They listened to feedback. That doesn't mean they could stop everything. They had to gather data to make adjustments. Once things are set in place, you wouldn't really find a total rollback. History shows this. They take the feedback as the data as apply it to the template implemented.
Had they listened they would never have pushed the server side update for AQ.
Had it been a client side update that would be a different story, there's a lot more moving parts and dealing with the play/app stores.
It makes me cring that there's no roll back plan for any software updates or a way to block a push to production. That's just dangerous development practices, but I digress.
There's a difference between taking in feedback and obeying orders. They haven't removed Sentinels. They're adjusting them. Their intentions weren't to have it as difficult. There was no way for us to gauge that until it went live. They're making adjustments to be closer to what they wanted.
You are right there is a difference.
Taking feedback they would have done a testing phase like LC/RH proposed update, and not a push to production without user acceptance testing.
There's absolutely no need to go live with a change like this without player based testing. They proved post 12.0 they have the capability to do UAT. If they are doing UAT and still released these changes then their player sample is severely flawed.
This was a situation is the same as the update to AW where the player based looked at the proposed changes, pointed out flaws in the plan which were ignored. The result was an absurd change that had alliances placing no to few defenders and winning.
The Beta Program is not working right now, which was explained at the beginning of the month. You can't reasonably expect them to not make any changes without consulting us first. It's their game. I don't consider Players trying to find a loophole to War as a flaw. Part of that whole bit was in protest to the changes. That loophole didn't last long. Regardless of how we feel entitled, it's their choice what they want to do.
There's a standard development process which includes User Acceptance Testing. It's not about permission it's about ensuring the changes hit their mark and and doesn't have unexpected consequences. A testing type which Kabam has claimed to perform in the past. Their history has shown that their acceptance testing hadn't been working. If it had we would not have had so many debacles with their updates. That's where the beta test platform comes in.
It is reasonable to expect if a company can not properly perform testing on an update then the code should not be pushed to production.
With the AW points system, players telling a company there's a flaw, exactly what the flaw is and yet the update gets pushed out is not players looking for a loophole, that's just bad development practices.
Expecting a company to follow basic best practices including the testing they claim they do isn't being entitled, it's reasonable expectation of product that many people are paying for.
They test. They don't have a fully running Beta Program that tests all content yet. As for what's involved with their processes, I do not know. Testing is a reasonable expectation, sure. It's not reasonable to expect them to forego any change people don't like.
A standard practice for any application development is:
Development (Make our changes here).
QA (make sure we didn't break anything obvious, quality assurance)
UAT (User Acceptance Testing make sure we didn't introduce unexpected side effects, general user impact testing).
Beta Testing (Larger pool of testing by users).
Production (Go live to everyone).
QA is where they should have caught bugs like extra nodes on maps. Visual glitches when screens change, math still works out for champs ect,.
UAT or Beta would have pointed out they missed their mark. Since, like you said, Beta was not working, then UAT needs to be more complete. Especially when touching any changes that is core to the game.
When people start yelling that this is going to do XYZ and that is bad... UAT testing needs to check that out, and if it turns out to be true which it often is, hold deployment.
This is no longer a fledgling game, it should be delivering based on better practices by now. It is a mature application offering and we should be demanding better. There is not way they are following these practices and still having the number of problems getting through. They shouldn't still be missing the mark so often, and they certainly should not still be releasing maps with extra lines anymore.
IF they are testing like they claim, then there's no excuse for many of these things which regularly occur.
This is why I can't buy that increasing the difficulty was not intended. a half decent UAT would have pointed it out right away.
Everyone in here completely sells Kabam short on their ability to analyze trends and make changes that positively benefit their bottom line. They wanted to make it harder, because that makes them more money. It is understandable, but like any business they have to do enough to get more revenue but not too much to alienate the customer base. They went too far, but will there be compensation for the excessive item use? That is the question. Otherwise they win on both fronts.
I don’t see compensation coming. Halls of healing was compensation ahead of time which proves they knew the difficulty jump was there
This is why I believe they did know as well - working as intended in my opinion. Too many good players are leaving because of the ridiculousness of it as well which is ultimately going to hurt their bottom line which is why the "update" but I think that too much **** has gone on for too long and many paying players are going to look elsewhere. Congrats Kabam for killing a really good game. Already changed my app rating on it in apple store.
The damage that was done to alliances is irreversible in the near future. Long time groups have been decimated and will take time to get reestablished. This is what I have an issue with. They destroyed things we built years building in less than two weeks before caving in and admitting it was a failed attempt. No consideration was given to the player base for the damage and lost units, items, and rewards. I expected more when they admitted they were wrong with their assessment, but their stubbornness is too strong.
Hopefully they will feel the effects on their bottom line for a long time to come, and think things through better next time they decide to make a bad decision that the players protest immdiately as the players are the ones supporting the developers.
They didn't intend for the difficulty to be increased as much as it was.
I'm not sure what is a more damning accusation. That Kabam did intend the difficulty to be much harder and they just went overboard, or they didn't intend the difficulty to be much harder and the developers actually can't tell the difference when they design content.
Another data point. Because we were down a player on days four and five we actually scored almost two million points less in this past week. However, we climbed almost a hundred places in standing relative to last week, when we climbed two hundred places relative to the previous three weeks prior to the AQ changes after scoring about ten million points less.
There are only two explanations for that happening that I believe are probable. One: even after the experience of the first week the average player in alliances in the bottom half of expert are still struggling as much or even more than the first week. Two: in general players are getting better but alliances above us are unable to score more points because of alliance disruptions (people quitting, players jumping between alliances, alliances dropping down, or alliances straight up disbanding). Those are not mutually exclusive, but I believe it is very likely that after two weeks with the current AQ configuration players are not adjusting to the difficulty at all. It will be interesting to see what happens in the third week given the announced changes. I'm skeptical they will have a dramatic impact: the changes are too small to return difficulty to anywhere near the original level. My best estimate is that scores rise maybe 10% relative to the previous two weeks, probably less. For reference, my best guess is that current scores are about 20% lower than they were before the change.
i repeat please stick to the topic at hand and dont lower yourselves to the ONE that always has to argue against solid FACTS against whats been happening to the gameplay mechanics and modes lately.
state your facts, prove your points and dont get derailed from obvious attempts from those who CLEARLY will NEVER see how WRONG they are.
lets see how this upcoming aq will go cause kabam is really needs to make up for aq becoming what it was for 2 weeks and KABAM NEEDS to fix the bugs in the game asap to make up for a lot of ground they have lost lately
They didn't intend for the difficulty to be increased as much as it was.
I'm not sure what is a more damning accusation. That Kabam did intend the difficulty to be much harder and they just went overboard, or they didn't intend the difficulty to be much harder and the developers actually can't tell the difference when they design content.
If you're trying to imply that they're incompetent because it didn't go as planned, then that would seem damning, yes. However, it wasn't the intended outcome because it's being revised. It's not that unreasonable that something needs to be adjusted after inception. As much as people expect the proceess of QA to be more, nothing is perfect.
The bottom line for me is the information provided is that it wasn't intended to be that difficult. Supported by commenting shortly after that they were monitoring the feedback and data, and followed up with revisions. I happen to think that evidence supports their claim. However, I don't see any productive end to debating whether they intended it or not, other than to generate mistrust. They're making changes. Somehow people are still not happy.
The bottom line for me is the information provided is that it wasn't intended to be that difficult. Supported by commenting shortly after that they were monitoring the feedback and data, and followed up with revisions. I happen to think that evidence supports their claim. However, I don't see any productive end to debating whether they intended it or not, other than to generate mistrust. They're making changes. Somehow people are still not happy.
As many people have stated...either they intended it to be this difficult or they are incompetent. Your facts prove one or the other as well. Kabam Miike was firm about how it wouldn’t be harder when this was first announced. And I know for a fact he plays the game. So if it wasn’t intended it only leaves one option. So what does team kabam say about it GW?
Miike said it shouldn't be that much harder, before it went live. Meaning that was the intention. It didn't go as planned. I'm not sure what level people live on where it's unacceptable that things don't work out as planned unless there's something seriously wrong, but the world I live in leaves room for error.
Miike said it shouldn't be that much harder, before it went live. Meaning that was the intention. It didn't go as planned. I'm not sure what level people live on where it's unacceptable that things don't work out as planned unless there's something seriously wrong, but the world I live in leaves room for error.
Room for error? This is a freemium game available to everyone. It’s a business. A company. It’s full of elite employees paid to do 1 job. That’s like saying there is room for error towards a restaurant that gives you food poisoning because their food checks went done properly. Smh.
And yes there can still be room for error as long as errors aren’t a daily trend. A restaurant would be shut down if they were constantly giving people food posioning. The only aspect that keeps mobile gaming companies in check is the people that play the game. Error after error after wrong doing can only stir up more and more hostility. As the proof in the pudding is simple. So many errors intended or not can only leave one more option on the table to describe the developers of the game, that we all love to play. 💕
STICK TO THE MOTHER TRUCKING TOPIC. WHY IS THAT SO HARD????
its on kabam to make it right not us. the changes they NOW made for AQ seem good to help fix their mistakes so its a start.
BUT the next thing they NEED to focus on is FIXING THESE UGLY BUGS IN THE GAME like for example my blocks dropping, double dashing back not working, evading out of the first hit of a special 1 or 2 and lag and controls misfiring. THIS is what we need to keep pointing to kabam to fix.
stop wasting time on who said this and who said that. arGuing With the nameless is ineffective and i dont want 48 pages worth of complaints to be closed because of derailing by an obvious and oblivious
Dear kabam For compensation can you find me 5 alliance members, uncollected minimum, reliable active, communicate well, cos that’s what I’m down now, so hard to recruit right now, such a pain in the ass, lost 2 leaders today, the damage is irreversible at this point, please stop being so clumsy with your changes
I still don't get why they can run a test during aq to see if things will be harder mid season, see how bad it went over,yet refuse to implement synergy in war during off season to see the effect it has. They NEED to do it now while alliances are crumbling instead of waiting til everyone gets back in a groove then we get stuck doing beta testing with season rewards at stake.
Synergies were always supposed to work in war, with the emphasis placed on diversity, many ranked according to this while kabam never issued a statement regarding synergies.
May be off topic but it goes to show how in touch they are with the player base.
The lack of compensation for this failed experiment speaks volumes about how much they value their paying customers.
One of the frequent complaints about Kabam is that their player base know the game more than they do and this is just another example of that. Time and again they announce changes only to be told by the player base of the consequences only to ignore them and then realise way too late that the players were right. You only have to look at the recent changes to Alliance Wars for evidence of this.
If Kabam truly didn’t expect the content to be harder (and that’s giving them the huge benefit of the doubt) then it’s worrying that they didn’t realise the impact these changes would have.
The War situation came to a resolve because of listening to the Player Base and coming up with a compromise. They had objectives, and they listened to the feeback on wanting an element of skill. The process would have gone smoother had the majority of feedback not been "Bring back Defender Kills!", over and over. For some reason, that just equates to them being wrong for some. They were clear about their intentions then, and they were clear now.
Back on topic, my opinion on Sentinels: they still are harder than symbiods, beggining with the fact they are immune to poison and bleed. I used to use Wolverine, Gwenpool and Voodoo...
Back on topic, my opinion on Sentinels: they still are harder than symbiods, beggining with the fact they are immune to poison and bleed. I used to use Wolverine, Gwenpool and Voodoo...
i use(d) 5* r4 x23, 4* r5 hulk and 4* r5 voodoo all days on map 5 having issues playing, always the network connection message and lagging, did map 5 with the new update could not finish the entire map. i play the game to play the champs and rank them up, because kabam wants us, im assuming, to play the game this way and take years to progress.
Comments
A standard practice for any application development is:
Development (Make our changes here).
QA (make sure we didn't break anything obvious, quality assurance)
UAT (User Acceptance Testing make sure we didn't introduce unexpected side effects, general user impact testing).
Beta Testing (Larger pool of testing by users).
Production (Go live to everyone).
QA is where they should have caught bugs like extra nodes on maps. Visual glitches when screens change, math still works out for champs ect,.
UAT or Beta would have pointed out they missed their mark. Since, like you said, Beta was not working, then UAT needs to be more complete. Especially when touching any changes that is core to the game.
When people start yelling that this is going to do XYZ and that is bad... UAT testing needs to check that out, and if it turns out to be true which it often is, hold deployment.
This is no longer a fledgling game, it should be delivering based on better practices by now. It is a mature application offering and we should be demanding better. There is not way they are following these practices and still having the number of problems getting through. They shouldn't still be missing the mark so often, and they certainly should not still be releasing maps with extra lines anymore.
IF they are testing like they claim, then there's no excuse for many of these things which regularly occur.
This is why I can't buy that increasing the difficulty was not intended. a half decent UAT would have pointed it out right away.
This is why I believe they did know as well - working as intended in my opinion. Too many good players are leaving because of the ridiculousness of it as well which is ultimately going to hurt their bottom line which is why the "update" but I think that too much **** has gone on for too long and many paying players are going to look elsewhere. Congrats Kabam for killing a really good game. Already changed my app rating on it in apple store.
Hopefully they will feel the effects on their bottom line for a long time to come, and think things through better next time they decide to make a bad decision that the players protest immdiately as the players are the ones supporting the developers.
I'm not sure what is a more damning accusation. That Kabam did intend the difficulty to be much harder and they just went overboard, or they didn't intend the difficulty to be much harder and the developers actually can't tell the difference when they design content.
There are only two explanations for that happening that I believe are probable. One: even after the experience of the first week the average player in alliances in the bottom half of expert are still struggling as much or even more than the first week. Two: in general players are getting better but alliances above us are unable to score more points because of alliance disruptions (people quitting, players jumping between alliances, alliances dropping down, or alliances straight up disbanding). Those are not mutually exclusive, but I believe it is very likely that after two weeks with the current AQ configuration players are not adjusting to the difficulty at all. It will be interesting to see what happens in the third week given the announced changes. I'm skeptical they will have a dramatic impact: the changes are too small to return difficulty to anywhere near the original level. My best estimate is that scores rise maybe 10% relative to the previous two weeks, probably less. For reference, my best guess is that current scores are about 20% lower than they were before the change.
state your facts, prove your points and dont get derailed from obvious attempts from those who CLEARLY will NEVER see how WRONG they are.
lets see how this upcoming aq will go cause kabam is really needs to make up for aq becoming what it was for 2 weeks and KABAM NEEDS to fix the bugs in the game asap to make up for a lot of ground they have lost lately
If you're trying to imply that they're incompetent because it didn't go as planned, then that would seem damning, yes. However, it wasn't the intended outcome because it's being revised. It's not that unreasonable that something needs to be adjusted after inception. As much as people expect the proceess of QA to be more, nothing is perfect.
You're BOTH derailing the thread.
As many people have stated...either they intended it to be this difficult or they are incompetent. Your facts prove one or the other as well. Kabam Miike was firm about how it wouldn’t be harder when this was first announced. And I know for a fact he plays the game. So if it wasn’t intended it only leaves one option. So what does team kabam say about it GW?
Room for error? This is a freemium game available to everyone. It’s a business. A company. It’s full of elite employees paid to do 1 job. That’s like saying there is room for error towards a restaurant that gives you food poisoning because their food checks went done properly. Smh.
And yes there can still be room for error as long as errors aren’t a daily trend. A restaurant would be shut down if they were constantly giving people food posioning. The only aspect that keeps mobile gaming companies in check is the people that play the game. Error after error after wrong doing can only stir up more and more hostility. As the proof in the pudding is simple. So many errors intended or not can only leave one more option on the table to describe the developers of the game, that we all love to play. 💕
Hold on a second I’m taken back by your not so sincere apology...
Putting words down that I didn’t say. I said they make errors, daily.
its on kabam to make it right not us. the changes they NOW made for AQ seem good to help fix their mistakes so its a start.
BUT the next thing they NEED to focus on is FIXING THESE UGLY BUGS IN THE GAME like for example my blocks dropping, double dashing back not working, evading out of the first hit of a special 1 or 2 and lag and controls misfiring. THIS is what we need to keep pointing to kabam to fix.
stop wasting time on who said this and who said that. arGuing With the nameless is ineffective and i dont want 48 pages worth of complaints to be closed because of derailing by an obvious and oblivious
dude just stop youre gonna get this thread closed. theres no point in debating with those who dont understand how a debate works.
im gonna advise to just disagree with this person and move on. trust me. we are allowed to disagree is all.
Synergies were always supposed to work in war, with the emphasis placed on diversity, many ranked according to this while kabam never issued a statement regarding synergies.
May be off topic but it goes to show how in touch they are with the player base.
The lack of compensation for this failed experiment speaks volumes about how much they value their paying customers.
TL:DR - I don't spend my energy on the Forum petitioning against the company.
If Kabam truly didn’t expect the content to be harder (and that’s giving them the huge benefit of the doubt) then it’s worrying that they didn’t realise the impact these changes would have.
Back on topic, my opinion on Sentinels: they still are harder than symbiods, beggining with the fact they are immune to poison and bleed. I used to use Wolverine, Gwenpool and Voodoo...
i use(d) 5* r4 x23, 4* r5 hulk and 4* r5 voodoo all days on map 5 having issues playing, always the network connection message and lagging, did map 5 with the new update could not finish the entire map. i play the game to play the champs and rank them up, because kabam wants us, im assuming, to play the game this way and take years to progress.