Development rant

I originally posted this here as a response to Mythbuster leaving BeamNG.

All I want of this is a response from the developers, I want to know where the game really is going. I don't care about anyone's opinion on the subject other than the game's developers and I will not get into arguments concerning it.

Start of rant/request

Developers, you made an experimental build, update it. I don't give a fuck if it bugs and lags and crashes every five minutes, give us something new. Right now there's not much to do in the game other than check out the new update every few months.
Once your game has something to do in it, you can pull off a long-wait-big-update system just fine, but with the game as it is, you need to keep people interested, or else... Well, this happens. That way to keep people interested is constant updates with new content.
While I absolutely understand your intentions to finish building a fully working, realistic and powerful physics engine first, it's not the way to keep people interested. You didn't sell a physics engine, you sold us a game.
I'm very interested in the code behind the physics engine itself, sure, but you aren't showing us anything about it either, so I can't enjoy that. And I can't enjoy the game, because there's nothing to do and you guys don't update it.

Right now, I can't recommend this game to anyone. All I can say is "it's this really cool physics engine where you can drive around with realistic crashes, but there's nothing else to do because it will be added in later updates".
You already have the best damn physics engine I've ever seen in my entire bloody life, now go make a proper game for it before everyone gets bored. Just add the basics, give us some quick updates that add a few new stuff. Once we can have proper races, police chases or delivery missions, add in a simple (even broken, that means extra fun) traffic AI, and you instantly have one of the best driving games money can buy. The physics engine is already good enough, you can improve it as you improve the game.

Once again, remember, we're all asking for a game because you sold us a game. Fuck my money, I don't care about that. I just want to see this great physics engine become the best. Fucking. Game. Ever. And it has the potential. You have the chance. Go take it now.


End of rant/request

Please, respond so at least I (we, as a forum community) can know where this is going, whether it's worth to stay or not. As I said, I don't care about my £10. I want this engine to become a game, the damn great game it can and should become as the damn great engine it is.

 

Ahhhhh......the memories.

 

Did Drowsey delete his own comment for whatever reason?

 

NDA
sem is fegit
9/11 was an inside job
lee harvey oswald wasn't the only shooter
the bermuda triangel is accualy a government experiment to trap ufos
etc
etc
etc

 

You forgot:
we didnt land on the moon
a spacecraft was only sent to that comet to contact alien life forms
area51!!!!!!!!!! roswell!!!!!!!!!!!
Bush was a great president!

 

^ This forum in a nutshell.

 

I think you underestimate how broken the builds probably are prior to release. Don't think I wouldn't love updates with the frequency of Space Engineer's, but I think this is kind of the pace things are going at. And the experimental build is still the bleeding edge, it's just the bleeding edge of a very slow dev cycle (remember the September 2013 - June 2014 update blackout? Monthly updates seem pretty tolerable in relation). And this is fine by me, seeing as they're breaking new ground. Also, you have the whiny people who complain when an openly broken product breaks. So there's some other incentive.

I most agree with this statement in that objective-oriented gameplay should be the soul focus for now. The biggest issue I take with the devs is not the pace of the work, but the odd prioritization of a replay feature over the leaderboard system, a belief I deem flawed. Gameplay will attract attention to the game, and truly give us something to do to pass the time. Machinima aids, while useful, can wait.

I also think that the devs should consider being a bit more forthright about the game. State, openly, that the actual, non-physics gameplay mechanics could still be months away even in their crudest form. Give us a proper roadmap, and gather some more calculated due dates as to roughly when major anticipated features are likely to roll out.

 

I agree with what both of you guys said for the most part. The prioritization of development is rather messed up. What's been bugging me a lot lately is the broken parts selector. If i was a developer, that would have been moved to the top of the list as soon as it got broken. Seeing as there is no real gameplay at the moment, all people get to do is mess with their cars. Parts selection is a *huge* part of this (in my opinion) Its obviously not going to be a game for a loooong time, everybody knows that. If gameplay wont be implemented for a while, then at the very least, have the game function in its current form. I understand that getting a game out fast is nearly impossible, getting a made-from-scratch physics engine into a game in a relatively timely manor is also basically impossible. But it is possible to make that process more bearable with the community by clear and concise communication instead of all of this silence, broken apart my mysterious and potentially unreliable clues of something in the future. I love beamng, i really do. but its getting harder to stick around here and wait for it to become something truly great.

~edit~
And lol at the fact that Sam and TheShark come back onto this thread to read what people say after every single post.

 

Lurkin' eh?

 

It certainly does seem like it

 

Seeing as one of them is literally named 'TheShark,' the Jaws theme seems eerily fitting.

 

Regardless of all the well stated and mature responses to this subject ( a WIP itself ), the amount of guest traffic to this thread should be an indicator of the interest
in the issue. The OP's frustration is felt by many and you just can't deny that. For every thread created about this there are probably 10 others feeling the same
way but they can't or won't post anything about it for fear of feeling the "wrath". I don't care what anyone says, The BeamNG experience needs to be better
managed, plain and simple.

 

I feel pretty sizeable monthly updates like the last two are just fine. As long as we don't just have yet another like 8 months old silence I'll be happy honestly.

I do feel we need to add in some more basic features at the same time though, things like working ties and commands. These two features alone added a lot of fun and interesting content to RoR, imagine what we could do on this much improved and optimised engine

 

Try making a car.

Really the thing that keeps me here is making tons of crappy converts nobody ever sees and crash them into stuff, its really enjoyable, just the freedom that i can get any car in here, however bad it is.

 

>13 September
Lurking for future content and irc

 

Estama, I really think you should do more blog posts. You peak my curiosity every time you post about all this background development stuff. I don't even know what some of the stuff is, but I find your posts very interesting to my technical side.

 

I get them :/