masterofping

A question, and a list of features that could of prevented me from quitting.

A question, and a list of features that could of prevented me from quitting.

I played demigod addictively for about 3 months after it shipped. Good premise, fun multiplayer, alas few problems at beginning.

My question is, how many of the players who prebought the game are still around? The clan I was apart of pretty much have all quit, and think the game is dead. I don't care if you still have new players, etc, how many actually stay?

Anyways, so I quit, and it's really simple why. For anyone wondering, I play HoN exclusively now, which is exactly Dota.  Now, barring game to game comparisons which I won't do, I don't care if Dota is a bad game or not in your opinion, HoN has features that had they been in Demigod within the last few months I wouldn't of quit. So to make this post short, here's a list!

-Reconnection (oh I dcced, my game crashed, and I can come back!)

-PSR. HoN has a system in the UI that shows a number that trys to compute an overall persons skill. It works like Chess ratings where if you win against an equal team ur PSR goes up, if it doesn't it goes down.  Basically you can tell if a game is a pub stomp simply by a % that is shown over each team (which is computed by adding up a teams total PSR).  If one side shows 90% chance to win, and the other side shows 10%, you know you shouldn't waste your time with this specific game.  They also have an autobalance button to make it so each side is as equal as can be done with such a simple system. Systems not perfect but it helps immensely for a solo player.

-Built in voice chat.

-Clans, nuff said.

-Messaging system + buddy list, all in game simply by pressing f6,  you can see who is online, and get an im box by double clicking on someones name.  When I was using the impulse UI, I'm sorry but it made me puke with its flaws.  HoN's UI shows you when your buddy/clans join a game, and allow you to follow them to any game. It's also amazingly simple yet effective. Whereas Impulse's UI was simple and ineffective.

-Game browser. You can search games by name, map, mode, tier (Noobs/Noobs Allowed/ Pros only). Oh yeh, they have tiers, so you can make your game say pros only, or noobs only. Tiers are governed I believe by numbers of games.

-In game stats. You can see a persons stats simply by right clicking them. You can see if they are leaver, or if they are good or bad.

-Reconnection. Oh I already said this, but seriously!

Lastly, you guys promised the new demigods a month ago. This is beyond sad that its not done yet.  Your own fault trying to make a game look so good, that adding new heroes takes months and months of time to create. The type of genre demigod exists in, is more dependant on changing gameplay than good looks. New heroes create new gameplay, lack of new heroes creates stagnant gameplay which imo, ultimately makes anyone who enjoyed it quit. 8 different heroes in a 5v5 game is pathetic.

I really enjoyed Demigod, I'm really sad that the developer allowed it to stagnate and ultimately cause me to quit. (At least until the new demigods come out)

 

PS. Add more unique items. Dota/HoN has a very unique plethora of items, which adds to gameplay. I find the item set in demigod to be ultimately just a set of +dmg/+hp/+armor/+mana regen/+speed that is pretty boring. Favor items are about all that is cool.

 

 

 

 

 

128,811 views 45 replies
Reply #26 Top

Stardock, watch out. You made this person quit.

Reply #27 Top

Stop trolling my post if you don't like the fact that I use "this is beyond sad".

 

Didn't say I didn't like the phrase, I said it demonstrated your real intent.

I don't believe you "neither want you guys to play hon, nor care. Nor is it an axe to grind,".  If that were true, your post would either A: Not have been necessary or B: Actually have had a constructive tone.

As for "trolling," I have been making assertions backed by facts.  I would argue that the sarcastic snipes are where you should direct the troll label.

 

 

Reply #28 Top

Quoting Butterchin, reply 24
Rydier:

A post which contains elements like "This is beyond sad" and "Your own fault" is not constructive criticism.  The tone makes it clear what the true intent is.  This is someone who has an axe to grind, combined with a nice propaganda piece for another game.

Your sarcastic stab, attempting to state that my post somehow ignores the true merits of the OP's post, is neither persuasive nor accurate.

 

 

 

Sorry, guess I just have a builtin filter to these things now, to me the post read something like:

Quoting OP,

Here's the things that made me frustrated enough to quit:
- Reconnects
- Seeing how much ranking you'll gain/loose in the lobby
- Voice Chat
- Clans
- Better buddy system
- Game filters
- Ingame stats

I really enjoyed Demigod, I'm really sad that the developer allowed it to stagnate and ultimately cause me to quit

I really don't see how that list constitutes an inaccurate description of some of Demigods shortcomings.

Please enlighten me.

 

Reply #29 Top

I just don't see the point in these "I quit and I want you to know about it" posts.   They pop up fairly regularly.  If you want to make a contructive criticism post, then do so.  If you want us to know about how you and your clan have quit, don't bother.  Don't try to confuse the two -- they are not the same thing.

And Rydier, given your shoot-from-the-hip sarcasm, I'm not really moved to "enlighten" you about anything.  At least not anything that you're going to particularly enjoy being enlightened about ;)

 

 

Reply #30 Top

In my opinion, much of the frustration isn't necessarily over what is missing, but over the glacial pace of fixing what is already there.  If I recall correctly, there were even two or three instances where the community found and provided the fix for a problem, and nothing happened for weeks or months.

I personally find the prioritization of fixes puzzling.  For example, v1.19 fixed angel flight movement and something to do with repulsion.  I don't recall any complaints about angels and still don't know what repulsion is and why it was important to fix.  There are many other more highly visible bugs that could have benefited from whatever resources were spent on these.

Reply #31 Top

Quoting brjoha, reply 30
In my opinion, much of the frustration isn't necessarily over what is missing, but over the glacial pace of fixing what is already there.  If I recall correctly, there were even two or three instances where the community found and provided the fix for a problem, and nothing happened for weeks or months.

I personally find the prioritization of fixes puzzling.  For example, v1.19 fixed angel flight movement and something to do with repulsion.  I don't recall any complaints about angels and still don't know what repulsion is and why it was important to fix.  There are many other more highly visible bugs that could have benefited from whatever resources were spent on these.

^^^^

Reply #32 Top

Quoting brjoha, reply 30
In my opinion, much of the frustration isn't necessarily over what is missing, but over the glacial pace of fixing what is already there.  If I recall correctly, there were even two or three instances where the community found and provided the fix for a problem, and nothing happened for weeks or months.

As Frogboy stated, the concerns of the community need to be presented in constructive ways - otherwise they simply won't get passed along. Creating a well presented and written thread detailing the issue and the correction - complete with code samples - will enusre it's addressed promptly, and bringing to Stardock's attention in nice ways other than just making the thread of your title "F**K YOU STARDOCK READ THIS". Posting threads to bitch and moan simply make the process take longer.

Quoting brjoha, reply 30
I personally find the prioritization of fixes puzzling.  For example, v1.19 fixed angel flight movement and something to do with repulsion.  I don't recall any complaints about angels and still don't know what repulsion is and why it was important to fix.  There are many other more highly visible bugs that could have benefited from whatever resources were spent on these.

I believe the bolded section sums up the reasoning behind your complaints. You don't understand. How are Stardock supposed to prioritise the complaints of the community when every single one is listed as "FIX THIS NOW OR GAME DIES" by the people making the noise? You clearly spend some time on the forum, which are the most important issues for the entire community? Keep in mind that, as you've amply demonstrated, it doesn't matter what they fix in the game or what additions are made to it, people are going to bitch, moan and complain anyway, so why should they work their assess off when they're simply going to be insulted, flamed and trolled into the 7th Circle of Hell for doing it?

And, to clarify, repulsion is a technique used in the game to help with the pathing of the minions - it was reduced to provide temporary relief on the pathing issues while the minions pathing is giving more attention.

Reply #33 Top

Quoting ZehDon, reply 32
How are Stardock supposed to prioritise the complaints of the community when every single one is listed as "FIX THIS NOW OR GAME DIES" by the people making the noise? You clearly spend some time on the forum, which are the most important issues for the entire community?

Please refrain from exageration.  There are numerous polite and helpful bug and bug summation threads that have been around since launch.  I've simply highlighted that, in my opinion, it is the lack of timely resolution of these issues that lead to the expressions of frustration in the other type of bug thread.  As for assessing importance and priority, think customer impact, and if I have to explain it to you then you haven't been paying attention.

By the way, I'm not hanging around the forums looking for opportunities to bash the game.  So many others do it better than I ever could.  I stick around because as frustrating as the game has been, it has been just as entertaining.  I hold out, hoping Frogboy's optimism will translate into something tangible.

Reply #34 Top

No exaggeration was used - name an issue and you'll find a post attempting to inform the rest of us that it's the most important issue facing Demigod. I've even seen posts detailing why Replays were a bad idea.

Quoting brjoha, reply 33
I hold out, hoping Frogboy's optimism will translate into something tangible.


I'm not sure what you're holding out for?
The only complaint I can honestly level against Demigod is that it needs Team features and that those features honetly should have been in the box, and I can't imagine why there weren't. These have been confirmed to be in the works as a joint venture between the development of Elemental and the on-going support of Demigod and will be added in as they're completed.
If you're refering to the bugs and glitches, they'll be ironed out in time - if you're unhappy with waiting, then don't.

Reply #35 Top

Quoting ZehDon, reply 34
I'm not sure what you're holding out for?

I already told you.

Quoting ZehDon, reply 34
...will be added in as they're completed... they'll be ironed out in time...

And, to reinforce my point, lets us hope with some sense of urgency...

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Reply #36 Top

I believe this discussion has taken place more than once, I'll do my best to sum to up quickly:

  • Communities do no survive on Casual players.
  • 'Casual' players make up more than 50% of a game's community due to marketing, etc.
  • 'Casual' players migrate with new releases, much like birds during different seasons.
  • 'Core' gamers make up the community - they produce the mods, maps, and additional fan made content.
  • Demigod inherited the DotA crowd due to it's gameplay - fan boys looking for the 'next big thing'.
  • The DotA crowd are in the process of moving over to HoN: DotA 2.

The numbers are going to get a lot, lot smaller. Stay tuned!

Reply #37 Top

@ brjoa -

and where do you factor in things like:

kids returning to school

games typically spiking on release/expansion.

the fact that pantheon play (which reflects more deteremined players in my mind as opposed to PUGs) has remained constant though out this limited time frame of the data

Reply #38 Top

Quoting mrlarone, reply 37
and where do you factor in things like...

You are deluding yourself if you think the community is losing players for reasons other than quality and content.  The graph above used to have data going back to v1.1, emphasizing the trend and the negligible impact the patches and demo have had on it.  What's particularly striking is that for a game that has sold "hundreds of thousands" of copies, there are, on average, now less than 150 people playing it worldwide.  Sadly, these are the facts and it's silly to try and refute them or make excuses.

Reply #39 Top

there's roughly 1,300 (rounding down) players online currently. not bad for a thursday afternoon (GMT)

really as long as there some players i'll be happy, not in it to be OMG UBER and not really a fan of that mentality. the OP's made some good points, but the way he's framed is just grating.

 

Reply #40 Top

Quoting mrlarone, reply 39
there's roughly 1,300 (rounding down) players online currently. not bad for a thursday afternoon (GMT)

really as long as there some players i'll be happy, not in it to be OMG UBER and not really a fan of that mentality. the OP's made some good points, but the way he's framed is just grating.

 

I don't understand, other than my rant against the fact that promised demigods have been taking forever to be put into the game where is the "the way he framed it was just grating".  Really is everyone that sensitive?


I'm sorry if my post wasn't full of fun and bliss. I'm not exactly happy that a good game I spent 45 dollars has gone stagnant. I'm sure it will get better within time, but I'll still be looking forward to these features making way into the game someday.

Reply #41 Top

Quoting mrlarone, reply 39
there's roughly 1,300 (rounding down) players online currently. not bad for a thursday afternoon (GMT)

really as long as there some players i'll be happy, not in it to be OMG UBER and not really a fan of that mentality. the OP's made some good points, but the way he's framed is just grating.

 

Quoting brjoha, reply 38



 there are, on average, now less than 150 people playing it worldwide.  Sadly, these are the facts and it's silly to try and refute them or make excuses.

Well is it 150 or 1,300 on a Thursday afternoon? Just based on personal experience I'd say the latter was the case. If so, I wonder what the graph is really showing, number of games played maybe?

Reply #42 Top

oh, sorry, i should really cite sources.

http://www.demigodthegame.com/opengames.asp

could be games played...

Reply #43 Top

Quoting Guderian77, reply 41

Well is it 150 or 1,300 on a Thursday afternoon? Just based on personal experience I'd say the latter was the case. If so, I wonder what the graph is really showing, number of games played maybe?

current: 28 games, avg game is 3v3 so ~ 180 people playing.

I don't know what the ~1300 shown on opengames.asp is, but I'm pretty sure there aren't 1000 people in lobbies or waiting to join a lobby. I remember someone asking about this a while ago but don't recall the response from SD...it could be replication over the (6?) servers they have running or something.

Reply #44 Top

I have to say that 250 players in game at the peak is not really a great figure.

 

The trouble is that this game now has such a small community it is unreal. This forum used to have loads of posts a day, now it barely has over 20 active topics each day.

 

It was still worth the money for me though, no regrets in purchasing in it and I may even play the odd game here and there.

It was never a bad game.

Reply #45 Top

It was still worth the money for me though, no regrets in purchasing in it and I may even play the odd game here and there.

It was never a bad game.

QFT

I still put trust that it'll come together, if not already...