Dtgs Continued Failure Of Communication.

I cannot believe i have to write yet another rant about Dtg and their lack of communication. If this turns into a rant, then so be it. Does anyone remember when dtg said they'd improve on their communication? Because i do.

So you maybe thinking "oh, hes one one again" Yes your right! And why, you ask? Well it is because dtg have gone back to their old ways- that is to say barely anything at all. There was a patch that was released late at night. Not a problem. Its not knowing the patch was coming thats the problem.

What made me really think is the mml feedback thread. Go read it. Heads up, its long. This is how you communicate. Shg have nailed it when it comes to bug fixes and communication in regards to progression. Dtg need to do the same. Because if things continue down the non communicative path, people will lose faith in the company.

Dtg has released some incredible routes and locos. However recently they have gone very quiet. All I'm asking for is updates on bug fixes. Don't just release a patch without notes. A simple announcement will do, both prior and after release. Please keep us informed Dtg. Thats what i want. You've got fantastic staff, truly dedicated to their work. Just be clearer is all

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sup a nice pint of wainwright golden beer

 

some patches are like backend stuff like in preparation of a route release so doesn't necessarily require a set of patch notes. But i agree with communication requiring improvement

 

Its the lack of patch notes that i find annoying. How do you report a bug from a patch if nothing is noted about said patch.

 

I still think Focus have implemented some new instructions regarding interactions with the community, definitely been a decline in official communication since then.

 

I don’t think the issue is just communicating with us as customers, seems to be an internal thing too.

Did anyone see yesterdays discussion on a tread about the late night patch? it contained an update file for SEHS, JD commented that the patch was only to address adding Glossop Line support. Then someone commented that an issue on SEHS had disappeared, at which point JD came back with “we are trying to address some SEHS issues”.

It’s hardly a world ending predicament, but to me it just makes it look like incompetence on someone’s part - and it worries me that it might be an issue which runs deeper than just patch notes.

 

So can you confirm or deny that Focus have implemented any new (I.e. more restrictive) guidelines when it comes to posting openly on the public forums?

 

Apart from the fact that even after the first patch, MML is actually still pretty broken.

 

I just wrote this on the MML thread

The issues some of us have with Creator Club , that have been mentioned for months , the lack of passengers, which is something that is vital to the game , the promises to fix Peninsula that were promised three Prime Ministers ago, broken trophies that Manfonse is doing a Stirling job of researching on the Tech forum, to name but a few . None of these have been addressed or even acknowledged for some time or even at all. I’m the past Nat or Sam would at least acknowledge the existence of these issues . Its fire and forget and get the next DLC out . Reminds me of Rawhide.
Move 'em on, head 'em up, head 'em up, move 'em on

Supposedly DTG is a bigger company than it was a year ago. Why can’t they employ a person whose job it is to monitor the forum and nothing else ?

 

"Focus have not implemented any guidelines regarding communication at all, in addition, I can confirm they haven't had any impact on what we do at Dovetail at all."

The scariest quote for an existing or prospective customer to read.

 

That is quite worrying considering how great SHG have been. Its a shame dtg seem to be going purposefully down hill on both communication and streaming but I appreciate its probably hard for them to engage on the forums sometimes with opinions. But then the other side of the coin in Skyhook have been fantastic (just waiting for the updates).

 

Another small update today but still no hot fix for MML and nothing for Niddertalbahn.

They can patch their own routes but 3rd parties can swivel or so it seems.

 

Could you please address my comments above your last post please ?

 

My steam just seems to have downloaded a 252mb update, anyone know what this is?

 

A fix the SEHS to stop you spawning in the wrong place

 

Thanks just found this posted as an addition to the previous patch note thread.

Update: June 29th, 14:00
Hey everybody wanted to let you know of a patch that will be pushed live later today:

Southeastern High Speed

• Fixed an issue whereby players were spawning in random locations on certain services.

 

Doesn’t anyone remember the pre-Sam era? Communication is 1,000 times better than it was back then.

 

I beg to differ. Sam always had our backs. Communication since sam has left has been diabolical at best

 

Just open a praise-and-glory-to-DTG thread and watch how fast response time from the community managers can be.

 

Well, now I´m genuinely worried.

 

Communication is about how your message arrives at the audience. How long do you mention Pen Corridor fixes in your roadmaps? Walk the talk!

Your game ain´t cheap. You call off an AAA price list, yet you deliver A quality. At best. Just look at your latest patch track record. What had to be fixed in a rush and what did it mess up additionally (which, in term, calls for another patch)? And the bug lists are piling up ...
If you think you do enough money with this fire-and forget policy, think how much money you could have made if the delivered quality would stand up to your price list.
If you can´t reproduce bugs which are evident after 5 minutes game play, work more closely with the community. That´s what community managers are for.
I have a feeling that a little humble pie eating at DTG side wouldn´t hurt too much. You´ll live through it.
To repeat the essence of this post: Walk the talk!

That being said, I wouldn´t want to walk in your shoes, because I know how hard it is to defend publicly a given company policy while you don´t get factual backup from them. There´re no mid terms to negotiate: A bug is squashed and fixed, or it is not. Full stop, end of story!

I do enjoy playing TSW, it has great moments. But screw ups like the rushed flywheel routes from the last months and the half-arsed fixes don´t make it easy.

 

I’m comparing to the pre-Sam era when it was just Dmitri. Now there’s like five people on the team or something and we have a roadmap and various articles in addition to the time spent in the forums and on streams.

 

Thanks for the reply DTG JD . Disappointed with some of the answers, especially the passenger one , but I appreciate your reply

 

Having denied that Focus have changed the comms policy, then my next thought is the current relative silence is that something big is being lined up for the summer. Whether it's TSW4 or an impressive line up of routes that we really want, keeping official responses to a minimum is the best way to avoid spoilers and leaks.

 

As my dear old Nan used to say “if you can’t say anything good……….then don’t say anything!)

 

I think folks are overstating the value of forums. Wanting dtg to hire someone solely to deal with us. What’s a work day in the UK? 7 hours? Do you really think there’s 7 hours per day worth of valuable feedback and suggestions in this forum?

There is not, and good games are not made through pandering to people on forums. Players are good at catching bugs, finding problems- but not at offering solutions. You can honestly skim through the topics maybe once a day to get the general consensus on things, and there’s no need to really talk to people.

Forums exist for the community to engage with each other. I’d say compared to most other gaming forums, we get a decent amount of engagement from the studio. The roadmaps generally provide more info than I see from other studios. I think there was a time when they popped into threads more often, but with the toxicity turned up to 1000, there’s no way we’re going to see that anymore. We did it to ourselves. The feedback here is usually either non-constructive, the tone is often terrible, people throw around words like “stabbed in the back” etc.

So now why would you expect someone to come into this toxic mass and break down the intricacies of why passenger updates are not on their radar? I’d love to see more engagement from dtg on things like that but we probably won’t because at least half the replies are going to be people flaming dtg or just non constructive replies like “just get it done, GTA V has more cars and people, I want solutions not excuses etc”. Waste of time, there will be very little constructive feedback for them to take away from that.

 

Have they said what the update is for sehs today if not does anyone know what it is

 

I think Alex said it should help some of the spawning into random locations on SEHS

 

Oh right thank you

 

Yes, I’ve been on SEHS and done a few services this morning and all seems back to normal. Previously I was getting put on deserted stations lol

 

The thing about SEHS is it’s become such a good solid route that I start to get worried when there’s updates on it.
After they add the 700 (it is the 700 right?) I sort of hope they just leave it alone.
In terms of rolling stock, is there even much more they can add to it?

 

Yes it said the update made timetables for the 700 so just got to wait for it now. SEHS is a great route as you say and I was a bit worried when it all went pear shaped, but glad to have it back now.

 

Snowrunner's devs are notoriously absent alot of the time, so I don't think focus are really that.... interested

 

The lack of interactions mirrors this time last year when every at DTG went into hiding before the announcement

 

I’m guessing that this is aimed at my comments. If not then I apologise. Thing is I have never been rude to anyone at DTG . DTG use this , THEIR forum to plug their DLCs and and positive things .
It goes both ways, they claim they are good at communicating with its customers. So they should take the rough with the smooth.
If you are happy with the current communication then that’s you opinion. Some of us are not. I’m happy that JD finally replied to my questions , even though I’m not happy with all the answers. But it’s taken FOUR MONTHS to get a reply either on here or the Q&A streams

 

Yeah i definitely get more of a VC vibe from Focus than a proper publishing house. They were probably able to acquire DTG on the cheap and are just focused on squeezing out every cent of profit.

The fact that there haven't been any changes at all, really, since the acquisition makes me think as long as the monthly P&L report looks good they don't want to be involved in any other capacity.

It might be a positive to not have interference from the publisher in day-to-day operations, but i'd suspect that any loyalty from Focus towards DTG or its franchises only lasts as long as they keep making them money- i worry that a bad quarter could mean serious trouble for the whole project.

 

The Focus purchase was announced on April 20, only 2.5 months ago. Speaking as someone who works for a smaller company that was acquired by a huge one, the wheels of change turn at variable speeds, when change is even needed. Some things do happen quickly--our health insurance switched to our new owners' packages immediately.

As far as Focus' "loyalty" towards DTG, buying a company isn't like trying a new sandwich, where you can just toss it out if the first bite isn't what you expected.

 

The Eurostar services would be the ones. But sounds like that won't happen with licensing issues iirc.

 

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Communication was far better back then. Roadmaps mean nothing without communication. It doesn't matter how many Roadmaps the are, how many articles there are etc. There absolutely has to be clear communication, whatever the format. I dont think you understand what I'm saying.

 

Going to disagree

whilst I wasn’t totally following TSW in the pre Sam era, from what I have seen of it, it was just an announcement of an upcoming dlc a short while before it came out and at least sometimes a preview stream.

 

No need to apologize, totally fine to disagree without feeling sorry. You aren’t rude (I actually think you’re pretty respectful) but the forum in general is… probably not a place studio personnel want to mingle anymore. No wonder comms are worse now.

And you’re right, this is their forum. Things only go both ways as long as they allow it. They can burn it all down if they want. They can get a couple of volunteer moderators who will work for free to start permabanning dissenters. Like many other games’ forums. But they don’t. Instead we’re free to say pretty much whatever and they come in here and cherry pick what questions they want to answer and they plug their DLCs (yea, duh, it’s their forum). That’s not really so bad compared to the rest of the industry which has many ban happy forums.

And while I could care less about peninsula corridor, which is like 75 years old in dog years, I’d love answers on passengers. That’s a core issue. The passenger system is… ehhhhhh. The dead stations that should be busy, those are also problematic. That said we’d probably get more insight on these issues if the overall tone here wasn’t pitchforks and torches all the time.

On another note why does peninsula corridor freeze every time I play it, whether on ps5 or ps4? It’s enraging and part of the reason I could care less if it got nuked from the game lol

 

You think communication was better when they said “multiplayer will be a part of it” and then silence. Also, “here’s a stream showing off the editor. Start learning Unreal so you can use it,” followed by silence.

It took Sam coming on board to clean that mess up. Maybe it’s not as good now as when he was here, but it’s way more clear what’s coming and what isn’t. No one is being strung along about major features anymore. If there’s a communication problem it’s in the small details and edge cases.

 

Yes, i stand by my comment. At least we didn't have complete silence.As for being strung along about major features, rush hour passengers ring a bell?

 

Not a regular user anymore but can't say I see a huge difference in communications. I did notice indeed patch notes were not delivered as I expected them to be.

Even the statement that Focus has had no impact on DTG whatsoever seems to be correct. Nothing much has changed.

The community is not the problem at DTG. If the game was as good as the helpfulness of the community team ironically their would probably be less resources needed for the community team.

 

Something to consider...

They probably only communicate with the community when they are either addressing issues, or if they have otherwise been told that they can share something (or thinknthat it is worth sharing that something).

And seeing that Focus have only recently bought DTG, it is unlikely that there would be an immediate changes. I would think that Focus are still getting their head around what DTG, their goals etc.