Uber, Please Give Us an Update on Server/Offline/Saves

This is not a PR trap.

You keep on insinuating that I am lying, manipulating, causing PA to fail, wanting PA to fail, and other things.

It would be PR GOLD for Uber to come out and give an update on offline/saves/server. Do you realize how happy everyone would be throughout the entire PA community if they came out and actually provided meaningful updates on a regular basis?

Do you realize how elated the community would be if they said something like "We have server mostly working, we just have some more bugs we need to fix. And when we get server complete, offline will be pretty much ready. And once we get offline, saves are shortly to follow. Saves are mostly working, just needs a little work."

This is not a PR trap. This is PR gold.

It can be PR Gold. But it has to be very very very carefully crafted. They can't just randomly start posting. They know that and are extremely careful about it.
Basically people who turn around their words multiple times a day even years after they posted have made them hesitant to do any sort of quick postings.

Of course.

Being hesitant is perfectly fine and understandable. I encourage it. This is exactly why they have a community manager after all.

Yeah, Brad is good people, but work is work, and a two-paragraph blog post takes 10 minutes to make, and there is no reason we can't have at least one of those every week.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Pretty much anything Uber says regarding development seems to result in a firestorm the past few months.

They have gone to an almost communications blackout on these features which almost every reviewer is noting as missing. Especially when Uber was advertising some features for months on their website and on steam(offline/drm free). All we now get are vague statements about them "working on it" without communicating any specifics or timetables in which to expect any features. Which leads to user speculation and creates negativity in the playerbase. Which Uber seems, at this point, to be fine and let it fester.

And it is why some people have been criticizing Uber on working on steam achievements in the last update because it appears to many customers that they have their priorities set in the wrong direction by adding on bonus features when core "advertised" features are not present. What exactly is Brad at Uber for when Garat, Sorian, and Varrak are doing more customer relations work then he is?

I disagree. Look at Varrak's graphics posts and Sorian's posts about the AI. Almost always positive feedback.

The firestorms happen when someone brings up the offline/server that was supposed to be here already. And the reviews too I guess.

Indeed. There seems to be plenty of circular logic as well, which bothers me a bit. People being really mad that Uber is dropping PA and stopping development. Then when Uber employees say they are still working on it, they just default to "Obviously they are lying because they are done with PA".

No, this is something Uber did to itself.

Mike

I rather think it's the opposite: the situation is something the community did to itself. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

Guys, Uber isn't good on keeping their fans informed. It isn't a quality that I like, but hey, I live with it. They do an okay job when they attempt it, and in the grand scheme, they're a game production company, not the government.

I would not want to compare them to government. It is one of the least transparent organizations on the planet in many places.

Exactly what I have been trying to say... Not meeting deadlines, costs money! So Uber saying it will be ready when it's ready is total bull. Either it will be ready by a set date or it won't, because the ongoing costs aren't sustainable.

Uber-soon

It will be coming "UBER-SOON", i.e. NEVER

I just digged this out from the thread introducing the planetary vanguards

This is not something the community did to itself.

Community backlash is simply a byproduct of the entire gaming industry. There will ALWAYS be people who get mad.

I'm gonna copy and paste something I wrote elsewhere.

"Let's examine another, much more successful, game. Eve Online. A lot of the community can be just downright abysmal. Whenever any changes come, people threaten to leave the game, and a lot of people do leave the game. There's so much whining that it's a running joke. Whenever anyone says they're leaving because they don't like a change, other community members ask if they can have that person's stuff.

People complain. Some complaints are illegitimate. Other complaints are legitimate.

It is the cost of doing business in the game development industry to listen to the community and filter through all of the complaints, both the legitimate and constructive criticism, and the pointless whining. It is a part of the job.

If a company can't handle that, then they have no business making a game. If they can't handle that, they need to hire someone who can handle that. That's why companies will hire Community Managers and bring on prominent community members to help filter through the noise.

Eve has just that. Eve has employees that do nothing but interact with the community, and Eve has a collection of community members who are literally voted in every year to speak for the community.

Uber needs to learn how to deal with constructive criticism and filter through the good criticism and bad whining. Because there is both out there.

Uber has a community manager, but from what I can see, he does little to no community management. The only time I see him is when he comes in and locks a thread, when he makes jokes about his muscles, and when he literally attacks and trolls community members.

Uber used to have a collection of prominent community members to help filter through the noise. But the Vanguards were constantly met with a company who would not give them the time of day and eventually disbanded the Vanguards when they wouldn't be puppets for Uber.

Uber has some extremely serious communication issues, and it is not the fault of the community – not int he slightest."

Oh certainly people will always be mad, however the percentage of people who are mad at this game is much higher

I don't need a timeline or anything, just a confirmation whats still planned for us to come.

I know backers still get a commander (and some other packages of PA like the steam winter sale or something were promised one?)
I do have questions why it takes so long to complete that model?
Is it the R2D2 ish commander we have seen in the past?

still nothing..... Uber pls

It's the weekend at the moment where Uber are.