Re: Fed Up
The sad irony here (I think), is that the anger steaming off this forum is coming (in part) from the fact that the product could be such a great game - one this genre hasn't seen live up to full potential in a very, very long time. And here it is, yet another strategy game of global domination, riding on the edge of glory but never quite making it over to the promised land. So close, so far. Combine this frustration with what appears to be a wall of uncomprehending silence, and the fur begins to fly.
I gotta say, though, that I find the response from Aaron / Malf difficult to believe. After the last blow-up, we were instructed to post bug issues / AI problems / etc. to this thread. Copy-paste-done. To ad infinitum, no less. Since that post, there are at least a dozen following that discuss very specific failings in the AI's approach - many of which, I'll add, remained 100% unchanged since v1.01.
I'd also add that I - ALONE - have submitted a small book of specific suggestions and problem notes, direct to Aaron, before and after Blow Up #1, and only a fraction of those seem to have caught notice. And when you consider how much material others have contributed ... we're not talkin' "book", we're talking "epic novel" on the order of "War & Peace - The Extended Director's Cut".
So, where are we supposed to be now? Ditch the thread and submit direct to Malf and hope they don't switch the policy again? Wait six months and see what one or two suggestions / fixes out of 4,000 submitted "make the cut"?
Look - full admission. I don't know how to write software code. I don't have the skills to read the lines and offer suggestions for rewrites to transform this AI from a dead frog in a barrel to Erwin Rommel. Guess you could call it a personal failing of mine. I expect I'm not alone in that. So, I followed the guidance, and in concert with all the other fine, devoted folks on here, offered the best theoretical guidance and real-life examples I had for support. Theory, practice, and documented "real life" events, filed and submitted in no less than three different formats.
What else can we do?
Open question to the peeps from Shrappie - the Admins, Prelates, Overlords, etc. of this board - am I being unfair?
I know you guys are kinda stuck in the middle of this, but if you tone-out the vitriol and just stick to the bare facts, what conclusions do you draw?
I'm feeling generous, so I'll admit to something else - I won't ask for a refund. It was $30, not my life savings, and yeah, I could have played the demo and ducked the bullet on day one. So shame on me, and a plague of fleas upon my house if I'm less than overwhelmed. But in business, it's not the dollar spent yesterday that matters quite so much as the dollars yet to come - or not, as the case may be. I've bought stuff off Shrapnel before and liked what I got. (SpaceHorse - too awesome.) Keeps me coming back. It was the confidence I built up from those past buys that had me skip the demo and go direct to 'sale'.
What lesson am I to have learned?
?
Avoid Malf, and give any new offering on Shrapnel a wide berth until others have vetted it in depth with their dollars, first?
Fair? Unfair?
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