Posts by BenIrvo

Darokaz

First, I want to thank you for writing this up. I appreciate the honesty of how you (and others) feel about the current state of things. I also want to say that I can’t talk about everything, simply because it is not my area of expertise, or because I don’t have the information you’re looking for. I stand by our statement of being transparent though and will continue to do so here and on other channels.

Now, I want to address some of your points that I can:

Communication -

Pre-game release vs Post game release –

To start, things used to be a lot friendlier here for dev team members who normally don’t talk on social channels or forums. They could answer questions, give information and know that they aren’t going to have people getting upset at them. Why would a dev team member take time away from working on the next update to post when they know it’s likely to be met with hostile replies, or they get flamed because can’t answer other questions that players are asking? I don’t mind posting here when things aren’t so nice, but that’s because it’s my job. For the devs it isn’t their job, and I’d like to ask that people remember that when replying to them. When some people say “be nice or the devs will stop posting” it’s 100% true. Be respectful and constructive with your feedback and more team members will likely reply.

Aggravating the community by acknowledging trivial things over major issues –

I have been acknowledging issues that aren’t the major ones you mentioned, but that’s because I can quickly check in on those and work with the team to see how fast we can get them fixed. I also report major issues, but until I get word back on them there is nothing else I can say. Issues like the Masterwork Embers not dropping I can quickly bring to the attention of the team and we can get fixed. I think it’s better that I address the things I can as quickly as I can instead of nothing at all. Also, I try to avoid saying “thanks for the feedback, I’ll share with the team” too many times in reply to posts 😊

Loot though? All I can do is point out what studio leadership shares on channels. They are very aware of all the conversation going on around loot and when they have more details to share, they will.

Now for the EA Help Tweet about Quickplay. The reason we asked for this information is to help us track down the remaining issues players are experiencing in Quickplay in one location, and to get more specifics on what they were doing when they encountered the issue. Having all of that information helps the team track down the bugs faster, which means they’re more likely to be fixed in the next update, which means they can move on to other parts of the patch sooner (other bugs, content, etc.).

Being confidential about the patch notes –

I said this before, but nothing was hidden on purpose in the patch notes. The truth is patch notes come together late in the update process and I do everything I can to ensure they are accurate, but sometimes things slip by with all the moving pieces. I’d much rather put together patch notes even if they are missing a few things instead of doing generic ones that just say “various bug fixes and improvements”. I’ll work with the team to get this process better, but we still may miss something from time to time, especially if it is something that gets added to an update late in the process. We will never hide a nerf or change in the patch notes on purpose, even if it’s something we know the community won’t like. And if we do put in something that the community doesn’t like we’ll do our best to explain why that particular change was made.

Not Learning from previous mistakes –

I’m not going to comment on the first two points because I didn’t work on Andromeda and I know how some players feel about EA, but I do want to talk about you addressing how we’re handling feedback.

For feedback, we’ve made a large number of changes based on what players have told us. Not wanting to run to the Forge every time to launch an expedition? We added the ability to launch anywhere in Fort Tarsis, that was because of player feedback. Wanted to visually see loot drop from bosses in Strongholds? Added because of player feedback. If you are talking about feedback on loot in general (and I’m pretty sure you are) I’ve already said that the team is discussing and that more will be likely be shared in the coming days. I know everyone wants to know when, but I don’t have that answer. We do not ignore any feedback from players, sometimes it just takes a bit longer as things need to be discussed for a longer time. We don’t want to say something we can’t do or give incorrect information. Like Chad Robertson said in a Tweet, we aren’t happy with where loot is either, so know that it’s high on our priority list.

Discarding Feedback –

Honestly, reading this stings a bit because I never discard feedback. I love this community and am very thankful for everything that has been brought up such as feedback, bug reports, funny posts (༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ Summon the loot update ༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ) and everything in between. I’m open to feedback on what you’d like to see the community team do to make you feel welcomed and appreciated. We do our livestreams, blog posts (like the inscriptions write up), patch notes, helping out with issues when we have the info and more. I am always listening and willing to make changes so please, let us know.

Lack of Content –

I’m not going to go into this too much as it’s areas that I don’t have control over, or I don’t have the exact info on how the team is addressing. Know that I relay the feedback from the community to the team on ALL of these issues. The team is aware, and they are doing a lot of work to address these concerns.

Turning a good game bad –

All I’ll say on this is that Anthem is here to stay. Do we have a lot of work to do to fix parts of the game? Yes, and the team is committed to making improvements and releasing new content.

Conclusion –

Again, I want to thank this community for everything. The team is listening to all of your feedback for Anthem on how you’d like to see the game improve, or how you’d like to see us engage with the community differently. I know that players want to see updates faster, but these things can take time to make sure they are done right. We’re very appreciative of this community and look forward to the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Strong Alone, Stronger Together.

Thanks Jesse :)

@ibjade Congrats!
RT @CameronDayton: Smart Ash https://twitter.com/NytefuryC/status/1104703067746820096
RT @anthemgame: This lava-red beast of a Ranger looks like it could take down a whole Dominion platoon without even breaking a sweat. #Anth…
My brother is getting married. Taking some time off to spend with family. Excited for all the things we have coming in Anthem and look forward to catching up with you all when I get back! Will be a bit light on social media until then :) http://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/D1QTpwVUwAAjRGg.jpg
@ValiantVanguard I wish I used this gif. Well played.
Enjoy! https://twitter.com/Darokaz/status/1104171229014048770

What time we all coming over tonight?

This is a nice message. We know we have work to do. Stuff like this keeps us going.

The biggest thing we can ask for is if you have criticisms, make them constructive. In return we will continue to listen and do our best to make the game better

mr_funk

Gamers we knew were particularly knowledgeable on the inner workings of the game

Yeah, so knowledgeable they don't know what Inscriptions are called or what Mark of Ruin is.

I definitely don’t know everything in my head at every moment. That is true.

Rook0x51

Thanks for finally admitting it instead of being smug and condescending. That being said I wanted to provide some constructive input into this:

-There is definitely a UI bug. It is purely superficial and likely the bug that you saw all the time. I understand that your dismissive comments were due to you only seeing this bug.

-There is definitely a true health bug, like we've been saying. I strongly believe this bug ONLY occurs when you are playing with a lower level javelin. Most likely due to scaling. For me I only get the true bug when playing with my lower levelled friends or when a random brings in a lower level into gm. I would suggest your testing team tries varying levels and switching from gm1 to hard or normal with a mismatched squad.

-There are probably millions of us that want Anthem to succeed and are willing to help out or stick with the tough release times, please don't be smug and dismissive like that. It doesn't help the game or the community.

Strong alone, stronger together.

Appreciate the constructive nature of your post :)

Capeo75

That skips over the heart of the problem this bug reveals: there should never be dynamic scaling in a build-based progression looter. Ever. It invalidates the core gameplay loop. Every single number and stat has to be real, not dynamically altered behind the scenes.

Agree for end game. Disagree for levelling.

Having it for levelling let’s friends of any level play together. That’s a huge barrier to entry for many people.

Rare_Lingonberry

As lead producer isn't it your job to accept the blame and not shift it onto the rest of the team?

I’m happy to say it’s my fault. As a leader of the team that is true.

You missed the point of my comment which is - don’t go blaming QA, that’s not how it works.

Erro_Llyon

Actually, jokes aside, you’re honestly right.

I gotchu fam

:)

OmniBlock

Honest question. With so many broken or bugged issues on release. Was there an issue that effected QA before release? Something that your team encountered?

I think a lot of people are interested in understanding.

It’s a long a long topic. The short version is whatever issues exist, it’s on the team as a whole, not one discipline.

CMDR_Cheese_Helmet

The criticism and suggestions come from those of us who wanna see the game succeed. We want the game and bioware to succeed.

The presence here helps. The patches too. Keep it up.

Criticisms and suggestions are great. They can be phrased positively or constructively. It makes a big difference :)

celticsfan34

At some point, I know you won’t have the answer now, can we get an explanation on what happened and how it was fixed? This feels a lot like a feature with unintended consequences rather than a typical bug, and I would feel better if I could understand what is actually going on when I’m shooting an enemy. Even after being told “everything is fixed now” it probably won’t feel that way if I don’t understand it.

Thanks for reading and addressing the concerns in here.

The short version is we wanted you to have a good experience when unlocking a new Javelin. As a result we did some things to the starter loot so you wouldn’t be gimped at first. It ended up being a bad idea. Here we are.

[deleted]

[deleted]

It’s actually done before every update.

Josh-trihard7

hi :)

Heyooooo

The health bug isn’t just a UI bug. I was wrong. We are on it.