The simulation side of TSW is excellent, but there is an absolute lack of QA and polish, so much it still feels like an early pre-release an entire year after public launch. The base game has so many little immersion-breaking things that should have been addressed long ago, such as the doppler effect on external cameras, tunnel lighting (still no idea how this got past QA), the incredibly ugly track and texture phasing, sound bugs based on location, etc. I'm not saying this to be picky, I'm saying this based on what I would expect from any other developer at this price, and especially for how much is charged for each DLC. I'm sure you guys have a plan for what's next to come, and I'm excited myself to see what we'll get from the NEC DLC (and would admittedly appreciate it if we could get more details than just what we get in the Steam Store page), but there is so much work that needs to be done on the game as it is that I, and I'm sure many others, would much rather see time taken just to iron out these issues before rushing out new content. A bit of a rant, but I really just want to see DTG focus on QA for once, there are so many simple things that just aren't taken care of that seem so obvious. I want this and DTG to succeed, but I'm only going to ride for so long until I get tired of these dumb little things that just ruin the entire experience. I'm not trying to be picky, I just want to express what I would expect as a consumer from any other developer at this price range. So close to perfect, you guys can do it. Other members of this community, feel free to share your thoughts; am I being harsh, does this sound fair, or am I actually just missing a list of information published somewhere that says "yes we are working on these things" from DTG? Thanks!
Here's a comment I found from DTG_James on Steam saying how there are separate teams for content creation and bug fixes, but I really can't help but feel like that in of itself is far from the truth, as he says himself: http://steamcommunity.com/app/530070/discussions/0/1697167168520813512/#c1697167355212988185 You guys keep saying these things but aren't really showing for it, to be blunt. There are still major bugs from launch that makes this feel like a pre-release. Come on. I would legit not care if you guys went 6-12 months without adding content and only focused on bugfixes and polish.
You can also make this point with your wallet. After pre-ordering all DLCs so far, I'm skipping NEC for the reasons raised in this thread. At the prices they charge, I expect better.
The pre-release price is only $17.99 -- at least wait until the cost rises after release to start griping over nearly nothing?
Well if you want to be precise: They didnt add any kind of new Features to the Base Game in like 7-8 months. All we got are Bugfixes, Dlcs and well Bugfixes for the released Dlcs. Id assume they have about 4 Teams? One focused on Bugfixing, one on the Xbox Version, one on developing Content in the sort of Dlcs and the other one focused on implementing Multiplayer or the Editor. So them changing their focus from one of the Teams whos job isnt already Bugfixing into Bugfixing seems unlikely/not possible
We're griping over the active costs of things that are already out, and from the trailers of the NEC I see there are still unfixed issues, such as texture streaming. Not the lack of content, but they're charging $40 for an unfinished game (and keep in mind, still $40 for TS"2018" from 2009 as well which is also barren of any content unless you pay $$$ for "dlc"). We're paying full-price for a product advertised as complete but plays like pre-release, any other company or game would have higher expectations than this, why make an exception for DTG? I picked up the bundle with the GWR and got the pre-order of the NEC because of the sale, but yeah I won't buy anything more until they fix what's already out.
Quality Assurance; in software it involves a team of people who run a variety of tests on the software looking for bugs and other defects.
This, Quality Assurance, plus just the process of making sure things are to expected quality (though this part I feel should be an expectation of everyone in my personal experience).