Dev Diary #108: Dev Diary Scheduling & Community Activities

[Tomray94]

I had semi-jokingly said in the Vic 3 forums that I'll be married and with children by the time this game reaches the level of completion of CK 2, if this speed of DLC remains the same. Now I am thinking that my children will be old enough to play it by that point.

Seriously though, I don't understand what is holding this studio back. Do you need more people on the team but the company is holding onto the budget tightly? I just don't get it. This is your most popular title, why squander it like this?

 

[adca85]

What a disappointment this game's post-release development has been.

 

[1775guy]

I guess your "oopsie" from Bastion that has caused a great number of Dukes to have no Counts whatsoever due to aggressive revocation is not a big enough deal, even though it makes your Feudal system look completely anachronistic...

that is historical in many regions, many regions through out the timeline had no sub-infeudation

 

[FunGaming]

Still hoping we will get coronation in the game. Also Dynasty banner upgrades are broken now they dont upgrade anymore since last update

For now people can enjoy my coronations mod again as its now updated to work with 1.7.1 update. Have fun.

Steam Workshop::Coronations Mod

steamcommunity.com

 

[NATOaster]

I think a solitary dev reply in the thread about communication would be nice

 

[klopkr]

How the hell did Imperator Rome get more love than CK3?

 

[Da Biggman]

I'm deeply concerned where Paradox' soul has gone. This is not the same company I've followed since the first Crusader Kings was released. It has grown and become a giant amongst game publishers and developers, but I fear it has lost its soul along the way. Patting yourselves on the back for what little has been released alongside banning players on both Steam Discussion and the Paradox Forums has me deeply wondering about the future of this company. If this is to be the new standard, I won't have any part of it.

 

[Ratlord420]

Yes. I am a bit disappointed but the developers owe me nothing. If they shut down development tomorrow I would be sad but they don't owe me to continue working on the game

Incredible how easily this comes out after the casual consensus is mesmerizement by the Future of a barebones game

 

[LeSingeAffame]

Seriously though, I don't understand what is holding this studio back. Do you need more people on the team but the company is holding onto the budget tightly? I just don't get it. This is your most popular title, why squander it like this?

They onboarded a ton of people during the development of RC, which is part of some of the delays it had, so team size definitely shouldn't be a problem

 

[Knotz]

I can understand covid related disruptions being responsible for a slow development cycle for the last two years or so, I guess. When I look at other games it that seems a bit generous, especially considering CK3 lacks what a lot of other games need (ie voiceovers, new areas, animations etc). But now no new content until 2023? Despite parallel development? Like. Yikes.

 

[Axis89]

"we’re hoping to have another smaller free update out before the year is over"

Three months and ten days left in the year. I get the feeling they're working on something big, and it won't be ready until next year. The small update is probably to keep us sated for now.

To keep us sated...

It seems they are starving us.. and you know what makes a great chef? Hunger.

At the time they release anything we might be tempted to love their dlc because we are crying from hunger.. any food will taste like wonder.

And then when the small platter is eaten, we still feel hungry, and then realize there is no food on the horizon.

Next year should be a "all you can eat buffet" or I will have to be sated elsewhere

 

[EricMN93]

Honestly, a road map would be nice, even if it were in an enigmatic way and without giving dates or spoilers.
For example:
Religious Winter (2022)
Military Spring (2023)
etc etc..

 

[SeraphAscending]

I agree with the general consensus, that while the communication has improved, it is quite disheartening to get a notice of "there are likely going to be several months of silence on the forum starting now".

It is certainly an improvement that we get this heads-up, but it's still far away from the ongoing communication efforts the community is desperately hoping for.

The improvements in recent weeks have been inspiring a lot of hope of good dev-community interaction. Getting a notice of "yeah, that stops now" is really disappointing...

Please correct me if i misunderstood the dev diary, but that seems to be what it says to me.
The forum is definitely the best way for dev-community interaction in regards to improving the game. Reddit, Twitch, Discord, etc. are just not as suitable.
The Stellaris team is showcasing the value of the forum very well.

 

[Ninaran]

I'm deeply concerned where Paradox' soul has gone. This is not the same company I've followed since the first Crusader Kings was released. It has grown and become a giant amongst game publishers and developers, but I fear it has lost its soul along the way. Patting yourselves on the back for what little has been released alongside banning players on both Steam Discussion and the Paradox Forums has me deeply wondering about the future of this company. If this is to be the new standard, I won't have any part of it.

The things going public do to a passionate developer studio...

 

[SeraphAscending]

The things going public do to a passionate developer studio...

I don't have the post at hand, but someone made a rather extensive summary of how little has changed since Paradox has gone public overall, when the whole pricing policy change debacle occured and people attributed that to PDX going public, too.
Going a little bit over the shareholders (majority shareholder still being the same), earnings, investments, etc.

And looking at other titles of the studio (i.e. Stellaris) we can see that neither the dev-community interactions nor the content amount or quality has changed universally. It seems to be more the case that individual flaws and gripes are related to specific titles and don't apply across the board.

 

[johnty5]

Ordinarily, I'd be in this thread pushing back against some of the more over-the-top negative posts and trying to encourage a bit of perspective.

But, honestly, what's the point?

We were told a couple of weeks back that there was a recognition that communication had been poor and plans were being put in place to improve. And now this.

Genuinely just feeling really disappointed and let down.

Ok. I did a despondent post yesterday. So now for a more constructive one.


On "no new paid DLC until 2023":

I actually don't have a problem with this because I didn't expect any more paid DLC this year anyway. Tbh, I'm a little surprised that so many people are surprised. Isn't it all but confirmed that CK3 is operating on a "1 x Expansion Pack and 1 x Flavour Pack per year" DLC model?

Stellaris - which constantly gets held up around here as an example of what CK3 development should look like - operates on the same model and no one seems outraged about that.

Obviously taking 2021 and 2022 together, there's been less DLC than would have been ideal - but I think anyone reasonable can understand why 2021 was the way it was. And I certainly don't think the answer to COVID slowing down development in 2021 would be to somehow develop twice as much stuff in 2022. There are only so many hours in the day. As of 2022, they seem to be back on track with the release schedule - and I'm fine with that.


On fewer "Filler" Dev Diaries:

I don't have a problem with this as long as it's part of a plan for increased engagement overall.


"So what will we do instead? A variety of things - we might have Discord AMA’s, hangout streams with Devs, or sometimes we might post a Dev Diary about something not related to an update - for example, about how we work or plans we have for the future."

This is what left me so disappointed yesterday.

We were told two weeks ago - and numerous times before that - that there's a recognition that communication was poor and that there were plans being put in place to improve.

But if there's a plan to increase engagement overall, why post about reducing dev diaries while being so vague - "might", "sometimes", "variety of things" - about what's replacing them?

If there really is a desire to proactively engage, why isn't the bottom of this post a schedule - with dates and times - of upcoming Q&As, livestreams etc? Maybe that's coming later - but, if so, why is it coming later? If you're announcing more engagement, you have to actually announce more engagement - not announce a reduction in one area and hope people believe, while providing no evidence, that there'll subsequently be an increase somewhere else.

And that's compounded by there being zero staff responses in this thread to any of the questions being asked.

That's why I'm so disappointed. I believed the promises of better communications - but, like so many times before, we're immediately straight back to vague announcements and zero responses to questions.

I don't think we're owed engagement. If Paradox decided it wasn't worth it, I'd be sad (because I like it), but it'd ultimately be up to them how they deploy their time and they're not obliged to spend it answering our questions. The issue is being told that community engagement is a priority, but there always and repeatedly being so little follow-through.

I said I wanted to be constructive, and those last few paragraphs weren't particularly, so I'll finish with a few questions/requests:

• Could we have a permanent pinned thread of upcoming Q&As and other off-forum stuff that is scheduled that's regularly updated?
  
  
• When Discord Q&As happen, could the questions and responses be retained and made available for people who weren't able to follow it in real-time?
  
  
• When Livestream Q&As happen, could the video be posted somewhere for people who weren't able to watch it live? It'd be amazing if questions and answers could be transcribed somewhere - but I understand that's not a small job and may not be possible.
  
  
• For any kind of "live" Q&A (Discord, Livestream etc.) could we have a way of submitting questions in advance? That would help people in different timezones, people who work when they usually happen or just people who aren't consistently online throughout the day to participate.
  
  
• Is there some way you could make recent dev/staff replies more visible on the Discord? A custom channel or something? Discord is really great for a lot of things - but it being a live chat means it's not easy to "catch up" on what's been recently discussed/answered/announced. e.g. If a Dev had posted something really cool on there this morning and I logged in now, there'd be no way of me knowing that had happened.

 

[SeraphAscending]

I wholeheartedly agree with @johnty5 here.

If something out-of-the-ordinary official is happening, please put it as a sticky thread in the forum.
Even if you don't use the forum for a lot of interaction, at least use it as an information distribution system.
It is extremely odd that there have been multiple times i have only heard of significant things like Streams with the Game Director from community posters with no official post regarding that. This shouldn't happen.

 

[Monalba]

CK3 is operating on a "1 x Expansion Pack and 1 x Flavour Pack per year"

I was hoping 1 x Expansion, 2 x Flavour, as many event packs as they want or can fit, seeing that is mainly a passion project.

Stellaris - which constantly gets held up around here as an example of what CK3 development should look like - operates on the same model and no one seems outraged about that.

Stellaris is a 6 years old game that already has most of its content. The new expansions are mainly an addition to keep things fun, as seeing with the ''Nemesis'' expansion.
I'd also like to point out that Stellaris got 2 big expansions in 2018, its second year on the market.
Plus, they also get a mini-expansion/flavour pack and a species pack every year.

CK3 got a flavour pack and an expansion in its second year (and an event pack, which doesn't really affect gameplay).
Not only that, but it the expansion and flavour pack released in the first half of 2022, leaving the rest of the year with absolutely nothing to freshen up the game.

Just saying.

 

[Farbolo]

I think a solitary dev reply in the thread about communication would be nice

It would be helpful yes, but them not replying is only consequential since they practically announced the forums to be dead in terms of substantial exchange and communication.
I can only agree to one of my fellow forumites above: this game's postrelease development has been an utter disappointment. Makes me sad.

 

[johnty5]

I was hoping 1 x Expansion, 2 x Flavour, as many event packs as they want or can fit, seeing that is mainly a passion project.

You may have been hoping for that. But there was never any reason to believe that that was the model.

Stellaris is a 6 years old game that already has most of its content. The new expansions are mainly an addition to keep things fun, as seeing with the ''Nemesis'' expansion.
I'd also like to point out that Stellaris got 2 big expansions in 2018, its second year on the market.
Plus, they also get a mini-expansion/flavour pack and a species pack every year.

Yes. 2018. Paradox have been broadly running 1 expansion pack and 1 flavour pack per year model for around 5 years.

CK3 got a flavour pack and an expansion in its second year (and an event pack, which doesn't really affect gameplay).

Yes. I’m saying that’s their model.

Not only that, but it the expansion and flavour pack released in the first half of 2022, leaving the rest of the year with absolutely nothing to freshen up the game.

Just saying.

I’m going to go ahead and guess that people wouldn’t have been any happier if FoI had been a September release.