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high rated
I was afraid I'd have to wage war against hate posts and random accusations. I suppose we deserve some, but I'm really happy that it's not that. We decided that the only good way to go from where we are, was honesty and thorough explanation. Thank you for your kind words. I'd like to add some more info on this one:
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rjbuffchix: Maybe I am not the target audience but the cross play wasn't a big feature to me. It was more about the singleplayer. I can't imagine I am alone on this. I think that's what was really difficult for some of us who pre-ordered here. The fact that multi was being worked on didn't explain to us why we couldn't just have singleplayer content, with multi arriving later.
We thought of that. However GOG did not want a "partially working" game (to put it bluntly, they didn't want to have a half broken game on their platform, which is understandable). So for the single-player side we also had to do several things - achievements, user login, all the regular policies they have etc. We worked on both single and multi at the same time. Then we had a single player build working and some barebones multiplayer - without dedicated servers, spectators and the more fancy stuff, but the most basic things worked. Unfortunately, it was very buggy due to all the changes to low level networking code. We had to modify the engine in several places which always causes some changes higher up the code-chain.

They asked how long would take us to actually polish the game to match Steam version. We estimated around a month, in reality it took a week or two longer than that. They said they'd rather have us release a properly polished, full version. So since the last update on Steam (January) we've been working on this build full time. Then GOG QA team internally tested the build, returned it to us with some issues that we had to fix... and here we are ;)

So long story short, it wouldn't be that much faster here and it was decided that giving you anything else than a fully working build wouldn't be okay. Having a worse build here might've actually make people feel second class, I suppose.

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d3vilsadvocate: One word of advice: the experience you‘ve made by porting a game to gog and allowing for cross-play is probably worth gold. I suggest writing down your experience in a short programming book 50-100 pages and the selling this as well. It would help gog and its users tremendeously I think.
I think we'll keep at it and one day manage to release a 4 platform cross-play (Steam + GOG + Live + PSN). Just the certification nightmare for consoles... but some people in the team would really like to pull that off in the future ;)
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rjbuffchix: Maybe I am not the target audience but the cross play wasn't a big feature to me. It was more about the singleplayer. I can't imagine I am alone on this. I think that's what was really difficult for some of us who pre-ordered here. The fact that multi was being worked on didn't explain to us why we couldn't just have singleplayer content, with multi arriving later.
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DC_vipeout: We thought of that. However GOG did not want a "partially working" game (to put it bluntly, they didn't want to have a half broken game on their platform, which is understandable). So for the single-player side we also had to do several things - achievements, user login, all the regular policies they have etc. We worked on both single and multi at the same time.
Makes sense now :) Thanks. Also was happy to see in the other topic that LAN was planned...that is further than most devs these days seem to get. Here's hoping LAN is in the next game!
Aaand this is how it should be done. If there's a PR person responsible for this statement, I hope you're paying them enough. TBS is my least favorite genre, and I'll still be buying this game now.
Thank you for this post . I also hope that this problem will not happen again. Especially since he has another game that you edit, which looks very promising Daymare: 1998.

I hope to see him landed a day on gog.
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skirtish: Aaand this is how it should be done. If there's a PR person responsible for this statement, I hope you're paying them enough. TBS is my least favorite genre, and I'll still be buying this game now.
Usually I write the messages you read by myself. There are cases however, when something is so important (or very close to an NDA) that I ask my boss "Can I really write that?". This time however, I haven't stopped there. I've asked the entire team for feedback - after all, it was supposed to be a message from the team, not me. Obviously required editing, though ;)

Turned out to be similar to designing a game - many people have many ideas, but someone needs to keep watch on the actual message you want to express. As such, some ideas don't make it to the final version.
While I didn't preorder, I would've bought this game on day one release, and I will be honest when I saw the game pop up as being avalible my first thought was: "A little too late", but I decided to jump on to the forums and see what people were saying, and then happened upon this thread.

So I just want to say, we all make mistakes, so I am willing to forgive this one(which was primarily a serious communication issue rather than anything else). If the game is still 50% of when I get paid(sometime around Wensday next week) I'll definitly buy it, if not I'll hold out until a christmas sale or something.

Hope you guys learn from this and do better in the future!
A multi-task programmer/CM?

Well, you really do multitasking very well, imho.

Thank you for your post, it's clear and offers enough info for understanding all the situation. It's refreshing, also, to see such a post from a dev. There are not many like you, unfortunately.

I remember about your Steam release and was interested, so i waited, and waited, and waited a bit more. I honestly have forgotten about your game until now.

Just need a bit more info and i would probably buy it (no sandbox but has sp skirmish? it's really RTS or it is RTT llike some people says? Campaign missions are too much linear as others also say or do we have freedom in each map/mission?)

Not asking you, lol, you have enough multitasking already and i can search for it myself. It's just a few comments/doubts i have right now.

Anyway, well done with this post, really. I am glad you are also compromising yourself with the patches and updates, that's also awesome and be advised that we will remind you of your promise ;)
Post edited March 17, 2019 by Kakarot96
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Kakarot96: Not asking you, lol, you have enough multitasking already and i can search for it myself. It's just a few comments/doubts i have right now.
Sorry, couldn't resist :) You can launch a skirmish or private game with no enemies, this is our sandbox.

The line between RTS and RTT is a thin one, make sure you research that one well before buying. We do have base management and economy and it's important part of a multiplayer play, but combat and action are the focus.

Campaign is a wild beast. Some chapters are very linear, other let you do what you wish as long as you accomplish the goal.
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Kakarot96: Just need a bit more info and i would probably buy it (no sandbox but has sp skirmish? it's really RTS or it is RTT llike some people says? Campaign missions are too much linear as others also say or do we have freedom in each map/mission?)

Not asking you, lol, you have enough multitasking already and i can search for it myself. It's just a few comments/doubts i have right now.
I tried it on Steam beta and it leans more to the RTT side. Heavy emphasis is on tactical battles. Economy is similar to COH by capturing points aka building for ressources acquisiton. Base building is similar to how it was done in Battle for Middle Earth 1+2 where you have preexisting points where you can build a particular building. There is no free placement of buildings. Just you are more limited on what type of buildings you can build in a particular spot then in other games. The non tactical part is more barebone then COH games.

Units have emphasis on morale so they can break faster then in other games.

I bought the game, although prefer games that emphasise more the full RTS expirience. Still downloading at the moment its 17GB big.
Post edited March 17, 2019 by Matruchus
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Kakarot96: Not asking you, lol, you have enough multitasking already and i can search for it myself. It's just a few comments/doubts i have right now.
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DC_vipeout: Sorry, couldn't resist :) You can launch a skirmish or private game with no enemies, this is our sandbox.

The line between RTS and RTT is a thin one, make sure you research that one well before buying. We do have base management and economy and it's important part of a multiplayer play, but combat and action are the focus.

Campaign is a wild beast. Some chapters are very linear, other let you do what you wish as long as you accomplish the goal.
Just to report. There are some issues with the story introduction videos when the mission starts. I mean the videos that tell the story not the ones before it zooms on your troops. They seem to lag for some reason. And the text doesn't match time wise the story being told.
Post edited March 17, 2019 by Matruchus
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Matruchus: Just to report. There are some issues with the story introduction videos when the mission starts. I mean the videos that tell the story not the ones before it zooms on your troops. They seem to lag for some reason. And the text doesn't match time wise the story being told.
Thank you for the report. While those movies play, we are loading the map in the background. The issue you're describing may happen in several different scenarios, usually meaning that data is not being read from HDD fast enough - sometimes it's just the drive speed, sometimes a bad read delaying the entire sequence, sometimes some third party software also queuing HDD reads and sometimes just relatively big data chunk that has to be found on the drive.

We are in the process on improving this part for the console release (some consoles don't really have fast drives) and we'll be patching that to the PC version too. I guess we will not fix it entirely, since there wil always be some threshold, below which the movie will lag.

As a temporary workaround, you may wish to watch those again in the "Extras" menu. There, no map is being loaded in the background and as such no lagging is present under any circumstances.

We've had an idea as to how to eliminate this completely, but it requires a serios rewrite of the code, which means that it will not happen for Ancestors Legacy.

Also, please use another thread (or create your own) to report issues. I'm really grateful that you're sharing this with us, but I'd really like to keep this one for the apology and related questions.
Post edited March 17, 2019 by DC_vipeout
Hey guys, author of that infamous 1-star review here.

Now before I dip into why I wrote it, let me tell you that it wasn't the game (obviously). In fact I played the game - temptation not to was simply too great - and absolutely loved it. Would recommend it to everyone that ever asked me about it.

Now with that out of the way, here's why I did write it:
There simply wasn't any communication from you guys. Nothing about what's up, or when we might expect something - anything - at all. We had to go to another platform to get answers, if we got any at all.

But that's not actually the real reason, just the justification (sort of). The real reason being, I'm a fellow software engineer myself (low-level UNIX) and I know quite a bit about our predicament with the "business people". It often does not matter how much internal complaining there is, but what they usually listen to is external critic. Especially so when it harms the bottom line.

Case study: Ubisoft, Activision, Electronic Arts.
A lot of really talented engineers work at these companies, yet the result of their work is quite often sub-par. Or so I heard. Wouldn't really know because it's been years since I last bought a game from either of them.
The reason their games are often (always?) sub-par isn't because of the people doing the ground work, it's because of the people in charge. Deadline after deadline, constantly changing specifications and having to rush things just to make the release.
Actually, that's more a representative accounting of software engineering across the board as it is just about game development. If there's a Master of Business Administration (MBA) aka. Master Bullshit Artist anywhere near the decision making, you're usually in for a tough ride.

So to wrap it up, I wrote my review for these purposes:

1. To warn potential customers about what they might expect, e.g. having to wait days / weeks for a patch after it's Steam release, if it ever comes. Obviously I haven't read your apology piece here before writing that review, because after reading it now I'm about 98% certain that those fears are unfounded here. But still, you could have entirely avoided that by just describing the situation on release day or a few days after that. Total silence for months was the worst possible option to choose.

2. To give you ammunition. Valid critic you give whoever MBA is in charge / responsible. Trust me, if it hurts their bottom line enough, they *will* listen. It's not about the product quality for them, it's all just about the money. If they believe they can sell you a turd for 10 bucks, they absolutely will try that.

and 3., I did some digging a few days after the supposed release day and found out that pulling stunts like these is custom for your publisher, 1C Company.

That's why I deliberately left out any criticism regarding the game. I could only have written great things about it and thus would have only undermined my purpose for writing the review in the first place.
Post edited March 18, 2019 by LinusGorp
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LinusGorp: Would recommend it to everyone that ever asked me about it. [...] That's why I deliberately left out any criticism regarding the game. I could only have written great things about it and thus would have only undermined my purpose for writing the review in the first place.
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LinusGorp: I wrote my review for these purposes:

1. [...] Obviously [...] I'm about 98% certain that those fears are unfounded here.

2. To give you ammunition. [...]

3., I did some digging a few days after the supposed release day and found out that pulling stunts like these is custom for your publisher
So, to summarize, you spammed a non-revocable 1-star non-review for 1) a wrong reason, 2) a presumptuous reason, and 3) an irrelevant reason. Cool.
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skirtish: So, to summarize, you spammed a non-revocable 1-star non-review for 1) a wrong reason, 2) a presumptuous reason, and 3) an irrelevant reason. Cool.
All reviews on gog are revocable. All he needs to do is to write to gog support and ask for the removal of that review.
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Matruchus: All reviews on gog are revocable. All he needs to do is to write to gog support and ask for the removal of that review.
Oh, they do? I've only ever seen the reviews where people promise to remove or change on certain conditions and it never seems to happen. Well, then. Strike that. :)