They also need to stop working on 3+ versions until they got at least the latest one fixed.
Otherwise this circle will repeat forever:
1.5.8 fixed, 1.5.9 released and a lot of stuff breaks again (hello old/new bugs), while fixing 1.5.9 they´ll work on 1.6.0 and that´s the circle.
It feels like they have X "departments" and department A got stuff Y ready and it works if you just focus on stuff Y, then department B got stuff Z ready and it works if you just focus on stuff Z. Then they throw this stuff together and release it with no testing and everything breaks.
Sure graphic / sound / whatever designers should also work on new armors and stuff like that, but let the code devs focus on fixing stuff before adding new stuff.
Yea, I know that I don´t know how software development works but I do know that I don´t own any other EA game that has that much issues. And most of them also have a beta branch, in most cases I also use the beta branch.
We are almost 1 year into this EA release! And major stuff (siege AI as an example) doesn´t get any focus as it seems. Start fixing the core features.
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“While we do not have a set date for a full release at this moment in time, we expect that the game will be in early access for around a year.
So they are still (27.02.2021) claiming that this game will be finished "soon". Imagine you are a new customer and are on the fence deciding to buy it NOW. You would think it will be close to final release. Also the good reviews, seems like us forum people are the only ones who see or have those issues...we are really unlucky,
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“The early access version of the game contains a wealth of content that will keep players engaged for many hours. While the early access version is very much stable and playable, players can expect to run into some obscure bugs and other issues while playing that we intend to locate and fix before the full release.
all in a vast singleplayer sandbox setting where no two playthroughs are the same.
A wealth of content: Doing the same battles over and over and over again to be maybe lucky to find some high tier armor in a settlement
Some obsucre bugs: Bugs that were fixed and are there again over and over and over again and still broken/unbalanced core features
Sure! Khuzait steamrolling everything for a year, but Mexxico was able to improve it a few months ago....because he listened...but will be gone soon....each playthrough is of course is different.
Sometimes your first battle will be against 5 looters and sometimes against 3 looters. Or your first caravan will be living for days or for weeks. Sometimes you even get the chance to exploit the broken smithing system in the early and not in the mid game! Sometimes you meet a useless medic wanderer with 1 int stat or an engineer with 4 strenght and 1 int. Who knows?
A honest EA description up to date would be a joke....like:
Why Early Access?
We want the money! We have hyped the game for years, have shown you things that will never be in the game. It´s a good time to get your money now. It´s better to release it now until the reviewers will notice that a lof stuff we´ve shown isn´t in the game or they notice that most core features are unbalanced or even broken.
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
Core features will maybe working, we are not sure yet. We are still working hard to add those banners (that´s why we call it Bannerlord) to the game after 1 year. But they are in the game files, we alreadey have them.
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
It´s a broken mess. Open field battles are kind of fun unless you´ve played like 10 or more of them. Then they all be the same. But we have developed a unique huge scale battlefield engine. So you have no choice if you want to play huge medieval battles. Otherwise you wouldn´t be interested in our game at all we guess. We also have a lot of unfinished or/and non working features. Imagine like a CK game but most stuff is broken and doesn´t have any impact. Like you can have children and you´ll play as your child when you die. But you can fight every battle as a single commander/unit if you like, otherwise there is also a auto resolve option if you want to focus on diplomancy (not yet implanted, maybe later, not sure yet). We don´t want this game to become to complex for those Call of Duty players on consoles, and there are a lot of them. So we also want to have some of their money. Keep it simple!
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
No! We already have a tripple A price. We can´t go much higher. We´ll get more money from the console release, that´s why we focus on the console port instead of fixing/balancing the game right now. We will maybe focus on fixing/balacning stuff after the console version is released.
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
We´ll listen! We have a forum! But we´ll ignore any feedback. We do what we want and think that it´s the best for the game. We don´t really care about players that have already purchased the game. Our focus is to get new customers.
This would be honest!
Of course we know it´s not even close to be released, but we already paid....we are not important anymore. The new customers are important and of course the whole console players.
The new terrain battle map system looks great, but I won´t be able to enjoy it if the core game is still broken.
Remember the times when it was "after the refactor everything will be better"?
EDIT:
Added some "thoughts"....
