Truly and purely, mind conditioned in expecting something is what have been done till boredom here.
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Truly and purely, mind conditioned in expecting something is what have been done till boredom here.
To go back to the original topic, perhaps part of the failure and damage to Paradox's reputation has been from the endemic lack of communication. There has been no lack of voices on this forum trying to highlight the problems with the game and what needs to be done to correct them. And this was well before the game was even released, the likes of Alfryd insisted repeatedly on the need for a genuinely intelligent ai, and how to expand the scope of the original game, but a deaf ear was turned to those.
More recently we were told that we would be given some details on the upcoming expansions, and that was over 2 months ago without a word. Similarly the interview with the launch of Kingmaker proved the point for me (the one where he said majesty 2 was not a sim despite being called majesty 2 the fantasy kingdom sim, and this was somehow an error in communication), it just seemed to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye over what has been happening on these forums.
I haven't written this message just to complain, so to move forward, I urge Paradox to try to be more open with us about what's going on, your lack of communication only tells the community that you don't care, which I really hope isn't the case.
More recently we were told that we would be given some details on the upcoming expansions, and that was over 2 months ago without a word. Similarly the interview with the launch of Kingmaker proved the point for me (the one where he said majesty 2 was not a sim despite being called majesty 2 the fantasy kingdom sim, and this was somehow an error in communication), it just seemed to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye over what has been happening on these forums.
I haven't written this message just to complain, so to move forward, I urge Paradox to try to be more open with us about what's going on, your lack of communication only tells the community that you don't care, which I really hope isn't the case.
I think it is more that the US side of Paradox (the ones who read and post here) aren't being kept in the loop anymore. They care(d)... just not the company Paradox paid to make the game (non-US side).
Hello all, sorry for the late reply, I just wanted to check all the details before posting so I didn't give you the wrong information.
I agree with you on a lot that has been said in this thread. As much as I enjoyed Majesty 2 (I have played it close to 40 hrs according to Steam) there were two major things missing from my point of view:
- The ability to continue playing after missions are finished.
- The limited amount of replayability.
What I do not agree with is:
- That it was a buggy mess on release. During my 40 hours of gameplay I have experienced one crash, probably caused by my own clicking on several things at the same time. We also postponed the release by 6 months to be able to smooth out the gamebreaking bugs.
- That people just think the game is not fun to play. It is different from Majesty 1, but it is quite a good game, at least I think so.
The Majesty 2 project was a bit complicated from a contract standpoint. We contracted Russian InoCo to make the game (we had already seen, and enjoyed their remake of Fantasy General, named Fantasy Wars) and they used a third party engine (which we didn't know the capabilities and limitations of) for the game. The same game engine has been used to create games like Men of War. The ability to continue after missions was one of the things that came from the engine. We got the explanation this feature was not possible to create and that the whole engine would need to be redone to support this.
At least this is the information we got at the time.
The contract also gave other limitations on what we could do with the game and unfortunately we found out over a year into development.
The mission replayability is something we should have workec on from Paradox' end. As a small company, we are normally a bit understaffed and during the Majesty 2 development cycle it was a bit more than usual since a few people from the team were off work long-term due to different reasons. This ended up in a situation where I was the main Producer from Paradox during the course of the development cycle and this is was not a good solution. We have doubled the publishing team since then and are now ready to do a better job in Producing and providing the developers feedback on game design and gameplay related issues.
If we ever create a new sequel to the Majesty series, we will definitely address the issues above. We will also improve our communication.
Best,
Fred
I agree with you on a lot that has been said in this thread. As much as I enjoyed Majesty 2 (I have played it close to 40 hrs according to Steam) there were two major things missing from my point of view:
- The ability to continue playing after missions are finished.
- The limited amount of replayability.
What I do not agree with is:
- That it was a buggy mess on release. During my 40 hours of gameplay I have experienced one crash, probably caused by my own clicking on several things at the same time. We also postponed the release by 6 months to be able to smooth out the gamebreaking bugs.
- That people just think the game is not fun to play. It is different from Majesty 1, but it is quite a good game, at least I think so.
The Majesty 2 project was a bit complicated from a contract standpoint. We contracted Russian InoCo to make the game (we had already seen, and enjoyed their remake of Fantasy General, named Fantasy Wars) and they used a third party engine (which we didn't know the capabilities and limitations of) for the game. The same game engine has been used to create games like Men of War. The ability to continue after missions was one of the things that came from the engine. We got the explanation this feature was not possible to create and that the whole engine would need to be redone to support this.
At least this is the information we got at the time.
The contract also gave other limitations on what we could do with the game and unfortunately we found out over a year into development.
The mission replayability is something we should have workec on from Paradox' end. As a small company, we are normally a bit understaffed and during the Majesty 2 development cycle it was a bit more than usual since a few people from the team were off work long-term due to different reasons. This ended up in a situation where I was the main Producer from Paradox during the course of the development cycle and this is was not a good solution. We have doubled the publishing team since then and are now ready to do a better job in Producing and providing the developers feedback on game design and gameplay related issues.
If we ever create a new sequel to the Majesty series, we will definitely address the issues above. We will also improve our communication.
Best,
Fred
True, I didn't experiance gamebreaking bugs as well... but the number of minor bugs was impressive, and some of them were big enough to notably decrease the fun for me.
It would have been ok for me if they were fixed within 6 months after release, but most nonenglish versions haven't seen a first patch so far.
If I'm informed correctly, only the customers who bought the english version on Gamersgate recieved satisfieing support... and the russians perhaps...
edit: on second thought, the gamespeed/buildingspeed disconnect is quite gamebreaking...
edit2:just found the german patch somewhere in a thread in the tech forum...why isn't it linked anywere? neither on the majesty2 page, nor on the paradox patches and downloads page ...
It would have been ok for me if they were fixed within 6 months after release, but most nonenglish versions haven't seen a first patch so far.
If I'm informed correctly, only the customers who bought the english version on Gamersgate recieved satisfieing support... and the russians perhaps...
edit: on second thought, the gamespeed/buildingspeed disconnect is quite gamebreaking...
edit2:just found the german patch somewhere in a thread in the tech forum...why isn't it linked anywere? neither on the majesty2 page, nor on the paradox patches and downloads page ...
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So, no mention of the whole Sim debate, which is possibly the hottest debate, an anecdotal defense for the stability of the game and a "we'll do better next time" is what we get after... how long? It seems Paradox has a good reputation with its clients. Being the first game of theirs I actually cared about, this is what I am exposed to. Maybe it should check out StarDock current behavior. Many sales != good game, just good marketing. Many repeat customers in the same game serie == happy customers and a good game.
Correct, I have not gone into specifc game design details issues in my post.
If you have experience serious crashes pls report them to tech support.
I can agree that our follow-up on the game hasn't been the best in our history as a game maker and/or publisher. I tried to explain some of the reasons above, maybe it wasn't enough for some people and therefore I invite you to email me. That's why I always keep my email address visible in my signature.
As for upcoming games we will be better prepared from a contractual standpoint as well as a Producing standpoint. This will make it easier to keep on developing the game and keep you posted with updates etc. It would be easy to start blaiming other people for the slowness in communication and updates (developer, co-publishing partner etc) but I'll be honest and say that most of that is on me.
As for the German patch, I need to look into it. This is something we should have released a while ago for our German customers.
I hope everyone has had their chance to post their opinions in this thread, for further comments on the game (that are not already stated in this thread) pls email me.
Best,
Fred
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