Balance Surveys V2: Help Us Help You

It's been three months since the last one and the modding scene has changed as has the balance. Time for another round of surveys!

Try and fill in as much info as you can so that it will be as helpful as possible both to Uber as well as to modders like myself.

Uber Balance Survey:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14ibWCs48WsabyIcIqM9U1G4sfxeF-hnDacS8dXhuJig/viewform?usp=send_form
Responses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rASel0v2HqjOzET-YWlzXWyTf_Sixzem8t9-QriYKPk/edit?usp=sharing

RCBM Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bQs2vpCgB-6PVUddTBQuPYuwUmlsyxopfDr-axnMGTs/viewform?usp=send_form
Responses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TkqIV5S7LO5aFTJuImOyQJtuljPdHfzuLLi41859UIM/edit?usp=sharing

Statera Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lEJmbdmxLc3s3e8INIR373zx0sgZ3SoZIxnlBvO6FdM/viewform?usp=send_form
Responses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112cbYQTDidKBDH5_BfJtRbIv6Pkz5g873UKHtNTIf4w/edit?usp=sharing

I'll add another survey for miscellaneous balance mods if there's demand, but I don't think Mod-X has much of a player-base and I don't think that there are any other large change balance mods out there.

Nice, i'll be typing essays on this one.

Anti-Popcorn isn't drastic enough a mod to bother with a survey but if people want to give feedback on it, post here https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-anti-popcorn-units.63209/

Haha, seems everyone plays the Uber balance mod, though all complaining about a similar problem, Snowballing.

We're not talking about the UCBM, we're talking about the Uber balance, i.e. the balance made courtesy of Scathis and Meta.

OH! Whoops.

Err guys, it is a really weird thing to do to make surveys for other people's mods without discussing it with them. I'm not saying that it is illegal in some way, or that you are breaking any hard or fast rules, but it is a little rude.

For example, we have been discussing how we want to do our own data collection and feedback process for RCBM. We have specific ideas in mind as to how we want to do this. It's hard enough to get people to fill out a survey once, let alone twice. With you making this survey, people who fill it out will likely not bother with a second one, thinking that their views have already been counted. As a result, we will get less information of relevance, and the information we do get will be biased towards the kind of people who are so stoked about mods that they will fill out any number of surveys.

Secondly, the survey methodology is extremely sloppy. Please don't take this personally, as I'm simply describing this from a professional point of view. In your survey, you can see the responses of other people before you write your own. This has an unintended biasing effect, as people who want to say something which is unpopular will likely adjust their responses or not post so as to be less controversial. This is a well known psychological phenomenon, and needs to be accounted for by making results private, at least until the survey time period is finished.

There is no numerical data generated by this survey. There is a reason why professional surveys have tick boxes with things like "how much do you agree with this statement on a scale of 1-5". By making statements numerical, it allows quantitative comparisons. At least to the extent that subjective opinions can be treated numerically.

Finally, by limiting posting here, there is a strong bias based upon the consensuses and mores of the community. To be fair, here is one sensible place to post it, but you need to think about your sample size, and how you can make it representative of the PA playerbase as a whole. We have a couple of solutions for this, but non are ready to be implemented yet.

Survey design is something that a lot of thought needs to be put into if you want to get good data out.

All in all, it would be polite to have a chat with mod-authors before you start doing market research for them. As I said, there are no rules you have broken, but it is a weird thing to do, and I would appreciate it if you could limit your feedback gathering mechanisms to your own projects for the time being.

Fight the system man, power to the people.