There have been many many things suggested or mentioned for future updates or to be added at some point to Loka. So many things I wouldn't be surprised if some things still aren't done a year+ down the line. Every single thing that has been mentioned to be added would all take considerable time to implement especially as pretty much all coding comes down to overworked Crypt (as well as the PvE and build teams for their parts of development).
For myself at least, having to wait and be patient isn't the issue. I love Loka and as long as I know it's coming it's not gonna make or break whether I continue playing. What I get more concerned about is the fact we don't really know what's coming next or what server priorities are etc. All the information isn't really out in public or official, you just have to hear things from players around Loka. The official communication for the public isn't really there and leaves a lot of players in the dark.
This thread tries to cover adding more communication between both sides and the realism of giving out development updates, this has been a few months in the making and I hope it comes out in the way I intended.
Starting with the problems of adding a full-on roadmap or giving time frames etc,
Loka's focus can change so quickly depending on whats suddenly popular in the player base. Steady work could be happening on bringing more PvE content then suddenly a huge conquest war breaks out whether it be for cap or world cap and the focus must move to keep the server stable, adding in patches, rebalancing things or fixing bugs etc. A roadblock could also be found in code or bugs pop up and things take way longer to implement than originally realised. (or we get a 1.15 incident where you're prepped to update things in the next version of Minecraft but never actually update the server as to how unstable that Minecraft version is).
For those reasons and probably more I haven't mentioned asking for time frames and asking "when" will just never frankly be realistic for Loka.
If we can't realistically get an order of updates or time frame for when the next thing is coming etc where does that leave a roadmap or some form of development updates?
I thought about it for a while and I feel the easiest way to keep pressure away from the devs but still give the players some info is some form of development blog. Whether it be monthly, every 2months etc, as long as it's consistent we'd get some form of forum post laid out essentially like a blog telling us what's been going on, what the priorities are, where you want to see things go etc.
Something like this isn't supposed to be considered as the place to go to find out what's coming next and when but if anything it shows to the player base things are happening behind the scenes. It gives the players a way to see what's happening, possibly give feedback on something being implemented to help the development progress and also build hype for future content. It gives communication between dev and player and I feel especially on a place like Loka where the big updates can just suddenly disappear for 6months and then appear 2weeks before launch, (a bit of an exaggeration I know) this really helps bridge together the gap between both sides.
Obviously this is just my opinion, if people have things they want to add or suggest as an alternative would be great to hear!
Edit: I forgot to mention it in the thread, but I wanted to add this in mentioning LCR's. I understand they pretty much exist as a way for players to give their feedback straight to the elders and you can talk to them regarding what's coming and what's been said etc. While I feel they're a great way to get the players to talk to the elders LCR's haven't really helped bring things out to the players. This thread is more made with the intent of covering the areas an LCR can't really do. (Also the more communication between Dev and player, the better imo)
tldr; add some form of development blog discussing what's going on behind the scenes. Give more communication between dev and player. Time frames and revealing the order of updates isn't realistic with Loka.
For myself at least, having to wait and be patient isn't the issue. I love Loka and as long as I know it's coming it's not gonna make or break whether I continue playing. What I get more concerned about is the fact we don't really know what's coming next or what server priorities are etc. All the information isn't really out in public or official, you just have to hear things from players around Loka. The official communication for the public isn't really there and leaves a lot of players in the dark.
This thread tries to cover adding more communication between both sides and the realism of giving out development updates, this has been a few months in the making and I hope it comes out in the way I intended.
Starting with the problems of adding a full-on roadmap or giving time frames etc,
Loka's focus can change so quickly depending on whats suddenly popular in the player base. Steady work could be happening on bringing more PvE content then suddenly a huge conquest war breaks out whether it be for cap or world cap and the focus must move to keep the server stable, adding in patches, rebalancing things or fixing bugs etc. A roadblock could also be found in code or bugs pop up and things take way longer to implement than originally realised. (or we get a 1.15 incident where you're prepped to update things in the next version of Minecraft but never actually update the server as to how unstable that Minecraft version is).
For those reasons and probably more I haven't mentioned asking for time frames and asking "when" will just never frankly be realistic for Loka.
If we can't realistically get an order of updates or time frame for when the next thing is coming etc where does that leave a roadmap or some form of development updates?
I thought about it for a while and I feel the easiest way to keep pressure away from the devs but still give the players some info is some form of development blog. Whether it be monthly, every 2months etc, as long as it's consistent we'd get some form of forum post laid out essentially like a blog telling us what's been going on, what the priorities are, where you want to see things go etc.
Something like this isn't supposed to be considered as the place to go to find out what's coming next and when but if anything it shows to the player base things are happening behind the scenes. It gives the players a way to see what's happening, possibly give feedback on something being implemented to help the development progress and also build hype for future content. It gives communication between dev and player and I feel especially on a place like Loka where the big updates can just suddenly disappear for 6months and then appear 2weeks before launch, (a bit of an exaggeration I know) this really helps bridge together the gap between both sides.
Obviously this is just my opinion, if people have things they want to add or suggest as an alternative would be great to hear!
Edit: I forgot to mention it in the thread, but I wanted to add this in mentioning LCR's. I understand they pretty much exist as a way for players to give their feedback straight to the elders and you can talk to them regarding what's coming and what's been said etc. While I feel they're a great way to get the players to talk to the elders LCR's haven't really helped bring things out to the players. This thread is more made with the intent of covering the areas an LCR can't really do. (Also the more communication between Dev and player, the better imo)
tldr; add some form of development blog discussing what's going on behind the scenes. Give more communication between dev and player. Time frames and revealing the order of updates isn't realistic with Loka.
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