Fed Up

usmcrave99 · #1 July 9th, 2011, 03:20 PM

I think it's time everyone just gave up on the game and Malfador in general. Aaron didn't, wouldn't or couldn't fix the AI during Beta testing, despite being told a full month before release, see my email to him below.

Note on the subject, v.18 was followed by .19, .20, .21 & .22 prior to the release version.

Quote:

From: usmcrave99
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 7:22 PM
To: 'Malfador Machinations'
Subject: WF V.18 AI

Aaron,

I've noticed this in all my v.18 games, single player only: The AI does not build cities. At all. Ever. Game is attached, just load it up and view the Nation Statistics. Two of the AI Players have Territory Values better than mine, but they have no credits and no units to speak of. They did manage to put me on the defensive for a while, as I'd over-extended, but they didn't build any cities and therefore couldn't match production long-term. I think someone else has mentioned this before, but they may not have emailed about it, just posted in the forum.

<< File: Game14.zip >>

Another thing: An option to Decommission or Upgrade facilities, and the ability to Upgrade units, to newer versions, after you research new levels, would be a good change. Since stacking Fabrication Complexes doesn't seem to give a bonus, you shouldn't have to keep the Level 1's around as all they do is take up space and supply, ableit not very much. Might also be helpful to create a separate Purchases menu for buildings, or just add a Setting where only the latest items are available for purchase, since after finishing all research items the window still gets cluttered, even with only Ground selected.

I think that's all for now...

spillblood · #2 July 11th, 2011, 05:56 AM

Thanks for posting, usmcrave99. Here's the answer I received to my last support request, I wanna share it with you:

">Would you please answer to that ticket? I'm waiting for at least two weeks for an answer and there's zero activity in the forums, plus, Aaron just doesn't answer E-Mails to him anymore.

Hi Lars:

> I've compiled all our observations of the AI issues from the forum and sent them to Aaron about four weeks ago, and I've supplied savegames >and logs of these games to him, but I'm waiting for a response to this for two weeks now.

Please send to us through this support center the information you sent to Aaron. We have asked over and over that you contact Shrapnel Games support here for bugs or problems with the games. We DO NOT use the forums for customer support. While contacting Aaron may make you feel good, we have no way to document what you are finding as the problems.

Please help us to help you."

My comment to that: What use is it to send this stuff to the support center? Aaron has already received it, I've got confirmation from him via E-Mail.

LarryP · #3 July 12th, 2011, 07:50 PM

Well since they don't use the support forums for customer support, maybe they should change their ways?! I'm going back to the Matrix site where all my posts are honored by the staff.

spillblood · #4 July 13th, 2011, 04:55 AM

Yeah, just relying on the support system for customer support is simply ineffective. If they'd use the forum for that, too (like every other Indie game company I know does!), they could respond faster to support requests, and could lead real discussions with the customers, which we simply don't have here.
It's **** that you post bug reports here, and Malfador just don't notice them, and say they don't read the forums, just to correct themselves when you complain about that in E-Mails. In addition to this: Why have Shrapnel set up bug report and suggestions threads here when this forum is not intended for customer support and isn't read by the developers of the game?

Mike_T · #5 July 17th, 2011, 06:48 AM

Dear Shrapnel and Malfador - You must have hoped that this thread had run its course. Aren't customers a pain in the @rse? Your credibility and goodwill are gradually shrinking, but you're too big and important to worry about that, I guess.

Remember the old customer relations maxim - a dissatisfied customer will, on average, pass the message on to seven other people - and that was before the days when reputations could be created or destroyed over the internet!

In a funny sort of way, you remind me of a certain media mogul who, until a few days ago, thought he could bluster his way out of his problems. Now he's being advised by a leading PR company, he's decided to issue public apologies. And you know what - no-one ever suffered from making an apology - think about it.

spillblood · #6 July 18th, 2011, 05:42 AM

I get the feeling they aren't paying attention at all to this forum. In all my last support tickets I hinted at this thread here. They don't answer (I've been waiting for at least two weeks for an answer to my last ticket), Malfador don't answer my E-Mails either, they just ignore us. This pisses me off pretty badly!

spillblood · #7 July 18th, 2011, 05:44 AM

I think I'll never buy another game by Shrapnel. They have lost me as a future customer. The behavior they are displaying here is the worst of any publisher/game company I've ever encountered.
In every post they've told us to use the support system, but now they even ignore tickets posted there. SHRAPNEL, MALFADOR ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?