Update plans/goals should be better communicated

[-Variant]

Making this post since these last few patches have been a... roller-coaster of emotions.
With absolutely no bad faith at all, I genuinely think there needs to be far more communication between players and the devs' current plans!

The Wendy skilltree as infamous as it was had amazing feedback and posts from the team detailing what their goals and plans were and how/why they plan on approaching them, which is notably lacking this past beta and seriously hurting everyone's expectations and trusts.

There is obviously a bigger picture but I myself can't keep trusting it if I don't exactly know how we're getting there. And I'm certain many others are feeling the same.

Earlier into the beta it was stated that WX was kept relatively tuned down for fear of their character becoming powerful in a state after the beta. Which to everyone read off as balancing around the potential concept of how they'd turn out and not what was actually there. Why? I'm not sure we ever really got a proper reasoning for this. WX isn't, and wasn't, a particularly strong character at all. Especially not compared to some other powerhouse characters.

Following that is where I started having my doubts, when many circuits ended up being nerfed/tuned down significantly. We were told there was a bigger picture behind these changes, one I'm still uncertain of. My current running theory is this was in preparation for the Lunar affinity, which makes me wonder... why weaken the circuits innately at all? I feel like there could've been diminishing returns or have them weaker per WX Lunar Chassis or something instead of wildly tuning down WX's original 'stat modifying' gimmick. I feel like player feedback would've been far more directed if we had known that was the intended direction.

The most recent changes to the Shadow Skill are... something. It was in a relatively alright position last patch, I think many people seemed to enjoy it. But then it was randomly pulled from the beta and launch of the update to be tuned up a bit. Alright, I understand cleaning up the affinities, but why pull the skill?
We had actually gotten some responses for this change but I feel like they ended up missing some pretty vital information.

Quote

Hey guys, just a heads-up regarding tomorrow's update.  We're thinking of keeping the Shadow alignment part of the tree locked, so that we can continue working on it in the beta branch.

We're keeping the socketing, and adding Pure Horror.  Overall, we'd like to improve the theming of the effects to better match WX-78 as a character.

I believe that right now, we do plan on keeping all the unique mechanics for the shadow alignment, but will rework how they appear and are tied to the progression of socketed item to include Pure Horror.  We really apologize for the confusion this causes!

This is what we were given to hone in our expectations for the last patch. I was under the impression this would've mostly be thematic changes, changes to their visual FX or something simple. What ended up happening was splitting up all of the unique effects into new craftable items that are obtained by socketing in different shadow elements.

This... has a lot of problems right now. The biggest one being the loss of its passive utility. You don't get the buffs from inserting the items innately anymore, you're instead given an unlocked recipe to craft drones that fill the niche of the past versions abilities.
These drones are... sluggish, clutter the screen, half if not less as efficient as the previous iteration, and are for some reason on a time limit as of this post. 
On top of the absolute downgrade function wise. I personally don't really see how this is in-tune with a shadow affinity at all? These are all by nature just other drones WX creates. There's no shadow elements to them at all aside from the shadow goo on them.

Circling back to what we were told, I was under the impression we might've gotten a more mechanical take on the FX from the previous iteration, which I think would be the best way to direct things now.
The drones ARE cute, I like them, but they feel like they could've been some other random craftable utility item. If their 'item' functionally were removed, and they were instead closer to far more fancy FX (I.E, no durability, no on-screen presence when out of use, were faster and such) they'd be a lot more welcome.

As of the posts topic, I feel this change in direction should've been communicated way earlier to get in peoples' feedback and ideas on the matter. The result ended up being a chunky wait for what I'm assuming was a lot more work going into something that feels like a downgrade in many forms right now. Going forward I'm really hoping bigger idea and brainstorming posts from the devs can make a comeback, it'd lead to a lot less stress on both ends. 
To double triple clarify, I'm in no way aiming this at anyone in specific, and making this as a general wish/want! I want to see these going smoothly and succeeding at finding a middle ground for both players and the devs, all in good faith!

[Jussatoon]

5 minutes ago, -Variant said:

The most recent changes to the Shadow Skill are... something. It was in a relatively alright position last patch, I think many people seemed to enjoy it. But then it was randomly pulled from the beta and launch of the update to be tuned up a bit. Alright, I understand cleaning up the affinities, but why pull the skill?

Because just like Wendy, people complained about thematics, resulting in a less fun feature. 

8 minutes ago, -Variant said:

I'm in no way aiming this at anyone in specific

Even though that'd be objectively valid.

[Mysterious box]

3 minutes ago, Jussatoon said:

Because just like Wendy, people complained about thematics, resulting in a less fun feature. 

I know I don't speak on it much but I really miss Wendy's shroud that linked damage between Wendy and Abigail it was such a interesting concept that just needed tweaking...

[n0vu5]

The most valid and proper criticisms about this beta I've heard from anyone thus far, if klei addresses and fixes up anything you've brought up here and worked on them then I'd be much happier (especially if they tackle how clunky the shadow drones feel to use)

[Jakepeng99]

50 minutes ago, -Variant said:

Earlier into the beta it was stated that WX was kept relatively tuned down for fear of their character becoming powerful in a state after the beta. Which to everyone read off as balancing around the potential concept of how they'd turn out and not what was actually there. Why? I'm not sure we ever really got a proper reasoning for this. WX isn't, and wasn't, a particularly strong character at all. Especially not compared to some other powerhouse characters.

They weren’t that strong to begin with, but the rework to their circuits already made them compete with the rest of the cast. It’s the destination that matters right now, Klei did say they were going to relook over other skilltrees too so we don’t know what that exactly means. They were weak then, but far from weak now.

Their power level feels good, the nerfs didnt impact much besides make them feel more balanced. The drone damage boost could be better since now they have the downside of needing to scan a creature instead of the damage buff being unconditional.
 

41 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I know I don't speak on it much but I really miss Wendy's shroud that linked damage between Wendy and Abigail it was such a interesting concept that just needed tweaking...

I kinda miss the Sistern skills having the temporary HP increase for Abigail, I liked that more than the player tag thing, I find it sorta weird.

[The_UrbanGoose8]

only wendy players could make a wendy post in the wx78 update

i joke..mostly. but they do seem to be changing a LOT at a time here instead of going incrementally to find the right fit. 

Edited 18 hours ago by The_UrbanGoose8

[Evelo]

I really would love if Klei was more transparent with design philosophies in every regard. I don't like skill trees but I can accept them if we get the design philosophy behind it from Klei themselves.

[YouKnowWho142]

People have been asking for this since the very start of the beta, it’s very disappointing that nothing has really changed

[OrangeNibble]

I really dislike the new shadow affinity. It feels contradictory. It's weak, it's clanky and it doesn't make sense

[doritosdamafia]

it's funny that most of the problems with the beta are because we have no feedback of what the devs want to do with the wx skill tree

[weirdokun]

Agree so much with this post. I was hoping just a few tweaks on the shadow affinity so I was checking beta every day since the live to see if there's an update. 1 week passed and when they released the update, it's totally something new. More than the underwhelming state of the shadow skill, the lack of communication is very disappointing.