space, but a forum owned by a private company. Colossal Order is not a powerful entity that has any power about your freedom of speech. They created this forum in order to let the community exchange about the game and track these exchange in order to trace it.

IMHO it is certainly more beneficial to attract those guys that are interested in discussing about the game, rather than those who want to discuss about the state of game industry, share their development project experience to explain why they are better developers, or make outright false claims about fake simulations.

And no, you cannot have both constructive discussions and self-profilation and trolls. Without strict moderations forums are abandoned after some time. I have seen this quite often.

So I consider it more beneficial for CO as a profit oriented company and for me as a player who wants to see the game improving,
to create a comfortable space who want to discuss about the game, share what they like and what they dislike.
Nobody blocks the others to create their own forum where they can insult the Devs or to YouTube.

So all in all I think the Mods are doing the best possible job and I would like to thank them for that.

 

[elektrizikekswerk]

Some words from a moderator. It's just a "now you know" thing, not a base for discussion. As such please note that any comment, reply or direct quote on this will be considered as PDMA (Public Discussion of Moderator's Action) and acted upon accordingly. See the rules for details.

Regarding toxicity, I think you should update the community guidelines and rules and then also act upon them without mercy against toxicity and hate... and ban users from participating. Because there is just no room for toxicity and hate anywhere, and thus no public platform should be given for them! There is never every a reasonable excuse for toxicity and / or hate (like some try to find with "oh the state of the game blabla...) - no matter what happened, civil discussion must always be a priority between human individuals.

These rules already exist and we take it very seriously. However, we cannot possibly read every single post on the forum. So please feel free to report any post that you think has gone too far. Every post has this button below it:

We then will evaluate the post and situation (ie thread) and act accordingly.

Happy new year team and thank you so much for the update.

As for toxicity, if that is a concern then I think 24/7 moderation across all social media platforms (forums included, particularly the Steam Forums) should be the aim. Perhaps requiring posts and messages to be pre-approved (where this is possible) should be considered.

Nevertheless, you all are doing a fantastic job getting the patches out and I'm sure, in time, all your nhard work will be rewarded.

I can only speak for this very forum here, but there is already a 24/7 moderation in place as we moderators are from all over the world. We do it in our spare time and don't get paid, though, so a pre-approval system won't happen unless they (Paradox) pay us full time

Welcome back and happy new year.



The only time I've felt "unsafe" posting on these forums is specifically because of the moderation I've seen. I've even seen people call for outright censorship and only "approved" responses which is a very dangerous game.

More moderation and less freedom to voice our opinions isn't the answer, getting rid of biased and salty moderators who only stir the pot further is a good step in the right direction.

If you are having issues with us moderators please talk directly to us in private. In case you can't settle the problem with us, feel free to reach out to an administrator. We respect opinions different from our own and, besides of some banned topics listed in the rules, there's no written or unwritten rule that you are not allowed to criticize anything that Paradox (or CO, for that matter) does. We do however act very strict if toxicity or outright insults are involved. Sadly there's much "criticism" that has either or even both in it. Thus it gets deleted.

The toxicity IS our present zeitgeist.

Not on my watch

 

[Ashreon]

You don't need to apologize so many times. One is enough. Let haters with their hate and focus on constructive things as you said.

Please, if anything they should be bowing their heads in shame and give a public apology for the mess they released.

People have every right to be furious. They were sold one product and they received a barely functional product missing everything that they were being sold. To which the respond has then been "maybe this game is not for you". That is a gigantic middle finger to everyone involved. This is toxicity in a nutshell.

Which is hilarious considering how much they rant about the community being "toxic". Well.. You reap what you sow as the saying goes.

 

[DanielR80]

We have always treasured having the devs present on the different social platforms and having direct communication with the community

Unless the devs are asking for more details about a bug report, I think they have more important things to do right now than be active in the community.

Should we add more moderation or is the only option to pull back our engagement on our end?

Remembering the whole "this game is not for you" debacle and other similarly botched communication, my suggestion is you pull back. Like Hello Games did. Give toxic people less attack surface, actions speak louder than words.

 

[dan1979]

I don't think there's an easy way to fix all toxicity

There is, it's called refunds.

 

[backface]

I wonder how you internally are dealing with the fact that there are already mods out there working on the game. Anyway, longing for the next update when will be and as a buyer of the Ultimate Edition if there is any update on release time of the first CC or DLC that was posponed from last quarter of 2023.