When is the next patch preview?

[rohan177]

so what im reading is there will likely be a preview patch tomorrow this Thursday?

 

[Lutzkhie]

weird preview branch is still not here, the last 2 weeks of their 6 week cycle is supposedly for the preview branch so that bugs can easily be found and fix
its either their having hard time adding "new critters" orrrrrr their all just busy on other titles orrrr busy making a new title
 

[FIXBUGFIXBUGFIX]

12 minutes ago, Lutzkhie said:

weird preview branch is still not here, the last 2 weeks of their 6 week cycle is supposedly for the preview branch so that bugs can easily be found and fix
its either their having hard time adding "new critters" orrrrrr their all just busy on other titles orrrr busy making a new title
 

20 hours left, or 7 days and 20 hours left

[mr peeps]

On tomorrow's Thursday stream, they are doing a preview. Last time the preview came out, it was on the day they showed it on stream.

 

Maaaaaybe tomorrow?

[enragedcamel]

It's notable that none of the replies on this thread are from Klei employees.

[KittenIsAGeek]

Why would they reply on a troll thread?

[Kabrute]

Here is the devs answer

 

[BlueLance]

6 hours ago, enragedcamel said:

It's notable that none of the replies on this thread are from Klei employees.

The devs tend not to reply to threads unless its absolutely necessary. I see no reason for them to have to say "We are releasing the preview on xyz like we almost always do"

[PhailRaptor]

6 hours ago, enragedcamel said:

It's notable that none of the replies on this thread are from Klei employees.

Notable of how the company chooses to communicate (which is somewhat concerning, personally), not on the release schedule.

[blash365]

6 hours ago, PhailRaptor said:

Notable of how the company chooses to communicate (which is somewhat concerning, personally), not on the release schedule.

So having a huge banner inside of their app, which denotes (exactly to my experience) when the next update will be shipped, is "not communicating" in your book?

There is something concerning here, but it is most certainly not what you think it is.

[JonnyMonroe]

6 minutes ago, blash365 said:

So having a huge banner inside of their app, which denotes (exactly to my experience) when the next update will be shipped, is "not communicating" in your book?

There is something concerning here, but it is most certainly not what you think it is.

It's communicating, but on a very minimal and unidirectional way. I don't want to put words in phails' mouth but I suspect he wants to see more actual community engagement. If that's the case I have to say I agree.

[trukogre]

Just now, JonnyMonroe said:

It's communicating, but on a very minimal and unidirectional way. I don't want to put words in phails' mouth but I suspect he wants to see more actual community engagement. If that's the case I have to say I agree.

actual community engagement, you mean like a dev livestream that they could do this afternoon to coincide with the release of the preview branch?  That's a great idea.

[Grimgaw]

1 minute ago, JonnyMonroe said:

more actual community engagement

There's the weekly stream. Just don't ask any pertinent questions.

[JonnyMonroe]

5 minutes ago, trukogre said:

community engagement, like a dev livestream in a few hours?

I watched one of those once. They largely ignored chat, and never addressed any substantive questions. There is already plenty of Oni streams on twitch I can watch that give me literally the same info. A stream is still unidirectional and lacks engagement if the streamers choose not to engage.

 

I'm not even criticising klei here. Their job is to make the game and they're doing that. I'm just observing that they choose not to engage the community.

[goboking]

27 minutes ago, JonnyMonroe said:

I watched one of those once. They largely ignored chat, and never addressed any substantive questions. There is already plenty of Oni streams on twitch I can watch that give me literally the same info. A stream is still unidirectional and lacks engagement if the streamers choose not to engage.

They engage plenty, just not in the way you want.  There are plenty of fans who enjoy their live streams.  And if you think you can get the "same info" elsewhere (you can't) then you're free to do so.

Let me explain to you how this works.  They're working very hard on new content.  They don't know when the new content will be ready or if they'll have to scrap it because of bugs, shifts in design philosophy, etc.  If they promise specific content and later have to scrap it, fans may get upset.  As such, it's best not to say anything about content until it's almost ready for release.

[blash365]

1 hour ago, JonnyMonroe said:

It's communicating, but on a very minimal and unidirectional way. I don't want to put words in phails' mouth but I suspect he wants to see more actual community engagement. If that's the case I have to say I agree.

Its not minimal. Its practical. Developers are supposed to ship a product, anything else has to be second to that.

Look at other companies, whom you most likely have been in contact with: blizzard or valve. They also dont talk to the community. And if they do, it is pure marketing. Their games are great, but they also dont communicate unless they got an agenda.

And those companies actually do have the money to employ community managers, who could actually do this job.

 

Klei is an indie studio, producing indie games. I'd rather have them stay that way than a company that jumps on every trend on their twitter feed.

 

The usual unspoken agreement when participating in an early access/beta is that you provide feedback and suggestions. And the devs will take those and make their decision. Usually that happens internally, sometimes they announce stuff, even more rarely, they ask the community.

That is the established way and given how many people arrive on feedback forums with "their special new, incredible idea", it is the most practical and sane for sure.

 

And keep in mind that this thread is not even about community engagement, it is about the due date of a _PREVIEW_ update. And the update is not even delayed as far as we know it. Completely unfounded, uninformed and - to be frank - entitled crap.

 

P. S.: additionally you should not measure developers by the statements they utter. Else peter molyneux would be the greatest developer of all time. hellgate london would still be up and running. duke nukem would be eye candy, no mans sky would look incredible. star citizen would have been released 5 years ago and tim schaefer would actually find people backing him on kickstarter. oh wait.

You should measure them by what they deliver. And klei has so far delivered ~8 content updates, each enriching the gameplay and giving us thenths, hundreds, in some cases thousands of hours every month.

You really should not need a forum announcement to register that.

[trukogre]

59 minutes ago, JonnyMonroe said:

I watched one of those once. They largely ignored chat, and never addressed any substantive questions. There is already plenty of Oni streams on twitch I can watch that give me literally the same info. A stream is still unidirectional and lacks engagement if the streamers choose not to engage.

 

I'm not even criticising klei here. Their job is to make the game and they're doing that. I'm just observing that they choose not to engage the community.

Your definition of engagement is just that, your definition.  I don't share it.  here's the thing, Klei has multiple options for releasing 'substantive' information.  They can release it in somewhat carefully written releases, or they can share that information only after someone asks about it on a livestream, or in a forum post.  It is a much more sensible and organized strategy to use the former method, instead of the latter methods.   If they don't reserve any substantive information from their written updates, then they don't have any substantive information left to give in response to questions.  Your definition of engagement presupposes that Klei should play games with this information and intentionally hold information back from the written release descriptions so that you can feel 'engaged with'.  Thankfully, Klei doesn't do that.

[blash365]

QED

[KittenIsAGeek]

1 hour ago, blash365 said:

 

There is something concerning here, but it is most certainly not what you think it is.

Yeah, this is a troll thread.  Stop feeding the trolls.  Oh, wait.. darn it! I just fed the trolls.. I'll go put myself in timeout now.

[withers]

Hey what gives, man?  Even though they released the last preview and update exactly on schedule, it's now been over two hours since that one and nothing.  They should really give us more community engagement, so that we know they haven't forgotten about us.

 

[Oozinator]

Six weeks from now..