Hello,

alot of stuff is going to be added to this game like promised weapon attachments, redesigned UI with much better usability, better story immersion and more. I think it would be good to have an official roadmap for the different features and keep it up-to-date with daily updates because right now it looks as if the game has been abandoned. this is not good for potential buyers and interested people in general. there must be more activity.

there should be more communication with developers in this forum as well as steam forums so people know this is actively being worked on. so it would be nice to have a daily dev update in a thread like which feature is just getting implemented and ETAs for each feature.

here is a template that can be used and I suggest sticky threads be made in both communities with daily developer updates:

Feature: Weapon Attachments

Current Status: 80%

Done so far: Text here

Left to do: Text here

Daily Log: Text here

because right now it looks as if the game has been abandoned

You just proved people are too lazy to even check when the latest patch was released (1.0.5 rc5)  with that statement. Devs have released 5 patches since launch (oct 21st). So 5 patches in like three weeks. What part of that tells you the game is abandoned?

How about first informing yourself before typing suggestions about what devs should use their time on?

i know about the patch however it mostly addresses bugs and i am talking about features

Fixing bugs is just as important as adding new features. 1.0.5 brought TWO new features they promised: HP/AP ammo and shotguns. I'd say that's a good progress in 3 weeks.

bugfixing is important of course, however new features should be added in a more streamlined and faster way before interest in the game plummets. that is why it's important people see that progress is being made on a daily basis. I'm afraid it will be too late if the desperately needed features are only added in a couple of months or so because by then most people will have long moved on!! it's crucial devs push it to the limit now!

hm lets see did we get some features after release ...

Patch 1.05

Features

• Added hollow point and armor piercing ammunition

• Added Shotguns

• Added 4 new IMP portraits(1 male, 3 female)

• Treasure hunt, find 3 pieces of a map and cave to get money and loot

• Useable Items can now be used on other mercenaries

• Implemented quick save and load (F8 to save, F10 to load)

• Updated several sectors with more and better cover,

• Story intro now also shown when skipping tutorial

Patch 1.04

- Added new in-game usable items to regain hitpoints and/or boost morale, action points and energy: Adrenaline Shot, Regen Boost, Beer, and many more.

- Added "FocusedAimingAPMultiplier" and "SuperAimingAPMultiplier" : 2.0 to GameRuleSettings.json to make it available for modders

Patch 1.02

Improvements 
Added German localization
 

The rest is Balancing and Bugfixing which are of course important too + lots of smaller mostly visual changes.

I guess this means they are still on it and it just takes a little bit of Time. They have a huge list what should/could/must and might be added. In the production process its probably hard to tell when things are finished so and we know already what are the major plans at the moment. (Shops/Soviet weapons/ attachments) Lets cut them some slack.

And yes the game was released to early but thats a diffrent discussion.

Imho, the Steam launch was such a big fail, this game has no way to go from there but up. The early interest has already been killed by a raging hate campaign. Because reasons and Steam review system.

So embrace the bad times, cause that means good times are next.

yes I know some stuff has been added with the latest patch, which is great obviously!! But let's face it, if this game is supposed to go anywhere they must push harder. great games have always required great ambition and now after the rather botched release it's even more important they wake up and put in all their efforts. hell they should just bring sleeping bags and sleep on the floor, lock themselves in the office for a couple of weeks and get some serious work done. still plenty of time for slacking off later.

Been there, done that I afraid. Before release they had a 60 hour work week. And the changes were massive (from beta 0.9). I don't care about sleep deprived devs. I want devs that sleep 8 hours/night, come to work happy and deliver good stuff. 

And I don't mind waiting one or two weeks between patches. I waited almost a year from JA2 Demo release to the full game. And almost as long as that for the first decent bugfix patch for JA2. I am used to waiting.

I was supicious, too. I thought the progression of the game would stop soon in the future due to the lack of money. But the new patch gave me hope. It seems they keep improving the game regardless of the obstacles. Now thats dedication. Another company would have just dropped the work because of bad reviews and haters, but it seems they don´t.

As said before i´m impressed by their dedication. If they keep going this way for some months we actually could get a worthy JA2 prequel. I don´t own the company just because i bought the staem EA version, so i´m simply greatful for that....when its done we should all tell the big reviewers to reevaluate their decisions due to improvements, but let´s wait for that. 

Space Hulk Ascension is due out in three days, which I have purchased, I assume some of their time has been spent on that, maybe this will give them an infusion of money so they can continue to, well,continue.

JAF Admin said, that its not sure if money from SpaceHulk can be transfered to JAF that easily. But you´re helping the company in general if you buy their stuff, so i think the bureaucracy is their stuff to deal with. I´m into Acension, too, will probably buy it some time after some personal important things are done.

man I just get this feeling that FS aren't truly committed to this project. I mean they should be in this thread right now talking to us but instead we're once again left to our own with nothing but speculation and a thousand questions.

They are dedicated behind closed doors. Thats the problem. I have been saying this many months before release: Quote myself (somehow): the problem is lack of transpirancy and communication. It raises disbelief and mistrust.

My opinion is: The people of FC are good people, but they are all shy ones. They are kind of afraid of the raging community, and i guess they are not sure if they can stand all this if they put their picture on the front page (if you know what i mean). 

You can see this clearly in the devDiary videos of them... it took them a lot of overcoming themelves to get in front of the camera and show themselves to the public...(i am also partially into professional filming [camera assistant], so i see those things)

It seems the problem is nobody wants to be on the front page. Getting blamed, or getting loved, whatever. I´m unsure if i wanted that neither. If you´re good at programming, it doesnt mean you´re good at beeing a publicity person. They don´t have a staff of 300+ people. There´s just a few. And so its possible there is nobody (of this few) who wants to expose his/herself this way. 

We have JAFAdmin, sure. But he is overloaded with questions he doesn´t know how to answer, AND he´s not in charge. He tries to help us, but the only thing he can do is poke people for an answer. They need a person who is able to withstand all the preasure, caring for nothing but gathering info and getting it out to the public. But that needs money again,... you have to pay those people. And there is no money for that. (<-- though i think it would be a good investment)

edit: I mean JAFAdmin reads this for sure, but would you answer to this thread if you have no information? You are responsible for all outcome (when you´re with FC) when you tell false information.

So better be sure of what you respond. If you can´t be sure, then better don´t respond. It´s a lack of money and employed people. Everybody on the FC team has at least dual jobs to do.

-There is a lot of things to be considered when replying to threads like these..especially when it touches upon the road ahead. Even if you make a roadmap and state that it's not sure everything gets in perople expect that it will 100% be in and that it is now a promised feature. 

Some people also forget that we're situated in Denmark, so a time difference, and that we do need time off once in a while. e.g the weekend. I usually run through forums over the weekend when I have time, but October surely has been a busy month and start November as well. 

As you point out, it is not me who runs the show and I usually need to poke people for answers and if I don't get a clear answer fast it's hard to come back with a good reply. We all know that you want to know what comes next, when is my favourite feature fixed ect. ect. but when we don't know for sure then we don't say...otherwise people will just startt getting mad about that the feature isn't there at the time we siad it would be. 

Potentially we could make such a list, but would need to be tied in to our sprints. 

Usually the "management group" talk and decides what needs to be prioritized based on feedback and bug reports. From that they plan a 1-2 weeks sprint, which is then communicated in the morning meetings. They then track progress along the way  and discuss issues in short morning meetings during the week (so it mon/wed/fri) Not all of those features make it in and if not they're move to next sprint.  Don't know if it's possible to share that info and unsure if management wants to. 

Well, next time a CEO of your favourite gaming company comes and chats with all fans MORE THAN FIVE HOURS straight, in his weekend time off, on a Twitch live stream, you can come here and moan about lack of transparency. Thomas Lund wasn't obliged to do that, he could've simply sent in someone else or just pass. Instead he was 100% open and didn't shy away from any question or topic. And again, he was there for FIVE HOURS. 

So far, as few as they are, FC devs have performed admirably in terms of communication. No, they cannot babysit every thread and reply to every question 24/7 in like two minutes after it was posted. Nobody does that. 

You are entitled to complain about lack of information only AFTER you've dedicated YOUR TIME and read the info already posted, watched the videos and read the replies to the public feedback. If you come and ask the same question that has been answered 100 times, you're just wasting everyone's time.

Just my 2c.

@Shanga I agree with you. In my opinion, FC is in that situation now, when it's much better to work but not to talk about working.

As for me, I think it's enough when the devs leave a note, that they've read our feedback and took it to attention. We write about bugs or features we want to see and it's important that FC read them. But huge posts about the work in progress are unnecessary.

Simple questions about the game we'll answer ourselves. The modding community has a great experience in answering questions from people who don't read manuals. :)

dude, you question their commitment while you cannot even get their abbreviation straight : P

OK, I think it's true what Glettkin said. JAFAdmin is a friendly guy and props to him for trying to answer our questions but most of the time he can't really give us satisfying or useful answers because he knows or is only being told so much by the rest of the dev team it seems. It would be really good to have a person that is actually responsible for what's going on comment here every once in a while!! I understand you can't post on internet forums all day when you've got work to do but checking the forums like once or twice a day takes what, like 5 minutes.

5 minutes, your joking right? Maybe a touch-typist on speed could come close.

As has been pointed out they have to gather information and be careful what they publish in case it is later held against them; you don't do that in 5 minutes.

Also, there´s a simple calculation i´ve done. It´s a comparison of Star Citizen and JAF...

Let´s see,...I know there are some factors not in the calculation, but it proves a point. --> If money equals time and possible employees, then...

Star Citizen has 60.000.000 Dollars in funds right now. The devs reply to posts at least 5 times a day, sometimes more, so let´s just say they reply 20 times a day. So 60mio = 20 possible replies a day...

Jagged Alliance Flashback has about 300.000 Dollars in funds from the kickstarter. Maybe more through Early access.  Let´s say +100.000 dollars, so we have 400.000 Dollars.

60.000.000 / 400.000 = 150

20 replies a day/ 150 = 0,13333...

so in comparison to Star Citizen, the JAF devs have to post 0,13 posts a day to be equal. 

That means, if the JAF devs post one comment every week they are just as dedicated as Star Citizen devs.

greetz...

That´s right. I´ve never seen a CEO talking for 5 hours to the community.It´s awesome imo.

It´s a shame most of the people (i don´t mean raptorfx, but many others) don´t appreciate this behaviour. FC/the CEO proves, that they care about the game by doing so.  

@shanga

could you please repost the links to the interview again? (maybe the upload on youtube [if there is], or posting a new comment on the threat so it is in on the top again, etc...) Due to the forum mechanics its hard to find it again.

But still I think the OP has a valid point.

It has not to be Star Citizen style of course. But they reached out to the people for crowdfunding. Maybe it did not turn out as successsfull as they where thinking. But this still means that they started to create a public demand for dev feedback. Thats the backside of asking totally strangers to give you money for something that does not yet exist.

I can understand if someone is not feeling so comfortable to put their face in front of a camera (even though I think that the dev diaries where really good) but this is something a roadmap could be very useful to.

Again I think it is really great that they did the youtube thing with shanga. But lets be honest. How many people watched that? How many people are aware of that? It´s not even somewhere on the website.

So if I would be a regular guy that bought something he thinks is the new JA (3) and finds out it´s not and then comes to the "official" site there is not so much to appease me. So maybe I even would care enough to make it to the forums, there is not much more.

By just putting together a roadmap to display whats being worked on this could be avoided.

And I personally think the arguments JAF Admin brought up are not really valid. Nor are they a stronger argument then "let the people whose money you want know what you are up to".

Cheers!

I would certainly agree that comms could be improved, just not to the extent that has been suggested (demanded?) by some.

Mad Squ's idea of putting a prominent link to Shanga's youtube videos with Thomas is a good one.

I've added the entire interview/QA with Thomas Lund to an Youtube playlist. Feel free to share this link:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-uknIW7SJlIZrZFtCSPRjp_fdiqOMDSZ