Controversial but …..

[Goletitout]

With all the bugs that seem to come with updates and the fact we are getting semi regular updates with the DLC,would people rather we just get one big update end of the year that’s been tested and bug free rather then the regular updates that are frustrating to play due to bugs. Love the game and the fact it’s evolving it’s just frustrating trying to start a new save when Astrid has wills voice animals disappearing corrupt saves etc. 

[Sherri]

I thought about this too. I recently ran into a bug with snow shelters that briefly made me fear my save was permanently messed up. Happily it was not.

But I don't think I would want to change the release cycle. Maybe it's the software developer in me who believes in the "release early, release often" mantra... but I feel it will ultimately be healthy for the game. A few (possible) benefits:

- The steady trickle of updates keeps players engaged with a constant "hey, new stuff!" incentive. (Certainly true for me, I had mostly moved on & now I'm back into finding the transmitter towers.)

- A frequent cycle of bug reports - fixes - release - feedback keeps the QA team with fresh info & player feedback that's coming in closer (hopefully) to when the bug was introduced. A bug in a feature you released many months ago is harder to find & fix.

- The risk of more critical bugs is higher if you have many layers of changes on top of it.

- One HUGE release date would have a LOT riding on it, and game crashing or save file corrupting bugs could really kill the one & only chance to impress players.

- Granted I know nothing of Hinterland's QA team or processes, but keeping QA staff busy & engaged for a whole year of several releases is better from a software perspective than dumping a huge change on them in the end. Testing smaller chucks is more effective most of the time.

--

Yes I've encountered some bugs & I've happily reported the new ones, but so far every update has impressed me & nothing has barred me from enjoying the new content. (I generally wait 24 hrs before playing a new release just in case a hotfix comes out to fix something really critical.)

So far the stated goal of keeping players engaged & excited & talking about TLD all year with multiple updates has 100% worked on me! 😁

[Sherri]

These releases might be digging up bugs that are not necessarily caused by TFTFT changes. My bug was with snow shelters & AFAIK nothing was changed with them.

So, I think by the end of this year, the codebase will be more robust than ever. And I guess that splitting up Wiintermute & Survival has brought it's own challenges (and didn't Unity get a big update recently?). I think this DLC is a great opportunity to fluff the cushions, air out the (code) closets & improve things overall.

Adding new parts to a software project (ie a new map or a new Episode) is always less bug prone than modifying existing parts. This is possibly very challenging to do & I bet will improve longterm stability.

[Serenity]

It's really about the way it is sold. I'm fine with frequent, somewhat buggy releases. In Early Access games. In fact with some games I subscribe to the beta branch to get the newest stuff right away. And things  can be broken then.

With TLD we have effectively Early Access DLC, but were promised release quality. But adjusting my expectations, that's ok. I'm not happy with some of the severe bugs, but I also like the content.

[Sherri]

17 minutes ago, Serenity said:

With TLD we have effectively Early Access DLC, but were promised release quality. But adjusting my expectations, that's ok. I'm not happy with some of the severe bugs, but I also like the content.

Eh. I've played buggier games from AAA studios. LOL. But I fully admit I may be biased toward high tolerance being a software dev myself. 😆