Taboo Question

[lemmy101]

There isn't enough security in the world. Even in our extremely tight, small and largely very trusted internal tester group we've had about 5-6 expulsions for divulging or leaking throughout the length of PZ dev. It will remain our tightest guarded stuff until it goes out to them, and it hasn't even gotten to that stage yet. Even the moderators of this forum have seen little more than you all have regarding the NPCs.

[f3rret]

Even in our extremely tight, small and largely very trusted internal tester group we've had about 5-6 expulsions for divulging or leaking throughout the length of PZ dev.

 

Well that would certainly piss me off. How did you narrow down who it was each time? You told each tester you were sending Myrcella to a different city?

[Guest easy AI opponent]

snip

 

Hi lemmy ,

 

sorry wall of text!

 

Can you please explain in one sentence when NPCs will be finished?                                                    

 

Haha just kidding

 

To be serious:  I am not asking for a release. At this point i dont want you to rush out NPCs and i am not either asking for their imminent release. I just suggested that you could do a NPC mondoid once in a while just to keep the people updated.

 

I mean c'mon the year has about 52 weeks so what's wrong about to dedicate one or two mondoids per year to what is acclaimed to be the  one of the biggest and most anticipated features of project zomboid?

 

You say it would hype people to much? Well no, actually you did a full NPC  mondoid almost exactly one year ago and that one did not too much harm especially as you plastered it with warnings that NPC are not imminent etc.

 

http://projectzomboid.com/blog/2014/07/its-an-npc-related-mondoid1-no-hype-pls/

 

So why not make a no-hype NPC mondoid,  a every 6 months or yearly tradition?

[Rathlord]

 

Even in our extremely tight, small and largely very trusted internal tester group we've had about 5-6 expulsions for divulging or leaking throughout the length of PZ dev.

 

Well that would certainly piss me off. How did you narrow down who it was each time? You told each tester you were sending Myrcella to a different city?

 

 

We have our ways. No one gets away with it. But by then, the damage is still already done.

[Rathlord]

So why not make a no-hype NPC mondoid,  a every 6 months or yearly tradition?

 

 

The same reason we gave last time you asked, and the time before that, and the time before that when other people asked. Just because you don't see any fallout from it doesn't mean we don't. We now have steam reviews citing that Mondoid claiming that we "promised" NPC's would be out at some date or another, even though it explicitly states otherwise. And every time someone is an asshole about the NPC's coming out, it distracts the devs which wastes time with stuff like responding to this thread (or worse, overly negative reviews that impact their productivity and positive outlook).

 

And even if you don't believe that for some reason, you're just going to have to deal with the fact that "because we say so" is good enough reason. You'll just have to trust that TIS knows what's right for their game and their community. You asking or trying to logic your way into getting more NPC updates just isn't going to change anything. Sorry.

[EnigmaGrey]

So why not make a no-hype NPC mondoid,  a every 6 months or yearly tradition?

Yeah, it really doesn't work that way . . .

[lemmy101]

NPC mondoids are a red rag to a bull. At best they excite and hype people, at worst its just a reminder of a feature no one's got. The new players coming to PZ don't have all those years of NPC hype, and all we do by having NPC mondoids is create a new army of people excited and frustrated at them not being in.

[Evilwuun]

It's interesting that you guys have folks bashing you in reviews for not releasing NPCs yet. The amount of content, consistency of developer input, and interaction with the community surpasses every early access game I've seen so far.

This really does back up the fact that there is no way to talk about a planned feature without some folks taking every word as a promise, and inevitably you have to deal with the hype-fallout every single time you mention a feature.

After a little bit of this, even if you have something amazing to show off, it's pretty easy to feel almost spiteful towards those that have been embarrassing and harassing you with constant requests and demands for a feature. I hope you guys at TIS know better than to fall into that trap; it's too easy to resent your own player base because they're so amped for certain features that they put an undue amount of pressure on you.

From the short time I've been a member of the PZ community, your dedication to this project and the outstanding quality of the product you've given us so far speaks for itself. Take your time, and remember that the only true goal you should be working towards is the satisfaction of your own vision of what Project Zomboid should be.

Afterthought: Well I'll be damned, you sumbitches went and turned me into a fanboy! >

[lemmy101]

Our community is the best. The issue is more people on the periphery, who aren't following the game closely enough to see all we try and do ethically as a company, who don't know the reasons for delays or whatever, and that don't read the forum. They just see the mondoids, if that, and comment from their own perception of updates, game content and time.  That's fair enough, of course, but their assertions, probably legitimately based on the actions of less scrupulous devs in the past, doubled up with not being aware of the things we stand for, tend to be the most unfair and most untrue. We have no worries about our community and just the right amount of pressure (too little is not much better than too much). It's just not only our close community that read the Mondoids, and there in lies the issue with having too many blog posts about features that aren't close.

[Thatonesandwitch]

Hey uh possibly to late for this but there are files for scripts for Npcs in the game zomboid foilder so npc might be a bit near then we think

[lemmy101]

As long as it takes. Not soon. 

[Evilwuun]

Hey uh possibly to late for this but there are files for scripts for Npcs in the game zomboid foilder so npc might be a bit near then we think

They could also be left over from the NPCs that were in the game before (well before my time). PZ did have NPCs in a while ago, but it was in a much older build of the game. As I understand it, they were removed when the game underwent a huge expansion that made them obsolete, or at least very underwhelming. A perfect example of TIS's determination to get it right, and not release a hackneyed product just for the sake of being able to say it's in the game.

@Lemmy forgive me, I didn't mean to imply our community was less than lovely. I was merely throwing out there that it can be easy for a developer to harbor resentment at having to explain themselves time and time again. From what I've seen, you at TIS have a really decent handle on damage control, and mitigating your own levels of irritation seems to not be a problem for you. Sometimes it helps to hear what you already know, if that makes sense.

[lemmy101]

Oh no wasn't complaining, no offense taken, just saying the majority of the unwelcome pressure comes from without. Doesn't make it less legitimate, it makes it more since there are more of those than who are here in our community. We need to keep everyone happy and generally the non forumite masses have less of a voice.

[Zorak]

For all of you that want to play with superb AI NPCs - come join multiplayer

[Thatonesandwitch]

 

Hey uh possibly to late for this but there are files for scripts for Npcs in the game zomboid foilder so npc might be a bit near then we think

They could also be left over from the NPCs that were in the game before (well before my time). PZ did have NPCs in a while ago, but it was in a much older build of the game. As I understand it, they were removed when the game underwent a huge expansion that made them obsolete, or at least very underwhelming. A perfect example of TIS's determination to get it right, and not release a hackneyed product just for the sake of being able to say it's in the game.

@Lemmy forgive me, I didn't mean to imply our community was less than lovely. I was merely throwing out there that it can be easy for a developer to harbor resentment at having to explain themselves time and time again. From what I've seen, you at TIS have a really decent handle on damage control, and mitigating your own levels of irritation seems to not be a problem for you. Sometimes it helps to hear what you already know, if that makes sense.

 

wait wait wait there were npcs in game then they were taken out WHY WAS I NOT TOLD THIS

[EnigmaGrey]

Hey uh possibly to late for this but there are files for scripts for Npcs in the game zomboid foilder so npc might be a bit near then we think

They could also be left over from the NPCs that were in the game before (well before my time). PZ did have NPCs in a while ago, but it was in a much older build of the game. As I understand it, they were removed when the game underwent a huge expansion that made them obsolete, or at least very underwhelming. A perfect example of TIS's determination to get it right, and not release a hackneyed product just for the sake of being able to say it's in the game.

@Lemmy forgive me, I didn't mean to imply our community was less than lovely. I was merely throwing out there that it can be easy for a developer to harbor resentment at having to explain themselves time and time again. From what I've seen, you at TIS have a really decent handle on damage control, and mitigating your own levels of irritation seems to not be a problem for you. Sometimes it helps to hear what you already know, if that makes sense.

wait wait wait there were npcs in game then they were taken out WHY WAS I NOT TOLD THIS

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/2064-older-versions/?hl=%2Bolder+%2Bversions+%2Bdownload#entry29858

2.0q. Have fun.

[mads232]

Ah the good old Kate and Baldspot story..

[Blake81]

Since all the Devs are gathered here, I thought I may as well ask this question. How long it'll be till IWBUMS 33? Build 32 seems pretty good so far, so I'm sure it'll be into the stable game before long.

 

Thing is, after Mondoid ''The Biting Point'' and the TURBO MOVES OFFICE part about movable furniture.... well, that has gotten me more hyped than any NPCs stuff; Imma buildaholic y'see.

 

And while I don't mind waiting for it, I really, really wanna have at least a rough idea of how long will it take for the IWBUMS 33 to start (once 32 is done).

[Svarog]

Hah, I played hours of those old versions and only bumped into an NPC once on Sandbox, they were dumb too live, I can see why they got kicked out of the game, they added absolutely nothing substantial to the experience back then, they just sorta, ran around the map and died.

snip

No ETAs, ever. But in my experience IWBUMS usually takes a month from start to release, then there usually is around a month of no game updates and hype mondoids, I'd say Build 33 will come around the end of next month.

[Talksintext]

Yeah, I'm more interested in that moving stuff system being tossed in soon, plus a major map update, than NPCs. I have come to peace with the lack of NPCs, and will just be happy when they're in.

 

As I've said before, I'm fully happy to wait since it means more content and a dragged out development timeline (both positives, I like more development time so long as it's stable, which this game is).

[Croak90]

Bloody hell of course this ends up being the first HOT thread I created.

 

Mods, question has been answered, feel free to lock the thread to prevent endless loop of the same questions.

[EnigmaGrey]

Bloody hell of course this ends up being the first HOT thread I created.

 

Mods, question has been answered, feel free to lock the thread to prevent endless loop of the same questions.

Yes, Captain.