TBF I effectively found out from Fen's blog comments and was like "Wait what."
Then again at this point I'm not entirely sure the Faction System was ever a feature Fenoxo planned himself. The way he talked about it sure didn't seem like it was ever supposed to be a thing to begin with -- was it actually on Offbeatr? I don't remember one way or the other, but I do know it's been sitting on our Trello since 2014.
Either way, I'm just going to reiterate that it's not like no Faction System = no factions in the game or something. It just means you won't have a rep meter or whatever filling up in the background; working with the Smugglers or Xenogen will just be proceeding via individual questlines and states rather than as a discreet mechanic.
I'm not sure where you got that idea. He does have a valid reason for wanting to get rid of it, even if you don't agree with it.
That, to me, kinda proves the point a bit. That you had to find out through the comments and not actually be told straight up this was a thing. That still shows the underlying communications and awareness issues plaguing the project.
If it wasn't, it was implied for long enough that it grew to be so. One of the worst things one can do when making a game is promise or imply something will be in there for a significant period of time only to retract it. Bioware has done this multiple times and gotten slammed for it. Kerberos did that with the Sword of the stars series multiple times and basically blew their Sword of the Stars 2 game. Roundscape Andorevia keeps promising stuff from their chapter 1 that still hasn't been delivered while they spend money on a comic from an artist who's art is being
phased out of the game. To be frank, if it wasn't going to be included in the game, it shouldn't have been in the poll.
That's good that it won't eliminate the entirety of the factions being involved, but the agency of Steele getting to either work with or against them even in the background was something I've been looking forward to as it's added to gameplay in a lot of different games, both MMO and regular. As well as leading to this.
Except Amara and the Black Void. If Faction System's gone, fuck it, now I don't have to worry about making a "friendly pirate" group.
Not going to lie, but I'm feeling a bit bummed as I was looking forward to the game/story stuff of being able to work with Amara and her group. Again, major draw to the mechanic/system that as of yet we have no idea why Fenoxo cut it out. And with all due respect, what comments are those because this is the first I've and evidently others have heard of it, so while he
may have a valid reason, he has not shared it at large or evenly and thus left the vast majority of fans/investors ignorant as to his reasoning.
Out of curiosity, what post were those comments in? I stopped reading the blog post comments a few months back for the sake of my brain.
That said, this:
is not without merit. The company I work for at my day job has the same issues, and it has some severe consequences down the line.
Savin, you said this Monday you were going to sit down with Fen and figure out how many planets you wanted to have in the main story. Did that happen? Was a number even spitballed? If not, if meetings are being skipped or if Fen can't even get enough of a plan together to say "about ten", that's a big problem. FenCo is an actual company now, but there's a lot of ways in which it's not acting like one, and sooner or later that's going to have to be addressed.
I have to echo this sentiment, honestly. I know this is hardly the first time it's been brought up, and I also know there's a lot of stuff going on in everyone's lives, what with Savin being sick, Gedan having a whole host of projects to work on, and Fen... doing Fen stuff (that's not me being snarky, I just genuinely don't know what his schedule is), but I have to admit that TiTS often doesn't feel like it's an organized or focused endeavor. That may just be my ignorant outsider's view, and I hope it is, but it would be reassuring to get some information about long-term development priorities outside of "These are the systems the game is probably going to have at some point in the future. Maybe." :/
+1 to each of these, this is stuff that should have (from an outsider's pov again) hammered out when the game started,
especially with the way CoC went. It's one thing to not have a set plan for updates to the minute and so on, that's reasonable with a flexible text game like TiTS...what
isn't reasonable is there being, from what I can tell,
no basic outline at the very least for the main game, let alone side content and expansions. This is not ok. This to me, suggests the mistakes that were being made with CoC are being repeated with potentially the same result.
And again, Fen makes no effort to communicate or announce or anything on the blog or the Patreon for the game, 2 great avenues to either get a sounding board if he's unsure about a decision or to just go "This is what's going to need to happen and why." or even
ask for help if it's needed. While Fen might not have to check in with every little change or adjustment, as Couch says FenCo is a company now, those of us backing the game through various methods are investors, and we shouldn't be perpetually wondering WTF is going on or being blindsided like this. Just a few "State of the game" postings would do
wonders for many,
many of the issues previously stated by myself and others...but we're lucky to see Fen post anything beyond the next update.
Too much is being assumed, too much
was assumed going in, and too much is in the air for TiTS to feel like a solid project anymore. I'd probably feel more comfortable/reassured if the game was paused/put on hiatus, everything gets hashed out/given reasonable outlining/direction, and
then things start up again. At least then everyone would be on the same page.
I'm an outsider and one with a limited perspective however, so if I am wrong in one or more of the things I have said, let me know and I'll willingly apologize. But I also will stand by the fact that I've done my best to say my piece while being respectful/aware of the challenge being presented to the devs and that these are legitimate concerns and issues that should be addressed.
