Well seems Q1 isnt gonna happen damn it

[grandad1982]

Thank you for the statement and for being a part of a company that makes awesome games! Don't worry about all the angry posts, I am sure you know what you are doing. From what you said, could pdx maybe make an estimate to the release date, without any promises? It is nice for some of us to be able to plan our spending a little.

No. Because as he said people will flip out as the estimate will be used as an almost definite and when/if the date is missed people will behave very differently to how they may claim now. It's rather just wait and enjoy the dds and www.

 

[edowie]

Please stop inconsistency and unofficial announcements on unofficial platforms. This causes a lot of frustration, like someone pointed out above, say nothing at all or say everything. It will stop unproductive discussions like this and allow people to wait in peace.

 

[Wizzington]

I am not in charge of communication, but honestly, would you really have been any less frustrated from an official communication or indeed, silence? I think the release is what people care about, not whether information about it was communicated through twitter.

 

[grandad1982]

Please stop inconsistency and unofficial announcements on unofficial platforms. This causes a lot of frustration, like someone pointed out above, say nothing at all or say everything. It will stop unproductive discussions like this and allow people to wait in peace.

Or people could take responsibility for the own actions and, you know, not behave badly and remain calm? I would say twitter is a valid communication till in this context. Do I use it? No. Do others and will they share that info here? Yes.

 

[afghanrabbit]

We do care about the release but I can see the frustration with having to glean info from many different sources just to try and get a picture of what is going on.

 

[edowie]

I honestly believe that the reception of this news would have been much better if it was posted on an official platform. Look at George RR Martins post on his blog recently, a large percentage of people offered well wishes and support rather than upset and aggression, (obviously there was some negative comments but there always will be) but the delay was official, well written and offered helpful information, even apologetic although that's not something I think is required. People underestimate the positive effect of a well worded statement and the negative effect of the opposite.

Or people could take responsibility for the own actions and, you know, not behave badly and remain calm? I would say twitter is a valid communication till in this context. Do I use it? No. Do others and will they share that info here? Yes.

I don't really see how this is relevant to what I said or to me. Frustration does not equal bad behavior. I certainly don't feel I have said anything malicious or out of line .

 

[eddyill]

An official communication on major milestones (beta submissions etc) especially if they are all in the same place is important, if only to cut down on the number of thread full of rampant speculation.

 

[Opinionista]

I understand that the delays are frustrating, but honestly there's not much we can do or say about it at this point besides "it'll be done when it's done". Nothing has changed since before christmas: HOI4 is at the polishing stage where just throwing more resources at the game largely won't help (indeed is in fact likely to hinder), and there are no unfinished features to cut. We naturally have a fairly good idea of how long we expect the polishing to take, but throwing dates around would only lead to more frustration if those dates were then not met (as this thread is evidence of). Our only options at this point are either to finish the game in the time it takes or throw it out the door early, and we're not going to do the latter.

In short, I'm sorry you guys are frustrated, but there is really nothing we can do about it that we're not already doing. We don't like the delays any more than you do, but that does not change the fact that all we can do here is the best of two bad choices.

Finally I'll just wrap up by saying that the game we have is a damn fun WW2 game and when it comes out I'm confident you'll find it worth the wait.

Hello,

First of all thanks for taking the time to do something that probably is not part of your job description.

Now, delays are like overtime. Nobody wants to do it, but sometimes it is necessary.
Paradox has shown that their business aim is to carry on supporting their strategy games for as long as possible. See CK2 or EU4, and that's a good thing for the users. The only "problem" is that this forces the company to come up with extremely robust titles at launch. These are not yearly franchises where you can cut corners "because you will implement this or that next year".

We all* know and understand that-
*Not really.

The only mistake here was announcing the game too soon, but hey, it's not the end of the world. Do we need to wait until 2017 to see Hearts of Iron 4? We'll wait, there's not much choice, is there. In the meanwhile we'll hope some other publishers notice there's some money to make in the grand strategy market and you'll hope that nobody does that, but that's another story.

However, this is not really the genuine core problem here. HOI being delayed means: A) Paradox was optimistic back when it was announced (I can live with this), and B) They're not in a hurry to release the game (which is good).
The core problem is that for a company that preaches its care for the gamers/users/customers, Paradox has done a piss poor job of showing it.

I am not in charge of communication, but honestly, would you really have been any less frustrated from an official communication or indeed, silence? I think the release is what people care about, not whether information about it was communicated through twitter.

Look, if I understand correctly Johan is essentially your boss and I understand you're not in an easy position, but it needs to be admitted that yes, the problem was twitter.
You devs know perfectly well that we're waiting for this game like there's no tomorrow and for fuck's sake, it takes 2 minutes to come to the forum and say:

"Sorry guys, the game is coming along nicely but we cannot release it soon because there are still too many bugs, which we're doing to do our best to fix".
But no, apparently that takes too long. Easier to post a picture on twitter to gather a get a few followers and then nonchalantly say "not gonna happen".

Cheers.

 

[grandad1982]

I honestly believe that the reception of this news would have been much better if it was posted on an official platform. Look at George RR Martins post on his blog recently, a large percentage of people offered well wishes and support rather than upset and aggression, (obviously there was some negative comments but there always will be) but the delay was official, well written and offered helpful information, even apologetic although that's not something I think is required. People underestimate the positive effect of a well worded statement and the negative effect of the opposite.



I don't really see how this is relevant to what I said or to me. Frustration does not equal bad behavior. I certainly don't feel I have said anything malicious or out of line .

Not necessarily aimed at you Frustration might not equal bad behaviour but over the last few weeks i've seen plenty of bad behaviour from people who are letting this frustration get the better of them.

 

[Mobsterman120]

I really disagree with a lot of the attitudes on the forum that go something along the lines of "It's fine, I'll wait till 2018 if it means getting the HOI4 I want!" That's all fine and good, but have people considered that maybe time doesn't always = quality. A bun left in the oven for 24 hours doesn't taste that great, the anticipation just wears off and it leaves a burnt aftertaste. Something is obviously somewhat wrong with the dev process, I don't know if it's a lack of funds, a lack of team members, or just a series of miscalculations about their own strengths and the games required workload. But the devs should be more transparent and give an estimated release, "When it's ready" is really a cop-out in my opinion. I know "When it's ready" gets mad support for some reason, but in any other industry than game creation, telling your client or potential customers that you'll just give it to them when you feel its good to go, doesn't work. You have deadlines, you work harder if the deadline closes in and you get 'er done. You do this to upkeep a reputation of speed + efficiency. Two things that are good. I don't know if I'm just applying a North American work attitude to a socialist-european one (which tend to be more laid back) but I'd really like PDX to get their butt in gear.

Also I will always love you paradox and I forgive you.

 

[grandad1982]

Hello,

Look, if I understand correctly Johan is essentially your boss and I understand you're not in an easy position, but it needs to be admitted that yes, the problem was twitter.
You devs know perfectly well that we're waiting for this game like there's no tomorrow and for fuck's sake, it takes 2 minutes to come to the forum and say:

"Sorry guys, the game is coming along nicely but we cannot release it soon because there are still too many bugs, which we're doing to do our best to fix".
But no, apparently that takes too long. Easier to post a picture on twitter to gather a get a few followers and then nonchalantly say "not gonna happen".

Cheers.

Isn't this just whats been said?

 

[Simoleum]

I am not in charge of communication, but honestly, would you really have been any less frustrated from an official communication or indeed, silence? I think the release is what people care about, not whether information about it was communicated through twitter.

I am one of those who would rather have a loose date, than not having any dates. I wouldn't be very frustrated if the date set isn't met, as long as you are clear that it is in no way definite or certain. It's almost more frustrating being here without a single date at least to look forward to

 

[Amur_Tiger]

HOI3 was buggy game I agree. But that didn't stop me from buying game with its extensions. HOI3 didn't stop me from buying EU4 and CK2 with all DLCs until 2015.

But then I'm waiting for HOI4 for a year without buying anything from paradox. Instead I bought war in the east (80$). Because I was so hyped and wanted to play ww2 game.

As I said before it is just my case. There could be other people like me. I don't know how many

HoI3 was a buggy game, the bad experience in the start and some of the design decisions that made the game a grind insured I didn't buy any DLC for the game thereafter, quite the opposite with EU3, EU4 and CK2. They're trying to tackle fixing the things that crippled HoI3, it's going to be challenging and it's going to have to be done right, I for one wouldn't mind waiting an additional year so long as that year is spent steadily improving the game. The quality of the initial product will have huge impacts on the viability of the game no matter how many DLC you put on there. EU4 combat is still frustrating and arbitrary because it's still using the old EU3 model to run it, they can't fix that through DLC without completely splitting the community, something they've shown themselves unwilling to do. ( and with good reason ) Lets not let our impatience encourage them to release a product they're not confident in.

 

[melkor88]

Guess I'm going to have to find something else to keep me occupied with for the next few months then.

 

[Claude Luster]

As long is it's done well, I don't mind waiting however long it takes.

My anticipation will not abate.

 

[Caesar15]

Awesome, I do say, Wiz is pretty great. He should do these kind of announcements make often. When they're needed of course.

 

[Jamey]

I understand that the delays are frustrating, but honestly there's not much we can do or say about it at this point besides "it'll be done when it's done". Nothing has changed since before christmas: HOI4 is at the polishing stage where just throwing more resources at the game largely won't help (indeed is in fact likely to hinder), and there are no unfinished features to cut. We naturally have a fairly good idea of how long we expect the polishing to take, but throwing dates around would only lead to more frustration if those dates were then not met (as this thread is evidence of). Our only options at this point are either to finish the game in the time it takes or throw it out the door early, and we're not going to do the latter.

In short, I'm sorry you guys are frustrated, but there is really nothing we can do about it that we're not already doing. We don't like the delays any more than you do, but that does not change the fact that all we can do here is the best of two bad choices.

Finally I'll just wrap up by saying that the game we have is a damn fun WW2 game and when it comes out I'm confident you'll find it worth the wait.

Thanks for the update.

I'd much rather have the game be polished and good than "on time", so please take your time polishing and deliver an awesome game when it is ready.

 

[Wizzington]

I really disagree with a lot of the attitudes on the forum that go something along the lines of "It's fine, I'll wait till 2018 if it means getting the HOI4 I want!" That's all fine and good, but have people considered that maybe time doesn't always = quality. A bun left in the oven for 24 hours doesn't taste that great, the anticipation just wears off and it leaves a burnt aftertaste. Something is obviously somewhat wrong with the dev process, I don't know if it's a lack of funds, a lack of team members, or just a series of miscalculations about their own strengths and the games required workload. But the devs should be more transparent and give an estimated release, "When it's ready" is really a cop-out in my opinion. I know "When it's ready" gets mad support for some reason, but in any other industry than game creation, telling your client or potential customers that you'll just give it to them when you feel its good to go, doesn't work. You have deadlines, you work harder if the deadline closes in and you get 'er done. You do this to upkeep a reputation of speed + efficiency. Two things that are good. I don't know if I'm just applying a North American work attitude to a socialist-european one (which tend to be more laid back) but I'd really like PDX to get their ass in gear.

Also I will always love you paradox and I forgive you.

This is not how software development works. You can throw more people at a problem, but effectiveness of manpower is not linear and new people on the project will inevitably introduce bugs and issues that might fail the very milestone they were meant to save. You can make everyone work 12 hour days but after a couple weeks their work efficiency tanks and you end up with less done and more bugs than a normal scheudle if you let it go on past that point. You can 'meet the deadline' by lowering your ambitions and proclaiming yourself done whatever the actual standard you were originally supposed to meet. You can not magically meet both deadlines and quality standards by rolling up your shirtsleeves and saying the pledge of allegiance while a bald eagle flies overhead.

 

[Mobsterman120]

You can not magically meet both deadlines and quality standards by rolling up your shirtsleeves and saying the pledge of allegiance while a bald eagle flies overhead.

(I'm Canadian but this is a good line.)

No matter what I'm sure it'll end up being a high quality game, I just really wish it'd be out sooner. And I can't help personally feel that the speed of the games creation is in the companies control.

 

[edowie]

http://dilbert.com/