That's quite a long way of saying 'no'The design can change quickly and drastically before we release the feature as part of Beta and we don't want to build false expectations or otherwise mislead players about it. At the same time, there is typically only a very small window between a prototype that has addressed the major challenges that may lead to such drastic changes and our actual release of it to the beta branch. That is to say, that we do seek to get content into the players' hands as soon as possible so that we may see and respond to their thoughts (part of the reason why we have a beta branch).
Once released, the feedback and suggestions that players provide for a feature are relayed to the developers and designers (both by developers directly browsing through it as well as through more structured suggestion meetings). That form of feedback is a result of direct in-game experience and we believe it to be the most effective with our design and implementation process. We also haven't had a case where feedback wasn't included because it wasn't received prior to the feature going to the Beta branch - obviously, this doesn't concern design decisions made long before we went into early access.
Having said that, we do encourage community members to engage with and share their thoughts on our statements for SP and MP. Similarly, we very much appreciate feedback threads in the appropriate sections or suggestion threads in the designated areas where users share their own ideas. I can assure you that these areas are being checked and that relevant feedback is being reviewed.
But jokes aside, I do get what you mean. But what I was suggesting wasn't actually getting the one-o-one direct opinion of player base but rather more like a heads-up with details for upcoming major changes before it already hit the plate to get super early feedback. Because no one knows what's planned for the future as major changes, what we should expect in the next quarter at the moment with some details.
For example, let's assume that TW has plans on sailing/ship feature, rather than saying "We will be working on it"(which is also something we rarely see for major features, they usually came out from nowhere once implementation is halfway through) it would be better to know more or less what's on the team's mind for a prototype before actual implementation so that people can suggest and react based on their expectations to shape the idea. We will hopefully see a small version of this with Village Upgrade thingy.
This can save a lot of time for developers for complex features that might backfire and it also shows the value of community to community - because right now, many people feel like they left alone with the game. I know that's not true, you know that's not true, but that's the impression many have.
What I think would also help is having a feedback loop for the features/suggestions from the community. There are a lot of great and small improvement suggestions in the forum that doesn't look like even considered by the team. I know it's almost impossible to consider all of them since TW isn't a superhuman company, but having an official thread where which ideas on which thread is actually considered and rejected/accepted/will be worked on as POC would be a great organized way of showing the community effect on the game. What I'm saying is the official version of this thread ( This is 12 years old thread btw and there are still ideas which could be used for Bannerlord )
If there is a thread like that I'm missing, feel free to dismiss what I said - but I didn't see any so far.